Chapter Fourteen: Detonation! The Grand Fireball Technique

Half the town had collapsed, the sheer force of it fit to be described as the earth splitting and mountains crumbling. Luffy and the others felt a tremor beneath their feet, bewildered at what kind of place they had come to, for such a massive sound to greet them the moment they set foot here.

“Is that one of Buggy’s special bombs? With a blast like that, even a warship would be sunk in a single strike,” Shu Mingyuan took a deep breath. For reasons unknown, the brutality and realism hinted at in the original story seemed even more intense now that he had arrived in this world.

“Hahaha! Hand over all your treasures, surrender them to the great Buggy!” An evil, demonic laughter echoed from within the town. Nami froze in place, her face turning deathly pale. She looked pleadingly at the other three, as if begging them to reconsider going any further.

Shu Mingyuan shook his head with a smile. Nami in the source material had never acted like this—could his arrival have made her even more timid?

“If you really believe there won’t be any other pirates here, then stay behind. But aren’t you supposed to be a fearless pirate who steals from other pirates?” Shu Mingyuan teased.

Nami’s face darkened, but in the end, she followed Shu Mingyuan into the town.

As a transmigrator, Shu Mingyuan was intimately familiar with the many plotlines in One Piece. He had come to Orange Town specifically to seek out Buggy the Clown, intending to use him as a stepping stone to the Grand Line. He had deliberately skipped much of the storyline, heading straight for Buggy himself.

Whether Buggy would prove as weak as in the original or as formidable as he imagined, he would soon find out.

Passing through the ruined town, Shu Mingyuan’s anger flared as he saw the homes along the street demolished, the ground still stained with blood. Pirates and marines fighting was one thing, but innocent civilians being dragged into it was utterly intolerable.

The original Buggy arc had already been completely altered by his presence. In the source material, Nami had already stolen the Grand Line map from Buggy and was teaming up with Luffy and Zoro in a fierce battle with the Buggy Pirates. But because of his own butterfly effect, Nami had been forcibly kept at his side, and the map to the Grand Line remained with Buggy, not yet stolen.

“With me here, why resort to sneaky tricks? We’ll simply take it by force.”

The town was deserted. The group came to a bar with its doors closed, from which raucous laughter spilled out—a jarring contrast to the desolation outside.

Shu Mingyuan strode forward. Sensing his intent, Nami covered her mouth with her hand, panic flashing in her eyes.

“He’s not going to—”

Bang!

Just as she feared, Shu Mingyuan kicked the bar’s door wide open. The laughter inside died abruptly.

The doors swung inward, and a wave of sinister, violent energy rolled out, sending chills down their spines. Nami trembled, on the verge of fleeing. Perhaps annoyed at being interrupted, the silence within lingered for several heartbeats before a chilling voice emerged.

“Hey, brat. Who do you think you are, disturbing our fun? How do you want to die?”

Shu Mingyuan swept his gaze over the pirates, arms folded across his chest. “Is Buggy the Pirate here? I have no other business—except…” He paused, baring his white teeth in a grin. “To see him dead.”

For a beat, the room was silent. Then raucous laughter exploded.

“Haha, did I hear that right? Boss, someone wants you dead!”

“A brat who hasn’t even grown all his hair dares tell our boss to die? Our captain kills marines for fun, and you want him dead? That’s hilarious.”

“Heh, looks like there are still some blind fools in this town. If that’s the case, let’s just kill him.”

A cold, sinister voice issued from a sofa in the corner. Shu Mingyuan looked over and saw a man with a grotesque, clownish face, painted with two white skulls and a bulbous red nose, draped in a pirate captain’s cloak. His eyes were cruel, and he toyed with a small throwing knife between his fingers, radiating an aura that kept lesser pirates at bay.

“So, all are present. That just saves me a lot of trouble,” Shu Mingyuan murmured.

He pressed his hands together, fingers shifting through a sequence of signs. Chakra gathered in his chest and throat, and a low, thunderous voice issued forth.

“Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!”

A narrow jet of flame shot from his mouth, instantly expanding into a massive fireball more than twenty meters in diameter. Since becoming a Genin, Shu Mingyuan’s mastery over ninjutsu had doubled, and his techniques were twice as powerful. The fireball’s size was much the same, but its color was deeper, more intense.

In the blink of an eye, the gigantic fireball filled the bar, incinerating everything within. The alcohol stored inside exploded, fueling the blaze. In moments, every corner of the bar was engulfed in roaring flames.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Explosions erupted inside, the windows and doors shattering at once. Agonized screams filled the air as the bar transformed into a sea of fire—not a marine execution ground, but a sealed space with only one way out.

In such an inferno, it was impossible to see anything. Unless by some miracle, this infamous crew of pirates would likely perish in the flames today.

The heat drove them back again and again; even after retreating ten meters, the scorching air was still palpable. Luffy, Zoro, and the others stared in horror at the blazing inferno, then glanced at Shu Mingyuan, who remained composed. They could not help but swallow hard.

“This guy… Setting them ablaze like this is pushing them straight to the brink.”

Amid the flames, shadows writhed and shrieks echoed. Suddenly, a massive crack split the wall by the bar’s entrance, and then the entire wall collapsed outward.

Through this opening, the flames surged out, spreading a path of fire.

From within the blaze, three enormous shadows gradually took shape. Shu Mingyuan and his companions’ pupils contracted as three figures strode out from the inferno, fully exposed before them. Their bodies were not much scorched, though their clothes and hair were badly singed; they looked battered, but very much alive.

At that moment, a chilling, bloodthirsty voice issued from the leader’s lips.

“Brat, didn’t your parents teach you? Children shouldn’t play with fire.”

“Because, you know… when you play with fire, you get burned.”