One Piece: Ultimate Adventure

by ultimatedbzmaniac

This is the tale of the Straw Hat Pirates and their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, as they experience everything this world has to offer, both the good and the vile. Follow them on an epic adventure that will shake the world to it's very core and will change the lives of everyone they've ever encountered. This is my version of One Piece, this is Ultimate Adventure. LuNa

30. Side Story: Buggy's Big Adventure

avatoa: I in turn shall say three things to you.

First, thank you very much!

Second, while I won't go into specifics, I can tell you that when they meet Brook their previous experiences with walking-talking skeletons will certainly have an impact. How big of an impact? I'm undecided for now.

Third, since it seems you don't know this, I held a poll a while back in which I asked my readers which movies they would like to see me do. In that poll I gave the choices for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh movies, as well as none at all and all of them. I had always intended to do movies six, ten and twelve from the very beginning, I've stated this previously, and as of now I intend to do thirteen as well, so I didn't place them in the poll. I also stated I wouldn't be doing movies eight and nine, since their just rehashs of two arcs, and movie eleven, seeing as it's just a short thing about getting Luffy's hat back. In other words, it was up to the readers to decide. The poll results were that, of the people who voted, the majority wanted to see me do all of the movies I listed, so I am doing so. So no, I am most definitely doing movie six. Sorry. :(

DarkPirateKing69: There was no true reason given, seeing as no one truly knew what caused it. Which is why Usopp, at the end of the movie/chapter, chalked it up to being some kind of curse. What it really was? A curse, simple as that. No devil fruit, no sinister world government involvement, just a restless spirit. It is, admittedly, a very uncomplicated and simplistic reason, but strange things happen in One Piece a lot. Even more so if you take filler into account, which I know most people don't but I don't care. I thought of it as a much more interesting take on the movie, so I went with it. I apologize if it wasn't to your taste.

As to why I didn't try and give a whole explanation about it or why I didn't go for something more intricate, two reasons. The first, I didn't see much of a need for it honestly, as overall it's not too important to the story, besides the character development that took place anyway. And second...well, I'm not gonna lie to you, I really didn't want to spend more time than I needed to on the movie.

I'm glad you didn't find the movie-chapter boring at least. As to whether you enjoyed it or not, from your review I can't tell. I hope you did though. And on the subject of the sixth movie, oh I have had plans for that since chapter one. So...yeah, ain't nothing gonna stop me from doing that one. XD

deant33: I disagree. A lot of people would disagree with that statement. Most of my readers from this story and the other one I am currently working on would disagree. Ten thousand words is nowhere near the limit of how long a chapter should be. A lot of my chapters from here on out are going to easily pass ten thousand, at least any with fights and several that have important events. In fact, I make a rule to never put out a chapter, for this story anyway, that isn't at least five thousand words. On another story it's at least seven thousand before being posted. Each of my stories has a minimum word count, and as for a maximum word count...well, it has to be a lot of words before I break something up I don't want to break up. Regardless, ten thousand words being the limit? No, just no.

Now with that said, would my readers agree that the movie-chapter was too long? Possibly. Certainly some of them at least. But that ten thousand word thing, I honestly can't fathom how you could believe that. Some of the best stories on this site, at least the longer ones, have chapters that regularly pass the 10k mark. The best one shots I've ever read, there aren't many I consider to be in this category, are over ten thousand words as well.

As to why I made the movie-chapter so long, well, I hadn't actually intended to make it that long. And as to why I didn't break it up into parts, well it's supposed to be movie, even if it is in written form, so it's kinda supposed to be somewhat long.

Okay, okay, I'm gonna stop now before I go on a tirade. Anyway, thank you for your input, I appreciate it, truly I do. However, know that it it's not going to happen, like at all. Sorry my friend. Also, I hope you continue to read in spite of the fact that you don't like the length of some of my chapters, I really do.

F-ckthesystem125: Thank you. I know right? Would have made it much cooler. You shouldn't, there was no skeleton and certainly no skeleton stuff in the original movie. I'll do my best.

Blue VanLocke: If that's how you feel, that's how you feel, I can't do much about it. I'm genuinely sorry you found it boring though. You say the base material sucks, am I to assume you mean the original movie sucked? If so, I agree, but the original movie is not what I wrote, so I didn't have the base material in there, not exactly anyway. If you just mean my writing sucks, well...that hurts a bit, but everyone has their opinion and I respect that.

As for my romanization...well I'm not sure what you mean. Seeing as you don't have the best grammar and that we humans sometimes misspell things, I'm quite guilty of it unfortunately, especially forgetting letters, it's possible the word you're looking for is romaticization. If it is, then I disagree. I think the way I write the romantic aspect of this story is fairly good, if not, then at least adequate. It's most likely adequate unfortunately, but I can hope dammit!

Anyway, in case you actually meant to type romanization...then, well...I'm unsure how to respond. Why? Because romanization is to convert one form of writing to another, typically Latin. So if that's what you mean then I have no clue how to respond. I mean I suppose you could be saying that my translation of it from it's original form, a movie, to this written form, my self dubbed movie-chapter, could never be good since the movie itself wasn't good, but I'm not sure. If that is what you're trying to say, then again, it's pretty different from the original, so that kind of renders such a point invalid.

Moving on. What do I think about changes? What do you mean by that? Chopper having ten points and it not being explained? Oh wait, I get it now. No, Chopper having ten points and it going unexplained is not the kind of change I'll be doing, nor will I be doing any changes like that. I plan on making drastic changes, but I also plan on doing small ones as well. A whole bunch of'em. You've seen a lot of these small changes. Notice how the impact of them is slowly growing? Yeah, that's how this story works. The changes become larger as the story goes on, as do the ripples of these changes.

Does that mean that by the time they reach Sabaody things will be wildly and completely different? Not quite. Also, in an effort to prevent any future backlash, small changes will be throughout the whole story guys, so halfway through you'll be seeing major differences and small ones. In other words, yes things will still be similar at points. Not counting original arcs, those will be completely new since they'll come from my noggin.

Back on topic, your final statement, "You should order that kind of things.", makes absolutely no sense. Actually, your entire review is...well, kinda off. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume English isn't your first language, in which case I've seen worse written reviews, which would also explain why your review is strangely worded. Anyway, I kind of sense an attitude behind your words. And I don't appreciate it. Leave it at the door next time you want to review if you don't mind. In case you weren't trying to come off like that, I apologize.

Finally, thank you for taking time to review. I appreciate it, even if I don't appreciate the contents of it. Have a nice day. :)

Lightningblade49: I suppose he should. Since I watch the dub though...ah forget it, no need to go into that mess.

Zaralann: I merged an ova and a movie? What are you talking about? I did-wait, you're talking about that one with the Joke character right? Yeah, I have no idea who that guy is, when that special takes place, what the story of it entails or anything about it at all really. In fact, I didn't even know Joke existed until about halfway or so through writing the movie-chapter. So no, I did not merge them. If you want to see it that way though, be my guest. Don't bother me any.

Tonlor: Thank you. The movie isn't anything like this, so if you do watch it, even if you love the sub, odds are you might not like it. I mean that movie seriously sucked. I kid you not, I've seen fillers better than that movie. Although I guess you could say I'm biased, as I actually like filler. Not all of it mind you, but some of it I do like. Anyway, glad you liked the LuNa, I had hoped everyone who enjoyed that part of the story would.

Lobisomen616: Damn, glad I could cause a reaction such as yours. Thank you for letting me know of it.

Jaesom: You guys never have to thank me for updating, I don't expect nor do I really want you to. I'm not some super amazing professional author who has the whole world captivated by his books or anything, so no thanks are needed for updates. I would appreciate if no one gave me a hard time for not updating though. Like really appreciate it in fact. Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far, and I too hope you continue to read more chapters in the future. No negative comments? Like none at all? Cool.

Oh, if you do go and watch the movies and ovas, I know nothing about the latter, know that the first movie is nothing like what I wrote. Again, you don't have to thank me for an update. Get excited, tell me how much you enjoyed the new chapter, give me constructive criticism, you can do any of those, I want you to in fact, but don't thank me for an update. It's not deserved.

Well I'm happy to have your support then, thank you. :) And I'll do my best.

Dissenter: Why thank you very much! I think so too, glad you and I think alike on the matter. As for character development, more went into the movie-chapter than I thought was going to, but it worked out for the best, at least in my opinion. As for Luffy not being a naive teenager, well I wouldn't say that. He's still not the sharpest tool in the shed and is most definitely still naive, he just now has zero tolerance for attacks on his family. I'm not saying he'll kill everyone who so much as inflicts an injury on one of them of course, but he absolutely will not allow people like Arlong to live, not after what they've done. There is now a very clear line drawn, and anyone who crosses it ain't got a chance in hell of making it out alive, at least not if Luffy has anything to say about it.

Gold you say? Might that perhaps be a pun? :P

To answer your questions on movies, as I stated above, I held a poll to decide which movies I would do. When I created that poll I made it clear that I will be doing movies six, ten and twelve, thirteen as well at this point, no matter what. Why? Because I had plans for them from the beginning, discounting thirteen of course. It looks awesome though so I definitely want to do it. Anyhow, the result of the poll was that I would do the rest of the movies as well, with the exception of eight, nine and eleven, as two are rehashes of arcs, and the other one is a thirty minute search for Luffy's hat.

On the subject of second gear and third gear, well I haven't made a decision regarding the latter, but I already have something in mind for the former. All I will tell you on the subject is that, no, he will not use it during the third movie. And I will do my best to make it interesting.

Lastly, as to the length of this story, it will end once all the Strawhats have achieved their dreams. In other words, it's going to be a very, very, very long story. Ongoing project? Would you mind clarifying what you mean? Because, since it's not finished and all, I kind of figured it qualified as an ongoing project.

SwordOfTheGods: You don't remember it because it isn't an arc, it's a movie, the first one more specifically. Glad you enjoyed it and I will.

TheGodfather93: Oh you got that right. Counting that movie-chapter, I've only written one other chapter with over fourty thousand words of content. It was for one of my other stories in case you're wondering. Thank you, and as for it being a short length of time, it's shorter than you think. To you guys it took me roughly two months, but for me it was only a month, as I was completely unable to write for a month. As for it being impressive, well I don't know about that. I definitely appreciate you saying it though, so thank you.

I can't say I relate, as I read huge chapters in a single sitting no problem, that's probably because I'm a couch potato though. But I understand where you're coming from. In fact I would have actually split it up, if it hadn't been a movie. A movie is much longer than an episode, therefor I believe a movie-chapter should be the same. So all of my movie-chapters will be lengthy. The only reason I would have a regular chapter that long is if I feel it doesn't work split up into parts, take the Arlong battle chapter for example.

Why did I change so much around? Well... to start, yes it fits the tone of my story better, but it's more than that. You see, before writing the movie-chapter I watched the movie to know what I would be writing about and start coming up with the changes I wanted to occur. By the time it was over though, I was unable to keep the frown from my face, as it had just been so disappointing. It was, to me anyway, boring. And One Piece is anything but boring. So, I decided it was time to really do things differently. So I came up with Ganzo being Woonan's first mate, the curse, the skeleton, the whole thing.

You know what though? One of the biggest reasons for it was rather mundane. You know how Zoro hadn't had his swords broken? Well I needed them broken before Logue Town, but with him being stronger and all there wasn't anyone in the East Blue besides Luffy, Smoker and Sanji who could do so. Therefor I needed a villain strong enough to accomplish such a task, which is part of what caused me to conjure up Ganzo-Woonan-Skeleton man. Ridiculous right?

I'm elated that you feel that way. Brutal? I didn't think they were particularly brutal, with the exception of what Ganzo-Woonan did to Golass, Samson and those other guys. If everyone else did, then damn man, you guys might not be able to handle some of the stuff I have planned for later. Movie six being one of the things that first comes to mind when I say this. As for being surprised by Luffy and Sanji walking their wounds off, have you seen the kind of shit those two went through? They can handle it, Luffy especially. Usopp though, well he is a bit tougher than before, not much mind you, but a bit thanks to Luffy's influence. Plus, he took a four ton bat to the face and lived, I think he can handle being stabbed in the abdomen, you know what I'm saying?

Thank you, and I'm overjoyed that you are. As to how I'm going to handle movie six, well...you'll see. Mwahahahahahahahaha! Like my evil laugh? I stole it from Usopp. XD

HP-DG-SB: Glad you think so. I'll tell you this, my version of the first movie is much different from the original, so if you ever decide to go watch it, don't expect much to be the same. It's great you feel that way. I'm happy you're looking forward to it.

gorilla_fingers Inkaster: Goddamn. You've just given me, quite easily, the longest review I've ever received. I can't put into words how grateful I am for that, especially so considering the contents of your review. No kidding, this is probably my favorite review ever. Much obliged.

Your theory is relatively sound, as I've seen a good deal of evidence for it in the One Piece section alone. I'm wondering why I never made the same connection, as it just makes so much sense. I'm simply overjoyed that you like my story and count it among the good ones on this site. Though that might mean more to me than others, since I'm pretty picky about what a good story is. Not saying I have high standards, I just have complicated ones is all.

You have a very good point, and I agree, such stories, if not written properly, can ruin the experience entirely. Which in turn completely turns people off of their story. I'm glad you feel like my story has successfully avoided these trappings that come with similar fics and that you think my writing is good. Thank you.

You're right, powering up the main characters definitely has that effect. I've seen it a hundred times over. And I am elated that you see how I tried to up the stakes in other ways, so as to compensate for the power boost Luffy, Zoro and, to a lesser degree, Sanji received.

As to emotional stakes as a whole, I agree with most of what you put down and don't have much else to say on the subject. Though what little I do have to say is that the whole family and emotional investment situation is exactly why I started from when they were children, so that the bonds could be built sooner and strengthened much further. I wanted Luffy to have his bond with Zoro and Nami to be just as strong, if not stronger, than his bond with Ace. From your input, I do believe I've achieved, at least partially, the effect I wanted to attain from doing such a thing.

In this sense, it's completely true that Luffy doesn't have as deep a bond with Usopp and Sanji. However, meeting them when he did when he was alone once more, and the time they spent together before officially becoming pirates definitely changed his feelings about them compared to canon. They are a part of his family, no question. The time they've spent living together since becoming pirates and the incidents with their recruitment and the Arlong debacle, all of it cemented this. Also, just because they don't share as deep of a bond doesn't mean they won't ever, as fondness grows over time. In fact, there is one particular sign to look for that will all but scream the fact that other members of the crew are close to the same level, as Nami and Zoro will always hold a special place in the teen's heart, of closeness that the three childhood friends share. As to what this sign is, well...you'll recognize it when you see it.

In turn, all of this means his crew is family. Meaning anyone who joins the crew signs up to eventually join the family, in a sense anyway. Ergo, recruitment has suddenly become more complicated. That's not to say he has to know them as long as the others before wanting them to join or has to feel as strongly for them. Rather it just means he needs a deeper connection with them than simply, "You're cool. Join my crew."

Negative time. Yes, I understand things lining up like that is rather convenient and even a bit lazy, for that I apologize. Though even if I went back I would do the exact same, as I wanted them that way. Except for Alvida. The encounter with Alvida, now I wish I had done that differently. In fact, your thoughts concerning it make me want to do it over again even more. I shall refrain though.

You know what, you've got a point. I did kind of forget about the chart. Hmm...you know what, I'm gonna take care of that. Just you watch. That said, I don't know about the manga, but the anime remembered the chart. In the episode they went up reverse mountain, when they were approaching it more specifically, Zoro remarked about ships not being able to go up mountains and Nami responded by telling him to look at the map for himself. He then insinuates that they can't trust the map, considering it was stolen from Buggy and all. So the anime actually remembered the chart...though it's never mentioned again after that episode.

To end my possibly longest authors note ever, for this story at least, regarding review responses anyway, thank you ever so very much for all your kind words and your criticism. I enjoyed reading your review and it honestly made my day when I first got to see it. While it might be doubtful, I do so hope to hear from you again in the future. :)

Wait, actually, there's still one more person I need to respond too.

ArrestoMomentum: A new reader! I am delighted to make your acquaintance! :) That said, onto your review of the first movie-chapter. I'm happy you enjoyed it, and as for Luffy ever getting some muscle, well yeah, of course. Just like in the anime he will develop muscle over time. It just takes him longer because of his devil fruit and having eaten it at such a young age, or at least that's my personal theory. And in that same line of thinking, it just goes to show just how freaking strong he is, what with putting on muscle while being made of rubber and all.

Now I'm about to get off track before the chapter starts, but I've been wondering this for awhile now. How many of you guys actually love/like/enjoy the LuNa aspect of this story? And how many of you are fine with it, indifferent to it or tolerate it simply because you like the story so much? I assume no one who hates LuNa reads this story, since it's such a large aspect of it, but if some of you do then let me know that too. Obviously you don't have to, you guys never have to do anything, but I would like to know. So if any of you feel like telling me, shoot me a PM or something.

And one last thing before we get into this chapter. Eye color...as you may have noticed, I have purposely avoided describing the color of most people's eyes, the Strawhats in particular. Mihawk is one of the few exceptions. Why you may ask, well I'll tell you. I can never get a definitive answer on who's eyes are what color. With the exception of Robin, as, in the anime at least, she has light blue to blue eyes. I know most people go with brown for Nami, and a lot of the time it does look like she has brown eyes, but many times I have seen her eyes take on a pink tint, so a pinkish brown basically. When does this happen? When's she's terrified, completely shocked, etc. Again, I'm going off the anime here.

Luffy is seen with black eyes most of the time, and I'm perfectly fine with that, I much prefer his usual black to the brown I've seen several people claim he has. But the rest of the Straw Hats...well, yeah, most of the time they look black, as is the case with a lot of guys in One Piece...except for Law, who you can clearly see has grey eyes, as well as Mihawk, Whitebeard, Kuma and, yeah, I'll just stop there.

The most popular opinion seems to be that Zoro's eyes are green, Sanji's eyes are dark blue and...well Chopper's stay black, I haven't seen anyone state what they think Franky's eye color is, and I've only seen people say Usopp's eyes are brown, as for Brook, well he has no eyes. Yohohoho! Okay, I won't do that again, I promise.

Why I am I talking about this? Because I use a person's eye color a fair amount in my writing, usually in relation to stuff with their eyes but I digress, but have had to refrain from doing so in this story. I don't want to do that anymore. I very much want to be able to use everything I have available in my very small skillset when it comes to writing to make this story as great as possible. So, starting next chapter, I am no longer going to be restricting myself when it comes to eye colors.

So, since that's been decided, I'll tell you the other reason why I'm bothering to tell you guys this. I would like your guys input. It's my story, so I do get the final say, but you guys have been awesome and I'd very much like to get you involved with this. I've done it once before, with the movies, and I'd like to do it again. I know it might seem like a trivial matter, but it matters to me, so I'm doing it.

I want you guys to tell me what you think I should write the Straw Hats eye colors as, in the form of a private message or at the end of a review. Now regardless, I will be writing Luffy's eyes as black, Chopper's eyes as black and Robin's eyes as light blue to blue. But the rest of the Straw Hats, minus Brook, are open to interpretation. And if you guys don't give me any input at all, or I decide to not go with any suggestions and fall back on my default, I will write Sanji with dark blue or blue eyes, Zoro with dark green eyes, Usopp with brown eyes or hazel as I haven't decided, Nami with pinkish brown eyes and Franky...yeah, I haven't figured that out yet. I'm thinking a steely blue, or a bluish grey.

Sorry, sorry, but I have one final tidbit to say. Yay! Todays marks the second year anniversary of when Ultimate Adventure began! September Ninth, my birthday, the anniversary of when I began this story...everybody cheer! No? Oh...okay then, never mind. Forget I said anything.

Anyway, with all of that said, welcome to the next chapter of season 2, as I like to call it, of Ultimate Adventure. This, as you could guess from the title, will not follow Luffy and his crew though. This is the first of many side stories I plan on writing, which will be posted from time to time, and have us focus on other characters in the One Piece world. Buggy has first dibs, so go see what he's up to. Please read, review and enjoy.

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"WHO'S GOT A BIG NOSE!?" Buggy screamed angrily, some spittle splattering onto the face of the man he was yelling at since they were all but nose to nose.

"THAT'S NOT EVEN WHAT I SAID YOU DAMN CLOWN!" The man screamed right back just as angrily, said man once being known as Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan, but was now just known as simply Morgan, as he had been stripped of his title, for obvious reasons, and no longer had an axe hand, as it had been shattered and had yet to be repaired. Thankfully his jaw brace had been repaired and reattached, but that was the extent of the medical treatment he had received.

Both men wore matching white and black striped prisoner outfits, along with the rest of Buggy's crew, as they had yet to have a chance to change since escaping their marine escorts. How they had pulled that off even they didn't know, as Garp the Fist himself had come to oversee their trip to the Grand Line, where they would have been taken to Impel Down. Then again, it was probably because he had been there that they had escaped, or at least his presence accredited to it.

As when he had boarded the ship, the two most important prisoners had been presented to him, Buggy and Morgan, most likely to intimidate them as they were transferred to his ship. However it ended up backfiring, as Garp had fallen asleep on his feet, having been up an ungodly amount of hours on pure sugar power alone thanks to his beloved donuts. And using that to their advantage, they attacked the vice admiral, or rather Morgan did as Buggy was too frightened to do so, having seen his strength first hand while traveling with his old crew. But when the old man went down and failed to get right back up, like the clown pirate had seen him do when fighting Roger on too many occasions, he snapped himself out of his state of fear and took action, spurring his crew to do the same.

Overpowering the marines closest to them, the group barged their way through and onto the confiscated Big Top, the Buggy Pirate's ship, taking the former marine's son, Helmeppo, hostage as they did. In doing this, they hoped to dissuade the marines from firing on them as they sailed away, as with two ships there, there were still more than enough soldiers to take them out even after they clobbered the amount that they did. And thankfully, for them, it worked. Even better than they thought it would actually, as one marine, a chore boy with pink hair, Coby they believed they heard Helmeppo call him, actually leapt overboard and came swimming after them.

With their slow start, he managed to catch up to them and climb aboard. He was scared, just like the blonde they held captive, but he still tried to fight them, managing to fire up his fellow chore boy enough to do the same. Needless to say, they got their asses handed to them, big time. Rather than kill them though, they kicked them off the ship once they were no longer within firing range, stranding them in the middle of the ocean. They most likely found their way back to the two marine ships, then again maybe not, they didn't know, nor did they care.

After that they made landfall at the closest island, which just happened to be the Island of Rare Animals. Now why would they stop at such an island, considering there was no port or anything of the like that would interest escaped fugitives? Because their ship ended up taking some damage thanks to a giant crab that had ambushed them from underwater, having taken it out with a well placed shot with a Buggy Ball. They would have taken it out sooner, preventing them from taking any damage, but the contents of their ship had been moved all around when they were in the possession of the Marines. They were lucky that was all, as they were supposed to confiscate their things, especially their weapons, but for some reason they hadn't done so.

Regardless of all that, they needed a bit of a patch, so they stopped there and used what little skills they had to repair the damage done to their ship. Though it wasn't that simple, considering they ended up running into a man trapped in a chest known as Gaimon. He attacked them, they fought back and nearly killed the guy, as he stood no chance. However, his death was put on hold after he revealed why he had attacked them in the first place, to defend the animals of the island. The fact that he offered to share some sake with them helped them come to the decision not to kill him, as well as the fact that he sincerely apologized and also mentioned once being a pirate himself.

Morgan was irate about it and wanted nothing more than to kill the man in a box and Buggy, and take the ship and go. Unfortunately for him, he lacked his axe hand and lacked the strength required to defeat the captain of the ship he wished to steal so much. So he was forced to settle down and deal with it as the former pirate and current pirates partied.

The next day, their new friend Gaimon helped them with their repairs. It wasn't pretty, but it would hold up at least, so they set sail soon after, saying a tearful farewell to their new friend as they did, Morgan muttering profanities and promises of death under his breath the whole time as this happened.

A few hours later, having become completely fed up with the clown and his pirates, Morgan finally snapped and the two broke out into a loud argument. What was it about? A number of things, such as pirates and marines, what happened at Shells Town, the fact that Morgan no longer held a position of power like he was used to and wanted authority again, what happened with Garp, and of course, the biggest point of contention, that the former marine wanted to kill them all and was only still even on this ship because he had nowhere else to go until they hit an inhabited island, as they lacked even a row boat for the white-blonde haired man take and be on his way. Which led to where they were now, screaming at the top of their lungs in each other's faces...

Cabaji, Mohji, Richie and the rest of the Buggy Pirates stood at a distance from their captain and the former marine as they had their shouting match, both looking meaner by the second, not one of them wishing to get caught up in that. Even still, the threatening to burst into violence argument was all they were paying attention to, never having seen someone make their captain so angry without being outright killed before, Luffy excluded since they weren't there. Because of this fact, everyone aboard the Big Top failed to notice the ship that was approaching them...

Said ship was of a modest size and shaped like a heart in it's design. Colored pink, the red hearts that encircled the ship across the sides really popped. Then there were the eight hearts arranged in a straight line across the sail...yes, all in all, this ship was rather hard to miss. Yet all those present did just that.

"The captain's head looks like it's about to explode." The acrobatic swordsman remarked

"I know what you mean. I don't think I've ever seen him this mad before..." The self proclaimed beast tamer added, sounding a tad worried.

One couldn't blame him for worrying, as the former marine and the pirate captain continued to scream at each other, the big nosed one of them was going extremely red in the face. He had yet to even taken a second's reprieve to breathe.

"I honestly can't believe the captain hasn't killed him yet. I mean, the last person who got him even close to this ticked off wound up as a corpse." Commented the unicyclist with a dash of disbelief in his tone.

"You know what? That's a good question, why hasn't the captain killed him yet? That was the whole reason we went to Shells Town in the first place, wasn't it?" The whip carrying man questioned, a tad confused.

If Cabaji answered that question, Mohji was unable to hear it, as the volume of the yelling increased even further then.

"YOU GODDAMN MORONIC BASTARD, WHAT I WOULDN'T GIVE TO CUT YOU TO PIECES RIGHT NOW!" Cried Morgan, filled to bursting with anger and frustration.

"CUT ME TO PIECES!? HA, AS IF YOU COULD! EVEN WITHOUT THE CHOP CHOP FRUIT, A HACK LIKE YOU COULD NEVER EVEN COME CLOSE TO CUTTING ME!" Buggy bit back, a fair amount of spittle launching from his big mouth as he did.

"UGH, YOU DISGUSTING PIRATE SCUM! LEARN TO NOT SPIT WHILE SPEAKING!" The one handed man demanded with detestation as he wiped the spit off his face with his one hand.

"DISGUSTING!? HOW DARE YOU!?" Buggy cried in outrage, his face so red that it's shade matched his nose.

"HOW DARE I!? HOW DARE YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE DRENCHING A GREAT MAN SUCH AS I IN YOUR FILTHY DNA!" The former marine captain shot back, his face now as red as the nose on Buggy's face.

Thanks to all the shouting, not one person took notice of the ship covered in hearts, even as it pulled up beside the Big Top and the one manning it stepped to the railing and spoke. "Oh boys." They said pleasantly.

"AND JUST WHAT MAKES YOU SO GREAT ANYWAY!? THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE ONLY ONE HAND!?" The blue haired man queried sarcastically.

"Boys." The newcomer repeated themselves, a little louder this time in hopes of gaining their attention.

"I MAY ONLY HAVE ONE HAND, BUT IT'S ONE MORE THAN I NEED TO KILL YOU!" Came the whitish blonde haired man's rebuttal.

Despite Morgan's top of the lung yell, the rest of the individuals aboard the Big Top, minus Buggy of course, finally took notice of the person standing at the railing of the ship that had pulled up beside theirs.

"Uh, Captain..." Cabaji and Mohji said in unison, trying to get their captain's attention, to no avail. "Captain." They repeated themselves, louder this time.

"OH YEAH!? YOU WANNA TEST-" The red nosed pirate began, only to be cut off as his entire crew spoke up in unison, "CAPTAIN!"

"WHAT!?" He cried in a mix of anger, annoyance and frustration, turning to face them as he did. At the same time, the only person present not standing on the Big Top finally raised their voice, "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

That's when he saw what they were trying to tell him about, as he noticed the person who had managed to come to a stop beside them with their ship, without alerting anyone to their presence. It was hard not to in fact, as they stood at the railing, in clear view, and had just shouted at them all. Not to mention the fact that every single member of the clown pirate's crew, including Richie, was pointing directly at her. "Some pretty lady is here." They all told him simultaneously, even the lion of the crew grunting something similar, despite not being able to speak.

Pretty lady indeed. This woman was tall, standing six foot something, slender, was fairly well endowed and had what appeared to be silky smooth skin, as well as long wavy black hair and green eyes. As for her apparel, it consisted of a white cowboy hat with a large red plume, a pearl necklace around her neck, a red and white striped bikini top with pink frills, tight pink capri pants that reached her shins with an accompanying brown belt, generic sandals and a long purple coat with yellow trim, similar to an overcoat or a trench coat, over it all.

Knowing she had their attention at this point, she spoke once more, her tone pleasant again. "Buggy the pirate clown right?" Her eyes shifted to the one handed man then. "And you're former marine captain Axe-Hand Morgan." There was no question present in that sentence.

"What's it to you!? Just who are you lady!?" Buggy inquired, his aggravation all too clear. Though his face had returned to it's normal color, as he finally had a reprieve from screaming his lungs out, he was far from being in a good mood.

Morgan simply glared at the woman for her words, scowling deeply as he did.

"My name is Alvida." She answered, but she didn't stop there, she took it a step further and explained why she was here. "And I'm looking for a certain young pirate, one that I'm sure the two of you know well." With that she produced a piece of paper from her bikini top, having tucked it away, pulling it out and proceeding to hold it up for the others to see what it clearly was.

What was this piece of paper? A wanted poster for one Monkey D. Luffy, wanted dead or alive for fifty million berris.

"AAAHHH! THAT'S HIM!" Buggy cried in shock. "Stupid brat, just wait till I get my hands on you! YOU'RE DEAD!" He cried further, his rage level at an extreme high once again.

"That sunuva bitch has fifty million berris on his head!? What idiot gave that worthless punk such a high bounty!?" Morgan queried angrily and incredulously.

"FIFTY MILLION!?" The rest of the men on the Big Top repeated in unison in disbelief.

"Wait, is that the guy you're looking for?" The clown pirate questioned, his curiosity suddenly making him considerably calmer.

"Indeed he is." Alvida confirmed, stashing the poster back inside her bikini top, stepping up onto the railing of her heart shaped ship as she did. "And I was hoping that you would be able to help me locate him." She informed him, jumping up and over to the Big Top, just barely managing to clear the railing as she did, landing on the deck of the larger ship gracefully regardless.

Morgan couldn't help but snort in incredulity, his rage forgotten for a moment because of the woman's words. "Good luck with that. This moron couldn't even locate the ridiculous big red nose on his face." He remarked derisively.

"THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY!? THAT'S IT! PREPARE TO DIE FLASHILY!" Buggy shrieked furiously, lunging at the former marine as he did.

"BRING IT CLOWN!" Morgan goaded with just as much rage.

Before the two could actually do any damage to each other, the black haired woman intervened, stepping between them and pushing them away from each other as she did. "Break it up!" She barked at them.

Strangely enough, they listened, both gritting their teeth and breathing hard in barely contained rage, looking ready to kill, but not making any move to try and get at each other again. Since this was the case, she took a step back to give them their personal space back, before speaking further, "Calm down boys, that's enough fighting." She told them.

They failed to respond, but continued to comply. This, for obvious reasons, left the rest of the Buggy Pirates speechless, as those two never listened to anybody on anything.

"I came looking for you two so as to propose an alliance, so you killing each other just won't do." She admitted to them then, trying to keep things civil.

"An alliance?" Both men repeated.

"With this bastard? Never!" Buggy proclaimed.

Morgan didn't think too highly of the idea either. "Why would someone as great as I ever stoop as low as to band together with scum like you?" He queried rhetorically, looking affronted at the mere mention of the idea.

If Alvida was offended at his words, she certainly didn't show it, remaining completely composed. "Oh I don't know, perhaps say...to kill the man who's responsible for putting you in the position of having to even consider it in the first place? The same man who got you stripped you of your rank and reduced you to being no better than us 'scum' that you seem to detest so much?"

"Why you!" The former marine snarled, looking ready to attack once more.

"Think about it, both of you. He was able to defeat each one of us individually, however, if we were to team up..." She left her suggestion hanging there, letting the two connect the dots themselves.

A good portion of the anger, annoyance and detestation both men felt visibly fell away, as the thought of killing the teen who had defeated them overrid just about everything else. Even if they had to work together, if they could kill the rubberman, it would be worth it.

"So then, what do you say?" She inquired.

"Ah to hell with it, I'm in." Buggy conceded. "We all want to kill the same stupid kid, so we might as well work together." He acknowledged.

A vein visibly bulged in Morgan's forehead, the man gritting his teeth as he breathed heavily through his nostrils, his anger coming back in an instant, as he never did as others told him or even bid him to. In his mind he was so great that he shouldn't have to listen to anybody, as he was the highest authority. This instance challenged that to a degree, but what happened with Luffy challenged it much further. So with a heavy sigh, his form relaxed and he gave in. "Fine. If it means I can take the head of the bastard who reduced me to this, then I suppose I can stomach working with you pirates for a little while."

Alvida smiled with satisfaction at that. "It's settled then. Let's celebrate with a drink."

"Oh yeah! Now you're speaking my language! It's party time boys!" Buggy exclaimed jovially, whirling to face his crew as he did.

"YEAH!" They all cried out in agreement simultaneously.

With that Buggy got busy, busting out the booze with the help of some of his subordinates. As he did this, Alvida looked to Morgan solely, saying this as she did, "After this we should see about getting you a replacement axe. You are known as Axe-Hand Morgan after all, it simply wouldn't do for you to go without your infamous weapon."

Morgan merely grunted in agreement, not willing to admit to anyone, even himself, just how disadvantaged he was without his axe hand.

---

Three days later...

Buggy, who no longer sported the garb of a prisoner and was now dressed in the same outfit he had worn back at Shells Town, stood at the bow of his ship with a pair of binoculars. Using them, he managed to spot something interesting beside the island they had planned on passing right by in their search for Monkey D. Luffy. Said island itself was round in shape with four mountains protruding on the edge, causing the landmass to resemble a bear paw over all. The island's shape wasn't what caught the pirate captain's attention though, rather it was a somewhat large ship that was colored red and black with the base of the hull being green in contrast, had a black cat figurehead and ornamental cat claws on the sides. As for the flag it was flying, for it did indeed fly a flag, it was the standard jolly roger but with a cat skull rather than a human one, with accompanying eye slits.

"Hey! HEY!" Buggy called rather loudly and unnecessarily , attempting to get the others attention.

While his crew, who were used to his antics, did nothing but come closer, or at least Cabaji and Mohji did, the two new comers onboard responded vocally.

"You don't need to yell, I'm standing right here." Alvida reminded him politely. Which was true, as she wasn't even five feet from him. "Now what is it?" She questioned.

"What are you hollering on about now clown?" Morgan inquired irritably as he came out on deck, no longer wearing the white and black striped garments either. He now wore a simple pair of black slacks, a pair of nondescript boots and a black sleeveless shirt exactly like he used to don. In addition, he once again possessed the axe hand that he was so well known for, only this time it was made of tougher stuff, the finest steel mined in the entire East Blue.

Ignoring the urge to give a retort to the axe handed man, Buggy instead told them the reason he had gotten their attention. "Look, there's a pirate ship over there by that island." He offered the binoculars to the only woman aboard as he said this.

She took them, using them to take a quick look, before replying, "Yeah, so?" It was clear she didn't see what the point was, going so far as to hand the binoculars off to Morgan as she did.

"So? So!? If there's a pirate ship, there are pirates. If there are pirates, then there is loot worth stealing. In other words, treasure!" The clown pirate explained excitedly.

"I'm at my limit for the amount of pirate trash I can deal wit-" Morgan's sentence died in his throat as he looked through the binoculars to see the ship for himself, the jolly roger catching his eye in particular. "Tha-that's the Bezan Black, the ship of the Black Cat Pirates." He stated with no small amount of disbelief, sounding taken a back to see it, which he was, his eyes being as wide as dinner plates evidence to this.

"The Black Cat Pirates?" The black haired woman repeated with confusion. "But I thought they disbanded after their captain was executed almost three years ago."

"Who cares." Buggy interjected curtly. "Let's just get over there and steal their treasure already."

"Aye aye, Captain." Cabaji and Mohji finally spoke, doing so together to let their captain to know they were on it.

---

Once ashore, Buggy and crew, minus Richie since he couldn't fit, wasted no time in raiding the pirate ship, which upon making landfall they had quickly found to be deserted. Alvida and Morgan opted to remain on the shore instead of boarding the empty ship, one of them simply looking around and taking in their surroundings, the female of the two, and the other staring hard up at the jolly roger of the abandoned boat, almost as if he was trying to burn holes in the thing. Needless to say, he was deep in thought as he did this.

Because of that, he failed to notice as something caught Alvida's eye and she walked over to it. "Hmm?" She wondered aloud, coming to a stop before the item in question, examining it as she did.

It appeared to be a makeshift spear made up of a long wooden shaft, most likely fastened from part of one of the trees that were clearly numerous on the island, and a battered and worn blade from some kind of sword strapped to the end. What really caught the female pirate's attention though was the small purple bear paw print upon the weapon.

At the same time as she saw this mark, Buggy came stomping out of the empty pirate ship, clearly upset as he did, his crew following behind. The reason for this was rather obvious, nevertheless, the clown pirate let his reason for distress be known. "There wasn't even a single stinking berri onboard!"

"Maybe it was taken inland by the crew that manned the ship?" Cabaji offered, hoping to keep his captain calm. As when it came to treasure, he got rather emotional, whether it was joy and excitement or anger and frustration simply depended on the situation.

"Well, whoever was here..." Alvida began, getting everyone's attention as she did. "They seem to have had the misfortune of running into the Bear Claw Tribe." She continued, pulling the makeshift spear out of the ground and presenting it to the others so they could get a good look at it. "So they're most likely dead. We won't even be able to find so much as a corpse." She remarked. "The Bezan Black being completely empty makes sense now." She added.

"And why is that?" Buggy inquired grumpily, still severely disappointed by the lack of treasure aboard the Bezan Black.

"Because the Bear Claw Tribe are cannibals." Alvida informed him and everyone else bluntly, tossing the spear a few feet in front of her, it hitting the ground just a few inches or so from Mohji, the blade going halfway into the ground before the momentum came to an end.

"AHHHHH!" The entirety of the Buggy Pirates, minus Cabaji, cried in fright, Mohji especially as he nearly jumped out of his skin as the spear almost hit him, which in turn caused his swordsman rival to burst into a fit of laughter at the white haired man's expense.

"It isn't funny you asshole!" Mohji quickly exclaimed after composing himself, his anger with the unicyclist abundant. For all his words did, he might as well as have said nothing, the two different shades of green hair having man just continuing to laugh his ass off at his fellow crewmen's fear. "I wasn't scared or anything, just shocked!" The so called beast tamer wasn't the least bit convincing as he said this.

"So, what do you want to do?" The only female amongst them queried, looking toward Buggy as she did. "Do we go looking inland, or do we just get back on the ship and leave?" By the tone of her voice it was clear she didn't mind either way.

"Just forget it, if these bastards don't have any treasure then I don't want nothin to do with'em." The clown pirate replied with a frown and a dismissive wave.

Surprisingly enough, it was Morgan that protested to this. "No, we go inland."

"Excuse me!? I'm the one who gives the orders!" Buggy objected, clearly annoyed, stepping toward the other man as he did.

"Not to me you don't, as you simply can't compare to my greatness!" The whitish blonde haired man remonstrated stubbornly, taking a step forward also.

Just before Buggy could open his mouth, which would surely lead to another screaming match between the two men, Alvida intervened. "Now, now, boys, what have I told you about fighting?" Smiling at them, she stepped forward to stand between them, the two backing off a few moments afterward. "You two can tear one and other apart if you really must, but only after we've found and dealt with Luffy, alright?"

Neither gave an affirmative answer, but their scoffs and the fact that they no longer appeared to be ready to lunge at each other said what needed to be said. "Now Morgan, why is it that you want to go inland?" She questioned him.

"None of your business." Was his gruff response.

"Come now, if you tell us we can get it done quicker and be on our way." She attempted to persuade him.

"I said it was none of your business bitch!" The axe handed man spat angrily at her.

At that the usually very pleasant woman's eyes became dark as a look of rage came upon her face. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Alvida produced a big iron spiked club and proceeded to ram it into the side of the former marine's head, jumping up a little as she did so. "I was trying to keep things civil you prick!" She exclaimed as he was knocked hard to the ground, skidding across the ground for several feet as he did.

The spikes were rather dull so they failed to pierce his flesh, but the wallop he received had most definitely knocked Morgan for a loop, evidence of that fact coming in the form of his guttural yell of pain and the fact that it took him a few moments before he began getting to his feet.

Meanwhile, Buggy was nearly in tears, laughing so hard that he was almost doubled over. "That's what you get you bastard!" He said between laughs.

As Morgan did begin the climb to his feet, there were curses of Alvida and Buggy along with a string of profanities, however, even once upright again, he made no move to retaliate against her. Why? Simple, he knew it was completely pointless and that to attack her would just be an utter waste of time and energy. After all, her devil fruit ability kept her from sustaining any damage. "Fucking devil fruit users..." The all black wearing man muttered to himself in aggravation, as since meeting his first devil fruit user, Luffy, his life had gone to shit, as Buggy and Alvida followed and they made things even worse for him. Buggy especially...'I swear I'm going to kill that clown one day.' He thought to himself.

"Now then, feel like cooperating!?" The angry green eyed beauty asked.

Turning his head to the side, the former marine proceeded to spit out the blood that had accumulated in his mouth. Looking back toward her, he begrudgingly agreed. "Fine."

While Morgan went on to explain his reason for wanting to go inland, telling them of his history with the Black Cat Pirates, the entirety of the Buggy Pirates, their captain being the only exception, sweatdropped at what they had just seen. 'She's as scary as the captain.' They all thought privately to themselves, including Richie.

---

Within the hour they managed discover the Bear Claw Tribe's home village, it consisting of roughly two dozen spaced out huts built from wood and straw, as well as one quite large hut and a large campfire-like setup with large stones and big logs, as well as an oversized cooking pot, easily big enough to fit a large group of human beings inside of. Though not a one of them really registered these details, as they were too busy staring at the carnage around them.

Men of varying ages and sizes were scattered about the area, all wearing similar peculiar hairstyles and the same outfit, said outfit consisting of a blue and purple striped shirt, torn up grass skirt, a grass necklace, a long scarf-like cloth tied around the neck and plain sandals. Another thing they had in common? They were soaked to the bone in their own blood, their clothes and flesh alike torn all to hell. The husks that were their bodies could barely be described as so, as they looked more akin to carved up meat than humans. Needless to say, they all knew that there wasn't a single living member of the Bear Claw Tribe left, as none of them were naïve enough to believe such a thing for even a moment.

"Holy shit..." One Buggy pirate muttered to himself.

"What the actual fuck!?" Another exclaimed in shock and horror.

"My god!" A third couldn't help but say aloud, taken completely off guard by it all.

It was a disturbing sight to most of the Buggy Pirates, as while they had seen their captain kill plenty of people, and they themselves had done their fair share of killing, they had never seen anything quite as brutal as this. It was a massacre, there was no other way to describe it. Corpses were strewn about all over the place, blood bathed the ground...it was a sight that was completely foreign to them. Slaughter...that was the word for it.

And the person responsible for it was all too clear, as he was the only one left alive. He stood in the middle of the bloodbath, his back to them as he affixed several of the blades from the Bear Claw Tribe's makeshift spears to the glove he wore on his right hand. Even upon hearing their voices he made no move to rush, his attention solely on making sure the blades were secure and weren't going anywhere anytime soon, clearly not the least bit worried or bothered by their presence. He clearly didn't think them any kind of threat.

Once he was finished attaching the blades, he turned around to face the group of people who had stumbled upon his little mess. And as he did, Morgan's eyes widened to their fullest and his jaw dropped nearly to the floor, no longer able to deny the truth of who this man was, having been doing so since he had arrived on the island. 'Kuro is dead, I captured him and he was executed.' He kept repeating to himself over and over again in an attempt to combat the mounting suspicion building up within him. Said suspicion skyrocketed the moment he saw all of the blood, and seeing that man, even from the back, he knew the truth, deep down. Face to face with him like this though, there was no room left for doubt and he could no longer remain in denial.

Kuro was alive, and here he stood before him. He looked considerably different, very disheveled, what with his slicked back hair now wild and untamed, his signature glasses missing entirely and his suit jacket wide open, the tie gone altogether and his shirt only half closed, not to mention the fact that he had large splotches of blood all across his form. His appearance was in stark contrast to the well put together and almost dapper way he used to look, the differences extending even to clothing choice as only the gloves he wore at the moment were a part of his wardrobe almost three years ago. And yet there was no denying that this man was Kuro, the Man of a Thousand Plans, very much alive and in the flesh.

"What happened here? Just why did you do this?" Buggy couldn't help but inquire, having seen such savagery before but never indulging in it himself. While not disturbed by it like most of his crew, he was somewhat unsettled by it, mostly because he hadn't expected to see it in the weakest of the seas, the East Blue. Besides, he didn't see the point in this kind of brutality, he preferred simple kills. Or clean ones, like with his Buggy Balls.

"Why?" The man in question repeated. "Simple. They made the mistake of thinking they could make a meal out of me. So, I in turn allowed my Cat Claw to feast on their blood." The ridiculous amount of blood that covered the blades of his weapon, the one he hadn't jerry rigged, accentuated his statement.

At least ninety percent of Buggy's crew looked ready to wet themselves at those words. Cabaji and Mohji looking perturbed, while Buggy and Alvida looked a tad uncomfortable themselves. As for Morgan...

"I-impossible, ho-how could y-you po-possibly be...?" Morgan began, finally finding his voice as he picked his jaw up off the floor and stuttered in complete and utter disbelief. "How...? Ju-just how are you alive! TELL ME KURO!" Morgan demanded, his disbelief warping into rage almost instantaneously.

The wild looking man, instead of attacking or giving some crazy ass response like many thought he would, simply looked toward the former marine and quirked a brow at him, as if just noticing his presence. "Morgan? I must admit, I didn't expect to run into you again, especially here." By his tone it was clear he wasn't even mildly concerned. He sounded almost bored actually.

Snarling like a wild animal, Morgan's body visibly tensed as his rage flowed through him. He looked almost like he would explode actually, as if he was having a meltdown, which would be attributed to his abundance of anger and shock and the restraint he was trying to use to keep himself from attacking so he could get the answers he wanted. "ANSWER ME GODDAMNIT! HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE!?"

"You'd think it'd be obvious at this point." The deathly calm man started. "I never even came close to dying in the first place, you muscle bound imbecile." He finished derisively.

"EXCUSE ME!?" Morgan cried. "EXPLAIN YOU SCUM, NOW!" He ordered at the top of his lungs.

Frowning now, Kuro continued to speak on the subject. "You truly don't get it do you?" He questioned rhetorically. "You never captured me, let alone defeated me. That was just what you believed, what I wanted you and the rest of the world to believe. No, what happened that day was nothing more than the beginning of one of my plans, a simple bait and switch." He expounded. "To be honest, it could have been anyone I set up as the 'Hero' who captured 'Captain Kuro', it was just by chance that I chose you. You just happened to survive your unit's assault on my ship, so I picked you. Jango hypnotized you into believing you captured me, then our shipwright Nugire Yainu into believing he was the infamous Captain Kuro, then sent you two on your way, simple as that." He elucidated, obviously not the slightest bit worried about revealing such information with the way he was just giving it out.

Morgan, once more seeming like an animal, audibly growled at this. His anger was at an all time high, and he truly had no idea what was stopping him from completely losing it. Desire for further explanation? Shock? Or perhaps...just maybe...it was the tiny bit of fear he felt in the pit of his stomach? "WHY YOU DIRTY SUNUVA BITCH!" He screamed as loud as possible, enraged by this. If this got out, he would be even further discredited, as his feat of capturing Kuro the Man of a Thousand Plans was the whole reason he was promoted to the rank of captain in the first place. He may no longer be a marine, but to have his greatest achievement stripped from him would still be far too humiliating for him to endure. He was great, possibly the greatest, he refused to be slandered and defamed in such a way.

Seeing the plentitude of the blonde's rage, Kuro's frown faded, his face taking the cold, emotionless expression that was the norm for him. "I can see you're trembling with anger. You honestly believed you had bested me and earned that rank I heard you were so damn proud of, didn't you?" The dark haired man queried mockingly. "How foolish." He added contemptuously "You never had any hope of beating me, not with your pitiful strength and inferior intellect." He ridiculed. "But you were just simply too stupid to realize that." He taunted him. "And clearly, that hasn't changed." Kuro ended with a jeer.

Morgan's pride was beyond simply wounded, almost crushed into dust by all the things this pirate had to say. But far worse than that was that...this man had broken his jaw to the point where he would need a brace for the rest of his life, and had taken his right hand from him that fateful day almost three years ago. And as it turns out, he never got his retribution, instead being used like a pawn in this damn man's game. And now, here he was mocking him, belittling him. He had never felt so much shame and anger in his entire life. Any fear he felt, if any, was smothered completely by these emotions. "You...You...I...I WILL KILL YOU KURO!" He bellowed with a copious amount of fury, a vein visibly bulging in the side of his neck, his eyes having become seriously bloodshot as he finally snapped and went charging at the bloody man.

Sprinting at top speed, Morgan brought his axe over head, raising it as high as he could before leaping into the air, quickly coming back down while giving a wordless battle cry and bringing his axe-hand racing back down as well. Kuro was ready for him though, raising his original cat claw to block the incoming momentum heavy strike, the metal of the five katana blades meeting the metal of the axe with a rather loud clang, the steel almost singing from the impact. Kuro didn't budge an inch upon impact though, despite the axe-handed man's efforts.

As their weapons clashed both men held strong, the former marine's feet firmly on the ground again, neither so much as flinching as they pitted their strength against one and other, pushing their weapons against each other with all their might. It seemed to be a deadlock, at least for the first few moments or so, that is until the dark haired man flexed his hand, clinking the under pressure blades together, and proceeded to redirect his enemy's axe, using his power and his weapon to divert the steel made cutting instrument.

The taller man almost stumbled as his attack was subverted, using that to his advantage, Kuro brought his slapped together cat claw up to do some damage. And as he brought it down, his opponent had no choice but to take the slashes to the chest, only able to take a single step back so as to prevent the wound he received from being fatal.

Hissing in pain, Morgan ignored the blood seeping from the five marks on his chest and brought his axe hand to the side, intending to swipe at the lighter skinned man and catch him by his neck, aiming to rend his head from his shoulders. But it wasn't to be, as the former black cat pirate swayed out of harms way, forcing his light haired opponent to pay for his miss with another stroke of one of his cat claws, this time tearing into the flesh of his right arm, blood oozing from the new lacerations.

Cursing in a combination of pain and frustration, Morgan opted not to go with his axe first this time, pulling it back while lunging towards his shorter adversary, his left arm cocked back for a strong left straight. When he threw the punch it was dodged, easily avoided by his target, but he had been counting on that and had his axe in swing at the same time.

Kuro saw what he was trying to do almost immediately, even still, he only just managed to move out of the way and avoid sustaining any serious injury. Regardless, the axe did manage to knick the side of his face, blood beginning to trickle from it almost immediately. Frowning once more, Kuro was clearly annoyed by the fact that his own blood had finally joined the total of the ruby red substance spilled this day. That didn't stop him from parrying the incoming blow from his would be captor, nor did it keep him from engaging him further in combat, as while it was irritating that this occurred, it wasn't a big deal, not really, at least not enough to make him angry or distract him.

From there the two continued this dance of theirs for a few minutes, before something peculiar happened...

Bloodied and bruised, Morgan huffed in exertion, forcing himself to come to a stop, skidding somewhat as he did. Recovering from the hard kick he had just received to the chest from Kuro, who in comparison was relatively unharmed beside a few knicks here and there and a single bruise on his face, the former marine prepared to go at the furry gloves wearing man again.

Tearing up the dirt with his movements, the metal-jawed man came running at his bloody yet rather uninjured fellow combatant, his fury only having increased as the difference in their strength and speed was thrown in his face and shoved down his throat over and over again every time they clashed. "I...WILL...WIN! I...WILL...EXECUTE YOU!" He shouted as he prepared to attack once again.

Needless to say, Kuro didn't look convinced. "I think it's about time we end this." He commented, sounding bored once more. "Prepare to die." He stated bluntly, raising his right cat claw as he prepared to deliver a lethal blow. Only, he never got the chance, for as soon as the blades were in the air and fully extended, the former pirate captain's eyes widened and he proceeded to double over, hitting the ground hard knees first, and was struck with a horrible coughing fit.

His eyes dilated as his body was wracked with intense pain from the inside, almost a mouthful of blood coming up and splattering onto the ground with every cough, hacking it up in a rather dangerous quantity. 'Not now!' The former cat themed pirate thought frantically.

Not that this strange occurrence deterred the former marine captain in the slightest, bringing his axe overhead as he closed the last bit of distance between him and Kuro, ready to finally take the man's life. "DIIIIIEEEEE KUUUROOO!" He cried at the very top of his lungs.

Looking up, doing so just as the violent coughing fit ended, the Man of a Thousand Plans came face to face with the steel axe of Axe-Hand Morgan, the weapon seeking his death. Only it never got it, as at the last moment, someone intervened.

"Hold up!" Alvida shouted, her shout ringing out beside the noise of steel meeting iron as the axe-hand met her club.

"Huh!? You!?" Morgan said in shock, before his fury flooded in. "What the hall do you think you're doing!?" He exclaimed furiously.

"Yeah, what's the big idea!? It was just getting to the good part!" Buggy complained, vexed that the fight had been broken up. Why? Because he, and just about every member of his crew as well, had been chanting fight, fight, fight and egging the two combatants on, not that they had paid the pirates any attention as they fought.

"WHY'D YOU STOP THE FIGHT!?" Questioned the entirety of the Buggy Pirate crew, minus the clown himself, simultaneously.

"You better start talking, otherwise you'll die too! I don't care how long it takes, I'll find a way to get around that ability of yours! I'll fucking drown you somehow if need be!" Morgan threatened, his extreme anger all too clear.

Rather than retaliate or respond to that threat, the beautiful woman went ahead and explained herself. "Think about it Morgan, this man is Kuro, the Man of a Thousand Plans. Not only would his physical prowess increase our fighting ability, but his mind would all but assure our victory, when combined with all our might of course. With him on our side, there isn't a single chance we could lose. We should have him join the alliance, not waste this opportunity by killing him."

Morgan snarled, his vehement protest to the idea a second away from leaving his mouth. Yet, before he could, someone else did.

"And just what makes you think I'll join you?" Kuro inquired with irritation as he rose to his feet, flexing his cat claws as he did, as a form of intimidation. He had no qualms about killing them all, that much anyone could see.

"This." Alvida answered immediately, turning her eyes to Kuro, but never dropping her guard in case Morgan managed to break away from her club and tried to attack their possible new ally. As she did, she produced Luffy's bounty from her bikini top.

"That boy...!" Kuro hissed, his face contorting with rage and aggravation, as well as some surprise, thanks to the amount of the teen's bounty.

"You know who he is, I thought so. I had a feeling that you might have ran into him, considering all that he gets up to and all, not to mention you have this sense of...defeat around you. I figured he was responsible for that."

Growling, the normally composed man let his own anger show through.

"Now, now, don't make that face at me. I'm not mocking you, rest assured." The club wielding woman assured him. "No, rather I'm making you an offer. Join us, join our alliance, and together we can get revenge on this man for what he did to each of us. If we work together, he won't stand a chance. But for it to work, it'll take all of us. We thought we could do it without you, but now...I'm not so sure. But with you, I'm certain that we can accomplish our goal. And surely that appeals to you, as you want to see Straw Hat dead too, right?" She paused for a moment, as if waiting for his answer, but went on to finish regardless of not receiving one. "So...will you join?"

Kuro failed to respond, simply glaring at the poster of Luffy as Morgan went on a verbal tirade about how he would never work with him, though nobody really listened to a word he said as he did. The darkly dressed man's eyes then moved to Alvida, glaring at her now, before returning back to the picture of the one who defeated him and crushed his nearly three year long plan. Soon enough though, his face returned to it's neutral state, calm and stone-like. As it did, he turned his eyes to Morgan, then to Buggy and his crew, then back to Alvida, and finally back to the bounty poster once more. No longer glaring, he gazed long and hard at the smiling face of the teenager who ruined everything for him, his mind going a million miles an hour. He continued to do this, until he finally came to a decision.

"..."

---

Twenty four hours later...

"It's a passenger ship." Mohji stated.

"Yeah, we could see that." Alvida replied.

"Question is, why are they flying a white flag?" Cabaji wondered aloud.

"Isn't it obvious? Clearly they saw the jolly roger of the infamous Buggy Pirates and began cowering in their boots and trying not to wet themselves! To try and appease us, they raised a white flag to let us know they surrender and won't put up any resistance as we plunder whatever booty they possess!" Buggy explicated before beginning to cackle amusedly at the notion. Mohji and Cabaji in turn grinned widely at that, instantly agreeing with their captain and liking his idea of what was going on.

"Sure, that must be it." Morgan commented with a roll of his eyes. "Stupid fucking clown." He remarked further, his annoyance clear.

Ignoring the former marine's words, Buggy's laughter came to an end as he barked, "Alright men, prepare to board that ship! We've got goodies to steal!"

"YEAH!" They all shouted their approval together.

"Morons, can't you see this is a trap?" Kuro queried. "They're waving the white flag but are only now within our field of vision. Not to mention the fact that there is clearly not a single person on deck of that ship. It's obviously some kind of ambush." He informed them, pushing up his new pair of glasses as he did, so as to prevent them from falling off his face. Speaking of which, besides the glasses, which were identical to his original pair, he also now wore a long sleeve white button up shirt, a pair of black slacks, as well as retaining his original black and white striped shoes.

What were they all going on about exactly? The fact that a large passenger ship, most likely a cruise ship, was not only close to the Big Top, but close enough to see all the details of it clearly with the naked eye, and was flying a white flag of surrender. And as Kuro had pointed out, there wasn't a single person standing on deck of said ship.

Alvida purposely moved back, to stand in the seven or so feet of distance between Morgan and Kuro, just in case they tried to go at each other again. Now, while she was confident in her abilities of persuasion, having gotten the former captain of the black cat pirates to agree to work with them until Luffy had been taken care of, as well as having promised Morgan she would let him kill Kuro afterward, even help him if need be, the glasses wearing man not needing to know she said such a thing, there was still a sliver of a chance they would go back on their agreement and try to kill each other again. Because of that, she would consciously stand between them from time to time.

"I have to agree, this is most certainly a trap. But knowing that's not gonna stop you, is it?" She inquired, looking toward Buggy as she did.

"Hell no! Not when there's a chance to get some loot anyway!" Buggy admitted jovially, "Now, who's coming with me?" He questioned them all with a large grin.

---

In the end, the boarding party was made up of Buggy, Morgan, Alvida and Kuro. With Cabaji and Mohji staying behind to guard the ship with the rest of the crew, in case the objective of this whole trap they were walking into was to steal their boat. Admittedly though, sending these four, especially with tensions between Kuro and Morgan as well as Buggy and Morgan seemed a not so bright idea, with Alvida there to keep them from killing each other though it seemed plausible that things could go right. As to whether they actually would or not, well...

Not even a full minute after they stepped aboard the civilian ship did things go wrong, as someone leapt out from where they were hiding, not bothering to even speak a word before attacking, doing so with a relatively large sword. With a big swing, this person, who they could immediately tell was a man, proceeded to behead one of them, quickly moving to attack again afterward. Another swing and they cleaved one of the others in half, not wasting any time in going after the other two, delivering a slash to kill them both at the same time. Or at least, that's what the man had intended to do. What actually happened was this...

With a cry of shock and mild fear, Buggy's head was separated from his shoulders as the blade of the sword attempted to, but ultimately failed, to harm him.

Alvida hardly noticed as the big blade of the somewhat large sword slipped across her skin, having been swung with the intent to end her life, but ended up doing nothing more than sliding across her skin without leaving so much as a scratch on it's silky smooth surface.

As for Morgan and Kuro, who were both being targeted at the same time, they raised their weapons, the former pirate of the two only raising his original cat claw rather than both, and proceeded to block the incoming slash, killing the momentum of the blade instantly as the steel of all the weapons clanged loudly against each other.

Grunting in aggravation, the assailant quickly jumped back away from the four, the alliance taking in his appearance as he did this. He was larger than the average man, tall and muscular with short cut grey hair that was rather unkempt, long sideburns and some light to moderate stubble. He wore dirty light purple pants and a singed, torn and beat up brown long sleeve shirt, the left sleeve all but nonexistent thanks to the damage it had sustained, as well as a single golden, diamond encrusted gauntlet on his left hand. The most eye catching thing about his appearance though was that his right arm hung limp at his side, clearly broken, and even more so were the second degree burns alongside the left side of his body, more specifically down his face and trailing across his arm, stopping at the gauntlet. The skin of these affected areas was red and sparsely covered in blisters.

"Damn you cursed devil fruit users!" The man exclaimed angrily, obviously speaking of Buggy, as the clown's head reattached itself, and Alvida, who hadn't so much as batted an eye yet, as no normal people could take slashes like that and come out unharmed, not so much as a drop of blood spilled.

"Foul Play Krieg." Alvida addressed him, recognizing him despite the state he was in and the lack of his infamous armor. "There's no other way to say this, you look like shit." She stated bluntly.

Krieg growled at that, tightening the grip on his large blade, the others believing it to be a type of Zweihander by it's appearance.

"You're lucky I can't be hurt by that stupid sword of yours, otherwise I'd kill you asshole!" Buggy blustered in an attempt to regain face. Needless to say, it did very little to do so.

"Foul Play Krieg?" Morgan repeated. "So this is the mightiest pirate in all the East Blue huh? How pitiful." He denigrated.

"This is what passed for the strongest while I was gone? Pathetic." Kuro remarked with disdain.

Snarling with rage, Krieg raised his sword. "You dare talk to me like that!? I am the strongest man in the world!" He boasted, lunging at them once more as he did.

With a quick slash he cut Buggy in half, followed up by an attempted beheading of Alvida, which ended with his blade slipping right off her skin. "And I don't take lightly to scum like you talking down to me!" He added, keeping himself from stumbling, righting his weapon and thrusting it at Morgan, who blocked it by meeting the tip of the sword head on with the flat of his axe. "Funny, I was just about to say the same thing!" The whitish blonde haired man shot back, using his strength to shove the cutting tool away from him.

Recovering quickly, so as to prevent a counter attack, the grey haired man kicked out at the former marine, nailing his axe dead center, causing him to take half a step back as he blocked the blow. Using that his advantage, Krieg turned to Kuro, lashing out at him before he was even fully facing him. "I will not be made a fool of, not again! YOU WILL ALL DIE!" He declared, his blood boiling and his eyes visibly bloodshot. The glasses wearing man was ready however, and met the big sword head on with his original cat claw, keeping it at bay long enough for him to launch an attack of his own, flicking his wrist and slicing Don from head to toe with his makeshift cat claw. "You couldn't kill a kitten with those sloppy movements of yours." The dark haired man ridiculed.

"AUUGHH!" Krieg shouted in pain as his shirt was damaged even further, his pants were finally ripped into and five new wounds were inflicted upon his body, blood seeping from them immediately after they entered into existence.

Staggering backwards, he had no time to defend himself as Axe-Hand's axe hand was imbedded into his right shoulder, nearly cleaving his arm off, blood spurting from the wound as he cried out in even more pain, this surge more intense than the last. "You don't stand a chance against even a single one of us you filth. Trying to ambush us, by yourself no less, was the last mistake you'll ever make." The metal jawed man informed his enemy, before tearing his axe out of his flesh.

Fighting to stay on his feet, Krieg stumbled and staggered, intent on attacking again as he refused to let go of his weapon. "I will not be defeated, not this time dammit! You..." His voice tapered off, his body throbbing in protest to the exertion it was under. "...I won't lose again, I REFUSE!" He exclaimed at the top of his lungs, lifting his blade haphazardly and striking out with it, not caring who it hit, just as long as it hit them.

It was intercepted by Alvida, using her club rather than allowing it to hit her skin and proceed to skim off her. "You won't lose again?" She repeated, putting special emphasis on the again as she did. "So you lost before then? I mean I figured as much but-" She was unable to finish as the injured man screamed at her, "Don't you mock me bitch!" Trying to pull back, he stumbled some more, before slashing at her again, only to be blocked for the umpteenth time.

"I'm not mocking you." She told him as calmly as possible, feeling irritated about the bitch comment making it just a little tough to do so. "I was wondering who beat you and wanted to confirm that you in fact had been beaten in the first place. If it wasn't clear before, it certainly is now, you reaction made that certain." Snarling once more, he moved to attack further. "Would you just hold on a moment? She queried.

He didn't give any real response, but the fact that he stopped trying to pull away to swing at her once more must have meant something. So, she lowered her club and took the poster out of her bikini top. "Was he the one who defeated you?" She inquired, showing him Luffy's bounty as she did.

Eyes widening to the size of dinner plates, they became almost crimson red with how bloodshot they were, the owner of them yelling as he registered who he was seeing. "IT'S THAT FUCKING BRAT!"

"So you do know him? Guess I should have seen that coming." The slender woman said to herself, tucking the paper away once again.

"RAGH!" Krieg roared wordlessly as he tried for another strike, whilst his target was busy stashing the poster into her bikini top. Only to be intercepted once more, this time by Buggy, blocking the sword with eight knives, each tucked between the spaces of his fingers.

"Whoa, hold up there big guy." Buggy told Krieg, as he continued to try and push through with strength alone, to no avail. "The sight of that punk pisses me off too, but you shouldn't go attacking us. After all, we all want the same thing." The clown pirate explained. "We want Straw Hat dead just as much as you do."

"Is that so!?" Krieg wondered aloud, if a bit angrily, yet to stop trying to overwhelm his opponent with his strength as he did, and yet to accomplish it.

"Oh yeah, we want him six feet under more than anything. I mean, it's not just you who he's screwed over ya know?" The big red nosed man elucidated. "We can all sympathize with the way you're feeling." He added.

Don seemed to ease up at that, barely keeping his blade in contact with the blue haired man's knives as he continued to speak. "Because of that, we all decided to team up. Ya know, take the bastard on together. With great pirates the likes of us all in one place, not only will it make for one hell of a flashy show, it'll also guarantee our victory against the rubber moron." Buggy asserted with a nasty grin. "He won't stand a chance against all of us."

"Like I'd stoop to becoming pirate scum like y-" Morgan began to protest, only to be cut off by Alvida, who raised her club and told him to be quiet. It didn't work of course, but it got him arguing with her rather than interrupting and possibly ruining Buggy's try at recruitment.

Seeing the uncertainty in Krieg, Buggy continued to lay it on thick. "Think about it, Iron Club Alvida, Buggy The Clown, Axe-Hand Morgan, Kuro the Man Of A Thousand Plans and Foul Play Krieg, all fighting together in one place. It would be the stuff of legends. No one could hope to stand against us. Hell, with all of our power, we could conquer the whole fricking world! Hahahahaha! Join our alliance, with the five of us together, we could do anything!"

Don Krieg seemed to think it over for a few moments, until he lowered his weapon. "Fine, I'll join this alliance of yours. But don't think for a single moment I'll be taking any orders from any of you." He warned them, looking rather aggravated about what he was doing. It was clear he didn't want to join, but thought it his best chance to get revenge. He was a member begrudgingly, but he was now a member regardless.

That said, he walked away, heading down below deck, most likely to get something, not that any of the others knew what. As he did, Alvida, who had finished bickering with Morgan a moment or so ago, spoke up, "Not bad Buggy. Not bad at all."

"Why thank you Alvida."

"It seems you're finally getting into the groove of being in alliance." She commented.

"You could be right." Buggy admitted. "But really, I just want to insurance that we'll be able to pull this off. That damn Straw Hat, he's a pest that needs to be stomped already."

"I think it's safe to say you aren't the only one who feels that way." Alvida told him, her eyes wandering to Kuro and Morgan, then to the door Krieg had used to go below deck.

"No, I guess I'm not." Buggy agreed with another nasty smile. 'You're dead Straw Hat.' He thought to himself then with certainty.

---

To Be Continued...