Clang!
Aokiji coated both hands in Armament Haki and caught Kazu's final Raging Dragon Slash head-on with his bare hands.
"Got you!"
Aokiji gripped Muramasa tightly with both hands, then swiftly activated the power of the Ice-Ice Fruit.
"Ice Time!"
Everything around Aokiji turned to ice, Muramasa included, and the frost rapidly spread toward Kazu's hands.
"As expected of a Marine Admiral. You really are a handful."
Kazu released a massive surge of Haki. The next instant, all the ice on his hands and Muramasa's blade shattered.
"Rising Upper Slash."
Rather than pull Muramasa free, Kazu launched an attack at point-blank range.
His entire body coated in Armament Haki, he rammed straight into Aokiji.
"What..."
Aokiji clearly hadn't expected Kazu to counter like this and took the full impact.
The Armament Haki directly nullified his Logia Devil Fruit, sending him flying and making his hands instinctively release their grip.
Whoosh!
Boom!
Aokiji smashed through three buildings before coming to a stop. His chest felt as though a train had hit it, aching and tight.
A breeze swept past, stirring clouds of dust. The Marine soldiers still standing nearby were terrified out of their wits.
"E-even the Admiral got knocked down?"
"How could we possibly beat a monster like this?"
Smoker's injuries were growing worse. Having lost an arm, he was already beginning to feel weak from blood loss.
He was finding it increasingly difficult to fend off Carlmand's attacks.
Especially now that even his friend Kuzan couldn't win, it was a heavy blow both physically and mentally.
"To think a monster like this appeared in the East Blue."
Smoker glanced toward Aokiji. He was their last hope.
While everyone's thoughts wandered, the temperature around them suddenly plummeted.
"Ice Age."
Countless sheets of ice spread rapidly from Aokiji toward the harbor, covering all the surrounding ground in thick ice.
"Absolute Space!"
Using the Space-Space Fruit's power, Kazu focused on reinforcing the area within roughly fifty meters of him.
As though it had eyes, the ice skirted that patch of ground and froze the sea behind Kazu instead.
In the distance, Aokiji narrowed his eyes, seemingly catching on to something.
"Kid, there seems to be something strange about the area around you."
He knew full well that Kazu was the ice's main target. How could it possibly go around him?
But his ice had encountered tremendous resistance around Kazu and couldn't freeze that space at all.
"Hahaha, who knows?"
Kazu spread his hands, indicating that Aokiji would have to figure it out himself.
Although it wouldn't take long for most of his secrets to be uncovered, that was still better than volunteering them himself.
At the very least, he could make Aokiji suffer a few more losses in the meantime.
As the old saying went, suffering a loss was a blessing. Being so considerate of Aokiji, he was practically a great philanthropist reincarnated.
"In that case, I'll expose your tricks myself."
"Ice Ball."
Standing at a distance, Aokiji kept throwing ice balls. All dozens of them veered off their original trajectories within a few dozen meters of Kazu, curving away to either side.
Upon landing, they turned straight into huge lumps of ice. An ordinary person would have been frozen into an ice sculpture on the spot.
Of course, Kazu wasn't doing this without a cost. Maintaining Absolute Space constantly consumed his stamina, and every impact from an ice ball drained more.
Seemingly tireless, Aokiji threw one ice ball after another, as though trying to discover Kazu's limit.
"It would be rude not to return the favor."
Kazu raised both hands and launched straight into Vegeta's barrage tactic.
"Space Bullet."
Just like Aokiji, he rapidly hurled attacks with both hands.
These spatial attacks were difficult to make out with the naked eye. Only by keeping Observation Haki active could their trajectories be tracked.
"So this is your Devil Fruit ability?"
"Air?"
"Or wind?"
Aokiji analyzed Kazu's ability as he darted from side to side, dodging the attacks.
"Space Confinement."
Kazu continued firing Space Bullets with his right hand while extending his left, compressing and shrinking the space around Aokiji to briefly immobilize him.
The sudden dirty trick caught Aokiji off guard. He took three Space Bullets in succession before using Haki to break free of the restraints.
"My body was briefly immobilized. That sensation... it was like being trapped in place."
"You've been manipulating space all along, haven't you, kid?"
Aokiji lived up to his rank as a Marine Admiral. His wealth of combat experience let him deduce Kazu's Devil Fruit ability after only a brief exchange.
"Hahaha, since you've figured it out, I'll be merciful and tell you."
"That's right! I'm Her Kazi, a space human who ate the Space-Space Fruit!"
After delivering that classic Pirate King-style line, Kazu really did feel quite satisfied.
"Just as I thought."
"That certainly is a troublesome ability. All the more reason not to let you roam the seas freely."
"Soru."
With that, Aokiji rushed forward. The Six Powers had long since been etched into his bones, and with his monstrous physique added to the mix, his speed was extraordinary.
"Too slow."
Kazu used Space Swap to change positions directly. As Aokiji charged toward him, he had already used the Space-Space Fruit's power to appear behind Aokiji, intending to have a heart-to-heart with him.
Although Kazu wasn't quite as black-hearted as Black Zetsu, his prepared right hand was already coated in Armament Haki, making him hardly any whiter than Black Zetsu either.
"Hmph, too naive."
"Ice Block: Partisan."
Aokiji had anticipated that Kazu would ambush him from the side or behind, so he had kept his Observation Haki at full strength and remained alert.
Sure enough, Kazu attacked from behind. Aokiji used the materials at hand. With the ice he had created all around him, making a few ice spears couldn't have been simpler.
The Partisan thrust straight toward Kazu behind him. Aokiji immediately turned and punched at Kazu's abdomen, flawlessly combining a lure into a trap with a sudden counterattack and catching Kazu off guard.
Bang!
Kazu shattered the ice spears, but Aokiji still struck him in the abdomen, sending him on a display of free flight just like Aokiji's earlier.
"Ah la la, looks like that really did work."
"But fighting you requires intense concentration. That's quite a challenge for someone like me who enjoys slacking off and sleeping."
Seeing Kazu fly away, Aokiji didn't pursue him. Instead, he quickly moved to Smoker's side and stabilized his injuries with a single freeze.
As though facing a formidable enemy, Carlmand stopped pressing his advantage against Smoker and hurriedly put some distance between them.
"I don't need your help here. Just arrest that monster."
With a cigar clenched between his teeth, Smoker stubbornly insisted he could handle it while accepting Aokiji's ability.
"Don't worry. That fellow won't get away."
"But your body's in pretty bad shape right now. This isn't the time to act tough."
Ignoring Smoker's prickly attitude, Aokiji raised his hand and unleashed an Ice Time Capsule, sending a pillar of ice straight toward Carlmand.