章 11: Chapter 11: Background And Buggy
A/N: Good news everyone, I lied! Had a bit more free time, motivation, and ideas to actually finish this chapter! So here you go.
Nami's PoV:
Hey there, my name is Nami. I am from the Cocoyasi Village in the chain islands of Conomi.
In my earlier years as a kid, I was an orphan. My mother, Bellamere, took me and my sister Nojiko in and treated us as if we were her own children.
Back in those days, we were... not very privileged to say the least. We barely had enough money to sustain ourselves. Everyday was a new challenge to survive. Even with all of that, my mother never once complained nor did she blame us in the least and I love her for that until the day I die.
Bellamere was a former marine officer. Our house was located a bit away from the rest of the village. There, we had a big enough yard to grow a tangerine orchard and often times oranges were what we had for dinner.
Two of my favorite things in the world are money and tangerines. Ironically, I hated them with a passion back then.
I would often get embarrassed of the very clothes on my back that Nojiko had grown out of. I'd slap myself a thousand times if I could go back in time.
I had a dream back then, I still do, and it is to make the very first complete map of the world. It all started when I went to the local library and the book that I read had me entranced. The book was about sea navigation and map drawing.
I wanted the book badly...but we were much too poor to spare money on a book. I resorted to stealing which I was caught and scolded for by Genzo and my mother.
Genzo is the village peacekeeper. He wears a brown police uniform fitted with a pinwheel on top of his hat to make us smile.
One day, the incident that would forever remain a scar in my mind occurred.
Arlong and his group of detestable pirates came and proclaimed the Conomi islands to be his territory. He demanded money of every man, woman, children, and even the elderly. For each adult, one had to pay 100,000 Beli and half for kids. Everyone had to pay once every month, those who couldn't were mercilessly killed without exception.
As you probably have already guessed, we simply didn't have the money to pay the fees.
The only money that we could spare was enough for one adult. My mother..... she used that money to pay for Nojiko and I. Since she didn't have enough money for herself, Arlong shot and killed her right in front of me and my sister's eyes.
After finding out that I was good at drawing maps and had navigational skills, the hateful pirates took me away from my sister and branded me with his mark which I consider equivalent to a slave brand.
That day is and will forever be the single worst day of my life.
Going back to see my sister, my fellow villagers had shunned me because of the tattoo that had been placed on my left shoulder. I didn't care about what they thought of me. I gritted my teeth and endured years of torture for the sake of my sister and the people I grew up around.
I had been forced to draw maps after maps for the pirates, in exchange for leaving my village alone unless they did something against him and his crew.
Arlong had made me hate my pure and innocent dream of becoming the best navigator in the world.
Many had died trying to free the Conomi islands. Ranging from brave civilians, to bounty hunters, and even other pirate crews. No matter how long we waited, the marines would not make a move. Every time someone came up to Arlong Park to challenge the dictator, a small amount of hope would arise within me... but those hopes would be squashed just as quickly as they came.
I had tried every method I could think of to try and assassinate that bastard but nothing that I tried ever even scratched him.
I tried stabbing, ambushing, poisoning, and any other methods I could come up with. Each one deadlier than the previous, but each one failed without exception. Every time I had failed I would suffer harsh punishments and eventually, I along with every human under his reign of terror gave up any hopes of killing him.
Arlong and his crew of fishmen were naturally 10 times stronger than humans, not to mention pirates like them who had been fighting for most of their lives. The kicker here is that all of them could breathe under water.
My only hope was a deal that I had managed to strike with Arlong. The deal was that I would buy off the village with 100 million beli. The one thing that I had noticed during my unhappy stay with them over the years was that Arlong always held his promises if they were made with money as the incentive.
I don't know the extent with which he is honest with his deals concerning money is but that's the only thing that has me going. It HAS to work, it is quite literally my only salvation! To end the reign of terror that has been going on for 8 years now and counting.
So I went off on many voyages, sometimes lasting for months. Almost every pirates that I came across were robbed blind of all their valuables. Sometimes my heists would fail and I would pay for it. This happened during the first few trips that I had gone on. My process often contained a lot of betrayals. I would join them and when they let their guards down for long enough, I would steal all of their money and treasures and make my escape.
Every pirate I came across were all the same detestable scums of the earth. Maybe not as bad as the Arlong Pirates but they were still despicable. My mind had been set ever since I met the Arlong Pirates, I hated every single one of them with more than a passion.
On my current voyage, I went to steal a special map from a marine base located in Shells Town. The marines stationed there were exactly as I expected.... corrupt. This further proved my conviction of stealing from them.
This special map contains the way to the famed Grandline. Many legends, myths, stories, and folklores have been passed around about that mysterious sea but none were proven to be facts among the civilians of the East Blue. The only definitive thing that everyone agreed on was it's other name, the "Pirate's Graveyard".
Said to be the doom of so many pirates that, sinked ships littered the ocean floors and that none came back out alive. I had planned to steal the map and make my way there so that I could rob the assumed massive number of pirates there. I am confident about my navigation skills and could probably make it back alive. If only I knew how wrong I was.
To my dismay, the map was no longer in the hands of the marine captain 'Axe Hand' Morgan, but instead, someone had beaten me to the punch. The map was stolen by the Buggy Pirates, with the captain, Buggy 'The Clown' having a "massive" bounty of 15 million Beli. This bounty is one of the largest bounty in all of East Blue.
Finding out that the map I seek was elsewhere, I obviously made my way to the place rumored to be occupied by the Clown Pirates. This place was called Orange Town.
After taking all of the money in the base, I prepared my small boat and set a course for Orange Town. This was the time I met the people that would forever change my life for better or for worse.
<Scene Change>
Third Person's PoV:
A certain raven haired pirate captain was currently being held within the massive beaks of the giant bird that he had carelessly tried to capture.
This pirate was none other than the straw hat wearing man named Luffy.
After they had ran out of food which was mostly eaten by the captain himself, he had tried to obtain even more food when he spotted the seemingly small bird that had flown above them. This turned around and bit him quite literally in the butt.
The oblivious 17 year old was promptly dropped down upon the island they had been heading towards when a larger-than-normal cannon ball had hit the bird that had been approaching it.
Once Luffy hit the ground, leaving a crater, the strawhatted boy jumped out of the hole he had just made and calmly wiped off the dust that had stained his clothing.
"Whew.. that stupid bird separated me from my crew.." the pirate captain sighed out with an amused tone as he looked around the desolate town. He noticed that there weren't any people around and some buildings had been either destroyed or desecrated after being vandalized.
"H-hey! Wh-who are you, y-you bastard!?", questioned a man from behind Luffy. He was stuttering in a bit of fear because he just witnessed a man fall from at least a 1,000 meter drop and shook it off like it was nothing.
"Who me?" The young man pointed at himself. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy. The man who's going to be the Pirate King!" He proudly proclaimed.
All the fear were washed out of the man's mind as he just deadpanned. He couldn't even bring himself to laugh at the clearly lunatic in front of him. The other two that were with him had the exact same expressions on their faces.
"Don't you know that this is the territory of the "great" captain Buggy!? Scram before we kill you!" Another unnamed man beside him threatened.
After hearing the name 'Buggy', Luffy's face brightened. He didn't expect to find the man who Josh said had the map to Paradise so quickly. He thanked his luck and approached the trio in front of him.
"Aaaah... you know Buggy? Take me to him!" The unnamed trio were a bit stunned by the boy's demand. They were even more surprised by the obvious delight he had shown on his face when he asked them.
Thinking that the boy in front of them might know their captain personally, however unlikely that was, they lead him to their base of operations. This base was once a bar and was 2 stories tall. Right now, the Buggy pirates were situated on the roof of the building.
On their way there, the 4 people ran into 3 unlikely trio. Much to Luffy's delight, they were his mates.
Josh, Zoro, and Nami had arrived ahead of their captain. After seeing that the bird was heading towards Orange Town, Josh grabbed the duo and Geppoed there and waited for their captain to join them.
"Oooh... you guys arrived before me." The boy cheerily rushed towards his Nakama and stood face to face with them. Grinning all the while.
"Yep, I Geppoed here after you were "kidnapped" by the bird." The blonde man replied. Nami and Zoro were still a bit disoriented from the sudden flight, Nami much more than the swordsman as he had prepared himself for it.
"Let's go meet with Buggy and "kindly" ask him for the map." Zoro stated with an outright scary grin on his smug face. He had been itching for another fight for quite sometime now.
Nami was a bit uneasy about directly heading there and confronting the pirates as she knew that their captain had a bounty of 15 million.
She was also a bit suspicious of the trio because they had the same exact goal as her. Making her question their motives even more. However, she just tugged away those questions for another time as she deemed them to be not bad people, at least for the short time she has been with them.
Seeing the determined expressions and one goofy smile on the trio of men that she had partnered up with, she gained a bit of confidence.
As they arrived at their destination, the 3 Straw-Hat Pirates, 1 thief, and trio of idiots looked up towards the roof of the bar that was bustling with noise.
Josh wanted to try out the one thing that he had always wanted to do if he ever met Buggy, and so, he inhaled as much air as his lungs would allow and shouted at the top of his voice,
"OI! YOU BIG, FAT, UGLY, ROUND RED NOSED IDIOT! GET YOUR NOSE OUT HERE SO I CAN HONK IT!"
Silence. Absolute silence. Everything in the vicinity seems to have become frozen as everyone processed the very prominent words that just came out of the man's mouth.
Then... everything exploded. From the explosive laughters that came from the blonde and rubber man, the snickers that escaped Zoro's mouth, as nobody had expected such a turn of event. Nami trying to hold her grimace in favor of not getting their attention by laughing, and everyone else's horrified expressions.
"WHO IS THE FLASHY BASTARD THAT DARED MAKE FUN OF MY NOSE!?" A howl of fury could be heard from the roof. This prompted everyone to turn their attention to that direction. They could see a man dressed as a clown slowly revealing himself.
Buggy wears a mostly orange captain's coat with white lining and a hat that has his pirate mark on it, a shirt with red and white stripes, white clown gloves, a green sash, and a lighter colored pants.
His face was painted with a white cross bone that met right in the center of his forehead, stretching down past his eyes. He was hilariously eyebrowless. He also wore red lipsticks and of course, who wouldn't notice, his red round nose. Overall? He looks like a clown in both senses.
"That would be me." Josh calmly replied even with the horrified looks that was given by Nami and the dumbass trio. "How else would you call that hideous thing? Did you happen to super glue it when you were drunk or something?" He added salt to the wound.
"IT'S NATURAL! I WAS BORN WITH IT!" The questions infuriated the clown pirate even more as he got ready to teach the fools in front of him a hard lesson.
"Now I just feel bad... who knew destiny made you a clown the moment you were born. You know what? I should apologize... I'm sorry." The blonde bowed in mock apology. The worst part was that he kept a solemn face the entire time, as if he meant it, but he wasn't fooling anyone.
That did it! That comment was the final straw as everyone's eyes widen in absolute shock and terror, except the man's two companions who were laughing even louder. Even Zoro, who prided himself in his discipline and self control, couldn't hold back his laughter as it was just too much.
The Pirate captain jumped off the roof of the building to inflict mortal injury in blind fury. However, just before his short daggers, which he seemingly pulled out of nowhere could land, he was blocked by a sword.
This caused him to come out of his rage towards the blonde only to direct it to the swordsman that dared to get in his way.
He lunged at Zoro only to be bisected and fall flat on the ground, not even twitching. This stupefied Nami, as she watched one of the most notorious pirates in the East Blue easily cut down by the equally, if not more, infamous Pirate Hunter.
"What a letdown, I thought he'd be more powerful." The swordsman arrogantly snorted and turned his back on his "dead" opponent. This was a bad choice because as soon as he turned around, he felt a sharp sensation of pain from his back with blood pouring out of it.
"Hehhehehe... Fool! I ate the Bara-Bara no Mi. I can split my body in various different parts so cutting won't work on me. I'm the bane of every swordsman!" The big nosed clown gloated at Zoro's condition and bragged about himself.
Seeing that devil fruits were real, Nami was shocked! All her life, she had never believed the "ridiculous" rumors about strange fruits being able to grant people powers. But it was right there in front of her eyes!
"ZORO!" Luffy shouted in worry as he just witnessed his Nakama get cut in the back. He rushed forward, charging towards the both of them. Before he could get there, buggy had jumped back up to the roof, Luffy snarling all the while.
Once Buggy retreated, he was greeted by the rest of his crew mates, even the dumbass trio who were already forgotten. "Prepare the Buggy Cannon, I'm going to teach these flashy bastards not to mess with us!" The clown ordered. A few of the grunts hurriedly rushing off to follow their captain's orders.
Meanwhile, Nami was just standing there. After she had gotten over the multiple shock sessions that she seems to be experiencing today, she went by the trio's side to try and dissuade them of taking the pirates head on.
In her eyes, none of them stood a chance if the infamous Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro couldn't even do anything to the clown.
"FIRE!" Once the orange head got there though, she heard the shout of order from the annoying voice that belonged to none other than the clown of all pirates himself.
She turned her head upward to find a cannon that was at least twice as big as a normal one. It wasn't comparable to the cannons attached to big marine warships but it was still much larger than your average balls-of-death launchers.
As the black ball of doom came out of the cannon, she panicked. If that thing blew up in their faces, the burglar had no doubts that they would die, at the very least, she would.
Before Luffy and the now standing Zoro could do something about the black mass that was heading their way, a shadow moved passed them. Looking closer, they noticed that it was Josh.
The lightning man rushed towards the cannon ball and grabbed it with his right hand. Palms wide open. He cocked the same hand back and much to the Buggy Pirates' horror, threw it right back at them and it exploded on impact.
"That's so coool... you were like gramps!" The strawhatted boy commented. All signs of his previous anger vanishing from his smiling face. Everyone just ignored it in favor of looking at the results of Josh's actions.
As the smoke cleared, the visages of 3 men and a much larger creature, still standing can be seen. One was obviously Buggy. The other two men were the next most powerful in his crew. The beast tamer Mohji and the reason for his name, the giant lion that crouched down to protect him. The last man was Cabaji, a "swordsman".
They were perfectly fine, but the part that irked the trio, especially Luffy was the method Buggy and Cabaji used to secure their safety. They had a crew member in each of their hands, effectively protecting themselves from the blast.
"Let's come back later." Luffy ordered. As much as he wanted to stay and finished the job, even he knew that they had to treat Zoro's worsening injury. Even if the man himself insisted that he was fine, everyone could tell that he was at least in pain from the red blood dripping down the ground.
After they retreated, the clown captain ordered Cabaji along with Richie, who is the lion, to give chase.
From there on, everything went like canon and Josh decided to not interfere anymore.
All 4 of them were now back on Manni and happily floating away to the next island, except for a certain money hungry witch who was still screaming indignantly about leaving behind half of her treasure, even if it was for the townspeople to fix their ruined city.
During Luffy's fight with Buggy, Nami finally learned that the trio were really pirates and instantly felt disgust from the pit of her stomach.
All of them also learned about the straw hat's origin and why it was so important to Luffy. Zoro especially went wide eyed when he learned that the Shanks they had been casually talking about was actually one of the four Yonko, Akagami Shanks (Red-Haired Shanks)
After various persuasions from the dashing blonde, and considering their track records so far, Nami had reluctantly decided to keep up the partnership with them and "sail" together. It didn't matter for Luffy as he had adamantly decided that Nami was apart of their crew, much to Nami's chagrin.
'Your next Usopp. Hope your ready Kuro, because if you couldn't even take care of the crew in canon, that snowball of a chance, is now nonexistent!' Josh thought, a bit too joyfully to himself. He was happy that he wouldn't need to act as transportation to get on islands after their next stop.
A/N: Give me your honest opinions. What do you think about the current pace of the story? Do you want me to just breeze through everything in a few chapters until Arlong Park or stay the same? What about the mc's involvement and contribution or rather his lack of contribution in fights. Do you want him to be a bit more active or stay carefree? And yay.... longest chapter so far!
Fair warning: I'm not good at fight scenes so don't expect anything glorious anytime soon.
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