ONE PIECE: KAIDO'S SON

  "What are you laughing at?"

  "Kaido, you're a prisoner now!"

  "You'll be sent to Impel Down soon—what's so funny?!"

  On the prison ship, the Marine officers and soldiers escorting Kaido were furious.

  However, despite the hostile shouting, Kaido merely smiled under the seastone muzzle clamped over his mouth. His eyes, however, gleamed with a sinister, deathly calm, as though he were already looking at corpses.

  Suddenly—

  BOOM!

  The entire massive prison ship—built from a reinforced alloy of war steel and ironwood—lurched violently.

  Bang!

  The sudden jolt flung several Marine officers off their feet.

  Especially those already wounded during Kaido's rampage through the G-1 base—not yet fully recovered—crashed to the wooden deck with muffled grunts.

  "W-What the hell?!"

  "Why is the prison ship shaking?!"

  A wave of confusion spread across the deck.

  But that confusion quickly turned to dread.

  Because soon, they saw the cause.

  The water around them was no longer calm. The sea had begun to churn—feral, thundering.

  ROOOAAARRR!!!

  It wasn't a beast, but the sea itself—howling like a god of destruction. The sound alone rattled the eardrums of every soldier aboard.

  Then—darkness.

  A shadow blotted out the sun. A monstrous wall of water surged into the sky, casting gloom over the entire dock and prison ship.

  "T-The sea…"

  "My God—what kind of tsunami is this?!"

  The Marine officers looked on in horror.

  Wave after wave—taller and stronger than the last—climbed skyward like a living thing.

  In less than a minute, the cascading waves had risen hundreds of meters high.

  And they were crashing straight toward the ship and the remains of G-1 Branch.

  "Whitebeard…"

  Akainu's eyes narrowed, lips curling into a grim line.

  "In the New World, no one else could summon this kind of force."

  Aokiji crossed his arms, expression hardening:

  "But the Whitebeard Pirates are under constant surveillance from both CP and Naval Intelligence. There's been no report of Whitebeard leaving his territory."

  Akainu didn't disagree.

  As much as he despised all pirates, Edward Newgate was not a man he underestimated.

  And if it truly was Whitebeard, they would have known long ago.

  "It's not him."

  Aokiji's voice was low and certain.

  "I don't sense Whitebeard's aura."

  "Not even his commanders."

  "If it were him… even if he concealed his own presence, Marco and the others would've left a trail."

  For once, Akainu silently agreed.

  Aokiji didn't speak again.

  Instead, he expanded his Observation Haki across the sea—sweeping with razor-sharp precision.

  Still nothing.

  No foreign presence—no ships—no abnormal aura beyond Kaido and the Marines.

  "…Whoever it is, we need to stop that first!"

  Aokiji stopped probing and shot into the air. He extended both arms forward.

  From his palms, icy lances launched into the frothing tsunami on either side.

  FWOOOM

  The moment they touched the waves, the temperature plunged.

  So cold it could extinguish fire—and even harden magma—his freezing power exploded.

  "Ice Age!!"

  In a single sweeping motion, the monstrous tsunami—towering and thick enough to crush a fortress—was halted, transformed into a wall of glittering ice.

  "Hah…"

  Aokiji let out a breath of relief.

  But before the last wisp of cold air faded, a voice echoed—low, deep, and mocking:

  "Carrying mountains and chasing the sun!"

  BOOOOOM!

  The frozen tsunami cracked violently from below.

  A seismic tremor split the ice into jagged fragments as, to everyone's shock, the entire iceberg began to rise out of the ocean.

  As though the sea itself were being lifted.

  "What the hell…?!"

  "Who is that?!"

  "A strange… aura…"

  Akainu and Aokiji turned sharply, eyes scanning the darkening sea.

  Under the swirling ice mist, they could only make out a vague silhouette.

  "Oh... Oh my God!"

  "Is this something a human can even do?"

  "The sea... No, the iceberg is being lifted!"

  On the deck of the prison ship, battered navy soldiers rose unsteadily, some bruised and bloodied. One of them fumbled for a telescope and pointed it toward the eerie mist beyond the war-torn sea.

  Though the face was still obscured, the scene was chillingly clear: a massive iceberg, almost horizon-sized, was being hoisted aloft effortlessly by a lone figure no larger than a man.

  "Who are you?!"

  "Are you here... to rescue Kaido?!"

  Aokiji, his expression uncharacteristically tense, stared into the fog, voice edged with disbelief.

  Boom—

  The figure didn't answer.

  Silently, steadily, the massive chunk of ice continued to ascend—hoisted in one hand like a mere boulder. As it rose, its towering mass cast an ominous shadow that swallowed the entire prison ship, the broken ruins of the G1 Branch, and all the navy personnel within its reach.

  The shadow alone was suffocating.

  Some navy officers dropped their weapons. Others fell to their knees, unable to breathe properly as their throats tightened and their chests heaved.

  "This kind of power..." one officer stammered, sweat freezing on his forehead, "is beyond human limits..."

  "A Devil Fruit user!"

  "Could it be... Golden Lion's ability?!"

  Akainu's narrowed eyes glinted with icy fire. His gaze locked on the levitating mass with growing intensity.

  Lifting islands… moving entire mountains…

  There was only one man in history he knew with that kind of might—

  Golden Lion Shiki.