After wrapping up the small meeting with Zephyr and Gumir, Wright returned to his room, only to realize that he had actually participated in drawing up the battle plan? Was this really the treatment a trainee received...
When he opened the door, he unsurprisingly found Smoker and Rosinante already waiting for him. Except...
"Rosinante! Smoker has led you astray! You've actually started smoking too?! And can you explain what happened to this burnt outfit?!"
The moment Wright entered, he was nearly choked senseless. One chain-smoker was already enough; why was there another one now? Why was there a smell of burnt clothing besides the smoke? And why was there a burnt shirt on the floor?
"Ahahaha... Wright, you're back..." Rosinante laughed awkwardly, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Don't you think holding a cigarette in your mouth looks cool? I can't handle cigars like Smoker's, but regular cigarettes are okay..."
Smoker glanced at Rosinante with a stern face. "You heard that? I didn't teach him that. He taught himself. As for those clothes—"
"He sets his clothes on fire whenever he lights a cigarette. Can you believe it? The important part is, he doesn't even notice when he's on fire! I was dumbfounded!"
"By the time I realized it and tore them off him, they had already burned into this state. I could only give him some of your clothes to wear first."
"..."
Wright covered his forehead. How had he forgotten about that trait of Rosinante's... So it hadn't been acting? He was just naturally airheaded!
"Fine, fine..." Wright had never smoked in the past... It did look a little cool, but the problem was that it did nothing but harm the body—though people in the pirate world all had monstrous constitutions, so that could be ignored—but he still wasn't used to it!
"How did today's battle feel?" Wright found a place to sit, trying to avoid the increasingly thick smoke—though it was completely pointless. He could only cover his mouth with one hand while maintaining a Purification Spell in the other to cleanse the air.
Once the conversation turned serious, Smoker, who had been reclining in his chair, straightened up and became solemn. Then he pulled out another cigar, stuffed it into his mouth, and lit it—how could this guy still speak properly like that?
"I need to improve my offensive power. The Smoke-Smoke Fruit is severely lacking in attack strength. It's fine in Paradise; with elementalization, I can remain invincible. But against opponents who possess Haki, a Logia ability without strong offensive power is far too useless."
Rosinante held his cigarette between his fingers. Clearly, he had yet to master the terrifying skill of speaking normally with a cigarette clenched between his teeth. "I feel that today's opponent was too strong. Logically, the first battle shouldn't have been at such a high intensity. If it hadn't been for you, Wright, then just as Teacher Zephyr said, even if he had intervened, the trainees' losses would have been grim."
As expected of Rosinante. His insight was simply different. He looked at the overall situation, completely unlike that reckless battle maniac Smoker.
Wright nodded in confirmation. "That is indeed true, but it was a temporary adjustment made possible because my ability served as insurance. The purpose was to create the current situation—letting you experience intense battles, even ones on the verge of life and death, so you could immediately discover the flaws in your combat abilities and improve your Willpower through enormous stimulation."
"The next battle should be less intense, but without my involvement, that will be the time to test what you gained from this battle."
"So, after watching your battles today, I wanted to discuss the direction of ability development with you, as fellow ability users."
"Oh?" Smoker and Rosinante's eyes lit up. They had seen just how absurdly versatile Wright's ability development was. A healing ability alone could produce several different effects. If Wright could offer some reference points, it would certainly help them develop their own abilities.
"Smoker, you're a front-line combat type. You should focus more on physical techniques alone; that jitte of yours is a complete waste—I know you use it to compensate for your Devil Fruit's shortcomings and to counter the weapon pirates use most often—swords." Wright looked at Smoker first, and the latter nodded, indicating that Wright was correct.
"As a Logia user, you clearly don't understand your own ability well enough yet—what exactly is smoke?" Wright asked, unsurprised to see Smoker become confused while Rosinante also fell into thought. What was smoke?
"Smoke is actually composed of countless tiny particles. That is why it can affect breathing, suffocate people, block vision, float in the air, and grant you flight and extension abilities—but is that all smoke can do?"
"Since it is made of particles, smoke has two characteristics—diffusion and condensation. Yet your current method of using it only involves diffusion, without touching on condensation at all." Wright looked at the thoughtful Smoker. "If smoke is condensed to the extreme, it can form a solid. But that is different from returning to your physical body; fundamentally, it is still smoke."
"This solidified smoke would still be under your control. If you condensed it tightly enough, it might even become harder than steel—perhaps even comparable to Armament Haki!"
"With that ability, Smoker, you would effectively gain the power of 'shaping'—similar to Vice Admiral Kuzan!" Wright smiled. "Fundamentally, ice is also formed by compressing countless ice crystals. If ice were shattered into tiny ice crystals, what difference would there be between it and smoke?"
"!!!"
Smoker was fairly familiar with Kuzan. With Wright using Kuzan's ability as an example, Smoker instantly understood the deeper meaning. "If my smoke could condense to the hardness of ice... then it could do more than restrain enemies. I could even attack directly in elementalized form!"
"Even more... if you could freely control condensation and diffusion..." Wright added, "instantly spreading a ball of solidified smoke and restoring it to its gaseous state..."
"That kind of operation..." Smoker's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and his mouth hung open so wide that his cigar was about to fall out. "Its volume would expand countless times in an instant... It would trigger a violent explosion!"
"It's good that you understand. Work hard and give it a try. Once you master this method of attack, who would dare say the Smoke-Smoke Fruit lacks offensive power? And once you master Armament Haki, how powerful will this attack become?" Wright smiled.
"Hahaha, good! I'll try it right away!" Smoker could no longer wait.
"As for you, Rosinante—" Wright turned to the silent Rosinante, who had clearly been drawn into thought by Smoker's new development direction. "Your development direction is correct. Using overlapping, chaotic zones of silence to disrupt an enemy's auditory perception has indeed been very effective."
Rosinante nodded. "But this is the limit of what I can currently do—during team battles, I can prevent the enemy commander from issuing orders and create confusion in the enemy's auditory perception, but it has limited effect on strong opponents."
Wright smiled. "From what I've observed, the Silence-Silence Fruit's ability should be to create an area or barrier that blocks the transmission of sound—"
"Sound is a form of vibration. Blocking sound transmission means eliminating the vibrations within an area that constitute sound. Then, could this area eliminate other vibrations as well? Going one step further, vibration is a form of motion..."
"If... you could eliminate 'motion' within an area, then that would be what is known as..."
"Stillness..." Rosinante murmured, stunned by Wright's wild idea.
"Wright, you really are a genius!"
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