Showing Their Strength (Part 2)

"Hey, big nose, hand over the navigation chart to the Grand Line." Whether Luffy did it intentionally or not, he brought up Buggy's taboos again and again. And he clearly hadn't connected the Buggy Pirates' stolen property with Nami.

"Just as I thought, you're a brat who doesn't know the meaning of death. That isn't a route just anyone can pass through. What would nobodies like you be doing on the Grand Line? Going sightseeing?" Buggy mocked them through his anger.

"I'm going to become the Pirate King!" Luffy answered as though it were only natural.

Buggy took several seconds to recover, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. "That's hilarious. If you can become the Pirate King, then wouldn't that make me a god? Are you dreaming? I'm the only one who'll obtain the treasures of this world."

"You talk too much!" Luffy was getting impatient with Buggy's endless nonsense.

"Seeing that straw hat reminds me of that guy in his younger days—that arrogant, irritating red demon!" Buggy seemed to recall something deeply unpleasant, and his expression darkened.

"Red? Do you know Shanks?" Hearing that someone knew his idol, Luffy actually let down his guard, as if he had forgotten that the "ugly" Buggy before him was his enemy.

"I do! Want to know more? Want me to tell you? Buggy Surprise!" Buggy had been keeping him in suspense just moments ago, but the instant Luffy relaxed his guard, he immediately attacked.

"His hand is flying through the air?" Though Luffy dodged Buggy's sneak attack, the sight of a wrist gripping a knife and flying through the air still startled him.

"I'm a Split Man who ate the Chop-Chop Fruit. Every slash is useless against me, brat!" Buggy said smugly. However, the latter half of his explanation was rather unnecessary, since Luffy wasn't holding any weapon, much less a blade.

"A Split Man? So you're a monster!" In Luffy's eyes, his rubber ability was the ability of a normal person, while all other ability users were "special."

"You dare call me that? Take this—Chop-Chop Whirlwind Kick!" Buggy flung his lower body through the air, the tips of his shoes fitted with blades. Getting stabbed by them would definitely result in serious injury.

"Once you're in the air, you can't control your body anymore, can you?" Seeing Luffy leap up to dodge his whirlwind kick, Buggy threw his flying knives at the wide-open Luffy.

"Of course I can! Gum-Gum Stretch!" Luffy suddenly extended his arm in midair, grabbed a wooden pillar on a nearby house, and pulled himself away, successfully dodging all of Buggy's knives.

"What kind of monster are you?" Buggy was clearly startled by Luffy's suddenly lengthening arm.

"I'm not a monster! I'm a rubber man who ate the Rubber Fruit!" In Luffy's eyes, he was the normal one, while Buggy's ability was the monstrous one.

"Rubber can't withstand sharp blades, can it?" Buggy truly was knowledgeable. Merely learning Luffy's Devil Fruit ability had let him guess the Rubber Fruit's weakness.

"Yeah, it can't!" Yet Luffy carelessly admitted his weakness. Most people wouldn't do that in front of an enemy.

"That's a really interesting ability!" After exchanging blows with Luffy, Buggy seemed to feel as though he had returned to his younger days of adventuring on the Grand Line.

"Your ability is pretty interesting too! Rubber Gun!" Honestly, if Buggy hadn't been an enemy, Luffy might really have invited him to join his pirate crew. Buggy was strong, his Devil Fruit ability was interesting, and even his nose was distinctive. His character was just terrible.

"You're full of openings! I'll chop off your hand!" Buggy lightly shifted aside and dodged Luffy's Rubber Gun. Since Luffy had set out, only William and Buggy had been able to evade his Rubber Gun so easily.

"Not a chance! Gum-Gum Scythe!" The moment Luffy noticed Buggy preparing to cut off his arm with a dagger, he immediately grabbed a pillar of a house and launched his entire body toward him.

"Chop-Chop Clone!" Sensing danger, Buggy immediately split his body apart and successfully dodged the flying Luffy.

"Damn it, he can split himself apart?" Luffy climbed out of the house he had smashed down and said unhappily.

"What a terrifying fight. It's practically like a dream!" As Luffy and Buggy's battle range grew larger and larger, Nami watched nearly the entire fight from afar.

Although Nami had previously seen William and Luffy fight on the deserted island, it was nowhere near as visually impressive as Luffy and Buggy's battle. It wasn't that Luffy and Buggy's fight was more intense. There had simply been nothing on the deserted island, so all she could see was William and Luffy trading blows. This battle, however, was full of destruction. Nearly every place Luffy and Buggy passed through had no intact houses left, and quite a few had even collapsed because of them.

"Chop-Chop Cannon!" Buggy's arm, gripping a dagger, suddenly split off and shot toward Luffy as fast as a bullet.

"You damaged my hat? Shanks gave this to me!" Luffy hurriedly grabbed Buggy's flying arm, but he forgot about Buggy's ability. The instant Luffy caught Buggy's arm, the wrist holding the knife split off again and shot forward. Before Luffy could react, the dagger slashed his hat.

"What? So that bastard Shanks gave it to you. No wonder it looked so familiar!" Buggy snarled through gritted teeth. He had thought Luffy merely had some connection to Shanks, but that straw hat really had been a gift from Shanks.

"Don't say bad things about Shanks!" Anyone would be unhappy to hear someone insult their idol, much less Luffy.

"So what if I do? If it weren't for Shanks, my dream wouldn't have been shattered!" If he could, Buggy truly wanted to kill Shanks with his own hands. But he couldn't. He simply didn't have the strength.

Since Devil Fruit users were unable to swim, Buggy could no longer search for treasures buried beneath the sea and could only turn his attention to land. And the reason he had accidentally eaten the Devil Fruit back then had been entirely because of Shanks. Though it had only been an accident, Buggy blamed Shanks for everything.

"Gum-Gum Gatling!" Although Luffy's Gum-Gum Gatling was fast, Buggy could likewise split his body into pieces to dodge Luffy's attacks.

"Stop struggling for nothing. You can't beat me." After exchanging blows with Luffy, Buggy had let down his guard and no longer even took Luffy seriously.

"I'm the man who'll become the Pirate King! How could I possibly lose to you?"

"Then die! Hm, who did this?" Just as Buggy was about to split his body apart, he discovered that a fishing net from who knew where had covered him.

"Luffy, hurry up and attack!" Nami quickly called out to remind him. Nami hadn't originally known about Buggy's weakness; William had told her all of it.

William had no choice. Luffy simply had no way to deal with Buggy. Could Buggy really be a hidden master? Although this world could change because of William's arrival, he couldn't possibly have affected Buggy's strength, could he? Still, even if Buggy had truly been concealing his strength, William wouldn't have found it strange.

He was the brother of "Red-Haired" Shanks and an apprentice pirate aboard Pirate King Gol D. Roger's ship. Who would believe he had no strength? Still, his courage and personality were rather similar to Usopp's, except his character was worse.

"Nami, thanks! Gum-Gum Bazooka!"

"Damn—puh!" Before Buggy could break free of the fishing net, Luffy's Gum-Gum Bazooka blasted him away. As for whether Buggy would fall into the sea, that was no longer Luffy's concern.

"Now that we've watched the free acrobatics show, shouldn't we get out of here?" William pointed at their ship moored in the harbor.

"Looks like the townspeople are coming with weapons?" Zoro pointed at the fierce-looking crowd in the distant street.

"Then let's run! We're pirates, after all! Let's go!" With that, Luffy was the first to jump aboard the ship, grinning smugly.

In this battle, Buggy, captain of the Buggy Pirates, was blasted away and vanished. The vice-captain was injured and unconscious, while the chief of staff's fate was unknown. It could be called a complete defeat.