CH - 51

Screams could be heard around them as the people in the club feared for their lives. People began to stream out of the place. They had come for a bloody good time, but they didn't think it would get literal. This was going to be a battle to the death and nobody there wanted their lives on the line.

Grey charged at Buggy. His body was a little slow. He had healed a bit in the travel time, but not all the way. He was still fast enough though. He swung his right fist upwards, knocking into Buggy's jaw.

The ugly clown's head popped off and flew into the air. "Damn you, old man! Just die!" Buggy's short body remained on the ground. He flung all his might into throwing his left arm in a high arc at Grey's face.

The man was thrown back a few feet and twisted down to his knees. He's a lot stronger than I remember him being.

Buggy then separated his body from his feet, cutting off at the ankles. His body began floating toward Grey and then he swiftly swung his right knee into Grey's face, knocking the old man down. "BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I almost thought this was going to be hard!" Buggy cawed. "You're making this too easy, old man! But of course, against the Mighty Buggy, you're nothing!" His voice cackled and wheezed as he went on.

Grey spat blood on the ground. His wounds from Mihawk were opening up. He wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous for a while. His body shook as he finally stood up and faced his old crewmate. "Buggy! That's enough!" And then a sharp pain shot through his back and he dropped to his knees. His right arm swung around to grab Buggy's hand.

"You gotta watch out," Buggy laughed. "In our flying circus, who knows what could be floating around out there?! GUWAHAHAHA!"

The three knives had penetrated his back. Grey slowly pulled the blades out by holding onto Buggy's hand. Buggy tried to recall his arm, but Grey held on tight.

"L-LET GO!" he shouted.

Grey pried the knives from Buggy's grip and tossed them to the ground. "You know… I was going to reason with you, but you had to turn this into a fight. I didn't want to hurt you, Buggy." He stared up at the man, and slowly unfurled the fingers in the hand he held.

"What are you doing?! Give me that!"

SNAP!

"OW!" Buggy howled. "Dammit, Grey, give me my-"

SNAP!

"YOU BASTARD!" Buggy sent his floating body at Grey, right leg up, ready to swing.

Grey reached out with his left arm and grabbed the leg, then used it as a handle to swing Buggy's body down to the ground with a thud. He let go of the hand and grabbed onto Buggy's neck with both hands, then began squeezing.

"Ugh- Grey," Buggy squealed. "Stop."

"I know how your powers work, Buggy," Grey said. "Your body parts may disconnect, but they all still serve their purpose." He squeezed tighter.

Buggy began to black out. His loss of focus forced the remaining parts of his body to regroup around his body, where Grey was holding him down to the ground. "Alright," Buggy gurgled, now staring up at the man. "What do you want?"

Grey held onto Buggy's throat, but loosened the tightness. "Why did you do it?!"

"I didn't have much of a choice! I was caught! The World Government offered me a deal. I send some pirates to their assassin, then I get to walk and they wipe my bounty."

"But why you?"

"I didn't know it was you they wanted until I got here. I was told the Captain was Avarik Halcen. End of story. I said yes."

"You're a disgrace!"

"You think I like this? You think I like being the walking clown? I never wanted this life! I wasn't fit for combat and murder! I just wanted to be a treasure hunter! But that automatically makes you a pirate in this life! I have to stay alive, by any means necessary!"

"Poor Buggy," Grey said, sarcastically. "Always the victim!"

"You don't know what it's like! You've always been strong. You've always been powerful. You, Roger, Shanks. You were all blessed with this amazing power. And I got shit! I got stuck in your shadow. I got swept up by your rules! I'm just playing the game I was forced into."

"You break my heart, Buggy." He raised his right first.

"Dammit!" Buggy closed his eyes.

Grey threw his fist down at the floor next to Buggy, shattering the wood and stone underneath, spraying around them. Grey sat back for a moment, then stood up and began to walk out.

Buggy opened his eyes, then stood up behind Grey. "Now what?"

Grey stopped, but didn't look back. "You continue wasting your life sprawling the East Blue. But if I ever see you again… I'll kill you." Then Grey left.

Grey got back to Max's bar with new wounds and previous ones reopened. He limped in with blood dripping from his body. His mouth was full of blood, and his back was in torsion. Everybody looked up at him.

Max, Pad, Halcen and a medic were the only ones there. The medic was taking care of Halcen's wounds. Halcen looked up at Grey. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Buggy tried to kill me."

"Fuck. What did you do?"

"I put him down," Grey said solemnly. "How are you doing?"

"I guess I'm alright," he said, looking himself over. "They said there won't be any permanent damage. I should be fine in a few weeks. I keep getting told to stay out of fights, but I keep getting forced back into them." You could hear the anger in his voice.

Grey nodded.

"You ought to let them take care of that," Halcen said, motioning to Grey's back.

Grey nodded again, then groaned as he tried to walk to the table where he could sit down and let the medic take care of him. He began work immediately. Grey stood still for a few minutes while Halcen continued talking to Max.

Halcen sighed. "Well, seeing as how this turned into a shitstorm, I'm gonna need Jin and Fein back now."

"Whoa… where's the Kairoseki?" Max asked.

Halcen blinked, then looked at Max, dumbfounded. "There… IS no Kairoseki."

"Then no deal. I keep the boys."

"Do you not understand what's going on here?"

"I understand perfectly. I gave you a ship and crew, and I've still to be repaid."

"Your crew just left!" Halcen shouted.

"That's your fault, for getting into this mess, not mine."

"I was set up!"

"That doesn't suddenly make us even. Even if I did take off the crew now, you still owe me for backpay and the ship. You don't have anything to pay me with! Trust me, I would much rather have you trade for them, than just having them. I don't like what comes next, but rules are rules."

"GODDAMIT MAX!" Halcen slammed a fist down on the table he was at, causing a massive dent.

Everybody jumped. Pad reached for the gun under the counter, but didn't pull it out.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH!" He shouted in rage. "I was stabbed in the back by my best friend, kicked out of the only home I've known since I was a kid! I had Marines try to kill me! I had a goddamn wanna be bear-god try to kill me and kidnap one of your crew! Then I had to risk my life to protect her from being forced to eat this damned Devil Fruit, that I have since had to carry around like a fucking fanny-pack to keep everyone who might want to kill me from taking it! This goddamn wolf almost ate it when I went to pick up-"

"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! Hold on there, cowboy!" Max interrupted.

"WHAT?!" Halcen shouted. "What else could you possibly want?"

"Did you say you have a… Devil Fruit?"

"YES! I've been carrying it around since I got it so nobody could use it to fucking kill me! I tried to eat it when Hawkeye attacked us, but he stopped me. At this point, it's just causing problems!"

"Can… I see it?"

Halcen looked at Max with confusion. "What?"

"Can I see it?" Max repeated with emphasis.

"Do you not understand the need for me to keep it away from people that want to hurt me?"

"Oh my God, just show me the damn thing!"

"Fine! Fuck!" Halcen reached behind him and untied the cloth from his waist and unwrapped the Devil Fruit, showing its red flesh. It seemed to gleam in the fluorescent lights of the bar.

"Oh my God!" Max gasped. "Why didn't you just tell me you found a Devil Fruit!?"

"I was a little busy trying not to get killed."

"You should have told me! You should know by now, anytime you find something interesting, you tell me!"

"It's not like it's worth anything… it is?" Halcen asked.

"Oh, I'm sure it's worth a lot." Max said. "Let me get the book!" He scuffled off to his office and began digging through drawers.

"Book?" Halcen asked quietly. He looked to Grey, who just shrugged.

"AH! GOT IT!" Max said. He came back to the table where Halcen was sitting and displayed it. It was a thick, brown leather book. "This is a book of all known Devil Fruits. It says everything one would need to know, including a pricing guide."

"Seriously? This is a thing?" Halcen asked.

"Oh, it's a big thing. Devil Fruits are not only rare, but incredibly powerful. Each one is worth its own small fortune."

"Really?" Halcen could see how this was so important. Max was clearly excited. He wasn't even trying to contain it. Halcen had hit the gold mine.

"Alright, let's find it. Red skin, black stars…" He started flipping through the pages. Each stroke of passing pages was a pounding heart.

Halcen could see all these different Devil Fruits. They were all so interesting, not only to look at, but he was sure in their unique powers as well. He had never really considered this before.

"Here it is," Max said at last. "The Neru Neru no mi. The Sleep Sleep fruit. A paramecia type. It turns a person into a sleep human."

"Asleep human?" Halcen asked sarcastically. "That's… dumb. Where do they get this shit?"

Max groaned in annoyance. "It gives the user the ability to make foes fall into a deep slumber. That's interesting."

"Not sure that would have been as handy against Hawkeye as I would have liked. He was far too skilled a fighter for me to have time to learn how to control that," Halcen trailed off, his mind wandering. He snapped back to attention. "I would have needed an instant power boost."

"Well," Max began, "if you ever desire to eat a Devil Fruit, you need to be very careful about which one you eat. You can only have one, and once you take it, you're stuck with it."

"Not sure I want to be stuck with this sleep power my whole life."

"Right then."

"How much is it worth?" Halcen asked.

"Quick to it, eh?" Max laughed. "Here… Wow." Max's eyes went wide and his face twitched. Halcen could swear he saw drool form.

"What? How much?" Halcen moved over to see the page better.

"It's worth a hundred million beri," Max said with deliberation.

Halcen's chest tightened. Then he smiled. That's a lot of money.

Max looked at Halcen. "I'll give you twenty million for it."

"Are you mad?"

"You owe me the sixty mil for the boys' loan. And I need to make something off selling it. The middle man needs his cut."

"Okay. But if I hadn't brought you ANYTHING, you never would have seen a cent off the loan, and you know it. Who the fuck loans out to random kids anyway? That was just a bad decision on your part."

"They actually had a really good laid out plan. They just didn't stick to it. They swindled me!"

"Don't sit here and play the fool. You made a bad call, and now you're paying for it. I'll give you half of the sixty."

"Hell no! I still gave you a ship and crew!"

"But your crew left, and the ship needs repairs."

"Fine, I'll fix the ship and you can keep it. It'll be yours. But I can't do anything about the crew leaving. I can't force somebody to risk their lives for pirates."

"I'll take the ship, and you have forty mil on top of it."

"So you want sixty and the ship?"

"And throw in the book," Halcen said.

"This book?" Max asked. "It's a rare collector's item."

"Don't act like you can't get another one. Give me the book."

"Alright," Max shrugged. "Deal."

Halcen and Max shook hands.

Sucker.

Sucker.