Time Skip – Day 3
Kairo would be seen breathing out softly, his breath seemingly freezing the second it left his lungs, his red eyes glowing faintly.
{User Haki is blooming}
Kairo ignored that notification — he'd been getting that shit for the last three days. For every hour of those three days, he'd clashed with this Admiral, and damn, was this shit draining.
Even in his boosted state — we're talking Blue Flame, flame off, Conqueror's Haki Coating, fire manipulation, and jutsu being spammed like no other — he was synchronizing his attacks with his axe to create massive lightning strikes while using his sword.
He wasn't frozen, mind you, but half the island sure as hell was. Kairo's shirt was gone — though at this point, he didn't even know why he called it a shirt. His Viking attire was ruined.
All he had left were his pants, shinobi sandals, his axes, and his sword.
Coming from the debris, Kuzan appeared — his shirt ruined, along with his cape of justice. This is gonna be a pain to fix, he thought.
"You're one hell of a nut to crack," the man said, gazing at the boy he now deemed dangerously powerful. His Observation Haki had been stripped away throughout the fight.
At first, it would flicker for a second, but by day three, he'd lose access to it for entire clashes. If that didn't tell him the boy was getting stronger, he didn't know what would.
Using his fruit, he had launched countless attacks, but the boy's damn elemental counters kept getting in the way. Plus, Kairo had something Kuzan didn't —
He could fly.
And he could teleport.
And also...
If we were to zoom out, we'd see that the entire ocean within a fifty-mile radius of the fight had been frozen solid. The Merry was fine — Nami had managed to use her clouds to lift them before the freeze reached.
Anyway, if you're wondering why Kuzan would freeze the entire ocean like that — look closer. On the frozen surface, several kunai seemed to have been thrown toward the ocean floor.
And Kuzan? He had an Abyss Seal on his chest.
Make of that what you will.
"I suppose me asking you to stop trying to drown me won't work," Kuzan said, freezing another section of ocean left unfrozen by Kairo's latest attack. He was not about to go swimming.
"...You've got way too much knowledge about the Flying Raijin," Kairo said, synchronizing with his sword and axe. He was about to pounce.
"It's kind of hard to forget such a technique," Kuzan replied. He had no intention of swimming with the fishes again.
He remembered that day six years ago — a horrible day to be an Admiral. If he remembered correctly, two or three Admirals had been killed. The main reason there were only three left now was because the others got fucked.
Hell, Kuzan might not have even been here today if his opponent hadn't spared his life. He almost quit the Marines that day — he saw no reason for such senseless violence.
The Lunarians on that mountain... they had done nothing wrong. They kept to themselves, and if history was to be believed, they had existed long before the World Government's founding. Their purpose had been to ensure history was passed down properly or something like that.
None of them survived — not because they couldn't, but because they made sure every single civilian, pet, and animal escaped. Akainu couldn't nuke the place either, not with the large-scale teleportation in play.
Kuzan had always wondered why the Holy Knights weren't sent instead.
What he didn't know was... they had been sent.
And they got fucked — absolutely violated. Those "regen merchants" didn't stand a chance. Kairo, even as an amateur at rupturing someone's connection to the Abyss, could cut that link long enough to kill them.
Now imagine a whole clan of people who had legendary-level Abyss Negation. Yeah — they got wrecked. Hard. The only reason they survived was because their "sugar mommy" reversed-summoned them.
Their wounds, however, never healed.
Flames appeared all around Kairo's sword.
"Muspelheim!"
As he released his blade, the whole world seemed to ignite. His flames turned white, and everything within range was reduced to nothing but ash.
Kuzan, seeing this, responded with —
"Ice Dragon!"
A massive formation of ice surrounded him as he released a nearly 100-meter-long, 50-meter-wide dragon toward Kairo.
The dragon even breathed ice.
As the two attacks met in the middle, the temperature across the island fluctuated violently.
A surge of heat blasted into the sky, mixing with freezing air — creating a storm of dark, swirling clouds.
POV change – The Merry
"...This... is seriously intense..." Nami muttered.
Was Kairo holding back on Ace? Not exactly. Back then, they were about the same tier, but that was before the buffs and haki blooms Kairo was undergoing now.
"Is Kairo okay? Half the island's frozen!" Chopper cried, worried sick about his friend.
"He'll be fine, trust me," Usopp said, trying to cheer him up.
"But he's fighting an Admiral!" Chopper countered, still anxious.
"Worst case, he uses his teleportation, and we leave with him," Usopp tried to reassure, though the shockwaves and thunderclaps around them weren't helping his case.
As the two attacks clashed, another powerful gust of wind hit them, so strong that Nami had to form cloud cushions to keep them from being blown off the ship.
"AAAHHHH!" Usopp and Chopper screamed as they were lifted several feet into the air.
"I got you!" Nami shouted, catching them, while Robin used her extra arms to anchor herself.
As for the monster trio — Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy — they were anchored to the deck. If one looked closely, there was a thin layer of Haki between their feet and the wooden floor beneath.
Yeah — they were using wall-walking.
Luffy's brow furrowed as he studied the applications of haki.
He could hear Kairo's heartbeat for some reason.
It went —
Badump
Badump Badump Badump
It sounded like the drums of Skypiea — rhythmic, primal, powerful.
As the others landed safely —
"How strong are the other Admirals?" Usopp asked, wondering if they could all do this.
Robin sighed. She figured Kairo should probably explain it himself, but she might as well.
"The Admirals are the strongest force the Navy possesses. Currently, there are three: Kuzan, Akainu, and Kizaru — each possessing powerful Devil Fruits."
"Kuzan possesses the Hie-Hie no Mi (Ice-Ice Fruit), capable of dropping temperatures to absolute zero. Kizaru has the Pika-Pika no Mi (Glint-Glint Fruit), allowing him to become light. And the worst of them all, Akainu... he wields the Magu-Magu no Mi (Lava-Lava Fruit), giving him control over molten magma."
"They all have Logias... for real?" Usopp was stunned. The hell you mean they're all OP like this?
"Still... why would Kairo keep fighting when he knows he's outmatched?" Nami asked thoughtfully. Even though the fight seemed close, Kairo couldn't keep this up forever.
"...It's because he wants revenge."
That made Luffy pause. For once, he tore his eyes away from the battle. Revenge.
That word caught his attention.
"Why would Kairo want revenge on the World Government?" Chopper asked, confused.
"Is it because they hunted his kind?" Usopp guessed.
"No..." Robin replied calmly.
"It's much deeper than that."
"Then spill it already. This dumbass doesn't get mad for no reason," Sanji said, his tone serious. He'd seen the pure hatred in Kairo's eyes when he faced Aokiji.
"..."
A/N Ignore the heartbeats, they mean nothing and do not become relevant in the next 4 arcs...trust me.
Would you rather be a victim in a god game or eat a smile fruit.