"Huh? Tashigi, why are you dressed like that?"
Having received the invasion alert, Smoker, patrolling near the weapon shop, saw the girl being pulled along as she ran.
Just as he was about to call out to stop her, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the face beneath the hood of the person pulling her.
A pink-haired girl, with a bright, radiant smile.
It instantly froze Smoker in his tracks, reminding him of a practical training session years ago with his teacher, Zephyr.
And the humiliating memory of being treated like a toy, stuffed into a sword, and forcefully knocked into the sea.
"This bastard, invading my jurisdiction and kidnapping my subordinate!"
Smoker gritted his teeth, sucking on his two cigars until they glowed brightly. "Perfect timing to settle old and new scores together! Prepare to die, Higanbana Sakura!"
Drawing the Jitte from his back, his whole body turned into swirling smoke.
Smoker launched a direct assault straight at Sakura.
Clang!
To his surprise, the Seastone Jitte he thrust forward collided with a sharp longsword.
Then, an icy deathly aura crawled from the point of contact between the longsword and the Jitte, almost freezing Smoker solid.
"What are you doing, Tashigi?!"
The shock of being betrayed by his subordinate, combined with the elasticity contained within the Muramasa's flexible blade, sent the Jitte in Smoker's hand flying away.
"Smokey, I'll be taking your subordinate with me for now! Hahahaha!"
Sakura laughed heartily, pulled Kuina back and slung her over her shoulder like a bag, then accelerated into a sprint forward.
"Stop right there!"
Veins bulged on Smoker's forehead. He whipped out a smoke-like rope to retrieve his Jitte and chased after Sakura's fleeing direction.
After the commotion died down, a bespectacled Marine girl emerged from the weapon shop.
She raised her hand, pushing up her glasses in confusion. "Ara? Did I just hear Captain Smoker's voice?"
Meanwhile, on Loguetown's central street.
"Mmm, caused a commotion, did she... Typical of her..."
Leviathan, her hands full of skewers and her mouth stuffed until bulging, looked into the distance.
In the direction of her gaze, large plumes of smoke and explosions continuously erupted along the street.
"Should we go pick them up?"
Tiger, also enjoying skewers, lowered his voice, trying to reduce his presence.
However, given his six-meter height walking through Loguetown, he was already the focus of many people's attention.
"No need, let's head to the execution platform. Sakura will definitely go there anyway."
Leviathan swallowed her food and pulled Tiger along towards the very center of the town.
Beside Leviathan and Tiger, large numbers of Marines carrying guns and swords ran past.
These reinforcements, arriving from the distant base, marched in orderly steps, quickly heading towards Loguetown's execution platform square.
They set up barricades on all sides, dispersed civilians, and sealed off and surrounded the two people in the center of the square.
"Captain Roger, I've come to see you."
At the top of the execution platform, Sakura sat cross-legged.
Overlooking the scenery of all Loguetown, she took out a bottle of wine, opened it, and poured it onto the platform.
"The place where Sakura-nee's former captain died... It's surprisingly simple and unadorned."
Kuina stood at the edge of the execution platform, looking down.
All she could see was a steel frame with a few creaking wooden planks.
"Ending in a place like this... wouldn't one feel unwilling?"
"Silly, what pirate would regret a heart-soaring adventure?"
Sakura opened a second prepared bottle of wine and, as if prepared in advance, raised a toast to the sky.
The stirring blood within her couldn't calm down, seemingly urging her to hurry towards the adventure ahead.
"Whether dreams are noble or despicable, encountering every piece of the unknown full of hope, leaving no regrets even at death's door… that's us pirates! Hahahaha!"
"Then your regret-free future will be ending your days in the sunless Impel Down!"
A hoarse roar accompanied a Jitte spewing smoke, speeding towards Sakura's head with precision.
The girl raised a hand, caught the Jitte, and turned her head with an unbridled smile.
"Hey, being this unromantic will leave you single for life! And shouldn't you Marines be resting during the New Year holidays?"
This sentence stabbed Smoker twice in the heart, making him bite through his expensive cigars in anger.
'What's wrong with us single people? Aren't you single too?'
'And who's the one who made it impossible for a whole group of us to rest during the New Year? Don't you have any self-awareness?'
The soldiers below, sensing the tense, confrontational atmosphere on the execution platform, raised their swords and aimed their guns.
Some among them had pale faces, some were trembling.
But not a single one abandoned their post, firmly guarding every possible escape route for Sakura.
"Just stand down, Marines. You can't beat me."
Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly, and an invisible wind blew past.
Dark lightning, forged by surging spirit, struck the ground, cracking the bricks upon impact.
It was as if thousands of overlapping roars suddenly erupted, merging with the sound of thunder.
A chill rose from the hearts of the surrounding Marines. A non-existent loud noise tremor caused tinnitus in their ears.
Consciousness faded amidst the high-pitched buzzing. The Marines began falling down one by one.
"You... you... bastard...!"
The gap in strength was so vast. Smoker, facing the Conqueror's Haki impact head-on, knelt on one knee, his spine no longer able to stay straight.
After a moment, Sakura withdrew her gaze, and the dark lightning instantly shattered and dispersed.
Smoker felt the pressure lift and fell forward onto the ground.
"Ca... Captain Smoker..."
Following the sound of falling bodies, a faint call came from behind Smoker.
"Tashigi? Then...?"
Smoker, seeing clearly the person behind him, immediately turned to look at Kuina on the platform, finally discerning some differences in their demeanor.
Realizing he had even mistaken his own subordinate, he was furious from embarrassment. Raising his Jitte, he turned into smoke and charged the execution platform again.
"These two have quite some backbone. Kuina, go deal with them!"
Sakura's gaze, looking into the distance, had already spotted Leviathan and Tiger approaching. She simply left this rare training opportunity to Kuina.
"Okay!"
The excited Kuina drew the Muramasa and her newly purchased longsword and jumped straight down from the execution platform.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Brief contact in mid-air resulted in Kuina's blades and Smoker's Jitte clashing several times as they passed each other.
Sparks flew while their weapons also managed to strike each other.
"Tch, a Logia!"
"Tch, a non-Devil Fruit user!"
Landing nimbly on the ground, Kuina swung both her swords upward in a cutting motion.
The sharp Muramasa sliced through Smoker's body, bringing him waves of chill but producing no effect.
"Hmph, you can't win without Armament Haki!"
Smoker also stopped using his weapon against Kuina, clenching his right fist and unleashing a large amount of smoke.
[White Snake!]
Innumerable strands of white smoke entangled to form the outline of a serpent, opening its maw towards Kuina amidst the atmospheric turbulence.
"If I can't overcome even this level of difficulty, I can never become the World's Greatest Swordsman!"
Kuina extended both hands, her blades crossing before her.
A gray aura overflowed from the swords, rising and shimmering with an infernal illusory light behind her.
[Two Sword Style: Immediate Revitalization: Great Tempest!]
The blades fell. Silvery sword light stirred up a gale like a storm.
Ten thousand waves rose from flat ground.
The smoke on Smoker's body, at the storm's eye, was blown away layer by layer. Finally, his Logia true body was revealed within the wind.
A violent storm surged, crashing against the smoke, pushing him towards the other end of the world.
In his continuously stretching perspective, Smoker gradually closed his eyes.
'Damn it... defeated by a storm again... is this it?'