Buggy is on the deck of the Big Top, watching the Funan siblings try out a new routine, when his Haki suddenly screams at him, the Voice so loud despite the distance that it makes him jump , and he's running towards his cabin before he can even think of it, before he even sees Cabaji running for him, DenDen Mushi in hand.
Not just any DenDen. The specially bred one that connects him with Shanks without anyone being able to overhear their conversation, the special bred of Denden that Mohji and Rockstar had perfected over the years to allow the two of them to stay in contact no matter what, and it's ringing but it's not Shanks' face forming on the snails'd body, it's Benn's and that's only happened once before, when Shanks lost his arm, and Buggy grabs the Denden with barely a nod at his left hand, and rushes into his cabin, closing the door behind him as he takes the call, rummaging through the drawers of his desk.
"Benn, what's going on?" He asks as he grabs a small box out of the drawer. "Is Shanks-"
"Captain Buggy," Benn's voice is hoarse and wet, like he's been screaming and crying recently, and no no no please please Davy Jones and the Sea please don't let this be- "Captain has been captured by the Marines."
Buggy's world goes
W
H
I
T
E.
"What the fuck do you mean, Beckman?" he barks, much ruder than he would usually be with Shanks amazingly level-headed first mate, but this can't be happening, this can't be the truth, there's no way-
"We were attacked by Big Mom and her 'children' three days ago - Captain had declined one of her marriage propositions again and she took offence, and we could have handled it if it was only her, we could have, but- she had back-up. Marine back-up ."
Buggy freezes.
"A trap," he whispers. "It was a trap."
Big Mom to distract and tire them out, injure them as much as she could, with the fresh Marines swooping in to finish them off once she was done, and Buggy didn't think she would fall so low as to ally herself with Marines but apparently he'd been wrong and now Shanks is-
"What happened, Beckman?"
Another drawn in breath, a rattle in his lungs that makes Buggy frown because that's not good, not good at all.
"Captain was hurt, tired - we had been fighting non stop for three days when the Marines showed up, and unlike Big Mom we couldn't afford to rotate with each other, we don't have that number of people, and... Lucky got hurt. Badly. He's still in surgery and Damian doesn't know if-" A sharp breath. "Captain stepped between him and the next attack, ordered a retreat while he covered us. We nearly made it, and then the Marines showed up and-"
"And he ordered you to leave while he bought you some time to escape," Buggy finishes, trying to ignore the sudden panic rushing through his veins, the absolute terror threatening to take over his mind.
"All three admirals, Captain Buggy. They sent all three admirals, and Captain was already injured and Lucky was dying and some of the others were really badly off and-" Benn cuts himself off. "He cut the waters in two, used the water pressure to literally send the Red Force away, and Yasopp saw him getting knocked out by Aokiji and there was so much blood-"
Buggy inhales. One, two, three, four.
(Four, four years since he last saw Shanks in person.)
Holds it for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
(Seven, seven years since Shanks lost his arm and Benn called him in panic because they weren't sure he was going to live through the week)
Exhales. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
(Eight, eight times over the years that Shanks had nearly died under Buggy's hands as he tried desperately to heal him, to stop the bleeding, the infection, the illness-)
Shanks has been captured. Shanks is injured and captive and the Marines have him and-
"There's probably going to be an announcement in the papers in the next few days," Benn says. "I... I didn't want you to hear it from the papers, I... I know you and Captain are close and... you deserved to hear it from us."
Deserved to hear it from us who failed him, Benn doesn't say but Buggy hears it anyway, because Shanks' people are good people and of course Benn would be blaming himself despite the fact that Buggy knows for certain that the Akagami would have done everything they could to save their captain, knows that they were going to do everything they could to try and rescue him before the execution that was no doubt about to be announced by the World Government. Capturing a Yonkou? One who had sailed with Gol D Roger at that? It was going to be a massive affair, no doubt, and it would take time to organise.
Time.
That means that Buggy still has time to do something, time to figure out a way to get Shanks out of this mess alive because the alternative is unacceptable. He's nowhere near ready for this, his position in East Blue not half as strong as he would like it to be given the situation he's about to find himself in, but...
It's Shanks.
It's the person who has been by his side all his life, his brother in all but blood, the other half of his soul, the one who knows him best and saved him so many times, the person who has always meant safety and comfort and love and Buggy cannot imagine a world without him, refuses to, will not accept a world without Akagami no Shanks in it, no matter what.
"What's your status, Benn?" He asks, forcing his voice to remain calm. "How many injured? What do you need? Where are you? How is the Red Force?"
"I..." Benn inhales sharply. "All of us are injured to various degrees. Lucky is still in surgery. Ryu- Ryu lost his left leg at the knee. Rockstar's got some bad third degree burns on his back when he jumped between Damian and Akainu, barely managed to get his Armament up in time but it's never been his strongest suit, that's Observation, and his back is... it's bad. Capu and Castor have severe concussions, some broken ribs as well. Capu's got a bad cut in his stomach and Castor has a broken arm. Yasopp is the least injured of us all, because he's the sniper and fought from a distance, but one of Big Mom's attacks managed to get him and he took some lightning damage from that fucking cloud of hers.The rest have a variety of broken limbs and cuts and bruises, Yasopp, Chess and I have been handling the first aid for now because Damian can't afford to leave Lucky right now and..."
"Benn Beckmann!" Buggy snaps, shocking the man out of his panicked spiral. "Where the fuck are you right now?"
There's a sound of scuffle on the other end, and then suddenly the snail's face changes, Benn's appearance replaced by a hooded face in blue and red, no eyes visible and sharp dragon-like teeth.
"They fucking took him, Blue!" Speed roars into the phone. "They took him and he didn't let me help and now they're all hurt and broken and lost and I can't fix them! Force is injured as well, not too bad and she's fixing herself up as we speak because she's a tough bitch like that, but Red's people need more doctors and they took him and I want him back they need to give him back or I'm going to dye the seas crimson with their blood and feed their entrails to the seagulls!!"
Up until now, Buggy hadn't even been aware that Klabautermänner could use DenDen Mushis, and he pushes the idea away to contemplate later once he's saved Shanks and can actually spare thoughts to something other than a litany of Shanks Shanks Shanks Shanks.
"We'll get him back, Speed, I swear to you on Davy Jones and the Seas he sails on, we're getting him back, but I need to know where you are!"
Thankfully, the Klabauterman is able to tell him their exact coordinates, and a quick look at his maps confirms his initial guess. They're in the New World, Big Mom doesn't usually leave it, but it's close to the Red Line - and right next to Marine Base G5, one of their strongest. The Red Force managed to dodge her pursuers and is now hiding near Raijin - an island loyal to them, that's good, but it doesn't have much in way of doctors or supplies.
Buggy breathes in, slowly.
They're probably holding Shanks in G5 right now, but they'll definitely want to transfer him somewhere more symbolic for any execution. His guess is on either Loguetown, to make the parallels with Roger stronger, or Marineford, their stronghold and the easiest place to secure. Either way, they're not going to keep Shanks in the New World for long.
One of his hand detaches, grabs a pen and a notepad and starts writing down names, DenDen Numbers, calculations, anything that runs through his mind as he tries to figure out how to do this.
The Marines are going to want to execute Shanks, and they're going to want to do it soon, to try and prevent any potential allies from trying to break him out. Before the end of the month, certainly, more than likely in the next twenty days - they will need time to gather their own forces. The execution of a Yonko, especially one linked to Roger, one who has gone to Laugh Tale and seen it with his own eyes, will draw crowds, will draw challengers. The Marines will want to make sure they can handle whatever comes for them. It's Buggy's job to make sure they don't expect him, and whatever he's planning.
"Beckman, if I can get you to one of the best Doctors in the world in the next two days, how many of you do you think would be able to fight within the next ten days?"
He doesn't ask the man if he's been checked out by his doctor right now, he can hear the broken ribs Benn is sporting.
A shaky breath. "Around half of us? Not Lucky, not Ryu either, but Yasopp, me, Rockstar, Damian, Chess, some of the others. I..."
Never in his life has Buggy heard Benn Beckmann sound so hesitant, and it makes him want to slaughter those responsible, not that he hadn't already been ready to do so because those fuckers have captured Shanks and are going to kill him unless Buggy does something. And that is unacceptable.
"What are we going to do, Captain Buggy?" Benn asks him, places him in charge, and something in Buggy's chest tightens. Benn Beckmann is going through the worst day in his life and he's reaching out to Buggy. Asking Buggy for help, trusting him , a small time East Blue nobody, to take charge and tell him what to do, and it's simultaneously humbling and terrifying.
"Speed, is the Red Force dive-worthy?"
"She will be in two hours once I'm done helping her," the tiny gremlin ship that had kept him and Shanks alive through some of their hardest years snarls. "Where to, Blue?"
"Tortoise Island. Get them to Tortoise Island as fast as you can, I'll have someone meet you at the harbor. I'm going to make some calls, figure out what's happening. Beckmann, I swear to you I'm going to do everything in my power to get him back. I swear on Davy Jones and the Seas he sails on, I will get him back alive or die trying."
The rushing sound of waves in his ears, the barking of a seagull in the distance - his oath has been heard and acknowledged, Davy Jones' attention has been caught. Buggy hopes it'll be in their favour - Shanks still needs to collect Shiki's head, like he promised, hopefully Davy Jones will help them if only for the entertainment factor.
An oath in Davy Jones’ name is not one to be made lightly, but Buggy means it with ever fiber of his being.
A world without Shanks in it?
Buggy would probably survive it.
But he doesn’t want to, because a world without Shanks would be…
No. He refuses to even imagine a world without Shanks in it.
(They’re Buggy-and-Shanks and Shanks-and-Buggy, and Buggy refuses to become Buggy-without-Shanks. He refuses. )
"You better stay alive too, Captain Buggy, or Captain will never forgive himself," Benn interjects, voice gruff and rough. "Tortoise. We can get to Tortoise, if we can make it through Fishman Kingdom without trouble- What then?"
"Then you get as many of your people as possible back in fighting shape, and we prepare for the rescue operation of the century," Buggy declares, tone a lot more confident than he actually feels. "Have Rockstar call me as soon as he's in any state to do so, I'll need his help for the New World part of the network. Start making a list of the allies you can call upon who will come if you call, and the ones that might not but who could be persuaded to at least cause problems elsewhere to draw attention away from us. And for the love of Shanks, Beckmann, get someone to check out your ribs and to make sure your lungs aren't damaged, I can hear you rattle from here and Shanks will never forgive himself if you die either."
That gets him a wry chuckle, and then Benn speaks up again. "Aye. I will. Rockstar will call you as soon as Chess is done bandaging his burns. And we'll have your back, Captain Buggy. Whatever you need of us to save our Captain, you have it."
Buggy nods, throat tight at the trust Beckmann is putting in his hands. "Take care of your people, Benn. Make sure all of you stay alive for Shanks to greet when we get him back, alright?"
He hangs up before Benn can say anything, and carefully puts the small DenDen on the desk, before moving away from it to collapse on his bed, legs unable to support his weight as his hands start shaking like leaves in the wind.
Shanks.
Shanks SHANKS ShAnKs Shanks-
Captured injured going to be executed a head cut off the wet squelch as it hits the ground no no no no he can't, can't lose Shanks, not after losing Captain, can't can't can't-
Buggy digs his nails into his forearms, uses the pain as he draws blood to ground himself into the present, to help him push the panic back and get moving. Time is running fast and he's going to need every single second if he wants to be able to save Shanks, and failure is not an option, wouldn't have been one even if he hadn't sworn it on Davy Jones and the Seas.
He refuses to live in a world where Shanks doesn't. Refuses.
Deep breaths, one after another, and then he's standing up and grabbing the notepad and his address book and the denden and then he's out of the cabin and on the deck and Mohji and Cabaji are at his sides, Richie pressed against the small of his back, the contact grounding and comforting and Buggy can't breath but he has to pretend he can because he needs to be breathing to rescue Shanks.
He doesn't know how he explains what happened to his right and left hand, can't hear anything beyond the rushing of water in his ears, and in his pocket there's a small box with a small piece of paper, torn and bloodied but still moving and that's the only thing preventing him from shattering into pieces right now, the knowledge that Shanks is still alive and that Buggy still has time to try and save him.
And maybe it's ridiculous to think that he'll be able to do so, because he's Buggy and he's weak and Shanks is a Yonkou and they still managed to beat him, what chances does Buggy stand against the might of the Marines when even Shanks couldn't?
None, that's what, but he's going to try anyway. Because it's Shanks.
Breathe in, breathe out. In, and out, the taste of salt and water on the air.
Cabaji is gone, his Haki placing him inside their communication center, agitatedly pacing around the room. Mohji is putting the rest of the crew through their paces, ordering a new heading that will lead them towards the Grand Line, and from there to Marineford, as fast as possible. The rookies are glancing at him worriedly, and Buggy feels guilty for that, but he can't stop himself.
Richie is still pressed close to him, his rumbling a soothing vibration that keeps Buggy from getting lost in his own head, and he buries his fingers into the lion's fur, hiding his trembling hands in the long mane.
"Alright, Rich'," he tells the feline, and his voice is much steadier than he feels. "We've got work to do."
The Denden barely has time to ring out before the call is picked up.
"What the fuck is going on, Blue? You don't usually call me out of the blue like this, and the network is being loud ."
Buggy's breath hitches, and he's oh so glad he decided to make this call from his cabin, though Richie is still stretched out across his lap, face pressed into his stomach.
"Shanks was captured by the marines and his crew barely escaped with their lives," he manages to spite out, and Kureha-sensei knows how much Shanks means to him, knows how desperate Buggy had been for any scrap of information about his red-haired friend during his convalescence, how much the red-head's existence keeps him steady and sane.
"Fuck," she swears. "How are you holding up, Blue?"
He chokes out a sob. "I've been better. But I have things to do and I can't do them if I'm curled up in a ball of tears trying to remember how to breathe, can I? So I'll be fine until I can afford not to be."
"That's not a healthy way of handling things," she chides him as gently as someone like her can be.
"I will not be in a healthy place if I can't save Shanks from this," he retorts, sharper than he intended.
A sigh. "I know, Blue. I know you, and I remember that red-haired brat from that first visit you made with Roger. You're two peas in a pod, the two of you, and I don't want to see you without him again. What do you need?"
"Medical equipment and any contacts you might have in the area around Marineford that might be able to handle and protect an influx of injured pirates afterwards," Buggy replies immediately.
He hesitates. "A safe place for those of my crew who will not be joining me or playing distractions," he says quietly, because he doesn't want his crew anywhere near Marineford, any of them, and he knows he'll be fighting a losing battle when it comes to Cabaji and Mohji, but they at least can take care of themselves, knew about Haki before they even met him and had even travelled across Paradise and dipped into the New World even if just briefly before joining his crew. But most of them? They're good, don't get him wrong, he and Mohji and Cabaji have done their best to train them and teach them but...
They're not ready for the kind of battle that will await them in Marinford. They joined him knowing he would never set sail in the Grand Line ever again, and Buggy had never wanted to break that promise he had made to himself, but...
Like in every single aspect of his life, Shanks is, and always will be, the exception.
(Shanks is going to hate that Buggy put himself through this for his sake, but the alternative is unacceptable. Shanks can make it up to him by fucking staying out of trouble for at least a fucking decade after this.)
So no, he's not going to take his crew with him on this mad rescue mission. Most of them will probably volunteer to play cat and mouse with the local weak-ass marines to keep them distracted, but he's got some brand-new rookies and he's not letting them anywhere near a fight if he's not there to keep an eye on them, and he's certainly not letting any of his nakama join him for Marineford. He's not, and he's not letting them argue their way into this.
Cabaji and Mohji, as stated earlier, are a lost cause. These two have made it clear that they will follow him to the other side of the moon if needed, and they're not above tying him up to prevent him from leaving without him. And if Mohji is coming so is Richie, and there's gonna be no arguing with him either.
From where he’s curled up next to him, head on his lap, Richie throws him a Look that makes it clear that he knows exactly what Buggy is thinking and just what he thinks of the idea.
Fucking idiots. They usually have decent survival instincts, too, why do they never listen to them when it comes to Buggy?
(Buggy carefully ignores the part of his mind that reminds him that he's currently ignoring his own survival instincts to plan this rescue, because it's wrong. He's listening to them, because surviving this world without Shanks will be a lot harder than it currently is.)
(He also ignores the part of him that reminds him that he would literally walk into hell and back for any of his nakama, no matter the risk. He's not in the mood to argue with himself.)
"I guess I could use some extra hands around the place," Kureha says, trying to lighten the situation. "And the people here could do with some entertainment that is not watching the snow fall from the sky. Might even teach a few of them some tricks myself, if they're good enough."
Buggy laughs, and pretends his cheeks aren't wet. "Loyal desperately wants to meet you," he tells her. "He says every other ship doctor that we meet is jealous of him because his captain actually listens to him and orders the rest of the crew to do the same if necessary, while they're stuck yelling at idiots."
Kureha snorts.
"If your doctor is half the man you've told me he is, Blue, he's not going to be anywhere but next to you in this madness. At most you might convince him to wait on your escape ship, but that's the best you're going to get."
"Shut up!" Buggy hisses, even though he knows she's right. Loyal is a good man, and an amazing doctor. More than that, though, the man honestly cares about his crew and his patients both, and that’s worth just as much as his medical abilities in Buggy’s eyes.
He would never slam a door in a injured nakama's face
His doctor is not going to let him go on this crazy adventure alone, Buggy knows that, much as he would prefer to keep denying it.
"But the rest of them can stay, as long as they make themselves useful. If I'm going to have a sudden influx of patients, some decent assistants won't go amiss."
She pauses. "You better be careful, Blue, you hear me? It would tarnish my reputation if one of my apprentices got himself killed stupidly."
That's practically a declaration of love, coming from the old hag, and Buggy is careful not to point that out. "Wouldn't dream of it, sensei," he tells her.
"Good. You're going to be stopping here on your way to wherever they're gonna hold this shitshow, then?"
"I'm headed to Water 7 as soon as I finish making some calls, and from there to Tortoise Island," Buggy confirms. "That’s where I sent the Akagami - I know you’re the best, but they’re still in the New World and the Blackjacks are closer and have Earth-Fist Tsunade and Poison Shizune. We’ll stop on Drum as we go, there’s some others we’ll probably need to collect on the way. We’ll go through the Calm Belt instead of the Twin Capes to save time - I should manage to get someone to bully some seakings into taking us across, if it comes to it."
On his lap, Richie purrs in agreement, and Buggy scratches the lion behind the ears.
Finding out that Richie had Conqueror's Haki had been a surprise, to say the least, but it had also saved all of their lives more than once and the lion had gotten quite good at controlling it over the years, for which Buggy was damn proud of. Richie doesn't use it all too often, the East Blue not pushing them to the point where Conqueror's Haki would not be considered dramatically overkill more than once in a blue moon, but he's very good at targeting only what he wants to hit. Which means that bullying seakings into dragging them through the Calm Belt is a perfectly acceptable way of saving time.
And also the last thing he wants right now is to deal with fucking Crocus, but the fact that going through the Twin Capes would add nearly two days to their journey is a perfectly valid excuse to avoid the bastard.
"Leave those poor seakings alone," Kureha chides him, as though she doesn't regularly terrorize the poor buggers into dragging her ship wherever she wants to go. "They never did anything to you."
"At least twenty-nine of them have tried to eat me at various points in my life, I'm perfectly allowed to get something out of the damn beasts in exchange," Buggy counters. “And one of the fuckers fucking bit off Shanks’ arm, they’ve used up what little mercy I may once have had for them.”
Kureha-sensei chortles. "I taught you right, didn't I?" She gloats. "You go and get Red back, Blue, and give them hell while you're at it, will you? Cry havoc-"
"- and let slip the dogs of war," Buggy finishes, smiling despite himself.
His next phone call is one he desperately doesn't want to make, but he knows he has to, if only so Benn and the others can get the additional medical help he promised them in time to help him save Shanks.
"Stenographer Bar, Ise speaking, how can I help you?" the soft voice of the Blackjacks' former cabin brat greets him.
"Boke no Buggy. I need to talk to the Queen of Clubs."
Silence. Then.
"Please hold for a moment."
Moments later, the face on the snail changes, sharper lines and square glasses, piercing eyes even through the connection.
"Boke no Buggy. Can't say I expected to hear from you today," Yadomaru Lisa greets him, politer than ever before. Apparently, being the one to inform her of her Captain's death, introducing her to her Captain's son and helping her make sure that her Captain is given back to the sea in the appropriate manner has earned him some serious points.
"I'm calling in that favour," Buggy tells her bluntly. "The Akagami Kaizoku are heavily injured and need medical help. You're the closest trustworthy allies to their current location, and Earth-Fist Tsunade and Poison Shizune are amongst the best there are."
"The Akagami?" Yadomaru swears. "What the fuck? Why are you calling this in, not Red-Hair himself?"
Buggy braces himself. "Because Akagami no Shanks has been captured by the Marines after Big Mom conspired with them. She weakened them, the Marines struck when he was distracted."
Yadomaru's reaction would have caused birds to drop dead from the sky as invectives fill the air around them. "Fuck! How far out are they?"
"Slightly less than two days, they need to cross the Red Line first but they're making as fast a time as they can. I'll give Beckmann your number so he can contact you once they're within range."
"Do that. Fuck. Do you know what they're planning with Red-Hair?"
Breathe in, breathe out, again and again even if it feels like he's not getting any air within his lungs.
"They'll be taking him to Impel Down as soon as they can," he tells her clinically. "I'm waiting to hear from one of my contacts in the area. After that..." He pauses.
"Execution," Yadomaru finishes grimly. "Fuck."
There's rustling, as if she's rubbing a hand over her face.
"Medical assistance is nowhere near enough to pay back that particular debt, Boke no Buggy," She says, voice quiet but solemn. "You told us of our Captain’s fate, told us where she was buried and brought us her son. Should you need us in your efforts to rescue Akagami no Shanks, you have but to call upon us."
Buggy hisses in a sharp breath, shock rushing through his very being.
That...
That's a lot more than he had ever expected to get. He had thought asking for medical help would be challenging enough, but this-
"I mean it, Buggy," Yadomaru says, and her voice is firm. "Anything you need to get Shanks back, you can ask. We owe you a lot more than we will ever be able to repay, and, well. Akagami is technically one of our allies as well, even if we're semi-retired. The Black Maria will be ready to sail if you hoist the colours."
If you hoist the colours.
Buggy freezes.
That's...
"You would support me if I sent out a call?" He asks, disbelieving.
"Even before you found out what happened to her, you and Akagami both went out of your way to spread the word about our Captain being missing," Yadomaru points out. "And you personally came to inform us of her demise, and to introduce her son to us, despite your vow to never leave East Blue. You carried the call we sent out then: let us carry yours this time."
She pauses, and a wry smile appears on the DenDen's face. "And, to be honest, my club's been itchy since I learned what happened to my Captain. Helping you out means me and mine will get a chance to take our pound of flesh out of the institution that caused her death, and do you really see any of us saying no to that?"
No, he really can't, and the fact that she's so upfront about her ulterior motive shouldn't be as comforting as it is, but Buggy will take what he can get at this point.
She continues before he can reply. "We'll be waiting for your call, Boke no Buggy, whatever form it may take: this is your plan, your rules, and we shall play by them as we make the Marines suffer for the griefs they have caused us. On my word as a Child of Davy Jones and the Seas he sails on."
Buggy inhales, glad that he's long ago perfected the art of holding back tears without anyone noticing anything amiss. "And I shall call you once the plan is ready," he replies. "May the waves carry you to your destination without fail, and the wind always blow in your sails, Queen of Clubs."
"And may the foam carry your story across the waters, and the sea keep you free," She tells him in return, before hanging up the phone, leaving Buggy to stare at it in wide-eyed disbelief.
Fuck. He hadn't expected that!
But... that opened new ways, new possibilities. The Blackjacks were close to Marineford already, they would be able to jump in without too much trouble, and Buggy knows from their last meeting that, semi-retired or not, they have not lost their edge. If anything, the years of not knowing what had happened to their Captain had just honed that edge even sharper. They would be invaluable.
He heads for the communication center, intent on discussing their sudden new ally with Cabaji. This could completely change Buggy's tentative plans, and while they needed to contact their allies as soon as possible to let them know what had happened and get an idea of who would show up, the actual plan would have to wait until they knew for sure who would be able to help them.
Hoist the colours, Yadomaru had said. Send out the call to all who claim to be your ally on the seas, call them to sail with you on the waves as you head to battle. Call upon Davy Jones himself to stand by your side as you stand against those who oppose his children.
It's an old ritual, one that hadn't been done in decades. Shiki might have hoisted the colours for Edd War, to gather so many allies in such a short time, but Buggy doubts it. That man had never really gotten what the Code and the traditions were actually about , had just performed them as was expected of him.
Even Roger had never experienced such a call, at least not that had told Buggy and Shanks about. Buggy would be the very first in at least thirty years to send one out, and it wouldn't be kept quiet. Can't be kept quiet, not when the Hoisting of the Colours would resonate across all the seas until it had reached everyone who should be hearing it.
Buggy has no idea who would hear it. He can make a good guess at a few of them, some of his allies and some of Shanks, but what of Captain's allies? And how many would come? How many would actually heed the call and follow the waves to Marineford?
He doesn't know. He just hopes it will be enough.
Finding Cabaji is easy, for all that his Left Hand is surrounded by snails of various sizes and colours as he makes call after call while simultaneously writing down lists and letters, messages to be sent by other means to those of their contacts who don't have easy access to DenDen Mushis.
"Alright, thank you Sal, will let you know once we've got more information. Keep an ear out in the meantime, yeah? Yeah, you too."
His spymaster hangs up, then turns towards him. "Captain," he says as Buggy walks over and collapses in the chair next to him. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm functioning," is Buggy's short reply. "I'll be better once we get that dumbass back." The insult is weak, but it gets a quick smile out of his nakama. "SitRep?"
Cabaji grabs one of the many sheets of paper covering the desk. "We're spreading the word through the network that something big is about to happen - no details yet, but instructions to keep a close eye on Marine movements have been sent out. Specific allies and contacts have been advised to stock up on supplies as well, and others are preparing to go to ground on your word. The Inner Circle is awaiting your call for more details, I'm calling the Second Circle as soon as I'm done with the outliers. What's the word we're sending out, Captain?"
Buggy closes his eyes, takes a deep breath. In and out, in and out, again and again.
"Let them know that Akagami no Shanks has been captured and is slated for execution, exact date and location unknown as of yet. And that further instructions will be coming, though any fighting will be volunteer only. And that I will do what I can to ensure that fighting our way through will be the last resort. Anyone who wants to act as rear guard or escape escort, write them down separately, same with anyone offering shelter or supplies. Make a separate list for those who are ready and willing to raise hell in other parts of the Blues to split the Marines’ attention. I'll let the Inner Circle know the details we have already, and plan things out with them."
He pauses. "The Blackjacks have pledged their aid," he says quietly, and watches as Cabaji does a double take. "Any assistance we need and is in their abilities to offer, they will bring. They are waiting on my call and will follow my plans. They gave their word as Children of Davy Jones and the Seas he sails on."
Cabaji's surprise and relief at having such a strong crew pledge to help them is palpable. "That's amazing, Captain. Any other crews you think we'll be able to call on?"
Buggy grimaces. There is one he would once have named without hesitation, but... That time is long gone now, and even if it wasn't, it isn't as if he has any way of contacting them.
Short of hoisting the colours and sending out the call, of course.
Which he's still not sure if he'll do or not. It's... daunting, such a thing. Buggy isn't sure there's any pirate still sailing out there who remembers one, or took part in one - it's fallen into almost legendary status now, spoken of in hushed whispers on long nights watching out over the ocean. Would it even-
No. Buggy does not doubt that the Call would be sent. He's seen Davy Jones' work too often now to doubt it, has invoked it himself once. Should he hoist the colours, Davy Jones and the Seas will carry the Call over the waves.
He doesn't mention it to Cabaji just yet, though. He will do so before actually doing it, of course, but right now... right now he's not sure. It's something he needs to discuss with someone else before he jumps in feet first, and unfortunately his usual confident is out of reach, what with having been captured by the marines and about to be executed.
But there is one man he can reach out to. One who still holds to the pirate code even though he's officially retired now, one who has helped him more than once since he had found himself on his own. He has a few other calls to make before he can call him, though.
"I'll get started on the Inner Circle," is what he tells his spymaster instead. He stands up, hesitates.
"If the next thing that comes out of your mouth is you asking Mohji, Loyal and I to stay with the crew while you do something reckless, you really should save your breath, Captain," Cabaji says without even looking at him, already grabbing another DenDen. "We're sticking with you until it's time for Davy Jones to take us. You're not getting rid of us this easily, Captain."
Buggy sighs. "Is it so bad that I want you to be safe?" He asks, halfheartedly.
"Of course not," Cabaji tells him. "But thinking that we're not going to come with you and watch your back is just stupid. And you're not stupid, Captain."
"Cabaji-"
"We've got work to do, Captain," his Left Hand looks up at him, voice soft. "Let us do our part while you do yours, but never think that we will let you sail alone."
Buggy leaves before he can burst into tears. Fuck but he loves his crew. Even if he hates that he can't order them to be safe. It's the one thing Cabaji, Mohji and Richie had all made him swear on the Sea and Davy Jones when they had joined his crew: that he would not force them from his side unless the lives of their entire crew rested on it.
So he can't order them away, but he can offer them an out. And he'll keep doing it until he actually steps onto the battlefield, because these are his people and he will do everything he can to keep them safe.
His next call is to Water Seven.
"You've got the Network in a tizzy, boy," Granny Kokoro greets him as she picks up the phone. "Everyone's running around like headless seagulls. What happened and how can we help?"
"Big Mom teamed up with the Marines and now they have Shanks," Buggy says, forcing his voice to remain steady. "He's probably going to be executed within the next three weeks and I will not let that happen."
A pause as the DenDen gapes at him in shock, before the snail visibly shakes itself. "I should hope not!" she states. "What do you need, Buggy?"
"Anything you can give me," Buggy says, painfully aware of how helpless he sounds. "Ships if you have some you can spare, information, contacts - anything."
She hums thoughtfully. "I have some people who might be able to lend a hand. And others who would jump on any excuse to fuck shit up for the marines. Give me three days and I will get back to you, there is some stuff I need to discuss with Iceburg first - away from that 'secretary' of his."
Buggy's face tightens. "They're still there, then?"
"Still there, still have no clue that we're onto them," Kokoro confirms. "Or that what they're looking for is long gone. Might use the chaos that's sure to unfold to get rid of them if we can, we'll let you know."
Buggy wants nothing more than to be able to help them, help those people who have never been anything but kind to him, but he can't. Shanks's situation is his priority, and, more than anything, he has to believe that they can handle it.
They're shipwrights, after all, and they know how to take care of parasites before they can rot the entire ship.
Still...
"Let me know if there's anything I can do in the run up to this clusterfuck?" He asks her.
"Will do." A pause. "Rush's still in Water 7. Do you want me to-"
"Not yet," Buggy stops her even as his heart clenches at the mention of the diminutive shipwright.
The Rogers would be amazing allies, he knows but...
He can't trust them. Can't trust them with his life and certainly can't trust them with Shanks'.
"They will find out, eventually, you know?" Kokoro points out gently. "The papers will tell them if Shakky doesn't."
And fuck, that's right, he's going to need to call Shakky too. But he knows that once the Rogers find out, they'll want to take everything over, not believing him to be good enough to do this, and maybe Buggy himself doesn't think he's strong enough to do this, but he's smart and if he can get the people he's hoping to get to help him, there is a chance. A chance to save Shanks without turning it into a massive battle that will see too many friendly lights go out around him. The Rogers rushing in head first as they are wont to do will blow that chance out of the water, and Buggy will not stand for it.
"They'll be good for drawing attention if nothing else," Kokoro offers, and he has to chuckle as that. "Meatshields that can actually fight back are always useful."
"I'll let Shakky know once the plan is set," he compromises. He'll call her before then, of course, because she is one of the best information brokers in the world and if there’s one thing he needs right now it’s information, but he should be able to convince her to hold off on telling the others about it for at least a couple of days as long as he can convince her that he has this handled.
His eye catches on the calendar on the wall, and his breath catches. "I think I know when they'll schedule the execution," he tells Kokoro, voice blank.
In exactly nineteen days, it will have been twenty years since Gol D. Roger's head hit the ground.
There is no way the Marines will pass that symbolism up.
Nineteen days. Buggy has his deadline, now. Of course there's still a possibility that they won't, but... They went through all the trouble of executing Roger in Loguetown, the very town he had set out from. They don't know which island in West Blue Shanks hails from, wouldn't be able to find it even if they did, and they won't use Loguetown again when they have the opportunity to showcase their shiny, brand new Paradise headquarter.
So. Marineford, then. In nineteen days.
Nineteen days. That's... not a lot, and yet it's plenty of time if used well, and, well. Buggy has always done his greatest work when under time constraints, hasn't he?
It's more time than he was expecting to have, actually, and he needs to make the most of it or he'll never forgive himself.
"Three days, Granny," he tells the old mermaid. "May the hammer fall where it's supposed to be."
"And may the rigging never fail you," she returns. "Keep yourself alive as well, you hear me?"
"I shall do my best," is all he can promise her.
His next phone call is slightly less daunting, in that he's not the one dialing it up. He's barely hung up with Water Seven when the small white snail on the shelf above his desk rings out, a freckled face appearing on its head.
Fuck. Had the news already reached the brat?
"Portgas?" he picks up the phone.
"Captain Buggy, what's going on?" The semi-frantic voice on the other end blurts out. "There's word out on the waves that the network is preparing for war!"
The 'and you haven't called me yet, why?' is nearly audible.
"I was going to call you," Buggy says tiredly, rubbing his face. "It's been a long couple of hours, kid."
"What happened, Buggy?" Ace asks him, quieter this time, picking up on his tone immediately. "No one could tell me exactly what's going on, but we were resupplying at the Black Shell when they got Cabaji's call to prepare for the worst."
"Big Mom sided with the fucking Marines to capture Shanks," Buggy tells him bluntly, raking his fingers through his hair. His ponytail is a mess, but he can't be arsed to fix it right now. "The Akagami are severely injured and on their way to the Stenographer for medical help while I try and figure out a way to get him back."
"Fuck," Ace whispers, and there's the sound of pacing around angrily coming from the small snail. "Fuck."
"Tell me about it," Buggy sighs, and it's easy to let his walls down a bit with Ace, much easier than it was with anyone but Kureha. "There's a reason I don't fucking leave East Blue if I can avoid it, and it's that I'm definitely not in the same league as the people I'm about to face."
"Bullshit," Ace snaps angrily. "You may lack their sheer strength, but you're the one who taught me that there's more than that. You're a New World veteran who survived the bullshit of the Grand Line when you were still in the single digits and being pitted against people three times your age. You're smart, Buggy, and you're much stronger than you think. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, so stop with that self-deprecating shit. You're better than you believe you are, and we don't have time for you to fight your insecurities on top of the ton of Marines that we're going to be up against."
We? Oh hell no.
"You are not going anywhere near Marineford, Ace," Buggy barks, deliberately ignoring the rest of the boy's tirade. "The eyes of the world are going to be pointed on that fucking island, and it's going to be full to choke with all the old timers who had a grudge against Captain wanting to make sure that his most well-known legacy meets his end - we are not handing them another on a silver platter!"
"And yet you're going to be there yourself," Ace counters, and fuck, he hates it when the kid uses logic against him. "Face it Buggy, you can't keep me out of this if I want in, and Shanks saved my brother's life. I owe him a rescue in return."
"That's not how it works!" Buggy protests, and the hand in his hair starts to tug angrily at the strands, and it takes conscious effort to stop himself from tearing his hair out.
Why is no one letting him protect them? Why do all those he cares for insist on putting themselves in the line of danger? Why why why why?
"'Cause we care about you too, dumbass," Ace tells him, making him realise that he'd been mumbling out loud. "And we're not about to let you leap into trouble without anyone watching your back. We're not assholes."
"You're not even eighteen yet, Ace," Buggy begs, begs his Captain's son, his little brother in all but blood. "You've only just entered the Grand Line, please-"
Please let me protect you, please don't make me lose someone else, please-
"I’ve only entered the Grand Line now because you insisted on making sure I would be ready for it before you let me sail up Reverse Mountain," Ace points out. "And you taught me well. I'm not the reckless rookie that charged Tavernier alone like an idiot anymore, Buggy - and yes, I know, I'm still a D, but I like to think that I'm one that has had survival instincts pounded into his head by you, so that raises my odds more than a bit, wouldn't you think? I promise I will stay on the outskirts of the battle if I can, and to stick to your plan, but you're not doing this without me."
"Don't you dare die on me, Ace," Buggy tells him hotly. "Don't you dare, you hear me? I refuse to see you dead before your time, and your time is not for many decades yet, is that clear? I already lost Captain, Shanks is going to be up on the scaffold - I can't lose you too. I can’t. I refuse."
"I swear on Davy Jones and the Seas he sails on to do everything I can to get out of this alive," Ace promises him, promises on Davy Jones and the Seas and the upsurge in the rumble of the waves makes it clear that his oath has been accepted. Fuck, this kid-
"You're such a fucking D," Buggy hisses even as he angrily wipes away a rebellious tear trying to flow down his face. "How the fuck does Deuce even put up with you?"
"Lots of aspirin and copious consulting of the handwritten guide you gave him last time," Ace deadpans, and it's such a ridiculous statement that Buggy has to laugh. Which, apparently, had been Ace's plan all along, if the way the snail smiles is anything to go by.
Fucking brat.
"I've got some people I can reach out for supplies outside of the usual network as well," Ace continues after Buggy's chuckles have calmed down. "What's the plan?"
"I could give you the wrong meeting point," Buggy tries, but he already knows he won't. Ace would just-
"I would just show up at Marineford on my own and mess up all your careful planning, and neither of us want that," Ace counters. "So, what's the plan so far?"
Fucking brat.
"I'll be meeting up with the Akagami at the Stenographer as soon as I can get there - we're still in East Blue, but if we play our card rights we might be able to cross the Calm Belt closer to their place - though we need to stop by Drum first, I need to pick some stuff up and I need somewhere safe to stash most of my crew, and Kureha-sensei has accepted to put them up for a while."
"The witch?" Ace grimaces, and Buggy remembers how much the younger man had complained when he had called him after his first meeting with the doctor. Who, to be fair, did have dubious bedside manners for all that she was undoubtedly the best doctor in the world. And had, thankfully, been able to confirm that Ace did not seem to present the defective gene indicative of the disease Roger had had, which had been a huge relief to everyone involved.
"Yep," Buggy allows a slight grin to show on his face, forcing himself to bring some levity into it. "I'll make sure to stock up on medical equipment and then we'll head over to Tortoise Island and the Akagami. I'm still only in the early phases of planning, trying to figure out who we can count on, but I'll contact you as soon as it's clearer."
"Alright, I'll be waiting for your call then and we'll start heading towards the Stenographer as well in the meantime." Ace hesitates. "Buggy... are you going to be okay?"
Buggy presses the palm of his hand against his right eye, hard. "If we get Shanks and all get out of this alive... then I will be."
He will. He can hold out until then, and once they're all out, once they're all safe - then he will be okay. He will.
"You better," Ace tells him sharply. "I already lost one brother, I refuse to lose a second, you hear me?"
"I hear you kid, loud and clear," Buggy whispers, and this is the first time Ace has called him brother, the first time the kid has said the word out loud, and Buggy can’t lose him, he can’t- "May the waves carry you to your destination without fail, and the wind always blow in your sails, Ace."
"And may the foam carry your story across the waters, and the seas keep you free, Buggy," Ace completes the farewell. "Stay safe."
"You as well."
Fuck. Fuck! The last thing Buggy wanted was for Ace to be dragged into this mess, but the boy had been honest when he'd said that he would show up anyway, no matter what Buggy said. Which means that two of his most precious people are going to be in a place teeming with marines ready to end their life at the slightest provocation, or even without provocation. Great. Fucking awseome, really. Buggy would very much like to know who he was in a previous life and who the fuck he pissed off to deserve this bullshit, because he sure as hell doesn't remember!
Against his chest, Richie rumbles, pressing his head against Buggy's chin, and Buggy buries his fingers in the thick fur.
He can do this. He can. He has to. He has to save Shanks, and he has to keep Ace alive, and he needs to be at his best to do so. He's talked to Kureha already, to Kokoro. Cabaji is handling the lower circles, Mohji is drilling the rest of them while setting a route to Drum. There's still a couple more people he has to call, and there's one in particular who he really needs to talk to.
Because Yadomaru told him to raise the colours and Buggy... Buggy is actually considering the idea.
He needs help. All the help he can get, and that's why he hasn't argued more with Ace. The Spades are saboteurs pirates, and Buggy will need them, will need every like minded crew he can convince to join in on his insane plan, but he needs someone with perspective, with experience to talk it through before he actually does anything of this scale. Because you can't take it back, once the colours are raised.
He buries his face in Richie's mane, allows himself to breathe, in, out, in, out, until the black spots disappear from his sight and his hands stop shaking. Only then does he release the death grip he has on the lion and sends a hand out for another denden. Short range, this time, because his target is still in East Blue, and relatively close by too.
"Baratie Restaurant, Sanji speaking, how can I help you today?"
"Eggplant," Buggy manages, somehow keeping his voice from shaking. "I need to talk to the old man. Now."
Something in his voice must betray him, because instead of raising to the bait and protesting the nickname, Sanji pauses, and Buggy hears the sharp inhale of a cigarette.
"Everything alright, Shitty Blue hair?"
"I need to talk to the old man, Sanji," Buggy repeats. "Please."
It takes a couple of moments for Sanji to grab Zeff, but in less than three minutes Buggy hears the door of the cook's cabin being locked and the face of the chef appears on the denden.
"Buggy. You don't usually call like this, and word on the waves is that network is pulling overtime. What's going on?" The old man doesn't beat around the bush.
"Shanks got captured by the Marines," Buggy says, and barely stops the sob from escaping, free hand clenching in Richie's fur again. "They're going to execute him. In nineteen days, at Marineford is my best guess."
"The execution's anniversary," Zeff hisses. "Fuck."
"Yeah," Buggy laughs, and it's shaky. "Fuck indeed."
Silence.
"What's your plan?" Zeff asks, and this is why Buggy called him. Because Zeff is calm, because Zeff knows what a pirate's life is like and because Zeff is smart. If anyone can help him calm down long enough to plan this through, it's the old man.
Or Shanks, but well. Shanks is the reason Buggy is currently panicking, so he can't really help this time. Asshole. Buggy's going to kick his ass the next time he sees him for making him worry so fucking much!
"Sabotage the fuck out of the execution and escape without actually fighting?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?" The denden's raised eyebrow is a very good translation of Zeff's actual face, Buggy knows that from experience.
He sighs.
"Cabaji is shaking the network up to see who would be up to either fuck shit up at Marineford or play distraction along the way. Water Seven will get back to me with what they can give me within three days. Kureha is contacting her own network to see who will be available to patch us up after it inevitably goes to hell. My brat is insisting on involving himself as well, because why not give me another heart attack, right? And oh, yes, the Blackjacks have told me that they would answer the call if I hoist the colours, and to count on them no matter what."
He may be slightly hysterical as he finishes recounting his current list of allies. Maybe. But he thinks he has a decent reason to be, all things considered.
"Are you?" Zeff asks, after a moment of silence. "Going to hoist the colours?"
Buggy lets out a long breath. "I don't know," he says quietly. "I don't... no one has done it in decades. I don't remember anyone doing it in my life-time, Captain never spoke of it-"
"Roger was involved in one Hoisting of the colours," Zeffs interrupts him. "And it wasn't Edd War. Before, long before you or Shanks joined his crew. Long before he became famous." He sighs. "He wasn't the one who sent out the call, but he was one of the few who answered. Their side won, but the cost... the cost was high. A lot of people who heard the call never came, from what I know. My captain back then wasn't one of those, but she knew someone who did. Cut off all contact with them once she heard they had ignored the call without valid reason."
Buggy swallows. "I don't know who, if anyone, will answer if I send out the call," he whispers. "And I don't... a lot of my allies are not made for this, Zeff. I don't... I don't want to put them in danger. We're East Blue folks, we don't mess with the Grand Line and New World stuff for a reason. "
"And yet you're about to poke the biggest seaking this side of the Red Line in the eye," Zeff points out.
"Because it's Shanks! " Buggy cries out. "Because it's Shanks and I can't- I can't lose him, Zeff, I can't. He's all I got left from that time, the only good thing I still have from that part of my life. I can't lose him. But this is my choice. I don't want to put other people in danger, or force them to come because otherwise their honour would be shattered!"
"Then word your call carefully," Is Zeff's blunt reply. "Make it clear that only those who are able to withstand what is coming are called to fight. Or that those who aren't strong enough can help in other ways. Don't make it about Marineford. Make it about the rescue in itself, word it so that any form of assistance will count."
Buggy breathes in, breathes out.
Zeff is right. Zeff is right. Just because Buggy has never witnessed a hoisting of the colours before doesn't mean he doesn't know how they're done. And Zeff is right. He can word things in a way that will let his allies choose in which way they can help, be it with supplies or medical treatment or playing distraction. He's still hoping he might be able to manage this without it actually turning into a fight, too, and-
He needs more allies. That's the heart of the matter, he needs more allies at every level, be it to play distraction or help their escape or heal or fight, but fighting is not the only way they can help, it’s not the way he’s planning to do this in the first place, and...
He needs more people. More people that he can feasibly contact through just the network. And if it's necessary to save Shanks, then... Then he'll raise the colours, and he will deal with the fallout.
(A world without Shanks?)
(Buggy refuses to imagine that.)
"Yeah," Buggy breathes out. "I can do that."
"Good," the gruff old man approves. "And you're an idiot: there's at least four crews out there who're going to answer your call anyway: your own, the Akagami, your brat’s, and the Blackjacks. They've told you so themselves. And if you think I'm staying out of this, you've got another thing coming, Boke no Buggy. I may be retired, but I can still help. Tell me which bases around here you need to suddenly have trouble moving around and I'll make it happen."
"Wouldn't dream of keeping you out of this," Buggy lies through his teeth, and they both know it. "Wouldn't manage it even if I tried," he adds, and that's the truth this time.
"No you wouldn't," Zeff confirms. "Now, you go and finesse this plan of yours, and work on the wording of your call. As soon as you know where you need me, I expect a call - and it can be from Cabaji if you're busy handling other things, so don't get your panties in a twist trying to micromanage everything when you’ve got an entire crew of competent people ready and willing to help. It’s called delegating, brat."
Buggy chuckles. "Will do, old man. Thanks for the pep talk."
"Peptalk? Pfah, you just needed a good kick up the arse," Zeff grumbles. "You're smart, Buggy. Use that to your advantage. You don't want it to come to a fight? Don't let it. Just make sure you're prepared in case it does, and that's all. And remember that you've got people who care, who care about you and about Shanks, and that you better not die or we'll storm the Flying Dutchman to get you back so we can kill you ourselves."
"Why do people keep threatening me like I've got a death wish?" Buggy complains. "I'm one of the few people around here who has anything close to survival instincts!"
"And you’ve just thrown them out the window because Shanks is in danger," Zeff points out mercilessly. "So we're going to remind you regularly that your life matters too, because it does and you have a tendency to forget that when other people are in danger."
"Asshole," Buggy mutters.
"And don't you forget it. Now go, Buggy. You've got a rescue to plan and I've got cooks to whip into shape. Strong waves and fair winds, Boke no Buggy."
"And kind foam and plentiful waters to you, Red-Legged Zeff," Buggy says, and the old man hangs up before he can say anything else.
"Well, Richie," Buggy states as he pets the lion still resting his head on his knees before gently pushing him off. "I guess I've got my marching orders, don't I?"
And he walks towards his desk, towards the multiple maps already open and spread over the surface. He's got a rescue to plan, and saboteurs to put to good use.
Buggy manages to push aside the matter of the hoisting of colours until later that evening, when Cabaji and Mohji both invade his cabins with hot plates and reports.
"You're not getting out of eating with us just because you're scheming, Captain," Mohji tells him, trying for playful and nearly managing it. "You know the rules."
"Mother-hens, the two of you," Buggy grouches, but he does put the maps and lists away to clear some space for the beef stew that his cook made for them. Comfort food, he notes, because his cook knows him well.
"Learned from the best, Captain," Cabaji smirks as he sits down on Buggy's bed with his own bowl, pushing Richie to the side a bit and earning an annoyed grunt from the sleepy lion. "How did the calls with the rest of the inner circle go?"
"As well as can be, given the situation," Buggy grimaces. "All ready and willing to offer us some assistance as soon as I have an actual battle plan. Water Seven will let me know the day after tomorrow how many ships and shipwrights we can count on.”
“Oh thank fuck, ” Mohji sighs in relief as he stabs a carrot with more agressivity than strictly necessary. “More manpower is always good, and those shipwrights are crazy, but the good kind of crazy.”
“Like you’re one to talk about crazy,” Cabaji snorts even as he hands Buggy a wooden spoon. “Pretty sure that’s what that last group of headstrong rookies called you.”
“And given that those idiots were trying to attack the LOL’s tea-shop, their opinion matters to me why, exactly?” Mohji’s eyebrow is raised to perfection as he speaks, the perfect picture of polite nonchalance.
“Fuckers would have been slaughtered by the LOL’s even if we hadn’t intervened,” Buggy adds as he helps himself to the stew, letting it try and warm him. “It was crafting Tuesday, those that wouldn’t have been stabbed by knitting needles would have gotten scrapbooking scissors thrown at them because no one would ruin fabric scissors because of wannabe muggers pretending to be pirates.”
“Needles nothing,” Mohji laughs. “Miss Asha served with Tsuru back in her days, no way she handed her weapons in when she retired!"
Buggy has to agree to that. In fact, he would gladly pay to witness the fate of the poor sod the Marines might at some point send to get those weapons (and their precious seastone bullets or coating) back from the Little Old Lady. It would certainly be entertaining.
(He's trying to distract himself. It's not working.)
Later, when the bowls have been piled up on the small bedside table and Buggy has abandoned his desk chair to sit on the bed between his left and right hands, Richie purring softly at their feet, Buggy finally brings up the subject that has been haunting him all day.
“What do you know,” he asks his closest nakamas, “Of the raising of the colours?”
A quick explanation to fill in the blanks in his men's knowledge later, and Buggy watches, stunned, as Cabaji flips through page after page of the flag’s manual to double check their meanings while Mohji takes notes and starts list after list of possible allies and the task they might be able to undertake instead of full on combat, and his heart feels like it’s going to burst.
“What do you think?” He asks, seemingly to thin air, and doesn’t turn around when a figure fades into existence to his right. Purple dress above a red and white striped short sleeved hoodie, white gloves covering her hands, the Big Top leans against him, her weight always a comfort.
“I think,” his beloved ship smiles, teeth sharp, “That it’s time to send out a call.”
Buggy is standing at the bottom of the mast, a collection of flags arranged in a very specific order held in his hands. On the other side of the mast, holding onto a thin cable, the Big Top is solider than she’s ever been. Mohji and Cabaji stand on Buggy’s right and left, Richie sits at his feet, and around him his entire crew is standing witness.
A thin triangle flag in the darkest blue of the ocean floor. A call with Davy Jones as a witness.
His own flag. Buggy the Clown is sending out a call.
A red and white checkered triangle. Extreme Urgency.
A square divided vertically, half yellow and the other blue. I wish to communicate with you.
The Akagami flag, then a blue and white checkered square followed by horizontal lines of blue, white, red, white and blue again. The Akagami are in distress and require immediate assistance.
Big Mom’s flag, upside down. Betrayer.
Blue seagull on white background. The enemy is the Marines.
Red X on white background. I require assistance.
White and red checkered square. You are running into danger.
Horizontal blue, white and blue again line on a square flag, red guidon. There is a danger of explosion.
Diagonal blue lines on a white background. Act at your discretion.
Blue bordered white square with red square in the center. I require medical assistance.
Blue square with white X, followed by a half-white, half blue guidon and a red one, and a string of coordinates. I request you to make rendez-vous in the position indicated .
Yellow, green and yellow horizontal lines on a fanion. Prepare.
A blue cross on a white background. Watch out for my signals.
One breath, then another, slow and steady, and, just as Buggy fastens the first flag on the cable and as Big Top starts to pull, Buggy starts to sing.
“The queen and her men
Stole the king from his bed
And bound him in his bones
The seas be ours
And by the powers
Where we will, we'll roam...”
A bruised, battered, but unbroken crew stills as there’s suddenly a figure on their deck, one they know for all that she appears only rarely. Tall and thin, dressed in the reds their crew is named for, she hoists the colours, one by one, until the flags reach the middle of the mast. And then she stops, turns, and stares at the one who is leading them until they get their captain back, and Benn Beckmann is striding forwards before the question can even be asked, grabbing the cable from the Red Force’s hands and heaving. In one movement, the flags rocket to the top of the mast, and Benn wouldn’t stop the words flowing from his mouth even if he could.
Yo, ho, all hands
Swinging from her customised rig aboard the Red Force, a small figure in a tattered blue and red cloak cackles as she raises her own flags, all the way to the top of the mast: her crew is the one sending the call, and there is no one but her on herself to raise the colours. The call has been sent, and her answer has always been clear.
Throwing her head back to look at the colours floating above her, Speed belts out the next verse.
Hoist the colours high
Somewhere on the grand line, making tracks for Tortoise Island, a young man whirls around as a presence appears by the mast, his crew a breath behind him. The new figure ignores them, too busy tying flags of various forms and colours to the cable. Leather pants and boots with flame designs, chains hanging from multiple belts and a Voice that leaves no doubt to who exactly is standing there, Spadille ignores her crew, ignores her captain, as she raises the colours to mid mast. Only then, still holding onto the hoisting rope, does she turn to her captain.
“The colours have been raised!” She yells, and her entire crew is watching her as the world holds its breath. “The call has been sent! The call has been heard! And the Seas are waiting for our answer! What say you, Captain?”
Ace doesn’t waste a moment to wonder at the fact that this is the first time he’s ever met a Klabauterman, that this is his ship in human shaped form. He steps forwards and catches the rope that Spadille slaps into his hand in a high-five. It’s child play to tug on it, once, twice, thrice, until the flags are floating above the ship for all to see, a clear answer to his ship’s question,
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
In East Blue, the clients of a floating restaurant startle when the chefs suddenly rush outside, following at the heels of their captain and head chef until they stop in front of the mast, where an small figure with a chef’s vest and a fish hat is in the process of hosting a collection of flags up to mid mast. The old man takes a look at the flags and laughs.
It takes him three steps to stand next to his ship’s Klabauterman, whose smirk is just as deadly as his, and together they hoist the colours all the way to the top.
And the clients, inside, are left to wonder as to why Owner Zeff is suddenly singing.
(Next to the old man, staring at the Klabauterman in shock, is a young blond cook with swirly eyebrows. If this were taking place even three years later, that young man would be standing on another ship, watching another Klabauterman and another Captain hoist the colours high. But in the end, the result is the same: the call has been heard and Sanji’s captain has answered it, and as Zeff’s voice rises above the sound of the waves, Sanji finds himself mouthing the words as well.)
Never shall we die
On Tortoise Island, a crew of veterans pose in their preparations and turn their heads towards the main Deck and the regal figure that just appeared out of nowhere. Their acting captain (always acting captain, never captain, because that title still belongs to someone else even if that someone else is dead and buried gone) sees the figure, sees the flags in her hands, and laughs, bright and shaper and cutting, and there is something nearly feral in the way Lisa Yadomaru vaults over the railing to snatch the rope from the Black Maria and hoist the colours, in the way the song bursts from her mouth as the rest of the Blackjack pirates cheers around her.
Yo, ho, haul together
Somewhere around Water Seven, a captain turns towards the mizzen mast as she feels the ship take form, long hair getting tangled by the wind, her twin apprentices following the movement. Captain Scarlet Ashman has never heard a Call before, never witnessed a hoisting of the colours, but she knows, instinctively and completely, that this is what is happening right now. And, as the Eternal, clad in a blue raincoat and blue rain hat and with a purple belt at their waist, adds flag after flag to the cable, and as Scarlet translates the message they carry, she knows that there’s only one answer she can give.
The turtle mink first mate falls into step with her captain, standing slightly to the right as the rest of the crew gathers on the main deck, staring in some form of awed silence at the event taking place, and Scarlet takes the rope from the ship and tugs, the flags jumping to the top of the mast with little effort.
The grin on her face is wide and wild, something nearly feral in them as she turns towards the rest of the Scarlet Rovers.
“Let’s cause problems on purpose,” she tells them, and revels in the cheers that go up from her nakama, even the usually quieter Audrey and Sistha joining in with enthusiasm.
Captain Scarlet Ashman has never heard a Call before, never witnessed a hoisting of the colours. But she is, above all, a Child of Davy Jones, and a friend of Buggy the Clown, and so she raises the Colours and answer the call, and she doesn’t fight the words that slip out of her mouth in a song that, she knows, is currently being sung all over the world.
Hoist the colours high
On a ship currently headed towards Tortoise Island as fast as its sails can steal the wind, a woman with short blue hair, glasses, and a massive wooden bat hanging across her back stares at the main mast of her ship as the Discord raises flags of various shapes and colours until the flags reach half mast.
“Captain?” Her first mate asks as they reach her side, turquoise and purple mohawk moving slightly in the wind. “Is that…”
Before she can answer, the ethereal being that had been raising the flags turns around to face them, rope in hand.
“The colours have been raised!” Discord declares, loud enough for the whole ship to hear. “The call has been sent! The call has been heard! And the Seas are waiting for our answer! What say you, Captain?”
“That, Aibhilin, is a hoisting of the colours,” Stereden, Captain of the Driftwood Divers, replies even as she strides towards Discord and grabs the rope from them. “And this is my answer!”
With one strong tug, Stereden sends the colours high, before climbing up the rigging to join into the chorus that pirates around the world are singing together.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
In Paradise, a captain pauses shortly, turning away from the former slaves their crew has just rescued, and looks towards the main mast of the Huntress and to the flags currently being raised.
“Well well well,” Mira ‘the Kraken’ muses as they stand up and head for the small figure tugging on the rope to drag the colours up to half mast. “I did not think I would witness a hoisting of the colours in my lifetime…” They pause, look closer at the flags being raised. “Of course he would do this like this - first hoisting of the colours of this generation, and he who calls it makes sure to give us who would answer a way out without dishonour…”
They grab the rope the Klabauterman holds out to them. “As if my answer would be anything but yes!”
They hoist the colours high, their crew gathered around them, and together they belt out the song that is spreading across the seas.
Never shall we die
Near Mocktown, a man pauses in his pursuit of his prey, trusting the winds he commands and the ship that carries him to keep the heading straight as he lets go of the helm to raise his head and stare at the flags flying halfway across the mast, flags that hadn’t been there a moment before. It takes him a couple of seconds to translate their meaning, and he’s marching towards the mast before he even catches sight of the small figure holding a rope out to him.
“The colours have been raised! The call has been sent! The call has been heard! And the Seas are waiting for our answer! What say you, Captain?”
‘Wrath of the Storm’ Ras has never witnessed a hoisting of the colours before, but he’s heard of them, of course, and moreover Captain Buggy of the Buggy Pirates has long been an ally of his.
He doesn’t even need to think it over before grabbing the rope from the young Klabauterman and hoisting the flags the rest of the way up the mast.
“Set course for Tortoise Island!” He bellows to his crew. “We head to war!”
Yo, ho, haul together
Near Enies Lobby, a captain is poring over maps and information her crewmates brought her the day before, going over the details gleaned from their latest infiltration and trying to decide if it’s worth risking another one so soon, when her first mate barges in, the door swinging behind her.
“Captain - Silence is on deck!”
Startled, Vallenwolfe “White Wolf” Ari nearly spills her ink all over her desk, but catches it on time.
“ What?”
“Silence is on deck, Captain,” Webb “The Weaver” Cosette repeats, none of her usual snark in her voice. “And Captain - she’s raising colours.”
Ari is running out the door before Cosette finishes talking, taking the steps three at a time and bursting out on deck just in time to see the Klabauterman of her beloved ship turn to face her, rope in hand and colours raised at half mast.
“The colours have been raised! The call has been sent!” Silence proclaims, voice louder and clearer that Ari has ever heard her, despite the amount of times Silence had had to manifest to save their asses. “The call has been heard! And the Seas are waiting for our answer! What say you, Captain?”
Ari takes in the flags, their shape and colours and order, and the smile that blooms upon her lips is predatory.
“I say,” She bellows, voice reverberating across the ship. “Hoist the colours high!”
And as she speaks she grabs the rope and tugs, the flags raising immediately.
When Ari turns towards her nakama, her smile is just as full of fangs as her namesake. “Let the hunt begin.”
And then, throwing her head back, she joins in the song.
Hoist the colours high
All around the world, crew after crew turns around to find a figure they’ve never seen before (and yet know so well already) hoisting a series of flag up to half mast before turning towards their captain (or acting captain in some cases), all asking the same question
“The colours have been raised! The call has been sent! The call has been heard! And the Seas are waiting for our answer! What say you, Captain?”
And, as one, as they read the flags and understand the message, Captain after Captain steps up to the mast to hoist the colours all the way to the top, adding their own Jolly Roger at the end, and Captain after Captain finds a song they’ve never sung before bursting from their lips.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die
Pirate crews, big and small, famous and unknown, the only thing they have in common being allies and friends of Buggy the Clown, hear the call, see the colours, and together they rise.
Klabautermänner, all over the seas, appear to their crews for the first time or the nth’ depending on the crew’s usual level of recklessness, and they bring out flags, small and big and square and triangular, and they leave them at half mast, leave the last step for the captain to take, because they are but the messenger, the carrier of the call that Davy Jones deemed worthy of being sent across the seas.
And, for the first time since the very first Call was sent out, not a single ship who hears it refuses to answer. For the first time since the very first Call, every single Captain or acting captain whose Klabauterman conveys the call to steps up and hoists the colours to the very top of the mast, proclaiming their allegiances for the world to know.
All around the seas, pirates are raising the colours. They look at the flags flying high, and then at their crews, and they begin to plan.
Some men have died
And some are alive
And others sail on the sea
In Impel Down, pirates without ships turn their heads to the East, towards the Call they feel in their bones despite the distance, despite the seastone, despite everything that keeps them locked here, and one prisoner, locked all the way down into Level Six, throws his head back and laughs.
The other prisoners in this level move away from the noise, keep a wary eye on him. The man has been silent for nearly twenty years, and they do not want to know what just caused that change.
With the keys to the cage
And the Devil to pay
(On a ship headed to Impel Down, surrounded by so much seastone and so many marines that it should be ridiculous, an injured red haired man keeps his head down as the Call rushes over him, carried to him by the two ships who sail with him and who are not about to let distance keep this from him, who refuse to keep from him the lengths to which those who care for him are willing to go. And, hidden behind the curtain of crimson hair, a smile forms on his face.)
We lay to Fiddler's Green!
In Water Seven, hidden in a hangar underneath a shipwright’s house, there is a ship. She’s not that old, all things considered, not even thirty yet, but she’s seen so much, been through so much, and she went all the way to the end of the world for her crew and her captain, and she is alone , left behind after her captain died, left alone with just her shipwright, and she loves Rush, she does, but it’s not enough and Oro Jackson has been slowly dying for the past twenty years without captain and without crew and without wind in her sails and seawater on her deck, and she’d been resigned to it, had made her peace with it [or not], but then…
A Call, a rush of information carried to her by wind and wave and foam and sea, and she’s running before she realises it, running towards the flag chest and taking them out, one by one, the flags that are the message that is being sent, and then she looks at them and…
Oh.
It’s Blue, she realises. Blue is the one sending the message, because Red has been taken, has been betrayed to the marine by one who calls herself a child of Davy Jones, and Oro Jackson is furious, already halfway through attaching the flags to the cable when she realises-
She’s alone. There’s no captain here to raise the colours to the top, no acting captain either. Not even a shipwright, because Rush is working on an important project with Galley-la and spending nights there to try and get it finished.
Oro Jackson is alone, there’s no one here to raise the colours…
Except her.
Oro Jackson is a queen of the seas, the Ship Who Went to The End of The World. She has been captainless and crewless for nearly two decades, and she is dying, but Red and Blue are still hers and she’ll be damned if she lets either of them die because of something as stupid as lacking a crewmember to hoist the colours.
After all-
She, too, is a crew member. And, as the last crew member aboard… that makes her the acting-captain.
And so the Oro Jackson hoists the colours herself, until they’re all the way to the top of her main mast, and then she turns towards the doors that have kept her hidden for so long.
They open, and Oro grabs her own helm, lets down her own sails, and sets her own course, the very same song that is resonating across the seas escaping from her lips.
Her boys need her, and she refuses to let them down.
The bell has been raised
From it's watery grave...
Do you hear it's sepulchral tone?
(Scattered all over the seas, old nakamas feel the urge to turn their gaze towards the East. They don’t know why, not really, have never experienced a call before save for Rayleigh, and none of them ever experienced one while on land, far away from the ship they once called home. A shipwright will come home three days later and find an empty spot right where a ship should have been, and she will panic and try to contact the others, but it’s already too late.
They’ll send messages, cleverly hidden in newspaper, they’ll risk denden calls in some cases, but by the time they will figure out what happened it will be too late to do anything but watch the fallout.
And the world will shake)
We are a call to all
Pay heed the squall
And turn your sail toward home!
On a ship that few ever remember seeing and yet so many know of, a man who is not a human but looks like a man sometimes listens to what the wind and foam and waves and seas tell him, listens to the many voices joining together in a song for the ages, and smiles.
The world stands on the edge of a knife, and no one will see the ending coming.
This is going to be... interesting.
In Marineford, Sengoku sits in his office and feels a shudder run down his spine. He ignores it, too focused on putting together the roster of marines who will guard the execution plaza and make sure no one interferes. Akagami no Shanks is a rookie by Yonkou standards, but still a Yonkou, and he has allies. It wouldn't do for someone to try and save him. He's doubled the amount of men keeping an eye on the New World, in particular on crews like the Whitebeards, just in case.
(Little does he know: his attention is on the wrong side of the Red Line. On the wrong side of the Grand Line, too.
Just because most of the heavy hitters remain in the New World does not mean that all of them do, that all of Akagami no Shanks' allies do. The four Blues are considered by most as simply a pirate's birthplace, not the place where they'll make a name for themselves. They're seas of rookies or relics, mostly - no one looks at them and expects to see anyone truly dangerous.
Too bad for them.)
The song has barely faded from Buggy’s lips when the Big Top is digging through the flag chest again, rummaging around until she finds a small log book, about pocket-size, with a dark blue and green leather cover and silver detailing that looks like foam.
Buggy has never seen that book in his life, and yet he’s not surprised when Top flips it open and starts speaking.
“Akagami Kaizoku, Red Force. Buggy-and-Shanks, Red Speed. Blackjack Pirates, Black Maria. Cook Pirates, Baratie. Spade Pirates, Piece of Spadille. Scarlet Rowers, Eternal. Driftwood Divers, Discord. Lost Krakens, Huntress. SIlent Seas, Silence.”
Name after name after name, crews and ships alike, and Cabaji is scrambling to write them all down as Top calls them out, crews and ships who heard the call and raised their colours high-
“Oro Jackson.” Top finishes. No named crew, just the ship’s name and -
Oro. Oro is coming, is sailing herself apparently, and Buggy doesn’t even know why he’s surprised by this anymore, because of course she would, she’s just as stubborn as the rest of them and-
The Rogers haven’t raised their colours, but the Oro Jackson has, and Buggy doesn’t know what that means, won’t know it until he sees Oro with his own two eyes, but at least for now he doesn’t have to deal with the relics and he will take what he can get.
Cabaji writes it down with a confused expression, and he’s turning towards Buggy, probably to inquire about it, when, as they really should have predicted, the dendens start ringing.
All of them.
At once.
“Alright!” Buggy barks, shaking himself out of his stupor (so many of them had answered, every single crew he counts as an ally or a friend, and so many more that he thought were just acquaintances, and not just crews who are also allied with the Akagami either. On the contrary - the vast majority of his network does not overlap with the Red Force’s, and yet every single one of them raised their colours at his call-). “Mohji, East Blue dendens, Fuwas you’re with him! Cabaji, South Blue and the Funans! I’m taking Paradise, Loyal and the Domingos with me. Everyone else, continue with your usual duties, I’ll let you know when I have something specific for you to do!”
The next two days are a flurry of calls as every single crew who raised the colours checks in to let him know what he can expect from them.
Most of them pledge assistance in raising havoc around the Blues, or medical assistance after the fact, as he expected, but a surprising number are ready and willing to actually fight the full force of the marines head-on.
What is not surprising is that the Blackjack’s are at the head of that crowd. Yadomaru and her people are chomping at the bit, and it’s only their oath to follow his lead that keeps them from storming Marineford right this instant. Well, that and the fact that Shanks isn’t at Marineford yet.
Seventeen days. Buggy has seventeen days left to come up with a plan to rescue his best friend from the jaws of the World Government and the certain death that awaits him there.
Well. It’s a good thing he’s always been best at coming up with plans when he has a deadline looming over him, isn’t it?
The heavy hitters are all making their ways to Tortoise Island as discreetly as they can without sacrificing speed. The last of them should arrive by the end of the week, as should the Big Top with its reduced crew. The majority of the Buggy Pirates rookies are getting dropped off on Drum tomorrow, despite their protests, and most of the rest will be teaming up with the sabotaging crew, while Cabaji, Mohji, Richie and Loyal have made it clear that they won’t be leaving his side anytime soon.
Idiots, Buggy thinks, and it’s fond despite his reluctance in dragging them into danger. He knows he won’t change their minds, not this time.
While the heavy hitters and the pinpoint sabotage crews are heading to Tortoise Islands along with the more medically inclined crews, Buggy has given the rest of them instructions to cause as much chaos in their respective seas as they can. The more Marine attention they can focus away from Marineford, the better, and if they can mess with important trading routes and other logistic necessities, all the better.
The cackling over the denden after he gave those particular crews their marching order would have been concerning in any other circumstances. Here, Buggy simply told them to have fun and let them at it, after requesting that someone keeps track of what’s happening so he can have a good laugh once this is all over.
“Don’t worry about it, Captain Buggy, we’re definitely planning on taking many pictures,” Wrath of the Storm Ra’s grin is terrifying. Buggy would feel sorry for their local marine bases, but these people signed up for the institution that is going to execute his best friend, so fuck them. “And we’ll make damn sure that the entire world gets to see them afterwards.”
“Don’t get caught,” is all he tells them before hanging up, focusing again on the map taped against the wall of his ship’s library, which has been repurposed into a war room due to its proximity to the communication office.
There’s a plan there, slowly starting to form. It’s not quite finished yet, not really, but…
We can do this, Buggy thinks. We have to do this.
Because a world without Shanks in it? Is not one Buggy ever wants to experience.
Here’s the thing.
Marineford is the Marine’s newest headquarter, barely a year old. It’s big and heavily fortified, and it’s the headquarter of the Marine, which means that, even when there’s no important execution being planned, it has a huge number of marines assigned to it. Battleships, too, and more giants than most Marine bases.
And since there is an important execution being planned, even one that hasn’t been publicly announced yet, more and more of them are beginning to gather there, turning the place into a madhouse.
Thousands and thousands of marines, gathering for the sole purpose of ensuring that nothing and no one interferes with the execution of the youngest Emperor, coming from all corners of the world, from Paradise and the Graveyard both. Too many for anyone but maybe one of the other Emperors and their respective armies to fight them head-on.
That’s okay, though. Fighting them heads-on has never been Buggy’s plan, after all. And the heavy movement of troops means that it’s much easier than it usually would be for some of his allies to sneak into Marineford - the advantage of having small-time pirate crews at his back, with few if any members with a bounty poster and most of them with good disguise skills.
There’s the logistics of the situation to consider, too - Marineford does not have the resources to feed all these newly arrived soldiers with their usual shipments: additional orders have been made, and supply ships are making their way there with their bellies full.
It’s oh so easy to notice those extra ships, oh so easy for local pirate ships to decide to try their luck attacking them. On the outside, it looks random, like it’s just bad luck that the local outlaws have noticed the increased activity and decided to target those ships in particular.
It’s very much not. At least not for all of them. Buggy’s allies were the first to start targeting the supply ships, but others followed suit when they saw how lucrative it was. Most of the ships still manage to go through, of course, they can’t stop them all, but they can stop enough of them to ensure that, while nobody in Marineford will starve, the Marines won’t exactly be happy about the amount or variety of food they’re getting either.
There’s eleven days remaining before the execution when White Wolf Ari reports that their crew has successfully infiltrated Marineford. Half of them have spread themselves into various units, including some led by Vice-Admirals (and Buggy has to admire the sheer balls it takes to infiltrate Monkey D. Fucking Garp’s unit, and resolves to buy Webb Cosette a drink once this clusterfuck is dealt with, because damn) and the rest have hidden themselves into the background, joining the janitorial staff as well as the kitchens. Which places them in the best place to sabotage the fuck out of Marineford right before everything starts.
Then there’s the ones who work on the administrative side doing all they can to discreetly sabotage the execution, fudging furniture orders and accidentally washing clothes too hot leaving people with too small uniforms…
They're not the only ones, either. Despite not being a pirate crew - and, indeed, some of them being retired marines - the Little Old Ladies had not been impressed by the news of what the marines had planned when Buggy had reached out to them. It's not that they have a particular attachment to Shanks, or to piracy in general, they tell him. But they like him, like the works he's doing in East Blue, and are also of the opinion that this public execution thing is bullshit and just going to get people killed for nothing. Including people they like or are related to.
The LOL have their own network - aka their kids and grand-kids, as well as fellow elderlies - and have arranged for all of their marine offsprings to be called home ASAP. Family emergency, of course, is the excuse given, but mostly it was due to the fact that the LOL did not want their brood to die needlessly, and a production like the execution was a sure way to do that. Their kids and grand-kids don’t exactly get a choice on the matter, either.
Buggy’s not a powerhouse. He knows it, everyone knows it. In a straight-out fight against the might of the Marine, he stands no chance.
But Buggy is a pirate. Why the hell would he make it a fair fight, or a fight at all, when he can lie and cheat his way to victory instead?