Golden light filled the sky, intersecting with the rain driven sideways by the raging wind, weaving together like a grand tapestry.
But Rayleigh instantly saw the danger within. He darted, deflected with his sword, never lingering in one spot for too long.
The range of the Yasakani no Magatama encompassed not only Rayleigh, but also Davy Jones and Kuzan. Yet Borsalino showed no worry about striking his own ally.
Kuzan, like him, was a Logia user with Observation Haki of the highest caliber. After decades of battles large and small, neither admiral was fazed by such a barrage.
Indeed—though his back was turned, Kuzan manipulated his frozen body with precision, creating holes for the beams to pass through harmlessly each time.
The golden magatama sailed past Kuzan and crashed toward Davy Jones.
With a diagonal sweep of his black trident, fissures split the ice at a distance. With a sharp crack, a block the size of a small hill rose up before him.
Bang bang bang bang—! The Yasakani no Magatama slammed into it, shards of ice scattering as the block shrank smaller and smaller.
Kuzan paused, then let his legs dissolve into misty frost, propelling himself at high speed to the flank.
But he was immediately met by the tip of a trident!
Kuzan twisted desperately aside, dropping low, his hands morphing into icy claws that dug into the frozen ground to steady himself.
A flicker of surprise crossed his face. His Observation Haki had predicted Jones would rush from the shattered ice toward his former position—yet instead, he was here.
"So that's it," Kuzan exhaled a frosty breath as he rose, "you've gained multiple futures. Now it comes down to who can compute better."
Planting his trident in the ice, Davy Jones replied:
"The one who calculates more, who notices finer details—his future is the true one."
"I knew I shouldn't have let you go at Water 7," Kuzan muttered, tearing off his cumbersome Justice cloak. "Letting the tiger return to the mountain… though truth be told, back then I had no way of catching you. Sometimes I wish I had Shanks' gift—'killing with Observation.' Would've saved me the trouble."
At least in terms of Observation Haki, he and Davy Jones now stood on the same starting line.
Kuzan's outline blurred, jagged icy spikes jutting forth until he resembled some savage beast born of frozen continents.
Boom! He charged, the wind around him freezing into icy dust. His long blade of ice clashed violently against the black trident.
Another direct clash of Haki—again without a decisive outcome.
Kuzan narrowed his eyes, gripping his blade tighter. The weapon suddenly extended, stabbing clean through Davy Jones' chest and out his back.
He had never trusted the intelligence Bartholomew Kuma had brought from Thriller Bark. From the beginning, he believed Davy Jones had deliberately misled them. His heart was likely his true weakness.
As Fleet Admiral Sengoku had said—head, torso, limbs had been tested. Why not the heart?
Davy Jones—this is the difference between intelligence. I don't fight alone…
But as Kuzan thought this, the look of expected shock never appeared on Jones' face.
The pirate's gray-blue eyes met his calmly, a smile playing on his lips.
"My heart is no longer a weakness. Your intelligence can't keep pace with change."
From beneath his cloak, writhing tendrils surged forth, threatening to engulf Kuzan.
Kuzan released his blade, retreating several meters. The ice lodged in Jones' chest suddenly bloomed outward, spreading frost until the pirate was encased in a towering sculpture.
Mist-like cold drifted in the rain.
"I've just thought of a new way to deal with you," Kuzan said, scanning the frozen figure. "Perhaps I can't kill you… but I can seal you in an ice coffin."
The statue trembled, cracking with dark fissures before shattering. With a thunderous crack, Davy Jones emerged, frost clinging to him.
The wound in his chest had closed completely—like a boot lifted from a swamp, leaving the mire intact once more.
"So sealing won't work after all," Kuzan frowned. "It would demand constant, unbroken cold—and I'd have to hold you down. Not practical."
Yet the very difficulty only convinced him more. He had to try.
Observing Jones' expression, Kuzan continued testing him:
"Judging from your feats in the Reverse Mountain War, the Arabasta Civil War, the Water 7 Tsunami, and the fall of Thriller Bark… I don't believe your regeneration is invincible."
This was the difference between Admiral Aokiji and men like Smoker or Vergo.
With decades of near-death encounters, what strange powers had he not seen? He firmly believed: there is no such thing as an invincible ability.
Even lacking the latest intelligence, past reports were enough to piece together the core of Jones' power.
"Your so-called 'rapid regeneration' depends on how much flesh remains, and on your stamina. In other words, it's not so different from a Logia's intangibility."
Few understood this principle better than the master of the Ice-Ice Fruit.
Their bodies could heal, their wounds vanish—but always at the cost of their own vitality.
Thus, both Kuzan and Jones could regenerate. In the end, the battle came down to stamina and willpower.
When stamina ran out, regeneration failed. If struck then—especially at a vital point—death would be certain.
And in sheer vitality, almost no Marine on this plaza could rival Davy Jones.
Only the Three Admirals, Hero Garp, and the Fleet Admiral himself could face him.
Sengoku, Garp, Akainu, and Kizaru would try to crush Jones until regeneration became impossible. Kuzan, however, pursued another path—shattering him with Haki, then freezing him solid, aiming to knock him unconscious and suppress regeneration completely.
A harder path—but more stable, more controllable.
He had no other choice. He could not let Jones roam unchecked through Marineford. The casualties would be catastrophic.
Kuzan tilted his head back into the pouring rain and muttered:
"This storm—it's your doing, isn't it? Watch closely. It will become my ally."
He stretched his arms wide. Raindrops crystallized into ice flowers across Jones' hat, face, cloak, and trident, spreading like blooms of frost.
In an instant, Davy Jones looked like a giant hedgehog of ice, the spikes locking into each other and piercing the frozen ground, momentarily sealing him.
Kuzan knew it wouldn't hold long.
He dashed forward, Haki surging, and kicked off Jones' right arm, trident and all, in one decisive strike!
He had long suspected the trident. This was his chance to separate Jones from it.
Snatching the weapon, Kuzan reversed it and drove it deep, piercing a deliberately thinned patch of ice and plunging it into the sea below.
He lunged again—only for a massive hand to seize his face, shocking his eyes wide.
Through the fingers he glimpsed Jones, his body already half-freed from the ice, right arm regenerating before his eyes.
"The same principle applies," Jones said coldly, shards of frost clinging to him. "Your ice… is my ally as well."
Kuzan's heart sank. He controls water. My ice can become his water. My power—his fuel.
Jones' left hand clamped down on his skull like a vice, right leg sweeping in.
Kuzan caught it with his elbow, then surged close, gripping Jones' shoulders and driving his knee upward.
But Jones' right arm had already regrown. Like lightning, he caught the knee strike, forcing Kuzan's body downward, then smashed an elbow into his face!
Bang!
Kuzan just managed to coat his face in Haki, but the blow still left his vision reeling, staggering him back. Yet it freed him from Jones' grip.
Breathing deep, Kuzan wiped the blood beneath his nose, freezing it into crystals that flaked away.
He shook his head, steadying his breath and clarity, then raised his arms again to re-engage.
But inside, doubt gnawed at him.
In less than two weeks, Davy Jones' Armament Haki had grown strong enough to break through his defense.
Kuzan bitterly regretted sparing him at Water 7. Never had he imagined Jones' strength would climb at such a terrifying pace.
If they failed to kill him here—Kuzan could hardly imagine what monster this beast, loosed by his and Garp's own hands, would become upon the vast seas of the New World.
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