【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"It's really a state secret! If I don't know it, I really can't find it!" Crocodile said in a dangerous and low voice, "Nico Robin, tell me, where is Pluto?!"

"It's not recorded. This historical text only records the history of this country." Robin whispered, ready to throw the bottle in her hand away at any time. "There is not a single word about Pluto..."

"Really? That's a pity..." Crocodile said calmly, "Although you are a very smart woman, you broke our agreement, so I will kill you here!"

"Do you think I don't know? Even if I didn't break the agreement, you would still kill me here. I had expected this result." Robin said as he quickly threw the bottle of water that he had prepared in his arms and caught it with the other hand that grew out of the devil fruit. Then he raised the dagger in his hand and said, "As long as you touch water, the knife can hurt you?!"

"Snapped!"

"He dodged! Where's he?" Robin looked at the place where Crocodile disappeared in shock. He dodged the water she threw at him. She didn't expect that he could dodge it at such a close distance.

Crocodile's figure slowly appeared behind Robin. Just as he was about to pierce Robin's body with the golden hook, a fist covered with armed color stopped him. Crocodile took a few steps back and looked at the person in the corner with a gloomy expression. "Straw Hat!"

"What on earth are you doing here? Why do you keep ruining my plans?!" Crocodile shouted angrily, "What do you want me to do to make you give up?"

"Because you haven't returned what you stole!!" Luffy said angrily.

"What did I steal? Money? Fame? Trust? Life? Or rain?" Crocodile laughed crazily. "Hahahaha, what do you want me to return? I can't even count the things I stole!"

"It's the country!!" Luffy answered simply. He was still very angry with Crocodile.

"Country? Are you kidding? I haven't had the chance to get this country yet. Everything I have has been destroyed by you!" Crocodile shouted angrily.

"Her country was gone when we first arrived here. If this was still her country... she should have smiled more happily!!" Luffy roared and rushed towards Crocodile, kicking Crocodile in the face. Luffy did not wait for Crocodile to stand up, but continued to punch him angrily, knocking him into the wall.

"Ahem..." Crocodile staggered to his feet from the ruins. He pulled off the cover of the golden hook on his left hand, revealing the hook with a hole inside. It was covered with purple liquid. "I'll show you what a real pirate is!"

"The hook has been removed." Luffy looked at the strange hook that was revealed after Crocodile took off the lid, and couldn't help asking, "What is that?"

"It's poison!" Crocodile smiled cruelly. "I will admit that you are a pirate for the time being... You should understand that a duel between pirates is always a battle of life and death. Only one side can survive. The victory or defeat depends on this one move!!"

Luffy stretched out his fist to attack Crocodile, but Crocodile dodged his fist and stabbed his outstretched arm with the hook of his left hand. Luffy pulled the outstretched right arm with his left hand, causing Crocodile to miss his target.

Crocodile rushed forward again and tried to cut Luffy's neck with his hook.

Luffy's observation Haki sounded the alarm in advance. He did a backflip to avoid Crocodile's hook, then stretched out his leg and kicked Crocodile in the stomach, kicking him back to the wall again.

"Cough cough!" Crocodile coughed up a mouthful of blood, roared angrily, turned into sand and quickly appeared behind Luffy, swinging the poisonous hook in his left hand towards Luffy again.

Although Luffy dodged in time, he was too close and didn't have time to avoid it completely, and his shoulder was still scratched by Crocodile's poison hook. But Luffy took the opportunity to grab Crocodile's poison hook, stepped on Crocodile with his two feet covered with domineering, and hammered Crocodile's head with his right foot, knocking him to the ground.

“Hahahaha!” Although Crocodile was knocked to the ground by the hammer, he still laughed triumphantly because he had stabbed him with the poison hook. “The game is over, Straw Hat Boy, the winner has been decided. Soon the venom will invade your entire body, and soon you will die of the poison!”

"You really... don't understand anything!!" Luffy clenched his fists and made an attacking gesture. "I won't die!"

"What did you say I didn't understand?" Crocodile said angrily, gritting his teeth.

Luffy quickly rushed towards Crocodile and stretched out his hand to grab Crocodile's shoulder, "Rocket!" He quickly kicked him away with his foot, then chased him and punched him quickly, "Rubber Rubber Machine Gun!!!"

"Huh!" Crocodile stood up from the ruins in a panic, looked at the staggering Luffy and smiled, "Don't you understand yet? You will die soon, because the poison has entered your body through your wound, and your body is starting to go numb!"

Luffy ignored Crocodile's words and attacked him again, stretching out his legs to kick him, but his movements were obviously much slower and Crocodile dodged it easily. Luffy half-knelt on the ground, supporting his body with his hands, breathing heavily.

"How did you do it?" Crocodile asked in disbelief. His poison should have paralyzed the Straw Hat's whole body by now, so how could he still have the strength to launch an attack?

"You wouldn't understand!" Luffy whispered.

Crocodile stared at Luffy, the veins on his face bulging, which was enough to prove how angry he was. "Your goal is not in this country, right? For others... dying like this, is it worth it?! If you are willing to give up one or two friends, you won't suffer a catastrophic disaster, what an idiot! !"

"That's why I said you won't understand at all... Vivi... She often tells others not to die... but she is the one who sacrifices herself to help others... If I don't take care of her, she will really be killed by you!" Luffy said while panting.

"Don't you understand yet? This is what I want to tell you, you just need to throw away that burden!" When Crocodile said this, his tone was mixed with despair and confusion, as if he couldn't understand why Luffy was still fighting for others in this state.

"I just don't want her to die!! Because she is our partner!! Just because we don't want her to die...that's why we will keep fighting!" Luffy shouted loudly.

"Aren't you afraid even of death?" Crocodile asked in confusion.

"There's nothing I can do about it if I die," Luffy said firmly.

Crocodile looked at Luffy's determined eyes and wanted to say something, but at this moment Luffy, whose whole body had been corroded by the poison, could no longer hold on and fell to the ground stiffly.