Rogue Town. Torrential rain poured down. For the locals, a storm this fierce was a rare sight. The once-bustling main street now lay deserted, not a single soul in view.
Nami and Usopp sprinted through the downpour.
"We have to get back to the ship fast, or this storm will swamp it!" Nami shouted as she ran, wiping rain from her face. Her soaked clothes clung tightly to her lithe frame, tracing the graceful curves of the navigator's figure.
Usopp's long nose twitched with worry. "Everyone, please be okay!" he prayed silently.
At the central square, Marines clashed with pirates.
"Your attacks are useless. Surrender, Sherlock. White Blast!" Smoker yanked the jitte from his back. His lower body dissolved into smoke, then erupted outward. Like a rocket, he shot toward Sherlock.
—Phantom Step!
Sherlock left a perfect illusion of himself in place while his real body vanished into stealth, fleeing into the distance. No way I'm fighting a Logia head-on right now. Too soon. (Like the monkey's W, 2-3.)
"An illusion?" Smoker's jitte passed clean through "Sherlock." Surprise flickered across his face. After a moment's thought, smoke billowed from his body, white clouds spreading to blanket a wide area.
Smoker rose into the air, scanning the haze. A man-sized gap moved rapidly through the smoke. He grinned.
"Found you, White Snake!" His right fist turned to smoke, condensing into a massive white serpent that streaked toward the void.
"Damn it! No wonder they call him the White Hunter." Still invisible, Sherlock sensed trouble the moment the smoke enveloped him. He glanced back at the snarling serpent and focused.
—Mirror Rebound
The instant the serpent touched him, it ricocheted—like light striking a mirror—and hurtled back at Smoker with unchanged speed, dissolving into his body. Smoker's eyes widened.
"You reflected my attack? What a bizarre fruit!" He tightened his grip on the jitte. "In that case… White Blast!"
Smoke jetted out. Smoker rocketed forward, jitte whistling through the air toward Sherlock's back. Too fast to dodge. With no choice, Sherlock tried the same trick.
—Mirror Rebound!
Crack~ A crisp sound, like shattering glass, rang out as Sherlock ran. Then searing pain lanced through his back, followed by a fleeting wave of weakness.
For the first time, Mirror Rebound had failed.
Smoker's blow sent Sherlock flying, tumbling across the ground before he skidded to a stop. Nearby Marines cheered wildly.
Sherlock's base physical stats weren't high. That single hit left him gravely wounded. If not for a year of gorging on a deserted island, he might have blacked out on impact.
"Seastone!" Sherlock struggled to his feet, wiping blood from his lips, eyes locked on Smoker's jitte.
Smoker bit down on two cigars and pointed the weapon at him. "Surrender. You can't beat me."
"Heh. Maybe not. But that doesn't mean you'll catch me." Sherlock adjusted his glasses, smoothed his drenched black hair, and raised a trembling hand. Ripples formed in the air beside him. A bowling-ball-sized black sphere materialized.
Smoker's eyes narrowed. As a Marine Colonel, he knew it instantly: a standard high-explosive shell, the kind battleships used against land targets. His expression shifted. Smoke surged as he charged.
(P.S.: The shells came from the Marine Fourth Branch—the same ones Sherlock used to level its fortress.)
—Mirror Entity! —Magic Mirror: Enlarge!
Calmly, Sherlock gestured. Over a dozen shells, now millstone-sized, hurtled toward Smoker.
"Farewell, Mr. Smoker." A faint smile curved Sherlock's lips. He bowed elegantly, then faded slowly into the pouring rain.
"Big talk! Invisibility won't save you, Sherlock." Smoker ignored the incoming shells, spreading smoke again. But…
BOOM! BOOM!
Rogue Town's central square shook with deafening explosions. What a day. First a public execution, then a poser struck by lightning, now bombardment.
The enlarged mirror shells packed monstrous power. Stone shards flew, flames roared, shockwaves shattered every window around the square. Marines too close were hurled backward. Pirates and Marines alike froze, staring at the rising mushroom clouds.
"That's the sorcerer's power?" A vicious-looking pirate swallowed hard. "Smoker… he's not dead, right?"
A Marine who'd been dueling him slashed down in fury. "Bastard! Colonel Smoker would never die!"
Fighting flared anew.
"Argh! Damn Straw Hat brat!" A black figure crawled from the execution platform's ruins, red nose glaring.
Buggy the Clown—failed showboat, lightning-struck, now awakened by explosions.
Alvida knocked a Marine flying with her iron mace and smirked. "Still alive, huh?"
"Captain Buggy!" His crew cheered—until they couldn't.
Smoker's Smoke-Smoke Fruit rendered normal explosions harmless. Sherlock hadn't aimed to kill, only to stall.
The relentless blasts scattered Smoker's smoke into chaos. Turbulent winds delayed his reformation. By the time he pulled himself together, Sherlock was long gone.
"Careless!" First pirate to ever escape him. Smoker's cigar-chomping face darkened like the sky. He turned—and saw Buggy and Alvida flailing like "Transformers" and "figure skaters on dry land." The White Hunter's rage ignited.
"White Snake!" Veins bulged on his forehead as smoke surged.
The downpour showed no sign of letting up. The black sky offered no hint of clearing.
Meanwhile, Luffy's trio—chased by Marines—ran into Sergeant Major Tashigi, who'd been waiting.
"Sergeant Major Tashigi!" The Marines lit up at the sight of the blue-jacketed, bespectacled woman.
"Roronoa Zoro!" Tashigi spat the name through gritted teeth. Rain plastered her hair to her face; her glare burned with fury.
She drew her beloved blade, Shigure, and faced the green-haired swordsman. "So you're the pirate hunter! You tricked me—I misjudged you!"
"I'll take back Wado Ichimonji. Pirates don't deserve such a blade!"
Zoro hadn't replied when his crewmate exploded.
"You bastard! What did you do to this beautiful lady?!" Sanji roared, glaring at Zoro. Zoro was dead certain: if Tashigi so much as hinted at anything untoward, the lovestruck cook would switch sides on the spot and "righteously" betray him.
Even worse, their idiot captain picked his nose, glanced at Tashigi, then at Zoro and Sanji, and solemnly advised Zoro: "Zoro, lying is wrong."
Like I need YOU to tell me that?! And if we're talking liars, why not start with Usopp… Zoro's face twitched. Distant explosions rumbled. No time for this. He told the others:
"She's after me. You two go ahead."
Then, to Tashigi: "You want it? Come and take it." Shing. Wado Ichimonji slid free.
In the pouring rain, two swordsmen—one man, one woman—gripped their blades, eyes locked in a tense standoff on the street. Then steel flashed, wind howled!
The scene echoed a moonlit night years ago.
Back at the central square, the Marine-pirate battle had ended.
"Amazing!"
"As expected of Colonel Smoker!"
"All the pirates—caught in one net!" The Marines cheered, gazing at Buggy's crew ensnared by cage projectiles.
Smoker bit his cigars, expression grim, staring at the massive crater from the blasts. Water pooled inside; soon it could double as an open-air pool.
"The sorcerer… and that Straw Hat kid…" The White Hunter looked skyward. Rain hammered down, wind screamed, lightning cracked. Rotten weather.
"Get me a motorcycle! Alert everyone—blockade the port!" he barked.
"No pirate escapes Rogue Town!"