Click.
The sparks from the lighter ignited the cigar, causing puffs of smoke to rise.
In the cool room, Crocodile looked out after drawing the curtains, the desolate desert filled with dead silence, an environment that was naturally his home ground.
"The desert nation of Alabasta, even after a history spanning a thousand years, the towns on this desert cannot conceal the deathly silence of the sands. This country, upon its birth, was already shrouded in death, wasn't it?"
Crocodile marveled at this desert of death; even locals who have lived here all their lives might easily lose their way in the desert. However, it was merely marveling.
Now, he was the mastermind behind the Alabasta incident, and the death on the desert, the dried-up oases, were all inextricably linked to him.
"Everything that needs to be done is almost there, right?"
"Probably, but the latest news is that the ships of the billions sent to Narohara were completely destroyed by unknown individuals."
"There are countless replacements for those kinds of people, it won't affect my plans at all. But, Nico Robin, haven't your recent private actions been a bit excessive?"
The billion elders sound mighty, but they are just the henchmen leaders of Baroque Works.
Street thugs, bounty hunters, ordinary pirates, all these people can be substitutes. With Crocodile's own abilities, there are as many of these people as needed in the First Half of the Grand Line; he simply doesn't care.
More than that, he was more interested in some of Robin's special moves, always collecting things that seemed meaningless to him.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Heh, it doesn't matter. As long as you complete what I instructed, I don't care what you're actually up to. But I must remind you, I'm completely different from those idiots you've known before."
"Ahaha, I understand, the tasks you arranged, I will handle them well."
Robin agreed, Crocodile was much stronger than those guys from previous organizations, but that was all. Yamato sent her a message the day before, saying they had already reached Alabasta; it looked like Crocodile's good days were numbered.
Crocodile had his plans, Robin also had hers, and Vivi and others had their own plans too. Even Yamato had arranged special plans for the action, and when these plans finally conflict, everything has to return to the primitive stage of comparing fists.
Undoubtedly, at this moment, Yamato's fist was the biggest of them all.
...
However, right now the group with the largest fist was on a leisurely desert journey.
"Damn, it's still so hot. Yamato, make more ice, this ice house is about to melt."
Ordinary people traveling in Alabasta's desert rely on camels, but Yamato's group was different. Currently, two giant lizards were serving as their transportation method.
The Alabasta desert also nurtured a large number of unique species, the Shandora Giant Lizard being one of them.
These giant lizards usually hunt in pairs, due to their massive size, sharp fangs, and claws, always standing at the top of the food chain in the Alabasta desert, and were also one of the most feared creatures by the locals. But at this moment, they were compelled to become mounts.
The two large bumps on their heads said it all; Yamato had convinced these two lizards with an extremely friendly approach to obediently take them toward the capital.
To stay cool, Yamato used her powers to build two ice houses on the lizard's backs, substantially alleviating the desert's heat.
Yet under the blazing sun, the ice Yamato made had limited time before melting into water, inadvertently bringing comfort to those lizards.
Ulti, in Dragon form, lay on the lizard's back, entering this state purely to combat the sunlight; not wanting sunburn, tanning, or liking Alabasta's desert attire, she just used dinosaur skin to fend off the scorching sun.
"Oh, okay, wait a second, let me finish composing this post."
"Remember to block those who should be blocked, though I reckon it makes no difference; Kaidou certainly won't let you off."
"Don't bring that up! I just managed to completely forget about that!"
Not only were Nami and Usopp burdened by debts, but also Yamato. She knew clearly, until she could directly defeat her father, some matters could never be avoided.
To not affect her traveling mood, she opted to temporarily seal off certain memories.
As for Page One, he was trying hard to lower his presence. Before these two lizards showed up, Ulti had been attempting to coax him to act as the transport tool.
The giant-sized Garchomp, capable of flying, running, and burrowing, except for swimming, could be considered an all-terrain transportation tool.
Page One truly hoped these two lizards could hold up, or else, if no other suitable creatures were found, it really would have been his turn.
...
Elsewhere, compared to Yamato and Ulti's unconventional way forward, the Straw Hat crew's journey was much more typical. However, they also encountered a troublesome adversary—the Kung Fu Sea Cow.
Resembling a sea cow but boasting a special structure similar to a turtle shell, these amphibious creatures resided in the desert rivers of Alabasta and its surrounding seas.
"If you want to come ashore, try to beat me; if you don't dare, then go back, it said."
Chopper served as a reindeer interpreter, conveying to Luffy and the others the words of the Kung Fu Sea Cow.
And the first challenger, Usopp, had already been defeated by the Kung Fu Sea Cow.
Although Luffy had toppled these sea cows, he witnessed a brand-new technique.
"Wow, is the saliva of these sea cows really that powerful?"
The weather-beaten Merry had yet another scar added, with a highly penetrating water jet piercing through the hull, leaving a light-penetrating hole.
Even Luffy's pants had a tear slashed open.
"Master Lizard told them that if they could train to the point where they could break through rocks with water, it would return to teach them more things. Currently, since Master Lizard hasn't returned, it means they haven't trained enough.
If we want to go to the opposite shore, could we ask that Master Lizard whether they already meet the requirement? That's what they said."
Chopper learned a new term—Master Lizard—from the Kung Fu Sea Cow's mouth.
Originally, little Inteleon, in search of an excuse to escape them, had deceived these Kung Fu Sea Cows with a Water Gun.
Since then, these Kung Fu Sea Cows continuously repeated this action, and after several years of practice, they truly mastered their own Water Gun.
Though they couldn't store water like Inteleon, they could hold river or sea water in their mouths and then eject it like a bullet.