Chapter 16: Light Speed
Year 1516 - Waters Near Baltigo
The beam of light hit.
Not where Aiko had been standing—his Observation Haki had screamed a warning a split-second before, just enough time to move. The deck where he'd stood exploded into splinters, the heat from Kizaru's laser instantly igniting the wood.
"Oh my~ You dodged that~" Kizaru's voice remained lazy despite his surprise. "Your Observation Haki must be quite refined~ How troublesome~"
He pointed with both hands now, and a dozen beams of light fired simultaneously—each one capable of piercing battleship armor, all converging on the Hakusetsu from different angles.
"Aria! Mist cover, now!" Aiko commanded. "Marcus, shields! Everyone else, evasive maneuvers!"
The crew moved with practiced coordination. Aria's mist exploded across the deck, obscuring exact positions. Marcus's Armament Haki created barriers that deflected—not blocked, but deflected—some of the light beams. The ship itself veered hard to port, Akira's navigation skills saving them from several impacts.
But three beams got through, punching holes in the hull, and one grazed Yuki's shoulder, leaving a cauterized wound.
"He's not even trying yet," Isra said grimly, her arms coated in Armament Haki. "That was just probing our defenses."
She was right. Kizaru floated above them still, hands back in pockets, his expression one of mild interest rather than concern.
"You have good crew~" the Admiral observed. "Well-trained~ Good Haki~ But ultimately~" His body became pure light, "futile~"
He moved.
Faster than sight. Faster than thought. One moment floating above, the next standing on the Hakusetsu's deck between Aiko and Isra, his light-speed kick already in motion toward Aiko's head.
Aiko blocked with Yukikaze, his Armament and Conqueror's Haki coating the blade. The impact sent shockwaves across the ship, but more importantly—
"You blocked that too~?" Kizaru actually sounded impressed. "Your Observation Haki saw me move at light speed~ That's quite rare, young man~"
He became light again, reappearing behind Aiko, another kick already coming. Aiko spun, blade meeting foot, ice forming at the point of contact—his awakened snow powers instinctively trying to freeze even concentrated light.
It worked, partially. Kizaru's light form flickered, destabilized for just a microsecond.
"Oh~ That's interesting~" The Admiral backed off, studying Aiko with new attention. "Your Devil Fruit can affect my light form~ That shouldn't be possible~ Magma, darkness, maybe~ But snow? Cold? How peculiar~"
"Absolute zero," Aiko explained, buying time for his crew to prepare. "Cold enough that even electromagnetic radiation slows down. Even light itself."
"How scientific~" Kizaru scratched his head. "But that would require temperatures that humans can't survive~ And yet here you are, perfectly fine~ Your awakening is quite something~"
Another light-speed movement, but this time Aiko was ready. His Observation Haki had learned Kizaru's pattern—the Admiral moved in straight lines when using light speed, couldn't curve mid-flight. Which meant predicting his destination was possible.
Yukikaze was waiting where Kizaru materialized, coated in Conqueror's Haki and absolute zero temperatures. The blade actually drew blood—a shallow cut across Kizaru's cheek.
First blood to Aiko.
The Admiral's lazy expression finally changed, becoming something sharper. "You hurt me~ That hasn't happened in quite some time~ I suppose I should take this seriously~"
His hands came out of his pockets.
What followed was less a fight than a natural disaster.
Kizaru stopped holding back, and the difference was apocalyptic. He moved at light speed constantly, attacking from every angle simultaneously—or so it seemed. Beams of light fired from impossible positions. Kicks moving at relativistic speeds created shockwaves that tore through the ship.
Aiko defended desperately, his Observation Haki pushed to its absolute limit. He could see the future—seconds ahead, watching Kizaru's attacks before they happened. But even knowing where the Admiral would be wasn't enough when he moved at light speed.
"Everyone! Execute Scattering Protocol!" Aiko commanded between blocks.
His crew had trained for this—fighting an opponent too powerful to defeat. They split up, each taking different positions on the ship, forcing Kizaru to divide his attention.
Koji fired from the crow's nest—shots infused with Armament Haki, aimed not at Kizaru but at the Admiral's predicted positions. Yuki attacked with her blade, speed enhanced through pure training until she moved almost as fast as Soru. Marcus created defensive barriers that bought precious seconds. Isra coordinated everything, her tactical mind turning their desperate defense into something almost resembling a strategy.
But they were still losing.
Kizaru was simply too fast, too powerful, too experienced. Every exchange left them more wounded, more exhausted, more desperate.
"This is pointless~" the Admiral said, appearing in front of Aiko again. "You can't beat me~ You can barely touch me~ Why not surrender? I promise your trial will be fair~"
"Your promises," Aiko gasped, his body covered in burns from near-misses with light beams, "are worthless. The World Government doesn't do fair trials. Just public executions disguised as justice."
"So cynical~ And you used to be one of us~" Kizaru's leg began glowing. "Such a waste of potential~"
The kick came at light speed, aimed at Aiko's chest with enough force to shatter his ribcage.
And Sadi Blackwood intercepted it.
The young Revolutionary had somehow predicted Kizaru's trajectory, positioning herself as a human shield, her own Armament Haki barely enough to prevent instant death. The impact sent her flying across the deck, blood streaming from her mouth.
"SADI!" several voices shouted.
"I'm... fine..." she gasped, trying to stand. "Just... keep fighting..."
Aiko felt something inside him snap. Not his body—though that was close to breaking too. But something deeper. A decision point. A line he'd been approaching since Sabaody, since Akainu, since Impel Down.
He'd been holding back. Even against Kizaru, even facing death, he'd been restraining himself because using his full power meant consequences he wasn't ready for.
But watching Sadi—a girl barely twenty years old who'd already survived Impel Down's torture—sacrifice herself to protect him?
That changed things.
"Everyone," Aiko said quietly, his voice carrying across the deck despite the chaos. "Get to the lifeboats. Evacuate the ship. Now."
"Sir—" Isra started.
"THAT'S AN ORDER, COMMANDER!"
His Conqueror's Haki exploded outward—not as an attack, but as a command that couldn't be refused. His crew, conditioned to follow orders even when they disagreed, moved toward the lifeboats.
Kizaru watched with interest. "Oh~ Sending them away~ That's either very brave or very foolish~ What do you plan to do alone, Snow Admiral~?"
"Something I should have done against Akainu." Aiko's eyes began to glow that white light, his awakened powers fully manifesting. "Something I've been afraid to do because it might kill me."
Snow began falling across the entire ocean—not just around the ship, but for miles in every direction. The temperature plummeted, not gradually but instantly, dropping hundreds of degrees in seconds.
The ocean's surface froze solid.
"My awakening lets me turn the environment into snow," Aiko explained, his voice layered now—partly human, partly the whisper of winter itself. "But I've been limiting it. Keeping it small, controllable, safe."
His body began transforming, flesh becoming translucent like ice, his blood visible as frozen blue streams.
"What happens if I don't limit it? If I transform not just the deck or the beach, but everything? The air, the water, the very space around us?"
"You'd die," Kizaru said, no longer lazy. "The human body can't survive being the epicenter of that kind of temperature change. You'd freeze yourself to death."
"Probably." Aiko smiled—a terrible expression that had nothing human left in it. "But you'd die first."
"Yuki no Mai: Sekai Tōketsu—Eien no Fuyu!" Snow Dance: World Freeze—Eternal Winter!
The technique went beyond anything Aiko had done before. His awakened Logia powers didn't just cover the environment—they rewrote it. The ocean became a frozen plain stretching to the horizon. The air crystallized into visible patterns of ice. Even light itself began to slow, photons losing energy as temperature approached absolute zero.
And in the center of this frozen apocalypse, Kizaru—for the first time in decades—felt fear.
His light-speed movements slowed. Not stopped, but noticeably reduced as the very physics that allowed them was altered by the impossible cold. His laser beams traveled slower, their energy sapped by the temperature.
"This is... impossible..." the Admiral breathed, his casual demeanor completely gone. "You can't... this violates basic thermodynamics..."
"I'm a Logia user who awakened during combat," Aiko replied, his body now more ice than flesh, glowing with internal light like frozen stars. "Normal rules don't apply."
He attacked, and it was beautiful and horrifying.
Yukikaze moved through the frozen air leaving trails of absolute zero, each slash creating ice sculptures from the moisture and light itself. Aiko's body phased between solid and snow, untouchable yet everywhere, his awakened powers making him as omnipresent in this frozen domain as Kizaru normally was in any battlefield.
For the first time in the fight, Kizaru was on the defensive.
His light-speed movements, slowed by the impossible cold, became predictable. His laser beams, weakened by energy loss, were easier to dodge. His Logia intangibility, compromised by the way absolute zero affected electromagnetic radiation, no longer made him invulnerable.
They fought across the frozen ocean, two awakened Logia users pushing their powers to the absolute limit. Where they clashed, reality itself seemed to crack—light meeting cold in impossible ways, creating phenomena that shouldn't exist.
But Aiko was dying.
He could feel it. His body, transformed too completely into his element, was losing its humanity. His heart beat slower. His thoughts became harder to form. He was becoming snow itself, and if he didn't stop soon, the transformation would be permanent.
One more strike. He had strength for one more strike.
He poured everything into it—every ounce of Haki, every bit of awakened power, every fragment of will that remained. Yukikaze became not a sword but the concept of winter given form.
"Saishū Gishiki: Zettai Zero no Danzetsu!" Final Ritual: Absolute Zero Severance!
The slash didn't just cut space—it cut reality. A line of absolute cold that severed everything it touched, not destroying but freezing at a level where matter ceased to have meaning.
Kizaru tried to dodge with light speed, but the cold had slowed even light. The slash caught his shoulder, and for a moment, the Admiral's entire left side became ice—not frozen, but transformed at a molecular level into crystalline structures.
He screamed—a sound of agony that Admiral Kizaru had probably never made before.
And Aiko collapsed, his transformation reversing, his human form returning but broken, burned out, dying from the strain of what he'd done.
The frozen ocean began to melt as his consciousness faded. Through blurring vision, he saw his crew rowing back in lifeboats, saw Kizaru clutching his frozen shoulder, saw Marine ships in the distance finally catching up.
"Impressive," Kizaru said, his voice tight with pain. "You actually... hurt me. Seriously hurt me." His frozen shoulder was slowly reverting to light, but the damage was evident. "I'll remember this, Snow Admiral."
"Then remember..." Aiko gasped, "that even impossible odds... can be overcome... with conviction..."
He passed out as his crew reached him, as Doc began emergency medical treatment, as Isra screamed orders to flee before the Marine fleet arrived.
The last thing he heard before darkness claimed him was Kizaru's voice, no longer lazy but respectful:
"You'll be in my reports as the first person to injure me in twenty years~ If you survive this, young man~ We'll fight again~ And next time~ I won't hold back~"
Three Days Later - Revolutionary Safe House, Unknown Location
Aiko woke to find himself in an unfamiliar bed, surrounded by medical equipment. Doc Reiner sat beside him, looking exhausted but relieved.
"Welcome back," Doc said. "You've been out for three days. We were starting to worry you wouldn't wake up."
"Where...?"
"Revolutionary safe house. Dragon arranged it after we escaped Kizaru. We're in hiding while you recover." Doc helped him sit up carefully. "What you did back there—the whole crew saw it. You almost killed yourself to save us."
"Did it work? Is everyone safe?"
"Everyone's safe. Sadi's recovering—you saved her life by drawing Kizaru's attention. The crew is intact. And you..." Doc shook his head in disbelief. "You fought an Admiral to a standstill. Actually wounded him. The reports say Kizaru needed surgery to remove ice crystallization from his shoulder."
Aiko processed that. He'd survived. His crew had survived. And he'd proven that even Admirals could be hurt by someone with sufficient conviction and power.
"There's someone here to see you," Doc said, standing. "Feel up to visitors?"
"Depends who."
The door opened, and Monkey D. Dragon entered, his expression serious.
"Snow Admiral," Dragon said simply. "We need to talk. About what comes next. About what you've become. And about the warning I need to give you."
"Warning?"
"The technique you used against Kizaru—that level of awakened power—has been noticed. Not just by Marines, but by forces that transcend normal military hierarchy." Dragon's voice was grave. "There are people in the World Government who have been alive for centuries. People who personally remember others who wielded similar power. And they're afraid of you now."
"Good."
"No, not good. Fear makes them act. And when they act..." Dragon pulled out a newspaper. The headline read: SNOW ADMIRAL DECLARED ENEMY OF HUMANITY - BOUNTY INCREASED TO 800 MILLION BERRIES
Eight hundred million. That was Yonko Commander level. That was a bounty that said "this person is a threat to the world order itself."
"They're going to come for you with everything they have," Dragon continued. "Not just Admirals. CP0. Possibly even..." He hesitated. "Forces that most people don't believe exist. You've crossed a threshold, Aiko. You're no longer just a rebel Marine. You're a genuine threat to eight hundred years of established power."
"Then what do I do?"
"You do what you've always done—stand for what's right, protect your people, and refuse to back down. But you do it with the understanding that the stakes have changed. This isn't just about fighting corruption anymore. This is about challenging the fundamental structure of how the world is governed."
Dragon placed a hand on Aiko's shoulder. "The Revolutionary Army stands with you. But I need you to understand—from this point forward, there's no going back. You're committed to overthrowing the World Government, whether you intended that or not. Because they see you as an existential threat, and they won't stop until you're dead or they are."
Aiko looked at the newspaper, at his increased bounty, at the declaration of "Enemy of Humanity."
Then he smiled—the same terrible smile he'd worn while fighting Kizaru.
"Good," he said simply. "Let them come. We'll show them that their world order isn't as stable as they think. That even eight hundred years of tyranny can fall."
"That's the spirit." Dragon smiled back. "Then rest, recover your strength. Because what comes next will make everything you've faced so far look easy."
"What's coming?"
"Everything." Dragon turned to leave, then paused at the door. "Oh, and Aiko? Read that classified folder I gave you. All of it. You're going to need to understand exactly what you're fighting against. The truth is worse than you imagine."
After Dragon left, Aiko reached for the folder on his nightstand—thick, classified, containing secrets about the World Government that most people would never learn.
He opened it and began to read.
And with each page, his understanding of the world—and his place in it—changed forever.
Far Away - Mary Geoise, Im's Chamber
Im-sama stood before a wall covered in wanted posters—centuries worth of threats to the world order. Most had been crossed out. Eliminated. Erased from history.
And now, Im carefully pinned up a new poster beside the others: Danzo Aiko, 800 million berries, Enemy of Humanity.
"He injured Borsalino," Im mused. "Forced an Admiral to retreat. At twenty-three years old. With only a year of active rebellion."
One of the Five Elders spoke from the shadows. "Should we accelerate the timeline, Im-sama? Eliminate him before he becomes stronger?"
"No." Im's ancient fingers traced Aiko's poster. "Let him grow stronger. Let him gather more allies, learn more truths, become more dangerous. Because when I finally extinguish this light—and I will—I want it to be at its absolute brightest."
"Why, Im-sama?"
"Because," Im turned from the wall, their eyes gleaming with something ancient and terrible, "I want the world to watch as I prove that even the brightest hope, even the strongest conviction, even the most righteous cause means nothing against absolute power."
"When the Snow Admiral falls—and he will fall—it will teach a lesson that lasts another eight hundred years: there is no escape from our authority. No resistance we cannot crush. No light we cannot extinguish."
"The boy thinks he's fighting for justice. Let him. Let him win battles, inspire followers, challenge our system. Let him believe change is possible."
Im's hand closed into a fist, frost forming in the air around it—not from a Devil Fruit, but from something older, darker, more fundamental.
"And then I will personally tear it all down. Him, his crew, his ideals, everyone who believed in him. I will make the destruction so complete, so absolute, that the very concept of rebellion will die with him."
"Prepare the final contingencies. When the time comes—and it will come soon—I want Admiral Akainu, the full CP0, and every asset we have available. The Snow Admiral's death will be a spectacle the world never forgets."
The Five Elders bowed as Im departed, leaving only the wall of crossed-out threats and one new poster—Danzo Aiko, smiling in his wanted photo, snow falling around him, looking every bit like someone who could change the world.
Or die trying.
END OF CHAPTER 16
END OF ARC 1: FOUNDATIONS
Next Chapter: "The Classified Truth - Secrets of the World Government"