Duel Between Rubber and Ice! Luffy vs. Aokiji!

As Aokiji moves to crush the frozen Robin, Luffy slides her clear toward Usopp and Chopper, ordering them back to the ship to thaw her while he takes on the admiral himself. Aboard the Going Merry, the crew runs warm water over Robin, though Chopper fears reviving her may not be possible. Zoro and Sanji defrost their limbs in the sea and rejoin Luffy, while Nami helps tend to Robin.

Luffy kicks Aokiji skyward and goes for Gomu Gomu no Storm, but the admiral breaks apart, reforms around him, and locks him in ice with Ice Time. Reading the duel as a selfless bid to buy his crew time, Aokiji walks away rather than finish him, saying he owes Luffy for toppling Crocodile, and noting only that Smoker had passed along some pointless message. Before pedaling off across the water, he observes that the crew's next stop, Water 7, will bring them near World Government headquarters. Chopper soon reports through tears that both Robin and Luffy have heartbeats again. A shaken Usopp confides to Zoro his doubts about facing ever-stronger foes. The crew rests four days on the island, and a week after the clash they set sail, only for Luffy to chase Yokozuna toward a lighthouse where a fast-approaching Sea Train sends Nami calling for full reverse.

A visual inconsistency shows Robin's black hair from an overhead angle even though she is otherwise depicted as a frozen body. The episode closes the crew's confrontation with Aokiji and bridges into the Water 7 storyline, debuting the Shift Station location.