Arceus's Pirate Journey

Chapter 148: Chapter 147: Familiar Plot, Pursuing Navy

Unlike Kaidou’s fervor for Zoan-type ability users, which led to many Zoan ability users in the Hundred Beasts Pirates, the Roger Pirates had almost no ability users, with the only one previously being Bullet.

However, Bullet joined the Golden Jackson as a challenger and was not truly a member of the Roger Pirates. Before the Battle of Edvaul, Buggy accidentally ate a fruit, making Buggy and Bullet the only two ability users on Roger’s ship.

Eating the fruit was not his intention; you could say it was ”karma.” Back when the Roger Pirates seized a Devil Fruit among their spoils, Buggy, upon hearing that a Devil Fruit could be sold for a billion Belly, tried to hide it.

Then, while secretly observing his spoils at night, Shanks startled him, causing him to swallow the fruit in one gulp. From then on, he lost the ability to swim. Although he gained the Chop-Chop ability, he was not pleased.

After all, treasure hunting was Buggy’s greatest passion, and becoming a landlubber meant he couldn’t freely explore the treasures of the sea. His excellent swimming skills became nothing more than an empty talk.

Finding treasure personally meant halving the joy.

In Buggy’s view, the root cause of all this was Shanks giving him a pat, even though his own greed was the root cause, but Shanks’ pat was a crucial trigger.

While Buggy and Shanks were discussing their problems, Olga raised her own question to Elizabeth.

”Elizabeth, do you smell it? The scent of a conspiracy.”

”Conspiracies don’t have a scent, so I can’t smell it.”

”Ah... Seriously, after all these years, you still haven’t grasped the essence of figurative language.” Three years had passed, and Elizabeth was already able to converse fluently, though only in terms of fluency in conversation.

It could understand the meaning of straightforward speech, but like Olga speaking in a roundabout way, it couldn’t understand. This wasn’t something learning could solve; only through long-term training could one grasp the true essence of it.

”Never mind, let’s put it another way. Don’t you think they’ve still got the same old problems even after all these years?”

She said this while picking her ear with her little finger. She heard Buggy and Shanks’ private discussions quite clearly back then, and now she was 14 years old.

At 10, Kaidou became the strongest soldier of the Vodka Kingdom. At 13, Bullet became the kingdom’s strongest young soldier, a national hero. At 13, Rob Lucci killed 500 captured kingdom soldiers and all pirates single-handedly, becoming a cold-blooded killing machine.

This age was the time to show their power. Although she was still considered an intern, that was because Kaidou intended for her to take an important position once she’s promoted.

Shaina’s affiliation was exclusively with Arceus, and as for Jack, he was still a baby. Having four people in the Three Disasters was quite normal.

Now she wanted to be on par with Queen and King, but she still had a long way to go. Even though this time the sounds were smaller than last, they weren’t that strong either. It was still easy to hear two 12-year-old boys’ conversation. Buggy remembered her, and she didn’t forget Buggy and Shanks.

Actually, she mostly remembered Buggy because his nose was so distinctive. She hadn’t seen another nose like it in all these years.

”Scare me? I’d love to see how they plan to scare me. Let’s go, Elizabeth, and have some fun with them.”

She said this while avoiding the main street, and watched Olga disappear from view. Buggy immediately wanted to pull Shanks along to catch up, which triggered his fruit ability, and his other arm ended up hanging on Shanks because Shanks stayed still like a statue.

”Shanks! What are you doing?”

”Wait, Buggy, don’t you think this is a bit like a few years ago?”

A few years ago, they rushed off in this way and ended up getting into a heated brawl until Olga moved out of their ability’s range, freeing them.

This situation gave Shanks a sense of déjà vu, so Buggy couldn’t pull Shanks along. After eating the Chop-Chop Fruit, body splitting became his passive skill.

Not only would he split when facing slashes, but if a force got too strong, his body would split as well.

For example, if he wanted to pull Shanks, but Shanks stood like a pole, his arm would split from his body to prevent dislocation.

”What are you afraid of? We’re not who we were back then. Let’s go!”

Buggy’s body split into many parts, pushing Shanks’ joints to move forward.

”Don’t rush, Buggy. This time let’s establish a code word first, to avoid getting tricked again. Remember, the one who can’t say the code word is the fake.”

Last time, they were tricked which led to a brawl, as the first external failure in his life, he didn’t forget the lesson.

After all the preparations, they chased after, and then exactly the same thing as a few years ago happened again, as if returning to that familiar alley.

”You two are so slow, the ice cream is melting, we haven’t seen each other in years. How do you plan on playing pranks this time?”

The voice echoed from all around, but the empty alley showed no sign of Olga. They stumbled once again into Olga’s illusion world. Without sufficient Observation Haki, they couldn’t reach Olga.

Last time, Olga’s illusion made them see each other as Olga, but this time it didn’t. Some people had hypothesized about Olga’s ability; Buggy and Shanks couldn’t be sure who in front of them was real.

This time, Shanks’ pre-prepared code word was useful, but they underestimated Olga’s capability. Inteleon’s phantom was comprehensive and could also interfere with their hearing, so their heard replies were wrong.

And so, they once again fell into internal conflict, having already forgotten the initial idea was just to play a prank.

”They really are just two kids. Let’s go, Elizabeth, time to head back. Aren’t they with the Roger Pirates? I heard that pirate crew is really strong.”

Unlike Whitebeard and Golden Lion, who had enormous forces, Roger was known as one of the few to make a name in the New World with just one ship.

”Maybe they’re the weakest on the ship.”

Olga originally planned to let Shanks and Buggy fight a bit longer, but a volley of cannon fire changed her mind.

”Elizabeth.”

”Understood.”

Olga crossed her arms, propelling Elizabeth high into the sky. Unless in a riding state, Elizabeth remained in Inteleon’s form instead of the Snake Monster Lizard.

With Olga’s support, it began to glide into the air and saw what was happening on the coastline.

”It’s the Navy, we should get ready to leave.”