Gojo looked at Jinbe and continued speaking, a faint grin tugging at his lips. "I must say that you are very strong—far stronger than anyone I have fought till date. And honestly speaking, I was kind of getting bored. It has been almost half a month since I set sail, but till now I haven't been able to find a good opponent for myself."
He rolled his shoulders once, as if loosening invisible weight. "But after fighting you for a few minutes, I know that you are very strong. And after fighting you, I will become stronger."
He glanced down at fists. "Although I hit you so many times with both my fists—my fists covered in Armament Haki—ultimately I wasn't able to damage you that much, because your Armament Haki is more refined than mine. It is stronger than my Armament Haki."
He exhaled slowly, almost amused. "So ultimately, all of my powerful attacks were only able to deal very little damage to your body, which is kind of ignorable for you, who is a fish-man. After all, you are born ten times stronger than humans. Not to mention, you have trained hard, so you are even stronger—maybe the strongest among the fish-men."
The air shifted.
Gojo unsheathed his sword in one smooth motion; the metallic ring of steel sliding free cut cleanly through the tension. The pure black blade pointed towards Jinbe.
"Let's fight," he said calmly, his eyes sharp now. "You are fighting for revenge and to capture me. I am fighting to become stronger than you and defeat you."
A faint smile returned, confident and unwavering. "Because with your current strength, it is impossible for you to capture me. If you want to capture me, then you will also have to become stronger than you are now."
After saying this, Gojo disappeared from his location and appeared beside Jinbe, his sword edge directly aimed at Jinbe's neck. The snow beneath his feet had not even settled before he was gone. Till now, all such attacks of Gojo met with absolute zero resistance. None were able to follow his movement speed; none could even properly register the faint distortion in the air before his blade was already upon them. With this incredible speed and sword strike, he would almost kill his opponent in a single blow.
But Jinbe had mastered Observation Haki.
He knew.
He knew exactly where Gojo's attack would land, what its trajectory would be, and at what angle the blade would descend. And he was ready.
His palm—his entire hand coated in hardened Armament Haki—shot upward and collided with Gojo's sword, which was covered in Armament Haki as well. The moment steel met hardened flesh, a thunderous shockwave burst outward. A powerful gust of wind was displaced in the direction Gojo's sword had been swung, slicing through the frozen air.
Jinbe was pushed deep into the ground, his feet carving through snow. The snow all around him flung away violently, forming a small crater beneath his stance.
Then Jinbe and Gojo separated again, sliding back to create distance, standing opposite each other once more. Snowflakes drifted slowly between them, disturbed by the lingering pressure of their clash.
Jinbe lowered his gaze to his palm.
There was a cut.
A thin line ran across his hardened skin, and blood trickled steadily from it, warm against the freezing air. Although the cut was quite shallow, Jinbe was shocked because of two things.
First, he understood immediately that Gojo's sword was no ordinary sword—it was a Supreme Sword.
Most importantly, he felt it.
Gojo's Armament Haki was even more refined than it had been when he punched him continuously before. It was denser. Sharper. More controlled. He is growing mid-battle…
Jinbe's expression hardened, his injured hand curling slightly as blood dripped onto the ice.
"What a monstrous genius," he thought to himself. "I can't let this fight drag on for long."
With that, Jinbe moved at a very fast speed, attacking Gojo without hesitation. Snow burst outward beneath his step, scattering in a wide spray as he propelled himself forward. Although Jinbe's speed was fast—impressively fast—it was not faster than Gojo's.
Gojo could have easily dodged it.
But he didn't.
He wanted to test something.
Jinbe's right fist was coated in hardened Armament Haki. In the next instant, his fist met Gojo's Limitless Barrier. Before this, the same Limitless had stopped all other attacks before they could even reach him, halting them at an invisible distance, untouchable and absolute.
But this time was different.
The very effect of the Limitless—the infinite space that separated Gojo from everything else—began to waver under the pressure of Jinbe's Armament Haki.
Slowly, Jinbe's fist moved forward.
It did not stop.
It tore through the invisible distortion surrounding Gojo, forcing its way inch by inch. His fist was surrounded by a blue, flowing aura—like a meteor wrapped in moving fire. Similarly, his punch carried a current of swirling blue air around it, spiraling and compressing as it advanced. The snow around them lifted and scattered from the sheer pressure.
Still, the Limitless resisted.
The space between them distorted violently, like glass bending but refusing to shatter. Jinbe's fist advanced slowly—far slower than his usual attacks—reduced to almost half the speed of a normal punch. Snow compressed beneath his feet as he pushed forward, leaving a deep imprint where he stood.
Then—
His fist touched Gojo's chest.
Or rather, it touched the fabric of Gojo's jacket.
Gojo, who had clearly allowed all of this to happen, remained calm, his Six eyes observant, analytical. So Armament Haki can interfere with limitless to this extent… interesting.
The moment Jinbe's fist made contact with the cloth over his chest, Gojo moved.
In an instant—faster than the eye could track—he stepped back with extreme speed, vanishing from that precise point of impact. The fabric fluttered from the motion, but the force of the punch never transferred to his body.
Even though Jinbe's fist had touched his jacket, Gojo had effectively avoided the hit entirely.
Jinbe looked blankly at the location where Gojo had been standing, then slowly turned his gaze toward Gojo, who had appeared just a few meters away from him. Snow drifted between them, disturbed by the aftershock of that clash. Jinbe's expression was clearly shocked.
From the previous attacks, he had already understood that there was some sort of barrier around Gojo—something invisible that did not allow anything to reach him at all. Every strike had been stopped before it could even touch his body.
But this—
This was different.
It was not that the barrier had weakened. It was his Armament Haki that had nullified the effect of Gojo's strange barrier-like Devil Fruit ability. Otherwise, he would never have been able to reach him. He had clearly seen it—his own fist moving forward, tearing through something dense and intangible.
It had felt like punching into a powerful quagmire.
A thick, invisible swamp of space itself.
His Armament Haki had been breaking through that resistance inch by inch; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to move at all within that suffocating distortion. Not to mention, the speed of his fist had been extremely slow—unnaturally slow. Just to reach Gojo, he had taken more than, or around, ten seconds.
Ten seconds.
In a real fight, that was an eternity.
By that time, with Gojo's speed, he could have moved anywhere on the battlefield. He could have countered. He could have killed. But clearly, Gojo himself had wanted to see what would happen. He had allowed it.
He was studying Armament Haki's effect on his Limitless.
Gojo stood calmly in the snow, adjusting his jacket slightly as if nothing significant had just occurred. Then he looked toward Jinbe and said, "Thank you very much for attacking me with your full Armament Haki strength. I wanted to see how much my Limitless would be able to resist your Armament Haki."
A faint smile appeared on his face, confident and composed.
"Now that my experiment is over, we can fight with our all."
After saying this, Gojo once again covered his sword with Armament Haki. Without hesitation, he swung it horizontally.
A blue flying sword slash burst forth from the edge, slicing through the snowy air toward Jinbe. The compressed air howled as it travelled, carving a visible path through the drifting flakes.
The speed of the flying sword slash was extremely fast.
Jinbe reacted instantly. He crossed both of his arms in front of him, both arms covered in hardened Armament Haki. The slash collided against his guard with explosive force. Snow erupted around him as his feet dug deep trails through the white surface. He was dragged back for quite a distance, sandals ploughing through the snow, leaving twin trenches behind.
But Jinbe was no pushover.
With a sharp exhale, he adjusted his stance mid-slide and forcefully redirected the flying slash downward. Using his strength and precise control, he pushed it into the snow-covered ground. The moment it struck, the compressed energy dispersed violently, crushing the slash and sending snow and ice particles bursting upward.
Gojo was already closing in.
Jinbe sensed it clearly through his Observation Haki. Without turning his head, he immediately used Fishman Karate. His hands moved in a controlled motion, and he began manipulating the water in the surroundings—more precisely, the frozen water beneath the snow and the moisture suspended in the air itself.
A shockwave formed.
The moisture condensed and compressed under his command, then burst outward toward Gojo in a powerful wave meant to push him back.
But to Gojo, it did not matter.
He continued moving forward at the same speed, unaffected, as if the shockwave had been nothing more than a passing breeze.
In the next instant, Gojo's sword collided with Jinbe's forearm. The impact rang sharply, Armament Haki clashing against Armament Haki. Jinbe was sent rolling across the snow, his large frame tumbling before he forcefully planted his hand into the ground to stop himself.
Like this, both Gojo and Jinbe remained locked in a tough battle.
Jinbe wasn't able to do anything decisive to Gojo because of his Limitless. He tried multiple forms of Fishman Karate, manipulating shockwaves and water currents, but none of it worked. Even one of his master moves—the technique that allowed him to control the water inside the opponent's body and damage them from within—failed against Gojo.
He couldn't reach him.
It was clearly impossible. If Gojo could reject heat waves and external forces so effortlessly, then controlling the water inside his body was beyond reach. Jinbe could never control the water within Gojo.
Snow continued to fall around them as they clashed again and again, shockwaves rippling outward with each exchange.
This was a high-stakes battle.
And without a doubt, it was the toughest battle Gojo had fought till now.
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