"Hey, hey, hey! Big Bro Rhett!" Buggy's head floated in mid-air, deftly dodging the samurai's slashes while shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Big Bro Rhett, are you even trying? These samurai can't even touch the hem of my clothes! Yihahaha!!!"
The samurai's blades struck empty air again. Buggy's fragmented body parts floated like kites in the wind.
His right index and middle fingers formed a V-sign, wiggling smugly. "See that? Big bro, am I not the coolest?"
"Crack!" Another samurai's blade shattered against Buggy's ability.
Buggy took the opportunity to reassemble his body. He seemed to be getting a bit carried away.
"How about it? Weren't you blown away by my magnificent presence? Big Bro Rhett, it's still not too late to admit defeat!"
From within the blood mist came Rhett's lazy response. "Oh? How about this, then?"
The samurai's attacks suddenly became fierce.
Buggy panicked, his body instantly splitting into even smaller pieces. "Wahhh! Attacking like that isn't fair! I give up, I give up!!"
After dodging them, Buggy picked himself back up again. "What am I giving up for! Answer me!"
"Split!" Buggy shouted. His fragmented body parts, along with dozens of daggers, turned into a silver whirlwind.
The samurai were forced back step by step. Buggy took the chance to reassemble and proudly wiped his nose. "See that? This is my new special move! Big Bro Rhett, are you regretting challenging me now?"
Rhett sat on his blood-colored throne, propping his chin on his hand. "Alright, Buggy, stop playing around. Let me see how much you've grown over the years."
Rhett could feel that after he said those words, Buggy's entire presence changed.
If the Buggy from before was like a sharp and brash youth, the Buggy now was more like... to make a comparison, like the Joker from Gotham.
The Buggy now gave Rhett the feeling of a crazy, sinister, yet elegant, supremely evil criminal.
Rhett: Just like me.
Facing the samurai advancing again,
Buggy calmly looked up at Rhett on his throne. His expression became serious.
"Big Bro Rhett, do you know? Because Shanks turned out to be so successful, I almost gave up on having dreams. But you told me that I was excellent. That I was a genius of hard work."
"Big Bro Rhett, do you know? On the day our captain reached his destination, Shanks and I had a huge fight. I was wrong about him. The captain gave his straw hat to Shanks. Shouldn't he be the one to inherit Captain Roger's will? I had already made up my mind. But he backed out. He trampled on my resolve and my dreams. He was never worthy of being the next era's 'King.' He was never worthy of the title of Pirate King."
"Alright, enough about that unhappy stuff." Buggy spread his arms wide. Then he put his left hand behind his back, raised his right hand upward, spun his wrist once, placed it over his chest, and gave a slight bow toward Rhett on his throne.
"Big Bro Rhett, please now enjoy my battle. This is my growth."
Beneath the blood moon, Buggy's figure stood in the blood-colored mist.
He elegantly adjusted his white gloves. A slight smile played on his lips, tinged with a hint of madness. "Warm-up's over. Time to play for real."
The samurai figures continued to materialize in the blood mist, their numbers more than double what they had been before.
They held all kinds of weapons, their blades wrapped in ominous black-red Armament Haki, slowly advancing from all directions.
"Shatter: Waltz."
"Let me remember Big Bro Rhett's line. Let me think... Oh~ I remember."
Buggy murmured softly, his right hand's five fingers spread wide in an elegant gesture, like inviting a dance partner.
"I invite you to dance."
The three samurai who charged first suddenly froze. Cracks like spiderwebs appeared on their weapons, armor, and even their bodies' surfaces.
Buggy snapped his fingers lightly. The three of them instantly shattered into countless shimmering red fragments that sparkled in the air.
"Now that's more like it." Buggy walked toward the blood samurai with a light step. With every step he took, rings of blood-colored crystal fragments rippled across the ground beneath him. The blood pools couldn't even get close to Buggy.
The samurai's attacks came one after another. Disaster always lagged one step behind him.
Buggy sidestepped, leaned back. Every dodge was like walking on a tightrope.
"Shatter: Symphony. The performance begins."
"Decompose."
Buggy's right hand gracefully traced an arc through the air.
The front row of samurai suddenly stiffened. The weapons in their hands let out piercing metallic wails.
First, hairline cracks appeared on the blades. These cracks spread rapidly.
"Crack... crack, crack..." The crisp sounds of shattering echoed one after another.
The samurai's weapons were disintegrating in mid-air.
The blades turned into clouds of mist, shimmering like stardust under the blood-colored moonlight.
"Recombine."
Buggy's left hand's five fingers suddenly closed. The suspended mist violently trembled, then rearranged and recomposed itself. Each wisp of mist precisely found its place, instantly forming tens of thousands of miniature mist blades.
Rhett didn't interfere. The child wanted to show his growth. Rhett wasn't the kind of parent who ruined the fun.
These blades were only the size of palms. They formed a massive, constantly spinning storm of mist blades in the air.
"Feel this captain's concerto~"
The blade storm let out a high-frequency hum, like the most passionate movement of a symphony orchestra.
They flung themselves at the samurai horde. The sounds of metal clashing merged into a single, magnificent movement. The samurai's armor was peeled away, piece by piece.
"Finale: Shattering Finish!"
Buggy's main body reassembled at the very center of the battlefield, slightly smaller than his normal size.
He pressed his palms together in front of his chest. Every fragmented Buggy simultaneously emitted a blinding red light.
The bodies of the remaining samurai on the battlefield began to develop large cracks, spreading at incredible speed. The black armor plates最终 broke down into tiny black crystals.
The entire disintegration process was eerily quiet.
No explosions. Only the faint sound of "shhhh." As the last samurai turned into blood-colored crystal dust, all the fragmented Buggy's neatly returned to the main body. Buggy gently caught a falling blood crystal and examined it closely in the moonlight.
The blood moon's light suddenly grew stronger. Rhett's voice carried a hint of surprise. "I didn't expect you to develop your ability to this level. You've gotten strong, haven't you?"
Buggy took off his captain's hat and gave an exaggerated bow. "I'm honored by the compliment. But..." He suddenly looked up, a glint of mischief in his eyes. "This performance isn't over yet!"
"Shatter: Grand Finale!"
The entire world of the Blood Prison Scroll suddenly began to shake.
Buggy's body split apart again, but this time, each fragmented Buggy began splitting infinitely, quickly forming tens of thousands of miniature Buggy's.
They swept across the battlefield like a tidal wave. Wherever they passed, even space itself began to show fine cracks.
"I can't cover the field with mist like you can, but..." Countless Buggy's voices echoed through the air. "I'm not weak either."
Rhett watched Buggy with great satisfaction. He had only channeled his power into the illusion once when creating it and hadn't maintained it afterward. As the power was consumed, the illusion would naturally dissipate.
But still, Rhett was an Emperor of the Sea, a man standing at the very top of the seas. His illusion wasn't something just anyone could break.
As for the conflicts between the kids, he would let them handle it themselves. Turn a deaf ear and a blind eye if you want to be the head of the family. This was the world of One Piece. One good beating between them would fix everything.
The clown from the original story could now stand on this sea by his own strength.