Smoker sat in the shadows behind his desk, without his trademark cigar between his fingers.
He leaned back in his chair, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing a crack in the corner of the desk.
By the dim light, Isuka got a clear look at his face.
A bruise stretched across the cheekbone of that perpetually disdainful face, and a frightening red mark marred the side of his neck-as though he had been struck by the back of an extremely fast blade or a blunt weapon.
Isuka's breath caught, and her hand instinctively tightened around her sword hilt.
"Stop staring. I'm not going to die." Smoker glanced at her, fished a slightly damp cigar out of a drawer, and put it between his lips without lighting it. "Someone just taught me a lesson. Showed me there's always someone stronger."
"Who was it?" Isuka's voice tightened. "There's a pirate of that caliber in the East Blue? Someone who came back from the Grand Line?"
"A pirate?"
Smoker sneered, as though he had heard a joke.
He toyed with the lighter in his hand, the clicking of its metal lid piercing in the quiet room.
"It was a Marine. A recruit who hasn't even been given a rank."
Isuka's pretty eyes widened instantly.
"You're joking! Someone sent from headquarters? Even an elite from headquarters couldn't possibly..."
"Lin Xuan." Smoker uttered the name, his tone complicated, carrying anger, resentment, and defeat. "He didn't use a Devil Fruit ability or any flashy sword moves. Just one slash."
Smoker pointed to his neck, his gaze dark. "At that instant, I turned into my element. But he caught my solid body. It wasn't luck. It was Armament Haki. Highly refined, hard as stone."
Armament Haki.
In the East Blue, that term was nothing short of a legend.
Although Isuka had heard of it, it had only been in books.
In the Weakest Sea, Logia users were invincible. But now, that accepted truth had been shattered.
"And I suspect that's not all the kid has." Smoker finally lit his cigar and drew a deep breath, letting the smoke ease the pain in his lungs. "He predicted every move I made. The look in his eyes... it was like he was watching everything in slow motion. There's no explaining it unless it was Observation Haki."
"Both... the Color of Arms and Color of Observation Haki?"
Isuka's throat felt dry. She involuntarily stepped back half a pace, her heel striking the doorframe.
If it was true, that recruit named Lin Xuan was a monster who was outrageously strong before he had even set out to sea.
And he was actually about her age?
It all felt so unreal that her mind went a little blank.
"Don't act like you've never seen the world, Isuka." Smoker watched the curling smoke, his gaze seeming to pass through the wall to the smiling young man standing on a deck. "That guy's a freak. And he dealt with someone else while he was at it."
Smoker paused and gave Isuka a meaningful look.
"Portgas D. Ace."
At that name, Isuka's body jolted.
She rushed to the desk and slammed both hands down on it, making the coffee cup beside Smoker's hand jump.
"What did you say?!"
Her voice turned shrill and urgent. "That bastard... I mean, Fire Fist! Lin Xuan captured him? Where is he? Is he alive or dead? Has he already been sent to Impel Down?"
Her spirited face flushed red, her eyes frantic.
How could that be... Ace was always grinning and joking, and he was as strong as a monster. How could he lose?
And to some Marine recruit she'd never even heard of?
If he fell into the Marines' hands...
Smoker narrowed his eyes, watching his flustered subordinate through the smoke.
Stung by that piercing gaze, Isuka abruptly came to her senses.
She stiffly withdrew her hands, her eyes wandering as she tried to cover up her reaction.
"Ahem... I mean, he's prey I've been tracking for a long time." She turned her head away, her voice dropping with a trace of feigned annoyance. "I'd be really upset if some recruit stole the credit. That's all."
"Relax. He wasn't captured."
Smoker leaned back in his chair again without exposing his subordinate's clumsy acting. "Apparently, the two of them fought. Ace lost, but that Lin Xuan didn't seem to intend to arrest him. He let him go instead. Hmph. That's why I said the kid's a freak. He doesn't play by the rules at all."
At the words "wasn't captured," Isuka's tense shoulders visibly slumped.
She let out a long breath, her whole body relaxing, before realizing her reaction was far too obvious. She hurriedly put on a stern face and hid it with a cough.
"Good thing he wasn't captured... no, I mean, if he wasn't captured, I can still catch him myself! A dangerous man like that can't be allowed to keep running wild at sea!"
Despite her harsh words, a hint of relief now appeared in her anxious eyes.
As long as he was alive, as long as he was still out at sea, Ace would definitely get back up, even if he had lost once.
"Don't celebrate too soon, Isuka."
Smoker suddenly stubbed out his half-smoked cigar and stood.
His tall shadow loomed over her, carrying a renewed sense of pressure.
He walked to the window and watched the rain grow heavier outside, the marks on his face looking frightening in the lightning.
"Lin Xuan might be absurdly strong, but that slash also woke me up. My easy days of relying on my Devil Fruit ability are over." Smoker clenched his fist. His arm instantly turned to white smoke, then solidified a moment later, becoming harder than before. "The next time we meet, I won't lose again. Not to Fire Fist, and not to Lin Xuan."
Watching the colonel's back, Isuka felt relieved.
The familiar, unyielding Smoker was back.
"So you didn't call me back just to listen to you complain, did you?" Isuka composed herself, returning to her capable manner.
"Of course not."
Smoker turned around, his gaze sharp. "In two more days, that day will be here."
Thunder exploded outside the window, and a pale flash of lightning lit up the entire room.
Loguetown, the town that had witnessed the birth of the Pirate King, lay beneath dark clouds.
"Every year around this time, the scum on these seas gathers here like flies." Smoker's voice was cold as ice. "I want you to clean out every last one of those fools with a death wish."
"No problem. I'll teach those scumbags hoping to pick up a little good fortune where the legend began what regret means."
Isuka agreed without hesitation, lightly flicking her scabbard as a hint of mischief appeared on her serious face. "But since I'm helping with patrols, stopping by the Matsuyuki Arms Shop in town on the way isn't too much to ask, is it? The owner promised to hold that Guarded Rapier I liked last time."
As she spoke, she put her gloves back on. The eagerness for new equipment in her voice was rather more intense than her eagerness to catch pirates.
Smoker exhaled a puff of white smoke and waved impatiently, signaling for her to leave.
The door closed again, and the office fell into dead silence once more, with only the sound of rain remaining.
Smoker did not rest right away.
He pulled a photograph from the very bottom of a stack of reports.
It was a snapshot a seagull had just taken and delivered. The image was blurry, clearly taken from high above.
The photograph showed a ship sailing along the edge of the storm. Judging by its heading, it was coming straight toward Loguetown.
Beneath the sea beside the ship was an enormous shadow.
"What is this..."
Smoker knitted his brows and brought the photograph closer to the desk lamp.
Though blurry, the shadow was frighteningly large, almost several times the size of the ship.
Was it a submerged reef?
Or some kind of ship he had never seen?
Beside that blurry black speck, there also seemed to be a person standing there.
Smoker stared fixedly at the little black speck, trying to make out what it was. But after looking for ages, he had accomplished nothing except making his eyes ache more.
"Tsk. These seagulls are getting worse and worse at taking pictures."
He irritably tossed the photograph back onto the desk and leaned back. He needed to conserve his strength before that special day arrived.
At the same time, on the outskirts of Loguetown's waters.
Rain poured down. The dark sky seemed about to press down onto the sea, and waves rose several meters high, battering the modest-sized sailboat.
Lin Xuan stood steadily on the slippery deck, holding a cup of hot black tea.
The ship's violent pitching seemed to have nothing to do with him. His feet stayed firmly planted on the deck, and even the tea in his cup barely rippled.
"So this is the weather at the edge of the Calm Belt? It really does have a lot more kick than Foosha Village."
He took a small sip of tea. Rather than looking at the waves ahead, he cast a lazy glance over the port side.
Just a moment ago, a fishy stench had reached his nose on the sea breeze.
It was not the smell of dead fish, but something more aggressive.
Splash-!
Without warning, the sea on the left erupted.
An enormous mouth filled with fangs burst out of the water, lunging straight for the deck with a nauseating gust of fishy air and tons of seawater.
It was a Sea King nearly the size of a small warship. Its exposed head alone could have swallowed half the mast in one bite.
Its eyes gleamed red. It had clearly taken the little ship for a snack.
Lin Xuan did not even put down his teacup. He merely shifted sideways slightly, as though avoiding the spray.
"Don't dirty the deck, Carina."
His voice was quiet, yet it carried clearly through the wind and rain.
"Got it, Captain-you really know how to boss people around!"
A purple figure darted out from behind the mast.
Carina held a modified long-barreled firearm, her specialty as a phantom thief.
She made no unnecessary movement to aim.
The girl slid and spun on the slippery deck, her skirt flaring in the wind and rain. She practically shoved the gun barrel straight into the Sea King's closing mouth.
"Bye-bye, big guy."
A smile curled at the corner of Carina's lips as she pulled the trigger.
Bang-!
The gunshot sounded nothing like an ordinary lead bullet, instead booming like muffled thunder.
The specially made Explosive Bullet bored into the Sea King's soft upper palate and instantly detonated.
Before the enormous creature could even cry out, its entire head exploded into a cloud of bloody mist in midair, like a watermelon smashed by a hammer.
Its huge body fell out of control, crashing back into the sea and throwing up an even larger wave.
Blood immediately stained the black seawater red, flowing with the rainwater along the edge of the deck.
"Whew..." Carina blew at the wisp of smoke rising from the muzzle, shook her soaking hair, and turned to Lin Xuan. "Well? How much Beli was that shot worth?"
"Good work."
Watching the sinking headless corpse, Lin Xuan finished the last of his black tea. His tone was calm, as though discussing something trivial. "Your reaction was 0.5 seconds faster than before. Looks like your recent special training hasn't been wasted."
"Tch. All I get is praise?" Carina pouted in dissatisfaction and was about to put away her weapon.
But Lin Xuan suddenly narrowed his eyes.
His gaze passed beyond the bloodstained stretch of sea and into the deeper, darker water below.
That shot had caused quite a commotion. More importantly, the bloody scent released by a dead Sea King of that size was an irresistible lure in the deep sea.
The sea, which had only been churning with white foam, suddenly began to boil unnaturally.
Not in just one place.
In seven places, eight... countless bubbles began rising furiously all around the ship.
Chapter 51: A Sea King Killed in One Move-Did the Cook Lose It?
Before you continue