The first half of the Grand Line,
Alabasta.
Hiss...
A cigar was slowly lit, its ember glowing in an office high above the ground.
A gloomy-faced man looked down at the scenery outside the window. Yellow sand swirled through the sky, as if foretelling something.
"You must have heard. The one causing such a stir on the Grand Line lately—I heard many Work Agency officers fell at his hands."
The voice came out of nowhere. One of the great figures of these seas, one of the Shichibukai whose name alone could intimidate an entire region—
Sir Crocodile turned around and looked at the beautiful woman with straight black hair seated on the sofa, reading a book. There was not the slightest hint of desire in his eyes, only calculation and ruthlessness.
Judging from his tone,
a pirate with a bounty of thirty million was nothing more than that in his eyes.
"Mm~ I heard he's quite an unusual man."
Watching Crocodile stand by the window in his coat, silently smoking his cigar with the air of a big shot, Robin's expression was full of probing intent, as though she wanted to see how this Boss would react.
But unfortunately...
The man who had forced her into cooperation showed no change in expression.
"Perhaps..."
Crocodile took a puff of his cigar, the ember flickering in the air for a moment.
"But... that's all he is."
Beside him, a large yellow crocodile slowly crawled over, with a banana-shaped crest atop its head.
At the very beginning, Austin had used Sand Crocodile as a symbol for him, so he later really did keep an earthy-yellow crocodile.
"Maybe in a little place like the East Blue, or in the first half of the Grand Line, he's barely worth looking at."
Nico Robin's tone was