Hostage

A dead end on the west side of Alubarna.

The temperature in the air was soaring at an outrageously rapid rate. Rain's right arm, wrapped in fireproof bandages, had completely lit up with a dark crimson glow, bathing the dim alley in red.

Standing at the mouth of the alley, Smoker suddenly exhaled a thick cloud of white smoke. His lower body had completely transformed into an element, becoming a rolling mass of vapor that tightly sealed off the only exit.

"Trying to bluff with high temperatures? That might work in some backwater like West Blue, but it won't work on me!"

Smoker roared and made the first move.

"White Vine!"

Smoker's hands instantly turned into two thick white columns of smoke. Carrying immense binding force, they swept toward Rain from all directions.

Facing the smoke filling the sky, Rain's gaze sharpened as he stomped down hard with his left foot.

"Cross Rock Prison!"

Boom!

The bluestone walls on both sides of the dead end instantly came alive. Four Granite walls, each a meter thick, rose from the ground and precisely closed together in midair, trying to trap Smoker and his smoke within a prison of stone.

Yet in the next instant, Rain frowned.

"Whoosh—"

The all-pervading white smoke that had supposedly been sealed inside the stone began seeping through the tiny gaps and vents in the Granite. A physical rock barrier was practically useless against the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, which had no fixed form at all.

"Too naive. Smoke can slip through anything."

Smoker's arrogant voice came from every direction. The white smoke that had seeped out of the rock prison rapidly gathered above Rain's head, reforming Smoker's upper body.

He gripped his jitte, tipped with Seastone, with both hands and used the force of his descent to smash it viciously toward Rain's skull!

Rain remained calm in the face of danger. The dark crimson magma in his right arm instantly boiled, and he met Smoker's descending jitte with a violent Magma Heavy Fist!

Sizzle—!

Terrifying heat exploded through the alley in an instant. Yet the expected sight of fist striking flesh never came.

In midair, Smoker expertly turned his chest and abdomen into "smoke." Rain's Magma Heavy Fist, hot enough to melt steel, punched straight through Smoker's body!

The scorching magma did cause the white smoke it touched to distort and disperse in an instant, even letting out a piercing hiss. But smoke was itself the product of burning. It had no moisture to evaporate and no solid form to ignite.

Half a second after the heat passed through it, the scattered smoke perfectly reassembled.

"Physical attacks are useless, and even high temperatures can't cause any real damage..."

Rain instantly understood their current predicament. It was an utterly disgusting elemental stalemate. His stone could not catch smoke, and his magma could not burn it away.

But the weapon in Smoker's hand could effectively injure him.

"What are you spacing out for? Your time is up!"

Seizing the instant Rain's attack missed, Smoker thrust his Seastone-tipped jitte toward Rain's ribs like a venomous snake striking from its hole.

"White Gale!"

The small gray-black segment of Seastone at the end of the jitte radiated an aura that made every Devil Fruit user shudder.

Rain's instincts screamed warnings. He knew perfectly well that if that thing touched him, then with his arm only recently regenerated and his stamina severely depleted, he would immediately collapse and become a prisoner.

Clang!

At the critical moment, Rain's left hand instantly formed a small, extremely dense High-Pressure Obsidian shield, blocking the tip of the jitte dead on.

Obsidian and Seastone collided, bursting into dazzling sparks.

During that tenth of a second of contact, an intense wave of weakness traveled through the Obsidian shield into Rain's left arm, causing a fatal moment of sluggishness in his movements.

"Got you!"

Smoker's combat experience was immense. His smoke-transformed lower body suddenly rolled forward, trying to bind the slowed Rain tightly. His hands shot out like arrows from a bow, controlling the smoke as it continuously extended while he wielded the Seastone-tipped jitte in a torrential flurry of close-range strikes from every tricky angle.

Rain was forced into an extremely passive and bitter battle.

He had to use high-temperature magma to disperse the irritating smoke trying to wrap around his neck and limbs, while also focusing with all his might on controlling rock to precisely block Smoker's Seastone-tipped jitte as it stabbed in from every blind spot.

Damn it, I just came back to life and my stamina is already running dry. I can't keep dragging this out with this damn leech. Rain darted and weaved through the narrow alley while calculating how to escape.

Just as the deadlock continued.

"Captain Smoker! I brought reinforcements!"

A crisp, urgent female voice rang out from outside the dead end.

Immediately afterward, a young female Marine wearing red half-rim glasses and sporting short dark-blue hair rushed to the alley entrance, tightly clutching the famed sword Shigure in her arms. Dozens of panting Marines followed behind her.

Smoker's adjutant, Tashigi.

"Tashigi? Don't come any closer! This guy is extremely dangerous. You can't handle him!" Smoker's expression changed as he shouted.

But that momentary distraction caused a glint of light to flash through Rain's black eyes.

"The opening is here."

Rather than retreating, Rain charged straight toward Smoker's Seastone-tipped jitte!

"Courting death!" Smoker did not hesitate as he swung a heavy blow toward Rain's shoulder.

Splat!

The jitte pierced Rain's body without resistance! Yet Smoker felt no sensation of striking solid flesh.

"An afterimage? No, he turned to sand!" Smoker's pupils contracted sharply. What he had struck was merely an empty shell made of grayish-white stone dust that Rain had left behind!

Rain's true body had activated Earth Vein Assimilation the instant Tashigi spoke. Like a drop of water merging into the ocean, he had instantly sunk into the bluestone road beneath the alley!

"Underground! Tashigi, get back!" Smoker reacted swiftly, immediately turning and roaring toward the alley entrance.

But it was too late.

Boom!

The ground beneath Tashigi's feet exploded without warning. Before the female chief petty officer, who was quite skilled with a sword, could draw Shigure from her waist, a dark crimson right hand radiating heat so intense it nearly suffocated her had already clamped around her throat like iron pincers!

Rain appeared silently behind Tashigi.

The Flame Demon Arm flowing with magma needed only the slightest exertion of force, or the tiniest release of heat, to burn Tashigi's neck and spine into ash in an instant.

"Don't move."

Rain held Tashigi in front of him, his pitch-black eyes staring coldly past her shoulder at Smoker, who had halted abruptly in the distance.

"Or would Captain Smoker like to make a bet? Let's see whether your smoke flies faster, or whether my magma melts her head first."

"You bastard... let her go!"

Smoker's eyes were bloodshot, and the two cigars clenched between his teeth were nearly crushed apart. The surrounding Marines raised their rifles in panic, but their hands trembled in fear of hitting Tashigi by mistake, and none dared pull the trigger.

"Captain Smoker... don't worry about me... arrest this criminal!" Feeling the lethal heat against her neck, Tashigi's entire body stiffened in fear, yet she still gritted her teeth and shouted stubbornly.

"Shut up, rookie. Your life is my bargaining chip for getting out of here. I'm not about to waste it by killing you."

Holding Tashigi hostage, Rain retreated from the dead end step by step. Wherever he passed, the Marine soldiers holding guns backed away to either side.

Wrapped in violent white smoke, Smoker gripped his Seastone-tipped jitte tightly. Yet he could only hesitate for fear of harming Tashigi, watching helplessly as Rain slowly withdrew from the encirclement with his hostage.

As a righteous Marine who held firmly to his principles, Smoker could never sacrifice a subordinate just to capture a criminal. Rain had seized precisely upon this "weakness of justice."

"I'll remember this, 'Grayrock' Rain. Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I'll throw you into the deepest level of Impel Down!" Smoker's voice seemed to squeeze out through clenched teeth.

"I look forward to it."

Rain retreated to an intersection of main roads in the western civilian district, where the streets were exceptionally complicated and connected in every direction.

He glanced around at the surroundings and curled his lips into a cold smile.

"Rock Wall: Guillotine!"

Rain suddenly raised his left hand.

Rumble!

The towering buildings on both sides of the intersection instantly collapsed and reassembled under the control of Rain's Fruit power. Countless massive stones and brick walls piled up in the center of the intersection, forming a gigantic Granite wall ten meters high and five meters thick that completely blocked Smoker and every Marine's line of sight!

In the final second before the wall closed, Rain decisively released Tashigi's neck and hurled her toward Smoker.

Killing a Marine lieutenant would bring him no benefit beyond endless pursuit by the Marines. Besides, Tashigi was a decent Marine. A little foolish, perhaps, but still someone who truly practiced justice.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Tashigi fell to the ground, coughing violently as she clutched her scalded neck and gasped for air.

"Tashigi! Are you all right?!" Smoker rushed forward at once. After confirming that his adjutant was safe, he abruptly turned around and punched a huge hole through the massive rock wall before transforming into smoke and shooting through it.

Yet on the other side of the wall, there were only fleeing civilians thrown into complete chaos by the sudden collapse of the buildings.

The heinous hunter in the black trench coat had long since disappeared into the bustling streets after blending into the crowd.

Smoker stood at the intersection, letting the fierce wind scatter the white smoke around him. His face was so dark it looked as though water might drip from it.

"That demon..."