Chapter 66

Title: Warlord?!

….

Amon turned into his element, lighting, and rushed towards Whiskey Peak. Although the weather wasn't a problem for him, it was hard to navigate in the massive sea of blue even with the eternal log pose.

Nonetheless, since Doflamigo was able to, Amon didn't have any reason to fail. It took a few extra seconds than he anticipated, but around a minute after he left the sky, Amon arrived in the Whiskey Peak. 1/10 of the speed of lighting was too fast after all.

Amon didn't outright land on the Whiskey Peak though. If it was an Admiral who came then he would observe the situation and have to run away if things got out of hand. So, for now he rather decided to observe the whole Whiskey Peak for any strong presence. 

He couldn't find such a thing, so he decided to look in the mayor's building, where Robin was.

"Fuu…"

Seeing the cause of her calls, Amon released a sigh of relief. It was too easy for him to defeat that enemy. Sand will just turn into glass after a lightning strike. Though it remains a mystery if Crocodile will be able to move after getting a lighting attack or turn into glass stone. Or maybe, it will be a new 'Kekkei Genkai' type thing…

«...★…»

Amon calmed down and dressed into a different outfit in a flash. In a hurry, he didn't even change his tattered clothes from the fight with AI. After a few seconds of preparing himself, Amon took deep breaths to calm his heart and started to walk forward to the office.

….

Knock! Knock!

Knocking on the door twice, he opened the door without waiting. 

"Wassup, I'm back R–Miss All Sunday." Amon 'corrected' himself after noticing the uninvited guest sitting on the chair. 

With Robin looking at him with eyes full of surprise and relief, the guest, Crocodile stared at him for a while. This is the kid who's been stealing his name for a while now. He's been making things hard for his plan. His 6 years of plans are almost about to get messed up by him.

He wanted to kill him here and how, however, this is his territory. If the news goes out, which most likely will, it will be troublesome for his Warlord position. 

'Hn, first I just need to lure him away.' Crocodile thought while looking at Amon with his usual half-closed eyes. 'I hate to do things so sneakily, it's as if I'm a rat. But I shouldn't be too reckless either, I should be patient.'

Crocodile knocked the table two times while Amon was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Welcome, Lucifer. I've been waiting for the whole day now."

Amon looked at him silently, as soon after, a smile bloomed on his face. "Oh, you must be… Mister Crocodile(?)." 

Crocodile frowned at the uncertainty in his tone. It was pretty impressive for someone to not recognize him at first glance around this area, especially for a person to be famed as the best hunter. 

"Yes…" But he controlled himself to not suck him dry. "You should have recognized me at first glance, this proves how worthless you really are."

Robin frowned hearing him. "Mister Cro–"

"Ahh, Sunday. Calm down." Amon raised his hands lightly and walked over, while Robin just got up from her seat, giving space for Amon to sit on the chair. 

Sitting down on the comfy chair, Amon smiled at Crocodile. "Is that so? It's a fault from my side then, however, you should also show some respect to me. I'm sure you are aware the best hunter of the generation is not weak."

Crocodile frowned internally hearing him, though he maintained a calm demeanor. 'I'm invincible. Especially in sandy islands like this one. Luckily for him, this time I'm not here to take his worthless life.'

Crocodile was overconfident, and that was and will be the reason behind his fall. 

Amon snickered internally sensing his overconfidence.

"Rather," Amon pressed a buzzer on the table. "Why don't we talk about the important things?"

While Robin kept looking at him, a hunter came and Amon ordered some cold drinks though Crocodile didn't take anything while Amon got himself a mango ice cream. Robin just stood on his side.

Amon looked ahead at Crocodile with a smile on his face. "Alright, let's talk…"

….

"So they want me to be a Warlord?"

Amon asked with the spoon in his mouth and his head tilting slightly. It's not something he didn't expect before. The marines need Warlords to maintain the balance of Emperors. Yet, many people are against the disgusting and filthy pirates getting the protection of Law. So it makes sense if the Marines want a strong individual with a clean background to take that one vacant position.

"Yes, don't ask me anything further. I'm not aware of anything else, rather, I'm just here for my personal interest."

Amon ignored him for now. Currently, there were 6 warlords. Dracule Mihawk, Gecko Moria, Bartholomew Kuma, Jinbei, Donquixote Doflamingo, and finally, Crocodile.

'Fisher Tiger attacked Marijoise in 1509, it's a famous incident. That's also the time when Boa Hancock was released. So it's been 5 years only. I know about the existence of Kuja Pirates, but they don't seem to pose as much threat to have received the offer to be a Warlord.' Amon thought inwardly. 

Boa Hancock was proposed for the position before, but she rejected it out of pride. Although in the canon, she would have accepted sooner or later, that won’t happen in this timeline.

The position of Warlord didn't seem so bad to Amon, after all, he would be able to do many things with the protection of the law. That's a nice plus actually, at least for Amon who's currently trying to do things undercover. Besides, by taking Boa Hancock's position, he will kill two birds with one stone.

'According to my calculation, in 3 more years, my small sky-island will become a formidable Kingdom.' Amon grinned internally, he will go to the moon soon. 'And me? I should be able to take on an Admiral, or at least match one by pushing myself to the limit.'

It's decided then. Amon opened his mouth. "Alright. But I assume a Marine was supposed to come, may I ask why you, another Warlord came to me?"

Amon said as Crocodile smirked.

He will try to sugarcoat him now. The feeling of power, this kid has felt it already. Sweeping him to the dark would be easy, at this rate, he might not have to even kill him, rather he would receive A powerful minion.

….

Crocodile asked Robin to leave the room, which Amon didn't compile with. Not before pulling her to the side and whispering something in her ears.

As Robin left, Croc then proceeded to explain his plans. Though obviously, he toned it down very much. He wasn’t sure of the kid’s mentality, it will be a problem if he holds on to a hero-complex. For that reason, he was always prepared to finish the Amon at any time. He can just say Amon was doing illegal activities and people will believe him, he was a hero after all! Ku-ah-ah-ah-ah!

On the other hand, Amon was more than aware, so he was listening attentively. 

In short, Crocodile wants to create an organization that will one day take over Alabasta. It was quite interesting to Amon how he was letting out such confidential information so easily. But he assumed Crocodile was just being honest from what he has learned about Amon’s greed. After all, he asked for 10 billion to save Alabasta last time while proposing to not help otherwise. 

Crocodile was good at scheming, so he easily ‘saw through’ Amon’s personality at one go. That’s only because Amon wanted of course.

However…

"It's quite stupid for you to assume I will work under you…" Amon said with his finger circling on the table. "I mean, soon enough I will be a Warlord too. How do you expect me to work under you? A 90-10 deal? For real?!” Amon laughed out loud but stopped soon after. He leaned forward, looking at Crock’s eyes coldly. “I would only accept a 50-50."

Normally, a 50-50 would be something like a 'loss' for Amon. But this time the one giving the proposal was an overconfident guy, besides–

“Ku-ah-ah-ah…” Crocodile laughed when he heard him. 'How blasphemous. Not that it matters, it seems I really have to kill him.'

He grieved on the loss of a potential subordinate, and decided to finish the job… but he noticed something. Unlike when the talk started, currently, there were water bottles and buckets all around the room. 'When did…'

"My my. Mister Crocodile." Amon smirked looking at him. "Would you look at the face you are making? You underestimated me this much, huh? You see, my assistant is quite 'handy'. Literally, hahaha!”

Amon chuckled lightly and leaned back on his chair. "Even a kid knows that water is the natural weakness of Devil Fruits especially so, according to my theory, your Sand-Sand fruit." 

“...” Crocodile didn’t say anything, not that he was scared. He fought Whitebeard after all. He decided to proceed with his killing until Amon took out a dagger from under the table. "It's a sea stone dagger by the way. Not only that, my assistant outside is ready to scream your weakness to everyone. Imagine your future enemies' advantage over you after they know this."

After this, Crocodile didn't know if it would be a good thing to try and kill him right here. Nothing is stopping him from doing so in the near future after all. ‘I’m acting like a cornered rat… worthless.”

….

Without much choice, Crocodile accepted his deal 50-50 and headed out. He gave aglare to Robin outside who giggled. Amon told her about his weakness just now, so it wasn't a problem to sneak some water bottles and buckets in the room with her powers. 

Frowning, Crocodile walked away. He will kill him next time when he's not in his territory. That next time would be soon.

"Ku-ah-ah-ah-ah!"

Unbeknownst to Crocodile, Amon already had spies in his small Baroque Works.

«...★…»

Meanwhile, in the Marine Headquarters, the Marine Ford! Two old men were sitting in the Fleet Admiral's office.

A man with a long pigtail beard turned his chair to the left and looked at the old man sitting on a bench and eating rice crackers. 

"Hey, Garp. What do you think about the kid becoming the new Shichibukai?"

“Huh?!” The buffed old man, the Marine Hero Garp groaned. "What's that to do with me? Leave me alone, Sengoku! I’m busy thinking…”

He was completely uninterested in this matter. He had more important concerns in his mind.

The fleet admiral, Sengoku’s face became deadpan. Soon he yelled. "Oi, Garp!” 

Garp frowned and looked at him. “What do ya want?” 

“...” Sengoku just sighed. He knew how Garp felt, he had a daughter after all. “Did your grandson cause any scene again? Damn, I would like to meet him one day.” He said as Garp munched his crackers. “Anyway, ignore it for now… I have something important to say."

Garp, still munching on rice crackers, looked at him. "What?"

"That kid." Sengoku frowned. "What do you think he is? Birkan? Or a human who implanted wings?" There were mad scientists in this world after all. "Because I don't think they are a cause of devil fruit."

Garp tilted his head confused. "Huh? Who again–oh! I remember. That bounty hunter kid, the brat who received the offer of Warlord?"

“Yes, yes him,” Sengoku replied instantly. “Commander-in-Chief, Kong and the 5 Elders decided this, I was only let know of this afternoon.” He said with a slightly angry tone while cursing under breath, “Those bastards…”

Garp kept eating crackers, while he suddenly laughed. “Bwahaha, you know I once heard Roger went to the Sky island. Maybe that kid is his son! Bwahaha!”

While Sengoku almost fell from his chair, Garp laughed loudly.

“Hah,” Garp stopped. “Jokes aside… The 7 warlord positions will be filled if the brat accepts the offer.”

Sengoku stayed silent, already knowing his next words. 

“This era… it will be over in a few more years.”

**_**

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This chapter was proofread by Discord members and edited by @Retuculum and @AyyZelos.

Discord: discord.gg/sek3gZV2jg]