The morning after the shamans won the Davy Back Fight…
"All right, we have to go now," says Ren. "We don't have anymore reason to stay here."
They had a great dinner party in Genji's house last night, and also a good slumber. This morning, as they are preparing to leave, Genji supplied them with lots of foods, enough to keep Horohoro filled.
"I can never be thankful enough for all you have done!" says Genji.
"Never mind, old man!" says Yoh. "You have done a lot for us by supplying us with foods already!"
The shamans walk towards their ship, docked at the shore. They say their last good-byes to the man and his big fat horse when all of a sudden the sea starts to tremble violently. "What's happening?" asks Tamao.
"I have a bad feeling about this!" says Genji fearfully. "It must be what I'm thinking!" Peggy starts to neigh in fright also. The shamans stare at the sea to see what it is, and the sea gushes up, wetting them all.
"Great… My hair is down again…" mumbles Ren.
A gigantic squid has risen out of the sea! Everyone is shocked at the size of that squid. "It's the Kraken!" gasps Lyserg. "How can this kind of monster exist!"
"It's the sea king of this region!" gasps Genji.
The giant squid stretches out its long tentacles and starts smashing the land! "We must protect our ship!" says Yoh. "If it's destroyed, then we cannot go home anymore!"
The shamans perform oversoul and attack the squid, but their attacks didn't seem to annoy the squid very much. The squid simply raises its tentacles and clears them all with a single strike. "How can I lose to an oversized mollusk!" says Ren. "I will be a laughing stock if I lose to a lowly animal! Rapid Tempo!" He begins to jab his kwan-dao rapidly, but before he can fully execute it, the squid wraps its tentacle around Ren and hurls him away! "AAAAH!"
"Ren beaten by a squid! That's not the Ren I know!" says Horo. "I'll show you! Icicle Assault!" He fires several large icicles at the squid, but they are knocked away by the massive tentacles. "What!"
The squid starts to crawl onto dry land, swaying its tentacles in every direction to destroy things. "It must not get far into land!" screams Genji. "It'll eat all the animals here!" The squid then uses its tentacle to pick up Peggy! "AHHHH! IT GOT MY PEGGY!"
The shamans all charge at the giant squid to attack it. Suddenly, the squid freezes into ice! When the shamans hit the squid, it shatters into a trillion pieces. "Uh…? What happened?" asks Chocolove.
"I did nothing," says Horo.
"Then how did it turn into ice by itself?" asks Ryu.
Peggy falls to the ground, and Genji runs to embrace her. The shaman sees a tall person approaching them, and they immediately recognize him. "Hey! It's that guy who froze the sea!" says Horo.
"It's him! He must be the one who froze the squid!" says Yoh.
"Yeah, I did that," says Aokiji. "I saw trouble, so I decided to help."
"You're such a nice guy!"
"Of course I am! I'm a Marine after all." He looks at Yoh for a moment, and then takes out a piece of paper. "Hmmm… It's him all right…" He shows Yoh the paper. "This is you, right?"
"You have a poster of me too? Yep, that's me!"
The other shamans are struck with a bad feeling, and they quickly pulls out their weapons to defend Yoh. "Don't you dare touch him!" says Ren in a threatening way.
"He's our friend and you have to get through us if you want to arrest him!" says Horo.
"Master Yoh will never get captured by the likes of you!" says Ryu.
"I will defend my friend no matter what!" says Lyserg.
"Me too!" says Chocolove.
"Whoa there! Chill down!" says Aokiji. "I never said I'm here to arrest him. I'm just out for a walk, and I happen to pass by here."
"Guys, he said he won't attack us, so don't worry!" Yoh assures them.
"Come to think of it, you kids don't look like criminals," says Aokiji.
"We're never criminals in the first place!" protests Lyserg.
"You don't have to be so angry. Just chill down, okay? It's true that I don't truly think you are bad people. Smoker likes to do things without thinking…"
"Oh, you mean that smoke guy?" asks Chocolove.
"But still, I wonder why he gives you such a high bounty. I'm rather curious about this."
"Because Master Yoh is strong!" answers Ryu.
"There aren't much strong kids around here, so your bounty caused a worldwide shock. A kid with 70 million berries… Imagine that… There once was a little girl who had a bounty of a whopping 79 million. That was 20 years ago, but I'm sure she's still around."
"Enough babbling!" says Ren impatiently. "If you don't want anything from us, then let us go!"
"Right! My big brother isn't a bad guy!" says Pirika.
"But what would other Marines say if they find out that I let pirates escape without even trying to catch them? I might become a laughing stock," says Aokiji.
"Then you want to fight, eh? I want hesitate too!" says Ren.
Aokiji thought for a while, and then says, "How about this? We will have a short fight and see which side is stronger. Don't worry, I don't feel like killing little kids. I just want to know what your powers are."
"We have to fight again? I just fought a tough battle yesterday…" says Yoh.
"If you don't want to fight, then let us!" Ren says to him. "I didn't get a chance to do so yesterday, and now it's my turn!"
"Don't forget to count us in!" adds Horo.
"You stay aside."
"Why should I! I want to fight him too!" Horo steps up to Aokiji and says to him, "I saw you use an amazing ice technique on the day we first met! I'm also an ice user, so I want to have a match with you to see who is stronger!" But he sees Aokiji sleeping in standing position. "Hey! Listen to me!"
Aokiji wakes up. "Uh? Oh, were you talking to me?"
"I'm talking to you! I said I want to fight you to see…"
"What a beautiful lady you are!" Aokiji says to Jun. "Care for a date this evening?"
"LISTEN TO ME!"
"AND STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" shouts Ren.
"Okay, okay, okay… I get your point. You want to fight me, right?"
"Right!"
"Then c'mon. I'm feeling sleepy."
"If you say so! Kororo, into the skateboard!" Horo oversouls his skateboard and then hops into the air with it. "Icicle Assault!" He fires several icicles at Aokiji, who watches with great interest.
"My, what unbelievable technique!"
The icicles hit him dead on, and thick cloud of frost bursts out everywhere. Horo lands onto the ground and says, "Ha! Is that all you can do?"
"You're the coolest, brother!" cheers Pirika.
When the frost clears, there are several large ice crystals in place of where Aokiji is standing. "Um… Did you kill him?" says Yoh.
"I don't think this move can kill anybody. But at least it can give a bad frostbite."
Suddenly, the ice crystals begin moving by itself! Slowly, the ice got together to form a man! The shamans and Genji are shocked and surprised. The man then slowly becomes… Aokiji! "You're pretty cool, kid," he says.
Horo's eyes widen. "How can it be! You came out of ice!"
"That's how all Logia type Devil Fruit users are. I ate the Hie Hie Fruit, which allows my body to turn into ice and I can control ice at will."
"I don't care what powers you have! I will defeat you!" says Ren. He oversouls his kwan-dao and charges at Aokiji. When near, Ren performs Rapid Tempo. Several golden energy blades hit Aokiji and shatter him into several ice crystals. "That should do!"
But to his surprise, the ice crystals gather together and form Aokiji again! "You kids are pretty cool. No wonder your captain has such a high bounty! Now would you mind if I attack now?" He reaches to the ground and pulls up some grasses and blows, turning them into an ice blade! "Ice Saber!"
"I can do that too!" says Horo. He takes out a small wooden stick his sister carved for him. "Kororo, oversoul into Ikapusi!" The small stick transforms into an ice blade too!
They charge at each other and clash their ice weapons. As they fight each other, Ryu and Chocolove charge in from the side, ready to give Horohoro a hand as he fights the Marine. Ryu slams his wooden stick onto Aokiji and Chocolove claws against him with sharp claws. Despite how hard they struck him, Aokiji did not feel any pain besides a few ice shards flying about. Slowly, Ryu's wooden stick begins to freeze from the tip all the way to the hilt! "What!" he quickly lets go the hilt before it freezes onto his hand.
Chocolove's claws freeze all the way to his arm. "AHHHH! MY ARM IS FREEZING!" He falls to the ground and rolls around, crying about how cold and hurt his arm is.
"Oh no! Chocolove is going to get a terrible frostbite!" gasps Manta.
"How dare you hurt my friend like this!" says Horo angrily. "Ice Blade Slash!" He slashes Aokiji in the torso and splits him into two pieces. The two pieces turn to ice and gathers around Horo's legs, freezing him in place! "AHHHH! IT HURTS!"
"BROTHER!" screams Pirika.
"Now you know how terrifying my power can be," says Aokiji, who is back in one piece.
"I won't admit defeat!" says Ren. "Giant Oversoul!" Bason immediately grows really big, with Ren standing on top of his shoulder.
Aokiji looks at the giant warrior with interest. "Whoa… That's amazing!"
"Punch him, Bason!" commands Ren. Bason brings down his fist and smashes Aokiji into thousand of ice shards, but the shards gather in another and form Aokiji again.
He puts his hand against the ground. "Ice Age!" The ground around him turns to ice and freezes Bason's legs in place!
"What!" exclaims Ren.
Aokiji lower half turns into an ice pillar that starts growing upwards, bringing his upper torso upwards. When at the same height as Ren, Aokiji bear hugs him. "Ice Time!" Immediately, Ren's body freezes over. He has turn into an ice statue!"
"REN!" screams Jun.
Bason disappears and the frozen Ren falls towards the ground. Pai-Long quicky hops over and grabs Ren before he hits the ground and shatters into pieces.
Aokiji returns to the ground. "All right, who's next?"
Yoh approaches him with his oversouled Antiquity in his hand. His expression is rather angry also. "I'll defeat you for my friends!"
"Ah, you're the captain. This should be interesting."
Yoh charges straight at him and slams the tip of the giant sword into Aokiji, shattering him into pieces. The ice shards form around Yoh and…
"Ice Time."
Yoh entirely turns into ice!
The other shamans are shocked, Anna being the most terrified. "Yoh is defeated!" gasps Manta. "This can't be!"
"Don't worry, he's not dead," Aokiji assures him. "If you can melt the ice, then he'll live again. But he's very brittle at this moment." Aokiji lifts up his foot and points it at the frozen Yoh.
"DON'T!" Anna shouts at him.
"Just kidding! I promised that I wouldn't kill any of you. Now I know what makes you kids so unique."
"Don't kill them!" yells Genji. "They are good children! They fought off some evil pirates yesterday!"
"I guessed so… I last stopped at Mayor Doodad's village and he told me that you kids fought off El Drago. And earlier, I saw you trying to save the horse from that squid." Aokiji turns around and walks away. "A promise is a promise… I'll let you go for now. You kids just don't get into any trouble."
When Aokiji is gone, the shamans quickly run to the injured ones to help them. "Quick! Take them to my house!" says Genji. "We must defrost them quick or else their skin tissues will rot! We must apply warm water onto the frozen spot!"
Hearing this, Chocolove runs to the sea and hops into it. The warm sea slowly thaws out his frozen arm. "Phew! Much better!"
"How about me! My leg's are freezing!" cries Horo. Pai-Long picks him up and hurls him into the sea.
The others slowly carry Ren and Yoh into Genji's house. Following Genji's orders, they place them both into the bathtub. "Not too hot!" warns Genji. "Or else their body will crack! Slowly pour warm water onto them!"
They turn on the faucet and shower them with warm water while Jun and Anna constantly splash them with more warm water. "You must not die, Yoh!" Anna says worriedly in her mind. "You are my future husband, so please don't die!"
Jun, too, is very worried about her brother.
After much trouble, both the frozen shamans slowly defrost. The others are waiting outside worriedly. Chocolove and Horohoro are all right now; their frozen arm and legs are back to normal.
"I can't believe that Blue Pheasant can be so powerful!" says Horo. "His ice attacks are harsher than mines!"
"I don't want to meet someone like that again!" says Chocolove. "We could've of died!"
After several minutes, Jun steps out of the bathroom and tells them that they two are starting to breathe again. Everyone is relieved to hear this.
-
Midnight…
Yoh slowly opens his eyes and looks around. He is lying on a bed and it appears that everyone is staying in Genji's house for another day. He turns around and sees Anna laying her head next to him.
Besides his bed is another one with Ren sleeping peacefully on it, and Jun is asleep on a chair next to him.
"Are you awake?" says a voice. Yoh turns to the source of voice and sees that Anna is awake! "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, I'm better. What happened?"
"You lost the fight. You were frozen and in a critical condition. But thanks god… You made it out alive…"
"I'm sorry for letting you worry about me, Anna…"
"Please don't get yourself into trouble again, okay?"
"I'll try to."
-
The next morning, after having breakfast, the shamans once again return to their ship on the shore.
"Take care now!" says Genji. "Don't get into trouble!"
"We won't, old man!" says Yoh. "I hope we meet again!"
They wave good-bye to Genji and Peggy one last time before setting sail into the sea.
TO BE CONTINUED…