"White Snake!"
Smoker roared as his arm transformed into smoke and lunged at Luffy like a striking serpent.
Luffy hopped and darted around the attacks, then turned his head, tugged down one eyelid, and grinned.
"Missed me! Hehehe! You can't catch me, you can't catch me! Now that I've learned Observation Haki, dodging attacks like this is super eas—OW!"
He had been so focused on avoiding Smoker that he completely forgot to use Observation Haki to sense what was in front of him.
He ran headfirst into a tree.
Smoker did not slow down for even a second.
He seized the opening and brought his jitte crashing down.
Luffy hurriedly rolled aside. The Seastone-tipped weapon missed his hair by inches and smashed into the ground, spraying chunks of stone everywhere.
"Hey, hey! That's dangerous, Smoke Guy!"
Luffy scrambled back to his feet and dusted himself off, turning around to complain.
"Shut up!"
Smoker charged again, both arms transforming into surging smoke that swept toward Luffy from either side.
Luffy stomped hard against the ground, compressed his body, and sprang away.
He slipped left past a smoky fist, bent sharply to the right beneath a horizontal sweep of the jitte, then finished with a backflip that opened the distance between them.
He landed steadily atop a thick tree branch.
Seeing that, Smoker transformed his lower body into smoke and shot after him.
…
Elsewhere, Ace wanted to go help Luffy, but Garp stopped him.
Instead, Garp explained everything that had happened with Tama.
"What?! You're making Tama a Marine?!"
"Yeah."
Garp picked his nose and glanced casually at Ace.
"Got a problem with that?"
"Uh… no. Not really!"
Ace quickly shook his head.
It was not because he was afraid of Garp.
He was thinking about Tama's situation in Wano.
Even with Yamato serving as Shogun now, it would still be difficult for one person—and a group of subordinates whose loyalty was not yet completely certain—to keep Tama safe all the time.
Compared to leaving her vulnerable to pirates and bandits, taking her away was probably better.
And objectively speaking, growing up with the Marines would give Tama a far better environment than following Ace around as a pirate.
More importantly, she was still a child.
It would be at least another decade before she was old enough to become a proper Marine.
Having somewhere safe to grow up until then was hardly a bad thing.
What Ace had not expected was that Garp himself would be the one to bring her out of Wano.
"Wait…"
Ace suddenly turned toward Garp.
"When you said 'our little sister' earlier… you meant Tama?!"
"Of course."
Garp looked completely pleased with himself.
"I can't exactly dump Tama in Marine Headquarters and forget about her, can I? I'm raising her myself."
"This old man isn't exactly an expert at raising children, but I already recruited some outside help."
He showed absolutely no shame about hiring a babysitter.
"Besides, the more grandchildren, the better."
"You brats all grew up crooked, so this old man has decided to start over from scratch!"
Tama, who was sitting on Garp's shoulders, immediately joined in.
"That's right! Tama is Grandpa Garp's granddaughter now!"
"So I can finally call you Ace-nii-chan properly!"
"Uh… Tama!"
Being called that made Ace blush instead.
He scratched his cheek awkwardly and looked at the little girl.
"Our reunion was kind of embarrassing just now, but…"
He smiled.
"Anyway, I'm really happy to see you again."
"Mm! Tama is really happy to see Ace too!"
She looked down at Garp.
"Grandpa, can you put me down? I can barely reach Ace from up here."
"Ah, give me a second."
Garp glanced upward at Tama.
Then, with his face hidden from her by the angle, he shot Ace an absolutely vicious glare.
His voice dropped to a threatening whisper.
"Go wash yourself already! Are you seriously planning to hug Tama while you're filthy like that?!"
"Oh! Right!"
Ace nodded repeatedly and was about to leave when a series of loud explosions erupted behind him.
Smoke and dust billowed through the forest.
Ace looked over curiously.
"They're still fighting? Who's winning?"
"No idea!"
Garp stared toward the battle.
"Luffy seems to be doing nothing but running away. Is that brat really this old man's grandson?! Fight back harder!"
Then he immediately changed targets.
"Ah, no! Smoker, kick him harder! Get him!"
Then again.
"No, wait, this old man should be—this old man…"
Beside him, Tashigi stared blankly at Smoker chasing Luffy.
Then she slowly turned toward Garp.
'Vice Admiral Garp… whose side are you even cheering for?'
…
After running for a while, Luffy finally noticed something.
Only Smoker was chasing him.
Garp had not followed at all.
So Luffy simply stopped running.
He spun around and punched Smoker's next attack aside.
Since he could not allow the Seastone jitte to touch him, he would have to keep some distance between them.
Luffy watched Smoker approach again.
His arm stretched backward, pulling farther and farther before suddenly snapping forward.
"Gum-Gum Pistol!"
The heavy punch shot straight toward Smoker.
Fortunately, Smoker reacted quickly enough to raise his jitte in front of himself and block.
Even so, the force drove him backward for dozens of meters, his boots carving two deep trenches through the earth.
"Damn it…"
Smoker gritted his teeth.
'The jitte can't touch him at all.'
'Has his Observation Haki already improved this much?'
Frustration welled inside him.
Not long ago, that brat had known nothing except charging straight ahead.
Now he was slippery as an eel.
Smoker hated it.
Luffy was standing right there.
After chasing him for so long, Smoker finally had the chance to arrest him again.
Yet now his own strength could no longer keep up.
The feeling was infuriating.
Armament and Observation Haki might be practically standard equipment among serious fighters in the New World, but Smoker had only recently transferred there.
Even with systematic training, he was still far from mastering either one.
His progress simply could not compare to Luffy's.
He raised his head and glared at the young pirate.
"I never expected you to get this much stronger in such a short time, Straw Hat!"
"But even so, I'm not giving up on arresting you."
"Why do you even want to catch me so badly?"
Luffy lowered himself into a fighting stance.
"You let us go back in Alabasta!"
"There's no point explaining it all again."
Smoker tightened his grip on his jitte.
"That time was nothing more than paying back what I owed you."
"I'm not going to stand by and let someone as dangerous as you sail freely into the New World."
"You're still just as stubborn as ever."
Luffy sighed.
"I don't even want to fight you."
His previous punch had only been meant to knock Smoker away.
At this point, the situation was simple.
Smoker wanted to arrest him.
Luffy did not want to be arrested.
That was all.
But Smoker was not listening.
He charged again.
Luffy could only shake his head, then drew in a deep breath.
"Guess I'll have to make you stop moving, Smoke Guy!"
"Be careful with this one—Gum-Gum…!"
"Heh. You're the one who should be careful."
Smoker sneered.
Without Luffy noticing, smoke had already spread throughout the surrounding area.
It sealed off every direction and blocked Luffy's vision.
Knowing that Luffy possessed Observation Haki, Smoker understood that this was his only real chance to press the Seastone tip of his jitte against him.
He rushed closer.
Then Luffy shouted—
"Giant Pistol!"
BOOM!!!
Luffy's right arm expanded into an enormous, giant-sized fist and came crashing down at Smoker.
Smoker's body was still widely dispersed as smoke.
Before he could fully reform, the massive fist tore straight through the smoke and slammed into him.
He was sent flying.
In that instant, only one thought remained in Smoker's mind.
'How?'
He had sealed every escape route.
He had calculated the timing perfectly.
But Luffy's enormous fist had used Smoker's own cloud of smoke as cover.
Smoker never saw it coming.
The attack tore through his smoke and struck his physical body directly.
Luffy's vision had been blocked, yes.
But that meant Smoker could not clearly see Luffy either.
He could sense Luffy's position through the smoke produced by his Devil Fruit, but he had no way of knowing what Luffy was charging up.
And the most important part was—
Armament Haki.
Luffy had learned that too.
'I should have realized it.'
'What, has my thinking gotten slower too?'
No.
Perhaps seeing Straw Hat again had made Smoker so desperate to arrest him that he rushed things.
Or maybe…
Had Luffy's growth itself shaken him?
Pain exploded across Smoker's chest and nearly knocked the breath from his lungs.
He flew completely out of the forest and crashed heavily onto the island's sandy beach.
Smoker lay there on his back, staring motionlessly at the blue sky.
Sand had slipped down his collar, and his back burned from the impact.
But neither hurt as much as the feeling in his chest.
'Has the gap already become this large?'
Against that last attack, he had barely been able to resist at all.
Without Observation Haki, he could not predict an attack hidden from sight.
Without Armament Haki, he could not properly defend against it.
All he had managed was a desperate attempt to block with his jitte.
When that giant fist came down, he had not even had time to reform his smoke body before the Haki-coated strike hit him directly.
He had taken significant damage.
He could still stand.
He could still keep fighting.
Yet his body felt nailed to the sand.
Not because of the pain.
Because he did not know what would change if he stood up.
That brat had once been nothing more than a rookie Smoker could chase through the streets.
So why?
How had things become like this?
Smoker stared bitterly at the sky, his fist slowly tightening in the sand.
Then Garp approached, carrying a bag of doughnuts.
He had already handed Tama over to Ace.
Garp looked down at Smoker.
"What's wrong with you, brat?"
"Weren't you confidently saying you were going to arrest Luffy?"
"Why are you lying down already?"
"None of your business."
Smoker turned his head away.
"If you want to laugh, just laugh."
But Garp did not.
The old man known as the Hero of the Marines sat down beside him and took a bite of his doughnut.
"This old man isn't going to laugh at you."
"Kuzan questioned himself enough times that he ended up leaving the Marines entirely."
"I'd rather not watch you turn into the same kind of mess."
Smoker paused.
Garp glanced at him and continued.
"Besides, there's something about you that reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger."
"You pick one pirate and keep chasing the bastard no matter what."
"So I'm curious."
Garp looked toward him.
"Why Luffy?"
"Why are you so obsessed with chasing that particular brat?"
"That's because…"
Smoker stared at the sky and fell silent for a long time.
He had never intended to tell anyone this.
Even if he did, most people would probably laugh at what was essentially a stubborn instinct.
But Garp's words about not wanting him to end up like Kuzan pierced through the thick shell around those thoughts.
So Smoker slowly began to speak.
He told Garp about Loguetown.
About standing before the execution platform and seeing Luffy smile in the face of death.
About the instant that smile overlapped with Gol D. Roger's.
And finally, word by word, he told Garp the conclusion he had never shared with anyone.
When he finished, the beach fell silent.
Garp remained quiet for a moment.
Then he laughed.
Not mockingly.
If anything, there was admiration in his voice.
"Bwahahaha! You really are exactly like this old man was when he was young!"
When the laughter faded, Garp turned and looked at Smoker seriously.
"So, how about becoming my student?"
Smoker froze.
"If Luffy keeps yelling that he's going to become the Pirate King…"
Garp placed the doughnut between his teeth, freeing one hand before extending it toward Smoker.
"…then this sea ought to have a Marine who chases him everywhere and beats him until he runs for his life."
"Just like Roger had this old man!"
Smoker stared at the calloused hand before him.
His mind replayed the punch he had just taken.
That enormous fist coated in Armament Haki.
Then he remembered the execution platform in Loguetown.
Straw Hat grinning beneath the blade.
He remembered every chase.
Every time Luffy slipped away.
And suddenly, Smoker understood something.
He did not chase Luffy because he believed he could already catch him.
He chased him because if he never stopped, someday he would.
Maybe not today.
Maybe not tomorrow.
But someday.
Smoker drew a deep breath.
Then he reached out and firmly clasped Garp's hand.
His grip was hard, almost vicious, as though he were crushing all of his earlier frustration and uncertainty into that handshake.
"Maybe you're right."
"This sea probably does need someone capable of catching Straw Hat."
Smoker slowly sat up.
A faint smile pulled at his mouth, equal parts self-mocking and determined.
"I don't think I'm that man yet."
"But one day…"
"I'm going to catch him."