Rayleigh brought Buggy to a cliff on the Sabaody Archipelago.
"What made you think of visiting this old man?" Rayleigh asked.
"I want to get some information from the first mate. After all, the first mate came back from Raftel. What exactly is there?" Buggy asked directly.
"Hey... if you want to know, you can go see for yourself. Asking me directly is a spineless move."
Rayleigh wanted to punch Buggy on the head, but suddenly realized he was no longer the child he once was.
"Time flies. In the blink of an eye, you and Shanks have both become Emperors of the Sea. Our era has passed..."
"Don't change the subject, first mate. I don't have time to go to Raftel. Even Shanks, who was so adamant about going there back then, didn't go, did he?" Buggy said. "I always felt that illness back then came quite suddenly..."
"Ahaahaha, is that so?" Rayleigh laughed awkwardly. "You're overthinking it. Isn't getting sick perfectly normal...?"
"I was quite fit back then; how could I just get sick for no reason? It's as ridiculous as a girl aiming to be a Master Swordsman falling from a loft and just dying."
"You brat, what kind of analogy is that? I told you it was normal!"
Rayleigh's smile faded. "However, I won't tell you what's on Raftel. With your strength, you could completely go there yourself, Buggy."
"No time, I still have to take on the Celestial Dragons."
"You..." Rayleigh was stunned for a moment. "While the Celestial Dragons aren't exactly good people, you don't have any personal grudge against them, do you?"
"No grudge, I just don't like the look of them, so I'm going to take them down," Buggy said.
He had once wondered what he would become if he suddenly possessed great power one day.
Would he become a Superman or a Homelander?
Once he actually had power, he realized he couldn't be a saintly Superman because his moral standards weren't that high.
But he couldn't be a crazed Homelander either, because of his upbringing, he still had a moral baseline in his heart.
So, he had simply turned from an ordinary person into an ordinary person with great power.
His worldview was fairly normal; he was occasionally a bit of an angry youth, unable to stand ugly things, yet moved by beautiful ones.
Before transmigrating, he had no power and could only be a Keyboard Warrior. Now that he had great power after transmigrating, he naturally couldn't let fate's gift go to waste.
When he saw something he didn't like, he would just go and deal with it...
"Vice-Captain Rayleigh, if you looked at the entire world as your home, and your home was crawling with cockroaches, what would you do?" Buggy used an analogy.
"Kill the cockroaches until they're all gone, of course..." Rayleigh answered instinctively.
"The Celestial Dragons are those cockroaches. Their existence makes me uncomfortable, so I'm going to spend some time cleaning the house so I can stay in it comfortably," Buggy said.
"But the world isn't your home for you to do as you please..." Rayleigh trailed off and froze.
"Why can't it be? Once I've finished cleaning the 'house,' won't the world have a new master?" Buggy laughed loudly.
"Is this your ambition? Truly ridiculous!" Rayleigh looked at Buggy and was suddenly reminded of the past.
A guy wearing a straw hat had invited him to go out to sea.
That guy had said with a silly grin, "Is your name Rayleigh? Let's go turn the world upside down together!"
He thought the guy was stupid at the time, yet he somehow ended up following him to sea.
Roger, do you know? The apprentice on the ship back then now has an ambition even greater than yours.
If it were you, you'd surely be laughing with pride!
"A pity. If it were forty years earlier, I might have joined you in raising some hell, Buggy," Rayleigh said. "But now I'm old; I can only watch from behind as you realize your ambition."
"I can't tell you about Raftel, but back then at God Valley..."
"Is it about my origins or something? Don't bother mentioning that," Buggy directly interrupted Rayleigh. "I am just Clown Buggy. I don't want to get involved in any messy relationships."
Rayleigh didn't even know how many times he'd been surprised.
"If Shanks were like you, he wouldn't live such an exhausting life," Rayleigh sighed.
"What are his origins? I'm actually quite interested in that." Buggy's curiosity was instantly piqued.
"You changed your tune way too fast," Rayleigh said crossly. "Shanks is an honest man; I won't tell you."
That guy already has a diva daughter, and you call him an honest man...?
"A lot of Shanks' information must have come from you, first mate. Be fair and tell me some secret info too."
At the time of Roger's execution, Shanks probably knew nothing either, yet later he mysteriously hijacked the Nika fruit, took it to the East Blue, and entrusted both the Nika fruit and the straw hat to Luffy.
Buggy was certain that Rayleigh's involvement was indispensable in all of this.
Before Roger died, he had entrusted most things to Rayleigh.
"That won't do. I can see that you're just like Roger was—someone who wishes for nothing but chaos. Telling you secrets would only cause greater upheaval. Shanks is different; his personality is more like mine—steady and reliable..."
"That's enough. I remember the first mate used to play around quite a bit back in the day. Should I mention that to Sister Shakky?" Buggy saw that Rayleigh had switched to self-boasting mode and quickly interrupted him.
After prying for so long, he hadn't gotten a single useful piece of information. If only Rayleigh's personality were like Sentomaru's.
"You brat, are you looking for a beating...?" Veins popped on Rayleigh's forehead. "If you talk nonsense and make Shakky angry, I won't let you off!"
"Then help me train my subordinates. Surely that's fine?" Buggy revealed his true purpose.
"You mean those guys in the bar? You must have inflated their bounties, right? Their strength clearly doesn't make the cut, yet their bounties are exaggerated." Rayleigh saw through the strength of Mr. 3 and the others at a glance.
"They really do have potential, but I don't know how to teach them. Is there any crash course for Haki?" Buggy asked.
"How could that be possible? Haki requires building a foundation step by step... What's with that look?" Rayleigh noticed Buggy's expression was a bit strange. "Am I wrong?"
"Right... then I'll leave them to you. Roughly when will they be trained? It won't be two years, will it?"
"I don't have that much time. One year should be about enough."
If it were not for certain things he could not tell Buggy, Rayleigh would not have gone looking for trouble by teaching more disciples.
"Then I'll head straight to Water 7." Buggy bid Rayleigh farewell.
"Be careful. The Celestial Dragons aren't as simple as you think, Buggy," Rayleigh warned.
"I know. Oh, by the way, first mate, there's one more thing I'm very confused about, though it's a bit absurd..."
Before leaving, Buggy finally asked the question that had been on his mind.
"Why do I feel like Straw Hat Luffy looks exactly like Captain Roger did when he was young?"
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