A few days later.
The Buggy Pirates’ ship arrived in the waters near the Conomi Islands.
“Sir, this is the island where Cocoyasi Village is located, in the Conomi Islands…”
Buggy rubbed his hands together, his manner toward Rocks thoroughly deferential.
He picked each word carefully.
“So…
so, what exactly is it you want us to do next?”
After a few days of rest, Buggy’s injuries had healed up considerably.
Unless the damage touched something fundamental, people in this world recovered at a remarkable pace.
“Go in and fight.
The Arlong Pirates are yours to handle.”
Rocks was seated in the captain’s chair, one leg crossed over the other, expression unbothered.
“You can manage that, I assume?”
“Of-of course!
The Buggy Pirates will give everything we have!
A fight to the death with the Arlong Pirates!”
Buggy was bitter inside, but he kept it to himself.
He beat his chest with a resounding thump.
“It’s an honor for those Fish-Men to be hunted by someone of your standing!”
He turned to face his crew and raised his voice.
“You hear that, boys?
We’ve been given the job of taking out the Arlong Pirates!
Are you with me?!”
“Yes sir!”
The Buggy Pirates crew exchanged glances, panic and resignation fighting it out behind their eyes.
But nobody was about to say a word against it right now.
Every last one of them put on a face like a soldier marching into battle.
“Your target is the Arlong Pirates and nothing else.
You don’t touch anyone in Cocoyasi Village.
If I find out you’ve done anything you weren’t told to…”
Rocks had taken full command.
His gaze swept across every face.
A cold smile.
“This is what happens.”
“Cero.”
He curled his fingers.
A jade-green ball of energy the size of a fist formed at his fingertip.
With a snap, the Cero shot across the water and struck the sea in the distance.
Boom.
The impact hit like a detonation.
Water shot up fifteen meters, the surrounding sea churned into chaos, and a shockwave rolled outward and came washing back over the deck.
More powerful than an ordinary cannonball.
How far that power could develop depended entirely on Rocks himself.
That was an unchanging truth.
“We…
we won’t do anything like that, sir!”
Buggy wiped the sweat from his face and assured him quickly.
He already knew Rocks was a Devil Fruit user.
He didn’t know which fruit, but that jade-green energy ball hit hard.
Not weaker than one of his own smaller Buggy Balls.
And from the way Rocks had done it, completely at ease, this clearly wasn’t full power.
“We will follow your orders, sir!” Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
“A bunch of Fish-Men will fall before us!”
“Kill them all!”
The crew stood in collective stunned silence, cold sweat dripping from their foreheads.
That kind of destruction from a casual finger snap.
If that landed on one of them…
His orders were not something they could refuse.
“Good.”
Rocks gave a noncommittal nod, then fixed Buggy with an easy smile.
“Remember, put on a good showing.
You know what happens if you don’t.”
“Go in head-on.
Show me what the Buggy Pirates are made of.”
“Kuina, let’s go.”
Without waiting for anyone to respond, Rocks took Kuina and left the ship, boarding the small sailboat and heading for the coast.
He had no intention of being seen with the Buggy Pirates.
He also needed to find Nami.
The moment Rocks was gone, Cabaji, the Buggy Pirates’ chief of staff, visibly relaxed.
He moved close to Buggy and spoke under his breath.
“Captain, he’s gone.
If we just run, there’s no way he catches us.”
Smack.
A backhand sent Cabaji sprawling.
Buggy snarled through his teeth.
“Do you have any honor at all?”
“Even pirates have a code.
We made a promise, and we keep it!!”
Not that it had anything to do with honor or a code.
It was because Rocks had him by the throat.
To keep things from going the way he feared, he had no choice but to follow orders.
And furthermore, the man had barely left and Cabaji was already running his mouth.
Did he think Observation Haki had a limited range?
“Huh?”
“Captain Buggy, you…”
“That’s the Arlong Pirates we’re talking about.
Are we really supposed to…”
The crew was thoroughly confused by Buggy’s uncharacteristic behavior.
Was this really their cold, ruthless, unpredictable captain?
“Listen up, all of you!”
“Pirates are ruthless, sure.
We raid and pillage, no question about it.
But even pirates need a code.
There are times when honor matters.”
Trying to keep his crew together, Buggy plunged ahead.
“You made a promise, you see it through.
That’s what being a pirate means!!”
There was actually one part of that he believed.
Pirates were ruthless and cold, that was true.
But there were times when a code mattered.
He had learned that from Captain Roger.
“OHHH!” This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“I never knew Captain Buggy had this side to him!
What a captain!”
“The captain’s right!
There are times when a pirate keeps his word!
A promise is a promise!”
“Then let’s go!
The Arlong Pirates?
We’re the Buggy Pirates!!”
Perhaps Buggy genuinely had something about him.
Because his speech actually worked.
The entire crew was fired up.
Buggy acting differently from usual didn’t confuse them.
If anything, it made them feel like this was the captain worth following.
They were howling for a fight with the Arlong Pirates.
Buggy stared at his crew with an expression of profound existential bewilderment.
All he had wanted was a plausible excuse for doing what he had no choice but to do.
How had it ended with them actually wanting to fight?
“That’s…
that’s right!”
Those burning, battle-ready eyes all turned on him at once.
Buggy felt himself lifted onto a platform he had not asked for.
He couldn’t even float the idea of going through the motions anymore.
It would destroy his standing with his crew entirely.
Buggy was crying on the inside, but he pressed on regardless.
“We are the Buggy Pirates!
So what if it’s the Arlong Pirates?
So what if their captain has a twenty million Berry bounty?
For honor, for the code, crush them!!”
“OHHH!”
“Long live Captain Buggy!”
“Kill them!
Kill them all!!”
The crew was more worked up than ever, every last one of them itching to throw themselves at the Arlong Pirates right now.
If Captain Buggy had this kind of conviction, this kind of code, then they, as his crew, would follow his will to the end.
“Forward!
Straight through the front!”
Buggy squeezed his eyes shut to keep the tears from falling.
There was no way back now.
To keep his identity buried, to make his own behavior hold together, and to protect what standing he had as captain, he had to go forward.
He had to give it everything.
Buggy threw his arm out in a dramatic sweep and bellowed the order.
“Show these Fish-Men what humans are made of!!”
And so.
Under Buggy’s command.
The Buggy Pirates charged, howling, toward the Arlong Pirates’ stronghold.
*****
hmmm bro’s just casually using cero at this point?
making me think it’s a bala….hmmm but Nah it doesn’t fit the description