"Who is it?!" Crocodile's face was filled with alertness, and the crescent-shaped machete formed from golden sand in his hand slashed out instantly.
"Aren't you a bit too weak in Haki?" Shin gently stretched out his hand and squeezed Crocodile's Desert Cutlass (Barjan). With a slight exertion of force, Crocodile's attack collapsed into a pile of sand.
In Crocodile's attack, there was indeed a thin layer of Armament Haki, but it was barely noticeable—not even at the level of hardening.
Shin knew that Haki at this level could only be used to deal with Logia-type users by countering their intangibility. As for attack or defense, it was at an extremely inferior level.
He couldn't tell if Crocodile's Haki had truly deteriorated over time or if he had simply neglected it in favor of focusing solely on his Devil Fruit abilities. Either way, Crocodile's current strength was far below his former reputation.
"Bastard! You're the Plunderer from the Whitebeard Pirates?!"
Others often failed to recognize Shin, but Crocodile had always kept an eye on Whitebeard and his crew, so he immediately identified him.
Shin just smiled slightly, his figure instantly turning into a flash of lightning. Before Crocodile could react, Shin had already appeared behind him and grabbed the back of his neck.
A pitch-black mist erupted instantly. Against a Devil Fruit-reliant fighter like Crocodile, the best counter was naturally the Dark-Dark Fruit, which negated all Devil Fruit powers.
Crocodile, who had been in his usual elementalized state, was forcibly pulled in by the Dark-Dark Fruit's gravitational force. The next moment, his fruit abilities were sealed, and he was directly sucked into the dark void.
For someone like Crocodile, who had built his entire fighting style around his Logia powers, getting caught like this was already the end for him.
"Boss, here's some information—Wait, who are you?!"
At that moment, a mature woman, dressed like a cowboy with dark skin and long flowing hair, descended from above.
"Nico Robin?" Shin turned to look at her, his thoughts flashing briefly. 'Her Flower-Flower Fruit ability is quite tricky... but never mind, she's not really a bad person.'
Shaking his head, Shin found himself hesitating. Maybe it was because he had been hunting Devil Fruits for so long that he now instinctively thought about how to extract one from every Devil Fruit user he encountered.
"Shin the Plunderer? What happened to Crocodile?" Nico Robin tensed up, fully alert. For a Devil Fruit user, few things were more terrifying than encountering someone who could steal their powers.
Shin waved his hand. "Obviously, I took him down."
"What do you want here? Are you after Alabasta, too?" Robin asked cautiously, subtly preparing for a possible escape.
"Not interested. I'm not a Warlord of the Sea; what would I do with a kingdom?" Shin scoffed. "Taking over a country is more trouble than it's worth."
"Then why are you—"
"I just came for his Devil Fruit." Shin interrupted, then looked at Robin with a smirk. "Unless... you know something else that might interest me?"
Robin stiffened for a moment but said nothing. Shin merely chuckled, then turned into a streak of lightning and disappeared before her eyes, leaving only his fading voice behind.
"Miss Nico Robin, if you're looking for the Poneglyphs, you might find more answers with the Revolutionary Army. They share the same goal as you."
As Shin vanished completely, Robin exhaled sharply, reaching up to touch her neck.
When Shin had flickered away in a burst of lightning, she had felt a faint prickling sensation, as if death had grazed her.
A strange Flying Thunder God seal slowly faded from her skin, unnoticed.
Murmuring to herself, Robin pondered, "The Revolutionary Army... are they the ones who share my dreams?"
Elsewhere, as Robin was lost in thought, Shin reappeared in the sky, looking down at Princess Vivi. "It's done. We can go."
Vivi's eyes widened. "It's done?! That fast?! What about Crocodile...?"
"It's just a Warlord of the Sea. How long did you expect it to take?" Shin rolled his eyes.
"Uh..." Vivi swallowed hard. To her, Crocodile had been an insurmountable obstacle, an undefeatable tyrant. But to Shin, he was just another enemy who could be taken down in an instant.
Before she could fully process this, Shin's Den Den Mushi rang. He answered it, hearing Violet's voice.
"Captain, we've finished up here! We've caught the imposter king and a few of the top Baroque Works agents."
Shin nodded. "Good, Crocodile has already been taken care of. I'll bring Princess Vivi over now."
With that, he grabbed Vivi's hand and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique. In a flash, the two of them disappeared into thin air.
"Quack?!" Karoo the duck, who was still floating in midair thanks to the Super Light-Heavy Rock technique, let out a startled cry. Looking around and realizing he was now alone in the sky, he flailed desperately.
"Quack quack quack quack!!"
"Father!"
Tears streaming down her face, Vivi rushed forward and threw herself into the arms of a pale-faced, crown-wearing middle-aged man.
The man embraced her tightly, comforting her. After a while, once both had calmed down, the king turned to Shin with a grateful smile. "Thank you for saving Alabasta and crushing Crocodile's conspiracy. I don't know what kind of reward you might want, but please name it."
Shin, holding the Clone-Clone Fruit in his hand, looked up and said, "King Koza, you're too polite. I've already gotten what I came for."
The king's face stiffened slightly, while Vivi covered her mouth in surprise. Next to Shin, Violet discreetly tugged on his sleeve and whispered, "The King of Alabasta is named Nefertari Cobra... Koza is the leader of the rebel army."
Shin blinked. "Ah... oops."
Fortunately, the king chose to overlook the mistake, moving on to a more traditional response to victory in the One Piece world—
A grand banquet!
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