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[Translator Notice- Chapter 547 was a notice by the author; I have not translated that.]
Along the coast of Dressrosa, a local fisherman spotted someone pedaling a bicycle straight into the open ocean. The sight made him rub his eyes in disbelief.
And there was actually another guy standing right on the rear rack...
"Hey, you two...!"
The fisherman dropped his net, leaving a tangle of flopping fish on the deck, and sprinted down the shoreline to stop what looked like a blatant suicide attempt. But the moment his boots hit the surf, he froze.
"A b-bicycle... riding on the waves... actually on the water..."
The tandem setup glided farther out. Wherever the rubber tires cut through the swell, the surface instantly locked up, leaving a narrow, gleaming trail of frost. The fisherman stood paralyzed before a sudden realization snapped him out of it.
"My catch!!!"
He scrambled back and yanked on the netting, trying to haul his haul onto the sand. But the cords snapped under the sudden strain, sending him tumbling backward onto his backside.
Staring at the frayed twine in his palms, he rushed to the foam and peered down into the shallows.
The sight left him completely dumbfounded again.
The entire net, along with a massive pocket of seawater and dozens of fish, had hardened into a solid block of ice. Several mackerel were perfectly preserved mid-flex, their tails curled as they tried to dive back into the deep.
He stared at the frozen lump for a long time before groaning miserably.
"How am I supposed to haul this in now?"
BOOM!
Right then, a thunderous detonation cracked across the water ahead. The fisherman flinched, snapping his head up toward the horizon.
A mile out, the surface looked as though a giant blade had split it wide open. Churning foam turned a dark, bloody crimson. Within seconds, the carcass of a ten-meter Sea Fish bloated and bobbed to the top. Its underbelly had been sliced clean open, drifting lazily like a free buffet dropped from the sky.
"I helped him out because I'm a Marine."
Cruising over the swells, Aokiji kept his eyes forward and asked evenly,
"What was your excuse for chipping in?"
"Oh, don't be so cold." Liam balanced on one leg atop the metal rack, casually shaking out the foot he had just used to throw a Rankyaku. Grinning, he added, "Didn't you say it yourself? We're going to be coworkers pretty soon."
"If my memory serves," Aokiji replied, "my exact words were, 'Let's just leave it at that for now.'"
"Same difference, right?"
"Even if the World Government gave you a Warlord seat, a pirate is still a pirate. Yet here you are, going out of your way for a civilian..."
"What about it?" Liam crossed his arms and straightened up on the back of the bike, letting the salty headwind whip across his face as he scanned the horizon. "Is there a rule against it?"
"......"
Aokiji offered no reply.
If you hate the idea of raiding, burning, and slaughtering so much, and you clearly don't mind throwing a bone to ordinary people, then why the hell did you fight me so hard when I tried to recruit you into the Marines back then?
Of course, it was way too late to rehash old arguments. After a quick flash of annoyance, the Admiral let the thought drift away.
He lifted his left hand off the handlebars, steering effortlessly with his right as he eyed a bank of dark clouds rolling in fast ahead.
"We're losing daylight. Time to move."
Only then did Liam realize how this guy managed to cross entire oceans on a standard, factory-issue bicycle without getting stranded.
Because when Aokiji actually wanted to move, he didn't bother pedaling.
In fact, the wheels weren't even spinning anymore.
The rubber tires had locked solid, encased in thick blocks of frost generated by his Devil Fruit. The frozen surface beneath them fused with the wheels, rapidly shooting forward across the water like a self-assembling highway. As the ice blazed a trail, the momentum dragged the bike, and both passengers, forward at a dizzying velocity.
Liam stared down, speechless.
So when it came to high gear, the pedals were just for show!
In a matter of minutes, the bicycle rocketed them over a dozen kilometers across the sea, easily outstripping the top speed of a Marine battleship. No wonder Aokiji had grumbled about his official transport; a ship would have lost the target's trail hours ago.
Wherever the bike cut through, the rolling waves hardened into a long, glittering highway of frost.
The ice Aokiji left in his wake would take days to melt under the sun.
During the Long Ring Long Land incident, he had casually frozen a massive stretch of ocean from island to island just to let some nomads walk across. He had mentioned back then that the bridge would hold its shape for a solid week.
The sheer scale of the power was ridiculous.
If freezing an entire channel for seven days took zero effort, then using a fraction of that output to ferry himself and Liam across the sea wasn't even worth a second thought.
The stamina required was probably lower than his natural recovery rate.
As a Devil Fruit user, Aokiji could afford to wander the open ocean alone precisely because he had the muscle to back it up.
The weather in the New World was notoriously fickle. A squall could hit in the blink of an eye.
Yet for this pair, even a localized typhoon was barely an inconvenience. Without a hull or sails to protect, the trip was actually a lot simpler.
Lightning bolts as wide as barrels ripped out of the black clouds, striking the water. Aokiji didn't blink, casually leaning into a turn to redirect their icy path. The plasma streaks missed them by yards, plunging into the depths and illuminating the sea with a murky yellow surge of electricity.
Liam could literally smell the scent of grilled seafood wafting from the foam.
The gale-force winds didn't slow them down either.
When a massive wall of water reared up to capsize them, the crest froze solid before it could break. Standing on the rack, Liam brought his hand down like a cleaver, sending a flying Rankyaku slash that sheared the frozen wave right down the middle.
As for how Liam managed to stay glued to the bike through the crosswinds, a thin layer of frost had anchored his boots firmly to the metal frame.
And when the climate suddenly shifted from freezing rain to a blistering midday heat despite the evening hour, it didn't disrupt them.
The ambient chill rolling off Aokiji's shoulders kept their immediate radius perfectly cool, offering the refreshing relief of a cold soda right after the cap pops off with a sharp hiss.
Whenever a stray Sea King breached the surface to snap at them, the encounter ended instantly in one of two ways:
Either Aokiji flicked his wrist to send a volley of ice lances, turning the beast into a floating sculpture...
Or Liam got bored, leaped into the air, and smashed a fist clean through its skull.
The New World, a graveyard that claimed countless rookie crews every year, was nothing more than a flat, paved road to these two.
They treated the hazards like basic background noise.
Back then, if he had just joined up...
A passing thought crossed Aokiji's mind.
Forget it. No use dwelling on the past...
Before they knew it, the miles melted away beneath the runners of their automated ride.
As they ate up the distance, Aokiji occasionally pulled a standard Den Den Mushi from his heavy coat to make a few calls.
Liam could easily track the different recipients because the snail's features shifted to mimic whoever was on the other end of the line.
Based on the snippets of conversation, the updates were coming from various Marine outposts scattered across the sector.
It looked like the local bases were feeding the Admiral live coordinates on the specific pirate crew he was hunting down.
Yet even as the sun dipped below the horizon, they still hadn't sighted their quarry.
"They knew we were coming," Aokiji grunted. "They're leading us in circles on purpose..."
The light faded completely.
Above them lay an ink-black sky.
Below, the dark water mirrored the stars and the crescent moon.
Ripping through the dark on a bicycle, it felt less like riding on water and more like drifting through an empty, freezing cosmos.
Aokiji was still muttering coordinates, but Liam's attention drifted.
Because a second ago, a different sound had caught his ear.
It was Robin's voice.
It sounded like a faint whisper carried from leagues away, yet the soft words felt incredibly clear as they brushed against his ear.
Liam could almost feel the phantom warmth of her breath, leaving a faint, tingling sensation against his skin...
(End of Chapter)