Crocodile Kills Aspiring Warlord Six Warlords Now Doctrine

Status: pending · Technique: parallel-arc-structure + chekhov-explicit

The seed

Crocodile after his Nanohana kill (Ch. 155 p. 8): Now there’s only six Warlords of the Sea! — implies the dead pirate captain was Warlord-class or aspiring-to-the-rank.

Why this matters

First on-page articulation of the Warlord-attrition mechanic — the Warlord seat can be killed-into; one Warlord can eliminate a Warlord-tier rival. The doctrine pre-loads: (a) Blackbeard kills Whitebeard for a Warlord seat; (b) Buggy’s slot-promotion; (c) Mihawk’s Warlord-status-rescinded. The Six Warlords count (Mihawk + Crocodile + 4 unnamed) is implicitly canonized on this page.