Buggy and his crew had spotted Daifuku's ship, and Charlotte Daifuku had naturally spotted them in return.
"Red-nosed pirate flag, crossbones with small wings on them. Big Brother Daifuku, it's confirmed — that's Buggy the Clown's crew."
The Jolly Roger of the Buggy Pirates incorporated elements from each of the original six members: Enel's headband, Buggy's nose, and Felice's wings.
As for Cat, Dog, and Fish, they had each pressed their handprints beneath the skull.
Charlotte Daifuku's outfit was absurdly flamboyant, making him look like a knight stepped out of a children's fairy tale. Yet his personality was cold and ruthless. Two thin mustaches sat on his upper lip, giving him the appearance of a ruthless merchant.
The moment he identified Buggy's vessel, he ordered his ship to open fire.
The ship beneath his feet was a Homie created by Big Mom — it possessed sentience and was armed with devastating firepower.
Daifuku gave the signal, and the ship's bow-mounted war machine unleashed an energy pulse directly at Buggy's ship.
"Kappa, hard to starboard!"
Buggy, hovering in midair, scattered into pieces in sheer panic. He wasn't afraid of the war machine's attack itself, but his ship certainly couldn't withstand a direct hit.
But turning a ship on the open sea wasn't so simple. Against an ordinary cannon shot, Kappa might have been able to dodge in time. But the war machine's energy pulse was faster.
"What do we do now?" Inuarashi roared, his hands gripping the ship's railing.
Nekomamushi was even preparing to block the blast directly with Haki.
But at the critical moment, Buggy proved unexpectedly reliable. A flash of inspiration struck him — he lunged forward, grabbed Enel, and held him out in front of the ship like a shield.
Enel hadn't even processed what was happening before a searing blast of energy came roaring toward him!
Buggy immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Chop-Chop — Scapegoat!"
The full force of the energy impact slammed squarely into Enel's body.
BOOM —
"Did it hit?" Daifuku and his crew were too far away to see clearly. They assumed the war machine's blast had struck the enemy ship dead-on, and their spirits lifted.
"How simple! In the end, they're just a bunch of nobodies. How could they possibly —"
But the words died in Daifuku's throat. The scene he had expected — their ship blown to splinters and the crew scattered as corpses — didn't materialize.
Instead, the long-eared man was floating in midair, cursing up a storm.
"Buggy, you bastard! Are you trying to get me killed?!" Enel roared, baring his fangs. In truth, he hadn't accumulated so much as a speck of dust on his body.
The war machine's attack was essentially an explosion. And explosions had no effect on him whatsoever.
What infuriated him was simply the fact that Buggy had used him as a human shield.
"What's the big deal? It's not like you'd actually die." Buggy couldn't have cared less. True to form, the moment Enel had served his purpose, Buggy tossed him back onto the deck.
"Listen up, boys — charge! We're going to smash every last one of Big Mom's crew!"
His white-gloved hands gripped flying knives as he launched himself straight at Charlotte Daifuku.
The rest of the crew didn't sit idle either. Kappa leaped overboard the instant the clash began, swimming rapidly toward the enemy vessel. He didn't strike immediately — he was biding his time, waiting for the right moment.
Felice's feathers suddenly expanded, spreading wide like a curtain that blotted out the sky.
She looked like a birdwoman now, swooping down upon Daifuku's ship like a falcon diving for prey.
"Trump Card Flying Knives!"
Buggy's knives shot out, aimed directly at Daifuku.
"Tricks!"
Daifuku casually swatted the three knives aside. His body coiled, preparing to cleave Buggy out of the sky.
That was when Felice struck. Her feet transformed into bird talons cloaked in Haki as she lunged at Daifuku's chest.
Daifuku was forced to block, which gave Buggy the opening he needed to infiltrate the enemy ship.
He planted both hands on the deck, and a grin spread across his face.
"Chop-Chop —"
"Shatter Strike!"
His Devil Fruit ability activated. Buggy's plan was to shatter the entire ship from within, stripping Daifuku of his footing and crippling his combat effectiveness by several degrees.
But to his surprise, although his power activated, the shockwave rippled outward with zero effect.
"What? This ship is alive?"
His face twisted in astonishment. But there was no time to dwell on it. Daifuku had already broken free from Felice and crashed back onto the deck.
His body suddenly morphed into a living lamp. A thick gas erupted from his waist, materializing into a massive humanoid figure in midair.
"What is that?"
"Demon Hunt!" Daifuku roared. The lamp demon conjured a massive polearm and swung it at Buggy.
The blade flashed past in an instant, slicing across Buggy's body and cutting him into thin strips.
Weak. Far too weak.
Was this really the power of the hotshot rookie pirate everyone had been buzzing about?
Daifuku sneered inwardly. He figured Buggy was just some punk who had lucked into his reputation by tangling with the Big Mom Pirates. In reality, he was all hype and no substance.
Just as Daifuku turned to engage another enemy, his Observation Haki screamed a warning. He threw himself to the side — but a white-gloved hand wielding a short blade slipped through the space where his waist had been, carving a bright red line of blood across his torso.
"Chop-Chop — Holy Strike!"
Buggy's sinister laugh echoed across the deck. Having landed his hit, he had already soared back into the sky, launching into his signature taunting routine.
"Nice swordsmanship, I'll give you that. But too bad — I'm the man who ate the Chop-Chop Fruit! Slashing attacks don't work on the great Buggy!"
And he wasn't wrong.
Given his unique body structure, even if his body was severed by Haki-infused slashes, once the Haki's residual force dissipated, he could reassemble himself perfectly intact.
It worked on the same principle as Marco's Phoenix Fruit — not negating the Haki itself, but rendering the physical cutting meaningless since he could reconstitute at will.
"If that's how it is, then I'll just beat you with my fists!"
Daifuku bellowed. The lamp demon discarded its polearm and raised fists the size of sandbags, bringing them crashing down toward Buggy.
But Buggy merely smirked. His entire body shattered into countless floating cubes in an instant.
The lamp demon, not being particularly intelligent, failed to react in time. A blinding beam of light slammed into it from point-blank range.
"Explosion — Shockwave!"
[
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