At the mayor's house, Oliver started to wake up after a short nap.
"Did I pass out? Guess that cannon blast really did mess me up."
He stood up and made sure Zoro was still asleep, then summoned the Gacha Machine.
'A Devil Fruit. Just one.'
He spent 2 million Belly on a Devil Fruit Token and spun the wheel.
The orb that came out was black and silver before shining and revealing…
[Obtained: Ant-Ant Fruit]
[Allows its user to transform into a hybrid ant form and a full ant form, becoming a human-ant.]
Oliver blinked several times at the sight of the Devil Fruit, then stored it in his inventory.
"What a trash Devil Fruit."
He checked how much money he had left and decided to spend it on a Fighting Style Token.
"I need something good."
He inserted the token into the Gacha Machine and spun the wheel until he got a black-and-silver orb.
[Obtained: Iron Fist]
The information about the new fighting style flowed directly into Oliver's mind.
"I just got something good—and I can combine it with Boxing."
He dismissed the Gacha Machine and stepped outside.
"There's still no smoke. Did I pass out for a short time, or did Shushu's shop already burn down?"
Oliver touched his body and, feeling no pain, ran toward where he thought the shop was.
As he approached, he saw Buggy's pirate lion attacking Shushu.
Shushu was wounded and exhausted, struggling to stand in front of the lion.
"Still standing? What, does your favorite food happen to be inside the shop?" Mohji said mockingly.
Shushu prepared to attack again when an apple struck Mohji in the head.
"Who the—?"
Before he could finish, Oliver came running up beside him.
"How dare you attack a puppy?!"
Oliver punched the lion on the head, sending it crashing into the building across from Shushu's shop.
"Good job, Shushu. Now let me handle this overgrown cat," Oliver said, ready to fight Mohji and his lion.
"Richie! Are you okay?!" Mohji shouted, checking on his lion as it got up.
"How dare you hit him?! Richie! Attack him!"
The lion lunged at Oliver, but he grabbed its head, stopping the attack cold.
"Dare to attack him?"
Richie tried to move his head, but Oliver's grip was too strong.
"That's my line! You don't hit a cute little dog!"
Using Electro, Oliver knocked out Richie, spun him around several times, and threw him across multiple houses.
"R–Richie!!"
Before Mohji could react, Oliver charged at him and landed a lightning-charged punch to his face, sending him flying through several buildings.
"Bastard. You don't hurt a puppy."
He suddenly felt dizzy and sat down to keep from falling over.
"Woof."
"I'm fine, Shushu. You should worry about yourself—you're pretty banged up," Oliver said, examining the dog's wounds. "Let me try to bandage you."
Oliver searched his inventory but had nothing useful, so he tore the remains of his shirt to start bandaging Shushu.
"What? Where's the lion?"
Luffy had just arrived with Nami and Boodle.
"Hey guys, where were you? I got here and there was no one around," Oliver said, finishing a bandage on Shushu's leg.
"Oliver, you're awake! Do you know where the lion went?" Luffy asked, looking around but seeing nothing.
"The tamer's over there, and I don't remember where I threw the lion," Oliver said, pointing at a hole in one of the houses.
"Too bad, I wanted to beat him up myself," Luffy said.
"And how did you get out of the cage? Did Shushu spit out the key?"
"No, the lion broke the cage, and I came here to beat them up to thank him—but you beat me to it," Luffy said.
"Sorry, if you take too long, I'll just handle everyone myself," Oliver said, laughing a bit.
Shushu licked Oliver in gratitude, and Oliver patted his head.
"You're welcome, buddy. Great job protecting your shop so far," Oliver said.
"You guys are the weirdest pirates I've ever seen," Nami said, making Oliver and Luffy stare at her.
"What do you mean, weird?" they both said in unison.
"I just saw someone beat up a guy for hurting a puppy, so I beat him up. That's normal, isn't it?" Oliver said, looking at Nami.
"That's why you're weird! Pirates plunder and destroy everything people care about—they don't save anyone!" Nami yelled angrily.
"Well, we're different kinds of pirates. We do what we want, but that doesn't mean we're bad," Oliver said, standing up a bit dizzy and patting Nami on the shoulder.
Nami rubbed the spot where he hit her.
"Right, Luffy—she's the navigator, right?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah, she's gonna be our new nakama," Luffy said with a grin.
"I never agreed to that!" Nami shouted.
"Relax, once you're part of the crew, you'll be just as weird as us," Oliver said.
"Do you two even listen?!" Nami yelled again, even more irritated.
Oliver ignored her and looked toward where Mohji had landed after the punch.
'If Mohji doesn't get up, that means he won't report to Buggy, and maybe they won't fire the cannon at Shushu's shop,' Oliver thought.
"Hey, Luffy, I want to go give Buggy a beating," Oliver said.
"Huh? Why?" Luffy asked.
"Because if they find out what I did to one of their nakama, they'll probably want to destroy this shop," Oliver said, looking at Shushu's store.
"Our goal's the Grand Line, so we need to get that map back from those pirates! Become our nakama, Nami!" Luffy said with a grin, holding out his hand.
"I'll never be a pirate," Nami said, but still high-fived him. "But I'll work with you—for the sake of our goals."
"Then let's go get Zoro—he's probably still sleeping," Oliver said.
The three of them went straight to the mayor's house, where Luffy kicked the door open.
"Zoro! Wake up!" Luffy shouted.
"What? I was sleeping just fine, why'd you wake me up?" Zoro said, stretching.
"We're going to get the Grand Line map, so get up," Luffy said.
"Yeah, yeah."
Zoro stood up and grabbed his three swords.
"I'm ready. I'll make him pay for the cut on my stomach," Zoro said, tying his bandana around his head.
"You're all crazy—taking an injured guy into a fight," Nami said.
"Don't worry so much. If he can't keep fighting, I'll handle his opponent," Oliver said.
Then they heard a shout from afar.
"Wait! I'm coming too!" Boodle said, running up behind them.
"Calm down. We can handle it. You might get hurt," Oliver said.
"This is my town—it's my treasure! And I won't just—"
Before he could finish, Oliver hit him on the head, knocking him out cold.
"What did you do?!" Nami yelled angrily.
"The mayor was coming with us; he would've been in the line of fire. I wasn't going to risk him getting hurt," Oliver said.
"Good idea. Now he'll be safe, and we won't have to worry about protecting him," Zoro said.
"Then let's go get the map," Luffy said, smiling.