"Don't panic! I've been through this twice already! Back then, even Shanks could only free himself from this with my help!"
As time passed, Buggy gradually began to fly on his own, and nonsense flowed effortlessly from his mouth.
In order to maintain his persona, he needed a contrast. If it was anyone else he insulted too much, they might end up at his door and beat him up, so Buggy didn't dare say much. But with Shanks, it didn't matter. Buggy knew full well that Shanks would never hurt him.
Elevating himself by putting down Shanks had become something Buggy did often lately.
Mr. 3 didn't believe it at all, but he didn't have the energy to argue. Buggy had floated over on his own, but it was different for Mr. 3. Even though one of the underlings had been carrying him, he had soaked in the sea water so long that his whole body was limp.
They had finally reached shore, but he still hadn't recovered.
"Huh? How I remember it is, you two got played by me so bad you couldn't even tell east from west. If I hadn't gotten bored, you never would've figured out the truth. How come the story's different when it comes from you?"
Olga appeared among the crowd, her arm casually draped over Buggy's shoulder.
"!!!!!"
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Buggy's forehead. Olga's voice was etched into his very bones. Though he'd experienced many setbacks in his life, Olga was the only one who could make him and Shanks suffer a setback together.
"It-its Phantom!"
"Kaido's senior officer, with a bounty of 1.52 billion Berries. And she's actually Captain Buggy's arch-rival!!"
"As expected of Captain Buggy, to be remembered by someone of such stature!"
Buggy's underlings had long been "Buggy-fied." To them, everything Buggy did was right. Even if it wasn't, they could always forcibly imagine a reason.
"What are you talking about? Captain Buggy is already a Shichibukai! Ever since Whitebeard died, there's been a vacancy among the sea's emperors. Captain Buggy will definitely make the world return to having Four Emperors again!
Only a pirate like Kaido can be compared to Captain Buggy!"
"I'm just saying, where did you recruit this bunch of pirates from? Are they just brainless, or are they deliberately trying to get you killed?"
This was Olga's first time encountering such a situation. Originally, she just wanted to mess with Buggy a bit. Following her principle of equal treatment, after toying with Shanks, Buggy naturally couldn't be left out.
But now, thanks to this crowd, Olga had almost forgotten why she even came here in the first place.
"This… uh, this…"
"Forget it, I don't care about this. I just came to tell you, before the Summit War, I had toyed with Red Hair. And to keep things balanced, I decided to let you have a taste of it too.
For a while going forward, these people will treat you as their greatest enemy. Good luck~"
"Wait!! I don't think I've ever provoked you?!"
"What are you saying? On the first day you and that Red Hair brat met me, you tried to steal something from my hands! The fact that I'm just toying with you is already being really nice. Good luck, Lord Buggy the Clown~"
As her words finished, Olga's figure began to blur, and before Buggy could react, he was already surrounded by his underlings.
Buggy instinctively tried to escape, but he hadn't flown far before his body started flying apart uncontrollably. One of his feet was still being held tightly by an underling.
"Help meee!!"
With Buggy's screams echoing, the Shadow Fox Ship vanished over the horizon.
Bad news: Buggy was no match for his own underlings, and his split-up body was subjected to a full-on group beating.
Good news: Olga's ship was fast. Not long after they left, Buggy's underlings broke free of the illusion's influence.
But at this moment, they had fallen into a new wave of self-imagination.
"Captain Buggy! You actually took the beating without fighting back, just so you wouldn't hurt us!"
"That's right! To avoid internal strife, Captain Buggy has sacrificed so much… sob, sob…I'll devote my whole life to you!"
Despite being covered in bruises and swelling, Buggy was unexpectedly being celebrated by everyone. Olga, who had already left, never imagined it to turn out this way.
Not just Olga, even Mr. 3 and Buggy's old crewmates couldn't understand why they were so fanatical.
"Now that I think about it… that beating felt kinda satisfying."
Mr. 3 looked at his own fist. He was also one of the victims of the illusion. Seeing Buggy's extremely smug expression, the guilt in Mr. 3's heart had completely vanished.
"Mm-hmm."
Not only that, even Buggy's original crewmates nodded in agreement with Mr. 3.
At the same time, in an unknown sea area, Hawk Eyes received another call.
"Roronoa, you can stop now."
"Huh? Why, have we arrived?"
"No, things over there have already ended. Let's take a ship back. I don't want to be dragged into some unknown sea area by you."
Even though Hawk Eyes had been watching Zoro the entire time, he still couldn't prevent Zoro from veering off course and getting swept into an unknown sea current.
Not wanting to row the boat himself, Hawk Eyes decided to choose a different method for the sake of the future.
Olga was still on her way back, and Akainu, who had dealt with World, was also leading a fleet back to Marineford. However, instead of receiving praise, he was met with questioning from the Five Elders.
As the Marine Fleet Admiral, taking action without notifying the World Government was undoubtedly an act of overstepping authority.
It was only at this moment that Akainu realized the position of Fleet Admiral was more inconvenient than he had thought. It hadn't made his actions smoother, instead it had shackled him with two chains.
Compared to Akainu, Kuzan, who had already left the Marines, seemed much more at ease.
"Thank you, Mr. Kuzan, you were a big help."
"No problem. Go make the delivery. Next time, remember to reinforce your carriage frame."
After joining, Kuzan wasn't assigned any missions. Instead, he became an unemployed wanderer, spending his days in Wano Country helping people out.
This was mainly because Kaido had gone out again, and Arceus had no particular interest in Kuzan for the time being. As for the others, they couldn't order Kuzan around; after all, he had been brought back by Yamato, so if anyone were to give orders, it would have to be Yamato.
Whether or not he could be trusted was beside the point. Yamato's original goal was to make Kuzan her shield. Since Kaido could return at any moment, she naturally wouldn't let Kuzan go out on missions.
So instead, Kuzan found himself living a rather leisurely life.
Just a moment ago, he had come across someone whose carriage axle had broken. To ensure the goods could be delivered on time, he temporarily reinforced the carriage with ice.
"Camel? Camel, where did you go? Time to head back!"
Finishing another ordinary day, Kuzan planned to take Camel and study the shaved ice made by Alcremie and Tsareena.
But when he turned around, he found that Camel had run off into a nearby farm and was helping a giant repair his tools. As for that giant's face, no matter how he looked at it, it felt very familiar.
"Sa-Saul?!"
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