As they were walking past the destroyed buildings, back to Buggy's hideout, Zoro glanced at Izu, "so… Izu, what is your dream? The captain wants to be king of the pirates and I want to be the world's greatest swordsman, what do you want?"
Izu stopped in his tracks. A dream? He had been so swept away by the excitement of being in one piece that he completely forgot to think about the biggest question. Even in his year of training, he had never once asked himself that. A dream… he couldn't aim low, he was the first mate of the strawhat pirates after all! Gears were turning in his head as they continued walking.
Even as they came face to face with Buggy again, that question was playing in the back of his head.
The crew had been partying and were in a good mood until one of the goons spotted them, walking over.
"Buggy sama, they are back!"
"What?!" Buggy spun around, a mug of booze still in hand, "I thought I killed you bafoons already? Want to die a second time? Didn't you see you were utterly outmatched against my buggy balls?"
"Stop talking, big nose, we are here to beat you down!"
"Now you've done it", the crew looked on in horror as Buggy's trigger was pulled.
"What did you say about my nose?!" The chop man split into many little pieces and they began floating around, attacking from every angle. Luffy narrowly evaded a stab at his head, only for the knife to pierce his straw hat.
Buggy looked in disgust at the pierced hat, "I know another asshole who wore a hat like this one, I think I'll tear this one to shreds"
"No!", Luffy grappled the hat from the clown's knife and stared at the damage, rage bubbling beneath his surface, "someone very special gave this hat to me… you will pay… for shanks!"
He punched the clown's torso, sending it flying away.
"Shanks? Is this his' straw hat? Oh I'm gonna tear it apart after cutting you to death as revenge for what happened", there was a mad glint in his eyes but he turned around, looking for something. Izu saw what he was looking at, his torso, which laid limply on the ground. His eyes widened. That's right, buggy has a limit of how far away he can control his body parts. Oda never used normal measures for these things saying that it was whatever however many 'bara bara' in radius. Izu had always enjoyed this, fuck the powerscalers but now, he couldn't say for certain how far away the effect ended but that seemed to be far enough to not be able to float.
"Captain, look, his torso isn't floating! I think he can't control his body parts if their too far away"
"Oh- oh~ shishishi! Thief, Zoro, Izu, gather as many body parts as you can!"
They all nodded, even Nami, who wanted nothing to do with them, and they gathered bits and pieces from the air. Luffy grabbed the torso, Nami got the right arm(not including the hand), Izu grabbed the left arm and the shoulders, whilst Zoro took both legs. They handed them to their captain, who drew his arms back.
"What are you doing, just standing there?! Get them!" Buggy shouted at his stunned crew, they rushed at them.
Zoro grinned, now he could cut his opponents again. He drew his swords and cut through his opponents. Nami weaved through attacks, hitting opponents with her bo staff, quick and agile.
Izu was faced with Richie the lion. He punched the great beast but it didn't budge, biting him in the shoulder, "fuck"
He jumped out of the way of a swipe and punched the lion again and again. What was going on? He knew he wasn't as strong as the captain, physically but this was just humiliating. Canon Luffy had smashed this lion around with minimal effort and here he was, struggling to move it an inch. After another paw hit him in the torso, he spat out blood, he wasn't strong enough, not nearly strong enough. Had he sailed without training, he would've been even weaker than a Spandam. Sure, his power was supernatural compared to the people on earth but even in the blues, he was just slightly stronger than the average marine soldier. He punched the thing in the eye, a dirty tactic but that was what the weak had to rely on. Look at Buggy, he was physically weak, yet he had amassed a large crew and bounty through dirty tricks but Izu didn't want to fight dirty, not really. What he wanted was to be strong enough to not have to rely on those dirty tricks. Something within him clicked, that was it, his dream…
For now though, he had to rely on dirty tricks and even that hadn't bought him much time. The lion was stunned for just a few milliseconds before it bit him again.
The captain threw the body parts far, far away. Izu admired the strength. Seeing his captain easily toss the body parts several miles away, his resolve only grew.
After the body parts were over the horizon, Buggy ordered, "retreat to the ship, men, I can't continue fighting whilst my body is god knows where"
"Yes, captain buggy", they didn't question their captain, their loyalty was absolute. Whatever the clown said was law in their eyes. Honestly, it was commendable.
The crew retreated and Izu tended to the wounded, both on their side and on Buggy's. These men were pirates, yes, but they could still be redeemed. Well, except the guy who wanted to rape Nami, he disintegrated that man fast but painfully. He disliked rapists. He never got why people did that kind of thing. Then again, he had never been interested in sex. Romance, yes, but sex? It felt good, sure, but so did eating a good meal. Sex was a pleasure like any other, in his opinion, nice but nothing more than that. Anyways, the healing was painful but effective.
After he was done healing, he went to their treasure, where he found Nami already stuffing her bag with berry.
"Hey, thief, we get a split of the loot, we are teammates after all"
"The name is Nami, not thief and who said I would join your crew? You are pirates, I would never join a pirates crew!"
"Oh really?" He pointed at the arlong crew tattoo, "that speaks a different story. I won't ask you the story behind it but I can tell you, our captain is nothing like Arlong… if you just give us a chance, you will see that"
Nami tensed up, her eyes flickering towards him, conflicted.
"You don't have to join right away, how about an alliance first? I'm sure whatever you want that treasure for, you will find much more with a crew of strong members and you must have quite the skill of a fishmen supremist like Arlong keeps you on his crew. Here, you can take seventy percent of the loot"
"Fine, an alliance for now, but only if I get eighty percent"
"Sure thing"
They divided the loot and walked out of the Buggy lair. The civilians were slowly coming out of the alleyways as news spread that Buggy had left. They looked at the straw hats as if they were living gods. It was clear to them that these newcomer's had chased Buggy out of their home island.
The mayor approached them hesitantly, "thank you so much! I don't have any money to spare, how can I repay you for our freedom?"
"Give me some meat and I'm fine, I'm hungry after the fight"
"And some booze for me"
"Y- yes, certainly! We will have a feast in your name!" Boodle was pleased, these pirates truly were different. Some meat and Booze? They would gladly give that to be free once more.
"Zoro, you asked me what my dream is… I think I have found it. During that fight, I realized how weak I truly am. I grew up in a country of weaklings, compared to them, I am superhuman but looking at you and the Captain, I am nothing. I want to be stronger, the strongest man in the world, that is my dream. You are strong, I need your training regiment. My stamina and speed aren't the problem -I can outlast the captain in a jog or a sprint-, my pure strength is the thing that is lacking, something you seem to be better in"
"A good dream… my workout routine is designed for swordsmanship but I know how to create a better training plan for you, give me a few days to figure it out"
"Thank you Zoro but right now is party time!"