NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: No Clowning Around!
Summary: Oh no, those poor unsuspecting clowns. Well, they shouldn't have joined a profession that makes children cry, I guess...
Warning! Chapters 13-18 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!
Chapter 16: No Clowning Around!
Luffy had actually been keeping track of Buggy and his crew for some time. In part, that was because he was one of the more potentially dangerous pirates in the East Blue. The other part, however, was as something of an object lesson in remembering that this was not the exact same world his slowly-fading memories from being Alex knew. Many things remained the same, certainly. But it wasn't as neat as the story had made it out to be. Nor was everyone featured in the memories of that show the same.
Buggy the Clown was a very pointed case of that.
Looked at carefully, the differences made a very great deal of sense. For better or worse, Buggy the Clown was one of the last living members of Gol D. Rodgers crew. One of only two that was still actively in the profession of pirating, in point of fact. With the only other such case now one of the Four Emperors of the New World. No, Buggy wasn't on that level. If there had been any indication he was, Luffy wouldn't have come near him at their current strength. What Buggy was, however, was a Grand Line veteran. A real one, who'd developed the strength to at least survive as a member of a highly wanted crew there. He was significantly more dangerous than the show Alex had seen in his past life had depicted him as…though he was also a non-traditional pirate.
If not for the need to prove to Nami that they could take Arlong, Luffy might never have bothered going after him, as Buggy actually wasn't the murder, pillage, and rape style of pirate. He was, in fact, far more a treasure hunter than a looter, which explained a lot about how he'd avoided drawing much serious attention from the WG. That said, he also wasn't Shanks or Whitebeard. Buggy could, would, and did steal and loot where he could get away with it. Often causing wanton damage in the process with his special canon balls. He just tended not to rack up high body counts in the process, generally using said property damage as a way to intimidate the weak into simply giving him what he wanted or needed.
This left the former Rodger pirate in something of a grey area for Luffy. He was fully willing to go after him, but normally wouldn't have, since there were far nastier pirates out there to deal with. In the current situation, however, Buggy was unlucky that he ticked several boxes that Luffy currently needed. Luffy knew where he was based out of, knew the man would make a good test for his crew and proof for Nami of his own strength, and was enough of an asshole and minor villain that Luffy would feel zero guilt for turning him in. He even had a half decent bounty, as did a few of his crew, which would serve both to temporarily hold off Arlong while they got ready for him and pay off the last bits of hardware Luffy needed to finish their new ship.
Bluntly put, Buggy was currently an unlucky man…even if it was something that the man had yet to realize as Nami helped quietly guide Luffy's old catamaran into the hidden cove of a small island just to the east of the Oykot Kingdom. They had made the final approach to the island under the cover of darkness, not having any interest in a sea battle with their unarmed vessel. Thankfully, they'd at least gotten lucky enough to find the pirates at home, partying away in their makeshift base. Of course, while they didn't want to fight the crew's galleon on the waves…they were here to make an impression. So, once they'd hidden their own vessel, they just flat out announced their presence rather than trying any sort of additional stealth.
Nami wasn't happy with that, but Luffy was doing this to make a point. Which is why he strolled right up to the edge of the party and chucked a firework over the partying pirates heads and into their bonfire. Zoro snorted and Kuina's lips twitched in an attempt not to smile as the pirates screamed, scattered, and drunkenly tried to figure out where that had come from. Luffy drew their attention by projecting his voice over the chaos.
"Alright! Any of you without bounties, feel free to fuck off! The ones of you that have them, get your asses out here so we can take you in. Especially the Ugly, Big Nosed Clown that can't even swim!"
Silence descended quickly. That was one thing that Luffy had discovered from rumor was true. He had no idea how the fuck someone naturally had a nose like that. But apparently Buggy was not a fan of it being pointed out. Despite him building his entire pirate persona to work with it. Luffy was actually a bit impressed to feel some moderate killing intent from somewhere in the crowd…coming from the man himself as he pushed his way through his crew with angry eyes.
"Who the fuck are you, to insult my nose! Kill him!"
Many of the crew instantly tried to follow that order…though with varying effectiveness. About half were either already passed out or too drunk to properly handle their weapons. Two of them even accidently knocked each other out. The other half, though…charged in with varying levels of soberness, mixed arms, and even more mixed skills. The only ones that were even remotely dangerous were the handful that pulled pistols…and Luffy flashed forward in Soru to knock those handful out. Kuina and Zoro disdainfully knocked the rest out, not bothering to kill the low ranked fodder. Less then forty-five seconds after the order, there were only Mohji the Beast Tamer, his pet lion, Cabaji and Buggy remaining conscious among the pirate crew. Not giving them time to react, Luffy flicked his fingers to assign Kuina to Cabaji and Zoro to the tamer and Lion, even as he himself drew his jian and stalked towards Buggy.
Buggy was looking far more concerned…but also grinning as he saw the blade. Likely, he expected to be able to deal with any swordsman, given his devil fruit. He wasn't wrong, even if his eyes went huge and he instinctively scattered as Luffy casually sent a slicing blade of wind at him. After the brutal training with Garp, that blade of wind was razor sharp…but passed through the pirate's split parts without harming him. Though Buggy was back to being visibly concerned as he put himself back together.
"Who the flashy fuck are you?"
Luffy grinned.
"Monkey D. Luffy. And you're Buggy, former cabin boy of the Rodger Pirates, currently wanted by the World Government. Now that introductions are done…"
Luffy launched himself forward, ignoring the fact that Buggy's face had gone dead-serious and his body had split into a dozen whirling dervishes of blades. He was only half surprised when Buggy was able to track him through Soru…but Buggy was the one to get a literal nasty shock as Luffy willed his body to release an omni-directional corona of lightning. That lighting grounded itself in dozens of blades, causing Buggy to howl in pain as his muscles all locked up. Impressively, he managed to fight through it and use the telekinetic portion of his power to pull his parts away from any follow up. Unfortunately for Buggy, Luffy already had a good idea about his weaknesses and used that moment of retreat to put a revolver round in one of Buggy's feet.
That got another agonized scream from the man, who desperately began trying to throw all his blades at Luffy. Luffy's observation Haki was at near mastery at this point, however, by far his best skill in that area. He wove between the flying blades with ease, jian flicking out faster than Buggy could fully react to. The Clown managed to split before each attack, but only barely, small nicks and cuts where he hadn't quite been fast enough began to build up, and another revolver round nearly caught his undamaged foot in his distraction.
Moving that foot desperately out of the way cost him, as his next dodge wasn't quite fast enough to deal with the fact that Luffy had shifted to the flat of his jian and active his Power Strike skill. Bones shattered in the forearm he'd hit among Buggy's parts, and the pain was finally too much for the pirate to keep up with. Luffy got hold of his head a moment later, and slammed it into a nearby crate. Stunned, the parts all stopped moving…and Luffy was right in the middle of the storm of them as he let loose another omni-directional blast of electricity. This time, he kept it up until the pirate fell limp, not even panting as he checked to see if the man was still alive.
He was, and Luffy nodded. He wouldn't have cried if he'd killed Buggy on accident, particularly knowing the man was the vengeful type. But he had no idea how a few people, most particularly the Dark King, would react to the death of one of the remaining Rodger Pirates. Better to take him alive, if possible. A quick glance showed a bored looking Kuina and Zoro already finished with their opponents, both dead from having apparently managed to annoy the duo, and Luffy focused on securing all of Buggy's parts. He called out to his crew to get them to fill a barrel with seawater, then dumped those parts into the barrel, leaving only his head outside. That should keep him nicely unconscious without wasting any seastone. Only when that was finished did he look for Nami, who was frankly just staring with a disbelieving look in her eyes. He smirked at her.
"I told you Nami, we can do this. Now, you just need to tell us everything you can about Arlong and his crew, along with the island itself. We want to do this as cleanly as possible, without risking the villagers getting caught up in it, after all."
Nami just…nodded. The motion was a little hollow seeming, and she still seemed conflicted. But, at least, it now looked like she was willing to let them try…