Tereza flies through the air, quickly leaving the others behind, who are riding on the super spot-billed ducks to make their way through the city, aiming for their positions near the entrances of the city.
Alex quickly takes out his treasured [Jack’s Spare Silvery Mask] and puts it on.
Better safe than sorry. I’m a wanted fugitive, and I don’t want to paint an even bigger target on our backs… no. My back!
Tereza gains more and more height as she reaches one of the palace’s many balconies.
“Wait a minute, Tereza,” Alex says, raising his hand.
En!
Almost empty… a few civilians… servants, cooks, perhaps two or three soldiers. No Crocodile.
“Should I take you somewhere else?” Tereza asks in her deep bat voice.
Alex thinks for a moment before replying, “No.... You have your task, which is equally important. There are no guards… Crocodile must have kidnapped the king and must be hiding close by. In any case, I know his end goal, so if we don’t find him here, we’ll head there.”
Alex then jumps off Tereza, Luffy sliding down as well. “That was fun! Flying is awesome! Hey, Batwoman, why don’t you join my crew?”
Batwoman?
“Good luck… hurry up and finish this,” Tereza whispers in her deep voice, completely ignoring Luffy.
She then quickly lifts off. Before they leave the balcony, Alex turns to Luffy.
“Before you approach Crocodile… remember you need water,” Alex reminds Luffy. “You told me what happened last time, during your battle—so you know what the solution is to fighting him, right? Water!”
“I… I forgot!” Luffy yells in shock.
Praised be my inventory… I always have a ton of water with me. Good thing I prepared, just in case. Throwing barrels filled with water at Crocodile is my secret technique… might as well offer some of the water to Luffy.
“I got you covered… just trust me and don’t rush for him without my command. You are made out of rubber, right? Maybe you can even swallow a lot of water. It would be convenient to store it in your body,” Alex suggests.
Luffy nods, smiling. “Good idea! You are handy, why don’t you join my cre—”
“No!” Alex interrupts him. “Get serious, will you? People all around us will die if we fail. More importantly… our friends might die.”
Upon hearing that, Luffy’s face changes, his smile replaced with determination.
“You are right…” he says in a cold, lifeless voice, going forward into the palace.
Good… finally getting serious. These simple-minded characters are rather easy to manipulate, though I didn’t lie.
Alex and Luffy enter the palace. The palace, despite its name, is not decorated as one would expect. It reminds Alex more of a castle, as it’s not designed magnificently.
“A good king, huh? Cares more about his people than himself…” Alex guesses as they walk through it.
I always hate these wannabe saints. Ever heard of balance? Live like a damn king and not just call yourself one, and don’t be beholden to greedy merchants, whom you allow to have so much influence that they might as well be called the true kings of the country. Crocodile in his city of Rainbase is just one example. He tolerates these people but reins them in. This country's situation is partly caused by the fact that Cobra is just too soft.
Anyway… En!
Nothing....
“Let’s go to the throne room,” Alex suggests after scanning his surroundings. I don’t have any other leads.
“Where is that?” Luffy asks, confused.
“Follow me…” Alex says, rushing forward, speeding up.
As they run through the corridors, they stumble across a pair of guards who raise their weapons, the typical weapon of the kingdom’s soldiers.
That’s not a spear… it looks like a spear with a round axe head... weird.
“Intruders… stop!” they yell.
Alex rushes past them, surprising them and delivering two quick punches to their faces, easily knocking them out.
You have dealt 36 damage to Arabasta Guard
You have stunned Arabasta Guard
You have dealt 34 damage to Arabasta Guard
You have stunned Arabasta Guard
As the guards collapse, Alex and Luffy move on, the Straw Hat seemingly not too averse to the violence, as he does not comment on Alex’s violent methods.
They swiftly reach the throne room, but also find it nearly empty—aside from a well-dressed minister arrogantly sitting on the throne, wearing a robe that would seem gaudy even if the king wore it. Of course, he’s protected by a small army of guards, numbering ten.
“No signs of Crocodile,” Alex notes.
“Who are they?! Arrest them!” the minister yells, and all of his guards immediately rush forward with their weapons, pointing at Alex and Luffy.
“That minister… seems a little suspicious,” Alex reasons, narrowing his eyes. “We need to interrogate him, so we need to knock them out first. It’s best we don’t kill them, as they are probably innocent and are just following orders.”
“Gum Gum…” Luffy yells, jumping into the air. “Gattling!”
Punching so fast and hard, Luffy’s hands turn it into a blur—countless punches raining down onto the surprised guards before they can even raise their weapons properly. They stagger, getting hammered again and again, and then the final wave of hits sends them flying across the throne room, their bodies getting blown away. The minister stares at Luffy in shock, his eyes nearly popping out at the sight of his attack.
Meanwhile, Alex draws his [Executioner’s Blade R2] and approaches the shaking minister, who falls onto the ground, trying to scramble away. As Alex gets closer and closer, the man raises his hands as if to protect himself and yells, “Do you know who I am, intruder? I am the nearly appointed Minister of Finance, how dare you approach me!”
As he raises his arm higher and higher, still lying on the ground, the sleeves of his robe—which are seemingly a size too large for the man—slip down, revealing a black tattoo on his forearm.
Alex glares at it, immediately recognizing it as the Baroque Works logo.
“That is… not too surprising,” Alex says, smiling as he swings his sword in a swift horizontal motion.
“Huh?” the minister wonders, blinking once. “What did you do?”
A second later, his entire forearm slides off his body, dropping onto the ground. A heartbeat later, blood seeps out of the stump, a small stream shooting out with each pulse.
You have dealt 23 damage to Minister Viper
You have crippled Minister Viper (Forearm)
You have caused bleeding
“You! What are you doing?!” Luffy yells, grabbing Alex’s shoulder.
“Look at the arm,” Alex says, pointing his sword at the severed hand on the ground. “He’s a Baroque Works spy.”
“Still, why did you cut off his arm?” Luffy asks, sounding genuinely baffled.
“I have questions for him, so I didn’t kill him right away,” Alex replies, shocking Luffy.
This is a perfect opportunity for some good cop, bad cop roleplay.
“Yes… I am a bad guy… they don’t call me Butcher for nothing. I love nothing more than killing scumbags…” Alex says in a low voice, stepping onto the minister’s robe and pinning him down, using the first opening of his blade, pressing it onto the ground just above his head, which is just about to get cut off.
“Where the fuck is Mr. 0, where is Miss All Sunday? Also… where is the king? If you tell me, I’ll kill you swiftly, but if you don’t…” Alex says, smiling—then suddenly pressing his blade down, causing his neck to bleed just a little.
You have dealt 1 damage to Minister Viper
“AAARGHGHG!” the minister yells in pain and fear, his face going pale.
“Thunder!” Alex yells, smirking, intentionally casting the AoE version of his thunder magic, only hitting his target with the very edge of the circle to deal minimal damage.
You have dealt 21 damage to Minister Viper
“Uuuuhgghghghg,” the minister growls, clenching his teeth as his body seizes up, pressing his one healthy arm, trying to push away Alex’s blade in desperation.
So weak....
“Tear,” Alex chants, as he’s surrounded by red orbal energy that slowly transforms into his watery healing art.
You have healed Minister Viper for 140 HP
He then rips off part of the minister’s robe, twists it into a rough rope, and binds it tightly around the bleeding stump.
“I can heal you even more,” Alex suddenly offers, voice almost casual. “My Devil Fruit can even restore your arm. Without the tattoo. Two choices—flee this country with your life and whatever wealth you can carry, or die here and now.”
“That’s awesome!” Luffy notes. “You can do magic! That’s cool.”
“I… I’ll flee the country! Just heal me,” the minister, meanwhile, yells, hope appearing in his eyes.
“Sure… the cost of that healing is that you tell me what I want to know. SPEAK! What do you know about the plan? Where are the top agents, including Mr. 0 and his partner? Where is Cobra? What about the bomb?”
“I… know nothing of a bomb,” the man says, panicked. “I swear! As for the plan… I’m just to be in charge as a token ruler and follow orders… my job was to send every last soldier possible into battle, rouse them so they don’t hold back. We also barred the exits to the city, so nobody could leave, and warned the citizens to barricade their houses and stay home. I got a call and was told to do that… I know nothing more, trust me.”
Pathetic liar.... No need to use [Shepard’s Promise], I can deal with him on my own.
“Mr. 0… no, Crocodile, won’t be your boss for much longer,” Alex says, his voice filled with contempt. “Also, his plan was to kill every single last one of you. That’s why this tattoo was created—a convenient tool to frame all of you as scapegoats after he seizes the country legally by killing the entire royal family. He is quite smart, because morons like you still protect him, and after he’s done, you’ll all die as traitors to the country, with him as the new king, nobody left alive to expose him.” Alex leans in slightly, smiling weakly. “Anyway, it’s quite funny that despite me giving you a shot at life, you still risk your life by deceiving me. Let me toast to your death!”
Alex then grabs a [Superior Dish: (Energizing Shake)] and empties it.
You have recovered 15 MP
You will recover 25 MP over 10 minutes
“He… no…” the minister mutters, seemingly even forgetting his crippled arm, his breathing turning shallow, yet still anger burning in his eyes.
“BASTARD! I want to kill him!” he suddenly yells, his voice filled with pure rage. “I’ll tell you everything!”
Finally... we’re wasting time here.
