Gojo looked Buggy straight in the eye and said calmly, "Tell me about Armament Haki. How do you use it?"
The question was surprising for Buggy. His eyes widened, and for a moment, his mind went completely blank. That's… that's what he wants to know? He had been prepared for questions about his treasure—where it was hidden, how much there was, who else knew about it. But this? This was the last thing he had expected from someone like Gojo.
Buggy stood there, lips parted, but no words came out.
Seeing his silence, Gojo's expression hardened. "I'm asking you something," he said, his voice low and sharp. "Answer me. Your life depends on it."
The pressure in the air instantly became suffocating. Buggy swallowed hard, cold sweat trickling down his temple, and hurriedly blurted out, "I—I don't know how to use Armament Haki! I really don't! I know nothing about it!"
For a brief moment, everything went silent.
Then, at the tip of Gojo's finger, a faint blue glow began to form.
The light twisted unnaturally, deepening in colour as space itself seemed to bend around it. An overwhelming suction erupted from that point, dragging the surrounding air toward it. The wind roared violently, tugging at Buggy's clothes and hair as the blue sphere grew denser, heavier, more terrifying by the second. Buggy's feet slid slightly across the ground as he struggled to keep his balance.
Gojo spoke again, his voice steady, almost cold. "Think very carefully before you speak again," he said. "Because if your next answer doesn't satisfy me, I will kill you."
Buggy stared at the swirling blue in horror, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst out of his chest. Any lingering doubt he had—that Gojo might not be a Devil Fruit user—vanished instantly. This was no ordinary ability. This Devil Fruit… it's on a completely different level, Buggy realized, fear tightening its grip around his mind.
And as time continued to pass, the small blue sphere kept growing larger and larger, its pull intensifying with every second. The suction force increased relentlessly, dragging the air toward it in violent streams. Buggy could feel it even from where he stood. He knew one thing with absolute certainty—if he were pulled into that blue sphere, his Chop-Chop Fruit ability would not save him.
Under normal circumstances, Buggy might have resisted. He might have even tried to defy Gojo's orders. After all, Gojo carried a sword, and Buggy had long believed that swordsmen were harmless to him. Cuts meant nothing. Slashes passed through him without effect. As a user of the Chop-Chop Devil Fruit, any sharp object was practically useless against his body.
But this power was different.
This wasn't a blade, and it wasn't a cut. Buggy had no idea what would happen if that blue sphere swallowed him whole—and that uncertainty terrified him far more than any man ever could. This thing… it doesn't care about my Devil Fruit, he realized, panic tightening his chest.
"W-Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" Buggy shouted hastily, his voice nearly cracking as the pull grew stronger. "I don't know how to use Armament Haki, that's true—but I can tell you what I've heard about it! What my captain Roger said, and what the other officers of the Roger Pirates used to teach us about Haki. I can repeat it exactly as I heard it. How's that?!"
For a brief heartbeat, the blue continued to swell.
Then, just as suddenly, it vanished.
The distorted air snapped back into place, the roaring wind dying out as if it had never existed. It was as though the blue sphere had never been there at all. Around them, the officers of the Buggy Pirates and even Alvida let out quiet, unconscious breaths of relief, their tense bodies finally loosening.
Buggy exhaled shakily, his shoulders sagging.
Gojo turned his gaze fully toward him and said, "Start speaking."
Buggy nodded rapidly and immediately began. "Armament Haki is the use of your willpower—or spiritual power—which exists inside every human. By channelling it and covering a part of your body with it, that body part's defence is enhanced, and its offensive power increases as well."
"And those with Observation Haki, who can generally sense someone else's spiritual power or willpower, can easily feel it," Buggy continued. "And if they're able to channel that power and coat it over their body—or any object they're in contact with—then technically, they're using Armament Haki. That's all I know. That's all I can tell you."
After listening to Buggy's explanation, Gojo fell silent. His eyes narrowed slightly as he sank into thought. So that's what it is, he realized. That 'willpower'… I've been sensing it all this time. After all, he possessed the Six Eyes, and because of that, his Observation Haki had naturally awakened and reached an extremely advanced level. He could perceive it clearly—every fluctuation, every presence—but he had never once tried to actively channel it. More precisely, he had never known that channelling was even necessary.
Buggy's answer, at least, was satisfying.
Gojo stepped forward and lightly tapped Buggy's cheek a few times with the flat of his sword, the metal making a soft, humiliating sound against his skin. "Your answer satisfied me," Gojo said calmly. "So you live, Rednose."
Rednose.
The moment the word reached Buggy's ears, his expression twisted in fury. Veins popped on his forehead as he snapped, "You bastard! Who are you calling a red nose?!"
His anger exploded instantly. As soon as the words left his mouth, Buggy separated both of his hands using the Chop-Chop Fruit. Each detached hand gripped multiple knives, blades gleaming as they spread apart, ready to strike from different angles at once.
Before Buggy could even launch his attack, Gojo clenched his left fist.
A vivid blue light wrapped around it.
In a single motion, Gojo stepped in and drove his fist straight into Buggy's chest. "Blue Fist."
The moment Gojo's fist neared Buggy's body, the blue activated. Space itself seemed to collapse inward as the surface of Buggy's chest was violently sucked toward Gojo's fist. At the same time, the suction accelerated Gojo's punch unnaturally, compounding its speed and force. The result was a devastating impact, the power of the blow amplified several times over by the crushing pull of Blue.
The moment Gojo's Blue Fist landed on Buggy, his body was launched through the air like a cannonball. He crashed through multiple cabins on his own ship, wood and debris exploding in all directions, before finally slamming into the far side. Buggy's body hung limply over the corner of the ship, barely clinging to it before going completely still, passed out cold.
Gojo didn't spare him a second glance.
The instant his punch connected, Gojo turned away, and in the next moment, he was already gone. He left Buggy's ship behind and reappeared on his own vessel as if he had teleported, the distance between the two ships erased in a blink.
Back on his ship, Gojo pulled out a detailed map of the East Blue and spread it out before him. He compared his current location, his eyes moving calmly across the parchment as he searched for the most suitable place to train his Armament Haki.
I need to try it, he thought. Properly this time.
"I won't leave the East Blue," Gojo said to himself, "until I can master Armament Haki well enough to coat my sword—and at least half of my body—with it."
As he continued scanning the map, two nearby locations eventually stood out to him.
One was Syrup Village. But humans lived there, and training in such a place was out of the question.
The other was the Island of Rare Animals.
No humans lived there.
That alone made it the perfect location.
Without any hesitation, Gojo turned the helm of his ship. The sails caught the wind, and the ship began to move, its destination set firmly on the Island of Rare Animals.
…
After several hours of travel, the Island of Rare Animals finally came into view. Dense greenery covered its surface, and an eerie stillness surrounded it. Gojo soon docked his ship along the shore and stepped onto the island.
As he walked forward, he could clearly sense countless life forces spread across the land—the unmistakable presence of animals all around him. The sensation was vivid and sharp.
Gojo didn't mind it. On the contrary, he welcomed it. Plenty of meat and food, he thought casually.
With that in mind, he had barely taken a few steps toward the forest when a strange creature suddenly lunged at him.
It had the ears of a rabbit—but the rest of its body was completely wrong. Long and coiled like a snake, its form twisted unnaturally as it attacked.
Gojo turned effortlessly and delivered a powerful kick. The creature was sent flying backward, crashing into a tree with a heavy thud.
Before the echoes faded, a voice rang out from deep within the forest.
"Leave this island immediately. I am the Guardian Deity of this island. All the animals here were pirates in the past, and I turned them into these strange creatures. Leave now—or I will make you one of them as well."
As the voice spoke, the forest began to stir. One by one, bizarre animals emerged—a beast with the striped skin of a tiger but the massive body of an elephant, and many other strange, unnatural creatures, slowly surrounding Gojo from all sides.
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