Trash Fruit

"Trash fruit."

Rogge looked at the smoke around him and couldn't help taking another jab at Smoker's Smoke-Smoke Fruit. It was absolute trash.

Unlike other Logia Devil Fruits, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit was practically useless. Sure, it produced thick clouds of smoke, but what good was that? Turning his body into smoke made Smoker nearly untouchable, yet beyond that, the ability was worthless.

Even Caribou, whom people called useless, could at least use his Swamp-Swamp Fruit to swallow people into a swamp and suffocate them.

But Smoker's smoke? Who had ever seen smoke kill someone? Unless a person inhaled enough to struggle for breath, it posed little threat. And even then, only someone weak would go down so easily.

Rogge had walked out of Smoker's smoke without so much as a scratch. Smoker couldn't envelop him across a wide area, either. Clearly, he still had a lot to learn about using his fruit.

"So this is a Logia?" Rogge stared at Smoker.

"Tch!" Smoker knew Rogge was looking down on his ability. He glared at him.

"Trash fruit. Trash ability," Rogge said bluntly.

"Keep running your mouth. I'll crush you and send you to Impel Down," Smoker said coldly.

"What, did that hurt? You thought eating a Logia Devil Fruit would make you invincible, but you swallowed a piece of trash. It might look powerful now, but it won't serve you well down the road. I'd say your ability is even less useful than that pink-haired marine's." Rogge kept needling him.

Back when Rogge watched the anime, Smoker had looked so formidable during the East Blue arc, riding around on his motorcycle like he owned the place.

Then he entered the Grand Line and started taking losses. Crocodile nearly drowned him in Alabasta, and he survived only because of Luffy. The Empress demolished him in the Marineford War. Two years later, he became a Vice Admiral in the New World, only to lose to Vergo, have his body swapped by Luo, and get beaten half to death by Donquixote Doflamingo.

The man existed to make other people look strong, yet some people compared him to Garp.

Roger had Garp, so Luffy had Smoker?

Were they blind? Smoker couldn't even beat Drake, who had started out around the same time as him. Drake had infiltrated the Beasts Pirates and become one of the Flying Six, second only to the Three Calamities. He might even rival Jack in a fight.

Maybe Koby could fill that role, but Smoker? Forget it. His ability was trash, and his hand-to-hand combat was lousy.

He was nothing more than a measuring stick for other fighters. Rogge certainly didn't consider him strong. Smoker would do nicely as practice; Rogge probably wouldn't even need the backup plan he had prepared.

By the time Rogge finished, Smoker was seething. No one had ever shown him such contempt. In the first half of the Grand Line and across the Four Blues, he could go almost wherever he pleased, so long as he didn't recklessly provoke a powerful nation.

Yet Rogge stood there calling his ability trash—and Smoker himself trash along with it.

Rogge saw nothing wrong with that. People liked to say it didn't matter whether a fruit's ability was weak or strong, because its development depended entirely on the user.

Rogge wanted to spit in their faces. Devil Fruit abilities absolutely differed in strength. The Marineford War had made that clear: Akainu's Magma-Magma Fruit outclassed Ace's Flame-Flame Fruit. Even Donquixote Doflamingo envied Crocodile's Gravel-Gravel Fruit.

Would anyone seriously compare the Spring-Spring Fruit with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit just because both were Paramecia? Or Chopper's Human-Human Fruit with Kaido's Azure Dragon Fruit because both were Zoan?

It was ridiculous. Compared with other Logia fruits, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit was an embarrassment. Even Monet's Snow-Snow Fruit was better.

Without his Seastone weapon, Smoker had no way to deal with Rogge, who had awakened Observation Haki. As the fight dragged on, neither could gain the upper hand.

Rogge couldn't hurt Smoker, while Smoker had no other effective way to attack Rogge. Smoke itself had no real killing power, so he had to rely on his own body.

But Smoker had to be careful. If Rogge caught him with a clean punch, it would be no laughing matter.

The fight had also shown Smoker why Hina called Rogge's fruit a vicious Devil Fruit. Everything Rogge touched could shatter. That alone made Smoker's Logia ability look pathetic, and it reminded him of the monsters in the New World.

The marines had the advantage in numbers, with more than a thousand troops aboard ten Warships. But Rogge's small pirate crew overwhelmed them in individual strength. Numbers were almost the only advantage they had.

Hina and Jelly were evenly matched, and Jelly could still send other vines to help his companions.

Since he began training his fruit ability, Jelly had grown faster than anyone in the crew except Rogge. The Vine-Vine Fruit had made him stronger and more versatile. These days, he rarely used a weapon. His vines were his weapons.

"I told you, Smoker. Your fruit ability is useless." Rogge drove a punch forward, and Smoker's body burst into smoke that scattered through the air.

"So what? You still can't escape." Smoker re-formed behind Rogge.

But Rogge activated his ability, forcing Smoker to turn back into smoke.

"Logia users have weaknesses too." Rogge suddenly remembered that Smoker's weakness had seemingly been made clear the first time he appeared.

The weakness of smoke was wind. Wind could blow it apart, forcing Smoker out of his smoke form.

Dragon's ability might even have been planned from the start to counter Smoker perfectly the moment he appeared.

"I don't have wind, but an impact creates air pressure. I can manage that much. Let's see if it works." Rogge raised his fist, wrapping it in the power of his fruit.

"It's useless. Your ability can't hurt me." Smoker recovered, white smoke billowing from his lower body as he surged forward like a snake.

"Sky-Shattering Fist!"

"White Launcher!"

"Boom!"

Rogge's fist struck the air. The impact scattered Smoker's body, and the pressure of the blast kept him from fully turning into smoke. His body emerged from the cloud once more.

There's my chance.