"Marine. You were watching for quite a while back there. Why didn't you intervene sooner?" Smoker hadn't exactly been hiding, and Bellamy, even while... dealing with Kuro, had been aware of his presence.
Smoker, who was indeed intensely interested in Bellamy, stepped forward upon hearing the question. "Hyena Bellamy. You seem to know who I am?"
"The 'White Hunter'. Yeah, I've heard the name," Bellamy replied casually. He landed lightly on a floating piece of ship wreckage, eyeing the Smoke-Smoke Fruit user with open curiosity. This was his first direct encounter with a Logia user. Interesting.
Smoker was well aware of his own capabilities and reputation. "My name doesn't carry much weight outside the East Blue." He changed the subject. "Bellamy," Smoker cut straight to the point that bothered him most. "Where did you learn the Six Powers?" A pirate shouldn't know Life Return. It didn't make sense.
"The Six Powers?" Bellamy nonchalantly tore off the strands of hair he'd used earlier, letting them drift into the sea. "Just picked them up here and there. Lucky chance." He clearly had no intention of elaborating. Bellamy flexed his shoulders, readying himself for the inevitable fight. "You held back earlier. Was it because you recognized the Six Powers? Thought I might be one of yours? If that's the case, don't bother holding back on my account."
"Is that so? Understood." There really wasn't much common ground for conversation between a pirate and a Marine. "Hyena Bellamy," Smoker declared, raising his Seastone-tipped jitte. "In the name of Justice, I will deliver judgment upon you!" Smoker wasn't one for lengthy speeches either. If words failed, fists would speak.
"Justice?" Bellamy scoffed. If it were any other empty platitude, Bellamy would have ignored it. But hearing a Marine preach about 'justice'... that rubbed Bellamy the wrong way. "Whose justice are you talking about? The Celestial Dragons' 'justice'?" He sneered. "Don't make me lose respect for you. Take back that foolishness."
Just as Bellamy couldn't stomach Smoker's rhetoric, Smoker couldn't tolerate Bellamy's blasphemous accusations. "Those Celestial Dragons are merely individuals! They do not represent the Marines!" Even as Smoker tried to defend the Navy's honor, he felt a flush of shame creep up his neck, his face reddening. The Celestial Dragons' reputation was utterly abysmal; compared to their atrocities, Bellamy's own evil deeds were laughably insignificant.
"If your goal was to make me die laughing, you almost succeeded," Bellamy chuckled humourlessly. "Aren't the Celestial Dragons your masters? Aren't the Marines just their attack dogs, kept on a leash? Since when does the 'justice' of the dog equate to the 'justice' of its owner?" Bellamy's words were harsh, brutally so, but they struck at an undeniably cruel truth. Smoker could argue, could make excuses, but what good would it do? Would it change the fundamental reality of the Marines' subservience?
"Shut your mouth!" Smoker roared. "The Celestial Dragons do not represent true Marine justice!" Being lectured like this by a pirate, Smoker ground his teeth, gripping his jitte tightly, wanting nothing more than to smash Bellamy's skull in. Yet... the pirate's words, though crude, resonated with a truth Smoker couldn't entirely deny. The Celestial Dragons...
As a prominent figure within the Marines' more hardline 'hawk' faction, Smoker was privy to many secrets, many unpleasant truths not meant for public knowledge. He knew, for instance, that the vast majority of slave trafficking rings in the world operated under the implicit protection or direct involvement of the Celestial Dragons. And that was just a fraction of their depravity. Drug trades, weapons smuggling, control of illicit entertainment industries... Nearly every major black market enterprise yielding exorbitant profits had connections leading back to the Holy Land of Mary Geoise. And the World Government, founded and ultimately controlled by the Celestial Dragons, was the Marines' official governing body. From a certain, cynical perspective, the pirate was absolutely right. It was a cruel, undeniable fact. Smoker despised the Celestial Dragons as much as any decent person would. But he was just one Marine Captain. What could he possibly change?
After this brief, charged exchange, the immediate desire for combat seemed to have lessened slightly in both men.
"Do you really understand what justice even means?" Bellamy asked, pulling out a cigar and lighting it with deliberate slowness. "I'm genuinely curious now. What exactly is this 'justice' you believe in? And don't give me some textbook answer about 'upholding the law' or 'protecting civilians'. The Marines lost the right to claim that moral high ground long ago."
Hearing his core beliefs dismissed so contemptuously ignited Smoker's anger anew. "Damn you! If that's not justice, then what the hell is?!"
Bellamy let out a humorless chuckle, shaking his head slowly. "Let me ask you something. Suppose an ordinary civilian accidentally drops a vial of deadly poison into a city's water supply. Millions die as a result. You find out it was an accident. What do you do?"
Smoker frowned, taken aback by the sudden hypothetical. "The civilian... should face judgment," Smoker answered after a moment's thought. "Even if it was unintentional, they were still responsible for millions of deaths."
"Is that right?" Bellamy nodded noncommittally. "Alright, scenario two. What if the person responsible was a good man? A truly great man. One of the kindest, most selfless people in the world. Spent his entire life doing good deeds, saved countless lives. But then, one day, through a similar, careless accident, he causes the deaths of millions." Bellamy locked eyes with Smoker. "Does he deserve judgment too?"
"That's..." Fine beads of sweat prickled Smoker's brow. The question was deeply uncomfortable. "That kind of thing... it wouldn't happen."
"Answer the question," Bellamy pressed, his voice hard. "Let me see the shape of this 'justice' you claim to uphold." Under any nation's laws, causing the deaths of millions, intentionally or not, was undoubtedly a capital offense.
"He... would still have to face judgment," Smoker finally answered through gritted teeth. "But... the Marines would ensure his end was... dignified."
"A 'dignified end'. That's your answer." Bellamy stared at him intently for a long moment. "Let's take it one step further. Suppose the person responsible wasn't just a good man, but a just Marine. And suppose it wasn't entirely unintentional—suppose he was manipulated, perhaps, tricked by others into an action that resulted in millions of civilian deaths. You learn the truth. What do you do then?"
The question seemed simple, but Bellamy knew it hid a devastating trap. Smoker, however, didn't immediately grasp the deeper implication. He considered it seriously for a long moment, then gave a carefully worded, almost ambiguous reply. "I would report the findings to HQ... and move to personally apprehend the Marine responsible. No matter who it is, no one has the right to trample over millions of innocent lives!" Smoker declared firmly.
"Really?" Bellamy's voice turned ice-cold. He let out a low, harsh laugh. "No matter who? I suggest you think very carefully, Marine, about what you just said." Even now, Smoker didn't seem to understand that with those words, the very foundation of the 'justice' he professed was crumbling beneath him.
"What the hell are you getting at?" Smoker demanded, growing uneasy.
Bellamy stared at him, his eyes devoid of warmth. "'No matter who it is, no one has the right to trample over millions of innocent lives.'" He repeated Smoker's words slowly. "Then what about the Buster Call?"
He leaned forward slightly. "Fleet Admiral Sengoku himself gives the order. Two Admirals, five Vice Admirals, ten Rear Admirals, nearly ten thousand elite Marines, ten of the Navy's top battleships. The objective: the indiscriminate annihilation of every living thing on a targeted island." Bellamy's voice dropped to a chilling whisper. "Is that the Marines' Justice?"
"Smoker!" Bellamy's voice cracked like a whip. "Tell me! Is that the 'justice' you so proudly uphold?!"
Faced with the brutal, direct accusation that struck at the very core of his beliefs, Smoker could no longer maintain his composure. "I... You..." His eyes blazed with fury and confusion, his finger trembling as he pointed at Bellamy, utterly speechless. As a veteran Marine Captain, could Smoker truly be ignorant of what the Buster Call represented? What it had done? Of course not. He was just choosing to ignore it, playing willfully blind.
And it was precisely this willful blindness, this hypocrisy, that Bellamy had recognized long ago, filling him with utter disgust for the Marines' self-proclaimed 'justice'.