The Straw Hats were greeted with white clouds and the open sky. At least that's what it seemed to be.

"Is that an island?!" Usopp pointed out the almost comical looking island a distance away from them.

"What do you guys think? Did we not just get swallowed?" Nami asked.

"Is this a dream?!"

"Yeah, it's gotta be a dream...Even in dreams, you're as beautiful as ever, dear Nami~"

"It's a mystery island."

"So is that island just an illusion..." said Nami, brushing off Sanji.

Usopp and Luffy flinched and directed their focus to the area in front of the ship. Immediately afterwards, a giant squid, several times the size of Merry, swam up and was about to attach itself to the ship, if not for Luffy punching it back immediately. Then 3 harpoons shot out of the house on the island and skewered the squid. Nami and Usopp fell on their knees, crying, scared of the squid and the situation in general. Luffy and Sanji looks warily at the island, and specifically at the person who killed the squid so easily.

"A ship eh..." the silhouette of a man comes out of the house, holding unto the ropes of the harpoons. When he steped outside of the house, the Straw Hats finally got a good look at him. It was an old man of a rather stocky muscular build, wearing a normal polo shirt, shorts and sandals, and has unusual petal like things around his balding head.

"It's an old man flower!" Luffy immediately shouted out.

"Did he mean to save us, or was he just fishing?" Usopp wondered, as the old man pulled the now dead squid on the island's shore. He simply stared at the Straw Hats intensely as he walked towards his beach loungers. Then after sitting, he pulled out a newspaper and started reading as if nothing happened.

"You-" Zoro stopped Sanji from engaging as he knew it's futile getting angry at him.

"Shishishi! You're funny flower grandpa, wanna join my crew?" Luffy said as he slingshots himself towards the island.

"A devil fruit user...this fogey's too old to be getting on any real voyages kid. And who the hell's askin anyway?"

"The name's Monkey D Luffy, and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

"King of the Pirates?! Hah! Now that's-" before Crocus could finish his sentence, everything started shaking. Due to the increasingly turbulent waves, the Straw Hats got a look at the underwater parts of the "island", which is made of metal.

"The bottom of the island is made of metal!"

"There he goes again." Crocus muttered, before letting out a sigh.

"There who goes again old man?! What the fuck is happening?!"

"This whale's ramming his head against the Red Line."

"I saw its scars earlier. It's cries sounded very sad."

"What do you mean Nami?"

"This whale's suffering!"

"So he's trying to kill the whale from the inside?! That's a cruel way to put it down."

"Everyone, let's focus on going out first. Remember, we're still in its stomach, the longer we stay, the more of Merry gets dissolved." Zoro reminded the crew.

"Where do we go then?" asked Usopp.

"Why don't we try that giant metal gate over there." Sanji pointed out the very out of place ship sized gate with a door on its side and a ladder to climb up to it, on Merry's portside.

"Grab the oars! There's no wind so we're gonna have to row." Nami ordered everybody.

They then hear a big splash from the island. "The old manflower jumped in!" informed Luffy.

"What's he doing? He's gonna get dissolved." Sanji stated after coming out with oars.

Usopp tried to feel Crocus' presence. "He's heading for the exit." he told the others. They started rowing towards the exit when they saw a weirdly dressed couple come out on the ledge. But after a particularly harsh shake, they got thrown off into the stomach acid. Sanji immediately dived in to save the lady, while Luffy simply stretched and grabbed unto the man. Due to the 2, nobody except Zoro noticed Crocus climb up in the exit. The couple then coughed up whatever liquid that went in and sat up to take a breather. The shaking soon stopped after.

"The whale's calmed down now."

"So, who are you guys?" Luffy asked the 2 strangers on deck. They kept looking at and whispering at each other, completely ignoring the Straw Hats.

"As long as I live, you'll never harm Laboon!" Crocus shouted, at the door beside the gate exit.

"The old man's back." Usopp said, while the couple slowly stood and readied their bazookas.

"Heh heh heh.."

"Oh yeah?! But we're already inside it."

"There's nothing stopping us.."

"From blowing a hole in its stomach."

But they were stopped by Zoro who quickly chopped their weapons into before they could fire.

"He was protecting the whale?!" Nami discovered her misunderstanding. The Straw Hats then tied up the 2 whalers and got out, being guided by Crocus. They then docked at the Twin Capes, wherein Crocus explained Laboon's history with the Rumbar pirates and why he keeps ramming his head towards the Red Line. During the discussion where it was quickly devolving to shitting on the Rumbar pirates for abandoning Laboon, Luffy slipped out.

Zoro, already knowing Luffy would rip out their main mast, followed him. He fashioned a 10 meter long spike using the nearby rocks.

"Luffy! Don't hurt Merry! Use this instead." Zoro shouted at him while giving him the rock. And just like last time, Luffy stabbed and fought Laboon in order to give him another reason to keep his hope. Afterwards, Luffy painted a horrible rendition of the Straw Hats Jolly Roger over Laboon's head to keep him from ramming his head.

Sanji started cooking the giant fish he bought in Logue town for a relatively late lunch. Nami started setting her tools so she could plan out their voyage and also checking her gains after she looted the partners earlier. Zoro started weight training with rocks weighing tens of thousands of rocks while Usopp and Luffy were ordered by Nami to start fixing all their stuff that was thrown around from the chaos through the day.

Sanji called everyone for lunch several minutes later when they stumbled into Crocus explaining how to navigate the Grand Line to Nami. She then realized Mr 9's Log Pose's use based on Except for Zoro, who already knew what Crocus was explaining, and Luffy, who was too hungry to not eat even while listening, everyone else was too engrossed in the explanation that they didn't get to eat anything before Luffy finished nearly all of it.

"Yosh! Let's go! I'm done eating."

"You ate the whole thing!"

"Even the bones?!"

"You rubber brained idiot! I made that for Nami! I wanted her to...to get the best parts!" Sanji then kicked Luffy as hard as he could.

Zoro, knowing how important a Log Pose is, grabs Nami's hand, hardens the Log Pose with his haki, and moves Nami's arm away from Luffy's trajectory.

"Hey! Watch it you numbnuts!"

"We appeal to your kindness and compassion..." after getting bombed by the Unluckies while they were trying to go back to their base, Mr 9 and Vivi was saved and gave their codenames and situation to the Straw Hats, begging them for a ride.

"It's OK, you can come with us." Luffy agreed to their request and the Straw Hats' destination was set towards Whiskey Peak. Crocus tried to warn Luffy about those 2, which was casually brushed off by Luffy.

"Goodbye, flower man."

"Good luck to you, boy."

"SEE YOU LATER, LABOON!"

"BWOAAAAAAAH!"

And the Straw Hats finally set off.