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One Piece. – Flashbacks

One Piece. – Devil Fruits and Techniques

Deadly Drinking Pirate

A Whale That Bellows at the Red Line

Previously on Deadly Drunken Pirate,

When everyone went out onto the deck of the King's Gourd, the storm had indeed disappeared. There wasn't even wind since the sails were sagging like the cheeks of a fully depressed person. "Why are you worried Luffy? This is actually nice compared to the storm that we were in." Zoro said without a care in the world but Luffy shut them up with his glare once again.

"Shut up and listen. I don't like to repeat myself. The Calm Belt is called that because the Grand Line is between two sections of the Calm Belt in each of the Blue Seas." Everyone nodded. "But since there are never any storms or wind, the sails are useless. And then there is the greater danger here than storms."

All of a sudden, the water started to shake the ship again but much worse than the storm back in the East Blue did. Everyone was wondering if there was some kind of a seaquake but once they looked down, they saw something indeed worst.

Their ship was on top of a Sea King and that gigantic one with stripes like a zebra was among various other Sea Kings. And they all made the King's Gourd look like a pebble on the nose of the zebra striped one. "The Calm Belts are breeding grounds for all the Sea Kings in the world." Luffy said with Nami almost fainted in his arms.

"Now what do we do!?" Usopp shouted, his usual cowardly demeanor nearly taking over again. Luffy glared at everyone instead of giving a good answer.

"You? You guys are getting your training three times harder for getting us into this mess!" Luffy shouted and everyone cringed, their training was already difficult and torturous already from their previous punishment. "As for me…" Luffy said before suddenly stretching his arm in speeds matching that of a rocket. And into the nose of the Sea King they were all stranded on; where he plucked a nose hair! "Now we all wait." Luffy then dropped the gigantic nose hair into the water and then sat on the deck calmly while his arm retracted. Then there was this distinctive sound coming from the sea king they were on,

"Is that…?"

"Sounds like…"

"…this monster is…"

"…Going to sneeze!" Everyone shouted in a creepy fashion while Luffy smiled and nodded.

"Exactly. Brace yourselves." Luffy said and right on cue, the beast sneezed so strong that the ship was launched right off. And it just happened to be in the right direction as well; back into the East Blue. But of course, back into the storm as well.

"Are you sure we need to do this?" Zoro asked but then everyone glared at him, "Never mind." He muttered and ran off to do something since it was impossible to take a nap during a rainstorm.

XXXXX

But the storm didn't stop them from reaching the entrance to the Reverse Mountain. "There it is!" Luffy shouted into the distance with all but two of his crew on the deck, trying to get a better look. Zoro happened to have the binoculars for much greater view,

"I don't believe it." Zoro could only say. "The sea, it is flowing upward on the side of the mountain!" And pretty soon, the rest of the crew spoke in similar responses. All except for Luffy who could only smirk at the sight of the entrance until he spotted something off.

"Hey! We are going to crash into the gate! Whoever is steering my ship, try to keep her steady!" Luffy shouted into the cabin room only to notice that it was empty. Luffy then cast a glare towards his crew again; they had forgotten about steering for their excitement at the Reverse Mountain. "I guess that I will have to do things myself."

And just as Luffy mumbled his way to the steering wheel, he gave it a sudden a sharp turn that surely got the crew's attention and they got through the gate without a hitch. And when they did get caught in the current, everyone gathered themselves together, just in time to see Luffy take out a barrel.

"Now that we all are heading to the World's Greatest Ocean, it is time." Luffy said as he placed the barrel right onto the deck. "It is time to make our dreams known. Once they are known by all then we know each other better and can protect each other better as well. We all are dreamers so you shouldn't feel embarrassed by it at all." Luffy announced and soon, everyone got it and was glad that the barrel was unusually big; enough that they all were able to surround it. "I will go first and I dream to be the Drunken King of Pirates!" Luffy did proclaim that dream without any fear or hesitation as he placed his right foot on the barrel.

"To be the World's Most Beautiful Woman!" Alvida went second

"To be the World's Greatest Swordsman!" Zoro went after.

"To draw a map of the world!" Nami fourth.

"To be the warrior that my father gave birth to!" Usopp was proud that he was able to speak with a single stutter.

"To learn every single healing technique in the world!" Kaya went after Usopp, having taken the time to find out what she wanted to do in her life.

"To be the world's greatest planner!" Kuro felt like a kid again to join.

"To find the All Blue!" Sanji went as number eight, still as proud as can be.

"To be the best fighter I can!" And now everyone finally learned what Gin's dream was decided.

"And with that all said, we will brave the Grand Line if it meant to achieve our dreams!" Luffy finished and everyone yelled as they raised their legs and crushed the barrel with all their strength in their feet.

"Yeah!"

"Nami-swan! Mountain dead ahead!" Sanji shouted out which got everyone's attention.

"What are you talking about Sanji? This is the way into the Grand Line. There is no reason for a mountain to block our way!" Nami said and then turned to her boyfriend who snatched the binoculars Sanji was just using. "Well Luffy?"

"That may look like a mountain but it is not! That is an Island Whale!" Luffy shouted. "Shanks told me that they were supposed to only be found in the West Blue and that there is this one by the lighthouse!" Luffy said, "We can crash into this whale!"

"Well what do we do Luffy!?" Alvida asked in a scared tone.

"Some of you get every cannon you can to point straight head while the rest of you try to stir the ship to the left. There is that gap between the whale and the shore!" Luffy gave his commands and his crew hurried to do the roles. These circumstances are too grave for arguments. "Fire!" Luffy shouted when they were several meters close to the body of the whale and the stirring wasn't working fast enough.

Yet the plan worked as the cannons, firing off at once, was able to push the giant ship back while not even bruising the whale. "Hurry while it hasn't noticed us yet. Stir the King's Gourd sharply to the left!" Luffy whispered and his crew hurried to move around the whale quietly. But they were sold out when a seagull had to land on one of their masts and cawed out to the whale. Its giant eye turned to face the ship, staring at the crew!

"NO!" They all shouted as the whale submerged enough for its large mouth to open and let in sea water, forming a current that was dragging the King's Gourd inside the whale's mouth!

"Stop!" Luffy, in blind anger, charged for the whale and tried to stop it from swallowing his ship and his crew. But when the whale did it anyways, the young man lost it. "Give them back! Give me back my crew!" Luffy tried to punch his way in where his crew was swallowed and was about to use his swords when something else got his attention. It looked like a hatch embedded in the male's skin. "What the?" Luffy uttered just before the whale submerged.

XXXXX

Meanwhile,

"What do you think?"

"What do I think? What do you think?"

"I think we were swallowed whole by a whale."

"If that is true then…" The crew were having this little conversation because they thought they will be in the stomach of a whale. But instead, there was still a blue sky while the sea was a little green-red and really reeked. Then there was this house on an island with a miniature one that had a beach chair and side table laid out. "What is this?"

"I don't know. It looks like we were swallowed by a whale but we are suddenly outside again." Alvida said. But before anyone could make a dead-end comment, one that couldn't start a conversation, something in the reeking sea emerged.

It had the body of a giant squid, so big that it was much bigger than the King's Gourd. Its skin was a pinkish-purple and the main body had the markings of swingy lines emerging from just above the eyes. "It's…" Usopp and Nami ran off in fear while everyone else remained on their guard. "A great big squid!"

But the Straw Hats soon found their fixed stance, ready to fight, was unnecessary. When the door in the house suddenly opened and out of came three harpoons, each attached to a rope. And the harpoons moved so fast that the giant squid near saw them coming until it was pierced from the back to the front in one stroke.

"Wow. Did that person save us or just went fishing?" Zoro asked a good question and readied himself for the 'monster' that slayed that squid very easily until,

"It's a flower!" Sanji suddenly said, much to everyone's surprise and disbelief.

XXXXX

"What kind of whale is this?" Luffy said as he was walking through a tunnel of sorts that looked crudely made with patches of wood and steel everywhere on the walls. He was glad that he saw that hatch and moved in through it before the whale completely submerged into the sea around the shoreline of Reverse Mountain. "Can anything still be alive with this inside its body and actually not notice it?"

Luffy then noticed that the tunnel ended with an opening over a much bigger one that had a canal of fresh sea water moving in. "Okay. I am officially shocked and confused." Then Luffy noticed that the tunnel was getting little inclined, so much that he felt himself slipping on the slippery surface, with no way of stopping. "Oh, dammit!"

Back with the Straw Hats,

"No wait! It's a man!" The crew finally got a good look at who killed the Royal Squid only three harpoons. And he did look like a flower but was more like a man with flower petals in weird places on his body.

This man has an appearance based off a flower indeed, as seen with the petals around his head. He has a rather stocky and muscular body, is bald on the top of his head, but with white hair with yellow flower petal-like things, that have purple near the bottom of them, and a white beard that splits in two parts. His lower lip is noticeably larger than his upper.

He wears a pink shirt with a yellow and green stripe with purple circles in the yellow along with blueish-grey shorts with sandals. He also wears glasses, a seaweed necklace, three gold bracelets, and a green-gem bracelet on his left wrist. He also has a scar on his left arm.

And he said nothing as he made his way to the beach chair, sat down and started to read his newspaper. In fact, he still didn't speak which eventually drove Sanji to an outburst. "Say something you moron!"

"What is there to say? This my private resort and you all are trespassing." He finally said like a grumpy old man.

"But didn't we get swallowed by a whale?" Nami asked and then the man twitched his eye in a way that made the Straw Hats feel like they were in scenes suddenly shifted with dramatic music.

"Well?" Sanji tried to say like a civil man through his sweat.

"The only whale around here is Laboon and you better not be here to hurt him. And calm yourselves down or someone will get hurt." The man said with an intimidating look and tone that got Sanji to sweat more.

"Yeah?" Sanji said to be a little braver than he really is.

"Me." The man said which finally got Sanji to snap but was held back by Gin and Zoro.

"Let me kill him! He is driving me up the wall!" Sanji shouted in all his frustration and irritation.

"Calm down blondie." Zoro said, "We will do this like so," He then turned to the old man. "What is your name?"

"Don't you know it is rude to ask one's name if you don't reveal yours?" The old man asked like a stern grandfather.

"Of course." Zoro said in a polite way that only got him covered in sweat. "I'm…"

"My name is Crocus. I am the lighthouse keeper. I am a Gemini and my blood type is AB." The old man, now awkwardly named Crocus, revealed himself anyways which finally got Zoro to snap.

"Let me cut him!" It seemed the roles had been reversed and Sanji found himself trying to keep Zoro from attacking Crocus.

"Can't anyone tell us if we have been swallowed by a whale or not!?" Alvida said, the silence killing her. But that got Crocus to twitch his eyes again and the process happened again. And two times in a row was too much.

"Stop doing that!" The whole crew shouted at once.

"What's wrong? You never heard of a 'running gag'?" Crocus asked like it was no big deal that the pirates were making it seem so.

"That was a gag!?"

"The exit is over there." Crocus calmly said, pointing to a pair of giant iron doors that seemed to part the 'sky'.

"We can get out?!" Now this was so confusing that it was also scary. Just where were the Straw Hats?

"Wait a minute. Something is not right here." Usopp to point out the obvious and then closed his vision on the 'sky' and more specifically, the 'seagulls' there too. "Hold on, the seagulls aren't moving." Usopp said until he saw the painful truth when there was the name Crocus in white lettering. "They are paintings! This is just a dome that is painted to look like the sky!"

"Call it a doctor's hobby." Crocus said which was now driving Usopp crazy.

"Just what kind of doctor are you, old fool!?" This time, Zoro and Sanji held him back. Then the 'dome' started to shake, upsetting the pool of stinking water. Now it was revealed, it was stomach acid; they were in the stomach of the Island Whale after all!

"Look!" Nami pointed out the 'islands' in the whale's stomach. They were like ships but with iron covering this bottoms so that the stomach acid doesn't dissolve them. "The whale is moving and banging his head into the Red Line again." Crocus said and then he dove into the lake of stomach acid!

"What is he doing? The acid can kill him!" Usopp panicked but after a while, it seems that the old man managed to survive the stomach acid in order to get on the ladder that led to a large passage way with a smaller door next to it.

"Just what is with this old man?" Zoro asked and no one could answer him.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in another part of the whale,

"Ready Miss Wednesday?" A figure spoke to his partner who had long, wavy blue hair with two locks hanging down, one on either side of her head, which started out at about chin-length. She most often wears her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She has a slender body but has less-revealing clothing than Nami does.

Her outfit in question consists of her blue hair in a single, back ponytail with a thick hair band. She wore a green wool jacket that covered a shirt with an overlapping circle pattern that hugged her figure. Her shorts were white and held around small waist with a belt made like an over-sized bracelet.

"Ready Mr. 9." She said to her partner. Mr. 9 is a young man who wears a golden crown on top of his red hair and has his agent number written on his cheeks. He wears a green suit with white lace along with a ruffled red scarf.

"Okay then. We will go in like 1, 2, 3, Baby! Okay?" He said in a regal tone that almost made him look like an actual prince but before they could start counting to break down the door they were lying against with bazookas in their arms,

"Someone stop me! I can't get any traction in this stupid tunnel!" Squinting their eyes, the pair soon saw that Luffy was sliding down the corridor, out of control and about to collide with them! "DAMMIT! WATCH OUT!"

"AAH!" That was to be all they could say before Luffy collided with them, breaking the doors open, with a clear crash course into the lake of whale stomach acid!

"What?" Crocus was almost to the top of the stairs when he saw the doors were forced open and with three strangers falling out of them. But he soon forgot about them and hurried through the corridor.

"Miss Wednesday! We are about to fall into the lake of acid and die!" Mr. 9 shouted while both he and his partner were helpless in this situation. Until they felt like they were held together by something elastic.

"Not until you tell me what you are planning with those bazookas!" They saw, to their horror and shock, that Luffy had stretched his arm, ensnaring them. Meanwhile, Luffy had caught onto Zoro's, Nami's and Alvida's hands in order to avoid the lake of acid. And soon enough, Luffy had them both tied up with spare rope. "Well?"

It also helped that that Luffy was putting the pressure on his two captives with his Haoshoku Haki while monitoring their minds with his Kenbunshoku Haki so they can't lie to him. "W-w-we…a-are f-from…a nearby t-town and…w-we need more f-food…" Mr. 9 said before he was hit with a slight stronger burst of Haoshoku Haki and was out like a light.

"Mr. 9!" Miss Wednesday shouted before Luffy grabbed her by the cheeks, cupping them and making it very hard for her to speak right.

"Your partner is not dead. I merely made sure we don't hear his repulsive voice again. Now tell us where you come from and maybe we will spare you if you are actually useful." Luffy threated Miss Wednesday, ignoring Sanji struggling through the gagging and bounding of both Zoro and Gin while Usopp only did the mid-intersection of the torso.

After the whale had finally stopped shaking and tilting sharply, Crocus came out of the doors, revealing that he is a doctor. And for the last fifty years, Crocus has been using his doctor skills to build the canals once the whale, Laboon, has become too big for normal treatment. Once they all left the exit tunnel, they ignored a couple of splashes off the side of the ship.

"If you are a doctor then can you join us?" Usopp asked but before Crocus could answer.

"First Crocus, were you on Roger's ship for a couple of years?" Luffy said and the old man stiffed before sighing.

"I am afraid that I was and now I am the ripping age of 71, I can't handle the sea again and my purpose is here with Laboon. " Crocus said and left it at that. "And I am thankful that you made sure those lowlifes didn't harm an inch of Laboon. Feel free to stay docked until you are ready to ship out to the Grand Line."

Luffy nodded while Crocus made his way into the lighthouse that was located outside of Laboon. But the captain of the Straw Hats had plans no one can ever expect and it includes Laboon and a lot of pain.

XXXXX

After a couple of hours,

"There!" Luffy said with fresh paint on his cheeks and arms but mostly on an apron covering his shirt and shorts. And he ignored it to look up to his masterpiece. Luffy had spent a good hour making sure that it was just the way he wanted; the jolly roger of his crew on Laboon's scared forehead. "It is finished! The mark that will prove that we vowed to fight again someday!"

Laboon loved the mark because the feeling of paint was surprisingly reliving compared to feelings his skin being tore and pierced by the rocks making up the Red Line. "Now you will have to promise me to no longer bashing into the Red Line, so that mark won't even have a scratch when we return from our journey in the Grand Line! I know you will keep that promise Laboon!"

Crying out again, Luffy laughed along while Crocus watched on how a young man had done what the lighthouse keeper tried to do for fifty years in a single day. He was ready surprised to see Luffy actually attack Laboon who then showed enough strength to wound Luffy and toss him around the shore. Then Luffy called it a tie right in the center of it all.

Luffy said that he had now made Laboon his rival and said that they will have another battle in the near future. The thought of having someone that will make Laboon not feel so lonely anymore and give him something to look forward to, such as a rematch.

Then they heard a scream,

"Nami?" Luffy asked after using a spare cloth to wash off the fresh paint while discarding the apron. He walked over to his girl and his navigator to see that she was staring at her compass that won't settle on any direction.

"What is the problem Miss Nami!?" Sanji then appeared with plates full of prepared fish with all the servings for an army and with plenty left for the general. "If you are hungry then help yourself?"

"Sanji shut up." Luffy said, not out of jealously but seriousness. "You can keep the food because it is not going to make Nami's job as navigator any easier." Luffy said while pushing all the plates further across from Nami on the table. "Now about that compass…" Luffy reached into one of his pockets, "…And since we are going to relay on you a lot more here than possible in the East Blue, an early birthday present."

Nami tilted her head in a cute way and accepted a gift box that Luffy handled to her. Opening it, Nami squealed to see a bracelet that had the patterns of tangerines and pinwheels; two simple things that made up a big portion of her life! "Thank you Luffy!" Nami said before she hugged and kissed him, "I love it!" Sanji was suddenly in the dumps for seeing his 'crush' kiss his captain instead of him. "But how is this going to help my problem?"

"Because there is more to this gift. Have a look." Nami did take a good look and saw a string at the 'bottom' of the box. Pulling it revealed that it was a false bottom and it hide some kind of accessory that Nami never seen before. Taking it out of the box, Nami showed it to be a simple wristband that had this sphere on it; inside was a compass need that was suspended from the top by a small rod. "That is my gift for you Nami for when we enter the Grand Line. Otherwise it would have been a useless accessory."

"Okay but what is it?" Nami asked and Luffy motioned Crocus to answer. The lighthouse keeper explained it to be a Log Pose, a navigational instrument for the Grand Line. Since each island in the Grand Line had its own magnetic field, normal compasses as useless. But a Log Pose can pick up the magnetic field of the nearest island and point to its direction. And the navigator must obey the direction of the Log Pose while in the Grand Line because its sense of direction is absolute and there is no other method to use in the World's Greatest Ocean.

"Thanks but what about them?" Gin said while helping himself to the some of the food, not to let it go to waste or Sanji will kick his head off. He pointed to Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday that were newly bounded and somehow burned.

"We will have to take out the trash to be thrown away. This could help us find a starting place after here Gin." Luffy said. "So we will follow their instructions to this Whiskey Peak and figure out how much time we need to spend there, to find the next island. Understand?"

"Aye-aye!" The crew shouted and looked into the horizon that was the Grand Line while Laboon and Crocus waved their farewells, wishing them the best of luck. Because luck could be one's savior or one's doom here in the Grand Line. But then again, Luck is as unpredictable as the very ocean.

End of Chapter 10.

*Thanks for the support! For the first semester at Mason, I am taking studying for the Finals almost a little too hard. And the only way for me to take my mind off my uneasiness is to make these updates. Thanks for the support!*

Translations:

Haoshoku Haki – Conqueror's Haki

Kenbunshoku Haki – Observation Haki