"What are you doing, Caps?"
"I'm gonna fight Laboon!"
"Okay. But why don't you use that big rock over there instead of ripping off the main mast? It'd be a shame to destroy our ship so early-on in our journey – we'll need it, you know?"
"Oh, right." He stopped trying to break the mast, pointing toward the giant boulder Brynlee had singled out. "That one?"
"Hmm. You can slingshot it, right? It ought to get his attention well enough."
"Got it! Thanks, Bryn!"
While Crocus and the others processed the truth bomb Brynlee had unceremoniously dropped on them, she left to follow after Luffy, curious. She'd thankfully found him in time to stop him from breaking the Merry apart. So, while he went off to start a fight with an Island Whale, Brynlee went to her cabin to retrieve a particular item she'd remembered to pick up back in Loguetown, in the Waypoint Wares.
There's no harm in being prepared, she mused, pulling out the brand new Log Pose from the bag she'd hidden under her small bed. Though I'll have to be careful – the Eternal Poses will be hard to explain if Nami finds them.
She figured entirely relying on her acquired knowledge might not be for the best. There was no guarantee that Crocus would give them his Log Pose again, after all, or that Luffy wouldn't accidentally break that one too. And the Eternal Poses were a guarantee, of sort: one for Alabasta, and one for Marineford.
"ROAAAAAAAAAA!"
The ship violently rocked for a few seconds, her friends' screams very vaguely echoing in the distance. Luffy had apparently started his fight. Rolling her eyes a bit, she shoved the bag back under her bed and quickly headed out, just in time to see Luffy—
"IT'S A DRAW!"
—pull off that stunt. Honestly, he was an idiot, and his methods definitely needed some more finesse, but there was no denying that Luffy was also kind of smart, in his own way. He was the type of person capable of reading people's hearts and immediately understand how they ticked, while Brynlee, even with her [Heart Sight] feat, still struggled to do the same.
We really have one hell of a Captain…
She quickly returned to the rest of the crew, who were watching, with varying degrees of shock, horror, and exasperation, the ongoing confrontation. By the time she reached them, Luffy was rushing back to the ship to fetch cans of paint to complete his pet project.
"Bryn!" exclaimed Nami upon seeing her. "What's going on? What is Luffy doing!?"
"He's just making a friend."
"By fighting him!? You were right there, why didn't you stop him?"
Brynlee shrugged. "I convinced him not to break Merry's mast so he could stab Laboon with it. That's pretty much the extent of my power over him, I'm afraid."
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," groaned Usopp, immediately slumping in relief upon realizing just how close Luffy had gotten at destroying their ship.
Zoro snorted, while Nami slumped in despair. Sanji simply sighed, shaking his head as he got started on prepping the fish he and Usopp had bought, back in Loguetown. And when Luffy returned to them, immediately drawn in by the enticing smell of Sanji's cooking, Laboon's forehead was now adorned with an absolute monstrosity that was meant to represent their flag, a symbol of Luffy's promise to return, one day.