"Bang—"
The heavy iron door slammed shut behind them with a dull boom.
The confinement cell instantly sank into darkness.
The air was thick with damp, moldy smell; the cramped space made every breath feel stifling.
The only vent was a palm-sized barred window high up on the wall. A few weak strands of moonlight squeezed through, leaving broken patches of light on the floor and barely sketching out the outline of the room.
"Damn it."
A curse, forced low by anger, broke the silence.
Smoker paced like a caged beast, boots cracking against the stone floor. In the echoing cell, each step sounded especially harsh.
He'd been here for days, but this was his first time being thrown into solitary—and it was because of some newbie who'd just arrived.
"It's all that fake, pretentious brat's fault!" His chest was full of rage with nowhere to go.
The main target of that anger, Rain, completely ignored him.
He just calmly walked to a relatively clean corner, brushed away non-existent dust, sat down cross-legged, and closed his eyes.
As if he weren't in solitary at all—just meditating in a new spot.
That "being ignored" stung more than any insult.
Finally, Smoker couldn't take it anymore. He stopped in front of Rain and, looking down at him, spoke in a voice full of provocation:
"Hey, brat, you playing dead? You think staying quiet means this is over?"
Rain slowly opened his eyes. In the dim light, his gaze was as calm as deep still water.
"What else would you like to discuss?" His tone didn't ripple at all. "Don't tell me you still want to argue about whether you can smoke in here."
"Don't you dare bring that crap up again!" Smoker exploded the moment his sore spot was poked. "I'll make sure you understand, whether in the dorm or in here, my rules are the only ones that matter!"
With a shout, he swung a huge fist, filled with raw killing intent, straight at Rain's cheek—no fancy technique, just brutal force.
In his mind, this punch would be enough to teach the cocky rookie what "respect for seniors" meant. He was already picturing himself stomping on the kid once he hit the floor.
But as that fist came roaring in, Rain didn't even change his posture.
Just as Smoker's punch was about to smash into his nose, Rain's upper body rocked back like a ghost, leaving a blurred afterimage.
Smoker's fist passed so close it brushed his nose. The wind pressure alone blew Rain's bangs back.
Smoker's pupils shrank. His heart lurched.
Fast.
He had no time to retract his fist, no time to make a second move.
Because a dark shadow, moving several times faster than his punch, had already ripped through the gloom toward him.
Rain's fist.
But instead of dodging, Smoker's lips twisted into a mocking smirk.
As a Logia-type Smoke Fruit user, physical attacks were a joke.
He'd already turned his abdomen fully into smoke, just waiting for the kid's fist to harmlessly pass through—and then he'd grab his arm and show him what it meant to be controlled by smoke.
He'd make this rookie understand what a Logia user really was.
Thud!
A short, heavy sound rang out—like a hammer slamming into a taut drum.
The expected emptiness of a fist passing through smoke never came.
Instead, a white-hot spike of pain exploded in his gut.
The feral grin on Smoker's face froze halfway, twisting into a bizarre mask of shock, pain, and disbelief.
He looked down.
Rain's fist was buried quietly in his abdomen.
In the dim light, he didn't see how Rain's fist had, just for a moment, been wrapped in a darkness deeper than shadow.
All he knew was that the punch had somehow "grabbed" something solid inside his smoke body—and a savage force had blasted straight through his elementized defense and slammed into his organs.
"Ghh—!"
Agony seared his abdomen like a red-hot brand. Smoker felt his insides knot up, twisted viciously by that one punch.
His jaw dropped. His whole body curled forward like a boiled shrimp.
"Hey! What's going on in there?! Keep it down!"
From outside, the guard's impatient shout echoed through the door.
Just as Smoker was about to collapse to his knees from the pain, a hand like an iron clamp flashed out and clamped over his mouth, swallowing all his groans.
Then a voice, carrying a hint of amusement, whispered in his ear like the devil itself.
"Deep breaths. Deep breaths…"
"Feeling dizzy is normal."
Those were the last words Smoker heard before he completely blacked out.
His final thought was a single, enormous question:
How… did he hit me?
Smoker: (×﹏×)
He had no idea how much time had passed when he finally stirred again. The sky outside the tiny window was just starting to lighten.
Weak morning light filtered in through the high wall, catching motes of dust drifting in the confinement cell.
He struggled to sit up. His stomach still throbbed dully, and his head felt foggy.
"Was that… a hallucination?"
He shook his head and glanced toward the corner.
Rain was still there, in the exact same posture as before—sitting cross-legged, motionless, as if he'd been meditating there all night.
Maybe… that punch had just been something his anger conjured up?
As he thought that, the figure in the corner seemed to sense his movement. Rain slowly turned his head.
In the weak morning light, he smiled—a very "kind" smile.
"Ah, you're awake."
That smile was the key.
It unlocked all of Smoker's memories from last night in an instant.
Not a hallucination.
Smoker's face went pale. He opened his mouth to say something tough—
But Rain was already on his feet, rolling his neck to loosen it after sitting still so long, and strolling toward him at a leisurely pace.
"Looks like we've reached a basic understanding," Rain said calmly.
He crouched down in front of Smoker, meeting those wide, suspicious eyes, and continued:
"I don't want trouble. You don't bother me, I don't bother you. We get through this year peacefully, minding our own business. As for not smoking in the dorm… I trust you understand now."
He paused. The smile at the corner of his lips gained a faint, playful edge.
"And about what happened last night—if you mention it to anyone… next time, I might have trouble holding back."
Smoker's whole body went cold.
Staring at that "kindly" smiling face so close to his own, he felt, for the first time, a pressure from this rookie that was eerily similar to the monstrous weight he'd once felt from Vice Admiral Kuzan.