231. Sparring

Buggy returns to Oden's place in the morning after finishing his business at night. He arrives right when Oden comes out of the house to search for him.

"You searched for me?" asks Buggy.

"That's right. Buggyjiro, I've gathered a lot of people who wanted to join the war yesterday. But they don't really trust outsiders, especially pirates like you guys. I've told them that you are my friend but it's not enough to appease them," says Oden.

"Well, it's normal for them to not trust pirates easily after everything that Beasts Pirates did," says Buggy.

"Yeah, that's why we need to do something. I've discussed it with Toki & my retainers. Then we decided to hold a sparring session with your crew to deepen our relationship. Samurais like us prefer to let our swords do the talking. We can understand others' real selves through their swords. So I believe that they will understand you guys after a spar. But we still need your concern, so I need to ask you first," says Oden.

"A sparring session, huh? Sure, that's not a problem," says Buggy.

Oden smiles hearing Buggy's answer and asks, "Are you sure?"

Buggy nods so Oden says, "Thank you, Buggyjiro. I was ready to accept your refusal, but you agreed easily."

"Don't worry about it. My men are battle junkies too. We can also use this to train our men. They never fought samurais, so it will be a good experience. Also, if the samurais know that my men are strong, then they will agree to fight together with us," says Buggy.

"You're right, it will be a good experience for all of them. Then, I will prepare everything while you tell your men," says Oden before leaving.

Buggy goes to tell his crewmates about this and they won't protest at all. It's because they have planned to do this too but Oden has proposed it before them. This just means that they will do it faster than their plan.

Just like he thought, no one protests, and they get excited instead. These guys have started to like a battle because they like the feeling of getting stronger through each battle. They are affected by Buggy & the male executives who like battle too.

"You guys can fight however you want but you aren't allowed to kill. This is just sparring, after all. But you still need to go all out and win your fights. The ones who lose will get punished to help me train for a whole day," says Buggy while smirking.

The crew's excited smiles suddenly turn into horror expressions. Some of them have helped him to train and they all were suffering after that. Their 'helping' job is to face him for a whole day without rest.

Surely they can learn a lot from Buggy by being his training partners. But that will make them happy if they don't need to worry about their lives. Buggy will keep forcing them to fight even when they don't have any energy left anymore.

None of them can match Buggy, even Cricket & Palu can't match him. So training with him just means that they will get beaten up one-sidedly. Furthermore, Buggy won't stop as long as they are still conscious and he knows how to prevent them from losing their consciousness.

He will hit them hard enough to make them almost faint, but weak enough to prevent them from fainting. He even hits the most painful locations most of the time so they will need to strengthen their defense.

But he doesn't just beat them up, he trains them through the sparrings. He keeps telling them what they do right and wrong so they can improve. The beating will make them feel the urgency to improve and also train their durability.

The proof is that now the ones who have trained with Buggy have become far stronger after the training. He mostly trained those who are weaker than the rest so they can catch up to their peers. But those who have experienced it don't want to repeat the training even if it makes them strong. They still value their health, after all.

The crew members are more motivated to win their sparring with the samurais now. They can't lose or they will touch the door of death if they spar with Buggy. They want to get stronger, but they don't want to get tortured through sparring.

To avoid that, they need to win, so they are very motivated now. The Clowns immediately prepare themselves and get ready to fight with the samurais. They all are determined to win so that they can enjoy their lives before the war.

About half an hour later, Denjiro comes and tells them that the sparring location is ready. He guides them there and it is located in the training area behind Oden's residence. Many samurais who will participate have arrived here.

"Buggyjiro, you've finally come with your crewmates. But I guess not every one of them is here now," says Oden while looking at the Clowns.

"Yeah, some of them are guarding our ship so they can't join," says Buggy.

"Well, it's an important job, so that's fine. Too bad though, that giant isn't here. I want to make one of the Red Scabbards fight him," says Oden.

The Red Scabbards flinch when they hear it and Kin'emon says, "MASTER ODEN, HOW CAN YOU MAKE US FIGHT A GIANT LIKE THAT? HIS SIZE IS UNFAIR, A CHEAT."

The other Scabbards nod but then Oden says, "Are you all chickening out? Samurais shouldn't be afraid of any opponent, even if it's a giant."

The Red Scabbards are troubled when Oden said it like that. Their real opponent in this war is Kaido who can become a dragon. A giant is nothing compared to it so they shouldn't be afraid if it's just a giant.

The situation becomes awkward so Buggy chimes in, "Well, it will be fairer if everyone has similar sizes, so I agree. It's not really a problem too because you can just spar with him later."

"Hmm, you're right. Let's just focus on our main purpose of holding this sparring session," says Oden.

The Clowns go to their spot on the opposite side of the samurais' spot. They look at each other and wonder which one will be their opponent. Both sides have different reasons, but all of them are anticipating the spar.

Buggy himself is sitting on a seat located on stage with Oden. The Clown Pirates executives and Nine Red Scabbards are sitting below the stage's front side. Toki, Momo, and Hiyori are on the stage with Oden, while Buggy is accompanied by Dela, his secretary.

"What's the match system?" asks Buggy.

"Ah, that's right, I haven't explained it to you. The match will use a challenge system. Someone from each side will challenge anyone from the other side. The one who gets challenged can accept or refuse. But they only have 3 chances to refuse because they will keep refusing if they don't want to fight," says Oden.

Oden then continues his explanation about the match system. He says that after the one who gets challenged agrees, then the match will start. The match has a time limit of 10 minutes and it will be stopped after 10 minutes.

The fighters can use any available dummy weapons. Then they can fight however they want as long as they don't kill or cripple their opponents. The winner will be decided after someone can't fight anymore, give up, or has more damage for those who don't finish after 10 minutes.

It's a good match system, except for the fact that the dummy weapons are all short-ranged weapons. So the ones who use guns won't be able to show their real power. But using guns is too dangerous, so they can't use them.

Still, Buggy isn't worried, so he says, "Well, let's start this."

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