"What an idiot." Hearing Spandam's voice over the intercom, the CP9 members couldn't help but show visible frustration on their faces.
Only someone as clueless as Spandam could make such a monumental blunder, but none of the CP9 members were surprised he had done it.
"Looks like I need to wrap things up with you quickly, Straw Hat Luffy." As soon as Rob Lucci heard the Buster Call had been activated, he dropped his casual approach and used his Devil Fruit abilities. The Buster Call wouldn't discriminate between allies and enemies; they all had to leave before the assault arrived.
Jabura, Hoot the Owl, Kaku, and the others reached the same decision.
"Second Gear!" With Lucci upping his attack, Luffy immediately activated Second Gear to hold him off, both of them now fighting in brutal, close-range exchanges.
"So he's here too… Does that mean he watched the entire original battle between Luffy and his opponents? If Luffy hadn't saved Robin back then, he probably would have stepped in." With that thought, Daniel moved to a secluded area on Enies Lobby's right side, where he found Aokiji leaning lazily against a wall. As soon as Daniel appeared in the empty air before him, Aokiji's relaxed expression sharpened.
"Well, well, fancy meeting an Admiral here. My luck must be excellent." With a spiral mask hiding his face except for a pair of red Mangekyou Sharingan, Daniel, clad in the black robe with red clouds of the Akatsuki, looked at Aokiji with a faint smile.
"Who are you?" After examining Daniel for a moment, Aokiji asked.
"Akatsuki. Uchiha Obito," Daniel replied calmly.
"Akatsuki… I haven't heard of that group," Aokiji murmured, tilting his head in thought before he continued.
"Soon, everyone on the seas will know our name. We are the dawn before sunrise, the ones who will drive out the greatest darkness on the seas. Our leader has invited you, Aokiji, to join us."
"The greatest darkness? What exactly do you mean?" Aokiji asked after a moment's silence.
"I mean those who live on the Red Line, self-styled creators who see themselves as gods. Don't you find the world to be… unbalanced, Admiral Aokiji? The Navy claims justice, yet they take orders from those vile nobles. Is that true justice?"
"Why were Ohara's scholars wiped out with a Buster Call? Surely you must wonder about this, Aokiji—why you allowed Nico Robin to leave. Akatsuki's mission is to correct this world's flaws."
"You dare insult the Celestial Dragons to an Admiral's face? I can't just ignore that."
"We know that you, Aokiji, are not like the other Navy officers. Sengoku, Garp, they sound righteous, but they're nothing more than lapdogs for the World Government and the Celestial Dragons."
Whoosh.
Aokiji suddenly launched an ice spear from his hand, moving so fast that even Daniel barely reacted before it pierced him.
Aokiji's expression grew serious; he had clearly seen the ice spear pass through Daniel, only for his body to somehow turn intangible, leaving the spear to bury itself in the distant grass, freezing a large swath of ground around it.
"Apparently, you respect the 'Hero of the Navy' Garp so much that you won't even hear me out."
"Your words don't need to be heard." Aokiji fired another ice spear, but this one was coated in Armament Haki, thinking it would overcome any Devil Fruit ability that had negated his previous attack.
His Observation Haki was fixed on Daniel, watching for any opening. Daniel made no attempt to dodge, allowing the ice spear to pass through him once again and strike the ground behind him.
"Why are you unwilling to listen? Don't you want to hear why I called Sengoku and Garp lapdogs? Navy 'justice' is the open sale of human slaves on Sabaody Archipelago under the guise of a 'job placement agency.' Since it's so righteous, why doesn't Sengoku go down to the agency himself and get a job?"
"Your so-called 'hero' Garp, he grumbles daily about the Celestial Dragons being scum, but as soon as they give him an order, he scurries off like a loyal hound. Why else would he wear that dog-themed mask and helm? Because he knows he's nothing but a lapdog."
Crack.
The ground erupted with ice spikes from beneath Daniel's feet, but they, too, failed to touch him, his Kamui's intangibility nullifying each attack effortlessly.
"I never thought Garp's mask could be explained that way." Daniel praised his own words, stepping beyond the reach of the ice. Before today, he hadn't considered interpreting Garp's symbol in such a way.
In the original story, Garp had very few controversies, except for failing to save Ace during the Summit War. However, the revelation of the God Valley incident had brought new perspective to his actions.
While Garp's choices could be justified, Roger's motives remained mysterious, likely related to prophecies the pirate world held in such regard.
"The so-called justice of your Navy, does it exist to protect people or to serve the Government? Have you seen the countries that can't pay the Celestial Tribute, Admiral Aokiji? This is Navy justice—poor nations forced to pay tribute, or else. The Great Pirate Era isn't just Roger's fault; it's the government's oppression that drives people to the seas."
With each statement, Aokiji's expression darkened. Such criticisms would be lost on Sengoku, Garp, Akainu, or Kizaru, but Aokiji was different. His eventual disillusionment with the Navy would lead him to leave. While Daniel had never visited such places, he knew enough to provoke Aokiji.
After a few moments of silent contemplation, Aokiji's face finally steadied, and a powerful aura radiated from him, indicating he was ready to get serious.
"It seems we won't reach an understanding. Facing an Admiral… this will be a good test." As Aokiji focused on the fight, Daniel dropped his Kamui, meeting Aokiji's attacks head-on with a Rankyaku that sliced through the ice spikes descending from above.
"Katon: Great Fire Annihilation!" After shattering the ice spikes, Daniel formed a hand seal and unleashed a massive wave of scorching flames, blanketing hundreds of meters in front of him, engulfing Aokiji's position.
"An ice wall… I have to admit, even Esdeath's ice techniques can't match Aokiji's right now." Daniel observed the dense ice wall that emerged, effectively countering his fire. Esdeath's current level of ice manipulation would have been inadequate against Aokiji's freezing power.
As the steam began to clear, Aokiji eyed Daniel with suspicion.
"A ninja… from Wano?"
"Don't worry. I have nothing to do with that closed-off country."
"Katon: Great Fire Annihilation!"
"Ice Time Capsule!"
As Daniel unleashed another torrent of flames, Aokiji countered with a series of enormous ice pillars erupting from the ground. The two attacks collided midway, resulting in an explosion of water vapor that enveloped the battlefield.
"So he learned Esdeath's techniques too?" Daniel glanced up as three massive ice balls formed in the sky, hurtling down toward him. With a sigh, he rushed into the cover of the steam, right hand gleaming with Armament Haki, and threw a punch forward.
Boom.
A thunderous crash echoed across Enies Lobby as Daniel's fist collided with Aokiji's, the shockwave shattering nearby buildings and drawing the attention of both Luffy and Lucci's groups.
"Doesn't the Admiral know how to use Conqueror's Haki?" Daniel mused, wondering why Aokiji hadn't enhanced his attack with it. Although Daniel was largely immune to its intimidation effect, combining Conqueror's Haki with Armament Haki could increase its potency.
Without hesitation, Daniel launched a follow-up attack with his left hand, closing in on Aokiji. Sparring with an Admiral was a prime opportunity to assess his own strength.
Despite Aokiji's preference for his freezing abilities, his Armament Haki was formidable. In their previous clash, Daniel had barely gained the upper hand.
"This ice power is really troublesome." As Daniel continued his attack, Aokiji retaliated, frost quickly spreading across the ground toward him. Within moments, Daniel's legs were encased in blue ice, his right side soon frozen, even stopping his left punch mid-swing.
Aokiji had once used this same move to destroy Diamond Jozu's arm, but it was useless here; Daniel shattered the ice covering his body, then kicked Aokiji in the side, sending him flying nearly 100 meters. In midair, Aokiji turned into an ice block and smashed into the ground.
"Looks like my physical strength is almost at an Admiral's level. With Nen and chakra, I could even challenge a Yonko." Confident in his physical abilities, Daniel decided to stop holding back, adding his Nen and chakra into the mix.
"Katon: Great Fire Devastation." Without waiting for Aokiji to recover, Daniel fired a massive, meteor-like fireball directly at Aokiji's position.
To counter a Devil Fruit, one didn't always need Seastone, seawater, or Armament Haki; certain elemental weaknesses also existed. The Suna Suna no Mi was weak against water, and Enel's
Rumble-Rumble Fruit had no effect on rubber.
As Aokiji's Ice-Ice Fruit was based on ice, it was particularly susceptible to fire-based abilities. Of course, this depended on the strength of the user—whether water could extinguish the flame, or the flame evaporated the water.
"Ice Age."
Aokiji's freezing aura extinguished the fiery attack with a chilling wave, blanketing the entire island in ice, even freezing the abyssal waterfall between Enies Lobby and the Tower of Justice, creating a single frozen landmass.
The ocean near the port also froze over for almost a hundred meters.
"Creating a favorable environment, huh?" Daniel noted. In this frozen setting, Aokiji's abilities would be amplified. If it persisted, the ice could eventually change an island's ecosystem, just like Punk Hazard, where Aokiji and Akainu's duel transformed it into an island of ice and fire.
"Why is Admiral Aokiji here? And who's the guy in the strange outfit, fighting him?" The temporary truce between Lucci and Luffy allowed them to witness the intense battle between Aokiji and the masked stranger as the entire island shook.
"It's freezing… Why did it suddenly get so cold?" Nami, dressed in her usual light attire, shivered as the temperature plummeted, feeling the chill on the icy ground beneath her.
Boom, boom, boom.
The relentless clash between Daniel and Aokiji kept the entire island trembling, the force of their battle reducing countless structures to rubble.
Boom, boom, boom.
At that moment, explosions erupted around Enies Lobby—this time not from Daniel and Aokiji's battle, but from the arrival of the ten Buster Call warships.
The Navy Vice Admiral in charge shot a major attempting to rescue Navy personnel on Enies Lobby, then ordered an indiscriminate bombardment of the island.
"Straw Hat Luffy, consider yourself lucky. Next time, I'll make sure to kill you." The arrival of the Admiral and the Buster Call had Lucci considering a retreat. Luffy wanted to pursue, but Lucci's Moonwalk carried him away, leaving Luffy watching him disappear.
"You bastard! Next time, I won't let you go!" Jabura, furious at Sanji, was reluctant to leave, but upon hearing Lucci's voice, he shot a glare at Sanji before departing with Moonwalk.
"Luffy, don't chase them! The Buster Call has begun, and there's an Admiral here. We need to escape, now!"
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