The thick smoke did not dissipate, even though it possessed enough potency to choke an elephant.
Instead, it writhed and expanded in the air like a living creature.
Zaraki waved a hand in front of his nose, frowning slightly.
Two distinct smells mingled together.
One carried the sulfurous odor of cheap gunpowder, the other held the rich bitter scent of cigar tobacco.
"Cough, cough..."
Captain Nezumi scrambled halfway up from the ground.
Cold sweat from his narrow escape slicked his face. He glanced back in terror at the plain sword embedded in the stone pillar, then at the tall figure shielding him.
His shattered courage stitched itself back together instantly.
"Captain Smoker, it's you!" Nezumi shrieked hoarsely. "Quick, arrest this madman! He killed Arlong and tried to kill me! He even dared to attack the Marines openly! This is a great crime, an open declaration of war against the World Government!"
Smoker ignored the clamor behind him.
He simply clenched the two thick cigars between his teeth. Gray smoke seeped slowly from his neck and sleeves, thickening and muddying the surrounding air.
Through the haze of smoke and dust, Smoker's sharp eyes locked onto Zaraki.
"So you're Zaraki." Smoker's voice sounded low and raspy, like sandpaper scraping across a table.
"No wonder Garp made such a fuss.... I didn't expect you to have already torn Arlong Park apart."
Smoker's gaze swept over the ruined courtyard, the dead fish-men, and Nezumi's terrified face before settling back on Zaraki.
"You brat, do you know what you've done?"
Zaraki did not answer, instead, his gaze passed over Smoker's broad shoulders and landed on Nezumi who was inching toward the door.
The newly acquired Telekinetic Sword Control brought an entirely different sensation to his mind.
"I am talking to you."
Smoker's eyes narrowed sharply at being ignored.
His right arm suddenly transformed into its elemental state, turning into a massive white smoke fist that shot toward Zaraki's face on a howling gust of wind.
"White Blow."
This strike moved extremely fast and covered a wide area.
Yet, just as the smoke fist threatened to touch the tip of Zaraki's nose, an eerie, bone-chilling cold descended without warning.
It was an aura of extremely concentrated killing intent.
Every Marine present, even the battle-hardened Smoker, felt as if an icy hand had seized their hearts in that instant.
The surrounding temperature plummeted to freezing. The dust floating in the air appeared to solidify mid-drift.
At the center of that terrifying pressure, Zaraki's eyes had turned a deep crimson.
Zaraki did not dodge Smoker's attack.
He merely raised two fingers slightly and gave a gentle hook toward the distance.
Buzz—
A sharp metallic tremor exploded behind Smoker suddenly.
Smoker's pupils contracted sharply.
His body instinctively attempted to disperse through elementalization, but the incoming object moved simply too fast.
It was the plain sword Zaraki had thrown earlier, the one embedded in the stone pillar beside Nezumi.
Guided by telekinesis, that ordinary-looking blade seemed to transform into a streak of purple lightning.
It bypassed Smoker's massive smoke form instantly.
It did not travel in a straight line but followed a bizarre arc that defied the laws of physics.
Thud.
The sound of the sharp blade piercing flesh was almost inaudible. Yet, it plunged the entire chaotic battlefield into a dead silence.
Captain Nezumi, who had been inching quietly toward the door, stiffened suddenly.
He lowered his head.
Disbelief filled his eyes as he watched a bloodstained blade tip emerge from his chest.
The blade pierced his heart with pinpoint accuracy. It lacked the slightest deviation.
"Uh... how..."
Nezumi let out two muffled, gurgling sounds from his throat.
The greed and fear in his eyes faded rapidly into dullness.
He reached out as if trying to grasp something, ultimately, his hand only fell limply.
His entire body collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud, destined never to make another sound.
Only then did the hovering blade clatter to the ground beside the corpse, as if having fulfilled its mission.
Smoker remained frozen in place, maintaining his punching stance.
The smoke attacking Zaraki dissipated slowly, revealing his livid expression.
Right in front of him.
Bypassing his defenses.
Right under his very eyes, the kid had killed the person he intended to protect!
This delivered a blatant slap on his face, it openly trampled on the Marines' justice.
"You..." Smoker turned slowly, looking at Nezumi's corpse.
He suddenly whipped his head back, veins bulging on his neck.
The white smoke around him churned violently as if boiling. "Do you know what you have done? Even if he was scum, the military court should judge him, not some wild trainee brat like you!"
"Trainee?"
The crimson in Zaraki's eyes faded gradually, returning to their lazy black hue.
He cracked his neck, producing a series of crisp sounds. He seemed somewhat satisfied with the precision of his earlier strike.
"I dont give a damn about that since i haven't officially join the Marines anyway!"
With a low metallic ring, the plain sword rose from beside Nezumi's corpse and flew back into Zaraki's hand.
Zaraki weighed the blade once, then looked up at the furious Smoker.
"As for you Captain, you let this rat torment the villagers for eight years without lifting a finger. Now you come out preaching procedural justice? Since your courts fell asleep at the wheel, I just helped you clean the house!"
Paired with his nonchalant attitude, these words felt even more grating than malicious mockery.
"Hehehahahaha." Smoker laughed in extreme anger.
He pulled the jitte from his back. In an instant, his entire body transformed into a massive white storm.
"Garp's right, your personallity clearly needs some adjustment.... don't blame me for not holding back! White Vine."
The ground within a radius of dozens of meters was covered in white smoke instantly.
This was no ordinary smoke and dust.
It was an extension of Smoker's solid body.
These thick, viscous fumes obscured vision and coiled toward Zaraki from all directions like conscious tentacles, attempting to bind his limbs.
"Though this is not Seastone, your monstrous strength is useless within this White Smoke Domain," Smoker's voice echoed from all around, making it impossible to pinpoint his location.
"Surrender now."
Zaraki stood amidst the vast expanse of white, surrounded by a tightening cage of smoke.
His vision was obstructed, and his hearing was disrupted.
An ordinary person facing a Logia-type user in this manner would likely have lost the will to resist long ago.
Zaraki merely stood in place, feeling the oppressive sensation of the restraint.
The corners of his mouth curled slowly into a ferocious grin.
That feeling was back.
The Kenpachi Zaraki within him roared, craving to tear apart every obstacle before him.
The newly acquired Telekinetic Sword Control and his sharpened instinct allowed him to precisely capture that faint, flowing presence within the chaotic smoke.
"Useless?"
Zaraki tightened his grip on the Asauchi.
Busoshoku Haki coiled around it instantly like black ink. It dyed the plain blade the color of dark steel.
Zaraki closed his eyes.
He crouched slightly and assumed a simple charging stance.
At the exact moment Smoker's jitte threatened to strike the back of his head—
Zaraki moved.
"Get out."
Boom—!!
This sweeping strike carried wind pressure and a terrifying momentum that seemed capable of cleaving space itself.
The dense white smoke, previously solid as a physical entity, was sliced cleanly through by this single strike as if it were tofu.
The Haki-imbued blade struck with pinpoint accuracy at a specific point within the smoke.
It hit the only place where Smoker's physical body existed.
Thud.
Smoker thought victory was assured. Suddenly, he felt as if his chest had been rammed head-on by a high-speed sea train.
That domineering black energy tore apart his defensive elementalization forcefully. Excruciating pain swept through his entire body instantly.
With a dull, thunderous crash, Smoker's towering figure shot backward from the white smoke like a cannonball.
He smashed through the last two remaining stone pillars in the courtyard, his momentum undiminished.
Finally, he crashed violently into the dense forest surrounding Arlong Park.
Dust billowed into the air.
The deafening roar of collapsing trees echoed incessantly.
The sky-filling white smoke grew out of control and dissipated quickly into the air.
Zaraki stood in place and gave the plain blade in his hand a small shake, letting the black Haki coating recede from its surface.
The edge was still intact.
Zaraki brushed the remaining dust from his hands as if he had just completed a trivial task.
At the entrance, the thirty fully armed Marine elites stood with their mouths agape.
Their rifles clattered to the ground one by one.
What had they just witnessed?
Captain Smoker possessed the power of the Logia-type Moku Moku no Mi.
Yet, this teenager wielding a single plain sword had sent him flying like a baseball!
A deathly silence enveloped the entirety of Arlong Park.
Zaraki glanced somewhat disinterestedly at the dust rising from deep within the forest.
The commotion was significant, but he could sense that Smoker's presence had not vanished.
If anything, it had grown even more ferocious.
"Tsk, Logia users really are tough," Zaraki muttered, rotating his sore shoulders.
His gaze swept slowly over the trembling Marine soldiers at the entrance before finally settling on the forest beyond.
"Hey, how much longer are you going to lie there?" Zaraki's voice cut through the ruins, tinged with a provocative smile.
"If you don't come out soon, I'm heading to the tavern over there for a drink."