Chapter 35

Grandline, Paradise, Alabasta

With a click, Sir Crocodile, shichibukai and leader of Baroque Works, returned the mic of his transpondersnail back into its holding position, just as his partner, Miss all Sunday or otherwise known as Nico Robin, returned back into their secret base in Rainbase.

Looking over to his partner, Crocodile not for the first time wondered if Nico Robin truly knew how to read the poneglyphs, as she had assured him that she could. He had put alot of trust into her by believing her without any proof. After all poneglyphs, those giant undestructible stone slabs, didn't grow on trees. Well, in Alabasta not anyways. Crocodile had made sure of that by covering the land in an eternal draught and s.u.c.k.i.n.g all the moisture out of the ground to make it his kingdom in the end. And to rise even further in his grand ambition to rule and gain power he had set his eyes on the acient weapons that were said to be described on the poneglyphs, which brought him back to Nico Robin and his trust in her. Though that trust would expire as soon as she fullfilled her end of the bargain. No more risks, he had promised himself.

"That was the marines fleetadmiral Sengoku just now. We received an order of importance, as he put it. A noble is being chased by a group of pirates to Alabasta and since the Cipher Pol are otherwise occupied it falls onto our shoulders to take them in until a marine ship arrives. This could potentially risk our plans... no, we will proceed as planned. I will receive them and you will gather the officer agents here, once the noble has been dealt with. From there we will keep going as planned." Crocodile spoke, first pointing towards the transpondersnail, before taking a cigare out of a golden box and igniting it with a lighter held in his heavily, and only remaining, juweled hand, not noticing the stiffening of his partner at the mention of Cipher Pol, which she seemed to be grateful for, judging by her long exhale, which could also be mistaken as annoyance.

After igniting his cigare, Crocodile walked up the stairs and out of the base to begin his journey to the sandora river, to receive the noble and his entourage.

Nico Robin meanwhile sat down with a pondering look on her face.

'Could possibly the strawhats be the ones to chase the nobles here? But they didn't seem like the kind of pirates to even harm a single fly, well except the swordsman maybe. But those are always a little bloodthirsty in that profession...' she mused to herself but in the end putting those thoughts aside, since it didn't really matter in the end anyways. Only the poneglyph mattered. It always had...

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Grandline, Paradise, somewhere between Drum and Alabasta

Azul had been sailing for two days now and it had been an enjoyable ride so far. No harsh weather, no enemies, pirates or seakings alike. Nothing but smooth sailing. But after two days of sailing without anything notworthy happening Azuls boredom started to show its uggly head once more and so he decided, since he wasn't that far away anymore from his long awaited battle, to try and get some control over his 'ripper-state' as he had grown to adress it, after all dogs rip and he was one, a mean one to boot, sometimes at least. Though he hadn't made any progess after hours of trying and it began to grind on his nerves, slowly but surely.

'Why? What keeps me from getting some control over this state? Every other aspect of my devilfruit has been nothing but smooth sailing so far, well with a bit of luck here and there in between, but the point still stands. But when it comes to the metaphysical form my claws can take on it just will not work, no matter what I try... is there anything I am missing in all of this? Maybe I should wait until the next time I enter it instinctively and try to see what makes it so different than the rest of my devilfruit.' he thought to himself while falling back in his seat with a long sigh, bringing his focus onto the wandering white clouds and the clear blue sky above until it lulled him into a comfortable state of halfsleep, accompanied but the gentle cradling of the waves.

All until a nearby familiar sound caused him to open his eyes again, still slightly dazed from his imprompto sleep. 'What in all hells? This sounds like fire but that is just not possible. I didn't set my boat on fire on accident right?' That thought brought Azul back into the world of the living, who started to check his boat for anything out of the ordinary until half way through his check-up Azul spotted a weird surfing boat like thing not too far away from his own ship. On top of the yellowy vessel stood a man with his hands in his pockets, munching on an apple and looking over to his ship until he decided to drive over, literally. The yellow ship seemed to be fueled by fire, coming from the mans feet, which caused Azul to pause slightly in thought.

'Logia, hmm? And a strong one at that it seems but not one that can harm me anyways. Lets hope it is some c.o.c.ky pirate that's looking for a fight. I could use some distraction.' Azul thought while a grin started to form on his face.

The man on the vessel was wearing black shorts with an orange belt and had an orange cowboys hat on his head while his upper body was b.a.r.e, just like Azuls. Coincidence? Probably not. After all both had the power to command fire to some extent.

The man waved in greeting, which caused Azul to let out another long sigh. Seems like he really had to wait for Alabasta until he could get his blood boiling again. 'No matter, lets see who he is.' He thought to himself while raising his hand in greeting as well, still sitting in his place in a laid back manner.

"Hey there, I'm Ace. You got any booze to spare?" The man on the yellow vessel asked with a wide grin, hoping to get a little tipsy it seems. Against the boredom maybe?

"I'm Azul. Ye, though why should I give you any of mine? You got something to pay me with? Booze doesn't grow on seakings you know?" Azul asked back, not moving an inch from his spot which caused the man to search his pockets for some money or something and fished out a pile of Berry, throwing them to Azul, who caught them, counted them and nodded before stepping down into his little cabin and grabbing a bottle for himself and Ace before walking back up and handing one of them to the man.

"Ahhh, that's some good stuff right there. The moron that I sometimes am forgot to buy some for myself when I was on Drum island so I had no choice but to suffer the monotonie that comes from riding from point A to B. Booze usually makes that experience a little more bearable hahahaha" Ace said while laughing and throwing back the rest of the beer in the bottle.

"You wanna travel together till Alabasta? Company shortens the time in my experience. What do you say?" Ace asked, turning around and opening the back of his little vessel to bring out a bigass sandwhich, biting into it with a crunch and chewing loudly, which caused Azul to pause before going back down and bringing a piece of already grilled seaking back out with him, sitting down in his spot before companiable silence descended between them, only broken by the occasional crunch.

"So you with Whitebeard? What position?" Azul asked while pointing to Aces back, who swallowed before answering.

"Ye, I'm the old mans second devisions commander. Say, you wanna join? You look strong and newbies always get welcomed heartily hahaha" Ace asked before laughing and throwing the rest of his sandwhich into his wide open mouth, swallowing it in one piece.

"Pfff, over my dead body. Nothing a pirates life could give me I don't already have. Besides I find it pathetic" Azul said, shrugging before stuffing his mouth once again with seaking meet. God, he liked that stuff.

"OYY! Who are you calling pathetic you idiot?! I'll show you pathetic! Well, maybe later.... Too much water around us..." Ace said, trying to bring down his own anger to not do something stupid.

"Bwahahahaha, never met a pirate afraid to fight on open water bwahahaha! As I said, pathetic hehehe" Azul laughed, only making Ace more angry in the process who in response only increased the fire output on his feet, speeding off into the distance towards Alabasta while Azul was still chewing on his meet and laughing at the pirate he had just met.

"We'll see who will have the last laugh next time damn it.....!" Ace grumbled to himself while letting some steam of into his feet, his prominent temper once again getting the better of him.