Crocodile

"Did you poison their ale?"

"Poison? What poison?" Mr. 3 was confused by Ken's words. In the original story, Mr. 3 had gone on to mix some explosive materials that Luffy and his crew brought for the giants. But from the reaction of Mr. 2 it didn't seem like that.

"You didn't add any explosives anywhere to catch these two giants who have such a high bounty?"

"Uhh.. I am trying to bring them down but since I have another officer agent here, we have decided to bring them down on our own." Ken looked at Bon-clay after Mr. 3 said that. He wanted to make sure that he was speaking the truth. Bon-clay nodded his head at the words of the officer agent.

"You will use only your devil fruits to bring the old giants down?"

"Yes." All three nodded their heads.

"No need to do that. Return to Alabasta and tell Crocodile that you failed as you three encountered us and we proved to be too powerful."

"We can't say that to him. We will be killed."

"Tell him I have Haki. He will understand."

"No this is not possible... We will be murdered in cold blood by Crocodile..."

"Do you want me to give you more punches so that he understands?" Ken had his eye brows creased listening to the refusal of Mr. 3. He was being annoying. In fact his voice had always been a little annoying for Ken but he was being an open minded person here. If his actions were also annoying then he wouldn't mind reminding more of the punch he had delivered.

Mr. 3 shuddered after being threatened by Ken. He wanted to protest but he didn't know who was more ruthless. Punisher Kenny or Crocodile? He could only pray and hope that Crocodile would be a little merciful and let him go after mentioning about Haki.

Mr. 3 wanted to speak more but it was already too late. They could see two giants in ancient Viking style dress having a go at each other with their rusted and old swords. Each strike with their swords was heard for quite a distance and it reverberated in this island.

"Hope they have met the two." Ken mumbled.

The two giants were having the epic fight while the earth quaked a bit. Though the officer agents had heard about them, they hadn't actually met them so they were a little surprised by watching the size of these giants. Miss Goldenweek couldn't help but ask.

"Where do these giants come from?"

"From the island of Elbaf in the New World."

"New World? You mean on the other half of the Grand Line."

"Yes. Now go. Tell to..." Before Ken could finish his words there was a sudden ring.

*purru.. purru.. purru...*

*purru.. purru.. purru...*

Both Mr. 2 and Mr. 3 had a horrified look on their faces as they heard the ring. It came from the pocket of Mr. 3 and there could be only one person who might have called them. Mr. 3 was shaking when he brought out the den-den mushi, the One Piece version of mobile phones.

His hands were shuddering when Mr. 3 brought it out.

"Who is it?"

"Mr. 0... I mean Shichibukai Cro... Crocodile." Mr. 3 was visibly shaken seeing the call. He didn't know what to do. Ken just didn't care and picked up the call.

"Yo!"

"..."

"You can speak Crocodile. There is no point in being so silent."

"...."

"..."

"Who are you?"

Finally, a deep and manly voice was heard from the mouth of the snail. The voice itself was enough to prove that it was Crocodile.

"You sent your officer agents to come after me. Who do you think you are?"

".. Straw Hat Luffy with a bounty of 120 million?"

"That will be our Captain. I am Ken. Nice to meet you.. I mean nice to hear from you."

"What do you want? What happened to Mr. 2 and Mr. 3?"

"Well, they are lying in their own pool of blood. Do you want me to send you their bodies?" Ken said while looking at Mr. 3. His face lit up like Christmas lights while Mr. 2 didn't have a good look in his face. He felt insulted but he didn't intervene. Ken had saved his life so he couldn't exactly go against him.

".. You have quite the guts!"

"No, the gutsy thing is you trying to take over a country which is under the World Government and that too you didn't face any obstacles along the way considering the countries that belong under that ugly white blue banner. That is kind of a bold move I have to say." Ken said.

When you think about it, it was kind of true. When the country of Flevance of North Blue was at its end, the higher nobles fled. Same thing happened to the Lulusia Kingdom, the nobles fled. But this was never the case with Alabasta. Cobra was an upright King and he would never leave his kingdom and flee but it had never been mentioned in the manga that he was approached by the World Government when things looked dire for them with the revolution.

Better still, when the World Government was established, Cobra's ancestor refused to live on the Grand Line and he had never been on good terms with the World Government. And if that wasn't enough, their family had a freaking Poneglyph under their castle. This was even after the fact that having or reading the texts in this world was a crime.

So from the get go, Cobra wasn't ever loved by the World Government. The other countries might have had benevolent leaders once and thus they refused to stay in Marijoa but over the years many things had changed for most countries.

But Cobra's lineage maintained their upright and kind behavior and this could be seen in Vivi too. Crocodile was finally stopped at the end because Luffy had defeated him and there was no way to hide this from the general public since he had fallen in front of everyone and Smoker was an upright marine.

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Read 35 chapters ahead on my p@treon.com/thelightedghost and expect 4 chapters on weekend if there is more than 1000 power stones.