With the weak trio—consisting of Nami, Usopp, and Chopper—panicking, while the monster trio made up of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji doesn’t look too intimidated at all, Alex grabs Jewel from his head, tightly pressing her against his chest.

“Stop it, Jewel,” Alex complains, looking forward a little embarrassed. “She likes to prank people… and cause mischief. She does not eat people, at least not for consumption. She just bites into heads and necks during battle, whenever they get in the way. In fact, she prefers to eat chicken. Don’t pay too much attention to her—she may be a princess, but she is a very naughty princess.”

Princess Jewel is satisfied with that reaction. She rates it an 8.5 out of 10! Also, Princess Jewel is not naughty at all.

“A Princess?” Vivi asks, staring at her. “She certainly looks… expensive and… glittery. What kind of princess can a spider be, though? I never heard of that before.”

“A Thornback Princess. The daughter of the Spider Queen. A leader of her species in her own right, I guess,” Alex replies, having never thought too deeply about it.

“Are you… are you sure…” Usopp mutters. “She can be trusted? I don’t want to be eaten!”

“Not so sure, but most of you should be safe,” Alex says, smirking, “aside from chicken, she also likes to chew off long noses, but that doesn’t apply to humans now, does it?”

“Waaah!” Usopp yells, hugging Zoro’s leg even tighter, who’s trying to kick him away in annoyance.

“That’s awesome,” Luffy yells, coming closer, staring Jewel right in the eyes.

“I’m gonna be the King of the Pirates. Want to join my crew?” Luffy asks, grinning wildly.

“Stop it, Luffy!” Nami and Usopp yell in unison.

Princess Jewel refuses! She will be the Queen of the Pirates herself.

She then sprays her net towards Luffy’s face, causing him to shriek and roll back on the ground, his face covered in it.

Everyone stares at him as he’s panicking on the floor, most of them laughing at his plight.

However, it only takes a few seconds for him to rip off the net and then laugh.

“I heard her!” he declares, laughing. “She said she wants to be the Queen of the Pirates instead, so she refused me. I will not lose to you, spider! I accept your challenge, I will become the King of the Pirates!”

“Is he hallucinating now?” Sanji mutters, looking annoyed.

“I… I heard something as well,” Chopper says, curiously staring at Jewel.

Not bothering to try again, Jewel climbs back onto Alex’s head and relaxes, pressing her body against his head as tightly as possible.

“Enough about talking spiders, what about the last person?” Zoro asks, glaring at Benezia. “She’s still veiled… The Night Demon? What’s that supposed to mean? I heard some vague rumours... she feels dangerous.”

Seeing Benezia not move even slightly, Alex walks towards her.

“Building up trust might be useful,” Alex whispers.

“Indeed,” Benezia replies, lifting her veil and taking off her robe, revealing her usual black dress underneath.

“She’s blue,” Luffy comments, looking impressed. “Awesome.”

To no one’s surprise, Sanji shows another strong reaction as he sees her, immediately walking towards her with his face flushed.

“She has a bounty of 156 million, Sanji-kun,” Nami says in a sickly sweet voice, grabbing him by the collar, pulling him back. “Go ahead and creep her out—you’ll pay the price.”

“A man needs to take risks!” Sanji declares before getting smacked on the head by Nami.

“These people look strong!” Luffy says, smiling. “However, Crocodile is mine! After what he did to me at Yuba and to Vivi’s Kingdom, I’ll take him down myself.”

“How will you do that?” Alex asks. “He’s a Logia Devil Fruit user. Conventional attacks don’t hit him. He only has three weaknesses. Since you fought him already, you surely have a strategy, right?”

“Three?” everyone asks, surprised at Alex’s analysis.

“You don’t know?” Alex wonders loudly.

“Well… since we have the same goal, take it as a sign of trust,” Alex explains, lifting exactly one finger.

“Number 1: Water! Every Devil Fruit user will lose their abilities if they’re around one-third submerged in water,” Alex explains. “Crocodile, in particular, thanks to his element of sand, is especially vulnerable to it. Even a small amount of water might prevent him from using his abilities and turning into sand. I heard some Logia users are so arrogant, they don’t even bother dodging most attacks as they’re invincible against things like punches, kicks, and swords… this is a big chance, Crocodile’s arrogance could cost him.”

“That’s smart…” Nami comments, nodding along. “It’s a good point.”

“That is true, indeed!” Vivi remarks, hope appearing in her eyes.

Alex continues, now lifting two fingers. “Number 2… Haki. It’s an advanced technique. I can’t use it myself, so I can’t teach you. As far as I know, people in the second half of the Grand Line use it frequently. It can also bypass the abilities of a Devil Fruit. In place of Haki, there might be other special powers that are effective... I plan to test that out myself, hehe.”

“Haki? That sounds yummy!” Luffy says, rubbing his stomach. “But I want to take him down!”

“Oi, take this seriously!” Usopp complains from behind, slapping his shoulder.

“What’s the last one?” Zoro asks.

“You should know that one,” Alex comments. “Seastone. If you need some, I can give you a few of mine. If you touch Crocodile with Seastone, he’ll be helpless.”

Everyone’s eyes turn serious, especially when Alex casually takes out a [Seastone (Small)] and hands it to Luffy.

Luffy takes it and immediately slumps onto the ground.

“Hehe, but it will be difficult to make use of it when you yourself ate a Devil Fruit, right?” Alex reasons, causing the others to grin.

He then continues without pause. “Simply said, you are a terrible matchup against Crocodile. You should probably let the cook or the swordsman in the corner fight him… I could lend you the stone, or you can be smart and just leave him to me. I can take him out, I’m sure I can.”

“No way!” Luffy shouts, still powerless on the ground, the stone in his outstretched hand. “He is mine.”

“Fine,” Alex says, reclaiming the [Seastone (Small)]. “Anyway, I have no additional advice for you. Maybe carry a lot of water with you and douse him or something.”

“That’s genius!” Luffy replies. “I’ll do that.”

“Don’t!” every other Straw Hat yells, and Nami punches Luffy on the head, causing his entire neck to snap forward.

“I’ll stay close by… Crocodile is mine, and when you inevitably fail, I’ll deal with him,” Alex says. “Maybe I’ll rescue you as well.”

“...” 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“...”

Everyone is silent, but suddenly Usopp opens his mouth. “How? With that, Seastone?”

“Yes… but I also have other ways,” Alex says, snickering.

Like my dagger… or my water arts!

Or Princess Jewel’s Ultimate Secret Super Killing Technique.

Explosions are useless, Jewel….

“No, I’ll deal with him, you’ll see,” Luffy declares, putting his face right in front of Alex’s. “You can watch me.”

“I’ll prioritize our other enemies and leave you the first bite at Crocodile, fine,” Alex says, agreeing with Luffy. “Anyway, would you be willing to cooperate? If you do, I’ll make sure you can fight against Crocodile on your own while I take care of anyone else getting in your way.”

“If you are,” Benezia intervenes, “tell us the situation, your plan, and anything else that can help us. It’s your decision, and even without your help, we’ll intervene, but if you want to save this country, the more we know, the better the chances that we can prevent this catastrophe. We can also tell you some of the abilities of the remaining Officer Agents.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know,” Sanji declares instantly, seemingly hypnotized by the Asari Matriarch.

Idiot…

“Idiot…” Nami mutters. “We can’t trust them this easily.”

“I trust them!” Luffy declares.

“Let me cook some food, so our bellies are filled. We can discuss our plan after that, okay?” Sanji suggests.

“I’ll help out,” Menchi chimes in, stepping forward, causing Sanji to almost faint with happiness as they slowly walk towards the far edge of the tower, where there’s a fireplace and a few tables.

“How about a little spar, green-haired child?” Benezia asks, stepping in front of Zoro, who looks surprised and utterly confused by her request.

However, as soon as she pulls out her Asari Sword from under her robe, his eyes briefly change, and he stands up. “Gladly. No wonder I was interested in you, a fellow swordswoman. Let’s go into the cellar, it’s more spacious than you think. These towers are all connected by tunnels, so there’s a large underground network and sewers here.”

“A useful piece of information. I will try my best to incorporate it into our plans. After I humble you, you may show me around,” Benezia states calmly.

Upon hearing that Nami and Usopp snicker at Zoro, enjoying the face he’s making.

“You…” Zoro mutters, slightly taken aback by her confidence. “Follow me!” he demands, walking downstairs.

Jewel suddenly jumps off Alex’s hand, landing on the ground and slowly walking towards Chopper.

Reindeer!

Princess Jewel has a question.

“Luffy!” Chopper yells, crawling backwards. “I heard her as well!”

Follow Princess Jewel.

Seeing Chopper walk backwards, Jewel then quickly webs Chopper and drags him with her, slowly climbing the walls of the tower and disappearing into the upper parts.

“Ch—Chopper!” Usopp yells, his face full of fear.

“Leave them,” Alex says, waving his hand. “I believe I know what she wants to ask, and it’s nothing bad…”

Jewel…