On the way back, the gray mist swirled around Lucian’s fingertips like a wisp of trailing silk, flickering in and out of sight.
He kept glancing back toward the depths of the forest, his mind still preoccupied with whether that great tree might yet show some strange transformation.
“Lucian!
Where did you run off to?” Granny Maggie leaned against the doorway, waving at him.
Lucian lifted a hand and pointed in the direction of the forest.
“The forest…” Granny Maggie began, but stopped halfway.
She had been about to say that the place was dangerous, only to remember the young man’s strength in a sudden flash.
The words turned on the tip of her tongue and came out simply as, “Hurry up inside.”
Lucian quickened his pace, and the gray mist at his fingertips quietly faded away.
The moment he stepped through the door, a fat rat suddenly darted past his foot.
His hand lifted on instinct, and that wisp of gray mist sprang forth at once, but just as it was about to touch the rat, he forced it back down.
The rat, as if sensing something, shot out the doorway in a flash.
Lucian stared at the empty doorway, lost in a daze.
“What are you spacing out for?” Granny Maggie pressed a basket of dried fish into his hands.
“The sun’s just come out—come help me lay these out to dry.”
Lucian took the basket and headed outside without a word, his head still churning.
The fruit that the tide had swept away the night before was no rotten apple after all.
It was something that had given rise to this eerie power inside him.
While he was helping Granny Maggie turn the drying fish, he happened to run into Toby.
The young man was crouched on the beach, airing out his fishing net, and upon seeing Lucian, he grinned and waved.
“Lucian, want to come to my place and try some grouper I just caught this morning?”
“Last night…
fruit.” Lucian shook his head, then spoke haltingly, mixing words with gestures, trying to find out where that fruit had come from.
“You mean that fruit I gave you yesterday?” Toby’s expression cleared.
“I found it floating in a drifting crate when I was diving for sea urchins.
It looked like something exotic, so I gave it to you.
Don’t tell me…
it was poisonous?”
He hastily looked Lucian up and down, alarm written all over his face.
“Spoiled.” Lucian squeezed out the single word.
“So it just went bad.” Toby let out a relieved breath and patted his chest.
“You scared me for a second there.”
As Toby pulled at his fishing net, he chatted idly with Lucian, talking about the tides, the day’s catch, the new flock of seagulls that had arrived on the eastern reef.
Lucian’s hands never stopped working, though mostly he just listened, giving an occasional nod as reply.
Only when the last of the fish had been laid out to dry did he pick up his basket and bid Toby farewell before heading home.
…
The days in the fishing village gradually returned to their familiar rhythm.
The fishing boats still cut through the morning mist and set out to sea at dawn.
The children still chased the waves along the shore in their bare feet, their bell-like laughter drifting far on the sea breeze.
When the villagers saw Lucian now, they no longer turned and hid as they had just a few days before.
Some would even smile and call out a greeting.
Still, they remained a touch cautious when handing him anything, and their words were always polite, carrying a faint, unspoken sense of distance.
Lucian paid none of this any mind.
He had found a new fascination: the forest on the island.
Life on the island had always been simple, but he grew more and more enthralled by the strange power within him, heading into the woods day after day to test it over and over.
Before long, Lucian discovered that the gray mist existed in all the birds, flowers, insects, beasts, plants, and trees on the island, and that he could extract it and store it within his own body.
The more gray mist he stored, the more he could release.
Gradually, he became able to emanate it within a radius of two meters around himself.
Any animal that drew near would become just like that cockroach before—turning into a zombie.
The more intelligent ones could even be controlled by him, while those with no intelligence at all, like the cockroach, would simply attack indiscriminately.
Seeing this, Lucian threw himself into collecting with even greater zeal.
He could feel it clearly—his body was growing stronger and stronger, even beginning to undergo a strange and wondrous transformation.
His entire body was slowly converting into the gray mist itself, to the point that when an ordinary wild beast lunged to attack him, it passed straight through him.
Months slipped by in the blink of an eye.
One day after breakfast, Lucian slipped into the forest just as he always did.
He followed the increasingly familiar trail toward the deeper woods, his fingertips gathering gray mist all the while.
Wherever he passed, the trees and undergrowth seemed to grow a more vivid, lush green.
The further he ventured into the heart of the forest, the sparser the trees became, until he could faintly hear the sound of waves crashing against the reef.
Pushing through the last stretch of thicket, the view opened wide before him: a desolate stretch of tidal flat lay right at the edge—this was the other side of the island.
“All gone…!” Lucian cast a regretful look at the very last plant he had drained of its gray mist.
It would take a long time for the mist inside these plants to recover.
By now, every plant and animal in the entire forest had been drawn from.
He was just about to turn back when a voice called out.
“Hey!
Are you from this island?” The voice came from below.
Lucian stopped in his tracks.
There, beside a jagged outcrop of reef, a battered little wooden boat lay beached.
The hull was split with several cracks, and the white sail had been torn wide open.
A young boy in a straw hat stood on the boat, a few broken pieces of wood in hand, waving up at him.
“Hm!” Lucian stayed where he was and simply nodded.
“Is there anyone else on this island?
Does anyone know how to fix a boat?” Though Lucian’s reply had been brief, the straw-hatted boy was suddenly brimming with excitement, waving and shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Yes.
Over there!” Lucian pointed in the direction he had come from.
“Awesome!” The boy let out a delighted yell, and with a few leaps, he sprang from the reef right up to Lucian’s side.
“I’m Monkey D.
Luffy, the man who’s gonna be King of the Pirates!
And you?”
“Pirate?” A flicker of confusion passed through Lucian’s hollow eyes.
“Yeah!
I’m a pirate.” Luffy flashed a radiant grin.
“You want to raid?” Gray mist began spilling from Lucian’s body and spreading outward.
He still remembered that the last people who called themselves pirates had come wanting to plunder the village.
“I’m not here to raid!
I just want to get my boat fixed!” Luffy looked at the person before him, who was now giving off an unmistakably dangerous aura, his expression genuinely puzzled.
“Hm~” Lucian silently fixed his gaze on Luffy for a moment.
Then the gray mist halted and slowly drew back into his body.
“My name is Lucian.
Come with me,” he said, his voice carrying that strange, peculiar accent, as he turned and started back the way he had come.
Luffy’s radiant grin returned in an instant, and he bounded after him.
“Hey, hey, was that gray mist your ability just now?”
“Ability?”
“You don’t know?
A Devil Fruit ability!”
“Don’t know.”
“Then how did you eat a Devil Fruit?”
“Are Devil Fruits super disgusting?”
Luffy chattered away behind Lucian, firing off one question after another.
Lucian only answered now and then.
Just then, Luffy’s stomach let out a loud growl.
He rubbed his belly and looked up at Lucian, his face full of anticipation.
“I’m hungry.
Can you take me to get something to eat first?”
“Boat…” Lucian turned his head, eyeing Luffy with incomprehension.
“We can deal with the boat after we eat.” Luffy clutched his stomach and replied without a shred of shame.
Lucian was silent for a beat, then pressed on.
“Come with me.”
Luffy let out an immediate cheer and trotted happily behind him.
Back in the village, Lucian brought Luffy to Granny Maggie’s house.
The old woman looked slightly puzzled at the sight of him returning with a strange young boy in tow.
“He’s hungry,” Lucian said, pointing at Luffy.
“A new friend?
I don’t think I’ve seen him around the village before?” Granny Maggie quickly brought out freshly baked dried fish and barley cakes to welcome the guest.
“Thank you!
You guys are really good people!” Luffy offered a quick word of thanks to Lucian and Granny Maggie, then without the slightest trace of reserve, swept the food clean in just a few bites.
When he was done, he let out a satisfied belch.