Chapter 2: Shots
...Blood. It slowly filled the iron-gray deck.
Arne shivered.
He was no rookie pirate. He had followed his previous captain, burning down towns and plundering merchant ships! When he took to the sea, he had thrown his conscience into the ocean to feed the sea kings. They were thieves; burning, killing, looting, and plundering was an everyday thing. If they didn't rob others, others would rob them!
But even the bloody act before him terrified him.
As Arne cut open the wound on his arm, extracted the knife, and tossed it to the clown, something funny happened...
"I'm so sorry," Buggy said, brushing his hair back nonchalantly. "I was so happy I couldn't help it."
"What did you say? Yes, I'm a peace lover."
He put the knife away at his waist with indifference, ignoring the rotting flesh behind him. The man's name was Musa.
He had been talking too much.
He had been an eyesore.
He picked up the other hand that had fallen to the deck. Of course, there was a price to pay to break free from the sea stone cuffs for Devil Fruit users. He cut off his hands.
As long as he didn't touch the cuffs, Buggy's immortality would naturally return. Then he could rejoin his severed hands.
"The Bara Bara no Mi, how interesting."
He licked his lips, and the broken parts of his arm and palm touched, fitting together like building blocks. Before he tried it, he didn't know if it would work. The original Buggy didn't have the guts to try something like this.
But the Joker, who came out of Arkham Asylum, had a lot of guts. Ah, he hoped his dear family doctor and those lovely patients wouldn't regret his departure. Especially that adorable bat!
Now he was having more fun!
"Devil Fruit... Should I try another one? I hear eating a second one will make you explode and die, but I can already explode myself, how else?"
"Or give it to another user."
"Yes, yes, this is what you call an experiment."
Buggy's eyes lit up as he thought of the interesting things he remembered. His hair, once tied back, fell down, complementing his eccentric expression. He was the Joker that the people of Gotham City would never mistake... a lunatic!
"B... Buggy-sama."
While Arne possessed a pirate's shortcomings, he also had his strengths, such as his ability to quickly recognize his position on a ship. Of course, the current situation was something he could not have foreseen. He had given the knife to Buggy earlier because he assumed he was just a pirate with a 15 million Belly bounty, so he wouldn't be too brutal...
"Damn it, what was wrong with the Marines when they set that bounty? Wouldn't a pirate worth hundreds of millions be this brutal?"
"Calm down, calm down."
"I feel much better now."
He watched Buggy wave his hands, breaking his body into pieces before calmly leaving Musa's cage. The curse of the sea, the power of a Devil Fruit. He should be a parahuman. After all, Arne would not be so ignorant on the Grand Line.
"Your hand...?"
Buggy's hands were full of thoughts.
One hand, alternating between its index, middle, and ring fingers, climbed toward the upper cabin. The other, floating alone, moved into the deck where they were.
The three of them together were not worth even 100 million Belly, and they were not so shameless as to ask the Navy to deploy a warship to escort them. An entire deck of pirates would be enough.
Dozens? Or even hundreds?
Buggy didn't remember, but he did remember that it had been more than two hours from the time he was brought on board until the ship started to rock. Besides, the feeling of simultaneously manipulating three parts of his body was surprisingly easy. Perhaps it was because he now had three brains. The old Buggy did not have such fluid control.
"Busy, all busy," he shook his head; the rest of his body looked like a lonely, abandoned old man. "Better to be busy." He looked like a psychopath no matter how you looked at him!
Outside the cabin.
The sea was dark.
Only the dark green camouflage warships projected waves with milky white scales.
It was late at night.
But as a naval officer on the escort ship, Sergeant Jacques remained relentless. He patrolled back and forth in front of the ship's tower with several enlisted men, his leather boots echoing softly but with enough presence. The softness was so as not to disturb the officers' rest, while the presence was to remind Commodore Browne, who occasionally woke up at night, that outside the warm cabin, the loyal Sergeant Jacques was diligently performing his duties.
Once they were a bit away from the officers' lounge, Sergeant Jacques's steps became more relaxed. He lit a cigarette.
"We'll reach the Gate of Justice in about an hour. Everyone, please keep working hard. Once we're inside, we won't have to patrol so intensely."
He patted a private on the shoulder, making sure nothing unusual had been observed during the night.
Unbeknownst to Sergeant Jacques, as he turned his head, a small, not very clean, but diligent hand quickly passed by him. A closer look revealed a stained eye and ear.
Soon after.
Some diligent hands brought more and more things to Buggy. Gunpowder, swords, pistols, nautical charts, keys, and even a certain officer's diary... this guy was definitely not serious.
He leafed through it with indifference.
The diary was trivial but detailed, a waste of the officer's daily thoughts and affairs, plus numerous complaints about his current job... quite boring.
But Buggy read it carefully. It allowed him to better understand the true face of this world.
As for the nautical chart, he also leafed through it.
Hmm...
I don't get it.
The Joker from Gotham City was smart and cultured. The part-time university students who worked as clowns might not have been very smart, but they had some education. But that didn't mean they could immediately understand the professional nautical charts of another world.
Especially those drawn by the Marines, who had their own set of standard charts. As for the original Buggy... he was good at reading various Riddler-style charts, but the professional Navy version was quite confusing. It had too many annotations!
"I can read nautical charts, Buggy-sama!"
Arne seized the opportunity and spoke quickly. His hands were cuffed, but no one had removed them yet.
Although the tasks on the Grand Line charts were like the answers at the end of some exams, he had skipped everything one would want to see. Even so, it was useful for him to understand the surroundings of several islands.
"Excellent."
"It seems I have a navigator candidate on my future pirate ship," Buggy smiled, painting a picture.
"Yes! Yes!"
Arne was excited. He wasn't lying; in the business, the type of boss you follow is crucial. Like his former captain, who boasted a 70 million Belly bounty, only to be defeated by a Marine with a special skill in the first three rounds.
"Next..."
Buggy raised his arm, calling for the busy "Righty"; "Lefty" had more important things to do.
He took a new pistol from the bag in front of him, put his finger in the buckle, and spun it a couple of times. Then, he grabbed it and fired three times at Arne's cage.
All three were accurate: two at the cuffs, one at the cage.
The shots roared, and the sound of the bullets and iron plates clashing was piercing.
Arne held his aching wrist, but he suddenly felt a deep terror in his heart. "Are you crazy?! We're still on the warship?!"
The Marines were a little stupid, but not deaf!
"Wow, you guessed it."
Buggy smiled and praised him. Are not those who came from Arkham Asylum crazy?
"So now, we don't have much time to select the crew."
He tossed the bag to Arne.
He hummed an unknown tune and walked toward the depths of the cabin with a step that didn't recognize any relatives.
"Crazy, you damn lunatic!"
Arne kicked the floor anxiously, but still hurried to reach the sack.
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