"What kind of Devil Fruit power is that? Hina is curious," Hina said, staring at him in surprise.
"Even if you're curious, I'm not telling you. Your Marine higher-ups probably know. This is your territory, isn't it? We're pretty close to Alabasta." Rogge shrugged.
"What an insensitive man," Hina said.
"It's not like I'd get involved with a thirty-year-old auntie. Right?" Rogge spread his hands.
A vein throbbed on Hina's forehead. She hated it when people brought up her age. Thirty? She was only twenty-nine this year! She had entered the Marines' elite training camp in her teens and studied under Zephyr alongside Smoker. It was Smoker's fault she had picked up a smoking habit, too.
At twenty-nine, she was one of the Marines' great beauties and a Marine Headquarters Colonel stationed near the Red Line on the Grand Line. She had no shortage of suitors, especially among the Marine officers who had entered the service around the same time as her.
She should have been at the height of her allure, but age was a woman's greatest enemy. And Rogge had called her an auntie. Hina couldn't let that pass.
"Black Spear!"
Hina thrust out her hand, and a long black spear emerged from her palm. She seized it, charged, and drove it straight at Rogge's heart.
Rogge turned sideways to dodge, caught the Black Spear, and crushed it in his grip.
Hina had realized just how troublesome Rogge's power was. Attacking him with a weapon seemed nearly impossible. Anything that reached his hands shattered.
"What a troublesome power," Hina muttered. Two more weapons appeared in her hands, this time a pair of batons. She moved with remarkable speed. The spear had been a long weapon for close combat; now she had switched to short ones suited to both offense and defense.
Hina launched a fierce assault with her batons. Her fighting technique was clearly superior to Rogge's. He had been a soldier before, and his physique was no slouch, but his training could not compare with that of a student taught by an Admiral. They came from different worlds, after all.
Hina noticed it too. She grew more certain that Rogge could be beaten. His power was troublesome, but she could handle him in every other respect.
Facing Hina's unusual weapons, Rogge repeatedly blocked with his fists and arms. But he was still flesh and blood, and close-quarters combat could indeed restrict a Devil Fruit User's movements.
Rogge tried several times to use his power to break down her batons, but Hina read his intentions and deftly avoided him.
What Hina didn't know was that Rogge was enjoying the fight. Wary of his power, she rarely used her own, knowing it had no effect on him.
With little information about Rogge, she had chosen to keep him occupied with the fighting style that seemed to work.
The Cage-Cage Fruit and the Vine-Vine Fruit seemed similar in principle. The one difference was that, besides producing vines, Jelly could transform his own body. That made his fruit a special kind of Paramecia, much like Katakuri's Mochi-Mochi Fruit.
Hina could produce black cages, but she couldn't turn her body into one. Her power was somewhat like the Gold-Gold Fruit, though it was probably an inferior version of the Iron-Iron Fruit.
Rogge was savoring the fight. He needed combat to grow stronger. Before entering the New World, he intended to improve as much as he could. Then, when he faced the real monsters there, he would at least be able to fight back.
He refused to be left helpless or forced to rely on a pirate crew's protection. Rogge would never submit to anyone, even if it cost him his life.
After dozens of exchanges, Hina frowned. She had noticed something troubling: Rogge, who had struggled to fend off her attacks at first, was adapting to her rhythm. He was even finding openings to counterattack. His technique had looked rusty before, yet now his movements were growing fluid.
That unsettled Hina. The situation aboard the other warships worried her too.
Hina knew what her subordinates could do. They might not be Headquarters elites, but they were strong soldiers by New World standards. Their discipline and combat experience far surpassed those of Marines from the Four Blues.
Yet cries of pain kept rising from three of the warships. Hina grew increasingly uneasy. She had seen the people aboard Rogge's ship: five others besides him. Four had boarded the warships to attack, while the remaining two stayed on the pirate ship.
She had five warships and over a thousand people against their six. Yet after nearly fifteen minutes of fighting, neither side had secured a victory. If anything, the battle was growing fiercer.
Hina can't afford to drag this out. I have to finish him quickly, she muttered. Sharp spikes sprouted along her batons, making them deadlier and limiting Rogge's options.
If Rogge tried to fend them off with his bare body, he would have to be ready to lose some flesh.
"Whoa, that's cheating." Rogge eyed the spikes on Hina's batons and jumped back several meters, putting distance between them.
"This fight is over. Hina doesn't have time to waste on you." She charged, batons in hand. One end of each short weapon had become a sharp conical point. Though small, the tips concentrated all her force. One solid hit would likely put Rogge out of the fight.
"In that much of a hurry? My companions must be putting pressure on you." Rogge chuckled. As Hina thrust at him, he raised his fist to meet the blow head-on.
Here it comes!
Hina knew Rogge was about to use his power. The moment one baton touched his fist, she spun the other and brought it down hard toward his head.
Oh no... Rogge realized he had no time to react. He could only watch the baton swing toward his head, every spike on it clear to see.
In that instant, his pupils seemed to dilate without end, and the whole world appeared to stop. The baton slowed. Rogge could see it moving, slowly, so slowly, as though space itself had frozen.
Only one thought filled Rogge's mind.
I can dodge it!
Rogge ducked!
Boom!
The air burst as the short baton grazed Rogge's hair. Its passage rang out with a thunderous roar.
"How is that possible? He dodged it?"
Before you continue