Two weeks later.
Their path was blocked by a pirate ship flying a flag with a skull.
"It's the Bone Crusher pirates!" Raith shouted from the watchtower. "Bone Crusher Hank, bounty 980,000 beli!"
Having landed on the island, Reith collected a lot of information, spending a thousand belli on a pack of leaflets with rewards for the most famous pirates of the day and information about them.
On the deck of the enemy ship, a brute almost three meters tall, with a spiked club on his shoulder, grinned maliciously:
— Roger? Never heard of such a thing! Lay out your treasures! Grandpa Hank will let you die quickly.
Roger picked his nose:
— Rayleigh, is it your turn today? I'm feeling a bit lazy today.
"Let the kid try it, he's been itching to fight lately, I'm already tired of sparring with him," Rayleigh said as he took of his glasses and qiped them. "Let's see what Reith can do now."
Reith took a deep breath and walked out to the bow of his ship.
"Just a brat you threw out? You don't have anyone else on this ship? Ha-ha-ha!" Hank burst out laughing. "I'd beat him with just a club..."
— You're noisy. Fog Barrier: Silent Cage.
In the blink of an eye, everything within a hundred meters was enveloped in a thick fog. Hank suddenly found his voice gone, unable to even hear the whistle of his club swings.
What's even worse is that my skin started to tingle—the fog was seeping through my pores!
"Damn!" He swung his weapon wildly, but missed everything.
"Ah ...
Reith approached the ship's bow. His four-year-old body seemed especially tiny against the giant's backdrop.
Reith sighed:
— You know, in manga, extras like you... always become just experience for the main character.
"What's it like to be deprived of your sight, hearing, and touch?" a soft child's voice floated elusively through the fog. "By the way, the pH of this fog is 3.5…"
Hank rolled his bloodshot eyes desperately, but all he saw was a whitish haze, in which a short, dark shadow loomed vaguely. This shadow would appear on the port side, then flicker on the masthead, like a ghost in the fog.
Reith relished the feeling of moving freely in his element. His quest to become stronger became even more obsessive. He wouldn't let his life depend on others; he had to stand on top of the world.
Hank swung his club furiously:
- Brat, stop hiding! Come out!
"You probably don't know what pH 3.5 means..." Reith's voice was pitiful. "Ignorance is a terrible thing."
Suddenly, Hank felt a sharp pain in his eyes, followed by a burning, fiery sensation in his airways. He fell to his knees, letting out a silent scream. The acidic particles in the fog were eating away at his mucous membranes!
- A-a-a-a-ah!
"M... monster!" Hank's scream was lost in the fog, turning into silent despair.
When the fog cleared, only corpses remained on the deck. In the distance, a small boat was quickly moving away. Reith noticed it but didn't stop it. "If everyone dies, how will the world know of Reith's power?"
Roger whistled:
- Well, will the reward increase now?
Rayleigh nodded in satisfaction.
— Using the Fruit's abilities to compensate for the lack of Haki... Not a bad idea.
South Blue, home base of the 77th Marine Branch.
Branch Captain Groce Horn strode into the conference room.
At the conference table, more than ten Watch officers stood up as one and saluted, but their faces were extremely tense.
"Everyone, sit down!" Captain Grouse threw the folder of documents onto the table. His metal prosthetic arm made a sharp sound as it hit the tabletop.
"Can someone explain to me..." his single eye swept over everyone present, "why a four-year-old brat was able to wipe out the entire crew of the Bone Crusher pirates in three minutes?!"
It was a three-man crew, a newly formed pirate crew—where did they get such strength? Why hadn't I heard of them before? This is a serious omission in our work!
Major Maurice, an intelligence officer, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and opened the file with trembling hands:
"So... according to our agents' reports... everything was shrouded in thick fog during the battle. We've temporarily assigned him the codename 'Fog Phantom.' Presumably a Logia-type Devil Fruit user, Mist-Mist. A member of Roger's crew, Wraith."
He pressed the projection Den Den Mushi. In the blurry image, a short figure was dimly visible on the sea surface shrouded in thick fog.
It was clear that the pirates in the image were in terrible pain, and the small figure appeared and then disappeared into the fog.
The intelligence officer continued his report:
"We boarded the Bonebreaker pirate ship again. We discovered that the treasure and provisions had been carried away. All the pirates had damaged and corroded eyes, mouths, and noses. The corrosion had reached their brains, and the lungs were the worst affected."
"We need to reassess the threat level immediately!" Captain Grouse of the 77th South Blue Branch slammed his fist on the table and roared, immediately relaying the message to headquarters. "That brat, moving freely through the fog, is just like a ghost!"
The adjutant, with a trembling hand, handed over a freshly printed wanted poster:
["Fog Ghost" Reith]
[Reward: 3,000,000 Belli]
[Distinguishing features: Black hair, scarlet eyes, often accompanied by thick fog, uses insidious methods]
[Roger Pirates Crew Member. Dead or Alive]
Three days later, leaflets with rewards for Roger's pirate crew were flying all over the sea.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! Reith, have you seen your flyer?" Roger laughed, slapping his thighs. "Fog Ghost!" 3 million Belly! Such a reward in four years, just think about it, that's just so damn cool!"
Reith's lips curled as he looked at his blurry image on the flyer and the conspicuous words "Dead or Alive," and he couldn't help but grumble.
"The Dozor photographers are so crazy! I'm such a handsome guy, and they photographed me like I was some kind of evil spirit! Couldn't they have captured my face more clearly? No one would recognize me on the street, so what good would a high award be?"
Rayleigh adjusted his glasses, the corners of his lips twitching slightly.
- Not bad. Sounds much better than "White Fog."
"You bet!" Reith lifted his chin proudly. "The Foggy Ghost—it's got style right away!"
Reith glanced at Roger and Rayleigh's awards and immediately pulled his head back into his shoulders.
So what? One has a hundred and fifty million, the other a hundred. Compared to that, his three million doesn't seem so bad. And he's already got a bit too proud of his reward.
Roger suddenly leaned over, Arm slunged around the neck and asked, smiling:
— Kid, why do you, when you kill people, deliberately shout out this... acid-base balance of yours?
Reith rolled his eyes.
- Don't ask, it sounds cooler this way!
"Please, this is shonen, shonen! If you don't shout out the names of the techniques, there won't be any drive!"
Roger and Rayleigh didn't consider Reith's methods cruel. "Well, this is a pirate world! The law of the jungle rules here: survival of the fittest! Only such methods allow us to survive. We'll see what this era brings. When you want to kill me, you won't care how I kill you. If I kill you, your fame, position, and fortune will be mine. That's what it means to be a pirate!"