Luffy's words echoed through the small hospital room.
Every word was weighty and hit with force.
Crocodile stared blankly at Luffy.
The boy's completely unclouded eyes were like the sharpest sword, piercing straight through the layers of disguise, fear, and despair he had wrapped around himself.
In a daze, he seemed to see his younger self from years ago, when he had just set out to sea and dared to challenge Whitebeard alone.
Back then, he had no schemes and no conspiracies, only the courage to charge straight ahead.
When had he changed?
Was it after Whitebeard shattered his dreams?
Or after witnessing the unchangeable reality under Rosse's rule?
He had abandoned his former self, placed his hopes in others, and eventually become completely unrecognizable.
"Blame the era... be afraid..."
Crocodile muttered to himself, his dry chest rising and falling slightly again.
He looked at Luffy for a long, long time.
Suddenly, the cynical sneer at the corner of his mouth disappeared.
In its place was a pure smile of relief.
Even that smile still carried a trace of the defiance that belonged to a great pirate.
"You really are a complete idiot... A hopeless madman."
Crocodile let out a long breath and slowly closed his eyes.
The flame of life that had been completely extinguished by despair unexpectedly flickered back to life at this moment.
"Since you want to charge straight into a brick wall, then let this battered body of mine live a little longer."
Although Crocodile's voice was still weak, there was a long-lost sharpness and calmness in it.
"Let me see with my own eyes whether you, you loudmouthed Straw Hat brat, will be crushed to dust by this damned era."
"Or whether you really can punch a hole through the sky."
"But before that, to thank you for saving my life, I can tell you something."
Crocodile took a deep breath on the hospital bed. The defeated look in his eyes became sharp again, like an eagle's.
He looked at Luffy before him, his hoarse voice carrying a hint of determination born of having nothing left to lose.
"I know a secret. The secret of Pluton, one of the legendary three Ancient Weapons."
"Huh?"
At these words, Luffy, who had been full of spirit just moments ago, instantly deflated. Like a punctured balloon, he picked his nose and spoke with obvious dislike and disappointment.
"What? So after all that, it's not a secret about the One Piece?"
To him, aside from the One Piece, meat, and fun adventures, things like Ancient Weapons and destroying the world weren't even worth considering. Just hearing about them made him sleepy.
"Luffy, shut up first!"
Nami unceremoniously smacked Luffy on the back of the head, a thoughtful look appearing on her face.
If nothing unexpected happened, Pluton should be the new big gift the World Government had prepared for them as part of this scripted journey.
Or at the very least, it was a key clue.
In order to play along as this actor pushing the plot forward, Nami cooperated fully, putting on a shocked expression and asking, "Ancient Weapon Pluton? What exactly is that?"
"A very, very long time ago, there was an ancient rumor circulating across this sea."
Seeing that someone had picked up the conversation, Crocodile became solemn and lowered his voice.
"Back in the world a thousand years ago, there were said to be three super weapons... Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranus. Whoever possessed one of them would have the terrifying power to overturn the entire world, or even easily destroy an island."
"Overturn the world?"
Zoro, leaning against the doorway, raised an eyebrow and couldn't help sneering as he hit the nail on the head.
"Then according to what you're saying, this world is now ruled as tightly as an iron barrel. Wouldn't that mean the World Government should have at least two of these Ancient Weapons in its hands?"
"No, the World Government does have one, but only one."
At that moment, a careless voice rang out in the hospital room.
Sanji leaned against the window with one hand in his pocket. He took a deep drag from his cigarette, then lightly flicked the ash from his fingertips, speaking in an offhand tone.
"How would you know?"
Crocodile's expression changed dramatically. His eyes, filled with urgency and shock, instantly locked onto Sanji.
Seeing Crocodile's uncertain and suspicious gaze, Nami sighed helplessly and pointed at Sanji as she couldn't help complaining.
"Of course he knows. Let me formally introduce him. This is His Majesty Rosse's eldest son, the crown prince of the World Government, Saint Jaygarcia Sanji."
"..."
The hospital room fell into deathly silence.
"WHAT?"
After a full five seconds of stunned silence, Crocodile let out a shrill scream.
The bandages wrapped around his body tightened as he convulsed violently, and his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
"You... you're that monster's biological son?"
Crocodile was completely horrified.
Over the past ten years, he had imagined countless worst-case scenarios, but even in his most outrageous nightmares, he had never imagined a hellish situation like the one before him.
What the hell had he just done?
In front of Rosse's own son, the man who ruled the world, he had gone on and on about how he planned to overthrow the World Government, even sharing his plan to find an Ancient Weapon and rebel?
What kind of ultimate hell scenario was this?
A sheep had actually run up to the tiger's own son and seriously discussed how it was going to blow up the sheep pen's defenses and escape.
"Don't get so worked up. Your wounds are going to split open again."
Sanji exhaled a cloud of white smoke. Looking at Crocodile's expression as if he had just seen a ghost, he calmly spread his hands.
"I have a grudge against my old man, so I can't be bothered with his affairs. Don't worry about these boring details. Compared to that, shouldn't the thing you want to know most right now be about the Ancient Weapons?"
"Y-Yes! Since you're his son, how much do you actually know about the Ancient Weapons?"
Crocodile's heart was pounding like thunder, but after his extreme shock, he instead felt a strange sense of calm that came from having nothing left to lose.
Things had already been said to this point. What else could he do?
Was he supposed to bite his tongue and kill himself right here?
Given the terrifying foundations the World Government had displayed, crushing him would truly be no different from crushing an ant missing a few limbs.
It was all going to end in death anyway. If he could learn the truth before he died, at least he would have no regrets.
Compared to that, he wanted to know even more whether Pluton was in the World Government's hands.
If even Pluton had long since been taken under the World Government's control, wouldn't everything he had secretly planned and prepared in Arabasta all these years have become a joke?
However, it was probably not in their hands.
After all, the person who had guided him and told him where Pluton was hidden had also come from the World Government.
"I actually know quite a bit about this."
Sanji chuckled, a trace of reminiscence in his eyes.
"When I was little, the adults would tell us legends about the Ancient Weapons as bedtime stories."
Sanji wasn't lying.
It was just that when those adults told these stories, their voices were full of teasing and joking.
Because the truth was completely different from the rumors outside.
There was actually no need to search for the three weapons that were made to sound so mysterious outside.
After all, they had been fake information from the very beginning.
But what he said was still the truth.
After all, his own younger sister, Shirahoshi, had been Poseidon in this generation from the moment she was born.
And she was a fully awakened Poseidon.
But even so, what use was it?
The kind of power that could destroy islands was something that the higher-ups of the World Government could accomplish with one hand, wasn't it?
"Then... which one does the World Government have?"
Crocodile swallowed, his voice trembling slightly.
Whether or not there was an answer, asking wouldn't cost him anything.
Sanji understood the gambler's mentality in Crocodile's eyes and was more than happy to go along with it and play his part.
"Poseidon."
"Poseidon?"
Crocodile spoke in a low voice, frantically recalling the rumors circulating outside.
"There was once a rumor that Rosse, the man who rules the world, has enough power to fill the sea and create land. He's Poseidon himself. Is that true?"
"Wait, weren't we just talking about Ancient Weapons? How did His Majesty Rosse suddenly become Poseidon? How could a weapon be a person?"
Nami appropriately voiced the question an ordinary person would have.
"That's probably because of another, even more secret rumor circulating across the sea."
Kuro, who had remained silent the whole time and served as an unofficial encyclopedia, habitually pushed his glasses up with the heel of his hand. A flash of light passed across the lenses.
"More than ten years ago, there was a rumor."
"The rumor said that the legendary three Ancient Weapons capable of destroying the world were actually not man-made objects at all, but three god-level Devil Fruits hidden somewhere in the endless river of history."
"And naturally, the three Ancient Weapons represented the three invincible ability users who had eaten those three fruits."
Hearing this extremely shocking theory, everyone in the hospital room except Luffy, who was distracted and picking his nose, turned their eyes toward Sanji.
After all, among everyone present, only this crown prince who truly came from the very top of the Holy Land's pyramid could possibly know world secrets of this level.
"Who knows? Maybe. There really is such a rumor. But honestly, whether it's the three Ancient Weapons or Weapon Fruits, the current World Government doesn't actually care about them at all."
Sanji shrugged, his tone openly casual.
Whether they were Devil Fruits or Ancient Weapons, neither could change the outcome.
The difference in strength was already so vast that there was no opening for a comeback.
Even if they reached the end of this voyage, there was no way their strength could break through to S-rank.
And the World Government had already reached double digits in the number of SS-rank powerhouses.
Not to mention his old man, who sat high above the heavens, with strength beyond the SS rank.
But...
"Speaking of the rumor about the fruits representing the three Ancient Weapons, wasn't there another one that's even more interesting?"
Sanji suddenly changed the subject, his slightly meaningful gaze landing directly on Luffy, who was bored beside him.
"Another interesting rumor?"
Nami froze for a moment. Following Sanji's gaze, she saw that a certain Rubber Fruit was stretching its neck all the way to the IV stand and tying it into knots for fun.
Her heart suddenly jumped.
"Could it be..."
"That's right," Sanji exhaled a smoke ring and casually dropped a bombshell that could make the whole world tremble.
"According to that rumor, the fruit our stupid captain ate is the fruit known in legend as Uranus!"
BOOM!
Sanji's words were like a bolt of lightning from the heavens, exploding directly in Crocodile's mind.
He nearly dragged his barely holding-together body up from the hospital bed without regard for anything else.
"W-What kind of world-class joke is this?"
Crocodile stared hard at Luffy, his eyes bloodshot as he looked him over from left to right, top to bottom.
One of the three Ancient Weapons, the legendary Uranus said to control the sky, was actually this clueless idiot picking his nose right in front of him?
This brat?
Why him?
Back when Rosse first emerged, he had been an extraordinary figure who dazzled an entire era like a comet.
It was no exaggeration to say that ten years ago, the name of this sea was Rosse.
Wherever that man went, all things bowed before him. He was unbeatable.
Could this Straw Hat brat who looked like an idiot no matter how you looked at him really be compared to someone of that level?
"Huh? Why is everyone looking at me again?"
Luffy, who was wrestling with the IV tube using his rubber arm, turned his head in confusion. He discovered that the room had suddenly become eerily quiet and everyone was staring at him with indescribable looks.
After a brief moment of confusion, Luffy suddenly clenched his fist and slammed it into his palm, then flashed a big, toothy grin as he realized what was going on.
"Hehe! Sanji must be complimenting me in front of him! Don't worry, even if I'm the King himself, I'm still going to get the title of Pirate King!"
He waved his fist through the air, his confidence soaring.
"..."
Well, when it came to arrogance and confidence, this guy might really be comparable to that man.
Everyone looked at Luffy's arrogant appearance and silently complained in their hearts, their faces full of speechlessness.
This highly dramatic interruption actually relaxed Crocodile's tense nerves somewhat.
He took a deep breath of air tinged with the smell of disinfectant, his gaze becoming completely deep.
Since everyone had been this open about even something like this, there was no need for him to keep hiding anything.
Most importantly, from the divine punishment that had descended from the sky at Little Garden to learning all the inside information here today, he had clearly realized one cruel fact.
The secret hidden behind Pluton was far, far too big.
So big that if he tried to shoulder it alone, the World Government would absolutely crush him to dust.
He couldn't swallow it on his own. He had no choice but to muddy the waters completely.
"Back to what we were talking about earlier. I really do have information about Pluton."
Crocodile leaned against the headboard and revealed the information he knew.
"The information about Pluton is hidden somewhere in Arabasta!"
"Pluton is in Arabasta?"
Nami pretended to be shocked, covering her mouth as she glanced at everyone from the corner of her eye and smoothly pushed the plot forward.
"So that's it! I finally understand why a great pirate with a bounty as high as five hundred million would ignore everywhere else and insist on going to Arabasta. So this is what you were after."
"Yes. This is information I obtained through my own channels. Its credibility is extremely high. You could say it's absolutely reliable."
Crocodile nodded solemnly.
At this point, everything had already been said.
He had to ask for this outside help.
And besides, Uranus was right there in the other party's crew. For him, that was undoubtedly a good thing.
Maybe this really could work.