Riding atop a Sea King, Loshue left Orange Town behind. Yet, the storm he stirred there the destruction of Arlong's crew and the death of Captain Nezumi did not fade with his departure.
News of the massacre spread swiftly across the East Blue, traveling from the Sixteenth Branch all the way to the main Marine base.
At Loguetown, headquarters of the East Blue Marines, Colonel Smoker sat in his office, a cigar dangling lazily from his mouth. The white coat of Justice draped over his shoulders, the faint haze of smoke curling around his head.
He looked relaxed, almost bored.
After all, the East Blue was the weakest of the four seas. Compared to the Grand Line or the New World, the pirates here were little more than amateurs loud, violent, but ultimately insignificant.
Even among the pirates worth mentioning, few had bounties that exceeded ten million. And most of them weren't even worth Smoker's time.
So his post here was, in essence, a vacation in uniform.
But that peace was about to shatter.
"Buru buru! Buru buru!"
The Den Den Mushi on his desk began to buzz.
Smoker picked up the receiver, exhaling a lazy puff of smoke. His expression remained calm.
"Smoker speaking."
The voice on the other end was trembling. "C-Colonel Smoker, sir! It's bad news! Branch Captain Nezumi has been… killed!"
"What?"
Smoker's brow furrowed. The calm in his face vanished instantly.
The East Blue wasn't the Grand Line it was a quiet sea. For a Marine officer to be killed here was no small matter.
He leaned back in his chair, voice turning cold. "Who did it? Was it that fish-man Arlong?"
Nezumi's jurisdiction included Cocoyasi Village, an area controlled by the Arlong Pirates, led by the notorious fish-man with a twenty-million-Berry bounty.
In the East Blue, that amount made Arlong a top predator. If anyone could kill Nezumi, Smoker's first thought would naturally be him.
But the reply he received made his blood run colder.
"N-no, sir! It wasn't Arlong!" the major on the other end stammered. "After the attack, we compared the suspect's appearance with every wanted poster we have. He's not on any Marine record. He's not even… a pirate."
Smoker froze.
"You're telling me… a man killed a Marine officer and escaped, and we don't even know who he is?"
The major's voice cracked. "Yes, sir! And that's not all! The entire Arlong Pirates crew every last member was annihilated!"
Smoker's eyes narrowed sharply.
If Nezumi's death was an insult to Marine authority, then Arlong's annihilation was something else entirely. It meant power terrifying, overwhelming power.
"Explain everything. In detail." His tone was ice. The cigar between his fingers burned unnoticed.
The major swallowed hard. "Witnesses say the man was fast unbelievably fast. His strength was monstrous. He took down Arlong with his bare hands, and… and…"
He paused, his breathing shaky. "The most terrifying part… was that even after sustaining heavy injuries, he completely recovered in under a minute."
Smoker's expression darkened. "Regeneration? That fast? So he's a Devil Fruit user?"
His mind flicked through the list of known abilities, but none fit that description perfectly. Even among Paramecia users, such a level of recovery was unheard of.
If what the man said was true, then this newcomer was far beyond the average pirate.
A slow smirk curled at Smoker's lips. "Seems like the East Blue's finally birthed a real monster."
He knew power when he heard it. After all, he was a Logia-type Devil Fruit user himself the wielder of the Smoke-Smoke Fruit.
"Describe him."
The voice on the other end steadied slightly. "Black hair, black eyes, tall around two meters muscular build…"
Then came hurried footsteps and muffled voices.
"Wait, Colonel! We just got more intel on him!"
The major's tone rose with urgency. "His name is Loshue. He's a doctor, known locally as the Bloodhand Butcher."
"Loshue…" Smoker repeated slowly.
His brow furrowed deeper. "A doctor… and a butcher? What kind of title combination is that?"
He snorted. "Doesn't matter. Pirate or not, anyone who slaughters Marines and razes a crew like Arlong's will face justice."
He crushed his cigar into the ashtray and stood abruptly. Smoke curled from his shoulders, thickening with his rising anger.
"Dasqi!" he barked toward the door.
The door swung open a second later. Tashigi, tall and composed, stepped in with her trademark black-rimmed glasses and neatly trimmed short hair.
"Colonel Smoker!" she saluted.
"Put a bounty on this man." Smoker handed her a sketched portrait.
She blinked, glancing down at the drawing. "This is the one who ?"
"He killed Captain Nezumi and wiped out Arlong's entire crew," Smoker said flatly.
Hina's eyes widened. "What? All of them? Alone?"
She couldn't hide her astonishment. In the East Blue, even a pirate with a ten-million-Berry bounty was considered a major threat. Someone powerful enough to annihilate Arlong's crew single-handedly was beyond anything the region had seen in decades.
"In the Grand Line, maybe this wouldn't be shocking," she murmured. "But here in the East Blue… that's insane."
She looked up again. "How high should the bounty be?"
Smoker hesitated for a moment, then exhaled sharply. "Sixty million."
Hina's jaw dropped. "S-sixty million?!"
It was unprecedented. No one in the four seas had ever been given a bounty that high. The strongest East Blue pirate before this Arlong had barely reached twenty million.
This Loshue, a man whose name wasn't even known a week ago, would now become the most wanted figure across the entire East Blue.
Smoker turned back toward the window, gazing out at the cloudy horizon of Loguetown.
The era of pirates was growing restless again.
He reached for the Den Den Mushi once more, his tone grim as he connected to Marine Headquarters.
"This is Colonel Smoker of Loguetown," he said, eyes narrowing. "I'm reporting a new high-level threat in the East Blue."
His cigar flared as he took another long drag.
"His name is Loshue the Bloodhand Butcher."
Outside, the winds began to rise, carrying whispers of a new name that would soon shake even the calmest corners of the sea.
A doctor turned slayer. A man riding a Sea King. A sixty-million-Berry storm was about to hit the East Blue.