Chapter 29: Now!
The din of the port was choked off, as if by an invisible hand.
A heavy, tense aura radiated from Kyle and Smoker, pushing back the noise of the crowd, the cries of the gulls, and even the crash of the waves.
The sudden confrontation, like a boulder dropped in a lake, had captured everyone's attention.
In the crowd, the other pirates—hiding under wide-brimmed hats, coarse bandanas, or thick makeup—all had the same look of gleeful malice in their eyes. For them, nothing was better than watching a Marine get humiliated, especially a hard-liner like Smoker.
Whispers slithered through the onlookers.
"Look, they're gonna fight!"
"Heh, this is gonna be good. Wonder what idiots were dumb enough to pick a fight with the 'White Hunter' in his own town."
"That kid... he looks familiar..."
In moments, the edges of the "battlefield" were packed with onlookers, all standing on their toes, craning their necks, terrified of missing a single second.
Kyle's distinctive golden hair and his handsome, sharp features were finally recognized.
"My god... that's... that's 'Golden Dragon' Kyle Link! The 60 million Beri bounty!" a merchant in a silk robe whispered, his expensive pipe nearly falling from his hand.
"That's not all!" his companion said, his face pale as he pointed at the two boys behind Kyle. "Look! The one with the silver hair—that's Killua Zoldyck, 20 million! And the spiky-haired one... Gon Freecss, 15 million!"
"The main fighters of the 'Hunter Pirates' are all here!" his voice trembled.
The combined bounties of the three boys were approaching 100 million Beri. In the East Blue, that was an astronomical sum.
Kyle and Smoker, however, were utterly focused, deaf to the crowd. In their world, nothing existed but the opponent in front of them.
As they closed the distance, the stone pavement seemed to groan under their feet, the pressure rising.
Twenty meters...
In a single, shared instant, both of their forms blurred and vanished.
The crowd's eyes hadn't even had time to follow when the sound of the impact exploded across the port.
"KRAAANG—!"
Smoker's Seastone-tipped Jitte had slammed violently against... Kyle's bare arm.
For the first time, a look of pure disbelief crossed Smoker's rugged face. He couldn't believe this brat was arrogant enough to try and block his weapon with flesh and blood.
What truly sent a shockwave through his system was that Kyle hadn't budged.
The force that rebounded up the Jitte was immense, like hitting a dormant volcano. It numbed his arm—in a contest of pure strength, he was the one who was outmatched.
Impossible! Smoker's pupils contracted. He looked closer, and that's when he saw it. The skin on Kyle's arm, where it met the Jitte, was coated in a deep, light-absorbing, pitch-black sheen.
Armament Haki!
As a Marine Captain, he recognized the signature power of the New World. A conventional attack was useless.
"White Snake!"
Smoker's reaction was instantaneous. His left arm dissolved into thick, white smoke, which then shot out, forming a fanged serpent that hissed through the air, striking at Kyle's neck.
Kyle's combat instincts were terrifying. He had sensed the attack the moment Smoker's shoulder twitched.
Without even looking, his right ankle, which had been supporting his weight, was instantly coated in black Armament. He kicked off the ground in a twisting leap, his body spinning in mid-air. His left leg, now also blackened, snapped out like a steel whip, perfectly striking the "neck" of the smoke-serpent.
POW!
The smoke head was blasted apart, momentarily obscuring Smoker's vision.
Kyle used the recoil from his own kick, shattering the pavement beneath him, and shot forward like an arrow. He tore through the dispersing smoke, instantly closing the distance, appearing directly under Smoker's guard.
So fast! Smoker barely registered the blur before Kyle's smiling face was right in front of him.
Kyle put his full weight into a twisting punch, his blackened fist aimed straight for Smoker's stomach.
Smoker felt the terrifying power coming off that fist. If it connected, the Armament Haki would bypass his Logia-defense and rupture his organs. He couldn't block it.
"White Out!"
At the last possible second, Smoker's entire body exploded into a dense cloud of smoke.
Kyle's punch hit nothing but air, the force of it blasting a hole through the smoke cloud.
But Smoker wasn't just dodging. The smoke he had become rushed through Kyle's body, and the moment it passed, it solidified, becoming as hard as a wall, attempting to trap and repel him.
"You think this can stop me?" Kyle scoffed.
He took a deep breath, and his right leg, still clad in Armament, stomped down. He erupted with power, shattering the smoke-prison like a blade tearing through fabric.
Smoker, stunned that White Out had been broken by sheer force, re-formed in the air. His legs turned into smoke jets, propelling him in a wide arc as he dove at Kyle's back, Jitte-first.
But it was like Kyle had eyes in his back. He moved in a series of high-speed, erratic steps, leaving afterimages, making it impossible for Smoker to lock on.
As Smoker tried to correct his trajectory, he experienced a fractional, split-second lag.
Kyle's eyes flashed.
Now!