The quiet prison corridor echoed with calculated footsteps.
Tap!
Tap!
Tap!
"We have been waiting for you, intruder!!" A voice cut through the rhythm.
The mood tensed...
On one side, Commodore Dick and a group of Marines stood, blocking the path.
They were lined up in formation, with barrels aimed forward.
Across them was the intruder, Sear; the upper half of his face obscured by the dim light.
Dick scoffed at the confident look on this lone revolutionary's face.
"Hmph, you thought you could get away with being a hindrance to me? I am going to set an example out of you today, boy!!"
"Are you now?!" Sear chuckled, and—*Click! Right as he touched the hilt of his kukri—
"Fire!!" Dick gave the order to his subordinates..
*Bang! *Bang! *Bang! *Bang!
Subsequently, with the sound of gunshots, Sear disappeared from the spot, as if he was never there.
The wide-eyed Marines continued pressing the triggers in unison despite their raging hearts and sweaty palms. However, multiple rounds were wasted, as their slow bullets failed to even graze Sear, whose image flickered all over the place along with the flickering lights.
. . .
Meanwhile, as it happened, Officer Smoker and Commander Pudding had just arrived at the shores of Logue Town. They had been summoned to reinforce the place in case revolutionaries tried to free those under custody.
"It seemed someone had infiltrated the base..." Pudding told the officer; newly appointed under his command.
"Just one person?" Smoker was rather bewildered by this information.
"His identity is not clear yet, though they suspect it's a revolutionary with the name Sear," Pudding replied, matter-of-factly.
'Him again!' Smoker felt irritated just remembering the guy who had lied to him in broad daylight.
Thus, for that same reason, he also had to take the matter a lot more seriously. "Excuse me, Commander, I have a feeling those useless guys at the base might not be able to handle this."
"Are you sure? It's only one guy, though.."
. . .
*Bang!
The lock on Desire's cell was undone after Sear made a hole right through it with his pistol.
Then with another *Bang!
"Eek!" The girl closed her eyes as her restraints also came off.
Afterwards, Sear walked back to Commodore Dick, who was slumped face-flat on the floor.
He grabbed the man's hair and slightly raised him before hissing, "What happened to the officer you guys arrested?"
To that, Dick replied in a wimpy voice, "There was no proof he was involved in any revolutionary activity, so he was released... Every other officer vouched for him..."
Sear let out a sigh of relief and let go of the man.
Thud!! The head fell back to the floor.
Then, speaking to Desire, he said, "Hurry up! I know a secret passage from where we can directly reach the port!!"
The girl nodded without hesitation. She didn't ask any unnecessary questions.
Leaving a trail of groaning Marines behind him, Sear kicked open the heavy main door of the building.
Immediately, as they stepped out of the front gate, they were met by the sight of Smoker. He was alone, with possibly others on their way.
"Of all the times.." Sear cursed his luck.
While Smoker cursed at him, "You bastard!! I should have guessed someone like you, having seen Gold Roger's smile that day, wouldn't be a common merchant."
"Is that an insult to merchants?" Sear smirked, right before charging at the Marine with the kukri in hand. "HAAAAAA!!"
"Don't think you can get away from me today!!" Smoker too grabbed his baton with one hand and employed his Smoke-Smoke Fruit's ability with the other.
His left hand turned into a charging pillar of smoke with a fist the size of an adult elephant's head.
Sear dodged the plume of smoke coming his way by a hair's margin and afterwards loudly yelled with all his breath, "Desire! Run!!! Run in the direction I told you! Our men there will show the way!"
"Okay!! Take care of yourself!" she shouted back and, without dragging the exchange, rushed away from the scene.
At the same time, the poor guy lamented to himself; 'Yeah... only prayers might save me right now!!'
Being entangled with Smoker now; a man made purely out of intangible smoke, was a death sentence when he couldn't use haki to counteract the Logia fruit.
Sear had no choice but to dodge the plumes of smoke coming his way.
Of-course trying to fight, what is essentially gas is foolish.
He moved, resembling a cat avoiding the fangs of a ravenous snake, just that in this case the snake was changing directions at impossible angles..
After dodging the smoke a fair number of times, he started getting used to the pattern and had a sense of realization.
His legs moved as he contemplated; 'This guy Smoker.. his control over the ability is pretty clunky. He is only directing it forward and sideways, seems he can't freely shape it as he wish'
Thus mid-fight, to confirm his own doubts, Sear directly asked the man himself..
"Don't tell me, you haven't got much experience since you got that ability? It must not have been long, huh!?.. Well, isn't it a handicap more than anything?!!"
"Shut up!"
"So I am right, hehe!!"
Assured by the man's reaction, Sear fully unleashed his breathing arts, becoming a feather, a feather that spurred like a bird every time a hand attempted to grasp it.
In this manner, he gradually got closer to his foe. Behind him, the smoke too was in hot pursuit, moving like how lines move in a maths paper. Geometrical shapes with sharp 90° turns formed mid-air..
Yet ink isn't infinite, those white lines got thinner and thinner.
At the exact moment when the smoke ran out and the guy was forced to retrieve back the already exhausted smoke to replenish his reserve, Sear charged forward. His opponent tried to block his path with the baton in hand, but that's what Sear wanted!
Leaping into the air right above the Marine's head, his skin felt the sweeping wind. With both body and mind in perfect unison, and the conditions right, he sensed the breath of every object in the vicinity..
In that instant, as he was suspended over Smoker, his hands precisely maneuvered the kukri: Hibutsu—and drew a flawless cut..
—Schkk!
Like paper, the baton made out of steel, save for the tip, was cleanly chopped in half.