Second Wind

23

"Plan B?" Nami questioned. "You guys are actually coming up with multiple plans, as if one wasn't enough of a miracle?"

"That's right witch. We need to be prepared. We're going up against a Warlord who has a lot of influence in Alabasta. Plan B is simple. Take down Baroque Works and subdue Crocodile so that we can stop the war without any of their meddling." Nami, Usopp, and Chopper looked a little nervous about plan B, but simply nodded. Zoro sighed. Truth be told, if he and Luffy had their way, that would have been plan A. But Vivi had insisted that they refrain from doing something that reckless until she was able to get in contact with Kohza. She was still pretty naive in that regard, but the real problem was that she didn't want their lives to be at risk fighting Baroque Works. But she had at least acknowledged that Crocodile most likely wouldn't stand by and watch them stop the war, so she had agreed to the backup plan.

It was another three hours before the Strawhats caught their first sign of Alabasta...in the form of a fleet of Baroque Works Billions ships.

"This will be tough," Vivi said, as a bead of sweat rolled down her face. "These guys are different than the hired bounty hunters. With that many ships, if they notice us..."

"They won't be a problem," Zoro said. Vivi looked at him worriedly.

"Are you sure? This isn't like what happened in Whiskey Peak. We're at sea, and they have us surrounded."

"Vivi-chan's right," Sanji said. "I have no doubt we can beat them all eventually, but we'll just waste time and draw attention to ourselves. For now we should just ignore them and get to the island. We only need to engage if they notice us."

"No, like Zoro said, they won't be a problem," Luffy spoke up. "I just put them all into comas. They'll be out for a week." The Strawhats' reactions to this statement varied. Nami and Vivi looked disbelieving, Usopp and Chopper looked awed, and even Sanji looked shocked, although he kept a moderately neutral expression. Zoro just smirked at their reactions.

Chopper was the first to speak. "You can do that Luffy!?" he shouted. "Was it with that haki stuff you told me about?" Luffy had already explained what Conqueror's haki was to Chopper while going over the basics of haki again before he joined the training.

"Yep, that's it," Luffy responded.

"So cool!" Usopp and Chopper shouted simultaneously, only to be yelled at by Nami.

"Don't believe him so easily! How could he just knock out all those people from all the way over here!?"

"How long will you continue to underestimate our Captain? He can do a lot more than this," Zoro commented.

"That was only about 200 people," Luffy stated. "Even if they were spread out, that's not enough to push me to my limits." Usopp was deeply impressed.

"How many people can you knock out then!?" he gasped.

Luffy thought for a moment. "It depends. If they were all that weak, I guess about 150,000?"

Usopp's eyes bugged out of their sockets, Chopper looked at him starry eyed, Nami was clearly still disbelieving, and Sanji looked a bit disturbed.

150,000? If that's really true, he could defeat the Alabastian royal army singlehandedly if given enough time, Vivi thought. Could such a power really exist? And without the aid of any devil fruit?

"That's ridiculous!" Nami said. "You could take down armies without lifting a finger if that was true!"

"Why do you think they call it Conqueror's haki?" Zoro asked lazily. "Disregarding the World Government and its affiliations, you'll find that the most influential people in this world usually possess the King's Will. That's not to say that it's an accurate measure of one's strength, but no one can deny that the ability is what its name implies, a manifestation of one's will to conquer. I can only think of a few exceptions...one of them being this guy," he said as he pointed at Luffy.