After freeing the crew, when Smoker said he should capture them, Kairo's fist was engulfed with black energy. He wouldn't mind having the Smoke-Smoke Devil Fruit too.
Anyway, little to say, Smoker felt the gap between them was large—not as large as the gap between him and an admiral, but still large nonetheless.
Luffy told Kairo not to hurt Smoker, since apparently he was a friend, which Smoker denied. Oh well, none of that mattered much now.
"I left as little trace as possible, so no one will be able to find out this was done by this crew," Kairo said.
Luffy turned his head to Kairo.
"Hey, what did you do that for?"
"Do you want to have a higher bounty or something?" Kairo said, honestly confused. Did this kid want to be known for that?
"We did it, no need to hide it. I beat Crocodile."
"Well technically he escaped."
"Dammit."
This really didn't look like a captain speaking with his crewmate.
"Though I can sense him. He's like a couple hundred feet that way. He's going where King Cobra is." Kairo's finger pointed west.
"Let's chase after him," Luffy said, immediately rushing toward that direction. This idiot... he forgot his friends were still in cages.
Kairo sighed. While he could destroy the cage, he looked at Zoro.
"Use your Armament Haki and cut it."
"What the hell are you talking about? He can't cut steel!" Usopp really believed this. Kairo took out his sword and swung it... the steel bar on the right was cut cleanly in half.
"It's possible... now do it." Kairo sheathed his blade. Zoro closed his eyes, wondering if he would manage to do it.
He took in a deep breath before—
"Oni Giri."
Zoro appeared outside the cage. He slowly sheathed his sword back into its sheath.
Once that was done, the cage was cut cleanly into eight slices.
Usopp was shocked. Wait—for real? Zoro could cut steel? The fuck—when did he get that upgrade?
He was making rapid progress, like the Strawhats were given a 2x boost or something. After all, Luffy wasn't meant to unlock Gear Second until two arcs later, and Zoro learned to cut through steel a couple of hours ahead of time.
The progress of the rest of the crew remained to be seen, though. Chopper was still working on those pills, so yeah, he should have a prototype by the end of this arc, give or take.
So yeah, onward. Anyway, they were rescued now, and Kairo was still somewhat in a compressed form—i.e., his hair was black, his eyes purple, no wings and no fire, and he was only roughly Zoro's height instead of being the 15 feet tall he really was.
Speaking of which—
"Kairo, what happened to your—" Bang! Luffy's sentence was ended by a punch to the head causing a bump. It wasn't Kairo who did it, it was Nami—as if reminding Luffy Kairo was just keeping his identity a secret. There was a Marine right there, after all. Luffy was just confused—didn't Kairo want a bounty or something like that?
He was a pirate, wasn't he? Didn't he want a bounty?
Though...
"Oh, I get it! You don't want a bounty because you're a ninja and you want to remain super secret!"
"...But that's dumb..."
"What's the point of doing amazing things if you're not going to take credit for your work?" Luffy seemed genuinely confused. Kairo didn't say much. Smoker nearby was listening to everything. So this Kairo fella was the reason behind everything and Crocodile being released. And he sounded versatile. That was good to know. Plus, he had the basic three Haki down from the look of it.
So, something like 200 million should be good-ish enough. Maybe 120.
Luffy was out here just selling all that info for free right now.
Anyway, it was time to hunt the Sand Man. Kairo would take an apple before going to fight him—you know, taking the Sand Logia and all.
Kairo felt like he could resonate with the Devil Fruit—more like the devil or spirit in them, but still. The more, the better.
Anyway, in one swift body flicker, he would vanish, rushing behind Crocodile, who seemed to be running to an entrance in the palace. From what he was sensing, Miss All Sunday had the king inside. How the fuck did that happen?
Well, technically Vivi was with that revolutionary guy, and the bird guy was disarming a bomb, and the dog guy was fighting a pretty creepy guy—so he supposed the king would be left alone. Well, no biggie.
He could get there in time.
Shit felt forced, like way too damn forced, but oh well.
He cocked his fist back, coating it with Ryuo and Conqueror's Haki, his flames turned off in order to give him more speed. He gathered every ounce of Haki in his body.
As he flew through the base at full speed, Crocodile had just finished stabbing Robin—jeez, was he impatient.
Yet he didn't get any time to speak as Kairo punched him in the gut with all he had.
"Ryūō: Silent Fang!"
As the blow landed, Crocodile's eyes rolled to the back of his head, he puked out blood, and his body was sent crashing through the wall.
Kairo watched as the man's body fell limply on the floor. He walked to him and then pressed the apple to Crocodile's body.
He watched as the apple changed, turning into what seemed to be a sandy cactus.
A/N....it would be a low diff....he used water....like even in the desert he can create a lake.