My blackened cutlass collided head-on with Smoker’s heavy baton, unleashing a thunderous crash that tore the rain apart in every direction. A massive recoil surged up through my wrist.
Yet even through the numbing impact rattling my bones, what truly caught my attention was the expression on the man’s face before me.
"...Ghk?!"
Smoker’s eyes, beneath the cigars clenched between his teeth, were bulging as though they might pop out.
The pure white smoke coiling around the tip of his baton touched my blade—and scattered with a crackle like frozen glass shattering. A peculiar question flashed through my mind. Wasn’t it smoke?
Wasn’t he supposed to be some misty phantom one couldn’t grab or cut?
And yet, the sensation caught on the tip of my blade right now... was unmistakably the solid, weighty feel of striking something firm and resilient head-on.
"You rat...! Where the hell did you learn that kind of power?!"
Smoker bore down with his baton, and his entire lower body exploded into a massive storm of smoke.
Whoooosh!
His body scattered like mist and coiled like a serpent toward my blind spot. An ordinary swordsman would have cut empty air and panicked, but my survival instincts had already moved my body.
"Oh dear, now that won’t do!"
With a loose, swaying step, I bent backward as though sliding across the muddy ground.
Whoosh—crash!
Smoker’s fist grazed my cheek by a hair and tore the stone slabs of the dock floor to pieces. In the instant fragments flew—
My foot, spinning through the air from the recoil, shot out toward the mass of smoke dispersing in midair.
It was strength wrung out purely to land safely.
The stubborn black aura coating the toe of my boot pierced the dense smoke in midair.
Thwack!!
"Guhhk?!"
A horrific cracking sound burst through the air.
Smoker’s physical body emerged from the heart of the smoke, his jaw snapping smartly to one side.
The two cigars clenched in his mouth spun high into the air.
Thud! Roll, roll.
The invincible colonel who had terrorized Loguetown—
rolled four or five times across the muddy ground before slamming into the dock railing.
"..."
Silence fell.
Having landed and regained my balance in the rain, I looked down at the toe of my boot and rubbed my chin in genuine disbelief.
...What? This Haki doesn’t just block iron batons? Even a smoke phantom has bones you can feel when you kick him?
Logia or not, as long as one wore this Haki, the laws of physics apparently allowed you to seize them by the collar and shake them down.
The god of the sea had hidden away a rather convenient rule.
"You... you bastard...!"
Smoker staggered to his feet while gripping the railing and wiped the blood from his mouth.
Between his silver hair, his bloodshot eyes were filled with shock and murderous intent.
"To think someone capable of wielding Armament Haki was hiding in the gutter of East Blue...!"
"I haven’t the faintest idea what sort of color game you’re babbling about, Colonel."
I gave the tails of my wet coat a flick,
then casually caught the thick rope of the prison ship as it crept toward the dock with one hand.
"But I have certainly learned one thing: the jaw of a government man is far more satisfyingly springy than one might expect."
Clank!
The great iron anchor of the transport ship rose completely out of the water.
A huge gust swollen with storm winds filled the vessel’s enormous sails until they seemed ready to burst. It was time to depart.
As the prison ship kicked away from the dock and began gliding out to sea,
I hung from the rope and rose lightly into the air.
Hundreds of Marines who had arrived too late rushed to the harbor railings, leveling their rifles and bayonets.
Looking down at those rain-lashed gun barrels and the mud-caked Colonel Smoker,
I landed lightly atop the ship’s stern railing.
Then I removed my old tricorn hat and placed it over my chest,
bowing deeply at the waist in a voice so brazen and grand it seemed to swallow even the wind and rain.
"Remember this day well, gentlemen of the Marines!
The day you very nearly... captured Captain Jack Sparrow!"
Boooom!!
Along with my farewell,
the two rear cannons of the transport ship thundered cheerfully toward the dock.
The cannonballs smashed into the ground right before the Marines’ feet, throwing up a colossal wall of spray.
The prison ship, with the storm at her back, shot across the savage night sea like an arrow.
At dawn, after the furious storm had passed,
the sea was plummeting at terrifying speed toward an immense reddish wall.
The Red Line, a continent of red earth rising as though to pierce the heavens.
And the gateway to hell, where four currents climbing that colossal cliff merged into one and poured into the Grand Line.
The roar of Reverse Mountain shook the entire horizon.
Rumble—rumble—rumble!!
"Aaaagh!! At this rate, we’re all going to sink!"
On deck, Don Krieg clutched the iron-bar railing, his face deathly pale as he screamed.
Kuro of a Thousand Plans was equally white-faced, too terrified even to adjust his glasses.
Even Arlong glared at the raging currents with savage eyes and clicked his tongue.
"You’re planning to shove a ship into Reverse Mountain in this storm?! We’ll be smashed to splinters!"
"Shut up, you backwater idiots!!"
A deafening shout ripped through the heart of the panic.
Buggy the Clown, wearing clothes crudely patched after being struck by lightning, gripped the prison ship’s massive wheel in both hands and bared his teeth with bloodshot eyes.
"Who do you think I am?! The Grand Line was my own front-yard playground ever since I was a snot-nosed brat—!!"
It seemed the experience he had accumulated while serving as an apprentice aboard the Roger Pirates, crossing this insane mountain countless times, had emerged by instinct.
His legs were trembling, but the hands on the wheel had an incredible feel for the current’s flow.
"Oh... a splendidly dependable front-yard guide, Red-Nose helmsman!"
I kicked open the captain’s cabin door, applauding as I strode into the middle of the deck. Cradled heavily in my arms was an oak barrel of forty-year-aged vintage rum I had liberated from the back alleys.
Thud.
I set the rum barrel in the center of the deck,
drew the cutlass at my waist, and mercilessly split open its top. The sweet, potent scent of rum spread through the salt-laden sea wind.
"Now then, ladies and gentlemen... and you audacious shipboard mutineers of the sea!"
I placed one boot crookedly on the rim of the barrel and gave a broad grin to the crew members glaring murderously at one another.
"Before we dive into that enormous pit, oughtn’t we leave behind a dignified and noble ‘oath of departure’ unique to the Dead Man Pirates?"
"To hell with your oath...!"
Don Krieg strode forward with a bloodthirsty grind of his teeth
and slammed his iron-gauntleted fist onto the rum barrel.
"I’ll gather the strongest army in the Grand Line once again... and then I’ll take your head first, Jack Sparrow!"
"A clear and fiery ambition, my bearded friend!"
Next, Kuro of a Thousand Plans gave a cold chuckle and tapped the side of the barrel with the handle of his sharp knife.
"I’ll plunder the treasures of the Grand Line, secure the perfect retirement fund... then bury a knife in your unguarded back and toss you into the sea."
"A most intelligent and practical retirement plan!"
Thud!
Arlong stomped the opposite side of the barrel with his huge webbed foot and snarled.
"I’ll crush every kingdom of you humans and turn the Grand Line into a paradise for us Fish-Men! I’ll make you my slave along with this ship!"
"Grand ambition that transcends race, Pointed-Nose!"
"Don’t forget my share!"
Buggy the Clown, still holding the wheel, sent one detached hand flying to plant itself atop the rum barrel as he shouted.
"I’ll claim all of Captain John’s treasure for myself and shred that old tricorn hat of yours into scraps for the sea—!!"
Alvida too stood with her smooth legs crossed, resting the tip of her iron club on the barrel and offering a seductive smile.
"I’ll have all the most beautiful jewels in this sea for myself."
Each of them had their own savage greed and murderous intent, along with an oath of betrayal to someday take their captain’s head.
It was the foulest and most beautiful discord in all the seas.
I raised the bottle of rum high,
then exhaled a long stream of cigar smoke toward the enormous whirlpool of the storm.
"And I... shall take endless naps in a place where rum never runs dry,
watching your audacious rebellion forevermore!"
The men’s gazes entwined, and strange, booming laughter erupted.
"Now raise the anchor, you bastards!
The sea awaits us—!!"
Boooooom!!!!
The massive prison ship struck Reverse Mountain’s reverse current head-on.
Into the immense spray soaring up the mountain,
the ship of the most dangerous and bizarre pirate crew surged fiercely upward toward the Grand Line.
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