Fruit Ability Brainstorming

After wrapping up the small meeting with Zephyr and Gumir, Wright returned to his room, only to suddenly realize that he had actually taken part in formulating the battle plan? Was this really treatment fit for a trainee...

Opening the door, he unsurprisingly found Smoker and Rosinante already waiting for him. It was just that...

"Rosinante! Smoker corrupted you! You actually started smoking too?! And can you explain what happened to this burnt shirt?!"

The moment Wright stepped inside, the smoke nearly choked him senseless. One smoker was already enough, and now there was another one? Why was there a burnt-cloth smell mixed in with the smoke? And why was there a burned shirt on the floor?

"Ahahaha... Wright, you're back..." Rosinante laughed awkwardly, blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Don't you think holding a cigarette looks cool? I can't handle cigars like Smoker's, but normal cigarettes are okay..."

Smoker glanced at Rosinante with a stern face. "You heard him, right? I didn't teach him that. He picked it up on his own. As for that shirt—"

"He lights his clothes on fire when he lights a cigarette. Can you believe it? The important part is that he didn't even notice after setting himself on fire! I was dumbfounded!"

"By the time I noticed and tore it off him, it had already burned into this state. I had no choice but to give him one of your shirts to wear first."

"..."

Wright covered his forehead. How had he forgotten about this? Rosinante's trademark... 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 freakish 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. It was completely useless, however, so he could only cover his mouth with one hand while maintaining a Purification Spell in the other to cleanse the air.

Once they got down to business, Smoker, who had been reclining in his chair, sat upright and turned serious. He pulled out another cigar, stuffed it into his mouth, and lit it—how could this guy still talk properly like that?

"I need to improve my offensive power. The Smoke-Smoke Fruit is severely lacking in attack power. It was fine in Paradise, where elementalization let me remain undefeated, but against opponents who have mastered Haki, a Logia ability without strong offensive power is far too useless."

Rosinante held his cigarette between his fingers, clearly not yet having mastered the terrifying skill of speaking normally with one clenched between his teeth. "I feel that today's target was too strong. Logically, the first battle shouldn't have been this intense. If not for you, Wright, then just as Teacher Zephyr said, even if he had intervened, the trainees' losses would have been severe."

As expected of Rosinante. His insight was on another level. He looked at the overall situation, completely unlike Smoker, that battle-crazed brute.

Wright nodded in confirmation. "That's true, but the adjustment was temporary, with my ability serving as insurance. The goal was precisely your current state—to make you experience intense battles, even ones on the brink of life and death, so you could immediately discover your own combat problems and flaws, and use the immense stimulus to improve your willpower."

"The next battle should be less intense, but I won't be participating. That will be the time to test what you've gained from this battle."

"So, after watching your battles today, as a fellow ability user, I'd like to discuss the direction of your ability development."

"Oh?" Smoker and Rosinante's eyes lit up. They had seen just how absurdly versatile Wright's ability development was. Even a single healing ability could produce several different effects. If Wright could offer some reference, it would definitely help with their own ability development.

"Smoker, you're a frontline combatant. You should focus more on physical combat. That jitte of yours is a complete waste—I know you use it to compensate for your fruit ability and to counter the weapons pirates use most often: swords." Wright looked at Smoker first, and the latter nodded, indicating that Wright was right.

"As a Logia ability user, you clearly don't understand your own power well enough—what is smoke?" Wright asked. As expected, Smoker became confused, while Rosinante also fell into thought. What was smoke?

"Smoke is essentially made up of countless tiny particles. That is why it can affect breathing, suffocate people, obscure vision, drift through 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—dispersion and condensation. But Smoker, your current applications only involve dispersion. You haven't touched on condensation at all." Wright looked at the thoughtful Smoker. "If smoke is condensed to the extreme, it can form a solid. But this isn't the same as you reverting to your physical body. It is still smoke in essence."

"This solidified smoke would still be under your control. If you condensed it tightly enough, it might become harder than steel—even comparable to Armament Haki!"

"With this ability, Smoker, you would effectively gain the power of 'shaping,' similar to Vice Admiral Kuzan!" Wright smiled. "In essence, ice is also formed by compressing countless ice crystals. If ice were shattered into minute ice crystals, how would it be any different from 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 can be condensed to the hardness of ice... then it won't just be able to bind enemies. I could even attack directly in elemental form!"

"Moreover... if you can freely control condensation and dispersion..." Wright added, "If you instantly disperse a ball of smoke condensed into a solid and restore it to its gaseous state..."

"That 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 cause 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, just 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 deep thought by Smoker's development path. "Your development direction is correct. Using overlapping, chaotic silent zones to disrupt the enemy's auditory perception has indeed had a major effect."

Rosinante nodded. "But this is the limit of what I can currently do—during team battles, I can prevent the enemy commander from directing and coordinating, and confuse the enemy's auditory perception. It has limited effect on powerful opponents."

Wright smiled. "From what I've observed, the Silence-Silence Fruit's ability should be to form an area or barrier that blocks the transmission of sound—"

"Sound is a form of vibration. Blocking its transmission means eliminating the vibrations within an area that constitute sound. Then could this area eliminate other vibrations as well? Taking it a step further, vibration is a form of movement..."

"If... you could eliminate 'movement' within an area, that would be what is known as..."

"Stillness..." Rosinante murmured, stunned by Wright's wild idea.

"Wright, you're really a genius!"