Monster?

People often say that eyes are the windows to the soul.

One can tell many things from a person's eyes.

Brownie used to believe this, but now he was wavering.

The pirate before him had a bloody cleaver stuck in his forehead and was missing a hand, looking extremely pathetic.

He even wondered...

Was this person also an escapee?

The cleaver stuck in his head seemed to bear the Chef's name. Had the Chef also joined the fight?

What use was that good-for-nothing besides making tasty curry?

But this pirate had bled so much and lost a hand, he should have collapsed by now, right?

Yet, even so, his eyes were still so bright and firm...

It showed his strong will to escape!

He suddenly felt a bit of admiration, admiration for the pirate escapee, which was quite rare.

But then, Brownie's figure blurred under the light and shadow. In the blink of an eye, a saber was pressed against Buggy's neck.

"What a pity, you're a pirate..."

Since he was a pirate, and he felt some admiration, and he himself was a Marine...

Brownie felt even more that he should give the other party a swift death.

If he could reincarnate quickly, perhaps in his next life, he could join the Marines before Brownie retired. If that were the case, Brownie would definitely not hesitate to teach him.

His thoughts flashed by.

The saber sliced through Buggy's neck as if cutting through vegetables.

He could even sense the gaze from the other side.

Was it a plea before death, or confusion from not having time to react?

Who knew.

Brownie didn't pay much attention, just flicked the saber away, preparing for the next slaughter.

As soon as he turned around.

He heard two stumbling footsteps.

The body that should have fallen with a thud remained standing, as if decapitation was as trivial as plucking a hair.

Buggy bent down.

He silently picked up his head.

Instead of reattaching it to his neck, he held it in his palm.

Holding one's own head was indeed novel.

"Is this what decapitation feels like?"

His eyes were filled with excitement.

So many novel things continuously stimulated his extremely high threshold for joy, his smile bright and radiant.

"Honestly, this feeling... hmm, it truly is the first time. Although I often tell people how my father, that scumbag, cut the corners of my mouth when I was young."

He dangled his head, then floated up like a "flying head monster," away from his palm.

"But in reality, I don't have any lasting impression."

Devil Fruit User?

Brownie's gaze sharpened, and a slight flush appeared on his face.

It wasn't anger.

He just suddenly felt that his previous self-pitying demeanor was incredibly embarrassing.

This was clearly a vicious pirate, yet he had felt a sense of kindred spirits due to the other's pathetic appearance and "highly deceptive" eyes...

Thinking about it now, it was truly mortifying.

Brownie was usually a man of few words, appearing reserved, and even a bit twisted when killing enemies, but internally, he was always staging multiple dramas.

Simply put, he was a closeted show-off.

When a reserved middle-aged man occasionally acted foolishly, he would feel so ashamed he'd want to dig a hole and bury himself.

So he decided to leave this incident here.

Forever!

Brownie's black leather boots stomped on the deck, emitting a loud bang.

He gripped his saber horizontally with one hand and reappeared before Buggy.

His posture leaned forward like a pouncing leopard.

This time, his eyes watched clearly.

"Step Slash!"

Two words were silently uttered from his lips, and a white light flashed and disappeared.

The white light was close to Buggy's chest.

He extended a finger, as if to block the sword energy with it, but the finger and the white light always maintained a distance...

Buggy's lower body remained in place, his legs stomping a few times in confusion.

His upper body, however, seemed to be doing a tango with the white light, floating out precisely, always maintaining a slight distance from the white light.

At the very last moment, the upper body dropped slightly, dodging the white light.

The entire movement was exceptionally elegant, like a skilled dancer in an old London theatre, exuding an old money vibe.

Except for the body that was split into several pieces.

"Interesting ability."

Buggy praised this Devil Fruit ability for the umpteenth time.

Even setting aside the various imaginative speculations about this ability in the mind of a modern college student, its pseudo-immortal characteristic was very interesting.

It was particularly suited to Buggy's fighting style.

The main strategy was to sacrifice one thousand to kill eight hundred.

If only he could take this ability back to Gotham...

However, simple crushing was also meaningless.

At this stage, Buggy was more looking forward to the interesting characters in this world.

While his thoughts were racing, Brownie did not stand idly by waiting for his opponent to go through various flashback scenes.

His figure flashed, quickly closing the distance.

A foul wind rushed towards his nostrils with his consecutive slashes.

Buggy did not dodge or evade, allowing Brownie to split him into several pieces, seemingly just to fully experience the sensation of being cut.

Honestly, the combined experiences of being cut in his other two lives did not amount to as many cuts as Buggy in this world received in a month.

After only a short while of being cut, his already split body suddenly shot out.

"Divide Divide Escape!"

"Mm, that's what I used to call it."

The mouth, still smiling, offered an explanation.

Truly, all that was left of him was a mouth.

"But the situation just now was indeed a bit urgent."

A hand further away tried to wipe its sweaty forehead.

It fumbled for a while without finding it.

What a pity.

Brownie's expression grew somber as he sighed inwardly.

His left hand, not holding a sword, rested against his white coat.

Faintly visible, a bronze ring adorned his left index finger.

Set into the ring was a rough stone, the size of a fingernail, jagged and uneven.

A small piece of Seastone.

This was the reason Buggy had suddenly broken free.

As expected.

Whether pirate or marine, anyone with a bit of sense would surely find a way to equip themselves with Seastone.

Even Devil Fruit Users like Smoker had Seastone embedded in their weapons.

It was simply because the abilities of Devil Fruit Users were too bizarre and troublesome.

And those who could skillfully wield Haki were not common in the first half of the Grand Line.

However, Seastone was extremely hard material, making it difficult to process.

This could be seen from the mismatched stone on Brownie's ring.

But that wasn't the only reason for Brownie's somber expression.

From the opponent's move, a technique called "Emergency Escape," he felt a sense of familiarity.

He still found it hard to believe.

Could the opponent also be...

One of those Monsters?