Inside a chamber within the royal palace, Luffy and Crocodile stood locked in a silent standoff, glaring at one another as they awaited the moment to strike.
Miss All-Sunday had already departed with King Cobra in tow. Since the King was no longer at risk of being stolen away, there was no need for concern. It meant Luffy could fight to his heart's content.
Crocodile observed Luffy standing before him with cold, clinical eyes.
His first impression of the boy in the flesh: he was neither more nor less than expected. He did not betray the meager interest Crocodile had held for him in the first place.
If this boy truly believed he possessed the ability to defeat a Warlord, it was laughable.
If he said it as a joke, Crocodile could laugh it off. If he said it in earnest, then his ability to judge strength had clearly rotted away. Or perhaps this was a strategy? Feign incompetence to invite negligence?
While Crocodile idly pondered these things, Luffy remained surprisingly quiet.
He clenched his fists, yet launched no surprise attack. He simply glared at Crocodile, motionless.
Based on prior intelligence, Crocodile had taken him for the sort of fool who would charge in blindly the moment they met. Perhaps he was mistaken.
Either way, he had no interest. He had already taken the measure of the boy.
This was not a vessel worthy of his time. Even three minutes would be a waste.
"I'll ask you this once, just in case," Crocodile said, breaking the silence. "Standing there before me, chest puffed out... are you simply an idiot? Or just a fool in a hurry to die? Which is it?"
"Neither," came the reply. "I'm a pirate."
"A pirate, is it...? You are free to call yourself whatever you like. The only thing that matters is whether you have the strength to back it up."
Even at Crocodile's prompting, Luffy offered no speech.
Watching him with disinterest, Crocodile stroked the golden hook that replaced his left hand.
"You have nothing to ask?"
"About what?"
"I was speaking with him just moments ago."
"Is that so."
Even at that, Luffy remained unmoved, showing zero inclination to rise to the provocation.
"To put it plainly," Crocodile continued, "his choice was a failure."
Luffy remained calm, refusing to take the bait—but he did finally move.
By nature, he was not one to sit still. The fact that he had waited this long was a rarity in itself. Conversely, it was proof of just how dangerous he considered Crocodile to be.
This man was terrifyingly strong.
Luffy understood this not through logic, but through instinct. Therefore, he attacked with full intent from the very first blow.
He swung his right arm back and took a step forward.
At that motion, Crocodile's eyebrow twitched slightly.
"Gum-Gum... Pistol!"
Rooted to the spot, Luffy stretched his right arm to strike. The punch flew with incredible velocity; a normal man would have been too shocked by the stretching limb to react to the speed.
Crocodile, however, was not surprised in the least.
Without moving a single step, he merely tilted his head. That was all it took to evade. The punch whistled past his face, smashing into the wall behind him and leaving a crater the size of a fist.
"...Oi. What was that?"
He wasn't surprised. Yet, if he were honest with himself, perhaps he was.
Strangely, Crocodile looked unimpressed.
Retracting his arm instantly, Luffy did not stop.
He advanced several steps, winding up for the next motion, this time stretching his right leg for a kick.
As if he had predicted the trajectory perfectly, Crocodile hopped lightly, letting the attack sail beneath him.
"Gum-Gum... Whip!"
He avoided it by simply jumping over it, landing softly once the leg had passed. It required no great exertion. There was no fatigue, no panic.
As his leg snapped back, Luffy broke into a sprint.
Crocodile's expression remained severe. He didn't even show the boy the courtesy of looking down on him.
"Gum-Gum...!"
"Are you mocking me?"
"...Gatling!"
Luffy's arms blurred, unleashing a barrage of countless punches.
The sheer volume of attacks seemed enough to suppress the entire area; ordinarily, one would have to block or simply be overwhelmed. Yet Crocodile did neither. With only the slightest of movements, he evaded Luffy's arms one by one.
It was movement that required no effort.
Movements so small, so casual, that one might think he was merely out for a stroll. He dodged as if he were simply swaying in a breeze.
Finally, a shadow fell over Luffy's expression.
Ceasing the attack, he sprinted to close the distance, abandoning strategy to approach head-on.
Crocodile stopped moving and watched him.
That foolish honesty, charging in a straight line. He felt nothing but pity.
"Are you... actually doing this seriously?"
"Gum-Gum...!"
Luffy stretched his right arm backward. The moment his body reached directly in front of Crocodile, he snapped the arm back with tremendous force.
A punch utilizing every ounce of that built-up momentum was unleashed.
"Bullet!"
Crocodile side-stepped it. Just once.
It was as if he were playing a game. Luffy's attacks were missing entirely, solely because Crocodile was dodging them with precise, minimal movements.
He wasn't moving particularly fast. His physical abilities didn't seem supernaturally high. And yet, nothing connected.
Luffy pressed the assault.
"Ooooooh! Stamp!"
He stretched his left leg straight out to stomp him. Crocodile took one step more and evaded.
"Axe!"
Stretching his right leg high toward the ceiling, Luffy used the retraction force to bring his heel crashing down.
Crocodile leaned back slightly, and the attack struck nothing but floor.
"Scythe!"
Kicking off the ground with both feet, Luffy leapt forward, stretching both arms wide to clothesline his opponent. By simply jumping higher, Crocodile cleared Luffy's overhead guard. Again, nothing hit.
Landing, Luffy spun around instantly.
His opponent only dodged. There was no counterattack. He just stood there, staring.
"Gum-Gum...!"
This time, Luffy leaped high, taking the position directly above Crocodile's head.
Pressing the soles of his feet together, he shot his legs downward like a spear.
The enemy was directly below. If this hit, the damage would be substantial.
"Spear!"
Again, one step. With just a single step, it was avoided.
He wasn't standing impossibly far away. He wasn't moving with eye-blurring speed. Every technique Luffy used had the speed and power to hit, and Crocodile showed no signs of supreme physical exertion. Why, then, did nothing land?
Feeling that even thinking was a waste of time, Luffy kept moving.
Retracting his legs in mid-air, he stretched both arms to grab the window frame on the wall, slinging himself forward.
"Rocket!"
He launched himself as a human projectile, intending to slam his body directly into Crocodile. But the Warlord simply walked away without a hint of panic, turning his back as Luffy flew past.
Luffy crashed into the wall. Feeling no pain, he scrambled back to his feet immediately.
The distance between them hadn't changed since the start. The outcome hadn't changed.
He simply swapped one technique for another. He hadn't felt the sensation of a hit even once.
At this point, Crocodile's expression grew steep.
What radiated from him was wrath. Or perhaps, a sense of void. These two contrasting emotions seemed to coexist within him. Whether Luffy perceived this was unclear, but Crocodile no longer bothered to hide it.
The sheer pressure he exuded was enough to make a normal man freeze in terror.
"Are you seriously doing this? Is this it?"
"I'm always serious! I'm gonna blow you away! Gum-Gum—!"
Luffy stretched his arms far behind him, twisting them tightly.
He broke into a run to build momentum, attempting a frontal assault on Crocodile.
"Rifle!"
He thrust out a fist spinning with tremendous torque.
Once again, vividly, as if sparing effort to play with a child, Crocodile dodged it.
Undeterred, Luffy stepped in deeper.
The punch smashed into the wall, destroying a section of it, but Luffy didn't spare it a glance. He retracted the arm instantly, spinning his entire body to deliver a whip-like kick.
Dodged again. Crocodile hadn't moved significantly this entire time.
Accepting that this was simply how it was, Luffy focused on the next strike.
"Ngh...!"
"I understand now... I see the extent of your vessel."
"Gum-Gum...!"
Luffy dove into the pocket of the motionless Crocodile, his arms already stretched back.
He gathered his strength to its limit, preparing to slam a powerful strike home using the force of the retraction.
He wouldn't let him escape this time. He had entered a range where dodging was impossible. Furthermore, Crocodile wasn't even trying to move. It would hit.
Luffy poured every ounce of power he possessed into the blow.
"Bazooka!!"
And this time, it finally connected with his body. The double palm strike smashed directly into his gut.
In that instant, Crocodile's midsection vanished, and sand scattered violently across the room.
Startled, Luffy looked up—and met cold, dead eyes.
Crocodile was a Logia-type, a user of the Sand-Sand Fruit.
His entire body was composed of sand. Even if an attack connected, his body simply turned to granules, letting the blow pass harmlessly through. As Luffy had sensed the moment he made contact, not a shred of damage had been dealt.
Their gazes locked, trapped in a split second that felt like an eternity.
Then, Luffy watched as Crocodile's mouth moved.
The voice he heard was terribly cold.
"I am disappointed."
Immediately after, he felt a foreign sensation in his gut, followed by a wet, sickening thud.
Stunned, Luffy looked down at his own body.
Crocodile's hook had pierced his abdomen, and blood was flowing in torrents. The hook buried in his stomach had punched clean through to his back. The moment he realized the anomaly, intense pain assaulted him.
Unable to even scream, Luffy felt his body being hoisted effortlessly into the air by Crocodile's left arm.
"You're going to 'blow me away'? That is quite the ambition."
Strength drained from his limbs; they hung limp and useless.
Suspended in the air, his vitality leaked out of him, dripping onto the floor in steady splashes of red.
"There are as many all-talk rookies as there are grains of sand, Straw Hat Luffy..."
There was no euphoria in victory, no intoxication of triumph. Crocodile was, if anything, angry. His expression spoke more eloquently than his words.
Winning brought him no joy. On the contrary, he felt only irritation.
Shaking the slender body impaled on his hook, he spoke with utter boredom.
"You cannot use Haki. You do not utilize water. You should have known my weakness. Was this attitude of yours—prepared with absolutely no countermeasures—meant to make me lower my guard? Or were you simply a moron?"
"Ugh... gah...!"
"Worthless. Choosing you was the greatest failure of my life."
Consciousness began to fade. His body, his gut, felt searing hot. Luffy fought a desperate battle against himself.
He couldn't pass out here. He hadn't beaten Crocodile yet.
Mocking his desperate struggle, Crocodile spoke in a frigid tone.
"Because a fool like you plays Captain, your crew dies. The Grand Line isn't sweet enough to be conquered by brute force and momentum alone. The highest bounty in the East Blue amounts to merely this."
With a wet slide, the hook was withdrawn, and Luffy's body was discarded onto the ground.
He collapsed onto his back. Crocodile looked down at him with zero emotion.
"In the end, it seems it wasn't a tool you were capable of mastering."
"Gah... hah... Master...?"
"It is a toy too good for you. I'll be taking it back."
Saying this, he turned his back with brutal dismissal.
Crocodile headed for the exit, intent on leaving the scene.
Luffy desperately tried to move, rolling onto his stomach to chase him, but the damage was far worse than he realized. He was skewered from front to back. No matter how resilient he was, he could not move immediately.
The man's back drifted further away.
Luffy tried to reach out, but his arm—which should have stretched—would not reach.
"Guh... wait..."
Crocodile did not even look back as he walked away. He no longer held any interest.
"I'm... gonna... blow you away..."
His vision blurred.
He couldn't even tell if the man was still there.
"Crocodile...!"
And then, Luffy's arm fell, devoid of strength.
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