Pirate: I, Buggy, am the Emperor, the Emperor of the Clown King!

A fine layer of sweat appeared on Zoro's forehead.

Not right.

Of all the techniques I had ever learned, I had never considered dealing with flying swords alone.

A swordsman's combat style involves using his sword to strike and kill his opponent when the opponent is vulnerable.

Whether it's blocking or dodging, both are means to achieve this result.

Swordsmanship, in essence, is the method of achieving this, including utilizing the limitations of the human body's joint movement, height, weight, strength, speed, and so on.

The purpose of all swordsmanship is to attack the opponent.

However, these sword techniques are completely useless against the Ace Throwing Knife.

After the Ace Knife was deflected, it was just deflected because Bucky didn't come over, so it was impossible for him to deflect the knife and launch an attack.

In other words, Zoro is in a situation where he can only be attacked and has no way to fight back.

If the fighting continues in this pattern, Zoro feels that things might not be going well.

Zoro has sharp eyes; he noticed that Buggy had two more swords behind him.

If two ace throwing knives are this difficult to deal with, what would happen if there were four?!

"Zoro!" Luffy's voice came from the side.

Zoro turned his head and saw Luffy looking up at Buggy in mid-air.

"If he just flies around in the sky like that, there's no good way for us to hit him!" Even if Luffy is simple-minded but physically strong.

However, Luffy does possess some combat wisdom.

At least at this point, it hadn't been possessed by the Nika Fruit yet.

"Troublesome!" Zoro paused for a moment.

This is a problem.

Luffy's attack methods are almost entirely close-quarters combat; he doesn't have any reliable ranged attacks.

Although Zoro possesses the Three-Sword Style, his attack range is limited.

They really didn't have any good ideas on how to deal with enemies floating in mid-air.

Although there are many anti-air techniques that can be developed in the future, I don't know any of them now.

Seeing the enemy flying in the sky, there was nothing we could do but stare helplessly.

As for using a stretched rubber body as a means of attack?

Luffy's attack speed isn't that fast yet, and his accuracy isn't that high either.

Bucky looked down at the two men, his smile widening.

really.

Luffy and Zoro, who had just set sail, didn't even have any reliable anti-aircraft methods.

If he now possesses the Joker magic, he can directly initiate spatial teleportation, combining it with the Ace Throwing Knife to create a near-instantaneous piercing attack.

Unfortunately, the completion rate is only 5%, and the clown magic trick is not yet unlocked.

but--

"Hehehe..." Bucky chuckled, reaching behind his back with his left hand and pulling out a sword from the magic box.

The hilt of the sword is shaped like a plum blossom.

The current situation is as follows: two throwing knives are hovering beside him, controlled by his mind; he himself holds a sword, ready to personally take to the field.

"Kids—" Bucky's voice came from mid-air, "Ready?"

"!!!" Luffy didn't answer.

He squatted down, bending his knees.

then!

boom!

A crater was blown open in the ground.

Luffy launched himself up like a cannonball, his rubber arms stretching backward, aiming at Buggy's face.

"Rubber, rubber—"

Gum-Gum Machine Gun is Luffy's most frequently used technique right now.

Simply put, it's about randomly slapping your hand forward.

However, how could such an attack possibly be effective?

Once Luffy jumps into the air, he can't move freely; his direction is fixed.

This fixed direction was determined when Luffy jumped.

Once Luffy jumps, he can't change the trajectory of his jump, so Buggy only needs to predict Luffy's jump trajectory and dodge slightly to the side.

And that was it; Luffy could only watch helplessly.

The so-called rubber machine guns all fired into thin air.

At the same time, Buggy didn't even need to do anything; the Red Heart Sword and the Black Heart Sword flew to Luffy's side.

Two soft thuds followed one after the other—the sound of a sword tip piercing flesh.

Luffy's body froze in mid-air.

He looked down and saw the sword blade pierce through his waist and emerge from his abdomen.

Although Buggy didn't intend to kill Luffy, his attack position was indeed quite tricky, targeting Luffy's two kidneys.

...I wonder if attacking this position will have any negative consequences in the future?

laugh.

"Ugh—" Under Bucky's will, the Red Heart Sword and the Black Heart Sword were retrieved.

However, the way they took it back was rather cruel.

The red and black heart swords do not retract in the same direction as when they were originally thrust in.

Instead, the two swords slashed diagonally to both sides.

Luffy's body can be described as being cut in half from the waist to the sides.

The waist changed from an "H" shape to an "I" shape, but thankfully the spine wasn't injured.

If this method were applied to a normal living being, it would be a death sentence.

But Buggy thought Luffy should be fine, after all, he's a well-known sit-up expert.

As the two ace throwing knives were thrown, blood spurted out.

Luffy lost his strength and fell from mid-air, crashing heavily onto the ruins and raising a cloud of dust.

For Luffy, being hit on the ground didn't hurt much, but the massive bleeding from having his kidney punctured was a significant problem.

After all, the kidneys are one of the organs with the largest blood flow in the human body.

In other words, for Luffy, his life has already begun its countdown.

"Luffy!" Zoro's eyes reddened.

He tried to rush over, but the two throwing knives hovering in front of him moved.

The spade sword and the heart sword had already arrived in front of Zoro through Buggy's mind.

The two swords seemed to have a life of their own, one on the left and one on the right, stabbing at Zoro in a crisscrossing motion.

Zoro, with his sword in his mouth and wielding it with both hands, parried with all his might.

Ding ding ding ding ding—

The dense clanging of metal blended together.

Zoro retreated amidst the barrage of flying knives, his feet crushing the pebbles beneath his feet and his clothes being torn in several places, with blood seeping out.

His swordsmanship was very fast, and the defensive range of the Three-Sword Style was also very large, but since these two throwing knives did not require a wielder, their flight trajectories were completely illogical.

All Zoro could do was deflect the ace throwing knife with his sword.

It's impossible to attack and force the enemy to defend as we would against other opponents in our usual matches.

On the contrary, the two trump cards can be used to attack Zoro's vitals without any hesitation.

Perhaps the swordsman is the greatest burden on the sword?

Just like for Iron Man, the biggest burden was Tony Stark.

Of course, this refers to swords that can move autonomously.

Even swords that cannot move still need swordsmen.

In Zoro's eyes, these two trump card throwing knives were as fast as lightning and as swift as a ghost, and their trajectories were completely unpredictable.

One moment it was stabbing at us head-on, the next it had circled around to the side.

Just as he blocked the one on the left, the one on the right was already at his throat... At this moment, it was really fortunate that Zoro still had one in his mouth.

Zoro bit his knife, his eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his forehead were bulging.

He could block one attack, he could block two attacks, but he couldn't block—

A dark figure descended from the sky.

Bucky fell behind him.

The plum blossom sword pierced through his back and emerged from his abdomen.

As for the attack location?

Zoro's kidneys, of course!

"Is this what it means to stab someone in the back?" Bucky's voice was full of mockery. "It's a rather pleasant feeling."

"You!" Zoro froze. "You—"

Bucky drew his sword.

Zoro staggered forward two steps, then knelt on one knee, supporting himself with one hand on the ground, panting heavily.

Blood gushed from the wound in his abdomen, staining his shirt red.

The two throwing knives hovering in front of Zoro stopped attacking and remained silently suspended in mid-air, their tips pointing downwards, as if looking down at him.

This situation actually reassured Zoro, who could tell that Buggy had no intention of killing him.

Zoro looked up at Buggy.

The masked man stood there, holding a plum blossom sword in his hand, with two throwing knives hovering beside him, and he didn't even have a single wound on his body.

The sunlight shone from behind him, casting a long shadow over him.

"You...cough cough..." Zoro coughed up blood. "What kind of monster are you?"

Bucky looked down at him.

"A monster?" Bucky murmured, a slight smile playing on his lips beneath his mask. "You should call me the Clown King~"

"How about we make a deal?"

"As the price for letting you go today, from this day forward, you must forever proclaim me the Clown King!"

Buggy actually has a pretty good impression of Zoro.

The reason is quite simple.

Before I traveled through time, I really liked Zoro's coolness, his witty remarks, and his stylish lines and moves when I watched the anime.

Especially that one: [Nine mountains and eight seas form one world; gathering a thousand worlds creates a small thousand world; this world multiplied by three, without interruption, the Three-Sword Style Secret Technique - One Great Three Thousand Great Thousand World]

Although the name of this move is so long that you know you can't possibly shout it all out in a fight.

But that doesn't stop him from looking cool when he's reciting his lines!

This is a special condition reserved for a cultured person like Zoro.

Bucky raised his hand.

The two throwing knives flew silently back behind him and stuck into the scabbard in the magic box.

The plum blossom sword in his hand was also sheathed.

"...I agree." Zoro's brow twitched slightly, feeling that this fight was truly unjust.

As for shame, I don't feel any shame at all.

The person in front of me is not a pure swordsman. If I am ambushed by this person... isn't it normal for pirates to ambush me?

Zoro will not impose his own standards on others.

He has always demanded the most of himself through rigorous and demanding training.

Just like in the story.

While Luffy was just waiting to die, Zoro was training.

While Sanji was swooning over a girl, Zoro was training.

While Nami was counting money, Zoro was training.

"Very good~" Buggy's eyes darted around. After the battle, those unconscious or pretending to be unconscious cannon fodder pirates should wake up by now.

that's the truth.

Around the ruins, the pirates who had been defeated earlier gradually "woke up".

They rubbed their eyes, crawled out of the rubble, and looked around blankly.

Then they saw this:

Luffy lay motionless in the ruins, blood flowing beneath him.

Zoro knelt on one knee, blood still flowing from his abdominal wound, his face as pale as paper.

Their captain, Clown King Baji, stood between the two, his clothes spotless.

The pirates were stunned.

Then--

"Long live Captain Bucky!"

"The captain won!"

"The captain is the best in the world!"

Cheers erupted, echoing throughout the ruins.

Bucky ignored the cheers.

He looked down at Nami, whom he was still holding in his right hand.

The woman was unconscious due to lack of oxygen, with only her breathing remaining weak.

Buggy glanced again at Luffy, who lay in a pool of blood.

Luffy's eyes were half-open; he was still conscious, but he couldn't move.

This is the advantage of using sharp weapons.

If you fight Luffy using blunt force attacks like punches, then you need to consider the issue of Luffy's stamina expenditure.

Luffy will keep doing sit-ups until he runs out of energy.

But it's different when Buggy uses a sword to bleed Luffy.

Even with Luffy's physique, he wouldn't be able to move after such a massive hemorrhage.

Buggy stabbed Luffy in the kidneys with the Heart Sword and the Black Star Sword, causing him to bleed profusely... leaving Luffy feeling powerless.

No matter how strong one's will is, there's nothing one can do except watch Bucky do whatever he wants.

Luffy lay on the ground, looking up at Buggy, his eyes filled with no fear, no anger, only resentment.

Luffy felt that he hadn't even used 10% of his full strength. Fighting an opponent like Buggy would be too difficult for Luffy.

They won't confront you head-on; they'll just seize any opportunity to strike.

While the Gum-Gum Fruit does offer strong resistance to blunt force attacks, it is very weak against cutting attacks.

"Hehehe~" Looking at Luffy's stubborn and unwilling appearance, Buggy suddenly wanted to laugh.

"Hehehe~"

"Hahahaha!"

I'm so excited! I'm so looking forward to the Marineford War!

Only when this Straw Hat Boy stands on the opposite side of the Navy can the Navy's most contradictory point be completely exposed.

Garp, Sengoku, Kizaru, Aokiji... the four of them couldn't stop Luffy from rescuing Ace.

"All of you!" Bucky said, his voice not loud, but everyone fell silent.

"Clean this place up."

"Treasure, supplies, everything you can take with you."

Although Bucky had no interest in killing everyone here, it was impossible for him to return everything.

His current identity is that of a pirate, a bad guy.

"Yes!" The pirates scattered in a swarm and began searching through the ruins.

Bucky turned around, ready to leave.

He took two steps and then stopped.

Without turning around, he merely turned his head slightly and said a sentence to the figure lying on the ground behind him:

"These eyes have already seen your future."

"You will cause all your loved ones pain..."

After a pause, Bucky added, "Do you really know what you're doing?"

After saying that, he continued walking forward.

Although taking Nami away will cause differences in the storyline.

How will Luffy sail on without a navigator?

But so what!

Now that I've come to this world, it means the plot will definitely change to some extent.

Plot?

Bucky doesn't feel like he's being fooled by fate.

However, he will neither deliberately disrupt the plot nor intentionally maintain it.

Ultimately, all choices depend on one's own interests and stance.

Of course, there is another very important reason besides this.

Bucky believed that with his cheat-like abilities, he would eventually stand at the top of the world.

Unfortunately, I'm only just starting to develop.

Before it can fully develop, it needs a target to attract the attention of the world's powers.

So who is more suitable than Luffy to attract the attention of the Navy and the World Government?

The grandson of Marine hero Garp and the son of Revolutionary Army leader Dragon has set sail to become a pirate, wearing the hat of Yonko Red-Haired Shanks and constantly shouting that he wants to become the Pirate King.

Bucky felt that this was much more attention-grabbing than himself.

This isn't a matter of strength, but rather that the severity of the offense is on a completely different level.

In short, Pakistan is going to do big things.

Even if it's just a matter of secretly developing, Bucky will too.

We must grasp both aspects firmly; only then can we be considered truly sound.

The pirates made way for him, watching him leave with awe.

Only Luffy and Zoro remained in the ruins, along with the wrecked remains that had been ransacked.

Zoro braced himself against the ground, struggling to lift his head and look at Buggy's back.

The man's figure grew farther and farther away, becoming increasingly blurry, until it finally disappeared at the edge of the ruins.

"Damn it..." Zoro cursed under his breath, then collapsed forward, fell to the ground, and passed out.

"Zoro!" Luffy's eyes were still open.

He looked at the deserted ruins, at the direction Bucky had disappeared, and his lips moved.

The fact that Luffy can forcibly maintain his consciousness already demonstrates his extraordinary physical abilities.

After all, the massive bleeding from having both kidneys cut open could kill an ordinary person.