"Captain..."
When the sandstorm that had raged for hours finally ended,
the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which had likewise circled in the sky for hours, brought Robin down.
Seeing Crocodile, unconscious, carried down from the air by Karl, Robin asked uncertainly, "Is he dead?"
"No. I held back."
Karl shook his head, then flashed Robin a grin. "We're working with them for Alabasta's history, right? A living man is sometimes more valuable than a dead one. In a bit I'll hand Crocodile and his crimes over to the Nefertari royal family and demand they give me what I want—and what you want. Otherwise I'll release Crocodile."
"At that point they'll be facing me as an enemy instead of an ally, and a Warlord with his mask torn off. I'm sure they'll compromise."
"I see..."
Robin nodded slightly in realization.
"Let's go! Little White, we're heading to Rainbase first."
Karl casually tossed Crocodile onto the Blue-Eyes White Dragon's back, then lifted Robin in his arms and leapt up, speaking as he went.
"Rooaaar..."
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon let out a roar that shook all beneath it and streaked upward as a white bolt.
Diving straight into Rainbase, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon made a high-profile landing on the roof of Rain Dinners.
Smashing a window into Crocodile's office, and with Robin's help, Karl not only found evidence of Crocodile's purchases of Dance Powder and his plot to seize the throne, but also swept up the treasure.
After the sweep, Karl and Robin rode the Blue-Eyes White Dragon straight for Alubarna.
With the dragon's peerless speed, they crossed the vast desert in only a few minutes and reached the capital of the Kingdom of Alabasta.
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon descended from the heavens and alighted on an open space within the royal palace.
As if word had already been passed from above, Karl's high-profile arrival did not bring a military encirclement.
On the contrary, under the protection of Pell in his Falcon form and Chaka the Jackal, Princess Vivi and King Cobra quickly appeared before Karl.
"Princess Vivi, we meet again."
Karl raised a hand in greeting to Vivi, then set his gaze on Cobra and smiled. "And you must be the reigning king of Alabasta."
"Sir Dragon Knight, your name precedes you."
Cobra's eyes did not first fall on Karl, for his attention was seized by the Blue-Eyes White Dragon—and by Crocodile, flung from its back and lying at their feet, battered and of unknown life or death.
Seeing one of the seven Government-sanctioned pirates, a man of calamity-level might, sprawled wretchedly before him, Cobra in his heart raised Karl's threat level to that of a Warlord of the Sea.
Thus, he replied to Karl's greeting in an extremely cordial tone.
Unbeknownst to him, every flicker of his emotions was within Karl's perception.
Seeing the king cowed, Karl nodded inwardly.
It looked like getting what he wanted from a smart man wouldn't be as difficult as expected.
After the greetings, Cobra very warmly invited Karl, Robin, and the dragon into the palace and ordered that a banquet be prepared for Karl—
even though one had just ended not long before.
Before the banquet began, Cobra led Karl and Robin to a salon reserved for honored guests.
Within were only Karl, Robin, the little dragon,
and Cobra, Vivi, and Pell.
As for Chaka...
he was tasked with taking Crocodile below to be imprisoned.
"King Cobra, here is the evidence from my deal with Princess Vivi—and Crocodile's crimes."
As soon as they sat, Karl took a file from Robin and passed it to Cobra. "It includes proof that Crocodile founded the criminal syndicate Baroque Works, records of his black-market purchases of Dance Powder, and evidence of his intent to overthrow the Alabasta throne."
"?!"
At this, Cobra and Princess Vivi—and Pell behind them—were all visibly shaken.
Though they knew Crocodile must have had an ulterior motive for using Dance Powder in Alubarna,
they had never imagined his true goal was to replace the Nefertari royal line and seize the kingdom.
Taking the file from Karl, Cobra read carefully, his face darkening with every page.
It wasn't just text; Robin had attached invoices, photographs, and more...
Clearly, Karl's evidence was real.
Crocodile, one of the seven Government-recognized pirates, had built a heroic image in Rainbase not to wash his hands and go straight, but to take a nation.
And the file didn't just show his crimes; it laid out later phases of the plan.
When Cobra and Vivi read that Crocodile had not only used Dance Powder in Alubarna to cause drought in surrounding cities, but also planned to intensify the drought with his fruit power and destroy a city to incite rebellion, their faces were equal parts shock and fear.
After reading, Cobra raised his eyes to Karl's smiling face and felt a headache coming on.
The value of this evidence, to the Nefertari line, was enough to affect the very standing of their crown.
According to Karl's deal with Vivi, Cobra had to pay recompense equal in value to this file.
And that's aside from the reward for defeating Crocodile...
Beyond the throne itself, Cobra had nothing of comparable worth.
He couldn't help but fret and worry.
What must he pay Karl?
If Karl's demands were excessive, could he refuse?
The latter concern meant Cobra never even considered reneging.
It wasn't in his nature to repay grace with spite—even if Karl had forced the deal upon Vivi.
As the king of a rare superpower, Cobra knew that monsters like the Warlords were not something numbers alone could defeat.
If Karl could defeat a Warlord, then he could not be fought.
So reneging was impossible.
Cobra could only pray Karl wouldn't open a lion's maw.
"Sir Dragon Knight, you have my deepest thanks."
Cobra stood and, as a king of a great nation, bowed to Karl with genuine gratitude. "With this evidence, Mary Geoise will strip Crocodile of his title. You've not only saved the Nefertari line, you've saved the tens of millions of Alabastans."
"Please state what you want; whatever it is, I will muster the strength of the nation to fulfill it."
The art of his words left both Karl and Robin with a favorable impression.
Appreciating Cobra's tact, Karl answered with a gentle smile and, using an honorific, said, "Your Majesty, what I want may involve secrets of the Nefertari house. Could your guard withdraw for now?"
"Your Majesty..."
Pell's face shifted, and he looked tensely at Cobra.
"Pell, stand down..."
Before Pell could voice his concerns, Cobra raised a hand to cut him off. "Though I have great faith in your strength, I must admit—if Sir Dragon Knight intends to strike me, you and Chaka would be of no use here."
"!"
Hearing this, Pell lowered his head, shame and unwillingness on his face, and withdrew.
As the one who had just investigated who Crocodile was fighting, and who had seen the calamity-like power of Karl and Crocodile with his own eyes, Pell understood their gap even better than Cobra did.
As the kingdom's foremost warrior, trained from youth to protect the Nefertaris, he loathed his weakness all the more for being unable to shield king and princess.
Once Pell had left, Cobra looked at Karl and said solemnly, "Sir Dragon Knight, what secrets of my Nefertari house do you speak of?"
"Before that, let me introduce someone."
Karl set a hand on Robin's shoulder. "This is my crewmate—and the one who helped gather Crocodile's crimes. Her name should not be unfamiliar to Your Majesty—Nico Robin."
"Nico Robin? That name..."
As Karl said, both Cobra and Vivi felt the name was familiar.
Then Cobra's eyes widened slightly as he looked at Robin in surprise. "That child who shocked the world back then?"
"The Devil's Child, Nico Robin..."
Vivi's eyes opened a touch wider as she took in the unlikely pairing of bounty hunter and wanted woman.
A powerful bounty hunter and a Government-wanted criminal...
Such a combination was a shock to Vivi, who hadn't yet traveled the world.
As Karl revealed her identity, Robin nodded politely to Cobra and Vivi with a beautiful smile.
"As compensation for forcing that deal on Princess Vivi, I won't ask the sky. I only want two payments..."
With introductions done, Karl stated his aims. "One for helping defeat Crocodile; the other for preempting his plot and providing the damning evidence Mary Geoise can use to strip him of his title."
"Reasonable terms," Cobra nodded, waiting for Karl's next words.
But what came next made his face change.
"For the first payment, my crewmate is to read the Nefertari royal history." Karl raised one finger and smiled.
"..."
Cobra had known Karl's request wouldn't be simple.
But he hadn't thought Karl's opening ask would be the records the family had guarded for centuries—those that mention one of the three Ancient Weapons, Pluton.
If it were anyone else, he would have no issue allowing a look.
Because he could be sure they wouldn't understand it.
But seated beside the boy was one of the few in the world who could read the ancient script—an Ohara survivor.
What Karl sought was, without disguise, Pluton's secret.
Cobra fell into a quandary.
Should he agree?
Could he refuse?
He glanced at Karl's unchanging smile and suddenly paused.
In introducing Nico Robin, Karl had not hidden her identity. Openly presenting her and only then asking to view the history—
Perhaps that forthrightness meant...
he wasn't an evildoer coveting Pluton.
Cobra drew a deep breath and nodded. "Very well. I agree."
"Thank you very much!"
At his nod, Robin—who had kept her composure—finally showed excitement, stood, and bowed in thanks.
Karl patted the excited Robin's shoulder, then glanced at Vivi, who had been quietly listening, and said to Cobra with a meaningful smile, "Your Majesty truly is magnanimous. Then please have the princess escort Robin to the records. As for the second payment, I'd like a private word with Your Majesty."
"No problem!"
Seeing his guest's lack of ardor for the history itself, Cobra felt a boulder lift from his heart.
He nodded without hesitation, leaned close to his daughter's ear, and whispered instructions.
"Leave it to me, Father!"
Vivi nodded solemnly, then gave Karl a polite curtsey and led Robin from the hall.
Within Karl's perception, Pell—waiting outside—moved in step with Vivi and Robin.
While Chaka, who had previously left, took Pell's place.
"Rest easy, Your Majesty."
Drawing his senses back, Karl faced Cobra. "I have no interest whatsoever in Pluton, the weapon your house has guarded. My true purpose in Alabasta is another secret of the Nefertaris! Therefore, my second payment is..."
"..."
Cobra's eyes widened again, his pupils pinpricking from sheer shock.
Whether his astonishment was at Karl's knowledge that the history recorded Pluton, or at Karl's following words,
he fell into an even longer silence... and dilemma.
Late at night.
After enjoying the banquet laid on by the Nefertaris, Karl and Robin declined Cobra's invitation to lodge and left Alubarna on the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
On the dragon's back, seeing Karl heft a black stone coffin, Robin asked curiously, "So the Nefertari family really has a way to pass Devil Fruits down the generations?"
"Ah... perhaps."
Karl nodded first, then glanced at the black coffin and added, uncertain, "The king said quite a lot; his emotions stayed steady—he wasn't lying."
"But this inheritance method doesn't seem to be one hundred percent."
"Karl set the black coffin down and sighed. "The Nefertaris do have a technique—but it only raises the odds that when a Devil Fruit user dies, the fruit's power will reconstitute nearby."
"Oh??" Robin pressed, intrigued.
"When a Devil Fruit user dies, sometimes the ability lodges in a nearby piece of fruit and is reborn directly."
Karl patted the coffin. "The Nefertari method is, when the user is on their last breath, to place them into this special coffin—left by who-knows-how-long-ago—and fill it with fruit, thereby increasing the chance the ability will inhabit one of them."
"Sometimes luck is good and the fruit is reborn right inside the coffin."
"Sometimes it resurfaces somewhere in Alubarna and is found or bought by the standing army."
"Sometimes it rebirths in another city of Alabasta, but because the royal forces are strong and the people revere the Falcon and the Jackal, those two Fruits end up back in the Nefertaris' hands."
"If someone has already eaten a Fruit, they'll be recruited by various means—turned into 'our people.'"
After finishing, Karl's mouth quirked. "The one piece of good news: with each generation, those two Fruits always respawn on Sandy Island."
"Keeping an ability rebirth within a set region..."
Staring at the black coffin, Robin marveled, "So the Nefertaris really have such a technique—the heritage of a human ancient kingdom?"
Karl only smiled.
Such a technique is indeed powerful here.
But with Vegapunk in Mary Geoise, not only raising respawn odds—even artificial Fruits and transferring powers into objects are no problem.
Beyond that scientist five hundred years ahead of his time, the Dark-Dark Fruit could even make that chance one hundred percent.
For Karl, a traveler, this unstable method was, in fact, behind the times.
But for his upcoming plans, it was more than enough…
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