When Smoker heard that sudden, calm voice behind him, every hair on his body stood on end, and an icy sense of danger seized his heart!
Before he even had time to think, instinct forced him to break off his attack. Gripping his Jitte tightly, he spun around!
His smoky body rapidly solidified as he turned, and his Jitte swept behind him with a fierce rush of wind!
But-
Whoosh!
He hit nothing!
There was no one behind him! Only lingering white smoke drifted slowly through the air.
"What?!"
Smoker's pupils contracted sharply, and a chill shot up his spine to the top of his head!
Like a weightless ghost, a figure had silently appeared atop an overhanging roof at some unknown moment!
His black clothes fluttered, and his black hair stirred in the salty sea breeze.
Most unsettling of all were his eyes, as calm as bottomless pools of icy water. They now looked down impassively at him and at Luffy, who was pinned firmly to the ground by smoke.
It was Ye Chuan!
"Who are you?!"
Smoker demanded sharply, instantly undergoing Elementalization. His lower half became billowing smoke, and he held his Jitte across his chest, his guard raised to its utmost.
In all his years of fighting, he had never encountered an opponent who could approach so silently!
Ye Chuan did not answer.
His gaze passed over the struggling Luffy, swept toward Sanji, who had just climbed out of a pile of rubble nearby, then settled back on Smoker.
"Logia... the Smoke-Smoke Fruit..."
Ye Chuan's voice was calm and even, as though he were stating a simple fact:
"Immunity to physical attacks... a useful trait."
In this world, Devil Fruits were one of the foundations of power.
Devil Fruits were incarnations of the sea devil. Those who