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First of all, Buggy would like to make it clear that he did not come here because of Shanks.
Well. Not just because of Shanks, anyways. He probably would have visited Dawn Island at some point anyways, what with it being a rather prominent island in this part of East Blue, and not to mention it’s chock full of nobles with full purses and even fuller egos… but he digresses. The point is, Shanks only got him to come here sooner. He definitely would’ve come here anyways, even without Shanks giving him the idea!
It isn’t really Buggy’s fault if Shanks shows up in East Blue, visits the same island six different times in the span of a few months, and then vanishes into oblivion again without once stopping by to say hello. Really, can Buggy be blamed for getting curious enough to go see what in the hell is so special about this particular island? It must be something damn good, if it’s caught enough of Shanks’s attention for him to make repeat visits. A free spirit like him… it’s rare for him to even stay in the same sea for longer than a month, let alone return to the exact same island over and over.
So, of course, Buggy sets out to investigate. It could be a long-lost treasure that Shanks couldn’t find, and keeps returning to look for. It could be an adventure with many paths, paths that must be explored separately lest one miss a vital detail. It could be a person, one that’s finally caught Shanks’s eye after years of having no one capable of tying him down.
(He resolutely ignores the way his stomach twists at the idea of Shanks having a paramour. Some faceless young man or woman, prettier and kinder than Buggy in every way. A fresh-faced sailor, a sweet-voiced barmaid, always superior to Buggy in every way. Nicer, prettier, better. )
But whatever is on this island, Buggy won’t know unless he goes there himself – and so, he does.
The docks are located in a little seaside town called Foosha (the ones that aren’t attached to the noble ‘High Town’ and therefore plastered in regulations and guards, that is). It’s quaint, almost kitschy. Buggy can see how a free-spirited pirate like Shanks could find himself enamoured by the small town’s many charms.
Contrary to most small towns, the people don’t seem at all wary of Buggy and his merry band of fools. The pirate ship garners some odd glances at first, but they quickly die down after Buggy’s posse disembarks – and isn’t that odd? Normally, the sight of a bunch of heavily armed clown pirates in weird clothes and makeup puts people less at ease, not more.
Shanks, what the fuck were you doing in this town to make them think that my crew is normal?!
He keeps his group small to start – Mohji and Richie stay behind to keep an eye on the ship (and the idiots contained within), while Cabaji and Marille accompany Buggy into town. The twins had tried to complain about not being brought along, but frankly Buggy does not have the wherewithal to keep track of their shenanigans today, so he had told them in no uncertain terms that they were not to leave the ship, and that they’d be doing double the chores for the next month and a half if they tried sneaking out after him.
Needless to say, he leaves the ship with no issue, followed only by Cabaji and Marille. Despite their propensities for sharp objects and acrobatics, respectively, they’re the most likely to act semi-normal in unfamiliar company.
Buggy wanders around town aimlessly at first, wondering what about this place could have recaptured Shanks’s attention so many times. Sure, it’s a nice town and all, but it’s not all that special. There must be something about Foosha in particular – something unique, something no other town has. What can Buggy think of that would interest Shanks?
…Well. The bar, probably.
He saw a sign pointing to one a while back – Party’s Bar, the only tavern or like place that he’s seen anywhere in Foosha. After a few more minutes of walking circles around the town, Buggy spots the sign again, and makes a beeline for the building it directs to. He can feel Cabaji and Marille on his heels, sharing a mildly confused glance, but neither one says a word. Buggy is well aware of how unusual it must be, for him to go straight to a bar of all places rather than a town square or a theatre, or even a market, but this isn’t about him today.
The door opens with the cheerful little jingle of a quiet brass bell right above, and before Buggy can even take a seat, a young woman with deep green hair and a sweet face pops up from behind the counter. “Welcome, welcome! I’ll be right with you, just a moment please!”
She vanishes back beneath the counter as Buggy and his small entourage sit down at the bar, reappearing a moment later to heft a weighty-looking crate of bottles up onto the counter. The young woman lets out a huff of exertion, wiping her forehead and inadvertently nudging her bandanna askew with the motion. She seems to notice only a second later, frowning as she carefully adjusts it back into place.
“All right, what can I get for you three today?” She asks, turning to the trio of clown pirates. They’re just about the only ones in here, now that Buggy looks around – there are a few other patrons in the corners, mostly older and mostly local-looking, but he and his band are by far the most interesting people in here.
“What do you recommend?” Marille responds with a charming smile. “We’re from out of town, you see. We’d love to hear about the specials.”
The barmaid ponders for a moment before pulling a green glass bottle from the shelf behind her and setting it on the counter in front of Marille. “This whiskey is our house blend. I can offer you a small taster, if you’d like to try it before having a glass?”
Cabaji nods. “That would be excellent, Miss…?”
“Makino,” she fills in. “I’m the owner of this bar, so if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, and I’ll do my best to answer!”
Makino, eh? Is this what– no, who Shanks keeps returning for?
But no, that can’t be right, and Buggy puts the idea out of his mind just as quickly as it had come. Makino seems sweet and all, but Shanks wouldn’t be this enamoured with the island unless there was something weird about it. He’s always had a taste for the most bizarre stuff, ever since they were kids.
Cabaji does end up getting the whiskey after having a sip, though Marille and Buggy both decline – Marille because she’s far more interested in the vintage wine sitting high up on a shelf behind the counter, and Buggy because he’s here on a mission and he can’t get distracted by petty indulgences like alcohol. That’s a Shanks move. Buggy refuses to pull a Shanks move.
What Buggy does not refuse to indulge in is gossip. Makino runs what seems to be the most prolific bar in town – if anyone can tell him about what the Akagami crew was up to here, it’ll be her.
Is subtlety really important in this context? Buggy chances a glance at Makino, catches the sharpness beneath that sweet demeanour, and decides that yes, actually, it is. Tact, a quality Buggy possesses and Shanks does not (no matter how much evidence seems to point to the opposite), will serve him well here.
“You know, I’m surprised the townsfolk seem so calm about having a pirate ship visiting,” Buggy notes absently, staring out one of the windows. “It’s a bit refreshing, if odd.”
Makino shrugs. “We get all sorts of people in Foosha. Bandits are more common, but we’ve had the occasional pirate as well.”
“Oh yeah? What kinds of crews stop around here? I can’t imagine they’re all as interesting as us.”
“Well, most other crews don’t consist of a circus and a half,” Marille points out, and Makino chuckles.
“I suppose that’s true. Recently… ah, we used to have other crews stop by a few years back, but nowadays, it’s really only been the Akagami Pirates.”
“Akagami, eh?” Buggy pretends to nod thoughtfully – this conversation will be much easier if he plays it cool, rather than immediately revealing that he’s known their captain since childhood. “Think I’ve heard of them once or twice. They visit often?”
“Oh, yes. It seems our little town was quite entrancing to their captain – he came back rather often for a year or two, although I’ve heard that he’s heading back to the Grand Line soon.”
Of course he is.
Of course he’s just sailing off and leaving Buggy behind again to go gallivanting off on some grand adventure while Buggy is left forgotten in his wake.
(What a bastard.)
Buggy lets out a long, false sigh as he stretches his arms up into the air, shifting in his seat to lean back in a slightly more leisurely posture. “Well, if the alcohol is as good as Cabaji seems to think, I can see why a pirate captain would be coming back so often.”
He knows that’s not why Shanks had been returning, because even if he’s been an alcoholic since ten, he’s never been so picky as to practically camp out on some little nowhere island just for a bottle of booze.
But if not the alcohol, then–
The bang of a door behind him interrupts his train of thought, and Buggy forces himself to untense after hearing the sudden sound. Turning in his seat, he can see that the front door to the bar has opened and is now being pushed shut, but whoever it is, they’re too short to be seen over the tables. A child, most likely, but what is a kid doing in a bard?
Makino, however, perks up at the sound of the door, and steps out from behind the counter to greet the kid. “Luffy, there you are! Did you have fun in the meadow?”
A head pops out from behind one of the tables, followed by a small body dressed in the grubby way that only a little boy can manage, and Buggy’s heart stops in his chest. It isn’t the kid himself that shocks him, no – it’s what’s sitting on the kid’s head that he suddenly catches sight of when the boy becomes visible.
That is Shanks’s straw hat.
No, worse – that is Roger’s straw hat, bequeathed to Shanks before the captain walked himself to his own demise.
And now, it’s sitting on the head of a scrappy-looking little boy in some backwater town’s only bar.
“Makino-san, I saw a pirate ship in the harbour!” The kid – Luffy, according to Makino – yelps. “It di’nt look like Shanks’s ship, but maybe they know him! D’you think they know him, Makino-san?”
Makino chuckles, patting the boy’s head. “Not every pirate knows each other, Lu-chan. Now, don’t you go bothering those pirates, you hear me? Even if they’re friendly, you don’t want to be mean to a pirate, do you?”
Eyes going impossibly wide, Luffy frantically shakes his head.
“Good. If you can behave, maybe there’ll be a pot roast in it for you, hm?”
Luffy gasps. “A pot roast? Meat?! Yes, yes, yes! I’ll be so good, Makino-san, you’ll see!”
And with that, he bolts out of the bar without another word, leaving Makino with a look of fond exasperation and Buggy with a revelation.
That hat belonged to Shanks, but clearly, it’s Luffy’s now. The kid could’ve stolen it, but Buggy can’t see that happening unless Shanks was literally dying when the hat was taken. Given that he’s still sailing the seas and hasn’t come back to retrieve his precious hat at any point, Buggy can only assume that it’s the second option: the hat was freely given, presumably as a gift from Shanks to this random boy.
But why would Shanks give a stranger his hat? He’s always liked children, but certainly not enough to just hand over his greatest treasure. Shanks is nice, sure, but he’s not flippant – at least, not with his more valuable possessions.
(Buggy resolutely ignores the memory of how Shanks had walked away from him in their youth, as though Buggy, too, was inconsequential.)
Well, let’s think, Buggy muses. Shanks got the hat from Roger, and now he’s given it to Luffy. What’s the connection here?
It can’t be a gift from a captain to his apprentice, because Luffy is still here. What were Roger and Shanks to each other, beyond those rudimentary roles?
Captain and apprentice.
No – father and son.
That hat is now an heirloom. Shanks was passing down a family heirloom to his new son.
Oh, Buggy is going to throw him across the Grand Line when he gets ahold of that stupid, stupid man. His pretty privilege isn’t going to save him from Buggy’s floating fists! How dare he adopt a child and not inform Buggy immediately!
A covert signal to Cabaji and Marille has both of his nakama downing their drinks and placing the requisite coin on the counter, bidding Makino farewell before they slip out of the bar and back onto the dusty roads of Foosha.
Buggy doesn’t expect Luffy to be hard to find, but apparently he thought wrong, because no matter where he looks, there’s nothing. It’s like the kid vanished into thin air – poof, just like Buggy’s hopes and dreams.
(And the people he thought were his family, the second Roger was no longer there to hold them together.)
“Cabaji, Marille, head back to the ship,” Buggy instructs. “I’ll be along shortly – let the others know to get any supply-gathering out of the way while I’m busy.”
Both of his nakama nod, though Marille frowns slightly as she responds. “Dare I ask where you’re going, Cap?”
“I’ve… got somethin’ to take care of. Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing dangerous and it shouldn’t take too long either.”
“If you say so. C’mon, Cabaji, we’d better get back before the twins start trying to set shit on fire.”
Buggy holds back a wince as they leave – because yeah, that’s a legitimate concern, and it’s surely going to be a costly endeavour to repair the ship if they blow something up again, not to mention how furious their shipwright will be if they mess up her work again.
After his nakama have disappeared down the sparsely populated roads, heading back in the direction of the Big Top, Buggy turns toward the forests beyond the town and begins to walk. Now, he’s only working off of assumption here, but the kid clearly isn’t anywhere in town, and this is the boy who managed to catch Akagami no Shanks’s attention – and thoroughly enough to have earned the hat right off his head, at that. Surely, he’ll be found wherever the highest concentration of chaos is, and if that isn’t Buggy’s own ship, then it must be the forests rising up past Foosha’s outskirts.
So, that’s where Buggy will go. With any luck, it won’t take too long to find Luffy and–
“Hey, Mister Clown Man!”
The sound of a youthful voice up ahead interrupts his thoughts, and Buggy looks around to see where it’s coming from, only to find no source. That’s got to be Luffy’s voice, but where is he?
“Up here!”
Buggy looks up, and… yep. There he is, perched on the roof of a windmill. In the sunlight, the straw of his hat looks brighter than any treasure or gold. “What’re you doing up there, kid? You oughta come back down before you fall and break your neck!”
There, now he can’t be held responsible if the kid really does get hurt. Plausible deniability, and all that. Definitely has nothing to do with the way his stomach twists when he even thinks of the kid falling from such a high height, and all the injuries he could get from taking a tumble so high up… maybe he should just disconnect one of his hands and grab the kid before he tries to climb any higher. Would that freak him out?
Luffy laughs, loud and bright, before hopping from the top of the windmill and down onto a lower platform. He lands hard, making Buggy’s heart leap into his throat, but when he slips off the ledge and onto the ground, he bounces.
Buggy, barely disguising the way his hands were already beginning to detach and grab the kid out of the air before he could hit the ground, freezes in place.
“Shishishi! I guess that’s why Makino always tells me not to climb on the roofs!” Luffy giggles. He pulls himself up off the ground, uncaring of the dirt (nor the numerous broken bones that fall should have given him), and presents himself to Buggy with a wide grin. “Hi, I’m Monkey D. Luffy and I’m gonna be King of the Pirates! Who’re you, Mister Clown Man?”
What.
What the fuck.
King of the– what the fuck.
Shanks, Buggy thinks, already feeling the headache begin to form behind his eyes, where the hell did you find this kid?!
Out loud, however, he’s well aware that that is not an acceptable thing to say to a child, so he grins right back and offers his hand to shake. “Buggy the Clown, Captain of the Buggy Pirates and Harlequin Scourge of East Blue! Those are fighting words, to declare yourself the next king so early on, y’know!”
Luffy, completely unphased, just grins even wider and grabs Buggy’s hand, shaking it so vigorously that he can already feel the fibres beginning to instinctually disconnect. “Wow! You’re a pirate too! Do you have a cool pirate crew? Have you ever been to the Grand Line? Do you p–”
At that moment, Buggy’s hand pops free of his arm and Luffy falls backwards, unbalanced by his own excitement. He falls silent for a moment, looking blankly at the disembodied hand he’s still clutching.
Well, shit.
Shanks’s kid is too hardy to be scared of something like this, right? There isn’t even any blood!
Buggy opens his mouth, ready to explain and take his hand back, but Luffy just gasps and bolts to his feet, looking at the hand with eyes full of wonder… before turning and taking off into the thick forests from whence he probably came.
Out loud, uncaring of who might hear, Buggy curses. Then, just for good measure, he curses again. Now I’ve got to go track down my missing hand and Shanks’s dumbass kid. Thanks a lot, you stupid drunkard.
oOoOo
There are finally more pirates visiting Dawn Island!
Luffy hasn’t been this excited since the last time Shanks visited! Well, maybe it’s a little less exciting since that was Shanks and this is some clown guy that Luffy doesn’t know, but still. It’s cool!
The clown guy (whose name is maybe Bucky or Baggy, or something like that, Luffy’s bad at remembering names) was pretty cool on his own, but then when Luffy shook his hand, it came off. Like, fully came off, in one solid piece with a lot less blood and screaming than Luffy would expect from what he’s seen in Grey Terminal. And now he’s got a hand, and he has to show Ace and Sabo before he forgets.
So obviously, he ran off the second he thought of it. If he’d waited any longer to go, he might have forgotten, and that would be awful!
The treehouse is, as usual, exactly where Luffy left it, and he comes barrelling out of the woods and nearly slams into the trunk in his haste to reach their makeshift home. At the sound of his rapid approach, Sabo sticks his head out of the top of the tree with a bleary expression.
“Lu?” Sabo calls down, blinking heavily. “Time’sit?”
What he’s actually trying to ask is whether Luffy is waking him up at a normal-person time or, as Ace likes to call it, Ass Early O’Clock. “It’s a normal-people waking-up time! C’mon, c’mon, I found something so cool and you gotta come down here and look at it right now!”
“Alright, I’m coming, god,” Sabo grumbles, pulling his head back into the treehouse. There’s a bit of clattering and a startled yell that sounds like Ace getting stepped on, and then he’s coming down through the trapdoor to land right in front of Luffy, top hat vaguely askew and coat wrinkled from where it had gotten folded under him in his sleep. He looks Luffy up and down and raises an eyebrow, obviously spotting how his hands are both tucked behind his back.
Sabo stares expectantly at Luffy. Luffy stares blankly back.
“...Well?” Sabo finally asks. “Are y’gonna show me, or not?”
Luffy blinks. “Huh? Oh! I wanna show Ace, too.”
“Fine, fine, whatever.” Sabo slams his pipe into the tree and Ace lets out a sound of irritation, barely muffled by the wooden walls of their treehouse. “Get down here, lazybones, Luffy found something cool and he wants us both to see it!”
“Whatever, I’m coming already! Quit smackin’ things!” Ace, rather than taking Sabo’s preferred route of the trapdoor and ladder, simply hocks himself out the window and stumbles when he hits the ground, straightening up and dusting off his shorts a moment later.
Luffy grins. “Now you’re both here to see! Are you ready? Are you, are you?”
“ Yes, Luffy, we’re both ready, now are you going to show us or not?” Sabo sighs.
Well. Maybe Luffy’s surprise will cheer him up, then. “It’s a hand!”
He presents them with his spoil, grinning wide and giggling excitedly, and both of his brothers yelp in shock and horror. Ace points at it with an almost accusatory expression. “Where the hell did that come from?! ”
“I don’t know!” Sabo wails. “Luffy, why do you have that?!”
At this, Luffy frowns. They’re taking this a lot worse than he thought they would. “Umm…. there’s a new pirate crew in Foosha with a captain that looks like a clown, and when I shook his hand too hard, it came off. And here it is.”
He passes the hand to Sabo, who then proceeds to start inspecting it while Ace leans over his shoulder. “Is it, like… a prosthetic? Maybe you dislodged it or something?”
Of course, then the hand’s fingers start to move, and Sabo lets out an unholy shriek and chucks it across the clearing.
“That’s flesh!” Sabo shrieks. “It moved! What the fuck did you bring back, Luffy?!”
Luffy simply shrugs. Sabo shoots him a horrified look, eyes flicking from Luffy to the hand and then back again.
Ace, on the other side of him, is unphased. It takes him no time at all to walk to the other side of the clearing and pick up the gloved hand, holding its squirming form by the pinky like it’s some kind of new animal and he’s trying to figure out if it’s edible or not. “Well, now what? We’re not keeping this thing.”
“Put it back,” Sabo hisses, jabbing a finger towards the treeline in the vague direction that Luffy had run in from. “Wherever that– that clown pirate is, go find him and make it his problem!”
As if summoned by his words, the trees behind him shift and rustle, and a tall, blue-haired figure steps out. It’s the clown guy from before, looking a little winded and a lot exasperated, holding up the stump where Luffy had accidentally taken his hand off. “I say you listen to the blond kid. I’d like my hand back now, if you don’t mind.”
Ace drops the hand in an instant and it flies into the air, zooming back over to the clown pirate and smoothly rejoining the rest of his body. His gaze casts over the trio once, then twice, resting for an oddly long time on Luffy’s hat as he seemingly attempts to process something.
Finally, he lets out a long-suffering sigh, dragging a gloved hand down his face (and somehow managing to avoid smudging the facepaint one bit).
“Fine. Fine! Whatever! This might as well happen,” Buggy grumbles. “Hey, kid! You, Luffy, with the hat.”
Luffy glances to his brothers, stepping forward. “Yeah?”
“That hat? Means you’re Shanks’s kid. Did he tell you that?”
“Huh?!”
“Thought not.” Buggy lets out a heavy sigh. Luffy watches him, knowing his eyes must be the size of dinner plates. Shanks’s kid – him? Could he really…?
“Hang on, how are we meant to trust you?” Ace snaps. “You show up out of nowhere, lose a hand, and start spouting all this bullshit – you expect us to believe that? Because you’re shit outta luck if you think–”
“I don’t need luck, I’ve got dirty tricks,” Buggy informs him, “and as for who I am, the name’s Buggy. Shanks and I apprenticed on the same ship, which is why I can tell you exactly what that hat means.”
“And what does it mean?” Asks Sabo, tone wary.
Buggy grins. “Well first of all, it means your little brother there’s Shanks’s kid. And second… it means I’m familially obligated to keep all three of you, or else you’ll only have him for a parental role model. You’re all a package deal, aren’t ya?”
“Yeah!” Shouts Luffy, ignoring his brothers’ protests – even if they’re irritated now, he just knows this will work out fine. “We are!”