Summary:
Luffy insists on fighting Aokiji alone, risking it all so the crew can save the frozen Robin. They eventually survive the encounter with the admiral and eventually continue their journey to Water 7.
Aokiji tries to crush the frozen Robin under his feet, but Luffy pushes her out of the way of Usopp and Chopper. Luffy urges them to return her to the ship to unfreeze her, determined to fight the Admiral himself. Once there, Chopper and Usopp run the shower over her to slowly thaw her out, but Chopper isn’t sure if he’ll be able to resuscitate her once she’s thawed. Nami arrives shortly after with Zoro and Sanji. The latter two thaw their frozen limbs in the sea before returning to the battle to help Luffy while Nami assists Chopper and Usopp in thawing and reviving Robin.
Aokiji tells Luffy that the world will be a better place if Robin isn’t rescued, but Luffy refuses to leave his crew. Luffy kicks him in the air and attempts a Gomu Gomu no Storm, but Aokiji disintegrates and reconstitutes himself around Luffy, freezing him with Ice Time and placing his frozen body on the ground. Aokiji thinks about the fight, thinking that Luffy challenged him one on one to save his crew, maybe he didn’t even care about winning. As Zoro and Sanji approach, Aokiji abandons Luffy’s frozen body and leaves, saying that he owes the pirate for defeating the Crocodile. Although he briefly mentions the message from Smoker (but only that it was “something stupid”), Luffy still doesn’t hear him. Before cycling across the sea, he notes that the Straw Hat Pirates will next head for Water 7, putting them near the seat of the World Government.
Some time later, Chopper comes from the infirmary and tearfully tells the crew that Robin and Luffy’s hearts are beating again. Sanji goes to prepare food for them while Chopper tells the others to let them recover for a while. Usopp breaks down and confides in Zoro that he isn’t sure how long the increasing power of the enemies he faces can last. They stay on the deserted island for four days while they recover before setting sail again.
A week after their meeting with Aokiji, Sanji lets the crew taste a potato jar while Luffy jokes about being frozen. Finally, Robin, who took a little longer to recover than Luffy, appears and asks for coffee. Luffy soon finds Yokozuna, a frog that the castaways from the previous island told them about, who could crawl instead of the normal frog swimming motion. Insisting on following her, he manually changes course and paddles the Going Merry, much to Nami’s chagrin, hoping to catch and eat the frog. Suddenly they find themselves near a lighthouse and what appears to be a railroad cruiser, the lights and bells go off. As the train whistle sounds, something approaches them very quickly, causing Nami to order full reverse in a panic.