Chapter Text
Buggy stares out the window, not truly seeing the fading smoke and destruction of Marineford.
Buggy had always been more comfortable…he doesn’t want to say, not in the spotlight, but not the sun lighting up the sky. That had always been Captain’s role, should have been (and did become even if not how they’d grown up thinking) Shanks’ role, whenever Shanks hellspawn reappears it’ll be his role too. But…but Buggy hadn’t wanted that.
Jokes on all of them over that, isn’t it? He’s stuck in the exact sort of spotlight he
doesn’t
like.
He knows after all of Marineford, after reminding people that oh yeah. Roger had two apprentices. He’s going to have problems. Problems he only avoided for years at first by lying low in East Blue, and later just…living. Being a pirate in East Blue, but not the sort to really make waves. Then again, that he knows got helped by Garp twice over. First in simply knowing Garp was a native to East Blue, and making sure that Foosha Village or the Goa Kingdom wheren’t places he’d visit. And second in having once by sheer fucking chance running into the old bastard, and getting him to agree that he didn’t know Buggy the Clown was Buggy, Roger’s former apprentice.
Now knowing Garp had raised Captain’s son, he wonders if Garp had agreed because that way he could keep two of Captain’s kids safe, an apology for something Garp hadn’t even had the ability to stop anyway.
He’ll need to call Mohji and the crew, tell them to lie low until he can figure out next steps for them. Probably an offer to leave the crew in general, since he knows there’s not a chance in hell he’s going to be leaving the Grand Line again and retreating back to East Blue had been something enough of them had been pushing for. Alvida would probably stick around, she’d done a half-decent job at not dying in Paradise and as long as she kept her shit together while he’d been in Impel Down it would be fine. Honestly Mohji would probably stick around, if for no other reason than his First Mate would be convinced he’d die without supervision.
Which…not exactly unfair in light of recent events.
Buggy sighs and tilts his head back, closing his eyes.
But most importantly, there’s not a chance in hell or the seas that he can stay at the level he’s at combatant-wise. He’s fine for East Blue. Hell, he’s fine for the early bits of Paradise! But that’s not enough now. He’s not going to shake the followers he acquired in Impel Down, and he knows better than to be a weak captain with a stronger crew. On top of that, he’ll need to be active in at least the further bits of Paradise, and most likely in the New World altogether. Everyone of importance in the Marines would have noticed his and Shanks' interaction.
In hindsight, bickering with an Emperor like they were still kids on the Oro Jackson was incredibly stupid, even if it felt like one moment of normality on a horrifying day of a shitty year.
It said a lot about both of them that in their first meeting in almost twenty years they fell right back into an old habit.
God he missed the flashy bastard even if he’ll never admit it.
He opens his eyes again.
He needs to get his Haki back up to snuff again. He’d let it lapse in the years he’d been in East Blue. He needs to figure out more uses for his Devil Fruit. Needs to figure out new types of explosives and weapons. Needs to decide if he’ll get back in touch with the old fart or not. Right now he’s leaning towards ‘not’.
He kind of hates that he can't decide if he misses Rayleigh or not.
He knows he’s going to have difficulty getting away from people to train. Too many of his new ‘crew mates’ will want to train with him, Roger’s former apprentice, and that’s something he can’t let happen. He can’t let them see how weak he is at the present. Maybe when he’s a bit closer to where he should be…In hindsight, letting his skills fade had been a really fucking stupid move to make, even if didn’t see the point in keeping up with things living in East Blue.
If nothing else, Garp . After all, the man could have changed his mind at any time.
Then again. Garp . The man did have a really, really weird sense of justice at times. Didn’t believe in the sins of the father, but at the same time was willing until almost the last second to let his grandsons die because of that exact reason.
Not their piracy. Not their own crimes.
Just the fact they’d been Captain, and Dragon the Revolutionary’s sons.
What the fuck type of grandparent watches their grandkid go to the execution block and doesn’t try to stop it?!
Though come to think of it, how could Strawhat be such a dumbass and still be Dragon’s kid? Does intelligence skip a generation in the Monkey family? Garp is an idiot, Dragon is brilliant, Luffy is an idiot?
He scrubs a hand across his face, knowing he’s just trying to avoid thinking about the other elephant in the room, the non-training related one.
Namely the fact Captain had a son, and he only learned as the kid was about to die.
He’d fucking thought Portgas looked familiar, even recognized the last name, remembered Ms. Rogue and still…
He closes his eyes again.
If he’d been stronger, stayed in the Grand Line and made something of himself, could he have done more? He’d only even been at Marineford by sheer chance. If Strawhat hadn’t tried his Impel Down rescue he’d still be rotting in the jail. Shanks had clearly known something was up, but most likely had stayed away as long as he did due to expecting Whitebeard to handle it. And Captain’s old rival-friend probably would have if not for Teach appearing, or Portgas having a temper as fiery as his fruit. Would he have done the same?
Or would he have plunged in? He knows himself well enough that even when he gets his shit together he’s not going to be on Shanks’ level, not even close. He wouldn’t be an Emperor, so he may get more leeway in involving himself, Whitebeard willing to let him involve himself…if anyone let him know about the connection to Captain. He knows himself well enough to also know he wouldn’t have cared about the fight if he hadn’t known.
He doesn’t know enough, and he hates that.
The advantage of having half grown up in the Grand Line and being able to get himself maps to re-familiarize, is that he can recognize islands that can make for both a good headquarters and allow him to privately train. Pagliaccio would be perfect for it, with the island well forested and having deep bays that would be good for larger ships. He’s a bit further into the New World than he’d like (which is to say, at all), but he suspects it would be a worse idea to stay in Paradise.
Also being in the New World decreased the likelihood of dealing with Rayleigh, since the man was apparently training Straw Hat somewhere in Paradise. Definitely not in Sabaody, but somewhere not too far away. He doubts Captain’s former First Mate would travel too far away from his wife, and Shakky is running her bar.
“Have someone check to see if there’s any buildings, abandoned or occupied when we dock,” he orders, glancing at one of his new crewmates. He hasn’t had time to remember names or faces yet. “If they’re occupied, look for different ones, don’t kill the residents or threaten them into giving them up.” They needed good will for the time being. “And I will know if you do.” His Observation Haki is still good enough to tell him how many people live on the nearing island (a little over five hundred) and he would be able to tell if one of those lives vanished. “We need a headquarters sooner rather than later.”
“I will,” the other man says. “I’ll grab six others to start looking when we land?”
“That’s fine,” Buggy says.
Then something else occurs to him as a brilliant light starts closing in on them.
“Oh, and everyone, when the Red Force arrives just let Shanks know where I am.”
The sudden shouting, in his opinion, is completely uncalled for.
He’s right, and within an hour he can sense the Red Force getting closer. He’d expected it. He knows Shanks will have made sure Whitebeard and Portgas were buried, but also knew that the flashy ass would sooner rather than later come to see him.
In the meantime he’d spent most of it thinking and ignoring Galdino rambling about something involving Crocodile and loans. He’s not nuts and not going to do that. He already knows Galdino’s epithet of ‘Loan Shark’ and he doesn’t exactly trust Galdino’s loyalty. Everyone would need to prove themselves as being properly loyal to him before he could trust them with more than the basics.
He also knows the other reason for Galdino’s attempts to convince him to cozy up to Crocodile with a loan request. The waxy pirate is one of the few who know he’s overhyped, and if he can use that as leverage, then Buggy could end up in a shit situation. Or just flat out taking a loan out from a loan shark with mysteriously high rates…yeah, he ain’t dumb.
It’s almost tempting to at least in the very short term become a subordinate-crew of Shanks’. Shanks he knows he can trust, and Shanks would be willing to let him go… Will probably let him go? Shanks had always had possessiveness issues when they’d been younger over what he deemed ‘his’, or at least over specific persons, places, or things. He’s relatively sure he wouldn’t trigger that instinct in Shanks if he went subordinate for at least a while, but it’s probably better to not tempt fate.
As is, he’s probably going to ask Shanks for money. Shanks will at least give him a low interest loan that he may be able to pay off in the form of interesting booze.
He can’t quite hear it when the Red Force drops anchor, but he can feel Shanks and his Haki, and has to roll his eyes. Hopefully Shanks hadn’t knocked out too many of his new subordinates with that.
He can hear familiar stomps down the stairs, and a low murmur of Shanks' voice while he tells someone something; possibly another Red Haired Pirate had tried to follow him down and to their meeting and he’d told them ‘no’. Shanks strides in like he owns the ship, and Buggy almost wants to throw him out on principle.
“So! Good to see you not dead or curled up in a ball injured or having a panic attack!” Shanks says, dropping a medium sized treasure chest on the floor.
“...Why do you have a treasure chest with you?” Already .
“You seriously want to tell me you have funds at hand?” Shanks says, grinning at him and taking the only other seat in the room. “Or that you weren’t thinking of asking me for something in the first place?”
“... Fuck off asshole.”
“You’re just lucky I had stuff on me,” Shanks says like a liar. They both know better than to not have some sort of treasure on them. Rayleigh taught them better. Buggy only didn’t have some form of funds because of how much of a shit show it had been lately.
“I…” Buggy trails off at the sudden knocking at the door. “What?” he calls.
“Errr…should I come back later?” Galdino asks, somehow apparently missing the Red Force anchored beside them.
Buggy just stares incredulously at the door and then exchanges looks with Shanks, who’s face slowly slides into a smirk that had helped get them into trouble too many times as kids.
Shanks suddenly undoes more of his shirt’s buttons, as if it’s not ridiculous enough that he runs around with it barely half done up, and does something that makes his cloak look rumbled and oh. Oh don’t tell him the asshole is about to…
Shanks swaggers to the door, Buggy too stunned by the other’s ridiculousness to stop him.
“Hello!” Shanks says, yanking the door open. “And please fuck off! We’ve got things to do!”
Galdino gapes, and tries to stare around Shanks to look at him. Shanks just shifts to prevent it, and whatever look is now on his oldest friend’s face makes Galdino blanch. Then Shanks does what Buggy suspects is a localized increase of Haki, practically forcing a whimpering Galdino to his knees.
“Don’t interrupt your betters again,” Shanks says coldly, and seas and storms what the hell had Galdino done to piss Shanks off so badly!? “Now leave.”
Galdino skitters off as Shanks decreases his Haki.
“Shanks, what the fuck?”
Shanks straighten outs his cloak and then starts to partially rebutton his shirt.
“He used to work for Crocodile,” Shanks says shortly. “And if he isn’t taking advantage of the situation I’d be very surprised.”
“He probably is,” Buggy agrees. “Keeps talking about loans, and offers of setting up meetings.”
“Pretty sure Crocodile should focus on getting his own shit together first. Luffy did an amazing job at knocking him on his ass for a rookie in Paradise.” Shanks snorts. “Guess things like that are why he ran back to Paradise with his tail between his legs after Whitebeard took his hand.”
“The fact he can’t keep up with a kid crowned by an Emperor?” Buggy asks, giving him a flat look.
“Eh, I wouldn’t say crowned by an Emperor. I only did that after I left that village,” Shanks says, sitting back down again.
“Also, why the hell was your plan making it look like we were on the verge of fucking?”
“Because it was funny.”
…Why was he even friends with this asshole?
Buggy studies the letter, not entirely surprised by it. Marineford in hindsight should have made him certain of something like it happening.
An offer to be a Warlord.
An offer to be a Warlord right after they’d killed Captain’s son.
Buggy drums his fingers against the wood of his desk. He’s almost impressed the Marines figured out where to send the offer letter already. He’d assumed they’d be too busy dredging the dead out of the water to do anything quickly. Then again, it probably had come from a certain higher authority.
Fucking shit ass bastard Elder Stars…
It’s smart.
They have no clue what his strength level really is. After the Impel Down breakout they have no clue how strong his crew is. They have no clue how close he and Shanks still are. They have no clue of anything anymore. If he accepts the offer, it gives them the ability (or hoped for ability) to get a better sense of everything.
He won’t lie, it is a tempting offer.
It would allow him to get close himself to find out information that even Shanks wouldn’t be able to, and allow him to have time to set up an information network in Paradise and the New World the way he did in East Blue (even if that one had been more one to keep track of Garp and keep out of his way. Definitely didn’t do a good enough job at noticing Arlong’s bullshit…). Shanks’ loaned funds would last for a while, but they wouldn’t last forever, but a Warlordship would still give him more time. Hell it would give him a respect level that would make things easier.
He just needs to balance the costs and benefits, and then make his choice.