Ameliorate ✦ One Piece

43

The trio burst into another street, eyes looking up and down it as their feet barely hit the cobblestones as they moved. However, before even getting a chance to decide which path would be the one to lead to the docks and the Merry, a voice rolled through the air, catching their attention and forcing them to turn towards its source.

"Monkey D. Luffy." The same Marine as before, the one barking orders and commands, now stood at the far end of the street, broad shoulders relaxed as he exhaled a thick cloud of smoke from the two cigars clenched between his teeth.

Akira's eyes flicked to the cigars immediately. "You know those things will kill you, right?" She couldn't help but ask with a frown on her face. If it were one, she wouldn't have said a thing. But two was a bit excessive.

The Marine though didn't even blink at the comment. "I'm Captain Smoker of the Marines," he said evenly. "You're not going anywhere."

Luffy and Sanji exchanged a glance, amusement shining in their eyes as neither of them looked particularly worried. "Yeah," Luffy said with a casual shrug, "sorry, Smokey, but we're kind of in a hurry right now."

"I got this." Sanji didn't wait for further discussion, tapping Luffy on the chest with a confident smile as he stepped up to the front.

He didn't spare time for taunts or talk, but simply lunged forward, sprinting straight toward the Marine before springing up the side of a nearby wall. His foot planted against the bricks for just a moment before he kicked off it, body twisting as he drove a powerful kick straight at Smoker's head.

His leg passed through him.

Not blocked.

Not dodged.

Passed straight through as what was a man turned into smoke within a second.

Sanji landed in a crouch on the cobblestones, skidding slightly as realization slammed into him all at once. "He has a devil fruit!" He called out in warning to the other two. And Akira couldn't help but frown. Not only did Smoker have a devil fruit, it was a logia type. And that could prove to be a problem.

But it only made Luffy's grin widen. "Doesn't matter." His eyes flashed with that familiar stubborn confidence. "We take him out."

For a brief moment his gaze flicked toward Akira, the two sharing a silent conversation between themselves, forming a plan of attack without needing words before they sprung into action simultaneously. Luffy charged straight ahead while Akira dropped low, sliding across the ground toward Smoker's legs.

Smoker made easy work of Luffy's head on attack, easily deflecting him and throwing him back without even having to use his devil fruit abilities this time. But Akira managed to slide by at first, her fingers hooking around the Marine captain's boot, using the momentum to pull herself up while simultaneously using the extra energy she had stored from the fight with the clowns to bring more force into her movements as she tried tugging him off balance.

That was her plan. To bring him lower, to decentre him and give herself a chance to get at the exposed skin of his chest, ready to drain whatever energy she could grab. The only problem was, the Marine captain didn't even budge or shift. Not in the slightest.

Instead, a thick billow of smoke erupted outwards from his body and slammed into Akira as if it were a physical wall, sending her flying through the air. She barely had time to brace before the force hurled her sideways into the stone wall of a nearby building.

Her shoulder hit first, and she instantly felt the pain shot down her arm while her body slid down to the ground. And once he'd handled her, Smoker was left to defend himself from another oncoming attack that came from Sanji who'd used the time he was distracted by Luffy and Akira to charge yet again.