Aokiji had no idea that all his careful efforts to pull Kaito away so that Robin could slip out of his line of sight would ultimately be for nothing.
Now, he and Kaito stood face-to-face in the vast desert.
Although everyone knew Kaito's strength was terrifying, this was Aokiji's first time confronting him directly. The usually laid-back Admiral couldn't help but feel his fighting spirit stir at this moment.
He also wanted to see for himself—just how powerful was the man hailed as the strongest Admiral?
In contrast, Kaito looked completely relaxed. He had no desire to compete for the title of Fleet Admiral; he simply wanted to test how far the Yomi Yomi no Mi's freezing ability could go.
Looking at Aokiji, Kaito said in a casual tone,
"Kuzan, go ahead and use your abilities to attack me with everything you've got. You don't need to worry about anything else."
Aokiji nodded and immediately entered combat mode.
He decided to open with a probing strike. Extending one hand toward Kaito, he muttered in a low voice:
"Ice Time Capsule!"
A wave of icy energy burst from his palm in a shockwave, and wherever it passed, the air crystallized into strings of frost.
At that moment, Robin arrived at the outskirts of their clash. The moment she saw Aokiji use that move, an image of Saul flashed through her mind.
That giant Vice Admiral had been instantly frozen by this very technique. She knew just how terrifying it was.
She couldn't help but look toward Kaito, wondering how he would handle it.
But Kaito didn't move at all.
Cold Yomi mist drifted from around his Rinnegan. At the point where his gaze locked onto Aokiji's attack, a mass of Yomi frost materialized, directly clashing with Aokiji's icy blast.
Boom!
In an instant, a massive glacier formed between them and slammed into the desert floor with a thunderous crash.
This single glacier was several times larger than the one in Robin's memories that had frozen Saul.
Robin stared in disbelief at the massive glacier, then turned and silently began retreating further into the distance. That previous safe distance had clearly been far too conservative when dealing with two "monsters" like these.
Aokiji narrowed his eyes at the sight of the glacier. Kaito's freezing power was even more terrifying than he had imagined.
Even so, Aokiji didn't hesitate. His next attack came swiftly. He extended his arm with his palm shaped like a blade, and from it, a massive ice bird shot out.
"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak!"
This time, Kaito moved.
He extended his arm, the cold Yomi mist curling around it like invisible serpents.
Clenching his fist, the Yomi frost instantly condensed around his knuckles, then erupted forth.
The moment the Yomi frost burst from his fist and touched the air, it froze into a giant ice dragon—larger than Aokiji's ice bird. The beast roared as it charged forward.
The bird and dragon clashed in mid-air. Within moments, the ice bird was torn apart, scattering into sparkling crystals that faded into nothing.
The dragon did not attack Aokiji afterward. It circled in the sky, roared one last time, then dissolved into a swirl of icy mist.
Aokiji's expression grew a little awkward.
As a user of the Ice-Ice Fruit, he was supposed to be the top-tier among ice abilities. Yet his two consecutive attacks had been effortlessly neutralized by Kaito—it was hard not to feel a little embarrassed.
Kaito, however, spoke up with a light chuckle:
"Kuzan, you're still holding back. Come on—show me your full power."
Aokiji nodded solemnly. He crouched and pressed both hands to the ground.
This pose was instantly recognizable to Kaito—Aokiji was about to unleash Ice Age, one of his signature big moves.
But this time, the Ice Age looked different from how it appeared in the anime. There was no flashy buildup—he triggered it almost instantly.
Even so, a massive surge of cold exploded around Aokiji, and a thick layer of ice rapidly spread across the desert, stretching far beyond the horizon.
Far away, Robin—who had already retreated as far as she thought was safe—suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold sweep over her. Alarm bells went off in her mind, and she tried to flee.
But it was too late.
Her feet had already been frozen to the ground.
Whoosh!
Kaito suddenly appeared beside her. Before she could react, he shoved her into a Door Space and vanished again in the blink of an eye, reappearing at his original position.
He had sensed Robin's presence long ago, but she'd been far enough that he didn't worry.
But Aokiji's next attack had too wide a range—he had to take measures to protect her or she'd be in serious danger.
With Robin now safe, Kaito looked around. The desert had become a polar wasteland, and across from him stood Aokiji—now frozen into an ice statue.
Kaito murmured to himself,
"So he awakened his Devil Fruit... That was quite the spectacle."
Just as Kaito had predicted, Aokiji had entered his awakened state.
In the anime, after his battle with Akainu on Punk Hazard, they had permanently altered the climate of the island, turning it into a land of ice and fire.
That was one of the signs of a Logia-type Devil Fruit awakening.
Logia fruits had incredibly high base power, but because of that, their awakenings were even harder to achieve—making them fall behind in a world increasingly dominated by Haki.
However, once awakened, they underwent a qualitative transformation and became true "natural disasters." Even high-level Haki wasn't always enough to stand against them.
As Kaito pondered this, Aokiji's frozen head slowly lifted. He stared at Kaito and exhaled a plume of ultra-cold mist.
"Ice Hell."
Buzz—
The frozen ground trembled violently. Towering, cone-shaped ice spikes the size of mountains burst upward in waves like crashing surf.
The temperature of the entire region plummeted again. Even the vultures flying overhead were frozen solid in mid-air and shattered into icy dust.
The endless deserts of Alabasta were instantly transformed into a sea of ice.
At its center stood a statue of Kaito—completely frozen.
Aokiji rose from the ground and smugly admired his handiwork. Just as he was about to release the technique—
A soft, milky-white glow burst from Kaito's right horn. The ice encasing him cracked and turned into wisps of pale blue energy, which flowed into his horn.
Kaito was restored to normal. The only difference now was the glowing ice-blue light radiating from the horn on his forehead.
Aokiji was stunned, frozen in disbelief.
Did Kaito just... shrug off his awakened attack?!
Kaito rolled his neck, smiled at Aokiji, and then mimicked his stance—both hands pressed against the ground.
His right horn blazed with a blinding ice-blue light. The temperature dropped again.
But this time, it wasn't just that. A massive surge of Yomi frost surged into Kaito's hands, and the air around him seemed to freeze in place—as if time itself had stopped in his vicinity.
Lowering his head, Kaito spoke in a deep voice:
"Mahāpadma!"