Baku

The Black Shadow seemed to have no substance.

It was like a rolling Ink-colored Dark Cloud pressing down above the Castle.

Attracted by the enchanting deliciousness below.

It was the taste of nightmares.

A more delicious nightmare than any nightmare this ship had ever held.

Perhaps it was because the scent of the nightmare's owner was unexpectedly familiar?

The Black Shadow leaned down.

Like an Ink Waterfall pouring down from the sky, it intended to swallow the deliciousness below in one gulp.

At the same time, this pouring ink intentionally or unintentionally maintained a slight distance from Buggy.

It seemed to still hold some fear of him.

"Moo—"

As the Black Shadow was about to touch Moria, it suddenly churned.

Mooing sounds accompanied by pain.

As if he had eaten something bad.

The Pirate Ship, with its Azure Great Fire, actually emerged from the churning Black Shadow.

Along with it, countless distinct yet independently developing Fantasy Worlds emerged.

There was a skinny version of Moria in the biting cold wind, wielding a long saber and fighting an incredibly huge figure, with many living comrades behind him in that scene.

On a Small Island, there was a Landlord living the life of a rich man, yet still dressed as a pirate.

A Doctor in a white coat was dancing with a radiant Actress on a magnificent Stage.

Doctor Hogback in the Castle turned his head away, blushing slightly.

The Baku opened its eyes within the Black Shadow.

Among these Dreams, there should be one interwoven with loneliness and joy, that was his Treasure.

But there was only a solitary Pirate Ship.

The Azure Great Fire engulfed the ship.

That figure

"Moo--"

The eyes within the black shadow revealed obvious fear.

It remembered this person, a weird human with a neurotic smile, who had been spat out of the dream.

Why was he still here?

Fine cracks spread from the pirate ship as the origin, reaching out to the entire dream world. The sky-obscuring black shadow was instantly covered in slender white silk.

"Truly, interesting."

Buggy's lips curled, enjoying his own distortion.

He had left a part of himself within the black shadow's dream. That was his first attempt at splitting abstract concepts, and it was himself.

The world in his eyes had always been divided into two.

One was endlessly committing murder and arson.

The other was the world before Buggy's eyes.

Ironically, such tearing and distortion instead gave him a sense of fulfillment.

Weird.

This was also himself.

Except he never denied it.

Weirdness and chaos.

How freeing, wasn't it?

Something fell out of Moria's plump black shadow.

A one-handed shadow?

Moria watched with his own eyes as this shadow walked past him, then fell at Buggy's feet.

Was his shadow listening to his control again?

Didn't he say he was dissatisfied with me?

He felt his red onion head overload for a moment.

When his gaze fell upon that mad clown, he couldn't help but shiver.

The other party could actually split his own shadow?!

What's the point of my Shadow-Shadow Fruit then?!

A sense of absurdity suddenly flooded Moria's mind.

Accompanied by a nearly broken spine bone and wounds all over his body like those of a tattered doll.

Ah!

To be born human, I am truly sorry.

"."

"Moo----"

The cries from within the Black Shadow grew even more painful.

It was like childbirth.

The layered, semi-illusory Illusion World was rapidly approaching shattering under the invasion of the White Marks.

"Survival and Death, we have to choose one."

Buggy tilted his head back, and in his other field of vision, he saw himself stepping off the Pirate Ship engulfed in Azure Great Fire.

Stepping onto utter darkness.

"Moo!!"

The cries of the Black Shadow seemed filled with rage, and the Black Ink, surging and churning like the sea, continuously fought against the splitting power.

Crack, crack.

The first Dream completely shattered under the erosion of the cracks.

On a Scenic Small Island, two pirates enjoying a life of Brocade Clothes and Jade Food suddenly realized that the world before them was constantly collapsing.

Fragment by fragment, it fell.

Falling into harsh reality, it dissipated into a pool of Gray Mist.

Leaving behind only two White Bones.

"Actually, I truly admire those who refuse to yield even in death."

"Truly."

Buggy added.

"That way, I can continuously witness on them, that which is performed through constant back-and-forth on a single thin string."

"Beautiful melody."

He raised his hand.

Little Right flew up proactively.

Easily touching the already agonizing Black Shadow.

The Real World also began to crack.

Between the abstract, conceptual world and the Real World, the traces symbolizing division began to converge.

Like two ropes twisting around a neck and constantly tightening.

Bit by bit, strangling the Black Shadow to death!

"Moo--"

The Black Shadow let out another mournful cry.

Its terrifying form, which had previously enveloped the surroundings, slowly receded amidst its thrashing.

The fine cracks originating from two points continuously compressed its living space.

The Black Shadow solidified.

Elephant Trunk, Rhinoceros Eyes, Ox Tail, Tiger Feet.

Its body was half solidified, half ethereal, like spilled ink, or like burning Black Flame.

A Baku.

A creature from legend that fed on dreams.

However, Buggy leaned more towards the idea that some small animal had accidentally consumed a Mythical Zoan Fruit symbolizing a Baku.

There were many such precedents on the Great Sea.

For example, someone who ate a Human-Human Fruit.

Perhaps he could start his second Experiment.

An Experiment to split the Fruit from its Host.

The first Experiment was the splitting of the Abstract World.

The result of that Experiment was that illusory products, like Dreams, turned to nothingness upon contact with the Real World.

Instead, semi-abstract concepts like shadows could be split.

He could even manipulate conceptual products split from himself as if they were physical bodies.

As for what he said to Moria.

He wasn't lying either, it was just that what he split off were Moria's perceptions and thoughts about shadows.

For example, he could have taken back his own shadow or cut out Buggy's shadow to fight back.

"Moo"

The Baku's spirit grew even weaker.

Cracks like shattered porcelain appeared on its body, which was a mixture of reality and illusion.

Buggy showed no intention of holding back.

Instead, he watched the Baku's final struggle with great interest.

Only in its rhinoceros-like eyes did fear and despair gradually fill its entire vision.

The Baku had lived for a very, very long time.

It had lived day after day like this, even before the dreams that always occurred in the skull began.

Filling the void.

The fog and darkness were its best hiding places.

The dreams of those who feared this sea area were its best sustenance.

As it devoured more and more dreams, the giant black shadow it manifested had almost occupied the entire Foggy Sea Area.

In turn, it pushed the Foggy Sea Area to expand outwards.

It thought it would continue to live like this, just like some dreams that recurred day after day.

Its instincts lacked the genes for exploration and curiosity.

Until the appearance of this neurotic fellow--

"Moo"

The Baku let out a soft cry, its body covered in white marks slowly falling before Buggy.

In the Baku's eyes, this man was like an unfathomably deep darkness.

Indecipherable, incomprehensible, yet it instilled involuntary fear, trembling, and then imitation and submission, like a virus.

"Moo--"

It circled behind the man, its head resting on his shoulder.

Its ink-like body subtly sank into the darkness within Buggy's heart.

It was begging for mercy.

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