The air was suffocating.
The scene was so quiet it felt wrong.
Smoker gripped his seastone weapon, gaze heavy, mood even heavier, eyes sweeping across the surrounding area.
They'd arrived too abruptly—only now did he have the breathing room to properly take in what this place looked like.
What he saw made his scalp tighten.
The ground was shattered.
The building walls were split.
The nearby streets… there wasn't a single intact stretch left.
It was devastation.
A wasteland of cracks and crumbling stone.
The soil beneath his boots was broken into spiderweb fractures that spread in every direction. When he shifted even slightly—
crack.
The tile gave a clean, brittle sound, and the damage crept farther, like an earthquake had raked the town.
Around the ruined building, the streets and even nearby structures had all been affected to varying degrees.
"What… happened here?" Smoker's voice was low.
He couldn't keep calm.
Something had occurred here—something violent enough to scar multiple streets.
What kind of force could reach that far?
What kind of clash could spread destruction across such a wide area?
A Marine lieutenant standing beside him swallowed hard, face pale.
"Lieutenant Colonel Smoker… it looks like this place went through an earthquake."
"It wasn't an earthquake," Smoker said, tone weighted like iron. "It was the aftershock of a fight."
"What?!" The lieutenant froze.
He glanced at the wreckage again, lips trembling.
This… was battle fallout?
If that was true, then what kind of battle could do this?
What kind of monster-level exchange could turn streets and buildings into a disaster zone?
Just imagining it made him shiver.
Smoker's eyes went distant. "I want to know too."
"What level of fight was it… to cause damage like this?"
He'd underestimated it.
Before coming, Smoker couldn't have imagined the case here would be beyond his control.
But after a careful look, he could already tell—the cracks in the streets and the collapsed structures weren't random. They had the shape of shockwaves. The marks of force spreading outward.
That realization sent a storm through his chest.
Too frightening.
It was the first time Smoker had ever witnessed destruction like this—caused by nothing but the aftermath of combat.
Rumble—!
A house nearby finally gave up, collapsing into rubble with a grinding roar. It toppled into a mound like a broken hill.
Standing in this environment gave Smoker the sensation of being at the heart of the end of the world.
For the first time, his experience wasn't enough.
He didn't know what the correct next step even was.
"This kind of battle…" Smoker muttered. "It isn't something I can interfere with."
For the first time, fear crept into him.
The damage, the scale, the implications—everything pointed to one conclusion:
Whatever had fought here was far beyond a Marine of his level.
The lieutenant's voice shook. "Lieutenant Colonel… I smell blood."
"It's strong. It's coming from inside that building."
"I know." Smoker nodded.
He'd smelled it the moment he arrived.
That thick, choking blood stench crawling out of the ruined building.
There had to be many dead inside.
Smoker's eyes narrowed, focus snapping to the black-suited men sprawled all around.
"Check why they're all down."
"See if they have wounds."
"Yes, sir!"
At this point, Smoker was nearly certain.
These weren't random thugs.
They were Cipher Pol.
No other organization wore uniforms like that.
And the second that thought solidified—
his headache doubled.
Cipher Pol involvement meant trouble.
Big trouble.
And the deeper he looked, the messier it became.
"How many CP agents were stationed in Loguetown?"
"This doesn't look like a recent thing."
"And yet I'm the Marine officer responsible for Loguetown's security…"
"…and I never got any notice."
Smoker's expression darkened.
The case was turning into a fog—thick enough to swallow reason.
After the inspection, the lieutenant rushed back, face stiff with fear.
"Lieutenant Colonel… we finished checking them."
"They… they…"
He swallowed, hands cold.
"What is it?" Smoker's brow lifted.
"They don't have any injuries."
"Every one we checked—no exceptions."
"We didn't check all of them, but we randomly selected a hundred."
"And the result is the same."
"No wounds."
The lieutenant looked like he'd just seen a ghost.
Smoker's pupils shrank.
"No wounds…?"
"Yes, sir. Absolutely."
Smoker forced his thoughts into order.
"So… in other words…"
"Over two thousand men…"
"collapsed instantly, without any external injury…"
"…because of some kind of force?"
That interpretation only made it more absurd.
What force could do that?
What kind of power could drop two thousand CP elites without leaving a scratch?
Then another Marine hurried over.
"Lieutenant Colonel! We caught a few witnesses nearby. They tried to run, but we got them."
"They say everything happened right in front of them."
Smoker's jaw tightened. "Bring them here."
Soon, several trembling civilians were dragged in, shoulders hunched, eyes darting like trapped animals.
"I ask. You answer." Smoker pointed toward the sea of unconscious CP agents. "How did they fall?"
The witnesses spoke over one another.
"All at once."
"We don't know why."
"We just saw them suddenly roll their eyes back, foam at the mouth, and drop."
"It was like…"
"Like an invisible force crushed their bodies. We couldn't see it, but it was there."
The more they spoke—
the colder Smoker became.
So it was true.
They had collapsed at the same time.
But what kind of "invisible force" could do this?
A thought rose in his mind.
And the moment it formed, his entire body tensed.
"No…"
"That can't be…"
Smoker's composure cracked.
He stared at the unconscious agents, throat dry, mind blank, fingers tightening until they trembled.
Based on the description—
based on his own deductions—
a terrifying conclusion floated into place.
But it was too shocking to accept.
"This is East Blue."
"The weakest sea."
"How could something like this happen here?"
"It doesn't make sense—this isn't realistic!"
Smoker forced himself to breathe.
He remembered Zephyr's lessons.
On this sea there existed a power shared by true monsters—
Haki.
Three kinds.
Armament.
Observation.
And the rarest of all—
Conqueror's.
Smoker's gaze sharpened.
At last, he made the only explanation that fit.
"This is…"
"Conqueror's Haki."
"There's no mistake."
"Someone released Conqueror's Haki…"
"That's why, in an instant, it covered all these men."
"And without injuries…"
"they were knocked unconscious."
"Only that explains it."
"But how is that possible?!"
"In East Blue…"
"How could there be a monster who wields Conqueror's Haki?!"
"That's Conqueror's—one in a million!"
"East Blue shouldn't have something like that!"
Smoker's thoughts spiraled.
His worldview began to crack.
Everything happening here overturned what he thought he knew.
After a long silence—
Smoker exhaled hard and forced the tremor out of his chest.
He lifted his head, eyes still wide with unease, and stared at the ruined building.
Pressure built in him like a boulder on his shoulders.
Because he understood now.
Whatever the truth was—
it was inside that building.
Which meant…
A terrifying existence was in there.
Something far beyond what he could handle.
"A monster…" Smoker murmured, knuckles white around his seastone weapon. "It's waiting inside."
"And it's a monster…"
"…that wields Conqueror's Haki."
The lieutenant beside him swallowed, voice tight.
"Lieutenant Colonel… do we go in?"
Go in?
Or retreat?
Smoker's eyes went unfocused for a moment.
Two choices—
and neither felt safe.
◇ I'll drop one bonus chapter for every 10 reviews (leave a review/comment!)
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon: patreon.com/KageNaruto