I had a hard time following your train of thought here . Who kills Aokiji ? How ? Second , the fight between Aokiji and Akainu in Punk Hazard wasn ' t a simple winlose situation . They were evenly matched for 10 days . Kuzan didn ' t even want the job as Fleet Admiral , he just wanted someone like Akainu to not get the job . Think about it he didn ' t want an asshole with absolute justice to get Fleet Admiral , so he fought a ' duel to the death ' in order to prevent it . Considering he has those values , he couldn ' t possibly want to work for Blackbeard and take it seriously . If he ' s using BB as a means to attack Akainu and end his ' absolute justice ' reign of terror , okay . That makes sense for someone who ' s personal story seems to be hinged on the corruption inside the World Government and its navy . And I don ' t think BB is stupid enough to believe a former Marine Admiral will just politely follow his command . It ' s a temporary truce for a common goal . I can ' t see this being a ' take him down from the inside ' gig because it would infer that Blackbeard isn ' t smart enough to see that coming . If Kuzan dies , and I don ' t imagine he will , it would be by AkainuAkainu had the chance to kill him and spared him . Kuzan giving his life to prevent Akainu from going all out , or containing a massive explosion of lava or something it ' s poetic .