"Very well. Then I'll stay a while longer."
"No, no. You can come directly to the guest room," Hancock replied.
"Karl is already waiting for you."
Jinbe glanced at Hancock, feeling a little puzzled.
If his memory served him right, wasn't the Pirate Empress famously difficult to deal with?
So why was she showing such consideration toward this Vice Admiral Karl?
…Wait. Karl?
Could it be that Karl—the one who fought Marco to a stalemate?
With thoughts swirling in his mind, Jinbe nodded and followed Hancock away.
Outside the Guest Rooms
Karl was idly teasing the raven on his shoulder when a flash of golden light appeared.
A dazzling figure landed gracefully.
"Admiral Kizaru? What brings you here?"
Kizaru pursed his lips and drawled lazily,
"You've been pretty busy lately, haven't you~? Already a vice admiral, huh~? How scary~"
Karl waved it off.
"Please, I'm nowhere near your level. So—what's this about?"
Kizaru nodded and slowly pulled a document from his pocket, handing it over.
"There is a small matter. Aren't you about to escort a certain Warlord back through the Calm Belt anyway?
This mission just happens to be on the way."
Karl glanced at the document, frowning slightly.
"This is… sending me to Impel Down?"
The task itself was simple:
retrieve five hundred prisoners from Impel Down and escort them to Punk Hazard.
"Yeah. I've been pretty busy lately," Kizaru said casually.
"You can handle it, right?"
"No problem," Karl replied readily.
"I was thinking of visiting Impel Down anyway."
"Then I'll leave it to you~ I've got to go."
With that, Kizaru turned into a beam of light and vanished in an instant.
Karl couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
That monkey really is a workhorse.
Despite constantly looking like he was slacking off, Kizaru was the very definition of a high-efficiency employee.
The Marines' biggest headache had always been response time.
Often, news of pirates attacking towns reached the Marines promptly—but by the time reinforcements arrived, the pirates had already escaped.
That was simply reality.
Even the fastest warship couldn't just fly over the sea.
Kizaru, on the other hand?
A task came in—boom.
He arrived at the scene in minutes and started suppressing pirates.
As for how he did it…
Well, that depended entirely on his mood.
"Karl-senpai."
Karl turned around to see Hancock standing beside him, eyes shimmering.
Next to her stood a rather familiar blue figure.
"I'm Vice Admiral Karl. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Facing Karl's friendly demeanor, Jinbe replied calmly,
"Vice Admiral Karl, may I ask what you wished to discuss with me?"
Karl's expression turned serious. He signaled Hancock with a glance, and she quietly retreated into her room.
The corridor was left with only Karl and Jinbe.
"Recently, I've been tracking a pirate crew that intends to pass through Fish-Man Island en route to the New World," Karl said.
"I'm planning to intercept them directly at Fish-Man Island."
"Since that's your territory, I felt it necessary to inform you first."
Jinbe frowned slightly.
"…Couldn't you ambush them in the New World instead? Why Fish-Man Island?"
Karl shook his head.
"No. This crew is extremely cunning. Once they enter the New World, I'll likely lose all trace of them."
"Their total bounty exceeds 300 million Berries.
Surely you wouldn't want such a crew stirring up trouble on Fish-Man Island, would you?"
Jinbe fell silent.
After a brief pause, he spoke firmly.
"There's no need. A mere three hundred million—I can handle it myself."
With that, Jinbe turned and left without another word, not giving Karl any chance to respond.
Left alone, Karl stroked his chin thoughtfully.
That was… not very negotiable.
Was the excuse too flimsy?
Oh well. At least the courtesy call was done.
If it came down to it, he'd just dock there directly.
Guest Room
Hancock leaned lazily against Karl's shoulder, toying with the buttons on his chest.
"Once we return to Amazon Lily," she sighed,
"it'll be so hard to see you again. What should we do?"
Deep in the throes of first love, Hancock wished she could stay by Karl's side every moment.
But reality said otherwise.
She was an empress, burdened with the fate of an entire nation—
a responsibility she couldn't simply abandon.
"As long as we love each other," Karl said softly,
"why does it matter if we aren't together day and night?
Do you think I'd suddenly stop loving you one day?"
Hancock hurriedly covered his mouth with her fingers.
"No—never," she said earnestly.
"I'll love you for my entire life."
"…Me too."
The Next Day
The Seastone warship was fully prepared.
Smoker, Ain, and Nelson were all in position.
"Set sail!"
"Yes, sir!"
After escorting Hancock back to her room, Karl stepped out onto the deck.
He noticed Ain and Smoker chatting and quietly sneaked over.
"Hey—what are you two talking about?"
Ain smiled gently.
"Nothing much. Captain Smoker was just curious about my ability."
"Yeah," Smoker sighed.
"What a ridiculous ability… honestly."
Compared to others:
Tashigi—no, Tina—with the Bind-Bind Fruit, terrifyingly efficient at capturing pirates.
Karl—the Holy Light ability, capable of healing, reinforcing, doing basically everything.
Ain—the Return-Return Fruit, age regression on close contact. Absolutely broken.
And him?
A Smoke-Smoke Fruit.
Damn it.
Karl shot Smoker an amused look.
"You're not jealous of Ain's Devil Fruit, are you?"
Smoker nodded honestly.
"Yeah. I'm a Logia, sure—but smoke has nowhere near the destructive power of the Admirals' elements."
"In the end, I still have to rely on hand-to-hand combat."
"Honestly, I'd rather have a Paramecia. Anything's better than this."
Karl shook his head in disagreement.
To him, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit still had massive untapped potential.
"Smoker," Karl asked,
"can you control the density of your smoke?"
"Of course. Why?"
"Then have you ever considered spreading it over a wide area—
causing suffocation?"
"Or even further," Karl continued,
"directly feeding smoke into an enemy's body, then manipulating it to damage their internal organs?"
Smoker's eyes widened.
…That was possible?!
Why had he never thought of that?
The more he considered it, the more reasonable it sounded.
Almost reflexively, Smoker released a huge amount of smoke, engulfing the three of them.
"Cough—cough—!"
Ain immediately felt her breathing tighten, her throat burning.
She quickly used Soru to escape the smoke.
The deck was now shrouded in haze.
Karl held his breath, trying to locate Smoker—but failed.
With no choice, he activated Observation Haki.
That's when inspiration struck.
"Smoker—try going fully elemental!"
"Huh? Elemental form? Sure!"
The moment Smoker transformed completely, he merged seamlessly with the smoke.
Even with Observation Haki active—
Karl lost track of him entirely.
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