❛ YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND.❜
₊˚៹ . ❪ episode : 124 ❫˖ ₊˚.⋆
࿐┊ CH. 21┊🏴‍☠️🌊👒

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    HER WIDE, TERROR FILLED EYES STARED INTO THE GLEAMING ONES OF CROCODILES, AS HER HAND CLAWS AT THE GRASP AROUND HER NECK. (Y/N) couldn't do anything other then choke out gasps, her airway getting cut off fast from his large hand wrapped around her throat, his ringed finger digging into her sweaty skin.

    "You know, kid..." His deep voice reached her ears, as he trailed off and held her figure dangling over the edge of the roof, "This is a good way to die. Within six minutes or so, this yard will be blown up along with the Square. Sorry, but I'm in a hurry..."

    She tried to choke out some protest, but they died in her throat when he tightened his hand around her neck. Her straw hat was dropped somewhere down below, making both her hands try to dig at his hand trapping her.

     Before (Y/N) could actually break free from his grasp, the last thing she saw was his smirking face before she was dropped from his grasp. Her stomach sunk as she began to descended through the air, and tried her hardest not to pass out from the air loss she experienced.

    "You just relax here and celebrate the birth of a new king of the sand country." Crocodile was talking once more to her, his grey eyes watching her fall down and smirked victoriously, "Well... I should get going, too..."

    Sand started to take shape around his body, himself turning into the sand that was getting taken away by the wind current, before he was completely gone from view like he was never there to begin with.

   The (H/C) haired girl landed with a thump against the ground, luckily her abilities somehow softened her fall as she did so without her controlling them. She laid there in the hot sand, heavy pants leaving her dry mouth and tried to recollect herself.

    "That bastard..." She grunted angrily, digging her fingers into the warm sand and dragged them through it. She slowly sat up after a few seconds, and her head was lowered, chest heaving, "He's gone now. Of course he is."

    Her eyes flickered upwards to the top of the building, a scowl forming over her face and moved them towards the direction she saw him disappear to, "He went flying that way, that silly gator."

     She dearly hoped her boys were both fighting and staying safe, with the rest of her crew and two brothers. She was more worried about Vivi and how far she'd go to save everyone, but she couldn't thinking about them right now, as she believed in them all to get the task done.

    "Alright, time to go." She huffed out standing up from the floor, and dusted herself off from the sand. Her hair was now undone from the ponytail it once was in, and her clothes were all ripped, but that wouldn't stop her from going to face Crocodile again.

    (Y/N) didn't stop for anything as she was now running through the town Square, and all the way towards where she knew Crocodile would be. It was difficult to locate the underground tomb as it was chaos, but as soon as her boots touched the grass paths she knew she was close.

   She ignored how exhausted her body felt, how she was practically dragging herself through the path, and knew after defeating Crocodile, she could sleep all she wanted. And that she would, especially on Zoro or Sanji which was a regular thing for her.

    An opening in the ground appeared on the side of the path, making her come to a sudden stop and spotted how it was pushed open by someone to get inside. She had a feeling that's where the action was.

   A hum escaped her standing before the hole, and tilted her head to the side, "Croco went inside. I better go in, I suppose." She murmured, not realising how the underground tomb was starting to crumble in from inside.

    (Y/N) put on a brave face now, taking step by step through the entrance until she landed on the flat ground inside. She yelped a bit when her figure was knocked off balance, and pushed some airbending out of her palms to steady herself from the rumbling all around her.

    The familiar laugh of Crocodile echoed through the hallway, making her snap her head towards the sound and glared down the path where she saw shadows near the end. She didn't waste a second, and began to run down the path, not realising the entrance was now blocked off by the rocks.

   "It's falling apart!" She exclaimed watching the pieces of the roof fall, and quickly placed up an air force-field around her figure to protect herself as she ran through the tomb.

    More and more debri was falling around her, as she heard the loud thumbs and bangs from behind. That didn't stop her however, if anything it made her ran faster in fear for the King who was trapped down there with Crocodile.

    (Y/N)'s eyes narrow down on the massive rock wall upcoming in her path, making her let go of the air force-field. She muttered a quick sorry, before her fists were thrusting forward in a punch, causing the wall to cave in on itself and exploded into many pieces through the air.

    Crocodile, who thought he had won the sand town he was desperate to rule, made a confused noise at the sudden breakage of wall. Dust blocked his line of sight, until it cleared and his face went pale, eyes wide in shock seeing who was now standing there.

    Blood dripped down from her forehead, and legs that hit the ground in soft patters, her chest heaved up and down as a fierce glare was stationed on her face looking at Crocodile. Her fists were clenched by her sides, not taken in her surroundings yet but the male in front, "I've cornered you, gator!"

    "Why are you alive?" He gaped out in a growling tone, having stepped back a few meters away from her as his felt on edge now more then ever, "No matter how many times I kill you, why do you stand up to me?! Well? Fox Girl?!"

   The King was also confused, and slightly impressed at how the young girl managed to recover, plus find her way down to the tomb, "How did she survive.... and come here..?" He muttered to himself, blood dripping down his forehead, "Who on earth is she..?"

   Miss all Sunday, who was on the floor having been wounded from Crocodile's weapon, heard the girls familiar loud voice. Her fingers twitched, and she slowly lifted her head up to look at the girl before her, "Straw Hat..."

    "Just how many times do you want to be killed?!" Crocodile yelled at the unbothered (Y/N), as he gritted his teeth and glared annoyed at her from across the tomb.

    She clenched her jaw, before tightening her hands into fists by her respected sides, "You still haven't returned," She began in a calm tone, throat feeling like sand paper as she needed water, "what you took away."

    "What I took away...?" He repeated her words lost, and lifted up his hooked hand into the air before him, "Is it money? Fame...? Trust? Lives?" He listed, a forming smug smirk across his mouth, and laughed hurmourlsy, "Rain?! What do you want me to return? There's so many things that I took away."

   (Y/N) made a judgemental face hearing his laugh, and narrowed her gaze on his figure, her pupils now becoming slits like a foxes ones, "The country, you idiot. Give that back."

    "The country? You say funny things, kid." He raised an eyebrow amused, as his hooked hand waves in the air over his dirty face, "I'm just about to take this country... by becoming it's king."

    "When we got to this island, it was already gone." She began once more in a calm voice, thoughts drifting back to a certain blue haired princess, causing another fierce to appear remembering all the pain she's been through, "Her country was gone! If this is really her country... she should be smiling more!"

    Fulled by the need to save Vivi's friends country, and protect her, a loud yell escaped (Y/N) as she charged forward for Crocodile. He was unbothered by it, and commented lazily, "Even if you talk cool, when you don't have water with you, what can you--"

     His words were cut off from her boot slamming straight into his cheek, making his head snap sidewards and his figure to slam straight into the rock wall behind him. It left an indent in the wall, as his figure landed on the floor with a thump

    A small grin lined her lips now, standing before his fallen self as he groaned pushing himself off the floor. She knew he was mad, but the look on his face and by how his shoulders were trembling in rage.

   "You always were one to underestimate, Croco." She grunted out, remembering the time Vivi tried to attack the very male in front of her, and scowled at him, matching the rage he felt. But for a different reason.

    Crocodile tried to open his mouth to speak, but her fist was flying towards him fast and landed right in the middle of his face, in a harsh punch. That once again sent him slamming into the wall, the same one he broke before from her hitting him.

    He didn't understand how she was able to make contact, even if her abilities were far more powerful then his were unbeknownst to them both, but it didn't registered to him until he saw the blood dripping down onto her hands.

    A pained grunt left him, and he tried to sit up from his fallen position against the broken wall, "Could it be... you're using..." He trailed off in a hoarse way, eyes narrowed on the scarlet all over her skin, "... your blood?"

    Her hands unclenched after hearing his claim, and planted her boots on the stone below firmly, "Sand can be hardened by blood, too, can't it?" She wondered, tilting her head to the side, "From what little knowledge I have, it seems to work fine."

     Raspy exhales left Crocodile's mouth for a few seconds, before laughed broke out and he knelt up to face her, "From Rainbase... to the palace... and to the underground mortuary temple..." He stands up to his full height now, "I'll reward you for your persistence in challenging me, even after living through hell twice."

    (Y/N)'s blood bolid at his comments, as her teeth grit together and sneered at him, "You bastard!" She yelled going to throw an airbending punch at him, but he divided and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid it.

    Her blast smashed into the wall for a third time, completely crashing it with a massive hole in the middle. The debris fall all over the floor, and creates another gust of dust, that she managed to bend away to see Crocodile more clearer.

    He was squatted on the floor, his ringed hand slipping off the gold hook around his actual gold alloy, which confused the girl watching him, "As a pirate," His hook was had a purple smoke seeping out of it, and her eyes widened as he continued, "It seems that you want to beat me up no matter what. And I'll also admit that you're an annoying enemy to me."

    "Huh? It came off..." She mumbled to herself surprised, mouth parted a bit in shock staring at him incredulously. She turned to face him fully now, and ruffled her hair not understanding how the hook worked.

   Crocodile threw the gold piece of his hook away, and now held up the sliver one with holes inside all along it, "It's a poisonous hook." He rumbles noticing her bafflement, and wiped away some of the blood from under his nose, "As a competent enough pirate, you seem to understand that a duel between pirates is always fight for survival, and that there's no such thing as 'playing dirty'."

    She just exhaled heavily through her parted lips, and then inhaled next to center herself. Her closed (E/C) eyes fluttered open, the pupils in slits once more as she lifted up her clenched fists into a fighting stance. She didn't reply, and only glared at him challengingly.

   "When the explosion has happened up there, this place will probably collapse in one breath as well." He claims holding up the poisonous hook, both on opposite sides of the tomb in stances, "This is the last time. Let's settle this once and for all!"

   The tomb around them began to break from the inside more, rocks fallen from the roof and sides, as one of the pillars holding it together crumbled to the ground. Using this to her advantage, (Y/N) bending the pieces of rock up into the air and sent them flying towards him like in many punches.

    Crocodile just managed to dodge the rocks, by jumping to the side with grunt. He switched his body around to aim his poisonous hook at her arm, but she easily jumped back before he had to chance to graze her skin with the material.

    Instead the hook landed in the floor with a loud crash, and was somewhat stuck making him growl irritated. She came to a sliding stop away from him, and stomped her boots into the ground to slow her figure down.

    Both of them panted heavily glaring at each other, standing on opposite sides one more, but this time their backs were turned away from the exit. She could hear rumbling outside, and hoped her crew was safe while they fought like she was doing.

    With a yell she charged forward like clock work, her hand scrunching up to punch him in the face. The ends of her knuckles were covered in orange wisps, it going to provide more strength behind the hit, and prayed it would knock him out for good.

   Though when his palm shot out that wasn't covered by the hook, she froze straight away just before hitting his skin. With a grunt, she swiftly moved her body sideways and brought up a piece of the wall with her leg, all in one go.

   She bended the earth towards him, but she was met with him avoiding her hit like usual, making her eye twitch annoyed. He goes to try swing his hook at her bare leg, but she spotted it moving towards her, and just felt the cool metal graze her thigh, before she was jumping away.

   Crocodile melted the piece of rock she sent at him, and she gulped fearly watching him doing that. She did grin to herself a bit, seeing how he was bleeding from his head more now, and instantly that nervous feeling was replaced with confidence.

    (Y/N) wasn't the only one who was exhausted, and breathing heavily. She saw how he was the same was her, bleeding from many places, face sweaty and chest heaving from how much they were moving around. All she needed to do now was defeat him, and save the king and Miss All Sunday.

    Another large pillar fell in between both pirates, which made a split in between sides. It made a massive crashing sound, followed by the ground rumbling from how it was destroyed from the pillar. The dust cleared away, but the matching smirks on the twos faces didn't.

    Not even a second later, but of them were charging at each other yelling battle cries. She earthbended the pillar to make a hole big enough, and she jumped through it to meet Crocodile on the other side. At the same time, her boot made contact with the side of his jaw, and this time he didn't dodge it.

    Seeing he was knocked off balance by her boot kick, she grabbed onto his arm next with the hook, and tugged his figure roughly down to aim another kick to the top of his head. This sent him tumbling towards another wall, and crashed into that harshly, creating more damage to the tomb.

    Who in the world is she..? Kobra thought to himself watching the fight, a curious expression on his face looking at (Y/N) standing strongly despite how bad her wounds were, Crocodile treated even our kingdom's proud warrior like worms, and yet...

    The dust cleared around Crocodile's figure knelt on the ground, and a husky laugh left him which made (Y/N) narrow her eyes down on him, "You were skewered.... buried alive... and dropped to your death." He lifted his head up, a smirk over his bloody mouth, "Even you, who stood back up after all that...won't be able to survive this."

    He showed the poisonous hook to her, and chuckled a bit weakly this time thinking he was going to win, "Game over... the poison will pass into your system soon."

   She raised her eyebrows amused, and pressed one of her clenched fists up to her dusty cheek, the other against her lower side, her turn to smirk now, "You don't understand anything, do you?"

❪ ✏️ ❫ 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂 : 2934
─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :

long time no see guys wow it's been a hot minute... i doubt many ppl are still reading this but if you are i am back with an updater after sooooo long!! 🤞🫶

ive missed this fic and the boys so i quickly wrote this up since we are nearing the end of this arc also which means we're one step closer to wano my fav arc EHEEE 🙏🏻