"To actually use such a suicidal attack, *cough, cough*, this guy... Was he certain I wouldn't deal a lethal blow?"
Aokiji clutched his chest and coughed up another mouthful of blood. Feeling the intense pain on his face and looking at Allen, he couldn't help but feel a mix of anger and helplessness.
That final punch from his opponent didn't seem meant for a proper fight at all. Instead, it felt like it was thrown with the mindset of, *'I can't win anyway, so I might as well find an opening to punch him as hard as I can.'*
"I clearly won the battle, so why do I feel even more annoyed? Man, my nose seems to be knocked crooked..."
Aokiji took out a pocket mirror to check his reflection. He raised a hand, attempting to pinch his nose back into place, but the moment he touched it, the pain made him grit his teeth and draw in a sharp breath.
"—Hiss! That hurts... This bastard...!"
*Buru, buru, buru!*
At that moment, the Transponder Snail he carried with him suddenly rang.
Still clutching his nose with one hand, Aokiji endured the pain, took out the Transponder Snail, and answered it.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku? What do you need me for?"
"Hey! What is going on, Aokiji?! Didn't I tell you to hurry back after handling the situation in Water 7?! Did you run off somewhere to vacation again?!"
The Transponder Snail mimicked Sengoku's expression, glaring and shouting furiously at him. It was not hard to tell that he was in a terrible mood.
*Probably some idiot old man provoked him again,* Aokiji thought.
Aokiji lowered his head and sighed. To avoid becoming a punching bag, he glanced at the several ice sculptures in the distance and made up an excuse.
"Well, I ran into a vicious crew of pirates on the way and took a little detour to deal with them. The matter is resolved now, and I'm just getting ready to head back."
"Hmph! You had better actually be out catching pirates! The situation is urgent right now, so hurry back to Headquarters and assemble!"
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm heading out right now."
Aokiji patted his head, responding with a sigh full of impatience and disdain. Then, his expression shifted, and he asked curiously, "By the way, calling me back to Headquarters in such a hurry... did some sort of emergency happen?"
At the mention of this, Sengoku stopped his cursing. He regained his serious demeanor and spoke in a low voice.
"You saw the news from a few days ago, right? Right around the time the Water 7 incident occurred, Whitebeard's Second Division Commander, Fire Fist Ace, went to war with the Blackbeard Pirates."
"Ah, I did see that news. And then?" Aokiji asked, looking up as he recalled the event.
The next second, he heard Sengoku's heavy voice from the other end of the line.
"Fire Fist Ace is now... in our hands..."
Hearing this, Aokiji fell silent.
The voice on the phone continued.
"Fire Fist Ace's true identity is no longer a secret among the higher-ups. The World Government traded for him from the Blackbeard Pirates and is currently planning a public execution."
"Everyone in the world knows how the Whitebeard Pirates operate. Once the news of a public execution is released, that man will absolutely not sit idly by. You know what this means, right...?"
At this point, the voice from the Transponder Snail paused, but Aokiji already had the answer in his heart.
*The Whitebeard Pirates will attack Headquarters!*
*This wasn't a mere possibility; it was an absolute certainty, and Headquarters definitely knew it too.*
*Even so, Headquarters was still preparing to publicly execute Ace. In other words...*
*Headquarters is going to war with Whitebeard!!*
"That really is a monumental event. Sigh, just thinking about it is a pain." Aokiji slapped his forehead, revealing an expression of a massive headache.
Sengoku shouted loudly from the Transponder Snail, "Stop being so lazy! This is no small matter! Next, we have to issue a mandatory summons to the Warlords of the Sea. I'll tell you the specific details when you get back!"
*Click!*
The call was roughly hung up. Aokiji watched the Transponder Snail's expression slowly droop back to normal, tucked it back into his coat, and turned to look at Allen and the others.
"A mandatory summons, huh..."
*It's a pity I came riding a bicycle, otherwise I could have brought them back to Headquarters along the way.*
"Forget it, I should head back first," Aokiji sighed, rubbing his forehead, and turned to leave the rainforest.
He had always been secretly keeping an eye on Robin. When he learned that Allen's crew, which she had joined, became Warlords of the Sea, he was quite surprised. At the same time, he worried whether the incident with Crocodile would repeat itself.
He had specifically taken a detour to come here this time to confirm Robin's situation. The first thing he needed to know was whether Allen had only taken Robin in to obtain the Ancient Weapons.
After all, the Water 7 incident had just occurred a few days ago.
If Robin could live a peaceful life, he probably wouldn't have bothered with so many things. Unfortunately, Robin refused to give up her pursuit of the Poneglyphs, wandering between various underground factions over the years.
This time, she had blatantly become a pirate. Although she was hiding her whereabouts, it obviously wouldn't last long.
The World Government's intelligence agencies were scattered all over the world. Sooner or later, someone would recognize Robin. When that time came, would Allen step up to protect her?
Fortunately, he had received answers to both questions. Now that his goal was achieved, there was no need for him to linger here any longer.
As for the mandatory summons.
With Allen's strength, he would soon be able to break out of the ice on his own. Someone would naturally get in touch with them later.
"Overthrowing the World Government... He really dared to say it..."
Walking out of the rainforest, Aokiji sighed emotionally. Allen's questioning couldn't help but surface in his mind.
Even after becoming an Admiral, he still didn't have much of a voice in that massive organization.
If asked what kind of feelings he harbored while watching Water 7 be destroyed by artillery fire, it was probably anger and disappointment at his own powerlessness.
When he was young, he only thought Garp was cool for refusing the promotion to Admiral. It wasn't until now that he truly understood the meaning behind the phrase: status is sometimes also a restraint.
Even if he took a step further and became Fleet Admiral, gaining a higher voice in front of the World Government's higher-ups, he feared he still wouldn't be able to truly break free from this predicament.
"This path of the Marines... it seems like a dead end, Teacher Garp..." Aokiji looked up, gazing at the sky, and muttered in a low voice.
...
Back in the rainforest, just as Aokiji left, several cracks appeared on the surface of the ice sculpture, rapidly spreading.
*Crack—Crack—Shatter!*
The ice burst and shattered, sparkling crystal clear under the beams of sunlight piercing through the canopy. Allen broke free from his frozen state, patting his shoulders to shake off the ice shards.
He looked around. Sanji, Nami, Gin, and the others were all still there, but Aokiji's figure was long gone.
"I got completely slaughtered. How embarrassing." Allen scratched his head, unable to help but sigh.
Without a doubt, this battle ended in a crushing defeat for him. Although he managed to land a brutal punch on his opponent, that was at best just venting some frustration. In terms of the actual combat situation, he was practically steamrolled.
Allen wasn't discouraged. He knew from the start that he couldn't win. He hadn't even finished the first half of the Grand Line yet. He still had a long way to go before reaching the New World, let alone the pinnacle of the seas.
Rather, if he could go one-on-one with an Admiral after only being at sea for a few months, that would be truly absurd.
Allen waved away his thoughts and turned to look at Nami and the others, who were frozen into ice sculptures.
*Speaking of which, how do I thaw this stuff out again? I think it's by pouring hot water on them, right?*
*Hmmm... Where can I find hot water? Boil some right now?*
*Wait a minute, doesn't my bathroom have hot water?*
Allen's eyes lit up, and he grinned, baring his teeth.
This was all to help Nami and Robin thaw out. He definitely wouldn't do anything weird. After all, he wasn't the kind of hypocrite who took advantage of people in distress.
Allen: *All hypocrite, no gentleman.*