The Pirate "Buggy the Clown"

Buggy confirms that the Red-Haired man he spoke of is indeed Shanks, and Luffy immediately demands to know where his old friend is. The clown hints he might have an answer, but his smug delivery earns him an insult, and his temper flares. Buggy asks whether Luffy can deflect blades, and Luffy bluntly admits he cannot. The fight begins. Luffy leaps clear of an attack, only for Buggy to mock him as defenseless in midair, since the clown can keep himself afloat. Stretching to a lamppost, Luffy yanks himself aside, then sends a long-range punch that Buggy evades.

Each fighter's ability gives them an edge, and the surrounding crew grows too frightened to step into so dangerous a clash. Buggy lectures that Luffy's rubber power doubles as a weakness, leaving him open, unaware that the boy's punch has caught a window ledge to launch a fresh assault.

Buggy hurls his detached arm gripping three knives. Luffy seizes it, but the clown splits his hand free to land the strike anyway, grazing Luffy's cheek and piercing his straw hat. Buggy assumes the boy is upset about his wounded face, yet Luffy is furious only over the damage to his hat, which he calls his treasure. Buggy reels the hat in on his blades, and upon hearing it once belonged to Shanks, he flings it down and spits on it, revealing the two were once comrades. Refusing to let Buggy liken himself to Shanks, Luffy throws a furious punch; Buggy detaches his head with a laugh, but the fist buries itself in his stomach instead.

This chapter establishes that Buggy and Shanks once served aboard the same vessel as pirate apprentices, and it cements the straw hat as Luffy's most prized possession. The cover shows Nami teaching a ring-tailed lemur to draw maps while Luffy naps nearby.