Chapter 449 - 100
"Good. They didn't even look at us," the pirate captain said, exhaling slowly as the cruise ship pulled away in the opposite direction without slowing. "That's about the best outcome we could have hoped for."
It really was. A close call dressed up as nothing happening at all. Whatever those people were, whatever they were doing out here, they had no interest in a crew like his, and he intended to make sure it stayed that way by putting as much sea between them as possible.
"Why are you soaked?" the captain said, noticing his first mate's shirt clinging to him, dark with sweat.
"That look," the first mate said, still coming back to himself. He stared at nothing in particular for a moment. "Just one glance, and it felt like something was going to reach through my chest. Dragon King Rosinante really is a different kind of creature entirely."
"You're certain that was him?"
The captain had given the order to turn around the instant he heard the name, without looking for himself.
"I've seen his face in the papers enough times to be sure. And even if I hadn't, who else carries himself like that?"
"They were heading toward Alabasta," the captain said, frowning at the horizon. "What business does someone like that have there?"
"Word is Alabasta has become Crocodile's territory," one of the officers said. "You think the Dragon King is going after him?"
Nobody had an answer. But the crew reached a unanimous and unspoken conclusion without needing to discuss it: whatever was about to happen in Alabasta was not something they were going anywhere near.
...
"Boss. There's a massive cruise ship outside Alabasta's port."
The man who came in was breathing hard, and his composure had not survived the trip from the lookout post to wherever Crocodile was sitting.
Crocodile looked up from his afternoon tea with the unhurried patience of someone who has learned that most urgent things aren't. He studied his subordinate for a moment, and a quiet flicker of something crossed his eyes.
"Tell me who it belongs to," he said. "And try to look like you have a spine."
He was already calculating. If this turned out to be nothing, the man in front of him was going to have a bad afternoon.
"It's flying the Grey Kingdom's flag, Boss. They're saying it's the Dragon King himself. The ship is sailing directly toward Rainbase."
Crocodile set down his cup.
"Rosinante," he said, turning the name over. "Now that is an interesting visitor. What would bring him to Alabasta?" He let the question sit unanswered for a moment, then glanced back at the subordinate. "Your head stays on your shoulders today. Next time you come through my door looking like that, it won't."
"Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Understood."
"Have everything prepared. I'll meet him personally." Crocodile rose, straightening his coat. "Whether you're talking about a former Four Emperor or the current Vice Chairman of the Elder Council, that's someone you greet yourself. Besides, a man like that might be worth knowing better."
He felt no particular alarm. By his accounting, he and Rosinante had no conflict between them. He was a Warlord. Rosinante, whatever his personal power, still had to consider the World Government's sensibilities. These things had a way of keeping even dangerous people civil.
...
"So this is Alabasta," Rosinante said, looking out at the expanse of sand and pale stone that stretched in every direction. "Hot."
"Why is it all desert?" Elsa asked, genuinely puzzled. "How do people live here?"
"This world has always been strange," Raijin Kisuke said. "A kingdom that's nothing but desert isn't even close to the strangest thing out there. The New World has environments that would make your head spin."
"Your Majesty," Binks said, "a ship this size doesn't arrive quietly. Crocodile will know we're here. Do you think he'll do anything to Robin and Raki before we reach them?"
"No. Right now he's busy having people prepare a welcome for us." Rosinante glanced in the direction of Rainbase. "He probably doesn't even know why we've come. It's been ten years. Robin was young when she left, and she's kept a low profile since. Crocodile almost certainly has no idea she and Raki have any connection to the Grey Kingdom."
"Then how do you want to handle this, Your Majesty?"
"We came to collect people," Rosinante said simply. "So we go where they're being held, take them, and leave. As for Crocodile himself, I'll leave that to the rest of you."
The eyes of those around him sharpened with quiet anticipation.
"I'll announce our arrival first," Rosinante added, taking one step forward in the direction of Rainbase. "And express my feelings on the matter while I'm at it."
That single step carried with it a release of pressure so vast and so unhurried that it didn't feel like aggression. It felt like weather. A front moving in. Conqueror's Haki poured outward from him in every direction, rolling across the port and beyond without any particular effort on his part.
The cruise ship had not gone unnoticed. It was far too large for that, and the dragon-emblazoned flag of the Grey Kingdom was distinctive enough that anyone who had seen a newspaper in the past few months recognized it on sight. By the time the ship was docking, both Baroque Works agents and representatives of the Alabastan royal court had received word and were already moving toward the harbor. King Nefertari Cobra had dispatched a minister and a full honor guard the moment the news reached him.
Rosinante's titles were not small ones. A former Four Emperor was already someone a king received with ceremony. But Vice Chairman of the Celestial Dragon Elder Council placed him at a level of institutional authority comparable to the Five Elders themselves. Cobra had considered going to the port in person and had only been talked out of it by the logistics of time and the combined persuasion of his advisors.
The royal minister and his escort arrived at the dock at almost exactly the same moment as the Baroque Works contingent.
Neither group had more than a second to register the other's presence before the Haki hit them.
It didn't arrive like a shockwave. It arrived like a certainty, something that bypassed the body and reached directly into whatever part of a person decided whether they were going to remain standing. Soldiers who had trained for years found their legs making decisions without consulting them. One by one, they folded.
The dock went quiet except for the sound of people hitting the ground.
...