A deafening silence fell over the ruined rooftop.
The pieces of Buggy's body lay scattered across the floorboards. His head, eyes rolled back into their sockets, lay several feet away.
Zoro stood panting, Wado Ichimonji still held in his mouth. He had won. It didn't matter if his opponent was a future Warlord or anyone else; once you were sliced into pieces like this, the fight was over.
Nami stared at the scene, her face pale with horror. She had never seen a fight end so brutally.
Luffy, from his cage, was cheering. "Awesome, Zoro! You're so strong!"
Zoro spat the sword from his mouth, sheathing it. "It was nothing." He turned and walked towards Luffy's cage. "Alright, now how do we get you out of this thing?"
But then, a strange sound cut him off.
"Heh... hehe..."
A faint laugh.
"Hehehe... HAHAHAHAHA!"
The laughter grew louder, and it wasn't coming from one place. It was coming from everywhere.
Nami looked around in terror. "W-what's that?"
Buggy's subordinates, who had been cowering in fear just moments ago, were now getting to their feet. They weren't attacking. They were just standing there and laughing, a mocking, confident laughter.
Zoro grew wary, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "What the hell is going on?"
Then, Nami screamed, pointing at Zoro. "ZORO! LOOK OUT!"
A hand.
A disembodied white-gloved hand, holding a sharp dagger, had detached itself, flown through the air, and was now plunging straight towards Zoro's side.
Zoro spun around, but it was too late.
SHINK!
The blade sank deep into his side. It wasn't a fatal wound, but it was deep enough to make him grit his teeth in pain.
"Argh!" Zoro staggered, clutching the bleeding wound.
"Hehehehe!"
Buggy's head, still lying on the floor, opened its eyes and laughed maniacally. "You think a little slicing and dicing works on me, Pirate Hunter?"
Then, a horrific scene unfolded.
Buggy's feet stood up by themselves. His lower torso flew over and attached to them. Then came his upper torso, his other arm, and finally, his head zipped through the air and reconnected to his neck.
Buggy was whole again. He dusted off his clothes, as if nothing had happened.
"I ate a Devil Fruit," he declared, spreading his arms wide. "The Bara Bara no Mi! I am a 'Chop-Chop Human'! I can split my body into pieces, and I cannot be cut by any blade!"
Nami was speechless. An unbelievable power. Zoro, a swordsman, was completely countered.
"Still," Buggy said, looking at Zoro's wound, "it seems that stab was a little off-target. But you, who dared to humiliate me, will die all the same."
Zoro growled, using his swords to support his staggering body. He, the rescuer, now needed rescuing himself.
While Nami was still reeling from the shock, Luffy, from inside his cage, yelled the fateful words.
"HEY! YOU CHEATER! SNEAK-ATTACKING SOMEONE FROM BEHIND, HUH, BIG NOSE?!"
The air froze once again.
The rage on Buggy's face exploded more violently than the Buggy Ball from before. Purple veins bulged on his forehead.
"WHO... DID... YOU... JUST... CALL... BIG... NOSE?!?!"
He let out an inhuman roar. His knife-wielding hand detached again, flying straight towards Luffy's cage. "I'LL KILL YOU FIRST!"
Luffy, trapped in the cage, had no room to dodge.
But he didn't need to.
As the blade came within inches of his face, he did something no one could have imagined.
He opened his mouth.
CLANG!
A piercing metallic sound rang out. Luffy had caught the blade of the knife between his teeth.
Everyone, including Zoro and Nami, stared with their jaws agape.
"I'm gonna kick your ass!" Luffy growled, the blade still clamped between his teeth.
Buggy's crew started laughing again. "What's a kid in a cage gonna do?"
Luffy ignored them. He looked at Zoro. "ZORO! RUN! TAKE NAMI WITH YOU!"
Nami didn't understand. "Run? But what about you?"
But Zoro understood. He saw the determination in Luffy's eyes. This idiot was planning to do something reckless by himself.
"Got it!" Zoro replied, and began to back away.
"Trying to run?" Buggy sneered. He detached his lower body. "Useless!"
"Bara Bara no Hou!"
His lower half, with sharp blades attached to the soles of his shoes, shot towards Zoro like a cannonball.
Zoro dodged, and a crazy idea sparked in his mind. He dashed towards Buggy's special cannon.
With a roar, he used all his strength to pivot the heavy weapon around, aiming it directly at Buggy and his crew.
"NAMI!" he yelled. "LIGHT THE FUSE!"
Nami, after a second's hesitation, understood. She ran, grabbed the torch from before, and lit the cannon's fuse.
"WHAT?! STOP!" Buggy yelled in a panic, trying to recall his body parts.
But it was too late.
BOOM!
Another Buggy Ball was fired at point-blank range. A terrifying explosion engulfed the entire rooftop in fire and smoke.
In the chaos, Zoro and Nami ran to Luffy's cage.
"Who are you?" Zoro asked Nami, still wary.
"Just a thief," Nami panted.
"She's our navigator!" Luffy cheerfully announced from inside the cage.
"I NEVER AGREED TO THAT!" Nami yelled back, but she followed Zoro anyway.
Zoro looked at the lock on the cage, then at the thick iron bars. His side wound was draining his strength. He didn't have time to break it.
He made a very... Zoro-like decision.
"Hmph."
Instead of trying to open the lock, he bent down, grabbed the cage with both hands... and lifted the entire thing up.
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Luffy yelped as he was jostled around.
"SHUT UP! LET'S GO!"
Zoro, bleeding from his side, carrying a giant iron cage with Luffy inside, began to run for his life. Nami ran right alongside them, her face still a mask of disbelief.
When Buggy's men crawled out of the wreckage, they realized the three intruders were gone.
"Captain!" one of them reported. "They've escaped! And... and the key to the cage... it's gone too!"
Buggy, who had reassembled his body amidst the rubble, his face black with soot and rage. That little thief... she must have swiped the key during the chaos.
He looked down at the town below, fury boiling in his chest.
"FIND THEM!"
On a distant rooftop, Luffy, Zoro, and Nami were temporarily hidden.
"So heavy..." Zoro panted, setting the cage down.
"Let me out!" Luffy said.
"Where's the key?" Zoro asked Nami.
Nami held up a small brass key she had expertly snatched from Buggy's belt in the confusion.
But before they could unlock the cage, a roar echoed throughout the entire town, making them freeze.
It was Buggy's voice.
"LISTEN UP, YOU LITTLE RATS! STRAW HAT! SWORDSMAN! I'M DECLARING A 'FLASHY' FESTIVAL!"
"I'M GOING TO USE MY MOST POWERFUL CANNON TO LEVEL THIS ENTIRE TOWN UNTIL I FIND YOU!"