The Promise Strait, Vivi Appears

"Hmph, trespassing on someone else's territory,"

The old man put away his newspaper and stood up.

"Do you think this is a rat's belly?"

"As expected, we were swallowed by a whale."

Nami, having recovered, looked around thoughtfully.

"No wonder, I was wondering why the clouds in the sky hadn't changed at all..."

"I drew those."

"Then... why is there light?"

"It's a plant called glowing moss, parasitic on the whale's stomach wall," the old man pointed towards the 'sea surface'... well, actually, it was the distant whale stomach fluid, where a huge iron gate stood.

"That's the exit. If you go through there, you can..."

RUMBLE!!

A violent tremor interrupted the old man's words, causing his expression to turn serious.

"Wait for me,"

Saying that, before Nami, Luffy, and the others could react, he jumped into the sea... stomach fluid with a splash.

"What do we do now?"

As they looked at each other, the Going Merry slowly turned around.

"What else can we do but row! Hurry up and come row!"

Long oars were thrown onto the deck by the 'White Knight'. Roman, who was at the helm, glared at the struggling trio.

"Let's get to work! We'll go to the exit and wait for this uncle to open the door."

There's no way I'll be a slacker, slackers have no future in this world. – Don't you see, Arlong, who was once a Fish-Man executive fighting in the Grand Line, ended up slacking off in the East Blue for eleven years and became completely useless!

"There's no wind here, so we have to row manually. It's up to you."

The Going Merry was, after all, a sea ship, weighing at least dozens of tons. Fortunately, the struggling trio were all strong and monstrous individuals, so propelling the sailing ship with oars wasn't a problem for them. However:

"This vibration... what is this whale doing...?"

"It's hitting the Red Line,"

Roman impatiently picked up the conversation. "Didn't you notice before? You can tell from the dense wounds on its head~~"

"Then why is it hitting the Red Line?"

Facing Usopp's question, Roman, who was at the helm, rolled his eyes. "Maybe it's having second thoughts."

Soon, the violent tremors slowly stopped, and the Going Merry arrived in front of the giant iron gate. If the old man was right, opening this would allow them to—

BANG!

On a platform above the giant iron gate, a normal door was violently shaken open, and two people rolled out...

"Ahhhhhh~~~"

"I'm going to fall~~~"

Splash, splash!

Two figures, a man and a woman, flailed as they fell, dropping into the sea... whale stomach fluid, but there was another figure:

"Ah~~,"

"My beautiful lady, I've come to save you~~"

Who else on the Going Merry would act like this except Sanji? The others watched calmly. So after Sanji pulled up the blue-haired ponytail girl and another man wearing... a crown:

"Who are these two guys~~"

"They're even carrying cannons, could they be Bounty Hunters?"

As they casually sized up the strangely dressed man and woman, the old man's angry roar came from the small platform above the iron gate.

"With me here, I will never let you harm Laboon!"

???

"We didn't..."

Luffy and the others looked bewildered, just about to deny it with a triple "It wasn't me, I didn't do it, don't accuse me," when the iconic villain's laughter came from behind them.

"Hehehe~~~"

"Hehehe~~~"

"Now we are inside the whale's belly..."

"If we just make a hole in its stomach..."

As he spoke, the two people, a man and a woman, who had just been rescued, raised their rocket launchers and fired. Two cannonballs flew towards the 'wall' where the old man was.

"You won't get away with this—"

In a moment of crisis, the old man leaped forward and blocked the cannonballs! With two booming explosions, he fell back, smoke billowing around him.

!

"Ho ho ho, protect this whale all you want~~~"

"Hahaha, we're going to use it as food for our town—"

Bang, bang!

The man and woman, who looked like stereotypical villains, had barely struck a pose before Luffy, standing behind them, knocked them both to the ground with a single punch each!

"Hmph, I couldn't help but punch them."

While everyone else's attention was focused on these two clowns, only Roman looked at the old man, Croccus, who had been blasted into the water and then crawled out.

Heh, He took cannonballs to the face, yet his glasses were completely unharmed. And he still dared to say he couldn't use Haki?

"This whale's name is Laboon, and its species is 'Island Whale'." Since Luffy had stopped the man and woman from harming the whale, the old man naturally explained the whole story.

"These two ruffians were after Laboon because its meat is enough to feed a whole town for several years."

"But I won't let them succeed, not only because Laboon is my friend, but also because of a promise I made with someone."

The simple words "a promise" carried the dreams and stories of countless people.

"Many years ago, a group of pirates from West Blue passed by here. Rather than pirates, they were more like a music group..." As the old man spoke, Roman, Luffy, and the others learned this story.

"Their ship was damaged when they entered the Grand Line, so they stayed here for a while, and we became friends."

"Laboon was too small to accompany them into the Grand Line, so they left Laboon here, promising to circle the Grand Line and come back to pick Laboon up..."

As a result, fifty years had passed!

"Fifty years? That means..."

"That's right, that pirate crew has already been buried by the Grand Line."

"And Laboon has grown from a small whale into a true 'Island Whale' over these years. It's no longer possible for it to swim against the current of the Grand Line back to West Blue to verify if its comrades have returned home..."

In reality, with Laboon's intelligence, being able to understand human language, how could it not know that its former 'comrades' had most likely perished at sea long ago?

But... but it just couldn't accept it!

"So this giant whale named Laboon is blocking the entrance to the Grand Line and constantly crashing into the Red Line?"

"Yes, and the only thing I can do is use medicine to calm it down."

Crrrack, As the massive iron gate opened, a waterway appeared before the Going Merry.

"This connects to the sea outside. Once you go through, you'll be safe."

"Wow, to build a place like this inside a whale's stomach, this is truly..."

Facing Nami's amazement, the old man replied calmly.

"Just think of it as a doctor's playful whim. Because Laboon is so huge, I can only treat it from the inside..."

"Huh? You're a doctor?"

Luffy found the key point. "Come to our ship and be our ship doctor~~"

"Don't joke around. This old man doesn't have the energy to mess around with you young folks anymore..."

As the gate opened, the Going Merry slowly sailed out of Laboon the whale's... stomach. As for the man and woman who intended to kill the whale.

"What about them?"

"Just leave them somewhere around here..."

Splash, splash, "Ah, that blue-haired ponytail girl is truly a mysterious woman~~"

Facing the Straw Hat Pirates, who decided to let them go, the man and woman in the water put on 'typical villain' expressions.

"We'll see about this, you country bumpkin pirates!"

"We'll definitely capture this whale!"

After spitting out their threats, they turned and fled, paddling away in a splash... and a wave. Roman was wide-eyed.

As expected of the Grand Line, even two grunts have the skill of a 'skilled swimmer'! No, they aren't exactly grunts; they are agents of Crocodile, the Shichibukai, from 'Baroque Works'.

The man's codename is Mr.9, a seemingly unreliable fake prince.

The operative codenamed Miss Wednesday was a... well, currently, she was a villain with a very 'eye-searing' art style!

Of course, Roman knew her other identity: Princess Nefertari Vivi of the Alabasta Kingdom.

A brave girl who went undercover in 'Baroque Works' to investigate the mastermind behind everything, all for the sake of her country.

Vivi...

Roman thought for a moment, wondering if he could bypass this 'plot point'. The conclusion he reached was: unless he directly changed their upcoming itinerary, given Luffy and Nami's temperaments, they definitely wouldn't stand by and watch someone suffer...

That would mean confronting 'Crocodile'!

The Shichibukai, Crocodile.

The first true 'expert' on the Grand Line! A strong individual who had repeatedly pushed Luffy and his crew into desperate situations with ease!

Although Roman had once joked that he and Moria were 'stepping stones', he had to admit that with the Straw Hat Pirates' current strength, facing Crocodile would be a foregone conclusion...

An instant defeat!

So, how did Luffy even win against him?!

Never mind, shaking his head, Roman stopped thinking about it and his gaze involuntarily fell upon the old man wearing a shirt and shorts: Croccus.

The King of the Pirates' ship doctor must have mastered Observation Haki, otherwise, how would he dare to dig out various tunnels and structures inside the whale Laboon's body? Moreover, he had just demonstrated the amazing feat of catching a cannonball with his face. Even if his Armament Haki couldn't 'manifest' (appear as a visible black coating), it was at least capable of wrapping around to increase defense...

He could only try to see if he could get something out of the old man.

Otherwise... would he really rely on 'destiny' to defeat Crocodile?

Roman certainly couldn't!

Even if it meant stealing, deceiving, poisoning, or assassinating, he would take his fate into his own hands.