Lancelot couldn't help but frown as he watched Miss Merry Christmas and Mr. 5 vanish into the earth.
Underground… that would be troublesome.
He couldn't possibly flip the entire street over just to find them, could he? The commotion would be far too great, and the destruction too severe.
If he really did that, Smoker would probably be the first to step in and try to arrest him.
So, Lancelot let them go for now.
He once again entered the weapons shop and found the owner, Ipponmatsu, peeking out nervously from the back room.
"Gulp..." The owner swallowed hard. Just a glance at the craters and debris outside was enough to tell him how intense the brief battle had been.
Yet this towering Marine before him was completely unscathed, not even his pristine cloak torn.
Clearly, he had held an overwhelming, almost contemptuous, advantage.
Lancelot chuckled lightly, dispelling the tension.
"Boss, how many Berries for this Sword?" he asked, holding up the dark-red hilted Sandai Kitetsu.
The owner hesitated, then named the price he always quoted for the swords in the cheap barrel.
"Twenty thousand Berries."
Lancelot raised an eyebrow.
"This is the Sandai Kitetsu. Although it's not among the official fifty Skillful Grade swords, it is a famous, named blade, even if it's cursed. Are you sure it's only twenty thousand Berries?"
The owner fell silent for a moment, studying Lancelot's face.
"Captain, sir," he said finally, his voice low, "this is a Cursed Sword. If I hadn't just witnessed your overwhelming strength and believed you could perhaps tame it, I wouldn't sell it to you at all... And since it's placed among the lowest-grade swords, it has to be sold at the lowest-grade price. That's the rule of the shop."
"Thank you very much, then," Lancelot said, understanding the man's logic.
He took out twenty thousand Berries and handed them over.
Then he changed the subject, his gaze sharp.
"I heard you have another sword here, Yubashiri. One of the fifty official Skillful Grade swords. I wonder if you'd be willing to sell it to me. I'll offer... thirty million Berries."
The owner was slightly taken aback, then looked puzzled.
He didn't understand how this Marine knew about his family's heirloom.
But after lowering his head to consider for a moment, weighing the sword's sentimental value against the massive sum offered, he made his decision.
"Please wait a moment, Captain."
Soon, the owner returned carrying a long, slender katana with a black lacquered sheath and a simple, cross-shaped guard.
He presented Yubashiri to Lancelot with both hands.
"I've always wanted to find it a suitable master," he said, his voice tinged with sadness but also hope.
"Someone who could make it famous again."
Lancelot took the blade, feeling its lightness and perfect balance.
He could sense the quality of the steel.
"I'll have Captain Smoker deliver the Berries later today," he said. "And I'll add an extra ten million... That ten million is for the other shop owners affected by the battle earlier. Consider it compensation from me. After all, those pirates came because of me."
Hearing this, the owner's eyes lit up with gratitude.
"Then I thank you on their behalf, Captain!"
Lancelot checked his system.
As expected, there was no reward this time.
Since Yubashiri and the Sandai Kitetsu were both famous blades and belonged to the same Skillful Grade (Ryo Wazamono) category, the Sword Soul system only granted one reward per grade.
'What a pity,' he thought.
Still, Zoro would now have one more famous blade in his possession, replacing another of his broken swords.
Lancelot then walked out with the two new swords, tucked them securely at his waist alongside Frost Demon and Flame Dragon, pushed off forcefully with his legs, and shot straight up into the sky.
Using Geppo, he headed directly toward the port, his speed extremely fast.
BOOM!
But just then, a violent explosion sounded in the distance, back towards the center of Loguetown.
Lancelot instinctively turned to look, and his eyes widened in shock.
Because he saw someone fighting Smoker.
And they were fighting on equal terms.
"Holy shit..." Lancelot was utterly stunned, hovering mid-air using Geppo.
In all of the East Blue, Smoker, with his Logia fruit, was supposed to be absolutely invincible.
Even in the original story, when Luffy the protagonist had to get past Smoker, it required his father, Dragon, the most wanted man in the world, to step in and hold Smoker off.
But now... Lancelot stopped mid-air and watched the two figures exchanging blows below.
One was made of swirling white smoke, the other... of shifting, flowing mud?
'A Logia user?' Of course.
In the East Blue, only another Logia user could possibly stand up to Smoker blow-for-blow.
'However,' Lancelot mused, 'this ability is quite similar to Caribou's Swamp-Swamp Fruit. Is it the same, or a variant? It's unclear which one is superior.'
Now he understood why Smoker hadn't pursued him earlier.
Turns out he was blocked by this guy.
....
Meanwhile, Smoker was furious, reforming his smoky body after being blasted apart by a mud cannon.
"Gak! What the hell are you doing?! Don't forget, you were once a Marine too!"
"A Marine?... Heh heh... Hahahaha!" The mud-man, Gak, couldn't help but burst into loud, bitter laughter.
"That's right, I was once a Marine. But so what?"
He turned his muddy, featureless face towards Smoker.
"Are you going to ask why I'm willing to be a dog for those people?" he sneered, clearly referring to the Celestial Dragons' agents.
"Why? Because they can give me what I want! If I had stayed in the Marines, could I have obtained this Logia-type Mud-Mud Fruit?"
"Could I?!"
"Besides," Gak continued, his voice dripping with cynical venom, "with just one call from the Celestial Dragons, even the Admirals—the Marine's strongest combat force—have to come running like obedient dogs to protect them."
"Even regardless of right or wrong, they'll kill anyone the Celestial Dragons want dead!"
"So the entire Marine organization is essentially just the Celestial Dragons' dogs!"
"Since that's the case, what's wrong with me following those people? After all, they also serve the Celestial Dragons. I'm just serving the Celestial Dragons under a different identity."
"To put it more bluntly, Smoker, aren't we all just being dogs for the Celestial Dragons? What gives you the right to judge me from your moral high ground?"
"If you have the guts, use your morality to judge those high and mighty Admirals!"
"If you have the guts, go judge the Celestial Dragons themselves!"
"We're all just dogs here—who's more noble than whom?"
"You..." Smoker was left speechless, unable to refute Gak's bitter tirade because... everything the other man said was fundamentally true.
How could he possibly refute it?
"Haa..." Smoker took a deep breath, the smoke swirling around him.
After a moment, he said slowly, his voice heavy.
"But even so, you should still have your own bottom line. Don't forget you once wore the mantle of justice."
"Wore the mantle of justice???" Hahahaha... Gak seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world, laughing so hard he could barely remain solid.
After the laughter subsided, Gak's form solidified, and his expression turned ferocious as he roared.
"Smoker! Have you forgotten how my wife and daughter died?!"
"They died under your Marine's so-called JUSTICE!"
"I was out fighting pirates on the front lines, risking my life for your justice, while my wife and daughter were captured! And then they were killed! By my own comrades! And now you dare talk to me about justice?!"
"If my justice can't even protect my own wife and daughter, then what use do I have for this damned justice?!"
"This..."
By this time, Lancelot had used Geppo to arrive near the two combatants, hovering silently in the air.
He felt like he was hearing the biggest, ugliest scandal ever.
He didn't consider himself a good person, far from it.
But he would never be capable of harming the wife and daughter of a comrade fighting on the front lines.
That was a line even he wouldn't cross.
He looked down at Gak with a sudden, unexpected surge of sympathy.
Just from listening, he could deeply understand the man's raw, agonizing pain.
The death of his wife and daughter would have been devastating enough.
But to have them die under the very "justice" he believed in, at the hands of those he called comrades... that was simply... soul-destroying.
The death of his family, the betrayal by his comrades, the complete collapse of his beliefs—all coming together in one catastrophic event.
To be honest, Lancelot thought, the fact that Gak could still stand strong, harness this new power, and live on... it was nothing short of a miracle.
There weren't many people in this world who could withstand such blows without shattering completely.
He himself, Lancelot knew, was no different.
Lancelot spoke, his voice cutting through the tense standoff.
"I have to ask," he said, directing his words to Gak but his cold gaze sweeping over Smoker as well.
"That bastard... actually killed the wives and daughters of his comrades fighting on the front lines? Is he even human? Although I am no saint, I could never do something so utterly despicable."
Lancelot's unexpected words made both Gak and Smoker turn to look up at him.
The moment Gak saw Lancelot, his muddy eyes narrowed with a cold gleam.
"It's you? Burns's son?"
Then he let out another bitter laugh and turned back to Smoker.
"Look! See? Even Burns's corrupt bastard son knows this isn't something a human would do! Yet our Admiral... actually did it."
"Admiral?" Lancelot immediately caught the key point.
His gaze sharpened.
He looked down at Gak with even more sympathy.
"Don't tell me... your wife and daughter encountered that mad dog, Akainu?"
"Mad dog?" Gak was momentarily stunned by the accurate, vicious moniker, then laughed bitterly, the sound raw with pain.
"You're right. That guy is indeed a mad dog. Sakazuki... To kill pirates, he'll use any means necessary, and he'll sacrifice anyone who gets in his way."
He clenched his muddy fists.
"My wife and daughter... they were captured by pirates during an evacuation he ordered. Even after they revealed their identities as a Marine's family... that madman still ordered the bombardment, sinking the ship they were on without hesitation... collateral damage, he called it."
"So it really was him," Lancelot murmured, his expression grim.
It was unexpected, yet it made perfect, horrifying sense.
After all, what difference was there between Akainu and the pirates themselves if one would knowingly harm innocent women and children?
That's exactly the kind of person Akainu was. Absolute Justice, Lancelot thought, was just another name for absolute tyranny.