Arriving in Alabasta

"Smoker lost?"

At Marine Headquarters, Sengoku's expression froze when he heard the news.

"Alright, I understand."

Sengoku hung up the Den Den Mushi. He held a pen in one hand but did not write anything for a long while, his brow furrowed.

"If they keep following that route, they should reach Alabasta, right?" Sengoku muttered, pulling out a map and studying it.

The Marines had complete maps of the first half of the sea. Aside from some unknown dangerous waters, they had records of everywhere else.

"It is Alabasta. Since that is where they are, we can have him make a move. It depends on whether he has the strength." Sengoku nodded. The two "hes" referred to different people.

Two days later, Rogge and the others set sail again. The Grand Line's forced routes really had not been obvious before. You had to fill up the Log Pose's record before you could leave, which was why so many pirates ended up running into one another.

The main reason was that they needed to remain on an island for some time. During that stay, pirates behind them would catch up due to differences in recording time or changes in routes. Moreover, the routes gradually narrowed, making encounters increasingly likely until everyone finally converged on the last island.

Alabasta was a massive island with an enormous area. Rogge did not know its exact size, but its standing army alone numbered over six hundred thousand despite being a desert nation. One could imagine Alabasta's population and total area from that.

A desert nation was mostly desert, after all. What Luffy and the others had shown was only one portion of Alabasta. There were many more cities and places that had never been revealed.

Only after arriving in Alabasta did Rogge realize just how huge the country truly was. Even among the nations of the West Blue, few could compare to Alabasta. On the surface, Alabasta could not exactly be called magnificent—what could one expect to see in a desert nation?

Yet Alabasta was different. What set this country apart was that it possessed a truly awe-inspiring history.

The Celestial Dragons and the World Government had controlled this world for only around eight hundred years. Alabasta, however, had been one of the earliest civilized nations in the world, developing its own culture more than four thousand years ago.

The Nefertari Family, Alabasta's royal family, had even been one of the original twenty Celestial Dragon families. Yet the Nefertari king of that era must have noticed something. He chose not to enter Mary Geoise, or perhaps he left Mary Geoise, unwilling to become a new race alongside those fallen royal families.

The reasons behind it were probably known only to those involved. Rogge and the others had already arrived in Alabasta, and rather unfortunately, they had landed in Rainbase.

Even Rogge was surprised. Rainbase was one of Alabasta's most commercially developed cities, and mentioning it inevitably brought one person to mind.

Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai—one of the world's only seven legal pirates, a powerful pirate recognized by the World Government.

What people discussed most about Crocodile was probably his gender. Was he really a man or a woman?

Based on the various clues that had been shown, this guy might once have been a woman before becoming a man.

Aside from his gender, there was also his strength. During the Alabasta arc, he killed Luffy, only to be defeated by Luffy after his outburst. Tashigi captured him and locked him away in Impel Down, after which Blackbeard Teach smoothly took his position.

However, after Luffy entered Impel Down, the story clearly could not let a man with the bearing of a great villain simply disappear. So he escaped prison alongside Luffy and the others, then took part in the largest war pirates had ever seen—the Marineford War.

Crocodile's appearance during the Marineford War shocked everyone. He went straight after Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world at the time, and was ultimately stopped by Luffy.

Yet during the Marineford War, Crocodile no longer held back. He stopped the first execution attempt on Ace, then fought Donquixote Doflamingo. Later, while covering Luffy and Jinbe, he attacked Akainu and stood alongside the Whitebeard Pirates against the Marines.

He was a man shrouded in mystery. There was definitely something going on between him and the Whitebeard Pirates.

Rogge had once suspected that Crocodile had originally joined the Whitebeard Pirates. Perhaps he left them because he had been born female, then embarked on a path to surpass Whitebeard.

Crocodile was evenly matched with anyone, a Logia user of the Gravel-Gravel Fruit. Alabasta's desert climate was practically his paradise, an island tailor-made for him.

"Don't be nervous. We'll deal with whatever comes our way." Rogge patted the somewhat tense Simon on the shoulder.

This was no joke. Crocodile was one of the Shichibukai. Although Simon had confidence in his own strength, anyone who could become a Shichibukai was a powerhouse acknowledged by the world, one of the very strongest.

After barely surviving Crocodile's pursuit, now that he had returned to Alabasta, Simon's greatest regret was probably wondering why he had been foolish enough to investigate Crocodile in the first place.

After docking the ship, everyone took some money with them. As for Billy and the others, they were not brought along. It was far too hot, and for a husky from Winter Island, this weather was deadly. So Rogge left Billy aboard to guard the ship, hoping it would not get torn apart.

"This weather is really hot." Jelly stuck out his tongue as he spoke.

"When did you start looking like Jelly?" Ham asked with a smile.

"What? What do you mean, looking like Jelly? I am Jelly." Jelly tilted his head and looked at Ham in confusion.

"Looking at you, I thought Billy had followed us here." Ham laughed.

Rogge chuckled. "He's calling you a dog."

Jelly finally caught on and glared at Ham. "Are you looking to die, you kangaroo bastard?"

"You? Forget it." Ham laughed.

"Don't hold me back! I'm going to kill him!" Jelly shouted.

Yet Rogge and the others stood in a row, simply watching him. No one stepped forward to stop Jelly; they just watched him standing there alone.

No one really knew who was stronger between Jelly and Ham. Rogge cheered them on. "Fight! Fight! Jelly, take down that bastard Ham! Ham, beat that idiot Jelly to death!"

"Captain, there seems to be something delicious over there." Ares tugged on Rogge's clothes.

The moment he heard there was food, Rogge stopped paying attention to Jelly and Ham. He took Jerry and the others to eat, leaving Jelly and Ham staring each other down. In the end, neither of them did a thing. They merely exchanged disdainful looks before following Rogge and the others.

"Are we really not going to leave someone to watch the ship?" Cook asked worriedly.

"You... want to go back?" Rogge raised an eyebrow at him.

Cook immediately put on a serious expression. "Forget it. This is my first time in Alabasta too. This country doesn't look like anything special."