Chapter 10

""SMOKER!!!"" The anguish-filled cries from Hina and Bastille.

"""Hahahahaha!!!!""" The crazed and drunken laughs from the enemies.

"Well, what about you, big guy? You better answer well, if you don't want to be given the same treatment are your friend." The mocking voice of Mammoth.

I blinked my blurry eyes, trying to gain sense of what just happened. The blood was dripping out from my mouth, signalling that I currently acquired the internal injury.

'...It hurts,' I couldn't help but think weakly, as my mind was halfway into the realm of unconsciousness.

'But... I have to help them.'

"Never, suckers!!!" Bastille then screamed, before launching his huge body at Mammoth, "RAAAAAA—kek..."

"What an idiot," Only to be choked by Mammoth, who effortlessly snatched Bastille by the neck.

Weakly raising my head up, I looked to my left and right with the blurry vision that I had. It seemed that Mammoth's punch made me crash through couple walls, before landing at this... pantry, it seemed.

"AHHH!!!!" Hina screamed as she was lifted up by the hair, from Mammoth's grip.

My mind felt hazy. My eyes were half-lidded, unable to handle the current stress that I was going through.

But my hands twitched. I was still alive, and my peers were suffering.

My eyes continued to wander off randomly, around this pantry that I currently set within.

'...Melons... melons... and... more melons...'

...Heh, the room was filled with numerous barrels, which all contained melons. I couldn't help but chuckle, before coughing out blood due to stressing my lungs.

'...Melons.'

"Boy, you surely are weak for being this huge!" Even now, Mammoth was talking as he held both Bastille and Hina at the same time, "And girl, quit trying to bite me! The nicer you are, the better treatment you will receive! Got that?"

"F*** YOU!!!"

My eyes locked onto a particular barrel, filled with melons. It was filled to the brim, to an extent where couple of melons were peaking out. From them, there existed one odd one.

'Strange patterns... ugly to an extent where the sight alone... makes me want to puke...'

And before I knew, I was moving. I was crawling my way to where that barrel lied, using all strengths that I got.

'This... is it.'

I instinctively knew that this was our only way out. The reason why Smoker, Hina, and Bastille still were alive in the canon—this had to be the way.

"Geez, girl, I'm telling you! Biting won't do anything to me! I already told you, didn't I? I am a 'hard' man, nyomnyomnyom!"

"AHHHH!!!"

Hina let out a scream, but I didn't look. Placing my focus solely on the odd fruit within one barrel, I crawled and crawled. Time mattered.

"Hahah, I told you before! Captain doesn't know how to handle a girl!"

"Hey, captain, you are supposed to be nice to her, you know? Like... you gotta touch places, kekeh..."

I was solely motivated by nothing but a rage. The path in which I crawled by, was coloured by my own blood. At this rate, I knew that I would end up dead. But I couldn't stop here. At this point, even if I were to die, I wanted to murder every single pirate on this ship, as painfully as possible.

And finally, here I was, with my bloody hand on top of the odd fruit that I sighted. With my hazy vision filled with red due to my fury,

Munch. I used all my strength to take a bite on it.

The horrific taste? I didn't have any spare attention to focus on such a trivial thing. What really mattered, was the fact that I ate the devil fruit—the mysterious fruit that granted its consumer a power.

And,

'Melon... white... cloud-like... patterns... this has to be,'

the Smoke Smoke fruit.

Just when I thought, I saw, the tips of my bloody fingers slowly morphing into the thin smokes, slowly travelling up in the air.

And with the power of Logia at my disposal, I knew that we had our ways out.

__________

"...This boy fainted, huh," Mammoth said lazily as he looked at Bastille, who passed out due to the lack of oxygen. Loosing his grip, Mammoth let go of Bastille's neck and had the latter collapse to the floor.

Turning around while still holding onto Hina's hair, with Hina thrashing as much as she could, Mammoth said to his crew, "Do whatever you want with those two, I don't care. But for the next few hours... don't call me."

"Well, of course, cap," One pirate said while rubbing his hands together excitedly, "Enjoy your time—"

Psssss...

all pirates, including Mammoth, stopped upon hearing a bizarre noise from some distance away, through the hole created by Mammoth punching Smoker previously.

"Oi," Mammoth motioned his head at one pirate, "go check it out."

"Aye aye~"

Hina helplessly looked at the direction of the noise as well, with her eyes reddened from tears.

Then, from within,

"White Out."

the smoke suddenly swarmed into the hallway from that hole, filling the space entirely.

"W-what is this?!"

"Captain, what should we do?!"

The smoke was so thick that nothing could be seen even when the pirates were next to one another; the hall fell into a chaos, with pirates simultaneously panicking out.

"Seriously, shut the hell up, all of you!!!" Mammoth, unfazed by this, simply shouted, "It's just a smoke!!"

Then came,

"...Indeed, it's just a smoke, made up of the burned particles."

a weak voice, which was very familiar to Hina.

"Which means... the high density of smoke..."

Then, within this thick smoke, Mammoth's eyes widened upon sighting one bloody white-haired boy, Smoker, glaring at him murderously,

"can do this as well!!!"

The smokes all around the hallway began to gather and grow even more dense, forming specific shapes. Mammoth, and all the other pirates, found themselves bound by the huge hands formed out of dense smokes.

Bang! In this smoke, one bullet was fired at Smoker, however, it simply phased through his body, much to everyone's shock.

"BOY!!!" Mammoth shouted with bloodshot eyes, "So you ate as well... the DEVIL FRUIT!!!"

Smoker slowly walked step by step, with each step leaving the footprint made of blood. Stopping in front of Mammoth who was held by the smoke hand, Smoker looked at Hina who was still held by the hair.

She was on verge of crying.

"...Let her go," Smoker said in a low tone.

Mammoth, who was looking at Smoker with a panic, suddenly calmed down. Grinning shrewdly, he stated, "But your smoke is too soft, isn't it? It may be useful, but not to a 'hard' man like me."

Smoker's forehead instantly popped veins upon hearing Mammoth, expressing his imminent rage. Frowning deeply, while gritting his teeth so hard that they shook, Smoker raised his hand up and placed it over Mammoth's arm that held Hina's hair.

"Then burn."

Then, the horrific searing sound was heard to everyone. Mammoth's face was frozen, unable to perceive what was going on.

It initially wasn't painful. But the sear continued, as if the food was being slow-cooked.

Tssss...

All pirates, held by the smoke hands, watched as the smokes were emitted from Mammoth's wrist that Smoker held tightly, and eventually,

"G-GAHHHHH!!!!!" Mammoth began to express pain, with the slow burn finally reaching his nerves. He instinctively hardened his wrist, but the effect of hardening did not reduce the extent of pain that he was receiving. He thrashed his body to his left and right, but the grip of the smoke on his body was especially strong, due to the small space of hallway serving to reinforce the smoke density.

Finally, by reflex, Mammoth let go of Hina's hair, causing her to drop to the floor. The first thing she did, upon becoming free, was to look at Smoker with her body still trembling from the terrifying experience.

Smoker, drenched by blood, said weakly to her, "...Take some rest, Hina."

Just when he said so, one pirate began to cry helplessly,

"I-I can't breathe—"

That's when all pirates realized; they were being suffocated.

"A-ahhhhh!!!"

"I'm sorry, I'm s-sorry!! Please!!"

The hallway was filled with nothing but screams and cries filled with despair. The situation was now entirely in reverse, and Mammoth wasn't an exception either.

"Haa... haa..." Mammoth's breathings quickened, with the air becoming scarce; Smoker intentionally pushed all the air to the space where Hina and Bastille lied, in order to give painful deaths by suffocation, to all these bound pirates.

Mammoth hardened his entire body, but it did nothing to help him in the situation. The strength of Harden Harden fruit was to make him resistant to weapons and amplify the damage of his own attacks by rendering his body hard; his basal strength was still the same, and it wasn't enough to escape from Smoker's smokes.

There was nothing but silence. One by one, the pirates slouched with blue faces, having ran out of oxygen.

Thud. When the death of a pirate was confirmed, Smoker released his smoke hand, causing that corpse to drop to the floor; this intensified the degree of fear within the pirates, knowing that there was nothing that they could do, but wait as they die slowly.

Thud.

Thud. Thud.

"Mmm... mmmmh!!!" Mammoth, with his eyes teary due to the smokes and lack of oxygen, shook his head wildly, as if trying to struggle for the final time. Then, his eyes took a spun, and his head was knocked down, losing all strength. He ended up facing the same fate as his crew.

Leaning down, Smoker lifted up one kitchen knife that Bastille dropped. Slowly walking to now-dead Mammoth, Smoker sliced the man's neck and decapitated the head.

Now, with all pirates having died from suffocation, Smoker slammed the kitchen knife onto the nearby window and expelled the smoke out, allowing Hina and unconscious Bastille to breathe. Hina continued to watch Smoker with a shock as the latter slowly began to climb the staircase, while holding Mammoth's head with his left hand.

"W-where are you going?" Hina asked with a worry.

"...To finish off... the rest," Smoker replied without turning back, and continued to walk up.

__________

"Haa... haa..." My lungs were burning. I could tell that I stressed my body beyond its limit. If I were to account for how much blood I lost, it would be strange that I managed to stay alive up until now—the logic of earth didn't apply here.

But there still were many pirates on the deck above. Frankly speaking, I wasn't sure if I had enough strength left in me to deal with them, whether or not I at the Logia-type devil fruit.

"Haa... haa..."

Still, I managed to reach the end of the stairs. Another round of fight, with all those pirates against me alone, was about to start...

Creak—

"Hey, boy, are you alright?"

Or so I thought.

"Hmm..." In front of me stood one extremely huge man, packed with enormous muscles all over his body. Spiky black hair, thick beard, huge fists—one look was enough for me to identify this man: Monkey D. Garp.

"Thank... goodness," I sighed with a small smile on my face, relieved by the Marine Hero's appearance. I found my body relaxing as I lost my stand and began to fall down.

"Bwahaha, you had quite a wild fight, didn't you?"

Then, everything went black.