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"First, let's deal with these Marine grunts!" Crocodile sneered internally. "Just eight of them, and they dare come after me, Crocodile?"
The young Crocodile, still at the peak of his arrogance, had yet to face any setbacks.
"That young officer must be their leader," Crocodile thought. "I'll take him out first!"
With a wave of his right hand, a sandstorm formed into a tornado and spun into existence.
In the blink of an eye, the distance between the two sides had narrowed to just fifty meters.
Suddenly, he noticed the young officer glaring at him, causing the air to tremble.
Buzz! The snowy forest seemed to freeze in time. Crocodile's pupils contracted, and an inexplicable fear gripped his heart.
Nearby, his subordinates collapsed face-first into the snow, motionless. He glanced around and saw that all the pirates had fallen. Their eyes rolled back.
"Damn it! What's going on?" Crocodile muttered, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
At that moment, he felt his body go weak, his mind unable to muster any will to resist, leaving him breathless.
An invisible pressure made his body stiffen, his head spinning, and he could barely stay upright. When he turned back, the young officer had disappeared.
A gust of wind hit his face, and he saw a white cloak fluttering, sending snowflakes swirling.
Crocodile looked up, and the young officer's figure suddenly appeared above him, his gloved right hand clenched into a fist, ready to strike.
"It's useless! I can turn into sand!" Crocodile thought, a mocking smile instinctively forming on his lips.
He didn't understand what had just happened with that overwhelming pressure, but he figured the young officer was too inexperienced.
However, in the next moment, a steel-like fist slammed into his face with brutal force, causing stars to explode in his vision.
His entire body was instantly knocked to the ground, crashing into the snow with a loud thud.
The impact created a crater over ten meters wide, his consciousness fading into darkness.
Arashi stood by the edge of the crater, momentarily stunned. He looked down at Crocodile, whose head was completely motionless on the ground.
"Did I kill him?" Arashi wondered.
He wasn't sure how strong Crocodile was then, so he hadn't used his full strength, only about thirty percent.
But with the Seastone gloves, he figured that even a Logia user like Crocodile wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.
T-Bone and the others quickly arrived, falling silent as they surveyed the unconscious pirates and the uncertain fate of Crocodile.
"Sir, you went all out," the shipwright Slaw said, shaking his head. "You think his head's going to explode?"
Slaw could see that the part of Crocodile's head embedded in the ground rapidly turned red with blood.
Fortunately, Ivans and the others quickly checked him over and let out a sigh of relief. "He's still alive," Ivans said.
"His head's tough enough to survive a punch from Commander Arashi, but his skull's cracked." The rest of the operation was straightforward.
T-Bone contacted the nearby Marines to capture the unconscious pirates while Rosinante carried Crocodile slung over his shoulder back to the warship.
Following Arashi's orders, Mina gave Crocodile's head a quick bandage.
"Hopefully, he pulls through," Arashi thought, sighing inwardly. "If he ends up as a vegetable, I'll have to finish him with another punch."
Arashi couldn't help but feel a bit helpless. He had underestimated the power of his Seastone gloves and overestimated Crocodile's durability.
However, the fact that Crocodile had remained standing despite the shockwave from his Conqueror's Haki showed that he did have some potential.
Five or six days later, Crocodile's world of darkness finally saw a glimmer of light.
As he slowly opened his eyes, he first saw the clear blue sky and seagulls flapping their wings as they flew by.
"Where am I?" Crocodile muttered. "Who am I?"
A trace of confusion crossed Crocodile's mind as he slowly propped himself up with his arms and sat upright.
"You're awake?" A voice came from the figure standing straight ahead, clad in a Marine cape of justice.
For some reason, just seeing this figure from behind made Crocodile instinctively feel a flicker of fear, which caused him some unease.
At the same time, a sharp pain in his head quickly surged, making him let out a painful groan.
"Who are you?" he asked hoarsely, struggling to speak as his throat felt dry.
"My name is Arashi," the figure replied, facing him. Arashi studied him, a look of doubt crossing his face.
Something seemed off about Crocodile's condition.
"Arashi?" Crocodile repeated the name, vaguely recognizing it, though it didn't seem entirely familiar.
After a brief pause, he looked up again, bewildered. "Then who am I?"
Arashi was stunned. It was clear that Crocodile wasn't faking it. To be sure, he glanced over at Ivans, who was cleaning his rifle nearby.
Ivans nodded seriously, confirming Arashi's suspicions.
"Did I punch his brain into mush?" Arashi thought, feeling a bit dazed. But then, he started to laugh. Maybe this was even better!
"Listen up, kid!" Arashi's eyes fixed on the confused Crocodile before him. "I rescued you from those pirates. As for your current identity..."
He paused for effect. "You're a trainee Marine on my ship!"
Crocodile blinked in surprise, looking around at the others, staring curiously at him.
"I, Crocodile," he muttered, "am a trainee Marine?"
He seemed to have lost his memories, forgetting who he was, but he still understood what being a trainee Marine meant.
Closing his eyes slowly, Crocodile's mind conjured a shadowy figure that filled him with an instinctual fear.
He struggled to recall, seeing only a white cape fluttering and a fist encased in a dark glove.
When he opened his eyes again, he glanced at Arashi's right hand, noticing the black glove that matched the one in his memory.
"Maybe... he's telling the truth," Crocodile thought. "The only thing I remember is something about him. I must admire him a lot."
And so, from that day on, Crocodile, whose brain had taken a hard hit before his journey even began, started living happily as a trainee Marine on Arashi's ship.
Within five days, the young Crocodile had become acquainted with Rosinante, T-Bone, Ivans, and the others.
His Sand-Sand Fruit powers also sparked great curiosity among the crew.
"Wow, that's amazing! This kind of power is incredible!" Rosinante exclaimed. "You're immune to all physical attacks—how awesome is that?"
"You're really strong, Crocodile! Even without using your Devil Fruit powers, you can still go toe-to-toe with Ivans in close combat!" Rosinante shouted excitedly.
Rosinante was the ship's lively and cheerful mood-setter at twelve years old.
T-Bone, meanwhile, was sparring with Yagyu, quickly forming a deep bond of friendship.
Arashi stood with his arms crossed, watching as Crocodile quickly made friends with the crew, a faint smile forming on his lips.
"The amnesiac Sand Crocodile," Arashi mused, "seems to be finding new joy in life. Maybe, one day, he'll thank me for that punch."
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