Smoker

Only someone with Ahua's build could swallow a Devil Fruit that big in one bite.

The moment Ahua swallowed it, he turned into a fat white rabbit.

He stood there with blood-red eyes, radiating an intense, chaotic aura.

His whole body trembled as though he were struggling to hold something back.

Kuta seemed to understand what was happening and quickly told everyone to step back.

Ahua couldn't seem to control himself. His aura was wild and chaotic.

He was more than ten times stronger than before.

It looked like Kuta had guessed right again. The Goddess of Luck really did favor Ahua.

How else could he have stumbled upon a find like this?

Kuta looked at the rabbit Ahua had become and couldn't stop smiling.

That rabbit was clearly the result of a powerful Devil Fruit. Why had it been dismissed as worthless?

Had the catalog been wrong? There were different kinds of rabbits, after all.

And A-Luo's ant was clearly no ordinary ant, either.

At that thought, Kuta couldn't help giving Golden Lion an enormous thumbs-up in his mind.

What a great teacher!

Not only had Golden Lion taught him plenty of swordsmanship and Haki techniques, he had also given him a doctor with exceptional medical skills.

He had even solved their Navigator problem.

And now, even the "Rabbit Devil Fruit" Kuta had thought was the most useless turned out to be a powerful Zoan Devil Fruit.

Ahua gradually regained control, and the berserk aura around him faded.

Everyone hurried over and watched him curiously, waiting for an explanation.

Seeing their expectant faces, Ahua smugly changed back into human form.

Unfortunately, his human form was a sight to behold.

A burly, heavyset man now had two rabbit ears.

A plump, fluffy rabbit tail stuck out from his already ample backside.

On a beautiful young woman, that might have been fine.

On a burly man, it was a little disturbing.

Ahua looked puzzled by the strange looks everyone was giving him.

He glanced down at himself.

Only when he spotted the tail behind him did realization dawn.

His face flushed bright red, and he darted into the kitchen as fast as a rabbit.

Bang! The door slammed shut.

At the sight of Ahua fleeing in embarrassment, everyone burst out laughing.

A-Luo laughed hardest of all.

He dropped to his knees, pounding the deck with all four hands as he struggled to catch his breath.

Kuta fought back his laughter and looked at the others.

"Come on, stop laughing. It's just a rabbit tail. What's so funny about that?"

Before he could finish, he doubled over, clutching his stomach as laughter took him again.

Behind the kitchen door, Ahua heard them laughing. His face grew so red it looked ready to bleed.

He took a deep breath.

He turned toward the kitchen, spotted the refrigerator, and suddenly had an idea.

He pushed aside his embarrassment and rushed to it.

He opened it and began rummaging through.

A moment later, he pulled out a bag of carrots.

He stared at the carrots for a while, then went to the stove, put on his chef's hat and apron, and started cooking at once.

Outside, the others heard the commotion and assumed he was eating his feelings.

They stopped laughing and were about to knock on the door.

Then the kitchen door suddenly opened from within.

Ahua emerged carrying a plate. The embarrassment was gone from his face, and he seemed completely at ease.

He strode up to Kuta and excitedly held out the plate.

"Kuta, try this. I've cooked up something new."

Everyone stared at Ahua in confusion.

Had embarrassment driven him mad? Did he really think he was a rabbit now? He had made a carrot dish!

Kuta saw the excitement on Ahua's face, and his smile vanished.

He could sense it clearly. Ahua was as excited as someone who had discovered a vast treasure.

Kuta looked down at the carrots on the plate and solemnly picked one up to inspect it.

Hmm. It looked no different from an ordinary carrot.

Without giving it any more thought, he brought it to his mouth and took a bite.

"Mm!"

One bite was enough to leave him utterly stunned. It was the second time he had worn that expression today.

He looked at the carrot in his hand, then raised shining eyes to Ahua as though he were looking at a priceless treasure.

"Is this your Devil Fruit ability?"

"Yeah!"

Ahua nodded repeatedly.

The others noticed how excited Kuta and Ahua were.

Each took a carrot from Ahua's plate and bit into it.

"Wow!"

"No way!"

A-Tao and A-Luo stared at Ahua, their faces flushed.

With these, they could become strong someday, too.

Indigo was even more shocked.

He had lost count of how many emotional highs and lows he had been through today.

He looked at the carrot in his hand and mourned Golden Lion once again.

Even Kuina looked shocked after eating her carrot, a rare sight.

These carrots were more than food. They were the key to becoming stronger.

They could restore stamina at an astonishing rate.

With them, everyone could train to their hearts' content inside Kuta's Space Domain.

The Smoke Man

Loguetown.

Known as the "town of beginnings and endings," it was the closest town in the East Blue to the entrance to the Grand Line.

It was also where the previous Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, had been born and had died.

At the Loguetown Marine Base, the Bearded Pirates had just been settled in. The villagers from Prothius Island had been placed in the town's Grand Cathedral to await arrangements from the World Government.

In the white building behind the base's Parade Ground, white smoke kept seeping through the gaps around the Base Commander's office door.

Anyone who didn't know better would have thought the room was on fire.

Yet the Marines patrolling past showed no sign of alarm.

Clearly, they had long since grown used to the smoke.

Just then, a female Marine arrived in a light orange shirt printed with pink flowers and dark blue jeans. She had short black hair and wore thick, black-framed glasses.

She hurriedly pushed open the Base Commander's office door.

Standing in the smoke-filled room, she frowned at the hazy figure within and complained.

"Captain Smoker, could you please open a window before you smoke?"

She walked to the window and pushed it open.

A breeze blew in, dispersing the smoke and revealing a muscular man seated in an armchair behind the desk.

He looked about thirty, with short silver hair. Bare-chested, he leaned back with his legs propped on the desk, two cigars in his mouth and a newspaper in his hands.

How he could read it in a room so smoky he could barely see his hand was anyone's guess.

Smoker looked at the female Marine beside his desk, set down the newspaper, lowered his legs, and addressed her gruffly.

"Sergeant Tashigi, don't forget your place. My business is none of your concern."

His gruff tone and expression had no effect on Tashigi.

She raised the fax she was holding and slapped it onto the desk.

"Captain Smoker," she said sternly, "word just came from Marine Headquarters. Silver Hair Kuta, with a bounty of seventy million Beli, is heading for Loguetown."

"Hm? Seventy million? That's quite a bounty."

Smoker picked up the document and began reading.

"Silver Hair Kuta..."

As he read, confusion crossed his face. He looked up at Tashigi and asked.

"Wasn't he fighting Golden Lion above Prothius Island?"

"Has the fight already

been decided?"

Before the Loguetown Marine Base received the Bearded Pirates, it had received news of Kuta's battle with Golden Lion.

Smoker had planned to go to Prothius Island himself and see whether he could arrest both Pirates while they were fighting.

But Marine Headquarters had rejected his request to set sail, so he had stayed put.

"Silver Hair Kuta received a seventy-million-Beli bounty the first time he went to sea, then fought the legendary Pirate Golden Lion and got away unharmed."

Tashigi frowned, planted both hands on the desk, and leaned toward Smoker.

"Captain Smoker, please take this seriously. We don't know which of them won, but the fact that he could fight Golden Lion tells us how strong he is."

"So what if he could fight Golden Lion?"

Smoker set down the document and answered Tashigi calmly.

"You can't get worked up over every little thing. I have my own way of handling this, all right?"

Clearly, they had not yet heard that Golden Lion was dead. If they had, it would have been a very different scene.

Smoker rose from the armchair, went to the coat rack, and draped a white coat with "Justice" written across the back over his shoulders.

The coat was covered in cigars. His smoking habit had clearly reached a whole new level.