Chapter 47: I-It's gone?!

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Under the darkness of the night, several black figures moved swiftly through the desert while seemingly carrying heavy cages over their shoulders.

Each of them were covering their bodies with dark clothes that seemed to blend with the darkness of their surroundings, and moved in complete silence without making even the slightest sound.

That until one of them accidentally tripped over a rock hidden under the sand, and fell to the ground.

*Thud!*

*Tingling*

As he fell and accidentally threw the cage to the floor as well, a small tingling sound came from inside it and startled all the other figures.

"Hey newbie, what the heck are you doing?! Do you know who this cages belong to? They belong to the Shichibukai Crocodile! If one of these cages is too damaged, then we are done for!"

"S-sorry, it won't happen again..."

"It better not, or else I will end you myself..."

*Tingling*

Each of these cages were completely reinforced in a thick layer of steel covering them completely, and had only a small aperture that had the shape of a key to make it open once needed.

As the one who seemed to be the leader of the group nodded lightly at the words from his subordinate, he turned to look at the horizon for some moments before he picked up the cage from the ground and started carrying it on his shoulder once again.

"Let's hurry up the pace for now, there are only a few more hours before the sun arises and we have yet to arrive at Nanohana. Remember that we are getting quite the money for making this delivery"

"Yes Boss!"

Soon, all the figures resumed their trip and started moving towards the horizon before disappearing into the distance. It wasn't until a few hours later that they arrived towards their destination, The dock of Nanohana.

Over there, an enormous ship could be seen to be starting to prepare things to depart towards the sea once again, and once the mysterious people saw it, they started approaching silently while avoiding most of the attention from their surroundings.

"Here's the cargo, where's our money?"

"Here it is... Aren't you too much in a hurry?"

"I don't like dealing with Crocodile's business, who knows if that man will kill us just because we scratched one of the cages accidentally, he is still a pirate after all"

"Don't worry, all he cares is about the money inside those cages. After all, those are the earnings from his casino, so I don't think he could kill you unless you tried to take the money inside them..."

"Fuuh~ Very well, Oi, bastards, Bring over the cages!"

"Yes boss!"

Soon, all the people carrying the cages started storing the cages within the warehouse of the ship, which was protected by several thick steel doors that had a certain number of panels on the sides that asked for a specific combination of numbers in order to open them. In summary, the cages were pretty much safe against any kind of treat from the outside world.

As the people storing the cages were about to finish their job, they noticed one of them having some problems carrying a certain cage.

"Ugh, what the heck is wrong with this cage, it's so strange..."

"Hey, what's wrong...?" One of his companions asked curiously, seeing that he was having so many problems carrying it.

"I don't know, this cage is kinda hard to carry"

"Is it too heavy?"

"No, it's just hard to grab compared to the other cages... And I don't understand why"

"Whatever, just throw it over there"

"Sure..."

*Thud*

As the strange "Cage" fell heavily to the ground, the people inside the warehouse left and closed tightly the gates that protected it. Leaving nothing but the occasional tingling sound that the money inside the cages made, and the occasional grunt of pain from one of the cages. 

"That fucking hurt..."

The strange "Cage" that was thrown without care by the man a few seconds ago, soon started standing up and revealed its true appearance, being that of a seemingly normal and completely random youth that you could find anywhere in the streets.

The youth, who was now stretching up after seemingly being too stiff for too long, started talking to himself while he also inspected the nearby cages and stole some money inside them by making a small hole in them.

"Now, let's see where does the money go... And judging by the enormous amount that this ship is carrying, the time that Crocodile has been running that Casino, and all the money he must use in order to maintain his army and Casino going... I can guess that Crocodile had over 200,000,000 Bellys saved up wherever the rest of the money is..."

Soon, he grabbed one of the cages and made a small hole using the sword on his waist. After that, he took a small spider robot from his pocket and placed it inside the cage where all the money was.

*Beep beep*

He started touching the small watch on his waist with a calm look on his eyes, as he then selected the image from a certain doctor working under his command.

*Beep* "Ah, yes... Hello, Sid? What's the matter?" 

"Hiriluk, Good to hear you again, by any chances are you free one of these days? I have a special job that I need you to take..."

"Hoh~ Who are you planning to steal this time from? It's been quite a while since I've done one of your jobs, and since I need to clear my mind a bit from this investigation, sure!"

"I'll be a bit busy for the next days doing some work at Arabasta, you can ask Tom to hand you some Crow-bots or any other kind of technology that you need for the job... I've already sent you the current location of where the money is, so all you need to do is to follow it until they store it next to all the other money in order to know where is the rest located"

"Brilliant, As expected of you! Young Sid, How did you manage to approach to their money so easily without being noticed? Is it that strange technique "Universal Mob" that you told me a few days ago? You need to teach me one of these days!"

"Sure, I'll teach it to you once I finish with all this business in Arabasta, also, could you reunite all the crew before then? We will begin our first official mission at that time, and I need the whole crew to be reunited"

"Are we finally gonna reveal ourselves to the world? Damn... this makes my skin shiver! What alias do you think Chopper could like? I want to make him exclaim in awe when he sees me in the newspaper!"

"What about Dark Thief of the Hell? Or maybe something like Thief Doctor of the new Dawn?...

"...Err... I think I will think about it myself"

*Click* 

"..."

As Sid checked out the watch on his wrist with a dumbfounded expression, he soon muttered some words with a blank look on his eyes.

"He hung out"

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Some days later...

...

"What?!"

"I can't believe it!"

"...!"

"C-crocodile?! Our boss was a pirate all this time?!"

Five people were sitting around a large table looking at a certain person at the center of it that was wearing a cold expression on his face.

"Do you have any problems with it?"

The famous Shichibukai Crocodile, who was now sitting and looking at those who seemed to be his subordinates, spoke calmly towards a certain man that had a ridiculous amount of make up on his face, and was wearing a ballet attire over all his body.

"N-no... I was just amazed by the fact"

Crocodile, who had never shown his face before his subordinates, was now revealing himself to the higher ups of his organization, all of this for the final mission that could decide the destiny of Arabasta.

"Very well then, all the missions you have done until now were for this moment, now we will begin the first and last meeting of the Baroque Works organization!"

Soon, Crocodile started explaining to all the people reunited around the table what were his plans about Arabasta, and what he was looking inside this kingdom. 

There was to say, all of them were incredibly surprised and exclaimed in awe at the incredibly intelligent yet vicious plan that Crocodile had developed in order to take over the kingdom and obtain what was inside it.

"Very well, we will perform outstandingly in this last mission! We assure you, boss!"

"Ha... ha... ha... ha... ha... yes, that's what I hope..." 

As Crocodile continued laughing in that strange manner, suddenly, the Denden mushi next to him, which was kind of the most similar thing to phones in this world, started ringing.

*Purupurupuru... Purupurupuru... Ka-cha"

"What happened?" Crocodile, who picked up the call and spoke with an annoyed tone towards the man behind the phone, puffed up a smoke while grabbing the cigarette in his mouth.

"S-sir, It's horrible! All the money in your storage... It's gone!!"

"I-it's gone?! What do you mean?!"

"It disappeared in just one night! When we were about to store a new cargo of money inside it, we noticed that there was nothing left! What's more, there were no traces of people entering, it was as if it just disappeared!"

Crocodile started having cold sweat flow down his back as he listened to the man behind the phone.

'Who could dare to do such a thing?! I swear that I will rip his eyes off his head!!!'

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Inside a tent in the middle of the desert...

...

"Ah..."

...

"Aah...!"

...

"Achooo!!"

...

"Agh! Sid, you motherfucker... you sneezed all over my face! How do you even catch a cold in the middle of the desert?!"

"How should I know... go back to sleep already, tomorrow there will be a storm brewing at Raindinner"

"What's with you and storms...?"

...

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