Part 1; Island Whale

Chapter 3/4; Promises still last long after faith has faded

The king and his princess had been tightly tied together by Nami, who promptly presented them for Crocus, the lighthouse keeper on their way out of the whale.

"Those two uglies are rouges from a nearby island, coming here whale hunting. Laboon could easily feed their town for some two or three years. I just can't allow it."

"So you're not here to kill the whale then?" Nami asked.

"No, I'm a doctor. See the size of this whale? Can't really treat something like this from the outside. Now back up; I'm opening the gate."

The real sky, coloured by the sunset, had never been a more welcome sight and they all sighed in relief as they felt the change in the very air they breathed.

Ruffy regained consciousness a minute before they docked by the cliffs beside the lighthouse. To everyone's relief the girl had just shook her head forcefully and been back to herself, saying she couldn't remember anything after she'd found a door in the whale and gone inside.

"Why was there a door in the whale?"

"This man is a doctor treating the whale from the inside," Nami explained and hoped her captain understood.

Ruffy was quiet for a minute, shaking her head as if to clear it, then got distracted as she realized she was still wearing Sanji's blazer and nothing underneath it since even her bra had gotten burnt off her body. So she forgot about what she'd asked. Instead she made a quick trip into the girl's quarters to fetch some clothes so she could return Sanji's. It needed to be washed though, because she had been bleeding pretty bad for a while there.

"Hey Zoro. What's that?" the captain asked and stared curiously at the duo glancing warily at her after she told Sanji she put his blazer in the bathtub.

The male didn't bother her at all, the female however had a kind of heartbeat that strangely grated Ruffy's nerves.

"They were trying to kill this whale," the swordsman answered, jabbing a thumb at the drugged animal.

Ruffy glanced at it, then at an old man with a flower on his head. He had a strong, faithful heartbeat that Ruffy enjoyed a lot more than that of this duo. There was also a strong, emotional bond between whale and old man, and the king and princess sounded like they were scissors trying to cut that bond.

"Throw those overboard," the captain ordered, truly happy to not be around to hear the bond get cut. That would have deafened her for days.

"Hey! No fair!" the male protested and wiggled as Zoro picked them up to follow the order.

"Untie us!" the female demanded.

Ruffy stepped forward when something dropped out of the woman's pocket. Something familiar; another Log Pose. Perfect. Now she could have one as well. They weren't all that easy to find, even in the Grand Line.

Sanji watched as the brute swordsman threw their load over the railing. This was the downside of having a female captain; he was really torn when she gave such orders. Still he sighed dreamily as the princess resurfaced, yelled something at them and swam away with her king.

"Miss Wednesday. Such a mysterious woman."

"Allow me to start at the beginning," the lighthouse keeper said after docking. There was a flat area on the rocks where a sunchair stood under a parasol. The whale was swimming in circles out there, appearing to be simply drifting.

"The whale's name is Laboon, an island whale typically found in West Blue," Crocus started as he sat down in the sunchair and glanced at the horizon where the sun was slowly sinking.

There was a sturdy, wooden table there with a thick top and a stump as a leg. All around it stood more stumps, perfect for seating. Ruffy however sat on a rock, and Zoro opted to sit on the ground, leaning against the rock beside Ruffy's legs.

"How'd he end up here?" Ruffy asked with a tilted head, eyes straying to the whale that was slowly completing its circle and coming back. "He's not a pet; you seem more like uncle and nephew."

"You could probably say that," the keeper sighed. "You're right; he's not mine exactly, I'm looking out for him. That's sort of why he's bellowing at the Reverse Mountain and banging his head against the Red Line."

"A promise?"

Crocus looked up. He hadn't mentioned that. What had her redhaired friend said? A devil fruit that allowed her to take in people's feelings? Oh well, he'd seen weirder powers.

"Yes," he nodded. "When I was manning the lighthouse as usual one day a group of jolly pirates came down the Reverse Mountain, followed by a baby whale. That was Laboon."

Ruffy was now looking at the whale that had lifted up of the sea right in the mouth of the entrance. It was quite a sight to see the enormous animal this close.

"Laboon hadn't been supposed to come along. The pirates had told him to stay in West Blue and find his pod, but they hadn't realized they were Laboon's pod; his family."

The whale started to give up a sound, but rather than the bellow it had been before, it was more like a tune, like he was singing. Ruffy slid down the rock beside Zoro, facing Laboon.

"The pirates' ship had been heavily damaged, and it took several months to repair it enough to sail the waters of this sea," Crocus carried on, trying to ignore the familiar tune Laboon was always singing when he was high on the medicine. "During that time I had become good friends with the lot of them. So when they were about to depart, the captain asked me to look after Laboon for two or three years. They said; 'Once we've sailed around the world we will come back for him, no matter what.' Laboon understood and stayed behind as they sailed off."

"So he's waiting for his friends to return?" Nami asked.

"He's still waiting," Crocus nodded. "He's waited for fifty years now."

"Shit, they're not coming back then," Sanji said with a bitter frown to his mouth. Fifty years was too long.

"Don't say such cold things!" Usopp protested. "They might still come! Can't you appreciate such a touching story of a whale who still believes in his friends' promise…!"

"It's worse than that," Crocus cut in, his voice sounding more old and tired than before. "They fled. Ran away. Escaped the Grand Line. I know from a reliable source."

"So they just left the whale behind?!" Nami demanded, her heart reaching out for the whale. "But that must mean they risked crossing Calm Belt!"

"Exactly," Crocus nodded. "So I don't know whether they are dead or not, but they never came back here, and they won't come back now. Grand Line does that to people; scares them. Break them down until they're afraid of their own shadows."

"So basically," Sanji started, hardening his own heart for this harsh reality "They were cowards; more concerned about their own lives, abandoned the promise and never returned."

"What do you mean 'abandoned the promise'!" Usopp demanded, his honourable heart furious and breaking by the fact there could be more people like Kuro in the world. "The whale has been waiting for fifty years! He's never even doubted them! How could they be so cruel!?"

"Then why won't you tell the whale about it?" Nami asked. "He can understand what you're saying, right?"

Once again the old man drew a long, deep and pained sigh. "I have told him, many times. He refuses to listen. In fact, the day I tried to tell him was the day he started bellowing at Reverse Mountain and bang his head against Red Line."

Ruffy had stopped listening to Crocus long ago. She was caught up in the whale's heart, his longing, and without knowing, she started singing with Laboon.

"Binkusu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo. Umikaze, kimakase, namimakase"

"A shanty? Now?" Sanji said, blinking in surprise.

Crocus's face was a show of pained bitterness. "Yes. They used to play this song for him."

"Then it's probably resounding in the whale's heart. Ruffy is freakishly good at picking out things like that," Zoro explained.

Not that he actually minded Ruffy's singing. She'd been doing that on an off after meals, and once in a while she happened to sing something she heard from the hearts of others. She'd sung something once from Usopp's village that was one of the few things he remembered from his mother, and once a child song that had only been sung in the dojo where Zoro grew up. It had been oddly comforting to hear it. He figured his captain was doing it to reconnect the whale's heart with a good feeling like it had done for both himself and Usopp.

By now Ruffy was deep inside Laboon's heart, still unconsciously singing the song that was echoing from the ship that was shining like a precious stone at the core. She followed it, jumped through the waves, following the song and the people who waved from the deck.

They were starting to fall off. Slowly, one by one, the voices were thinning in number until there was only one left. She followed the sound, the bond, and suddenly she found the people who had fallen off the ship, their bonds coming up from the dark…

No, the bonds weren't coming up, they were falling down from…

In front of her, rather than a ship, was suddenly a tiny whale.

Laboon?

Ruffy abruptly returned to herself. Before her was the whale, fifty years later, deathly silent.

"What happened?" Usopp asked somewhere, but Ruffy was already off the ground, running.

"Hey Ruffy! What's going on?!"

Laboon woke up and howled. Ruffy realized she wouldn't be able to jump straight to him, so she made a quick detour to her ship and grabbed the main mast, broke it off and used the sail to glide over to the whale who just started to turn around, forgetting everything, just seeking the one who had called him.

Ruffy landed on the whale's skin, fingers holding onto the mast so hard the wood was giving in. She lifted it over her head, spread her toes and ran towards the top of the whale's head. There was pain there, physical pain that would do as a distraction.

She ran even faster as the whale started to take off towards the open sea, towards Grand Line.

Finding the blood amongst the scars on Laboon's head Ruffy didn't hesitate to bury the main mast of her ship as deep as she could into it.

The whale flinched back and wailed at the new pain. Ruffy twisted the mast in the wound, digging deeper.

Turning towards the cliffs, Laboon lunched towards them, trying to crush the one who was trying to hurt him. Who was trying to stop him!

Ruffy saw the cliffs, her blazing eyes spying a deep crack and ran for it. Unfortunately for the whale, the collision buried Merry's mast even deeper, hitting a nerve under the thick skin. Laboon howled.

The straw hat jumped out of her hiding place, scraping her arms and cheek, grabbing a rock that had loosened, jumped and threw it at the whale's eye. Laboon saw it and twisted his head, hitting the girl, but also getting the rock in his eye.

She hit the lighthouse so hard the wall cracked.

"Ruffy! What the hell are you trying to do?!" Usopp demanded as he ran forward with Zoro and Sanji.

The captain ignored them and instead she shook herself, took in air and yelled at the half-blinded mammal.

"YOU PROMISED!"

Everything stilled.

Ruffy glared at the enormous animal, the eye that was turned to her closed and crying. She pulled at the necklace that felt like it was trying to strangle her.

"You heard! He's still trying to keep his promise! So you can't just abandon yours!"

"Ruffy? What's going on?" Nami asked.

"One of them is still alive. That's all you need, right?" Ruffy kept yelling at the whale who was still not turning to look at her. He wanted to go. He had heard that familiar voice call his name from somewhere dark and cold and lonely. He needed to go there.

Ruffy listened, followed the line of the bond and gritted her teeth. "He's still in Grand Line. If he hasn't come back, it's because something has stopped him. So I'll find him for you!"

Everybody was gaping, but Laboon finally opened his eye and looked at Ruffy. He let out a sad, questioning sound.

"I'll find him," Ruffy promised. "I'll bring him around the world and back to you. He can tell you everything he needs to say to you then! You can be proud of him then! I'll make sure; even if you don't have any faith left, I'll make him keep his promise!"

"What are you talking about girl?!" Crocus demanded.

"The pirates that left Laboon here," Ruffy hissed, pulling harder at the necklace. "They're dead. Most of them died here in this sea, but one of them is still alive. I found him. They're still connected. If he didn't remember the promise the bond would have gone nowhere, but I found him!"

The old man just stood there, dumbfounded. "But I hopped upon a ship to look for them. I searched. I…"

Ruffy glared at him, but it was in more pain than anger. "You what?!"

Crocus stood still. Could he have been wrong? Had he not searched hard enough? Had he been realistic, jumped to conclusions and given up? "There was a village where the inhabitants told me they'd seen their ship change course and head for Calm Belt."

"The ship?!" Ruffy demanded. "Just the ship?! The crew died in Grand Line! That one person is still here!"

"How can you be so sure?"

Laboon gave a short cry.

"Why are you asking!?" Ruffy shouted in outrage at the whale. "It's your bond I was following! And just now you were so hellbent on going to him I had to bury my mast in your head to stop you! Bakaaaaa!"

The whale lowered his head in shame.

Ruffy's crewmembers all just sighed.

"Let's dig out or mast and call it a day," Nami said with a hand on Ruffy's shoulder and a glance at the rising moon. There was still some light left in the west, but the sun was long gone.

"Nami-san is right," Sanji said and lit another cigarette. "It's been a really long day, we could all use some sleep and Ruffy can explain things in the morning."


Everyone helped dig out the mast. Laboon lay his head on the cliffs and allowed Crocus to drug him again so he wouldn't be overwhelmed by the pain. Once they finally got all the wood out, the mast so drenched with blood a dip in the sea didn't really help, so they tied some rocks to it, secured it to their ship and let it rest in the sea overnight.

Everyone went to sleep, except for Ruffy. She sat with Laboon, leaning against him, and trying to reconnect with the heart on the other side of the whale's bond. Unfortunately she couldn't find much. All she could really confirm was that he was alive, that he was alone, and that he always thought of Laboon, holding on to the promise with an iron grip despite his heart being so fragile. No location. Nothing to hint at where he could be. And once she left the whale here she would also leave this bond behind and thus lose her only guide to the other heart.

Sighing in defeat Ruffy stretched, lay on the ground and turned her mind off.


"Hey guys! Look, what's up with that whale? It keeps following us."

"It must be lost."

He didn't really care at this point. He'd been lost for days, he was hungry and so terribly lonely even this ship would do as company. They were talking to him now, and there was something aboard that looked like him, so they must be friendly.

Then all of a sudden the ship started singing. It sounded nothing like his mother and father. It was loud and fast and fun. It was such a surprise, and a pleasant one too. His people also sang, so this had to be his people!

"Hey, Laboon."

That was his name now. Laboon. He liked it. It meant he was one in the pod now. And the ship made of wood was his mother. She protected him from the dangerous monsters that tried to eat him and sheltered him and sang to him with all of her other children. And he got to protect his new brothers too, because for some reason their little fins weren't very good for swimming. That's why mother was carrying them all the time. She's a good swimmer and always stayed above the waves to keep her children safe.

But suddenly everything was quiet.

"Laboon, listen," one of his brothers started saying. The one who looked like him, who always sang so beautifully.

Laboon started prompting a song, the one they sang most often and that he had come to associate with happiness.

"No singing now. We're friends and all, but you're a whale and we are…"

Laboon cried louder, not about to listen to such words about differences that didn't matter. Everything else his brother tried to say, Laboon made sure he was bellowing loud enough so that he couldn't hear a single word. Then he made sure his brother was properly wet and dove under the ship to sulk.

But the silence continued. Laboon was the only one singing, trying to prompt his new family to sing with him. But the brothers that had fed and sung to him walked away from mother's edges where Laboon could see them.

He sunk under the waves, waiting for the singing to return. He would wait forever if he had to.

Then something strange happened. His family went straight into a storm, sailed towards a mountain, and Laboon thought he would have to find somewhere to swim his brothers to because mother looked like she was about to go under.

She didn't. She hit the edge of the mountain that scraped off a good chunk of her wood before she started climbing the mountain.

He had to follow!


It was the currents that persuaded him. The sea here didn't taste like home at all. If he swam too far from the cliffs the currents were strong, and he barely managed to go back to his friends.

"Please stay here."

It hurt, but he had to give in. His friends weren't good swimmers, but they had protected him from monsters for a long time now.

"We'll come back. Just you wait. In two or three years, we'll come sailing down that mountain again! We're going to sail around the world and come back. Wait for us, Laboon!"

He watched them sail away. He heard their singing fade into the ocean.

And he waited.

A hand touched his head.

Beside him was a small sailing boat, and aboard was that odd female. The one who had sung with him and showed him his friends.

She looked tired, and hurt. There was something around her fins that looked heavy and painful.

"I understand," she said.

Laboon blew water and her and went under the waves. Just what did she think she understood?

But she did understand. The ship she sat in had an empty harness tied to it and lifeless shadows floated far below.

Laboon resurfaced and nudged the girl's hand in apology. But instead of placing it on his head, she pointed.

Behind Laboon was the waterfall, the mountain and lighthouse. On the cliffs sat old Crocus.

"Stop hurting yourself, Laboon. Please. I won't be able to treat you forever."

Shame filled Laboon's heart. He had been busy waiting for his friends all this time, and here was old Crocus, hurting and crying at him, and Laboon was barely seeing him.

He turned to the girl. She still looked tired, dirty and sad, hanging over the railing to the little boat, but she glanced behind her.

There was a ship there with people waiting by the railing.

Laboon hummed in sorrow and the girl placed her hand back on his head.

They stayed there, waiting for people that weren't going to come back, neither of them strong enough to face the people that were alive just yet.


Ruffy awoke from a crick in the neck that put her in a bad mood. Then she froze, stopped breathing, blood running cold from the fact she was awake.

But the hat was on her head. The hat was good. The hat came after she had left Almen in that place and jumped off the Red Line. But Sun wasn't beside her. Beside her was…

Laboon.

And Merry was sleeping a little bit off the shore. Ruffy pulled at her bonds. Zoro, Nami and Usopp were all there, firm and solid.

But where was Sanji?

Worried, the straw hat captain got up and jogged over to her ship. Just as she was about to jump aboard, the hatch to the men's room opened and Sanji stepped up on deck, closing the hatch quietly behind him. He stood there with his shirt in hand and stretched, long sinew muscles trembling and jumping into place all over his arms and body. The wounds he'd received in the battle of the Baratie and the bruises Arlong had given him were all just shadows at this point. But Ruffy didn't care about any of that. She jumped aboard, startling Sanji, and hugged him tight, too happy he was still there to care about anything else.

"Woah! What? Ruffy? What in…? Did something happen?"

"I thought you were gone."

The blond stood still, uncertain, but then hesitatingly put his arms around Ruffy. "I'm… not going anywhere, Ruffy."

The girl just turned her head and pressed her ear against Sanji's bare chest. "I can always tell that Zoro, Nami and Usopp are still alive. But I haven't listened to your heart yet, so I can't tell if you're still there or not. I'm scared. I should listen to your heart now."

The other's arms held her tighter. "But you can't, right?"

Exactly, and that was the frustrating part. She could hear the man's heart, felt it beat against her cheek. But she couldn't dive in the way she had done with the others.

Actually… Ruffy started to listen. Underneath the sound of love towards Nami, food, beautiful women, food and every other woman, there was something that sounded like bars. It wasn't a cage, or maybe it was, Ruffy wasn't sure. What she did realize was that Sanji had locked his heart down. She wouldn't be able to listen to his heart even if she tried; he wouldn't let her.

"You need to… practice too," she mumbled. "I can only listen to your heart if you open it to me."

She stepped away, and was surprised by the hurry with which Sanji put his shirt on. For a man who didn't hide the way he admired Nami's body, his cheeks were surprisingly pink now.

"You caught me off guard, captain," the cook said when he caught Ruffy's stare, clearly embarrassed, and not being honest.

"You're not ashamed of your body," Ruffy stated, because she knew he wasn't, which made his hurry to cover up all the more confusing.

"No, of course not," the blond said and fastened the last button.

"Are you a virgin?"

Sanji stared at her, dismayed, and now the pink turned red. "No," he said slowly and was telling the truth.

"I've seen a lot of naked men before. You look good. Why would you be embarrassed?"

The blond raked a hand through his hair, scratching his neck. "You know what, I don't know. Something about morals or modesty? Or… just now, it felt like you were dressing me down, baring me."

"Oh," Ruffy said. "I see. But once I listen to your heart, I will bare myself to you, and nobody else can see. Then you don't need the armour anymore," she finished with a resolute nod, as if what she said was fact and nothing else. "So now you start with breakfast, I need to make sure Laboon really won't bang his stupid head against Red Line anymore."

With that Ruffy turned and went inside the ship. Sanji watched her leave. She was something, his captain. He couldn't tell what that something was yet, because that unnerving feeling of being exposed to her made him want to run away. Her expression when she'd run into his arms, her vulnerability made him want to hold her tight and never let go or fight whatever monster was scaring her until she wasn't scared anymore.

In the end, the cook just sighed. He was a part of this crew now, Ruffy was his captain, and all of them would want food soon. So taking the action he could take right now, Sanji went to the kitchen to get breakfast started.


Nami was the second to rise. She had slept like the dead, which wasn't really a surprise with everything that had happened the day before. Rogue town, Ruffy's execution, the storm, entering Grand Line. No wonder she hadn't even been dreaming.

Stepping out into the morning she stretched and breathed in the chilly sea air and the smell of fresh bread. Sanji seemed to be quite the early bird. Unlike their master sleeper Zoro who could snore for days if you let him be. So when the hatch opened and it was Usopp who stepped onto the deck Nami wasn't surprised at all.

She looked around. "Did Ruffy sleep in your room?"

"I take it she didn't seep with you either," Usopp sighed.

"No, she… didn't…"

Usopp looked up at that, seeing Nami stare towards Laboon with her mouth falling open.

Looking over, the liar mirrored her expression.

Ruffy was awake, like always, and she was climbing over Laboon's head like a spider with a bucket of paint in one hand and a large brush in her mouth.

"What's she doing?" Usopp asked.

"I don't even know anymore," Nami sighed. "Her way of thinking doesn't actually follow logic. Well, whatever. We need to get the main mast."

Nami walked over to the hatched and opened it.

"Oi, Zoro! Get your lazy bum up here."

Allowing the swordsman some privacy after that, Nami and Usopp started to pull the mast out of the water. Unfortunately all the blood hadn't gone out, so they would have to spend the better part of the day scrubbing it clean.

Zoro and Sanji joined them to haul the mast aboard, but the cook had to leave right away since he was still making breakfast.

"What's Ruffy doing?" Zoro asked tiredly as he found the girl running around splashing paint on Laboon's head.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Usopp answered with a hopeless shrug as he went to fetch a couple of buckets and cleaning materials.

"Hey guys. Breakfast's almost ready. Go wash your hands," Sanji called.

"Hai!" everyone answered.

They had to save some for Ruffy though because she was both blind and deaf to their calls and waves.

By midmorning, after Crocus had come out with his own toast, scrambled eggs and coffee to enjoy the morning, Ruffy finally came down, covered from head to toe with paint, and walked further away so she could see the result of her efforts; a lot of white with black lines, a yellow blob at the top with a red streak running through it.

"There!" she said with a firm nod. "That's the mark of my promise."

Everyone looked up. Laboon gave a questioning little sound.

"That's right! But if you keep being stupid and ram your head against Red Line again, the mark will go away, and my luck too, so I won't be able to find your friend."

The whale made a series of clicks.

"She understands what he's saying," Nami suddenly realized. "As in, actually understands, not just reading him."

"I wouldn't really call Ruffy human in the first place either, so it shouldn't come as a surprise," Usopp said. Because honestly, Ruffy speaking whale was the least crazy thing about her thus far.

Zoro hummed in agreement. Not even Sanji could argue. Not when Ruffy had defeated the king of East Blue after not eating for a week and then Arlong the very next day.

"Either way, we should get started on the mast and put it back up so we can actually start our journey," Nami said and clapped her hands.

On the shore, leaning back in a sunchair with the last of his coffee, Crocus was smiling.

"Is she the pirate we have waited for, Roger? For some reason, I get the feeling that fire of hers was lightened by you."


A/N; So this is the end of the first part. To my new readers; here's the format. I write this story in parts for navigation's sake. I will finish writing a whole part, independant on how many chapters it contains, and update each chapter weekly. Thus the time between the parts will be much longer, but this way at least there will be no cliffhangers that lasts for months because I can't come up with a good way to continue.

Thank you for your patience. Part 2 will hopefully be up before the end of the year :)

Love Mjus