Horror Section

Sailing the Great Sea was boring.

The endless, unchanging blue scenery wore down a person's will.

Buggy was an exception.

He was someone whose heart was always full of anticipation, though sometimes that anticipation squeezed his heart so tightly that it drove him to act like a madman.

Yes, mad in the truest sense.

But apart from that, he was eager to learn.

Just like his old friend.

In only a few days, Arne had been thoroughly drained of his sailing knowledge.

It made this aspiring navigator realize that he might never shed the title of "candidate" for the rest of his life.

Or perhaps the pirate crew needed a reporter?

Wait!

Had he really joined the Batty Cutie Pirates?

He began to question his life.

If he ever got the chance to meet his former enemies or friends, they could all greet one another.

The others were called things like Peachbeard or Blackbeard, or else White Horse or Red Heart.

What was he supposed to say?

"I'm from the Batty Cutie Pirates"?

Just thinking about it made Arne want to die of embarrassment.

But he had never once wavered about following Buggy.

Buggy had no idea what was going through Arne's mind.

He hadn't even thought about starting a pirate crew.

If he was going to form one, he'd make it the Joker Gang!

Besides, hadn't he already had a Buggy Pirates crew?

Aside from studying navigation, Buggy spent his free time doing two other things.

For instance, one afternoon, after waking up, he would pick a suitably sized piece of gold from the Celestial Dragons' treasure and press it against his chest.

Then he would quietly savor the feeling—

As if his whole being had been elevated.

He—or rather, the part of himself that represented a college student—felt thoroughly satisfied.

Sometimes Buggy couldn't tell if it would be normal for him to have dissociative identity disorder.

After all, he had absorbed the memories of three people.

But he could still clearly feel that he existed.

There were no other selves.

Or maybe, like certain psychological theories suggested, he had a superego, an ego, and an id all at once.

But he was already mentally ill, so what did it matter if he had one more disorder or one less?

Could he split into three of himself when beating someone up?

Actually, that might work.

Buggy licked his chin.

With a trace of nostalgia, he carved a smile into the corners of his mouth, following the Red Pigment.

But unlike before, the cut flesh didn't look rotted.

It had simply split apart, just as it had when it was still joined together.

When gold came into contact with his body, it too gradually split apart at a somewhat slower pace.

The speed and extent of the splitting couldn't compare at all to what he could do to himself.

Perhaps it also had something to do with the material being split.

Still, it had made Buggy change his mind about Devils a little.

That thing did have some restraint.

But not much.

The Devil inside the Four-Way Split-Split Fruit seemed to fit Buggy's personality perfectly.

Like a lovesick puppy.

Buggy had never even thought about Fruit Awakening, yet the Devil had eagerly come running over on its own.

Even the rate at which it split things he touched was visibly increasing.

As for the Four-Way Split-Split Fruit's original two limitations—

His feet had to remain on the ground while he used his ability, and he could only control his split body parts within a distance of two hundred meters.

Both had vanished completely when Buggy crossed over.

Was it related to his so-called mental strength?

Or was the Fruit Devil just good at reading people?

Speaking of which, he still had four Devil Fruits on hand, but he couldn't identify their abilities from their appearances alone.

As for who to give them to—

Buggy glanced up at Arne, who had been keeping watch from the crow's nest.

Before he could say anything, Arne called out:

"Mr. Buggy, I think we've entered the Foggy Sea Area."

Up in the crow's nest, Arne suddenly lowered his binoculars, his expression blank.

He had been watching the whole time.

Yet, in the blink of an eye, a dense fog so thick it swallowed up anything beyond arm's reach had engulfed their entire ship.

By the time they realized the fog was there, not a trace of light remained.

The wind's mournful howl made the fog feel even more desolate.

It was as if they had suddenly crossed into the realm of the Dead.

No wonder so many people knew how terrifying the Foggy Sea Area was, yet kept getting swallowed up by it.

Could fog—

Split apart too?

Buggy's first reaction to the fog wasn't panic. Instead, he opened his hand and gave a small clench.

His palm had been blurry, but at a thought, the fog covering it dispersed in an instant.

The lines on his palm became crystal clear.

How interesting.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"We've hit something!"

Morgans rushed out of the Deck Room, then staggered in alarm as a violent jolt rocked the ship.

An Oak Ship, steeped in an air of death, scraped past the bow of the Grand News.

A shrill, rotten-sounding wail echoed again and again from the collision.

Like the cries of departed souls.

The Grand News was like a little fish dragged by the current. Its entire hull began to veer out of control.

They were drifting off their original course.

Though they hadn't really had a course to begin with.

"What's that?!"

Up in the crow's nest, Arne pointed at the porthole right beside them and cried out in alarm.

The deck of the Grand News barely reached the level of the Oak Ship's second row of portholes.

What Arne saw was inside the round porthole up ahead.

A pair of eyes.

Arne swore he had just seen a pair of vacant, lifeless eyes!

"Gulp. This... might fit in the Horror Section."

Morgans swallowed, his wings trembling as he took out his camera and snapped a few pictures.

Buggy's eyes suddenly lit up.

This kind of unknown territory was exactly what he looked forward to in this world.

The fear of Human Nature always went hand in hand with evil.

But just as he had flown halfway over, the Oak Ship vanished into the fog in the blink of an eye.

In its place—

Was a gigantic Black Shadow that filled them with instinctive dread!

The Black Shadow stretched from the sea to the sky, as if it had suddenly taken up the entire Foggy Sea Area.

In an instant, it also filled the entire field of vision of everyone aboard.

They couldn't see where the Black Shadow ended!

Like a terrifying giant walking through the sea, the immensely dense shadow took a step toward them.

A darkness almost tangible was about to swallow the entire ship!

Instinctive terror seized Arne's body. His somber face turned deathly pale.

How long had they even been in the Foggy Sea Area?!

Everything had happened too quickly to give him time to prepare. It was as if it meant to draw out every ounce of terror in his heart, then swallow him whole!

Even Morgans trembled before the Black Shadow.

Except for one person.

"Hehehehe."

Buggy stood at the bow, his head raised three meters above the deck, his eyes brimming with excitement.

Once again, Arne found comfort in that mad laughter.

Until the Black Shadow swallowed them whole.