"Hahahaha! Didn't expect this, did you? Even an old man like me can still…"
His wild laughter cut off mid-breath.
Anne's greatsword was leveled at him. Armament Haki slowly coated the blackened blade. The girl's eyes were cold, far beyond her years. She gripped the greatsword with both hands and took on a unique opening stance.
Too familiar. Far too familiar.
Buggy's confidence plummeted to the level of a rear admiral.
"Anshin Style: Annihilation Battle."
That stance. That technique name. It was over.
"Wait! That's Reid's move. Didn't he just use this earlier? It's over, it's over, it's over…"
Buggy's fighting spirit collapsed to the level of a mere colonel.
The greatsword came down.
"Boom!!!"
Buggy barely managed to split his body to evade the blow, but he was still struck head-on. He was sent flying into a bakery in the distance. Sacks of flour burst open, and a white cloud filled the street.
"Captain!" Mochi and Kabaji cried out, both of them desperate to rush forward and save him. They never imagined their captain would be sent flying by a little girl.
This was not how it was supposed to go. No matter what, things should not have ended up like this.
Coughing violently, Buggy's voice came from within the flour cloud. "Cough… cough…"
"Twin Blade Style: Twin Swallow Return!" Hisu and Hiyori did not give him a second to breathe. Their crossed blades cut straight into the white fog.
"Ahhh!" Buggy was flung out of a window on the other side in a panic. His trousers were torn in two places, revealing underwear patterned with little clown faces.
Ace whistled. "Yo, nice taste."
"Shut up!" Buggy hurriedly covered his backside, then suddenly realized that Anne had appeared silently above him.
The greatsword fell like a collapsing mountain.
"I split!" Buggy's body shattered into hundreds of pieces in an instant, but this time his movements were clearly frantic.
Of course he was panicking. Who would not, with that massive manifestation of spirit looming behind them?
"So that's how it is!" Ace suddenly understood and shouted at the red nose, "Hey, Red Nose! There's a hole in your underwear!"
Sabo looked at Ace in confusion. "Didn't you just glance at me? You still couldn't tell? Or are you just slow?"
"What?!" Every part of Buggy's body looked down at once, and his head slammed into the sole of his own shoe with a dull thud.
Anne seized the opening and swept her greatsword sideways. "Anshin Form: Tides."
Buggy's limbs, wrapped in Armament Haki, were blasted clean off and sent flying into a trash heap at the street corner.
"Damn it… damn it…" Buggy crawled out of the garbage, roaring inside his head. "Why are Reid's disciples here? That kid with the greatsword is clearly trained by him. And that kid with the flintlock, that laugh is exactly like Reid's when he is up to something. Those underhanded tricks, seriously… forget it."
He stole a glance at the five little demons approaching and felt cold sweat soak his back. "This is bad. This is really bad. If Reid finds out I bullied his students…"
The image of Reid smiling as he pinned him to a crimson line flashed in Buggy's mind. His red nose began to twitch uncontrollably.
"Hey!" Ace pointed his flintlock at Buggy. "Weren't you pretty arrogant just now? Come on, keep going!"
"Cough, cough…" Buggy suddenly straightened his back and put on a calm front. "This old man just remembered something urgent! I will spare your lives today!"
"Oh?" Hisu dragged out the word. "Are you running away?"
"Nonsense!" Buggy stomped his foot, his red nose glowing with anger. "How could Lord Buggy run? Enough, that's enough! Mochi! Kabaji! Prepare to set sail!"
His two subordinates stared at him in shock. "Captain?"
"Hurry up, you idiots!" Buggy gritted his teeth, his voice so low it was barely audible. "That greatsword kid is using the Mist God Style!"
"Mist God Style?" Kabaji was confused for a moment, then his face went pale. "Wait…"
"Shut up and run!" Buggy kicked his men toward the harbor while backing away himself. "You little brats, you got lucky today! Next time we meet, you will not be so lucky. Wah!"
The five kids exchanged glances.
"Did we… win?" Hiyori asked uncertainly.
Anne nodded silently. With a clatter, her greatsword slid back into the sheath on her back.
Sabo picked up the hat Buggy had dropped in his panic. Inside, he found a faded photo stitched into the lining. In the photo, a young Buggy stood on a pirate ship beside Shanks, and another man had an arm draped over their shoulders.
"Is this… Uncle Reid?" Sabo's eyes widened.
Buggy suddenly appeared in front of them. "Sorry, I dropped something."
"When did you get here?"
"Uncle Buggy, stop pretending. Uncle Reid already told us about you."
Buggy panicked even more. "What Buggy? Buggy is my brother. I am Ggy…"
Suddenly, Buggy's face went deathly pale. He slammed both hands into the ground. "My name does not even read the same backward. Damn it!!!"
"Sashiburidana, Buggy."
Roger removed the disguise from his face. Reid had given him a large bag of this mist-like camouflage agent for situations exactly like this.
Buggy's body reacted faster than his brain.
"Kids, get back, now!!!"
Buggy exploded into motion. His split hands dragged the five children behind him. A terrifying surge of Conqueror's Haki erupted like a tidal wave. The ground along the entire street began to crack, and chunks of stone rose into the air, defying gravity.
"Super Disassembly!"
With Buggy's hysterical roar, everything within a hundred meters, buildings, streets, and stalls, shattered into countless fragments. The debris moved as if guided by an invisible hand, forming a roaring torrent that surged toward Roger, tearing spiderweb-like rifts through the air itself. Buggy had become the second Pirate King to possess the power to tear space apart.
The fragments of buildings vanished into void-like black cracks.
Mochi and Kabaji clung to the mast of their ship, screaming, "The captain has lost it! He has really lost it! How can he unleash something this huge?!"
"Oh?" Roger raised an eyebrow. "You have improved a lot, Buggy."
"Shut up!" Buggy's face twisted with fury, his eyes cold and empty. "Impostor! Pretending to be a dead man will drag you to hell, you bastard!"
Hiyori stared in shock at the once-comical Uncle Buggy, who now looked like a demon. "Mr. Buggy, he…"
"He is protecting us," Sabo said quietly, never taking his eyes off the figure shielding them. Buggy's split body parts had formed countless smaller Buggys, standing firmly in front of the children. Even as the ground collapsed beneath them, the children felt no tremor at all.
Ace suddenly realized that the presence radiating from the red nose they had mocked was eerily similar to Uncle Reid's.
"Hey, Buggy…" Roger scratched his cheek helplessly. "Let me explain…"
"Explain it properly!" Buggy roared. "My captain died long ago! The whole world saw him executed by the Marines!"
"Disappear, you impostor!"
All of Buggy's scattered limbs pointed at Roger at once.
There was no thunderous blast, no fiery explosion. Only the chilling sound of crack crack. The ground, the buildings, even the air itself, broke apart into countless cubes and dissolved into dust within a violet glow.