"Hmph, trespassing into someone else's territory."
The old man folded up his newspaper and stood.
"Do you think this is Rat's belly?"
"So we really were swallowed by a whale."
The recovered Nami looked thoughtfully at the scenery around them.
"No wonder... I was wondering why the clouds in the sky never changed..."
"I painted them."
"Then... why is there light?"
"It's a plant called luminous moss, parasitic on the whale's stomach wall." The old man pointed toward the "sea"... well, actually, the distant whale stomach acid, where a huge iron gate stood.
"That's the exit. Once you pass through there, you can..."
Rumble!!
The violent shaking cut the old man off, and his expression turned grave.
"Wait here for me."
Before Nami, Luffy, and the others could react, he jumped into the sea... the stomach acid with a splash.
"What do we do now?"
As they stared at one another, the Golden Merry had already slowly turned around.
"Deal with it! Get over here and row!"
The White Knight tossed long oars onto the deck one after another. Roman, standing at the helm, glared irritably at the trio of laborers.
"Get to work! We'll head to the exit and wait for that old man to open the gate."
There was no future in slacking off in this world. Just look at Arlong—he had once been a Fish-Man officer who struggled in the Grand Line, but after slacking off in the East Blue for eleven years, he had become completely useless!
"There's no wind here, so we can only move forward by rowing. I'll leave it to you."
The Golden Merry was a seagoing vessel, weighing at least several dozen tons. Fortunately, the three laborers were all physically powerful monsters, so using oars to push a sailboat was not much of a problem for them. But still—
"This shaking... what is this whale doing...?"
"It's ramming the Red Line."
Roman picked up the conversation impatiently. "Didn't you notice earlier? Just look at all the scars covering its head~~"
"Why would it ram the Red Line?"
Faced with Usopp's question, Roman rolled his eyes from the helm. "Maybe it's tired of living."
Before long, the violent shaking gradually stopped, and the Golden Merry arrived before the huge iron gate. If the old man had been telling the truth, opening this place would let them—
Bang!
On a platform above the huge iron gate, an ordinary door was flung open by the violent shaking, and two people rolled out from inside...
"Ahhh~~~"
"We're going to fall~~~"
Splash, splash!
A man and a woman flailed wildly as they fell, plunging into the sea... the whale's stomach acid. But there was still one more figure—
"Ah~~"
"Beautiful miss, I'm coming to save you~~"
Who else on the Golden Merry could react like that besides Sanji? Everyone else calmly watched the show, so after Sanji fished up the blue-haired ponytail girl and another man wearing... a crown:
"Who are these two~~"
"They even have cannons. Are they bounty hunters?"
As they openly sized up the strangely dressed man and woman, the old man's furious roar came from the small platform by the iron gate.
"As long as I'm here, I'll never let you hurt Laboon!"
??
"We didn't..."
Just as Luffy and the others stood there in confusion, on the verge of blurting out, It wasn't me, I didn't do it, don't make things up, a familiar villainous laugh came from behind them.
"Hehehe~~~"
"Hohoho~~~"
"Now that we're inside the whale's belly..."
"As long as we blow a hole in its stomach, we can..."
As they spoke, the two people who had just been rescued raised their... rocket launchers... cannons... whatever they were, and pulled the triggers. Two shells shot toward the "wall" beside the old man!
"Don't even think about it—"
At the critical moment, the old man leaped forward and blocked the shells! With two booming explosions, he fell down trailing black smoke.
!
"Hohoho, if you want to protect this whale, then go right ahead~~~"
"Hahaha, we'll use it as food for our town—"
Bang, bang!
The man and woman, who looked like textbook villains, had barely struck a pose for a second before Luffy knocked them both to the ground with a punch each!
"Yeah, I couldn't help hitting them."
While everyone else focused on the two idiots, Roman alone looked toward the old man who had been blasted into the water and then climbed back out: Croccus.
Heh.
He took cannon shells to the face without even scratching his glasses, and he still dared claim he didn't know Haki?
"This whale is named Laboon. Its species is an Island Whale." Since Luffy had stopped the man and woman from harming the whale, the old man explained the whole story.
"These two thugs were after Laboon because its meat could feed an entire town for years."
"But I won't let them succeed—not only because Laboon is my friend, but because it is also a promise I made to someone else."
A promise. Two simple words that carried the dreams and stories of countless people.
"Many years ago, a group of pirates from the West Blue passed through here. Rather than pirates, they were more like a musical group..." As the old man spoke, Roman, Luffy, and the others learned the story.
"Their ship was damaged when they entered the Grand Line, so they stayed here for a while. We became friends during that time."
"Laboon was too small to follow them into the Grand Line, so they left Laboon here. They promised that after circling the Grand Line once, they would return to pick Laboon up..."
But once they left, fifty years passed!
"Fifty years? That means..."
"That's right. That pirate crew has already been buried by the Grand Line."
"Over the years, Laboon grew from a little whale into a true Island Whale. It can no longer swim against the currents through the Grand Line to return to the West Blue and find out whether its companions made it home..."
In truth, with intelligence enough to understand human speech, how could Laboon not know that its former "companions" had most likely perished at sea long ago?
It just... just... couldn't accept it!
"So this giant whale called Laboon blocks the entrance to the Grand Line while constantly ramming the Red Line?"
"Yes. And the only thing I can do is use medicine to calm it down."
Clank, clank, clank.
As the huge iron gate opened, a waterway appeared before the Golden Merry.
"This connects to the sea outside. Once you leave through here, you'll be safe."
"Wow, you actually built something like this inside a whale's belly. This really is..."
In response to Nami's admiration, the old man answered calmly.
"Think of it as a doctor's little indulgence. Laboon is too huge, so I can only treat it from inside..."
"Huh? You're a doctor?"
Luffy spotted the key point. "Come be our ship's doctor~~"
"Don't joke around. This old man doesn't have the energy to mess around with young people like you anymore..."
As the gate opened, the Golden Merry slowly sailed out of the belly of the whale Laboon. As for the man and woman who had tried to kill the whale—
"What should we do with them?"
"Just leave them somewhere nearby..."
Splash, splash.
"Ah, that blue-haired ponytail girl was truly a mysterious woman~~"
Despite the Straw Hat Pirates "letting them go," the man and woman in the water wore textbook villainous expressions.
"Just you wait, you country bumpkin pirates!"
"We'll definitely get that whale!"
After delivering their threats, they turned and paddled away in a flash... a wave of spray, leaving Roman wide-eyed.
As expected of the Grand Line. Even two minor grunts had the impressive swimming skills of white streaks in the waves! No, they were not really minor grunts. The two were agents of Baroque Works under Crocodile.
The man's codename was Mr. 9, a fake prince who looked utterly unreliable.
The girl's codename was Miss Wednesday, a... well, for now, a villain with a particularly eye-searing style!
Of course, Roman knew she had another identity: the princess of the Alabasta Kingdom, Nefertari Vivi.
A brave girl who had infiltrated Baroque Works to investigate the mastermind behind the scenes for the sake of her country.
Vivi...
Roman turned the matter over in his mind, considering whether he could bypass this part of the "plot." In the end, he concluded that unless he directly changed their upcoming route, Luffy and Nami would definitely not stand by and watch someone die...
That meant they would have to face Crocodile!
One of the Shichibukai, Crocodile.
The first true "expert" they would encounter on the Grand Line! A powerful enemy who had repeatedly and effortlessly driven Luffy and the others into desperate situations!
Although Roman had once mocked Crocodile and Moria as "stepping stones," he had to admit that with the Straw Hat Pirates' current strength, facing Crocodile would mean only one thing...
Instant defeat!
So how exactly did Luffy win?!
Forget it. Shaking his head and refusing to dwell on the question, Roman's gaze inevitably fell upon Croccus, the old man in a shirt and shorts.
As the King of the Pirates' ship doctor, he was undoubtedly proficient in Observation Haki. Otherwise, how could he dare carve all kinds of tunnels and structures inside Laboon's body? And he had just demonstrated the trick of catching cannon shells with his face. Even if his Armament Haki could not yet "manifest" visibly as black coloration, he could at least coat himself with it to increase his defense...
He could only try and see if he could get something out of the old man.
Otherwise... was he really supposed to rely on "fate" to defeat Crocodile?
Roman could not do that!
Even if he had to steal, deceive, poison, or assassinate, he would seize his own fate in his own hands.
Before you continue