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Among the escaped prisoners of Impel Down, the atmosphere aboard the stolen Navy battleship sailing towards Marineford was one of uneasy anticipation. Some were excited to finally be free of the hellish prison, others were dreading that the wrath of the Navy would find them again, but all of them were steeling their resolve for the upcoming battle that they would be sailing directly into the heart of.
One of these criminals was Sir Crocodile, former Warlord of the Sea. He had picked out a quiet spot on the starboard side of the ship to do some plotting on his next moves once he arrived at Marineford. Concocting elaborate battle plans and schemes was a specialty of his, and it brought him a certain relaxation to indulge in solo strategy sessions. However, he found himself off his groove in this instance, his thoughts instead being occupied by one of the key players in this prison break: Monkey D. Luffy, up-and-coming rookie pirate and brother of the soon-to-be executed Fire Fist Ace.
It was certainly a blow to his ego that he had to be broken out by the same brat who had foiled his plot to take over Alabasta. That wasn’t his gripe with the boy, however—he was pragmatic enough to know when one ought to swallow his pride and ally with a hated enemy for a time. No, what his ruminations centered on was a bit of information that Luffy had let slip in the process of escaping: that his father was Monkey D. Dragon, the infamous leader of the Revolutionary Army. Crocodile had learned this and initially dismissed the idea, but then realized that if Luffy was 17 years old, then that would put his age right around the same time that he and Dragon…
Of course. Of fucking course. Just his luck, he supposed.
It had hardly even been a proper fling, in his opinion. Just one night of heavy drinking and bad decisions. It had been so long since he had been living as a woman, he had nearly forgotten it by now. Back then, he had been a rookie pirate who, by chance, had formed a brief alliance with the newly-formed revolutionary army. One thing led to another, and he ended up having a one-night stand with Dragon, which unfortunately led to a pregnancy.
Crocodile had decided to carry the child to term, more as a point of pride than anything, but the experience had been a grueling one. The physical toll of pregnancy, not to mention having to hide the baby bump in the latter months, had been exhausting, not to mention embarrassing. Come to think of it, the pregnancy had been the thing that had finally convinced him to physically become a man via the Okama Queen Ivankov, something that he had silently been considering for some time up to that point but hadn’t been sure about. And so, the very day he had delivered the baby, he had convinced Ivankov to change him into a man, silently slipped out of the Revolutionary Army headquarters, and left the child there for Dragon to deal with, not even bothering to give it a name before he left.
Crocodile thought he had done a satisfactory job of washing his hands of the whole situation: he had started using the epithet of “Sir Crocodile” in lieu of his birth name and made sure to keep his distance from the Revolutionary Army. Not a single time in the last 17 years had he regretted his choice, either—in fact, being a man came far more naturally to him than womanhood ever had, and soon it felt as though he had always been the man Sir Crocodile, and his previous life had been nothing more than an unpleasant dream.
But now, the living testament to one of the worst periods in his life sat just a handful of meters away, and a cocktail of confounding emotions swirled in his chest. On the one hand, there was a sharp sense of indignation. Not only had he been beaten by some no-name brat from the East Blue, but said brat had been his own bastard child that he never even wanted! The indignity! Crocodile had half a mind to sneak up on him now and slit his throat, just for that.
On the other hand, though, there were hints of some unfamiliar emotions towards the boy, some that he hadn’t felt in quite some time. Emotions like…pride? Warmth? Even…ugh…affection? Crocodile had always carried himself as a man that was cold, calculating, and logical, not to be swayed by such frivolous things as sentimentality. But now, he could not deny the feeling of connection he had to the boy now that he knew he was his own progeny.
After some time, the dissonance in his conscience grew too much too bear, and he knew he could not ruminate any longer. He got up from his seat and strode over to where Luffy was, cool and collected, not betraying any emotion on his face. Luffy was at the front of the boat, precariously sat on the bow of the ship. Between the anxious bouncing of his leg and the uncharacteristically grim look on his face, it was clear that he had a lot on his mind as well—if Crocodile were to guess, it was almost certainly anxiety over the state of his brother.
Crocodile paid no mind to this and greeted him with a gruff “Hey, Luffy.” The boy whipped his head around in surprise, seemingly not having sensed Crocodile’s approach. His face fell when he saw who it was, however. “Oh, hey Croc,” he said, leering suspiciously at him, “What d’you want?” The icy reaction was to be expected, as Crocodile had been the one to nearly destroy his friend’s country and leave him for dead on two separate occasions. This was fine by Crocodile; he hadn’t come here to make amends, after all.
“No funny business, just making conversation,” he replied, casually leaning against the guardrail. Luffy seemed to accept this, so Crocodile continued, “About your father, Dragon…how close are you to him?”
Luffy shrugged his shoulders, surprisingly blase about the question. “Eh, not really close at all,” he said matter-of-factly, “I actually didn’t even learn he was my dad until recently. I’ve never even met him...I was actually raised by Grandpa.”
That certainly explained a lot. Personality-wise, Luffy bore little resemblance to Dragon (or to Crocodile himself, for that matter), but Crocodile could certainly see the image of the Navy’s Hero Garp the Fist within the young boy, from his brazen honesty to his good-natured determination that could easily be mistaken for naivete.
“I see,” Crocodile said, taking out one of his cigars, “...have you ever wondered about your mother?”
Luffy looked back at Crocodile quizzically. “Uhhh, no?” he said, “I’ve never met her either! I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she was like…” Luffy then narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Crocodile and added “Why are you asking about this? It’s not like you’re my dad or anything.”
Well, you’re half-right about that, Crocodile thought wryly. He took a puff of his cigar and said “Let’s just say that I knew your dad years and years ago…I suppose I’m still trying to understand him after all this time.”
Luffy mouthed ohhh and nodded his head, seemingly understanding the situation, though to what extent Crocodile could not guess. “Well, if that’s what you want, you might as well ask Iva or someone else, cuz I don’t really know anything about him.” he concluded bluntly before going back to staring out over the horizon.
Crocodile sighed. “You don’t really seem all that torn up about the fact that you grew up without a father or mother…are you sure you haven’t thought about them before?”
“Nope!” Luffy responded without missing a beat, “I’m happy that I was raised with Grandpa and Dadan and Ace and Sabo! It was really fun, and I became strong because of them!” Luffy giggled as he reminisced on the good times.
Looking out over the same horizon as Luffy, Crocodile couldn’t help but reminisce himself. “I suppose you should count yourself lucky, then,” Crocodile mused, “A ‘proper’ family isn’t always a good thing to have.”
Luffy turned back again and cocked his head. “What do you mean by that?” he asked.
Crocodile took a long drag of his cigar, and the words just came pouring out. “I’m just saying you shouldn’t be envious of those who grew up with a mother and father just for that. Let me tell you, my own mother was a real piece of work. Always forcing me to wear clothes that I hated, making me go to useless shitty parties all the time, and then beating me whenever I didn’t act like her perfect little…child.” He managed to catch himself from revealing his secret on that last word. “And don’t even get me started on my father. I got out of there as soon as I was able to, and I never looked back. Good riddance, I say.”
Luffy just stared at Crocodile with vacant eyes. “I don’t really care about any of that, but okay,” he said bluntly.
Crocodile shrugged his shoulders. “What I’m trying to say is, you should consider yourself lucky that you had the chance to grow up around people who cared about you and loved you, even if it wasn’t conventional. No matter how today ends up, you should remember the time that you’ve already had together and cherish it.”
Luffy thought on this for a moment, and his face lit up with acknowledgement. “Hey, you know, that does kinda help!” Luffy said with a growing smile, “Thanks for that! You know, Croc, you’re a real jerk most of the time, but you can be pretty cool too!” He giggled his trademark shishishi in a genuinely grateful and happy way towards Crocodile.
A gruff chuckle managed to escape Crocodile’s lips in turn. “Save it for the battlefield, kid,” he said, unable to hide his growing smile, “We’ll see if you still feel so warmly towards me after that.” With that, he turned away from Luffy to end the conversation. Even though he did not look back, he was sure Luffy was beaming brightly at him, and against his better judgment, he allowed himself to feel the warmth of the gesture in his long-hardened heart.
Yes, this is how it ought to be, Crocodile thought to himself as he returned to his solitary thinking spot. Father and son, both separately driven by their romanticism and ambition to achieve their ultimate goal: the Pirate King. If Luffy was going to unwaveringly move forward even in the face of such crippling setbacks, then Crocodile would do the same, and the mere thought of this gave Crocodile a sense of resolve that he hadn’t felt since he was a rookie himself. Regardless of whether the upcoming battle ended in victory or defeat, Crocodile was sure that he would encounter Luffy again as rivals in the New World, where the intertwining threads of their fates would be resolved once and for all.