Crocodile: It's All a Misunderstanding Between Ortolan and Me!
The First Half of Grand Line: Alabasta, a desert country.
In an ancient ruin, Crocodile emerged from an underground sand pit with a gloomy expression.
"Boss?" Mr.1 Daz Bones stood in front of the sandpit, his brows furrowed slightly as he looked at his rather unhappy boss and called out softly.
Crocodile took a deep breath and said irritably, "This isn't what I wanted..."
After a brief pause, Crocodile asked, "Is this the final ruin?"
"Yes, thanks to your abilities, and the efforts of everyone scattered throughout Alabasta, we have investigated for so long, and all the desert ruins have been found..." Daz Bones said in a deep voice.
"Will there be no more omissions?" Crocodile asked again, as if unwilling to give up.
Daz Bones hesitated for a moment, looking at Crocodile without saying a word.
Crocodile knew he had asked the wrong question. Without Nico Robin's help, he had to rely on brute force. He had worked tirelessly, using his abilities to traverse the entire Alabasta. With his Sand-Sand Fruit abilities, there was no way he could have missed anything. If there were any omissions... well, that just meant his own abilities were lacking!
However, Crocodile is a very confident person, and he also knows that he has already investigated very carefully.
It's impossible for anything to be missed.
If he couldn't find what he wanted at this point, it could only mean one thing: the Ancient Weapon Pluton Pluto, which he wanted, was nowhere to be found in the entire Alabasta!
Thinking of this, Crocodile felt a surge of anger. He raised his hand and suddenly whipped it up, and a fierce sandstorm swept up with his movement, quickly swallowing up the desert in front of him and creating an extreme climate.
After venting his anger, Crocodile gritted his teeth and said, "Then what have I wasted all this time in Alabasta?"
At this moment when all hope was truly shattered, Crocodile felt an indescribable disgust and irritation towards the entire Alabasta, and didn't want to stay there for even a second longer!
After a moment of silence, Crocodile made up his mind and said, "Let's make some arrangements and prepare to leave this boring place..."
"Huh?" Daz Bones asked hesitantly, "You mean?"
"Leaving Alabasta, there's no reason for me to linger here anymore. It's time to return to the New World..." Crocodile said in a deep voice.
"Boss, the New World is that person's territory. Your relationship with him doesn't seem to be very good. We..." Daz Bones quickly advised.
The New World is within the sphere of influence of Marine Admiral Bane Ortolan. Daz Bones knows this; his boss Crocodile and that Marine Admiral don't have a good relationship. It's said that Crocodile owes that Marine Admiral tens of billions of Beli back. Daz Bones doesn't know the specifics, and he's never dared to ask Crocodile.
In the past, Crocodile would always look like he was itching to get his hands on that Marine Admiral.
Daz Bones didn't think there was anything scary about it. His boss was very strong, and as a fellow Logia-type, what was there to be afraid of?
But after Ortolan angrily beat Whitebeard and seized the title of the Strongest Man in the world, Daz Bones was convinced that his boss was no match for that Marine Admiral.
Just kidding, why did the boss leave the New World? Wasn't it because he failed to challenge the Whitebeard Pirates and got kicked out?
Meanwhile, Ortolan crushed the Whitebeard Pirates and defeated Whitebeard himself with overwhelming superiority.
Is there even a need to compare the difference?
Upon hearing Daz Bones's words, Crocodile's face turned pale, then red, and he said angrily, "You think I'm afraid of him? You think I'm afraid of Ortolan?! Who do you take me for?!"
When Daz Bones realized that his words seemed to have offended his boss, he immediately dared not say anything more.
However, after a moment, Crocodile continued, "But it's better to resolve conflicts than to let them fester. Preparing 50 billion Belly in cash, plus my gift, should clear up the misunderstanding between me and Ortolan. Come to think of it, I don't actually have any conflict with him..."
God help it, he has never even spoken to that guy Ortolan. At most, they only met from afar back in Loguetown!
Ultimately, the conflict between the two stemmed from the time that guy Ortolan inexplicably tried to extort 20 billion from him, which he refused to pay, and that's how the conflict started!
How can you blame him?
It's all Ortolan's fault!
He never messed with that bastard, okay?
Daz Bones was taken aback for a moment, then quickly asked, "The gift you're talking about, is it that technology?"
"What else could it be? In the entire Alabasta, that technology is the only thing that can be considered valuable!" Crocodile said angrily.
While exploring various ruins, Crocodile unexpectedly obtained a magical technology passed down through generations of the Alabasta royal family.
That is the technology of inheriting the Devil Fruit. As we all know, in the thousands of years of history of Alabasta, there have been two guardian gods: one is the jackal, and the other is the falcon.
These two conceptualized gods have protected Alabasta and the Nefertari Family throughout history.
However, within the Nefertari Family's royal guard, the Devil Fruit powers of these two Zoan type —the jackal and the falcon—have been passed down through generations!
It's possible that they could have worked together once or twice, but over the past thousand years, they've consistently managed to fall into the hands of the Nefertari Family. Is that reasonable?
That makes sense, because the Nefertari Family really does possess a technology that allows them to inherit the Devil Fruit.
The reason why they haven't been targeted by others over the years is because the Nefertari Family has only used this technique on two people for generations, never on other Devil Fruit, and it doesn't threaten the interests of others. Zoan type. Because of the Nefertari Family's lineage, no one has ever tried to take them.
It could even be said that not many people know about this situation. Those who are qualified to know, seeing how sensible the Nefertari Family is, are unwilling to risk offending the names and risks of twenty royal descendants in order to seize it. Those who are not qualified to know, naturally have no idea about the situation.
Even the technology Crocodile possessed was found in ancient ruins, not stolen from the Nefertari Family.
Seeing that Crocodile had made up his mind, Daz Bones said nothing more and immediately began to arrange the things Crocodile had instructed him to do.
After Daz Bones left, Crocodile stood there, lit a cigar, and pondered something with an uncertain look in his eyes.
News of the New World also reached his ears: the Big Mom Pirates and the Beasts Pirates allied to deal with Ortolan.
Of all these, Crocodile only focused on one: the Beasts Pirates.
Back then, when he was searching for the Ancient Weapon Pluton Pluto, he received two cryptic pieces of information, one pointing to Alabasta and the other to Wano Country.
At that time, Crocodile was in the New World, having just been defeated by Whitebeard and had nothing left. However, Wano Country had already been occupied by Kaido Beasts Pirates. Alabasta didn't have any powerful figures, so Crocodile naturally chose Alabasta.
After so many years, he was basically certain that Alabasta didn't have what he wanted, so another direction came back into his sight... Wano Country!
If he were to return to the New World this time and ease tensions with Ortolan, and the two sides were to work together to destroy the Beasts Pirates, he wouldn't mind playing along and being subservient to Ortolan. As long as he could take Wano Country, that would be enough. Once he had thoroughly searched Pluton Country and found Pluto, then he could settle things with that bastard Ortolan!
However, Crocodile had been stationed in Alabasta for many years and had not gathered enough intelligence in the New World. At this moment, he did not know that Kaido and Ortolan were about to become in-laws. The war between the two of them was completely different from the war he had imagined!
Of course, even if he were in the New World, he might not be able to obtain this level of information, since there are very few people in the entire New World who know the inside story.