APJ CHAPTER 147 THE FAMILIAR PLOT AND THE CHASING MARINES

Unlike Kaido’s obsession with Zoan-type users, which has led to a considerable number of Zoan users within the Beast Pirates, the Roger Pirates had almost no devil fruit users. The only exception was Bullet.

But he had joined Oro Jackson more as a challenger and was not a true member of the Roger Pirates, while before the Battle of Edd War, Buggy accidentally ate a Devil Fruit and became one of the only two devil fruit users on Roger’s ship along with Bullet.

Eating the fruit was not his intention; it was more of a “retribution”. The Roger Pirates had obtained a Devil Fruit as a spoils of war, and upon learning that a Devil Fruit could sell for sky high price of 100 million Berries, Buggy attempted to hide it.

However, while observing his spoil of war one night, he was startled by Shanks and ended up swallowing the fruit whole. As a result, he lost his ability to swim and gained the ability to split himself into pieces, although he was not happy about it.

After all, treasure hunting was Buggy’s greatest passion, and becoming unable to swim meant that he could no longer explore the treasures of the sea as he pleased. His excellent swimming abilities had become useless. Not being able to find treasure by himself meant that his joy was cut in half.

In his view, the main culprit of all this was Shanks, who had given him a pat on the back. Although Buggy’s own greed was the root cause, Shanks’ pat was also an important factor that led to the incident.

While Buggy and Shanks were discussing their issues, Olga also posed her own question to Elizabeth.

“Elizabeth, can you smell it? The smell of a conspiracy.”

“Conspiracies don’t have a smell, so no, I can’t.”

“Ah, come on, it’s been so many years, and you still haven’t learned the essence of language.” Three years had passed, and Elizabeth could now speak fluently, but only in terms of fluent conversation.

She could understand the meaning of sentences when spoken directly, but if someone beats around the bush like Olga, she won’t be able to understand. This couldn’t be solved by learning; it required a long period of training to truly understand the essence of language.

“Forget it, let me put it another way. Why haven’t they changed their bad habits after all these years?”

As she spoke, she reached out with her little finger and cleaned her ear. When Buggy and Shanks had their private conversations, she had heard them loud and clear.

She is now already 14 years old.

At 10 years old, Kaido became the strongest soldier of the Vodka Kingdom. At 13, Bullet became the strongest child soldier in the kingdom and a national hero. At 13,  Rob Lucci single-handedly killed 500 captured soldiers of the kingdom and all the pirates, becoming a ruthless killing machine.

This was the age when she should be making her mark. Although she is still considered an apprentice, that was because Kaido planned to promote her to a full-fledged member and have her assume the position of an All-Star.

Shayna’s organization and personnel belongs only to Arceus, and as for Jack, he’s still a baby, and having four people in the All-Stars is quite normal.

Currently, she still has a long way to go before she can be on par with Queen and King. Although their voices were much quieter than last time, it was still easy to hear the conversation between the two 12-year-olds. Buggy remembered her, and she hadn’t forgotten Buggy and Shanks either.

Actually, she mainly remembered Buggy. His nose was too distinctive, and she hadn’t seen one like it in all these years.

“Scare me? I want to see how they’re going to scare me. Let’s go, Elizabeth. Let’s have some fun with them.”

With that, she turned and avoided the main street. Watching Olga disappear from view, Buggy immediately wanted to chase after her with Shanks, but he ended up triggering his fruit ability, and his other arm hung from Shanks’ body because Shanks remained motionless.

“Shanks! What are you doing?”

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

A few years ago, they had rashly rushed forward like this and began an intense brawl that didn’t end until Olga left the range that her ability can influence.

The current situation gave Shanks a sense of deja vu, so Buggy was unable to convince him. After eating the Chop-Chop Fruit, his body splitting became one of his passive abilities.

Not only would he split automatically when chopped, but if too much force was exerted on his body, he would also split.

For example, he wanted to pull Shanks, but Shanks was as still as a pillar, and it caused his arm and body to split, which happened to prevent dislocation.

“What’s there to be afraid of? We’re not who we were back then. Let’s go!”

Buggy’s body split into many pieces, pushing Shanks’ joints from behind.

“Don’t be in a hurry, Buggy. Let’s begin by sharing a secret code to avoid getting tricked again. Keep in mind that anyone who can’t recite the code is an imposter.”

Last time he was fooled, which led to a brawl, and his first public loss. He hadn’t forgotten that ability.

After adequate preparations, they caught up and the same thing happened again as a few years ago. It seemed they had returned to that familiar alley.

“You two are so slow. The ice cream is going to melt. It’s been years since we last met. What kind of prank do you want me this time?”

The voice sounded from all directions, but Olga’s figure could not be seen in the empty alley. They once again plunged into Olga’s illusion world. Without powerful Observation Haki, it was impossible to touch the current Olga.

Last time, Olga’s illusion made them see each other as Olga, but this time, they were not sure if the person in front of them was real, due to their own imagination of Olga’s ability.

At this time, the secret code that Shanks had prepared in advance came into effect. However, they underestimated Olga’s ability. Zoroark’s illusions were all-encompassing and could even interfere with their hearing. Therefore, the answers they heard were all incorrect.

Thus, they fell into another internal conflict, forgetting their initial intention of just playing a prank.

“They are really just two little brats. Let’s go, Elizabeth, it’s time to go back. Aren’t they from the Roger Pirates? I heard that they are very strong.”

Unlike Whitebeard and the Golden Lion, who had massive forces, Roger could be said to be one of the few who made a big name for himself in the New World with just one ship.

“Maybe they are the weakest on the ship.”

Olga had wanted Shanks and Buggy to fight a little longer, but a series of cannon shots put an end to that idea.

“Elizabeth.”

“Got it.”

Olga crossed her hands, and then Elizabeth leaped into the air. Unless she was in a riding state, Elizabeth wouldn’t take on the form of a basilisk lizard, but instead maintain her Inteleon form.

With Olga’s assistance, she began to glide in the air and also saw what was happening on the coastline.

“It’s the Marines. We should go back.”