The Clown, the Cat and the Liar (Part 2)

(15 years ago)

Buggy was traveling alone. Their captain was executed, their crew disbanded, and here he is, regretting a lot of things including backing out from seeing one piece. He swore to see it but he must train. 'There is Rayleigh but he doesn't know where he is, maybe Shanks?' He felt the paper that Shanks gave him at Louge town. It was a vivre card of his. 'Then so be it, to Shanks we go,'

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(A month later)

Buggy found Shanks with his small but merry crew. 'Bunch of drunks' is what Buggy labeled them. They did nothing but party and drink. He liked that though, he joined a week earlier. Not joined per se but more along the lines of I'll work for you if you train me. Buggy thought Shanks was making fun of him when Shanks made Yassop train him. Yassop has one of the worst Armament Haki in the group. Yassop's armament is not that strong, even Buggy who learned it just recently has a stronger amount than Yassop. But what Yassop lacked in power, he had more efficiency in it. Yassop can use his armament to boost his body with perfect timing. He can jump a few meters with its boost, apply haki to bullets, apply haki to his organs to protect them, etc.

During this time, Buggy also learned about Yassop's story and was surprised to know a softer side of a pirate known for his sure hit snipping abilities. Buggy trained for half a year with Yassop and at the end of that training, Shanks found something special about Buggy that he didn't notice all those years that they were on Roger's ship, Buggy has the sharpest and dangerous silver tongue that he has seen. Buggy somehow managed to convince 100 million loner pirate to deal with a problem the crew found. It also connected Shanks to one of the best sparring partners in the world. That pirate's name was Dracule Mihawk. Because of what Shanks saw, he recommended Buggy to lead a new division called Recruitment Division. Shanks made a deal with Buggy that if Buggy leads this group for at least half a year, he can take people that he recruited himself. And Buggy did so. Of course, Buggy wasn't alone, Yassop is still watching out for Buggy as Shanks said so. Until the day Buggy truly left the Red-hair pirates, he got close to that long-nosed bastard. They even performed a sakazuki between brothers.

During that 1 year, Buggy Mastered 3 aspects of Armament Haki. They are Control, Amount and Durability. Of course, not everyone is capable of mastering everything, there are even people who can't even use it, what more of mastering it. So mastering 3 aspects in a year is nothing short of incredible.

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(Present time)

Buggy's torso is flying just behind Clahadore. His two hands are holding a dagger each and both are resting on Clahadore's neck. One swipe and Clahadore dies. Kaya wanted to scream but she is so terrified that no voice came out. Luffy just sighs in relief that Buggy didn't kill Clahadore at that moment. The rest though was surprised at how fast Buggy flew. Even Zoro had a hard time seeing him.

With venom in his voice Buggy starts to speak, "You know, you just insulted someone you shouldn't have. Insulting a leader of Red-hair pirates is an offense worth nothing short of execution." "!!! I didn't do anything like that." Clahadore is shaking a bit but he made sure that he wouldn't stutter as he doesn't want this clown to think that he is scared. Props to Clahadore that he has that courage but... It immediately faltered when Buggy removed his right-hand glove. Just behind his right hand is a tattoo of a Jolly Roger. A Skull with red-hair and 3 scars on its left-eye.

"Buggy, Clahadore, SLEEP"

Before anyone else reacts to that tattoo on Buggy's hand, a voice that sounded soft but deep reverberates and both Clahadore and Buggy fell asleep where they were entangled. Without skipping a beat, Luffy then comes to the window and looks at the girl in the room. "Miss Kaya Ussop said that you might have a ship for sale, so can you sell it to me? PLEASE?" "Sure," Miss Kaya said so in a small voice. She looks back to her room and calls out "Merry! Can you come for a minute?!"

Luffy turns back to the 3 gaping mouths of Nami, Ussop, and Zoro. With his hands, he somehow instructed them to get the Butler and Buggy out of the sight of the girl in the window. They immediately do what Luffy instructed and brought Buggy's 2 halves and Clahadore towards the forest. When Kaya turns back to Luffy, Luffy just said one word, "FOCUS". Kaya instead of looking behind Luffy just focused her attention on Luffy and she just smiles at him. A few seconds later, a man in a suit comes in. His hair is curly like a lamb's fleece and has two lamb horns sticking out of it. "Yes, Miss Kaya? Hmm." Merry notices Luffy on the window and before he says anything, "He said he wanted to buy a ship. Didn't we have one that isn't being used?" "Oh! We do have one, but are you sure Miss Kaya?" "It's fine, we aren't even using it. It's been docked there for a couple of years now, isn't it?" Merry just nods at that and turns towards Luffy, "Well, Ummm mister...?" "Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy. Just call me Luffy." "Well, mister Luffy, we do have a ship, wait for me at the front doors and I will escort you there right now." "Could you wait for 15 minutes? I'm just going to give some instructions to my friends." "Sure." Luffy nods and turns to Kaya, "Thank you for your time, Miss Kaya." "You're welcome, Luffy," Kaya even did a little curtsy towards Luffy. She doesn't know why but she just thought that she should do that."

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Luffy went to where Zoro and the others went to. He saw Buggy just waking up and Clahadore still asleep but is now tied up. Buggy still a bit groggy, finds Clahadore tied up and was already brandishing his daggers when Luffy called out. "Buggy, calm down, don't do anything stupid just yet." Buggy stops his advance, breathes deeply and turned away from the tied up pirate. "I want to know what he wants to do on this island." "What do you mean?" Ussop asks, "Isn't he just a butler?" Luffy just kept staring at Clahadore. "Nope, he is not just a butler. If he was just a butler, then how is he in this?" Luffy got a book out from his pocket, opened a page and showed it to Ussop. Ussop was wide-eyed when he saw Clahadore on a wanted poster. This book has the information known about wanted criminals and their wanted poster attached at the end of the information. It was just a man with round glasses like Clahadore. The thing that Ussop immediately recognized though, is his way of pushing his glasses up. It was the same way Clahadore does it, with his wrists. "Is that, Clahadore?"

Luffy nods and walks slowly towards the man. The wanted poster read "Wanted: Dead or Alive, Kuro of the Hundred Plans. 16 million Berries." On it was a picture that greatly resembles Clahadore.

Luffy holds the poster up and puts it beside Clahadore's face. "I'm 98% sure that it is him." Luffy turns to the 4 of them and says, "Don't let him go just yet, make him spill but don't torture him physically. If he is a changed man then just let him free. But if he was planning to do something bad on this island, go wild. I'll go check out the ship that Miss Kaya owns. Depending on how it looks, we might stay here for a few days or even a week to check on it and prepare it for our departure." Luffy turns to Buggy and says "Be sure to keep on eye out on the ocean as well. This butler, if found guilty, might have a ship or crew waiting for his signal. It doesn't hurt to be a bit more careful." Luffy then goes back to the mansion.

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Luffy is in awe looking at the ship. It was big, cute and awesome looking. It has a sheep's head like as its figurehead. "This is Going Merry!" Proudly anounced by Merry. Luffy looks at Merry and asks, "Did you make this ship?" Luffy is directly looking at Merry's face and horns. "Well, I designed it. That's why it looks like that," Anwers Merry with a wry smile. "That is so awesome, the boat looks awesome as well. Does it have quarters though? or maybe a Captain's room?"

For the next 30 minutes or so Luffy and Merry talked about what could still be put inside Going Merry and the price for doing all of that and purchasing the boat.