Yes, that was the only explanation.
Loa thought so too. In fact, the first time he heard the word "wraith," he had suspected as much. That was why, after Kevin brought out the fruit, he had asked whether it was a superior version of the Soul-Soul Fruit.
Whether in the cultures of East and West back on Earth or in the understanding of the One Piece World, anything worthy of being called a wraith held an advantage ordinary souls did not. It was a powerful existence they could never hope to match!
Just look at Perona in Water 7, who spent her days eating, drinking, and neglecting her work. Ordinary souls could only be caught and devoured by her. Forget resisting. If an ordinary soul could keep its form from falling apart in her presence, that alone showed remarkable tenacity!
The same principle applied to Devil Fruits. The Wraith-Wraith Fruit held the same advantage over the Soul-Soul Fruit that a wraith held over an ordinary soul.
It was even more complicated than that!
The Wraith-Wraith Fruit did not merely counter the Soul-Soul Fruit. It also bore an innate malice toward it! Wraiths instinctively broke free of the Soul-Soul Fruit's control because they wanted to destroy it.
That was why a Soul-Soul Fruit user could not control the birth of a Wraith-Wraith Fruit! And because the fruit innately countered her, she could not fight it either.
That was why Charlotte Linlin had sealed it in the Seastone Box and entrusted it to her own flesh and blood.
If that day ever came, she hoped her daughter would stop the Wraith-Wraith Fruit's malice toward the Soul-Soul Fruit for the sake of their family and spare her.
That raised the question: under what circumstances would a vengeful ghost harbor such intense malice toward