Chapter 24: Circus Act 2

—Only to get blown away from the force of a Buggy Ball being shot directly in their vicinity.

Luffy and Rosan remained rooted to their spots, as Nami and the Mayor fell from the explosion.

"They even destroyed my house!" The Mayor snarled in disbelief.

"ZORO WAS SLEEPING IN THERE!" Luffy shouted in realization and his mouth in shock. There was no way he lost his first crewmate already!

"I'm afraid he's been killed…" The Mayor said in resignation.

They heard a tired groan from the destroyed building and Zoro held his head in exhaustion. Surrounding him, was a wall that mostly protected him from the explosion and all of them regarded it in confusion.

"Who the hell put a wall here?" he muttered.

Rosan hummed, glow in his eyes vanishing, as he turned towards the direction of the explosion.

"H-How are you still alive? Where did that rock come from?" Nami muttered in shock, looking at the otherwise fine man. Were all of them some kind of freaks? First there was the redhead lifting cages, that shouldn't normally be lifted by one person, demolishing a gigantic fucking lion after cowing it into submission... and magically fixing up a destroyed building from nothing?!

Now, the green haired swordsman was just casually waking up after sleeping inside of a house that had been utterly decimated by one of the Buggy balls. Even with the wall blocking it (seriously, how did it get there), he didn't even look phased!

Not only that, he simply wakes up after sleeping off a gruesome injury that would have put anyone out of commission!

This Luffy was really good at recruiting monsters! No wonder he wasn't worried at all about dying. If she had these guys defending her all the time, she wouldn't be worried either!

"I refuse to let them get away with this for another second!" The Mayor suddenly declared. "I won't let 40 years of hard work go to waste to some scum!"

With that, the Mayor tried to run off, only to be stopped by a clearly concerned Nami.

"You won't accomplish anything getting yourself killed! You're just being reckless!" The thief exclaimed, trying her best to hold him back from doing something stupid.

"I KNOW I'M BEING RECKLESS!" He roared with tears in his eyes and the pain on his face was clear to see. He knew full and well that he was going to die in his attempt to stop the Buggy Pirates but to him, it was better to die fighting then to let his treasure be destroyed.

To be so weak and stupid... Rosan just couldn't understand why these people never attempted to get strong in a world like this, leaving themselves open for even the most mediocre of fighters to take over.

It was better to find out you had no affinity to getting strong then to never even attempt it.

"The Mayor was crying…" Nami pointed out.

"It didn't look that way to me!" Luffy grinned eagerly.

"Things are getting exciting," Zoro nodded with a grin.

"This isn't something to laugh about!" The thief chided worriedly. The Mayor really was going to die if they did nothing about it!

"Don't worry I like that old man so I'll make sure he doesn't die," the captain reassured confidently.

"I'll let you handle the rest then, Luffy," Rosan said softly, not interested in fighting the circus act any further then he needed to. "Please protect my innocence from the clown who wants me."

Luffy nodded easily enough. "Right!" His captain agreed, not minding in the slightest.

"Y-You're not gonna fight?" Nami asked in clear surprise. Their chances of winning, drastically lowered if the redhead didn't participate in the battle… Though she wasn't sure he could take on Buggy after seeing what the clown was capable of.

Rosan didn't see a point in fighting the clown so he opted not to. It was fine if they continued to underestimate him and Luffy.

"Luffy and Zoro can deal with it. There's no need for me to involve myself any further," the 24 year old replied calmly. He had no need to further involve himself.

The redhead wouldn't have even fought the beast tamer, if not for the fact that it was he that had been specifically requested for.

"Z-Zoro? With that injury?!" Nami stammered in confusion. How heartless was this guy to let his injured crewmate fight over him.

"He's eager to fight," Rosan simply said, not at all worried for what might happen to their swordsman. "That injury won't hold him back."

"I'm more worried about my reputation than my guts," Zoro grinned viciously, wrapping his bandanna firmly around his head.

None of them were taking this serious. Luffy was laughing merrily without a care in the world, Rosan was actually preparing to not do a damn thing in this fight and Zoro was risking his insides to battle.

"Do you wanna see me battle that badly? I'm touched," Rosan hummed and she felt a dreadfully familiar annoyance rising whenever she spoke to him. "You should get used to it, Nami. I don't fight very often. Too much boring people."

"U-Used to it?" Nami gaped in disbelief. They really were just slotting her into the crew despite the fact that she had rejected them every single time.

"We're headed for the Grand Line! We'll steal that map back and then we can go together so join up with us!" Luffy beamed.

Nami let out a sigh of defeat. He was utterly relentless.

"I won't become a pirate but we can "join forces" and work together for a common goal!" The navigator finally said.

Luffy's grin widened and they high fived to solidify the deal.

"Alright! I can't wait!" The rubber boy exclaimed, cracking his knuckles eagerly. Being locked in that cage had made him restless… and hungry.

"You're always restless and hungry. That's why I hid the food on the ship," Rosan chastised him.

Luffy blinked at that. "WE STILL HAD FOOD?!"

Nami held her head in her hands.

"The second salvo is ready, Captain Buggy!"

Buggy grinned.

"Alright! Fire!" The clown commanded. He wanted this town destroyed completely. Then he'd find that annoying, shitty redhead along with that stupid rubber boy with the infuriatingly familiar straw hat and hang their heads on his wall, laughing at them all the while.

A redhead and a boy wearing a straw hat? Who the hell decided to give him two reminders to that shitty bastard Shan —

"GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW, BUGGY THE CLOWN," A voice roared, cutting off his internal musing.

Who the hell…?

"Who are you? What's your death wish?" Buggy asked in annoyance at the fly buzzing around outside. This old man wasn't even worth his time and had just come running to his death.

"I'm Mayor Boodle! I've been running this town since you were pillaging nurseries and I won't let you lay another hand on our treasure! I challenge you to a fight!" He declared.

The pirate crowd roared in laughter at the sight of the old man challenging their captain and his second mate, Cabaji, tried to fight him instead.

Buggy wasn't having it though. He was the one who was challenged after all and so, he'd personally deal with this dumbass.

It was time to stave off some annoyance anyways.

Everyone knew that the only thing that could qualify as treasure, were gold, silver and jewels. Unless this town was made of that, it was nothing but garbage and that's why Buggy was destroying it all.

Buggy, from his perch far above the old man, detached one of his hands and had it wrap around the Mayor's neck. He watched in amusement as the gray haired dumbass punched his offending hand unsuccessfully and the clown tightened his grip, causing blood to begin gushing out of the man's mouth.

Despite that, the old man was still fighting with every inch of his pathetic life.

"COME DOWN AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!" He choked out resolutely, even as his eyes began rolling to the back of his head.

"You're not worth the effort," Buggy sneered, only to pause at the feeling of a new sensation on his hand. "Huh?" He muttered in confusion. Who the hell was gripping his arm that harshly?! The clown looked back down only to widen his eyes in recognition.

"The straw hat kid?!"

The red vest wearing boy was holding his detached hand with a grin on his face. "Buggy, I'm here to kick your ass, just like I promised!" The rubber boy exclaimed.

"Remember, I'm only here for the map and the treasure," Nami reminded them. She had no interest in fighting these pirates. She did not want to die.

"Whatever," Zoro shrugged.

"How fun, that means we get to speak more," Rosan said dully and due to Nami not knowing about his emotional circumstances, it came off as sarcastic to their navigator (it absolutely was).

"You are so annoying!" the orange haired girl growled. This tall redhead had been nothing but a headache since they met on the other island! Did she really have to sail with this one?!

"Why are you young'uns here?" Boodle asked in confusion, coughing from the pain of being choked. "Stay out of this. You're outsiders!"

Rosan could never understand why some weak people were hesitant to ask for help. There was nothing wrong with receiving it, especially if you couldn't do it by yourself. Luffy had been unbelievably weak and never hesitated to ask for help when he couldn't do something, but others simply had too much pride?

This was why he never offered to help people on his own volition. No, only after asking would he contemplate giving it.

Luffy grabbed the screaming old man and smashed his head into the wall, knocking him out cleanly, much to the shock of the onlookers.

"Good, he was getting annoying," Ram sighed. Weak people pretending to be strong never failed to irritate the weapon.

"What the hell?!" Nami shouted in surprise. "Whose side are you on?! Why did you attack the mayor?!"

"He was in the way!" Luffy grinned.

"Good thinking, he was gonna get himself killed otherwise," Zoro nodded in agreement.

"If Luffy didn't do it, I would have. Not to keep him safe but because he was just talking too much," Rosan added.

"THERE'S OTHER WAYS TO DO THINGS LIKE THIS! ARE YOU ALL CRAZY?!"

Rosan shrugged and Luffy laughed before stepping up to regard Buggy. The captain took a deep breath before screaming, "HEY BIG NOSE!"

Nami gaped at how idiotic this boy proved to be time and time again, while Zoro's eyes widened in disbelief.

Rosan casually sipped a cup of tea that he got from who knows where, truly set on not interfering in this battle.

The clown's crew had their mouth opened in shocked dread and Buggy's eyes went white in fury. "KILL THAT FLASHY IDIOT! GIVE 'IM THE BUGGY BALL!" He roared.

Without wasting any time, the cannonball that they had meant to shoot into the town again, was instead fired towards the 4 with a terrific BOOM.

Their navigator and swordsman watched with open mouths, as their deaths fired towards them in real time.

"You and Luffy are very good at annoying people," Mod commented idly. Luffy's approach was much more simplistic then Rosan's (and much more unintentional) but in a way, that made it even more annoying since that simple approach successfully got under their skin.

Rosan nodded in agreement because Luffy's antics extended to even his own allies. Nami and Zoro were currently shouting furiously at the unbothered boy for his stupid actions and his brother only grinned.

"That measly cannonball won't do anything to me!" The captain said before inhaling deeply. "Gomu Gomu no Balloon!"

Before their very eyes, Luffy inflated like a balloon and caught the cannonball with his enlarged stomach, before bouncing it back to the ones who shot it. Their enemy pirates looked on with bugged out eyes at the reversal and they didn't even have time to move before it exploded on them.

"Do you remember the first time Luffy did this technique?" Mod asked in amusement.

"We played kickball with him," Rosan replied at the memory. Surprisingly, it was one of the techniques that Luffy didn't have to practice too much but Ace had still found a weakness and the three older brothers had punted the helpless seven year old around the field.

Oh how time flew. Now his youngest brother wasn't the helpless little boy who needed his brothers to do everything for him. He was strong all on his own and that made the oldest brother rather proud.

Ace would be glad to see that he had been proven wrong. Luffy's fruit wasn't useless in battle. His captain had actually made it pretty useful with some inspiration from Rosan in the form of three years of torture training.

Maybe he wouldn't be too happy to hear about that training portion. Ace had become rather protective of Luffy ever since the bear incident and he even tried striking Garp to defend him.

Rosan helped because he didn't like Garp but he digressed...

He shouldn't have made his dislike of the Marine so blatant. He had some interesting techniques that he nor Ace never bothered to ask about.

Luffy on the other —

Ah, he was getting sidetracked. It was best to focus on what was going on right now despite how disappointing he was going to end up.

Nami was currently yelling at Luffy for not giving them a heads up and his brother was being as intelligent as ever about it, but their attention was grabbed from the devastation of the Buggy Ball.

"You've got some nerve trying to flashily do me in," a voice called out gravely from the wreckage.

"He's using his men as shields…" Nami whispered in horror.

"…" Rosan tilted his head at that. Even if they were clones, the redhead would never consider using Angel or Demon as shields. Human shields were reserved for his enemies only, not his allies.

What a gross abuse of leadership.

"Cap'n, this is the worst disgrace we've suffered since you formed our crew," a man with black hair said. He was holding the lion that Rosan had just destroyed as a meat shield to keep himself safe.

"I'm so mad, I can't even speak," Buggy said lowly. This group had managed to piss him off to a degree he hadn't felt in a long... long time in only one day and he had it up to here with them.

"Ugh… Where am I… What the hell happened?" Someone groaned and it was revealed to be the Beast Tamer themselves. He had suffered serious injuries from Rosan and he was barely holding on to the realm of consciousness.

"Mohji, you're still alive?" Cabaji asked with a slightly raised brow, still holding onto the lion.

Rosan raised a brow at watching the supposed second mate cow the first mate but then again, this was a circus. Mohji made eye contact with the redhead and the man's eyes bugged in fear at the one who had effortlessly defeated him.

"Cap'n Buggy, watch out for the redhead! He's a monster that was able to tame Richie with one look! I think he has Devil Fruit powers like you!" The first mate warned Buggy, before letting out a sharp gasp of pain and clutching his ribs. His eyes rolled to the back of his skull again and he collapsed.

Rosan shot them a short wave. "You don't have to worry. I won't be fighting," he assured the crew. "I'm flattered that you were looking for me but I really don't think someone with such a glaring red nose, is something I'm interested in. Still a great color by the way."

Nami was sure that they knew his red nose was a sore spot, yet they still continued to aggravate him with that topic. There was something seriously wrong with these two and she didn't know what it was! Did she really have to travel with suicidal idiots like this? Was that really the greatest idea?

Buggy went red in the face at the anger he was currently feeling. "Won't be fighting?! YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT THAT, COWARD!?" He shrieked, shooting one of his hands out towards the offending redhead.

"He's so lucky Luffy already promised to kick his ass," Ram sneered, watching in slight satisfaction as Rosan grabbed it out of midair and squeezed, eliciting a howl of pain from Buggy.

"Like I said, I really don't feel like fighting you so take the beating from my captain instead," the 24 year old told him gently, heating up his palm as warning and getting another howl out of the clown. His tone completely contrasted the steel like grip he had on Buggy's floating hand and try as he might, the clown could not recall it.

"This has nothing to do with cowardice. You should honestly be glad. I'd much rather fight Luffy then me and if you keep trying to attack me, I'm sure you'll find out for yourself," he informed them all, releasing the hand and allowing it to float back to its weary master.

Zoro began internally reassessing Rosan's strength. He knew the scout wasn't a pushover like he had thought before, but he wasn't sure just how strong the redhead happened to be. The swordsman had learned a fair bit about the bronze man and whatever he said, he generally meant.

Was he really just a humble scout like he claimed to be…?

Cabaji had enough of the insult that his crew was facing and immediately lunged forward on his unicycle. The acrobat had Rosan in his sights, who held out his hand to obliterate the idiot, but Zoro jumped in the way to block his blade.

"If it's a sword fight you want, I'll clash blades with you," the injured swordsman grunted.

Rosan placed his hand down.

"Is he sure he wants to fight with that injury? He doesn't seem to heal as fast as you or Luffy. Stressing it could be bad for him," Mod frowned at the reckless actions of the swordsman.

"Hey, Zoro. You should rest and let me deal with them," Luffy warned in worry, fully taking stock of his swordsman's wounds. The injury was still pretty fresh and if it was aggravated, his friend could be in trouble.

The green haired man simply shrugged him off and said, "Stay out of it."

Rosan watched with a stony demeanor as Cabaji took full advantage of Zoro's wound. The acrobat was rather ruthless when it came to picking at the spot.

He spat out a gout of flame that caught Zoro off guard before kicking him violently on the wounded spot. The scream of agony their swordsman let out, made Nami cover her eyes. She couldn't watch this torture anymore, it was too much.

The injury was too inhibiting for Zoro and he was unable to go on the offensive due to that.

Cabaji took full advantage of that, planting yet another kick on the man's wound and sending him crashing to the ground.

"AGHHH!" Zoro roared, rolling in agony and clutching the injury tightly.

"What's wrong?" The second mate taunted, with a smirk on his face. "A grown man shouldn't be squealing like that."

Nami listened to the cruelty displayed, with abject horror. "Aren't you two going to do anything about this?!" Their navigator hissed in disbelief. Luffy was staring at the battle going on with a neutral expression while Rosan glanced disinterestedly.

Neither looked like they had any intention of interfering and it baffled her.

"He told us to stay out of it," Rosan deigned to answer. "And didn't I say I'm not going to fight? You're a bad listener, Nami."

"E-Even if he dies?" The orange haired girl gaped in disbelief.

"Do you really think that acrobat, who preys on a wound to stand a chance, will be able to put down someone with Zoro's resolve? If that were the case, I wouldn't save him regardless. He can just die here from his shame," Rosan informed her coldly.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing... w-weren't they apart of a crew? Why would they treat each other so coldly?!

Luffy remained silent, eyes on the battlefield and Nami had to wonder what she got herself into.

Cabaji grinned victoriously and prepared to charge the, in his eyes, defeated pirate hunter. As he got closer to his prey though, he was taken by surprise, as Zoro batted him aside with the butt of his sword.

"Is poking at my wound that fun to you? How annoying," Zoro grumbled, unamused.

The swordsman grabbed his own blade, only to dig it into his wound, effectively making it even worse and getting a grunt of exertion out of the man.

Everyone gaped at the suicidal display from the swordsman.

"Seems like Luffy is good at recruiting fellow psychos," Mod himself, the rubber boy had managed to recruit Zoro and Rosan back to back! He had a penchant for insanity!

"I like this swordsman!" Ram grinned eagerly.

"Is that enough of a handicap for you?" Zoro asked with a demonic grin on his face. "Now I'll show you the difference in our levels."

"Cool!" Luffy beamed.

"So cool," Rosan nodded in agreement.

"My swords aim to be the greatest in the world. I can't lose even once to anyone who calls himself a swordsman!" The swordsman declared.

"Ah, your strong resolve keeps you going," Cabaji said in realization. "You don't have to worry though, wounds as bad as yours will be more than enough of an excuse when you lose to me."

"To hell with that," he scoffed. "If I lose to someone like you with injuries this light, then I may as well give up my dream right now!"

Rosan nodded in approval. He momentarily side eyed the thief as she informed them of her plan to steal the treasure and map, before deciding against sending a bug to track her.

She could do what she wanted.

"You don't trust her at all, like you do Zoro," Mod pointed out.

"It's hard to trust someone that has 0 trust in you. I won't be the one to extend my trust first. I have much more to lose to someone that will probably jump ship. Besides, I don't want to be forced to kill someone that Luffy's interested in."

"That's fair. She's not as single minded as Zoro is so it's more difficult to get a current glean on her character."

Rosan hummed in agreement and dropped the topic. The battle between the acrobat and Zoro was wrapping up it seemed. After declaring that this was his ultimate technique, Cabaji had taken out some spinning tops and flung them all at the swordsman.

While Zoro slashed them all into pieces, the man probably did the most impressive thing to Rosan yet and rode his unicycle up a building. He then leapt high into the air and in an incredibly obvious and telegraphed attack (seriously, anyone with half a brain could stop this) began descending onto the swordsman.

This was such a joke of a fight. Were they really fighting a band of traveling clowns?

"Don't you have a similar technique as this one? I remember you used it on Maverick all those years ago," Mod prodded with a teasing smile.

"I can fly and my technique is much faster, even as a child. Besides, I only do it when my opponent is fully incapacitated, like against Kenzo and like against Maverick," Rosan replied blandly. It was stupid to waste stamina on a move that someone could dodge when you could do something else.

The clown tried to interfere by holding Zoro down but his brother had already scouted him out and was stomping on his foot rather eagerly. This allowed the swordsman to avoid the attack just barely and Cabaji connected with nothing but concrete.

"Ahh… I'm getting tired," Zoro grunted.

The acrobat grinned victoriously at that statement.

"So you've finally given up huh?" He asked eagerly, only to flinch as Zoro glared at him coldly.

"You've got it all wrong. I'm tired of your shitty ass circus tricks. I expected better out of a swordfight and got this instead," he declared.

Cabaji felt a vein form from annoyance and sneered at the injured man. "Fine, no more tricks. I'll deal with you using my real swordsmanship!"

With that, the acrobat charged Zoro at full speed, who glared at him before getting into position to deliver his own attack.

Zoro crossed his two swords across his chest and placed the blade in his mouth horizontally behind them. "Oni…" the man began tensing his muscles at the quickly approaching acrobat, before dashing forward himself.

"...Giri!"

Three cuts appeared on the second mates chest and his eyes rolled back at the power of the swordsman who had crushed him.

"How could we, the Buggy Pirates, lose to some common thieves," Cabaji groaned as he collapsed on the floor in defeat.

"Shoulda stuck to your tricks, circus man," Rosan thought idly.

"We're not common thieves...," Zoro informed him, taking his bandanna off and inhaling deeply.

"...We're pirates!"

With that, the man collapsed on the floor. "I'm goin to sleep now! You can handle the rest," he said, already preparing to rest right there.

Rosan sighed and went to go move the man. He had nothing better to do anyways.

"You took too long to defeat him," the redhead said, hoisting him up on one shoulder.

Zoro groaned tiredly. "Gimme a break. The amount of blood I'm losing is making me dizzy."

Rosan snorted quietly. "I'm no doctor. Suck it up for now and I'll try and wrap a gauze around it when we board the ship. That's the best I can do for you."

Maybe he should have had Demon teach him a few things (curse his arrogance for absolutely refusing to learn the skill). With the Philosopher's stone, he didn't really see the need to learn about medicine. The boy was scarcely able to sustain an injury that required medical attention and he didn't care enough about anyone else to learn medicine for their sake (barring Ace and Luffy but they healed abnormally quick like him).

It was pretty useful… For him at least.

Zoro had already fallen asleep and Rosan dragged him to some vacant building so he could rest up.

"Why do I feel like such a babysitter," he muttered.

"I think Maro had a big part to play with that! It's almost instinct now! Should we start calling you Mama Rosan?"

"I'll make Ram call you grandma since that's what you actually are."

"I-I was just kidding! Ram! Don't you dare get any ideas young lady. You'd listen to Rosan over me?!"

"H-He's my Father! I can't just say no to him!"

"Yes you can! You are physically a grown woman!"

"No I can't! And what do you mean by physically?! Are you saying I'm mentally a child? That's rude, Grandma!"

"I told you not to call me that!"

"You two are like children. Maybe you should start calling me Mama Rosan because the amount of people I have to maintain, including the two inside my body…"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT FROM YOU, PORTGAS D. ROSAN!"

The sheer outrage in Mod's voice, made him crack a small smile.

When Rosan had arrived onto the scene again, the battle between Luffy and Buggy was well underway and impressed him as much as he expected to be, which was not at all.

His brother had the clear advantage and only Buggy's unknown tricks (and Luffy's playfulness) with his Devil Fruit, were keeping him in the battle.

"Oh, Rosan!" Luffy exclaimed, noticing the redheads arrival. "This clown knows Shanks!"

Rosan slightly raised a brow at that. "Is that why you haven't knocked him unconscious yet? You want information on him?"

Last he had heard, the man had become a Yonko sometime after leaving Foosha. He and his crew seemed to have gotten quite powerful (not that they were weak before) and they all sported hefty bounties. Other than being impressed that he became a Yonko despite losing an arm, Rosan didn't care enough to get more information on the man who had sailed on a ship with his father.

Shanks was Luffy's idol, not his.

Speaking of which…

"Your straw hat," Rosan pointed out, glancing at the 3 knife marks. Seems his brother had been too lax and the hat paid the price. "This is why I always tell you to stop being so playful. Give it here so I can repair it."

"So that is Shanks' straw hat, I knew it looked familiar," Buggy sneered. "Not only that, both of you know him… We used to board the same ship as apprentice pirates," the clown said.

Rosan's attention was suddenly grabbed by that as Buggy told them the tale of why he would never forgive Shanks.

The clown pretended to eat a Devil Fruit so that he could sell it off for 100 million beri and at the same time, find the treasure that a map had pointed out. Unfortunately for him, Shanks had caught him by surprise and caused him to accidentally eat the Devil Fruit.

To make matters worse, he had lost the treasure map in his rage and it vanished into the ocean. Buggy dove for it but due to eating the fruit, he could no longer swim and Shanks had to save him.

"Ah, so Shanks saved you!" Luffy smiled fondly.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY!" Buggy roared in indignation.

"That is by far the dumbest way to have obtained your Devil Fruit powers ever. You panic swallowed the fruit? Are you stupid?" Rosan asked genuinely, causing Buggy to splutter in indignation.

The clown fumed at his choice of words. "I was in a flashy heat of moment! It was a split second decision!" He argued.

"You understand that even one bite of a Devil Fruit, gives you its abilities... right? How the hell did they let an idiot like you on Roger's ship? Not only are you dumb, you and Shanks were apprentices at the same time and his crew is so much stronger than yours, that it's laughable," the redhead finished, shaking his head at the hopeless clown taking resident on a random island in the East Blue.

If he were even half of Shanks' level, he'd have to take Luffy and flee but that wouldn't be necessary because the clown was weak. He was merely relying on his Devil Fruit but even now, his captain was quickly figuring it out.

Luffy was a genius in battle and Buggy was just another pirate that Reaper would have cleaned up from the ocean if he were active. Rosan had put his captain through many different scenarios over the years and his brother had began excelling under the conditions.

Buggy zeroed in on one specific part of what Rosan said and felt the world freeze around him at the redhead's statement.

How did he know who his captain was?

He... He never... Did he mention Roger being his captain?

"Shanks told me, obviously. As for why he did… That's not something I'm willing to disclose to a "flashy" idiot like you."

Buggy actually took a long look at the redhead for the first time.

"You're not Shanks long lost brother or something right?"

"Are you really dumber than I already think you are?"

The clown withheld an annoyed snarl at that. He would take great joy in interrogating the accursed redhead. There had to have been a reason Shanks told him about sailing with the Roger pirates so he'd leave him alive for now and get his answers later.

After he dealt with the equally annoying straw hat boy, this tanned dumbass was next.

But before even dealing with the straw hat —

"I don't tan. That's a rather rude assumption. You wanna know what's not an assumption? The fact that you have a massive red nose that you're deeply insecure about."

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE INTERRUPTING MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT!" Buggy roared, launching a knife at the redhead.

Rosan idly plucked the blade out of midair and disintegrated it, tilting his head at the clown all the while. "My apologies, you can continue with your train of thought. I won't interrupt anymore."

The clown coughed, ignoring the sight of the redhead vaporizing his knife, and thanked him. Now where was he...

Oh, right!

"I couldn't get all the treasure underwater because of that bastard redhead but that just means I'll have all the treasure on land!" Buggy suddenly declared before splitting his upper half from his bottom half.

"It doesn't matter who you are, if you put your hands on my treasure, I'LL FLASHILY KILL YOU!"

—He would deal with that damn traitorous thief!

"Don't think you can get away from me, Nami! I'll flashily chop you up!"

Nami gasped in terror and tried to run away faster but the pirate was quickly approaching. She had gotten too caught up in the fight between them and now he was about to strike her down.

Right as Buggy reached her, he let out a squeal of pain and his eyes rolled to the back of his skull momentarily. The reason for this, was due to the fact that Luffy had ruthlessly planted a sandal right on the man's crotch.

"Nice shot," Rosan praised with a light applause. When he was younger, he did crotch shots all the time. It was his right as a child to use everything at his disposal to win and it was the adults right to accept it.

Buggy moaned in agony, tears rolling down his face at the excruciating pain he was going through. "M-My balls…" he groaned pitifully.

T-That was dirty, attacking his lower half! That damn rubber boy. He had it up to here with this entire fucking crew! From the traitorous thief, to the bastard redhead and finally the shitty straw hat.

"Don't forget that you're still dealing with me!" Luffy grinned before glancing at Nami. He pointed a finger at the thief and said, "You should drop that treasure and run, he won't stop chasing you!"

The look of sheer outrage on Nami's face, after hearing Luffy's suggestion, could be framed and placed on a wall.

"No way am I gonna leave my treasure behind!"

"Your treasure?!" Buggy asked in disbelief. There was no way she said what he thought she said.

"That's right! My treasure! I'm a thief who steals from pirates and I just stole it! It's mine, mine, mine!"

"You know... I can respect that. Sticking to her values even in the face of someone that can certainly kill her, is rather admirable."

"Don't ever show her your treasury, Father."

"Okay."

Buggy chose to still not heed Luffy's advice about paying attention to him because he was specifically targeting Nami now for stealing his treasure.

Rosan held his sigh in. These fights really weren't interesting at all. They were far too silly for someone like him, who brutally murdered all his opponents.

The clown split himself into many pieces and began chasing Nami down. While the girl desperately ran for her life, Luffy noticed that Buggy's feet weren't flying with the rest of his body and grinned mischievously.

The clown was unable to properly do anything to Nami because Luffy tickled, stomped, and yanked the skin of his feet constantly. The poor thief was getting even more spooked due to being unaware of what the straw hat wearing boy was doing and just assumed that Buggy was getting increasingly more terrifying.

"CUT IT OUT!" Buggy roared to the rubber boy.

"No, you knock it off!" Nami screamed, slamming her bag of treasure right into him.

Or at least that's what she was planning to do, but Buggy managed to catch it and they struggled back and forth for it.

"I guess this is what we should have expected fighting a circus crew. Luffy was never going to take such goofy people serious so I should have just eliminated them all while he was in the cage still," Rosan muttered, watching his captain plant a boot in the clown's face.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. "If he's insecure about his nose, why is he even dressing up as a clown and recruiting circus performers? Shouldn't he just buy a mask or something?" The redhead asked aloud.

"I'm not too sure actually. Maybe he's unsuccessfully trying to conquer his insecurities?"

"I think he's just dumb."

Rosan had to agree with Ram.

"SHUT UP YOU FUCKING REDHEAD!" Buggy roared, facing Rosan. "THAT'S IT! I'M GOING TO FLASHILY DO YOU IN SO YOU CAN FINALLY SHUT UP"

The clown tried to recombine his body, only to blink in startled confusion at finding himself much smaller. The diminutive clown turned in disbelief and was greeted by the smugly grinning Nami who was next to his tied up limbs.

"Pft," was all the redhead said at the sight and Ram began cackling at his simple show of amusement.

"Even Auntie Mod is laughing at him!"

"If something is funny enough to make Rosan laugh, what chance do I have?!"

Luffy laughed joyously and began to stretch both his arms behind him. "Way to go thief!" He praised before focusing his attention on Buggy.

"See ya, Buggy!"

"Word of advice, try not to split your attention on so much people," Rosan advised.

"S-Stop!" The clown said with bugged eyes. Was he seriously going to lose here without getting even a single victory over these randoms?! Was this how the Buggy pirates LOST?!

Luffy grinned mercilessly and Buggy paled dramatically.

"Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!" He yelled before sending Buggy flying high into the sky.

"I win!" Luffy cheered.

"You could have ended that much faster. Was the clown that entertaining to you?" Rosan chided.

His captain laughed merrily as a response, waving him off with a beaming grin.

The redhead hummed before handing Luffy his repaired straw hat. "There. Try to take better care of it in the future. I need this hat intact as much as you do."

"Thanks, Rosan! You're the best!"

The 24 year old simply nodded before he turned to go retrieve Zoro.

"You'll join my crew, right?" Luffy asked the lone person there.

Nami sighed in exasperation. "Fine, for the time being. I can probably make a fortune if I stick with you guys."

This kid seriously couldn't take no for an answer.

Rosan hoisted up the groggy Zoro, unbothered by the blood leaking onto his outfit and began the march towards the White Rose.

"Is it over?" Zoro asked, his head was hunched over Rosan's shoulder and he was thankful that the redhead was bothering to carry him because he couldn't really move right now.

"Yeah, Luffy dealt with it," Rosan answered calmly, walking towards his ship.

The swordsman nodded at that and they walked in a comfortable silence before he thought of something. "Yo, Rosan…"

His target hummed in acknowledgment.

"Could you have taken out Buggy too?" Zoro asked curiously. Not once did the redhead seem stressed about the situation. In fact, he seemed rather relaxed, from not releasing Luffy from his cage to saying that he wouldn't need to interfere.

Rosan glanced at him for a moment. "I realize I never told you this but my emotions are currently locked away. That's why you hardly see me react to anything. I'm mostly incapable of doing so, though I am getting better."

His eyes widened at the revelation and he looked at the scout like he were a puzzle to be solved. No emotions? Locked away? Did it have to do with his mysterious Devil Fruit? All the users he had met so far, had displayed some bizarre abilities so he didn't discard the idea.

"To answer your question... Yes, I could beat Buggy. In one hit if I wanted too. Luffy could do the same but he was playing around too much like he always does. I take my battles much more serious then he does and they tend to end in deaths, which is why I said he would prefer to fight my silly little brother."

"Just how strong are you?" Zoro raised a brow. He had never actually seen the redhead in action, besides crushing the back of those three previous pirates and he was curious about what he was capable of.

What was his preferred style? How did he use his weapons? What was his most used weapon? Zoro wanted to know these answers because unlike Luffy, this man was a complete enigma.

He almost thought Rosan wasn't going to answer with how silent he stayed but the redhead eventually replied.

"I'm not sure. I haven't gone all out in a very long time... I've had a pretty eventful life so I'd say I'm a little strong. I doubt anyone in the East Blue could defeat me or Luffy but who knows."

Rosan and Zoro weren't so sure why Luffy was getting chased by the citizens of this town but the redhead deftly avoided them in case they chose to redirect their ire towards him.

He had no interest in slaughtering civilians.

When they made it to the shore, they saw Luffy and Nami being confronted by 3 familiar faces.

"Thinking you could rob us and get away with it huh?" #1 asked smugly, expertly hiding the pain in his back. "Looks like we have to teach you two a lesson!"

"Yeah!" #2 grinned maliciously. "This'll teach you not to steal from pirates!"

"We're bound together by fate now! You can't get rid of us that eas —."

"What are you three doing?" A dreadfully familiar deep voice asked, freezing them to their spot and making all three go pale. "Why are my servants harassing my captain? Did I release you from your duties too soon? You know Buggy's been defeated, right?"

The three pirates turned white at the voice and all eyes turned to Rosan. He was staring at Buggy's subordinates with that empty gaze that terrified them so much in such a short span.

"I asked you 3 a question."

"WE'RE VERY SORRY, SIR! WE HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS YOUR CAPTAIN, SIR! PLEASE FORGIVE US, SIR!" They saluted and bowed repeatedly.

J-Just their luck for these two to be allies with their tormentor. Even worse, his claims of Buggy not being able to protect them were true because he had marched right to their captain's base and come out unscathed.

Rosan hummed in contemplation.

"Seeing as you haven't come to blows yet, I'll forgive you and let you stay free," he informed them and they sagged in relief.

"But."

They froze again.

"You have to successfully escape from me. If I capture you, and I will capture you, you will be my eternal servants, doing whatever I want until you die because I won't die," Rosan explained softly, tilting his head to the side.

"Word of advice, I can't swim so if you start now, I won't bother chasing you."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" They didn't even think twice about questioning his advice and his former maids swam away without any hesitation. He could still hear them screaming in the water.

"They should save their breaths, they might drown if they keep screaming like that."

"I wonder where they'll swim off to," Ram mused.

Zoro and Luffy laughed heartily at the scene and Nami looked at Rosan with an utterly baffled, if not fearful, expression.

"Despite having their backs nearly broken in half, they still cleaned my ship quite well," Rosan mused.

Their navigator actually took one step away from him. "Scary…" she whispered.

"They were good maids," Zoro agreed, as Rosan dragged him on top of the White Rose.

"You need to get some rest. Demon would kill you if he saw what you were doing with that injury," Rosan muttered.

"Demon?"

"My little brother. He's a doctor. You'll meet him one day."

Zoro was too tired to question the fact that Rosan and Luffy had even more siblings so he just didn't bother.

"This is a nice ship," Nami awed, looking at it with wide eyes. She had been on many ships before and this one was one of the nicest yet!

She wondered how much treasure was stored on it...

"Thank you," Rosan replied. "Don't try and rob me, I'll stomp your back into pieces."

She squeaked in fear and nodded rapidly, putting a safe distance between the two in the process.

"WAIT!" A voice called in the distance. Their ship had already set sail so the four looked back at the noise to see who was calling them.

It was the Mayor and he looked like he had ran all the way here, if the way he was breathing was an indication.

"Thank you! We're in your debt!" He grinned joyously, tears streaming down his face.

"Don't worry about it!" Luffy grinned. "Take it easy!" The rubber boy called out. He waved merrily at the joyful mayor and smiled cheerfully.

"YOU LEFT ONE OF THE TREASURE BAGS?!" Nami screeched in rage. This little damn —

"Yeah."

"Just one was worth 5 million, you know?!"

"But they needed it to fix their town."

"5 million isn't even that much," Rosan said calmly. "Just go hunt someone with that bounty. Should have kept Buggy and turned his in. Triple profit right there."

Zoro nodded in agreement. It's what he did.

"NOT THAT MUCH?! YOU THINK THAT'S NOT THAT MUCH?!" Nami actually looked like she was about to strike the redhead for his insane statement. "I'M NOT SOME MONSTER LIKE YOU THREE! I CAN'T JUST HUNT DOWN A PIRATE WORTH 5 MILLION!"

"So weak. Can you do anything for yourself?" The redhead muttered to himself, making it loud enough for them all to hear.

Their navigator flung herself at him with all the fury of a wild animal.

Since they had met, this damn, annoying, poker faced idiot had been grating on her nerves and she was fed up! Nami would have her justice right here and right now!

Rosan simply blinked at her and grabbed the orange haired woman with one hand. He placed the flailing girl down gently on her stomach, patting the feral girls head all the while (much to her fury), and left the deck.

Nami darted up to pursue him but the redhead came back a moment later and dropped a heavy bag in her hands that made her pause.

"There. 5 million. Could you stop crying now?" he told her simply. It really wasn't that big of a deal but she had her reasons.

It was like a switch had been completely flipped. Nami's eyes turned into stars and she said, "Thanks Big Bro! You're the best!"

The redhead looked at the gushing navigator hugging him and deduced that she was probably insane. There was no other explanation for someone to mood swing this quickly at something like money.

"You know, I really don't think you have the right to call anyone insane."

"I disagree."

"I agree with Auntie Mod! You're also pretty insane!"

"Ram, I order you to disagree with Mod-chan."

"What?! But that's not fai —"

"I disagree with Auntie Mod! Father is not insane!"

"It's 2 on 1, you lose Mod-chan."

"...When you enter the mindscape you are in so much trouble."

"Seems like I won't be entering for a while then."

"?! Why must I be punished for doing what you said! You're entering tonight and I won't accept any other outcome!"

"...Okay."

Mod grinned victoriously.

Rosan sighed audibly.

Bonus

Aiko is 30

Akemi is 29

Rosan is 19

Maro is 18

"N-No one told us there was a monster protecting this damn island!"

"WELL NOW YOU KNOW WHY NO ONE SUGGESTS RAIDING IT, DUMBASS!"

A low growl interrupted the hiding pirates and they went white as a sheet, slowly turning around to face the monstrous sight before them.

"Calling someone a monster is rude. I'm a Queen, you little trolls," they snarled in contempt.

The last remaining pirates, who had foolishly tried to pillage her island, could only shriek in terror, as the near 7 foot behemoth wrapped her giant paws around each of their heads and smashed them together.

Blood spurted out of their skulls, as they were knocked blissfully unconscious and Maro tossed them to the side like they were made of garbage.

"Honestly, these North Blue upstarts are way too cocky for their own good," she muttered, transforming back into her human form and grinning bashfully at the applause.

"GET EM QUEEN MARO!"

"SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS!"

"BOW TO YOUR MAJESTY!"

"Is anyone hurt?" Maro asked the cheering crowd. Most shook their head but a small voice spoke up.

"I... My leg hurts," a small child whimpered, clutching the appendage with a pained expression. The little boy was desperately trying to hold back tears and Maro quickly rushed over to them in a flash.

"Shhh, it's gonna be alright," she soothed. Hoisting the child up, she cradled him and marched off towards the hospital.

It was definitely broken and she spent the entire trip distracting the small boy with little fire tricks.

The citizens watched her with fond smiles.

"The Queen really does it all..."

"Honestly, she's a one woman army."

"I wish there was a way we could take more weight off her shoulders..."

"Even though she doesn't mind, Maro-sama really does do a lot."

It was why they never minded her frequent trips off the island. It was her downtime and it was good for her.

Still though... dealing with every single pirate that invaded the island... They would need some assistance soon.

Maro stretched and waved goodbye to the little boy, making her way back to her office with an amused sigh.

Damn pirates and hurting the sweet little kids. They were lucky that her citizens had been watching else they'd have faced even harsher punishment from her, courtesy of Daisy!

The woman sat in her seat and let out a sigh.

She wanted to visit the Grand Line again, this time not on Government business. Maybe Master and Luffy would let her join on one of their journeys one day...

The sea was fascinating and weird and totally awesome, having the wildest shifts in weather and generally not making any sort of sense. She enjoyed every second of it and was disappointed that Grim and Reaper hadn't lasted until they were adults so they could visit it.

She even managed to keep some things called a Log Pose as a souvenir! The government had been nice enough to let her keep it.

Yeah, she was definitely going back there one day. Luffy had no choice in the matter.

The Queen's internal musing was cut short, as her Den Den Mushi began ringing and she curiously picked it up.

"Hey there, this may or may not be Maro! Oh... I guess you would know my voice if you're calling me~" She beamed to the voice on the other line. "Hm? You want me to shut up? Gotcha! Oh? You've also got something to show me? Sure, I'll be right there!"

Maro and Rosan hummed their own tunes as they waited on Fregate for someone to greet them.

Aiko had called the duo to discuss something important with them and they made their way over almost instantly (after Maro had contacted Rosan). Now, the duo patiently waited for the leader to show up, doing their own things in the process.

Rosan idly flipped a pen that belonged to Aiko and transformed it, with Modification, in the process into various objects. A steel pencil, a wooden knife and a laser pointer were some of the few things he chose.

Maro watched it with interest, idly molding her blue flames into a picture of Angel in the process. Once she did that, she put an illusion over it so that it could look exactly like her wife and sighed fondly.

"That's perfect. How long do you stare at Angel for you to have not made a single mistake?" Rosan mused, poking the mechanical cat that was the pen and getting it to pur. After a moment, he modified it again and gave it the appearance of a real cat, making it purple in the process.

Maro cooed at the adorable sight, grabbing it out of his hand to pet it on her own.

"I uh, I stare at her a lot. Let's just say that," she muttered, blushing slightly at the question.

Wanting to quickly change the subject, the Queen said, "Where the hell is Aiko?! She's never been late before... or did we just show up really early?"

"You showed up really early, dumbasses," an irritated voice called out. "I called you two twenty minutes ago... Why are you just always ready to be on the move?"

Aiko, along with Akemi and Hiroshi, walked through the door and stared at the former bounty hunter duo.

"I'm not one to waste time and I was free today," Rosan grunted. Ace and Luffy were off hanging out with the twins and Makino while they were out so nothing too crazy should happen.

"Hiroshi? I haven't seen you in a long time!" Maro grinned cheerfully, bounding up and marching over to the group of three. "How's the wife? I recently got married too you know!"

Hiroshi grabbed her hand and shook it, smiling all the while. "Queen Maro. Congratulations! My wife is doing fine and we actually caught your wedding. A real catch you managed to find, huh?" He prodded, getting a brilliant blush out of the blue haired Oni.

"Oh you're just teasing!" She gushed, holding her cheeks and swooning.

"Hiroshi," Rosan nodded as greeting. "What's the occasion? Have you made a discovery that you'd like to discuss with us?"

Hiroshi nodded, shaking the redhead's hand in the process, and indicated for Aiko to explain.

The leader of Fregate cleared her throat and got straight to the point. "Hiroshi's development of the first batch of clones are finished and they've reached adulthood. I don't plan on using them and I decided long ago that Maro could have them so take em off my hand," she said.

Maro's eyes glittered.

"Who did you use to develop them?" Rosan asked in interest.

"Some of those high bounties I had you collect and not kill after you retired Reaper. We needed strong bodies as baselines to produce good clones and they were already criminals so why not," Aiko said, shrugging.

The redhead nodded at that. He figured she wanted something done with the bounties he captured so to know it was for this, made it all clear.

"We've adjusted they're body types accordingly. Some are built for strength, speed, etc so that they can accomplish multiple tasks," Hiroshi commented.

"My very own clone army," Maro sighed in happiness.

Celadon didn't have an official army. Their citizens, as much as Maro loved them, weren't really all that strong and that left her to do most of the fighting (there were some citizens that chose to be soldiers and they did have weapons to try and defend themselves) when pirates decided attacking her island was a smart idea.

They quickly found that fighting a Dokkaebi was never in their best interests and she quickly handed them off to the nearest Marines, collecting their bounty and increasing Celadon's prestige in the process.

It was a good thing she had a lot of stamina and Rosan.

She refused the Marine's offer to have a base built there so that they could be stationed on her island because Celadon hadn't needed them before and they didn't need them now beyond the alliance with the World Government.

Now, she didn't have to worry about it!

"She was worried about not having enough soldiers?" Rosan mused to himself. It was a valid concern... Maro was powerful but she was practically the sole guardian of Celadon and he had raised her to not be arrogant at all...

Alright, when he set sail with Luffy, he'd be on the lookout for any interesting people that could benefit her. After some convincing (or overhauling) he'd send them to her and she'd have more than just the clone army to defend her.

"Are you... not gonna discuss this with her? You know... to actually get her opinion on the matter?" Mod asked incredulously.

"No, I'll just surprise her every time."

"There is genuinely something wrong with you. I hope you know that."

Maro gazed at her new soldiers with an appraising eye.

Cloning was so fascinating to her because Angel and Demon were clones but they were so very different from the army before her.

For one, despite being clones, these guys functioned practically as humans. The only abnormal thing about the clones created by Hiroshi, were how fast they had been aged into adults and the fact they couldn't reach old age.

Angel and Demon looked human, felt human and acted human but they weren't. Maro wasn't sure what the details were, but she was sure that they weren't made from Rosan's DNA. Her teacher created the two clones with a genius use of Modification on a whim and over the years, refined them more and more until he was satisfied...

Kami, she hated that genius sometimes. Who the fuck just does that? She had the rarest class of Devil Fruit but Modification was honestly ridiculous.

At least his stroke of genius had ended up being her future wife and doctor...

Ah! She was trailing off... The long silence must have been pretty awkward.

Chancing a glance at them, the queen flushed a bit at how visibly nervous they were. The clones all gave her their undivided attention and were fidgeting at the expression, or lack thereof, on her face.

There was not a single unique face among them, though they didn't all look like each other. An array of men and woman were standing at attention, looking a lot like some criminals her and Master hunted years ago, and focusing on the ruler of one of the most prosperous islands (and rising!) in the North Blue.

Time to break the ice a bit...

"You guys don't have to be so nervous! I don't bite, promise!" Maro beamed, flashing her pearly whites at them and making some go slightly lax. "I'm Queen Maro and I'm happy to meet you all, soldiers!"

"I like to think that I'm a pretty fair queen and as such, I'll never ask you guys to do something I wouldn't want to do! All I ask is for your cooperation and help in keeping Celadon and it's citizens safe, alright?"

"YES, YOUR MAJESTY!" They chanted at once, saluting.

The queen grinned at that. "Great! Now... we need uniforms for you all, not to mention a place where you can all stay..." She mused loudly.

They would both be pretty easy to achieve. She just needed her good ol Master to help make the building for them all.

"Kanna, go to Mai's Clothing Store and set a down payment for a huge amount of uniforms. Tell her to prioritize it, please," Maro requested from her assistant. She wanted to eventually commission Hiroshi so that they could get lesser raid suits. It took too many resources to make the ones her and Rosan had so Hiroshi had instead concocted a plan to use less resources to make more raid suits at the cost of some of the features Rosan and Maro had.

That was fine. It would be a bad idea to advertise their raid suits so freely after all so this was actually pretty genius of the scientist.

"She would have done so regardless and for free too," Kanna smiled.

Maro grunted and tapped her tiara. "I know that's why I'm telling you to place a downpayment. My citizens are too damn cute and I have no intention of taking advantage of their hospitality!"

Kanna nodded at that, jotting down something on her clipboard.

The little assistant jumped with a small squeal, as Rosan suddenly arrived in front of the two with a tilted head.

Ugh, she was never going to get used to that.

"You called?" Rosan greeted, messing up Kanna's hair apologetically and getting an embarrassed slap from the assistant.

The queen nodded enthusiastically, jumping on the redhead eagerly. "I want your input on what I should design as my armies uniform aaaand I want to make a really big building for them to all reside in," she requested.

He nodded, eyeing the curious clones. "I think they should wear your signature colors. Maybe blue and white bodysuits with a mask that hides their face."

"Sounds good to me!" Maro beamed, watching as Kanna jotted it down. "Alright, follow me so we can make that base! You guys are free to do whatever you want for the day!"

That last part was directed towards the clones and with a slight slap on his shoulder, Rosan walked off with Maro on his back. He was far too used to her antics to ever be bothered by them anymore and just let her do what she want.

The clone army couldn't help but watch their carefree queen with slight sweat drops.

"You'll get used to it," Kanna assured calmly. "Queen Maro is rather eccentric!"

Maro was bored.

Well, Maro was always bored when it came to these meetings because they talked about the most mundane things and she had to be here to oversee it.

Ugh, Ace, Luffy and Master were probably sparring right now and she was listening to this. She nearly crashed her head into the table but she couldn't do that because Queen and all that jazz.

She wondered if she could learn more advanced teleportation like Master did. She could displace herself but could she increase the range —

The door to their room burst open and one of her guards rushed through the door. "Urgent message for the Queen! We're currently under attack by a group of pirate—"

His words were cut off, as Maro immediately vanished with a crazy glint in her eyes.

Everyone at the meeting watched the spot with a shake of their head. Leave it to Maro to take any and all opportunities to sprint away from her more, tedious duties.

Their beloved Queen should not be so eager to dive straight into the frontlines but that was what she wanted and they'd never go against her.

"—But they've been dealt with by the... She didn't let me finish..." The man muttered, scratching his head in confusion.

"ALRIGHT! WHERE'S ALL... the... action?"

An excited Maro watched in confusion, as some of her non official (she was still working on it) army, surrounded a group of tied up pirates. The clones looked perfectly fine and the surrounding area looked fine as well. Her citizens were cheering for the clones and they simply blushed bashfully, pleased with their job.

"Oh, Queen Maro!" One of the clones spotted her, jumping up and saluting. "We know we aren't technically on duty yet, but we couldn't help but jump in to stop these pirates from causing any damage!"

The other 5 (there were six of them here) nodded in agreement, gauging the Queen's reaction with nervous eyes.

...

"Your majesty?" Another clone called tentatively.

Maro jumped a bit at being addressed and whirled towards the clones, who flinched. She held out her hands placatingly and said, "I'm not upset with you guys, really! I'm super glad that you managed to stop them before they could cause damage... It's just... I was bored a-and I wanted to beat them up and you guys already did it."

Everyone watching, blinked at her words before faceplanting, clones included.

The Queen was visibly sulking now, much to the citizens amusement. "I like having an army b-but it looks like they're too good at their job and that means they might make me stay in the castle more... W-What if my skills rust?! Ace and Master would make so much fun of me and wouldn't let me live it down," she muttered to herself, walking off in despair.

This was the worst! I-If she gave Ace and Master fuel, those two demons would let her hear it for years to come! S-She needed to go spar with them now to avoid going soft!

"Keep it up, you guys... I'm really proud of you. Now, I'm gonna go bother my Master and have him bring me to his island for a bit..."

They sweatdropped heavily at the genuine sadness in her tone and looked between the pirates and the Queen.

"You guys did nothing wrong," the citizens assured delightfully. "Our queen is just a spoiled brat. We're really happy that you guys are here to take some of the load off her shoulders. She does everything around here."

The clones were finally coming to terms with that. Watching the Dokkaebi be supportive of them, despite wanting in on the action was quite the sight. It was... endearing in a way and made them respect their Queen even more then they did.

Maro truly was an eccentric ruler and they wouldn't have it any other way.