Chaos at Arabasta 2

Age POV - Blue Star, Grand Line, Sandy Island, Rainbase - 20 GAP

I calmly watch as Crocodile theatrically appears on the chair with a swirl of sand as he says, "It's about time I'll tell you guys about the final plan of the Baroque Works... about plan "Utopia"!" making everyone jumps and shout in surprise as he reveals his identity, something that if I remember well, shouldn't have done yet, but it isn't like I care too much about such silly things, after all, I'm only here to hunt down the other Champions for that System Bastard and crush some pussy.

I internally scoff at everyone's reaction to the "surprising" revelation that the boss of the Baroque Works is, in fact, the feared Seven Warlords of the Seas Crocodile, and focus my gaze on the sex goddess in front of me.

She is a tall, slender young woman with shoulder-length black hair and blue cerulean eyes that have dark, wide pupils, she has a long, thin, and defined nose, and her limbs are very long, especially her legs, contributing greatly to both her fighting capabilities and overall height.

She wears a revealing cowgirl outfit consisting of a purple cleavage-exposing corset and matching miniskirt, both with white ornaments hanging from them, and a white fur-lined coat paired with a white cowboy hat and white high-heeled boots.

She is none other than Nico Robin herself, one of the best waifu of this universe, and seeing her in person, I'm using every inch of my willpower to make sure that I don't suddenly pop a boner and erase everyone here out of existence so that I can simply take her and fuck her until she breaks, but I steel my resolve and hold back that impulse while thinking, 'For sure the temptation to do that is strong, but it won't be as fun as properly seducing her and letting her worship my cock and ride me like the slutty cowgirl she is... After all, I see my chances at succeeding as quite good.' 

At this point, I lower my head a bit and smirk while thinking, 'Not to sound too arrogant, but in this new life of mine, I'm unbelievably handsome, it is one of the perks of being an Asgardian God, so I just need to be a little bit suave and have a good rizz and she will for sure be ready to do anything I want, especially if I show "genuine" care for her well being and guarantee that I'll be able to protect her from the World Government's agents something quite simple as almost everyone in this world is ridiculosly weak compared to me, after all, even without the support of my Blessing I still am the Asgardian God of Destruction.' 

Indeed, the loss of my Blessing didn't impact my fighting power as much as I feared, sure, my Destruction Divinity is a little bit more difficult to control and I feel that it is more difficult to comprehend and improve, but I'm still able to do everything I was able to do before.

As my mind starts to wander to all kinds of sexy play I could do with Robin, Mikita, and that brunette over there whose name I already forgot, but whose codename is Miss Fingerbang or something like that, I hear the calm voice of Mr. Bladhead as he asks, "Are you our boss?"

In response to Mr. Baldhead's question, Crocodile unleashes his bloodlust as a show of force as he simply asks back, "Any complaints?" which shuts everyone as clearly the prestige and strength of someone of Crocodile's caliber can't be underestimated, especially among a random mob of weak characters like this who get easily intimidated by him.

Then Miss Fingeruptheass carefully asks, "No complaints, just a question. Why would a pirate sponsored by the World Government do something like this..."

After a few seconds of silence, Crocodile finally answers, "What I want is not money or land. It's military force." this causes everyone to tense up as the queer asks for confirmation, "Military force...!?"

Crocodile lits up a cigar as he says, "Let's talk about this in order. first my objective, then the details of the Baroque Works' Final Plan." then he calmly explains as he smokes his cigar, "First, I made sure to win the hearts of the people of Arabasta through the use of public appearances as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, becoming a hero to the people by rounding up invading pirates. The main reason behind this is to make sure that no one suspects that I'm the mastermind behind everything."

Seeing that everyone is still following him with attention Crocodile nods with a satisfied smirk on his face, well, everyone but me, but in my past life I perfected the art of making the professors and later my bosses believe it was seriously listening to them while letting my mind wander. 

Then he continues with his explanation, "During this farce, I made sure that Baroque Works secretly used Dance Powder to cause the capital city to have abnormally high amounts of rain while the rest of the country suffered endless drought. The people did not suspect a thing until it was noticed that other cities were getting below-normal rainfall. Later I ordered some Baroque Works agents to bring a shipment of Dance Powder into the country and once in the middle of the town of Nanohana, to fake an accident with the delivery cart, causing the citizens to discover the powder. Then when questioned, the agents said it was a delivery for the king, making them suspect that their monarch was behind the drought."

At this point, a frown forms on Crocodile's face as he says, "Until this point, everything was going perfectly, but lately, it started to once again rain regularly all over the island despite the continuous use of the Dance Powder which eased the current situation a little... Luckily, not everything is lost as the seed of distrust is already planted, only to make sure that everything goes as planned we have to speed up the plan a bit."

After saying that, Crocodile explains, "That is thanks to the fact that I've assigned several Baroque Works members to join the royal guard, thus allowing them to smuggle large amounts of Dance Powder into the palace. Then allowed those hidden stocks to be found, and pushed the people into thinking that the king was behind the lack of rain. This made it so that the younger citizens of Yuba were now even beginning to form ideas of rebellion and to make sure the rebellion was pushed forward, I also sent several Baroque Works members to join their ranks, even going so far as to become close officers to one of the most prominent members, those who have a strong influence over the people."

Arriving at this point, Crocodile stops for a moment to inhale some of the last smoke from his cigar, then he says, "And now, we have to carefully move on to the next phase of the plan to incite the rebellion to allow us to gain absolute control over this kingdom. First, Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas have to sneak into the royal palace and kidnap the king of Arabasta. Afterward, Mr. 2 will use his Devil Fruit power to transform into a lookalike of the king and publicly apologize to the people of Nanohana for his use of the powder. Baroque Works will also make sure that the time of the fake Cobra's appearance and the time of the real Cobra's disappearance line up with how long it would have taken Cobra to travel to the town. In addition to confessing to causing the drought, the fake Cobra will also point out that the possession and use of Dance Powder is illegal, so to cover his tracks, everyone in the town will be killed and the fake royal soldier will start to set the town on fire, this for sure will bring out quite a bit of chaos."

I hear many of the people present here inhale sharply as they listen to Crocodile's nasty plan, at the same time, Crocodile lits up another cigar as the explanation of the plan is taking quite a bit of time, then he continues, "But just when the fake royal soldiers had finished setting the town on fire, a large ship will crash into the shore, causing it to jump out of the sea and land in town, courtesy of Mr. 1 and Miss Double Finger. Mr. 2 and the fake soldiers will use this as a distraction which will make their escape easier. The citizens, fooled by Mr. 2's deception, will then very likely decide to ally with the rebel army and take up arms against the king, of course, that is also thanks to some of our men which will incite them. Initially, the rebellion did not have enough weapons to mount an attack on the capital, but that will change because the large ship that Mr. 1 and Miss Double Finger will crash will actually be an armory ship filled with weapons."

At this point, Crocodile smirks as a show of his confidence in his plans as he says, "At this point, the numbers and force of the rebel army would grow exponentially, and it will begin its advancement on the capital. Once the rebellion got close to the capital, a Baroque Works agent in the royal army will "accidentally" shot a cannon at the rebels, marking the beginning of the final battle. We will also arrange for a bomb with a five-kilometer blast radius to be shot into the center of the battlefield once the fighting reaches its climax and the maximum number of royal soldiers and rebel soldiers are all gathered in one place, killing all the rebels and royal soldiers in one fell swoop. Naturally, a bomb with a blast radius of that size would itself have to be very large, so it was necessary to hide it and to launch it from very close to the battlefield, and at a high elevation to take advantage of gravity, so I will make sure to hide at the top of a nearby clock tower of the capital city. Once both armies are eliminated, it will be simple for Baroque Works to take over the country.'

Crocodile pulls out another cigar as he also finished the last one, lits it up, and starts smoking his third one as he narrates the last part of his plan, "Before the bomb is supposed to be launched however, I'll make sure to thoroughly question the king about the ancient weapon known as Pluton, a battleship that can destroy an entire island with only a single cannon fire, which was supposedly hidden somewhere in Arabasta. Then with both Pluton and Arabasta under my control, I will be able to unite all the pirates in the area under my command and eventually become more powerful than even the World Government itself!" 

He smiles slightly as he concludes in a confident and proud tone, "This is the true purpose of Operation Utopia, the name of the project designed by me to dispose of King Nefertari Cobra, take over the throne of the Arabasta Kingdom, and acquire the ancient weapon Pluton which is supposedly hidden somewhere on this island, achieving the purpose of creating a "utopia" capable of competing with the World Government."

At the end of his explanation, Crocodile, just like 90s anime evil boss, puts out his last cigar on the ashtray in front of him as that excited queer exclaims, "You mean we can do that here!!? We'll take over the entire kingdom!? I'm getting excited!!" followed by Mr. Shiny Head who calmly asks, "So our most pressing duties... are to carry out the different facets of this final plan?"

Hearing that, Crocodile smirks as he says, "That is correct. All the jobs you have done since the foundation of Baroque Works have been for this plan. And these are the last orders I will entrust you with. The time to get rid of the Kingdom of Arabasta will soon come..."

At the same time, a dozen of slender arms appear next to each one of us and gently lay on the table right in front of us a paper with a set of instructions, but my focus isn't on the paper, but on the arm itself, as I instantly recognize it as the effect of Nico Robin's Devil Fruit, the Hana Hana no Mi (Flower Flower Fruit), a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to replicate and sprout pieces of their body from the surface of any object or living thing.

Seeing that, I can't help but let my mind wander once more while I look at the piece of paper faking interest over the shit written on it, 'Ohh, I'd love to let her use her power to make her grow her hands in my pants and make her give me and handjob during this boring meeting... maybe she could even grow some more interesting parts since later in the anime she has been able to sprout a copy of her whole body...'

While I'm thinking that, Crocodile continues, "When you have all completed those orders... the Kingdom of Arabasta will be destroyed!!! The cornered rebels and civilians will tragically fall right into the Baroque Works' hands!! In just a little bit of time! This country will become our "Utopia"!!!"

At the same time, all the Officers Agents start to burn their orders using the candelabra at the center of the table, and seeing that, I quickly look at the orders once more to memorize them, then do the same to cover the fact that I was daydreaming while Crocodile explained his "totally unexpected" plan.

After that, Crocodile concludes, "This is the Baroque Works' great, final plan, "Utopia." Failure will not be tolerated. The operation will begin in a few days in the morning at 7 o'clock!! Until then, feel free to use the facility, Rain Dinners, to relax and prepare as you please! Meeting adjourned. Pray for victory."

Jayr POV - Blue Star, Grand Line, Sandy Island, Alubarna - 20 GAP 

We have finally reached our destination, the capital city of the Arabasta Kingdom, Alubarna which is in the northeast part of the island, built on a plateau near an oasis, it is located north of the port town of Nanohana and west of the port town of Tamarisk. 

Like several other cities in Arabasta, most of Alubarna's structures follow the conventions of Islamic architecture, such as domed buildings and towers.

Access to the city is done through my sworn enemy, five long flights of stairs located to the west, southwest, south, southeast, and east. 

(Image Here - Alubarna)

From what Igaram told us, the southern gate is considered the main entrance, and if I remember well, it is the one Koza and his rebel army used to break into the city, I also remember that the southeastern gate also features a group of ruins nearby, famous for being the place where Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper faced Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas. 

To not cause too much unrest among the people living in this city, we decided to land the still camouflaged Athena's God Bidoof next to those ruins, as they are quite a deserted spot, and then enter the city on foot. 

Of course, the presence of Igaram, who is the captain of the royal guards, and Vivi, who is the loved princess of the whole Arabasta Kingdom did cause quite a bit of unrest among the citizens and the guards, who quickly scrambled to secure Vivi's safety, but despite that, we are still able to quickly cross through the lively city of Alubarna and reach its center, the Central City Square, a large, circular area where people can meet, which it lies just outside of our destination, the Arabasta Palace.

During our walk through the busy streets of Alubarna, I couldn't help but notice another iconic structure in the distance, it is the Alubarna Clocktower, an extremely tall clock tower building, resembling the Big Ben, which brought me some memories of the anime, 'If I remember well, there is a large open area at the very top of the tower and behind the clock's face, which can only be accessed from a specific pair of stairs somewhere on the bottom floor. In the anime, Crocodile planned to launch a bomb from there, due to the large open space and the close proximity to the Central City Square... Should I warn Igaram and the King of this possible threat... I guess, I should do it, even if it is too soon for Crocodile's plot to start and I'll quickly stop him after we talk with Vivi's father King Cobra, it is better to still warn them, after all, someone else could have the same idea as Crocodile, so they can still ready for such eventualities.'

While I'm thinking that, we continue to head toward the Alubarna Palace, where the royal family and their servants live, located in the center of Alubarna. 

A truly imposing structure built mostly in pure white stone, it boasts many luxuries, including a lush rooftop garden, a massive bathhouse, and secret passageways it slightly reminds me of the famous Taj Mahal, only where one is a mausoleum, the other is an actual palace, well at the very least now it is used as a palace, I don't know if before it was actually also a mausoleum, after all, from what Igaram told us the Alubarna Palace is actually older than the Arabasta Kingdom itself, so it is actually possible that at first, it was a mausoleum in honor of someone or even a whole powerful family until they became forgotten by time or some other things like purposely erased from history.

We finally arrive in front of the stairs that lead to the entrance of the Alubarna Palace and see that there are already people waiting for us there who, as soon as they see us, quickly enter in formation and yell, """We greet, the Captain of the Royal Guards Igaram-sama and the Royal Princess Nefertari Vivi-sama! Welcome back to Alubarna!!"""

Obviously, those are the members of the royal guards and they all have the same attire which consists of tunic capes, brown metal dragon-pattern armor, sandals, and a metal helmet, their weapon of choice is a long rod with a blade at the end, something quite common as polearms have served as the king of the battle for millennium in many universes. 

As we get closer to the royal guards, Galen suddenly asks me as he looks at the royal guards with a curious expression on his face, "Papa, why do all those people have those long weapons on their backs? They are some kind of guards, right? Isn't better for them to wield a more agile weapon?" 

Hearing that, I look at my boy and reply, "Not really, there is a very good reason for their choice, you see polearms are very powerful by themselves, they are capable of breaking armor, bypassing shields, and generally have less training requirements for adequate fighters than something like a sword, axe, hammer, bows or even guns. Then to top it off swords are usually considered sidearms on the battlefield unless we're talking something like the Claidheamh-Mòr, more commonly known as Claymore, which is for all purposes, it is just a smaller than normal oddly shaped polearm. This is also one of the reasons why Papa's Tactical Arms Sword Form is so huge, not only because it looks "cool", but also because its heavy weight isn't a burden for me who can use it without any problem, making so that weapons of such size are way more practical to use."

Seeing him nod, I continue to explain, "A polearm is a superior weapon in holding corridors and throne rooms over a sword, a wall of halberds, spears, or such, effectively removes the avenue of attack and guarantees the safety of the royal guards' charge. Short of being surrounded by overwhelming numbers, ranged weapons, supernatural powers or magic overcoming them is next to impossible for the usual wannabe-assaliant. Moreover, polearms offer a much greater threat to heavily armored or even shielded foes, reaching out and pulling the man into a range of 5 or 6 other hungry points of lethal metal, or crushing a plate helm in a single savage blow while still piercing the gorget of another it is all possible." 

At this point, Galen nods once more and says, "I see! They are perfect to overcome the most common threat a king or such would face, like a mob of revolting people without incurring any losses thanks to their range, only projectiles or being flanked or surrounded would be dangerous for them. Contrary to polearms, swords allow opponents into arms reach which isn't good against multiple assailants, while a polearm is very hard to trap or wrestle from the guy holding the business end who could just punt you with it or swing its edge into your hip and rip back! Is that right?"

I smile and pat him on the head while saying, "That's right. Another thing you have to consider is that a polearm just looks vicious to top things off, it says quite clearly, "I'm going to break your bones and chop chunks off your body, are you still thinking of regicide?""

This makes everyone chuckle a little even the incoming royal guards who are patiently waiting for us to finish, then one particular man among these guards steps forward and adds, "That's quite the smart boy. Now let me add that swords do have two advantages in regards to usage, aside from the fact that they, like polearms, are quite versatile, maybe not quite equal but strong enough to hold as a second weapon. A sword can be used in conjunction with a shield while a halberd cannot, at least not a shield of any significance in defending their charge adequately while keeping themselves also covered, if they lack adequate armor to be the shield themselves. Swords are also very useful in tight-pressed conflict or a melee, this is why it was often the sidearm of line infantry with large cumbersome polearms it could get closer than a lover and not tangle up too badly."

The man in question is quite different from all the other royal guards, he is a tall, imposing dark-skinned man with medium length black hair and a long broad nose resembling that of a jackal.

He wears a long, light-green tunic, revealing his muscular chest, and has two belts around his waist, a striped, pale-red and crimson large one, and over it a purple, thinner one, around his neck he has a necklace consisting of big golden beads, and he wears a dark-green coat draped on his shoulders like a cape, he carries a massive sword, with a blue hilt and sheath, on his right hip.

If I remember well, this man name is Chaka, one of two head guards in the Arabasta kingdom who serves under Igaram, and currentily serving the acting captain of the royal guards in Igaram's place.

(Image Here - Chaka)

Seeing the man who stepped forward, both Vivi and Igaram yell, "Chaka!!" which confirm my doubts.

At the same time, Chaka nods and says, "Captain Igaram, Princess Vivi. I'm glad that the two of you are back safe and sound." then his gaze moves to everyone else in our group as he adds, "It seems that you two met quite a lot of interesting individuals... Anyway, I hope that your mission was a successful one, since you returned way sooner than expected."

After saying that, Chaka briefly introduces himself before he leads us into the palace and soon, we reach the magnificent throne hall, where one man is already waiting for us standing in the middle of the hall alone.

He is a man of average height, with a wrinkled face, a tied-off beard, and long, curly, black hair, wearing a green robe with yellow edging, an orange and beige sash around his waist, and a purple coat, he also wears black shoes and a necklace, he is obiviously Vivi's father, Nefertari Cobra, the King of Arabasta.

(Image Here - Nefertari Cobra)

As soon as his gaze lands on Vivi, a bright relieved smile forms on his face as he says, "I'm truly glad that you are safe, Vivi! You don't know how worried I was these months that you were away!" then he looks at Igaram and adds, "Igaram, thank you for having kept her safe." making Igaram simply reply with, "It was my duty and honor to do so, your Majesty."