❛ KINDA MAKES ME JEALOUS. ❜
₊˚៹ . ❪ episode : 106 ❫˖ ₊˚.⋆
࿐┊ CH. 13┊🏴‍☠️🌊👒

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         THE STRAW HATS WERE RUNNING ALONG THE PATHWAY LEADING ACROSS THE RIVER TO THE CASINO, Luffy and (Y/N) leading the way with them both shouting out Crocodiles name, causing Happy, Zoro, Usopp and Nami to sweat drop behind them, still all running away from the bounty hunters chasing them.

         "Get back here, you!" One of them shouted at the fleeing pirates up ahead, shooting his gun at them now also, which had the rest of the group firing the bullets at the wanted group.

           Happy yelped in alarm when a bullet almost grazed his white wings, alerting his best friend who narrowed her gaze down on the people firing, and slowed down to run beside Zoro, who growled through his teeth at the bullet coming to close.

          "Damn they're annoying!" He exclaimed irritated looking over his shoulder at the hunters, and shared a gleeful smirk with (Y/N) running beside him, "Want me to take care of them, or you?"

            She returned his look with a hat dip, and laughed amused as she goes to spin around still running, "I got this." She reassured thrusting her arms up from her sides, a bunch of water from the sides following the movement, and sent it spiralling towards the men after them.

            It made them all fly back with yells, getting caught up in the water which caused their bodies to land back where they first came from, off the pathway. She brushed her nose seeing that, and went back to running in front beside Zoro, who smirked proudly down at her.

          "Looks like you're getting better at that, princess." He mused in his raspy, deep voice flashing his sharp canines, and cut down another person behind them with his sword, who almost tried to swipe at his captain.

             She rolled her eyes playfully coming to a slower top spotting the others had also, and grabbed onto his forearm giggling, "You could say that." She answered sweetly, a blush resting on his cheeks because of that, and looked straight ahead as they walked through the open entrance of the canso.

          Inside the place was way bigger compared to how it looked outside to the eye, many people using their money to gamble or play the games in the canso, or were standing around talking drinking whatever they were given. No one even looked up either when the pirates entered, until Luffy was shouting.

          "Crocodile! Come out!" He yells loudly raising his arms up in the air above his head, which had the people all inside staring at him weirdly for a few seconds, and went back to their business like nothing happened.

           And so he tried to gain their attention again, "I came all this way to kick your ass with my sister!" He announced once more getting looks, but they stopped as quick as last time, "Croco-"

           Before he continued to embarrass himself, Happy, Usopp and Nami all smacked the back of his head causing him to stop and yelp in pain, "That's not gonna make him come out here!" Nami scolded annoyed, making Luffy pout sadly.

          (Y/N) stood a bit behind them with a deadpanning expression on her face, but still felt her lips perk up at her brothers usually behaviour, and how Happy was fuming over how he acted.

           She was stuck to Zoro's side like glue, the male not enjoying all the eyes on his captains figure inside, and snaked one muscular arm around her waist tightly, the other on his three swords.

           "We're dealing with the country's hero!" Usopp remined Luffy in a whisper yell, making a cutting motion in the air with the side of his hand, "Are you trying to make these people our enemies too?!"

           Luffy nodded his head with a determined furrow over his brows, both of his scrunched up fists on the air as Happy was perched on his shoulders, "Alright! What do we do, then?!" He asked the three currently around him.

          "H-hold on! Without Vivi, we won't know who Crocodile is!" Usopp pointed out nervously, lifting up his hand to show a stop signal with his palm next, but yet it didn't go through the rubber males head like usual.

           Nami's eyes went wide in realisation, glancing around to see if she could spot the princess but only saw (Y/N) and Zoro waiting behind them together and not the said girl, "Speaking of which, where is Vivi?"

           This caused all four of them to now shout at the top of their lungs, fists raised up into the air, "Vivi! Crocodile! Where are you?!" Luffy, Happy, Usppo and Nami all yelled together, making the other two sigh heavily at their antics, and share a knowing look.

            Before they could do anything else about the issue, a familiar voice and figure was charging at them from behind, "I've got you now, Fox Girl! Straw Hat!" Smoker called out appearing from around the corner, running straight up to the entrance of the building.

           "Seriously!? Smokey!" (Y/N) exclaimed in a freaking out voice, jaw dropped at the fact he found them so fast, "Run!" She told the crew quickly, feeling her hand getting grabbed by Zoro's larger one, as they all started to sprint away again through the casino.

            He entered the room just as they were running past the people playing the games, and Usopp nervously sweated looking over his shoulder seeing the Marine after them, "Damn! What's that smoke freak doing here in Rainbase!"

          Zoro snorted amused with a feline smirk across his lips that flashed his teeth, "I'd say he's taken quite a liking to (Y/N)!" He teased down at the girl who made a weird nose staring up at him offended, "Kinda makes me jealous, if I'm being honest." He adds bluntly squeezing her hand, resulting in her to feel heat cover her cheeks flustered.

           Happy came flying over with a paw covering his mouth, hearing his muffled snickering from under it, "Zoro just admitted he's in love with our captain~!" He drawled out flying next to (Y/N), as Zoro gritted his teeth sending the cat an evil look with red cheeks still running across the floor.

           "He's so stubborn!" Luffy spoke through his teeth sweating nervously also, wide eyes looking at Smoker still chasing them from behind which he was gaining on fast, "Me nor (N/N) can't deal with that guy!"

            A few of the staff dressed in black suits tried to stop the running away pirates, but they were sent away by either Luffy pushing them by accident, or (Y/N) using her airbending to give them a little shove behind out of the way, so no one else got hurt.

           Zoro's grip became stronger on his captains hand when they were coming up to a door that said 'V.I.P', and felt on edge when some of the staff pointed to that way, fake friendly smiles across their mouths. But, they had no choice so the pirates run straight through the door into the unknown section.

          "Hey! The path splits, guys!" Happy was the first one to notice when they began to run down the narrow path, pink carpet under their shoes, as the cat flew above the crews heads, "VIPs go to the left?"

           Nami nodded her head in agreement, pointing at another sign on the wall that was coming up when the path turns into two directions, "And it says pirates go this way! Which way do we even go?!"

          "VIPs, obviously! VIPs!" Usopp frantically exclaimed in one breath as they were about to come up to the split ways, but Luffy had other plans despite his sister having a feeling what the sniper said was right.

           "But we're pirates! Pirates go this way, right (N/N)?!" He called back to his panicking sister running beside Zoro, who just smiled wobbly in agreement, and followed him down the hallway where the sign read 'PIRATES'.

             However they all came to a sudden stop when the path was a dead end, and only a wall that was in front of them. It confused half of the for a few seconds, until the floor opened up underneath them. A small scream escaped (Y/N)'s lips at this, feeling her stomach drop as her boots left the floor, and saw the dark pit of the abyss below them now.

          "What in the world is going on?!" Smoker was the first one falling down into the darkness, his figure stiff like he was standing before, words muffled by his blunt in his mouth.

         Nami was next who shrieked out in fear, hands gripping her head as Happy was holding onto her shoulders for dear life, his face pale looking like he was about to pass out, also shrieking.

             Zoro had managed to grab his captain by the waist mid air to pull her flailing figure into his lap, legs crossed in the air holding her against his chest. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, the sides of their heads pressed together as her eyes were shut, not liking the feeling of falling like this.

           "I can't believe we fell for this trick." He grumbles into her ear in a sour voice, arms around her figure getting stronger feeling her trembling against him in the darkness, and whispered to her that it was alright.

          "My 'I Wind Up Swimming When Falling in the Darkness' disease!" Usopp shrieked doing exactly as he said, his arms and legs kicking in the air slowly descending downwards with the rest of them.

            And last was Luffy who was falling head first into the darkness, body stiff just like Smokers was, "A trapdoor!" He finally realised, his yelling trailing out the more he fell inside the hole in the ground.

          THE SMALL GROUP WERE INDEED STUCK INSIDE A CAGE NOW HAVING FALLING IN IT FROM THE TRAP DOOR, (Y/N) fell on top of Zoro when they landed also causing the males cheeks to grow more feeling her straddled him, and place a kiss on his cheeks in thanks, as she helped him up from the floor alao.

            And now, she, Luffy and Usopp were gripping onto the bar's of the cage, innocent looks on their faces realising what situation they were in. Happy was fuming behind them standing on Zoro's shoulder, who looked at his captain and Nami's eye was twitching while Smoker just sat there.

           "A clever trap."

        "Yeah. It wasn't our fault."

          Nami's rage exploded hearing the males comments, stomping up to them as she pulls on their ears roughly, "We could have avoided it!" She snarked out, ignoring their pained noises and continued scolding, "You did exactly what the enemy wanted!"

           (Y/N) sighed heavily from beside her brother, shaking her head a bit amused as her fingers start to tremble against the metal. Her vision becomes a bit blurry for some reason, strength leaving her for a few seconds as she stumbles back alerting her brother who was in similar state and crew.

            What she didn't notice was that Smoker was pulling out his stick weapon from behind him to push her down, but Zoro saw it first and acted quickly, "(Y/N)!" He yelled in warning catching her body before she fell over, and he landed right away from Smoker skidding to a stop, just inches away from him hurting her more.

            But now that her panting figure was wrapped up in his hold, Luffy had gotten Smokers pole on his chest instead, the metal digging into his rubber skin making the pirate more weak, and tried as he was sweating badly.

           Zoro had one of his arms resting under her head to prop her up against his side, his other being on his swords just in case. His eyes held nothing but worry for her pale self breathing heavily in his arms, and his gaze turned ice cold looking up at Smoker, wondering what he did to her and Luffy.

          "It-it's like my strength just-" She slurred out trying to lean up by placing a palm on his chest, as he had to stifle a hiss feeling how hot her skin was, and helped her sit up properly still using himself as her personal pillow.

             Smokers steel eyes glazed over her heaving on the floor beside a glaring Zoro, and then back down to Luffy still stuck under his weapon, "At the tip of this jutte is a material known as Sea Prism Stone." He began to explain, "A strange type of stone that supposedly exists in one certain sea. Not much is known about it, but it basically gives off the same energy as the ocean. You can think of it as the sea in solid form."

          "So it makes (Y/N) and Luffy weak?" Zoro lowly spat out his question, figure tensed up ready to protect the captains as he placed her figure onto his chest, hoping his warmth would bring her strength back. Happy also had his little paws on her arms, big eyes full of worried tears for her that made the girl gently pat his head the best she could.

             "All Navy HQ prison cells are made of it." Smoker didn't really answer the question, but instead gave more detail about what the stone was, "To prevent criminals with devil fruit powers from escaping."

            Nami furrowed her eyebrows cautiously, her eyes narrowed down on the Marine pinning down Luffy, "Then this prison cell is the same?!" She questioned shocked, Usopp beside her trembling but made karate hands in the air at Smokey.

            "If it weren't, I'd be long gone by now..." He admitted trailing off mid speech, his voice growing even more serious as a glint appears in his eyes staring at all the pirates around him, "...after making it so none of you take the seas again!"

          Zoro's spare hand undid the hostler of one of his swords, his glare becoming a dangerous one meeting Smoker's similar one, the swordman's body shielding (Y/N)'s and Happy's on the floor with his own, both males ready to use their weapons.

         Usopp freaked out placing his hands on the sides of his head, sweating rapidly seeing the males practically growling at one another, "Wait! Wait! What good will fighting in this situation do?!" He exclaimed with shark teeth appearing at the males.

         "Besides, he's made of smoke, and not to mention you have our weakened captain in your arms!" Nami pointed out in a scolding way, standing right beside the panicking Usopp, "Swords won't work on him either!"

         "That's correct. Give it up." An unfamiliar voice suddenly boomed through the room, causing all but the siblings to quickly turn their heads hearing the deep male voice, "You're going to die together...so why not get along first?"

          Smoker was the only one who knew the person behind the voice, his face turning into a scowl moving his attention to the desk near the back of the room outside of the cage, where the chair was faced away from them, "Crocodile!"

          (Y/N)'s blood ran cold hearing the name reveal, her breathing coming out better now the more she rested against Zoro's chest, and held a scared Happy close to her. She shifted a bit on the floor, the swordsman arm tightening around her a bit in result, as her heart speed up watching the desk chair slowly turn around.

           Once the chair was fully facing the cage area, it revealed what the infamous Crocodile actually looks like.

              He has various battle wounds, most notably a long-stitched scar at the bridge of his nose that stretches across his face and a large hook made from a tough gold alloy in place of his left hand.

His eyes are deep-set and heavy-lidded, and his thin eyebrows are characteristically drawn upward in the middle, as his mouth was in a wicked smirk.

          IT'S BEEN A FEW MORE HOURS SINCE THE GROUP HAS BEEN STUCK INSIDE THE CAGE, and a few of them were getting restless being trapped with no way out. Luffy, (Y/N), Happy and Usopp were all messing around to pass the time, but it was mostly the males since she would end up in Zoro's lap, him being cautions ever since seeing how she was near the cages bars.

           "Look at me, I'm Sanji." Luffy did an impression of the cook that wasn't with them, trying to make his voice sound similar and the way his face looked. His eyebrow was curled, hair over his eye, and had a fake blunt in his fingers, "You the one who ate the meat?"

           Usopp was close to cracking up beside him, his face scrunched up trying not to laugh as he held onto Happy who was in the same, until they both started to laugh loudly together, tears in their eyes from how funny Luffy's impression was.

          (Y/N) also stifled a snort at her brother's impression on her cook, lips perking up into an amused grin when Nami smacked the back of their heads, scolding them to act seseabnle under the current situation they were stuck in.

            "How can you act like that in such a serious situation as this?!" Nami exclaimed annoyed at the three twitching on the floor, lumps on their heads from the navigators punch to them with her fists.

             Luffy huffed out a complement, moving up laying down to sit on the floor instead as did the other males beside him, "We can't get out, so what else is there to do?!" He argued back not seeing the problem with it, and looked to his sister for help, who was too busy brushing a sleeping Zoro's hair, making the rubber male sulk internally.

           "The fact we can't get out is what makes it serious!" Nami retorted raising her voice, the panic evident on her features glancing between the crew, and back to the trio in front of her, "We might wind up dead if we don't do something! And why are you using (N/N) as your personally pillow?!"

            Zoro's head was resting against (Y/N)'s thigh on a seat she was sat comfortable one, her fingers brushing through his comforting to help him, and also her. However, Nami wasn't having that and despite the other girl protesting, the navigator punched the swordsman on his head also.

            His dark eyes instantly opened up at that, rubbing the sleep out of them as he sat up like nothing happened, "Oh, is it morning?" He mumbled furrowing his brows, hand blindly reaching back for his captains one, who giggled amused at him beside her on the seat.

           "It's noon! And stop taking our captain's nice side for granted!" Nami snarled out with shark teeth, her fist raising up again really fed up with all the males on the crew, as (Y/N) tried to calm her down by grabbing her hands in hers.

            Crocodile was listening to the entire conversation from the table he sat at, taking a sip from the glass in his hands that held purple wine, "You're a high-spirited girl." He commented in a drawl, gaining their attention.

           Nami pulled free from her hands from the other girl who frowned at Crocodile outside the cage, "Whatever! Go ahead and act confident while you still can!" The navigator began to hype in a determined voice, "Once (Y/N) and the other guys get out of here, they'll kick your butt and sent you flying above the clouds!"

            Croco span around the drink in his glass in thought, his gaze staying on the space in front of him, "You seem to be quite the trustworthy captain, Fox Girl (Y/N)." He comments with a lazy smile, making everyone but Smoker become on edge, "Trust..." He laughs mockingly, giving them a side eyed look, "The most unneeded thing in this world."

             Her gaze sharpened hearing his words, standing up from sitting beside Zoro to walk up right near the cage bars, as her straw hat was hanging around her neck with the water barrel. She didn't say anything only squinted her eyes on him, causing Croco to smirk even wider.

          "Crocodile!" A furious yell of his name echoes throughout the room suddenly, up on top of the stairs was Vivi glaring down at the male causing the pirates to exclaim happily seeing their friend now inside the building.

            His face shifts into a sly smirk spreading his arms cross the table, "Welcome, Vivi, Princess of Alabasta!" He welcomed in a fake friendly way, eyes spotting another girl figure behind Vivi, one whom was very tall, "No, Miss Wednesday! I impressed you managed to evade our assassins to come this far!"

           "I would go as far as it takes!" She didn't show any fear or no sign of backing down, voice steady and strong as her scowl becomes more serious by the second, "Because I want you to die, Mr. 0! If you only hadn't come to this country..."

             In a fit of rage she brings out her weapons to start running down the stairs, ignoring her friends yelling at her to stop and let them out, "....Alabasta would've remained peaceful! Peacock String Slasher!"

              Even with her charging at Crocodile with her weapons spinning in the air, he just smiled amused placing a blunt in his mouth, just as Vivi aimed something at his head. It went straight through him creating sand, and his head disappeared along with slicing the top of the chair he was sat on.

            Vivi landed on the table not caring if she spilled the food everywhere, just as Croco's body completely vanished from his spot into sand. "Satisfied?" She heard his voice behind her now, making her breath hitch in shock as his body forms, "As a citizen of this country, you surely know that I have the power of the Sand-Sand fruit."

             His ringed hand had clasped over her mouth in a rough hold once his lower half was formed, her eyes squinting shut when his head was back on next, and felt him right behind her figure, "Want to become a mummy?" He whispered dangerously in a taunt.

That was until a loud bang echoed through the room making everything go silent. Crocodlie's smirk only dropped the slightest when he looked to the cage where the sound came from, meeting the gleaming eyes of (Y/N), the one whom had crushed one of the key openings with her bending.

           Her features remained composed, a mask of tranquil poise that belied the storm brewing beneath the surface. The soft curve of her lips hinted at a serene facade, but the slight tension in her jaw betrayed the simmering anger within.

            Those once warm eyes now glinted with an unsettling intensity staring at him from across the room, betraying the composed mask she wore. All her friends could tell she was beyond raged seeing Vivi getting treated like that, and it had Zoro biting back a smirk, always enjoying when his captain got like this.

            And so, Crocodile listened to his gut instinct to tell him to back down from Vivi while (Y/N) was watching, "Sit." He orders pushing the princess into the spare seat across him his, and walked over to his broken one, "Perfect timing. The party is just starting. Correct, Miss All-Sunday?"

           The said girl hummed softly and nodded her head in agreement from beside Vivi. She was a tall, and slender young woman, wearing a revealing cowgirl outfit consisting of a purple cleavage-exposing corset and matching miniskirt, both with white ornaments hanging from them, and a white fur-lined coat paired with a white cowboy hat and white high-heeled boots.

           All of the Straw Hats in the cage were confused hearing his words, while All-Sunday lifted up her watch to look at the time, "It juts turned noon." She informed the boss smiling, and looked up to him, "Operation Utopia is beginning."

           "What is Operation Utopia?" Nami asked nervously voicing all her friends thoughts, as she shared a look wit (Y/N) who frowned on alert and turned back to the two outside of the cage standing near Vivi.

            Crocodile suddenly started to chuckle in an amused and evil way, making the pirate skin crawl not liking the sound of it, "It will be this pathetic little kingdom that dies, Miss Wednesday." He reveals causing the crew's eyes to widen in shock, "I'm going to wipe Alabasta from the face of the earth!"

❪ ✏️ ❫ 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂 : 4080
─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
another update yippppeeee!!! i wanna really get back into writing this since i have so much motivation for it so expect updates quicker then usually but then again that depends on how much time i have as well soooo LMAOAO but don't worry updates will still happen for this fic <33

anyways i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and pleaseeee don't be silent readers, it really helps to keep me motivated :') kisses🫶