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Chapter 34 (Blood in The Sand), Chapter 35 (Baroque Works vs Pirate Crew), Chapter 36 (The Guardian of Alabasta), Chapter 37 (Poneglyph), Chapter 38 (New Bounties), and Chapter 39 (Princess's Night) are already available for Patrons.
Arriving in the city was the second sign of good luck since they arrived in Alabasta. After leaving Yuba, the old man had been quick to give them several gallons of water despite Luffy protesting, saying that he himself needed them more than they did. Luffy explained their plan to the old man saying how soon Alabasta would be free of Crocodile, and the rain would return Once again in the desert.
"You're a kind man Monkey D. Luffy. I can see why the princess is flattered with you," the old man spoke with pride as if he was speaking about his own blood and flesh.
His words caused Vivi to blush in embarrassment, the old man laughing at her antics; Luffy rubbed the back of his head, not sure what to say to that.
Zoro grinned deviously when he saw Sanji clenching his teeth in anger, biting the cigarette he had between his teeth in half. Life is Cruel, he thought, stomping on the cigarette that fell in the sand.
"Thank You for your help; next time we see each other will be raining," Luffy promised, shaking the head of the man who wiped away a tear.
Now, the crew finally arrived at the city; looking at it, Nami had to admit that it was good-looking, her eyes founding the large pyramid-looking building in the center with a crocodile head at the top; it didn't take a genius to figure out that Crocodile was there, the only thing missing was a big sign with large red words. "A Crocodile Here,"
"I take it Crocodile is there," Nami said unamused; if it weren't that they needed to deal with a warlord and this place was probably filled with Crocodile's people, she wouldn't mind going to the casino and "Earn" some money, just the mere thought caused her eyes to turn to berry signs.
"Greedy Witch," Zoro murmured under his breath, knowing what his teammate was thinking just by looking at her.
"There are a hundred people around the casino," Nojiko suddenly said, pointing at several places around the casino; the others except Luffy couldn't tell what she was talking about but trusted her guts.
I didn't know she had Observation Haki of this level! Luffy, though impressed, perhaps Nojiko was stronger than he had initially thought, he knew she was strong, but perhaps her specialty was Observation Haki.
After Alabasta, I should test her skills, he thought with an amused look on his face, soon the pirate crew was walking through the city, and many citizens paused when they noticed that the group wasn't from Alabasta; one look was enough to tell, especially Chopper was drawing a lot of attention, causing him to hide behind Zoro's leg, the latter gave anyone a glare who dared to look at Chopper in a wrong way.
"So, what's our plan?" Usopp questioned; in his hand was a revolver; he was filling it with ammunition, but Nojiko noticed this ammo was a new type. Usually, The bullets that Usopp usually used had an ash-like color; this one looked darker, with a red circle at the top.
The revolver itself had a few strange words carved on it; around the handle was the word. "Will," in white color, and at the barrel was the word. "DeadEye," in bold Red color.
During their time traveling through the desert, they hadn't really talked about their plan or how they would proceed with this; personally, Usopp thought that being sneaky would be a better approach rather than walking up to the casino like idiots and shouting "Crocodile, I will beat your ass," at the top of their lungs.
And it seems the heavens themselves made his nightmare real when his captain simply shrugged his shoulder with a smile that really caused him to sweat more than the sun above them.
"That's easy; I will walk up the Casino and tell him to come out so I can beat his ass," Luffy simply replied without giving much thought. Usopp slapped him in the head with a deadpan look on his face.
"What the hell, we should try a different approach; it couldn't be so easy," Usopp told him with shark teeth.
"Actually, Luffy's right, all we need to do is kill Crocodile, and once we do that, his men won't be able to do anything," Vivi said, easing his worries a bit, but the longnose still thought this was careless.
"Despite that, we should try to be sneaky about this; we have no idea how strong he is. He's a Warlord. We are currently marching towards a big question mark with no information besides that he uses a Sand fruit," Usopp said, his voice shaking a bit; it was well known that Crocodile used a Sand Logia Devil Fruit; hell, his wanted poster says as much.
"I'm not saying we shouldn't fight, but I just think we are being too careless," Usopp added a bit too quickly, knowing his words could be interpreted differently.
"Don't worry, Usopp," Luffy said, putting a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him. "I will defeat Crocodile," he promised with a firm tone that left no place for discussions.
Usopp nodded, his eyes showing that he fully believed his captain; one thing he didn't like was that this one day could bite them in the ass; even if Luffy defeated Crocodile, what if one day they get in a conflict against someone way above their league, and lost just because they didn't make a good plan first.
"Captain, I would advise killing him inside the casino; his devil fruit is Suna Suna no Mi, inside the sand will be more limited than outside, where he's literally surrounded by a sea of sand," Nojiko suggested; her captain nodded in understanding before they continued their way towards the casino without saying another word.
Nami wondered if she would be able to defeat any of the strong opponents; she knew she could easily take care of a bunch of idiots with guns, but she hoped to fight someone with actual abilities and strengths, but mainly to test her new ability.
Smoker and Tashigi
They had stopped at a bar drinking lemonade; his subordinate was writing something in her notebook; he didn't pay much attention to her, his mind full of what they had to find out; due to an insider, they were informed that Crocodile was responsible for what was happening in Alabasta, the lack of rain, and the civil war that was like an erupting volcano just waiting for the moment to explode.
Smoker didn't know who the informer was, but he wondered how much he or she could be trusted; they had no proof outside of simple words. Even if they did, Smoker knew Crocodile was a bloody Warlord and therefore protected by the World Government outside his touch.
Despite serving the marines for a long time, he still couldn't fathom how they thought hiring pirates was a good idea, treasons, double cross, leaked information, this whole plan could go wrong in so many ways. Pirates were the people they fought and imprisoned, and someone thought using pirates who couldn't be trusted was a good idea.
Smoker grunted in annoyance, wanting Garp to be here; he would be able to do things that he couldn't do yet; he was still just a captain without much strength to back himself up. He escaped his thoughts when he heard a voice behind him.
"Captain," he turned around to face a soldier, and he saluted respectfully before him.
"What is it, soldier?" Smoker questioned; his firm tone caused the soldier to shake slightly.
"We have received information that Captain Isuka will arrive soon," the man reported, still saluting; Smoker told him to leave, and only then he allowed himself to go.
Hearing the information, Tashigi brightened up like a candle. "Isuka is coming here, Captain," she said smiling.
"I heard that; I was here, and She's Captain Isuka now; you Will address her as such," Smoker quickly corrected, causing his subordinate to pout in annoyance, he knew they were good friends, but rules were rules, is a way to show respect, Smoker believed that in front of other people, one who is in charge should be respected and addressed with respect even by someone they knew their whole life.
"What will we do about Crocodile?" Tashigi questioned, changing the subject.
Smoker inhaled his cigarette with a frustrated look on his face. "Don't know, can't do anything right now; we have no proof other than words that are worth nothing," he explained; his subordinate nodded in agreement.
Just as he was about to ask how her sword fighting was going, the door of the restaurant opened, revealing a woman wearing a captain's coat, red hair that reached her shoulders, a pair of glasses over her head, a sword strapped in her waist, with a word carved on the blade. Wearing brown gloves and a loose tie around her neck, her marine shirt had a few buttons unbuttoned, revealing a bit of her cleavage.
"Captain Smoker," her voice firm and strong as she marched towards her fellow captain.
"Captain Isuka, good to meet you," Smoker greeted as he stood up, extending his hand for her to shake; shaking it, she turned her attention to Tashigi, who saluted respectfully.
"Good to meet you, captain," she said, earning a slap on the shoulder by the said captain before being grabbed.
"Captain, huh, did you suddenly forget about me?" She questioned before wiping away fake tears from her face; this caused Tashigi to smile before hugging her, not caring that her captain was looking at them while shaking his head.
Rolling his eyes, he decided to ask why she was sent here; he certainly hadn't asked for reinforcements. "Vice Admiral Garp sent me here; we have reasons to believe that Crocodile's warlord position has been compromised," she informed them, her tone going from soft to ice cold in a second.
Isuka didn't really want to reveal that her main reason for coming here was a certain fool with an ugly hat and his desire to put himself in problems.
"Well, that's worrying; what should we do?" Tashigi questioned; before they could respond to her, Smoker's eyes caught a straw hat walking through the streets towards the casino.
"Later, look," Smoker stopped them before pointing at the straw hat and walking away.
"What should we do?" Tashigi questioned, immediately grabbing the sword that had been resting against the chair she had been sitting on.
"Chase him, Tashigi. Gather all the troops we have available; he's not escaping this time," Smoker ordered, quickly slamming more than enough coin on the table to pay for their drinks.
Isuka followed Smoker, quite excited to meet Monkey D. Luffy. She had heard quite a lot from Ace; when he started talking about his brothers, he couldn't shut up no matter what.
From his words, Luffy was the purest of souls; she wondered if that was all drunk talk but now was an excellent opportunity to see him herself.
Luffy and his crew soon noticed that marines were following them. "Straw Hat," he turned around to face the good old smoky, and behind him, a woman he didn't recognize.
Seeing the situation was escalating, the people around the area started running away in fear of getting caught in the crossfire, some staying around, curious to see how it would go down.
"What are you doing here, Straw Hat?" Smoky demanded answers; Luffy quickly noticed that the girl beside him was a bigger problem than he was; he briefly wondered who she was before turning his attention back to Smoky.
"I'm here to kick Crocodile's ass, Smoky. Can we please play this game a little later," Luffy said with annoyance.
Smoker did a double take; why would a bunch of pirates want to fight a Warlord? Forget it. That doesn't matter. "Don't be ridiculous; I'm taking you in," He shouted, his arms turning smoke, as Tashigi returned with a large group of marines.
"Guys, we are drawing too much attention here," Usopp shouted, pointing at the many Baroque Works officers and soldiers that were walking towards them with guns ready to shoot.
"Guys remember our mission, don't allow anyone to stop you," Luffy shouted, electricity dancing around his fingertips, disappearing from view. He kicked Smoker in the chest, sending him flying to a nearby building; the debris and the sound were a good distraction for the rest of his crew to start running away.
Nami grabbed Vivi's wrist, her other arm turning to armor as they escaped.
Zoro pulled out his sword, and many marines aimed their guns and shot, but their bullets were deflected by the swordsman who smirked, cutting through them like flies; all of them fell to the ground with wounds, but not fatal injuries.
"Fools," Sanji murmured, inhaling his cigarette before he started kicking through marines; every kick broke several bones like they were made of straw. Soon Baroque Works started attacking him, which made no difference to Sanji, who this time knew they were Crocodile's man, his kicks crushing their skulls.
Usopp had pulled out his guns, shooting at Baroque Works that were following him and Chopper, who had turned into his human form, punching at Marines that approached them.
Nami was running along with Vivi and Nojiko when thirty Baroque Works soldiers came out, blocking their way.
"That's the Princess; kill her," one of them shouted, pointing at Vivi, who paled. All of them shot simultaneously; they grinned only to be shocked when they saw a burning shield surrounding the pirates; the shield moved away, revealing that it was a set of large wings created by Nami.
Her eyes had turned crimson red; her wings looked made of small Rhombus forming a giant set of wings, red flames dancing around her wings, her arms had turned to gold, and the heat coming out from her made even Vivi sweat.
"Go Away," She shouted before her wings sent a wave of wind-shaped blades that hit everything around her, cutting through metal, concrete, stone, and flesh.
Every man around her fell down, with huge gashes around their bodies, bleeding out; some had lost their limbs, some were already spared from the pain, and some were screaming in pain.
"Let's go," Nami prompted, grabbing Vivi's hand but not before turning it back to normal; the princess was silent at the gore caused by her dear friend; she understood that they were enemies, but hearing them scream as they ran away, caused her to feel a pang on her heart, and regret.
Forgive me, she thought, not saying anything to Nami. Just as they were about to turn into a corner that led to the casino, Nojiko suddenly grabbed both her sister and Vivi in time to dodge a huge blade wind that cut through the sand and stone like a knife through butter.
"What was that?" Nami exclaimed, shocked to see the attack had cut a dune in half far away from the city.
Luffy
Once he punched Smoky, he started running towards the casino, completely ignoring the other captain; halfway through the road, he stopped dead on track, seeing the red-haired captain holding an unsheathed blade over her shoulder, her face stoic and emotionless.
"Monkey D. Luffy, Ace has talked a lot about you," Isuka started with a slight smirk, catching the pirate captain off guard, who definitely didn't expect a Marine Captain to say Ace had talked to her.
"Wait! You know Ace?" Luffy questioned, rubbing his ears, thinking that he hadn't heard her right.
"Yes, I know your brother quite well; despite being a pirate, he's a good man with a terrible fashion sense," Isuka replied with a genuine smile, paying extra emphasis to the word 'well,' something that the captain noticed. Luffy laughed when he heard her talk about Ace's fashion.
"You're right about that; his clothes are terrible," he agreed, still laughing, before his face turned serious, knowing this one was stronger than Smoker.
Isuka then grabbed her blade with her bare hand; Luffy feared she wanted to cut her hand; when she started sliding her hand from the bottom to the tip, the pirate captain saw the whole blade suddenly engulfed in flames; the blade itself had changed color, now red like blood as flames danced around the edge, her hand suddenly engulfed in Armament Haki.
"Dodge this," Isuka said firmly, raising her hand; before Luffy could say anything, she brought her sword down, sending a deadly wind blade; Luffy docked just in time to dodge it, the blade cutting through several trees before cutting half of a dune far away in the distance.
Luffy left out a whistle; he had to admit that his brother had decided to love the wrong girl. "You're quite a good, Captain. Now I need to kick Crocodile's ass," He stated with a grin, not really having the time to stop and chitchat, but still wary, the girl simply stepped away, allowing Luffy to run past her.
As he passed, Luffy saw her putting something quickly in his pocket; he didn't try to stop her; instead, he ran towards the Casino; he figured he could check it out later.
Zoro
He was fighting marine after marine; he saw the impressive attack that cut down a large dune; sadly, he had been at the wrong side of the attack to get a better look.
Whoever did that is quite good, he thought, wondering who could have done that, before he could ponder more on it, a voice he really didn't want to hear anytime soon...
"I found you, Roronoa Zoro," turning around, he was faced with the replica of Kuina, her sword drawn; she was glaring at him.
"Fuck my luck," he cursed under his breath; from all the idiots he could have faced, he faced the one person he was trying to avoid.
"What do you want? I thought our departure last time went smoothly?"
"Smoothly?!! I'm here to challenge you, Roronoa Zoro, and you don't get to run away," she spoke with resolve, showing that she wasn't afraid of him; Zoro would have called her stupid if it wasn't for the fact that he had challenged the world's strongest swordsman not too long ago.
Knowing someone like her wouldn't leave him alone. "Very well," he agreed, unsheathing one of his swords, which caused Tashigi to grunt, releasing that he wasn't taking her seriously.
"I have trained since the day you defeated me. Use all your three swords," she demanded angrily, pointing her sword at him. She hated that he wasn't taking her seriously yet; she was strong, not weak, never weak, she thought.
"No," Zoro replied quickly without batting an eye; she wanted to protest when he spoke again.
"If you want me to fight with three swords," He spoke, pointing his sword at Tashigi. "Force Me," he added.
She clenched her teeth but quickly took a deep breath, reminding herself that getting angry was a fatal mistake. Swallowing a huge breath, she took her stance before rushing towards Zoro.
"Sword Style: Waterfall Dance,"
For what felt like minutes or even hours, she felt nothing when Tashigi suddenly felt a sharp pain on her shoulder, her blood bubbling on the surface before leaking out like rain, her body falling on the sand, her face not feeling the heat, she winced, but didn't scream, she didn't want to, not in front of him. Opening her mouth to speak, she felt another sharp pain; ignoring it, she asked.
"How?"
"You're not ready yet; your feet are not fast when you can move as swiftly as me. Find me, and we will fight again," Zoro responded, looking at her but not showing contempt; Tashigi recognized that look.
Respect, she thought with a smile, despite the pain she felt.
Suddenly Zoro kneeled and grabbed her body slowly, holding her; she felt her cheeks heating up; if she wasn't wounded, she would slap him on the face.
"W-What are you Doing?" She questioned, trying her hardest to hide the blush. Zoro rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Just bringing you to your comrades, once that done. I will walk away; my captain needs me," Zoro responded, hearing his words; she allowed herself to relax in his arms; she knew she wouldn't hear the end of it. She was now finding it quite comfortable.
Luffy
"Crocodile, Come Out," he shouted the moment he burst through the main door, the door falling down from his kick.
The people around the casino stopped whatever they were doing and were looking at him, confused, surprised, and shocked. One tried to talk with Luffy, but he pushed past him, shoving him to the side.
"Crocodile, Come out, coward," he shouted louder; this time, his arm engulfed in electricity, perhaps a few claps of thunder close to the casino would wake him. If not, he would bring the whole place down.
"Straw Hat Luffy," a soft voice called him. He turned to his left towards a corridor, the Sunday or Saturday woman walking up to him with a smile that he knew was fake.
"Miss Saturday, good to meet you again," Luffy greeted her with a broad smile that somehow warmed her heart.
"Actually is Miss Sunday," she corrected with a real genuine smile; Luffy found that he quite liked her real smile; it made her look prettier.
"Where is Crocodile?"
"Follow me," she said, gesturing for him to follow behind as she swayed her hips; his eyes quickly noticed her ass was bigger than Nami's or Nojiko's ass?!
Walking only two of them, Luffy decided to speak and not stay in total silence. "You should smile more often, and I mean your real smile; you're much prettier like that," he said smiling, his hands crossed behind his head as he walked.
This gave her a pause for a second. "Perhaps I will, but I'm quite curious. Why are you helping the princess? I checked, and you have no ties with the royal family of Alabasta?" She questioned, quite curious, but her voice was as emotionless as a stone.
Luffy frowned that she had looked at him. "She's my friend, and no other reason is needed," he replied with absolute sincerity, which made Miss Sunday pause, turning to face him.
"No. Other. Reason," she said, her voice showing that she didn't believe him. She could tell he wasn't lying to her, but she wanted to make a double-check.
"No other reason," Luffy confirmed.
Miss Sunday asked nothing else, her mind going to Crocodile; she held No Loyalty for the man whatever; he was someone who was trying to gain power through other means, to become what the majority of the pirates wanted.
She wanted what she had wanted for her entire life, the truth; she wanted to uncover the truth about the Void Century; she knew the king knew about the location of the Poneglyph; if Pirate Luffy won, she would use the distraction that the revolutionary army would cause to perhaps even force the king to tell her where the Poneglyph was.
Monkey D. Luffy, if you survive, I might need your protection for a while, and to test the truth of your words, to see if you are unique or just like everyone else, she thought, leading the pirate captain to a large double door, the handle made of gold.
"Here," she simply said before walking away, making sure to sway her hips as she walked away, knowing the captain had checked her ass.
Luffy's turned to the door, taking a deep breath before kicking open the door, smashing it to pieces; the smoke cleared out of the way. A large desk in the room behind it was a man smoking a large cigarette.
"A beautiful door, such a shame," the man spoke indifferently, not really caring about the rookie who just smashed his door into pieces.
Luffy simply ignored his words and asked only one question. "Are you Crocodile, the Warlord?"
"One and Onl-" his voice interrupted as Luffy punched his face sending him flying through the wall and crashing against a House; wiping away the blood from his lips, he glared at the rookie pirate who was standing at the hole he created in the wall. He's fast!
A Thunderstorm approached as multi-thunders echoed throughout the whole desert like a horn of War.
Luffy's hands turned black, as did his legs; lighting struck him from the sky, dancing around his fingers, hair, and chest.
"This is The End, Crocodile,"