Chapter 358: A New Situation

Chapter 358: Chapter 358: A New Situation

Chapter 358: A New Situation

The sudden tremor made Robin’s expression change.

She turned sharply toward the source.

Whether it was good luck or bad, she had deliberately chosen a remote route away from Rain Dinners, only for Crocodile to be driven into the ground not far from her position.

The sight of Crocodile being overwhelmed surprised her, but that was all.

Their relationship had never been one of loyalty.

From the beginning, they had merely been using each other.

Crocodile wanted her ability to decipher Poneglyphs.

Robin wanted access to the information and resources he possessed.

His survival was not her responsibility.

In fact, Vivi discovering Crocodile’s identity had not been entirely accidental. Robin herself had allowed certain clues to slip through. Without that help, an inexperienced princess would have found it far harder to uncover a conspiracy that had remained hidden for years.

Robin had always been prepared to betray Crocodile eventually.

She turned to leave.

Then Axel pulled his wooden blade from the ground.

The earth collapsed.

Robin lost her footing instantly.

The ground beneath her had been shattered so thoroughly that it resembled timber hollowed out by insects. Entire layers of soil gave way at once.

Gravity dragged her down.

Robin lowered her body and activated the Flower-Flower Fruit.

Arms bloomed around her, linking together into a protective shell in preparation for the impact.

The impact never came.

Instead, the arms surrounding her disappeared as something caught her around the waist.

Warmth pressed against her side.

Robin stiffened.

Years spent surviving in the Underworld had made her instinctively wary of physical contact. Being grabbed without warning felt less like rescue and more like having a blade pressed against her throat.

She opened her eyes.

Axel was holding her.

Although "holding" was generous.

He had simply tucked her beneath one arm like a piece of luggage.

Robin looked down at herself, then at him.

This was certainly not the elegant sort of rescue people wrote about in romantic stories.

Still, it worked.

Why?

Why save her at all?

As though he had read the question from her expression, Axel said,

"Consider it repayment for the wine."

He paused.

"And I need your help with something."

Robin relaxed slightly.

That answer was much easier to trust.

Someone who wanted something from her made sense.

Someone helping her for no reason did not.

"What do you need?"

Axel did not answer.

He simply tossed her toward the intact ground beyond the collapsing area.

Robin expected to be hurled in a normal arc.

Instead, her body drifted through the air almost weightlessly before landing gently on stable ground.

She turned back.

Axel remained standing above the ruined terrain.

Or rather, he seemed to stand on it.

His body barely placed any weight on the shattered surface beneath his feet.

His attention was fixed below.

Finding Crocodile while he was fully elementalized was difficult.

Once transformed into sand, there was almost no meaningful physical distinction between Crocodile and the surrounding desert.

Even Axel’s magnetic perception only caught intermittent traces.

But those traces had not disappeared.

Crocodile was still nearby.

And the constant movement beneath the ground told Axel something else.

He was alive.

Then Crocodile’s voice came from below.

"Erosion Cycle!"

The ground changed.

Moisture vanished from the earth.

Stone and soil dried, cracked, and crumbled into sand at terrifying speed.

Every grain seemed to tremble.

The effect spread outward even faster than before.

The ground beneath Axel disappeared instantly.

He fell.

Robin was caught as well.

Buildings around her began collapsing as the expanding sea of sand swallowed their foundations.

She immediately sprouted arms along nearby surfaces, trying to create handholds and platforms.

It was not enough.

The current of sand dragged everything toward the collapsing center.

Her manifested arms tore free one after another.

Pain shot through her body.

Robin gritted her teeth.

Destroying arms created by the Flower-Flower Fruit transmitted pain back to her.

Pain itself was nothing new.

She had lived with it for most of her life.

Ohara.

The Buster Call.

The bounty placed on her while she was still a child.

Years spent being hunted, betrayed, used, and discarded.

Pain was familiar.

But familiarity did not make her Devil Fruit limitless.

One by one, the arms failed.

Robin sank into the sand.

Her legs disappeared first.

Then her waist.

The dense mass pressed around her like armor made of stone.

She struggled once.

Then stopped.

The sand reached her chest.

Her shoulders.

Her neck.

Perhaps this isn’t so bad.

The thought came quietly.

If I die here...

At least the nightmare ends.

Her eyes began to dim.

A hand suddenly reached into the sand.

Then Robin was ripped free with ridiculous ease.

Axel pulled her out as though she weighed nothing.

"You’re really troublesome."

His tone sounded annoyed.

His face did not.

Robin stared at him.

"Thank you."

The words came out before she could stop them.

For a moment, even she seemed surprised.

Thank you.

It had been a long time since those words had come naturally.

Most people who approached Nico Robin wanted her bounty, her knowledge, or her death.

Even alliances were simply different forms of mutual exploitation.

She had forgotten what it felt like to be helped without betrayal immediately following behind.

Axel gave her a strange look.

"What are you saying?"

"I already told you."

"I need your help."

He adjusted his grip.

"So don’t start acting like I did something noble."

Robin blinked.

Then Axel added,

"And don’t hand out good-person labels without permission."

Robin looked genuinely confused.

A good-person label?

Was that some kind of card?

Something like a Vivre Card?

Before she could ask, Axel threw her again.

This time much farther away.

Robin landed safely at the edge of the affected area.

The sand below suddenly surged.

A storm rose from the lifeless ground as though the desert itself had awakened.

Wind screamed.

Sand filled the air.

Visibility collapsed almost instantly.

A human shape formed within the storm.

Crocodile.

His condition was considerably worse than before.

Axel’s attacks had broken at least two of his ribs, and several other bones were cracked badly enough that even Crocodile could feel the damage clearly.

Pain fed his anger.

And beneath that anger was pride.

"Kill him..."

His body dissolved further into the storm.

Then he struck.

"Desert Spada!"

A huge crescent blade of compressed sand tore through the storm from behind Axel.

It was one of Crocodile’s signature attacks.

The sand blade did not merely cut.

Anything it touched could have its moisture stripped away.

The attack struck cleanly.

Crocodile’s eyes widened.

The blade passed through Axel’s body.

Yet there was no resistance.

No blood.

No sensation of moisture being drained.

Then a voice came from behind him.

"Surprised?"

Crocodile turned.

"There’s something called Observation Haki."

The Axel he had struck was only an illusion.

A false image created by bending and refracting light.

The moment Crocodile released his killing intent, Axel had already noticed him.

While the illusion remained in place, the real Axel had moved behind him.

This time, Crocodile had no chance to elementalize.

The wooden blade struck.

Armament Haki covered it.

Slash after slash landed across Crocodile’s body.

Blood sprayed.

Compressed force tore into him alongside the blade.

The final strike launched him across the sand.

Crocodile rolled for dozens of meters, leaving a dark trail of blood behind him.

Axel walked forward.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Crocodile lay on the ground, unable even to properly turn himself into sand.

Axel did not relax.

The Sand-Sand Fruit remained dangerous.

His Reflection was powerful, but it was not absolute.

Anything he could not properly understand or calculate remained a potential threat.

Crocodile’s ability to drain moisture was especially troublesome.

Axel was not confident Reflection could safely stop it.

That meant Crocodile could still kill him if given the right opportunity.

Axel had no intention of leaving that possibility alive.

He stopped at a safe distance.

Raised the wooden blade.

And prepared to finish it.

"You can’t kill him!"

Axel frowned.

He knew that voice.

He immediately pulled back and widened the distance between himself and Crocodile before looking toward the approaching figure.

A tall woman was running toward them.

Pink hair.

Marine officer’s uniform.

Colonel Hina.

Axel was both surprised and unsurprised to see the Marines.

A rebellion involving hundreds of thousands of people could not possibly escape the attention of Marine intelligence forever.

Especially not in a country connected to one of the Seven Warlords.

Someone was bound to investigate.

Hina finally reached him.

She was breathing hard.

Seeing Axel had stopped, she visibly relaxed.

Then she pulled out a cigarette, lit it, took several drags, and almost immediately threw it to the ground and crushed it beneath her heel.

The contradictory action betrayed more of her mood than her expression did.

A Marine officer was negotiating with a wanted criminal.

Even if that wanted criminal had once worn a Marine uniform himself, Hina did not like the situation.

"You cannot kill him."

She repeated the warning.

Axel stared at her.

He said nothing.

Hina could not tell what he was thinking.

Her only meaningful contact with Axel had been during training under Zephyr, when he had still been a Marine.

She remembered him clearly.

Mostly because he had been the strange brat capable of giving Smoker endless trouble.

Beyond that, she did not know him well.

The only thing she could now add with certainty was that he had become terrifyingly strong.

Axel finally broke the silence.

"That old man didn’t come with you, did he?"

Hina blinked.

Then understood immediately.

"Vice Admiral Garp?"

"Yes."

"No. He is not part of this operation."

Axel relaxed slightly.

"Hina is responsible for the investigation."

Axel looked at her.

"A colonel handling a rebellion involving an entire country?"

He shook his head.

"Should I call the Marines confident or stupid?"

Hina’s expression tightened.

She had never enjoyed hearing the Marines insulted.

"Hina is only here to investigate."

"There is no need for a higher-ranking officer at this stage."

Axel ignored the protest.

"What do I get for stopping?"

Hina paused.

He was not asking why the Marines wanted Crocodile alive.

That reason meant nothing to him.

He wanted something that made stopping worthwhile.

Hina understood.

Before answering, she said,

"I have a message for you."

Axel waited.

"Instructor Zephyr wants you to return."

His expression changed slightly.

Hina continued,

"No matter what mistakes you’ve made."

"He still hopes you’ll come back."

A heavy feeling settled over Axel.

He did not answer verbally.

He simply shook his head.

Hina sighed.

Someone with Axel’s strength returning to the Marines would have changed a great deal.

But his answer was clear.

She moved on.

"Crocodile cannot die right now."

Axel glanced toward the wounded Warlord.

"Why?"

"If one of the Seven Warlords dies at this moment, it could trigger a larger conflict at sea."

Axel’s eyes narrowed.

That did not make sense under ordinary circumstances.

The death of a Warlord alone should not be enough to start a major war.

Unless something had changed elsewhere.

Unless the balance involving the Warlords had already become unstable.

One name immediately came to mind.

"Doflamingo?"

Hina’s eyes widened.

For the first time since arriving, she looked genuinely stunned.

"Vice Admiral Tsuru said you would probably guess the general reason."

She stared at him.

"Hina did not expect you to guess it that quickly."

The information had been sealed tightly.

Only senior Marine officers should have known.

Axel could not have received it through ordinary channels.

He had simply deduced it.

Hina took a moment to recover.

Then she finally delivered the message she had been sent to give.

"Vice Admiral Tsuru ordered Hina to stop you from causing any further trouble in Alabasta."

She paused.

"And there is something else."

Axel waited.

"Doflamingo’s forces have been defeated."

His expression sharpened.

Hina finished,

"The person responsible..."

"Was Issho."

....

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