If Luffy decided to compete for the treasure, even if it were life-threatening, they would find a chance to try. That was the pirate world— the captain's orders carried tremendous weight.
When even the captain's orders no longer carry any weight, the crew wouldn't be far from falling apart.
That also meant the influence of a captain's orders ran deep. If the captain really lost his mind, a single order could lead to the crew's destruction.
But the situation now was different.
Luffy wasn't interested in that Eternal Pose. He just wanted to greet an old acquaintance at a time like this. It wasn't an order to be carried out; it was simply their captain having one of his periodic bouts of stupidity.
"You'll have plenty of time to catch up later! For now, let's get away from this place first!"
Luffy's crewmates swarmed him, grabbed hold, and dragged him backward. Usopp even took off his jacket and stuffed it into Luffy's mouth. The very spot Luffy had just wiped his hands on ended up crammed between his lips.
"Is this the kind of chaos that you wanted?"
"Chaos? This is what the pirate era looks like. I'll use piles of corpses as proof that I've surpassed Roger.
"As for now, I'll let these hyenas know that the weak have no right to covet treasure. They can only struggle to survive in the cracks!"
Bullet had already noticed the pirates eyeing him greedily. He wasn't some kind-hearted fool. If these pirates wanted to reap the benefits, wasn't he likewise using this chance to fish them all out?
"See? More ignorant fools who don't know their place have shown up. I wouldn't mind if you attacked me together with them; after all, you've only got one arm left. Devastation Cannon!"
Bullet threw a punch toward the crowd. The shockwaves from his fist alone blasted a group of people in all directions.
At the same time, a figure appeared atop a distant platform.
The fall of Bubble Island hadn't destroyed everything. At least this high platform had survived the aftermath. Buena Festa climbed up from below along a ladder.
His short figure hopped around excitedly, his trembling body unable to conceal the thrill in his heart.
Looking at the pirates below, fighting in a frenzy driven by greed and the will to survive, then at Bullet battling Shanks, Buena Festa could no longer suppress his joy and burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha! This is what the era of war should look like! Go on, Bullet, kill everyone here!
"When these pirates fall, it'll be the Marines' turn to take the stage!"
In the past, the Pirates Festival had been held many times. Not once had the Marines managed to infiltrate it, nor had anyone discovered Buena Festa's whereabouts. But this time, before the festival had even begun, the Marines had already received word and made preparations.
It wasn't that the Marines' intelligence network had grown stronger.
It was that Buena Festa had deliberately leaked the information to them.
In his view, the gathering of so many pirates was more than enough to trigger a Buster Call.
Twenty-three years ago, the Marines' Buster Call had exhausted Bullet's strength, and the subsequent deployment of Sengoku and Garp had sent him to prison.
Now, twenty-three years later, Buena Festa intended to use the same Buster Call to open a chapter of a new era. This was the symmetrical aesthetic he so dearly pursued.
"Do you see that, Roger? The era that you could only open with your life, I can set it in motion with the snap of my fingers.
"Though you're dead, I can still defeat you. The era you created must end. From now on, this sea will begin an era of festivals triggered by me.
"Emperors of the Sea? Marines? Former Shichibukai? They're nothing more than fireworks for my festival!"
At this moment, no one was paying attention to this place. He was alone on the high platform, performing for himself. Buena Festa seemed to treat this as the opening ceremony of his grand festival, utterly intoxicated.
But as the shockwaves of battle surged, a mass of yellow sand gathered behind him, slowly forming into a human shape.
"Watch closely, Roger. I will surpass you!"
"Surpass who, you idiot? Desert Grande Espada!"
Slash!!
A blade formed from yellow sand pierced into Buena Festa's body from below at an angle. The sand blade gradually turned blood-red, yet not a single drop of liquid fell.
Sand itself does not absorb water. The gaps between grains are large, allowing water to drain through easily. That's why deserts cannot retain moisture.
Water simply seeps quickly through the yellow sand into the ground, forming underground lakes.
But the yellow sand born from Crocodile's Sand-Sand Fruit was different. Under Crocodile's mastery, it possessed an extremely strong absorption ability, capable of draining the moisture from anything he touched.
Whether it was a wooden door or a living being, it made no difference to Crocodile. They would all wither and shrivel in his hands.
"You're… Crocodile?"
Struggling to turn his head, Buena Festa saw the man who had attacked him.
"Using me as a stepping stone? You've got some nerve, Buena Festa."
Crocodile was no pushover. On his very first voyage years ago, he had earned a bounty of 80 million.
In that era, 80 million Berries was an enormous sum. Receiving such a bounty right from the start meant the World Government had indirectly acknowledged his strength.
Then came Crocodile's brief moment in the spotlight. His early successes made him arrogant and fearless.
The young Bullet and the young Crocodile had actually fought to a standstill. Yet even that failed to curb Crocodile's ambition. Not long after entering the New World, he chose to challenge Whitebeard.
At that time, Bullet had yet to be compared to Whitebeard in his prime. The overwhelmingly powerful Whitebeard cost Crocodile an arm. After retreating back to Paradise, Crocodile soon became a Shichibukai, his mind obsessed with finding Pluton to turn the tables. That was the beginning of his weakness.
But after sorting out some things during his time in prison, Crocodile had regained his grasp of Haki and other abilities.
"Crocodile, I hired you, and you attacked me…?"
"Heh. Employment with ulterior motives doesn't count. I didn't plan on laying a hand on my employer, but since you've gone this far, there's nothing more to say."
Reputation mattered in their line of work, but so did not allowing the organization to be used as someone else's weapon.
Buena Festa had clearly broken the rules by trying to use them as a fuse to ignite an even greater era of chaos. An employer you want to kill is no longer an employer.
The Cross Guild needed to establish its standing, and Buena Festa naturally became Crocodile's tool to make an example of.
"Roger's been dead a long time. If you want to surpass him, go have a nice chat with Roger in afterlife!"
The yellow sand that pierced through Buena Festa's body further activated its Devil Fruit power. Impaled by the Desert Grande Espada, his body gradually shriveled, until the moisture within him was completely drained by Crocodile's ability.
Then, Crocodile himself stepped into Buena Festa's former position.
"Bullet… Red Hair…"
Through newfound enlightenment, Crocodile had caught up with the times, and his strength had grown significantly compared to the past. Even so, he was still far behind the two monsters below.
"Mihawk thought it'd be too troublesome and didn't come. If he knew about this, he'd probably regret it."
Lighting the cigar in his mouth, Crocodile took a deep drag.
Hawk Eyes felt that working as someone's security guard was beneath him and flatly refused to attend. Moria was practically a shut-in, only handling minor troubles nearby.
Buggy didn't mind working tirelessly, but his abilities were too lacking, so Crocodile had ended up here.
Ordering Hawk Eyes around wasn't easy. Unless an enemy came knocking on his door, he'd rather play house with those animals. The best way to get him moving was to use Red Hair as bait.
Then Crocodile transformed into yellow sand again and dissipated into the wind, his body reforming somewhere unknown.
Meanwhile, Bullet unleashed a frenzy of attacks. His target was no longer limited to Shanks before him, but extended to everyone around.
The scope of collateral damage wasn't a concern for him, or rather, the more people caught in it, the more excited Bullet became.
Shanks could withstand Bullet's attacks and counter his sudden attacks from any direction, but he couldn't contain this kind of indiscriminate barrage. The shockwaves from his punches transformed the entire area into a grinder.
Yet Bullet gradually noticed something wrong. Shanks' previously divided attention was now focusing. He no longer seemed concerned about the person he had been protecting.
The overall style of the fight hadn't changed much. If Bullet weren't a battle maniac, and if Shanks' combat techniques didn't trace back to Roger, he might not have noticed.
"No… something's off."
In Bullet's understanding, people like Roger and Shanks were stubborn to the core. Once they decided to protect something, they would never stop halfway, unless that thing no longer needed their protection.
"Obliteration…Blast!"
After gathering power, Bullet slammed a punch into the ground. A shockwave immediately spread underground in that direction. Then he followed up with a sweeping kick toward Shanks.
Seeing that Shanks showed no particular panic further confirmed his suspicion.
"It seems I've overlooked something. There's something interesting mixed in here, something that even managed to fool me."
Boom!
Punching into midair, Bullet shattered a high-speed water arrow that shot toward him. He then swung straight at the space behind him. Though he struck nothing, he forced another figure into the open.
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