The wind howled across the wax platform.
Buggy stood tall before the kneeling Celestial Dragon, cloak billowing behind him like a banner of war.
His voice carried across the seas.
"Wealth. Power. Status."
He paused.
"The man who once possessed everything in this world—my Captain, the Pirate King Gol D. Roger."
A murmur swept across taverns and kingdoms alike.
"Before his death, he spoke words that drove countless people to the sea and ignited the Great Pirate Era."
Faces in distant islands leaned closer to their screens.
"Since that day, how many claim they seek the One Piece? How many shout that they will become Pirate King?"
His gaze sharpened.
"But how many truly wish to conquer the Grand Line? To reach the final island?"
He raised his voice.
"There are plenty who shout about dreams while slaughtering the weak!"
On a nameless island in the Blues, a pirate crew that had just looted a village stiffened as they watched.
"Boss… he's not talking about us, right?" one muttered nervously.
Their captain spat.
"So what if he is? He can't even save himself."
Back on the wax platform, Buggy's voice grew colder.
"Yes, pirates are scum," he declared openly. "Cunning. Greedy. Cruel."
Gasps echoed.
"But those who wave the banner of dreams while bullying civilians disgust me."
The sea seemed to be quiet around him.
"The ocean is a stage for the strong. It is not a playground for cowards who prey on the defenseless."
His eyes flashed.
"If I encounter you on the sea… I will show you what cruelty truly means."
The declaration struck like thunder.
In Marine bases, jaws clenched.
In pirate dens, uneasy silence spread.
Buggy continued.
"Why did Roger give his life to ignite an era?"
He raised his hand slowly.
"Because after we completed our voyage across the Grand Line, we saw it clearly."
"This world…"
His voice hardened.
"…is stagnant."
A ripple passed through the air.
"The Celestial Dragons sit above like swine calling themselves gods."
Rosward whimpered beneath the wax bindings.
"Kings inherit their thrones. Nobles inherit their privilege. Bloodline decides worth."
He spat the words like poison.
"Is that freedom?"
He shook his head slowly.
"A world like that is boring."
Across Wano Country, in a classroom rebuilt after the war, a teacher was reciting a sanitized tale of heroism.
"If Lord Oden was the greatest Shogun," a small girl asked quietly, "why did my parents starve?"
The teacher faltered.
In the banquet hall of the Flower Capital, Yamato slammed a fist onto the table.
"Only Oden can be a hero!"
Nekomamushi and Inuarashi exchanged troubled glances.
In the distance, Luffy tilted his head.
"Why did everyone stop eating?"
On the sea, Buggy's voice cut through the world once more.
"Roger believed that by exposing everything—by stirring this stagnant water—the world would choose."
"Submit to the Celestial Dragons."
"Or set sail and challenge them."
He exhaled slowly.
"But nothing changed."
His eyes darkened.
"Corrupt rulers are hailed as heroes."
"Loyal men die forgotten."
"Truth is buried."
"And fools cheer for their own chains."
The wind whipped violently now.
"I am tired of enduring it."
A pulse of unseen force rolled outward faintly.
"This world displeases me."
He lifted his sword.
"So I will overturn it."
A shock ran through the assembled pirates.
"Boys!" Buggy roared. "Your captain will not merely become Pirate King."
His voice boomed across the seas.
"I will become an enemy of the world itself."
The Buggy Pirates exploded into delirious cheers.
"Captain Buggy!"
"Lead us!"
"We'll follow you anywhere!"
Buggy's gaze swept across them.
"The Pirate King I speak of is not a fairy tale."
He slashed the air sharply.
"There will be blood."
"Slaughter."
"War without end."
"You may die."
His eyes burned.
"Are you prepared?"
"YES!!!"
The roar shook the deck.
Buggy felt something inside him surge.
The magnetic current within his body accelerated wildly—responding to his will, to the atmosphere, to the rising tide of conviction.
"Very well," he declared.
"I will shoulder your dreams."
He pointed his sword skyward.
"There is no road before the King."
His voice thundered.
"Carve your own path!"
He swung his blade.
"The Buggy Pirates declare war on the Celestial Dragons!"
"Let us forge a new era!"
The blade fell.
Rosward Saint's head separated cleanly from his body.
It struck the deck with a hollow sound.
For a heartbeat—
The world stopped.
Then—
A shockwave erupted from Buggy.
Black lightning cracked across the sky.
An overwhelming pressure exploded outward in all directions.
Weak men collapsed instantly, eyes rolling back.
Even seasoned fighters staggered.
On the Marine battleship, Fujitora gripped his sword tightly.
Conqueror's Haki.
Not a mere flicker—
But an overwhelming surge.
"This…" he murmured.
He had sensed powerful Haki before.
But this was different.
Unrestrained.
Commanding.
Across islands, people fell to their knees.
Some wept openly—not from fear, but from relief.
The head of a Celestial Dragon lay on a pirate's deck.
For the first time in centuries.
Mr. 3 recovered first.
"Fire!" he screamed. "Salute the birth of our King!"
Cannons roared.
Fujitora exhaled slowly.
"Return fire."
Marine cannons answered.
Flames streaked across the sky.
"This old man has witnessed history today," Fujitora said quietly.
He lifted his blade.
"If you wish to overturn the world… prove it."
He raised his hand.
Gravity twisted violently above the clouds.
A massive meteor ignited, descending in a flaming arc toward Buggy's ship.
"Captain!" Mr. 3 shouted. "Dodge!"
Buggy did not move.
"If I must dodge this," he said calmly, "how can I lead you?"
He extended his hand.
The meteor crossed into range—
And disintegrated.
The Chop-Chop Fruit's awakened power tore it apart at the microscopic level, reducing the colossal mass into harmless particulate fragments that scattered like ash.
Fujitora's brow tightened.
Buggy lowered his stance.
Memories flickered.
Roger is standing behind him.
A laugh.
A lesson.
The blade in his hand hummed faintly.
Black lightning coiled around it.
Dense. Violent.
On the Red Force, Shanks' eyes widened.
"That stance…"
Buggy swung.
"Kamisari."
The slash tore through the sky like a divine thunderbolt.
---
Support: patreon.com/Narrator_San