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moongothic · 5 months

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Tbh I wanna see crocodile fight someone so we can see how strong he is because the last time he’s gotten in a real fight was in marineford. Does crocodile have haki? Does he need it at all to survive the new world? Like with most of the relevant pirates knowing haki, retroactively or otherwise, it’s kinda hard to gauge what he’s capable of

Anon I am so sorry I'm gonna go slightly off-topic/become deranged because I've been thinking about writing a whole ass post about this very subject and now you just gave me an excuse to word vomit incoherently instead. So I'm just gonna do that. I'm so sorry

(Hey won't you look at that I actually came back and edited this so it's vaguely legible and there's like a proper point to my thesis lmao)

Also I am. So sorry. For how obscenely long this got. Holy shit I have no idea how this happened I am so sorry

I can not put into words just how badly I want to see this man have an actual, proper 1-v-1 fight with someone. Oda, for the love of god let him fuck up someone, please, I c̵͍͛r̶̢͠a̴͕̾v̷̠͆ḛ̶̐ ̸̤͝t̷̟̋h̷̳̓ḙ̵̀ ̷̱͌b̶͓͑l̸̦̚ô̶̠ȯ̸͇d̴̲̕

No for real though, the one, true, proper 1v1 we ever saw Crocodile have WAS with fucking Luffy and like, to be fair they did fight three times, but still, during Summit War? Sure we see him exchange a few blows but it's never a proper 1v1 because we keep on cutting from one thing to another and the opponents keep on changing etc. So there was no time for a proper battle with anyone

So out of principle alone I want to see him have a proper fight with someone (who isn't a Strawhat preferably) at least once before the series ends (though honestly if we could have more than just one fight scene with Crocodile I would not complain at all, but I might be asking too much at that point)

But also yes. I want to know Croc's actual Power Level in the story right now (and I don't mean that in a powerscaling-kinda way, just in a "I want my husband to look cool because it's what he deserves" kinda way)

Like. The Crocodile we've seen in the past absolutely under no circumstances deserves the fucking unit of a bounty he has on his head right now. And I mean, to be fair Buggy doesn't deserve his gigantic bounty either, canonically the numbers don't matter or mean THAT MUCH-- They just reflect what the WG thinks a person is worth, not the true level of threat the person actually poses But also. Croc's bounty has literally gotten like 24 times bigger from his OG pre-Shichibukai era bounty. To be fair, according to trivia his OG bounty would've at least doubled had the WG known about Baroque Works, but his current bounty would still be like 12 times bigger than before. And god fucking knows Crocodile does not fucking deserve a bounty this fucking big if he hasn't gotten any more powerful since Alabasta. No amount of hanging around with Mihawk and running evil organizations should beef up his bounty that much

So surely, he must've gotten more powerful since we last saw him action, right? Surely? Somehow?

But indeed, how?

And that's where we kinda get to the interesting part, don't we? We have no idea what Croc's been up to for the past two years. Like whatever he's been doing, surely it's been better than spending a decade sitting on his ass and barely ever lifting a muscle when overpowering rando pirates attacking Alabasta with his Logia powers, right. Like surely being in the New World alone would be enough to make him break a sweat for a change

But then like, the only two times we have seen Croc post-timeskip (pre-Cross Guild) he has been just sitting around reading the news (to be fair, the scenes were also about him catching the news about Luffy, it's not like he can't do anything else outside of those scenes). So like. I feel kind of conflicted, like on one hand to get stronger then surely he must've been working out or something. But also I do kind of mentally associate Training Arcs with much younger characters, and Crocodile is quite middle aged, like is he even allowed to go through a training arc anymore?? Especially when he's like a such a Proper Gentleman, it's so hard to imagine him to go back to the basics or anything

But also?? How else would he get stronger?? Like?? Maybe there really was?? AN OLD MAN TRAINING ARC??

But also, to be fair

Crocodile did make a big point about how he "keeps on honing and developing his Devil Fruit skills instead of stagnating like some other losers" back when he and Luffy had their first match. So I really would love it if Oda kept that actually true for the character, I'd love to see him actually whip out some new tricks, techniques and attacks instead of us seeing Sables again for the 839423th time

And really he can't really whip out new attacks if he hasn't at least tried to come up with new tricks (and preferably tried them out)

But that was just the basics right, Croc's Devil Fruit capabilities

Then there's the whole mystery of Crocodile's Haki Status. A whooole different can of worms. Considdering how the only actual damage he seemed to take during the entirety of Summit War was because of Jozu's Haki, and the fact that even fucking Blackbeard can use Haki now, it'd feel deranged if he doesn't have any kind of Haki capabilities. Like everybody knows Haki is going to be Croc's persona kryptonite, including Croc himself! And Haki Mastery really is The Thing that decides whether a pirate crew can actually make it or not in the New World (Kaidou made a specific point about that too). So surely, considdering Croc's supposed to be A Smart Boy and all, he knows he'll need to actually figure out how to use Haki if he doesn't want to lose another limb, right. Like surely he's figured that shit out, right???

Now people have been speculating for years if both Crocodile AND Moria used to be Haki users who lost their Haki after getting their asses kicked in the New World. Which, in theory would make sense, since Haki is essentially just willpower, and getting crushed the way they did would give them good in-universe reasons to why they didn't use the ability, as their traumas could translate to them losing their wills. But also it is willpower, that's not really a tangible thing you can really lose, and the idea of "Haki loss" isn't actually canon (yet at least). So although it's great fanon, we can't assume it's true. Like just as an example, we know Hancock can supposedly use Conqueror's Haki but we've never actually seen her demonstrate the ability

And to be fair to Croc (and Moria), the concept of Haki didn't really start to get Truly Solidified in the story until post-War, so expecting Alabasta!Croc to use it a whole decade earlier in real world time would be ridiculous since Oda hadn't figured out the system yet.

And while that is 100% true and fair.

Thing is. Although extremely vague, I do think Oda had been slowly starting to build the IDEA of Haki already in Alabasta. Like we know the concept gets properly introduced during the Skypiea Saga where Blackbeard both namedrops it and we get to see Observation Haki in action, under the name Mantra. But already in Alabasta, when Zoro is trying to figure out how to cut steel (to defeat Daz), that whole "breath of things" and hyper-awareness he gains when near death... I'm not the first one to point out how much that sounds like rudamentary Haki. And like, yes, on paper the idea of the battle was that Zoro became strong enough to cut steel. But also, learning to use Haki would be what would allow anyone to cut through a Devi Fruit ability like that. The same applies to Luffy's final attack on Crocodile too, his punch destroying the sand blade that before would've sliced his entire hand in half before is poetic on its own, but makes even more in-universe sense if you considder the possilibity Luffy might have subconciously been using Haki at the very end, his sheer willpower allowing him to punch Croc.

The reason I'm pointing all that out is that I kinda wonder if we might've gotten hints at Crocodile having not just Haki, but fucking Conqueror's Haki in Alabasta

This is based on two things:

First, Crocodile's pet bananawani. Yes, he could just be Really Good with animals and that would be adorable on its own. But we know Conqueror's can be used to intimidate and tame animals, including really fierce beasts. Keeping in mind that bananawani are meant to be one of the few species of animals that prey on Sea Kings, IDK, if you told me the reason Crocodile was able to tame them and keep them as pets thanks to Conqueror's, I would believe you. It's nothing solid, there's no proof one way or another, but it would make sense in-universe, it is plausible.

Second, this scene.

Does that blast of Ominous Air/Energy on the third page not remind you of one of those Conqueror's Haki shockwaves?

Of course, considdering Luffy was able to knock out Bon-chan with his untrained, uncontrolled Conqueror's in Impel Down (though to be fair, in the Impel Down scene Bon-chan was in rough condition anyways), if Crocodile was displaying his Haki here, either

A) Shit's real fucking weak or

B) He must've intentionally "kept it down" in this scene just to make sure his agents didn't actually pass out on the spot

But of course, if Croc had fullblown Conqueror's that he was able to control that well, you'd think he might've actually used it to subdue weaker enemies at some point or something (though, again, Hancock also supposedly has it and we haven't seen her use it, and if we had seen him use it on Luffy or something then the story really would've ended in Alabasta). So if that really was Conqueror's, I'd personally maybe rather lean on it being weak as hell (especially if Haki Loss was canon) over him having perfect control over it

Of course, just because that ominous blast of air in hindsight might resemble a weak ass Conqueror's Haki Blast, it doesn't mean that's what it was. Just like with the Bananawani example, there's nothing solid here to go off of, it's just plausible

(Also just for clarity's sake, Crocodile doesn't need Conqueror's Haki. I just think there could be evidence to suggest it if you overthink it just right)

All of this to say

Regardless of what Croc's Haki Status was during Alabasta and Summit War, the fact is that the dude really does kind of need Haki just to survive in the current storyline. So if he can't use ANY KIND OF HAKI, I'm just gonna be speechless. Like Luffy could kill him by just farting on him at that point Not to mention I'd actually love to see the Haki Loss-concept explored in the canon. Like either have it debunked, or somehow confirm it's a thing and show off what a horrifying threat Crocodile can be when he's actually putting his everything into a fight (same for Moria btw, if all he has to protect rn is Perona I'd love to see him go apeship and use Haki to protect her)

BUT THEN THERE'S A WHOLE DIFFERENT DIRECTION WE COULD GO WITH CROCODILE'S POWER LEVEL

OH DID YOU THINK I WAS FUCKING DONE WITH THIS POST? NO, WE'RE STILL FUCKING GOING MAN

So I've seen a lot people speculate about Logia Awakenings and what they could be like. Most people seem to agree on the theory that Punk Hazard being the way it is could be a result of two awakened Logias (namely Akainu and Aokiji) clashing. Similarly that Enies Lobby could be where an Awakened Light Fruit did a thing in the distant past, causing the eternal daytime on the island

I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced that's what Logia Awakenings will be like (some people have also suggested Enel's Final Form was a Logia Awakening, which I kinda doubt but okay), it's a neat idea in any case, we'll just have to wait and see what Oda has cooking for us

Regardless. On a mere narrative level, if they're even possible then I think it'd be cool as hell if Crocodile could act as an introduction to Logia Awakenings and what they're actually like. Because, depending on the role the bastard is going to take going forward, it could prepare us and Luffy for what's to come with Akainu (the real threat)

And again, depending on his role in the story, I think he could be an actual candidate for someone who could deserve to be Awakened-- like the whole Awakening State is sliiightly OP, and Logias are also kind of OP by default. So between OG Croc being kinda weak as hell (by current standards), but also him being an experienced pirate who's known his abilities for god knows how many decades... IDK I think he could deserve The Honors, y'know?

Like compare him to someone like Sabo or Blackbeard who got their Logias only recently and are still learning to use their abilities (more or less). If either of those fuckers somehow Awakened their Logias before Sir Fucking Crocodile I'd be kinda pissed off y'know?

The Admirals are kinda OP to begin with anyways too, I kinda just don't want Smoker to get The Honor of being the first on-screen Awakened Logia either, and really that would leave us with like... Ceasar and Enel as our only remaining options

And Dragon, if he does have a Wind Logia (which remains to be seen)

So. Yeah. If Logia Awakenings can be a thing, I think Crocodile could be the perfect guy to actually introduce them in the story (depending what his role will be).

All of this nonsense to say

Mr Oda, please, I would like to see Sir Crocodile in action pwease

And I want to know what the hell that weird spike thing was

Mr Oda please, I wish to see the Husband and see what kind of tricks he can do now after all these years, please allow him to commit a murder or two or three

#Moon posting #Sir Crocodile #OP Meta #OP Spoilers #Long post #Sidenote but. Like the way people keep on pitching Cross Guild vs the Strawhats based on the bounties etc #Luffy vs Buggy // Zoro vs Mihawk // Croc vs Sanji or Jimbei etc etc #And this is all just. Based on the bounties (Zoro/Mihawk aside)#And there is just this. Absolutely Delulu Part of me that wonders if Croc could actually be above Mihawk in power level #Because we KNOW Buggy isn't actually above Mihawk so the numbers don't actually have to mean THAT MUCH #And if Crocodile hasn't actually done too much shit to earn more attention and notoriety in the past two years #Isn't it plausible the World Government is mistakenly assuming he's weaker than he actually is? Like reverse-Buggy the Clown'ing him??#Like sure Mihawk likes to lay low too but Crocodile doesn't have the title of The Greatest Swordsman of the World on him #I'm just saying it'd be one hell of a twist 'cause nobody would ever imagine Croc actually surpassing Mihawk in power #So if he somehow did it'd be cool as fucking hell bro

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son1c · 1 year

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bonus chapter 4 the bonus chapter :3c

falling stars fic masterpost

Shadow started to get the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something. And not in the sense that he had amnesia. This was different. It was something that he definitely should remember, something that had happened within the past 24 hours, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.

“Yo, Stripes,” Sonic said, snapping Shadow out of his reverie. “Are you listening, man?”

Shadow frowned. “No,” he said. “I was thinking.”

“Well,” Sonic said with a frown of his own, “it’s kinda important. So try to keep up, okay?”

Shadow rubbed his eyes. He was sitting across from Sonic on the bed, his legs crossed, and trying very hard not to completely ignore Sonic and just go back to thinking. “I’m following,” was what he said. “Go again.”

“I was saying,” Sonic began, “that it might be good if we raided the kitchen. I’m starving. Aren’t you?”

“No,” was Shadow’s instant reply. But it made him pause. After thinking about it a little more, he said, “I’m not hungry. And I’m not tired either.” It was true, but it didn’t make any sense. Shouldn’t he be both of those things by now?

Sonic tried to laugh it off. “Maybe you just forgot how to be hungry? Once you get some grub, I’m sure you’ll remember what you’re missin’! Same deal with sleep. Once you get some, you’ll–”

“Blue,” Shadow interrupted, “I’m the Ultimate Lifeform.”

Contemplative, Sonic tilted his head. “I don’t know if I trust the words of a guy who shot at us with a dart gun. Besides, it sounds kinda lame. Wouldn’t you rather be the Ultimate Beat-Em-Upform?” When Shadow just frowned, Sonic offered him a shrug. “I’m just saying, even if it is true, we don’t know what it means. At least, I sure don’t. Do you?”

Shadow had to admit that he didn’t.

“So,” Sonic continued, “after we grab a bite to eat, I’ll take watch, and you take a nap. Sound good?”

Shadow suddenly remembered what he was forgetting. “There’s something strange about this place,” he said. At first, Sonic looked a little annoyed that Shadow was dodging the question, but it faded as he went on. “Earlier, when I went to look for your brace, I passed over many rooms, but they were all empty. Just like this one.”

“I can’t say an empty hospital is a bad thing,” Sonic said. “I mean, you saw it too–this place is huge. Maybe everyone here is just spread out?”

Shadow hummed thoughtfully. It was plausible… but then, so was a metal horse statue suddenly coming to life.

“I’m just saying,” Sonic added, “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”

But Shadow wasn’t so sure. That nagging feeling kept tugging at his brain, and he couldn’t ignore it. Still, if Sonic was starving, then that matter was a little more pressing than whatever vague instinct Shadow was currently experiencing.

And so, that was how the two of them ended up creeping through the hallways, with Sonic begrudgingly agreeing to let Shadow carry him again since even though he could technically handle the pain of limping around, the noise from the brace hitting the floor was far from sneaky. And they needed to be sneaky.

They needed to be sneaky, because…

“Oh!” Sonic whispered. “I think that’s it. Those doors right there–that’s gotta be the kitchen, right?”

The doors in question were made out of gray steel and had a set of circular windows at the top. Unfortunately, Shadow was too short to see through them even when he stood on his tiptoes. But thankfully he didn’t need to suffer that embarrassment, since the doors were labeled with a plaque on the wall. It read: SECOND FLOOR KITCHEN.

Shadow pressed his ear up against the door, but didn’t hear any noise coming from the inside. And while that was a bit strange in and of itself, he decided to take Sonic’s advice and not worry about it. Or at the very least, not worry about it until after securing some food.

Gingerly, Shadow pushed open the kitchen door with his foot. Still nothing. He slipped inside, and almost dropped Sonic from shock once the door swung closed behind him and he saw what was waiting for them inside the kitchen. Sonic, likewise, gasped, the sight before him making him temporarily forget that he was supposed to be quiet.

It was food. Dishes upon dishes of it. Plates, bowls, pots, and cups covered every table in the kitchen, and all of them were filled with the most delicious looking food Sonic had ever seen. There were meats, salads, soups, and desserts galore. Steam was still rising from the turkey, and the brownies were oozing with chocolate lava. It was almost too much for his empty stomach to take in at once. With all of these options, how was he supposed to choose where to start?

Shadow, however, wasn’t thinking about digging in at all, and it wasn’t just because he wasn’t hungry. The food certainly looked tempting, and even managed to create something of an appetite within him, but that just made Shadow more suspicious. “This isn’t right,” he said. “An empty building, but enough food to feed a village?”

Sonic squirmed in Shadow’s arms. “I’m not complaining,” Sonic said. “With this much food, they won’t notice any missing!”

Shadow held fast to Sonic, despite the hedgehog’s attempts to wriggle out of his grasp and over to the food. “We can’t eat this,” Shadow said.

That made Sonic mad. They’d already come all the way here, and now Stripes was gonna say he couldn’t have any? “You’re not making sense, dude,” Sonic said. “Food is food. And this stuff looks–”

“Too good to be true,” Shadow interrupted. The nagging feeling that had been plaguing him finally culminated into a realization: they weren’t supposed to be here anymore. Shadow had only intended to let Sonic sleep for a little while, and then they were supposed to leave. But somehow, he had forgotten, and all thoughts about leaving the building left him. Not even Sonic seemed interested in leaving anymore.

Almost like the building didn’t want them to leave.

With a strength he didn’t know he had, Shadow tore the handle off of the door behind him and threw it at the nearest banquet table. It lodged itself in a cake, revealing the inside of the dessert to be filled with a sickly green slime.

“If you eat that,” Shadow said, “you’re never getting out of here.”

At last, Sonic stopped struggling. He looked at the ectoplasm dripping from the cake with wide eyes, and finally pieced everything together for himself. “This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” he said. Then, he looked up at Shadow. “I should’ve listened to you earlier, Stripes. I didn’t think…”

“Don’t apologize. It was in my head, too.”

All of the sudden, the dishes on the table started to shudder. Shadow backed up, but found the kitchen doors were locked, and didn’t budge when he pressed his back up against them, something that should’ve been impossible considering one of the doors was now missing its handle and therefore, its lock.

However, it was only when the bunches of grapes started floating that Shadow thought to himself that “weird” didn’t begin to cut it. This was straight up supernatural!

In a whiz, the grapes zipped through the air and splattered on the wall. Their green guts spelled out the words: WE MADE THIS FOR YOU. WON’T YOU STAY FOR DINNER?

“I’m not hungry anymore,” Sonic said thinly.

Shadow couldn’t agree more. Whirling around, he sent a kick at the door, but it didn’t budge. His shoe just clanged off the metal uselessly before skidding to a halt on the tile floor.

More grapes joined the fray. This time, they read: IF THIS ISN’T WHAT YOU WANT, THEN WE WILL MAKE YOU SOMETHING NEW.

Shadow gritted his teeth as the walls began to rumble. He thought about the shifting architecture on the outside of the building, and said, “It was a trap from the start.”

Of course it was. The strangeness of the hospital building when compared to the rest of the town was so clear in retrospect, so out of place. And more than that: it was so convenient.

Too convenient.

The walls groaned, the wood transmuting into metal in front of Sonic and Shadow’s eyes. The kitchen was also disappearing, transforming into something else, something that Shadow wasn’t planning on sticking around to see to completion. With fire in his eyes, he turned back around, and found the doors had disappeared. It was just a wall now. That didn’t discourage him, though. If anything, it fuelled his determination, and he took a deep breath.

From Sonic’s perspective, it seemed as though the air had suddenly become electrified.

Shadow slammed a kick into the wall, and the wood-turning-metal exploded outwards in a burst of red sparks. The building screeched in protest, but Shadow was already gone, jumping through the opening and down to the grass below with no hesitation. He briefly wondered how that wall could’ve possibly led to the outside when he was sure it had been deeper inside the building, but chalked it up to being just another trick of the possessed architecture.

Speaking of which…

“Stripes! Duck!”

Shadow ducked, narrowly avoiding having his head bashed in by the hooves of one of the metal horse statues from earlier.

Damn! Those things were moving now too?!

As it was, Shadow stood in the middle of the not-hospital’s courtyard surrounded by giant steel horses, their beady purple eyes staring him down. In the background, the building itself seemed to be leaking smoke from its countless windows, and from the smoke came a ghastly figure. A large white ghost with swirling eyes and a ten gallon hat appeared and sat on the back of one of the horses, its uncannily large mouth stretching into an even bigger shark-toothed grin.

“Y'all make terrible guests,” the cowboy ghost said. “A shame considerin’ your Chaos Energy alone could’ve kept me fed for months!”

#falling stars au #do u guys mind if i go completely insane #HGFGHFHGFGH #no spoilers but every decision here was made because i thought it would be 1) cool or 2) fun #honestly i'm just writing to write at this point like i haven't written this much in. years #and i'm actually enjoying it? like what the hell.#i'd like to deliver on this cliffhanger at some point <3 #just like how this is delivering for the set up for the hospital being weird as fuck so dont get to mad ok love u bye <3

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