"You damn woman—die!" Crocodile's face twisted with fury. Both arms swept forward.
"Sables! Desert Spada!"
A roaring sand-tornado and several gigantic scimitar-blades of hard-packed grit slashed at Esdeath.
Esdeath showed no fear—only the feverish joy of battle. "That's the fight I crave! Ice Cavalry Lance!"
A glittering lance of ice bored straight through the sand-swords, pierced the heart of the tornado, and drew Esdeath's lithe figure right up to Crocodile's face.
"—Tch!" Real panic flashed across the Warlord's eyes. Gritting his teeth, he dissolved into sand and dove underground, leaving a bloody chunk of right calf behind.
"Ran away?" Esdeath's bloodthirsty grin flattened into frost. "A strong man who flees before he's beaten… pathetic."
Whatever lofty title a Warlord carried, a pirate was still a pirate—driven by profit, keen to survive. Esdeath, by contrast, risked her life every fight without hesitation.
"Mahapadma!"
She lost interest and froze the very air. Her gaze fixed on one patch of dune; her right hand chopped down.
Crack-crack-crack!
A forest of cone-shaped ice-bergs rained from above.
BOOM!
Sand and ice exploded sky-high. When the haze settled a wide, round crater gaped in the desert floor. At its center Crocodile lay crushed and blood-soaked, coughing more red with every breath.
Esdeath hopped into the pit, stared down and sneered. "Coward."
Her rapier, sheathed in Armament Haki, flashed—one stroke took the head.
[Ding! Esdeath has eliminated the Transcender Crocodile. Doom-Journey complete.]
[Esdeath +100 000 points; Tatsuki +10 000; Nami +10 000; Vivi +10 000; Tendo Kisara +10 000.]
Tatsuki raised a brow. "So this is what a free carry feels like." First time he'd ever earned points without lifting a finger.
"All done." Esdeath looked bored.
"Disappointed?" he asked.
"Escaping in mid-fight? Pathetic."
"It was a stomp from the start," he laughed. "Tell you what—next time I'll suppress myself to your level so you can enjoy it."
"I'll hold you to that," she purred, licked her lips, and triggered her return.
"She's leaving already?" Kisara blinked. Time to spare, yet Esdeath was gone.
Tatsuki glanced at her. "You?"
Kisara eyed the couple's matching T-shirts—Love and Affection splashed across their chests—and decided the moment was ill-timed for thanks. "I'll head back too."
A breath later both women were gone.
Robin stared. The woman who just decapitated a Warlord wielded ice like an Admiral—and vanished at will. The others could apparently do the same. Four strangers, each terrifying in their own way. One Fruit type? Some hidden boss pulling strings? She rifled her knowledge for answers and came up empty.
Nami hugged Tatsuki's arm. "So… we're not rushing home, right?"
He nodded.
"This is Alabasta, a kingdom on the Grand Line. Let's look around!" Her eyes sparkled; a cartographer's curiosity burned bright.
"I'm sorry…" Vivi's voice trembled. "Our land's almost entirely desert now, Baroque Works ruined everything."
"Crocodile's dead," Nami countered. "Whether you adapt or restore, change takes time. I just want to study the currents and coastlines for my charts."
"Thank you all the same." Vivi bowed low.
"Thank Esdeath. We barely did anything," Tatsuki said; he refused unearned gratitude.
Vivi wanted to mention the chat group, but Robin was still present. Tatsuki gave her a glance and sent a private note.
Tatsuki: "Can't discuss the chat in front of outsiders. Use the group or DM Esdeath later."
Vivi: "Understood."
Vivi: "Tatsuki-san… they say you saved an ice-bound world. Could you perhaps reverse Alabasta's desertification?"
Over 90 % of the kingdom was sand; every expert said the march toward total desert was irreversible.
"Feel free to ask me aloud," Tatsuki reminded her with a smile.
Flustered, she did so again.
Robin's heart sank. Reversing a whole kingdom's climate? Impossible. Still, she respected Vivi's devotion to home—home was a word that stabbed Robin with bittersweet pain.
"Fixing desertification is small potatoes," Tatsuki said at last. With Dominator he could reshape land the way others kneaded dough.
"Really?!" Hope lit Vivi's eyes like sunrise. "Please—help my country!"
"Think it through." His tone eased but his brow rose. "If Alabasta turns into a green paradise overnight, who won't notice? Crocodile spent years drying it out slowly."
Massive interference before the world's true Anomalous Apocalypse surfaced could skew everything. If the anomaly turned out to be a formless phenomenon, heavy meddling might hide or mutate it. Destroying the world to reset wasn't Plan A.
Tatsuki: "Let's beat this world's anomaly first. Then we discuss Alabasta."
Vivi: "I understand."
She sighed, rallied, and clenched her fists. "I'll do all I can in the meantime!"
"Great. Tour guide, then—show us your kingdom."
"Gladly!"
Robin listened, undecided. Can someone really turn desert into green? One fact stood out: these people had just crushed a Warlord and claimed the World Government could do nothing to them. Survival depended on joining a power greater than the one hunting her.
She steeled herself. "May I… come with you?"
Nami blinked. "Join our… group?" The chat couldn't be joined by outsiders, could it?
Tatsuki chuckled. "She means our faction, airhead." Then to Robin. "Why?"
Robin's lashes trembled. "I… want to live."
From orphaned archaeologist to outlaw on the run, betrayal had been her only friend—betray or be betrayed.
"Joining the chat's impossible—yet," Tatsuki said. Robin's shoulders sagged; another lonely road, then—
"But you can serve me."
"What difference does that make?" she asked warily.
"The difference is: my subordinates cannot betray me." His eyes narrowed with iron certainty.
Betrayal… a word that tasted like ash after years of doing it. How did one chain a habitual turn-coat? Tatsuki answered the question himself.
"Serve me and you'll live well—World Government or not."
Her breath caught. The World Government—untouchable even to the Four Yonkos—yet he spoke as if it were nothing. Could that be true?
She hesitated; he began to turn away.
"I accept!" she blurted.
He met her gaze; she doubled down, voice steady. "I'll be your subordinate."
"As you wish." Starlight flickered in his pupils; understanding blossomed in her mind—loyalty branded deeper than any collar.
A wry smile twisted her lips. Out of one tiger's jaws into another's—yet this time, betrayal was no longer an option.
…
They spent the afternoon exploring what remained of Alabasta's towns; Robin drifted silently at the rear.
When they'd seen enough, Tatsuki and Nami initiated the Journey return—Robin included. They popped back into Nami's bedroom.
And stopped dead.
Nojiko lay sprawled where they had left her, completely naked. One hand rested between flushed thighs, the other limp near a certain toy—evidence of how she had whiled away the hours.
Tatsuki and Nami traded horrified glances. Those creamy smears were definitely not Nami's.
"Uh—" Tatsuki began.
Nojiko rolled over, lids half-open, then shut again. A lazy blink—then both eyes flew wide as she registered three people in front of the bed.
Heart pounding, she yanked the sheet up, pretending calm while her ears burned crimson. "H-haha… welcome back…"
...
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