The air still smelled of gunpowder and burnt rubber. Buggy the Clown's face, smeared with soot and fury, twisted into a grotesque mask as he pointed a trembling, gloved finger at his crew.
"Load another one!" he shrieked, his voice cracking with hysteria. "Load the Buggy Ball! I'll blow that grinning idiot into the next sea!"
His terrified pirates scrambled around the massive cannon, heaving another spherical, studded projectile into its smoking mouth. Across the ruined square, Nami grabbed Zoro's arm, her knuckles white.
"We need to move! Now!" she yelled, dragging the wounded swordsman toward the shattered cover of a collapsed stall. Zoro grunted in pain, his hand pressed against the seeping bandages on his stomach, but his eyes never left Luffy.
Luffy stood alone in the open, staring down the cannon's dark barrel. A wide, fearless grin split his face.
*BOOM!*
The cannon roared, the Buggy Ball screaming through the air like a meteor. Time seemed to slow. Nami watched, heart in her throat, as Luffy didn't dodge. Instead, he took a colossal breath.
His chest and torso inflated impossibly, stretching his red vest to its limits, transforming him into a giant, human balloon. The cannonball slammed into his distended rubber stomach with a deep, resonant *THUMP*.
"Gomu Gomu no…" Luffy's voice echoed, oddly distorted. "…Balloon!"
With a powerful exhale, he snapped back to his normal shape, catapulting the Buggy Ball straight back the way it came. It was a blur of vengeful iron.
The resulting explosion where the Buggy Pirates stood was deafening. A cloud of dust, splinters, and clown confetti mushroomed into the sky.
As the debris rained down, Nami stumbled out from cover, her mind reeling. She marched up to Luffy, who was dusting off his hands with a satisfied nod.
"What *are* you?" she demanded, her voice a mixture of awe and utter frustration. She poked his arm. "That lion should have torn you in half. That cannonball should have vaporized you. And you just… *inflated* yourself? Explain. Now."
Luffy tilted his head, as if the question was strange. "Huh? Oh! That was 'Gomu Gomu no Balloon'!" he announced proudly.
Nami stared, then dragged a hand down her face. "I don't want the attack name! I want the *reason*! Are you even human?"
Before Luffy could give another baffling answer, a movement in the wreckage caught their eye. The rubble shifted. Two figures, using others as shields, pushed themselves upright.
Buggy emerged first, his fine coat now tattered, his blue hair caked with dust. Behind him, Cabaji the Acrobat coughed, wiping blood from his lip. At their feet, three unconscious pirates groaned—the human shields that had taken the brunt of the reflected blast.
Cabaji's voice was a low, venomous hiss. "Captain… this humiliation stains our flag. No one has ever made the Buggy Pirates into a joke like this."
From the side, Mohji, the lion tamer, stumbled to his feet, clutching his head. His eyes widened in horror when he saw Cabaji nonchalantly holding the limp form of Richie, the lion, as a makeshift barrier.
"Cabaji! You used Richie as a shield?!" Mohji screeched, rushing over. He checked the lion's pulse, then his head snapped up. His gaze locked on Luffy, and pure terror dawned on his face. "Captain! Be careful! That straw-hat guy… he's like you! He ate a Devil Fruit!"
Nami's breath hitched. *Devil Fruit?*
Mohji pointed a shaking finger. "His body… it's rubber!"
Nami slowly turned to Luffy, her eyes wide. "Rubber?"
"Yup!" Luffy said cheerfully. To demonstrate, he hooked his fingers into his mouth and stretched his cheeks out a foot to either side like taffy. "See? Gomu Gomu!"
Buggy's face went through a spectrum of colors—from white to red to a furious purple. The pieces clicked: the immunity to slashing, the reflected cannonball. This wasn't just luck; this was a direct challenge to his own mythos.
"RUBBER?!" Buggy roared, the sound tearing from his throat. He whirled on Mohji, his rage finding a new, immediate target. "YOU KNEW THIS AND YOU LET ME MAKE A FOOL OF MYSELF?!"
"I-I tried to warn you earlier!" Mohji yelped, but it was too late. In a fit of pique, Buggy grabbed Mohji by the scruff and hurled him bodily at Luffy. "YOU'RE USELESS!"
Luffy didn't even flinch. As Mohji flew toward him, he simply cocked back a fist and met him mid-air.
"Too slow."
*SMACK!*
The punch sent Mohji careening into the stone wall of a nearby building with a sickening crunch, where he slid down into a silent heap.
Luffy lowered his fist, his playful grin gone, replaced by a focused intensity. "Alright. The fight's started for real now."
Seeing an opening, Cabaji leaped onto his unicycle, blades flashing in his hands. He became a whirlwind of steel, rolling straight for Luffy's exposed back. "Die, pirate!"
A flash of three swords intercepted him in a shower of sparks.
Zoro stood between them, one sword in each hand and the third clenched in his teeth, his body tense with pain but his stance unbreakable. The force of blocking Cabaji's charge made him skid back an inch, his boots scraping gravel.
"If you're fighting with swords," Zoro growled, the words muffled but clear around the hilt in his mouth, "then your opponent is me."
Cabaji righted his unicycle, a cruel smile on his face. "Roronoa Zoro. It will be an honor for this swordsman to add your head to my captain's collection."
Their blades met again, a frantic dance of steel. But Nami saw it—the grimace Zoro tried to hide, the fresh bloom of red seeping through the bandages on his torso. His wound from Buggy's earlier sneak attack was tearing open. He was fighting on borrowed time.
Buggy ignored the duel, his entire world narrowed to the rubber man. His body began to tremble, then to separate. His hands floated free, each clutching a gleaming dagger. His feet detached, skittering for better footing. He split apart, piece by piece, until he was a constellation of deadly, floating parts, his manic grin hovering in the center.
"Rubber, huh?" Buggy's voice came from everywhere at once. "Let's see how stretchy you are when I carve you into a thousand pieces!"
Luffy raised his fists, ready. But before he could move, Buggy's floating hands shot forward—not at Luffy, but past him.
Directly at the struggling Zoro's unprotected back.
"ZORO, BEHIND YOU!" Luffy shouted, lunging, but he was too far away.
Zoro, locked in a deadly parry with Cabaji, heard the warning too late. He started to turn, but Cabaji pressed his attack, pinning his swords.
The glint of Buggy's dagger caught the sun. It aimed straight for the center of Zoro's old, bleeding wound.
And from the shadows of a broken archway, a new voice, cold and dripping with malice, slithered into the chaos.
"My, my. What a delightful mess."
Everyone froze. A tall, slender figure stepped into the light, adjusting the cuffs of an immaculate suit. It was the navigator, Nami, but her expression was one they had never seen—a smile of pure, calculating ice. In her hand, she held not a staff, but the glittering, stolen map of the Grand Line.
She looked directly at Buggy, her eyes devoid of all fear. "But I believe you've forgotten something, Clown. You don't get to kill them."
She held the map aloft, and in her other hand, a lit match flared.
"Until you've paid my price."