Never again!
The East Blue Saga is over, it's time for the Grand Line! So many adventures will wait for the Straw Hats. I don't want to spoil much, but shit will go down in Marineford Arc, that's for sure. But that's far away now, we're just at the beginning. Sit back and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Chapter 9: Laboon
The Straw Hats reached the top of Reverse Mountain after a breathtaking ride. Now that they've reached the top, the ride down would be even faster and more thrilling. And it was true, their faces began fluttering and wobbling back like the one of a pilot starting in a hypersonic jet.
"UAAAAAAH, MY NOSE IS FLUTTERING BACK!", Usopp screamed, disadvantaged by his overly long nose.
"Quit whining, a fly just flew in my mouth!", Sanji moaned at him, coughing out both the fly and his cigarette.
"Guys, I don't want to interrupt you, but… look at that!", Nami fearfully spoke, pointing at a humongous whale with gruesome scars in front of them. The sea mammal blocked the exit of the stream.
'Laboon, good to see you, old pal. If I could speak your language, I'd tell you Brook is alive.', Luffy thought, remembering Brook's story about him, the whale.
"AAAAAAH! WE'RE GONNA COLLIDE, AND DIE!", Nami and Usopp screamed, holding each other, crying.
"Luffy, should I cut him away?", Zoro asked, literally meaning it.
"No, idiot! I'd never forgive you if you killed him!", the teenager angrily yelled with sharp teeth, giving his swordsman a second bump.
"Then what should we do? Nami-san said we'll die if the whale and us collide.", Sanji asked.
"I'm gonna hold him off, trust me. Nothing's going to happen to us or Merry.", their captain stated with a reassuring voice, sounding like a man of his word.
As the ship approached the whale, the risk of dying became greater.
"Luffy, do something!", the cowardly duo yelled, still holding each other and crying.
"Yosh! Gomu Gomu no Fuusen!"
The rubber man inflated himself to the point where he's bigger than Merry. His immense flexibility made it possible for his nakama to survive.
"Luffy, Luffy, Luffy!", they cheered, dancing to express their relief for living on.
'Hmm, wait a minute. When I punched him in the eye last time, he swallowed our ship and made it possible for us to meet Crocus and Vivi. If I don't punch him now, we won't meet them again. Guess I have to act stupid again.', the strawhat thought, thinking about the consequences if he played it smart and cool.
The 17-year-old subsequently punched the dark blue whale in the eye, just to be punched by his navigator. "You brainless moron! We just escaped death and now you're trying to kill us again!". His other nakama just facepalmed at their captain's stupid action.
Laboon reacted quick. His round, pacifistic eyes turned into angry, half-round eyes. He opened his mouth, which could easily swallow a warship. A single tooth was so big Usopp had to maneuver the ship so, that they don't crash in it and burst.
"Geppo!", Luffy shouted, running away in the air. He watched as a massive wave flushed his ship along with his nakama inside Laboon's mouth. 'Eh, I'll find another way to get inside, but I'll get you out of there, I swear!', the adventurous boy thought.
…
Inside Laboon, the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates were floating through the whale's endless seeming throat. One was calm, one was scared, two were mad.
"I can't believe he ditched us like that!", the ginger furiously exclaimed, clenching her fists.
"L-luffy's going to come and save us, r-right?", the black-haired asked, scared of the fact he might get digested.
"Don't worry, he's our captain, he'd never leave us alone like that.", the green-haired said, knowing Luffy's loyalty and care towards his nakama.
"Even if he's going to save us, when I see him again, I'll turn him into fricassee!", the blond angrily declared, lighting himself another one.
A short trip later, the four pirates found themselves in a strange place. The sky was blue and had clouds, there was seawater and even a small island with an old man living on it, but everything seemed so contained.
"Oi, old man, where the heck are we?", Zoro rudely demanded as Merry came closer to that island.
The old man with petals around his head lifted his gaze from the newspaper he was reading and stared intimidatingly at the Straw Hats, who really became intimidated.
"What's the problem, can I help you?", he asked, this time not intimidating at all.
Confusion befell the Straw Hats. 'What is with this old geezer?', they all thought.
"Err, where are we? Do you know that?", Zoro slowly and politely asked.
"You're inside Laboon."
"Laboon?". The Straw Hats were confused again. This man had a strange way of speaking.
"The whale occupying the entrance of the Grand Line."
"But why is his inside painted, and what's an island doing here?", Nami questioned.
"And who are you?", Zoro let out.
Once more, the old man started staring intimidatingly at the Straw Hats, who once more, became intimidated.
"If you want someone to tell his name, why don't you introduce yourselves first?", he unintimidatingly asked.
The pirates slowly became annoyed with him, yet maintained their patience.
"I'm Zoro."
"I'm Sanji."
"I'm Nami."
"And I'm Usopp."
"Good.", he spoke. "My name is Crocus, my birthday is on January 4th, my blood type is AB,…"
"Can I shut him up?!", Zoro yelled at his nakama with sharp teeth, touching his swords' hilts.
…
3 minutes earlier:
Luffy landed on Laboon's back after using 'Geppo'. He noticed a hatch on the whale's back. 'What does a hatch do on a whale's back? Nevermind, I'll get down there.'
The pirate opened the hatch and went down there, ending up in an artificial hallway made out of metal. 'I was in here once, but this is still strange. Metal in a whale, would that make Laboon a cyborg like Franky? I don't know, but let's explore!'
…
Present timeline:
Outside, Laboon decided to ram the Red Line again. He changed his posture, which felt like an earthquake for the people inside. Luffy for example lost his balance and was falling down, flying. Eventually, he would bump into two people inside the sea mammal, a very young blue-haired woman and a crown-wearing man, dragging them down with him.
Meanwhile, the remaining Straw Hats wondered what this 'earthquake' was. "Mr. Crocus, what is happening?", Nami demanded, almost as scared as when they rode down the stream on Reverse Mountain.
Crocus put his glasses in their place. "It's Laboon, he's ramming his head against the Red Line again. I've told him many times to stop that, but he doesn't listen. It's such a sad story."
Suddenly, three voices ringed in Crocus' and The Straw Hats' ears. Two were screaming, one was laughing. After 10 more seconds, the people screaming and laughing could be identified as they were coming closer, falling down from a hole in the "sky". The blue-haired girl fell on Sanji, the crown-wearing man on Zoro, and Luffy on Nami.
"That was fun!", the childish pirate exclaimed, grinning and holding his hands in the air.
The orange-haired girl pushed the strawhat off her and punched him in the head as she stood up. "Couldn't you've fallen somewhere else, idiot?"
"Ow! Sorry Nami…"
Crocus decided to climb on Merry for some reason.
Zoro objected this. "Who allowed you to get on Merry?", he spat as he threw off the man who fell on him shortly before. "AS WELL AS YOU TWO!"
"Sorry for not asking, but I can't stay here for long, Laboon is going to blow us out soon.", the elderly man explained.
"He's gonna what?"
Out of nowhere, the huge whale blew Merry and everyone on it out of his blowhole. The ship landed on the water, but Luffy was gone – again.
"Where's this fool now?", Nami asked, annoyed of her captain.
She turned her head around and saw him standing on the Red Line, which Laboon opted to hit. But then she noticed that not the Red Line was his target, but Luffy. The whale had't forgotten her captain's punch to his eye.
"LUFFY!", the navigator screamed, not wanting her nakama to get crushed by a creature weighting way more than 1000 elephants.
The 17-year-old knew when to stop the whale. "It's a draw!", he announced, making Laboon stop. "It's a draw for now, when I return, we'll have a rematch. Until then, please don't hit your head on the Red Line anymore, okay?"
Laboon thought this was a friendly promise, so he decided not to attack Luffy any further. Luffy at the same time, went back to his ship.
"Oi, old geezer, what's with the whale?", he asked, already knowing his backstory.
"It's Crocus, and since you've stopped Laboon from hurting himself any further, I'll tell you the whole story. 50 years ago, a Pirate Crew which befriended Laboon as a baby came over the Grand Line. I was keeper of the Twin Capes Lighthouse over there.", he explained, pointing at a light grey lighthouse. "But since Laboon was a baby and the Grand Line was too dangerous, they asked me to take care of him. For 50 years Laboon has waited for his friends, who are probably dead by now. I've told him many times that they won't come back, but he refused to listen to me, and rammed the Red Line with his head since then, which explains his scars. And now these two", he roared, pointing at crown guy and Vivi in disguise, "have come to kill Laboon for his meat. If I was you, I'd tie them up and hand them over to the Marines."
"First, we can't hand them over to the Marines, we're pirates and therefore criminals, they'd arrest us immediately. Second, sad story, I'll make Laboon stop hitting his head once and for all.", Luffy said, reassuring Crocus.
"You would? If you did that, I'd be happy for the rest of my life. Now that I'm old and don't have that much to live, Laboon means everything to me."
"Don't worry, I'll make him stop right now.", the boy promised the old man. "Usopp, get me some paint!"
"Paint? For what?"
"You'll see.", Luffy told, smiling widely.
"Okay Luffy, I'm on it!", Usopp said, running below deck.
About 30 seconds later, Usopp returned with some white, black, red, and straw-coloured paint. Luffy took the paint and made his way to Laboon's head.
…
5 minutes later, he drew a perfect copy of the Straw Hat Pirates' jolly roger, contrary to last time where he drew a bad copy. "This is the sign of our promise. It will vanish if you hit your head again.", he told Laboon, who eventually would never hurt himself, especially his head, again. Crocus and Luffy's nakama were impressed by his action.
"Thank you very much, I owe you much.", Crocus spoke out of his heart. "I'm giving you this Log Pose to thank you."
"No, we have to thank you, you made our journey a lot easier with that Log Pose.", the pirate captain said.
"Boy, you remind me of Gold Roger, I know that because I was on his ship."
"Oh, is that so?"
"Yes, I was on the Oro Jackson for three years as his doctor. I can tell that you resemble him quite well, even from your captain's coat."
"Well, thanks. I also want to become Pirate King.", Luffy stated, smiling proudly.
"Then I should not get in your way in travelling the Grand Line. Have fun, and make your dreams come true!", Crocus declared, bidding farewell.
Luffy returned to his nakama, setting sail. "Thank you old man, until next time!", the black-haired shouted, waving his hands.
Laboon let out a scream of joy, expressing his way of celebrating the new-found friendship between him and the future Pirate King. 'Goodbye Laboon, I'll tell Brook about you, he'll be happy to hear about you.'
…
Shortly after their leaving, Luffy sees Vivi and crown guy tied up on Merry. Sanji was trying to flirt with Vivi, who tried to dismiss the pervert in return.
"Why are those two here?", the strawhat asked, faking a bad mood.
A certain green-haired walked over to Luffy and the two Baroque agents. "We've taken them hostage, but if you want, we can just drop 'em into the sea."
"You can throw out crown guy, but not this sweet princess!", Sanji objected, defending the female hostage.
"Quit it Ero-cook, you just want to screw her, am I right or am I right?", the swordsman mocked the cook.
"What did you just say, Marimo?", Sanji snapped at Zoro, seriously annoyed by the latter's statement.
The two fighters of the Straw Hats started arguing, but Nami stopped them by an annoucement. "Guys, we're heading to Whiskey Peak, that's what the Log Pose says."
"You know how to read them?", Usopp curiously asked, surprised she can work with objects from the Grand Line.
"I'm a navigator Usopp, I knew about Log Poses since I was a child. Those things are essential for the Grand Line, since a normal compass doesn't work here."
"Erm, excuse me, but you said Whiskey Peak not long ago, right?", the blue-haired girl spoke. "Could you take us there with you?"
"Hold on a second!", Zoro objected. "We don't even know your names, yet you want us to take you with us?"
"Well, excuse me Sir, but you haven't given us the chance to introduce ourselves.", she commented like a spoiled brat. "My name is Miss Wednesday, and that is Mr. 9."
"These aren't even real names!", the swordsman snarled.
"Right, these are our codenames.", Mr. 9 informed him. "We work for an organization called Baroque Works, and if you hurt us, you'll be in great trouble, our boss doesn't let anyone get away with hurting his subordinates."
"Baroque Works? What is that?", Nami asked, getting aware of the tied up duo hiding something.
"Baroque Works is an organization that wants to create an ideal state. An ideal state, where everythin is perfact.", crown guy said.
"I was offered a job there, since I was considered the best swordsman of the East Blue, but I told them I'd only work for them if I was the leader, which they refused.", Zoro told. "Whatever the case, we cannot have you here, you might cause trouble, so-"
"Zoro," Luffy interrupted his first mate with a convincing voice, "how about this: We untie them and take them with us, but if they cause trouble, try to kill us or try to escape, we'll overpower and end them, okay?"
"Sounds good, captain.", he spoke, turning his head back to the agents. "If you try something wrong, I'll make you regret!"
After that, everyone turned back to their duties except Sanji, who was unsuccessfully flirting with Miss Wednesday AKA Vivi Nefeltari. Whiskey Peak wasn't far anymore.
So, that was it. Sorry if this chapter was short or boring, but I only do one arc or less in a chapter, even if it's the shortest arc in the entire series, which is the Reverse Mountain Arc, or even more simple, THIS arc right here. Next chapter/arc will be better. Peace!
