Deep Breaths, Dizziness Is Normal

"Bang—"

The heavy iron door slammed shut behind them, echoing dully.

The confinement cell was immediately plunged into darkness.

The air was thick with a damp, moldy stench, and the cramped space made every breath feel especially stifling.

The only vent was an iron window high up on the wall, no bigger than a palm. A few weak rays of moonlight struggled through it, casting mottled streaks across the floor and barely outlining the room.

"Dammit!"

A curse thick with suppressed fury shattered the silence.

Like a wild beast trapped in a cage, Smoker paced back and forth irritably. His military boots struck the stone floor, the sound particularly grating in the empty cell.

He had been here for several days, but this was the first time he had ever been thrown into confinement—and it was all because of a newly arrived freshman.

It's all that pretentious brat's fault! Smoker's heart burned with rage that had nowhere to go.

And Rayne, the target of that rage, ignored him completely.

He merely walked calmly to a relatively clean corner, brushed away dust that did not exist, then sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.

As though he had not been locked in confinement at all, but had simply changed locations to meditate.

That sort of "disregard" angered Smoker more than any mockery could have.

At last, unable to take it any longer, he stopped before Rayne and looked down at him, his voice brimming with provocation. "Hey, brat, playing dead? You think staying quiet means this is over?"

Rayne slowly opened his eyes. In the darkness, they were as calm as a pool of deep water.

"Otherwise?" His tone did not ripple in the slightest. "Are you planning to discuss whether you can smoke in here?"

"Don't fucking bring that up!" Smoker's sore spot was struck instantly, and he exploded. "I'll make you understand right now—whether it's in the dorm or here, you follow my rules!"

With an enraged roar, his massive fist tore through the air with a vicious gust of wind and smashed straight at Rayne's cheek without any flourish!

In his eyes, that punch would be enough to teach this ignorant newcomer what it meant to "respect his seniors." He had even prepared to step on him after he fell.

Yet Rayne did not even change his posture in the face of that ferocious blow.

Just as Smoker's fist was about to strike his nose, Rayne's cross-legged upper body tilted backward like a phantom, leaving behind a blurred afterimage.

Smoker's fist swept past the tip of his nose, the sharp wind from it even stirring his bangs.

Smoker's pupils shrank abruptly, and his heart jolted.

So fast!

He had no time to pull back his fist, much less make another move.

Because a black shadow several times faster than his punch had already torn through the dark air and struck at him!

It was Rayne's fist!

But a mocking sneer curled across Smoker's lips. He had no intention of dodging.

As the user of the Logia Smoke-Smoke Fruit, physical attacks were a joke to him.

He had already completely elementalized his abdomen, waiting for Rayne's fist to pass uselessly through his smoky body. Then he could calmly seize his opponent's arm and let this ignorant brat taste what it was like to be controlled by smoke.

He would make this freshman understand what a Logia Fruit user was!

Bang!

A short, heavy sound rang out, like a sledgehammer striking a hide drum.

The expected hollow sensation of the fist passing through him never came. In its place was an incomparably real, searing pain!

The savage grin had not yet faded from Smoker's face before it froze into a bizarre expression of shock, pain, and disbelief.

He lowered his head and saw Rayne's fist pressed quietly against his abdomen.

In the dim light, he did not see that, in that instant, Rayne's fist had been covered in a darkness deeper than shadow.

He only knew that the fist seemed to have grasped something solid within his illusory smoke, and an overwhelmingly domineering force had pierced straight through his elemental defenses and struck his internal organs with full force!

"Urgh—!"

The agony exploded in his abdomen like a red-hot branding iron! Smoker felt as though his organs had all been viciously twisted together by that punch.

His mouth fell open, and his whole body bent sharply over like a cooked shrimp.

"Hey! What's going on in there?! Keep it down!"

An impatient warning from the guard outside came through the door.

Just as Smoker was about to collapse to his knees from the pain, a hand like an iron clamp shot out like lightning and covered his mouth, stifling every groan of pain.

Then, a voice carrying a trace of amused laughter softly sounded beside his ear like a demon's whisper.

"Take deep breaths, take deep breaths..."

"Feeling dizzy is normal."

Those were the last words Smoker heard before he completely lost consciousness.

Only one enormous question remained in his mind.

How... did he... hit me?

Smoker: (×﹏×)

Who knew how long had passed before Smoker regained consciousness. By then, dawn was already breaking.

The faint light of morning shone through the little window high in the wall, illuminating the dust drifting through the confinement cell.

He struggled to sit up, his abdomen still aching faintly and his head heavy and muddled.

"A hallucination..."

He shook his head and looked toward the corner. Rayne was still seated cross-legged in his original posture, completely motionless, as if he had meditated there the entire night.

Maybe... that punch earlier had merely been a hallucination brought on by his anger?

Just as he thought that, the figure in the corner seemed to sense his movement and slowly turned his head.

In the faint morning glow, an incomparably "kind" smile appeared on Rayne's face.

"Ah, you're awake."

That smile was like a key, instantly opening the floodgates of Smoker's memories!

It was not a hallucination!

Smoker's face turned pale. Just as he tried to stubbornly say something else—

Rayne had already risen to his feet. As he slowly walked over, he rolled his neck, which had become somewhat stiff from sitting too long.

"Looks like we've reached a preliminary understanding," he said in a calm tone.

He walked up to Smoker, crouched down, and looked directly into his startled, suspicious eyes. "I don't want trouble, and you shouldn't bother me. Let's get through this year peacefully and stay out of each other's way. As for not smoking in the dorm, I trust you understand now."

He paused, and the smile on his lips took on a hint of amusement.

"And about last night—if you tell anyone... next time, I might not be able to control my strength so well."

Smoker felt ice-cold all over. Looking at that "kindly" smiling face so close to his own, he felt for the first time from this freshman a terrifying pressure similar to that of Lieutenant General Kuzan, the man hailed as a monster.