Voyage Chapter 23: Want Smoke (Patreon)

~Captain Smoker~

Smoker leaned back on his chair while inhaling the smoke from his cigar. Feeling the acrid smoke fill his lungs he exhaled out a puff of smoke.

Just as he was thinking of ordering a meal for lunch, the door to his office was slammed open by a recruit, making his brow furrow at the lack of respect.

"Oi! Don't just slam my door open, why are you here recruit?"

He refrained from drilling the recruit for now upon seeing how dishevelled they were as they held a bounty poster in their hands. They stood for a moment to catch their breath before speaking.

"I'm... huff sorry captain. But there is a pirate captain in town! Their ship is docked here too. It's the demon bull Yuji Liberio, the one who took down Buggy!"

That caught Smoker's attention, he rose from his seat and walked over to the recruit. Despite not recognizing the name of the pirate, he knew Buggy. He snatched the poser from the recruit's hand and looked over it.

"Good job bringing this to my attention recruit, you are dismissed. Go tell Tashigi I'm leaving to hunt a pirate and to cover for me."

If he was lucky, Tashigi would have taken care of his paperwork with how diligent that girl was.

"Yes Sir!"

Smoker patted the man on the shoulder before retrieving his seastone-tipped blade from the wall and strapping it on his back.

Logue Town was his town, and he had a reputation for never allowing Pirates to stay here for a reason. His law was absolute here and he took maintaining the law very seriously. The civilians in this town depended on him to maintain the order.

And he was not letting some upstart Pirate run around his town.

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏𓊝﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

~Yuji Liberio~

I walked out of the weapons shop humming a happy tune with the two swords tied around my waist securely, along with the holstered Overture. I probably looked pretty intimidating right now if the gazes thrown my way were any indication but I did not care about their looks.

"One apple, no, pear please."

Paying the fruit stall an appropriate amount of berries I grabbed my fruit of choice and took a bite of the juicy morsel. I was going to take the apple before I remembered that I needed a doctor in my crew so it would be unwise to have apples for now.

Finding a place to sit in the busy bazaar I sat down and opened up my tickets before rolling the silver trait.

Rolling Silver Trait Gacha...

A Rare Trait!

[Lese Majeste]

|Rarity: Rare|

Your chutzpah and boldness are perceived as more charming rather than irreverent or disrespectful by people in positions of power, in addition, people in power like nobles, bosses, royalty, etc. find themselves more attracted to you.

Huh, well, this is both good and bad. Good is that this world was a monarchy, and a lot of monarchies, a decent chunk of them I was planning to interact with so the rep boost with them was good.

But at the same time, I don't want to curry favour with the World Government. I'd rather them see me as a proper threat than a ruffian. But at the same time... it could help me become a Shichibukai couldn't it?

That's a good plan to have.

Hopefully, the items were going to give me something as good if not better.

Rolling Silver Item Gacha with advantage...

[Unbreakable Blade]

|Rarity: Rare|

A simple sharp steel longsword that is completely unbreakable and invulnerable.

or

[Enchanted Golden Apple]

|Rarity: Rare|

A magical apple with skin resembling gold that has been enchanted with magic, eating it gives the eater rare level regeneration for one hour and also bolsters their vitality. Restock Timer: 210 Hours

Remember what I said about avoiding apples? Yeah, me neither. Who cares about doctors when you have enchanted golden apples?

...Well, I did care but I was willing to risk eating the apple this time.

I confirmed my choice at the speed of sound, the unbreakable blade had a fun gimmick but in the end, this world was flush with nigh unbreakable swords. And I already had two swords that would last me quite a while strapped to my waist.

Seeing the apple sit in my storage I felt good about myself, this venture into Logue Town was already turning out to be more than profitable than I had first anticipated.

So, seeing as I had nothing to do other than waiting to get tackled to the ground by the Marines I took a walk around town and spent some time sightseeing.

Logue Town was by far the nicest town I had visited. The streets were clean, the plaza was bustling, and the people were happy. Compared to the idyllic village I lived in it looked much more lively.

Honestly, I didn't understand the mentality of pirates who would destroy such a scene for no reason other than their own pleasure. Hurting others purely for your pleasure was low.

Hurting others for your pleasure was not a concept that clicked with me. If I am hurting someone, I am doing it I'm doing it because I need to or because it is the preferable alternative. And if I'm enjoying it that means someone really deserved it.

Of course, I'm not like some justice warrior who will seek out evil to destroy it. I wouldn't consider myself a bad or good person. But at the very least I prefer to leave places better than how they were when I first came there.

Now, you know I'm bored when I start thinking about the morality of my actions and my impact on the world.

Logue Town was nice but I was expecting something to happen you know? The feeling of seeing the unique architecture and the way of life here was a good niche but it felt weird when you were expecting action. And I have been walking for hours.

But unlike Straw Boy's adventure, I came here earlier, and I got Buggy thrown in the slammer before he could chase me so he was not going to cause a scene here. I didn't know about Alvida though.

I didn't really care for her either, mediocre devil fruit and combat ability. While she is attractive that did not make her unique. I did not respect people like her, there was vain like Boa, and there was vain like Alvida.

"Sigh... I should grab lunch."

Just as I was about to walk over to a stall to experience the local cuisine of Logue Town I heard a commotion as people spoke in hushed voices, I saw the crowd part to show several people dressed in white and blue uniforms marching led by the main man himself.

"It's Captain Smoker." "What do you think he is here for?" "Wow, it's the white hunter himself."

I turned to the man with a relaxed posture as he glared at me, chewing on two cigars and pulling out his blunt blade. He was tall and muscular, standing a head taller than me with his chiselled yet not bulky body showed off by his lack of shirt. He had silver-coloured hair and a slight beard. He had a face and expression that would make a lesser man shit their pants.

"Yuji Liberio, quite bold of you to waltz around my town without a care in the world. Unfortunately, your time is up, I'm taking you in."

"Is that so? You and what army?"

I regarded Smoker as I silently swapped my set to Gale and Frostbite, the perfect counter to the chain smoker. Hearing my words he glared at me, wisps of smoke leaving his body.

"I'm enough of an army for you. White Launch!"

Getting into a fighting pose I watched Smoker fly at me while turning a majority of his body into smoke, at the same time he poised his weapon towards me. He was probably aiming to disable me with his sword under the assumption I was a Zoan. Unfortunately for him, I summoned frigid winds around myself and just as he got close I used the winds to surround him before redirecting him to the ground. Making him dissipate.

"Wind huh? You looked more like a bull to me."

Smoker reformed and jumped back as he coughed, I could see patches of ice on his uniform. Of course, he would freeze fast as smoke facing icy winds. Smoke was not a good option against the avatar of the 4 seas.

"Appearances can be deceiving. That said, you are facing an 18-karat run of bad luck, a man made of smoke against a man who manipulates wind."

By this time the crowd had fully vacated the area after being escorted away by Smoker's marines, leaving plenty of room for us to fight. As he got onto his feet we both stared each other down, tensions tangible in the air.

"Is that so? White Out!"

Smoker, as if honouring his namesake released a bunch of smoke from his body, controlling it around and blotting around the area I was in. It was a semi-decent move depending on what he was planning to pull next.

Woosh!

I kept a one-meter zone of wind circling me to keep my vision enough to react to the blunt tip thrust towards my guts, allowing me to sidestep it.

"Good try Smokey, but unfortunately for you..."

In a split second, I switched from Gale and Frost to Bull Zoan and Strength as I grabbed his blade and yanked it out of his hands quite easily with my absurd strength.

"Ough! I felt that."

For a moment I winced as I felt a fist impact my stomach, but buff as hell Smoker may be, he was not enough to overpower my strength as I powered through and used the sword I yanked out of his hand to stab towards the smoke where the fist had come from.

"Grh!"

Crash!

As if karma, the tip of the blade nailed Smoker right in the stomach and the moment it made contact the smoke started receding and he started losing strength as I pinned him up against the wall. Seastone was really useful against devil fruit users.

"Y'know, you may have a better chance if you stuck to smoke, not a good chance mind you, but you would have had one."

"Urgh! What are you waiting for?"

I tilted my head at the Smoker glaring at me defiantly. Due to the train of Seastone, he couldn't do much more than that.

"What? Ya expect me to kill you? Nah, I'm just gonna knock you out and steal all of your cigars."

Smoker's eyes snapped wide open, his pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks as his cool and stoic demeanour was shattered.

"W-wait hold up! They are exports from Fuga Island!"

My lips curled into a slight smirk as I watched him struggle against the blade pinning him against the wall in horror and indignation. I brought my hand closer to his forehead.

"Don't worry, I'm doing you a favour by giving your lungs a break. Night night."

"NO!"

Whack!

One flick with my strength right to Smoker's forehead knocked him right out. I pulled the sword away and let his body fall before starting to rifle through his pockets, even unconscious his expression was contorted.

"H-hands in the air!"

I turned to look at the marines pointing their guns at me with trembling hands. I got up and turned to look at them with an annoyed expression.

"Boys, I just handled your captain without a scratch, are you sure this is a good idea to pull this on me? Alright, here is the deal."

Crash!

Their expressions paled as I stomped the ground and created a small crater that spread cracks across the street all the way to their feet.

"You kids drop those toys and I won't break your legs capiche?"

I doubted guns could hurt me in my Zoan form but at the same time, I felt no need to try testing it. This would have been the perfect time to turn on Despair Aura but unfortunately, my slots were on cooldown at the moment.

Thankfully, I seemed to be shit-scaring in my base form enough that they dropped their guns and raised their hands making me go back into Smoker's pockets before pulling out his wallet and a case of cigars.

Feat Achieved! Make an eternal enemy of Captain Smoker

+1x Gold Ability Gacha Ticket

Oh cool.

I walked away from Smoker's downed body and tapped the terrified marines on the shoulders.

"At ease men, I'm not gonna kill you or nothin'. Get your captain some emotional attention, he is not attention but his pride may need some healing. Anyway, I'll be taking my time here if you don't mind."

But as I walked past the shivering marines a feminine voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Stop right there criminal!"

Ah, just one word away from greatness.

I turned around to face a girl with blue hair and a stern expression pointing a sword at me.

Oh, it's... Tashigi.

Will defeating her even give me a ticket?

A/N: Smoker gets... smoked, yeah, he was only really a threat to Luffy solely because he was a Logia, the moment haki got introduced he started getting folded left and right. There was no way the battle was ending in any way other than him being beaten down. Did you guys like the showdown at least?

Tashigi arrives on the scene and... yeah, she is Tashigi, there is no way she is winning this. If Smoker was a jobber Tashigi is just sad. But things may get a fun twist with Yuji's traits. Who knows?