Winning Their Hearts
Bon Clay's phone call had been deeply unpleasant. Crocodile's lofty attitude had been truly irritating, making Leo seem exceptionally pleasant by comparison.
Although Bon Clay had already decided to betray him upon hearing Ivankov's name, comparing the way the two spoke to him and treated him made even his betrayal feel entirely justified.
After hanging up, Crocodile cursed Bon Clay as useless. He had placed high hopes on him, yet he had never expected him to lose just like that.
With a vicious look in his eyes, he dialed another number. Losing was one thing, but Bon Clay actually had the nerve to stay alive and call him to ask what he should do?
What should he do? Naturally, he should die together with these intruders.
Crocodile had never regarded Bon Clay—or Baroque Works—as anything particularly important.
In the original story, he only gathered his high-ranking agents and gave them orders at crucial points in his plan. Before that, they did not even know who their boss was.
In other words, Crocodile had never considered them his trusted subordinates, much less his own people.
They truly were nothing but tools. When Mr. 3 failed his mission, Crocodile immediately drained him dry and threw him to the crocodiles.
They were all tools. Whether Mr. 3 was replaced by Mr. 2 or Mr. 1 made no difference. They were merely Crocodile's tools, nothing more.
If a tool stopped being useful, he destroyed it.
Why would he ever consider rescuing a tool?
There was clearly something wrong with Crocodile's way of thinking, and the Straw Hat Pirates would later prove exactly where it led.
Just as the saying went: scattered, they were stars across the sky; gathered, they were a pile of...
Crocodile believed in going it alone, yet needed