Moya's Smile

Luckily, Buggy still remembered a few basic methods for training Haki.

He'd heard a little about awakening and training Observation Haki, and about coating oneself in Armament Haki and hardening. As for the advanced application of Armament Haki, Ryou, he hadn't heard a thing.

He'd only heard one sentence about Conqueror's Haki: one person in a million was born with it, a natural trait of kings. That was all.

But over the years, Buggy had spent his time treasure hunting, slacking off, and avoiding hardship. His Haki had actually deteriorated until it was almost nonexistent.

No, it was probably already gone completely. He could only languish in the East Blue, the Weakest Sea, lingering in the waters near Loguetown, where Roger had died. And now he'd even been beaten by the next generation's Luffy.

He really was a total loser.

And to think I'd believed all that nonsense on the forums back on Earth, convinced that Buggy was some goofy hidden boss like Obito.

Pah!

Still, Buggy's kingly luck had been pretty impressive. Moya remembered quite a few occasions when he'd gotten lucky and scored an easy win.

Brushing aside his stray thoughts, Moya extracted the broad memories related to Buggy's time aboard Roger's ship and slid them into his own mind.

Moya greedily absorbed the methods for training Haki.

In the end, Moya was astonished to discover that after most of the latter half of Buggy's memories had been extracted, his other memories remained completely undisturbed. The only apparent side effect was that he'd become like most people with amnesia.

Good grief, is this what happens to people with the luck of Conqueror's Haki?

Buggy was now a forty-something-year-old teenager with the memories of a kid in his early teens.

When Buggy slowly came to,

"Why do I feel like I've forgotten something important?!"

Moya had also extracted Buggy's memories from the time he joined the Roger Pirates and ate the Devil Fruit.

Now Buggy was just a naive little kid from before he'd joined the Roger Pirates.

With no other choice, Moya took Buggy in hand and reeducated him. He explained that eating the Devil Fruit had made Buggy's body grow old and caused a brief bout of amnesia, then fed him a freshly made story about joining the Moya Adventure Group. He drummed it into Buggy, who was old on the outside but young on the inside—and young on the outside but old on the inside.

While he was at it, Moya explained the Chop-Chop Fruit's moves to Buggy again. Whether Buggy believed him or learned them was out of Moya's hands.

Seeing Buggy eye him warily, Moya had no choice but to use the same trick he'd used to deceive Nami.

He told Buggy outright that he'd discovered the location of the Golden City's treasure. Buggy had been to Skypiea before, but he couldn't remember that now.

Moya was simply using Buggy's obsession with treasure against him.

So Buggy accepted that he'd wanted to follow Moya on a treasure hunt.

It really wasn't easy lying to people.

Hopefully, by the time these lies fell apart, Moya would be strong enough to protect himself.

Seeing Buggy obediently following behind Moya without putting up a fight, the others didn't object.

Although they'd noticed something strange about Buggy, they were under someone else's roof. So the Buggy Pirates naturally became part of the Moya Adventure Group.

Once everything had been sorted out,

Moya smiled, beaming with joy. The methods were only for basic Haki training, but this was an important first step toward becoming powerful.

He'd been worried he couldn't beat Arlong, but Moya believed that with a little time to master coating himself in Armament Haki, he'd be able to sweep through all the small-time pirates in the East Blue.

Moya even went out of his way to subdue Richie the Lion, making him a pet and personal mount for himself and Rika. Mohji didn't dare object, either.

Moya ordered the pirates to get organized and become adventure crew members. They all had to wear matching black outfits, and Buggy's ship would be remodeled to resemble the Yanhuang in style.

Buggy's ship was bigger, so it became the flagship, the Yanhuang. The original Yanhuang was renamed the Yanhuang No. 2.

Watching the Moya Adventure Group bustle about while Luffy remained asleep, Zoro finally couldn't hold back any longer. He asked Moya to prepare a large amount of meat to wake Luffy up.

Moya knew he couldn't win Zoro over. If he extracted Zoro's memories of swordsmanship, he feared Monkey D. Dragon might kill him on the spot. That was a risk he couldn't take!

Besides, Nami wasn't one of Luffy's crew yet, so Moya had dared to "steal" her. But Zoro already belonged to Luffy's crew. Moya was afraid of Dragon and Koushiro, so he didn't dare try to steal Zoro!

So Moya struck a deal with Zoro. Zoro would spend the whole night recalling his swordsmanship training and methods, and practicing the sword moves he already knew.

Moya's development of the Slip-Slip Fruit had made some progress.

He wanted to see if he could extract just one day's worth of memories.

He wanted to find out if a single day's memories could be condensed into a memory cluster.

It was another method that caused little harm but was incredibly useful.

At first, Zoro hesitated, but as soon as Moya told him Hawkeye was coming to the East Blue soon, he agreed.

The next day, Moya actually managed to make contact with the memory cluster containing the swordsmanship and techniques Zoro had focused on the day before.

Moya successfully viewed Zoro's memories of his swordsmanship training methods and insights. He was thrilled for a long time afterward, while Zoro had only lost one night's memories. It wasn't a big deal.

Looking at Luffy's piglike face, a crazy idea suddenly flashed through Moya's mind.

"Let me give Luffy a massage to help him recover."

His Devil Fruit ability activated, reaching deep into Luffy's mind. Boom! Moya's soul seemed to shudder. Sure enough, deep within the pale yellow memory clusters was a purplish-red mass, almost solid.

It was the seed of innate Conqueror's Haki—or perhaps the inherited factor of that spirit. Moya felt the pressure exerted by this "seed."

Moya fought to stay conscious as he stole some of those seeds, shifting them into his own mind and soul.

Sensing the threat from Moya, the seed began to stir. Moya's soul was so shaken that he started to feel dizzy.

The green-robed man in midair watched Moya's dangerous actions, his eyes narrowing. A domineering aura shot straight into Moya's soul.

Moya jolted violently. His head throbbed with unbearable pain. Gritting his teeth, his eyes filled with madness, he unleashed the full power of his Devil Fruit ability just as he was on the verge of collapse.

Before passing out, he brutally scraped off a part of the Conqueror's Haki seed and slid it into his own soul.

Seeing the two of them suddenly collapse to the ground, Zoro was completely dumbfounded. How had trying to save someone ended with both of them going down?!

Zoro scrambled around in a panic, but realized there was nothing he could do. He could only wait for them to wake up on their own.

Moya's crew also hurried over to protect him, keeping a wary eye on Zoro. Nami ran over and cradled Moya's head, looking anxiously at his pale face.

The newly joined Buggy Pirates wore a variety of expressions.

In the shadows, Dragon frowned as he watched the two unconscious men, utterly perplexed. Did a trace of my Conqueror's Haki knock that kid out?

It made no sense. Dragon was quite confident in his control of Conqueror's Haki. He'd only meant to intimidate him, yet now—

Luffy slowly woke up.

"I want meat! I want meat!"

Zoro's face darkened. Moya still hadn't woken up, but this idiot had woken up hungry first!

Zoro watched Moya worriedly. This place was Moya's territory now, and Moya had fallen unconscious while treating Luffy. Their situation wasn't looking good.

"Why do I feel so tired and sleepy? I want meat!"

Luffy kept fussing.

Luffy had no idea that Moya had stolen half of something important from him. He just kept demanding meat.

Just then, Moya slowly came around, too.

The first thing he did was check the Conqueror's Haki seed. It had stabilized in his soul sea and hadn't disappeared.

Moya was overjoyed. With an Earthling's constitution, he'd only meant to give it a try, but he'd actually succeeded. He'd become someone with the potential for Conqueror's Haki!

"Ha ha ha ha!"

At that moment, Moya laughed wildly, tears in his eyes. Don't ask why. It was because he "loved" this world so deeply.

Even the throbbing pain in his head couldn't dampen Moya's excitement.

Moya's attitude toward Luffy improved considerably. He was a walking experience pack!

Moya ordered a feast to celebrate and told everyone to treat the Straw Hat crew well. They'd party for three days straight.