Johnny had already started unleashing his fire attack, threatening to be the strongest he had ever created — thanks to the same changes that had occurred with him — when he saw a fist flying towards his jaw from the corner of his eye. The fist appeared almost out of thin air, near his feet. Johnny couldn't stop his attack, so he had to dodge the fist to avoid either wrecking his own mouth with the attack or, at worst, blowing his head to pieces. Johnny, soaked with sweat, sharply leaned back, but the fist followed his jaw as if glued to it. Johnny had no choice but to lean back further and tilt his head, letting the gloved fist pass within a millimeter of his chin. As a result, the fiery hell Johnny was about to unleash on the defenseless marines shot straight up into the sky, forming a massive fire dragon. Johnny, meanwhile, was slammed into the ground by the recoil of his own fire. Had the marines been caught by such an attack, they would have been scattered like burning embers. The surviving marines, seeing the fire dragon with its wings spread across the entire sky, swallowed in unison. Each of them vividly imagined what would have happened to them if their savior hadn't arrived in time.
"Stop standing around like a statue! They're both devil fruit users, so use Sea-Prism Stones!" Smokey's command, as he materialized from a cloud of smoke in front of his subordinates, made the windows of the nearby buildings rattle.
And immediately followed a new shout (roar?), but not from Smokey:
"Whoever you are, prepare to die!" Johnny roared, emerging from the crater he had created.
The angry guy looked at the one who not only prevented him from roasting the marines but also had scared him with his unexpected attack at the worst possible moment. Pale green, almost ash-colored hair combed back, two cigars in his mouth, a warm jacket over his bare body, blue pants, and boots. And a completely different level of training compared to the other marines. Johnny could undoubtedly say that his new opponent alone posed a threat several times greater than all the other forces of the Marines on this island.
"'Beheader' Johnny," Smokey sized up his opponent.
"Let me guess, you're the so-called strongest East Blue Marine," Johnny's smile, due to his partial dragon transformation and sharp teeth, looked nothing like a human's: it looked as ferocious as the maw of a hungry beast.
Thus, their exchange of pleasantries ended before it even properly began, but not by the will of Smokey and Johnny:
"You can keep flapping your gums; I'll deal with him myself," said a satisfied Yosaku as he ran past his friend, looking over his shoulder.
The guy shamelessly intended to steal the opponent right from under his friend's nose — Yosaku also wanted to test the strength of the strongest East Blue Sentry.
"Hey!" Johnny needed only a moment to snap out of his stupor, but by that time, Yosaku had already reached the standing Smokey.
"'Butcher' Yosaku," the captain's gaze seemed ready to burn through his opponent.
"Hi and goodbye," he responded to Smoker.
Facing serious opponents in East Blue was no joke, so Yosaku wasn't about to miss the chance to measure his strength against the renowned Marine. Although he didn't have high hopes for a serious fight, Yosaku still expected at least some resistance. However, just in case, he didn't draw his swords yet — what if he killed him in one shot? — and attacked with his fist… only to see his opponent's body turn into smoke.
"Damn it!" Yosaku involuntarily exclaimed.
The expression on the guy's face changed dramatically. Anticipation of the fight was immediately replaced by shock, followed by irritation and anger. Yosaku hated Logia users more than anything in the world. Who wouldn't hate them in his place? He broke his back in training, and at that very moment, some complete loser was eating a fruit to become one of the invincible opponents for him. How could he not be angry?
"That bastard's a Logia user!!!" There was no trace of fear in Yosaku's voice, but anger could have been drawn in buckets.
Johnny, who had already started to follow Yosaku — planning to send his friend flying and then deal with the Marine — suddenly stopped. All Johnny's fury instantly dissipated, and his previously bristling pride quickly settled back down. Waves of irritation and tons of anger replaced them, just like with Yosaku. Johnny knew for sure that he and Yosaku had no chance against Logia users: you couldn't defeat an opponent you couldn't attack or defend against. When facing a Logia, Johnny and Yosaku, as distasteful as it sounded, had only one option: to run without looking back. At least after the memorable encounter with a Logia from the "Ace Family," whose heart Luffy later ripped out, Johnny firmly understood the futility of fighting such an opponent. And although his whole being rebelled against fleeing the battlefield, the guy saw no other way. And the possibility of escape was in serious doubt. Unlike Johnny, Yosaku was too close to his opponent. If 'close' could even describe a situation where your fist makes contact with the opponent's body, and he turns into smoke, leaving you surrounded by the smoke.
"Damn bastard!!" Yosaku roared as the surrounding smoke suddenly contracted, trapping the guy in the Sentry's grip.
"I expected more from someone with one of the largest bounties in East Blue history," Smokey said indifferently, materializing next to the struggling guy.
At that moment, only Yosaku's incredible regeneration ability saved him from a stroke; the captain's words had infuriated him so much. Without a doubt, at that moment, Yosaku's hatred for Logia users increased exponentially. When he was weak, he didn't consider his weakness shameful. The world always had, has, and will have weak and strong people, and Yosaku saw nothing wrong with being weak. Besides, he didn't consider himself particularly weak. As a bounty hunter who had fought for his life more than once, Yosaku was much stronger than some farmer or carpenter. He could only be considered weak in comparison to really strong people — or those he considered strong back then — and as mentioned before, he saw nothing shameful in being weaker than someone else. Someone somewhere was always stronger, so what was the point of worrying about it? None. However, that was how Yosaku used to think. Now, the guy — along with Johnny — found it unacceptable to be weaker than anyone outside their family.
"Ryuu, did you want to burn everything around?!" Yosaku's new angry shout shook the area. "Then burn this bastard along with all his smoke!!!"
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(the Loguetown arc is finished in there, and next one started explaining part of Luffy's past...)