Chapter 69

'Sex.'

Smoker thought as he gazed at an insignia in his hand. This insignia was none other than the badge that represented his status as a Vice Admiral. Grinning in content, he flicked the insignia to the round table in front of him, to which Cancer, the one sitting across the table, grabbed and inspected in amazement.

"Vice Admiral Smoker..." Cancer muttered with a chuckle, "Sounds pretty cool, I admit."

The two of them were currently in a hospital room. At some distance away from this round table where Cancer and Smoker sat around, there was Bastille, bandaged and bedridden.

"...Fuck. Let me see as well." Bastille wiggled his body in an attempt to take a look at the insignia, but to no avail, "Oh come on! Are two of you here to tease me-dara?!"

Snickering in response, Cancer threw the insignia at Bastille. Bastille's bandaged arms instinctively wiggled in response, but they, having been broken, were unable to move swiftly. As the insignia began to fall toward him, Bastille opened his mouth as if trying to catch it with his teeth; Smoker, before Bastille could clench the insignia with his teeth, send forth a hand made out of white smoke, which caught onto it and returned it back to Smoker's grasp.

"Don't get my badge dirty, will you," Smoker proudly placed the insignia back on his justice coat.

Cancer, on the other hand, turned to Bastille, "So, how did you end up in that situation again?"

"That bastard," Bastille frowned in demise, "Diez Barrels."

Smoker, upon hearing Bastille's growl, took out a bounty poster out of his sleeve, "'Maruader' Diez Barrels, 330 million Beli. I remember him having quite a good reputation... what exactly happened, I wonder."

"I was freaking winning, ya know-dara!!!" Bastille then shouted abruptly. Cancer, flinching from the sudden burst, barked back,

"Lower your tone, Dara-tille!"

"Shut up, cancer-inducing Cancer-dara!!!" Bastille, engulfed by the rage, resumed shouting, "Ya know what he did, Smoker?! Huh?!!"

As Cancer continued blabbering at Bastille in annoyance, Smoker asked with a sweatdrop, "What."

"That sicko, he used his own son as bait-dara!!!"

Cancer immediately fell silent and froze on his spot. Bastille continued,

"Every time I tried to attack, Barrels pushed that kid forward!! What am I supposed to do in that situation-dara, huh?!!"

"...A tough situation indeed," Smoker replied thoughtfully as he closed his eyes.

'If someone like Sakazuki was there instead of Bastille, then that marine would've decided to kill the bait along with Barrels.'

Smoker was glad that Bastille was the one who discovered Barrels's corruption.

"You made the best decision available. Though Barrels escaped with his subordinates, you managed to save the majority of civilians there along with Barrels's… former son."

Standing up, Smoker tapped the still-lying Bastille on the shoulder before exiting the room, "You've done all that you could do. Let those worries go and take some rest, Bastille."

"...Yes, will do-dara."

"Ha..." Cancer, scratching the back of his head, gazed at Bastille apologetically, and opened his mouth as if trying to apologize, before Bastille stuck his tongue out in a way that resembled that of lifting up a middle finger. Cancer, growing a tickmark, placed his middle finger on top of his lips.

"Shuu... be quiet in the hospital, alright?"

"Get out of here-dara."

Smoker walked out along with Cancer by his side, leaving Bastille by himself. Then, after turning by the corner, Smoker and Cancer saw one orange-haired teen with an X-shaped scar on his chin, who busily looked around as if searching for something.

"...Hm?" Cancer raised an eyebrow as Smoker came to a stop in front of the teen. He then looked at Smoker questioningly, "Why? You know him?"

"You're Diez Drake, aren't you?" Smoker asked, causing Cancer to widen his eyes.

"Wait, this guy, you mean?" Cancer locked his gaze onto this orange-haired teen named Drake, who took a step back in wariness before saying with an underlying anger,

"I threw away that despicable surname." Drake glared at Smoker, "I go by the name 'X Drake.'"

Cancer wrinkled his face with evident displeasure, "What's with this rudeness? Boy, just because you've grown taller doesn't mean—"

"Cancer, let him go." Smoker, raising his hand up, calmed his blonde colleague down. Then, sighing lightly, he pointed his thumb to his back, "Drake, if you're looking for Bastille, his room is over there."

Drake, with caution, slowly walked around Smoker and Cancer, before hurriedly moving to where Smoker pointed.

"...I don't like that kid," Cancer muttered, "If a pretty girl does that, fine, I can understand. But c'mon, an edgy teenage boy, brooding all day? Yuck."

Smoker snorted as they resumed walking, "Talking about yourself in the past?" Subsequently, Smoker said, "And you know, that dude doesn't even seem that young; I'd say around three to four years younger than us."

"Let's say three," Cancer held three fingers up, "One year is composed of 365 days. 365 days—"

"Ugh, don't even get me started with those time bullshit." Smoker, not willing to listen to Cancer's calculations, then found his stomach growling as they exited the hospital, "...Aren't you hungry?"

"—8760 hours are equivalent to—"

"Aren't you hungry?"

"—Minutes—"

BOOM!

Smoker, filled with annoyance, mercilessly slammed his fist on top of Cancer's head. From the sheer impact alone, the ground below Cancer cracked, and Cancer, with a huge lump on his head, was embedded on the ground like a mole.

"Oh..." Smoker, realizing what he's just done, shrugged lazily, "Oops. My bad, buddy."

However, Cancer, whose eyes whitened out, wasn't in an adequate state to answer Smoker's apology. Instead,

"...You're becoming more and more like Garp-san, I swear."

Smoker came to see Gion and Doll, who sweatdropped at the scenery in front of them.

"Ah, you two—"

Then, Smoker sighted one pink-haired young girl with round eyes standing between Gion and Doll. Concealing his surprise, Smoker pointed his finger at the girl and asked Doll, "...And she is?"

"She's from the West Blue. Name's Perona." Doll replied, "Brought her here cuz she was unreasonably hated by the townfolks, due to a devil fruit power that she had."

"A disgusting town it was," Gion commented while rubbing Perona on the head, "The name of that town was, uh... Kono... Konoa?"

Doll looked at Gion with squinted eyes, "...It was Tunstead. Where did 'Konoa' come from?"

"...Oh," Gion stood still with a dumbfounded expression, before paling up, "S-sister Tsuru, oh no—"

Moving his eyes away from those two, Smoker looked back at his side where Cancer was still embedded within the ground. There, Perona was found, poking onto Cancer's lump out of curiosity.

"So..." Smoker suggested, "Are you girls hungry? My treat."

__________

Four Marine Officers and one girl. The five of them, after some time has passed, were now sitting on the tatami floor, right on top of the cushions provided. They were currently within one restaurant ran by a civilian, waiting for the ordered food to come out.

"H-how have you been doing, mademoiselle G-Gion?" Cancer, who regained his consciousness long ago, asked shyly to Gion, "Have you missed me, dear...?"

Gion, ignoring Cancer completely, asked Smoker, "What did you order again?"

"Some sort of noodle. Don't remember the name."

"Udon?"

"I don't think so."

"M-mademoiselle—" Cancer stuttered as he looked back and forth between Smoker and Gion.

"Ramen? If it isn't udon, that seems the most likely."

"Was ramen the spicy one? Then probably not. I think—"

"Damn you, Smoker!!" Cancer then grabbed Smoker by the hem of his shirt and shook the white-haired marine, "Why is it always you, huh?!"

"What are you angry about?" Smoker, as he was being swayed from side to side, asked out of confusion.

Doll, deadpanning at Cancer, commented, "Simp."

Cancer immediately shouted in response, "GAHHH!!! Shut up, tomboy!!! At least you aren't on my list!!"

Doll, offended by Cancer's shout, shouted back, "Oh, wow! I'm soo glad that I'm not on a simp's list!"

"And I'm sooo glad that—"

Then, a japanese-styled paper door on the side suddenly slided open. And upon sighting who were in the adjacent room, Doll and Cancer immediately stopped with pale faces.

"...Will you quiet down, please?" An orange-haired Admiral, Blaise or 'Seidohebi.'

"Youngsters these days are so loud~" Vice Admiral Borsalino, who's received the code name of 'Kizaru.'

And finally, there sat a third individual—the muscular man with a standard marine cap on top of his head: Admiral Sakazuki or 'Akainu.'

The big shots of Marine were dining right next to Smoker's group.

"...Oh shit," Doll whispered while slowly moving to Smoker's back.

Cancer, looking at the three of them with widened eyes, hiccuped.

Gion and Smoker bowed slightly in courtesy. Gion then said, "Greetings to Vice Admiral Borsalino, Admiral Blaise, and Admiral Sakazuki! I am Gion, currently at the rank of Rear Admiral!"

"Ah, Gion, yes," Blaise said knowingly, "I've heard about you from Tokikake before."

"A-ah," Gion flinched upon hearing the name 'Tokikake,' expressing an immense dislike. However, quickly masking her emotion, she forcibly smiled, "I-I see."

Smoker, finding Gion's slip amusing, watched her while sipping down a tea.

"Oh?" Conversely, Borsalino seemed to have taken an interest in Cancer, "Aren't you that boy from Totto Land before?"

'…Totto Land, huh,' Smoker thought in interest.

Cancer immediately bowed to Borsalino with gratitude, "V-Vice Admiral Borsalino. It was exactly ten years ago. If you were not there back then... I probably wouldn't have made it here."

"Ah~ save it. Glad to see that you made up high." Borsalino then tilted his head, "What's your name again?"

"Cancer, sir."

"...Cancer?"

Smoker, jolting up from the abrupt wave of amusement, lowered his head and bit his lips to prevent himself from laughing. The genuine confusion on Borsalino's face—it surely was difficult to stay impassive to.

Doll, watching as Smoker's face turned red from trying to hold his laughter back, leaned and whispered into his ear, "You aren't in a position to laugh. After all, your name is Smoker."

"Still better than Cancer," Smoker whispered back, to which Doll rolled her eyes in response.

"Vice Admiral Smoker."

Then, the man who's been staying silent until now—Admiral Sakazuki—spoke up while placing his cup of tea down. Smoker and Doll turned to the rigidly sitting man, who stated, "I've heard a good deal of your achievements out in the sea. Congratulations on your promotion, you have contributed to raising the reputation of Marine."

Smoker, raising his eyebrow, nodded slightly nonetheless, "Thank you, Admiral Sakazuki."

"And judging by how fast your capability seems to be progressing, it is without a doubt that you will become a leading figure of your generation in the future. This makes me wonder..." Sakazuki shifted his cold eyes at Smoker,

"What belief do you hold in regard to the Marine's 'justice.'"

All the other conversations ceased upon Sakazuki's abrupt question. Justice; it was one of, if not the most, sensitive topics within Marine. After all, the current Marine was divided into factions in accordance with their beliefs regarding justice.

Smoker immediately realized that this was Sakazuki's way of testing him.

'...Thorough Justice, huh,' Smoker thought bitterly as his mind went back to the Ohara incident back in the canon, 'I'm well aware that you adhere to the idea that the annihilation of the evil is more "effective" than saving the weak. Ruthless and idealistic to the core; I can't truly determine if you're good or bad, but one thing is for sure...

...you are crazy.'

Smoker, gazing directly back into Sakazuki's eyes, replied with a conviction, "If I were to summarize my thought of justice in word... 'arbitrary,' I would say."

Cancer, already having heard of Smoker's ideal, listened on without any surprise. Doll, nodding her head thoughtfully, seemed to have understood Smoker's perspective to some extent. Borsalino, all of a sudden, turned the other way and began playing with a napkin as if not interested in the conversation.

In contrast, Gion, Blaise, and Sakazuki narrowed their eyes in response.

"...Elaborate," Said Sakazuki.

Smoker, letting out a light chuckle, placed his teacup in the middle of the table, "This is a criminal."

Then, he scattered napkins around the teacup, "And these are the hostages—the innocent civilians. The criminal threatens to let him go, that he will kill all these civilians if we don't listen. The idealistic situation of saving civilians and arresting the criminal at the same time is impossible. In this circumstance, what will your choice be, Admiral Sakazuki?"

Sakazuki immediately replied without any hesitation, "Kill all of them."

Cancer and Doll's eyes widened in disbelief. Sakazuki continued,

"Though the deaths of civilians are regretful, they are for the greater good—to prevent any further evil-doings by the criminal."

"Then, for whom does the justice exist?"

Lifting up one napkin and staring at it, Smoker said impassively, "Then, disregarding the ongoing situation, the one who killed the innocents isn't the criminal but you, Admiral Sakazuki. You killed the helpless civilians for the 'greater good,' however, speaking of 'greater good' itself serves as a sign that you are aware—that your act is 'wrong' in essence."

Sakazuki's eyes twitched.

"A marine who willingly commits 'wrong' under the name of 'justice'... this leads to the idea that justice doesn't equate to goodness. If a wrong act can be perceived as 'doing justice,' then justice is arbitrary; it is naught but an excuse for a strong to do what he or she wants to do."

Gion, lowering her head with her hand on her chin, seemed to be in contemplation after hearing Smoker's logic. Blaise, on the other hand, didn't exhibit any emotion.

Placing the napkin down, Smoker tilted his head toward Sakazuki, "So, what do you think, Admiral Sakazuki?"

"...Interesting. And at the same time, naïve." Sakazuki, letting out a light snort, said coldly, "Your perspective remains on a narrow scope, and fails to interpret my action based on its result. Marine must always think of what choice can lead to the best possible outcome, and some deaths are unpreventable."

Smoker and Sakazuki gazed at each other, not willing to bend their wills against the fellow marine. With the room engulfed in silence, the cold, icy atmosphere dominated the surroundings, such that the young girl, Perona, unconsciously gulped while closing her body to Doll.

Creak—. Then, another paper door opened, and,

"Have I kept you waiting—oh?"

Kuzan entered the scene.