The town is burned and the
Smoke curled into the sky like fingers reaching for the heavens, and the screams of terrified villagers echoed through the alleys. Buggy the Clown's ship docked like a monster at the edge of Shells Town's market square, and his crew poured out like lunatics—laughing, yelling, throwing torches.
"Bring me the Grand Line map!!" Buggy shouted from his perch atop a giant cannon.
His face twisted with glee as he licked a colorful lollipop and slammed it down onto a wooden barrel.
"And if anyone dares stand in my way—BLAST THEM TO PIECES!!"
A cannon fired.
A building crumbled.
Pirates cheered.
Buggy's red nose wobbled as he laughed like a maniac.
But then—
Someone landed in front of him.
Soft. Silent. Sudden.
It wasn't Luffy.
It wasn't Zoro.
It was Rex.
His black hair flowed in the ash-filled breeze. His blue eyes were calm—dangerously calm. His fists hung at his sides like storm clouds waiting to crash down.
The pirates paused.
Buggy narrowed his eyes. "Who's this handsome little punk?"
Rex didn't speak at first. He glanced to the side—at the Grand Line map Buggy was gripping in his gloved fingers. The scroll was real. The lines were old, hand-drawn, traced by generations of cartographers who'd seen seas most men only dreamed of.
That map didn't belong to Buggy.
It belonged to fate.
"You stole something that doesn't belong to you," Rex said quietly.
Buggy tilted his head. "What's that?"
Rex pointed at the map. "That."
Buggy grinned wide. "So what if I did? You think you're gonna take it from me, pretty boy?"
"I don't think," Rex said. "I do."
Buggy laughed hard—so hard he fell backward off his barrel. His crew roared with laughter behind him.
"WHAT'S HE GONNA DO?! SMOLDER US TO DEATH WITH HIS HOTNESS?!"
That's when Rex moved.
One second, he was standing there.
The next, he was inside the enemy crowd, his hand like a spear slamming into the first pirate's throat. The man dropped without a scream.
Another came at him with a club.
Rex ducked under the swing, grabbed the man's wrist, and snapped his elbow backward with a loud CRACK.
[…Threat cluster detected. Engaging advanced crowd-suppression protocol. Neural-muscle boost enabled. Reaction time: 0.18 seconds.]
A barrage of punches. Elbows. Sweeps. Knees. Rex flowed like a storm of practiced chaos. Every movement had purpose. Every strike was fatal or disabling.
Buggy stopped laughing.
"…Oi."
Another pirate tried to stab Rex from the side, but Rex twisted—snatched the blade mid-swing, and spun it in his fingers before launching it like a dart into the pirate's leg.
"AAAAAGHHH!"
"NO WAY! HOW IS HE—?!"
"THAT'S NOT NORMAL!!"
It wasn't.
Because Rex wasn't normal.
Inside his body, [Michael] had activated every fiber of his training database. From the tips of his fingers to the control of his breathing, Rex was a machine—a storm with purpose, a blade wrapped in skin.
Buggy snarled. "YOU WANNA PLAY, HUH?!"
Suddenly, he split apart—his arms and legs detaching as he flew across the battlefield, blades spinning in his floating hands.
"CHOP-CHOP FESTIVAL!!!"
The swords flew at Rex in a whirlwind.
[…Analyzing Devil Fruit ability: Paramecia type confirmed. Fragmentation-based invulnerability. Counter-strategy: precision point nullification. Initiate predictive modeling.]
Rex closed his eyes.
And moved.
The blades missed him by a breath.
He leapt through the gaps, spun through Buggy's limbs like a leaf in the wind, and landed a kick into Buggy's floating torso.
The clown's body hit the ground with a heavy THUD.
"W-What the hell are you?!" Buggy hissed, panting now, floating head snapping back into position.
Rex stood over him.
"I'm the future King of the Pirates," he said.
Buggy laughed bitterly. "You and that straw hat kid both say the same thing. You're rivals or something?"
Rex nodded. "That's right."
"Then I'll kill one of you now!" Buggy's floating dagger launched at point-blank range—
And Rex caught it with two fingers.
He squeezed.
The blade shattered.
Buggy's eyes went wide.
"You… you broke steel—"
Rex leaned forward and whispered coldly, "Don't ever touch what belongs to Nami again."
CRACK!!!
A spinning roundhouse kick to the face sent Buggy flying through the burning wall of the tavern.
The laughter stopped.
The fire crackled.
Buggy's crew dropped their weapons.
Rex picked up the Grand Line map, dusted it gently, and walked away—just as Luffy and Zoro arrived behind him.
"WOOOOAH!!" Luffy cheered. "You already finished him?!"
Zoro raised an eyebrow. "Showoff."
Rex tossed the map to Nami.
She caught it, her hands shaking slightly. She stared at him for a second.
"…You kept it safe."
He smirked. "I said I would."
She quickly looked away, cheeks pink.
"…Don't make promises you can't keep," she muttered.
Rex stepped forward, close enough that their shoulders brushed.
"I don't break promises."
Behind them, Luffy was already yelling about meat.
Zoro was cleaning his swords.
And Nami's heart was racing.
This wasn't just a crew.
This was something much bigger.
Something destined.
[…Crew cohesion improving. Romantic tension rising. New route unlocked: Parallel Captain Protocol.]
And as the sun set over the coast of Shells Town, Rex knew—this was only the beginning.