# Chapter 508: Aokiji Arrives
When Kizaru fell down engulfed in flames, Hawkins suddenly appeared. Using his giant strawman body, he leaped into the air and grabbed hold of Kizaru.
Of course, these flames couldn't possibly cause any fatal damage to Kizaru, so when Hawkins caught him, he immediately turned into light, escaping from Hawkins' embrace, and even took the opportunity to deliver a light-speed kick to Hawkins!
Needless to say, Hawkins was severely injured. He was kicked straight into the ground, creating a large crater. All the bones in his body were broken, and he could no longer maintain his Demon-Subduing Form.
However, paying such a heavy price wasn't without reward. When Hawkins struggled to crawl out of the smoke-filled crater, there was an object in his hand — a small strawman puppet.
Drake stood at the edge of the crater and took the strawman puppet from Hawkins' hand!
When Kizaru saw the puppet in Drake's hand, he immediately realized what was happening. Sensing trouble, he quickly used the light channel of his Yata Mirror to rush toward Drake.
But at that moment, Ian's figure suddenly appeared. He swung his sword at the light channel, and the blade of Thousand Cherry Blossoms, wrapped in Haki, instantly cut off Kizaru's advance.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Drake opened his Tyrannosaurus Rex jaws wide and bit down fiercely on the strawman substitute!
The next second, Kizaru suddenly let out a scream. A huge bloody hole burst open in his abdomen, and blood gushed out like a fountain.
Even Ian was shocked by this sight. He had inflicted some damage on Kizaru earlier, but all of that combined wasn't as severe as this single blow. Ian couldn't help but look at Hawkins with some surprise.
Although Hawkins' face was covered in blood, he still explained to Ian: "This is a curse technique!"
It turned out that when Ian struck Kizaru and sent him falling earlier, it created a perfect opportunity for Hawkins. When he grabbed hold of Kizaru, his purpose wasn't to attack him, but to obtain one of his hairs!
With that hair, Hawkins could use his ability.
Hawkins' Strawman Fruit was somewhat like legendary witchcraft. Through a strand of hair, he could use curse abilities on the hair's owner. Normally, Hawkins would collect the hair of pirates, bury it in a puppet substitute, and then merge it into his own body. This way, when he suffered fatal damage, he could transfer the damage to the puppet substitute, allowing it to bear the fatal blow. That was the first type of curse.
But the second type of curse Hawkins just used was the opposite. He created a substitute using Kizaru's hair, then had Drake directly attack that substitute. When the substitute was damaged, Kizaru himself would also be damaged.
The reason he didn't use the first type of curse was that creating that kind of substitute took some time and couldn't be made instantly, so he used the second type of curse instead.
However, this kind of curse would reduce some of the damage. Otherwise, with Drake's powerful bite force, if the damage were fully transferred to Kizaru, it might have directly bitten him to death!
Even so, the two of them working together had successfully managed to severely wound Kizaru... no, it should be said that three of them worked together. Without Ian's attack, they probably couldn't have even gotten close to Kizaru.
After understanding what had happened, Ian was quite surprised. He hadn't expected Hawkins' ability to be used this way. It seemed he had underestimated them before. These Supernova pirates wouldn't have such high bounties without some impressive skills.
Since the curse technique of the substitute puppet directly affected Kizaru's real body, even his elemental transformation was useless. Logia Devil Fruits weren't invincible after all. When encountering such countering abilities, they would still suffer.
The wound on Kizaru's abdomen was severe. It seemed that one of Drake's Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth had bitten directly into the puppet. But Kizaru had enough combat experience. When he came to his senses, he quickly found a way to stop the bleeding.
He actually used Armament Haki hardening to seal his wound!
But regardless, after suffering this severe injury, Kizaru's combat ability would definitely decrease. Ian drew his sword and charged toward Kizaru. He didn't care what the Marines were planning. Perhaps killing a Marine Admiral here would disrupt their plans!
However, it seemed Kizaru wasn't destined to die here. Just as Ian slashed a sword energy attack toward Kizaru, a thick ice wall shield suddenly appeared in front of Kizaru's body!
Ian's sword energy cut through the ice wall, but because its force was neutralized, it passed through and Kizaru dodged it.
Seeing this ice wall, Ian immediately realized — Aokiji had arrived!
Sure enough, a tall, thin figure appeared from behind Kizaru. Aokiji, wearing an eye mask on his head and a vest on his body, walked over with his Marine coat tucked under his arm.
"Ian!" Aokiji said seriously as soon as he appeared. "What are you trying to do? Kill a Marine Admiral?"
"Admiral Aokiji..." Ian didn't answer his question but asked with some curiosity instead. "You got here so quickly?"
The timing of Aokiji's appearance exceeded Ian's expectations. He had thought Aokiji would take a while longer to arrive, but here he was so soon.
Aokiji pointed at the ice skates on his feet and replied to Ian: "No choice. The ship wasn't fast enough, so I skated over!"
Sk... Skated!?
Ian was stunned, but he understood how Aokiji had gotten there. He must have frozen the entire stretch of water between Sabaody Archipelago and Marineford with Ice Age.
Why skating? What about your bicycle!?
Or rather, with ice skates, who needs a bicycle?
As Aokiji spoke, he reached out and wiped his hand over the wound on Kizaru's abdomen, freezing it shut.
This way, the pain from the sealed wound was greatly reduced, much better than when Kizaru had sealed it with Armament Haki. Kizaru's expression improved a bit as he sighed and said: "I didn't expect an old man like me to almost capsize in a ditch because of a few brats..."
Drake, Hawkins, and Scratchman Apoo all had grim expressions. Another Marine Admiral had appeared. What could they do now?
Ian was also hesitating about whether to continue the fight. Because of Urouge's appearance, Enel had let them down at a critical moment. If they continued fighting, it would mean facing two Marine Admirals alone.
Even with Hawkins and the others, it would still be very difficult.
Aokiji was also studying Ian's expression. To be honest, when he rushed here, Aokiji was indeed furious. He hadn't expected to fall for Matthew's trick, causing him to fall asleep and allowing Ian and the others to escape from Marineford.
But despite his anger, Aokiji also found Ian troublesome to deal with. He knew that Ian now had the strength of a Marine Admiral, and Ian's flame ability was a strong counter to him. Even if he and Kizaru joined forces, it would be difficult to take Ian down quickly.
Just as the atmosphere grew tense, a series of violent explosions suddenly came from the left!
Both sides turned to look and saw a group of people running toward them from that direction!
When Ian saw this group, he was stunned for a moment. He immediately recognized them.
It was Luffy and his crew. But even more absurdly, it wasn't just the Straw Hat Pirates. Among this group were also the Supernova Trafalgar Law and his Heart Pirates crew members.
And behind them, two identical Pacifistas were chasing them, along with a chubby little guy carrying a battle axe and wearing a bellyband.
Ian recognized the chubby little guy — it was Kizaru's nephew, Sentomaru...
"Help!" Nami was running at the front, eyes closed, desperately fleeing while shouting loudly.
The two Pacifistas chased behind them, continuously firing lasers at the Straw Hat Pirates and Heart Pirates. Although these lasers didn't hit Luffy and the others, they caused massive explosions one after another behind them.
Ian then remembered that the Pacifista he had defeated earlier was PX-4, which meant there were at least two more Pacifistas on Sabaody Archipelago — PX-1 and PX-5.
Well, the remaining two Pacifistas were both chasing the Straw Hat Pirates now.
But what the hell was the Heart Pirates doing there? How did they end up with the Straw Hat Pirates?