Fog.
A castle.
And a coffin.
The coffin lid creaked open.
A comical clown climbed out.
"Good morning."
Buggy chuckled, greeting no one in particular.
He couldn't remember how long it had been since he'd slept so deeply.
Had it been one day or two?
He didn't know. Not a ray of sunlight reached the Foggy Sea Area, so there was no way to tell the time by the sky.
"Hyah! Hyah!..."
Outside the castle, Moria, now wearing training clothes, was chopping hard at a wooden post in front of him.
Even with his whole body aching, his blood was still up. The wounds that had split open and were still bleeding kept reminding him...
His dream was about to leave him gasping for air.
Buggy rubbed his chin. Before going to sleep, he seemed to have washed all the black from Moria's Black Light Orb...
But what kind of creature was that guy, anyway?
He'd lost so much blood and still hadn't died.
He also recalled a few scenes from the memories he'd seen on Moria's cognition film...
So Moria hadn't brought Absalom to the Summit War because he wanted someone with the Transparency-Transparency Fruit to search a few more corpses.
And as it turned out, Absalom had managed to find a few corpses belonging to commanders and Vice Admiral-level Marines.
So Moria had been throwing Captain John's ring around because he'd already known where Captain John's Treasure was.
But since it was in the New World, he'd never bothered to go after it.
"Now that's more like it..."
Buggy murmured to himself. If the world and its characters were as clear as the memories in his head, and never changed...
Then how would this be any different from living in a manga or novel?
Humming a little tune, he pruned Moria's Black Light Orb one piece at a time, like a gardener up early to trim the flowers.
Mm, he even made sure to leave some behind.
"Ah, ow, ow, ow!"
"Clown, what did you do to me?"
The moment Moria's feverish enthusiasm wore off, his wounds jolted him into rolling around on the ground. The reason he'd kept his wits under wraps came rushing back.
"Don't worry. I just reminded you of your original dream."
Buggy replied coolly.
Ignoring Moria rolling around on the ground, Morgans came over with squelching footsteps.
"Mr. Buggy."
He held a newspaper in his hand. His greeting was tinged with both delight and fear.
Fear.
A very familiar word.
Buggy smiled faintly. He'd once been terrified under the weight of that same fear, but later he'd found the best way to deal with it.
Become fear itself.
"Take your time, my intelligence officer."
But the fear he inspired didn't come from harsh words or severe treatment.
It was his actions that had made him fear itself.
"Of course." Morgans nodded with a self-deprecating smile.
He really did seem to be bound to this man now.
He couldn't even bring himself to think of betraying him.
Moria, whose mind had been tampered with, had already left them all shaken to the core.
Serving as this gentleman's tool might mean facing plenty of nerve-racking moments, but at least they wouldn't have to face him.
That was a great comfort.
"I've already been in touch with the Newspaper Agency headquarters."
"The final results of that war have also come in."
Morgans eagerly held out the newspaper and Bounty Orders.
Buggy had already seen his own Bounty Order in Moria's hands.
A bounty of 1.2 billion, and three Celestial Dragons.
That meant each Celestial Dragon was worth 400 million.
Buggy figured he'd shown the pirates of this world a new way forward.
Oh, right. He had to subtract the original 200-million bounty on Buggy's battleship, too.
Those three Celestial Dragons didn't even add up to a billion.
They were worth less than two-thirds of the value of Charlos's vault.
Besides his, there was also a bounty on Morgans.
"Morgans the Liar Bird. A bounty of 500 million Beli."
Buggy grinned.
It seemed the World Government understood the power of public opinion after all.
They'd slapped a label on their opponent right from the start.
But he thought Morgans was capable of more than that.
"Don't worry, Mr. Buggy."
Morgans patted the tie in front of his feathers.
"The World Economic News Paper is still the best-selling paper on the Great Sea. Apart from my Newspaper Seagulls, no one can claim they're able to deliver papers to every island!"
"Not even in this sea!"
He'd spent the past few days working hard to contact the Newspaper Seagulls, all to get the latest information.
Timely information meant life itself.
Alongside the Bounty Orders, the newspaper devoted a large section to the Marines' results in the Summit War.
Yonko Whitebeard had been declared dead.
Most of his commanders had also been killed or wounded.
The paper also announced that Blackbeard and Gecko Moria had both been stripped of their Shichibukai status.
Mm, there was even a note beside Moria's name saying he'd been killed.
Buggy wondered what Moria, rolling around on the ground over there, would think if he saw it.
Besides that, the paper barely mentioned the Marines' own casualties.
But that was only the public information.
Buggy raised his eyes.
The intelligence kingpin, one of the emperors of the underworld, Morgans, volunteered, "As for Marine casualties, the confirmed reports say Fleet Admiral Sengoku was gravely wounded and fell into a coma. The Three Admirals were each injured, but none too badly. It seems a new Fleet Admiral will be chosen from among them."
"And the Marines suffered enormous losses among their elite forces. More than ten Vice Admiral-level Marines were killed. The Grand Line and New World branches are both briefly understaffed, and they can't even manage Sabaody Archipelago, right on their doorstep!"
"More importantly, all the territories in the New World that had been occupied by the Whitebeard Pirates are now up for grabs. The pirates in the New World have gone wild."
"Quite a few pirates are copying your actions, capturing Confederate Nation Nobles and openly auctioning them off at prices set by Marine Rank!"
Morgans's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
A chaotic situation like this was the sign of a whole string of Big News to come.
His voice was full of excitement. "Mr. Buggy, the whole world is descending into chaos!"
Chaos?
That was a pretty good state of affairs.
Buggy felt a little eager to see what chaos might bring.
After all, who didn't want to be righteous and upright, when circumstances allowed?
"And this is only the beginning."
What did chaos mean to him?
Chaos itself?
No.
His pleasure lay in the panic that came when order collapsed.
He turned around. The words beneath his manic smile rang out with a magnetic warmth.
"Let's bring a few smiles to this serious world."
"Of course, that includes you, my... candidate for combatant, Mr. Gecko Moria."
Buggy bent down and kindly helped the rather unhinged Moria to his feet.
The former Shichibukai seethed with resentment.
But he didn't dare say a word.
"Mm. Choose one: Mary Geoise or Fish-Man Island."
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