Paradise was a wonderful place.
There was no solemnity here, and no pretension.
People carved out a rare bit of free time to enjoy laughter and exhaustion, two things that always went hand in hand.
The operators of Paradise wanted to tire visitors out as much as possible, so they could sell them drinks and snacks.
Meanwhile, as they stood in long queues, visitors' anticipation of the rides gradually mounted.
Then, satisfied by the brief thrill at the end, they took out the snacks and drinks they'd brought in beforehand to soothe themselves.
"What do you have that's fun?"
A mischievous child interrupted Buggy's thoughts, pulling him back from his sage-like detachment to reality.
"Fun?" A teasing smile appeared on his face. "Well, I'll have to think about that."
He reapplied the vivid red makeup to his lips, extending it to the corners of his cheeks and curling them slightly upward. Even without a smile, it gave him a teasing air.
He also painted a ring of charcoal black around his eyes.
Buggy was quite good at clown makeup.
The difference was that back in Gotham City, he'd applied it to wounds, sprinkling powder like mist onto the tender flesh. The sensation had been vivid.
But now he couldn't feel it so vividly.
Or rather, he could barely feel himself at all.
It was unrealistic to stuff three people's memories into one person's head without changing anything.
It was just that Gotham Joker's memories stood out more, were more deranged, and suited the despairing atmosphere aboard the transport ship better.
When that stimulation was gone, its influence naturally changed too.
A few ways to make a balloon dog came to mind. The squeak of a balloon being stretched always had a certain appeal.
But he didn't have a balloon on hand.
He felt like he might have one in his chest.
He opened his chest like a storage cabinet. Neatly arranged inside were a human face, several fruit knives, and heaps of explosives...
Just not a single balloon.
"Looks like I forgot to bring one when I left."
He sighed.
The child stared at him, dumbfounded.
Then he turned and ran, a long trail of tears streaming from his utterly terrified face.
"Sir."
Arne stood off to the side, holding a camera and looking perplexed.
He found it hard to connect the character before him, who looked like an NPC from Paradise, with the terrifying pirate who had caused an explosion aboard the warship.
"Why so serious?"
"Smile a little more, Mr. Reporter."
Teasing the child seemed to have lifted Buggy's spirits.
He'd found some common ground among the three personalities.
Whether it was the clown at Paradise, the pirate clown, or the criminal clown, they all loved this kind of fun.
"By the way, how did your interview go?"
He didn't know whether Arne had genuinely taken an interest in journalism or was simply thick-skinned.
Arne had actually taken a camera and gone to interview the Heart Pirates.
"Well... it went pretty smoothly."
Arne pulled two interview transcripts from his coat. "That Supernova was very cold and didn't pay me any attention, but there was a bear on their ship named Bepo who was pretty nice."
He flipped through the pages. "We talked about all sorts of things: navigation, being wanted, and the differences between the climates of the South Blue and the North Blue. That topic never gets old."
"Oh, right. I got his number."
It was the first time Buggy had realized that his Navigator Candidate and reporter, Arne, was so talented at communicating with animals.
The guy always looked gloomy, but his face lit up when he talked about the interview.
"A good start, right?"
Arne nodded along. He'd never imagined he'd become a fairly serious reporter.
"Then let's get ready to take things a step further."
Human Auction House.
A routine auction began as scheduled.
Slaves, tall or short, handsome or strange-looking, were crammed into iron cages on flatbed carts and wheeled beneath the spotlight in the center of the venue.
"Let's welcome our next auction item!"
"A Nameless Warrior from Flower Country! Just look at his burly, muscular build and those wolf-like eyes!"
"With our training, he'll make the perfect slave for guarding your home and accompanying you on your travels!"
"Bidding starts at one hundred thousand Beli!"
Disco thrust a finger high into the air. With his star-shaped sunglasses and purple hair, he looked more like a rock singer onstage than an auctioneer.
But as the atmosphere in the venue grew more heated, Disco quietly retreated to the edge of the stage.
"Is everything arranged?"
The man answering him wore a suit and looked like 007.
"No problem."
"As soon as he appears, our men will swarm him and hack him to death! Even if it's a Young Master Navy like this one, let alone a real Marine Major, he won't get away."
"What about the fallout?" Disco took off his white gloves, his voice cold.
Rather than improve yourself, it was better to find a way to kill the competition.
But it wouldn't be good to upset the nobles attending the auction.
"The guests here today aren't especially influential. We'll offer them some compensation afterward."
Disco nodded. It seemed foolproof.
Still, he couldn't shake a trace of unease.
"The Marines really won't come after us?"
Right. The man was a Marine Major, after all.
They had to be at least a little wary.
"Don't worry!" The man in the suit looked smug.
"This is the Lawless Zone, after all. The Marines have never cared much about what goes on here."
"If a Marine Major walks in here on his own and dies, that's not our fault."
"Besides, the captain will be here right away. I've already prepared a few subordinates. We'll have the captain kill them on the spot."
"That way, we'll all have an easy explanation."
"Excellent! Excellent!" Most of Disco's worries vanished.
No wonder the Young Master had paid such a huge price to bring the base chief of District 66 in as a shareholder. The arrangement really was useful!
His spirits rose again, as if he were back when he'd first become the Young Master's subordinate.
Back then, the Human Auction House had been one of the Young Master's major sources of income.
The Young Master had valued him, too.
But times had changed.
Compared to the profits from weapons, the auction house's profits were now utterly insignificant.
But once his biggest competitor on the archipelago—the Auction House No. 4, famous for selling pirates and criminals—started to decline, his days in the spotlight would finally return!
Before long, the Nameless Warrior from Flower Country was bought for a hefty sum by a noblewoman even more muscular than he was.
The woman's predatory gaze made the Nameless Warrior look even more terrified.
Disco hurried back onto the stage to promote the next slave.
Each time a slave was sold, he glanced at the spot reserved to one side of the stage.
Damn it, when was that glorious future of his going to arrive?!
Outside the auction house.
Buggy changed into a Marine Uniform that stood out a little in the Lawless Zone.
He stood beneath a large semicircular building.
Tilting his head back, he looked at a small, inconspicuous wooden sign on the building's façade. It read "Employment Agency."
He found it rather amusing.
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