Because Rainbase had once been Baroque Works' headquarters and Crocodile had run it for quite some time, even though it's one of the kingdom's rare oases and considered a paradise, its permanent population isn't large.
So after Charles forcibly demolished Rain Dinners, most tourists left. Almost the entire city turned into a ghost town, as if fated to become a battlefield.
Charles, Ace, Luffy, Zoro, and a few others stood atop Rainbase's tallest clock tower, watching the crowds approaching through the distant billows of sand.
A mere Crocodile was nothing to Charles, so Stella felt at ease taking Vivi and the others out for tea.
Usopp and Chopper certainly weren't about to join the fun on this side and naturally tagged along. And of course Sanji chose the side with the ladies and went to prepare snacks for them.
"Quite the spectacle. But Crocodile sending so many small fry and still banking on a numbers advantage at this point is just disappointing," Charles said.
Most of the sea would call that arrogance. Crocodile is a Warlord—who would have thought someone would comment on him entirely from the standpoint of a weakling.
Yet coming from Charles, it somehow felt only natural.
Ace crossed his arms. "So what's your plan?"
Earlier, Ace had explained that he'd returned to the first half of the Grand Line to hunt down the comrade-killer Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach.
Charles had ultimately decided to get involved, since this would become the fuse for the Paramount War.
He wasn't interested in where this world would go, but he did want Ace to live.
Not only because Ace's death had been a regret in a former life, but also because Ace, like Charles, had a handful of a kid brother and the same big-brother resolve, which made Charles like him.
In fact, if Ace wanted to hunt Blackbeard, sticking close to Luffy would be the simplest way.
In the original story, after Luffy beat Crocodile his bounty soared and did catch Blackbeard's eye.
Right now Blackbeard was probably weighing which pirate to use as an offering to secure a Warlord title and move on to the next step in his plan.
If Ace weren't worried about Luffy, he'd already have left to pursue Blackbeard.
By Charles's recollection, Ace wouldn't catch up to Blackbeard for a while yet; until then, Charles had time to cut Blackbeard off first.
After all, the Straw Hats' next stop was Mock Town beneath Sky Island, which was also where Blackbeard first appeared in the original. It was there he delivered that thunderous line: "A man's dream never ends."
Charles figured the butterfly effects he'd caused hadn't touched Blackbeard yet, meaning he'd likely still show up when Luffy landed at Mock Town.
Whether with the Black Bulls, Fairy Tail, or the Hephaestus Familia, Charles had always committed to the path of protection.
So for someone like Blackbeard, who would kill comrades for ambition, Charles felt instinctive revulsion—no "charisma" there at all.
Conveniently, he'd planned to head to Sky Island anyway; he could take a look, in passing, at what the "most evil" of Devil Fruits, the most unusual Logia, was really about.
With that in mind, he answered Ace, "No rush. Isn't there a Marine detachment in Rainbase? They're supposed to protect a law-abiding civilian like me from a criminal outfit like Baroque Works, right?"
Ace's expression went strange; he'd seen the look on those Marines' faces when they left. It wasn't hard to imagine how Charles had treated them—yet now he wanted their protection?
And… "civilian"? Ace hadn't seen civilians anywhere else who were as monstrously strong as this!
Luffy shaded his eyes with a hand. "Where's Crocodile? I'm gonna be the first to send him flying!"
Ace held down his overactive kid brother, helpless.
Seeing that, Charles couldn't help a wry smile. "Rough taking care of a brother like that, huh? I've got a little brother too—always doing things that make me worry. He gives me headaches all the time."
Ace nodded in deep sympathy. That sense of "fellow sufferers" made him finally drop all wariness toward Charles.
While they talked atop the clock tower, Baroque Works collided with the Marines outside town.
Baroque Works might be a criminal organization, but they weren't enemies of the Marines—sometimes they even cooperated in catching pirates.
Too bad the Marine commander in Rainbase was Smoker, a thorn even at Marineford's training camp.
After arriving in Alabasta, Smoker keenly sensed the kingdom's abnormalities and quickly deduced that Crocodile was behind them.
Bound by Crocodile's Warlord status, he couldn't investigate directly, but when it came to Baroque Works, he wasn't about to be polite.
No one knew what he said to Baroque Works, but the two sides clashed shortly afterward.
Despite it being the Great Pirate Era, the Marines are the most dominant force at sea.
And what lets the Marines suppress the seas isn't only admirals who can match emperors, but also countless elite Marine soldiers.
At the rank-and-file level, a fully developed training system and resources make Marines incomparable to pirate rabble and other forces.
Baroque Works, so high and mighty near the entrance to the first half of the Grand Line, fell far short of properly trained Marines in quality.
At the outset they were forced onto the back foot. Then the numbered senior agents entered the fray.
With their arrival, the tide flipped.
Smoker commanded only Loguetown's garrison; against Crocodile's heavily recruited senior agents, he was still outmatched.
As a Logia, Smoker personally joined the fight, and only then did he stem Baroque Works' advance.
Zoro's setup was distinctive—three swords at his waist sitting at perfect drawing angles, with another blade hanging at his back.
He scanned the battlefield for a suitable opponent. Then one fight caught his eye.
On one side was a girl whose face was eerily like his childhood friend's; Zoro's expression twitched.
Tashigi was in a bind; her opponent was Mr. 1, the Dice-Dice Fruit user.
Mr. 1 called himself a "swordsman killer" for a reason—his ability to turn any part of his body into blades came with a steel-like defense across his whole body.
Without the "cut steel" insight that makes one a swordsman of note, any swordsman would be at his mercy. Tashigi was no exception.
Still, developing the Dice-Dice Fruit for defense instead of pursuing the "slice all" sharpness—no wonder Mr. 1 only strutted in the first half.
Zoro sighed. "It's boring just watching from up here. I'm going down to stretch my legs."
"Go ahead," Charles said. "Just do what you think is best."
Zoro nodded, jumped straight off the clock tower, and sprinted for Tashigi and Mr. 1's position.
Whether that was to save someone or because he'd picked a target was anyone's guess.
Unexpectedly, Luffy didn't follow; he seemed set on waiting for Crocodile to show.
Charles and Ace, meanwhile, had already started comparing notes on wrangling troublemaker little brothers.
In the first half of the Grand Line, Logias really are broken. Smoker alone subdued most of the senior agents.
With Zoro blocking the strongest Mr. 1, Baroque Works' line began to crumble.
Even in a hard fight, Zoro never drew the new blade Charles had forged that hung at his back, showing a swordsman's resolve.
He wasn't far from the realm of cutting steel either; Charles could feel his aura growing calmer—and sharper.
The clash with the Marines wasn't in Crocodile's plans, so, just as Charles expected, Crocodile was forced to act ahead of schedule.
In a haze of flying sand, Crocodile closed on Smoker. Sand and smoke tangled for a few seconds, then split, revealing a cold-faced Crocodile and a somewhat bedraggled Smoker.
Sure enough, it wasn't easy for Smoker to notch even a single win.
As Charles thought some fairly impolite things about Smoker, Luffy noticed the fight too.
His arm stretched out to grab a distant building, and he slingshotted himself forward.
"Crocodile, I'm gonna send you flying!"
He smashed through Crocodile's body and hit the ground. Watching Crocodile reform, he wore a look of clear, earnest stupidity.
Charles glanced at Ace. "We did tell him what Crocodile's ability is, right?"
Ace covered his face. His brother's obliviousness defied description.
With the standoff between Luffy, Smoker, and Crocodile broken, the real melee began.
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