"Those idiots!"
Rainbase, Rain Dinners.
The sand crocodile, Crocodile, angrily kicked over the table in front of him.
He had just received a call from Miss Doublefinger, informing him about what had happened not long ago at the Spider Café...
Hadn’t he already told them not to provoke that Hunter?! The other party clearly hadn’t even planned on bothering with them, and yet they stupidly went up to him on their own! And to make matters worse, the one leading them was Mr. 1...
Crocodile felt a suffocating pressure in his chest, like blood was stuck inside, wanting to spit it out but unable to.
Among all the subordinates in Baroque Works, the only one he truly valued was Daz Bones. Strong, obedient, straightforward, without any ssy hobbies.
Among that group of monsters and freaks in Baroque Works, Mr. 1 was absolutely the one Crocodile thought most highly of.
And yet, who would have thought that such a "useful" subordinate in his eyes would actually harbor dissatisfaction toward Sherwin...
And then, that was the end of it.
As for Mr. 5, who got taken out along the way, Crocodile didn’t care in the slightest. In his eyes, a subordinate of Mr. 5 level could be recruited again easily. Dead was dead.
But the circumstances under which Mr. 5 was taken down were what really concerned the sand crocodile...
"Conqueror Haki, huh? Hmph!"
Lacking the "qualification of a king," Crocodile was extrely jealous of Sherwin.
Of course, he had completely misunderstood who the true wielder of Conqueror Haki was.
But things like Conqueror Haki weren’t the most important issue. To the sand crocodile, the most crucial question right now was...
Had Sherwin noticed the existence of Baroque Works?
After calming down, Crocodile recalled the contents of Miss Doublefinger recent report and realized that things didn’t seem to be as bad as he had first imagined.
First of all, Sherwin and his group hadn’t intended to cause trouble in the beginning. If not for discovering that Daz Bones had a bounty on him, he wouldn’t even have been interested in responding to Mr. 1 provocation.
Moreover, it was unlikely that he knew the Spider Café was a Baroque Works stronghold, so it was basically safe to rule out the possibility that Sherwin had deliberately sought them out.
Secondly, Sherwin must have noticed, at least to so degree, that so of the people present were connected or acquainted.
But Sherwin hadn’t completely wiped them out—likely because he disdained to bother with them.
This was very much in line with Crocodile understanding of certain powerful individuals. Of course, he himself always sneered at such behavior.
Lastly, since his plan had just recently completed its first stage, most of Baroque Works officers were in an idle state. Sherwin was essentially unlikely to target them because of the organization activities.
So...
"Was it just a coincidence?"
The cigar in Crocodile mouth snapped into two pieces from his bite.
Had he known it would co to this, he might as well have let Mr. 1 and the others continue operating outside!
Now he was forced to recruit new mbers again. Cannon fodder like Mr. 5 could be replaced easily, but a high-quality subordinate like Mr. 1 was not so easy to co by—especially when Crocodile still needed to keep his identity hidden.
Finding reliable followers under those conditions was even harder.
"Damn fools! Damn Hunter!"
Crocodile couldn’t help but vent his anger again, even starting to consider whether he should personally recruit a few more trusted subordinates like Nico Robin.
Of course, before that, he still had to deal with and observe Sherwin group, who would soon be arriving in Rainbase.
Although it was very likely they weren’t coming for him directly, the cautious Crocodile still intended to use the opportunity to test them.
After all, judging from Sherwin actions, it almost seed as if he was deliberately targeting Baroque Works.
A coincidence so seamless—it felt sowhat unnatural in itself.
Crocodile was a clever man, and clever n always tended to overthink.
So...
He picked up the unlucky Den Den Mushi that had been kicked to the ground along with the table and dialed a number.
"Send people imdiately to keep an eye on that Hunter group, and report to every day!"
...
"Brother Sherwin~"
Klee ow, who had just been running wildly through the desert, pounced in front of Sherwin, wrapped her arms around his thigh, and lifted her little head, staring up at him with sparkling starry eyes.
"There no one around here, and no other creatures either. It really empty, ow!"
The little plush doll underlying aning was already very obvious, but...
"This matter isn’t up to ."
Sherwin rubbed her little head, then tilted his chin toward Huai ow.
Klee ow small face stiffened slightly. She didn’t follow the direction Sherwin had indicated with his chin, but instead kept staring at him pitifully.
"Ahem..." Defeated in an instant, Sherwin cleared his throat, pulled out the Hunter Handbook, flipped to the map page, pointed at their current location, and tried to reason with Lord Scarlet Tigrex:
"Huai, look, we’re indeed pretty far from the city here. Why not just let Klee ow give it a try?"
"You’re just spoiling her, Admiral!"
Huai ow glared at Sherwin in annoyance, then turned her head to look at Klee ow, who was hiding behind Sherwin leg, carefully peeking out with half her face...
"So when you said you felt treasure in this direction, what you really ant was that you wanted a place to throw bombs, right, ow?"
"It not that at all, ow!" The little plush doll frantically waved her tiny paws in denial. "Klee really did sense the sll of treasure in this direction, I wasn’t lying, ow!"
Huai ow didn’t continue speaking. She just crossed her arms and calmly looked at Klee ow. Seeing that she truly didn’t show any signs of guilt, she finally nodded and said:
"Alright, in that case, you can go relax a bit. But even in the desert, rember to stay aware of your surroundings. Be careful not to drag so unlucky soul into it, ow."
"Don’t worry, Sister Huai! Klee knows her limits, ow!"
The little doll patted her chest, saying words that no one but herself would believe.
Then she happily bounced over to Haibara ow.
"Sis Ai, want to co with Klee to blow up sand, ow?"
The little kitten shook her head wildly, pulling out a bunch of instrunts from her bag. With a serious face, she said:
"I just happened to get so inspiration. I plan to run so experints, ow."
The little doll nodded in full agreent.
"When Klee gets inspiration, she also likes to rush off to experint right away, ow."
Sherwin watched the two dangerous little kittens exchanging like that, his teeth aching, and couldn’t help but remind them:
"Klee, if you’re going to throw bombs, you’d better hurry up. We still need to get moving later."
"Okay! Klee will go right now, ow!"
The little doll imdiately sprinted off toward the distant sand dunes.
Before long, bursts of explosions echoed from the direction Klee ow had run to. The sky in that area gradually turned a dusky yellow, as though a sandstorm had been stirred up.
After a while, the explosions slowly ceased, and Klee ow, covered from head to toe in yellow sand, ca back hopping and bouncing with great satisfaction.
"Sherwin Onii-chan~"
Klee ow leapt straight into Sherwin arms, transferring a good half of the sand from her body onto him...
"Ah! Klee didn’t an it, ow~"
(=＞＜=)
After rubbing against him for quite a while, the little doll finally realized the problem. She stuck out her tongue, shook off the rest of the sand on her body by turning elental, then quickly pulled out a shabby treasure chest and stuffed it into Sherwin hands.
"Klee just blew this out of the desert. It feels like sothing good, ow!"
Sherwin, half amused and half helpless, patted off the sand this mischievous one had sared on him.
Then, under the curious gazes of the other cats, he opened the treasure chest. Inside were three palm-sized bottles with a distinct Alabasta style.
Because the filling inside the chest was tightly packed, even though Klee ow bombs had reached it, the bottles inside were completely undamaged. They hadn’t even shifted, still resting neatly in their individual slots.
"Seems to be so kind of liquid."
Sherwin picked up one of the bottles and shook it. The sound of liquid sloshing inside ca through.
Haibara ow also ca over, picked up one of the bottles, pulled out the stopper, and sniffed it near her nose...
"It should be so sort of potion. I just don’t know if it spoiled, ow."
"Since it a potion, I’ll leave it to you, Ai," Sherwin said.
Naturally, Haibara ow wouldn’t refuse. Her research on Bloodline factors had been stalled due to the lack of proper equipnt aboard the ship.
Now that she had sothing new to tinker with to pass the ti, of course, it was the best outco.
"Sherwin Onii-chan," at this mont the little doll tugged at his pants, pointing in another direction, "Klee feels it again. It seems like there sothing good that way too, ow."
...
"A bunch of useless trash! Can’t even keep track of a single group!"
Still Rainbase, still the Rain Dinners.
Crocodile once again furiously kicked over the table in front of him. He was on the verge of exploding from anger at his utterly incompetent subordinates.
According to their reports, the reason they couldn’t keep tabs on the Hunter group was because their movents were completely unpredictable.
On top of that, they seed to be carrying a large supply of fresh water, so they had no need to resupply.
Worst of all, halfway through tailing them, a massive sandstorm had blocked their vision, and two of the trackers even got lost because of it...
"Truly a bunch of worthless trash!"
The more Crocodile thought about it, the angrier he beca. He kicked the overturned table hard again, and at last, the poor table could no longer endure his venting—it gave up completely.
"Even you’re useless trash!"
That only infuriated Crocodile more. He raised his foot and stomped madly on the shattered remains of the table.
After venting his rage by grinding the innocent furniture into a pile of splintered wood, he finally began to calm down.
But though he cald on the outside, the unease in his heart only grew heavier...
If Sherwin group behavior was just because they had discovered the tail, that was one thing. But if they were deliberately hiding their movents, then this was truly a huge problem!
And judging by the way they had rcilessly taken out Mr.1 and Mr.5 before, the likelihood that they had rely shaken off the trackers after noticing them was far too low.
So Crocodile clenched his teeth and once again picked up the Den Den Mushi to give Baroque Works a new order—
"Tell the Unluckies to drop everything else. Their sole priority now is to find and keep a tight watch on the Hunter group!"
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