The first stop, he arrived at what was once known as O'Hara in the West Sea.
Aokiji stood on scorched earth, a wasteland beneath his feet.
Nearly two decades ago, it was here that he witnessed everything turn into a raging fire, saw the refugee ship being bombarded, and Saulo being frozen, along with a crying black-haired girl...
It was also from that moment on that his belief first experienced a violent shake.
"Passionate justice" henceforth became "lazy justice".
"Hmm?"
Aokiji suddenly seemed to notice something, crouching down, lightly touching the charred soil with his fingertips.
Over twenty years later, amidst the leveled ruins, a few tender sprouts had surprisingly sprung up, stubbornly swaying in the wind.
Life, after all, is really resilient.
Gently stroking the tender green leaves, after a long while, Aokiji murmured softly:
"Saulo, you were right... some embers just can't be extinguished."
Speaking of which.
The true ember of O'Hara, the crybaby who finally found her comrades, it has been over a year since they last met.
Given the Endgame's current strength, living there should be happier than himself, right?
Standing up, Aokiji got back on his bicycle and moved on.
......
The second stop was the Windmill Village in the East Sea.
This was the hometown of his mentor, Old Man Garp.
After so many years, it was the first time Aokiji had the chance to come.
He had heard when he just left the Navy that the old man didn't quit his job out of face-saving but essentially did, taking a long holiday and seemed to be living in seclusion here?
Aokiji rode his bicycle along the coastline, slowly passing through the Windmill Village.
This quiet little East Sea village, with windmills slowly turning, boasted quite a beautiful scenery.
Following the familiar aura vaguely sensed with Observation, he made his way to the woods behind Windmill Village.
As soon as he entered, he heard dull thudding sounds and a heart-wrenching cry from a distance.
"Hah!"
"Come on, stay focused! Did you hear me? Keep your eyes open, you little brat!"
"Ow! Grandpa, it hurts so much! Can we call it a day, I'm so hungry."
"Stop daydreaming, pain? It's supposed to hurt! You pampered little brat, do you think mastering Haki is that easy? Without a determined belief, fearless hard training, and a desire to grow stronger, this power is not something a teenager can aspire to!"
"You exaggerate so much, hmph... what's the big deal, I remember Brother Shano could do it many years ago, and he was younger than me then."
"Do you even compare with Shano! Shameless brat, if you had even half of his ambition... no, one-tenth of it, this old man would laugh himself awake from dreams!"
"Ah!"
The cries grew more heart-wrenching, making Aokiji's eye twitch. He walked around a lush grove, and the sight ahead of him finally broadened.
Fixing his gaze.
On a woodland clearing deliberately cleared.
Luffy was being held by Garp by one leg and swung like a ragdoll, repeatedly slammed onto a massive, cracked rock in the center of the clearing!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each impact made a dull thud, and the cracks on the rock surface spread visibly, with dust constantly falling.
Luffy was banged until stars spun in his eyes, his head bleeding, barely conscious.
But his arms, bound by seastone shackles, were trying hard to cover themselves with a thin, flickering black substance at the moment of impact.
It was clearly the embryonic form of Armament Haki awakening but was still far from enough, utterly fragile.
Under Garp's terrifying power and the rock's counterforce, it was shattered almost instantly.
"Haki! Haki! It must be refined! Concentrated! It's not just about turning your skin black! Feel that power inside you! Imagine it as molten iron flowing!"
Garp with a menacing face, yelling as he swung, completely ignoring his grandson's cries:
"Keep going! It's only ten thousand times, there are still twenty thousand to go, we'll practice all night! Before you get a basic grasp of Haki, don't even think about having a bite to eat!"
"No, Grandpa!!!"
Upon hearing this, Luffy fell into despair, uttering a scream ten times more heart-wrenching than before.
"Ah, well..."
Aokiji finally couldn't bear to watch anymore, pushing up his sunglasses, rubbing his forehead, and said in a melancholy voice, "Isn't that a bit too much, Mr. Garp? If you had trained me that rigorously back then, I might have already reached the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Three Armies."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear at the foot of the open mountain.
"Hmm?"
Garp finally noticed, turned his head, and upon seeing Aokiji, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, followed by a broad grin:
"Bwahahaha! Hey, isn't this Kuzan! So, you finally had enough of that crappy place and, like the old man here, came out for a break?"
Finally saved!
Luffy, crying tears of gratitude, sat on the ground panting heavily, looking with a hint of gratitude at this tall, unfamiliar man.
He recognized this face, seen it in the newspapers Grandpa brought back, it was that... former Grand Admiral of the Navy?
Uh, what was his name again?
Red... Red Dog?