Cover
Nami is balancing on a wooden railing next to a staircase that runs along a cliff. On the other side is a river from which a crocodile emerges with a rose in its mouth and a fly around its neck. On the other side of the river is a lighthouse.
Storyline
Arabasta, Rainbase, Luffy vs Crocodile: Halfway through the three minutes Crocodile has given Luffy to fight. Crocodile is now looking to get serious. Using Desert Spada, he attacks Luffy from a distance. The attack cuts through the desert like a blade and by the skin of his teeth, Luffy is able to dodge. Crocodile tells him that devil powers can be trained and that he himself has been doing it all these years. Luffy should have done the same. And upon doing so, he causes a large round quicksand circle to form with Desert Girasole. Luffy is pulled into the sand and can only avoid the threat of sinking in by throwing a gum-gum bazooka into the ground. In mid-air, he interlaces his fingers and tries to trap Crocodile with the gum-gum net, but even this does him no good against the logia power of Crocodile, who is increasingly annoyed by Luffy’s inability to understand the hopelessness of the attacks. Even the gum-gum whip only splits his opponent, who easily recomposes himself and dries up his right arm with Barchan.
Sand can extract all water from the body. At this, Luffy gets an idea and he quickly runs to his little water barrel that he got from Toto in Yuba. He takes a drink and his arm is back to normal. Just as Toto won’t let the sandstorms get him down, Luffy won’t give up and runs at his opponent again. This time he wants to swallow him down with the Gomu Gomu no-Mampfe by eating Crocodile’s upper body. Stinking angry, he frees himself from Luffy’s mouth and wants to finish the fight for good. But before he does, he creates a sandstorm with Sables. Both Smoker and Tashigi in Rainbase and the Straw Hats with Vivi on Scissors notice the storm. Crocodile tells Luffy that the wind in Rainbase always comes from the north and will blow the storm south, right towards the Yuba Oasis. Luffy runs up to him pissed off and yells at him to stop the storm, it will hit Toto after all. He still personally tries to stop the storm, but is unsuccessful and runs towards Crocodile again. However, Luffy neglects his cover and is impaled by Crocodile’s gold hook on his stomach. Crocodile thinks Luffy is a rank novice, of which there are thousands on the Grand Line.
| Manga volumes | Arabasta Arc (Manga) |
