Orange town laid in ruins, like the buildings had been hit with tnt. As they approached the ruined island, another explosion went off from the highest point of the island, the blast destroyed another building in the distance.
"This must be buggy's territory"
"Who is buggy?" Asked the captain whilst Zoro asked, "how do you figure?"
"Buggy the clown, an infamous pirate with a bounty of 15.000.000 berry. Not many know this but Buggy has developed an explosive cannon ball called the buggy ball. That explosion looked like what I imagined a buggy ball to work"
"And how do you know about these 'buggy balls'?" Zoro's eyes narrowed.
"My nickname, what is it?"
"What does that-?"
"Just answer", he glared at Zoro.
"Marine bane… did you-?"
"Yes, I procured this information from one of the marine ships I raided. The crew was all too happy to give me intel after I disassembled their precious ensign. Tehuhuhuhu!" Izu laughed, a deep, hearty sound which resonated through the air.
"Your power is insane, do you know that? The captain might be rubber but he still has to punch things like regular people. You? You need to touch someone. And you don't even get weak in the sea… utterly broken" Zoro took another sip from his booze.
"Yeah, in the east blue, I'm nearly unbeatable but I do have weaknesses. Can't do anything long range, if the enemy is to fast to be grabbed or if they have strong enough haki, they can resist my power" he explained. That haki thing was just speculation but as Kaido said 'haki transcends all', so it was a reasonable assumption to make.
"And what is haki?"
"It is what separates the strong from the true monsters. I know about it but do not possess it, not yet" Izu looked serious as they docked their ship, "you know what we are doing, if buggy is truly here?"
"Beat him up to increase our infamy?"
"Indeed. I don't think we should kill this one though", Izu liked Buggy's character, it would be a shame to kill him off like that.
"Why so?"
"If we kill everyone we meet, our journey won't be an adventure anymore, it would be a rampage, you want an adventure, right Captain?"
"Right!" Luffy nodded, "let's beat up this boogie"
"It's buggy!"
"Yeah, yeah, Like I said, boogie"
"Tehuhuhu", Izu chuckled.
They saw no one, not even the dog. Walking through those streets, it felt depressing. Gardens overgrown, flowers withered, buildings blown to smithereens.
'And here I thought I was ruthless. Seeing it in an anime and actually walking through the ruins are two very different things. I can kill men without mercy and yet this tugs at my heartstrings. A fickle thing, the mind' he was deep in thought. In the distance, they could see the tents which the buggy pirates had put up.
"What are you doing out here?!" Mayor Boodle grappled the three and pulled them in an alleyway, "the names Boodle, in this towns mayor. But really, what were you thinking? you could've died out there! You newcomers probably don't know but buggy the clown has set up shop here!"
"Oh we know", Izu chuckled.
"Then why did you come? Do you not value your lives? Don't you see the damage that this monster has brought upon us?"
"We are here to take Buggy down", Zoro explained, hand on his swords.
"Bounty hunters? You are way over your heads here, Buggy is no average pirate-" another boom echoed, "he has been firing these explosions more frequently today. Do you see how they annihilate the buildings? What do you think would happen if you were hit by one of those blasts? No bounty is worth that"
"We are not bounty hunters silly, we are pirates", Luffy said with a big grin on his face.
Mayor boodle jumped back a few feet, "p- p- pirates?! Wait aren't you-?"
He pulled out a few crumpled wanted posters. Izu could see Arlong, Don Krieg, buggy of course and finally Izu himself, "M- m- marine bane Zawa D Izu?! Great, either you die fighting Buggy and he lets his anger out on us or we get new 'rulers', why can't things ever go our way"
"We won't rule over you like Boogie does. Where is the fun in ruling over some island in the east blue? I want to be king of the pirates, I need to go to the grandline!" There it was again, that shit eating grin.
"King of the pirates? Grand line? You are insane, I'm out of here!" Boodle ran away, leaving the three crew members to continue walking to Buggy's hideout. Now that they knew there were people there, they spotted civilians hiding in the alleyways. They looked scared, so very scared.
'Soon you will be free and you will be hailing the strawhat pirates as your saviours. Not the marines, not some bounty hunters but us pirates'
As they ascended, they saw the scene, Buggy the clown, Red nose and all, gloating over a girl in a cage, a very familiar girl in a cage, "you won't get away that easily! You stole from me. The sentence is death!"
"The little thief could also repay us some other way, Buggy sama, look at her petite frame, if I could get me hands on her, the things I would- urgh!" One of buggy's crew said before his hands went to his throat. Buggy's floating hand was strangeling him.
"If one of you ever suggests something like that again, you are done. We are pirates, not rapists. Now ready the Buggy Ball!"
"Hey, what's going on here?" Luffy asked, drawing the attention of the Buggy pirates.
"And who might you think you are?"
"Captain, look at that green haired guy, isn't that Roronoa Zoro?"
"Ah, pirate hunter Zoro, here to claim my bounty?"
"I gave up bounty hunting, I have no interest in you"
"Well I am interested in you, pirate hunter! Killing you will be a nice feather in my cap", Buggy cackled.
"Back off before I pluck all of your feathers"
"Give me all you got, Zoro, because I'm about to get a look of your blood!" Buggy drew his knives and rushed forward.
"You asked for it!" They rushed at each other and Zoro sliced him clean in two.
In the meantime, Luffy and Izu approached Nami in her cage.
"So, you are a thief?" Luffy asked.
"I only steal from pirates and bandits but yeah", she sighed, thankful that she was no longer under threat of being blown to sky high at the moment.
"I like you, do you want to join my crew?"
"Your crew? No way, I hate pirates, I would never-"
"Well it is either that or die at the hands of Buggy and I don't think you-" Izu spoke but at that moment, Buggy was cut in two.
"Huh, that was easy", Luffy grinned like an idiot.
"Hmpf, this was disappointing…" Zoro glanced at the crew only to see none of the Buggy Pirates panicking, "what is- urgh!"
Buggy's floating hand stabbed Zoro in the back.
"Bwahahaha!" The crew laughed as the hand flew away.
"That hand, its floating?!"
"The chop chop fruit! That's the devil fruit I ate! You slice and dice me but you can't kill me! I'm a chop chop man!" Buggy's body parts rejoined.
"Chop chop man? That guys a freak!" Luffy said.
"You are a rubber man, you don't count tehuhuhuhu" Izu chuckled.
"Roronoa Zoro! You never stood a chance! I'm a swordsman's worst nightmare, an enemy that can't be cut and now you have suffered a critical wound"
"You are the greatest, captain Buggy! Finish him! Finish him!"
Buggy loaded a Buggy ball into the canon and began aiming.
Izu's eyes widened. They couldn't survive a buggy ball, not without haki.
"Zoro, Luffy, we need to jump!", Izu touched the cage, which disassembled into metal dust and he grabbed Nami. They jumped down just as the Buggy ball exploded. They could feel the heat. From Buggy's perspective, it looked like the crew had been incinerated. Down in the town, they holed up in an abandoned building.
"What was that?! First the guy reassembled after being cut in two and then you disintegrated the cage?! What is going on?!" Nami screamed.
"Have you ever heard of devil fruits?"
"Yeah, but they are just legends, right? Like ghosts or fairies!"
"They are very real, taste terrible though" Luffy did a face, "I'm hungry Izu"
"A few apples coming up captain" he touched a chair, which then turned into ten red, delicious apples, which the captain began munching on.
"How-?!"
"Devil fruit"
"Now that we are out of the danger, let me look at your wound, Zoro"
The wound was a clean slice through him, bleeding profusely but not hitting any major organs, "I could try fixing it with my power but it is risky, I don't know whether it will work, haven't done it before…"
"Just do it"
"This will hurt", Izu placed his hand on Zoro's gut and tried to control his power to only reassemble the wound. Zoro grunted in pain but after he was done, they wiped away the blood, revealing a scar, as if it had healed naturally.
"What do we do now?"
"We fight of course! We know his tricks, he won't get us a second time!"