Chapter 7: Meeting Crocodile
Dialogue "sample"
Thoughts 'sample'
Author notes -sample-
Disclaimer: One piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.
Chapter 7: Meeting Crocodile
"Do you need some medical attention before we meet the boss?." Robin asked after looking at her blood-stained robes.
'Right, I should probably get this bandaged. I almost forgot I had gotten shot since the pain has disappeared. Is that a bad thing?' She wondered.
Vivi moved her robes to check her wound, but the moment she cleaned the blood, she noticed that there was no wound, just unblemished skin.
'That's weird. I am sure that I had my shoulder pierced. There is a lot of blood to have been just a scratch. How did I heal that fast?' She then noticed that Robin was observing her and decided to no call more attention to the issue. It wasn't like she understood how did it happen and could give a reasonable explanation.
"There is no need for that. I guess the bullet just grazed me." Vivi while covering her shoulder again.
Robin looked at the bloody robes thinking that it was a lot for a graze but decided to not comment on it since she had more important things to worry about.
"Very well, let us go then."
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As soon as they started to go down the stairs she heard Luffy and Usopp.
"Vivi!"
They were all locked behind some black bars while Crocodile was sitting comfortably on a fancy chair looking at her with interest.
"Welcome, Princess of Arabasta." Said Crocodile with open arms.
"You have done an admirable job of avoiding my assassins on the way here." He added.
She walked to the table and took a seat.
"You wanted to speak with me."
Crocodile stared at her.
"I'm surprised to see you this calm, Princess. I thought You would be screaming and me or trying to kill me for everything I have done here.
'Do I look calm? I'm terrified...maybe I'm just that good at keeping my poker face, that's an ability I didn't know I had. As for killing him, He must be trying to toy with me.'
"If I thought that I had a chance to kill you right now, I would have already tried." Answered Vivi.
"Is there something I can give you for you to leave my friends out of that cage and then leave my country alone?"
Crocodile gave her a cruel smile.
"I'm afraid I have not called you here to negotiate. I just wanted you and your friends in the same place so I could get rid of all of you at the same time."
He turned to look at Robin.
"I believe is time to start the party."
"You are correct, Boss. It's past seven." Robin said while looking at a watch.
A loud commotion started outside, the sounds of metal hitting metal, shots, and people yelling.
"The rebels are mounting a composite attack on Alubarna. The leader of the rebellion got shot, I never thought the King would provoke them like that." Said Crocodile and then started laughing.
"So, they are using that Mr. 2 to make the King look like a villain and start a war." Said Usopp.
"What an evil plan." Said Nami.
"What do you think, Miss Wednesday? The plan that you helped set up is blooming. If you listen carefully, I bet you could hear the shouting all over Arabasta." Said Crocodile with a confident smile at Vivi.
"I think that you are quite the sadist." Said Vivi, not letting her expression change.
Crocodile was clearly dissatisfied with her lack of response.
"What a boring Princess, I thought you would care more about the destruction of your country."
"That bastard! if only this cage wasn't here!." Said Luffy.
"Haha, I remember all of the hassles I had to go through to get this far. Collecting members, scraping up money to buy the silver necessary to produce the Dance Powder." Crocodile started to speak.
'Is he going to give us the whole evil monologue?...' Vivi thought.
Crocodile continued.
"Stirring up towns on the brink of destruction, teaching my employees how to carry out false acts of army corruption, slowly eroding the people's trust in the King and inc-"
"Yes, we get it. You are evil. Can we move on?" Interrupted Vivi.
She knew that She was playing with fire by angering Crocodile but she was more than fed up with this charade.
Crocodile looked at Vivi with rage in his eyes. He was not used to people interrupting him while speaking.
His arm turned into sand and He lunged his hook at Vivi, who had no time to dodge.
She was hit on her chest and sent flying.
"Vivi!" The Strawhats said in concern.
"You can drop the fake brave front Princess. I know you are afraid of me. But I have grown tired of this."
Crocodile took a key from his pocket and showed it to everyone.
"Is that the key to the cage?" Said Usopp.
"Hey!, give it here!" Demanded Luffy.
A hole opened in the ground and Crocodile threw the key inside.
"Go and get it, Princess." Said Crocodile.
"You may be able to stop the rebellion if you hurry up. There are about eight hours until the killing begins, but I doubt you will make it since it would take longer to make it to Alubarna from here."
Then He gave Vivi a cruel smile.
"But, if you want to have even a tiny chance, you must leave right now, or else hundreds of thousands will die. Of course, you can also waste your limited time trying to save those fools." He pointed out at the cage where the Strawhats were being held.
"You can go ahead and open the cage…Ohh, too bad I dropped the key down there. That just happened to be the lair of my beloved pets. The bananadiles."
Vivi approached the hole and saw a giant crocodile eat the key.
"Ah.."
"Vivi, what's wrong?" Asked Nami after seeing her expression.
"A crocodile just ate the key."
"What?!, you have to chase it down and make him spit it!." Said Luffy.
"Are you mad? Have you seen the size of that thing?, they'll eat me!" Exclaimed Vivi.
"My apologies, those guys think that anything I drop there is food. And besides, you now can't tell witch one is the one that ate it." Said Crocodile.
"That jerk!." Said Nami.
"Well then, we are taking out leave. Also, this room will automatically destroy itself in one hour. I have no use for this secret base anymore."
Crocodile then turned around to look at Vivi.
"One million innocent civilians, or four worthless pirates with no future ahead of them.? Your chances of saving just one of the two are slim. The bet here is your feelings, Miss Wednesday. Do you like gambling? HAHAHA" Taunted Crocodile before He started laughing like a maniac.
'How long is this going to take?...' She wondered.