Chapter 27 – You Little Punk, No Sense of Honor!
After Vice Admiral Garp's warship docked at the Marine G–10 Branch in the Kingdom of Neil, it didn't set sail again for some time.
The Roger Pirates had vanished once more, and with no trace of their whereabouts, Garp, along with Aokiji and Yoriichi, remained stationed at the branch.
But Garp was never one to sit idle. During their short stay, he led his men in a sweeping purge of every pirate nest within the kingdom.
With the death of the former king and the loss of his sons during the Nuke Pirates' invasion, the throne passed to the king's daughter—Nicola McCartney—the same young woman who had escaped through the secret passage and sought Aokiji's help that fateful night.
Traumatized by what she'd witnessed, the new queen abandoned her father's ambiguous stance and aligned the kingdom completely with the Marines and the World Government.
The Kingdom of Neil had always straddled the line between lawful and illicit dealings. Once the queen made her loyalties clear, the hidden pirate havens scattered across the realm were quickly exposed. Even the ports that had quietly provided safe harbor to pirates were stormed by Marines.
With Garp personally overseeing operations, the local pirates didn't stand a chance. And with Rear Admiral Loka's Devil Fruit ability aiding the hunt, there was nowhere for them to run.
In just a week, the Kingdom of Neil was purged clean of pirates.
The branch prison overflowed with captives—so many that there was no room left to keep them. Aokiji suggested executing all the prisoners on the spot and burying the evidence. Garp immediately refused.
In the end, Rear Admiral Loka contacted Marine Headquarters, requesting a fleet to transport the captured pirates to Impel Down.
Neither Yoriichi nor Aokiji could understand why the Marines went to such lengths. Why waste time and effort locking them up? Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them all here and now?
Garp gave them no explanation.
Yoriichi, unable to find an answer, withdrew from the bustle of the base. Most of his days were spent in quiet seclusion, focusing on honing his Haki.
Aokiji, on the other hand, couldn't let it go. His curiosity and youthful sense of justice gnawed at him—but whenever he pressed for answers, both Garp and Loka brushed him off. The lack of a straight answer only fueled his frustration.
He really was a hot-blooded young man back then.
BAM!
On a training field within the G–10 Branch, Yoriichi and Aokiji were in the middle of a sparring match. Yoriichi held a bamboo sword; Aokiji, a long, icy blade. Their weapons clashed, sending a shockwave rippling across the open ground.
Yoriichi moved fluidly. Tilting his blade, he deflected Aokiji's strength with effortless grace, then slid to the side in a blur of motion. In the next instant, the tip of his bamboo sword drove straight into Aokiji's abdomen, blasting him backward.
Ever since leaving Marine Headquarters, Yoriichi's progress had been staggering—his improvement visible almost day by day.
His nascent Observation Haki, combined with his innate Transparent World, allowed him to read the flow of battle, predict his opponent's movements, and gauge their power with uncanny precision.
He had already integrated the Rokushiki techniques seamlessly into his fighting style. Even without a real sword, Yoriichi was formidable.
His Armament Haki was still in its infancy, but he could already infuse it into his strikes—and he'd learned not to waste it. Against a slippery opponent like Aokiji, he only coated his weapon in Haki when he was certain his blow would land.
By now, if Aokiji didn't rely on his Logia powers, he couldn't beat Yoriichi in hand-to-hand combat.
THUD!
Aokiji slammed into the ground—but of course, the crafty bastard had turned into ice mid-fall. The impact shattered him harmlessly into shards, which quickly reformed into his body.
Rubbing his abdomen, he gave a wry grin.
"Your growth rate is terrifying," Aokiji admitted, shaking his head. "Not long ago, you could barely keep up with me. Now you can see right through my moves and turn the tables on me in an instant."
"How the hell do you even grow like that?"
Yoriichi only smiled faintly, saying nothing.
In truth, he wasn't satisfied with his progress. Compared to that man—the "protagonist of destiny," Monkey D. Luffy—his growth felt like that of a tortoise crawling uphill.
Luffy had gone from being flattened by Kaido's club to defeating him outright—in a single day.
If Doflamingo, sitting in Impel Down, ever got his hands on a newspaper, and saw that the same boy he once trapped like an insect inside a birdcage had, within months, risen to help topple a Yonko alliance… his jaw would probably drop straight off his face.
No one could have predicted it—
That the World's Strongest Creature, Kaido, would someday become "Teacher Kaido."
Before the great battle of Wano, who would've ever imagined such a turn of fate?
And as for Aokiji, who only a short while ago could still overpower Yoriichi with pure physical skill—
after just a week, he was being completely dominated.
To this, Yoriichi merely said—
"Perfectly normal."
Aokiji's hand-to-hand combat, frankly speaking, was mediocre at best.
Sure, he was an elite of the Marines and had mastered the Six Powers, but his level in pure taijutsu was, at most, on par with CP9's Rob Lucci.
He'd always fought relying on his Devil Fruit—his "Ice-Ice" powers.
Haki? Martial skill? Swordsmanship?
Who needed those when you had Ice Time?
If this had been a real fight instead of a sparring match, Aokiji would've already frozen Yoriichi solid and called it a day.
And Yoriichi had no illusions about that. He knew that if Aokiji used his full Logia abilities, he'd be "instant-killed."
At his current level, his Armament Haki wasn't nearly strong enough to ignore the freezing power of Aokiji's ice.
Still… that didn't stop him from giving advice.
"Honestly, Kuzan," Yoriichi said after sending him flying again, "your hand-to-hand combat is terrible. You really shouldn't rely so much on your Fruit. If you train your body properly, you'd become far stronger."
Aokiji groaned as he got up, dusting himself off.
"I am working on it! But man, losing to a kid your age—it really stings, you know?"
He rushed forward again, twin hands gripping his ice staff as he swung it down in a sharp arc.
Clack!
Yoriichi tilted his bamboo sword, parried the blow with perfect precision, and with a sudden step, swept the sword sideways into Aokiji's abdomen once more.
"Guh—!"
Aokiji went tumbling backward again, but before he could even hit the ground, his body shattered into a cloud of frost. The shards drifted down and reassembled a few meters away, reforming into his body.
When he looked down, he could still see a bright red mark where Yoriichi's bamboo sword had struck, even though he'd reinforced his abdomen with Tekkai (Iron Body).
It still hurt like hell.
"Alright then, Kuzan!"
Yoriichi smiled, resting the bamboo sword on his shoulder. "Let's keep going!"
Aokiji twitched an eyebrow.
It seemed Yoriichi wasn't done treating him like a human punching bag.
Still, he gave a resigned sigh, picked up his ice club, and charged again.
But just as Yoriichi prepared to counter, he suddenly felt a strange chill run down his arm. He glanced down—his forearm was covered in frost.
In the blink of an eye, the ice spread, freezing his sword hand solid. Then, from beneath his feet, a surge of cold burst upward—his legs were locked in place, frozen to the ground.
"..."
"Oi, Kuzan!" Yoriichi protested, exasperated. "This was supposed to be taijutsu training! We agreed—no Devil Fruit! You sneaky brat, no sense of honor!"
"Attacking a helpless little kid like me… shameful!"
Aokiji, utterly unbothered, flopped down on the ground with a grin, stretching his arms behind his head.
"Relax, relax," he said lazily. "Just five minutes. I'm beat."
Yoriichi sighed, ice crystals glittering on his hair.
So much for a disciplined spar.
(End of Chapter)
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