'Cover Story: Chopper and the Quack Doctor Vol. 7 , "Well, I'll Be... So Even an Old Hag Like You Took on a Disciple?!"'
'Hiriluk burst into laughter while King Dalton looked deeply moved. Just then, Kureha walked over with Chopper. Reunited with an old friend, Hiriluk was overjoyed.'
'His eyes landed on the young teenager standing beside Kureha, a brown-haired boy with an innocent face who still looked a little green. The backpack the boy was carrying looked strangely familiar...'
'Wasn't that the same pack the reindeer by the shore had been wearing before?'
'Feeling Hiriluk staring at him, Chopper grew nervous and quickly hid behind Kureha. Only then did Hiriluk realize... the kid had hidden behind the wrong person.'
---
Several Marine battleships slowly approached the deserted island. From the decks, officers and sailors watched the battle through telescopes, all of them already stunned speechless.
'What... was that?'
The island itself had moved... It had actually turned into a gigantic fist? It looked like it had been attacking Vice Admiral Aokiji. That meant the one controlling the island and shaping the earth into that enormous fist had to be Charlotte Katakuri.
'This is insane...'
If even the second son of one of the Four Emperors was this powerful... then just how terrifying must Charlotte Linlin herself, the infamous pirate who had ruled the seas for so many years, really be?
But what they saw next was even more unbelievable. Half of the island suddenly transformed into ice. In moments, a colossal frost giant rose from the frozen land, its silhouette unmistakably that of Vice Admiral Aokiji himself.
The Marines were shaken, and inspired. Their own Admiral... well, 'future' Admiral for now... possessed power that completely defied common sense. It was impossible not to feel excited witnessing it. Just being lucky enough to watch a battle on this level, even from so far away, was an incredible privilege.
"What's that flying away?"
"It looks like... a giant book?"
"No way... Did the Charlotte Family actually escape like that?"
"They're monsters... The whole family..."
"Enough!" the senior officer aboard the battleship shouted. "If Vice Admiral Aokiji hadn't been here, the likes of us couldn't have slowed those Charlottes down for even a second! The battle's over, so bring the ships in!"
"Yes, sir!!"
---
The battleships finally reached shore. Only after seeing the devastated island up close did the Marines truly understand how earth-shattering the battle had been. The enormous ice bridge, arching across the island like a frozen monument, silently testified to the clash between top-tier fighters.
Nearly half the island had become bitterly cold. Aokiji's powers had permanently altered the local climate. Perhaps that was why he rarely fought with this level of strength. The ability to change an island's climate... it was simply terrifying.
And throughout the entire battle, 'that man' had been on the island the whole time.
The Marines looked toward the tall young man chatting casually with Vice Admiral Aokiji.
'"Giorno Giovanna."'
A pirate with a '400 million Beli' bounty. The man everyone acknowledged as the true leader of the JoJo Pirates.
But... why was Vice Admiral Aokiji getting along so well with a pirate? Wait... thinking back, when Aokiji had ridden over on his bicycle earlier... wasn't Giorno standing on the back of it?
"...Aren't your reactions a little slow?" Liam said, giving the Marines a speechless look.
The soldiers immediately tensed up under his gaze.
The senior officer turned to Aokiji with a serious expression. "Vice Admiral Kuzan... Have you and Giorno Giovanna... formed an alliance?"
"He's one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea," Aokiji replied, taking off his round sunglasses and wiping them with a handkerchief. "As a Marine, working together with a Warlord is perfectly normal, isn't it?"
"...A Warlord?!"
Every Marine grabbed their heads as if they had just been hit by a hurricane. "Giorno Giovanna became one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea?! We've never heard anything about that!!"
"Oh." Aokiji scratched his curly hair as if only just realizing something. "I guess it hasn't been announced yet..." He lazily waved a hand. "Forget I said anything."
"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FORGET THAT?!" the Marines all threw up their hands and roared in unison. "That's way too huge to mention so casually!!"
Liam frowned. "I already said it. I'm not becoming one of the Seven Warlords."
The Marines were stunned all over again. "He actually turned down a position as one of the Seven Warlords?!"
"If anyone's taking the job," Liam added, "it'll be my captain."
"What's the difference?!" The Marines looked ready to pass out as a group. "Jolyne's practically your captain anyway! The whole world figured out your relationship during the livestream of the Swordsman Tournament!"
Aokiji waved his round sunglasses dismissively. "Alright, enough. Go take some pictures of that Charlotte pirate ship and send them to Admiral Sengoku."
"Yes, sir!"
The Marines took a deep breath to calm themselves before carrying out the order. There had been way too much to process today.
The JoJo Pirates were becoming one of the Seven Warlords? Thinking about it... yeah, it actually made perfect sense. Why 'wouldn't' the Government invite pirates of their caliber to become Warlords?
Both of them had massive bounties, so they already had the fame the position required. They were also incredibly powerful, even having fought the legendary Whitebeard, which gave them more than enough presence to intimidate other pirates. If anything, the strange part was that they hadn't been invited sooner.
First, Laut Haina had resigned from the Seven Warlords for reasons nobody understood. Then the breathtakingly beautiful young Empress of Amazon Lily had taken his vacant seat. And now the JoJo Pirates were joining as well... The seas had changed so much in such a short time.
---
The Marines gathered around the Charlotte pirate ship, now shattered into countless frozen pieces and half-submerged along the shore.
They used their Den Den Mushi cameras to take photographs for Marine Headquarters while whispering among themselves, occasionally glancing toward Aokiji and Giorno, who were still chatting nearby.
"Back in the South Blue," Liam suddenly said, "you moved across the ice almost like you were teleporting..." He looked at Aokiji. "That was your Awakening, wasn't it?"
"Does it count?" Aokiji replied while polishing his sunglasses and scratching his curly hair. "I'm not really sure myself. Once you've developed your powers this far, there's not much point in putting every technique into its own category..." He shrugged. "What do you think?"
"How should I know?" Liam curled his lip. "I've never been all that interested in Devil Fruits."
Aokiji chuckled.
"I don't mind collecting different Devil Fruits just to play around with them," Liam continued. "But spending years obsessively developing one fruit? No thanks. That'd just distract me. Today I'd awaken this fruit. Tomorrow I'd wonder if another fruit could become even stronger if I awakened that one too. Then I'd move on to another... and another... and another..."
He sighed. "Would I even have time to live my life anymore? Would I ever get any proper training done?"
Aokiji fell silent. For a moment, he seriously suspected the kid was showing off... but he had no proof. "...Only someone like you, who can swap Devil Fruits whenever you want, would have that kind of problem."
"If you say so."
---
With everything finally settled, the battleships prepared to depart. Aokiji had the Marines carry his bicycle aboard.
"Hey, what about me?" Liam pointed at himself. "You dragged me all the way here. Aren't you going to see this through?"
"You want me to give you a ride back?" Aokiji asked.
"I'll pass." Liam waved him off.
Just as Aokiji was about to leave, Liam frowned, remembering something that had bothered him during the fight. "When you activated your Awakening... you disappeared into the frozen ground and turned into that several-hundred-meter-tall ice giant." He looked straight at Aokiji. "So where was your real body?"
"My real body?" Aokiji put his round sunglasses back on and nudged them into place with a finger. The lenses reflected the snow-covered half of the island. Smiling faintly, he asked, "Do you remember... what makes a Logia different from every other type of Devil Fruit?"
'Elementalization...'
The moment the thought crossed Liam's mind, something clicked.
"See you around." Aokiji waved without looking back and boarded the battleship.
Soon, the fleet pulled away from the island and sailed toward the distant horizon. Liam remained where he was, staring silently at the half-frozen island for a long time.
Did Aokiji mean that once a Logia user awakened their powers, the entire landscape they had assimilated became part of their elemental body? There was no single true body... yet every part of it was their true body.
---
'(End of Chapter)'
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