Chapter 44: Plundering Buggy’s Crew – Ace’s Defeat

"Buggy the Clown…?!" Loxus's eyes widened.

"You know our captain?!" Mohji exclaimed excitedly.

"Nope, never heard of him," Loxus shook his head.

"…Oh."

"Man, you guys are so pitiful. Your captain got captured," Loxus sighed.

The Whitebeard Pirates never had to worry about that; no way the Marines could ever catch Whitebeard.

This Buggy Pirates crew must be weak if their captain got arrested, and now the crew is fighting over who should take his place.

"You said your captain knew my Captain, Fire Fist Ace? How?" Loxus asked curiously.

"We ran into him at sea a while back and became friends," Cabaji explained.

Loxus pressed for more details about Ace, but all he got was that they had met briefly before parting ways, nothing useful.

"Sir… could you please save our captain? He was captured by the Marines!" The entire crew, except Alvida dropped to their knees.

"Sorry, no can do. You'd better just pick a new captain. This lion's kinda cool, though." Loxus patted the lion's head.

"Are you sailing alone?" Alvida studied the young man, noticing traces of Ace's carefree personality in him.

Same kind of personality, easygoing and bold.

"Nah, I came out with my dad. He's on the ship," Loxus replied.

"Your dad?!"

The Buggy Pirates all looked intrigued. Father and son going out to sea together?

Roy stepped aboard. He vaguely remembered the Buggy Pirates. He'd met Buggy before, though he hadn't expected the clown to get captured by the Marines. Knowing Buggy, he'd probably been digging for treasure and accidentally tunneled into a Marine base.

Looking at Roy and comparing him to Loxus, it was clear they were father and son, though their temperaments were completely different.

Alvida frowned when she saw Roy, she didn't like these well-mannered types.

She preferred bold, dominant men like Luffy, who had once punched her away.

"Dad, they said they met Commander Ace before," Loxus said.

"Hmm, Buggy… that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. It's been over twenty years since I saw him. I do miss that red-nosed guy," Roy said.

"…Huh?!"

The Buggy Pirates tilted their heads in unison, question marks practically floating above them.

From Roy's tone, it was obvious he knew their captain, Buggy.

"Dad, you know their captain?"

"Yeah, met him a few times back in the day." Roy nodded. The Whitebeard Pirates had clashed with the Roger Pirates several times in the New World, so they'd crossed paths often.

The last time he'd seen Buggy was when Oden left.

"Back in the day?" Loxus was intrigued. So were the others—this sounded like a story.

"Their captain, Buggy the Clown, was once an apprentice on the Pirate King's ship. He was a close friend of the current Emperor, Red-Hair Shanks. We clashed with Roger's crew quite a bit over twenty years ago and ran into them constantly, Roy explained.

"WHAT?!!"

All the members of the Buggy Pirates were shocked, stunned into disbelief. They couldn't believe it. Couldn't even imagine it.

Their cowardly, sneaky, good-for-nothing captain… was once part of the Roger Pirates? And was good friends with an Emperor?!

If anyone else had said this, they would've thought it was a joke.

But Roy was Loxus's father, and Loxus had already said he was part of the Whitebeard Pirates under Fire Fist Ace.

That meant Roy was also a member of the Whitebeard Pirates, and clearly a senior member.

"May I ask… who exactly are you, sir?" Alvida no longer dared to underestimate Roy. The man standing before her was clearly a big shot.

The other Buggy Pirates were also feeling very uneasy, they had clearly stumbled upon a powerhouse.

"My dad's the Vice Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates," Loxus said proudly.

"HISSSSS—"

All at once, the sound of everyone gasping echoed. Everyone stared at Roy in utter shock.

This refined-looking man… was the Whitebeard Pirates' Vice Captain.

In terms of rank, Roy was equivalent to Silvers Rayleigh from the Roger Pirates.

A Vice-Captain meant that if anything happened to the captain, he would take over.

Roy, still young, was the Whitebeard Pirates' vice-captain. Given Whitebeard's age, Roy was likely the future captain of the Whitebeard Pirates.

This was a top-tier figure in an Emperor's fleet!

THUD!

Mohji suddenly dropped to his knees and bowed his head.

"PLEASE, SIR! SAVE OUR CAPTAIN BUGGY!"

The others immediately followed suit.

"PLEASE, SIR! SAVE OUR CAPTAIN BUGGY!"

Roy scoffed. "Why would I? He's probably in Impel Down by now. He's never getting out."

Hearing this, the Buggy Pirates burst into tears.

"What about food?" Roy asked his son.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. You guys got any food? Give us some. You don't want us to take it by force—that wouldn't end well for you," Loxus grinned.

The Buggy Pirates hurriedly handed over their provisions mostly fresh water.

After the father and son left, the Buggy Pirates continued weeping. Their captain was captured, and now their food was stolen too—their wailing got even louder.

Roy was cooking when Loxus suddenly shouted from the deck.

"DAD! DAD!"

Loxus sprinted over, clutching Ace's Vivre Card.

"What?" Roy frowned at his son's panicked expression.

"Look! Captain Ace's Vivre Card—it's burning!"

Roy followed his son's gaze and saw that Ace's Vivre Card was starting to burn.

"He's injured," Roy said seriously.

In the first half of the Grand Line, few besides the Marines could injure Ace.

This likely meant he'd finally caught up to Teach—and lost.

"Full speed ahead."

Forget eating now. They had to catch up.

"Dad, it's the Marine Headquarters," Loxus said, face pale and hands trembling. The Vivre Card he got from Luffy was now barely the size of a fingernail, and still slowly burning.

In front of them loomed Marine Headquarters.

"We're too late. Unless we storm Marine HQ, there's no way in. And you don't come out once you go in. We have to go to Sabaody instead," Roy said.

"Dad, what do we do? What do we do? Captain Ace has been captured!" Loxus was panicking.

"Calm down. He's been captured, so now we find another way to save him. First, we head to Sabaody," Roy said, taking a deep breath.

There were only two paths now: either break into Impel Down to rescue him, or charge Marine HQ.

But first, they needed to rally the crew.

....

If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.

p@treon.com/DaoistJinzu