The air in the chamber grew thick with the scent of saltwater and impending doom. Crocodile's low chuckle echoed off the stone walls as he dangled the brass key before Princess Vivi's wide, horrified eyes.
"Your friends or your kingdom," he mused, his hook glinting in the dim light. "A delightful dilemma, don't you think?"
Behind the iron bars, Luffy strained against his seastone cuffs, veins bulging in his neck. "Vivi! Don't listen to him!"
But Crocodile only smiled wider. "Miss All Sunday and I are departing for the capital to meet your father. You're welcome to join us, of course." He turned the key over in his fingers. "But first, you'd need to free your companions."
With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the key into the dark opening in the floor. A distant splash echoed upward, followed by the hungry snap of powerful jaws.
Vivi stumbled forward, her breath catching. "No…"
"The key is now inside one of the Bananawani," Crocodile said, his voice dripping with mock sympathy. "And the water level is rising. This building will self-destruct in… oh, twenty minutes? Fifteen? Time flies when you're having fun."
He stepped closer to the cage, ignoring Luffy's furious glare. "Your other option is to reach the rebels before they storm Alubarna. But that's impossible now. The sandstorms I engineered saw to that."
Luffy's head snapped up. "You what?"
"Yuba," Crocodile said casually, as if discussing the weather. "That stubborn old fool Toto kept digging for water, season after season. I simply made sure none ever came. Sandstorm after sandstorm… he kept hoping. How pathetic."
"YOU BASTARD!" Luffy roared, rattling the bars. "VIVI, GET US OUT! I'M GOING TO PUNCH HIM SO HARD—"
"Quiet," Crocodile said without looking at him, his eyes fixed on Vivi's crumbling composure. "Despair suits royalty, I've always thought."
A gurgling sound rose from the pit. Water began spilling over the edges, dark and churning.
"The mechanism has started," Crocodile noted. "The Bananawani will be seeking higher ground. And food."
The first scaled head emerged from the pit—a monstrous crocodilian creature with banana-yellow markings and teeth like daggers. Then another. And another.
"Vivi, run!" Nami screamed from the cage.
But Vivi stood frozen, her eyes darting between the approaching creatures and her trapped friends.
Crocodile's Den Den Mushi chose that moment to ring—a cheerful, absurd sound in the nightmare.
He answered, his expression bored. "What?"
A smooth, unfamiliar voice came through. "Crocodile. Your Millions have fallen. We're outside your little casino. Care to come out and play?"
Crocodile's eyebrow twitched. "Who is this?"
"Call me Mr. Prince. And I've just cleared your doorstep of trash."
The voice… something about the cadence tugged at Crocodile's memory. A previous conversation. A different context. His grip tightened on the receiver.
"You're bluffing."
"Am I? Then why aren't your guards answering?"
Crocodile's eyes narrowed. He glanced toward Vivi, who was backing away from the advancing Bananawani, her back against the wall.
"A distraction," he murmured into the receiver. "How quaint."
"Call it an invitation," Mr. Prince replied, his tone infuriatingly confident.
Crocodile's smile returned, colder than before. "Very well. I'll be right out. And I'll bring your corpse as a farewell gift to the Straw Hats."
He hung up and turned to leave, then paused at the doorway. "Princess… do try to survive. I'd hate for your father to miss our reunion."
The moment he disappeared down the corridor, Vivi sprang into motion. She dodged a Bananawani's lunge, her heart hammering against her ribs. The water was ankle-deep now, and rising fast.
"The key's in one of them!" Usopp wailed. "How do we even—"
"Just go, Vivi!" Luffy shouted, his face pressed between the bars. "Get out of here!"
"I won't leave you!" she cried, ducking another attack.
"You have to!" Nami yelled. "Someone has to stop Crocodile!"
A Bananawani lunged, its jaws snapping inches from Vivi's shoulder. She scrambled backward, slipped on the wet stone, and fell hard. The creature loomed over her, saliva dripping from its teeth—
—only to be knocked aside by another Bananawani fighting for the same prey.
Vivi didn't wait. She scrambled to her feet and bolted for the corridor, the sounds of snapping jaws and her friends' shouts echoing behind her.
*
Outside the casino, Crocodile stepped into the sunlight to find his Millions scattered across the courtyard like broken toys. Not a single one conscious.
His jaw tightened.
A figure darted across the far end of the plaza—a blur of movement.
"Mr. Prince," Crocodile whispered, sand already swirling at his feet. "Let's see how royal you are when you're buried in a desert tomb."
He surged forward, a sandstorm forming around him as he gave chase.
*
Back in the flooding chamber, the water reached the Bananawani's shoulders. The creatures were becoming more aggressive, bumping against the cage.
"Luffy," Zoro said quietly, his eyes on the churning water. "If the key's in one of them…"
"We have to get it," Luffy finished, his expression grim.
"But we're trapped in here!" Usopp shrieked.
Nami stared at the rising water, then at the seastone cuffs on Luffy's wrists. "The water… it's rising fast. If it gets high enough…"
Luffy understood first. A fierce grin spread across his face. "The seastone weakens me in water. But if the water reaches us…"
"The cuffs won't matter if we're drowning!" Usopp finished hysterically.
"No," Zoro said, his voice cutting through the panic. "He means the Bananawani. They'll be able to reach us."
As if on cue, the largest of the creatures lunged, its massive jaws clamping onto the iron bars. The metal groaned in protest.
The water swirled around their knees now. Another five minutes, and the creatures wouldn't need to jump anymore.
They could simply swim right in.
*
Vivi stumbled through empty corridors, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She had to find a way back. Had to help them. Had to—
She rounded a corner and skidded to a halt.
Miss All Sunday stood waiting, a single rose in her hand.
"Princess," she said, her voice as calm as still water. "Going somewhere?"
*
Outside, Crocodile cornered the fleeing figure against a dead-end wall. Sand coalesced into his human form as he reached out with his golden hook.
"Game over, Mr.—"
The figure turned, and Crocodile froze.
It wasn't a man.
It was a woman with orange hair, tied up in a familiar suit, a cigarette dangling from her grinning mouth.
"Sorry to disappoint," Sanji said, his voice back to normal as he adjusted the wig. "But Mr. Prince was otherwise occupied."
Crocodile's eyes widened in realization just as the ground beneath him erupted—
—and the real Mr. Prince burst through the cobblestones, a whirlwind of kicks aimed straight at the warlord's face.
"SURPRISE, YOU SAND-SORRY BASTARD!"
But Crocodile was already dissolving into sand, reforming several feet away, his expression dark with fury.
"Clever," he admitted. "But now you've made this personal."
The sand around them began to churn, rising in a swirling vortex that blotted out the sun.
Sanji and his decoy stood back-to-back as the desert itself seemed to come alive around them.
"Now what?" the orange-haired woman whispered.
Sanji lit a new cigarette, his eyes never leaving Crocodile. "Now we buy time."
*
Back in the cage, the water reached their chests. The Bananawani swam around them, their yellow eyes gleaming with hunger.
One brushed against Luffy's side—and something metallic clinked against the bars.
"The key!" Nami shouted.
It was lodged between the creature's teeth.
Luffy didn't hesitate. He took a deep breath as the water reached his chin—and plunged his cuffed hands into the Bananawani's mouth.
The creature thrashed, its jaws clamping down.
Blood clouded the water.
And Luffy screamed.
*
Miss All Sunday stepped toward Vivi, the rose in her hand beginning to bloom with unnatural speed.
"Your father made a terrible mistake, trusting his country to the rain," she said softly. "Some things are better left dry."
Vivi backed away, but the wall was behind her. Nowhere to run.
"What do you want?" she whispered.
"To give you a choice," Miss All Sunday replied. "Join us. Or join your friends at the bottom of that flooding chamber."
She extended her hand.
Not with the rose.
But with a second brass key, identical to the one Crocodile had thrown to the Bananawani.
"He always keeps a spare," she said, her expression unreadable. "The question is… what will you sacrifice to hold it?"
Vivi stared at the key, then at the woman before her.
Somewhere below, Luffy was screaming.
Somewhere outside, a sandstorm was raging.
And in her hands, she held the fate of everyone she loved.
The water reached her feet, cold and rising.
And Miss All Sunday smiled.
"Time's almost up, Princess."
TO BE CONTINUED…
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