Under the trainees' watchful eyes, Kai and Smoker each walked to an open stretch of ground.
Their gazes met.
Tension spiked—like blades drawn.
A killing aura quietly spread.
Feeling that oppressive atmosphere, every trainee's eyes burned with curiosity and anticipation. They focused completely on the battlefield ahead.
Including Tina.
They all wanted to know—
In this match, who would be stronger?
Without Seastone in his hands, could that "monster" Kai still defeat Smoker?
First of all—
Without Seastone's suppression, the first problem Kai had to face was…
A Logia's elemental transformation.
How do you break intangibility?
No one here knew.
They racked their brains and couldn't think of any way to deal with something that seemed unsolvable—
Unless you used Seastone.
That was the only answer any of them had.
But since Kai had personally declared he wouldn't use any external tools or weapons, it clearly meant he wouldn't be using Seastone against Smoker.
So the question was—
What would Kai do to deal with elemental transformation?
"This fight… feels like Kai might lose," one trainee analyzed calmly.
"I've got the same feeling," others nodded.
A Logia's intangibility, to someone without Seastone, was almost unbeatable—capable of blocking nearly all physical attacks.
Against an enemy like that, anyone would feel despair.
"Since it was Kai who proposed this match, he shouldn't be doing it without a plan," Tina said, her eyes locked on the field.
On the battlefield—
Smoker stared at Kai with a grave expression. His lips moved.
"Be careful. I'm coming."
"I won't hold back!"
Because he understood too well how terrifying Kai's combat power was—
Smoker opened with full force.
Not a trace of restraint.
"White Fist!"
With a shout, Smoker activated his Devil Fruit at once, turning his body into gray-white smoke.
His fists separated from his forearms—
And driven by the force of the smoke, they shot toward Kai at frightening speed.
Whoosh—whoosh!
Two fists flew straight at Kai.
Kai only smiled faintly.
Observation Haki—activate!
Buzz!
An invisible will spread from Kai's body, expanding in all directions.
In an instant, his Observation covered a three-hundred-meter radius.
Within that range, even the smallest movement couldn't escape his perception.
With a single thought—
Kai read the exact trajectory of Smoker's incoming attack.
So even with his eyes half-closed, he dodged effortlessly.
He shifted to the side.
Smoker's fists brushed past him—missing completely, failing to harm Kai in the slightest.
They didn't even graze his clothes.
"Huh?!" Smoker's pupils tightened.
He inhaled sharply, forcibly suppressing the shock in his chest.
This time, Kai wasn't holding Seastone.
That meant Smoker didn't need to be overly afraid.
"Soru!"
Smoker roared.
His feet stomped the ground dozens of times in an instant. The recoil launched him—his body seeming to vanish.
Whoosh!
With a piercing sound tearing through the air, Smoker appeared less than half a meter in front of Kai.
A thick mass of gray-white smoke erupted from him and poured down, completely trying to smother Kai.
He wanted to use dense smoke to lock down the space around Kai—
To cut off oxygen in the air and force Kai's condition to plummet… even to suffocation.
This was Smoker's Devil Fruit development technique!
From the very start—
He showed no mercy.
Smoke rolled in like a tide.
Yet Kai's expression didn't change. A playful smile hung at his lips.
Then—
Kai vanished too.
Soru—instant activation!
His body slipped out of the smoke's coverage in a blink.
Before Smoker even launched the move, Kai's Observation had already seen everything clearly.
"As expected…"
"Against someone who doesn't have Observation, Observation is ridiculously unfair."
"You can even see an enemy's intent crystal clear."
"With that, you're basically already undefeated."
"No matter how strong the move is—if it can't hit, it means nothing. Observation lets you avoid most attacks."
Kai sighed and looked at Smoker, the corner of his mouth lifting.
"Smoker, your attacks are full of openings."
Before he mastered Observation, he wouldn't have noticed so much.
But now that he had it, he realized Smoker's intent was painfully obvious—
Like it was written on his face.
And when the intent was that clear, Kai's Observation pierced it instantly.
So Smoker's offense was almost useless.
Before Smoker moved, Kai had already seen it all.
In that situation—
How could Smoker possibly threaten him?
"Full of openings…?" Smoker's mouth twitched.
Arrogant.
Even more arrogant than the first time they fought.
This "monster" Kai really did look down on everyone.
"You should know—your Seastone weapon is gone now."
"How will you break my elemental transformation?"
"Even if I can't land a clean hit on you, as time goes on I'll wear down your stamina."
"When that happens, beating you will be easy."
"And you… will still have no answer to my intangibility."
Smoker grit his teeth and stared Kai down head-on.
If you couldn't break a Logia's transformation—
You couldn't truly fight a Logia user.
You couldn't hurt them even a little.
In that case, a Logia was "unsolvable."
What was Kai going to do?
Smoker couldn't understand.
He stared hard at Kai, feeling like Kai was hiding something crucial.
"You're asking me how to break your elemental transformation?" Kai chuckled.
Smoker…
He was far too confident in his Logia power.
That kind of confidence wasn't always a good thing.
"Then today, I'll tell you."
"Relying too much on your Devil Fruit is a well-known weakness."
"People should rely on themselves."
"Any external aid is unreliable—whether it's weapons or Devil Fruits."
"Those are just outside powers."
"A true powerhouse is strong because of themselves—not because of borrowed force."
"Overdependence on Devil Fruits is a fatal flaw."
"And blindly trusting that power…"
"One day it'll drag you into the abyss."
Kai looked Smoker in the eyes, then smiled.
"You asked how I break your intangibility?"
"It's simple."
"With these hands."
"With bare fists…"
"I'll break it head-on."
As Smoker watched—
Kai willed it.
In an instant, Armament Haki ignited!
BOOM—
A surging, violent force poured through his body and rushed into his arms.
Then—visibly—
A black, ink-like coating rapidly wrapped around his hands.
Liquid turned solid.
Ink turned armor.
Like black jade—unyielding, razor-sharp.
A hard black "gauntlet" sealed around Kai's arms, and an overwhelming pressure exploded from him, flooding the entire field.
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