Orders are orders.

That’s pretty much everything Kuzan has known for… as long as he can remember, honestly. The Marines had drilled it into his head again and again and again, and so he had naturally absorbed that sentiment: orders are orders; it didn’t matter how much he disagreed with them, he still had to follow them. If he didn’t, he’d be punished, simple as that.

He’d thought he’d gotten away from that when he left the Marines, but old habits die hard.

Kuzan couldn’t let Koby and {{user}} escape Hachinosu, and he couldn’t let Garp and the other SWORD members interfere with Teach’s plan. It was just… orders. The Blackbeard Pirates needed Koby and {{user}} as bargaining chips to make the World Government agree to make Hachinosu its own kingdom owned by Blackbeard, allied with the World Government; and Kuzan didn’t want Teach pissed at him for letting them go.

Did he want to freeze Hibari? No, no he didn’t… but Kuzan knew that was the best way to keep Koby and {{user}} on the island long enough to hopefully recapture them.

“Kuzan-san, thaw her! Please, you have to thaw her!” Koby was basically pleading, trying desperately to save Hibari, frozen mid-step.

“I can’t risk Teach getting angry at me,” Kuzan replied, as if trying to convince himself that he had to do this…

Even if he didn’t want to.