Suggestion

"P-please, save us."

Inside Saint Charmark's glittering palace, emaciated servants and slaves were scattered everywhere, doing their best to curl up and avoid any unnecessary movement.

Each of their faces was covered by a mask displaying a number, with breathing holes clamped over their mouths and noses.

They also shared one other thing.

None of them were ordinary humans.

Some glowed blue and had fishlike gills, though the gill slits had been plugged.

Others had unusually long limbs, while some were covered in animal fur...

Clearly, all the ordinary humans had died.

Some looked at Buggy with hopeful eyes. They carefully lifted their masks, took a deep breath, and begged for help before immediately putting them back on.

Buggy watched the numbers on their masks jump a few times.

Ten minutes of breathing...

Even Jacques was moved by how cruel the conditions were.

"Save you?" Buggy tilted his head.

"Well, considering the excellent education at a certain university, I strongly suggest you save yourselves."

"Right. Save ourselves."

Joker never saved anyone.

Buggy was no exception.

Saving themselves was already the last compromise he and the university students had made.

Besides, he was certain that if he simply rescued them without saying a word, these domesticated people wouldn't be any more grateful to him.

They would only be more afraid.

He glanced at a watch that wasn't there.

"In about half an hour, the Navy will arrest everyone here. And in three hours, roughly half the people in this beautiful Holy Land will be dead. I keep my word."

He grinned as he spoke.

Buggy was giving them a chance—a chance to save themselves.

Just as he had Swan.

He had carefully installed timed Buggy Bombs throughout the palace. They were meant for the Navy.

After all, as long as Saint Charmark successfully completed his mission, the Navy was bound to come to his residence.

So Buggy had left them a little surprise.

A pool had also been carved out on one side of the splendid palace.

Several severed limbs floated haphazardly on its surface.

A tiger-shark Fish-Man glared at Buggy with a savage, bloodthirsty gaze. He was the only "animal" in Saint Charmark's palace without any restrictions imposed on the slaves.

Buggy couldn't see a trace of intelligence in the Fish-Man's eyes.

There was only a simple hunger for food.

He seemed to have regressed to a state of living like a beast, eating raw flesh and drinking blood. Even his limbs, which should have been nimble, had atrophied, and his wide-open jaws were smeared with blood.

Was this the result of the Celestial Dragons deliberately raising him?

"I can help you."

Beside the pool,

an extremely emaciated Fish-Man lifted his head.

Unlike the tiger-shark Fish-Man, who was kept like a pet, this one was nearly covered in chains. A thick mask covered his mouth, nose, and the gills on either side of his face.

The time displayed on it was three minutes.

Even his cracked neck was cinched tight with a Slave Collar.

Ever since the slave escape at the Holy Land, the World Nobles had demanded that the Navy permanently station an Admiral in Mary Geoise. The Fish-Man Race, sharing a heritage with Fisher Tiger, the culprit behind the chaos, had also faced even more brutal treatment.

"What can you do for me?" Buggy asked with interest.

There was an unexpected stubbornness about this Fish-Man.

He was different from the slaves who had just begged Buggy to save them. Their eyes held nothing but confusion and vacant resignation.

"What do you want?"

Parada knew exactly where he stood.

He had nothing. All he needed was a chance.

Give him a chance, and perhaps he could be like Fisher Tiger.

That was the one thought that had kept him clinging to life.

Even with only three minutes to breathe, the conditions had pushed his once-strong body to the very brink of survival.

"Chaos."

"Then I can help you create chaos."

Parada didn't ask another question. Whatever Buggy wanted, if he gave him this chance, Parada was willing to risk his life for it.

"Looks like you really have found a way to save yourself."

There was a note of anticipation in Buggy's eyes.

If the slaves here were as vacant and confused as the ones outside, he might as well leave them where they were. At least the Navy and Celestial Dragons would be buried alongside them.

But this Fish-Man was a little different.

He sent one finger flying and pressed it against the Slave Collar around Parada's neck.

Before long, the collar the slaves feared most quietly split into several pieces.

As for the chains all over his body, Buggy simply cut through a few of them with his knife.

He had learned a little swordsmanship from Brownie.

"I'll give you the chaos you want."

Freed from his restraints, Parada trembled all over.

The chance he had been waiting for had finally come.

"The chaos I want?"

Buggy murmured as he lowered his head.

He had never needed to borrow someone else's hands to create the chaos he wanted.

Well, he hoped that fellow Moria had grasped the art of combining zombies with explosions.

He stroked his chin, thinking of a profession that had been thoroughly smeared with infamy—the Necromancer.

"Joker!"

Akainu scowled as he picked up the mask from the flames. Then it crumpled to pieces in his hand with a crack.

He had definitely underestimated that man. He was capable of bewitching people.

Devil.

That was the word that came to mind.

"Your Excellency Sakazuki, the identity of the dead Celestial Dragon has been confirmed. He was Saint Charmark of the Toppman Family."

Gion, wearing a Justice Coat, spoke with a solemn expression.

She was exceptionally tall, with a straight-legged stride. A pinkish-red spider was tattooed on one of her long legs.

"I've already sent people to investigate—"

"Don't!"

Akainu instinctively sensed something was wrong. The completely passive situation was deeply frustrating.

What wise man had ordered a volcano to guard the Holy Land?

But just as he shouted, a massive explosion rang out in the distance.

Gion's eyes narrowed. Her Observation Haki had kicked in almost instinctively, and she sensed her subordinates screaming.

This time, the invaders seemed different!

"Damn it!"

"Bring in the Pacifistas! Put the entire Holy Land on alert!"

With his years of experience, Akainu instinctively felt that the enemy's goal had to be more than this.

Were they planning a slave-liberation spree like Fisher Tiger?

Or were they arrogantly challenging the World Government?

At the very least, nothing like that could be allowed to happen right now.

Otherwise, the impact of the Summit War would be overshadowed again!

Akainu had never hated this place, where he couldn't burn anything, as much as he did today.

"I'll catch you, Mouse!"

Before he had finished speaking, three or four explosions went off at once in different parts of Mary Geoise.

Then a voice came over the broadcast.

"Testing, testing... Hello?"

That voice!

Several dark lines appeared on Akainu's forehead.

This guy wasn't planning to kidnap someone again, was he?

You won't get another chance like that this time!