Marine Headquarters --- Marineford:
When Roy's battleship docked in the harbor, it naturally drew a great deal of attention. After all, the enormous Sea Beast corpse strapped to the back of the battleship was quite an eye-catcher.
"I'm going to find Vice Admiral Biros to report the mission."
"Hans, take the men from Squad Two and escort that guy to the prison. Once Headquarters verifies his identity, send him to Impel Down with the other recently detained criminals."
"Fal, take a squad to the town and sell the sea beast meat. While you're at it, arrange for our usual place to host a victory banquet."
Roy issued his orders smoothly. Clearly, this wasn't the first time he'd made such arrangements.
"Yes, Senior Officer!" ×2
At the mention of a "victory banquet," the marines of the Headquarters Detention Unit instantly brightened up. Roy then disembarked from the battleship, planning to report to his superiors.
But...
"Hey!"
He had barely stepped into the Oris Plaza of the Marine Headquarters when he heard a familiar voice.
He internally cursed the moment he heard it and quickly turned around to escape. But before he could, white smoke surged around him, completely surrounding him.
"What do you think about what I told you before?" With that question, a figure slowly formed within the smoke.
Hearing the question, Roy didn't hesitate as he answered: "That's no good, Smoker, I'm not leaving the Headquarters Detention Unit!"
That's right.
His unmistakable white hair, corded muscles, ever-present cigars, and unique iron-tipped jitte strapped to his back identified him clearly as the Headquarters Lieutenant Colonel, Logia-type Smoke user, and muscle-enhanced ability wielder known as the "White Hunter" -- Smoker.
He was the Headquarters Lieutenant Colonel, a Logia-type Smoke user with the nickname "White Hunter" — Smoker.
"Roy Amos!" Upon hearing Roy's reply, Smoker clenched his cigar and roared, "You bastard, don't joke with me!"
"Who's joking with you?" Roy shot him an annoyed look.
Of course, he knew what Smoker was after. After all, they had joined the Marines in the same year. With a Logia user right in front of him, Roy wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to use Smoker's abilities.
During their training and probationary missions after enlisting, Roy and Smoker were genuine friends and got along well. However, once their training ended, they made different choices.
Smoker, with his Logia fruit and exceptional strength, became one of the Marines' elite, even entering former Marine Admiral "Black Arm" Zephyr's Elite Training Camp.
Roy, on the other hand, chose to join the Headquarters Detention Unit.
As a result, even though they enlisted in the same year, they were now two levels apart in rank.
That was precisely why Smoker had come.
He was already a Lieutenant Colonel in the Headquarters, and according to Headquarters regulations, once a Marine officer reaches the rank of Colonel, they face two choices:
They could either join the fleet of a Vice Admiral or Admiral or be assigned to one of the Four Seas to manage a regional Marine branch.
Most Colonels chose the former, since following high-ranking officers on missions offered quicker promotion.
However, as one of the most notoriously stubborn hardliners at Marine Headquarters, Smoker had no intention of serving under a Vice Admiral.
He had already made his decision: he would return to his hometown, Loguetown to serve as the Warden-class Officer of its Marine Branch.
That was exactly why he had come to find Roy.
"I told you already.. I need an adjutant who's strong enough."
He looked at Roy with a gloomy expression.
"And I told you already... I'm not going. I even recommended Lieutenant Tashigi to you. She's a perfectly good Marine." Roy said seriously.
'Leave the Marine Headquarters Detention Unit?'
'Then who would supply him with the Devil Fruits he still needed?'
But just as the words left his mouth...
"Bang!"
A powerful, ear-splitting sound shot into Roy's ears.
Then...
"Shu!"
Roy's figure vanished from where he stood, just as Smoker's jitte slammed into the ground.
"Ka ka ka!"
The pristine white tiles of Oris Plaza cracked instantly under Smoker's overwhelming strength, splitting open into a large fissure.
Nearby marines who were just passing by jumped in shock.
"What the hell!?"
"An enemy attack?"
Some marines reflexively pulled back the hammers of their flintlock rifles. But then they saw an even more shocking scene.
After adding yet another costly crater to Marineford's reconstruction workload with that swing, Smoker didn't pause for even a second.
"White Fist!"
He growled, and countless fists made of smoke burst out from his body, hammering relentlessly toward Roy.
"Hey, hey, hey! Smoker, what are you doing? Are you insane!?" Roy shouted, twisting, dodging, flipping, and slipping between the barrage of fists.
Despite the endless punches, none of them managed to land on him.
[Bunny-Bunny Fruit · Snow Rabbit Form LV1 — Equipped — Gain partial traits of a snow rabbit, enhanced physical ability across the board, with extra boosts to hearing and speed.]
[Rat-Rat Fruit · Gray Rat Form LV1 — Equipped — Gain partial traits of a gray rat. Enhance physical abilities across the board with extra boosts to sensitivity.]
But Smoker ignored him completely.
"White Impact!"
While hurling smoke-formed fists at Roy, Smoker's lower body transformed into smoke and surged forward, bringing his upper body directly in front of Roy in an instant.
He raised his jitte high and smashed it down again!
"You're serious?!" Roy exclaimed, raising his hand instantly.
The abilities in his Devil Fruit Encyclopedia shifted once more.
[Bull-Bull Fruit · Giant Rhino Form LV1]
[Strength-Strength Fruit, Level 1]
The same strength that could punch a sea beast into the air surged through Roy's body again. He reached out and caught Smoker's jitte head-on!
"Bang!"
The tremendous force instantly shattered the ground beneath Roy's feet. But even under such overwhelming power, Roy's body remained completely unmoved.
He simply looked at Smoker and said in a deep voice, "If you keep this up, I really won't hold back!"
"Come on, then!" Smoker growled, and his arms transformed into white smoke once again, lunging toward Roy.
Seeing this, Roy gritted his teeth. "You asshole!"
He stopped holding back. He continued gripping Smoker's jitte with one hand while turning the other into a palm strike.
At that moment, he switched abilities in his Fruit Encyclopedia once more.
[Human-Human Fruit · Great Buddha Form LV1: Fully strengthens the user's body and allows them to emit minor shockwaves from their hands.]
A golden shockwave burst from his palm.
"Bang!"
A deep trench split open across the ground, and the smoke-form Smoker was blown apart and scattered by Roy's strike in an instant, flung far away.
Only after being sent flying into the distance did Smoker's figure reappear. Meanwhile, the shockwave from the clash blew almost every Marine nearby off their feet!
Some confused Marines even raised their iron-studded mauls, thinking Headquarters was under attack. But, upon seeing that the two fighters at the center were both wearing Marine uniforms, their faces turned to shock.
"So strong... They're monsters! Who are those two!?"
"I know the white-haired guy... that's 'White Hunter' Smoker!"
"The Logia user? The mad dog of Headquarters who never follows orders?"
"Who's the other guy? He can fight Smoker evenly!"
"Is he from the Elite Unit?"
The Marines whispered excitedly.
A strong fighter always draws attention, no matter where they are.
And even within the Marine Headquarters, battles of this scale were rare for ordinary marines to witness.
But Smoker didn't care about the discussions around him at all.
Clenching his cigar between his teeth and maintaining his gloomy expression, he said: "Your physical toughness and your Hadouken Hasshoken have gotten even stronger!"
"That's right.
Smoker was one of the people in all of Headquarters who understood Roy best, or at least thats what he believed.
He had long known how terrifying Roy's natural gifts were in terms of speed, power, and reaction time. In fact, if he hadn't seen Roy swim in the ocean himself, he would've thought Roy was a Devil Fruit user.
Smoker had also witnessed Roy's current attack, the so-called "Hadouken Hasshoken."
According to Roy, this technique creates shockwaves using the invisible air fluctuations that occur when a punch is thrown. Smoker had secretly tried to study it many times, but he could never figure out how Roy did it.
But that didn't matter.
There were plenty of strange and monstrous individuals across the seas. Smoker had even heard that there was a Revolutionary Army guy who could crush rocks with a flirtatious wink.
For Smoker, the real issue was that he couldn't fathom Roy's choice! Most Marines believed that anyone who voluntarily applied to the Headquarters Detention Unit was probably a coward unwilling to face danger.
But Smoker knew that Roy wasn't that kind of person.
"Do you still remember that little girl from Keshira Village?" Smoker growled through the cigar clenched in his teeth, his voice low.
"At the time, just to help her get back the money meant for her mother's treatment, you chased pirates with me across an entire stretch of sea. You carved a bloody path through a pirate-infested city and captured that damned crew with your own hands!"
"I saw your Justice with my own eyes, Roy. So tell me... what are you really thinking!?"
"With strength like yours, why won't you go to the front lines and make a name for yourself? Why are you burying yourself in the Marine Headquarters Detention Unit as a mere Captain?"
He roared the question.
But Roy remained completely calm in the face of Smoker's anger.
"Justice?"
He pulled a flask out of his sleeve and took a long drink.
He looked bold and heroic. However, the black fizzy liquid spilling from the flask revealed that he was drinking cola.
Then he grinned broadly. "What you saw wasn't my justice, Smoker. That was just basic human decency. Besides, I'm not an ambitious guy. I think the Detention Unit suits me just fine!"
Hearing that made Smoker even angrier.
"You bastard..."
White smoke surged around his arms. Clearly, he was about to start swinging again. If words don't work, use fists. That was just the kind of man Smoker was.
But at that moment...
"Smoker." A voice suddenly called out, causing him to freeze.
"Oh!"
"Is that...that gorgeous woman?"
"That's Lieutenant Colonel 'Black Cage' Hina!"
Excited voices rose from the crowd of Marines, many of whom stared with hearts in their eyes.
A tall, elegant, pink-haired beauty in a Marine uniform stepped out from the crowd.
"I just got back from a mission, and I immediately find you causing trouble again. Hina is very tired of this." A thin cigarette hung from her lips as she looked helplessly at Smoker.
"Your last disciplinary punishment hasn't even been cleared yet, has it!?"
As Smoker's longtime friend and frequent cleaner-upper of his messes, Hina had plenty of complaints.
Even though Smoker's intimidation had noticeably dropped, he forced himself to speak toughly: "Hmph! This time it wasn't my fault, this bastard..."
He quickly shifted the blame off himself and turned his head, intending to get Hina to help scold a certain unmotivated fellow.
But when he turned around…
The spot where Roy had been standing was completely empty.
"That bastard ran off again!!" Realizing Roy had fled, Smoker's veins bulged as he clenched his fists in fury.
But before he could give chase, a ring of black iron bars suddenly sprang up around him, trapping him in place.
From behind him, Hina's voice carried a dangerous edge: "Trying to run? You'd better explain yourself clearly. What kind of nonsense are you causing this time? Otherwise… Hina will be very angry."
Smoker's expression instantly turned panicked.
(End of chapter)