East Blue, Orange Town.
The once-bustling port town was shrouded in choking black smoke and a heavy, deathly silence. In the town square, a troupe of pirates in bizarre circus costumes were looting shops with raucous, drunken laughter.
"Report, Captain Buggy! The town vault is empty! We've got it all!" A pirate minion riding a unicycle shouted over the din.
In the center of the square, a man with a massive, conspicuous red nose and an oversized Captain's coat sat on a velvet chair. He tossed a gold coin in his hand, a predatory grin on his face.
"Gahahaha! Well done! Move every last Berry onto the ship! We're leaving this dump!" Buggy the Clown declared, preparing to stand.
Thump... thump...
The sound of steady, rhythmic, and impossibly heavy footsteps echoed through the ruins of the main street. Buggy froze. As a pirate who had survived the Grand Line in his youth, his survival instinct was as sharp as a razor. He turned his head toward the smoke.
Two massive silhouettes emerged from the haze.
The man in front was a giant—two and a half meters of tempered muscle draped in a dark red trench coat. His presence was suffocating, his black eyes as cold and deep as a trench in the New World.
Beside him walked Sabo, holding his alloy staff with the casual grace of a professional killer.
"Who do you think you are?!" Buggy's chief of staff, Cabaji, drew his sword and pointed it at the intruders. "No one interrupts the Buggy Pirates!"
The beast-tamer Mohji patted his giant lion, Richie, who let out a low, guttural growl that shook the nearby windows.
"Fire! Turn these two into swiss cheese!"
Dozens of musketeers leveled their flintlocks, their fingers tightening on the triggers.
Ace didn't draw his machete. He didn't even slow down. He simply scanned the square with a look of profound boredom. Suddenly, a dark gold light streaked through his pupils.
There was no sound. No physical impact.
But in that heartbeat, a terrifying, invisible pressure—a force like the sky itself collapsing—radiated from Ace. It swept across the square like a tidal wave of pure will.
Haoshoku Haki.
After years of Garp's "discipline," Ace's natural-born kingly spirit had reached a level where he could manifest it as a physical weight.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
As if an invisible giant had crushed their hearts, the pirate minions didn't even have time to scream. They collapsed in heaps, their eyes rolling back as foam bubbled at their lips.
Cabaji, Mohji, and even the multi-ton lion Richie let out a single, strangled wail before their minds shattered under the pressure. Their bodies hit the cobblestones like dead weight.
In two seconds, a crew of over a hundred men was wiped off the board.
Only one man remained standing—or rather, sitting. Buggy the Clown sat frozen in his chair, his legs shaking so violently they rattled the velvet.
"Ha... Haoshoku?" Buggy's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
He knew that power. He had seen it on the face of the Pirate King. He had seen it from the Red-Haired brat. But here? In the East Blue—the "Weakest Sea"? How could a monster with the "disposition of a King" be standing in front of him?
"Hey, Red Nose."
Ace stopped in front of Buggy. His shadow completely engulfed the clown, making Buggy look like a child.
"My ship is short a Chief Steward for odd jobs. As of this moment, you've been requisitioned."
"What kind of joke is this?! I am the man who will find Captain John's treasure! I'm a Great Man! Bara Bara—"
Driven by pure terror, Buggy's body split apart. His hands, gripping sharp daggers, flew toward Ace's throat from a blind spot.
Ace didn't even blink. His Kenbunshoku Haki had locked onto Buggy's core before the clown even thought about attacking.
Ace's right hand blurred, coated in pitch-black Armament Haki. He ignored the flying limbs and grabbed Buggy's main torso by the collar with brutal precision.
SLAM!
Ace drove Buggy into the stone slabs of the square, shattering the pavement.
"It hurts! It hurts! STOP!"
Ace didn't give him a chance to reform. He rained down a series of Haki-infused punches—Bang! Bang! Bang!—onto Buggy's face. He didn't use fire; pure physical monster-strength was enough to turn the clown's face into a bruised, snot-covered mess in seconds.
"I SURRENDER! I'll be the steward! I'll be the janitor! Just stop hitting me!" Buggy wailed, clutching his head and weeping.
Ace stopped. He shook out his wrist and looked down at the puddle of a man at his feet.
Sabo walked up, frowning at the pathetic sight. "Ace, why him? His strength is a joke. His fruit is interesting, but is he really 'Eclipse' material?"
"Sabo, never judge a man by his combat stats," Ace said, a subtle, dark arc curling his lip.
He looked at Buggy and saw the future. He saw the Seven Warlords. He saw a future Emperor of the Sea. He saw a man who, when faced with death by Mihawk and Crocodile, would still scream a declaration of war to the world.
Ace didn't need Buggy's strength. He needed Buggy's Kingly Luck—the near-metaphysical ability to survive the impossible and fail upward into legend. He needed a man who could fool a thousand prisoners into dying for him. He needed a scapegoat, a logistics manager, and a good luck charm.
"Listen, Red Nose," Ace said, his voice cold. He pointed to the unconscious crew. "I'm not killing them. But we are headed for the Grand Line—the New World. This trash won't survive a single look from the monsters there. Following you is their death sentence."
Buggy looked at his fallen men, a flash of genuine conflict in his eyes. He was a coward, but he cared for his "brothers."
"Dismiss them. Leave them the loot from this town," Ace commanded. "Tell them if they ever find the courage to cross the gates of the New World, they can find you under my banner."
Buggy gritted his teeth. He knew this demon wasn't lying.
"Besides," Ace added, dropping the final lure. "Stop chasing pocket change in the East Blue. Work for me, and I'll see you buried in the kind of legendary gold that Captain John could only dream of."
Buggy's tear-filled eyes instantly lit up with the fires of pure greed. "Really? More than the treasure of the Lost Captain?!"
"I never lie." Ace turned, his trench coat snapping in the wind. "Pick up your gold and get on my ship."
Buggy scrambled up, wiped his bloody nose, and looked at the unconscious Mohji one last time. Then, with a frantic energy, he began stuffing gold into sacks.
And so, the future "Thousand-Piece Clown" and Emperor of the Sea joined the Eclipse Pirates as their humble Chief Steward.