"Was that really the reason?"
With a cigar in his mouth, Smoker—wrapped head to toe in bandages, with even one eye covered—curled his lip and looked back toward the sky.
"As a Marine, you actually acknowledged a pirate?"
Smoker fell silent for a moment.
For some reason, he recalled someone else, another pirate.
Not long ago, that pirate had helped him rescue the children on Punk Hazard. He was someone Smoker, as a Marine, wanted to hate but simply could not.
His name was Monkey D. Luffy.
"I'm not a Marine anymore, Smoker..."
Kuzan interrupted him, though his own words carried a trace of hesitation.
"And I've never acknowledged that guy Austin. I just think someone like him will definitely keep moving forward firmly for the sake of his own amusement."
"And you say that isn't acknowledgment..."
Smoker curled his lip.
"By the way, you didn't leave the Marines to start hanging around with the scum of the seas, did you?"
"I'm still me, Smoker. I've figured things out now."
As Kuzan received treatment from the Marine medics, he waved off the soldiers' offer to retrieve his leg and see whether it could be reattached.
Instead, he froze the bleeding stump with ice.
While the Marine soldiers busied themselves, the two lay there side by side like corpses.
"Even after leaving the Marines, there are still plenty of things I can do, Smoker.
Like cleaning up the messes Austin makes."
Smoker knew something about it and immediately ordered his soldiers to bring over a Wanted Poster.
"Is this it?"
Wanted Poster: [Dark Sun]
Kuzan glanced at it and nodded.
"Well... more or less. This is obviously Austin's handiwork, isn't it? I heard he sank dozens of Marine warships and injured both the new Admiral and CP0."
"No matter