Chapter 139: Has He Always Been This Brave?
The air, in that moment, seemed to freeze.
Robin's pupils contracted to pinpricks, and she immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest, her eyes fixed on Aokiji.
Kuina, beside her, also sensed that something was wrong, and her hand immediately went to the hilt of the Wado Ichimonji.
"What a coincidence?" Shane took a step forward, raising an eyebrow. "Is it really a coincidence? You came here looking for us, didn't you? How long have you been waiting?"
This is definitely a setup. A coincidence? How could that be!
His encounter with Akainu amidst the cherry blossoms on Thor Island was already an incredibly low-probability event.
And now, another "coincidence"...
Only a ghost would believe that!
What kind of unlucky person could run into two Marine Admirals in a row?
"Ara, ara, you saw right through me?" Aokiji said, scratching his messy, curly hair. "Tsk, I think I got here around noon. But you were all scattered, and it was a hassle to look for you one by one. So I just waited for you to gather before coming over to talk."
"Hey, Smokey, who's this old man?"
Nami, who was dressed in casual clothes, didn't quite understand the situation and whispered to Smoker beside her.
"Kuzan. An old friend of mine," Smoker said, a cigar between his teeth, his eyes narrowed. "And also one of the three Admirals, the highest-ranking military power at Marine Headquarters."
Huh?
A Marine Admiral?!
Nami was shocked. She quickly shrank back, hiding behind Shane.
"Don't be so nervous, little girl," Aokiji said, slowly sitting up on the bench. "I'm not here to arrest you. Otherwise, you'd all be popsicles by now."
"Anyone can talk big," Shane said, his Observation Haki already spreading out, sweeping over the entire island. After confirming that Aokiji was alone, he grinned. "So it really is just you. Hey… isn't that a little disrespectful? A lone Marine Admiral, you really think you can take me down?"
"...Mmm," Aokiji tilted his head, resting his chin on his hand as he sized Shane up. "You're right."
He shrugged and said seriously, "If any other brat had said that to me, I would have just laughed it off. But you… you really have the right to say that."
"Shane, from the Oykot Kingdom. Surname unknown, parents unknown, bloodline unknown. He made a name for himself in the East Blue several years ago."
Aokiji calmly recited, "And now, at the age of eighteen, he has already been deemed a major threat by the World Government, with a bounty of a billion. He possesses the power to shake the entire world."
"What a terrifying resume," he said with genuine emotion, then looked up, his gaze shifting to Robin.
"No wonder you chose this group as your hiding place, Nico Robin. It seems your judgment and your luck have both improved a lot this time. At least for a short while, you won't have to worry about finding a new protector."
"So many threats that would have made your former self tremble in fear, so many enemies that would have kept you up at night, are nothing to this man. He certainly has the strength to protect you."
Robin bit her lip, her hands unconsciously clenching as she stared at Aokiji.
"That's enough, Kuzan!" Smoker said, a cigar between his teeth, frowning. "Stop with the deliberately hurtful words. What is your purpose here? Is it just to rub salt in Robin's wounds, in front of everyone?"
"..."
Aokiji looked at Smoker with a hint of surprise.
"With your rank, when you were still a Marine, you wouldn't have had access to that kind of information. But now, after defecting, you seem to know a lot about it," Aokiji raised an eyebrow. "Ara, ara, how surprising. Nico Robin, you actually told these people about what happened? It seems you've already formed quite a bond with them…"
"If I had known about a few more of the messes the government has made, like Ohara, I probably would have left the Marines years ago," Smoker sneered, interrupting him and pulling out his jitte.
"Answer my question. Stop changing the subject. And besides, Boss Shane and Robin have already told us everything. You were the one who let her go back then, weren't you? So why have you been chasing her all over the sea in secret all these years? Kuzan, what are you up to?!"
"I'd like to know that too,"
Shane's tone was now leisurely. He sat down on a bench and crossed his legs. "You probably came here mainly because of Robin, right? Even the World Government doesn't know she's on my ship, but you found out. What, did you put a tracking device on her?"
"Hey, hey, hey, don't make me sound like some kind of perverted stalker," Aokiji said, raising his arms in a gesture of surrender. "Chasing her all over… that's a bit of an exaggeration. I just check in on her every once in a while. I want to see how far the flame that Saul risked his life to protect can go…"
"As for why I know she's with you,"
Aokiji said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a photo. "Here, Mr. Garp showed me this when we met back at Headquarters a while ago. That old man… he really admires you."
Shane took the photo.
It was a selfie of Garp on the dog-headed warship, grinning and waving goodbye to the distant The Curtain Call. Who knew what the old man was so happy about…
In any case, the figures on The Curtain Call were blurry, and Robin was standing at the very back, her features completely obscured.
Even a professional agent from the World Government wouldn't have noticed her.
But Aokiji, after a few glances, had been able to spot something was amiss and had followed them all the way here.
"You're really something, to be able to recognize her from that," Shane said, tossing the photo back and looking at him with contempt. "And you still say you're not a stalker?"
"..." Aokiji was speechless.
"Let's not worry about that," he said wearily. "Seeing how the child of Ohara has ended up was my motivation for coming here, but… after seeing you in person, all of that has suddenly become unimportant."
"Ah, and Smoker too. The fact that he would become a pirate was something I couldn't understand either," Aokiji said, pointing at the man who was puffing on a cigar. "But I don't care about that anymore."
"Huh? Don't be so rude, you bastard!" Smoker roared, baring his teeth. "It's been so long, and you're still so hurtful! I'll burn you with my cigar, you know!"
"Don't misunderstand. That's not what I meant. The reason I say that is because my curiosity about both of you can probably be answered by this man."
Aokiji shrugged and turned, leaning in to stare at Shane.
"Hey, can you tell me? You, who have come this far… what are you really after?"
"What? I don't understand what you're talking about," Shane said, not answering immediately, but with a grin on his face.
"Do you really want me to spell it out?"
Aokiji's gaze met his, and he said softly, "From the time you were fourteen or fifteen, you started to make a name for yourself in the East Blue. You took care of a lot of troublesome pirates, and you were even a teen idol for a while. You were even hailed by many of the people of the East Blue as an incarnation of justice."
"And now, after you've officially set sail, although you've been slandered in the newspapers by the World Government and have gained a notorious reputation, you and I both know the truth."
"In Loguetown, you were willing to take on the reputation of a pirate to protect the people, and you even fought against Vice Admiral Onigumo."
"In Alabasta, you saw an injustice and directly destroyed the Hanafuda Pirates."
"And just a few days ago, you rescued some poor slaves from a slave ship…"
"You've never plundered a town, never attacked a civilian. Wherever you've gone, the people have been grateful to you."
Aokiji's voice grew lower. He leaned in closer and closer to Shane, a bone-chilling cold radiating from him, a sharp glint in his eyes. "If you continue to act like this, what will become of the Marines and the justice we believe in?"
"And with your act of taking in the child of Ohara, what do you want to become? And what… are your ambitions?"
The atmosphere suddenly grew tense.
Kuina's sword was half-drawn, Nojiko's fists were clenched, Zeff's heels were slightly raised, and Nami, gritting her teeth, flashed out from behind Shane, a roaring flame erupting from her orange hair…
Shane stared at the wrinkled, bitter-melon face just inches from his own.
But he suddenly grinned.
He was just about to say something when a furious roar came from the entrance of the garden. "Insolence! You dare to lay a hand on my lord?!!"
Everyone was taken aback. They looked over and saw a burly giant, eight meters tall, running toward them. With every step, the entire garden trembled.
The couples who had been whispering sweet nothings on the nearby benches screamed and fled.
Hey, who is this guy?
For a moment, everyone, from Aokiji to the crew members, was stunned, except for Shane, who raised an eyebrow with a look of interest.
Is he with you?
Smoker and Aokiji exchanged a look and then both shook their heads.
Then what is he doing here?
"Wait," Nami frowned. "This guy looks a little familiar. I think we've seen him somewhere before…"
Before she could finish, the burly giant's body had already begun to swell and transform. His thick limbs were covered in brown fur, and two massive, curved tusks extended from his mouth.
—in the blink of an eye, a massive mammoth had appeared before them, its red eyes fixed on Aokiji.
"If you want to hurt Lord Shane, you'll have to get through me first, you bastard!"
The mammoth let out a low roar, and with a bellow, its massive trunk shot up, bringing it crashing down on Aokiji with terrifying force.
"Ara, ara…"
Aokiji raised an eyebrow. An Ancient Zoan ability? That's quite rare.
But… why did he just attack me for no reason?
His expression was calm. He didn't even blink, and it wasn't until the trunk was just about to hit him that he slowly raised his right hand—
CRACK!
The moment they made contact, a bone-chilling cold erupted. From Aokiji's palm, a terrifying frost instantly spread up the mammoth's trunk.
Jack's eyes widened in terror. He struggled desperately, but it was no use. He could only watch as his nose, in the blink of an eye, turned into a crystalline pillar of ice.
But that was just the beginning.
The ice spread over his entire body at a visible rate, his curved tusks, his thick legs, all the way to his tail—in an instant, only his eyes could still move.
The entire process took less than two seconds. The ten-meter-tall mammoth was now a lifelike ice sculpture, glittering in the streetlights.
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