Captain Smoker

"So, you are saying that a Marine officer had been taking bribes from Arlong to turn a blind eye to his deeds for a whole eight years, and then You and the Strawhats happened to be there at the same time and dealt with the situation by cooperating?" Smoker rubbed his temples in exasperation.

"Not together but you could say so" Jin Woo corrected the only unimportant part of the explanation.

"H-how can you expect us to believe that?" Tashigi's doubt-filled voice sounded.

"Tashigi, Stop it." Smoker reprimanded his subordinate.

"But-" Tashigi tried to protest but Smoker cut her off. "Stop means stop. Now shut up before I make you do the drill twice!"

Tashigi couldn't help but straighten her back and shut her mouth at that. She didn't feel like going through the 'drill' anytime soon.

Smoker let out a big could of smoke before continuing. "Besides, this…this is not the first time the Marines covered up their blunders like this…" Smoker's headache got worse the more he thought about it.

He looked towards Jin Woo. "Although I promised that you could skip the waiting process, processing all that money would still take time…I am sorry but at best, you will have to wait until tomorrow."

Jin Woo didn't mind it at all. After all, he knew twenty million Beri wasn't an amount that could be processed even in a single day. If not for Smoker, he would maybe even have to wait a week or more to get it. He nodded and smiled.

"No Problem."

Jin Woo left the office soon after exchanging greetings and a little small talk. He planned on finding an Inn to stay the night before it got dark.

In his talk with Smoker, he found out that Smoker, despite the cold attitude, could be very friendly to other people. Although Jin Woo never noticed even a hint of a smile on the gruff man's face. He had even recommended an Inn to Jin Woo to help him out.

Jin Woo felt that he had been too prejudiced towards the Marines due to his earlier experience, but he still couldn't be sure about them.

It didn't take Jin Woo long to find the Inn as he arrived in front of a small two-story building with the nameplate of "Braveheart Inn".

Jin Woo entered the building that neither looked new nor old. The interior felt warm and cozy, with many chairs and tables lined up at one side and a counter on the other side. Many people were chatting, drinking, and eating. In simpler words, Business was blooming.

The Braveheart Inn served as both, a restaurant and an Inn. The rooms were on the first and second floors while the ground floor contained only the restaurant.

Jin Woo walked towards the counter. A very friendly middle-aged Lady stood there. She had light brown hair and visible wrinkles from working hard on her face.

After booking the room, Jin-Woo decided to continue his stroll around the town. Especially since he hadn't yet seen the execution platform and it was only around afternoon, still a lot of time until the sky got dark.

Jin Woo kept his eyes open all the time but didn't encounter any incident like before. He sighed in relief that such occurrences weren't normal and very rare.

When Jin Woo reached his destination, he couldn't help but doubt his eyes. Luffy was strapped to the execution platform while a man, with clown makeup and a big red nose, cackling madly and about to execute him with the sword in hand.

The sword came down on Luffy's neck as Luffy beamed a radiant smile and spoke with his usual cheerfulness. "Everyone. Sorry, I guess I am dead!" In the face of death, he showed the most fearless smile one could ever make.

All of a sudden, through a stroke of luck, a bolt of lightning came crashing down on the execution platform. The whole platform came crashing down and the clown was charred black.

"Shishishi, guess I am not dead yet!" Luffy laughed while patting dust from himself and stood completely fine.

"You idiot!" Zoro and Sanji retorted with a punch on Luffy's head. "What the hell do you think you were doing?!"

"Straw Hat…" Smoker growled towards the trio.

"Huh? Me? Do I know you?" Luffy asked goofily from Smoker.

"You idiot! He's obviously here for your head! Can't you see the uniform?!" Sanji smacked Luffy on the head again.

"Shut your traps and run, you damn idiots!" Zoro warned but was already too late.

Smoker materialized in front of him. Zoro swung his sword but his sword passed right through Smoker! Smoker had turned into the smoke to avoid any damage.

Ignoring Zoro, Smoker rushed towards Luffy like a steam engine. Sanji tried to intercept him but to no avail as all his kicks also passed through Smoker. The same went with Luffy and his kicks or punches all passed through Smoker without dealing any damage.

It truly became a hopeless situation for them!

"Santoryu Ougi…"

Zoro had already drawn all his three swords. He held one sword in his mouth and two in his both hands. He bent his knees and positioned the two swords in his hand above his head. If he couldn't cut through the smoke, he planned to just blow it away.

"Tatsumaki!"

A whirlpool of wind suddenly formed due to the swing of Zoro's sword. The wind became so intense that Smoker was forced to materialize, or he could be blown away.

It seemed like the pirates could escape successfully but Smoker was not someone that could be rid of easily. He managed to hold them back without a problem until the wind died down and surrounded them again.

Smoker lashed out with his long jitte, but it was stopped by Jin-Woo!

Jin Woo had no plans to interfere but he had to since it looked like they were about to be caught.

"What is the meaning of this, Jin-Woo?"

"Well…I don't know what you are talking about."