New World, Moby Dick.
Whitebeard sat on his massive chair.
After watching the segment about Kizaru, the corner of his mouth twitched.
It was not quite a smile.
At most, it was an expression that said, “Hmm, that is somewhat interesting.” Marco stood beside him, his complexion much better than when he was watching the segment about Teach earlier.
“So, it seems the Admirals are not exactly a monolithic block.” “They never were,” Whitebeard said, picking up his wine cup.
“None of the people who can manage to stay in those positions are simple characters.
Those who know how to fight are not scary; it is those who know how to play the fool who are truly terrifying.” He took a large gulp of wine.
“This Kizaru is harder to deal with than that Akainu.” Ace stood to the side, the gloom on his face not yet fully dissipated.
But when he saw the image of Kizaru’s time clock, the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Just a single twitch.
Then he immediately forced his expression back to being stern.
He could not bring himself to smile right now.
But that light screen seemed determined not to let everyone keep a long face.
It always gave you a pull when things were at their heaviest, and then stuffed something in that made it impossible to keep a straight face just when you were about to recover.
The images on the light screen were still shifting.
Austin’s voice had completely entered a stunt-pulling mode, and there was no going back.
“Alright, we are done talking about Comrade Kizaru.
Next up…” A photo of Akainu appeared on the screen.
In the square of Marineford, the laughter of a hundred thousand Marines was cut short all at once.
The air grew three degrees colder.
Different people, different treatment.
But the light screen did not linger on Akainu; instead, it shifted to Aokiji as the ranking continued: “Now for Aokiji, Kuzan.” The caption under the photo read: [System Notification: Number one at slacking off during work; gets off duty after freezing a patch of sea.] “The Ice-Ice Fruit, a wide-area attack capable of freezing an entire island.
One of the top Logia fruits, its coverage area theoretically has no upper limit.” “But this fellow’s greatest highlight in the Marineford War was not fighting Whitebeard; it was freezing a patch of sea so that everyone had a place to walk.” Battle footage was shown on the light screen.
Whitebeard used the Tremor-Tremor Fruit to upend the sea.
As a monstrous wave crashed down, the entire harbor of Marineford turned into a boiling pot.
Pirate ships could not enter, and people could not stand their ground.
Then Aokiji extended a hand.
“Ice Age.” The entire sea solidified instantly.
It froze from the harbor all the way to the edge of one’s vision.
The waves, still in their surging postures, were frozen into ice sculptures.
The ice surface was flat and hard, enough to support tens of thousands of people running and fighting simultaneously.
The ships of the Whitebeard Pirates were parked on the ice.
The pirates charged across the ice.
The Marines also met them in battle on the ice.
Both sides fought with intense heat.
Yet they were all fighting on the road that Aokiji had paved.
“Without this layer of ice, Whitebeard’s people would not have been able to come ashore at all,” Austin’s narration said unhurriedly.
“To put it bluntly, the Marines would not have been able to deploy their troops and formations in the seawater either.
That the two sides were able to fight at all was entirely thanks to Aokiji building a road for them.” “His original intention in freezing the sea was to block the movement of enemy ships.
But as for the actual effect…” A screenshot appeared on the light screen.
On the ice, the members of the Whitebeard Pirates were surging toward the Marineford square like a tide.
“He built a free highway for the enemy, leading straight to the front gates of Marineford.” “The road-builder.” Austin summarized.
“The Navy’s strongest road-builder, Kuzan.” In the square of Marineford, several officers lowered their heads, desperately biting their lips.
But it was truly too hard to hold back.
A recruit could not hold it in and let out a pfft of laughter.
The squad leader next to him slapped him on the back of the head: “Shut up!” Aokiji leaned against the wall.
The corner of his mouth…
He was trying hard to control it.
Aokiji was a person who was usually lazy.
Lazy in battle, lazy in speech, even lazy in getting angry.
But being called a road-builder in front of the entire world caused the corner of his mouth to indeed twitch on that eternally unchanging dead-fish face of his.
It was not out of anger.
It was the kind of twitch that said, “That actually sounds quite reasonable and I cannot refute it.” Kizaru leaned over, the eyes behind his sunglasses crinkling into two slits: “Kuzan~ that Ice Age of yours, should it perhaps have its name changed in the future~ to something more appropriate like Road-Building Age~?” “But having said that,” Austin’s voice shifted again.
“Aokiji’s move of freezing the sea did indeed directly change the form of the entire war.” “Without this ice surface, the battlefield would not even exist.
Whitebeard’s fleet would have been trapped at sea, and the two sides would have turned it into a pure artillery battle.
The Marines have the geographical advantage, the encircling walls, and the cannon batteries; they could have worn down the pirate fleet with long-range bombardment.” “But once the ice was paved, the battlefield changed from the sea to land.
What is the strongest aspect of the Whitebeard Pirates?
It is not their ships, but their people.
The combat power of sixteen commanders plus forty-three New World pirate crews engaged the Marines in close-quarters combat.” “This freezing was equivalent to wiping out the Marines’ greatest geographical advantage.” Another line of text popped up on the light screen: [System Notification: On how Aokiji single-handedly neutralized the Marine’s home-field advantage.] In the square, a staff officer’s face turned green.
He had just silently run through the deduction in his mind and found that the light screen’s words were perfectly sound.
If the sea had not been frozen, the pirate fleet would have had to endure at least three rounds of concentrated volleys in the artillery coverage zone before they could even get near the harbor.
Whether Whitebeard could have withstood that loss is another matter, but at the very least, the offensive rhythm would have been completely disrupted.
Once those troublesome ability users entered the water, they would have no advantage at all.
But once the ice appeared, all of that became useless.
The pirates reached the square using just their two legs.
Sengoku’s temples throbbed twice.
He glanced at Aokiji but said nothing.
But that one glance was full of meaning.
Aokiji shifted his sleepy eyes away and looked up at the ceiling.
“My tactical judgment at the time was definitely intended to blockade the enemy fleet,” he spoke, his voice very flat.
No one replied.
“The result was indeed not very ideal.” Kizaru chimed in with a cutting remark from the side: “Not very ideal~ it was extremely unideal~” Aokiji closed his eyes.
He was too lazy to argue.
In the New World, on the Moby Dick.
After watching this analysis, Marco looked back at Whitebeard.
Whitebeard was drinking and stopped halfway.
“Gurararara,” the old man laughed.
“It seems I have to thank that brat for paving the road.” Thatch muttered from the side: “So our charge was entirely dependent on Aokiji’s help?
What do you call that?
Enemy sponsorship?” “No matter what it is called,” Whitebeard put down his wine cup, “remember this information.
The ice surface is key.
If this battle really happens in the future, we must plan ahead on how to utilize that ice or how to prevent it from appearing.” Marco nodded, committing this point to memory.
…
Holy Land Mary Geoise.
The expressions of the Five Elders were uglier than anyone’s in the Marineford square.
“Using Ice Age to pave the road for pirates.
Light-speed lasers failing to hit a single brat.” He paused.
“Just how on earth is Sengoku managing these people?” The elder with the handlebar mustache tapped the table with his index finger, over and over, at a very slow rhythm: “There is a problem even more serious than this…” He stood up and walked to the window.
The golden light screen outside was still shining, and the entirety of Mary Geoise was shrouded in that layer of light.
“Admirals, the symbols of the World Government’s ultimate military power.
One slacks off, the other builds a road for the enemy.
This kind of scandal is being seen by billions of people simultaneously.” The curly-haired elder tapped his cane on the floor: “Deterrence.
The deterrence we spent eight hundred years building has been stripped bare by a shabby glowing board.
From today on, the first word that will pop into the head of every ill-intentioned pirate who sees a Marine Admiral will be light-speed slacking.” The long-bearded elder sneered: “Or road-builder.” The five men were silent for a few seconds.
No one spoke.
But everyone knew that the damage caused by this round of jokes from the sky screen was greater than directly revealing military secrets.
Secrets can be changed once leaked, but once deterrence collapses, the price to rebuild it will be even greater.
The blonde-haired elder flipped through the documents in his hand and spoke after a long time: “Have Sengoku write and submit a detailed tactical review.
The battlefield discipline assessments for the Three Admirals must be redone.
Additionally…” He looked up.
“Give CP0 an additional order.
Continue investigating the source of the sky screen, but simultaneously do another thing: prepare a narrative.
No matter how much longer this light screen broadcasts, we need an official line to explain this content.” “How do we explain it?” “Just say it is unverified false information.
A propaganda attack from hostile forces.” The handlebar-mustached elder glanced at him: “The entire world has seen such detailed tactical information, and you are going to tell the world it is false information?” The blonde-haired elder closed the folder.
No one spoke again.
The Room of Authority remained silent for a long time.
This silence was different from usual.
The original silence was one of composure and devising strategies.
Today’s silence was because they could not find a way to save face.