"Damn you, River God! I was promised beauties, fame, and fortune in the world of One Piece! And what do I get? Stranded on a deserted island, surviving like a castaway for who knows how long. River God, you absolute scam artist!"
Only the mocking cries of seagulls responded.
From the forest came a faint rustling. Ritter's hair stood on end. His Observation Haki screamed danger.
Instinctively, he activated his ability. A thin veil of white fog began to form around him, slowly building into a soft barrier.
"The Fog-Fog Fruit... it's got to be more than just smoke bombs, right?" Ritter stared at his now semi-transparent arm, racking his brain for any memory of Smoker's fighting style.
That old chain-smoker from the original story seemed to do nothing but charge in as smoke, occasionally pulling a cheap trick with his Seastone jitte. Crude and unimpressive. Ritter rejected that kind of classless combat.
Suddenly, the bushes split open and a two-meter-tall wild boar burst out.
"What the hell?! Even the wildlife in this world is cracked?" Ritter rolled to the side, barely dodging the charge, and slammed back-first into a coconut tree. Armament Haki instinctively covered his right hand, but it was paper-thin, like a pair of black silk stockings.
You might ask, if Ritter can turn into mist, why's he so cautious?
Well, that's something he's been thinking about too. He can't afford to rely on intangibility. He doesn't even know what timeline he's in. If he meets an enemy with strong Haki, he'd be in serious trouble. In this world, strength matters more than gimmicks.
The boar turned around, hooves pawing the ground. Ritter's eyes locked onto its damp, twitching snout all mammals rely on smell...
"I've got it!" He released a thick cloud of fog that blanketed the area. Not only did it obscure vision, but the fine mist also seeped into the boar's nostrils, scrambling its sense of smell. Better yet, Ritter could manipulate the fog's pH level. The creature thrashed, confused, its charge growing more erratic.
Ritter took the chance to scramble up a nearby tree, his heart pounding like mad.
"A Logia-type like Smoker shouldn't just be puffing around... Fog is really just suspended water droplets!"
Disrupt the acid-base balance of your body and boom internal chaos.
The River God had even manipulated the time stream. So giving him a fruit like this, one that could form acidic or alkaline fog? That checked out.
A little acid here, a little base there... Maybe your skin can handle it, but your internal organs? Not a chance.
The wild boar rammed the trunk. The tree shook violently. Ritter nearly lost his grip and fell.
Gritting his teeth, he compressed fog inside the boar's body, syncing it with the water content within, and altered the internal pH.
"As long as you're a living creature, you can't defy the laws of nature. Explode, damn you!"
But as Ritter forced his will into the attack, dizziness hit him like a wave. His stamina was draining far faster than expected. Even with his abnormal endurance, he was running on fumes.
The boar staggered clearly injured but not dead. This method drained far more energy than condensing the fog into cutting blades.
"Holy hell, your HP bar is stupid thick. What is it with people and animals in this world being built like tanks? You're not even human, why you gotta sweat this hard?"
As his stamina climbed, Ritter's Conqueror's Haki stirred, barely stable enough to release. It slammed into the boar like an invisible hammer, forcing it to stumble back. But it only held for three seconds before enraging the beast further.
"Damn! That Haki blast was more like a wet fart!" Ritter watched as the boar prepared a final charge.
"Oh god, you're really trying to kill me for real?"
(If the boar could speak: "And you weren't playing dirty tricks just now?")
With Logia intangibility as a last resort, Ritter didn't panic.
Just then, a glint caught his eye the sunlight refracting through the mist.
An insane idea sparked.
If he could precisely control the density of the fog droplets...
The boar lunged. At the same time, Ritter poured every ounce of energy into his ability. The fog distorted under the sunlight, fracturing into seven illusory images of Ritter. The water particles masked Ritter's scent.
The boar jerked to the side, its tusks slashing through nothing.
"Fog Veil: Mirage!"
The real Ritter lunged from the side. His Armament-coated fist crashed into the boar's temple. As the beast howled in pain, he grabbed a jagged piece of coral and rammed it into the creature's eye with all his weight.
When it finally stopped struggling, Ritter collapsed in the pool of blood, panting. The fog dispersed, revealing a pale, triumphant smile.
"The old forum bros were right... If you've got a Logia, you gotta get creative with it. And that move name? Pure style."
A sudden fit of coughing wracked him. Blood speckled his palm.
The price of overusing his power. Damn fruit gave him stamina, but not the durability to match.
That monster-like endurance, Ritter discovered, was a passive trait that could grow. To explain:
Say his current stamina pool the "blue bar" was 20. That passive trait would regenerate 2 points over time. If he used 21 at once? He'd get injured.
What's weird is the passive was growing faster than his physical stats. Basically, his stamina regeneration might one day surpass even Kaido's. He could be the world's strongest battery.
But the celebration didn't last.
From the depths of the forest came answering howls.
Wild boars are herd animals.
By nightfall, Ritter was holed up in a makeshift treehouse, reviewing the day's findings.
He'd gained: a pile of boar meat, a pair of tusks, and a crucial discovery his Fog-Fog Fruit could bend light, even change the density of the air to create illusions. If developed further, it might even fool Observation Haki.
"Smoker was such a brute... no sense of science at all." He sketched diagrams onto bark with a piece of charcoal. "High-pressure fog for cutting beams, cold zones for frost mists, acid-base traps... Thank god anime gave me ideas to copy."
A crack of branches in the distance.
Ritter killed the campfire and spread fog around the treehouse as a detection web. His unstable Conqueror's Haki could barely work with Observation to sense life energy three heat signatures were closing in.
"Guess I'll have to test that move early..."
He crept down and laid traps of mist along their path. When the first boar hit the "landmine," condensed alkaline fog seared its nose and throat, driving it berserk.
Beasts will be beasts.
The second one got lured by refracted light into a spiked trap, but with that thick hide, the damage was minimal.
Strangely, the third one went wild and attacked its own kin. A blur of tusks. Brotherhood be damned.
"Fog bends light," Ritter whispered in the shadows, wiping blood from his nose. "In my domain, your eyes deceive you."
Within the dense fog, the boars saw Ritter's illusion standing in front of them. But behind the illusion stood one of their own. Now Ritter was the ghost in the mist.
As any duelist knows before you fight, you set the field.
Ritter had two choices now: keep developing the Devil Fruit, or start learning lethal weapons. The three types of Haki would have to wait no training manual, no teacher.
But reality was harsher than that.
He was completely stranded on this island. Even if he built a raft, without a Log Pose, he wasn't going anywhere. Only people like Roger or Luffy could sail blind and reach the next great adventure. Chosen by fate. Children of prophecy.
So all Ritter could do was wait for someone to find him.
That's why he was pushing himself so hard.
He didn't want to be helpless when the story picked up again.
He was a disciple of Confucius. If kindness and virtue couldn't convince you to take him aboard... well, he also knew how to throw a punch.
Of course, Ritter's real dream was to join the Straw Hat Pirates. No killing, just goofing off and laughing with friends. A life of freedom and vibes. Carried by plot armor to the end.
Ritter played MVP.
Luffy gets carried.
Fast forward a few months...