Chapter 72

"January 11th. So far, there was no particular obstruction in our sail, and according to the pre-done calculation, we should be able to reach Flevance by 18th." Hina, sitting down on a wooden chair, remarked with a cold sweat, "...But Hina does admit, the sea of New World really is different than that of the Paradise."

Currently, after having crossed the Red Line through the upstream current that the World Government was in control of, we were sailing in the Northern direction and nearing the Calm Belt that lied between the New World and North Blue.

"LEFT!!! A STORM IS APPROACHING AT 11'O CLOCK!!!!"

"A SEA KING IS APPROACHING FROM BELOW!!!"

"WHAT'S WITH THIS WIND?!! IT KEEPS CHANGING ITS DIRECTION!!!"

With Smoker's division having never entered the New World before, they all seemed tense, looking out for any potential hazard around them.

"Rahaha, so this is the New World," In contrast, Aramaki seemed fearless, grinning at the dark and foggy weather ahead of them, "What a manly sea!!!"

"...Manly?" Senor Pink, who was impassively mopping the wet floor lazily, perked up upon hearing Aramaki's remark. He then looked around the surroundings and nodded in approvement, "Hard-boiled."

"SILENCE!" Just then, Rosinante's voice boomed throughout the ship. He, utilizing his fruit, effectively silenced all marine soldiers on the ship and prevented further chaos. Subsequently, he turned to Smoker, "Now, Smoker-san, if you may."

Smoker, who was sitting across Hina, stated casually, "Chill, all of you."

"""Yes, sir!"""

And all marines fell silent with seriousness in their demeanours. While others acted as if this was normal, Hina, squinting her eyes at the sight, exhibited confusion.

"W-were all of you acting?" Hina asked. Aramaki, snorting in response, replied with his arms crossed,

"What acting? Can't you see how Smoker-san just managed to calm them down with his charismatic speech?"

"He literally spoke just one sentence!!" Hina pulled on her hair, "What speech—"

SPLASH! Then, the water suddenly splashed onto her from the wild sea, much to her demise.

"...Tch, what a great start," Hina frowned and shook her drenched hair. Then, she snatched a snatched loaf of bread and nibbled it down aggressively.

Smoker, Aramaki, and Rosinante looked at Hina's behaviour with a deadpan, before turning to each other and shrugging,

'Women.'

'Yes, a typical woman.'

'Don't try to understand them. It's impossible to do so.'

And just like this, the 31st division seemed to be travelling without any issue. Upon sailing further, the sky began to clear, and the wild sea showed signs of calming down. Smoker, witnessing these changes, said, "We're entering the Calm Belt now—"

His eyes then flashed red as he abruptly turned to the back. Narrowing his eyes, Smoker raised his hand up, gesturing his subordinates to stop whatever they were doing. Raising his head up, Smoker then shouted to the watcher at the Crow's Nest, "6 O'Clock, right behind us! Quickly take a look and report what you see!"

The watcher hurriedly complied to Smoker's order, turned around and looked at the stormy sea behind them through the binoculars. Then, said watcher began to sweat profusely with his eyes widened, before reporting loudly, "T-the pirates!!! There are three gigantic pirate ships travelling toward us!!!"

"...Oi, is this for real?" Aramaki, frowning in displeasure, growled, "Pirates hunting down the marines—"

"A-and judging by the jolly roger, they are none other than the Martini pirates!"

"M-Martini…?" One marine whispered in horror, "Martini as in… Martini Hook?!!"

"T-the Admiral killer…" Another stuttered, before widening his eyes in realization, "B-but wait!! He's our ally now, isn't he?!"

"...Martini Hook, a Warlord. And also," Smoker, watching as three pirate ships entered his sight, muttered, "The murderer of Dalmatian and Masterson."

But the question was, why would a Warlord, who's officially allied with the World Government, follow him and his division? Smoker tensed his body up, believing that something was going wrong here.

Then, Smoker raised his hand up and clenched his hand into a fist. In correspondence, all marine soldiers raised up their rifles, ready to shoot down the approaching pirates any time.

"...In the middle of this harsh sea, they managed to pinpoint our exact location." Hina said darkly, "And regardless of their title as Warlord, they are 'pirates' in essence. Whatever they may be here for, I don't have a good feeling about this."

Hina's thought was in align with Smoker's.

Now, three pirate ships were right in front of the Marine Warship. Each one of them, being larger in size than the Marine Warship, contained at least a hundred pirates. Within the middle ship, there stood one middle-aged man with a captain's hat on his head, who overall resembled 'Jack Sparrow' in terms of appearance. This man, twirling a cutlass around the tip of his index finger, then spoke up with his eyes exhibiting a hollow gleam,

"Why, it is nice to meet the infamous 'White Hunter.'" This man bowed emotionlessly while snatching his cutlass by its hilt, "As you probably are aware of, I go by the name 'Hook.'"

His other hand, which wasn't occupied with his cutlass, was holding onto a bottle of alcohol instead. He then raised up the bottle of alcohol and muttered,

"Cheers."

before gulping the liquid down all of a sudden.

'What a strange crew,' Thought Smoker as he inspected the Martini pirates. Unlike the usually loud and crazed pirates, these ones were silent and gloomy. Regardless, he discarded such thought.

"I have no idea why you decided to chase us down. But I'll be honest," Smoker said with a dangerous smile, "I'm currently debating whether to kill you or not. You see,"

He then raised his hands up as if weighing a balance, "On one side, you are a Warlord. However, on the other side, you are the murderer of my colleagues. A hard choice to make, don't you think?"

"Hah," Hook, in response, chuckled. And in contrast to these two smiling men, the atmosphere was getting intense. The marines instinctively felt that the pirates harboured a malicious intent, and tightened their grips on their weapons.

Subsequently, Hook's face changed from that of amusement to a cold expression. He threw away the empty bottle to the sea, and just as the splashing noise was heard,

CLANG—!

Hina found herself frozen. Right next to her face was Smoker's Shusui, which blocked Hook's haki-imbued cutlass from beheading her.

"I won't ask the reason behind your attack." Smoker stated with his eyes flashing coldly, "But consider your lives gone, pirates."

"...Smee," Hook, while retracting his cutlass back, said as he looked at the marines who surrounded him in an instant, "Do it."

Just when Hook said so, from point-blank range, a cannonball was fired. Smoker, immediately appearing in front of the cannonball before it struck his ship, deflected the cannonball up to the sky.

BOOOM!

And simultaneously, Hook, using that brief moment of time, appeared right by Smoker's side and pushed latter off of the ship—essentially separating the two of them from the rest of the marines and pirates.

Smee, a muscular man wearing a red stocking cap on his head, then shouted, "ATTACK!!!"

The pirates, each holding a different kind of weapon, jumped to the Marine Warship with malicious intent. The ones holding firearms stood behind and began firing.

"Tch... Hina let her guard down. Hina ashamed." Hina snarled while putting on her black gloves. Then, she gazed at the pirates murderously.

Rosinante flipped out a pistol from his holster, before whispering, "Calm."

"All marines," Aramaki, with veins popped out of his forehead, ordered, "don't let those scums of the sea dirty our ship!! Wipe them clean before Vice Admiral Smoker returns!!"

"""Yes, sir!"""

BANG BANG! CLANG!

And thus began, the chaotic war on the borderline between Calm Belt and New World.

__________

"...Strange." Smoker, while standing in the air with Shusui in his right hand, remarked, "You are one enigmatic fellow, Martini Hook."

Smoker gazed at his foe, who was standing in the air just like him.

"First, the fact that you are capable of using Geppo. Second, the plan to separate me from the rest of them just back then; it was as if you expected that I would be the sole one to react against it, that you were aware of our strengths. And third," Smoker bickered at the man while placing Shusui on his shoulder, "did you really kill Admiral Anastasia yourself?"

From the start when Smoker sensed Hook through the use of his Observation Haki, Smoker came to inquire about this. In comparison to the weight behind the notorious title of 'Martini,' there stood a man whose strength was estimated to be around the same level as Smoker.

"That Admiral, she was the one strong enough to be called the 'Iron Blood Empress' by the common folks. And even with the consideration that she was senile, there was no way that you could've even landed a strike on her."

CLANG! At the next moment, Hook, without responding to Smoker, suddenly appeared on Smoker's left and slashed his cutlass, to which Smoker countered with his Shusui once again.

"And this time around, you used Soru," Commented Smoker.

CLANG CLANG CLANG! Hook performed exquisite swordsmanship by relentlessly playing his cutlass toward Smoker. However, Smoker, easily seeing through Hook's attacks through his physical capability, managed to parry every single strike that Hook threw.

CLANG! Then, Smoker's Shusui landed on Hook's abdomen. Instead of penetrating, a clanging noise was generated. It was primarily due to Hook coating his abdomen with Armament Haki, however, Smoker muttered,

"...Tekkai, huh."

Hook, not exhibiting any emotion, stepped back from Smoker. Then, he finally opened his mouth,

"I admit, your strength is far above what I anticipated."

Then, Smoker found his eyes narrowed as Hook's cutlass... was then encased by an orange-yellow-coloured substance.

"Then let's up the game, I suppose," Said Hook, while staring at Smoker with his hollow eyes.

'Armament Haki Emission, huh.' Smoker took in a deep breath, 'Quite dangerous.'

"Haa..."

From Smoker's breath, white smoke was exhaled. Though his outward appearance didn't change whatsoever, the internal components of his body were morphed into smoke—ultimately reducing his body weight by a drastic amount.

'Seimei Kikan: Ghost Body.'

Current Smoker, unfortunately, hasn't mastered the Emission of Armament Haki. Regardless of the fact that Hook's strength was far below what the world believed it to be, he wasn't a foe whom Smoker could deal with ease.

'Emission... clashing head-on is an idiotic choice to make.'

Smoker sheathed Shusui, to which Hook raised his eyebrow upon. Then,

Swoosh...

he vanished from Hook's view. Hook, whose eyes subsequently flashed red, turned and slashed his cutlass vertically,

SWOOSH!

however, missed as Smoker, who appeared right in front of Hook, morphed the left portion of his body into smoke and had the cutlass pass through the gap between smokes.

Smoker, whose eyes also exhibited a similar red gleam as Hook's did, then thrust his finger forward.

'White Gun.'

CLANG! Smoker's attack was stopped by the Armament Haki coating on Hook's chest, however, Smoker already expected this to happen. At the next moment,

POOF! The 'White Gun' blasted from Smoker's finger exploded into a large volume of white smoke, completely engulfing Hook and obstructing his vision. Hook, immediately swinging his cutlass horizontally, dispelled the smoke away from him, but by the time he did so, Smoker was holding a swirling sphere of black smoke on top of his palm, which he then threw.

'Black Ball.'

BOOOM! Hook, shielding his body by placing his cutlass in front of him, grimaced as the intense pressure of the explosion knocked him back. However, he quickly regained his bearing and took in a deep breath, before sending out a vigorous slash to Smoker who appeared on his back,

SWOOSH! The slash severed Smoker into two, however, he then melted into a mass of white smoke. Hook then realized that he's been tricked, but it was too late by then, for,

'White Blow.'

Smoker's Haki-imbued fist found its way to Hook's exposed face.

BOOOM!

Hook was knocked down from the sky,

SPLASH!

into the still water of the Calm Belt below.

RAAAWWWRRR!!!! And just after, a loud screech was heard from deep down, before a huge Sea King jumped out of the water with its fangs open, ready to bite Hook down in an instant. But Hook, not letting it from doing so,

"Rumbo."

then slashed his cutlass multiple times within a second, instantly shredding the Sea King into countless pieces.

SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH!

As the pieces of Sea King fell back into the sea, Hook wiped the trail of blood on his lips and glared at Smoker, "You'll have to try harder than that, White Hunter—"

Then, Hook noticed an anomaly—in which the sky that was supposed to be bright and sunny, now had all clouds joined altogether. They madly swirled right above Hook, and a trail of smoke was found to be connecting said cloud-storm with Smoker's raised-up right hand.

"Oh," Smoker stated, "I already am."

Then, Hook saw a huge serpent of white smoke, descending from the cloud-storm to where he stood. Grimacing, he held onto his cutlass with two arms and met the huge serpent,

"White Serpent." / "Neverland—!!!"

BOOOOOM!

Upon collision, the extreme volume of smoke spread over the vast surface of the nearby sea. And within this smoke,

SWOOSH! BOOM! SWOOSH SWOOSH!

Smoker and Hook, they again were engaging one another in extremely fast-paced physical combat—whether by fists or by the cutlass. However, Smoker, while slamming his fists on Hook's Haki-reinforced body, managed to dodge every single slash that Hook swung, and then,

Tap.

Hook felt Smoker's palm on his chest and subconsciously widened his eyes.

"Black Impact."