You're No Match for Gaara

"Is that all?"

"That's a little too weak!"

"Back in our village, people loved a kid who played with sand. I think even his sand was stronger than yours."

Brando said with a look of disdain.

Who were they trying to scare with something like this? Gaara had Auto Counter when he was little, you know?

This was painstakingly cultivated by the people of the village.

Even the vegetables that were so hard to come by in the desert had to be used to help Gaara train this counter technique. Some even gave their lives for it. This was the hard work of the village people!

"It seems you're completely brain-damaged."

"Though I don't know how the Celestial Dragons fell into your hands, I'll be taking your head."

Crocodile felt like he was putting on a show for a blind man.

This brat wasn't afraid at all. It was as if he had no idea who he was facing.

So Crocodile's patience had run out. He wasn't planning to waste any more time. He would kill him quickly, then go back to slaughter pirates and farm Alabasta reputation with the World Government.

"Are you really that good at talking big?"

"When Whitebeard defeated you, did his first punch hit you in the mouth, leaving you unable to surrender?"

As Brando spoke, he lowered his body, his right hand gripping the hilt of the sword at his waist. His eyes shifted into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

The moment Crocodile heard Whitebeard's name, he was instantly triggered. His breathing quickened, his pupils dilated, and he couldn't suppress his rage.

"What the fuck do you know!"

Crocodile cursed outright.

"Iai: One Flash!"

Brando immediately unleashed his brute-force swordsmanship.

So-called iai meant that the harder one drew the sword, the stronger its cutting power. And One Flash meant that the faster one was, the faster one could draw the sword and cut someone down.

It was swordsmanship with no technique, only raw stats.

Crocodile's body was sliced cleanly in half at the waist. His upper body flew into the air, but the cross-sections of his upper and lower halves contained no organs or blood vessels—only sand.

"You ignorant brat, Whitebeard is the strongest man on these seas!"

"Though losing to Whitebeard was hard for me to accept, it isn't a disgrace. It's a necessary path toward becoming the strongest on these seas!"

Crocodile's upper body floated in midair.

Yet he didn't attack immediately. Instead, he shouted with intense emotion.

He had lived for over thirty years, and his only defeat had been at Whitebeard's hands. How could that not have left a deep impression on him?

And after defeating him, that man had even extended a hand and asked him to become his son!

Who could ever forget such humiliation?

"You want to pursue strength too?"

"You're so scared that you hid here in Paradise, too afraid to stay in the New World. You're just a coward, aren't you? It's fine to admit you can't beat Whitebeard, the strongest, but if you still can't beat the other Four Emperors afterward, wouldn't that be humiliating? It proves you have no qualifications to compete for the title of strongest."

Seeing Crocodile rage to the point of boiling over, Brando stopped attacking.

That strike just now had been a test of Crocodile's reaction speed.

Now, seeing Crocodile seethe with rage made Brando feel even better. This was exactly what he wanted to see.

His words should have this kind of power.

Crocodile was someone who used his brain, but Whitebeard was the one subject on which he could never stay calm.

"What could trash like you possibly understand!"

Crocodile was furious.

But he didn't want to reveal his plans.

"Yes, yes, you understand. You understand everything."

"You understand that you can't beat the Four Emperors, so you hide in this poor country, where you can barely see a drop of water. You bully rookies entering the Grand Line from the Four Seas, then put on a hard-working act to beg the World Government for a little dog food, right?"

Brando nodded, looking as though everything Crocodile said was right.

But his next sentence made Crocodile completely lose control.

"Die!"

Crocodile abruptly swung his right hand downward.

His right hand transformed entirely into sand mid-swing, rapidly expanding into a massive sand blade that slashed down at Brando.

But Brando easily dodged with the Body Flicker Technique.

The desert beneath them, however, was cleaved open into a fissure dozens of meters long and two to three meters deep.

"See? I hit the nail on the head, and now you're panicking."

Brando made G.E.M.'s finger-pointing expression and burst out laughing.

Crocodile's face had gone so red it was nearly black, dark enough to drip water. At the same time, he controlled his upper and lower body to join back together.

"I'll make you die in the most painful way possible. I'll squeeze every last drop of water from your body!!!"

Crocodile's emotional fluctuations were now enough for an ordinary Uchiha to awaken the Sharingan.

At this moment, he felt that this person before him deserved to die even more than Whitebeard.

"Talking big again, Crocodile."

"You can fool others, but don't fool yourself. A guy like you who only knows how to run away will never defeat Whitebeard for the rest of your life."

"Of course, that includes me."

Brando grinned, then pointed at himself with Vegeta's defeated gesture.

Crocodile no longer wanted to respond. He felt that the moment he first saw this guy, he should have killed him instantly. Even if ordinary people got caught up in it, so what? The World Government would clean up after him anyway.

He was really pissed off now!

"Sables!!"

Following Crocodile's fury,

a sandstorm immediately rose around them. Vast amounts of fine sand were swept into the air, and visibility in the area rapidly dropped.

Crocodile had also realized that this brat was incredibly fast. All he needed to do was restrict and slow him down, then wear him to death here.

This country's environment was the perfect world for him to fight in!

When Crocodile learned that the ancient weapon Pluton was in this country, he had felt it was fate. Pluton had been waiting for his arrival—the ancient weapon meant for him alone!

"Hakoku!"

Brando curled his lips into a smile and swung the one-hundred-thousand-Beli sword in his hand with all his strength.

The powerful shockwave instantly destroyed the sandstorm that had just formed. Brando's Sharingan had locked onto the storm's center, and the shockwave shattered its rotating core. The sandstorm immediately collapsed, with sand falling like a fine rain.

However, the sword in his hand was also destroyed by Hakoku's force, twisting into a shape like a braided rope. Ordinary weapons simply couldn't withstand such power.

"You weren't planning to use that soft, weak ability against Whitebeard, were you?"

"It seems the rumors about you on the black market are true. I heard they came from an okama, who said you used to be a woman. After losing to Whitebeard, you fell in love with him, but couldn't accept it, so you had that okama turn you into a man."

Brando recalled a rumor he had seen online back then and immediately used it to make things up.

"Ivankov!!"

Crocodile's fury burned hotter as he gritted his teeth and shouted the okama's name.