章 185: Smoker's Lesson

Koby POV - Blue Star, East Blue, Polestar Island - 20 GAP

I rub my stomach as I still feel the pain of Captain Smoker's last blow, which luckily didn't break anything as it was quite a lot lighter than what I'm used to, and reply, "Thanks for your compliment, Sir. But this is only because I'm quite used to this... After all, most of my sparrings with Jayr-san always ends up with a few of my bones broken."

Captain Smoker looks back at me and says, "I can see that. It seems that Jayr really worked on your endurance a lot. But that is nowhere enough to face someone who ate a Logia Type Devil Fruit, after all, it is considered the rarest and strongest type of Devil Fruits for a reason."

Hearing that, I can't help but agree, because at the moment, I can't think of any method to actually harm or even touch Captain Smoker, 'His Devil Fruit grants him the power to become some kind of fog, smoke, or even cloud, and not only that, but he can also manipulate that element's density to make it thick or thin, use it to attack from the distance, capture his enemies, and even fly! How can I even deal with something like that!?'

But despite that, I don't want to give up yet and so I try to look around to seach for something, anything that I can use to my advantage to turn the situation around, or at the very least to hit Captain Smoker and prove that I can truly fulfill my deam of becoming a poweful marine, especially to myself.

But Captain Smoker doesn't give me that time as he once again yells, "Don't get distracted in the middle of a fight! White Blow!" turns his right arm into that white fog leaving only his fist solid, and then he shoots that cloud of dense smoke to launch the fist at me, but this time, I'm ready for it, and more important, my feet are touching the ground so I can move, so, I quickly roll forward to both dodge Captain Smoker's attack and also to get closer to him as I'll never be able to do anything if I continue to retreat as that will simply be a repeat of my previous fight with Tashigi-san.

At the same time, I take advantage of this moment to stealthly grab an handful of dirt from the ground hoping that it would at the very least be useful to create a small opening.

Without any hesitation, as soon as I get up, I quickly throw the dirt in Captain Smoker's face, and without waiting to see the result, I also throw a roundhouse kick aimed at his stomach, but once again, the only feedback I feel, is the sensation of simply hitting air as my foot and part of the leg easily passes through his cloudy body.

At the same time, I hear Captain Smoker voice as he comments, "Nice try, but it is useless... if the dirt can't hit me, it also can't blind me." which is quickly followed by a strong pain as Captain Smoker kicks me in the stomach and sends me once again crashing on the ground, but this time, he doesn't follow through with another attack but gives me the time to stand up.

And as I once again get up, I hear him comment, "The idea of taking me by surprise to hit me isn't so bad, but it is too bad that I just have way too much experience in dealing with this kind of tactics. Moreover, this being an one on one fight puts you in an even greater disadvantage, as I can simply focus only on your movements making this kind of surprise attacks even more easy to predict."

Hearing that, I can't help but realize the truth behind his words, 'That's right, as long as he can keep his eyes on me I would never be able to truly take him by surprise in this kind of situation. The only way I have left is to try that but I can barely use it let alone control it... No, I have to gamble on that, there is no way I'll just give up without even trying!'

Smoker POV - Blue Star, East Blue, Polestar Island - 20 GAP

I stare at the kid facing me with still a clear will to continue in his eyes, and I can't help but be impressed by his strong willpower and what he has shown until now, 'This kid is already physically strong enough to be qualified to be an Elitè Recruit at the Marine Headquarters, sure he still has a lot to learn but at such young age he is already stronger than most of the Marine residing in this part of the world.'

Then I move my gaze away from him for a moment and look at the young man with messy dark blue hair and green eyes as he stands among the other sailors right beside Tashigi with a calm smile on his face as he watch our match and think, 'I'm really curious to know what is his true indentity... but even more than that, I'm curious to know just how strong he truly is, what kind of power was able to make men of the caliber of Vice Admiral Garp, and Fleet Admiral Sengoku be willing to go to such lenght to make sure to not make an enemy out of him...'

While thinking that, I focus back on the kid Koby, who in the meantime recovered from my previous kick, and genuely compliment him, "You're good, kid. If you continue like this you will surely be able to achieve your dream one day... But for now is still a little too soon for that."

Then remembering everything I went through to reach this point and how much I still have to grow, I add, "You may feel like I'm some kind of unbeatable monster right now, but out there there are many people stronger than me, people that I too am chasing after, people like the Vice Admirals, the Admirals, the four Emperors..."

I once again glance at the young man named Jayr while adding "... And many other people that I'm currentily too weak to even know they exist. So don't get anxious, continue to bravely walk forward one step at a time and before you realize it you would have already set foot in places you would have never dreamed before..."

After the brief encouraging speech, I decided that it was time to finally end this fight, as I don't enjoy prolonging the suffering of someone as young as him especially since there is a vast difference in experience and strength between us, moreover, he already had a taste of what it is like to fight against a Devil Fruit user, and a Logia one at that, and this is more than enough.

So I raise both my arms and says, "It's time to end this now, Koby. White Out!"

I shoot out clouds of normal smoke from my arms and uses them to engulf my opponent, the young Koby, then I make the smoke dense to trap him inside.

This is a technique that I often use to ensnare many people at the same time while my troops prepare to arrest the captives, it is very effective against groups and very rarely can someone escape from it.

But soon, I realize that something is wrong, as I don't feel the kid's presence within my cloud of smoke, so I instantly disperse the smoke and reform my arms, and as expected the kind isn't there, the only unusual thing is that the ground is strangely cracked where the kid was standing before.

Seeing that, I quickly look around to search for the kid figure, and I find him on my left side, standing quite a few meters away from me, but what is even more strange is that he is now sweating profusely and seems even a little short on breath, something surprising considering the stamina he displayed until now.

Still a little surprised by this unexpected development, I face the young boy and say, "You were able to escape my White Out technique. That's truly surprising."

But soon I notice another detail, I see that his legs are trembling slightly as if the muscles are constantly twitching like they just went through an excessive strain, and instantly I connect all the little hints in front of me reaching the only possible conclusion, and comment, "You just used Soru, didn't you? One of the six techniques of "Rokushiki" that allows superhuman speed. To think that you are already somewhat capable of using something like that truly speaks volume of the rigurous training you went through... But it seems that using it one time is currentily too much for you. This is your current limit, you can stop now it is already enough."

The kid looks at me right in the eyes, and as he continues to take deep breaths he says, "You are... Haa... forgetting something, Sir... Haa... Constantly breaking through one own limits... Haa... is exactily the way I train...!"

Then the kid sucks in a lot of air before disappearing from my sight way too fast for my eyes to follow his figure, and before I know it, I feel something pass right beside me, and soon after the loud sound of the ground right behind me exploding as an huge cloud of dust raises and briefly blinds me.

At this point, I raise my guard ready for a sudden surprise attack and get ready to transform into smoke at any moment's notice, but after a few seconds, nothing happens and soon the cloud of dust starts to disperse thanks to the fresh wind coming from the sea direction.

Once the cloud of dust clears away, I start to look around confused, and soon I see the kid's figure as he is kneeling inside a 2 meters wide crater taking some very deep breaths, his fist his buried in the ground.

Seeing that he isn't moving, I grow worried and quickly walk toward him and ask, "Kid, are you okay?"

The kid ignores me, but I hear him mutter, "Damn it... Haa... I lost control and totally missed the mark... I wanted to at least to hit him once to prove to Jayr-san that he didn't waste his time training me... and to myself that I'm not that weak useless Koby anymore... Haa..."

Just as I'm about to try and comfort the kid, all of the sudden, that Jayr appears right beside the kid and chops him on the head and yell, "What kind of bullshit you are saying!? You have nothing to prove to me! And what kind of bullshit objective did you chose!? Hitting a Logia user without having a Sea Stone weapon, knowing Haki, or having access to a counter element? Do you have any idea of how stupid it actually sounds?"

At this point, the young Koby appears almost on the verge of crying, but Jayr starts to gentily ruff his hair and says, "Besides why are you so down if you were barely able to complete your objective?"

Koby suddenly raises his head and looks at Jayr in surprise, something that I share too, as I don't understand how and when he was barely able to hit me.

Jayr doesn't let his words linger and quickly answer the unasked question by pointing at me and saying, "Look closer, Captain Smoker has a very light cut on his left side of his neck..."

Hearing that, I unconsciously touch the left side of my neck, but I don't feel anything thing wrong with it, then look at my hand and notice a smidge of blood on my glove, and mutter, "It's true... How...?"

At this point, Jayr calmly explains, "It is quite easy, when Koby lost control of his Soru and punched the ground, together with that cloud of dust that he raised, he also sent many rocks and small gravels flying around randomly, and one of them was sharp and fast enough to give you that small cut before you could realize what is going on and transform into your element to dodge it."

Then Jayr looks back at Koby and declares, "So even if indirectily and by pure blind luck you were still able to hit Captain Smoker and complete that pure bullshit objective of yours... Good job, Koby."

Hearing that, Koby smiles brightly and yells, "Y-Yes! Thank you Jayr-san!!" then he looks at me and lowering his head he also says, "And also thank you, Captain Smoker, Sir. You took some time from your busy schedule to let me experience how truly difficult is to fight against a Logia Type Devil Fruit user."

In response to that, I simply cross my arms and say, "Don't worry about it, kid. Training and taking care of recruits and my troops is one of my duties as Captain of this Marine Base. I didn't do anything more than that."

Then I look at him still kneeling on the ground and ask worried, "By the way, are you okay, kid? That last Soru should have been way too much for your body to handle..."

But instead of Koby, it is Jayr who replies, "Not really at the moment, the fool almost torn all the ligaments in his legs, but he will be good soon..."

While saying that, Jayr slowly taps Koby's legs at various points with his finger, then he says, "Here you go! You are good to go again. But be careful with your movement because as punishiment for you reckleness I didn't take away your pain so you will still feel it for a couple minutes, until your brain actually catches up and realizes that that the legs are now fine and there is no need for it anymore."

Surprisingly, quickly after he said that, Koby nods and slowly stands up with a slight winch on his face, and surprised by what is happening in front of my eyes, I can't help but exclaim, "Wait! Isn't too soon for the boy to move if he torn his ligaments!? He should be brought in the infermery with a strecher!"

But Koby quickly explains, "You don't need to worry, Sir. If Jayr-san says it is fine then it is. After all, Jayr-san is an amazing doctor, throughout my training, he healed even worse injuries... in fact, I still have see something that he is unable to heal." to show that, he even starts to quickly jump and run around still with a slight wince on his face as he probably continues to feel the aftermentioned pain.

I can't help but be surprised by this last piece of information, especially since it should be impossible to heal someone so quickly unless one has some kind of unknown Devil Fruit with healing powers.

But soon, I'm brought out of my musing by Jayr's voice as he also starts to thank me, "Captain Smoker, let me offer my gratitude for granting my request of allowing Koby to join your men's training and also to let him spar against your men, Tashigi-san, and even yourself. I truly appreciate it."

Hearing that, an idea suddenly comes to my mind, and so I ask, "If you are so grateful then why don't you return the favor? Just like I let Koby experience the power of a Logia Type Devil Fruit user, why don't you let me experience your power? After all, I heard from my superiors that you are pretty strong yourself."

Jayr smirks lightly and says, "So Vice Admiral Garp already told Fleet Admiral Sengoku about me, huh... Oh well, it isn't a problem if they know..."

Then he asks, "Are you sure about it? Do you want your men to watch you lose? Won't that affect your prestige or something like that?"

I can't help but scoff hearing that, and comment "As if losing to someone who is acknowledged by people of the caliber of Vice Admiral Garp would harm my prestige among my men. Bring it on!"

Of course, everyone is also clearly hearing what we are saying as we aren't hiding what we are talking about, and so my men already started to once again make space for us.

Jayr then shrugs his shoulder and says, "Very well, then I'll make sure that this will be a very fulfilling lesson for everyone here. It will also be a good experience for you too Captain Smoker, after all, it is clear that your stay in the weak East Blue dulled your instincts quite a bit."

I'm now standing in front of Jayr a few meters away from him as we are about to start our sparring match, but despite that, he still looks as relaxed as always, in fact, he isn't even actually looking at me at the moment, but at his student as he calmly explains, "Keep your eyes open and do not miss a single detail of this battle as I'll show you that having a strong Devil Fruit doesn't guarantee that you will be just as strong, after all, a Devil Fruit in the end can simply be considered a force multiplier and no matter how much can enhance you power, if your base power is 0 the Devil Fruit won't be able to do much."

After saying that, he looks at me and says, "I'm ready. We can start whenever you want." I nod and say, "Let's start this then. Watch out!"

Quickly after that, I don't give my opponent any chance, I instantly raise my arms aiming at him and yell, "White Out!"

I shoot out clouds of normal smoke from my arms with the clear intent of using them to engulf my opponent, and then make the smoke dense to trap him inside.

But as the smoke approaches him, Jayr simply smiles and says out loud, "Let me explain to everyone the weaknesses of Captain Smoker's Devil Fruit, the Moku Moku no Mi (Smoke-Smoke Fruit). First of all no matter of dense the Captain makes his smoke or how much of it he produces, and even ignoring the fact that it is a quite strong and versatile element with no direct counter, in the end, it is still a volatile gas... which means it is very susceptible to being blown away by a strong enough air pressure or movement."

Quickly after saying that, Jayr throws a simple relaxed punch with his left arm, but that punch generates a strong tornado-like air current that blows away and disperses the smoke I just launched at him, and even pushed me back by a few meters making me complain in my mind, 'What kind of bullshit pure physical power is that!? It almost looked like he was simply waving away a fly and that almost blew me away, me a full grown man weighting around 110 kg for god's sake! What the hell can he do if he throws a full powered one? Could he really raze down a mountain just like Vice Admiral Garp?'

While I'm thinking that, Jayr continues with his lesson as if nothing happened, "This brings me to the second weakness of the Moku Moku no Mi (Smoke-Smoke Fruit). A lack of pure destructive power compared to other Logia as the only way one can use the smoke is to make it dense enough that can be used as a blunt weapon, or use it to contain and restrict his opponents. Of course this doesn't mean that it is a weak power, after all, it is a pretty versatile one and as I said before, it doesn't have a clear counter element which is quite a good thing."

At the same time, I regain my bearing and don't hesitate to quickly use White Launcher transforming myself into smoke and launching myself toward Jayr, then once close enough, I spread the smoke that compose my body over a wider area eveloping Jayr within it, then I suddenly manifest my human body parts from the smoke to attack from unexpected angles, but no matter from what tricky angle I attack, Jayr is able to easily dodge every single one of my attack with minimal movements and efforts.

At the same time, he nonchalantly continues his lessons, "And what you are currentily seeing is one of the many applications of his versatile Devil Fruit. He didn't only limit my field of view by enveloping me in this thick smokescreen, but he also suddenly manifested his human body parts from the smoke to attack from many unexpected angles. I have also note that the created smoke is quite foul, to the point of causing most people to cough having a clear debilitating effects on other people's respiration."

Hearing that, I can't help but internally snort while complaining, 'Indeed, but it has no effects whatsoever on you. And how the hell can he dodge so accurately, is this the effect of that form of Haki I heard about... the Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki)? Damn it! I can't hit him at all!'

At this point, since I can hit him at all, I decide to take advantage of the fact that he is still within my smokescreen, to try and restrain him once more, and quickly I start to condense all the smoke within the area binding his body with it, at the same time, I reform my body leaving only my right arm in its smoke form to keep it connected to the smoke binding Jayr and say triumphally, "I got you now!"

Jayr simply smiles, then he continues, "And as you can see, his Devil Fruit is actually perfect for restricting, constrain, and capturing his targets as it is very difficult to escape once one is within his grasp... difficult but not impossible..."

All of the sudden, I feel an irresistible force originating from Jayr's body as he simply takes a step forward, and no matter how much I try to contain and restrict him, all the dense smoke simply parts away under his incredible might, and one step after the other, he simply walks out of the binding of my dense smoke which is producing enough power to easily bend even metal, but it is all useless.

Jayr then simply stops in front of me and says, "Get ready... I'm about to attack you..."

The only thing I can do is stare as Jayr raises the index finger of his right hand and thrust it toward my chest, and on instinct, I start to transform my body into smoke even knowing that the intagibility of that state is useless about someone that can very probably use Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), which allows the user to use their own spiritual energy as armor to defend against attacks, as well as make their own attacks more potent, and more important, it can also be used to bypass Devil Fruit's defenses, such as Logia intangibility.

Jayr seems to notice that as he smirks and says, "It is useless! You can't escape my ultimate technique!"

But after that he simply and very lightly pokes my chest with his index finger and in a light tone he concludes, "The Finger Poke of Doom!"

Of course the simple fact that he is able to easily touch me in my elementized state already tells me everything I need to know, but it is clear that he didn't have any intention of truly harming me and was simply trying to scare me with a ridiculous sounding fake technique, but just as I'm about to thank him for going easy on me, I start to panic as I realize that I'm unable to control and move my body.

Jayr's smile grows bigger as he says, "Omae wa mō shindeiru. (You are already dead.)" making me fear for the worse possible situation for an instant.

But then Jayr starts to laughs out loud and removes his finger from my chest and at exactily the same time, to my immense relief I regain control over my body.

After that, Jayr explains, "Sorry, sorry. It was a bad taste joke on my part but I did it to show you that you shouldn't ever underestimate your opponent no matter how ridiculous or harmless he or she appears to be because there are really too many abilities and techniques that are as ridiculous as they are dangerous... like turning someone into a toy with a simple touch, or like I just did paralyze you with a simple touch. As a wise man once said constant vigilance is the only way to survive."