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The Desert King, Crocodile, instinctively did not want to believe what was written in the article.
After all, whether it was a single person possessing more than one Devil Fruit power, a person being able to extract a Devil Fruit from another Devil Fruit user's body, or someone being able to modify ordinary Devil Fruit abilities into Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits—every one of those was something that went against common sense.
Up until now, no one had ever possessed such abilities.
That said, the fact that the Flameblade Pirates under Arton kept producing powerful Devil Fruit users one after another—and all of them suspected to be Mythical Zoan types—made Crocodile less sure of himself.
If Nojiko didn't have the ability to extract Devil Fruits from other Devil Fruit users' bodies, then why did the Flameblade Pirates have so many Devil Fruits?
He knew very well that when people joined the Flameblade Pirates, they hadn't been Devil Fruit users to begin with.
From how closely he'd paid attention to the East Blue, both Nami and Carina only became Devil Fruit users after they joined the Flameblade Pirates and became Arton's crewmates.
And after that, there had been more cases similar to Nami and Carina.
Even if Arton had started out with a certain stockpile of Devil Fruits, it shouldn't have been that many.
So the story that someone in the Flameblade Pirates could extract Devil Fruits from other users' bodies… did have a certain degree of credibility.
As for whether Arton truly had the power to transform ordinary Devil Fruits into Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits—once you accepted that the Flameblade Pirates had a reliable way to acquire Devil Fruits, that too had some plausible groundwork.
"According to the article, Arton is a man who controls two different Devil Fruit powers. One of them is the ability to modify normal Devil Fruits into Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits, and Nojiko is currently in charge of helping him collect Devil Fruits."
"Arton has two Devil Fruits… So what about you, Robin? Do you also possess two Devil Fruits now?"
Crocodile muttered to himself as his gaze dropped to the photograph of Robin printed on the newspaper.
In the photo, Robin's whole body was wreathed in flames. She was still in human form, but her figure and features had changed to some extent.
That fiery witch-like performance—calling it the power of a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit would not be unreasonable.
But in the past, Robin had clearly been a user of the Hana Hana no Mi.
"Did Arton bestow a new Devil Fruit ability on you, and before that have Nojiko extract the Hana Hana no Mi from your body?"
"Or did Arton directly grant you a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, making you a double Devil Fruit user?" Crocodile frowned as he spoke.
Even though none of the intel he'd gathered mentioned that there was another double Devil Fruit user in the Flameblade Pirates besides Arton, someone as sharp and wary as Crocodile couldn't help thinking along those lines.
Just imagining that Arton might have the power to turn other people into double Devil Fruit users made something in Crocodile's heart stir.
After all, who would ever complain about having too many abilities? Who would complain about being both a Logia user and a Mythical Zoan user at the same time?
Even so, Crocodile had no intention of joining the Flameblade Pirates or becoming Arton's subordinate.
On the contrary, at this very moment, he felt nothing but anger toward someone like Arton.
Because according to the article, Robin had already become a member of the Flameblade Pirates.
"So that's why you haven't been answering my calls, Robin… In the end, you still betrayed me."
Crocodile's voice carried a trace of fury.
He clenched his right hand around the newspaper, and the paper slowly withered, turning to sand and finally becoming nothing more than ordinary grains of sand.
"Betrayal has a price, Robin. Even without you, I can still find the Ancient Weapons."
"Once I obtain Pluton, I'm going to destroy you and Arton together, Robin."
Crocodile lifted his gaze to the ceiling, eyes deep and cold as he spoke.
Chapter 460 – It Hurts, It Hurts So Much
After a short while, once his mood had calmed down a bit, Crocodile picked up the Den-Den Mushi on the desk and dialed a number.
"Boss?" From the other end of the line came a slightly confused voice.
"Yeah. Pass on a message to all members of Baroque Works for me. Use every means at your disposal to keep an eye on the Flameblade Pirates. But under no circumstances are you to clash with them." Crocodile said solemnly.
Being pissed off at Arton was one thing. However, Crocodile was very clear that the Baroque Works he controlled and the Flameblade Pirates Arton commanded were on fundamentally different levels of strength.
At the very least, until he truly got his hands on the Ancient Weapon Pluton, he had no intention of going head-to-head with the Flameblade Pirates over a mere traitor like Robin.
What Crocodile had no way of knowing, though, was that Princess Vivi—who wanted to topple Baroque Works—had already begun to move.
And her goal was precisely to lure Arton to Arabasta, even if it meant giving up everything and becoming Arton's exclusive princess.
"Still, for the Whitebeard Pirates' Fourth Division Commander to be killed by some Blackbeard Teach… and to have the Dark-Dark Fruit, which restrains Devil Fruit powers, stolen by him on top of that."
"That old man really is going downhill." Thinking of parts of the article that described Blackbeard, Crocodile let out a mocking chuckle.
That said, when he recalled the newspaper's explanation of the powers Blackbeard currently wielded with the Dark-Dark Fruit, a hint of caution still rose in Crocodile's heart.
That caution wasn't aimed at the part of the article quoting Arton claiming Blackbeard also held the potential to wield two Devil Fruit powers. It was aimed at the nature of the Dark-Dark Fruit itself.
Crocodile lifted his sand-like hand, brows knitting tightly together. "An ability that can suppress other Devil Fruits…"
"In other words, if he gets his hands on me, my Sand-Sand Fruit powers might become unusable?" Crocodile muttered.
After a moment, he let out a long sigh. "I don't know if what's written in the newspaper is true or not, but for now I'll treat it as if it is true."
"If I run into Teach in the future, I'll have to pay extra attention to his powers."
After all, his entire fighting strength lay in his use of Devil Fruit abilities. As for Haki… he'd been downright negligent in training it. If he ever slipped up and ended up in a situation where he couldn't use his Devil Fruit powers, Crocodile felt his fate might not be much better than Thatch's.
It could even be worse because as a Devil Fruit user, he might very well become nourishment for the Blackbeard Pirates under Teach's command.
If the two of them ever met in the future, Crocodile didn't think Teach wouldn't be tempted by a Logia who could control sand, and Crocodile wasn't the only one with such thoughts.
Many Devil Fruit users who read the paper found themselves thinking along similar lines about Blackbeard.
Of course, what they feared even more was Arton of the Flameblade Pirates.
After all, while Arton might not have the same kind of power Blackbeard did, Nojiko, a crewmember of the Flameblade Pirates, possessed a power equivalent to Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit.
As enviable as Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits were, no one wanted to become the raw material Arton used to produce those Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit abilities.
Still, while Arton was frightening, the fact that Nojiko could steal Devil Fruit powers was something that caught a lot of people's attention.
Some had even already begun to harbor the idea of snatching Nojiko away from Arton's ship.
…
Meanwhile, in another place—where the Blackbeard Pirates were.
"Damn it, this hurts so bad—why does it still hurt this much after so long?"
"Doc, can't you do something?" Teach lay on the sickbed, rolling around as he screamed.
The Blackbeard Pirates' doctor, Doc Q, looked over at Teach with a rather helpless expression.
"Captain, you should already know this by now. In your current state, you'll just have to endure it yourself. Even I don't have a way to help."
"Ahh, what can I say—both your darkness and Nojiko's darkness are way too overbearing." Doc Q sighed as he spoke.
"Seriously, there's nothing you can do? This shit hurts way too much!" Teach howled in agony.
No joke—thanks to the Dark-Dark Fruit, the pain he felt was doubled.
Even before he ate the Dark-Dark Fruit, he'd already mentally prepared himself to endure pain, but he had never imagined pain like this.
And no wonder—being ravaged by darkness of the same attribute, the pain that the Dark-Dark Fruit brought Teach at this point wasn't just double. It was triple, or even several times worse.
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