Chapter 28: Reunion with Hina

The three navy officers had only heard rumors about Moria’s abilities before, but this was their first time witnessing him sever a shadow with their own eyes. Even Garp, upon seeing Shiryu faint dead away, instinctively glanced down at his own shadow.

Returning to the fourth level, Moria paused for a moment in front of the cell of a fish-man prisoner, then said, “Magellan, I want to take this one’s shadow as well.”

This time, Magellan agreed immediately, without even raising any conditions. After all, fish-men were not hindered by the Calm Belt, a natural barrier, and taking his shadow would completely crush any hope of escape.

Moria had always harbored a grudge over the absence of a fish-man zombie in his collection. He had experimented with various shadows on Tiger’s corpse before, but none had worked. In his mind, a fish-man’s shadow was his last hope.

But Buffon knew that Moria was only setting himself up for disappointment once again.

The next day at noon, a new convoy ship arrived; it carried no prisoners, only supplies for Impel Down. The four of them then boarded this vessel, returning to Navy Headquarters.

On the way back, Tsuru privately sought Buffon for a conversation. Over a full hour, Tsuru did ninety-nine percent of the talking, while Buffon barely responded at all. During this time, Tsuru twice attempted to use her Wash-Wash Fruit powers to cleanse Buffon’s heart. But to her astonishment, the ability that had always worked flawlessly on pirates weaker than herself had absolutely no effect on Buffon.

To her, there were only two possibilities: either Buffon harbored no filth in his heart to be washed away, or his willpower was so unshakable that it far surpassed his meager fighting strength.

Tsuru hoped it was the latter—so that, should the day ever come when they stood opposed, she would not hesitate. Deep down, she truly valued Buffon as a junior.

Upon arrival at Navy Headquarters, Tsuru was still unwilling to give up on winning Buffon over. She said, “Moria, there’s a batch of newly fallen navy corpses at G8 Fortress. Since you’re all here, make a stop at Enies Lobby on the way and have Buffon help process those bodies.”

“Kishishishishi! Easy for you to say. Why don’t you let Buffon explain his process for handling corpses?” Moria cackled.

Buffon didn’t elaborate, only stating simply that without returning to Thriller Bark, he couldn’t restore the bodies to perfection. But Tsuru was undeterred, and quickly changed tactics.

“Then, Buffon, would you mind personally going to receive them? Perhaps you could also teach our G8 ship’s doctor some of your stitching techniques.”

At this, Moria, as a Warlord, spoke up: “Buffon, that works too. You can swing by Water 7 and fetch your new ship!”

As a Warlord, Moria had to give Tsuru, who had twice made requests, some respect. As for teaching the ship’s doctors, Moria was certain that even if Buffon wanted to teach, they wouldn’t be able to learn a thing.

After all, Hogback, once hailed as a genius surgeon, had spent years at Buffon’s side without grasping even the basics. As for whether the navy would detain Buffon, Moria wasn’t worried either. In the navy’s eyes, Buffon was nothing more than a top-tier surgical specialist—hardly an irreplaceable asset. Besides, Buffon wasn’t a powerful combatant; the true core of the zombie army was the shadows. To the navy, Buffon’s presence or absence wouldn’t affect Moria’s strength much at all.

In fact, Tsuru had reached the same conclusion. What they valued was Buffon’s miraculous corpse-stitching skill; since he had agreed to help, it wasn’t worth antagonizing Moria by detaining a non-combatant.

Buffon had no objections and nodded his assent.

“Then be careful, Buffon. Take half of my zombie cohort with you in case you run into any reckless pirates on the way back. I won’t go with you—if both of us are gone, Perona and the others might not be happy,” Moria said.

The comment about “reckless pirates” was really for the navy’s ears. As for his adopted daughter Perona, Moria did have some worries. But Buffon surmised that he was simply eager to get back and experiment with the fish-man’s shadow.

Once Moria departed, Buffon boarded a warship bound for Enies Lobby. The whole way, he and more than a dozen zombie puppets remained cloaked in black capes, lurking in the hold, completely inconspicuous.

By Tsuru’s arrangement, the warship delivered him directly to Dock One of the Galley-La Company. His greeter was neither one of the shipwrights disguised as CP9, nor Iceburg, but the gambler Barry.

Barry, seeing Buffon’s harmless appearance and knowing the new ship had cost ninety million Berries, thought to charge him a delivery fee. But just then, the warship assigned to escort Buffon to G8 Fortress arrived. Sensing the situation, Barry quickly changed tune, gave Buffon a full rundown of the ship’s features, and slipped away.

It had to be said—Moria had been very attentive about Buffon’s new ship. Not only was it fully equipped, but he had also specially commissioned a cold storage and a laboratory, so Buffon wouldn’t be delayed in his corpse-stitching even at sea.

Just as the navy ship left Water 7, another warship blocked their way. Soon, two navy officers jumped onto Buffon’s newly built, unflagged vessel.

Buffon looked up and recognized one of them—a “familiar face.” It was the female officer Hina, whom he had captured and then handed over to Brook for release. The other, whose face was mostly hidden behind a leather mask, made Buffon distinctly uncomfortable.

It was Spandam, the scheming clown who would stop at nothing for career advancement.

“Pirate, I don’t recall seeing you before. No one should have secrets before my CP9,” Spandam declared.

Buffon snorted coldly, offering no reply. Hina, on the other hand, was momentarily startled upon seeing Buffon; she hadn’t expected the person she was ordered to escort to G8 would be him.

Collecting herself, she explained, “This is a routine inspection. Please cooperate, Mr. Buffon.”

Buffon still said nothing, as if he hadn’t heard a word. This infuriated the arrogant Spandam, who had no real reason to inspect a navy-escorted vessel. But seeing Hina, the gorgeous officer, he wanted to show off and decided to make things difficult for the pirate.

Yet Buffon completely ignored him, which only fueled his anger. Spandam drew his sword, which had consumed the Elephant-Elephant Fruit, and prepared to attack.

Before Hina could stop him, Buffon executed a Navy Six-Style Shave, flashing behind Spandam and knocking him out with a hand chop.

Hina had wanted to stop Spandam not to protect Buffon, but to save Spandam from a beating. She herself was no match for Buffon, let alone a schemer like Spandam.

“Mr. Buffon, you’ve made things difficult for me to report to my superiors,” Hina said with some embarrassment. CP9 was directly under the World Government; though they weren’t part of the same system, she was still ranked below Spandam.

“No need to report,” Buffon replied coldly, and then tore off Spandam’s leather mask.

Seeing Spandam’s face, disfigured by Franky’s gunstock—collapsed nose and crisscrossing scars—Buffon’s unease intensified. Without offering Hina any explanation, Buffon’s steel needles danced, and within ten minutes, he had completed a reconstructive surgery.

Hina was utterly stunned. She had never imagined anyone could restore years-old wounds so perfectly that not a trace remained.

Her orders were only to escort Buffon; she knew nothing of his purpose at G8 or his detailed background. Had she not seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have known Buffon was the one who had tossed her out of Moria’s lair.

Such formidable combat strength, such unrivaled skill, and such mysterious orders from headquarters—could he truly be a navy spy?

With this in mind, she continued, “Mr. Buffon, I’m truly curious about your real identity.”

Buffon ignored her question. What troubled him was that the uneasy feeling in his heart still hadn’t dissipated. By past experience, once he finished stitching a wound and received the benefit from the “Character Compendium,” this feeling would subside.

Could it be...?