Arne thought he'd had a terrible dream.
He'd dreamed that he met some of the crewmen who had gone missing in the Foggy Sea Area.
One of them had even left a small island in South Blue with him.
In the dream, the man seemed to be living quite comfortably.
With fine clothes and rich food.
He'd even smiled and asked if Arne was still with his old pirate crew.
Arne had said he wasn't.
The old acquaintance had pressed him, asking where he was living now.
After stammering for a bit, Arne had blurted out the Batty Cutie Pirates.
"Whew, thank goodness it was only a dream."
Arne patted his chest, looking shaken.
The scene in the dream had been terrifying!
Beyond the dream, the Black Shadow that had chilled him to the bone was gone, though the thick fog still shrouded everything.
Buggy was still standing at the bow.
He seemed to be chuckling to himself.
"What happened to that Black Shadow, Mr. Buggy?"
"It ran off."
"But don't worry. I'll catch it."
"Catch it?!"
Arne looked at Buggy's serious expression, wondering if he'd heard him right.
That thing had looked like some kind of terrifying monster!
Buggy nodded without saying more.
"Before that, let's find Ghost Island."
He was looking forward to seeing what Captain John, Silver Axe, and the others had left behind in their graves.
And where had Moria dug up their corpses in the first place?
Maybe that was the fun of treasure hunting.
Buggy was beginning to understand himself.
Apart from the sky-reaching Black Shadow, the Foggy Sea Area didn't seem to hold any other dangers.
After waking Morgans and Secretary Gull,
Buggy spent another two days cruising the Grand News around the Foggy Sea Area.
The waters didn't have any strange effect that caused ships to lose their way. Several times, they'd seen thin slivers of sunlight peeking in through the edge of the fog.
But since they hadn't reached their destination, they'd turned around and plunged back into the mist.
Fortunately, they'd brought plenty of food, and there weren't many of them.
If worst came to worst, they could always eat Secretary Gull, who was a rather plump bird.
They could manage.
It wasn't until the third day
that they spotted the world's largest pirate ship amid the fog.
The Thriller Bark was surrounded by a circular wall, and was as big as an island.
Buggy couldn't imagine how the ship had sailed from West Blue into the Grand Line.
He flew straight over.
His split body could float on its own, and now that his ability wasn't bound by the condition that his feet had to touch the ground, he felt freer than ever.
Inside the outer wall was a moat, with many battered corpses floating on its surface.
As for the island itself, it was almost entirely in ruins.
No wonder. The Straw Hat Pirates had rampaged through here.
But then Buggy thought of Sabaody Archipelago, where he'd spent some time.
Well, one pot calling the kettle black.
Both places had a chaotic beauty of their own.
What surprised him was that the castle in the middle of Thriller Bark—looking as if a dog had chewed on it—still had lights burning inside.
"Is Moria back?"
He shook his head at the thought.
The timing did seem about right. The war had probably ended.
Had the World Government sent the Heavenly Yaksha and the Pacifistas to take out Moria, that old slacker, like they had in the original story?
Probably not.
Buggy remembered that he'd advertised Doflamingo twice during the Live Broadcast.
Even the World Government, for all its magnanimity, would still hold a grudge.
And Buggy thought Doflamingo would trust the World Government even less now.
The chances of an ambitious man trusting the side that upheld order were slim.
Buggy knew that kind of mindset all too well.
He flew over the cratered ground and headed toward the castle.
Temporary wooden supports held up the half-collapsed gatehouse, keeping it more or less intact.
Through the drafty windows,
he saw Doctor Hogback, with batlike teeth, an especially sharp nose, and stitching marks circling his face, hunched over a desk, carefully repairing a head.
It was the head of a woman with golden-blond hair.
Her eyes were closed, and a gentle smile curved her lips.
Whatever treatment he'd used, Buggy couldn't smell even a trace of rot.
The doctor's hands were steady as he carefully wiped each little scrape from the woman's face.
But he couldn't hide the stitching marks that ran across her face, too.
"If you use catgut, it'll be absorbed without leaving a scar," Buggy offered earnestly. He'd been stitched up himself, after all.
"That won't work. Sindri can't absorb it."
Doctor Hogback instinctively looked up.
What he saw was a floating head with bright red lips and a skull symbol on its forehead.
A hand floated beside it, stroking the head's chin.
It looked serious.
"Good morning," the head greeted him with a grin.
Even Doctor Hogback, a surgeon long accustomed to seeing the dead come back to life, felt his heart skip several beats!
Who knew what time it was outside the fog?
The hand holding his knife trembled uncontrollably.
"Sindri, my Sindri!"
Hogback snapped out of it and panicked.
"I'm sure there are plenty of things you'd like to tell me."
In the blink of an eye, Buggy had snatched Sindri's head into his hand.
"Right?"
One perk of being a criminal was that he could threaten people without the slightest pang of conscience.
Well, Buggy did it all the time.
He'd just found information about this doctor in the college student's memories.
Doctor Hogback was one of Moria's subordinates, as well as a genius surgeon.
He'd once been in love with the famous stage actress Victoria Cindry.
The very woman whose head Buggy was holding.
For many years after her death, Hogback had devoted himself to bringing her back to life.
Well, it was a moving story about a hopeless simp.
So Doctor Hogback told him everything he knew.
He immediately revealed where Captain John's corpse was. He even explained the armband, worried that Buggy might be too rough with the body.
Of course they knew it was Captain John's treasure marker.
The man had worn it both before and after his death. Even the old Buggy and Alvida had known about it.
The only problem was that the armband pointed to a location in the New World.
And Moria had been a shut-in for years.
He'd barely ever left the Foggy Sea Area, let alone gone to the New World.
Not until the Straw Hat Pirates had looted him, taking the armband as a prize.
As for whether Captain John's corpse held any other clues,
Buggy did something truly tasteless.
He split Captain John's corpse apart.
There was nothing.
The body had dried out long ago. Apart from the swords still stuck in it, there was nothing else.
"You should be satisfied now."
Buggy murmured the words.
The obsession that had been driving him seemed to loosen its grip as it fell into despair.
Buggy—or, rather, the Buggy of the past—had finally accepted the way things were.
What remained was the clown's withered, twisted heart.
It churned, urging him on.
"Looks like I'd better find a new amusement."
Buggy looked up, his grin impossible to suppress.
Before you continue