Pirate World Fang Yu vs Sir Crocodile

Crocodile’s golden hook crushed out his cigar. The gilded wall clock in the office pointed to three in the morning, while moonlight streaming through the stained glass window split him into halves of light and shadow. The Dance Powder hidden in the hidden compartment glimmered a ghostly green in the darkness.

He lounged sideways on the camel wool throne, his golden hook lightly tapping the sand table of all Alabasta spread across the desk.

The moonlight beyond the stained glass was deathly pale. A figure blocked the window.

A figure hung upside down outside the stained glass window, white Ukaku piercing the gilded frame like a demon’s bony claws.

Fang Yu’s pupils showed bloodshot patterns beneath the moonlight. The high-frequency hum of his vibrating wings shattered the Capital City Model on the sand table.

"Late-night visits require manners." Crocodile lifted his cigar with his golden hook, sparks tracing an arc through the air. "Don’t you understand even that?"

"Manners?" Fang Yu’s boot lightly touched the windowsill as his wings spread behind him. "For those who steal nations, there is only the guillotine."

Crocodile narrowed his eyes. With the backlight behind Fang Yu, he could not see his face at all. "State your master, brat! The World Government? The Revolutionary Army? The royal family? Or some pirate dreaming delusions?"

Fang Yu ran his fingertips across the golden frame by the window. "I came for the hyena hiding in a sand castle, playing at schemes."

The office air suddenly froze. Crocodile’s coat stirred without wind. "Do you know where the corpse of the last person who called me a hyena ended up?" He raised a hand and clenched it in the air. The Capital City Model on the sand table collapsed with a boom. "Fed to the piranhas of the Sandora River."

Fang Yu leaped down from the window and landed before the desk, only three meters from Crocodile. He casually flipped through the papers atop it, then found a Wanted Poster of himself. "You know, after tonight, the amount on this wanted poster will need updating again."

"Oh?" Only then did Crocodile see the newcomer’s face. "No wonder you’re so arrogant. So you’re Yu, the one who took down Gecko Moria. I never expected you to come knocking on my door."

His voice suddenly rose. "But who told you that the Shichibukai are all equally strong? That trash wasn’t even half as strong as me!"

Fang Yu’s lips curled up. "And who told you that I judged my own strength based on beating Gecko Moria?"

Sir Crocodile lit his cigar. "Heh heh, young man, you know nothing about strength."

Fang Yu rolled his shoulders and ankles. "Old Sand, you know nothing about me."

"Courting death!"

Just as Crocodile was about to strike, Fang Yu stepped back. "There’s not enough room here. At the very least, we should go somewhere deserted. Wait a moment, I’m bringing a platter of fruit. I might get thirsty."

"Heh heh, then eat plenty. You can die with a full stomach."

Crocodile’s golden hook scraped across the rock wall, the metal friction sound like the screech of a vulture.

The moonlight dyed his camel wool cloak deathly white. He stared at Fang Yu twenty meters away, his eyes narrowed to razor slits. "You must be the World Government’s new dog. Let me guess—sent specifically to clean up the Shichibukai? But they miscalculated. I am completely different from Gecko Moria."

Fang Yu’s Sharingan swept over the unidentified animal skeletal remains piled at Sand Crocodile’s feet. Golden Tomoe turned deep within his pupils. "Is it possible that I’m simply here to rid the people of a menace?"

Sir Crocodile suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. "Hahahahaha! How could a pirate tell such a hilarious joke!"

He drew deeply on his cigar. The red light of its tip illuminated the scar running across the corner of his right eye, a mark of humiliation left by his challenge against Whitebeard.

"Phew—"

Crocodile blew out a smoke ring, but Fang Yu struck first!

"Fire Release: Great Fireball!"

Fang Yu’s hand seals were so fast they nearly left afterimages. A forty-meter-wide crimson fireball tore through the night sky!

Crocodile lightly tapped the ground with his golden hook. "Is this… the Flame-Flame Fruit?" Sand dunes rose in response, and a thick sand shield surged from the ground!

"Boom—!"

The instant the fireball struck the sand shield, blinding white light erupted from the point of contact.

Sand Crocodile’s eyes abruptly contracted! His prized sand shield melted like butter under a hot knife, its surface grains turning into reflective black glass!

"Sizzle!"

The vitrified layer of sand dripped down like melting ice cream. The untouched sand behind it was sintered together by the intense heat, completely slipping from his control.

Crocodile’s golden hook suddenly trembled.

This was the first time the Sand-Sand Fruit’s power had encountered such destructive flames.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

Fang Yu’s follow-up attack was precise and vicious.

The hurricane carried the fireball’s lingering flames and tore the half-molten sand shield to pieces.

Glass fragments shot out like buckshot, carving several scratches across Sand Crocodile’s clothes. The grains melted into glass had now become the sharpest hidden weapons.

"Brat!" Crocodile roared. His body instantly turned to sand and reformed atop a protrusion in the rock wall.

The spot where he had stood had already been plowed into a ten-meter-wide scorched crater by the wind-and-fire vortex, molten glass winding across the ground.

"The Sand-Sand Fruit is nothing special." Fang Yu’s Sharingan locked onto the shadows on the rock wall. "I thought water was your weakness, but it seems that Fire Release at my level can still make you utterly miserable."

Crocodile’s pupils shrank to pinpoints.

It had been many years. Ever since his defeat at Whitebeard’s hands, he had not felt this bone-deep chill of being seen through.

The force with which his golden hook pierced the rock made the entire mass of sand tremble. "You think melting a few grains of sand means you can win?"

Fang Yu was unconcerned. "The child is father to the man."

Sand grains condensed into a spiraling drill in Crocodile’s palm. "Desert Sword!"

A hundred-meter sand blade cleaved through the moonlight as it fell, scorching the air in its path!

"Whoosh!"

An afterimage vanished beneath Crocodile’s attack, and Fang Yu appeared atop another sand dune.

Crocodile’s sneer froze on his face. His prized attack had been evaded so effortlessly!

Crocodile’s golden hook stabbed fiercely into the ground, and a thunderous rumble rose from deep within the dunes.

With a sinister smile, he twisted the hook. Sand grains wriggled like living creatures. "Witness a true Desert Funeral—Desert Coffin, a grave without a tombstone! Desert Sunflower!"

The sandy ground beneath Fang Yu’s feet suddenly liquefied, and a quicksand vortex spanning a hundred meters rapidly expanded!

Even deadlier, Sand Crocodile controlled the course of the Underground Dark River’s water veins, the water carrying sand grains into high-density mud!

Once trapped by this move, even Devil Fruit powers became difficult to use.

"Gurgle."

The sandy slurry submerged Fang Yu’s ankles. Every grain of sand bit into his flesh like a miniature hydraulic clamp.

Crocodile lifted a wave of sand with his golden hook, watching his prey slowly sink. "Your blood will fill the gaps between the grains, becoming the perfect coffin lining."

Yet Fang Yu’s Sharingan remained as calm as an abyss.

His hands formed the Tiger-Snake-Monkey seals, Chakra surging through his meridians like a raging tide. "Water Release: Water Wall!"

"Boom!"

Four ten-meter-high water walls burst from the earth, surrounding the quicksand vortex and turning it into a square mud prison!

"Idiot!" Though Crocodile was surprised that Fang Yu possessed water-controlling abilities, he still stirred the sand waves with his golden hook and mocked, "Water will only make the sand even—"

His sneer abruptly froze. The water-soaked sand no longer slithered like snakes; instead, it absorbed water, expanded, and clumped together!

The once-deadly quicksand beneath Fang Yu’s feet had become soft muddy swamp.

Fang Yu easily pulled his feet free. What clung to his soles was no longer life-devouring quicksand, but damp mud clumps.

Under Crocodile’s stunned gaze, he stepped out of the prison cage as though walking on level ground. "Water can carry a boat."

The golden hook suddenly split apart the water wall. Sand Crocodile charged in with a furious sand blade, but Fang Yu remained perfectly calm. "It can also capsize one."

"Clang!"

The golden hook struck Pirate World Fang Yu’s Tail hook. Crocodile stared in shock at Fang Yu’s utterly inhuman structure. "What the hell is that? What fruit did you eat?"

Fang Yu smiled as he explained, "The Duke-Duke Fruit. Take this! Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

Eight poisonous snakes with purple-tinged scales shot from Fang Yu’s sleeves. Venom dripped from their fangs, corroding the sand into green smoke! Before Crocodile could raise his golden hook, the snakes had coiled around his neck, waist, abdomen, and limbs. Their constricting force made his bones creak under unbearable strain.

Fang Yu’s Sharingan reflected Crocodile’s flushed face. "A return gift for that suffocating feeling."

Crocodile glared viciously at Fang Yu. His constricted body turned into sand, and his true body reformed behind Fang Yu.

Sand Crocodile’s cloak bore burn marks from the snake venom. At a speed invisible to the naked eye, his golden hook locked around Fang Yu’s throat. "Desert Prison!"

The terrifying suction released from his palm instantly drained the moisture from the air. Fang Yu’s skin withered and cracked at an alarming rate!

Crocodile nearly bit his cigar in half with his fangs. "Your blood will become the finest sand."

"Bang!"

White smoke exploded. The "Fang Yu" caught by the throat turned into white smoke. On top of a sand dune twenty meters away, the real Fang Yu squatted as he tossed an apple in the air. "Looks like you’ve never fought Wano Country’s ninja. You’ve never seen ninjutsu, have you?"

"Damn brat! I’ll bury you in this desert right now!"