Bonney and Robin had already moved from inside the palace to the outskirts to watch the battle. The scope of the destruction was just too wide; staying too close would be a death sentence.
Watching the scene unfold—a disaster that looked more like an act of God than a fight—both women dropped their joking attitudes. Their expressions turned serious.
"Who do you think will win?" Robin asked, her voice heavy.
"Who knows?" Bonney shrugged.
If Chrollo went all out, he would definitely win.
But right now, he was intentionally handicapping himself to develop Haki by fighting strong opponents. He hadn't borrowed her Age-Age Fruit, nor had he borrowed Nobunaga's Float-Float Fruit. In fact, with the rest of the Troupe scattered, he couldn't borrow any of their abilities.
Bonney wasn't sure how well a "base form" Chrollo would fare against a Warlord of the Sea.
While the winner wasn't certain, one thing was...
"Chrollo definitely won't lose, though," Bonney waved her hand dismissively. "He has so many weird abilities and escape methods. If Kizaru couldn't even keep him pinned down when he was using me as a hostage, a Warlord definitely can't."
"Oh?" Robin turned her head, looking at Bonney with curiosity. "Sounds like you have a lot of faith in your Captain."
"It's not about faith. You just don't know how terrifying that guy is," Bonney said, recalling the fear of being under Chrollo's thumb.
"Did you know? He has an entire floor on his ship dedicated to prisoners, and he insists on calling them his 'precious collection'!"
"Plus, his personality is totally unstable. One second he's smiling, the next he's ready to kill you! You never even know what set him off!"
"And the worst part..." Bonney leaned in close to Robin's ear, whispering conspiratorially, "His eating habits are practically crimes against humanity!"
"There were times I caught him hiding in a corner, eating something that reeked... like straight-up crap!"
As she spoke, Bonney shuddered, looking genuinely traumatized.
"Heh heh heh..." Bonney's description made Robin chuckle.
"Your crewmates are certainly interesting."
"It's not interesting! Seriously! It's horrifying!"
"Wait..." Bonney turned to study Robin's face, looking suspicious. "When I said your partner might not win, you didn't look very upset."
Robin's expression became unreadable for a moment before she gave a calm smile. "Partner? You mean Crocodile? No, that man doesn't believe in things like 'partners'."
"We are just using each other."
"As for partners... I don't have any of those either."
---
On the battlefield, the sandstorm was intensifying. Crocodile had practically turned the entire palace into his own personal desert garden.
Chrollo watched this, raising an eyebrow in slight surprise.
"Is this... Devil Fruit Awakening?"
Chrollo couldn't help but wonder how Straw Hat Luffy had ever managed to win against this.
Crocodile's murderous intent began to boil over. "A mere pirate dares to ruin my plans? I'll show you... there is a despairing gap in power on these seas!"
"Desert Spada!"
Crocodile held his hand out, fingers forming a blade, and slashed toward Chrollo. The earth itself seemed to scream under the impact.
The ground before him was sliced open by a razor-sharp blade of sand, tearing a fissure straight toward Chrollo!
In the nick of time, Bandit's Secret flipped open in front of him. The weight manipulation ability activated.
Whoosh. Chrollo's body instantly floated into the air, dodging the strike.
He looked down to see a clean, hundred-meter-long cut plowed through the desert floor.
"That kind of destructive power... he really lives up to the title of Warlord," Chrollo muttered, his eyes widening. The corners of his mouth curled up into a wild grin.
"But luckily, my stats are Warlord-level now, too!"
Armament Haki coated the tips of his toes. Suddenly shifting his weight from light to heavy, Chrollo dive-bombed from the sky. His feet created friction with the air, igniting into flames. Like a cannonball tearing through the atmosphere with a terrifying sonic boom, he aimed straight for Crocodile!
Voom—
In a panic, Crocodile threw up a wall of sand above his head, but Chrollo kicked right through it, driving his foot hard into Crocodile and smashing him into the ground!
BOOM!
A massive shockwave rippled out.
The sand within a thirty-meter radius shuddered as a shocking crater was instantly formed. Inside the pit, Crocodile coughed up blood, his expression one of pure shock.
Chrollo smiled slightly. This was exactly what he had expected.
Based on how the original canon fight went between Crocodile and Luffy—where they were trading blows—it was clear that Crocodile's physical combat skills weren't top-tier. At the very least, he wasn't fast enough to dodge Luffy's attacks.
And right now, all of Chrollo's stats were above 75. This was a victory of pure numbers!
The injured Crocodile dissolved into flowing sand to escape from under Chrollo's foot, reforming into his human shape a short distance away.
There was a clear shoe print caved into his chest, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Crocodile's face was darker than a storm cloud as he stared dead at the man in front of him.
Something... isn't right.
Since the fight started, this guy has used... at least three abilities.
That dimension space at the start, the ability to open doors anywhere, and now this ability to fly!
If the dimension space and the doors could barely be grouped into one category... that flight ability was something else entirely. It's definitely a completely new power, unrelated to spatial manipulation!
Because of Devil Fruit incompatibility, this should be impossible!
And... that flying ability gave Crocodile a vague sense of familiarity.
Why does it feel exactly like Miss Valentine's Kilo-Kilo Fruit?!
Could it be...
Seeing the dark look on Crocodile's face, Chrollo smirked, his expression teasing. "What's wrong? Figured something out?"
"But the show's just getting started."
Crocodile looked confused. He looked down at his chest and saw that within the shoe print, a smear of blue paint had quietly appeared.
Suddenly, an overwhelming wave of sadness hit him. Although his face remained expressionless, tears began to stream down his cheeks.
"Is this... Miss Goldenweek's ability? Sob... sob..."
"When... did you? Boohoo..."
Watching the ruthless crime lord Crocodile crying his eyes out while trying to talk, Chrollo—pleased that his prank worked—laughed. "I applied the paint to my foot before I attacked. So, how does it feel to have a good cry, Mr. Crocodile?"
Whoosh—
A blast of sand wind scoured his chest, scrubbing off the paint. Crocodile's expression returned to normal.
But his gaze was heavier than ever.
What is going on...
What the hell is this man?
Miss Goldenweek's power isn't even a Devil Fruit! Why does he have that, too?
Stealing? Thieving? Plundering?
What are the conditions for activation?
How long do the effects last?
And... can my own ability be stolen?
In that moment, Chrollo was no longer just some random pirate Crocodile could crush. In his eyes, this man had become an incredibly mysterious, dangerous enigma.