The Marine sailors aboard the approaching warships had just completed a mission on a nearby island and were now returning to their base when an unexpected encounter changed their routine journey.
"Report! Report!" came the urgent voice of a lookout from the ship's crow's nest.
"We've spotted a pirate ship! It's Leviathan Jerry's Black Star Pirates!"
At that moment on the lead warship, all departments and units immediately began working in an orderly fashion as news of the pirate sighting spread through the ship's communication systems.
On the largest deck of the central flagship, a seemingly insignificant officer was sleeping peacefully on a simple military cot, apparently unbothered by the sudden activity around him.
After hearing the commotion and shouted reports, he slowly reached up to grab his sleep mask and push it up onto his forehead, revealing a drowsy expression that suggested he had been enjoying a particularly good nap.
"Leviathan? Black Star Pirates?" he asked with obvious sleepiness still affecting his voice.
"Oh my, how rare that we'd actually run into him way out here," he continued with mild interest.
"Admiral, should we pursue the target? Please provide your orders, sir!" requested one of his subordinate officers.
"Go ahead and give chase," the lazy figure replied as he began to sit up slowly. "Now that we've encountered him, we might as well go take a closer look."
The drowsy individual who was reluctantly getting to his feet was none other than Aokiji, one of the three Admirals of the Marine Headquarters. He was clearly the commanding officer leading this particular Marine expedition.
It was supposed to be the final leg of their return journey, and he had been looking forward to getting some additional sleep during the peaceful voyage home. Unfortunately, encountering Jerry meant he would have to interrupt his rest and investigate personally, since the Black Star Pirates' captain was currently considered a high-priority target by Marine Intelligence.
Scratching his characteristically messy curly hair, Aokiji walked slowly to the bow of his ship and gazed at the pirate ship that was already attempting to escape in the distance.
The Black Star Pirates' ship had executed what appeared to be a drifting turn with remarkable speed and precision. Thanks to Jerry's exceptional ability to manipulate ocean currents and waves, their ship was gradually increasing the distance between itself and the pursuing warships.
At that moment, several crew members who had been observing the Marine ships from their position at the stern suddenly recognized a figure that all pirates should be familiar with, standing prominently at the bow of the lead warship.
"Hey! Are you kidding me? Why is that person here of all places?" Skull exclaimed with obvious alarm.
"That's Admiral Aokiji! The moment you see him, you're supposed to run away as fast as possible!" he shouted urgently.
When Carrot, who had no prior knowledge of the Admiral's reputation, asked what was happening, Skull responded with excited panic, speaking rapidly to explain the gravity of their situation.
"Oh! Then we should definitely run away! Brother Jerry, hurry up!" Carrot replied, immediately infected by Skull's obvious fear and turning to shout encouragement to their captain.
"Great, we just finished dealing with one bird-themed criminal, and now here comes a blue pheasant," Jerry muttered with his characteristic dry humor. "Did we accidentally break into some kind of avian criminal convention?"
"Hold on tight, everyone—I'm going to increase our speed significantly," he announced to the crew.
After delivering his habitual complaint, Jerry noticed that the warships behind them had begun opening fire with their artillery. Knowing that it was Admiral Aokiji personally leading the pursuit, Jerry decided their best option was to escape from the area as quickly as possible.
Dense artillery shells fell from the sky like deadly rain, but under Jerry's precise control of the ocean currents, their ship was able to anticipate and avoid the incoming projectiles with remarkable consistency.
For those attacks that were particularly accurate and left insufficient time for evasive maneuvers, Jerry would manipulate the sea surface to launch intercepting water balls that destroyed the shells directly in mid-air.
Despite seeing countless artillery rounds being fired in the direction of the fleeing pirate ship, none of them had any meaningful effect on their target's speed. If anything, the distance between the two groups was actually increasing rather than decreasing.
"Well, it's obviously impossible to stop someone like him with such simple methods," Aokiji observed with characteristic calm.
He extended one hand casually and pointed toward the pirate ship that was gradually moving farther away across the ocean's surface.
In the next moment, Aokiji demonstrated to everyone present exactly why his powers had earned him the title of Admiral, and why it was said he could freeze vast areas of ocean in mere seconds.
With minimal apparent effort on his part, a massive area of seawater near the distant pirate ship instantly transformed into thick, solid ice.
The ice formation surrounded the Black Star Pirates' ship completely and froze the bottom of their hull to the ocean surface, causing Jerry and his friends—who had been standing at the stern watching their pursuers—to lurch forward due to the sudden loss of momentum.
"This ability... Ace, he's similar to you in some ways—like a humanoid, self-propelled air conditioning unit," Jerry observed with interest.
"Then let me clear us a path and meet him properly while I'm at it," Ace replied with determination. "I'd like to test the results of my recent training improvements."
"Firefly Light!"
Ace spread both arms wide, and from his ten extended fingertips, countless tiny fireflies of flame began emerging and floating outward.
The small fireballs quickly dispersed and drifted in all directions, spreading to cover every section of ice surrounding their ship's hull.
As the fireflies landed on the frozen surface, they began burning with intense heat while producing continuous explosive sounds as they melted through the ice.
The entire ice formation was completely liquefied by the concentrated flames within moments, freeing their ship to resume its movement.
"Woohoo! Boss Ace is incredible!" Skull cheered enthusiastically.
"Wow! Brother Ace is amazing!" Carrot added with obvious admiration.
Facing the praise from his friends, Ace grinned and modestly insisted that it hadn't been particularly difficult.
In truth, there were two main reasons for his success. First, Aokiji hadn't put serious effort into the attack—otherwise, he would have used something like Ice Age instead of merely freezing a relatively small area. Second, following Jerry's previous suggestions, Ace had focused specifically on increasing the temperature output during his development of the Flame-Flame Fruit's abilities, and had achieved considerable success in that area. Melting these particular ice formations was merely a matter of applying sufficient heat for a brief period.
Seeing that his opponents had taken advantage of the opportunity to close the distance between them, only to pull away again once they had escaped his ice trap, Aokiji turned his head to look at the figure who had produced those flames. His expression showed mild surprise as he recognized the distinctive techniques.
"Fire Fist Ace?" he said with genuine interest.
"You've got the wrong guy! He's Fire Dragon Heart!" Jerry called out from their ship, his voice carrying clearly across the water.
Hearing this obviously provocative response, Aokiji rubbed his temple and replied in his characteristically lazy tone: "Why are you two traveling together again? This is really giving me a headache."
"It seems I'll have to take some more serious action to resolve this situation."
"Hey, hey! Don't make such a big deal out of this," Jerry shouted back. "We're just passing through the area!"
Without any intention of engaging in a prolonged war of words with Jerry, Aokiji raised his outstretched hand, and an ice bird suddenly materialized and flew toward them at tremendous speed.
"Ice Pheasant Beak!" he announced calmly.
Seeing the incoming attack, Ace threw a powerful punch in response, and in coordination with Jerry's tendency toward creative nomenclature, he shouted out his own technique name.
"Flame Commandment: Fire Pillar!"
Ice and fire collided spectacularly over the ocean surface, causing a violent explosion and generating thick fog that obscured both ships from each other's sight.
"And you still claim he's not Fire Fist Ace?" Aokiji asked with amusement.
"His fighting style is inspired by Fire Fist techniques, but he's developing his own unique approach!" Jerry replied, maintaining their ridiculous charade.
Aokiji found himself simultaneously fighting Ace with his Devil Fruit powers while engaging Jerry in verbal sparring. Despite this apparent disadvantage of facing two opponents at once, he seemed to be handling the situation with complete ease.
"Fine, I don't particularly care what you want to call him," Aokiji said dismissively. "He's clearly using fire-based abilities either way."
An ice spear materialized in the air beside him, then suddenly accelerated forward with deadly precision.
Not wanting to be outdone by the Admiral's casual display of power, Ace's arms transformed completely into flames, and pillars of fire shot out rapidly from his extended palms.
The attacks from both combatants once again canceled each other out over the ocean surface, creating even more steam and confusion.
Changing his approach, Ace raised his voice loudly and crossed his index fingers while igniting them, as if taking careful aim at a specific target. He then released a fierce cross-shaped flame that blazed toward Aokiji's position.
"Cross Fire!"
"Ice Wall!" Aokiji responded calmly.
Facing the incoming attack, the Admiral slowly opened his palms forward, and a thick defensive barrier of ice appeared directly in the path of the cross-shaped flame, successfully blocking the entire assault.
After the two had exchanged several of these simple yet powerful long-range attacks, the blue ocean was once again filled with dense mist and steam—even thicker than the natural fog that had been present during the early morning hours.
Noticing that Aokiji seemed to be pausing his attacks and assessing the situation, Jerry suspected that the Admiral might be preparing to launch a genuinely serious offensive. He turned around to consult with Ace about their strategy.
"How about it, Ace? Do you want to continue this turn-based battle approach, or should we try something different?"
"I think we should retreat for now," Ace replied honestly. "I'm not quite at his level yet—I need to improve my abilities a bit more before I can face an Admiral in serious combat."
"Besides, he seems to be holding back significantly. I don't think he's putting real effort into this fight."
Glancing at the thick fog ahead that had temporarily made visual targeting impossible, Ace lowered his hands and stepped back from his offensive position.
It seemed that after this extended period of training and experience, he had developed a much clearer and more realistic understanding of his own current strength level. His initial impulse had simply been to test how much he had improved since joining the Whitebeard Pirates, but now he recognized the wisdom of strategic withdrawal.
"You're probably right," Jerry agreed. "The Marines might not be ready for an all-out war with Whitebeard right now, so there's no point in escalating this situation unnecessarily. Let's make our escape while we have the opportunity."
After saying this, Jerry manipulated the surrounding seawater to form a spherical enclosure similar to a ship's coating, wrapping their ship completely in a protective bubble. He then guided their ship to dive beneath the ocean surface, and they disappeared from sight within the blink of an eye.
From his position on the warship's deck, Aokiji watched with mild interest as his targets vanished beneath the waves. He scratched his head once more and yawned, already looking forward to returning to his interrupted nap.
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