The Chris had been sailing at sea for several days. It was hard to say if the Grand Line was trying to give these rookie pirates a proper baptism by storm—to teach them just how dangerous this sea truly was—but aside from that first day of chaotic weather upon entering the Grand Line, the voyage had been surprisingly calm. At most, it had rained occasionally. The winds were fair, the seas were gentle, and not even a single Sea King had surfaced to test them.
Truth be told, life aboard a ship could get rather dull. Most of the crew spent their days training individually. Sometimes they'd gather to play cards, or shoot the breeze about the best booze they'd ever had, the finest food they'd tasted, or the most beautiful women they'd met. Typical stuff when a bunch of guys get together—exaggerated stories, a bit of bragging, and the occasional shipboard banquet just to kill time.
Take Oliver, for example—he was almost certainly in the training room, working out.
Arlan was probably off playing cards and talking big.
As for Gorbo? He was likely pondering what they'd eat for lunch today.
Dimitri could be seen at the bow, commanding the ship's course while casually shooting seabirds for target practice.
Then there were Millie and Mina, the twin girls who had recently become obsessed with drawing mazes—challenging each other with increasingly complicated labyrinths to solve. No doubt they were in their room, giggling and lost in the game.
Aeridar wasn't like the others. As captain, he naturally had the twin sisters to comfort him through the lonely nights. During the day, however, he devoted most of his time to rigorous training—a habit born from surviving the brutal conditions of Kukos Island. Without that harsh training regimen, he wouldn't have the strength he possessed now.
In the world of One Piece, hand-to-hand combat wasn't something to scoff at. There were real techniques behind those monstrous feats of strength—like how some of the strongest warriors used methods to circulate their life force and blood, or how the Six Powers style trained the body to perform the impossible. You really think just lifting weights can make someone swing air-blades or create shockwaves with their punches? This wasn't Dragon Ball, but even that world had its own methods of ki cultivation. Physical training was just one step in harnessing true energy.
One Piece had its own logic. Their martial training resembled traditional eastern martial arts: channeling inner vitality, commanding every fiber of muscle to direct explosive force into a single point.
And Aeridar's Impact-Impact Fruit? That ability was no joke. But to truly wield it, he needed a body that could take the strain. Physical strength was the foundation. Even a Logia-type Devil Fruit would be useless without a powerful body—let alone a Paramecia like the Impact-Impact Fruit that devoured stamina like wildfire.
Look at Trafalgar Law in the original story—his Op-Op Fruit was insanely strong. He could create a Room to manipulate objects and people at will, slicing without blood, teleporting, even swapping personalities. And yet, during the battle with Donquixote Doflamingo, Law was nearly killed from exhaustion. Sure, strategy played a part, but had his stamina and endurance been higher, he wouldn't have needed all those gambits in the first place.
Or take Admiral Sakazuki, better known as Akainu. His Magma-Magma Fruit made him one of the most fearsome Logia users in the series. But when he clashed with Whitebeard—the strongest of the Four Emperors—he still got the crap kicked out of him. Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit sent him crashing deep into the earth. Had Akainu not possessed a monster's physique, he'd have been reduced to ash. Whitebeard's title as "the man who could destroy the world" wasn't just hype.
The same went for Aeridar's Impact-Impact Fruit. It drained stamina like mad. That's why Aeridar never let up on physical training.
As a man from the modern world blessed with such a powerful ability, Aeridar had envisioned countless ways to apply it. The scope of "impact force" was massive—it covered everything from a fist strike to a meteor crashing into the earth. The scale varied, but the principle was pure, explosive power. That made it an incredibly versatile ability.
Aeridar divided the Impact-Impact Fruit's power into three stages:
First Stage – Direct Contact Impact.
He could unleash impact force only through physical contact. To hit someone, he had to actually strike them or an object. The stronger his body, the greater the power he could exert. At the peak of this stage, he could release multiple layers of force in an instant—similar to the "stacked strikes" seen in martial arts stories.
Second Stage – Projected Impact.
This was where the impact force began to project outward. He could release shockwaves through the air—striking enemies at a distance by punching the space around them. This too required immense strength and endurance. Aeridar had currently reached this level. In the late stages, the force could erupt from his body without even a punch—just a flick of the hand could send out devastating shockwaves, like how Fleet Admiral Sengoku could do with his Buddha Shockwave.
Third Stage – Awakening (Theoretical).
This stage remained purely theoretical, an ideal Aeridar was still chasing. He believed it represented the fruit's awakened state. In this form, impact force could be released from any part of his body, at will, repeatedly. His body would essentially become an auto-repulsion engine—anything that touched him would be blown away by backlash. Maybe he could even absorb the force of enemy attacks and amplify it into counter-blasts, or use it to strengthen his own stamina. If he reached this level, Aeridar would become immune to all physical damage—a walking nightmare for close-combat fighters.
Of course, that sort of power was still a long way off.
After all, Aeridar had started out as an ordinary guy. He didn't have the talent of someone like Luffy. He had to take things one step at a time. He wasn't a prodigy who could just train for two years and come out matching a Warlord.
Everything Aeridar had achieved was thanks to the Impact-Impact Fruit... and a modern mind full of creative theory. Compared to Luffy, who in canon became a powerhouse at just 19 years old—his Gear 4 able to go toe-to-toe with a Navy Admiral—Aeridar was already 20 and still only barely at the level of an elite Vice Admiral.
Worse still, his inexperience nearly got him killed in a fight against two Rear Admirals. Just thinking about it was embarrassing.
Fortunately, Aeridar had arrived in this world earlier than most. Otherwise, if he'd debuted alongside the rest of the Supernovas, you really think he could compete? He wasn't some genius, special forces vet, or elite assassin.
Back in middle school, Aeridar had always scored at the bottom of his class—dead last or second-to-last. Sure, his class was one of the top-ranked in a school of thirteen, but aside from English and history, he flunked nearly every subject.
You think a guy like that was born with some divine gift?
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