Chapter 104

As the sea wildly churned, splashing over the feet of one former Vice Admiral and two Admirals, Fisher Tiger slowly rolled his eyes to the side.

In this intense atmosphere, he's seen that the cannons would be fired from the Marine Warships at any second. Though Jinbe was a capable fellow, he alone wouldn't be enough to deal with all those by himself... Fisher Tiger had to admit, Smoker was right.

SPLASH!

Giving a silent nod of gratitude to Smoker, Fisher Tiger immediately dove into the water. Tensei, flinching and frowning upon sighting Fisher Tiger's disappearance, briefly locked his eyes with Borsalino, before attempting to chase after the latter—

"You aren't going anywhere, Tensei."

Smoker, in a relaxed position and unfazed by Borsalino's finger that began to brighten up yet again, casually said to the black-suit-wearing Admiral. Tensei, as if the fear itself had been engraved in his soul, became stiff.

"Oh? Are you sure about that?" Borsalino raised his eyebrow questioningly, to which Smoker muttered,

"Want to test it out?"

SWOOSH! Tensei, gritting his teeth, blasted himself toward Fisher Tiger who resurfaced on the ocean. Combining Geppo with Soru, the former was rapidly closing the gap with the fish man who was running on top of the ocean—

—BOOOM! Tensei was forced to shield his face, for a brilliant explosion of smoke and light occurred right in front of him. As the vision returned to him, he saw that Smoker was guarding Borsalino's kick with his hand.

Smoker dryly remarked, "You really are fast, huh."

"..."

At the next moment, Borsalino was found at a far distance away from the site, having travelled at the speed of light. Smoker, not having moved a step, watched as Borsalino's form glowed in a bright yellow.

"Yasakani Sacred Jewel."

Holding his hands up such that his thumbs and indexes formed O-shapes, Borsalino blasted numerous beams of light that rapidly flew toward Smoker. In such a process, his own form dispersed into pieces of light that were immersed in this frightening wave of light rain.

"Borsalino..." Tensei, still standing at the back, mumbled with a cold sweat, "How am I supposed to get past when you throw in stuffs like this...?"

Smoker, with his eyes gazing at the beams of light, had his right palm facing the sea below.

"Black Wave."

In an instant, the huge volume of black smoke swirled out of his palm, thinly spreading over the surface of the churning ocean. Then, the ignition of said smoke mingled with the body of water and produced a sufficient amount of white steam.

Tsss...

Simultaneously, each beam of light, phasing through the rising volume of steam, transformed into a Borsalino-alike doppelganger, surrounding Smoker all around in an instant.

"Ama no Murakumo Sword."

Hundreds of Borsalinos all generated a bright sword of light, aiming to slash and stab Smoker with it. However, before they could attack,

Poof Poof Poof!

Hundreds of Smoker's own clones, made out of white steam, revealed themselves and intercepted the incoming attacks.

'Transmutation: Black.'

Then, upon Smoker's will, his clones suddenly inflated abnormally,

BOOOOOM!

before all of them simultaneously exploded in a magnificent manner, taking Borsalino's clones along with them. Gray smoke arose from the explosions, mingling with the steam that was generated from the heat of the explosion and enveloping the area of collision between Smoker and Borsalino.

Bizarrely, this cloud of smoke and steam began to close in as if trying to grasp onto something. Subsequently, there was a bright light that burst out from the cloud of smoke and steam, effectively dispelling them away. Then, it became visible in Tensei's sight,

BOOOM!

Smoker clashing Borsalino's light-made sword with his smoke-made club.

"Order the marines to retreat and leave." Said Smoker in a serious manner, "This isn't where your efforts should be wasted. The lives lost here right now will simply be the meaningless ones—"

"What is it that drives you forward, Smoker."

Smoker found his eyes narrowing as Borsalino's eyes gleamed beyond his sunglasses.

"You claim that the Marine's justice is flawed, that the World Government is in the wrong. However... just as you once said before, this world is ambiguous. This world is gray, dictated by the strongest among all. In comparison to us, are you able to call yourself, one who disrupted the balance of the world and invoked the second surge of pirates, the righteous one?"

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! Smoker and Borsalino's forms flickered from one area to another, causing various explosions that brought forth wild eruptions of water.

"FIRE!!!"

Then, the voice from one of the Vice Admirals standing on the Marine Warships. The cannonballs filled the sky, and Jinbe, at the deck of the Sun Pirates' ship, readied himself with a grimace—

—Tap.

At the next moment, Smoker was found right in front of airborne Tensei, holding the latter's Haki-imbued sword with his bare hand. He then tilted his head back, avoiding an arc of intense light that scorched through the air and brilliantly exploded. Borsalino, floating right above Smoker, then slammed a kick down at him, which he blocked by crossing his Haki-imbued arms.

BOOOM! There was the noise screeching throughout the air, but Smoker wasn't knocked back by a single step. Simultaneously, Borsalino was forced to retract his brightening-up index finger, for it was pointing right at Tensei's forehead instead of Smoker's.

"In the end, huff, you are nothing but a criminal full of excuses," Snarled Tensei as he choked from Smoker's crushing grip on his neck, "Your violence is excessive, and you... kurgh... your ideal is maniacal."

With bloodshot eyes, Tensei turned his head and glared at Smoker, "Where is the so-called morality in your actions?!! How come slavery isn't righteous, yet killing is fine?!! If you truly seek to correct the justice, why did you resort to such excessive means?!!"

Staring back at Tensei's eyes, Smoker frowned questioningly.

"...What's wrong with killing the scums of the sea? They kill, steal, rape, and genuinely feel pleasure in harming others. The world does better without them."

Then, much to Borsalino and Tensei's surprise, he loosened his grip over Tensei's neck, and eventually let go of it.

"And why must the innocents be enslaved by those monsters? You speak as if the savage animals are of equal standing as humans."

"What is it that you're trying to say?!" Tensei shouted, before holding his bruised neck with his powerless hands and huffing heavily. Smoker replied,

"That your words mean nothing, I suppose."

"..."

In silence, Borsalino observed Smoker—before his form flickered.

SWOOSH!

The sword made out of scorching yellow light cut through the air just after Smoker leaned back. In Borsalino's sight, it seemed as if Smoker's eyes gave off a faint red hue,

'Future Sight?'

SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH!

Borsalino's speed rapidly accelerated as he flashed back and forth all around Smoker, slashing and stabbing his light-made sword numerous times in a split second. The sky was filled with countless rays of light that appeared lethal in the eyes of Sun Pirates and marines down below, and yet, Smoker was fluidly weaving around them like a ghost—as if he was seeing into the future.

BOOOM!

Then, a punch right on Borsalino's cheek. Borsalino was put into a state of shock, before he was sent flying through the air from the sheer pressure behind Smoker's fist.

"One Sword Style, huff, Rankyaku,"

While Borsalino was briefly knocked away, Tensei, gritting his teeth, was found holding his sword sideways with both hands, before he pushed his feet against the empty air and dashed at Smoker,

"Gallop of the Pitch-Black Horse...!"

As Tensei swung his sword with all his might, the pitch-black and Haki-imbued wave of gigantic size was blasted right toward Smoker, attempting to engulf and shred him apart. In this state, Smoker looked at his back through the corner of his eyes, and found that Borsalino was pointing his index and middle fingers at him,

"Amaterasu."

In the front, Tensei's sharp airwave. At the back, Borsalino's potent burst of laser beam. Standing sandwiched between the rapidly approaching attacks, Smoker clenched his fist and dashed at the approaching sharp wave,

'Black Blow.'

Punching through the airwave and simultaneously opening a gap right on his chest, such that the beam of light passed through him without inflicting any harm, Smoker successfully defended himself against two attacks at once. Then, the vast volume of black smoke pushed its way out of his extended fist, and—

—BOOOOM. Tensei and Borsalino, who immediately crossed their arms to shield their faces, were knocked away from the site of the explosion.

Swoo...

Dissipating his body into that of a bright yellow light, Borsalino evaded an incoming blast of white smoke on his way. Said blast left a trail of white smoke, to which the numerous white snakes grew out of and began chasing after Borsalino.

Swoo...

Borsalino grimaced as he realized that the sky was getting darker at a notable rate. Quickly flashing to a far distance away from the snakes of white smoke, Borsalino fired a huge beam of yellow light to erase them in an instance, and proceeded to look upward right after,

"This is..." Beyond the sunglasses, Borsalino's eyes trembled, "The same as back then... Blaise was..."

How could he have forgotten? Blaise, the Admiral whose strength was known to be equal to Sakazuki, was utterly defeated at the hands of the white-haired man above him. Borsalino, he... did years of working as a 'corporate slave' dull out his ability to think?

Swoo...

The sky, full of rumbling clouds, was swirling in an abnormal manner, placing every human below in that of fright. Right below those clouds was Smoker, holding the bleeding and defeated Tensei by the neck once again.

"This is the second time that I have you subdued," Said Smoker as he glared at Tensei, "How much more must I do for you to leave peacefully?"

"U-Ugh..."

Tensei, groaning in pain and gasping for the air, wasn't in a condition to reply. Growling in frustration, Smoker threw the former down at the dumbfounded Borsalino.

Swoo...

The swirling clouds began to condense, becoming a dense ball of crackling gray smoke right above his palm. As Borsalino caught Tensei and held the latter by his shoulder, Smoker stated, "Since when have all of you stopped dreaming—dreams that brought you to the ranks of Marine? What was it that made you become such subservient people?"

Borsalino couldn't speak anything as the dark sky suddenly became blue and sunny once more. Smoker sighed,

"...More or less, I can't be bothered. But if you're one of those who accepted the World Government's hypocrisy,"

Tilting his hand, Smoker let the dense ball of gray smoke fall freely,

"know that I won't give a damn to your talks of justice."

Widening his eyes in a panic, Borsalino placed both his hands forward. His hands, glowing in an extremely intense light, readied themselves to retaliate against the incoming disaster—

—Pssshhh...

Before said ball abruptly dispersed all across the sky without reaching Borsalino and Tensei.

"W... hat...?" Borsalino mumbled to himself, and Smoker said,

"Leave. If you have the time to chase after me, focus on helping those who call for your help."

Borsalino's breathing stopped as Smoker's eyes exhibited a cold anger from within,

"There won't be a third time."

For the first minute, Borsalino stood still, trying to process what Smoker said. Then, watching as Smoker descended towards the Sun Pirates' ship, he came to wipe a sweat on his forehead.

"...Retreat. This mission is a failure."

Finally, Borsalino spoke into the mini Den Den Mushi, and Tensei expressed his helplessness by clenching his fists tight. The Vice Admirals below, flabbergasted by Borsalino's order, were left speechless.

"What the fuck..." Arlong, shocked by the battle that he just witnessed, unconsciously cursed.