Rookies Pecking Each Other

Aaron ran back to town, only to suddenly discover that more than half of it had already disappeared. Broken bricks and tiles covered the ground, leaving him completely bewildered.

"...What happened here?" Aaron widened his eyes and unconsciously scratched his head.

Could they be planning to tear it down and rebuild?

This was really enough to leave someone's ahoge baffled...

Well, Aaron did not have an ahoge.

Bang! Crash!

Aaron suddenly heard intense fighting from his right.

"Ah! So Luffy and the others are over there!" Aaron hurried over.

When he got there, he found Luffy's group of three facing off against Buggy.

When Luffy saw Aaron, he happily waved. "Yo! Aaron."

"It's that brat." Buggy's face visibly darkened when he saw Aaron.

He could not get a read on Aaron at all.

"Yeah, yeah, Luffy, let me tell you! When I went out earlier, I took a really awesome man as my master!" Aaron waved his arms exaggeratedly, his eyes sparkling as he gestured excitedly at Luffy.

"Hey! At least look at the situation first!" Nami looked at Aaron like she was about to collapse.

Honestly, who told stories without looking at the occasion?

Only then did Aaron finally observe the scene before him.

Buggy had split himself apart. The blade in his floating left hand was stained with blood, while blood seeped from Zoro's waist. Aaron could not help laughing. "Hahahaha, Zoro, you idiot! You knew his trick and still got hit."

"You brat!" Zoro clutched his wound and glared furiously at Aaron. "That wasn't done by that ugly captain. It was some despicable swordsman—"

"Hahahaha! Right? I think Zoro's an idiot too!" Luffy adjusted his hat, ignoring Zoro's explanation as he laughed at Aaron.

"Shut up, idiot! You're the least qualified to say that, you idiot who got carried off by a bird!" Zoro cursed at Luffy.

"I'm telling you, look at the situation! The enemy is right in front of you!" Nami smacked her forehead, utterly lifeless.

"You..." Buggy, who had been ignored this whole time, looked at Luffy's hat. "Where did you get that hat?"

"Huh?" Luffy took off his hat and looked at it with a smile. "Shanks left it with me."

"So it really is that bastard Shanks's hat..." Buggy's voice suddenly sank. As he stared at the Straw Hat, a frightening gleam burst from his eyes.

"Huh? You know Shanks?" Luffy asked in surprise.

"How could I not know him?!" Buggy suddenly roared, staring at his own hands. "Thanks to that bastard, I've been completely cut off from the sea's greatest treasures ever since!"

Then Buggy told them about his grudge with Shanks.

It turned out that they had once served on the same ship as apprentice pirates in the legendary Roger Pirates.

One day, Roger's crew obtained a Devil Fruit—the Chop-Chop Fruit.

When the money-loving Buggy heard that the Devil Fruit could sell for at least one hundred million Beli, he decided to steal it.

He succeeded, and he failed.

He successfully stole the Devil Fruit, but because of Shanks, he accidentally ate it.

Buggy loved treasure, and everyone knew there were far, far more treasures in the sea than on land. His dream was to seize all the treasures in the world and fulfill a pirate's duty.

Well, the duty as he saw it.

Because of that, Buggy hated Shanks, who had shattered his dream, to the bone.

Well, all those reasons boiled down to one thing: Luffy was in trouble. Big trouble.

Veins bulged all over Buggy's forehead, and against the markings on his face, he looked even more ferocious.

His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Luffy and said in a low voice, "Since Shanks gave you that hat, you must be the one he's betting on in the New World. Since he shattered my dream, I'll destroy his hopes too. Die!"

Buggy Buggy: Chop-Chop Great Rampage! As he spoke, Buggy's entire body split into several pieces. His torso and head remained where they were, while his hands and feet went after Luffy, Zoro, Aaron, and Nami respectively.

Two hands flew toward Luffy and Aaron, while his two feet flew toward Zoro and Nami.

Well, that was because Zoro's slashes were ineffective against Buggy, while Nami was just weak.

"Hmph! Do you think I can't even handle one of your feet?" Nami pulled three short rods from her waist and instantly assembled them into a long staff. She focused on the incoming foot, ready to give it a hard blow when it got close.

Whoosh! As it approached Nami, a sharp blade suddenly shot out from the toe and swung toward her.

"..."

Nami's confident expression suddenly froze.

Only when she saw the sharp blade viciously slice through her wooden staff did she scream, turn, and run behind Zoro.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Zoro looked at Nami, who had run behind him and grabbed his clothes, looking thoroughly uncomfortable.

"Cut the nonsense! Isn't it a man's job to protect a weak woman like me?" Nami cut him off. "Hey, hey, watch out! They're already here!"

"What a pain!" Zoro looked at the bladed feet and calmly untied the bandana from his waist before tying it around his head.

Well, as if it were some kind of psychological suggestion, Zoro's aura instantly became far more aggressive.

He assumed his stance and focused on the two bladed feet. Both hands gripped sword hilts, with the backs of his two swords resting beneath the blade clenched in his teeth, their tips aimed straight at the feet.

Three-Sword Style, Bull Hunt! Like a charging bull, Zoro slashed several times in an instant. Buggy's feet were cut into several pieces, which kept wriggling as they tried to reform.

"How could I let you have your way!" Nami suddenly threw out a rope loop, tightly binding the fragments. She gave it a hard yank, dragged them over, then wrapped several more loops around them, tying the fragments securely. Nami firmly stepped on Buggy's feet and smiled at Zoro.

"You're pretty capable," Zoro said, looking at Nami with slight surprise.

"What?!" Buggy's face changed drastically when he saw Nami stepping on his feet. He hurriedly controlled his hands to rescue them.

"How can I let you get away!" Luffy grinned and flexed his fingers. "Gum-Gum, Net!" He tightly trapped Buggy's right hand in a net, stopping it from advancing.

"Nami!" Luffy called out, then fiercely threw the right hand he was holding.

Smack!

Nami accurately caught it with her rope loop and used the same method to tie up the right hand tightly as well.

Well, from that point on, Buggy only had his left hand left to attack Aaron.

And Aaron...

"Yaaah~~!" He screamed as he ran around in circles. He was always just a little faster than Buggy's left hand, making it look like Aaron was playing around with it.

When Buggy controlled his left hand to rescue his feet, Aaron suddenly pulled out a shovel and gave the hand a fierce whack. Then he made a face, and when the hand gripped its blade and came after him, he started screaming and running in circles again.

...Well, it looked even more like they were playing.

"You damn brat!" After seeing three of his limbs dealt with, Buggy was already anxious. He turned his attention to Aaron, only to discover that his left hand was being toyed with to Aaron's heart's content. Furious enough to see red, he roared and controlled the hand blade to slash viciously at Aaron.

Slash!

Four deep cuts appeared on Aaron's body, but blue liquid immediately seeped out, and his wounds instantly healed.

Well, Buggy had been angered into losing IQ. Otherwise, he would not have forgotten that Aaron also had the ability to ignore slashing attacks.

After healing, Aaron glared unhappily at the left hand. "You hit me, so I'm hitting you too!"

Swish, swish, swish! Cold flashes glinted as Buggy's left hand was cut into several pieces as well, but it instantly healed. Buggy controlled the hand to cut Aaron apart again, and after Aaron healed, he used his shovel to chop Buggy's left hand into pieces again.

Slash! Swish! Slash! Swish! Slash! Swish!

A person and a hand frantically dealt harmless damage to each other like two rookie chickens pecking at one another.

"Are these two idiots?!" Nami and Zoro synchronized perfectly again, both facepalming as they loudly complained.

"Mm-hah! That looks pretty fun!" Luffy watched their interaction with stars in his eyes.

Smack! Just as Aaron cut the left hand into pieces again, a rope loop suddenly appeared. Before the hand could heal, it tightly bound the fragments and yanked them over. Nami then tied up the left hand too, ending the brainless, perpetual-motion pecking match between Aaron and Buggy's left hand.

Well, Nami scored a triple kill, and Buggy was left at critical health.

"What?!" Buggy widened his eyes as he looked at the hands and feet beneath Nami's feet, his jaw refusing to close.

"Hehe!" Nami mischievously stuck out her tongue, grabbed Buggy's hands and feet, and stuffed them into the Buggy Cannon nearby. She aimed it, adjusted the angle, then blinked at Buggy. "All right, firing!" As she spoke, she lit the fuse.

"No!" Boom! Along with Buggy's scream, his hands and feet vanished into the sky.

Then Nami walked over and looked down at Buggy—who was now shorter than her—before suddenly crouching and reaching toward his waist!

"What are you doing?! Ah! No! Don't! Aaah!" Buggy screamed, rolled his eyes back, and fainted.

Nami stood up, turned to Luffy and the others, and waved her right hand with a smile. "The nautical chart is mine!"

Well, Nami had only been searching Buggy's waist for the nautical chart. After finding it, she knocked Buggy unconscious with one punch, leaving a huge bump on his head.

Zoro, Aaron, and Luffy all reacted differently to this.

Zoro gave her a glance and thought, That woman is a demon.

Luffy, meanwhile, shuddered. Looking at the huge bump on Buggy's head, he felt like he had suffered the same treatment before—and not once or twice, but a hundred or two hundred times!

As for Aaron, he carefully looked at Nami before suddenly smacking his forehead and saying in realization, "It's you! The girl who smells like oranges!"

"...You only noticed now?" Nami said helplessly.

Well, after Sabo, Luffy, and Zoro, Nami became the fourth person to say that to Aaron.

Congratulations, congratulations.