What Happened to Chopper?

"What are you talking about? How could it possibly get on me?" Lina said, exasperated.

He couldn't understand it. The Bomb-Bomb Fruit could make even the air you breathed explode, so why develop it around picking your nose?

If nothing else, the guy could've trained to shoot needles from his hair. Why make it so disgusting?

Lina looked around, but Luffy was nowhere to be seen. He casually filled a cup with wine and downed it in one gulp. A few drops spilled from the corner of his mouth and soaked his shirt.

"Luffy still hasn't come back?" he asked, setting down the cup.

Nami took the cup, filled it again, and handed it back. "He still hasn't returned. Just in case, Lina, go check on him."

"You sure know how to make a guy run errands."

He took the cup, finished it, then turned toward the tyrannosaurus. "Come on. I'll take you out for a bit."

"Roar!" The tyrannosaurus hurried over and crouched in front of him.

The man and dinosaur headed into the forest. Lina summoned Blue Ogre and used Observation Haki to search the area, but couldn't sense Luffy anywhere.

"Seriously, did he go that far?"

He sighed. Luffy shouldn't have had that much trouble beating Mr. 3. He'd probably gotten distracted by the guy's candle-based powers and decided to play around.

Hmm, what was that?

Through the trees, Lina spotted a white building.

"Let's check it out."

"Roar!"

As they approached the white building, he faintly heard a familiar voice from inside.

"Anyway, once you've taken care of the Straw Hat Crew, head straight to Alabasta. To make sure the Marines don't overhear our plans, this will be our last time using a Den Den Mushi."

"Got it, boss. That's all, then. I'm hanging up."

Sanji?

Lina recognized one of the voices. The white building looked like it had been made from wax by Mr. 3, and it had no door.

He walked right in. Sure enough, Sanji was sitting on a white sofa, leaning back, with a Den Den Mushi in his hand.

"Lina?"

"Sanji, what's going on?"

Seeing two figures lying on the floor, Lina couldn't help asking, "And what the hell are those things? Sea otters wearing clothes?"

"Well, I think they're called Unluckies or something."

Sanji gave him a quick explanation. He'd been hunting when he'd wandered over here by chance. Curious, he'd gone inside and found the Den Den Mushi ringing.

When he answered, he realized it was Baroque Works' boss. So Sanji had pretended to be Mr. 3 and talked nonsense with him for a bit.

"So these things are the Unluckies?"

Lina crouched down to examine the sea otter and vulture on the floor. They seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place them. He picked up a small object shaped like an hourglass.

"This must be the Eternal Pose they sent."

"Yeah. With an Eternal Pose for Alabasta, we can go straight there if we want."

"Let's see what Luffy says about the route." Lina pocketed the Eternal Pose, handed Sanji a cigarette, and the two of them left the room.

After Lina briefly explained that they'd been attacked on the island, Sanji immediately announced he was going to protect Nami and Vivi.

"Heh. You're not going to protect them, you're going to—"

Lina rolled his eyes, climbed onto the tyrannosaurus, and rode off.

He made a huge loop before finally spotting Luffy, looking worse for wear.

"Hey, Luffy!"

"Oh, Lina... Wait!"

Luffy called back when he saw him, then seemed to notice something unbelievable. He froze in place.

"It's a tyrannosaurus!!!"

"Wahahaha!!"

Luffy's eyes lit up. He charged forward, leaped high, and landed astride the tyrannosaurus. "Hehehe! Let's go, Tyrannosaurus! We're heading back!"

Lina stared at him, speechless. If he wanted one, couldn't he just go catch it himself?

Whatever. He was just getting a thrill out of it. If he wanted one later, Lina could always make one for him.

"Why do you look so beat up? Did you take care of the enemy?"

"Yeah, I took care of them."

"Everyone! And the giant uncles, too—we're back!"

"Gahahaha! Looks like you took care of everything."

Lina jumped off the dinosaur, collected its template, then hurried back into the forest. He turned to the laughing giant.

"Yeah, it all went smoothly. We couldn't have done it without you guys being so strong."

"Gahahaha! Of course!"

"Hey, Lina, you bastard! You took a ton of my booze!"

A figure sprang out from the crowd. Lina looked over and saw Zoro?!

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I found some good prey."

Zoro drank as he gestured toward a triceratops lying nearby. "I was about to drag it back to the ship, but I kept walking and ended up here."

"Heh, you got lost and still found your way here?" Lina laughed.

"What are you talking about? I'll cut you, you bastard!"

"Are you okay, Luffy?"

Vivi saw Luffy covered in wounds and hurried over, worried, both hands pressed to her chest. Her face was full of guilt. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault for attracting these people. If I hadn't— Ow, ow, ow..."

Nami pinched Vivi's cheek and gave it a tug. "On this ship, we don't talk about whose fault something is."

"You cry a lot for a delinquent girl. Don't worry, nobody blames you." Lina casually pinched Vivi's other cheek.

Hmm, so soft.

It was already noon, and with Sanji here, they could all eat together.

He sent the undead to the ship to get the kitchen supplies. Zoro stubbornly insisted that his triceratops had to wait for the contest results and couldn't be eaten, so Lina had the undead hunt some other beasts while they were at it.

"Let's eat!" x9

"Gah!"

The crew, the two giants, and a duck sat down on the grass to eat.

"This is delicious! Gahahaha! The curly-browed kid's a fantastic cook!"

"Bastard! Pick the meat clean off the bones before you throw them away!"

"Gahahaha! Sorry about that, kid."

Under Sanji's furious glare, the two big men sheepishly scratched their heads, picked up the bones, and gnawed on them. Though they were giants, they looked just like children who'd been caught doing something wrong.

Everyone couldn't help laughing. After they'd eaten their fill and rested for a while, Nami asked, "Uncle, how long does it take for Little Garden's Log Pose to set?"

"Here? A year."

"What?!"

Everyone was stunned. Lina was dumbfounded, too. Since when was this a thing?

Luffy immediately protested. "I waited ten years before I finally got to set out to sea! Uncles, help me think of something!"

"You idiot kid. How are we supposed to do anything about that?"

"No, wait. Sanji found this in the forest." Lina took a small object shaped like an hourglass from his pocket.

Brogy recognized it at once. "Oh, you've got an Eternal Pose."

"An Eternal Pose?"

Nami had never heard of one before, so Vivi explained that it was a special kind of compass that always pointed toward a particular island.

"So we can only use it to head straight to Alabasta?"

"Does that mean we'll miss out on adventures at the other islands?" Hearing Nami, Luffy looked dejected.

Lina was even more confused than he was. Where was Chopper? Wait, where was the ship's doctor he'd been looking forward to meeting?

"Hold on, Nami. Did you bring your map?"

Lina hurriedly asked Nami for the Grand Line map. She'd stolen it from Buggy back in the East Blue.

He checked the direct route from Little Garden to Alabasta. Drum Island wasn't far off the course, and only then did Lina relax. They could make up an excuse to stop there when the time came.

After a while, once they'd rested enough, the group set off. Dorry and Brogy, still sitting where they were, exchanged smiles.

"Come on, Dorry. It's time to see our friends off."

"Yeah. Those old buddies would be honored, too."

The two picked up their rust-covered sword and axe and headed toward the shore.

They were the only witnesses to this hundred-year-long duel. Now they, too, were battered and broken, as if they might fall apart at any moment.