Chapter 49: Spear of Elbaf
Once Broggy and Dorry stopped bickering, we followed them back to the former's campsite and patch up any and all wounds we had sustained from our fight against the officer agents.
Though ironically, the only ones that were in any urgent need of patching up were the giants, with the rest of us only suffering bruises and slight burns; even me, and I took on Mr 5 many explosions straight on.
Even Usopp and Carue were not that badly injured after their little run in with the bomb man, with most of their wounds being mere surface level burns that only need a little bit of time to recover from.
"Gyagyagya! I honestly forgot about the bounty on our heads!" Dorry laughed, "I didn't think that it would still be valid a hundred years later!"
"We are truly in your debt, little ones!" Broggy thanked us, "If there is anything we can do to help you out, just say the word! Warriors of Elbaf always repay a life's debt, no matter what!"
"N-No, there's no need for all that!" Vivi assured them, "If anything, I should be apologizing to you two. After all, I was the reason those agents came to this island. If we hadn't made landfall, your duel wouldn't—Nuh"
Nami put a stop to the princess's self-deprecating apology with a pinch of her cheeks, "And that's enough out of you. No more of that 'because of me' nonsense."
"But it really is because of…"
"So what? No one is blaming you."
"Hey, why the long face, Vivi?" Luffy asked while munching away on a rice cracker that we had looted from Miss Goldenweek's bags, "Cheer up! Have a rice cracker!"
"Man, these are good." Usopp noted between bites, "Too bad we have only one bag of them."
"Qwuack!"
"Oh, Bird really like this, huh?"
"Do you think Sanji can make more if we ask him?"
"Maybe? This is just some baked rice, right?"
"I don't think it's that simple, Luffy."
As they went on to discussing how rice crackers are made, I walked up to the princess while taking another bite of the ill-gotten cracker, "The only ones to blame for this mess are the agents Crocodile had sent after us. And it's not like you planned any of this to happen, right?"
"…I guess so…" Vivi nodded.
"Alright! Time for a party!" Luffy cheered, "Bring on the meat!"
"Woohoo! Let's party!" Usopp cried out, "To start, allow me to sing the song of my people!"
"Not to ruin the fun, but we're in serious trouble if we have to wait a full year for the Log Pose to record." Zoro pointed out.
"Exactly!" Nami agreed, "This is no time to mess around! We can't afford to stay here for that long! Who knows what could happen to Vivi's kingdom by then!?"
"Ah, that is true…" Luffy turned to the giants, "Hey, can't you misters do something about that?"
"You're asking for the impossible, little one." Dorry told him, "Even great warriors of Elbaf like us can't do anything about the Log Pose."
"We do have an Eternal Pose". Broggy noted, "But it is our only way back to Elbaf, so we can't give it to you."
"And none of the agents has one either…" Vivi noted.
"I see… then we have no other choice then…" Our captain nodded in understanding, "We just have to wing it and set sail!"
"Like hell we are!" Nami cried out with a smack to the rubber man's head, "That's paramount to suicide! This is the Grand Line, you know!"
As she continued to yell at our captain for even suggesting such a reckless and thoughtless plan, Zoro had walked up to me with a knowing look.
"You know the way off this island, don't you, Rein?" He pointed out.
That immediately drew everyone's attention towards me; Vivi was giving me rather intense hopeful look that made me feel rather uncomfortable, while Nami was giving an accusing glare that just screamed barely contained rage.
"…I know of a way off, yes." I nodded with a rather sheepish smile, "Though it is somewhat of a gamble right now, so…"
"What do you mean by—"
"Hey, everyone! I was looking everywhere for you!"
Zoro's question was cut short as his irritation was visibly shown when Sanji came running out from the jungle with a cheer, the blonde cook was actively skipping as he quickly made his way towards us.
"Hey, Sanji!" Luffy waved at him.
"Oh, now you show up!" Usopp shouted angrily, "Where the hell were you when we were—"
"Nami~! Rein~! Vivi~! I'm so happy that you all are safe~!"
He completely ignored the sniper, dashing past the guys and heading straight for us girls in a hurry. And when he saw our current state of attire, he immediately halted before blushing and gawking at our exposed skin.
"Oh my~!" He dropped to his knees and began praying to some unknown god, "Thank you for such a beautiful and electrifying view~!"
"You're… welcome…?" The princess noted, wrapping her arms around herself in discomfort over his actions.
"Hah…seriously…?" I rolled my eyes at his usual antics.
I mean, it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, right? After everything we had done—
"Hm? The hell are they!?" He then suddenly got to his feet and stood between us and the giants, "Don't tell me, is one of you Mr 3!?"
"Eh? You know about Mr 3?" Nami asked him, "What have you been doing all this time?"
"Ah, right; I nearly forget about that. Well, allow me to explain to you all…"
"Before that, please give me your blazer."
"Ah! Ri-Right away…"
After reluctantly handing our navigator his blazer, He then recounted to us of the events and actions he had undertook in the time since we split from the crew, going off tangent for a bit about his catch being the larger than whatever Zoro could hunt down.
It had been the same as in Canon, from him heading out to find us when he didn't find Nami or Usopp on the Knight Merry, to him encountering and unintentionally enjoying a short teatime inside Mr 3's wax safe house before receiving a call from Crocodile.
"You were just talking to Mr 0!?" The princess cried out, "And now he thinks we are dead!?"
"Yeah; he seemed to have mistaken me for Mr 3, so I took advantage of that and give him a false report." Sanji noted, "Though those two animal agents came back and nearly blew my cover…"
"The Unluckies!? They are here too!?"
"Ah, but don't worry, Princess! I took care of them before they could get away! They are all tied up back in the wax house. I even made sure they are disarmed of anything and everything; they would not escape this time."
"That's…that's a relief…"
"Something big must be going down in Alabasta if he's calling all his officer agents over there." Nami noted, "We need to get Vivi back there as soon as possible."
"Even then, we still have no way off this island…!" Usopp groaned in agony, "Damn it, and just when we finally thrown off our pursuers…!"
"Funny that you should mention that…" I turned to the cook, "Sanji, didn't the Unluckies dropped something after you beat them?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, they did." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the very item we needed, "This is an Eternal Pose, right? This one seems to be for—"
"Alabasta! This is an Eternal Pose to my kingdom!" Vivi cried out, before turning me, "Is this why you want to set the Unluckies go back then?"
"Yup. They were originally supposed to hand it over to Mr 3." I told her, "And seeing as we beat him and Sanji was impersonating him…"
"Thank you so much, Sanji!" The princess gave the blonde cook a big hug, "I truly owe you so much for all you have done!"
"No-No problem…~! Anything for you, Princess~!" Sanji let out a happy sigh as his lips curved into same perverse grin from the fact that the princess was hugging him and pushing her cleavage against him.
And when she realized what she was doing, she quickly pulled back and covered herself with a small blush on her face.
"Alright! Let's have a cracker party to celebrate!" Luffy cheered.
"I don't think we have enough for it, Luffy." Usopp told him as he showed him the empty bag while holding one himself, "We only have one left."
"Now's not the time for that, anyways!" Nami pointed out, "We have loitered around here long enough, captain. It's time to set sail!"
"Eh? But I really want some more barbecue dinosaur meat…"
"You don't have worry about that, Captain." Sanji told him, "I've caught a dinosaur that I was planning on using for tonight's dinner."
"Woohoo!" Our captain cheered, "You're the best, Sanji!"
"Ah, speaking of which, you haven't forgot about our hunting contest, have you?" He asked the swordsman with a smug smirk, "Not that you will win; I've caught quite the beast!"
"Hah, you wish!" Zoro laughed, "It'll be nothing next to the massive rhino I'd caught!"
"A rhino? Can you even eat that?"
"Hey, you're the cook. What, scared of a little challenge?"
"Hm? Hunting contest?" Broggy muttered with his hand on his chin.
"Is something the matter, Broggy?" Dorry asked.
"No, just, do you remember us having a hunting contest?"
"Hm…now that you mentioned it…"
Seeing Zoro and Sanji bickered back and forth about the size of their own catch, and the two giants were on the path of remembering the reason behind their duel, I couldn't help letting out a chuckle at the ironic parallel between them.
Vivi was right; no matter the race or the generation, guys would always find a way to have a dick measuring contest of any kind.
"Tch! Stupid little bug…!"
I took notice of Nami suddenly slapping her abdomen before grumbling and rubbing her hand on her borrowed blazer.
My heart grew cold when I saw the small growing red bug bite on her flat stomach, and the severe indication of what was going to happen to her soon enough, and the suffering she was going to have to undergo.
"Nami, come with me for a sec."
"Woah, Rein!?"
I walked up to the navigator and pulled her away from the rest of the crew. Once I made sure that no one else was listening, I lowered my tone and told her what was coming to her.
"Listen, the bug that just bit you contained an ancient pathogen that should have died out many millennia ago. It will kill you within days if you don't get treated for it."
Her face paled at my words before whispering back, "Are you sure about that!? You're not just screwing with me!?"
"Not with something this serious." I pointed out, "Why do you think I'm ignoring Luffy's orders on 'spoilers' for this? This is life or death!"
"Th-Then, what's going to happen…!?"
"You're likely get a fever within the next few days or so. Could be tomorrow, could be next week."
"That's… not very assuring…"
"Just be prepared; and if you think you are having a fever, inform everyone and do not push yourself."
"Hey! Nami! Rein! Let's go!" Luffy called out to us.
"We're coming!" I told him, as I placed my hand on her shoulder and squeezed firmly, "We will find a doctor to treat you on the next island, and we will not let you die from it. No matter what."
Nami shakily nodded, "O-Okay…I'll be counting on you to guide them there…"
"…I'll try my best."
To be fair, the original Straw Hats stumbled upon Drum Island purely on luck; all I know was that the winter kingdom was somewhere between Alabasta and Little Garden, so there was a good chance that we might overshoot it if we were not careful.
Even so, to let Nami die because of a bug bite I could have easily deal with? There was no way I was going to allow that to happen.
"See!? My T-Rex is clearly bigger!"
"Are you blind!? It's obviously my rhino that's bigger!"
"Who cares? They both look delicious."
""You stay out of this, Luffy!""
An annoyed groan left my mouth as I was beginning to get a migraine from what was happening on the coast between Zoro and Sanji; neither of them wanting to admit that either of them got the bigger catch of the two and the winner of their improv contest.
They had been arguing for so long that I had time to take a quick shower to wash off the soot, change into a fresh pair of pants and a clean spaghetti strap top, and scout the skies for a route into the open ocean.
Heck, everyone got to take a shower and changed to clean clothes with the amount of time they had spent bickering about this.
"Seriously, how long are you two going to bicker about this? We need to set sail soon." Nami groaned, "We can't even carry that much meat on board! Just cut up both of them and pack in as much as we are allowed."
"Right away, Nami~!" Sanji agreed.
Zoro turned to the long-nosed sniper, "Hey, Usopp! Mine is clearly bigger, right!?"
"I really don't care, man." Usopp pointed out.
Vivi then chimed in, "Is a tie really no good?"
"There are no ties in a contest, damn it!"
I let out a groan before shouting at them, "Just cut up the damn dinosaur and let's go! Or we are setting sail without you guys!?"
After doing just that, and filling our pantry with enough meat to last us for at least a couple weeks, or a few days with Luffy's appetite, we made our way towards the west end of the island where I had saw the exit of the river we were in.
It didn't take long for us to be greeted with the sight of the open ocean, and the two giants we had just bid farewell moments ago standing at the coast.
"Oh, hey! It's the giants!" Luffy pointed out.
"Master Broggy! Master Dorry!" Usopp greeted, "Have you guys come to see us off?"
"We have, and more." Broggy nodded, "Listen up. Straight ahead is the most important reason all the little ones that came to this island did not make it to the next island."
"Huh? Wh-What are your saying all of a sudden?"
"You all have risked your lives so that our pride remains untarnished." Dorry pointed out, "Thus in turn, no matter the foe you may face, we will not allow your flag of pride be tarnished too!"
"Sail straight ahead, little ones! No matter what happens, trust in us and sail straight ahead!"
"And we will make sure you all reach your next destination!"
Their proclamation had everyone, except me who already knew what they were talking about, utterly confused but touched all the same; Nami and Vivi both looking particularly worried about their foreboding words.
And seeing them standing there with their weapons drawn, both being held tightly in their individual grips, I really regretted not getting a Cameko to record this momentous event.
Luffy gulped before nodding with understanding, "Got it! Straight ahead!"
The giants raised their weapons as we passed them by, "Farewell, friends! Let us meet again in the future!"
"Yes, farewell!" Usopp called out to them, "Let us meet in Elbaf—!"
"Up ahead! What the hell is that!?"
Nami's cries turned our attention towards the bow where an enormous figure began surfacing right in front of us, creating large waves that threatened to capsize the Knight Merry.
Its massive dorsal fin was the first to break the water's surface, followed its equally massive head that had two beady eyes looking right at us with its mouth wide opened
The Island Devourer had arrived, and looking just like how Oda drew it and more; its size was making every other Sea King we had encountered looked like sardines in comparison.
"That's one huge goldfish!" Luffy pointed out.
"It's almost as big as an island!" Vivi cried out.
"A-A giant go-goldfish!?" Usopp cried out, "Wait, that sounds really fa-familiar…"
"Quit gawking at it and move your feet!" Nami cried out, "Grab the helm and head starboard—"
"N-NO!"
"Usopp!?"
The sniper slapped both his cheeks before confirming with a shaky nod, "We are sailing st-straight ahead! Right, Luffy!?"
Our captain grinned and nodded, "Of course! Straight ahead!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Nami yelled at them, "This isn't like that time with Laboon! We don't even know if the giants could get us out!"
"I know, I know, just pipe down, will you? Here, you can have the last rice cracker, if you want."
"I don't need it! If we don't turn the ship around this instant—"
"Nami. Just give it up." Zoro told her as he opened the door for Carue to run inside, "You know how he is."
"Mmph…!" Nami cried while biting into the rice cracker she was given.
"Hey, Luffy! You're sure those giants are trustworthy, right!?" Sanji asked him.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Luffy nodded as he turned to me, "Right, Rein?"
"Yup, you can trust them." I nodded, "We will be fine."
"Are you guys serious!?" Vivi cried out, "We are really sailing into that monster's mouth now!"
"We are already in its mouth!" Nami cried, "It's all over!"
The screams echoed across the deck as the goldfish closed its mouth around us, the clear sky disappearing into damp complete darkness with the sound of sloshing sea water as we descended down its gullet.
All the while the voices of Usopp and Luffy screaming out to sail ahead echoed all around us, much to the annoyance of Nami who screamed at them to stop.
"You better be right about this, Rein!" Vivi cried out.
I quickly tried to calm them down, "Wait for it! Wait for it—!"
""HAKOKU!""
Seconds later, sunlight suddenly returned as the winds picked up, and we were shot right out of the goldfish and into the air, just as what I could only described as an invisible spear piercing blasting right through its body.
Truly, experiencing such an extraordinary and neigh impossible feat in person really made the pictures in the manga or that animation seemed lackluster in comparison!
"Woohoo! We're flying!" Luffy cheered, "No turning back! Straight ahead!"
"I don't believe it…!" Sanji muttered in shock, "Just the two of them could do this…!?"
"Amazing, aren't they?" I noted with a wide grin, "This is what warriors of Elbaf are capable of."
"They…They cut… into the ocean itself…!" Usopp managed to get out through all the snot and tears of admiration, "So this is… the power of the warriors of Elbaf…! Truly… Absolutely stunning!"
"Gababababa!"
"Gyagyagyagyagya!"
The laughter of the two warriors echoed behind us, slowly fading away as we landed back onto the ocean and sailed away from Little Garden.
And to the next leg of our journey for Alabasta.
…
To be continued…
Yeah, decided to make this chapter the ending of the Little Garden arc; feels like the right place for it, after all.
And the next arc is one of my own personal favourites among the pre-timeskip arc, so I couldn't wait to get to it.
Now, how should Rein mix things up with in the Drum Kingdom…
With that, I thank you all for reading this!