Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? A Classic Reenacted

"Poison!"

That was Smoker's first reaction.

His second reaction was regret.

He regretted never zipping up his jacket.

His entire bare chest was covered in the disgusting liquid!

Smoker's whole body burned with pain, his head swam, and his limbs moved sluggishly. He felt awful.

That was the power of Twitch's W skill, [Venom Cask].

The damage was secondary; the slowing effect was thoroughly nasty.

Taking advantage of his opponent's momentary lapse, Twitch decisively raised his knife, aimed at Smoker's butt, and gave it a light slash...

Blood immediately gushed from Smoker's plump buttocks.

A knife slash to the butt.

It didn't do much damage, but it was tremendously insulting!

"Damn it, I'll kill you!"

The thought of hundreds of Marines watching made Smoker so angry he wanted to tear Twitch to pieces.

What kind of Marine officer was this?!

How could he be so sleazy?!

There had been hardly any force behind the slash. If it had landed on his back or leg, Smoker wouldn't have cared at all.

But this sleazebag had actually aimed for his butt!

If Smoker had known the term "social death," he would have felt it keenly.

In fact, Smoker found that the reality was even worse!

On Nezumi's warship, there was actually a guy in a shirt and shorts, with a red scarf around his neck, holding up a strange Den Den Mushi and recording the scene with an excited expression.

"Damn it! Is that a reporter?!"

Smoker imagined the worst.

To publicize the Marines' achievements and spread the World Government's authority, many units brought embedded reporters along when clearing out pirates, so they could take firsthand battlefield photos, embellish the stories, and publish them in newspapers.

The famous White Hunter of Marineford had actually been slashed on the butt by an unknown local Marine in the East Blue...

No matter how you looked at it, that was big news!

Smoker hurriedly turned around, intending to teach the shifty-looking officer a lesson before going to negotiate with the reporter in the scarf.

"You interfered with an honorable fight between two men. Is that what your branch commander taught you?!"

Smoker turned as he berated him, only to find that there was already no one behind him.

As an ADC, Twitch had no idea what "honorable" meant.

If an ADC didn't look for an opening to sneak in damage, but instead fought "honorably" face-to-face with a well-fed, beefy top laner, wasn't that textbook iron-rank behavior?

Not having a good bow and having to ambush people in melee was ridiculous enough already. Why would Twitch stay where he was and keep fighting?

Before Smoker flew into a rage, he landed an auto attack, then immediately used Flash to escape.

Before leaving, Twitch didn't forget to use his E skill, [Contaminate], to deal a little extra damage.

One poison cask applied two passive stacks, and one auto attack applied another. All three stacks of venom burst at once.

Because of his level and equipment, the poison burst wasn't very powerful, but it still made the blood flow faster from Smoker's butt, spraying into an elegant, bloody jasmine blossom.

Smoker had no time to stop the bleeding, because Garen was charging at him with his longsword.

Smoker found that his fruit ability had returned. He hurriedly turned his lower body into its elemental form again and angrily struck back with his fist.

Today's fight had been far too frustrating!

Smoker could tell that although the righteous kid was far stronger than the average East Blue Marine, he still wasn't strong enough to defeat him.

As for that shifty-looking guy, he was no more than the equivalent of a junior officer at headquarters. Smoker could beat ten of him with one hand!

Yet those two, both far weaker than he was, had managed to make him suffer such a heavy setback with their strange abilities and their well-coordinated, vicious teamwork.

Smoker decided that no matter what, even if he was disciplined again, he would give them a proper beating today.

But just then...

"Yameru, okay!"

A figure suddenly appeared between the two men just as they were about to come to blows, one hand gripping the wrist of Garen's sword hand and the other gripping the wrist of Smoker's already half-elemental White Fist.

Garen pretended to struggle, acting the whole time.

Smoker really did want to break free, but he found that the man in the shirt and scarf had astonishing grip and arm strength.

He didn't know just how incredible the arm strength of Vice Admiral Garp, known as Iron Fist, really was, but at least the strength this guy displayed was about the same as what Garp showed when putting him in a chokehold.

In fact, if Ma Qiao had known that Smoker was comparing his arm strength to Garp's, he would have laughed out loud.

He had only gained a pair of qilin arms through hard work and sweat. He couldn't compare to a Haki expert like Garp, who had been born with divine strength.

Smoker tried to use his elemental form to escape Ma Qiao, but discovered that after the scarf-wearing man grabbed him, he had also used the same ability as the righteous kid.

His Devil Fruit ability had completely stopped working, and his attempt to transform into his elemental form failed!

"You're not a reporter? Who are you, kid?!" Smoker demanded.

"Me? Heir to Ma Family Kung Fu, gold-medal instructor, special adviser to the G-2 Marine Branch, and recipient of a special allowance from Marineford!"

After spouting a bunch of nonsense, Ma Qiao suddenly lowered his voice and whispered in Smoker's ear, "Five million Beli, and I'll delete all the original footage from just now!"

"Hey, hey, and you still call yourselves righteous?"

Veins bulged on Smoker's forehead as he spoke through clenched teeth. "Five hundred thousand!"

"Two and a half million!"

"One million!"

"Deal!"

With a warm smile, Ma Qiao put a little strength into his arms and slowly separated the two men. "Officers, please do me this favor! I think we should let this matter end here!"

Ma Qiao's face wasn't worth much, of course. At least, that was certainly true for now.

But Smoker ultimately went along with it.

Because of the devil's whisper, Smoker's expression changed several times. In the end, looking constipated, he angrily lowered his fist.

His heart was set on the light, yet the devil had seized his weakness!

Fortunately, that devil kept his word.

Not only did the scarf kid delete the footage from the Den Den Mushi, but, seemingly afraid Smoker wouldn't be reassured, he even tossed him the Den Den Mushi.

Smoker snorted, grabbed the Den Den Mushi, and turned to leave.

He really didn't trust this money-grubbing fellow, and planned to smash the Den Den Mushi to pieces later.

It might sound complicated, but these little transactions between Ma Qiao and Smoker had actually taken place in the blink of an eye.

No one else could see exactly what had happened.

To the Marine small fry watching, Teacher Ma Qiao had separated the two men in the middle of their fierce fight through sheer personal charisma.

"There he is! The male instructor who understands human nature!"

"Last time it was a great pirate, and this time it's a headquarters captain! Teacher Ma Qiao made another man lower his fists for him with just three sentences!"

"As expected of a special talent certified by the G-2 Branch! As expected of the male instructor who understands human nature!"

"..."

Nezumi's former subordinates celebrated, boasting to the newly joined Morgan and his men about how Teacher Ma had once driven off a great pirate with three sentences.

Everyone greatly admired Ma Qiao's talk-no-jutsu skills.

To subdue an enemy without fighting—that was a true powerhouse!