"So Robin really is in Alabasta?"
Kuro pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose out of habit, a mysterious smile appearing in his eyes. "Who knows? We might have a run-in with a certain Shichibukai."
Lucci glanced at the Desert Giant Crabs Ye Chen had just knocked flat with the Lion's Roar and smiled too. The desert reminded him of someone: Crocodile, whose Sand-Sand Fruit powers made him a force to reckon with here.
Things were different from when Luffy had encountered Crocodile. Back then, Luffy had neither known who Crocodile was nor that he had the powers of the Sand-Sand Fruit.
Ye Chen, on the other hand, had attended the Reverie and learned a little about each of the other Shichibukai.
Besides, he had the unfathomably clever Kuro of a Hundred Plans and Lucci, a prodigy assassin from CP9, among his companions. Ye Chen was hardly ignorant of Crocodile.
He patted Binchy on the head. "Don't worry. We'll find Robin. Oh, and you like smoking, don't you? We'll make sure you have plenty."
Binchy nodded. "That's more like it," he said. "Young people these days hardly ever respect their elders."
With a disgruntled sigh, Binchy recalled everything he had endured lately.
Since parting from Robin, Binchy had made a living carrying passengers back and forth across the desert. When it wasn't Pirates, it was Sand Thieves roaming wherever they pleased. He had taken plenty of beatings, and most of what he earned had been stolen. Some people had refused to pay him a single coin. Whenever Binchy argued, they either cursed him or hit him. It had been miserable.
Once Smoker heard that Binchy was Robin's pet, he warmed to him considerably and generously gave him half his Cigars.
Puffing away, Binchy regaled everyone with tales of