Smoker left the scene carrying the unconscious three CP-0 agents, Vice Admiral Kamikaze, Admiral Akainu and Crocodile. He uses his Logia Devil Fruit, Smoke Smoke power to carry all of them back to the harbor.. in secret.
Before leaving, Luke healed the severed arm of Kamikaze and stopped his bleeding wound on the chest.
Luke didn't want to cause more trouble with the marines. That is why he let Smoker deal everything else in this mess, including to investigate Crocodile's scheme in the kingdom.
He knew the character of Smoker. The man even qualifies to be a pirate. Yet, he prefers to be a marine to purge evildoers.
Smoker didn't agree nor decline about the bargain. He just left the scene in silence.
He glanced at Luffy one last time as he muttered in his heart,
'Emperor of the seas...'
...
An hour later...
The Strawhats assembled the Going Merry including Nami and Vivi who inquired the recent situation.
Usopp, Johnny and Yosaku explained everything that happened. They even made exaggerated scenes especially in Luke's part.
What puzzled them was the presence of Marine Admiral and CP-0 agents.
Luffy ignored everyone as he ate lots of meal after the battle.
Zoro was in the cabin, resting while being tended by Chopper and Liz. His wounds were severe and suffered loss of blood. Fortunately, he will recover within a day with two of the best doctors they had.
Others were joining Luffy eating or still recalling that unforgettable battle earlier.
Tashigi was still on the ship. Luke needed her presence as the representation of the marines for disposing Baroque work agents later at Rainbase.
Her demeanor went timid as she stared at Luke from time to time. She was as if looking at a monster.
Luke on the other hand casually seated on his favorite chair while in his palm, some bits of gold dusts slowly gathers. It was his second Devil Fruit ring, the Bomb Bomb ring which on the process of reconstructing itself.
His Color of Arms barely improved but still very strong. His great hindrance right now is how to fully unlock his Conquerors Haki.
This is the first time he tries to learn Conquerors Haki. However, this concept is more complicated than he initially thought.
For now, he will have to rely on his old source to get stronger, gathering bunch of souls.
...
Ms. All Sunday was heading towards Alubarna using a Bananagator, a giant fast moving reptile that's exactly looked like an alligator. The only difference is that, it has a crown on it's head that looks like a piece of banana.
Ms. All Sunday was still in shock. She witnessed the battle of the Strawhats against Crocodile's team.
Crocodile revealed this secret mission from her last night as he let her do all the schemes in his absence.
When Ms. All Sunday heard the news, she was shocked and got intrigued by it. In her mind, this secret mission of Crocodile is very alarming.
A Marine Admiral went to visit this kingdom just to wipe the Strawhats? Truly unbelievable news.
The curiosity was killing her so she tailed the carriage of Crocodile and witnessed the greatest battle she had seen all her life.
The most shocking part is that, the Strawhats actually won while having less casualty.
If someone told her such news that a newbie pirate group defeated a line up of Warlord, Vice Admiral, three CP-0 agents and a Marine Admiral, she might slap the shit out of that person.
Her eyes shone with mysterious light. She needed to change her plan sooner than expected.
...
Almost an hour later...
The Strawhats arrived at Rainbase.
All the Strawhats except Liz, Zoro and Chopper are going to subdue all the Baroque Work agents.
Luke also joined in since he's planning something.
In the middle of the town, an oversized pyramid was placed with a Bananagator statue at the top of it. This pyramid is the casino that personally operated by Crocodile himself.
The Stawhats went to work as they identified and subdued all the Baroque Work agents they met on the streets. To identify, just search for their trademark Baroque Works Tattoo and everything will be settled.
Luke casually entered the casino as he continued towards the VIP direction.
Some guards and employees tried to stop him, but they lost consciousness before even touching him.
This made the crowd feared him as they cleared his path.
Luke ignored everyone as he headed underground. He has one purpose of coming to the underground room.
To find the seastone cage.
He needed this material to create some useful things like seastone bullets or cuffs against Devil Fruit Holders.
He didn't know how Crocodile got so many seastone supply though.
Seastones are very rare materials, even in marines. Only Vice Admiral ranks or above can have bits of seastone supply.
They used it on battleships in order to travel the Calm Belt sea which full of sea kings.
Sea kings can't detect any ship that have seastone built in it.
Luke neared the cage. It is said that when a Devil Fruit Holder touches a seastone, their physical attributes become temporarily disabled no matter how strong they are.
He put it to the test and touched the bar with his index finger.
"..."
Luke got puzzled when he felt nothing. He directly grabbed the bar once again using his whole hand.
"..Strange. I feel like grabbing a normal iron bar."
He frowned and thought if he entered the wrong room. However, this room was exactly the same in the original story. Outside of this room are a bunch of Bananagators swimming around.
"This makes no sense. I am a Devil Fruit Holder. But why am I not affected by this seastone bars? Does this mean I'm also immune to the sea?"
He gets annoyed knowing no one can provide answer for his question.
CLANG! BOOM!!
He forcefully dragged the cage and test his theory on Luffy and others who are Devil Fruit Holders.
"ROAR!!"
Because Luke destroyed the floor that connected the cage, a dozen of giant Bananagators emerged and rushed towards Luke, wanting to make him their snack.
SWISH! SWOOSH!
Luke didn't even look at these reptiles and end their life with his Special Gun Homie, one shot one kill. Their souls became his snack instead.
RUMBLE!
The casino pyramid quaked which made the people inside the casino panicked. They then began to run for their lives.
Turned out the casino pyramid's position is in the middle of a large lake. This pyramid only stabled because of the pillars below which got accidentally destroyed by the Bananagators that rushed towards Luke earlier.
Luke exited the VIP room and entered the casino area. The people already left except for one person.
He saw Nami gathering bunch of money she could get. She looked like a real Cat Burglar at this point while grinning from ear to ear.
"What are you doing, you sneaky cat? Let's go. This place will submerge soon to the lake." Luke knocked on Nami's head. He already saw some water entering inside.
Only then Nami recovered from her stupor. She was too focused on gathering money while ignoring the current situation.
"Huh?! What did you do to this place?! All my money will be gone! Nooooo!" Nami made a dramatic play as she cried in desperation.
"We got more than enough. Stop whining and let's head out." Luke knocked her head again and dragged the cage out of the casino.
Nami had a look of fake grievance as she carried the sacks of money she collected. She even used her teeth to carry one of the money sack.
Luke didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he saw her desperate act for money. He ignored her and floated directly towards Going Merry that's hiding not far away.
"Eh!? Luke-san? What is this?!" Chopper welcomed Luke as he examind the iron bars.
The cage is still fully intact. It sure is durable despite being dragged between tight hallways of the casino.
"Ehhh...? I felt.. weak." Chopper plopped to the floor after touching the bars.
Luke's eyes shone and knew he didn't bring a wrong cage. This cage is indeed made by seastone. The only question is how is he not affected when he kept holding it until now?
"This.. This is a seastone! How can you have this much? It's even looked like a cage. This is the bane of all Devil Fruit Holders!" Tashigi commented as she examined the cage. She noticed Luke wasn't affected by the seastone bars so she thought the latter must be in Gifted category since he can fly.
"Eeeeh!!!?" Chopper finally realized the horror of seastones as he retreated. He also knew the properties of seastones from a reference book before.
"You're still here, samurai lady? Don't you think it's time to work? The hunting will be finished soon. You better go there to calm the panicking people and call for back up." Luke raised a brow at Tashigi.
"I-I don't have my sword yet. You guys kept it away from me." Tashigi wanted to escape from this group long ago, but she cherished her sword so much that she won't leave until she gets it.
"Why didn't you say so earlier? Chopper, fetch her sword." Luke rolled his eyes. He wouldn't blame her though. After that battle, he noticed her timid attitude towards the Strawhats.
Chopper then fetched Tashigi's sword from the storage and tossed it to her after.
"This may be a truce for now. I made a little bargain with your new boyfriend to settle things in this kingdom in a peaceful way. If we meet again in the future, go easy on us." Luke also knew the character of Tashigi. She's the same as Smoker who follows their own justice and always contradict their superiors.
Tashigi wanted to say something, but she held it back. She wanted to ask why would a pirate group go to such trouble and rescue a crumbling kingdom? Aren't pirates supposed to be terrible people who does evil things? Just... why?
...
Luke saw Tashigi heading towards the Rainbase Town. He smiled as he muttered, "What a pity. She's a good candidate to be in this crew."
"Yeah. I observed her and she's not too bad." Liz appeared beside Luke as she also stared at Tashigi.
"Right? Her bottom is not that bad too. A few more months and it will deve-" Luke analyzed Tashigi's physical properties like a pervert while he looked serious. He then paused when he saw that Liz already left. She must be annoyed by his nonsense.
Soon...
The Strawhats assembled to the ship and will be heading towards Alubarna, Capital of Alabasta.
They were puzzled seeing a cage being placed on a floating cloud.
...
Night at Alubarna...
Ms. All Sunday went to the top of a certain tower and killed two people on the process. It was Mr. 7 and Ms. Father's day.
Her eyes flickered when she saw the giant cannon. Inside a cannon was a human sized bomb peacefully resting. It's clock continues to tick as if it was on a countdown.
She knew this bomb will detonate the next day as the expected civil war ignites. However, she came to know the recent events.
It was a failed operation!
Her goal now is to dispose of this bomb far away from this place.
SWISH!
She uses her Devil Fruit power, Flower Flower ability to carry this giant bomb down from the tower. Her ability allows her to create a part of her body to any place she wants within a certain range.
After placing the bomb to her Bananagator ride, she left the area and exited the Town.
When she was about to go away, she saw someone blocking up front.
"Ms. All Sunday..." Bon Clay of Baroque Works called out with anger filled his voice.
"What.. the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Mr. 2? I never expect to see you here." Ms. All Sunday muttered. She paused as she continued, "Crocodile has fallen.. You should secure the safety of your men and leave this place while there's still time."
Bon Clay got surprised by this news. He couldn't believe such a thing actually happen. A powerful Warlord has fallen? What kind of joke is this?
He glared at Ms. All Sunday and growled,
"You're saying this now, you sneaky bitch?! You are a fucking snitch! If I didn't caught up to you by accident, you wouldn't even bother to release this news at all, right?! You want all of us to be your scapegoat while we unknowingly buy time for you to run away!"
He hated those backstabbing people the most.
Ms. All Sunday became silent. She wasn't planning to justify her action either. She might as well dispose of this person in front of her.
"But...! I change my mind! I'm not in the mood to fight tonight! Since Crocodile is gone, I'm free to do what I want!" Bon Clay thought of something as he changed his tone into a coquetish one.
Ms. All Sunday frowned. She didn't know what's on the mind of the person in front of her. He was angry earlier, now he's calm headed.
"Ciao!" Bon Clay dashed to the Capital Town, ignoring Ms. All Sunday.
"Weirdo.." Ms. All Sunday muttered as she also proceed on her way.
...
Meanwhile...
The Five Elders received the report from the CP-0 agents. These agents announced their defeat against Strawhat Pirates. They hardly recall the faces of other Strawhats either. It's a strange feeling but they knew they were utterly defeated with Akainu still on a coma.
As the report ended, the Five Elders were puzzled.
"There must be someone in that pirate group who can tamper memories." One of the Five Elders, Saint Jay Garcia Saturn commented.
"Hmm. Possible. Let's give the agents another task. Record the faces of each Strawhat crew in secret." One of the Five Elders, Saint Marcus Mars agreed.
"To think these pirates can easily subdued Admiral Akainu. The D. clan is starting to spread it's influence again in this world." One of the Five Elders, Saint Topman Warcury added.
"Let's see what's this pirate group truly capable of now that they are going to be exposed to the world soon." One of the Five Elders, Saint Shepherd Jupeter narrowed his eyes.
"It's decided. Monkey D. Luffy with the bounty of 2.5 billion berries of Strawhat Pirates will be crowned as the new Emperor of the seas starting tomorrow."
One of the Five Elders, Saint Ethan Baron V. Nusjuro declared the final verdict.