"Don't be mad, Crocodile."
Orin spread his hands, smiling at the dark-faced Crocodile.
"Tch…"
"I don't have time to waste being mad at you."
Crocodile crossed her arms. Under Orin's coaxing, she successfully shifted all the blame onto…
The Navy!
If the Navy had told her earlier about Orin and Mihawk, she wouldn't have been stuck in Impel Down for so long.
"Damn Navy…"
Crocodile made a note of this debt, preparing to pay it back sooner or later.
"Orin-sama, your cold drink."
Lina and Mei, the two young maids, came over just then, offering the prepared drinks and starting to massage Orin's shoulders on both sides.
The look in their eyes was so heated that even Orin felt a little overwhelmed.
He could only whisper a few words into their ears. The two girls flushed red and finally settled down.
"In Impel Down, there must have been many powerful swordsmen, right?"
On the other side, Hawk Eyes clearly had some interest in Crocodile's time in Impel Down, taking the initiative to ask her.
It wasn't for any particular reason—just that Mihawk had already challenged nearly every great swordsman across the seas.
If there was anywhere left that might still hold more sword masters, it could only be the place that had imprisoned countless legendary figures:
Impel Down, Level 6—
Eternal Hell!
At the mention of this, Crocodile's expression turned unpleasant, but she still recalled those days.
"Powerful swordsmen? I didn't really recognize any. After all, most of the people locked up there had their blades confiscated."
"But there was one person who left an impression on me—an old rival, in fact."
"This person should have something to do with you, Orin…"
Crocodile looked toward Orin, causing him to raise his eyebrows and think for a moment.
"Douglas Bullet?"
Orin said it outright. If there was anyone in Infinite Hell he had a connection with, it could only be his former crewmate—Douglas Bullet, the Demon Heir.
"Yeah."
Crocodile recalled the scene at that time:
"Someone like you actually got thrown in here too, Crocodile?"
In the dark prison cell, a massive and terrifying figure sat cross-legged inside.
Hearing those words, Crocodile—who was shackled in Seastone chains and being escorted—paused in her steps and looked toward the voice.
"Hey! No stopping allowed…"
One jailer was about to curse and even raise his hand, but another, better-informed jailer beside him quickly stopped him and forcibly hushed him.
What the hell are you doing?!
This man wasn't like an ordinary prisoner—he was a "special case," someone who could walk free at any time depending on connections!
If they offended a big shot like that, it'd be all too easy for someone powerful to deal with a few little jailers.
So Crocodile stopped halfway, her shadowed eyes turning toward the cell—and immediately recognized him.
"It's you…"
Crocodile's gaze met his, her aura no weaker than his own.
"Bullet."
After that, Crocodile chose the cell right next to Bullet's. The jailers had no choice but to lock her in there.
Separated by a single wall—
Two former big-name figures, both now shackled, sat there side by side.
"It's been years, hasn't it? Why did you end up here?"
"…Attacked the Navy."
Life in prison was dull. Other than reading the newspaper, Crocodile had nothing to do.
The two bored prisoners occasionally talked.
"From the way the jailers act, they seem to treat you differently, Crocodile."
Bullet was not one to get close to people, but he acknowledged Crocodile as a worthy rival. That was enough for conversation.
Crocodile felt the same.
"Yeah, that's because I'll be getting out before long."
"Nani?"
Bullet, doing push-ups, turned his head toward the neighboring cell.
"Come to think of it, you should know him. Orin's coming to bail me out."
Crocodile said it casually, lightly.
But when those words fell into Bullet's ears, his eyes suddenly flared with sharp light, and his expression grew unusually serious.
"The Orin you just mentioned—"
"Do you mean Roger's Orin?"
At that name, memories instantly surged into Bullet's mind—the monster he had met as a youth aboard Roger's ship, a few years younger than himself.
"Yeah. There's no second person like him in this sea, is there?"
Crocodile instinctively overlooked the fact that Bullet had been imprisoned for so long, cut off from society and woefully out of touch.
By the time she realized, she still ended up explaining briefly to him.
Bullet listened intently, learning from Crocodile's words about Orin's meteoric rise through the years.
The more he heard, the more exhilarated he became.
"Hahahahaha! I knew it—Orin…"
Clearly interested, Bullet laughed aloud.
"Just as I thought, he's got Roger-level potential. The strongest in the world, huh?"
"In the world after Roger's death, looks like I won't be lonely anymore."
For Bullet, there was no better news.
Before leaving Roger's ship, he had firmly believed that with Orin's talent and will, he would become one of the next strongest men in the world after Roger.
And now, with the proof of time, he had been right.
"At last—I have a goal again!!!"
Hearing Bullet's bold declaration, Crocodile in the next cell broke out in a cold sweat.
Was Bullet always this fired up?
She herself had admitted defeat before Orin—after all, the gap was simply too vast. But Bullet clearly still held on to his fighting spirit.
Even by the time she was released, she never figured out why Bullet was so much more confident than she was.
This was something Orin could understand. But understanding was one thing.
"Bullet, huh…"
"After all these years, and he's still thinking of me, huh~"
For this battle maniac, obsessed with being the strongest in the world, Orin could only shake his head helplessly, feeling a bit of a headache.
"What's with that look? There's no way Bullet's ever getting out of Impel Down, right?"
From Crocodile's perspective, without some powerful backing, even having a single Golden Lion break out was already extraordinary.
Bullet had been locked up for so long, he was likely doomed to stay there until death.
"Not necessarily…"
"In this new era, any kind of crap can happen."
Orin crossed his legs leisurely.
"It won't be long now…"