"Luffy!!!"
"I'll be waiting for you in Alubarna! Waiting for you! Waiting for you!"
"Okay—"
Amid the vast desert at sunset, the shouts of a boy and a girl suddenly rang out.
They also drew the attention of Garp, Bullet, and the others once more.
Especially toward the two shadowy figures standing with their backs to the setting sun.
Crocodile and Nico Robin.
Naturally, they did not recognize Robin. Their attention was focused more on the former.
"Hehe, Princess Vivi got away~"
"No matter which route she takes, she's heading to Alubarna. Go contact them."
"Okay, Boss~"
After glancing at Luffy, Nico Robin turned and left, leaving the two alone to speak amid the wind and sand.
"Your joke went a little too far, Straw Hat Luffy."
With a cigar clenched between his teeth, Crocodile looked down at him with a gloomy expression.
Luffy rolled over and sat cross-legged on the still-warm sand. Holding down his straw hat, he lowered his head and replied,
"That girl... even though she's weak herself, she still wants to save everyone."
"She can't let go of anything, so she's always suffering."
"She even hopes no one will die in this rebellion."
Garp, who was watching from nearby as though viewing a live broadcast, looked surprised.
He had not expected Luffy to say something so mature.
Then again, the real Luffy was only five, while this one was already seventeen.
"No one dies?"
Completely unaware that he was being watched, Crocodile sneered.
"That sure sounds nice. That naive fool who wants peace doesn't understand what real combat is."
"You think so too, don't you?"
"Yeah."
Then, beneath the crimson clouds filling the sky, Luffy slowly rose to his feet and calmly met Crocodile's gaze.
"But she said that as long as you're still around, she'll