"Listen closely and will reveal to you Laboon's tragic story." Crocus told the crew.
"One fine sunny day, while I was prefilling my duties as the lighthouse keeper. Some good-natured pirates came down Reverse Mountain. They were followed by a baby whale, spry and chipper whom I would soon come to know as the one and only Laboon. He is an island whale one of the largest in the world. They are a rare species found only in the West Blue. Laboon had developed a bond with the pirates, travelling with them for much of their journey. But knowing the dangers of the Grand Line, the pirates chose to leave Laboon behind in the West Blue. But the stubborn little whale followed them anyway. As a general rule, island whales are social animals and travel together in family groups. I suspect that Laboon have somehow come to feel that those pirates were his family. The wear and tear on the pirates' ship was quite severe so they stayed here for several months. In that time, I too come to form a close relationship with them. Thus, when the day of their departure finally arrived, the pirates asked me to look after Laboon when they returned from their voyage.
That was 50 long years ago."
"50 years? So, Laboon has been waiting all this time for his friends to return?" Aya spoke.
"No wonder he's so upset. That kind of wait would drive anyone crazy." Nami replied.
The Merry sailed in the tunnel following Crocus on his island as he led them to the exit.
"This is some canal. It's amazing that the whale is still alive with a hole like this in his body." Zoro murmured.
"I suppose you're responsible for this?" Sanji asked the old man.
"I'm a doctor." Crocus answered.
"Doctor?" Usopp asked.
"That's right. Legally certified. I also run a clinic on the cape once upon a time. Before that, I served as the ship's doctor."
"Really? That's great! Then join us! We need a doctor!" Luffy grinned.
"Don't be ridiculous. I no longer have that kind of energy. I've had my adventures."
"What kind of a doctor hollows out the inside of a whale?" Zoro questioned.
"Maybe it's part of the treatment?" Nami spoke.
"The girl is right. With a creature of this size, it's virtually impossible to treat it from the outside. Therefore, I devised a more drastic solution. Here's the exit." Crocus answered. He climbed up the wall and walked over to a lever, turning it. The metal door slid open and the Merry sailed out as it left the whale.
"Let's go!" Luffy laughed.
"Don't you think 50 years is a bit extreme? Those pirates sure know how to test someone's patience." Usopp said.
"Idiot, don't you get it? This is the Grand Line. His friends are dead. That whale can wait forever, they won't be back." Sanji spoke.
"Sad to say but that's probably true. Back in the day when those guys traveled the Grand Line, it was an uncharted sea. A thousand times more treacherous than it is now." Nami pointed out.
"Why are you all being so pessimistic! You don't know that they're dead! They could still come back for him. Come on, have some sympathy, will you! I thought that it was very touching. I mean, a whale still believing a promise his friends made despite all of these years. That's a true bond, right, pops?" Usopp asked him.
"Indeed. But the lesson here is that reality is cruel. Laboon cohorts are dead. The truth is that they've abandoned their quest. I learned that they have turned tail and left the Grand Line." Crocus answered.
"I don't believe it. I mean, why abandon him like that!?" Usopp shouted in disblief.
"You say that they ran away from the Grand Line. Do you know if they made it out of the Calm belt alive?" Nami asked Crocus.
"I can't claim to know exactly what became of them, but I doubt that they'll ever come back here ever again. Seasons, weather, currents, wind direction, on the Grand Line these elements seem to defy the very law of nature." Aya frowned in suspicion.
"Like something's keeping people out?" She asked him. Crocus blinked as he stared at her in surprise. Ichi and L looked surprised as well at her words so did everyone else. Luffy laughed.
"Well, if it is. Bring it on!"
"Don't be silly. It's just a dangerous and treacherous place to go." Nami assured Aya.
"Yeah, I mean, nobody has the power to do that. It's impossible." Usopp told her.
"So, what I got this straight what you're saying, these pirates were a bunch of cowards who appeared more about saving their own asses than keeping a promise to a friend." Sanji said to Crocus.
"Why would anyone want to abandon such a loyal creature? Just look at it! It's cruelty on a grand scale!" Usopp shouted, angrily.
"But if you've known all of this then why haven't you told him? Laboon can obviously communicate with you. He seems to understand humans quite well for a whale." Nami asked Crocus.
"I did tell him. Down to the last miserable detail. That was the day that Laboon began to howl in Reverse Mountain. Soon after he began to slam his body against the Red Line. It's as if he believes that wall is what keeps his friends away and by breaking it, he can create a path for their return." He explained to them. Aya stared at the whale sadly.
"I admire his dedication." Sanji answered.
"He never gave up on them." Usopp spoke.
"He refuses to believe me cause then he has to admit that it's over. And that terrifies him more than anything. There's no way for him to go back to the West Blue. So, what we have is a paradox of tragic proportions. Laboon is a lost soul dying to live his friends but won't stop until he reaches them." Crocus replied.
"Tragic. Still for all of the grief those pirates put him through, they did the same to you by saddling you with their burden. I mean, you've done enough for Laboon, what about you?" Sanji asked him.
"The scars on his hide are deep but those in his heart are deeper. He needs someone to tends to his wounds and I'm all his got. For years, he's battered himself while I patched him up." Crocus told them. Suddenly, Luffy jumped off from the Merry, holding a piece of the mast in his hands. He ran up Laboon carrying it in his hands.
"What the hell is that idiot up to?" Sanji hissed.
"Turn our back for a second and look what happens." Zoro murmured.
"Gum Gum "
"Do you think he's aware that that's our mast?" Zoro frowned.
"Now it's on top of a whale." Sanji sighed.
"Why'd he do that? Luffy, stop tearing up the ship!" Usopp shouted. The whale let out a angry deep wail and slammed his head down hard into the water, making a huge wave.
"LUFFY, STOP!" Everyone shouted at the straw hat captain. Laboon began to wildly thrash Luffy around as he tried to shake him off. Luffy hanged onto the mast refusing to let go. Then the whale jumped from out of the sea and headed head first straight into Crocus's lighthouse, crashing into it.
"The boy! He's dead!" The old man cried out in worry.
"Don't worry, it'll take way more than that to kill Luffy!" Nami reassured him. Luffy sat up with a smirk, seeing the whale back away, painfully, as blood began to pour from it's head from the crash.
"Gotcha!" Laboon dived straight at Luffy to attack him again. Luffy quickly dodged out of the way and jumped up, punching the whale in his eye. Laboon smacked Luffy away from him, knocking the captain into the lighthouse. Luffy quickly bounced off of it, heading back at the whale.
"What does he think he's doing!?" Usopp exclaimed. Laboon smacked Luffy back, sending him into the lighthouse again.
"Do you want to let us in on your plan or what!?" Zoro called out.
"Luffy's challenging him." Aya told them. Everyone blinked in surprise then turned back to Luffy and the whale. Laboon charged at Luffy again to deliver another blow. Luffy stood up.
"It's a draw." Laboon stopped in his tracks, looking at Luffy in surprise. Luffy looked back up at him, smirking. "I'm stronger than I look. But I have a feeling that you knew that. I can always tell when someone's itching to fight. If you want to battle, I'll gladly give you one. Your shipmates used to spar with you, and you miss them. I can rival anything that they threw at you. Tell you what, after me and my friends travel the Grand Line, we'll come back here and find you. And then you better be ready for a rematch!" The whale stared at Luffy silently before it teared up and let out a long deep wail. Luffy grinned.
Luffy grabbed a couple of buckets of paint and a paint brush and painted the straw hat's jolly roger onto Laboon's head. Luffy grinned as he stepped back looking at his work.
"There we go! Not bad if I say so myself! Consider this as a promise to come do battle with you. Of course, it's a rush paint job so you'll have to be careful and avoid hitting your head or you'll rub it off, understand?" He asked. The whale grunted in response. Luffy grinned. "Good whale!"
Everyone else was working on fixing up the Merry's damages when Usopp noticed Mr.9 and Miss Wednesday had disappeared, seeing their ropes lying on the deck in their place. "Hey, where are they?"
"Where are who? Oh, you mean those two weirdos. They must have escaped. It must have happened when we were distracted by Laboon. I wonder who they were." Nami said. Luffy hopped on board, helping out. His foot tapped into something and he looked down to see a small hourglass looking object with a needle and picked it up.
"What's this thing?" He questioned, looking at it.
Nami gathered her maps and her compass as she was sitting by the lighthouse, looking over them to find the best route to take.
"Okay, I finally have some peace and quiet so I can work on a plan for the Grand Line journey."
Sanji was in the kitchen starting to prepare up some lunch for everyone. He opened the ship's cooler, revealing the elephant tune inside of it. He grinned.
"Don't think that I forgot about you, Elephant fin tuna."
Usopp was fixing up the ship's mast that Luffy had torn off, placing metal sheets around it. "Damn it. This is my life, Luffy breaks it and I have to put it back together again! Hey, get off your lazy butt and give me a hand! This ship isn't gonna fix itself, you know!" He shouted angrily at the swordsman who was napping a few feet away from him. "Need some help?" Usopp blinked and looked up to see Aya, carrying some more metal. Ichi and L were behind her carrying some wood and nails as well.
"Thanks." He grinned. The four continued to work on fixing the mast. Usopp glanced over at Ichi and L, seeing Aya staring at them.
"Hey, why didn't you say anything to the old man about your condition? Maybe he could help." He whispered to her.
"I've been to enough doctors only to hear the same results. There's nothing that can be done." She told him.
"You don't know that! There could be a chance-"
"Usopp, please just drop it." Aya quickly interrupted him. He blinked at her. "I don't want to have hope only for it to be crushed again and again. I've accepted it."
"Well, I haven't." He told her, grabbing her hand. Aya stared at him in surprise. "I'm not going to give up and neither should you. We need you. I need you. Don't throw away your dream." Aya chuckled.
"You're trying to make me cry, aren't you?" She smiled, softly.
Usopp stammered. "No! I wasn't! I was trying to-"
Suddenly, everyone stopped what they were doing when Nami let out a blood curdling scream.
"Do you mind? Keep it down." Luffy shouted. Sanji quickly jumped to where Nami was balancing several plates of food made from the fish on his head and hands.
"Is there some problem, my dearest Nami!? If it's food your worried about, say no more!" He smiled.
"Did someone say food?" Usopp called out, climbing up. "I'm in!" Aya climbed up along with Ichi and L, hungry as well. Also, wondering what has gotten Nami so upset.
"You idiots! The compass is broken, the needle just spins. It won't stop!" Nami told them. Everyone walked over to the table, leaning in and saw that the needle was spinning wildly on her compass. Aya blinked in surprise.
"Oh yeah, you're right." Sanji spoke.
"I don't know about you but I'm getting dizzy." Usopp replied.
"Do you think maybe's it's because of where we at?" Aya pointed out.
"The girl is right." Everyone heard Crocus spoke. They looked up at him. "It appears that none of you have the knowledge of how things work here. There's nothing wrong with your compass. The Grand Line has little regards for the rules of the sea. Common sense is useless in this place."
"The needle why does it spin?" Nami asked him.
"Because we are surround by a powerful magnetic field. The islands here are riddled with magnetic minerals which cause all sorts of abnormal abnormalities, throwing off the winds and currents as well. As a navigator I can assure you can appreciate this dilemma." Crocus explained to them.
"So then if we don't have a way to tell the direction, this whole trip is hopeless." Nami sighed.
"Yummy!" Luffy was eating up some of the food, along with Ichi while everyone else was talking.
"I don't know what to say. We're screwed!" Nami exclaimed.
"You're the navigator, so navigate us out of here!" Usopp shouted.
"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP FOR FIVE SECONDS SO I CAN FIGURE THIS OUT!?" Nami shouted angrily at him.
"If you have any hope of navigating the Grand Line you're going to need a log pose to guide you." Crocus spoke.
"Log pose? I've never heard of it." Nami said to him.
"It's a special designed compass that can record levels of magnetism." He told her. Luffy blinked and reached into his pocket pulling out the hourglass object, holding it out.
"Is it something like this?" He asked.
"Yes, exactly. Only a fool calling disaster would attempt to travel the Grand Line without one." Crocus nodded. Nami smiled.
"Understood. Excuse me for one second. So-" She turned to Luffy and punched him in the cheek. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT YOU HAD ONE OF THOSE LOG THINGS!?"
"I found it on deck, just laying there! Those two weirdos must have dropped it when they escaped!" He replied.
"Did they?" Nami frowned at him.
"Why'd you hit me!?" Luffy shouted, angrily at her.
"Felt like it!" Nami told him.
"Oh, okay." Nami took the log pose from him, looking at it.
"There isn't a dial face on this thing."
"You don't need one. There's a special brand of magnetism that runs through the Grand Line islands. Completely with its own set of rules that makes it impossible to get around. By recording the levels of magnetism between two islands, you can charter routes from one island to the next. The log pose method is really the only choice. Since the magnetism here creates huge problems from conventional navigation.
Reverse Mountain is a great starting point. It produces seven levels of magnetism, but it doesn't matter which one you chose to start with. Eventually all of them will pull against each other and form one route and the island at the end of that route, Laugh Tale. The last destination in the Grand Line, it's very existence was confirmed by the King of the Pirates, the only known person to have traveled the Grand Line and its entirety." Crocus explained.
"Laugh Tale." Aya murmured.
"That's it! That must be where the One Piece is hidden!" Usopp exclaimed.
"That's the most prominent theory. But no one's been able to set foot on Laugh Tale Island since." Crocus replied. Luffy grinned.
"Don't worry, we'll know soon enough." He said. Crocus stared at him in surprise. Luffy sighed, his stomach now and content. "We'll I'm satisfied! You guys ready to go?"
"I am." Ichi replied. Everyone gaped at the two, seeing that the food was now gone.
"I TOLD YOU THAT WAS FOR ALL OF US!" Sanji shouted angrily at the two.
"He even at the bowl!" Usopp gaped.
"A log post. We have to take special care of this. It's the key to finding the greatest treasure of all time!" Nami smiled, lookng at the log pose.
"YOU GREEDY BOTTOMLESS PIGS! YOU ATE THE MEAL THAT I MADE FOR NAMI AND AYA! WELL, I HOPE YOU LEFT ROOM FOR DESERT!" Sanji kicked Luffy and Ichi. Luffy was knocked back towards Nami, smacking into the log pose, shattering it, as he fell on the ground.
"Why is everyone hitting me!?" Luffy shouted angrily.
"Yeah, what did I do!?" Ichi shouted, holding his cheek.
"You two never think about anyone but yourself!" Sanji shouted at them.
"Sanji!" Nami called out to him. Sanji grinned turning to her. Ichi cringed fearfully as he saw the angry look in her eyes. He quickly scrambled to his feet as he got up and ran over to L and Aya.
"Yes!"
"BOTH OF YOU GET OUT OF MY SIGHT BEFORE I WRING YOUR NECKS!" She kicked Luffy and Sanji, sending them flying into the sea.
"So, correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the log pose work better when it's not broken!?" Usopp cried out worried.
"Oh no. Our log pose is ruined!" Nami cried out.
"Maybe, you can fix it?" Ichi asked.
"How can it be fix?! It's shattered to pieces!" Nami shouted at him.
"Idiot." L replied.
"Calm yourselves. I will give you my own as a thank you for helping Laboon." Crocus spoke. The group turned to him. Laboon rose out from the water, dumping Luffy and Sanji back on the shoreline, along with Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9.
"Good, I'm not dead." Luffy replied. Sanji turned his head, seeing the blue haired woman next to him. He grinned and quickly got up, helping her up.
"Hello, dear lady! Allow me to help you to your feet!"
"Oh thank you." She cringed but took his hand, walking away.
"We need a favor." Mr. 9 spoke, looking at Sanji. Sanji frowned, looking down at him. The three returned back to the lighthouse, meeting up with the rest of the straw hats. Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday were kneeling down in front of Luffy, telling him their situation.
"Whisky Peak. Huh, that's a funny name." Luffy murmured.
"So, what is it?" Usopp asked them.
"That's where we live. We're stranded." Mr. 9 replied.
"How are you stranded? Where's your ship?" Nami questioned them.
"Well, it was destroyed." Miss Wednesday told her.
"Asking us for a ride is pushing it, Mr. 9, especially after you tried to kill the whale." Nami smirked at him.
"What's with the wardrobe? What are you supposed to be?" Usopp asked.
"I am a king!" Mr. 9 shouted. Nami frowned, grabbing his cheek.
"You're lying!"
"We can't say!" Miss Wednesday told them.
"She's right! You have to believe us! Our only motive here is getting home. We'd tell you everything that we could but it's just that..." Mr. 9 insisted.
"Mystery is our company's motto." Miss Wednesday replied.
"You see we have to be mysterious, it's sort of a rule." Mr. 9 spoke.
"We have confidence in your characters can't you give us a chance?" Miss Wednesday asked. Aya hummed in suspicion, looking at her.
"You talk a little too formal for a normal person." She spoke. Miss Wednesday twitched nervously, tensing up.
"Please, we're begging you give us some mercy!" Mr. 9 interrupted.
"Don't do it. These two fools are dishonest to the core. They can't be trusted." Crocus frowned.
"But we can't just leave them here." Aya replied.
"They did just try to kill the whale, after all." L pointed out.
"Listen, I should mention that our log pose is broken and we don't have another one so you still want to ride with us?" Nami told the two. The man and woman gaped at her in shock.
"What?! You broke it?! That was mine! Those things aren't cheap, you know!" Mr. 9 shouted angrily.
"Oh sorry, I forgot. Crocus just gave us his log pose so...!" Nami smirked, mischiviously.
"We are at your mercy!" The two bowed down to her.
"It's fine, you can ride with us." Luffy spoke. The two blinked, staring at him in shock. "You said that your home is called whiskey peak? Let's go there."
"Why?! These two are obviously some pretty shady characters! Why would we take them anywhere!?" Usopp shouted.
"It's fine. Don't sweat the small stuff. We'll be alright." Luffy assured him.
"Choose your route carefully. Once you head out from here, you'll be committed to that course." Crocus said.
"That's okay. If we don't like it, we'll try a different route next time!" Luffy grinned.
"I see." The old man smiled at him. He got up, hopping down from the rock he was sitting on, heading back to the ship. The others followed behind him along with Mr.9 and Miss Wednesday.
"Okay! It's time to get moving! Now that me and Laboon have an understanding, I can leave on a clear conscious." Luffy smiled.
"Just who on Earth do you think you are, anyway?" Miss Wednesday asked him.
"Me? Oh, I am the man who will become King of the Pirates!" Luffy told her.
Everyone hopped on board the Merry, getting ready to set sail. Nami looked down at the new log pose on her wrist that Crocus gave her. "Should be good to go. The needle should be pointing in the same direction as the map." He told her.
"It's pointing directly to Whisky Peak." Nami smiled.
"See ya, pops! Thanks again for the log post!" Luffy waved goodbye.
"Have a safe trip!" Crocus called out.
"Bye Laboon!" Aya waved to the whale.
"Get ready to fight when I get back!" Luffy told the whale. Laboon gave out a low howl in response as if saying goodbye. "Next stop, Whisky Peak! Ready, guys!? Let's set sail!"
Crocus and Laboon watched as they saw the straw hats sail away. Crocus smiled.
"I wonder. Luffy and his crew could be the very pirates that we've been waiting for. That one captain sure has a way about them. It's uncanny really. Wouldn't you agree, Roger?"