The New World, Calle Bali.
Sunshine, beaches, coconut trees... this island had everything a vacation paradise needed.
But the Cross Guild skull flags fluttering across the island reminded every visitor:
This was the stronghold of Buggy, one of the newly crowned Four Emperors, "The Clown of a Thousand Pieces" and the "Clown Emperor."
At that moment, inside the largest, most lavish tent in the island's center, which perfectly suited Buggy's gaudy tastes,
The atmosphere was the complete opposite of the bright sunshine outside.
Buggy sat stiffly upright in the seat of honor.
Or rather, he was trying to.
He wore his trademark clown outfit, cold sweat constantly seeping from his forehead.
On either side sat the Cross Guild's true power brokers and top fighters.
To his left, his expression dark as he scrutinized the uninvited guest in the center of the tent,
Sat Crocodile, a cigar between his teeth as he slowly exhaled a smoke ring.
To his right sat Patrick Redfield, Red the Aloof, elegantly savoring red wine.
Farther out on either side sat Charlotte Katakuri, former leader of the Big Mom Pirates' Sweet Commanders, his arms folded and his face expressionless,
And the towering former Shichibukai, "Gecko" Moria, who gave a strange "Hee hee hee!" as he sized up the man in the center.
Standing in the center of the tent, enduring those scrutinizing, cold, and curious gazes, was a disheveled man whose presence was feeble.
He was a former member of the Blackbeard Pirates, gravely wounded by Enel during the battle of Egghead,
Then swept away by Aramaki's vines, before finally escaping by sheer luck and wandering through the New World until he ended up here-
The "Curse Doctor," Samuel Kronos!
At that moment, this man, once a formidable figure of the old era,
Was adopting the