Chapter 1: The Joker
"Heh...!"
"Cough! Cough!"
"Heh... heh heh heh heh!"
In the damp, gloomy cabin, three prisoners were locked in three cages that looked quite sturdy, standing side by side.
One was huddled in a corner, another was in the center with a dejected face and a gloomy expression. The third, sprawled out on a metal plate and hunched over, burst into enthusiastic, cheerful laughter.
Why wouldn't he laugh?
Buggy tilted his head; the moonlight filtering through the round porthole hit his face squarely.
A bony "X" was drawn on his forehead, his red nose was prominent, his lips were painted bright red, and he had a disheveled beard.
He raised the corners of his lips with his index fingers and laughed convulsively.
"Heh... heh..."
What bliss! What fun, what a wonderful thing could happen in the world! What joy!
Buggy's face twisted against the ground, his mind now filled with three people.
One was a university student who worked part-time as a clown at an amusement park, trying to make the children in front of him laugh. The child frowned, finding the adult's absolute immaturity evident.
Another was a patient from Arkham Asylum, known as Jack, although the outside world preferred to call him the Joker. In his memory, Jack adjusted his tie in the mirror, trying to force a smile onto his chemical-corroded face. A nearby radio blared with the news of a terrorist attack on a Gotham City bank.
The other was Buggy, the most famous clown in the Grand Line. The Ugly King!
This was the original owner of this body.
While treasure hunting with his men, he stumbled upon a secret Marine base, where he encountered several familiar-looking children and a burly man wielding a large axe. He was then arrested on the spot.
The memories of the three were like kneading dough: two parts Buggy, five parts Jack, and three parts the part-time university student. They were mixed, stirred vigorously in one direction, and then stirred forcefully until all three were completely kneaded together, forming a gelatinous texture.
What a magical, joyous thing! Buggy's heart was filled with an indescribable sense of fulfillment.
It was like the first time the Joker saw that incredibly twisted, contradictory, and amusing leather-clad guy in the newspaper. Or like the first time a university student used his part-time earnings to treat himself to a Big Mac at McDonald's.
He lost the joy of a city and gained the joy of a world.
So happy...
"Shut up, you bastard!"
The gloomy man raised his head with a fierce look on his face. In the bleak and oppressive cabin, that cheerful laughter was too piercing.
If he weren't shackled and confined in isolation in that cage of slavery, he was sure he would have caught that red-nosed guy and taken him out to fish for sea monsters!
"I'm sorry, hahaha, I'm sorry..."
"I couldn't help it!"
Buggy straightened up, waved his hand, wiped away his tears, and apologized sincerely... if he hadn't been smiling.
"I can't help but smile when I think of Impel Down that we're about to visit!"
"Aren't you looking forward to it? The legendary prison that no one can escape from? First floor, second floor, third floor..."
He pointed to the gloomy man next to him and to another man huddled in the shadows, seemingly assigning them a cell.
"The Crimson Lotus Hell, with its vast forest of sword trees whose leaves look like blades; the Beast Hell, filled with poisonous snakes and fierce beasts; the Hunger Hell, with its scorching heat and lack of water and food..."
Buggy described the hellish scene with an exaggerated, expectant tone.
The gloomy man's face instantly paled, and his slightly trembling arms made the iron shackles rattle. Impel Down, the absolute nightmare of every pirate who sailed the seas! The endless torture and impossibility of escape filled them with terror!
And they were aboard a transport ship bound for Impel Down. They were all criminals being transported.
"No... don't say any more!"
"I told you not to say any more!"
Extreme panic was hidden behind the gloomy man's fierce gaze.
Being in hell is painful, and the slow descent into it, waiting silently for the knife to go through your neck, is an exhausting torture.
"Are you scared?"
Buggy tilted his head, a smile on his face.
He was a sharp observer.
He looked fierce, but was actually weak, forcing a profound and sinister facade despite being utterly terrified. He had faint stitches on his arm, tattooed with a cross, and his expression changed slightly when he raised his hand.
This guy was definitely hiding something.
Anything hidden so unobtrusively in the flesh was likely some flat, sharp object...
If the guy's arms hadn't been shaking with fear, Buggy wouldn't have noticed.
He seemed lucky.
Buggy narrowed his eyes, thoughts swirling in his mind. In such an interesting world, wouldn't it be boring to remain trapped like this, imprisoned in a massive underwater prison, waiting for some impulsive kid to come and cause a ruckus before he could escape?
It would be a stalemate.
It would be a disservice to the miraculous transformation that had taken place inside him! He pondered for a moment and then, suddenly, pounced on the edge of the cage, his face fixed on the gloomy man. He spoke with a harsh, piercing tone:
"Since you're scared and don't want to go to hell, then give me what you have hidden in your arm!"
"You don't want the guards to know you've hidden something, do you, my dear cellmate?"
Buggy was also an expert at intimidating men like this. Gotham City, with its simple people, was full of thugs like this. It was enough to use a single word as a hook to seduce the uncontrollable fear they harbored inside, destroying their facade. Then, with a sudden, direct reprimand...
"How... how did you know?" The gloomy man's eyes went wide, his palms drenched in sweat.
His right arm had sustained a serious stab wound, a visible cut. Later, on a whim, he used a tattoo to cover it, while also concealing a sharp blade.
As expected...
Buggy's smile widened even more, he narrowed his eyes, and even licked the corner of his lips frequently. Without the corrosion from chemicals or the erosion from stab wounds, he still felt a little uncomfortable.
"Give it to me, or the Marines will execute you right now."
"We all know this thing can't do anything, either now or in prison. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here until now..."
"Right?"
Buggy's words were like a demon's whispers, one after another, neutralizing the gloomy man's internal resistance.
A blade, let alone in the legendary underwater prison, would be of little use even on the warship he was on. Plus, the other's words held hidden threats...
He lowered his head, preparing to open the wound with his mouth.
"Fifteen million Belly, Pirate Buggy."
"Wow, the Marines really underestimated you."
The prisoner who had been huddled in a corner suddenly spoke, slowly turning so the moonlight could make out his face.
"A bounty of... a fifty-seven million Belly bounty... Musa the Ferocious Dog!"
Musa raised his head, a faint smile on his scar-marked face.
"That's me!"
"So you should understand who things should be given to."
"I, the great pirate, am going to get you out of here... or not!"
His smile grew more and more arrogant.
Musa's tone was severe, but deep down, he had no hope of escaping. He was cuffed with sea stone shackles, locked in a pure metal cage, and on a Navy ship escorted by a commodore. How could he possibly escape?
He was simply amused by Buggy's behavior and the strange situation.
What was a little strange was that a pirate with 15 million Belly deserved to be imprisoned alongside Musa the Ferocious Dog. The Marines were truly bored.
As for what the other pirate might be hiding... these sorts of things are very common among pirates. At most, it's just a hidden piece of wire or a razor blade, what good would that do? But reporting it might even earn you a good meal!
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