The sea was a flat, merciless blue, and the sun beat down on the three miserable pirates rowing for their lives. In the center of their stolen dinghy, bound and scowling, sat Roronoa Zoro.
"Faster," Zoro grunted, the ropes straining against his muscles. "Or I'll use you three as bait."
"W-we're rowing!" one pirate whimpered, blisters forming on his hands. "Why are you even here? This is the middle of nowhere!"
Zoro's gaze was a blade. "I'm looking for a man. But you're going to tell me why *you're* here first."
The lead pirate, a man with a face like a deflated fish, broke. "It was a girl! A girl with orange hair and eyes that could sweet-talk the sea itself! She said her ship was sinking, begged for help… we pulled alongside, and the next thing we know, a squall comes out of *nowhere*! She cut our lines, stole our sloop, and left us on her sinking tub!"
"A girl," Zoro repeated, unimpressed.
"Not just any girl!" the fish-faced pirate hissed, leaning closer. "She's a ghost! A thief who targets pirates! And now we're adrift in the territory of the worst one of all… Captain Buggy the Clown!"
The name landed with a chill. The other two rowers paled.
"Buggy," Zoro said. "The one from the East Blue rumors?"
"More than rumors!" the pirate whispered, terror making his voice crack. "He ate a Devil Fruit! The Chop-Chop Fruit! He can split his body apart, and put it back together! He's… unkillable!"
* * *
In Orange Town, fear was a tangible scent in the air—dust, sweat, and old wood. A girl with vibrant orange hair and a satchel clutched to her chest sprinted down a deserted alley, her boots kicking up puffs of dirt. Behind her, the thunder of heavy footsteps echoed.
"Get back here, thief!" roared a hulking pirate with a Mohawk. "The Captain wants that map!"
"Finders keepers!" she shot back, skidding around a corner. Her heart hammered against her ribs. *The map to the Grand Line… almost there…*
* * *
On a raised platform in the town square, surrounded by cowering townsfolk forced to watch, sat Buggy the Clown. His red nose was a bulbous beacon of his fury. A pirate knelt before him, trembling.
"Captain! We saw a strange bird! Gigantic! Flying low over the western woods!"
Buggy, lounging on a makeshift throne of looted furniture, waved a dismissive, gloved hand. "A bird? I don't care about birds! I care about my treasure map! Shoot the damn bird if it bothers you."
"Yes, Captain!"
A moment later, a cannon BOOMED in the distance.
* * *
The girl—Nami—ducked into a seemingly empty storefront, pressing her back against the wall. She heard the cannon's retort, followed by a strange, whistling sound growing louder, and then…
**CRASH!**
Something smashed through the roof of the building opposite in an explosion of splinters and tiles, landing in the street with a ground-shaking *THUD*. Dust billowed.
Mohawk and his two cronies skidded to a halt. From the cloud of debris, a figure stood up, brushing dust from his shoulders.
It was a boy in a red vest, rubbing his head. "That hurt," he mumbled.
Nami's eyes widened. *He fell from the sky? And he's… fine?*
Mohawk recovered first, sneering. "Who the hell are you?"
The boy looked up, his eyes landing not on the pirates, but on his own head, then patting the ground around him. "My hat."
Nami saw it then—a simple straw hat, knocked off in the impact, rolling to a stop by Mohawk's boot.
The pirate grinned, picking it up. "This your treasure, kid? Looks like junk." He squeezed the brim.
The boy's posture changed instantly. The easygoing slump vanished, replaced by a wire-tight tension. The air grew heavy.
"Give it back," he said, his voice low and utterly flat.
Mohawk laughed. "Or what?"
He never saw the move. One moment the boy was ten feet away, the next a fist like a cannonball buried itself in Mohawk's gut. The pirate's eyes bulged, air exploding from his lungs. The hat flew from his grip.
The boy snatched it from the air, placing it carefully back on his head. He adjusted it with a reverence that seemed absurd for a piece of straw.
The other two pirates charged. What followed wasn't a fight; it was a demolition. Two punches. Two pirates crumpled.
Nami's thief instincts screamed at her. *Dangerous. Unpredictable. Useful.* She stepped out of the shadows, a brilliant, calculated smile on her face.
"Boss! There you are!" she chirped, running up to the boy. She linked her arm with his, feeling the solid, unyielding muscle there. "I told you these small-time pests wouldn't be a problem for you! Let's go, we have more… business to attend to."
She pulled him into an alley, leaving the groaning pirates behind. Once out of sight, she dropped the act and sized him up. "Okay, sky-boy. Who are you, and what's with the hat?"
"I'm Luffy," he said, as if that explained everything. He touched the brim again. "This was a promise."
"A promise," Nami deadpanned. This was like talking to a very simple, very strong brick. "Fine. I'm Nami. I'm a thief who specializes in liberating treasure from pirates. You seem good at hitting things. We could work together. That clown out there, Buggy, has a huge hoard."
Luffy's stomach growled louder than his reply. "Is there food?"
Nami's eye twitched. She dragged him into a nearby abandoned house. "Listen! Buggy the Clown. Devil Fruit user. He can dismember himself. He's psychotic, vain, and has a cannon he loves more than his crew." She leaned in, her voice dropping to a serious whisper. "He once obliterated an entire village because a child laughed at his nose."
Luffy peered out the grimy window. "His nose *is* funny."
"That's not the point!" Nami snapped, her patience fraying. "He's searching this town for me and for any treasure left! We need a plan to get his loot and get out before he—"
* * *
In the town square, the atmosphere had curdled into pure terror. The pirate who had reported the bird was now suspended six feet in the air, limbs splayed unnaturally, held aloft by an unseen force. Before him, Buggy stood, his painted smile a grotesque parody.
"...so you let the orange-haired rat get away?" Buggy's voice was a singsong of venom.
"N-no, Captain! I said she *gave* us the slip! She's—"
"She's what?" Buggy interrupted, his blue head tilting. "She said something about my nose? My *strange* nose?"
The suspended pirate's blood ran cold. "What? No! Captain, I never said—"
"You're calling your Captain strange?" Buggy's voice lost all pretense of mirth. It was the sound of cracking ice. He raised a hand, fingers splayed. The pirate's limbs twisted further, a sickening pop echoing in the silent square.
Buggy turned to his crew, his eyes dead. "Load the cannon."
"CAPTAIN, PLEASE!"
The crew, faces pale, rolled the small cannon forward. They couldn't meet their crewmate's pleading eyes.
"Fire."
The world exploded in sound and smoke.
When it cleared, there was only a red smear on the cobblestones. Buggy dusted off his gloves, his cheerful grin back in place. "Now then," he chirped to his stunned, horrified crew. "Tear this town apart. Find the thief. Find every berry, every jewel, every scrap of value." His grin widened, showing too many teeth.
"And find out who just crashed into *my* town."
* * *
In the dark, dusty house, Nami finished drawing a quick map in the floorboards. "...so his ship is docked here. The main treasure will be in his cabin. We create a diversion, maybe a fire near the eastern—"
A thunderous, rolling **BOOM** shook the walls, making the dust dance. A second later, the distant, fading scream of a man.
Luffy and Nami froze.
"The cannon," Nami whispered, all color draining from her face. The reality of Buggy's cruelty, something she'd treated as a story, just became violently, awfully real.
Before she could react, the door to the house exploded inward.
Framed in the sunlight, surrounded by a dozen armed pirates, was a figure in a jester's hat, his blue hair wild, his red nose glowing. He didn't look at Nami, or the map on the floor.
His manic, swirling eyes were locked directly on Luffy's straw hat.
"Well, well," Buggy the Clown crooned, his voice dripping with malicious delight. "What do we have here? A new hat for my collection… and a new head to put under it."