Playful Cloud

Ruidio pretended to consider it. "Then the Six Powers! I'm not picky. Shigan, Rankyaku, Geppo—any one of those will do."

How do you even know about those? Tashigi felt she was making a fuss again.

Smoker turned his body into smoke and propelled his fists with thick clouds. Bang! Bang! Bang! They kept accelerating, colliding in midair with astonishing force.

With a cigar clenched between his teeth, he said, "I have this ability. I don't need to learn the Six Powers."

Ruidio asked curiously, "So your training camp really teaches the Six Powers?"

Smoker shook his head. "The Six Powers are no easier than Haki. Of course they don't teach them. Recruits could train until graduation without learning a single move. That would be a serious blow to their confidence."

Then what the hell are you talking about?

Ruidio shook his head. "You can't do this, you can't do that. What have you been wasting your time on since you graduated from training camp?"

Smoker clenched his cigar. "Catching pirates."

Oh, busy with your career. My bad. I was being narrow-minded.

Ruidio sighed. "Then how about this?" He pointed at the weapon hanging from Smoker's waist—the Jitte with Seastone embedded in it.

Smoker said, "This is a Navy weapon. Strictly speaking, it doesn't belong to me. I can't give it to you."

Ruidio smiled. "That's fine. I'm just curious and want to take a closer look and handle it a little. That should be all right, shouldn't it?"

Without further ado, Smoker unfastened the Jitte and tossed it over.

Ruidio caught it, weighed it in his hand, and said to Smoker and Tashigi, "There should be a lifeboat in the hold below. I'm not handing over a pirate ship this big. If you want to take these pirates with you, you'll have to make do with the little boat..."

Chapter 10: Playful Cloud

"I guess we got to know each other through a fight!"

Smiling, Ruidio held out his hand to Smoker.

Smoker took it. Creak, creak. Ruidio kept squeezing harder and harder...

You like testing your strength? Young people these days!

Smoker smiled inwardly, a little competitive spirit rising in him. As he steadily tightened his grip, he lifted his chin and reminded Ruidio, "You can keep this pirate ship, of course, but you'd better remove the pirate flag and the Buggy Pirates' emblem on the sails as soon as possible."

"No problem." Ruidio kept squeezing, the veins on the back of his hand throbbing.

...28, 29, 30.

[Name: Smoker]

[Overall strength: ★★★]

[Mastered: Smoke-Smoke Fruit (proficient), Navy martial arts (skilled), running (skilled), swimming (skilled), Navy swordsmanship (beginner), Navy marksmanship (beginner)]

You really don't know Haki? Ruidio was speechless.

"That's enough, isn't it? Stop shaking hands already..." Seeing the two men's arms trembling and shaking from how hard they were squeezing, Tashigi hurriedly tried to intervene with an awkward laugh.

Nami pressed a hand to her forehead. "Men are so childish."

"Hah!"

Ruidio and Smoker let go at the same time.

"Tashigi, let's go!"

With a wave of his hand, Smoker threw the members of the Buggy Pirates out over the sea. Screaming in terror, they fell like raindrops into the little boat Tashigi had already lowered, landing in a heap.

"Goodbye." Tashigi smiled freely and waved to Nami and Ruidio, then leaped overboard.

"I..." Nami wanted to go with her, but the moment she stepped forward, a large hand came down on her shoulder, pinning her in place.

"Where are you going, Nami?" Ruidio said gently. "Aren't we partners?"

That damned monstrous strength!

Tears streamed down Nami's face as she reluctantly watched Tashigi leave.

Tashigi quickly descended the rope ladder to the bow of the little boat and tossed the rope tied there toward Smoker's nearby water scooter.

Smoker turned into a cloud of smoke, carrying Buggy's head in one hand. After landing steadily in the scooter's driver's seat, he set Buggy's head on the front like a headlight and tied it in place.

"Are you a devil?!" Buggy cursed him.

As for his torso and limbs, they were still tied together and hanging from the back of the water scooter, soaking in the sea... Smoker had made full use of Ruidio's example.

"Boom!"

Smoker turned his legs into smoke and fed it into the scooter's wheel. Thick smoke poured out behind it as the front end lifted and the scooter shot forward, towing Tashigi's little boat through the waves.

Crystal-clear spray flew through the air. Tashigi vaguely heard Ruidio shouting behind them, apparently seeing them off:

"Sing over wine~! How long is life~..."

"..."

Nami looked at the man beside her, who seemed to have been seized by poetic inspiration as he watched Colonel Smoker depart, and was somewhat speechless.

Leaning against the railing, she asked casually, "You already used your 'magic' to copy Smoker's weapon, didn't you?"

"Didn't you say you didn't believe in magic?"

"I really don't, but..."

Nami's eyes seemed to turn into money symbols with a "ka-ching," and she said resolutely, "Gold doesn't lie."

"You've reminded me."

Ruidio went over and picked up the dozen or so fist-sized pieces of gold scattered across the deck, gathering them together. Then his hand flashed, and a Jitte appeared in it out of thin air, identical to the one Smoker had taken back.

With a snap of his fingers, the whole pile of gold vanished into thin air.

[System backpack (2/2): small fishing boat; gold x13]

Ruidio currently had only two backpack slots in total. To put the gold away, he had to take out the copied Jitte he had stored inside earlier.

Earlier, out of habit, he had put Malevolent Shrine in the system backpack and taken out the copy of the Famous Sword Manual, tucking it on his person. That was why it had accidentally fallen out and caused Smoker to misunderstand...

Although Nami had already seen him casually make things appear and disappear like this several times, she was still stunned for a moment.

Ruidio headed toward the damaged cabin.

Nami went around the hole Smoker had smashed through the deck and hurried after him. "You're an ability user who ate a Devil Fruit too, right? What kind of ability do you have? Tashigi and I couldn't find you anywhere on the ship earlier..."

Ruidio smiled as he walked. "Maybe my ability is just simple invisibility."

Nami followed beside him. "Really?"

Ruidio said, "Of course not. Why would I have such a sleazy ability as invisibility?"

Nami gave him a chop on the head. "Then what was the point of saying it?!"

Nami followed him back to the banquet hall inside the cabin. A solid-wood table was lodged in the wall, and the cabin itself had been left in tatters by Ruidio and Smoker's earlier fight.

Ruidio's sword was embedded at an angle in the ceiling.

Ruidio leaped up and easily pulled it free. The cold light flashing along its sharp blade gave Nami goosebumps.

"Clang!"

Ruidio set the Jitte in place, swung his long sword, and suddenly brought it down on the Jitte's tip. Sword and rod struck heavily, sending dazzling sparks flying.

What's he doing?

Nami was puzzled, but Ruidio said nothing. He simply kept raising his sword high and chopping rapidly at the Jitte. Clang, clang, clang, clang! Sparks flew everywhere.

Nami stayed well back to avoid getting hurt and said, "You said we were partners just now. Since we're partners, tell me—what exactly is your ability?"

Clatter. The Jitte was finally severed, and the piece of Seastone at its tip fell off.

"Do you really want to know?"

Ruidio picked up the egg-sized piece of Seastone and blew on it, then casually tossed away the rest of the Jitte, which was made of refined steel.

Even Malevolent Shrine, which Tashigi considered no worse than the Great Grade Swords, had suffered a series of tiny chips along its edge cutting through it.

"Of course." Nami nodded, her eyes full of curiosity.

Ruidio casually tossed Malevolent Shrine into slot 1 of [Three-in-One] and smiled at her. "Secrets make women more womanly."

A question mark appeared over Nami's head. "Who are you talking about?"

Ruidio said, "Secrets make men more manly."

Baring her sharp teeth, Nami said, "Don't just say it again like nothing happened when you get it wrong!"

[Slot 1: Great Grade Sword · Malevolent Shrine]

[Slot 2: (6699 essence)]

[Slot 3: (empty)]

If Ruidio had more than six thousand essence at that moment and put it into slot 2 of the system's Three-in-One function, he could make an identical copy of Malevolent Shrine, a Great Grade Sword.

Unfortunately, he didn't.

As for the little chips on Malevolent Shrine's edge... Ruidio considered it, then threw 30 essence into slot 2. The Three-in-One system spun rapidly, and a brand-new, flawless Malevolent Shrine appeared out of thin air and returned to his hand.

When Ruidio maintained the sword normally, he "repaired" it at most once every ten days or two weeks, using just two or three essence. This time it cost 30, making it the worst damage Malevolent Shrine had sustained since it was created.

Ruidio smiled faintly and threw the egg-sized piece of Seastone he had just cut from the copied Jitte into the Three-in-One system as well.

[Slot 1: Seastone x1]

[Slot 2: (2 essence)]

[Slot 3: (empty)]

Two essence for a mere piece of raw ore?

Ruidio was a little dissatisfied, but the system insisted, so he paid it anyway.

After copying an identical egg-sized piece of Seastone, he threw both pieces back into the empty slot 1 together.

[Slot 1: Seastone x2]

[Slot 2: (2 essence)]

[Slot 3: (empty)]

As far as the system was concerned, ore materials were practically worthless, and Seastone was no exception. No matter how much there was, it was still just as worthless.

And so, Nami watched with her own eyes as Ruidio used his "magic" to turn the original small piece of stone from one into two, two into four, four into eight, eight into sixteen...

In the blink of an eye, the densely packed mountain of "stone fragments" crowded the banquet hall. The floor couldn't bear the weight and creaked under the strain. Only then did Ruidio stop, still wanting more.

He smiled at Nami. "No more teasing. These are for you. Go have fun with them."

The dozen or so fist-sized pieces of gold that had vanished into thin air earlier reappeared just as suddenly and were tossed in front of Nami.

At the same time, Ruidio separated a small pile from the mound of Seastone, while the rest suddenly vanished into thin air.

[Remaining essence: 2112]