Story Quote: "Strength is more than power. It's knowing what you lack and daring to face it."
A Power That Refuses to Bloom
during the past couple of weeks, Kairo had been practicing his Devil Fruit power alongside traing his crew, he could feel it—something stirring deep within his Devil Fruit power. Every time he trained, the air itself seemed to respond: wind pressure rippled when he exhaled; faint sparks danced in the fog when he grew angry.He was on the brink of something vast—an awakening.
And yet, the moment he reached for it, it slipped through his fingers like vapor.
On the night before they were to depart, Kairo sat cross-legged in the mist, concentrating. The Gas-Gas Fruit's essence pulsed in his veins, whispering to him of the world's breath—the gases of life and death, creation and destruction. But he couldn't grasp it fully.
"It's like trying to breathe underwater," he muttered. "I can feel the spark, but not the air."
Aria found him there, sitting in silence, the moonlight barely reaching through the fog.
"You'll drive yourself insane if you keep forcing it," she said softly."Awakening isn't a switch. It's instinct. You'll find it when you stop chasing it."
He looked up at her and smiled faintly.
"Maybe. But I can't help but think… something's missing. Some truth I haven't faced yet."
The crews training over the past two weeks seemed to show great progress. Aria's Observation Haki was sharper now; she could sense heartbeats through fog. Jett's Armament had grown more stable, his punches shaking trees. Rumi's control over her chemical reactions had reached surgical precision, and Kino was no longer haunted by hesitation when giving orders.
They were growing fast—too fast, perhaps. But none of them knew that fate had already decided to test that growth.
The Man from Cipher Pol
In the silence of dawn, a black-coated man walked ashore. His steps were quiet, his presence almost nonexistent. The Cipher Pol insignia on his gloves glimmered faintly beneath the fog.
Agent Vane.
His orders: Capture Kairo D. Veil alive.
He knelt by the sand, touching the faint footprints that led inland.
"You've made quite the name for yourself, 'Mist Demon.' Let's see if you can vanish from me."
He reached into his coat, pulling out a small snail-like device—a Signal Den Den Mushi, tuned to his heartbeat. Its eyes glowed red.
"Target located. Engaging."
The Ambush
By midday, the Gas Chamber Pirates were making their way back toward the Fumigator. The fog had grown thicker than usual—unnatural, even by the island's standards.
Kairo felt the shift instantly.
"Something's wrong," he said.
Before anyone could react, the ground exploded. A blast of compressed air sent debris flying, splitting the crew apart in the chaos.
Through the haze, a voice rang out:
"Cipher Pol, Section 3! Kairo D. Veil—you are under arrest by order of the World Government!"
-Chaos in the Mist-
Smoke and gas swirled together, turning visibility to zero.Kairo tried to regroup, but static crackled in his Den Den Mushi—interference. He could hear Aria shouting somewhere in the distance, followed by Rumi's panicked voice.
"Stay calm!" Kairo commanded. "Rendezvous at the ship!"
But the fog seemed to play tricks on them. It wasn't just mist—it was something in the mist, alive.
As Aria ran through the forest, she saw Kairo ahead—his familiar silhouette beckoning. Relief flooded her chest.
"Captain! Over here—"
But when he turned, his eyes were hollow. His voice was distorted, echoing like multiple tones at once.
"Aria… you shouldn't have left the ship."
The figure's mouth twisted unnaturally wide, splitting open into a jaw filled with needle-teeth.
Her heart froze.
"A mimic…" she whispered, loading her rifle.
The Mimic—a native creature of Kumori Isle. Small, frail, but lethal. It consumed corpses, copying their image and voice to lure prey into its traps.
Aria fired a warning shot; the illusion dispersed into vapor, revealing the creature's true form—a pale, sinewy animal with no eyes and a distorted, human-like mouth.
She exhaled slowly.
"Cute trick. But I've already killed ghosts."
Jett's Encounter
Elsewhere, Jett found himself following Rumi's voice through the fog—except the Rumi ahead wasn't limping, and her tone was eerily cheerful.
"Come on, big guy! The captain's this way!"
He frowned.
"You don't sound scared."
The false Rumi smiled too widely.
"Should I be?"
Jett slammed his fist into the ground, sending a shockwave through the soil. The fake's body shimmered, collapsing into a heap of white skin and bone.
"Guess not," he grunted.
From the treeline, the real Rumi emerged, eyes wide.
"How did you know it wasn't me?""You call me 'musclehead,' not 'big guy.'"
They both laughed shakily, continuing on guard.
Kino's Trial
Kino wasn't as lucky. He encountered not a Mimic—but Vane himself.
The Cipher Pol agent moved like a ghost, his kicks slicing through air with Soru speed.Kino barely managed to parry with his sword.
"You're not my target," Vane said coolly. "Step aside.""You'll have to cut through me first."
They clashed in bursts of motion, blades flashing through the fog. Kino's body moved instinctively now—his Conqueror's spark flaring faintly, pushing Vane back for the first time.
"Not bad," Vane admitted, blood on his lip. "But I wonder… how well will you fight when the mist turns against you?"
He threw a small orb into the air—it exploded into a gas cloud that mimicked Kairo's signature vapor.
The deception worked. All across the forest, the crew heard Kairo's voice calling for help.
-The Fog's Deception-
Kairo himself felt it—a resonance in the air, as if something was imitating him. He could feel his own gas being mimicked.
"So that's your trick…" he muttered. "Using sound and scent to create confusion."
He inhaled deeply, his lungs filling with concentrated vapor. With one controlled exhale, he released a cleansing pulse, dispersing the false gas in a burst of heat and static.
From across the island, his crew saw a flare of blue light pierce the mist—a signal.
"That's him!" Aria shouted."Move!" Jett barked.
They regrouped, battered but alive, circling back to where Kairo stood facing Agent Vane.
Now the True Battle begins!
Vane smiled faintly, brushing dirt from his sleeve.
"You're everything they said you were—intelligent, dangerous, unpredictable. A pity they want you alive."
He lunged, his leg coated in Armament Haki. Kairo blocked with Kusanagi, the air crackling between them.
"You hide behind smoke," Vane said."No," Kairo replied calmly. "I am the smoke."
The gas around them ignited—not explosively, but beautifully, glowing faint blue as Kairo used micro-bursts to propel himself faster than Vane's eye could track.
Every strike he made left trails of heated vapor that disoriented his opponent.But still… he could feel it. That missing spark.
He wasn't there yet.
Vane managed to parry a blow and kicked Kairo hard into a tree.
"You're powerful, but incomplete," the agent sneered."Tell me something I don't know," Kairo grunted, standing.
He turned his head just enough to see his crew emerging from the fog, weapons drawn, standing beside him.
"You picked the wrong pirates to hunt."
Together, they attacked—Kairo's gas blending with Rumi's chemical bursts, Aria's bullets splitting the air, Jett's shockwaves shaking the ground, and Kino's blade deflecting each counterstrike.
Vane realized too late that he was fighting not a captain—but a crew.
The final blast sent him flying into the sea cliffs, unconscious.
-The Aftermath-
As the fog settled, Kairo stared at his hand. The air around it shimmered faintly with potential, the awakening still there, just out of reach.
"Still not enough," he whispered."You don't need it yet," Aria said beside him. "You've already awakened something more important."
He looked at his crew—tired, bruised, but smiling.She was right.They didn't need his awakening to survive.
They needed each other.
That night, as they prepared to set sail, a single Mimic watched from the tree line, shifting its form between each of them in silence—Kairo, Aria, Jett, Kino, Rumi—its final form lingering as Kairo's before it slithered back into the mist.
"Even monsters learn from what they see," Kairo murmured. "Let's hope it never learns to dream."
The Fumigator raised anchor, vanishing once more into the sea fog—stronger, wiser, and united.