One Piece – Halfway Broken

Summary: How to skin a Croc...

Warning! Chapters 33-35 were posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Chapter 34: Refuge in Audacity

It was only three days after Nico Robin's visit to the Discovery that they sighted Alabasta. Robin hadn't stayed with them, of course. That would have required more trust than she currently had for them, for one thing, and would have honestly been widely inconvenient for them besides. After all, Hina might have removed herself from the conversation with Robin willingly…but she was the highest-ranking Marine in the vicinity of Alabasta. Meaning there was no chance she wouldn't have instantly tried to arrest Robin, once she had the support of the local Marine base again.

Thankfully, with Robin gone and a few days of time for the slight crack in their amiability over refusing to help capture her to heal, Hina had been more than happy to signal ahead with their Den Den Mushi. Which meant, instead of getting a chance to intercept them short of the island, Crocodile had needed to deal with the unexpected complication of a Marine escort going out to meet them…and of the Discovery being allowed to outright dock at a Marine slip. Luffy liked to imagine the man cracking a tooth or two at the inability to attack them without also attacking the Marines, and showing his hand in the process.

Of course, Luffy and Hina had discussed all of this beforehand. Which is why the entire base had been locked down on her orders by the time they docked. They had agreed, even if reluctantly on Hina's apart, that it was virtually certain Crocodile had bribed someone, or multiple someones, in the local Marine detachment. That detachment thankfully wasn't part of Hina's own force, even if it was currently under her authority as the highest-ranking Marine stationed in this part of the Grand Line. She had agreed to help Luffy get a bit of a jump on Crocodile by locking down the base, and arranging an investigation group that would be following behind their strike force by just a few hours.

It was thus that, despite being a little worried at the possibility of missing Ace if he was in Nanohana, the Discovery had only docked long enough to grab a few needed local items and dispatch Carue to Alaburna with a message for the King. Luffy wasn't too worried, as they'd apparently beaten the original timeline by enough that the defection of a large chunk of the army to the rebels hadn't happened yet. Meaning, if Ace was here, he was likely still looking for signs of Blackbeard rather than almost ready to head out again.

It also meant that they had a theoretical window of opportunity here to defuse everything with a minimum of violence. According to Robin, Crocodile had put out the recall for the Billions and Millions already, as well as for the Officer and Frontier Agents. But not enough time had elapsed yet for the majority of those forces to have reached Alabasta. Only Mr.2, the Mr. 1 and Ms. Doublefinger pair, and the recently returned Miss Valentine were present of the numbered agents. Likewise, only around 30 percent of the Billions and 40 percent of the millions had returned just yet. Crocodile flat out wasn't ready to kick off his plan, so confronting him now could potentially short-circuit all his machinations.

Because of this, Luffy and Hina had conspired between them to take refuge in pure audacity. While Hina locked down the local Marine presence and formed a team to officially investigate, Luffy would take the Discovery straight up the Sandora river to Rainbase and challenge Crocodile directly. Doing so would almost certainly lead to a showdown with his entire force currently present. But if Robin was to be believed, his crew should be able to handle all of those he'd gathered so far while Luffy himself took on Crocodile.

No trooping across the desert. No attempts to be subtle. Just a blitzkrieg right at the not-yet-prepared Warlord's face. Not giving him the chance to arrange anything tricky. It was a gamble, particularly as it relied on Robin having been truthful. But both Kaya and Luffy could read people insanely well with their respective abilities, and both agreed that she hadn't outright lied at any point. At worst, she might have omitted a complication or two. Which was fine, given that they hadn't shown even remotely their full hand yet either.

It was as a result of this plan that they'd barely been in Nanohana for half an hour before racing up the Sandora river toward Rainbase. With the Discovery's sheer speed, they covered the fifty-mile distance up the river in just an hour and a half. Knowing, despite that, that the ship itself would become a target, they'd already split up roles. Usopp, Kaya, Chopper, and Nami stayed with the ship as it anchored in the middle of the river. Meanwhile Luffy, Kuina, Zoro, Nojiko, Vivi and Sanji disembarked before the ship even slowed. The first three were all racing forward with Geppo, while Nojiko, Vivi, and Sanji trailed slightly behind aboard a large Crystal platform. They made no attempt to be subtle as they broke right for Crocodile's Casino.

Fire swept up at them from dozens of off-kilter Millions and Billions near the docks. Most of them were aboard jolly boats, ship launches, and similar boarding vessels, clearly intent on swarming the Discovery. Half didn't survive their attempt to intercept the strike team as Kuina, Luffy, Zoro and Nojiko responded. The leading trio launched air slashes at larger ships loaded with Millions and Billions, while Nojiko made it rain high-velocity, air-burst, crystal grenades over a dozen smaller vessels. Then they were past, and the remaining lower rankers would be the group still aboard the Discovery's problem. Less than a minute later, they blew through the front wall of the Rain Dinners casino and Luffy fired two shots into the ceiling. It wasn't him that spoke into the chaos, though. Voice amplified by a megaphone they'd picked up in Nanohana and dressed in a much more royal-looking outfit they'd also acquired there, Vivi shouted over the din of panicked people.

"By order of the Royal Family of Alabasta, the Warlord Crocodile is under arrest for Treason against Alabasta and the possession of Dance Powder! Everyone not associated with him OUT!"

If the civilians had possessed time to react, there might have been trouble. Crocodile was popular and this was literally this seat of his power. But these people were being confronted by a dangerous-looking group that literally just sliced the entire front wall open and crashed through it. Suffice it to say, the civilians were thinking with fight or flight reflexes at the moment, and the vast majority did exactly as Luffy expected. They fled.

Of course, it wasn't only civilians in here, and more Millions and Billions posing as security were quick to unlimber weapons and open fire. The strike team responded by flashing about with Soru, knocking the grunts out for later arrest, instead of outright killing anyone. Optics would matter in the aftermath of this, for the Royal Family at least. For perhaps three minutes, this went on…before an entire third of the floor burst into sand and five figures rose on platforms of the same. Crocodile looked utterly furious, and the expected Mr. 1 and Miss Doublefinger pair were with him. Less expected was the presence of Mr. 11 and Miss Thursday, which Luffy only recognized from Vivi's descriptions. Either Robin hadn't considered them noteworthy, had omitted them, or they'd arrived in the last few days. Neither Mr.2 nor Miss Valentine were present, which was slightly annoying, but could be dealt with later.

Wherever the missing two were, Crocodile didn't seem to be in the mood to banter. His rage-twisted face locked directly onto Vivi and his fist flashed out.

"Sables."

A compressed tornado of wind and sand shot toward Vivi with impressive speed…only to be casually cut by Luffy's jian before it could cross even half the distance between Crocodile and the Princess.

"Now, now. It's not polite to threaten my payday so suddenly. Do be a good little reptile and surrender, would you?"

Crocodile's eyes were murderous as they switched to him.

"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into boy. You've undone years of effort and will die for it, along with the Princess and her father."

Luffy's own smile with cold and filled with malice as he deliberately poked at the man.

"Says the man who ran back to Paradise like a kicked cur after a single encounter with Whitebeard. You didn't even manage to crack 100 million with your bounty before getting your shit kicked in like the pathetic waste of air you are."

There were no more words. Luffy had very deliberately stomped on a nerve, after all. Crocodile roared as he lunged at Luffy, body distorting into sand, only to woof in agony as Luffy's Haki-coated hand caught him behind the hook and brutally threw his suddenly-solid body through an intact side-wall of the Casino. It was, in a way, a complete waste of the element of surprise Haki gave him. But it had done the one thing he'd needed to have happen. It had separated the Warlord from the others.

"Kuina. You're in charge. Take care of the extras."

With that, Luffy used Soru to case after Crocodile before he could completely recover…

... ...

Kuina was somewhat pleased with her opponent as the woman managed to nearly match her own speed. Miss Doublefinger wasn't using Soru. Instead, she was both accelerating and maneuvering with spikes of her Devil Fruit power. The fact that she had enough mastery of said power to attack at the same time, said a lot about why she was Mr. 1's partner. Better yet, she was exactly the sort of opponent that Kuina most wanted to fight. Someone that challenged not her swordsmanship, but her overall fighting ability.

Poor Zoro, as much as loved him, was sort of bullheaded. He'd immediately wanted to fight Daz Bones and the man's ability to turn into blades. Foolish. Both of them had already mastered cutting steel, and Mr. 1 was known to rely heavily on his durability. Zoro wasn't going to get much out of that fight, even if he refrained from using Haki, which would just flat out let him slice through Mr. 1's Devil Fruit power if Zoro bothered.

Kuina had known better.

The entire group had been easy to split up, just a few air slashes and a rain of crystal scattering them. Kuina had let Zoro take Mr. 1, while Vivi and Nojiko were dealing with the pair of frontier agents. Sanji had been derailed by the unexpected and bizarre addition of several banana-gators, who were actually tough enough to be causing him some difficulty at putting them down. But that was alright. The frontier agents weren't all that strong, Zoro was distracted with his silly focus on 'swords-man,' and that left Kuina to deal with the actually interesting fight.

What Zoro failed to really understand, what had kept him from ever truly threatening her place as the better between them, was that variety of opponent was far more important to growth than the specific focus of that opponent. Miss Doublefinger was delightfully challenging Kuina in new ways, forcing her to adapt in a way that Daz Bones wouldn't do for Zoro. The woman was manifestly not a match for her, true. Kuina was having to hold back her Haki to get anything out of the fight. But she was getting a lot out of it. Already she'd developed two entirely new counters, one designed to deal with such widely divergent angles of attack as the woman practically turned herself into a hedgehog with all her spikes. Those new counters would need some refinement, of course. But this woman also appeared to have the stamina for Kuina to get that refinement on, before eventually putting her down…

... ...

*Boom*

*Crackle*

Two more jolly boats full of idiots sunk, one to a shot from the breech-loading swivel-gun that Usopp was manning. The other to the new tricks Nami was managing with her Clima-Tact. She'd only had a few days to practice with it, but she was scary with it already, easily being able to use it to summon up storm clouds that targeted whatever boats that made it through Usopp's fire. Even as he chambered another shot, Usopp looked a bit uncomfortable.

"This feels a little bit too much like shooting fish in a barrel. I mean, I know these guys are scum, but…"

Nami shrugged, even as she spun her staff to release more of the heat and cool balls that the Clima-Tact created.

"Eh. It's free practice. And the idiots only have to stop coming for our ship and we'd leave them be."

As he lined up another shot, Usopp had to shrug at that. Nami had a point. He mostly wasn't killing the idiots anyway, since he wasn't using grape shot. Instead he was simply blowing hold in the ships they were using and letting them sink. A few were probably drowning, and wooden shrapnel would likely cause a few more to bleed out. But they were trying to come for his crew and ship. One of them had even had the nerve to shoot at Kaya! Remembering that, Usopp's eyes narrowed as he let loose again…

... ...

Kaya causally stepped aside as a massive weight dropped from above. That weight clanged hard against the deck of the Discovery

 as multiple tons of weight slammed down where Kaya had been standing. The wood veneer of the deck shattered, making Kaya tisk. But the armored hull under that veneer was a rude surprise for the woman that had just tried to flatten her. The exotic metals of that hull didn't budge despite the impact, and the slightly-melodious reverb they sent back up through the body of the woman that had stuck the deck so hard was clearly unpleasant, based on said woman's surprised yelp.

Before Miss Valentine could recover, temporarily locked up by that unexpected reverb, Kaya darted in and jabbed her in half a dozen places. When the Baroque Works agent tried to stand a moment later, she instead fell limply and helplessly to the deck as her body refused to obey her. Just for good measure, Kaya slapped a paper seal on the woman's upturned ass, causing the blonde's entire body to lock up. The seal was something new Kaya had worked out since speaking with Miss Goldenweek at length, combining a bit of what that girl's 'Colors Trap' could do with Kaya's own abilities. The result was a petrification seal in the form of a paper-tag that would lock up all the muscles in the body until it was released. Someone strong enough could overpower it, but Miss Valentine wasn't such an exception, leaving her suck face-down and ass up, frozen in place.

Retrieving the tea she'd set aside when she side-stepped the falling weight, Kaya sat down on the helpless woman and took a dainty sip. Just because she preferred not to engage in violence, didn't mean she couldn't if she was pushed to it. And perhaps the little lesson in humiliation would get through to this woman where her drubbing at Zoro's hands previously had failed. Kaya was quite certain she could be redeemed with a little work. Perhaps a sentence serving in Alabasta's maid service? She'd look pretty enough in a cute maid outfit, Kaya thought. Perhaps she'd suggest it to Vivi or the King.

... ...

Crocodile had already recovered by the time Luffy followed him through the newly broken wall. Whatever else he was, the man was clearly tough, and he was no longer focusing on anyone but Luffy. Something in his stance was far more wary as he shot spikes of sand along the ground toward Luffy…and fell back toward the desert as he did so. Fuck. Part of Luffy wanted to let him get out over the dunes, instead of fighting him in the city with innocents all around. But the bastard was going to be a lot more dangerous out there if he allowed it. A compromise then.

Deciding it was time to stop sandbagging, Luffy's next slash with his jian carried more than just a slash of air. A thick bolt of lightning shot out at the slash's apex, causing Crocodile to grunt as it glassed a bit of his torso on contact, the man barely avoiding the air slash that followed in its wake, as his body had locked up a bit despite being mostly sand. The lightning had been far too fast for the man to dodge, and Luffy's theory that lighting could hurt him was proven true as Crocodile immediately dispersed into a cloud of sand to avoid follow-up-strikes.

That was fine, though. Luffy bracketed the area with bolts, even as he spun into a kick that stirred up far more air than his sword slashes. He'd maximized his profile as he did it, kicking up a blunt burst of wind instead of a slash. That burst caught Crocodile's still-dispersed sand…and forced it away from the Dunes, toward the bank of the Sandora river.

It was his best compromise option. He didn't want to fight the man either over the dunes or the city. The Riverfront would give Crocodile sand to work with still, but not nearly as much. And the water that would act as ammunition and threat all in one. Luffy, at this point, had enough mastery of his Spirit Fruit to only be weakened if he ended up dunked in the river, rather than fully rendered helpless. He doubted Croc-boy could say the same, giving Luffy one more tool against the veteran Logia.

And Crocodile was a veteran. A rusty one, Luffy thought, but one that was getting less so as Luffy managed to corral him toward the river. Unlike his usual opponents, Luffy wasn't out muscling or out speeding Crocodile, despite going full tilt. Luffy was still a bit faster than the man. But Croc's Logia powers were the real deal, and had helped him move to evade more than a few nicks so far, despite the Haki blackening Luffy's blade. The man also wasn't content to stay on the defensive, managing to send regular spikes and tornados of sand at Luffy, even as he continued losing ground. One of those managed to clip Luffy enough to scrap across one arm like sandpaper, making Luffy grimace but not resulting in any serious damage.

The balance shifted once they hit the outskirts. Here, Croc suddenly had a lot more sand to work with, and spikes of it became sweeping waves that carried a malice to Luffy's Observation Haki that told him those waves contained the odd moisture sucking ability of the Suna Suna no Mi that was so dangerous. He was fairly sure that Armament Haki would protect him from that drain, as there was no way it was entirely natural. But he wasn't quite confident enough in that fact to want to actually try it. Instead, he was forced to break up the waves with air slashes and lighting strikes, slowly being pushed back himself instead of pushing the Warlord.

Cursing internally at that fact, Luffy knew full well that he couldn't let it continue. Crocodile was getting faster, sharper, with every exchange. Luffy was starting to take more abrasive damage as bits of high-speed sand couldn't be fully broken up before hitting him. It was clear to him that this man hadn't been actively training in some time, but it was coming back to him quick now that he was faced with a serious opponent. Digging deeper into his bag of tricks for a way to shift the fight again, Luffy focused on what he considered to be the single most esoteric ability of his Spirit Fruit. Blasting his way through a wave of sand with a blunted air slash, he threw his jian ahead and upward as he brought his hands together in a clap. Instead of lighting, it was thunder that resulted. Tightly focused sound that shredded the defensive walls of sand Crocodile brought up and continued on to wreak havoc on the man's body.

The unexpected nature of the attack meant that the Warlord hadn't quite managed to disincorporate into sand fast enough, and he howled in true pain for the first time as one eardrum burst. Disoriented, the man wasn't quick enough to react when Luffy caught his jian again and darted in to slash at Croc with its Haki-blackened blade. Blood erupted in the sand, but Crocodile had moved just enough to prevent the blow from being lethal. A vicious strike of his hook scrapped across Luffy's side as he passed, creating a fairly deep gash in return for Luffy's hit. Worse for most opponents, Luffy felt the poison it delivered trying to work on him. Grimacing at letting the blow through, he nevertheless gloated to himself as a Perk he'd taken quite some time ago quashed the poison with barely a whimper. What would have been a mortal mistake for most, was reduced to an acceptable exchange for the deeper cut he'd gotten on his opponent.

For a long moment, there was a pause in the battle as Crocodile reformed. There was a serious gash across the man's torso…but he was also no longer raging. He was calculating. Worse, Luffy had lost track of their movements in his focus, and they'd drifted out over the desert dunes despite his best intentions. Proving he was no idiot, the Warlord dove for the sand before Luffy could move on him again, immediately raising a brutal sandstorm fit to strip flesh all around him. Luffy tisked and gritted his teeth, armoring his entire body with Haki as he dove into the storm.

That seemingly insane action threw Crocodile's plan off, but the man adapted quickly by shifting into sand and riding the storm. It didn't help the man as Luffy closed his eyes and detonated, using his shift into his Ball Lighting form to lance out with dozens of spears of lightening. One of them struck dead on where the Warlord's consciousness was moving in the sand, throwing him out of the storm even as Luffy shifted again and followed with a stab of his jian. Crocodile managed to dodge, barely, but doing so pushed him farther out of the sandstorm and Luffy was on him in an instant, before he could form another. His jian was deflected by Croc's hook, even if the sword bit deep into the metal in the process. Luffy's free hand went unblocked, however, as it hammered into Crocodile's bloody wound and released another burst of thunder.

That blow ruptured something inside the Warlord. Luffy could feel it. Just as he could see the Warlord start to panic for the first time. The man reached for Luffy's arm and tried to drain him, and Luffy was thankful he'd been right about Haki blocking that trick as the ability failed to take hold. And Croc had made a truly fatal mistake at last by letting Luffy stay close in the process. Luffy reversed the hold, latching onto Croc and flooding the other man's body with his Haki to stop him from shifting. They were too close together for Luffy's jian, so he let it fade into his inventory and simply punched instead. The blow rocked the Warlord's head back, but the man was tough, and viciously kicked to try separating them. Luffy allowed it…but only because he'd brought his revolver back out and he fired it three times almost point blank.

The three seastone bullets slammed into Croc and, to the man's credit, he actually managed to warp around one of them. The other two took him in a lung and grazed his heart, however, and the pain and momentary weakness as the seastone passed through his body entirely and out the other side was the last thing he ever felt. An instant later, Luffy's Haki-blackened jian had returned and removed Crocodiles head from his shoulders. The Warlord's body collapsed to the dune…and Luffy did the same a moment later.

Fuck.

That had been way closer than he wanted to admit. The wound along his side had been deep, even if it hadn't hit anything vital, and Luffy quickly began to focus on healing it to stem the blood loss, even as he gasped for breath. Haki use took a toll on the body, and Luffy had pressed his hard the whole fight. He was running on fumes in that regard. If Crocodile had held out just another minute or two, that could have easily ended the other way as Luffy's armament started faltering…and that despite the fact he knew the man had been much weaker than a New World veteran should have been.

Fuck. He still had a long way to go.

But hey, it had been a good fight! One that showed him more accurately than his spars with Garp just where he truly needed to be if he wanted to match up to the other powers out there…

... ... ... ... ...

A/N: So...it might SEEM like a supped Crocodile up. But the truth is that he was a New World Veteran who actually got close enough to Whitebeard to challenge him in the first place. Yeah, he got slapped down easily. But to even get that far says he's easily the most powerful person short of Garp that Luffy has tangled with yet. Canon Luffy...got his ass kicked repeatedly, by Croc, only living because Crocodile fell victim to Protagonist Syndrome and didn't double tap to make sure Luffy was dead. Thus, this Luffy winning in an outright serious one-on-one represents a pretty major escalation over canon Luffy. Just some things to keep in mind before anyone yells at me for making the fight close :-p.