Charting Course in the Grand Line

Crocus lend Luffy his giant paint brush and paint set so that Luffy could paint the Straw Hat Pirates emblem on Laboon.

Of course, the Straw Hats had to remove the remains of the mast from Laboon's snout before Luffy could start.

Only problem was that Luffy's art skills has not improved at all since the last time he painted the emblem, which was on the flag, so imagine the poorly drawn emblem on that covered most of the scars on Laboon's snout.

Good thing Laboon can't see it.

"Okay! This is the sign of the promise between you and me!" Luffy said, "I had to paint really quickly, so don't mash your head on the Red Line, or else it will be erased."

"Bo!" Laboon agreed.

"Good!" Luffy agreed.

…

Nami sat down at the table and took out her map and compass.

"I'm going to plan our next route," Nami said.

…Ship Kitchen…

Sanji was preparing the Elephant Tuna for the crew.

…Ship's Deck…

Usopp was forced to repair the mast of the ship, as well as the ram's head, with bendable yet strong metal plates that Crocus gave him.

Now he manage to get the mast attach to the part that was broken off the ship.

"Luffy breaks the mast and then he expects me to repair it like I'm a shipwright," Usopp complained, "Hey Zoro! Help me fix the ship!"

Zoro was on the deck of the ship, taking a nap.

…Shore…

"Hey Crocus! Have you ever seen or hear about pirates that once was under the command of Don Krieg still being in the Grand Line?" Gin asked.

"Don Krieg, huh? I don't think so. Then again, so many pirates enter and leaves the Grand Line so much that I don't keep much track of them," Crocus replied, "Why do you ask?"

"Just something I wanted to check up on," Gin replied.

Crocus looked at Gin and sighed.

"Although most pirates that do leave the Grand Line never does come back, I do know one who has returned," Crocus said, "A man with red hair and scars over his left eye."

Luffy over heard this and was surprise.

"Red Hair? Could he be talking about Shanks?" Luffy asked himself.

Sanji came ashore with several large plates of elephant tuna.

"AHHH!" Nami screamed.

This caught everyone's attention, except for Zoro who was still sound asleep.

"Why did you scream Nami?" Luffy asked.

"What happened Nami? If you're hungry, the food is ready now!" Sanji yelled.

"I don't think that was why she was screaming," Gin told Sanji.

"I think I'll take a break to eat," Usopp said as he came ashore.

…

Zoro was still asleep on the deck of the Going Merry.

…

"The compass is broken! It won't stop spinning!" Nami yelled.

Gin took a look and sighed.

"So it wasn't just our compasses," Gin said, "Back when I was a member of the Krieg Pirates and we entered the Grand Line, the same thing happened to our compass."

"And you now tell us!" Nami yelled.

Luffy had stop listening and started devouring the fish.

"You're so fast about eating," Sanji told Luffy.

"It seems that none of you knows a thing about this place!" Crocus said, "Do you plan to waist your life here? You can't use commonsense in the Grand Line."

"Huh?" Nami asked.

"Your compass isn't broken. Every island in the Grand Line has their own huge source of magnetic field that covers a large area around the place. Even here at Twin's Cape have a huge magnetic field from the other seas that also affects this place," Crocus explained, "Cause of the multiple huge source a normal compass needle, that is focus on finding only the magnetic north poll, continues spinning."

"I see," Nami responded.

"And it's not just the magnetic fields that causes problems to sailors, the underwater currents, the wind, even the weather can be uncertain. If you are a true Navigator, you should know about the danger of this place," Crocus explained, "If you go out there without any knowledge, you will die."

"So that's what Don Krieg meant when he said the reason he couldn't conquered the Grand Line was because he didn't know enough," Usopp responded.

"And what you meant when you said 'you didn't know anything about the Grand Line' even though you were here," Sanji told Gin.

"Yeah… and the memory still haunts me," Gin responded.

"Yeah, and we're in trouble cause of it," Nami responded.

"This fish's trunk is very delicious," Luffy said as he ate the trunk of the fish.

"If you want to travel in the Grand Line, you must have a log post," Crocus told them.

"Log Post? I never heard of it before," Nami responded.

"It's a very special kind of compass that has a shape different from a regular compass. Some are in a shape of wrist watch," Crocus explained.

"Like this?" Luffy asked revealing the weird gadget he picked up earlier.

"Yes." Crocus replied, "Without a Log Post, you can't travel in the Grand Line. But it's very difficult to find a Log Post outside the Grand Line."

"Why didn't you tell us you have one?" Nami yelled as she punched Luffy with enough haki that it actally left a mark on Luffy's cheek.

"Ow!" Luffy complained, "It's not mine. It belonged to those mystery people. They dropped it on our ship."

"Oh," Nami responded, "Sorry! I thought your brother might have send you one."

"Brother?" Crocus asked.

"But I told you guys I haven't seen or heard from Ace in three years!" Luffy responded.

"I forgot! I said I'm sorry!" Nami responded.

"Ace, huh?" Crocus thought.

Nami examined the log post.

"This Log Post has no letters on it. How does it work?" Nami asked.

"Each island in the Grand Line has their own unique magnetic field. The log post is design to recognize one of the closer islands and point to it. Once there, the log post will take time to recognize the island and reset to point to the next island it reads which can take a few hours to maybe months. It depends on the strength of the magnetic field on the island. It's like a natural path line design in the log post creates. That's why in the Grand Line the Log Post is the only thing you can trust," Crocus explained, "Twin capes is actually a good starting point as if you start here, you can easily pick the course to take, whether if you enter the Grand Line through the Calm Belt, you will have a hard time making the path. But no matter what path you take, all paths leads to the last island in the Grand Line. The most dangerous destination in the Grand Line. Only one man has reached there and came out of it alive 22 years ago, and that was the Pirate King himself: Gold Rogers and his crew."

"So then One Piece must be there!" Usopp yelled.

"Well, that's the theory. But no one has ever reached there and lived to tell since then," Crocus replied.

"That's not a problem! Because we're going to reach that island!" Luffy responded and burped, "I'm full now!"

It turned out that Luffy ate the whole elephant tuna.

"You ate the whole thing?" Sanji yelled.

"He even ate the fishbone!" Usopp yelled.

"Looks like I'll have to take care of this through out the journey," Nami said as she strapped the log post to her wrist.

"Darn it Luffy! You ate the food that I had prepared for Nami!" Sanji yelled as he kicked Luffy in the face with enough Haki to do damage as well as send Luffy flying, smash the glass part of the log post on Nami's wrist without hitting her and smashed Luffy through light house, leaving 2 large holes, and Luffy hit the mountain.

"You idiots!" Nami yelled as she hit Sanji so hard that he was send flying into the ocean

"Sorry about the lighthouse," Gin appologized.

"Don't worry. I can fix it," Crocus sighed.

"But now the Log Post is broken!" Usopp yelled.

"Relax! After what you did to help Laboon, I'll give you one of mine," Crocus responded.

…

Luffy came out of the crater slightly beat up.

"Why do they keep using Haki on me?" Luffy asked.