The Return of What Was Taken

Ryan discovered that the Float-Float Fruit was truly useful. In less than a day, Ryan and his group arrived at Water 7.

Of course, they also had Lory to thank. Without her guidance, they would never have been able to find their way.

Water 7 stood majestically on the sea before them like a military base. Seven waterways ran through the entire city, which was why it was also known as the City of Water, Water 7.

Golden Lion controlled the Stone Boat and sent it charging straight toward the docks. Kid began shouting excitedly from the side.

"Run!"

"How can there be a ship that flies?"

Ryan and his group instantly threw the docks into chaos. Just as the Stone Boat was about to crash into another ship ahead, it stopped and slowly descended directly onto that ship's deck.

Just as Ryan and the others were about to disembark, the noise made by the Stone Boat's landing apparently alerted the ship's owner. An extremely arrogant voice rang out.

"Which blind idiot is causing trouble on this great lord's ship?" A red-nosed man walked out of the cabin.

"Buggy!"

"The red-nosed brat from Roger's ship?" Golden Lion seemed to recognize him as well.

Then Buggy saw a terrifying sight: both Ryan and Golden Lion were sizing him up!

"Golden Lion! Bloody Swordsman!"

Buggy immediately turned and ran. In his eyes, Ryan had brought people to hunt him down.

"Stop!"

Golden Lion's words still carried considerable weight. Buggy immediately stopped in his tracks.

"Golden Lion... w-what do you want? I'm not afraid of you!"

"So you really are the brat from Roger's ship!" After confirming it, Golden Lion said nothing more, leaving Buggy standing there foolishly without moving a muscle.

Ryan was quite interested in Buggy. After all, he was supposedly the most deeply hidden man in the legendary world of pirates, blessed with unbelievably good luck.

Ryan stepped forward and was just about to chat with Buggy when a somewhat familiar man charged out of the cabin with a sword in hand and watched Ryan warily.

Seeing that Ryan made no move, Dazhen hurriedly said to Buggy, "Captain, hurry and leave! It looks like they've discovered that we robbed their ship!"

"What ship?" Ryan was baffled. This should have been his first time meeting Buggy!

Buggy had just been about to stop him when Dazhen angrily declared, "Stop pretending! You came looking for us because we robbed your ship at sea, didn't you?"

"It's over! It's all over!" Buggy instantly fell apart.

This startled Kid and the others. Buggy's head and limbs suddenly separated from his body.

"Holy crap!" Beli exclaimed in admiration of the great Buggy.

Seeing the reactions of Buggy and Dazhen, Ryan seemed to understand what had happened.

"You saw our ship and carried everything away?" Ryan asked with a gentle smile.

"That's right. Do you want to take it back?" Dazhen asked, watching Ryan with his sword in hand.

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Ryan excitedly hugged Buggy and thanked him. "Thank you for keeping it safe for me!"

Buggy finally understood as well and nodded repeatedly. "Right, right, right! I was only keeping it safe for you. Since you're here, I should return it."

When Beli and the others heard Buggy's words, they were all deeply grateful to him and came forward one after another to express their thanks.

Although his heart was bleeding, Buggy saw that the other party was being quite polite, so he began to let himself go. He put his arms around Kid and Killer and told them about his heroic deeds from his days with the Roger Pirates.

Kid and Killer listened with looks of admiration for Buggy.

Ryan suddenly remembered something and asked, "Buggy, how did you meet him?" Ryan pointed at Dazhen beside him.

"You mean Dazhen? We met in Alabasta, and then he was overwhelmed by this great lord's charm. Hahaha!" Having returned to his true nature, Buggy spoke to Ryan with increasing boldness.

Ryan was startled. "Dazhen? Put together with Buggy's name, that makes Dazhen Buggy. If you reverse it, wouldn't that be...?"

At this thought, Ryan looked suspiciously at Buggy. He suspected that Buggy had done it on purpose.

"I'm leaving!" Golden Lion directly controlled the Stone Boat and set sail once more.

Ryan shouted at Golden Lion in the air, "Don't forget what you promised!"

Golden Lion merely smiled from the air before speeding away toward West Blue.

Buggy watched this with curiosity. He knew Golden Lion. In his impression, Golden Lion should have been an arrogant and domineering tyrant, yet he seemed different this time.

"How did you meet Golden Lion?" Buggy quietly asked Kid.

Kid lowered his voice as well. "You asked the right person. He fought our captain, then our captain saved him. Now they seem to have become friends. Our captain seems to have a habit of beating people up first and making friends afterward!"

Buggy felt extremely fortunate about the choice he had just made. Anyone who could injure Golden Lion was beyond his ability to provoke. But when he heard Kid's final sentence, a bold idea rose in Buggy's mind.

Since Ryan had not yet finished building his own ship, his things had to be left on Buggy's ship for the time being. Thus, Buggy and Dazhen disembarked with Ryan's group.

Ryan and the others had not gone far when someone recognized them.

"Get out of the way! That's the Bloody Swordsman!"

"Why would he come here?"

In less than twenty seconds, the road ahead of Ryan was instantly cleared!

"Am I really that terrifying?" Ryan rubbed his chin in confusion. People had been afraid of him before, but never to this extent.

"Don't you know? The World Government has placed a bounty of one billion on you. They even reported your deeds." Buggy reminded him from the side.

"Captain, you're incredible!" Kid and Killer immediately looked at him with admiration.

Everyone was also shocked by the one-billion-Beli bounty.

Ryan guessed that the bounty had something to do with the news that he had obtained an Ancient Weapon. The World Government spared no effort when it came to suppressing such matters.

After asking around and finding out where Tom lived, Ryan led everyone to look for him.

Tom was Ryan's goal for this journey. Roger's Oro Jackson had been built by Tom, and Tom was also publicly acknowledged throughout the pirate world as the world's greatest shipwright.

Before long, Ryan arrived at Tom's residence. However, no one seemed to be inside. Kid called out several times in a row, but no one answered.

"He must have gone to work." Ryan suddenly remembered that Tom should currently be devoting all his energy to researching the Puffing Tom.

Not knowing where Tom worked, Ryan could only wait there for him to return.

Since Tom would not be back anytime soon, Ryan found a place to sit and wait. The others followed suit.

After waiting for a while, someone finally appeared. Seeing that he was a fish-man, Ryan hurried over, seized his hand, and said, "Master Tom, I've finally found you!"

The newcomer seemed very displeased by Ryan's familiarity. After shaking off Ryan's hand, he said coldly, "I'm not Tom!"

"Then who are you?" Ryan asked instinctively.

"Fisher Tiger!"