174 Festive season

Aokiji wanted to freeze the surroundings, but it didn't work at all, and he got forcefully sucked in and vanished. Chopper and others came running in to see Luffy. He was fully focused, even with his staff. His one leg was still in the air, and among the ice, everyone could see that Luffy had a smirk on his face.

Luffy went for that attack because he genuinely knew what Ken was going to do, and thus he took the hit for the team.

"Luffyyyyy... Is he alright..?" Nami got scared and asked. Robin still had fear in her eyes, but now she was more concerned about the captain. They did all this to protect her.

"Chopper.. As a doctor, what should we do to save our captain?" Zoro said he let go of the bandana on his head.

"Yes.. Yes.. He is still alive. We need to bathe him in normal water at first. We can't just use hot water ..." Before Chopper could finish his sentence, the ice on the Luffy's face cracked. This made everyone fearful, as they knew that Luffy's body didn't have that much endurance like Ken's.

But the cracks had already appeared, and everyone, including Ken, was panicking a bit. They weren't sure if the cracks would break more once he was taken to the ship. Nami hurriedly moved her hands a bit. A small amount of water was taken from the shore and put on the frozen body.

Nami had now had initial access to water bending and was thus able to do such low work. But the initial small crack didn't stop, and soon it expanded. Within seconds, the whole body of ice had cracked.

"No. No. This can't be happening."

"Luffy..."

"Damn it. Why are we so useless?"

"That bastard ice guy."

In a minute, more cracks formed, and suddenly it totally broke off from the body. What they feared the most was that even the insides of Luffy were frozen. But after Luffy was out of the ice formation, his flailing body slowly dropped towards the ground.

Ken came forward and caught his body. He could distinctly hear Luffy's breath. He had just felt unconscious.

"Luffyy.. Is he alright?"

"Is he okay?"

"Chopper, check him." Zoro said. Chopper came forward with a stethoscope and checked his heartbeat. He checked for a full 5 minutes, while others looked at him with anxiety in their eyes. Haki might be able to sense life, but that was it. It couldn't see the body status of a being.

They waited patiently until Chopper let go of the stethoscope and looked at the crew with a smile on his face. This brought everyone joy. Vivi brought out a stretcher from her body and slowly placed Luffy on it.

"This guy really gave us a nightmare."

"Hahah.. I knew Luffy would be alright. After all, he is under Captain Ussop. Hahaha."

"This idiot.."

Ken had a small smile on his face. When he started this journey, he knew that one day he would have to face the Admirals. He hoped that it would not be before Water 7, but it still fell the same way. Aokiji being here meant that they were very close to getting Franky. In no way was he going to allow Franky to be taken away.

He would deal with those CP9s on Water 7 itself and get rid of them. But he also felt a sense of fear from Aokiji. Even after all this, they still couldn't stop Aokiji. His ice was really a problem, and without Conqueror's Haki, it would be tough for him to gain an advantage over others with the two characters he possessed.

He had been wishing for the Conqueror's Haki for a very long time and didn't know if he had one. If there was no Conqueror's Haki, he needed to get access to the Kamui dimension. That would be his trump card.

Ken was having all these thoughts in mind while everybody got into work. Sanji and Ussop flew away to get some meat for Luffy while others got busy. They just got the scare of their lives and needed to cool off.

The ship didn't sail and was there on the shore for some time. Luffy surprisingly didn't wake up for two days, and when he did, he started shouting about meat as usual.

"Meatttttt..."

Sanji ran to fill him up. The last two days had been stressful as they woke up. They thought there was some kind of damage to Luffy, but thankfully there wasn't. After Luffy woke up, everyone got ready for a huge banquet.

Nobody talked about Aokiji or how he had left a scar on their crew, but rather went on with their work when he was unconscious. But something changed. Zoro got more serious with training, and Sanji would fly away for an hour or two into the sky along with Ussop. Nami and Vivi started to have close-range fights. Nami had experience with Avatar, and Vivi had technical experience, so both helped each other while Robin started to use her stand more often.

She wanted to use her stand, but Ken didn't allow her because before she could even finish her move, Aokiji would freeze her, and this time it might be death. She needed to be more practical with her stand and use her devil fruit too.

Ken had given her an aim. She used her devil fruit to make a clone of herself that could be controlled from far away. Theoretically, it was possible, so she started working hard towards it. Meanwhile, Chopper and the other two beasts went into deep-dive mode. Chopper is turning himself into a fish.

He still couldn't swim even after being a fish and could only flop around, but he was determined to be a great swimmer. After Luffy woke up, everyone felt relief. The banquet was a large one, and people were back to their old selves. Even Ken, who very rarely indulged himself in parties, did so.

"Hahaha.. Oye Sanji more meat.."

"Some takoyaki for me .."

"Yes.. yes coming.. hold on.. Let me finish making desserts from Nami-swan, Vivi-chwan and Robin-chwan."

It was like a festive season.

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