Chapter 42: The Vermillion Bird vs. The Blue Pheasant!
The battlefield was silent, save for the whistling of the wind over the frozen ocean.
Aokiji stood motionless on the vast expanse of white he had created. His hands were buried deep in his pockets, his posture slouching in his trademark lazy demeanor, but the muscles beneath his white suit were coiled tight. Behind his amber-tinted sunglasses, his gaze was anything but lazy.
He watched the Vermillion Wing ascend. The massive galleon defied gravity, piercing through the cloud layer like a wooden spear, carrying away the hostages, the civilians, and the tactical leverage the Marines had hoped to use.
"Truly... this is astonishing," Aokiji murmured, his voice carrying a rare note of genuine concern. His breath plumed in the freezing air, forming a cloud of mist that crystallized instantly.
"Not only do you possess Conqueror's Haki—the disposition of a King..." Aokiji shifted his gaze back to the young man standing across from him. "But even the Float-Float Fruit (Fuwa Fuwa no Mi) belonging to the Golden Lion has fallen into your hands. An air-superiority ability combined with a Mythical Zoan... This truly complicates things."
He knew full well what this meant. The moment that ship breached the cloud layer, the possibility of wiping out the Suzaku Pirates in a clean, decisive sweep had dropped to absolute zero. The hostage situation was resolved. The tactical checkmate was broken.
Now, it was just a brawl. A pure, unadulterated collision of power.
His sight returned to the front.
The black-haired youth, Suzaku, stood on the ice. He didn't look like a cornered pirate. He looked like a predator who had just cleared the board of distractions.
Golden flames danced around Suzaku's body, not wildly, but with a rhythmic, hypnotic pulse. The heat radiating from him was so intense that the magical permafrost beneath his boots—ice that shouldn't melt even in summer—was turning into a hissing pool of water.
"It seems your threat level needs to be reassessed," Aokiji stated, his tone dropping an octave. "From 'Promising Rookie' to 'Category: Catastrophe'."
Aokiji slowly raised his left hand. The movement was sluggish, almost casual, but the effect on the environment was instantaneous.
The air temperature plummeted. Moisture in the atmosphere froze into microscopic needles. The wind stopped howling, frozen into silence. It was the sensation of entropy itself—the death of all movement.
"A Mythical Zoan, capable of controlling flames..." Aokiji tilted his head. "In that case, let's see if your fire burns hot enough to survive absolute zero."
He didn't move his feet. He simply projected his will.
"Ice Time Capsule!"
WOOSH!
A wave of super-compressed cold air shot from his palm. It wasn't a projectile; it was a traveling zone of freezing temperature. It raced along the ground faster than the speed of sound, turning the air white as it passed.
CRACK... CR-CR-CRACK—
A dense, grating sound of freezing rang out, like the cracking of a thousand bones.
The cold current reached Suzaku instantly. It didn't burn; it simply stopped existence.
It climbed up his legs, ignoring the heat of his flames. The golden fire, which should have melted anything, was overwhelmed by the sheer density of the cold.
In a phenomenon that defied physics, the flames themselves were frozen. They solidified beneath a transparent layer of diamond-hard permafrost, trapped mid-flicker like insects in amber.
The ice spread up Suzaku's chest, his neck, and finally, his face.
In the span of two breaths, the Vermillion Bird was completely sealed inside a massive, jagged ice sculpture. He stood frozen, his hand outstretched, looking like a statue dedicated to a forgotten god of fire.
Silence returned to the ice field.
"Excellent! As expected of Admiral Kuzan!"
Vice Admiral Ferguson, who had just managed to scramble to his feet in the distance, pumped his fist in the air. His face, pale from the earlier blast of Haki, flushed with the excitement of victory.
"He solved it in one move! No one survives the Time Capsule! That freezes you to the bone marrow instantly!"
Ferguson laughed, a nervous, jagged sound. "That arrogance... buried in ice forever!"
But his cheer died in his throat.
Because Admiral Aokiji wasn't smiling. He wasn't turning away. In fact, his expression was graver than before. He took a step back, his Observation Haki flaring wildly, sensing a pulse of life that should have been extinguished.
"Could it be..." Ferguson swallowed hard, his eyes bulging.
Crack.
A faint, crisp sound came from inside the ice sculpture. It was soft, like a twig snapping, but in the silence of the frozen sea, it sounded like a gunshot.
Then another.
Snap. Crack.
A spiderweb fracture appeared on the smooth surface of the ice prison, right over Suzaku's chest.
CRUNCH.
Fine cracks spread rapidly across the entire frozen surface. A golden light began to pulse from within the core of the ice, growing brighter and brighter, illuminating the frozen plains with the color of dawn.
"BOOM—!"
The ice sculpture didn't just break; it exploded.
Countless shards of ice scattered like shrapnel, twinkling in the sunlight. A wave of terrifying heat erupted from the center, vaporizing the remaining frost instantly into a towering pillar of steam.
Suzaku reappeared. He stood in the center of a crater of melted water, completely unharmed.
He stretched his neck, cracking the joints. He shook his shoulders, and particles of ice fell from his coat, melting before they hit the ground.
The pitch-black Armament Haki that had been covering his entire body slowly receded like flowing ink. He hadn't relied on heat alone; he had coated his entire body in high-density Haki the millisecond the ice touched him, creating an impenetrable barrier between his skin and the cold.
"That was chilly," Suzaku remarked, dusting off his sleeve.
He raised his eyes. Battle intent surged within his pupils, burning brighter than the flames around him.
"The probing is over, right, Admiral?" Suzaku grinned, revealing white teeth. "Next, it's my turn."
He raised his right hand to the sky. The air around him began to distort, creating heat mirages.
"Vermillion Bird Art..."
A mass of golden flame condensed in his palm. It screamed with energy, compressing the heat of a volcano into a sphere the size of a basketball.
"...Crimson Wing Burning Sky!"
He thrust his hand forward.
ROAAAR!
The flame expanded rapidly, transforming into a gigantic bird of fire. Its core was molten gold, its edges a deep, blood-red crimson. It soared toward Aokiji with a massive wingspan that blotted out the sun, casting the ice field in a terrifying red glow.
Wherever it passed, the air twisted and steamed. The ice below melted instantly, turning the battlefield into a lake.
Aokiji's eyes narrowed behind his shades. He refused to back down.
"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak!"
He swung his right arm. Fierce cold air surged out, condensing into a gigantic, crystalline ice bird. It was a masterpiece of sculpture, every feather detailed in frost.
It shrieked as it flew, freezing the atmosphere in its wake, leaving a trail of snow.
One Crimson. One Blue.
Fire and Ice. Heat and Cold. Entropy and Energy.
The two avatars of nature collided violently in mid-air, directly between the two men!
"BOOM—!"
A deafening explosion rocked the entire ice field. The sound was so loud it was felt in the chest rather than heard.
The collision unleashed a blinding light that forced Ferguson to shield his eyes. Steam and mist erupted, covering the battlefield in a thick white fog as the two opposing elements annihilated each other.
But the fight didn't stop. The explosion was just the opening bell.
Whoosh!
Before the steam could dissipate, two figures shot out of the cloud like phantoms.
Suzaku and Aokiji appeared above the center of the explosion, meeting in mid-air.
"Hmph!"
Both men clenched their right fists.
Suzaku's fist was coated in Armament Haki and wreathed in swirling, pressurized fire.
Aokiji's fist was coated in Armament Haki and encased in a gauntlet of diamond-hard ice.
They smashed together without any flourish, technique, or trickery. Just raw power.
BANG!
The impact created a shockwave that cleared the fog instantly. The air pressure pushed the ocean water downwards, creating a bowl in the sea.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Their fists collided continuously at speeds invisible to the naked eye.
Fire met Ice. Haki met Haki.
Every clash sounded like a cannon shot. The resulting shockwaves tore apart the atmosphere, carving out a vacuum zone in the center of the chaotic energy flow. Sparks of black lightning—the sign of high-level Haki clashes—flickered around them.
They landed on the ice, shattering the surface, and shot toward each other again like arrows released from a bowstring.
Fist winds roared. The sheer physical force was turning the environment into a wasteland.
Just at this moment of deadlock, a cold light flashed in Aokiji's eyes. He was an Admiral; he didn't just fight with brute force. He fought with experience.
He noticed Suzaku's rhythm. He saw the opening.
"Ice Partisan!"
Without breaking the fist exchange, four sharp, dense ice spears instantly condensed out of thin air beside him. They weren't thrown; they were formed from the moisture in the air surrounding Suzaku.
They sealed off all of Suzaku's evasion routes, shooting down simultaneously from blind angles—aiming for his kidneys, his neck, and his heart.
Truly worthy of an Admiral... Suzaku thought, his Observation Haki screaming a warning. Even in close-quarters combat, his Devil Fruit control is perfect. He turns the environment into a weapon.
But Suzaku didn't dodge. He didn't retreat.
He looked up, his eyes glowing.
"Nirvana Sword: Shiranui!"
He swept his left hand upward in a chopping motion.
A longsword condensed purely from ultimate golden flames materialized above his head. It wasn't just fire; it was plasma, compressed to a solid state.
SLASH!
The sword drew a scorching arc through the air around him. The four ice spears were instantly vaporized before they could even touch his coat.
But the attack didn't end there. The golden flame sword carried its momentum forward, slashing down toward Aokiji like the Blade of Judgment.
The distance was too close. Aokiji had no time to fully dodge. The heat was already singing his eyebrows.
He made a split-second decision. He abandoned the attack and crossed his arms, channeling his freezing power to the maximum.
A thick, diamond-hard armor of ice covered his chest and arms. Ice Block: Avalanche.
"BOOM!!"
The golden flame longsword slammed into the ice armor.
The heat and force were catastrophic. The ice armor shattered with crushing force, exploding into mist.
"Ugh!"
Aokiji grunted in pain. The residual force of the scorching sword energy slammed violently into his chest.
He was sent flying backward as if struck by a giant's hammer. He crashed heavily onto the distant ice field, sliding for hundreds of meters. His body carved a deep trench in the frozen sea, kicking up geysers of ice and water.
CRASH!
The slide finally stopped. Aokiji lay embedded in a mound of crushed ice.
Vice Admiral Ferguson watched with his mouth agape, his arms crossed to shield his face from the heatwave. His legs were shaking uncontrollably.
"Is this... is this really a rookie?" Ferguson whispered, his voice trembling with disbelief. "A newcomer who just entered the Grand Line?"
He looked at the trench in the ice. He looked at the Admiral lying in the debris.
"He just... he just blasted Admiral Kuzan away?! Even standing here defending against the aftershocks is difficult!"
Ice shards mixed with smoke shot up into the sky.
Silence descended on the battlefield for a brief moment. The only sound was the hissing of melted ice.
Then, from the cloud of dust, a tall figure slowly stood up.
Aokiji dusted the ice chips off his shoulder. His white suit was singed, and there was a burn mark on his chest. A trickle of blood ran down from the corner of his mouth.
"Arara..."
Aokiji wiped the blood away with his thumb, looking at the red stain with mild surprise.
"That actually hurt a little."
He looked up. His eyes locked onto Suzaku, and for the first time, the temperature dropped to absolute zero. The playful lazy justice was gone.
"You really are... a monster."
Suzaku stood on the other side of the battlefield, his flames burning brighter than ever. He smirked, though he was panting slightly.
"I'm just getting started, Admiral."
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