In One Piece, as Hashirama Senju

[8] You're Old Enough Now...

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Chapter 8: You're Old Enough Now...

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As far as his memories could see, Sir Crocodile always remembered himself as an ambitious person.

He once dreamed to own the world, and later when he realised the absurdity of that ambition, it was the entire sea he was after— Crocodile craved the title of Pirate King.

That's why when he clashed with Douglas Bullet at the age of 20, the fact that the match had ended in a draw had left him very shaken. Was he not strong enough to even beat a Roger Pirates' exile? Was he that weak?

Two years later, witnessing Gol D. Roger's death had renovated his broken motivation and he ambitiously started to challenge all sorts of pirates, earning the title of Warlord of the Sea just a few years later.

Upon such a big achievement, Crocodile was back to his former, arrogant self. So he went to the New World part of the Grandline, one day coming across Emperor Whitebeard– Edward Newgate– Strongest Man Alive– whom he challenged.

The result of that fight? Well, he was now hiding in Paradise, acting like the guard dog for Alabasta.

Because when Whitebeard punches you, your bones aren't the only thing that breaks— your morals, motivation, and ambition all just shatter against the fist of destruction.

In fact, the only reason Whitebeard didn't kill 'him' was because he wasn't in the mood to kill a Woman! Such a humiliating incident was what forced Crocodile to consult Emporio Ivankov to change 'her' gender.

Now Crocodile had a simple but relatively small goal— take over the largest sandy island in the world, Alabasta, where he would be able to live a life suitable for royalties while having absolute power on his fingertips due to the sand that was everywhere.

So anybody could guess just how angry he must be when a variable to his master plan suddenly appeared to (literally) pour water on his plans.

Who the fuck was Hashirama Senju and why the fuck did that come to Alabasta? Who gave that brat the permission to mess with his life?!

Crocodile didn't count just how many times he had wished to just go to Alubarna and kill that brat— that'd put everything back to where it was. But no... no, he controlled himself to not do that, not after spending an entire decade acting like a hero, he couldn't just reveal his true personality like this. That'd drag both the World Government and the Revolutionary Army into this if he just decided to take over the Kingdom by force in broad daylight.

That would be the dumbest mistake he made in years.

For that reason, since he had held on for so long, he decided to hold it in for a few more years. In the meantime, he was gathering subordinates, strong people who would help him in his subtle conquerance of this country— of this land that'd stay dry no matter how many Hashiramas appeared around it.

Hashirama had the power to bring rain to this desert. But Crocodile? Crocodile could simply suck the moisture of his trees, one forest after another, and ruin all the effort the boy had put into all this.

He could do that in a single day.

It would be easier to kill the boy, he didn't have to do that himself but just sending one of his subordinates would do, but the problem was Hashirama's older sister— Tsunade Senju was a strong foe, he had sent assassins after her countless times in the past few years, but she simply destroyed them without much effort.