Months after the emotional departure of Crocus from the crew, the Oro Jackson is docked on the port of a random, nondescript island in the Grand Line to restock their dwindling goods and fresh water supply.
Shamrock, Shanks, and Buggy are all walking straight into the village, as they are the ones tasked by the senior members to look for the needed supplies and carry the heavy loads back to the ship.
The reason for this labor distribution was quite simple, as the Roger Pirates had a massive celebratory feast last night for no particular reason other than being alive, and they all drank far too much sake and ale, which naturally causes them to get a severe hangover the very next morning.
Shamrock, Buggy, and Shanks are all still under the drinking age and are not allowed to drink alcohol by the strict orders of Rayleigh, and because of this, they were fine now and completely sober.
So they are the ones that are tasked with the morning chores, with Rayleigh giving them permission to go out alone as he believes in the capabilities of Shamrock to defend both Buggy and Shanks if there is something dangerous that happened while they were away from the main crew.
"I can not believe they got that drunk again, and it is us that suffered today because of their lack of self-control," Buggy couldn't help but complain loudly as he kicked a small stone on the dirt path.
"We do not have much choice in the matter, they will not do any work until they recover from their hangover, and they will not recover until they get replenished with fresh water and hot soup ingredients. As their interns, we have a duty to uphold to ensure the ship keeps running," Shamrock then said with a calm smile on his face, trying to placate his friend.
He knew that both Buggy and Shanks are easily bored with shopping and errands, and there is nothing that they hated more than walking around a market carrying heavy bags when they could be exploring or training.
"Let us just get this over quickly so we can get back to training," Shanks then said, as he then and Buggy have a sour expression on their faces, clearly dreading the mundane task.
Meanwhile, Shamrock continued to smile, being quite amused by all of this, as he enjoyed the peaceful walk through a new town.
As they are looking through the various market stalls for vegetables and meat, they heard a loud commotion coming from a distance near the town square.
They saw a large looking man, who looked far too muscular for his age, holding a civilian by his head with a single hand.
The attacker had an extremely arrogant expression, and this particular someone is immediately recognized by Shamrock from his knowledge of the future.
"Please, have mercy, you will kill him! He did not mean to bump into you, please believe me!" A woman then cried on the side of the man that is holding her husband's head like it was just some kind of ragdoll.
The large figure just grinned maniacally at her pleas, as he then raised his free hand and tried to attack the woman that is crying.
Seeing the muscle action of the man and the intent to harm, Shamrock, who is on the other side of the commotion, immediately got serious.
He dropped his shopping bags and suddenly disappeared from his spot, using pure physical speed to close the distance instantly.
He appeared in the air and kicked the punch that the man had thrown to hit the crying woman, intercepting the attack inches from her face.
When Shamrock's kick connected to the massive fist of the man, the impact force then recoiled towards the man's own body.
The attacker showed a surprised expression on his face for the first time, as he then got thrown back by the force of Shamrock's kick.
In the confusion of the impact, the woman's husband, the one whose head is being held and slowly crushed by the man, got freed and dropped on the land.
Shamrock caught the unconscious civilian before he hit the ground and carefully laid him down to avoid further damage to his neck or spine.
Shamrock quickly scanned the victim with his medical gaze. He then saw the fractured skull of the man and other broken bones around the jaw, but other than that, there are no injuries that would leave permanent damage or brain trauma, as long as he was treated right and treated quick.
But before Shamrock could treat the patient right there in the street, the man that he had just kicked then stood up from the rubble. He effortlessly lifted a large chunk of a house that had fallen onto him when he was kicked by Shamrock, tossing it aside like it was made of paper.
"Shanks, Buggy, can you take him and his wife first? Move them to a safe distance. I will finish this quick," Shamrock then said towards Buggy and Shanks, who had caught up to the scene and were about to back up Shamrock in the fight.
"But we should help you," Shanks then wanted to help, and when he was about to say something more to argue, Shamrock just looked at him with a calm expression that says trust me.
This look made Shanks pause and nod in agreement, as he then started carrying the injured man away carefully. Buggy, realizing the danger, made sure that the still shocked woman on Shamrock's side was carried away as well to clear the battlefield.
"You should have minded your own business, brat. You are a strong kid, I will give you that, but against me, you are no match," the man then said as he then looked directly towards Shamrock, cracking his knuckles.
Shamrock stood calmly, brushing dust off his clothes.
"Do you want to know why my hair is this long?" Shamrock then suddenly said, asking a question that seemed completely unrelated to the current situation.
This made the man confused, and he stopped his advance to look at Shamrock with a raised eyebrow.
"I do not give a fuck about your hair or your fashion sense, I will crush you like an ant," the man then said, dismissing the question. He then lunged towards Shamrock with incredible speed, throwing his massive fist towards Shamrock's face.
Shamrock stood his ground, watching the fist slowly getting approached by his own face, or so it seemed to the onlookers.
Then out of nowhere, the man's vision then suddenly rotated 180 degrees. He then saw the entire world upside down, in which the man then realized that he is the one upside down.
Shamrock had used the momentum of the man's attack, grabbed his wrist, and used a judo-style throw to take down the man, but the speed on which he did it was so fast that the man did not even realize he had been grabbed until his back hit the dirt.
The only thing that the man then realized is that he is in the ground now, with Shamrock standing on his side, looking down on him with cold, analytical eyes.
"My hair is this long due to my vow to cut it if I were to get defeated, and it still had not happened yet," Shamrock then said towards the man that is still lying on the ground, answering his own question from earlier.
The man lay there, still shocked on the strength that Shamrock had just displayed against him.
"If you want to further humiliate yourself, stand up, but I will warn you, I will stop holding back if you attack me again," Shamrock then said, as he then started walking away from the fight to go check on the injured civilian.
The man that just attacked him then stood up with an intense anger feeling in his heart, his pride completely shattered by a kid smaller than him.
"UNION ARMADO!" The man then screamed.
The rubble that they had created on their fight then started to float and merge with the body of the man. This confirmed the thought of Shamrock that this is really Douglas Bullet.
He is not a full grown man yet, but only a fifteen year old teen, as he is only six years older than Shamrock and Shanks, yet he already possesses the power of the Gasha Gasha no Mi.
When Bullet used his devil fruit, he then created a robot looking creature made out of the piles of stones from the destroyed house earlier, as well as the iron scraps and rubbles that Shamrock had created during the initial clash.
"TAKE THIS!!" Bullet then attacked towards Shamrock with a giant stone fist.
Shamrock sighed, stopped walking, and turned around. He then unsheathed his sword in a fluid motion and started covering the blade with his armament haki, turning the metal black, something that he had learned on his fights against Rayleigh.
Then, a visible white smoke started coming out of Shamrock's mouth, as he then increased the amount of oxygen he took in, shifting his breathing technique instead of the usual use of the Total Concentration Constant.
"Hirin Kagero," Shamrock then whispered the name of his attack.
He then rushes towards the attack of Douglas Bullet, moving like a blur, and delivered a horizontal slash that cut through the air itself.
When their attacks met, there was a moment of silence before Bullet's entire stone structure suddenly exploded. The strength of Shamrock's armament haki combined with his physical cutting strength shattered the armor completely.
Bullet then got defeated for the first time in his entire life, his eyes rolling back as the stone armor crumbled around him, and unlike in the original timeline, he was not defeated by Roger, but by Roger's apprentice.
Buggy and Shanks, who are watching from not far away, watched the entire duel unfold with wide eyes.
They got surprised on the strength that Shamrock had just displayed, as the two then realized how much Shamrock holds back in their daily sparring sessions against each other to just ensure that they are not getting hurt.
"It seems that he is having a harder time facing us due to the amount he had to hold back than facing that guy," Buggy couldn't help but comment with a sweat drop, which Shanks also nodded along to in agreement.
Shamrock then turned towards them and signaled that it was safe. Shamrock then started his treatment for the injured civilian man, setting his bones and bandaging him up quickly, while the wife is incredibly thankful for the safety that Shamrock had just provided.
After a while, once the civilians were stable, Shamrock then came back to the still lying body of Bullet.
"I know you are not passed out, I did not hit you that hard," Shamrock then said, as he then knelt down and began treating the wounds that he had caused towards Bullet.
Bullet had a deep gash on his chest from the sword slash. Shamrock then just patched it up first with emergency gauze as he planned to bring Bullet to the Oro Jackson before being able to stitch his wounds properly, as he does not have his usual surgical equipments here in the street.
"Do you want to kill me? You are free to do so, you had defeated me," Bullet just said, while still lying on the ground. Despite being awake, he did not know what kind of trick that Shamrock had done, as Bullet couldn't move his limbs at all.
"Why would I bother to fix you right up when I want to kill you? I am a doctor, of course I will treat you. I just needed you to calm down, as I do not want to make a mess further in this island. These poor civilians had been living peacefully, why do you want to destroy that peace?" Shamrock then asked while applying pressure to the wound.
"The weak only obey the strong, that is the rule of the sea, a life that I had lived by for countless years," Bullet then said, reciting his twisted philosophy.
"So by that logic, you should obey me, since I am clearly stronger than you. My name is Shamrock by the way," Shamrock then said, as he then started introducing himself with a friendly smile on his face, as he lifted Bullet's massive body onto his shoulder effortlessly.
"Where are you bringing him, Shamrock?" Buggy then concernedly asked, stepping forward.
Despite being defeated by Shamrock, Buggy knew that the man is strong enough to make Shamrock use a named move and Haki, something that only Rayleigh and Gyaban's serious sparring mode manage to force out of him.
"Bringing him to the ship, my equipments are there," Shamrock then said casually.
"Oh, okay. Wait, WHAT?" Buggy then calmly answered at first, but then, when he realized the implications of the answer of Shamrock, he then got surprised and shouted.
He then turned towards Shanks for some support to stop this craziness, but Shanks, who knew his brother much longer than Buggy, knew that there is nothing that the two could do once Shamrock made up his mind.
So Shanks just sighed, picked up the bags, and carried the supplies that they had already bought. He started following towards Shamrock, who had already started walking back to the port.
"Do not worry, I have temporarily paralyzed him by hitting his pressure points. He will not be able to move his body until tomorrow, and Captain Roger would be the one to deal with him then. I will just stitch him up, and then I am free of responsibility," Shamrock then said with a reassuring smile.
He and Shanks then started going back to the path, while Buggy was just stunned on the words of Shamrock.
After a few seconds, Buggy decided that he is much safer on the ship behind Rayleigh than out here alone, so he also carried the supplies that he had bought, and the three apprentices go back to their ship with a new, dangerous prisoner in tow.