Goodbye Smoker, News of the Three-Army Martial Arts Tournament!

The next day.

Grand Line, Marineford.

Detention Unit dormitory.

"Send Bottle of Rum to your side~"

"Like the sea breeze, do as you please, ride the wind and waves~"

"On the other side of the sea, the sunset is also noisy, the birds' songs~ hic!"

Looking at the mysterious happy man drinking Cola and humming a song somewhere.

Hans and Fal were, as usual, huddled in a corner, whispering.

"Hey, the boss seems to be in a good mood lately."

Fal muttered in a low voice.

Hans, however, was unconcerned and pulled at his collar: "Of course--he's been promoted to Major, it would be strange if he wasn't happy, right?"

"...But it's not right to say he's happy because of this. A few days ago, I heard Vice Admiral Billoss was going to hold a promotion banquet for him, but he refused. Instead, he's been cooped up in his room every day."

Fal frowned, still feeling something was off.

Hans remained unconcerned and pulled at his collar again: "What's the big deal? Our boss has always been like this, and not everyone flaunts promotions."

Then, he was kicked away by Fal.

"...You bastard, I've tolerated you for a long time!"

Fal retracted his leg hatefully: "You just entered the Navy a few years before me, so the boss promoted you to Sergeant? And you keep showing off in front of me every day!"

And Hans, after being kicked, wasn't angry at all.

He just kept pulling at his collar, trying to make the medal that read [Sergeant - Hans.Tor] more conspicuous.

"Sigh, little brother Fal--you're angry with me, I don't blame you, the taste of jealousy isn't pleasant, is it?"

He said gently.

Fal was almost grinding his teeth in anger.

He wished he could go out on a mission immediately and also get promoted to Sergeant.

But unfortunately--because Luo Yi's official appointment as Major had not yet come down, they had no missions to take recently.

"The taste of jealousy, huh? Let me show you my angry fist!"

Fortunately, even though reason didn't apply, Fal knew some martial arts!

Meanwhile.

"Hiccup, what a beautiful day."

Paying no mind to his subordinates fighting nearby, Luo Yi took a sip of iced cola and sighed, looking at the perfect weather.

Yes—he was in a good mood lately.

The reason was self-evident.

His plan in Alabasta was proceeding very smoothly.

Leveraging his foreknowledge of the plot, he specifically designed the 'Dragon of the Morning' Slice Clone.

The Magma-Magma Fruit and the Freeze-Freeze Fruit—these two fruits, originally belonging to the Marine Admirals Akainu and Aokiji, were absolute top-tier Logia-type abilities.

He had spent a full four billion Belly to strengthen them both to LV3.

Coupled with the Slice-Slice Fruit strengthened to LV2, and several other commonly used fruits he had also strengthened, his previous massive amount of Belly had been completely depleted.

But such a huge investment was undoubtedly worth it.

"The so-called rain is a creation formed by the condensation of water vapor."

"The cold air and frost created by the Freeze-Freeze Fruit, and the high-temperature heat from the Magma-Magma Fruit—their combination can achieve rainfall!"

This was a method of 'artificial rainfall' that Luo Yi had conceived earlier—after all, in the original manga, Nami had demonstrated a similar partial rainfall with her Clima-Tact, and the principle was similar.

He had merely expanded the scope.

As the saying goes—the combined use of Devil Fruits gives birth to infinite possibilities.

And the success of this experiment made the transaction between Luo Yi and Alabasta possible.

"Even if I just bring rainfall to the entire Alabasta once now, combined with the commission from King Cobra, it will be at least over five billion Belly. Now, all that's left is to deal with Crocodile."

"And I've already obtained the Devil Fruit Abilities of Alabasta's two vice-captains—the 'Bird-Bird Fruit: Falcon Form' and the 'Dog-Dog Fruit: Jackal Form'."

With such immense gains, how could Luo Yi not be happy?

He felt like he could eat anything and everything lately, and even the taste of his cola seemed sweeter.

Of course, it wasn't as if he had absolutely no worries.

"Right now, the only problem for me is that although I've strengthened quite a few fruits."

"When I was at Headquarters, I could only use the human form of Zoan-type fruits, not the beast form or human-beast form."

"Even Logia Devil Fruit Abilities can't use Elementalization, otherwise my identity as an Ability User would be exposed."

Thinking about this still made Luo Yi a little agitated.

He had strengthened many powerful Devil Fruits, but was limited by his identity and couldn't use their full power. This feeling of being 'cut short' made him very unhappy.

"If only there was some Devil Fruit Ability that could solve this problem."

However, just as Luo Yi was muttering this in his heart.

"Hey!"

A familiar deep voice sounded, and the Cola in Luo Yi's mouth spurted out with a 'poof'.

"Huh!?"

He suddenly turned his head and saw Smoker's grumpy face.

"Smoker!?"

Luo Yi immediately became vigilant: "Aren't you in confinement? Cough cough, why are you here? I'm telling you, I'm already a Major now, I can't be your adjutant."

He realized halfway through that he was slightly responsible for Smoker's confinement, so he quickly changed his words.

"."

Smoker's expression visibly worsened.

He seemed to exert some effort to suppress the urge to punch Luo Yi directly, and forced himself to say: "You asked Vice Admiral Billoss to arrange special training for you?"

His tone softened slightly as he said this.

It was clear that Smoker was quite pleased that Luo Yi, a talented but unmotivated Salted Fish, was finally 'working hard'.

As a friend, he truly felt Luo Yi deserved a higher position to fulfill his justice.

".Yes. Yes!"

Luo Yi naturally didn't have the nerve to say that he hadn't requested it himself, so he could only nod reluctantly at this moment.

"The person who is giving you special training happens to have some connection with me, so he asked me to bring you over."

Smoker said, looking at Luo Yi: "If you have nothing else, come with me."

Luo Yi was stunned upon hearing this, but then he left without hesitation, after greeting Hans and Fal, and followed Smoker away from the Detention Unit's barracks.

However, as they walked, Luo Yi secretly thought, as expected.

He had previously guessed the identity of Vice Admiral Billoss's 'Old Friend'.

And now it seemed that the other party knew Smoker, and their relationship was even clearly good—otherwise, this notorious troublemaker wouldn't have come to deliver a message so easily.

Therefore, in Luo Yi's mind, the other party's identity was actually very obvious.

"You're also participating in this 'Three-Army Martial Arts Tournament', right?"

However, while Luo Yi was thinking, he heard Smoker's question.

"Huh? What is that?"

Luo Yi nodded subconsciously, but quickly realized something was wrong: "What—what is the Three-Army Martial Arts Tournament?"

Isn't it the 'All-Army Martial Arts Tournament'?

"You don't know yet?"

After hearing this, Smoker took the cigar from his mouth and exhaled.

Amidst the swirling smoke, his words were somewhat excited: "Because of this Celestial Gold plundering incident, the World Government's higher-ups are very angry, believing that our Navy's management is inadequate, leading to a severe decline in internal combat effectiveness, which is why this happened."

"So, after Marshal Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong discussed it, they decided to change the rules of this All-Army Martial Arts Tournament—besides the Navy, all armies and directly affiliated forces under the World Government will send people to participate."

"Its name is precisely—Three-Army Martial Arts Tournament!"