Chapter 82: The Weak Have No Right to Discuss Justice
Sag smiled and looked at the man. "You seem quite angry at me? I don't recall a character like you."
"East Blue, Loguetown!"
The man said gravely, "After I left, you robbed Loguetown, which I was supposed to be stationed at. I've been thinking about you!"
Hearing this, Sag paused, looking the man up and down, then remembered: "Smoker?"
Smoker slowly exhaled a puff of smoke. "Although my target is Straw Hat Boy, a dangerous element like you cannot be let go either!"
Monkey D. Luffy had brought Smoker a spiritual shock – the kind of shock from seeing someone face death on the execution platform calmly and even laugh, reminding him of watching Roger's execution in his youth.
If such a guy wasn't caught, who knew how much danger he would cause?
But Norton Sag was different; he himself was already very dangerous!
"The great sinner who destroyed four kingdoms, bounty two hundred and seventy million Beli, 'Natural Disaster' Norton Sag!"
Smoker raised his fist. "Let me see what makes you worth such a high bounty!"
His raised arm emitted dense smoke, enveloping the entire arm... No, not enveloping; the arm itself transformed into a smoky form.
"Wu!"
Miote let out a low growl, showing a threatening posture.
Sag waved his hand, stopping Miote from advancing. "You're still no match for him. Let me see, the so-called Logia type…"
He took two steps forward and smiled, "...exactly how capable it is."
Smoker said coldly, "I ate the Moku Moku no Mi (Smoke-Smoke Fruit) and became a Smoke Human. As for how capable, try it yourself!"
Whoosh!
Smoke emitted from the cigar clamped in his mouth. Simultaneously, the smoke-wreathed arm burst out with a jet of smoke. "White Blow!"
The dense smoke, like a pillar, elongated Smoker's arm, his fist at its tip, striking rapidly forward. Sag casually opened his hand, about to catch the fist.
Bang!
Although a hitting sound echoed from his palm, the fist turned directly into smoke upon impact with Sag's hand, diffusing outwards along with the pillar of smoke, enveloping Sag's surroundings.
"Oh… Able to hit people, it's intrinsically a fist, yet it's also natural, so it can't be physically touched. Is this elementalization?"
Sag felt the sensation on his hand, nodded slightly, and looked at the surrounding diffuse smoke.
"The smoke surrounding me is naturally produced, lacking that impact feeling. It's a standard natural phenomenon, capable of suffocating people and confusing vision…"
Before he could finish, the smoke enveloping him suddenly shot out in pillar shapes, striking towards his sides again. Sag raised his palm to block, but the smoke passed right through his hand, turning into stick-thick forms and spraying onto his chest.
Bang bang bang!
The smoke jets also brought a series of muffled sounds.
"Seems like you don't need to deliberately condense it into a fist either. The scattered smoke can become your power at any time, also possessing a considerable strike, but compared to that, your actual fist is somewhat more powerful."
Sag spoke probingly, completely unconcerned about his chest being hit.
This level of force was too weak for his increasingly powerful body.
It couldn't even compare to Ennio's fist.
Seeing his moves were ineffective, Smoker said gravely, "A guy with a strong body? No wonder you're fearless. But you underestimate me too much! White Snake!"
The smoke sprayed onto his chest suddenly wrapped around from his chest to his back, condensing into a huge mass of smoke, winding around his entire body like a great white serpent, binding him tightly.
Sag moved his arm slightly, wanting to pull it free, but this white smoke clearly carried a force and had solidified, like a firm iron chain. Besides the force, it also carried the unique suffocation characteristic of smoke. If one couldn't breathe for a long time, they would gradually weaken until failure.
However…
Sag exerted force, and his arm struggled free from the smoke, but it merely passed through the smoke cloud, not changing the smoke in any way.
He looked at Smoker's figure outlined outside the dense fog. "Not bad. Ordinary people encountering a guy like you would probably just be strangled to death."
"Hmph, you'll be the same. No matter what kind of attack, it can't truly hit me!" Smoker snorted coldly. "Since you know about Logia types, you should understand the power of elementalization. Your body might be strong, but faced with smoke suffocation, arresting you is just a matter of time!"
He bit his cigar, exhaling smoke, his expression gradually relaxing.
"A guy like you is actually worth two hundred and seventy million. Those guys at HQ have become slack."
The smoke shroud could block breathing. If this guy inhaled the smoke, he would only choke. If he held his breath forcefully, how long could he hold it?
"Hmph hmph hmph…"
Sag let out a low chuckle. His hand passed back and forth through the smoke, and he slowly said:
"You Logia types can also be countered, just like water and fire, fire and wood. Smoke can be countered by wind. Find a large hairdryer, and you can blow it away. But it doesn't have to be that troublesome…"
The hand passing through the smoke suddenly descended. As his five fingers opened, he heavily pinched the smoke winding around him.
Pa!
Like catching something tangible, Smoker's pupils contracted, a look of pain appearing. The smoke binding Sag's body fiercely exploded outwards, and the arm diffused as smoke rapidly solidified, turning into a solid arm.
He subconsciously covered his left elbow with his right hand, his entire arm trembling uncontrollably, as if numb.
"You…" Smoker stared incredulously at the smoke-enveloped area ahead.
The smoke lost control and turned into a normal natural phenomenon, gradually drifting away in this open space.
As the dense fog gradually dissipated, Sag's figure emerged from within. He maintained the posture of grasping with five fingers just now and smiled at Smoker:
"Turns out I hit the elbow."
In Smoker's eyes, that right hand was covered in a layer of ink-like pitch black!
"Haki…" Smoker gritted his teeth. "I see. Possessing the power of Haki, no wonder you're so confident!"
He knew what Haki was; he used to know Haki himself.
Momentum, killing intent, fighting spirit – when manipulating these feelings unseen by the eyes, willpower could be turned into a weapon. That was Haki.
But if the willpower weakened, Haki would also weaken or even disappear.
As a Logia ability user, Smoker staying in the East Blue was illogical in itself. He just felt that those above had done wrong, and he was assigned to the East Blue for resisting orders.
Staying in that place, dealing with small-time East Blue pirates all day long, over time, his willpower was worn down, and he naturally lost his Haki.
If it weren't for the appearance of Straw Hat Boy, which brought him a spiritual shock and ignited the thought of needing to arrest him, he probably would have stayed in Loguetown like this until he grew old.
"Oh? You can see Haki? Did you know it originally?" Sag sounded surprised, but after thinking about it, felt it was normal.
If he remembered correctly, this guy seemed to be Zephyr's disciple. Knowing Haki was within reason.
Ultimately, it was just the control of willpower. Whether one knew it before or had always mastered it, once Haki was contacted, one could naturally see it.
However…
"It wasn't catching the solid body, it only counts as an attack," Sag looked at his palm, thoughtful.
Haki couldn't catch Logia types, just as Sag couldn't catch water or fire with Haki. Otherwise, wouldn't it be more convenient for him to grab the flowing wind with Haki?
Wind was also nature.
Similarly, he couldn't catch the natural smoke Smoker diffused around.
Otherwise, a certain sea emperor wouldn't have been dumbfounded after using a flame attack, let alone being told by another sea emperor, after being immune to flames, that it relied on perseverance, not Haki.
Ultimately, it was just the manipulation of willpower, not Seastone. It couldn't force someone from elementalization back into solidification, but it could attack the Logia ability user themselves.
That cloud of smoke wrapped around his body was essentially Smoker's arm, and Sag's Haki struck his arm. But as for which part was struck... the smoke was so long, only heaven knew.
Judging from the effect, it hit his elbow pressure point, causing paralysis.
"The experiment was successful," Sag revealed a smile.
Ordinary Haki, even if it captured the solid body of a Logia type, was just a simple attack; the specific power depended on the degree of Haki.
But Sag's Haki contained the Tōki of Hokuto Shinken. It could hit pressure points like Tōki, even for Logia types. Once the solid body was hit, they couldn't escape this point.
From the moment he mastered Haki, he had wanted to find a Logia user to test it on. After all, an ability user's body changed with their ability. Although he was confident he could see most pressure points, Logia types were different.
Essentially, they were elements, natural phenomena.
But now it seemed, it was still effective against Logia types. As long as the solid body was hit, the pressure points within could be struck.
It was just that the position of the pressure points was harder to determine. If extended and expanded like Smoker's smoke, it was just hitting wherever it hit.
"That kind of thing doesn't matter anymore."
Sag smiled at Smoker. "Still want to fight? If not, then move aside. I'm here to spend money, don't delay my party."
Smoker glanced at his left hand, which was trapped in a strange paralysis. His right hand still gripped the jitte behind his back. His body bent slightly, and he said gravely:
"I am a Marine, you are a pirate. Catching you is justified! White Smoke Launcher!"
The lower half of his body turned into a cloud of dense fog. As if adding some dynamic force, it quickly sprayed towards Sag. The tip of the jitte thrust forward forcefully, attacking Sag's throat.
Pa.
The rapidly thrusting tip of the jitte was caught in the palm of his hand. Sag's left hand blocked in front, a corner of his mouth curling up at Smoker.
"Not an ability user?!" Smoker was surprised.
The strange paralysis in his left hand made him think Sag was also an ability user. But seeing this feeling of ease, it clearly wasn't the case.
"The tip is very hard, Seastone? Even if I were an ability user, this degree of Seastone…"
Sag moved his left hand outwards and pulled, moving the iron rod aside while pulling Smoker's body closer.
"…is also useless!"
He clenched his right fist, Haki covering it, and swung it out fiercely.
Boom!
Just as the fist was about to hit Smoker's abdomen, a cloud of white smoke quickly manifested, carrying his body and rapidly diffusing, turning into thick white fog, letting Sag's fist pass through the smoke.
No feeling of hitting a solid body.
"Activated elementalization? I thought it was really just opening a hole in the body. Turns out you can also rapidly diffuse, turning the hit part into ordinary smoke, so it can't be hit."
Sag grinned. "Good judgment, pity…"
The fist penetrating the smoke wrapped around a cluster of pitch-black flowing fire. As his five fingers opened, it burst out fiercely.
"Tenha Kassatsu!"
Full power emission!
Boom!!
That cloud of white fog was entangled by the black fire, and then seemed to be blasted open by a cannonball, directly scattering the smoke, and even brought out a figure rapidly rushing outwards, impacting the ground and creating a crater.
Smoker's body lay prone in the crater, trembled for a while, his face changed, and he spat out a cluster of blood.
The fierce emission of Haki impacted his just-diffused body, directly hitting the solid body in his abdomen, carrying him away with the impact.
"Good luck."
Sag shook his head, the Haki like pitch-black flowing fire on his hand dissipating.
Even though he couldn't use emission and internal destruction simultaneously yet, the power brought by Tenha Kassatsu was enough to pierce Smoker's pressure points, causing even greater damage.
If he had internal destruction, this strike could have shattered Smoker.
"Seeing as you accompanied me in the experiment, forget it…"
He adjusted the fur cloak on his back, didn't look at Smoker, passed by him, and walked forward.
Buzz!
But just then, a jitte pointed over from the side.
Sag stopped his steps, glanced over, looking down at Smoker in the crater. "Still haven't fainted…"
His chest rose and fell rapidly. His head struggled for a moment, slowly turning towards Sag. Holding the jitte aimed at him, letting blood flow from his mouth, amidst fierce gasps, he gritted his teeth:
"I… I also have my own justice! I won't let you leave!"
"Justice…"
Sag glanced at the word 'Justice' covered by dust on Smoker's coat, a trace of ridicule appearing in his eyes. "The weak have no qualification to discuss justice, Smoker."
"Justice or evil, you can search the entire sea and find no standard. You think I'm evil, but I am my own justice. Ultimately, this kind of thing can only be discussed by the victor. The losers have long sunk into the sea, whether people or islands…"
Just like Ohara…
His gaze moved away from Smoker's body, looking upwards, until it stopped on the roof of a nearby building. His gaze stopped, and he said word by word:
"You agree, right, guy watching the show?"
On the rooftop, a person, bare-chested, wearing an orange cowboy hat, was squatting there, staring at Sag with great interest.
(In the manga, active elementalization involves opening holes in the body to dodge attacks, but that's for the reader's visual understanding. As such, I won't follow that here.)
(Of course, if you insist on arguing based on reason, then you are right.)
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