Michael had to admit—this world had gone mad in ways even he hadn't anticipated.
Crocodile claimed that when he was a woman, his surname had been Nefertari.
As in... the royal family of Alabasta.
Given his age...
"You... were Cobra's sister? Or some other relative?"
"Do I really look like that bastard Cobra?"
"Before you mentioned it, I didn't think so..." Michael frowned. "But now that I look closely, if I ignore the scars on your face, your bone structure is practically identical to his."
"Hah. Well, he is my older brother. After changing from a woman to a man, some resemblance was inevitable."
Crocodile held nothing back, openly admitting it.
He acknowledged being Cobra's sister—meaning he had once been...
A princess of Alabasta.
Suddenly, everything clicked for Michael.
Plot holes from the original story that had once been inexplicable now made perfect sense.
In the original Alabasta arc, it was clear that the secrets of the Ancient Weapon Pluton and the Poneglyphs were absolute state secrets known only to the royal family.
Even the young Princess Vivi had been kept in the dark—only King Cobra knew.
This proved the information was impossible to obtain externally, likely passed down from mouth to mouth only during royal succession.
So then...
How did a pirate know this secret?
Not only was Crocodile aware of Pluton, but he even had knowledge of the Poneglyphs.
Other than being a former member of Alabasta's royal family, there was no better explanation.
After all, Cobra was cautious enough not to tell his own daughter.
As for why he changed his identity through gender alteration...
Michael couldn't guess.
The original story had never explained what exactly happened in between.
Naturally, the original story couldn't possibly document every single event across the entire world...
"So... the reason you knew about Pluton and the Poneglyphs is because you were once Alabasta's princess?"
"The title of princess... it's been so long since I've heard that." Crocodile fell into a brief daze before shaking his head lightly.
"That's right. Father once told us both the secret our family had guarded for generations."
"Then why did you choose to change your gender and leave Alabasta?" Michael frowned deeply.
"To be precise, who exactly are those 'people after your body' that Ivankov mentioned earlier?"
"I don't know." Crocodile shook his head, his expression filled with regret and wariness.
"All I know is that those strange people suddenly appeared in Alabasta back then and began hunting me down... During my escape, to gain power for survival, I ate a Devil Fruit I came across by chance—the Sand-Sand Fruit."
"Finally, by using its ability, I completely disappeared into the depths of the desert and hid for a long time. When my body was on the verge of collapse, I met Ivankov who was traveling throughout the Grand Line. He healed me and at my request, used his Fruit power to perform gender change surgery on me."
Strange people?
Michael's breath hitched for a moment as a sudden possibility occurred to him.
"Do all the women of Alabasta's royal family have blue hair?"
"That's right. Only the women have that hair color."
"...And were the people hunting you back then all wearing nearly pure white clothes with various different masks?"
"How did you know?" Crocodile whirled around, grabbing Michael's shoulders.
"Do you know something about this!?"
"I only know a little." Michael shook his head, his expression uncharacteristically serious.
"These people are called CP0—an organization directly under the Celestial Dragons."
It seemed that the women of the Nefertari family would likely be targeted by "Imu" after coming of age.
"I can only say... you were extremely lucky." Michael brushed Crocodile's hands off his shoulders.
"To escape from those people just by eating the Sand-Sand Fruit—aside from the advantage of Alabasta's desert terrain, your luck was downright miraculous."
Although Crocodile didn't know about CP0, hearing the term "Celestial Dragons" was enough to understand what kind of entity they were.
"What good does that do?" Crocodile's hands clenched tightly before finally relaxing.
"I can never return to my homeland as my original self..."
Michael's lips curled into a smirk.
If this world's trajectory followed the original story, he could roughly understand why Crocodile harbored such inexplicable hatred and animosity toward Cobra.
As siblings—you get to live safely as king, while I'm forced to wander as a pirate.
Anyone in that position would become twisted.
Not to mention that Crocodile was originally a woman—more prone to emotional impulses—and had been Alabasta's pampered princess...
But for Crocodile himself, this was probably heaven preparing him for greater things.
After all, based on all current information, the only thing that could bring Pluton back into the world was likely the awakened Sand-Sand Fruit.
The location of Pluton is in Wano Country.
In the original work, Kozuki Sukiyaki made it very clear that to liberate Pluton, the massive rock walls surrounding Wano must be completely destroyed.
The only thing capable of achieving this is the fully awakened Sand-Sand Fruit, which can absorb moisture from objects, turning buildings—even the earth itself—into sand.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit… probably wouldn't work.
Not only are Wano's rock walls many times thicker than the Marineford walls during the Summit War, but even if the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power could reach that level, how could one ensure the indiscriminate vibrations wouldn't destroy Pluton as well?
So, barring any surprises, the Sand-Sand Fruit… is essentially the key to liberating Pluton.
Crocodile, who spent his entire life chasing Pluton, just so happened to possess the very ability that serves as the key.
Every action has its consequence, as fate would have it.
"Have you two finished chatting?" Ivankov stopped outside a room in the southeast corner of Baltigo.
"Crocodile, are you… sure you want to undergo gender change again?"
"I told you, I have no choice. Besides…" Crocodile suddenly looked at Michael, "Following this guy, I might just see another possibility… who knows?"
With that, he walked into the room.
Standing outside the door, Crocodile looked at Ivankov's face and smiled.
"Oh, Ivankov, do me a favor…"
"Don't forget to restore my original hair color."
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