Rain poured from the sky. Dark clouds smothered the heavens, pressing the whole world beneath a suffocating gray gloom.
Raindrops hammered densely against the sea, kicking up endless splashes and a hazy mist that blurred all sight.
The island not far away was still visibly trembling. Thunder and lightning continued exploding above it.
The waves stirred by the violent shock battered against the hulls of the ships with heavy, booming force. Several fleets rocked wildly in the towering swells, every vessel looking as though it were locked in a desperate struggle for survival.
The Marines at the bows worked frantically to steady their ships, doing everything they could to keep them from being swallowed by the sea.
"Vice Admiral Kuzan!"
The rainwater soaking the deck slowly began to freeze, condensing into a road of ice. Only then did the man in black sunglasses step out from the cabin. After signaling for the others to continue their work, he casually pulled over a field-grade Marine standing nearby.
"What's your name?" Kuzan's tone was unusually gentle.
"Janni Luce, Vice Admiral!"
Kuzan gave the visibly nervous Janni a slight nod, then asked softly, "Has everyone been evacuated?"
"Under Fleet Admiral Kong and Admiral Zephyr's leadership, we evacuated over fifty thousand Marines. More than four thousand Marines are still unaccounted for. As for officers above field rank—ah!"
Under the gaze of the monster vice admiral, Janni grew even more nervous. At that exact moment, a giant wave slammed into the ship's hull, making the entire vessel lurch violently.
Seeing that he was about to fall, Janni had already prepared himself to embarrass himself in front of a vice admiral.
Fortunately for him, the vice admiral before him was a man named Kuzan.
Catching Janni with one hand before he could fall, Kuzan ignored the Marine's flustered thanks. Instead, his brows drew together slightly as he surveyed the countless gigantic waves rising across the sea.
He set the Marine back on his feet.
Then a chill entered his voice, and a sharp glint flashed across his round sunglasses.
"Ice Age."
Kuzan slowly raised both hands, and the very air around him began freezing at terrifying speed. The temperature plummeted.
The raging sea was frozen solid in an instant, and even the monstrous waves rearing up into the sky were covered in a layer of crystal ice, as though time itself had stopped flowing.
Crack!
His hands clenched slightly.
The frozen waves shattered into countless icy shards, breaking into sparkling fragments that scattered through the rain and fell back onto the frozen sea below with an unnatural sound.
In that moment, the atmosphere of the entire ocean changed.
The roar of the giant waves vanished completely.
A vast frozen plain spread across the sea, stabilizing the countless ships and warships. The deep-blue ocean became still as a mirror.
"T-the sea… froze?!"
Standing on deck, the Marines stared at the impossible scene before them.
The violent ocean from moments ago had been covered in a flawless layer of ice by nothing more than Kuzan uttering the words Ice Age?!
"So this is the power of a monster vice admiral?"
Their faces were full of shock, eyes opened so wide they seemed about to fall out.
Some Marines even rubbed their eyes instinctively, trying to determine whether they were hallucinating. But when they opened them again, the frozen sea still stretched calmly beneath their feet.
"You think we'll ever be able to wield power like that someday?" several recruits whispered among themselves as they looked at the frozen ocean underfoot and the still-flashing lightning over Marineford in the distance.
Their eyes gleamed with longing for strength.
"Stop daydreaming, brats."
A squad leader who had appeared from nowhere smacked each of them once on the head, warning them not to talk too much.
There was still another monster aboard their warship.
"Kuzan…"
Watching the frozen sea outside the window, cold light flickered in Sakazuki's eyes.
If Marines couldn't even survive waves of this level, then what right did they have to carry out justice?!
"Hmph!"
Soft-hearted fool!
Spitting the cigar from his mouth out the window, Sakazuki closed his eyes.
"Haa…"
Mo Wu exhaled a stream of cold air, turning the raindrops before him into tiny shards of ice.
Seeing Janni standing there dumbstruck, Kuzan's mouth curved into a slight smile. He patted the Marine on the shoulder, bringing him back to his senses.
"You were saying—which officers above field rank haven't been evacuated yet?"
"E-evacuated… almost all of them. Only Major Mo Wu, who was recently transferred from the South Blue branch, and Lieutenant Commander Rosinante. They were the only two field-grade officers missing when we checked the numbers."
I see…
Looks like Teacher Zephyr and Mr. Sengoku are going to have headaches.
"And… what about the civilians?" After a moment's hesitation, Kuzan still couldn't help asking.
"The civilians are still on that island." Janni swallowed hard, sorrow flickering across his face. "Vice Admiral Sakazuki said the place where they live is far from the battlefield."
"And even if we tried to evacuate them, most of them would die at sea anyway."
"So it's better to use the remaining ships for Marine withdrawal instead. Sacrificing those civilians to save the Marines means the Marines can save even more civilians later."
"The Vice Admiral said this was—"
Kuzan turned and walked away before hearing the rest.
He was afraid that if he listened any longer, he might not be able to stop himself from going to that cold-blooded man and starting a fight.
"Sakazuki…"
So this is your justice?!
His fists clenched tight, and the anger in his heart nearly burst out.
Back in Marineford, seated by the office window, Mo Wu drank down the tea in the cup whose surface kept trembling from the aftershocks of battle.
"Haa…"
After exhaling a breath of hot air, he glanced out the window at the three old men fighting below on the Marine plaza.
They had been fighting for eight hours already.
His own mood had gone from fiery excitement at the start to complete boredom by now.
At this point, he had even started cheering the three of them on.
"Nice one! Hit him there!"
"Come on, old man Garp, did you skip breakfast or what?!"
"As expected of Golden Lion—fighting one against two and he's only slightly losing?!"
"Sengoku, you old bastard, is sneaking around the only thing you know how to do? Using Garp as a shield, really?!"
A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes as the Transparent World opened once more, allowing him to observe the three men's bodies.
After all, this was the best possible chance to study them!
Under normal circumstances, the Observation Haki of monsters like these would never be so easy to slip past.
"What the hell? Their bones are coated in Armament Haki too?!"
Mo Wu looked genuinely stunned.
Are these even still humans? That's completely un—
Wait.
Thinking about it carefully… maybe it actually does make sense.
In Wano's legends of Ryuma, the great swordsman's black blade, Shusui, had been forged into a famed weapon through Armament Haki being layered onto it countless times.
Mihawk had also said that forging a black blade wasn't limited by weapon type—any weapon could become a black blade.
If that was the case, then Garp turning his iron fists into black fists…
Made perfect sense, right?
Right.
Nodding to himself, Mo Wu immediately shifted his gaze to Sengoku, who was currently standing behind Garp.
"Hiss!"
His eyes flashed.
All he saw was a field of dazzling golden light.
Mo Wu's vision blurred, and only one thought remained in his head.
What the hell is going on with tempering Buddha-light into your bones?!
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