It’s been a few weeks, but we’re finally underwater! It took God damn forever to tolerate that annoying guy! If Aokiji wasn’t here I think I might have killed him within the second day. He won’t stop being arrogant, everyday it’s having to obey his damn orders of stepping away from him and listening to him talk down to everyone! I officially hate him!

“My, my, you’ve become awfully quiet for the past few weeks.” Aokiji commented, I was once again stood aside him although this time we were at the quarter deck, behind the wheel.

“You’ve become even more lazy, I didn’t think that was possible. You find even the most mundane tasks tiring. Are you really an Admiral?” I complained. I wasn’t lying, since a majority of my training is done, Aokiji has slacked off entirely! He doesn’t stand for long, he’s often sleeping and he can’t be asked to do anything!

“You know I am, don’t be so judgemental of people’s looks.” He retorted, I don’t know if that’s a lesson or not.

“Isn’t that the symbol of those who enslaved people?” Before I could respond to Aokiji I heard someone else speak. It was probably some pirate lurking around.

“I’ve heard some chatter, apparently they’re going to reclaim their ‘property’, we should prevent it.” Everyone else was clearly ignoring what was pirates planning to attack us! I mean, even if it’s justifiable for our deaths, I don’t think I want to die.

“Aokiji, are you just going to stand there? Pirates are going to attack us!” I looked around from the edges of ship, yet there was a lack of any sort of pirate ship. They might be using some form of camouflage.

“Oh, did you use Haki?” He questioned, watching me look around.

“I didn’t! Didn’t you hear the pirates announce their plan to prevent us from reaching the island?” I pointed out their blatant announcement, however he only looked at me in confusion.

“I heard nothing, are you hearing things?” He questioned. There was his usual expression on his face.

“I heard it! I heard people announce they were going to attack us!” I was whining at this point so that he would at least understand me.

“Aren’t you being paranoid?” He lazily dismissed it. I don’t think my mental health has reached such a level to say that I’m hearing voices...

“So it was you who said it, wasn’t it? You’ve been messing with me this entire time!” I suppose I was about to throw a tantrum, which would make me even more of a child.

“Um... no, you’re acting a bit rash.” Aokiji’s laziness was now showing its true colours, it was quite surreal.

Before it could become a full-fledged argument, the ship begun to violently shake. It seems all our conversations are interrupted by something. After the rumbling ceased, the ship appeared to be violently thrown, unfortunately for me that was the point where I was knocked out.

A few minutes later

I don’t know how much time passed exactly, but it’s irrelevant to me as far as I am concerned. Seeing that I’m in the hold, I guess I fell through the floor, then again I guess the more obvious fact is that the entire ship is frozen. So, Aokiji clearly tried to do something to the ship, now that I think about it; where is he?

I sat up, and it was quite clear that even if he did intend to freeze it to keep the ship intact, he was slightly late. It’s in pieces. Oh, he also found me as well which explains why my staff is next me, or some lucky coincidence happened.

Upon standing up it became clear that we were on land, since I wasn’t dying from drowning, that was obvious when I was awake... but with the jokes aside I picked up my staff and looked around for any sort of exit. In the end I decided that it was better to make my own.

I went to where the front of the ship should be located, or the back, I can’t tell the difference from the hold. I ran to build up momentum and as I approached the narrowing end I jumped, although I did raise my arms to protect my face and my legs, because doing the cannonball seemed really fun.

I broke through the ice! Not to mention I landed on something which broke my fall, I guess my luck is picking up now!

“You’re awake.” I looked to my left and saw Aokiji standing there, he had a slightly distressed expression which is unnatural to say the least.

“What’s wrong?” I questioned him, he pointed below me, to which a most likely dead... or unconscious Celestial Dragon was laid down.

“Can you get off him?” I moved off him, while emphasising the moments I stepped on him for the sheer pleasure of it. Only then did I look around at the crowd of fish-men who were staring at me and Aokiji. They were most likely scared of Aokiji and confused about me...

“What happened? Did you threaten them or something?” I queried, only to look at his expression which returned to normal. “Okay, that’s clearly not it...”

“I was further below the ship, I looked for any other surviving members and found none, only when I searched the whole ship did I exit through the front, you can see the hole I made.” He pointed at the ship and further below the hole I made was a bigger hole which looked to be caused by him punching it. “I saw the crowd there fire upon the Celestial Dragon, I saw the queen, from what I heard, jump in front of him and protect the Celestial Dragon. She then proceeded to give a speech and I jumped down to investigate a bit more and check the health of the Celestial Dragon... then you jumped onto him.”

Wow, so much happened while I was asleep, I suppose Aokiji didn’t act lazy because the Celestial Dragon was present...

“Excuse me!” We both turned our attention towards who is quite clearly Otohime from Fish-man Island, however I wasn’t expecting to meet her with a bloody arm. “May I ask who the two of you are?”

She had a smile on her face, which isn’t exactly what you’d expect from someone who has just been shot in the arm.

“Before that... are you alright? Your arm is bleeding...” I posed the question, she simply nodded at me. Is it me... or does this feel familiar? Not just because I’ve watched the anime before... but this really feels familiar.

“I’m fine, this can be treated.” However another fish-man approached her from behind, I suppose his expression mimicked the others and his skin was grey, which I for one have never seen before. “Aladdin, do you think you can treat him?”

The fish-man known as Aladdin did have mixed emotions, but in the end he nodded. I suppose being knocked unconscious must have messed with my mind, I just remembered that he is a doctor for the sun pirates.

“I’ll do it, then I’ll treat you.” He spoke, there was a strong relief in everyone’s expressions from his words.

Oddly I wasn’t satisfied with them. It’s not that the Celestial Dragon is getting treatment first, but my mind just doesn’t agree.

“Wait a moment!” I had a sudden idea and ripped a part of the cape I had off, I had to jump quite high to reach her arm, although I figured that it wouldn’t suffice so I instead sat on her shoulder. “Aokiji apply pressure to the wound.”

Aokiji complied with my command to him, applying pressure to where the queen had been shot, I used the part of the cape and tied a half knot two inches above it. However, there was an issue...

“You’ve stopped. Is something wrong?” Aokiji questioned, however I remained silent, since to finish this I need a stick, or some material which is four inches long... my staff!

“Hand me my staff.” Aokiji picked it up from the ground below and used one hand to continue applying pressure. When I received it, I did some thinking.

Since it’s average length that makes it about five feet tall, however it’s probably a bit below, so considering how big a foot is, I’ll say it’s around 4 foot 6 or 7. So... I need to cut off 4 feet and and two inches, although three inches will be safer.

Using Busoshoku Haki for the first time in forever I cut off the amount so that I was left an estimate for about four inches, it looked pretty good. I put it next to the half knot and tied a full knot around it.

“Tell me when the bleeding slows down as much as it can.” I told Aokiji, turning the part of my staff. After around three turns he looked towards me and nodded. “Alright, you can stop.”

Aokiji moved his hand away, his usual expression was mixed with some confusion.

“You seem to have a knack for being on top of people today. First the Celestial Dragon and now the queen of the fish people.” He pointed out, I did realise the oddity of what I was doing at that moment, looking around at people’s shocked faces and the queen was smiling at me.

“T-This was just to apply the tourniquet to minimise blood loss.” I jumped off her shoulders and avoided looking at people... because that was just really embarrassing. “The wound still needs to be cleaned to prevent infection.”

“Thank you.” The queen spoke while smiling. Actually, I think her name escaped my head now... what was it? Ototo? No... it was Oppenheimer! Now I’m just being silly. Oto... hime? I don’t think so! “May I know who to thank?”

“I am Admiral Aokiji, and this is my student, Ensign Maris.” Aokiji introduced the both of us, the crowd of fish-men certainly had some fear among them. If Aokiji chose to punish them for their treatment of the Celestial Dragon then he could do so easily.

“Oh... I see.” The queen’s smile transformed into a serious expression at his words. “I apologise for the treatment of the world noble, but if you wish to punish the people then please, allow me to take it for them.”

Well, even I can tell without looking at him that he won’t attack them, or her. If he planned to do so then he wouldn’t have helped with me the tourniquet.

“Oh, there’s no need. He wasn’t harmed in any way by them and you’re even healing him. Also, the one who should be punished is my student.” Aokiji explained calmly, he also pointed towards me.

“Wait, why am I being punished? What did I do?” I complained, Aokiji simply pointed towards the Celestial Dragon.

“You jumped on him and knocked him out, if you were any less careful you would’ve killed him.”

“If I did that then wouldn’t everyone be happier?” I argued back at him, Aokiji’s expression muddled up with emotions I wasn’t so sure of. “He enslaved people, he tortured people, he treated people worse than dirt! If you’re asking me to enforce justice then I’ll enforce it; I’ll capture pirates and save people who are suffering. Just because it’s not illegal for the Celestial Dragons it makes it okay? Isn’t that just hypocrisy?”

Aokiji remained silent, but believe me, it was not because he had no argument he could think of, it’s because he agreed with me. I know him well enough at this point to know that he is quite the moral person, even if he does the work of the marines which aren’t that just. Aokiji even said once: the thing called ‘justice’ changes its shape depending on where you stand.

Aokiji won’t argue back because he thinks the same thing.

“Excuse me, but we should head to an official medical building to treat both of your wounds.” Aokiji speaks, his demeanour returned to normal.

“O-Oh, of course! Please, follow me to the palace.” The queen appeared to be astonished by our conversation, she made a gesture for us to follow her after Aokiji spoke.

A/N:

It's annoying that there's nothing concrete on the Voice of All Things, so I'll have to make do there...