Chapter Fourteen: The Mysterious Severed Hand

Tina! Known as the "Black Prison," Hina! She's currently a Navy Captain, two ranks below Vice Admiral. Although just a Captain for now, as a student of Zephyr and a peer of Smoker, she appears frequently in the original story. Still, she remains a marginal character, even less popular than little Sadi, who vanished after Impel Down. Yet, the Cage-Cage Fruit, clearly a Navy staple, was given to her. Buffon simply couldn't understand why. But Hina surely hasn't acquired that power yet.

When her hood was removed, Hina was momentarily stunned, only to see Buffon's fingers dance as the threads of the Stitch-Stitch Fruit, armed with Haki, wrapped her tightly.

"Hina is disappointed, to be defeated by someone so lecherous as you."

Buffon froze at her words.

"Why would you say such a thing?"

But when he noticed her shirt had burst open slightly, revealing a glimpse of snowy skin, he realized where the two missing buttons had gone.

"No wonder he was beaten so badly—Absalom deserved every hit! The fact his eyes weren't gouged out is pure luck," Buffon mused, grabbing the formidable captive with one hand and dragging the sea king's remains with the other. Using Observation Haki, he scanned outside the cabin, confirming there were only zombie puppets around before heading to the deck.

He handed the sea king carcass to a zombie, instructing it to deliver it to the kitchen, then called for Ryoma, found a boat, and set out to sea.

Not far from shore, Buffon took out his Transponder Snail to call Brook.

"Yohohohoho, Brother Buffon, what can I help you with today?" Brook's ever-cheerful voice rang out.

"The usual place."

Ending the call, Buffon stood silently at the bedside.

On the deck, Hina, bound and tossed aside, was fuming inwardly.

She wondered, "Is this man friend or foe? If he truly serves Moria, there was no need to bring me out here. If he's an ally, why not reveal himself?"

As she puzzled over this, Buffon spoke: "Ryoma, help her up."

Ryoma lifted her, and with Brook's shadow animating him, his personality showed instantly: "Miss, may I have a look at your panties?"

"Bah!" came the answer, a glob of spit sparkling in the air.

Buffon chuckled and said no more.

At the meeting spot, Buffon tossed her onto Brook's ship, calling out, "Take her away."

Then Hina's urgent voice followed, "Who are you, really?"

Buffon didn't turn, nor did he respond.

"In the cabin before, what gave me away? Why did you remove my hood first instead of striking hard?"

At her question, Buffon, back turned, simply raised his right hand, removed his glove, and pointed at his fingernails.

Hina instantly understood, and imprinted the image of Buffon's white glove, marked with a black cross, deeply into her memory.

...

Returning to the Thriller Bark, Buffon headed straight for the dining hall, pleased at the prospect of a sea king feast, even if it wasn't the freshest.

In this sunless, cursed Triangle, there were far fewer sea creatures than pirates lost here. Buffon didn't know if the ship's presence caused this, or something else entirely.

But in his years here, the number of people who vanished far exceeded those he had "released."

Entering the dining hall and finding no one, Buffon asked Miss Sindy, who was prepping food. She told him Perona and Hogback were in the kitchen.

He wasn't curious and simply waited quietly for the meal, but instead of a feast, Perona's out-of-body spirit arrived.

"Brother Buffon! There's a severed hand in the kitchen—it was found inside the sea king's carcass!" Her voice lacked its usual mischievous laughter.

"Could Perona have been so frightened her soul just popped out?" Buffon thought sarcastically. It seemed likely; otherwise, how could she later faint from Usopp's trick hammer?

Without a word, he walked into the kitchen, finding Hogback staring dazedly at the severed hand.

Noticing Buffon's arrival, Hogback spoke, "Hisss! Buffon, come look. You've stitched together so many bodies—have you ever seen one like this?"

Just because Hogback hadn't didn't mean Buffon hadn't.

He stepped forward and examined the severed arm on the counter—bone, flesh, and the remains of a white sleeve, barely recognizable.

Drawing on his years of stitching corpses, Buffon judged the hand had been severed about five years ago—the year he transmigrated.

A hand surviving five years within a sea king's belly, not corroded or digested, was a mystery.

Thinking that, as a transmigrator, he was bound to cross paths with famous events, Buffon carefully recalled everything that happened in the original story that year.

He glanced at the giant sea king's strange skin, neither quite yellow, green, nor gray.

And then, Buffon, the insightful, solved the case!

This was the first great unsolved mystery in pirate history: Red-Haired Shanks, one of the Four Emperors, lost an arm to a sea king while saving Luffy!

Every Emperor in the New World was an overwhelming force, the top echelon of pirates, and sea kings were usually nothing to them—a single punch could take down a swarm.

So why, with Shanks, was his arm bitten off for no apparent reason?

Yet now, the suspected evidence of that case was right before him. Could Buffon find the answer through this clue?

He shook his head.

Would a single arm be enough for the "Character Index" to recognize?

"Never mind, let's eat!"

With that, Buffon handed the "Shanks" arm to Ryoma. "Take it to the lab," he ordered.

After dinner, Buffon went straight to the laboratory. Seeing Absalom still unconscious, he began examining the severed arm.

Only the flesh at the cut was gnawed; the bone was intact, without a scratch.

This puzzled Buffon further. It seemed as if Shanks had removed his own bones before letting the sea king have a go.

Unable to figure it out, he decided to stitch it up regardless.

He followed procedure, not omitting a single step just because it was only an arm, nor wasting effort just because it might belong to Shanks.

He attached an IV, calculated the time, and began stitching.

With only one wound, Buffon could only seal the blood vessels, suture the torn muscles, and reconnect the slightly separated skin.

After finishing, he waited a while. The "Character Index" did not react.

Buffon sighed, shook his head, and prepared to put the arm away, thinking that if he ever met the owner, he'd try stitching it back on and see what happened.

But then, a faint cough echoed through the lab.

Buffon instinctively covered himself with Armament Haki, which spread from his hand to the severed arm.

In an instant, the arm turned jet black.

In his mind, the "Character Index" appeared:

[Owner: Shanks]
[Level: T0]
[Faction: Pirate]
[Bounty: 4 Billion Berries]
[Obsession: 5%]
[Currently Available Reward: Swordsmanship +51→12789 (Level 3 Swordsman)]
[Skill Obtainable: Conqueror's Haki]
[Claim Reward?]

Oh my! It's real! Now the three types of Haki are complete!