I Sell Gacha Jars in One Piece Chapter 194 194: Crocodile and the Gender-Swap Pill

"This... this is impossible. How are you this strong?"

Crocodile stared up from the ground, his composure thoroughly shattered. His body had been punched clean through, though not through the heart. As long as he could process enough stamina to shift into his elental sand form, he could recover. That much was survivable.

What was harder to process was the reality of what had just happened. He had thrown one of his killing techniques and watched it evaporate. Then he had taken a single punch that sent him flying. The man's physical ability and swordsmanship were both at a level that simply had no business belonging to soone described to him as a rchant. There was no version of this situation in which picking a fight with Amon had been a reasonable idea.

"Nothing is impossible. This sea is vast beyond imagining, and if you spend your life buried in one small kingdom playing at shadows, you will never be anything more than a frog at the bottom of a well."

Amon looked down at him without particular hostility.

"Let go of whatever you're planning. Believe or don't, but the path you're on leads nowhere worth going. A pirate should be free. Alive with it. Staying here will only grind that out of you, one day at a ti."

He said what he had to say plainly, without cruelty. His opinion of Crocodile was not entirely negative, but if the man insisted on continuing down this road, that would be a different conversation.

Crocodile went very still.

When Amon had told him that his sches were destined for nothing, the words had landed differently than any ordinary taunt. Because Crocodile had a secret. One that not even Robin fully knew. He had told her only to look into the Poneglyphs, and while she had pieced together that Pluton was sowhere in Alabasta, she didn't know the full shape of his intentions. Nobody did. And yet Amon had just spoken to that plan like already knew every detail of it.

"What exactly do you think I'm planning?"

The question ca out tighter than he intended.

If this got out, Warlord status or not, he was finished. The World Governnt did not tolerate ancient weapons falling into private hands under any circumstances.

"Oh, just..." Amon said, and then his lips continued moving, but the sound stopped entirely.

A new application of Observation Haki, one he had developed only recently. Sound, transmitted selectively. Crocodile alone heard what followed. Fujitora and Robin received nothing.

"Am I wrong? Let it go. The open sea is where soone like you belongs."

Amon ant the last part, at least. And his more imdiate motivation was Vivi. He was leaving in a few days, and he had no interest in returning to find Alabasta in ruins. Clearing this particular obstacle before he left seed like the responsible thing to do for his student.

When the word Pluton reached Crocodile's ears in that private transmission, every trace of defiance left his face. The last of his composure drained away, replaced by sothing much quieter and considerably more calculating.

Fujitora and Robin watched from the side, deeply curious about an exchange they couldn't hear. Robin studied Amon's lips and let her thoughts move slowly.

A long silence followed.

"Fine," Crocodile said at last. "I'll drop that particular venture. But I have one condition. Give a Jar."

He had seen enough of what the Jars produced. He wanted to try his own luck, and more than that, his pride required that he not walk away from this on his knees without sothing to show for it.

"Give you one?" Amon tilted his head.

Old Crocodile. Prickly to the end.

"No, no. Giving is out of the question. I'll sell you one cheaply though. A hundred thousand Berries."

He needed the sale for his mission quota. Gifts didn't count.

Crocodile had been bracing for a refusal, and the number landed on him like an unexpected reprieve. A hundred thousand Berries was essentially nothing. The difference between that and free was a rounding error.

"A hundred thousand it is."

He accepted without further discussion. He had been quietly prepared to fight to the last shred of his dignity if Amon left him no graceful exit. This was considerably better.

Watching the exchange from a few steps away, Robin did so quiet ntal arithtic and felt the distinct sensation of having missed sothing significant.

Fujitora, for his part, was experiencing feelings he chose not to examine too closely. He had paid ten million.

"Pick one," Amon said, spreading the remaining Jars out.

One more sale and his Rain Base mission was complete. After this, he was thinking about heading back to the East Blue. Chopper was probably still sowhere in the snow, learning dicine from that grumpy old doctor.

"That one."

Crocodile took the cigar from his mouth, exhaled, and pointed at the nearest Jar.

"An earthen-clay one. Don't see those chosen often."

The colour was unusual. Amon couldn't recall anyone selecting that particular shade before.

"Just break it open."

Crocodile nodded, pressed one finger lightly against the surface, and his sand ability did the rest. The entire outer shell dissolved into fine grains and sifted to the ground. A single item fell from within.

"dicine?"

He caught it in his palm and stared at it. A small pill. He had been half-expecting a weapon, or sothing dramatic. A tiny pill was not what his instincts had promised him.

"Let take a look."

Amon picked it up and ran the system scan.

"Gender Reversal Pill: Upon consumption, permanently reverses the user's biological sex. Male becos female, female becos male..."

Amon stared at the description.

System, you absolute nace.

Of all the things to co out. A Gender Reversal Pill. For Crocodile. He stood there for a mont holding the thing and genuinely trying not to let his imagination go anywhere near what a female Crocodile would look like.

It didn't work. The image arrived anyway.

He shuddered.

The question now was whether to tell Crocodile exactly what this pill did, or to say absolutely nothing and watch what happened.