An island in the latter half of the Grand Line.
Following the great battle between the Red-Haired Pirates and the Blackbeard Pirates, they are hidden here to rest and recover from their injuries.
The current Shanks has grown taller and older, but he is still a young man.
However, in this year, Shanks's strength has advanced by leaps and bounds, his combat power directly increasing from an E-class to an S+ level.
Such a rapid increase in combat power is no different from cheating.
In fact, to be more precise, before a certain period of disappearance, the strength displayed by Shanks was at the peak of a Colonel.
And when he reappeared, he was already at the S+ level.
What truly drew attention to Shanks was the battle with the Blackbeard Pirates not long ago.
"Is Marshall D. Teach's power truly this immense?"
"Shanks, you have failed."
"As expected, you still need me."
Buggy's voice rang out, and Shanks lowered the hand that was running through his hair.
Shanks recalled the battle with Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach, his face filled with solemnity.
Shanks had always paid attention to this anomaly, Marshall D. Teach.
"Buggy, you've been gone for a long time. Where have you been?" Shanks shook his head and then asked curiously.
Marie Geoise, in a luxurious restaurant.
Buggy had clearly grown much taller, resembling his adult form. Other than that, there seemed to be no other changes. He was eating delicious food with large mouthfuls while replying, "I went to a strange and peculiar place and also unearthed a great treasure."
"Well, let's not talk about that."
"Let's talk about you."
Shanks paused and said, "What about me?"
"Your old man scared me to death." Buggy's gaze flickered towards a corner, his eyes flashing with ferocity, yet he said with a grin, "Now, I'm eating a feast at your place."
Upon hearing Buggy's words, Shanks's eyes narrowed as well.
"You were taken away?"
Shanks immediately understood where Buggy's 'place' was.
However, this outcome was somewhat beyond his initial expectations.
"Are they trying to bring me back by capturing you?" Shanks recalled someone's words to him and couldn't help but frown and murmur.
Buggy paid no mind to Shanks's murmuring or any potential conspiracies. He shouted loudly, "Shanks, for his sake as your father, I won't lay a hand on him."
"But I want to leave here. If they make a move, I won't hold back."
Shanks listened and said calmly, "You can say that if you can get out of there."
It wasn't that easy to force one's way out of that place.
After all, there were many experts there.
Buggy twirled his right index finger, and everything in front of him shattered into pieces.
The table, the food, the cutlery... even the house, it was all the same.
The shattered house did not collapse with the usual clamor and chaos. Instead, these fragmented objects lay scattered in a pile, each particle distinct.
"Hahaha."
"We'll be meeting again soon, Shanks."
Buggy laughed heartily and flew away.
However, he hadn't flown far before.
Buggy saw that the world he was in had been inverted.
Everything was upside down.
The ground was above, and below was an endless void.
If he couldn't fly, that feeling must have been quite interesting.
As Buggy was about to say something, the scene in front of him rapidly reversed.
Buggy was stunned. In just a moment,
he had returned to that house, with the food, cutlery, and furniture intact and undamaged.
"Hey!"
"You, whoever you are, you're forcing my hand."
"You'd better think clearly. If I unleash my abilities, the entire Marie Geoise will have to pay the price."
Buggy took off his right glove, preparing to place his hand on the ground, and snorted coldly.
A moment later.
A figure pushed the door open and walked in.
A well-maintained middle-aged man, judging by his attire and demeanor, was clearly no ordinary person.
And this person was Shanks's biological father, the patriarch of Noxus, possessing immense power and status.
At the same time, he was a man who appeared gentle and scholarly on the outside.
"We can talk this through properly, Buggy."
Noxus Saint gazed at Buggy, sat down opposite him, and said with a smile.
The dining table was quite long.
New tableware and exquisite pastries were also laid out.
After Noxus Saint finished speaking, he began to eat elegantly.
Buggy looked at Noxus Saint at that moment and asked curiously, "You brought me here just to get Shanks to return?"
"If that's the case, you could have just asked Shanks to come back himself."
Noxus Saint heard this, put down his cutlery, wiped the corners of his mouth with a white handkerchief, and said, "If it were that simple, we wouldn't be sitting here meeting."
"Are you that confident?" Buggy looked at the other person in surprise and said.
Buggy was very confident in his Devil Fruit ability.
However, what had just happened felt like a dream, making Buggy feel a bit unreal.
Therefore, he immediately assumed Noxus Saint was a Devil Fruit user.
"This is a world created by the Inverted-Inverted Fruit."
"If you believe you can leave the inverted world I've created, you can try. I won't stop you."
Noxus Saint was also very confident in his methods.
Buggy, not believing it, turned and flew out.
Wherever he went, anything blocking his path was directly shattered.
However, the world remained inverted.
When he was about to exit this world, he found himself back in that house.
Once, twice... after the fifth time, Buggy gave up.
"What exactly do you want from me?"
"Don't think about using your status to negotiate with me. It's useless to me."
Buggy narrowed his eyes, staring at Noxus Saint, and called out in dissatisfaction.
"If you stay here, you will be temporarily safe."
"If you leave here, you will be discovered and you will die."
Noxus Saint chuckled lightly.
"No one can kill me," Buggy said confidently.
"There is no one truly immortal in this world," Noxus Saint stated calmly.
"Especially since you are one of the chosen."
Upon hearing Noxus Saint's words, Buggy's eyes flickered with a hint of evasion.
"However, your status as one of the chosen is constantly weakening."
"Not only you, but others as well."
"It all began to change from the moment the Genbu Marines appeared."
"But your status as one of the chosen is strengthening now."
"It's intensifying like never before."
"Now, should I address you as Buggy, or Rocks?"
"Many would not have expected that the man who should have died in God Valley would be living in a young boy's body in another form."
Buggy's expression turned much more somber.
Simultaneously, there was no longer any attempt to conceal the killing intent.