Deal (part 2)

Author here:

Just to put some context, this Buggy is different from canon Buggy. He'll still be greedy to an extent but he is "good". He'll help if he can but he'll almost always think of himself or his crew first before helping anyone else. I'm also establishing something new for Buggy and Shanks' crew so don't get mad. I want it in there to emphasize Luffy's power. Please enjoy the chapter.

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Buggy looked down from the roof at where the voice came from. From his perspective, he is looking at 3 people, one girl, 2 men. The girl has fallen on her butt and the green-haired one is just looking up at the roof. Then when he saw the one in the middle, everyone on the roof felt colder. Especially the one around Buggy.

'The only thing missing is the red hair and he'll look like Shanks. Who is this kid? Why does he have Captain's hat on him?'. Said man then looks at Buggy and reveals something on his chest. Buggy's eyes bugged out a little then returned to normal. 'Shanks's sent him? Or...'

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Nami is frightened. She is surrounded by pirates she just stole from a few moments ago. Buggy who has a 15 million bounty on his head is staring down at the three of them. Then this stupid idiot drags her saying "It'll be fun and maybe we can talk about your thievery," while smiling like an idiot.

'It was supposed to be a quick grab and run,' Alas, there is no medicine for regret, now she is besides someone who is now creating this tense atmosphere with one of the most dangerous pirates in East Blue.

"So, why come here? Did Shanks send you? I doubt he sent someone to visit, he'll come himself if he wants to check on people." Buggy has serious expression as he reminisces upon his former crewmate. He has a small smile that didn't escape Luffy's eyes. "No, he didn't. My name is Luffy and I came here on my own accord. I want to make a deal. I want you on my crew." Luffy smiles with a bit of twinkle in his eyes.

They are in a dining area on the second floor of the bar. A small circular table is between Luffy and Buggy. They are both drinking ale while Zoro just stands on the right side of Luffy and an anxious-looking Nami on the other side. Around them are about 30 people from Buggy's crew.

"HAHAHAHA. I think you are too young to make me join your crew. You might've come from Shanks' crew but I don't know if you're just an apprentice on his ship," Buggy laughs as he mocks Luffy. "I was the leader of the hunter's division. I had the same standing as you did before you left." Buggy being surprised was an understatement.

Buggy joined Shanks' crew for a year to train. He liked how the Red-haired pirates operate. Shanks has a different approach to making a crew. He divided his crew into 5 divisions. The patrollers: They go to different islands that are under the Red-haired pirates and search for troublemakers in them. They also have a sub-division for recruitment as they are usually traveling around. The leader of this group is Ben Beckham. The miscellaneous division: They handle the supplies and treasure of the crew. They are also responsible for the messages and whatnot. Lucky Roo leads them as he has the knack for knowing what would be the best thing for the crew to have per the situation. The attackers: They are the ones that are on the main ship and are responsible for fighting the other crew if need be. Shanks' right-hand man, Yassop, leads this division. Then the smallest division: The hunters. They are responsible for hunting pirates for their bounty. There are only 10 or so people in them as they have to be covert. They are also required to be powerful, as most of the time, they are going to fight 1 vs a crew. Buggy new about them as he was the leader for the sub-division in the Patrollers. He was in charge of recruitment. Buggy hearing Luffy was a leader of the Hunters made his spine tingle for a bit. The members of the Hunters division shouldn't be known by anyone. Not even by the members of the crew. Only the division leaders and Shanks should know about them. Hell, even the marines wouldn't know about them being part of the Red-haired pirates. Most of the time the marines will only know about them as a pirate hunter because they cash-in the pirates that they hunted.

"So, a division leader comes." Buggy's brain started working. Buggy joined Shanks' crew because he wanted to roam the seas of the grandline to know its dangers and still be safe under Shanks' shadow. He trained during that year but immediately left after mastering a certain level in armament haki. "Why me? Is this just Shanks' way of telling me to join his crew again?" "No, this is me telling you that I quit his crew before coming here." "Oh, why did you do that? Being a hunter would give you riches," Buggy asks with a smirk as he looks at Luffy's hand.

Because of the tension, the someone in the room wasn't listening that well, Nami is thinking of a way to get out of here without being hurt or worse. She didn't listen much less understand the weight of the 2 captains' words and story. But even with the room's tension and her anxiousness, Nami notices Buggy's tone when it comes to riches and looked at Luffy's hand as well. She sees 4 rings on his fingers. Green, red, blue and gold rings could be seen on his fingers. Nami's eyes glimmered with greed as she looks at these. Her eye contact on the rings was broken when Buggy raises a question.

"So what about her? She still has our map. " Nami flinches a bit and looks at Buggy then at Luffy with pleading eyes. "That is the deal, join my crew and our little thief here will return your map. Isn't that right? Miss thief?" Luffy looks at Nami with a smirk and a smugged grin. Nami just rapidly nods her head to save her life. She brings out the map and put it on the table between Luffy and Buggy. "Am I just going to accept this without punishing her?" "Yes, of course, you will. Unlike the Marines, I know of your true worth and personality. How could I not?" Luffy then points at 10 members of Buggy's crew. "They followed you here from the grandline with nothing but a promise to become people under your crew." "How did you know?" "They were on the list of the previous Hunter Division Leader. The fact that they are now on your crew proves that you have something special. I mean all of them have bounties over a hundred million and here you are with a misly 15 million on your head as their captain," Luffy's tone didn't hide his excitement on that fact.

"Is that all there is to it? I'm not joining your crew to be entertainment for you. I'll just kill this girl then," Buggy raises a hand that is holding a knife and points it at Nami. "Oh, and also those people prove your personality," Luffy then points out of the window. All of the people in the room except Luffy and Buggy looked outside and saw a mob with pitchforks and rusty swords. "They are saying some incredible stuff, nishishishi" Luffy just chuckles while drinking his ale. Buggy just sighs and facepalmed.

"DON'T HURT BUGGY SAMA!!" "HE IS PROTECTING US SO STOP HURTING HIM!!" "WE'RE GOING TO KILL YOU IF YOU HURT HIM!!" "WE CALLED THE MARINES TO STOP YOU!!" One man turns to the man who just shouted and asked, "Wait did we call the marines?" "What? No, we didn't, we need to scare them, you dolt!"

Nami is once again surprised. 'A pirate is protecting them? But pirates are evil bastards. What is happening?'. Zoro was just chuckling while drinking his sake, 'He was right after all.' Luffy saw Nami's expression, with a small smile "There are plenty of pirates in the sea, there are bad ones, but there are also kind ones. Buggy here is one of the latter, and I'm here trying to become one. You should know, there are also bad marines as well as kind ones. The world isn't black and white, there are a lot of grey areas." Nami just lowers her head with a frown and sad eyes, 'If only, Buggy was the one to come to Cocoyashi, then she would still be alive'.

"So that's why you screamed that. To get them here?" Buggy still facepalming asked a question. "I felt their auras even before docking here. Imagine my surprise when this town was supposed to be under the tyranny of Buggy The Clown but everyone's aura was telling otherwise. Want to join my crew now?" Luffy asks. "I'll agree on the condition that something should be left for this town, This is where I grew up as an orphan. Nobody recognizes me now as I changed my hair color. Even more when my nose turned like this after entering grandline. I want to travel again. I wanted to amass my crew by coming here to east blue and gain more power. When we went to Raftel with the captain, I didn't go with the crew to see the treasure, I was too afraid then. I have always regretted that decision. Now I want to see it for myself, but not without helping this town. When I came here, pirates and bandits were terrorizing them. I want to protect them." Buggy looks at Luffy with a serious face that looks contradicting as Buggy has a clown for a face.

Luffy almost laughed but kept his composure. "I can arrange that. But you have to hide your crew for a few days, a week at most, then my contact will come. Blend them with the rioting people for downstairs and when the time comes, set out." "Who's your contact?" Buggy asks with a raised eyebrow. Luffy just raised a hand and asks, "Do we have a deal?" Buggy just looks at Luffy, trying to find out if he was lying or tricking him. 'I really should've trained my Kenbunshoku Haki,' Buggy thought as he grabs Luffy's hand. "I'll just jump the gun on this one. It's a deal." "Weird, you didn't even ask for an equal alliance." "Please, even if I was a division leader, it was just a sub-division. I was just a recruiter for the Shanks. If you were high enough in the ranking to know about the Hunter Division and If you were really the leader of that division, then you should have at least the power to fight off an admiral and escape with little to no bruises. That just tells me how powerful you are. An equal alliance would be dumb even from my perspective."

"Well, how about that. Welcome to the Shogo Pirates."

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(A few days ago in Marineford)

"So you're also going back?"

Sengoku while signing some papers is looking at the back of an old man walking towards the doors.

"Yeah, I have to come back home sooner or later, besides we have someone to capture in there right? A marine captain if I wasn't wrong."

"Really? You? Going for a job? In the east blue?" Sengoku eyes are narrowed towards the guilty-looking Garp. "You're grandson said something didn't he?" "Nope, You're wrong about that!" Screamed Garp as he smashes the door down and ran.

"GAAARRRRPPP!!! COME BACK HERE!!"