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"You transformed into my father! What did you do while pretending to be him?!"
Mr. 2 blinked, then seemed to realize who she was.
"Vivi? So you must be Cobra's daughter."
He didn't sound the least bit nervous.
"No need to worry, darling. I just memorized his face—I haven't done anything shady with it."
"Yet." Sanji cut in sharply. "Otherwise, why would you go out of your way to remember it?"
Zoro clearly couldn't care less about the conversation. He muttered:
"Let's just chop him up."
"Is that all your brain can come up with?" Nami sighed beside him.
Then she turned to Vivi and gently reassured her:
"Whether he did something or not, the important thing is—he's in our hands now."
Then she gave a sly smile and slowly walked toward Mr. 2.
"It's not hard to make someone tell the truth," she said sweetly. "This'll be easy."
What happened next was crystal clear.
At Nami's request, Sanji tied Mr. 2 up tight with rope.
But then… something weird happened.
"The puppet talisman... didn't work?"
Aboard the Going Merry, Nami stared in disbelief.
After tying up Mr. 2, she pulled a puppet talisman from her cleavage—her go-to trick for making people spill their secrets.
But to everyone's shock, the talisman had no effect.
Nami looked at Bai Ye, clearly wanting an explanation.
Bai Ye just shrugged and said with a helpless smile:
"Looks like this okama guy's willpower is rock solid."
Yep, Bai Ye always knew the puppet talisman wasn't gonna be super effective.
Whether it works or not really depends on the target's mind—or more accurately, their will.
And as it turns out, Mr. 2 is exactly the type with iron willpower.
"Wahahahahaha!"
Tied up like a roast pig, Mr. 2 threw his head back and laughed like a maniac.
No one could explain why, but in that moment, this flamboyant okama seemed to be glowing with an odd, dazzling light.
He suddenly stopped laughing, turned serious, and looked straight at everyone. Then he declared:
"In this world, there are only two types of people. Either you're a man…"
He scanned the group with a charming smile and shouted:
"Or you're a woman!"
"But okama… we're different!"
"Okama are women—"
"AND men!"
"That's why okama are the strongest!!!"
"This is the Way of the Okama!!"
And just like that, on the deck of the Merry, a tightly bound okama shouted out his truth for the whole world to hear.
If he weren't squirming and wriggling all over the deck while doing it, Bai Ye might've actually found the moment kind of inspiring.
But yeah… it was a little hard to watch.
Still, some people were clearly moved by the passion!
Obviously, it was our three resident idiots.
"OHHHH! That's so cool!!" Luffy shouted, pumped up.
"So that's your path, huh? Hahaha," Usopp said with a smirk, rubbing his nose.
Chopper's eyes were already sparkling as he looked at Mr. 2. "The Way of the Okama… is the strongest!!!"
WHAM!!!
"Are you all morons?!" Nami's angry voice exploded.
Bai Ye just shook his head.
As expected… ever since Chopper joined the crew, the level of pure silliness on this ship has been rising fast.
To be honest, Bai Ye had already considered the possibility that the puppet talisman wouldn't work on Mr. 2.
And considering Mr. 2 was a major player in the whole Alabasta crisis in the original story, there was no way Bai Ye was just gonna let him go.
Killing or locking up a senior Baroque Works officer seemed like a waste.
But if he could convince Mr. 2 to join their side… then exposing Crocodile's entire scheme would be a piece of cake.
With that in mind, Bai "Master Manipulator" Ye stepped up again.
Smiling at Mr. 2, he said:
"Y'know, I don't think you know the whole story."
"The reason your mission was to kill Mr. 3… it was all because of Vivi."
He continued slowly:
"Because Vivi found out your boss's true identity."
"What?!"
Mr. 2 was visibly shaken. After all, he'd been in Baroque Works for ages and had never even seen the boss's face.
Seeing his reaction, Bai Ye smiled and turned to Vivi.
"Would you mind telling him the story again?"
"The truth about Baroque Works."
Vivi hesitated for a second, then nodded. "No problem."
She didn't really know what Bai Ye was planning, but at this point, trusting Bai Ye never goes wrong had become second nature.
Soon, the Straw Hats went back to training and working on their stuff.
Meanwhile, Vivi and Bai Ye took charge of…
Handling Mr. 2.
"What?! My boss is actually Crocodile—the Desert Croc?!!"
Mr. 2 was clearly shaken after hearing Vivi's explanation.
"That's right. And this so-called 'utopia' you're helping build? It's just an excuse to steal control of Alabasta."
Vivi nodded, her expression still uneasy.
Mr. 2 looked stunned. Taking over a country? A member of the World Government, no less?
That's just…
"Pretty hard to believe, right?"
Bai Ye stepped in and voiced what was on Mr. 2's mind:
"Even if Crocodile is one of the Seven Warlords recognized by the World Government and Navy, becoming king of Alabasta?"
He paused, glanced at Vivi, then chose not to expose her royal identity. Instead, he continued:
"That's a stretch, don't you think?"
Bai Ye gave Mr. 2 a half-smile.
"Neither the World Government nor the Navy would ever allow something like that."
And Bai Ye wasn't just making baseless guesses.
If a pirate became king of a World Government member nation in broad daylight, what would the rest of the nations think?
It could shake their faith in the entire system.
Of course, it's not like something like that never happened—Doflamingo pulled it off.
But he was a former Celestial Dragon. Crocodile's got nothing like that going for him.
Crocodile knew that too. That's why he told his people he wanted to create a "paradise," when really he was after the secret of Pluton.
At this point, even without Bai Ye spelling it out, Mr. 2 started to feel that something was definitely off.
"Was Mr. 0 planning to use us as cannon fodder?"
Crocodile's plan was never particularly subtle, and now that Bai Ye had laid it bare…
Mr. 2 wasn't excited like he was in the original story. He was starting to think about his next move.
Muttering to himself, he finally looked up at Bai Ye.
"So, little brother… why are you helping Princess Vivi?"
His eyes were full of curiosity.
"Crocodile's bounty might not be as high as yours, but if you think that means you're stronger than him, you might be in for a nasty surprise."
Mr. 2 had calmed down quite a bit. He even had the energy to throw Bai Ye a flirty wink:
"If you just charge in like this, you're gonna die~"
"....."