Twin Capes

At the entrance to the Grand Line lay the starting point of the world's greatest ocean. People from the four seas would begin their own adventures here.

"Charge!" Luffy shouted excitedly from the bow as the rising Reverse Currents merged into the plunging current.

"Hey, did you hear something?" Zoro suddenly asked.

"Could it just be the wind? There are lots of strange landforms around here!" Nami said, enjoying the sea breeze.

"Nami, there's a mountain ahead!" Sanji, serving as the temporary lookout, suddenly shouted.

"That's impossible. After passing Twin Capes, there should be nothing but open sea!" Koala argued. Though she had never been to Reverse Mountain, she had never heard of another mountain ahead, and there was no mountain marked on the chart.

"That's not a mountain, it's a whale!" William hurriedly shouted. Only then did he suddenly realize that some things would not change because of the butterfly effect caused by his arrival, such as the unresolved burden weighing on the giant whale before them.

"That's an Island Whale, the largest species of whale in the world!" Koala explained nervously.

"What do we do? At this rate, we'll crash into it! We can go around its left side!" Zoro spotted a gap large enough for the Golden Merry to pass through on the Island Whale's left and hurriedly shouted to everyone.

"But the rudder's already broken!" the sisters said fearfully. They deeply regretted entering the Grand Line with the Straw Hat Crew. This was only their first leg, and it was already this dangerous.

"Think of something, quick!" Alvida began to panic as well. If they crashed straight into it, the ship would be wrecked and everyone would die.

"I've got a great idea!" Luffy suddenly had an inspiration and excitedly rushed into the cabin.

"Luffy, what are you planning?" Hearing that Luffy seemed to have come up with a good idea, everyone felt uneasy. After all, Luffy had never come up with a Serious idea in his life.

Boom! The Golden Merry's cannon suddenly fired a shell.

"The cannon?" Only then did everyone realize that this was Luffy's so-called idea. Still, the ship seemed to have slowed down.

"All right, has the ship stopped?" Luffy, who had given no thought to the consequences, was pleased with his "brilliant idea." Everyone aboard, including William and Koala, had gone pale with fright.

Crack! A breaking sound rang out as Luffy's first-class seat—the Golden Merry's sheep figurehead—was snapped off by the ship's momentum.

"Huh? My first-class seat!" Luffy cried as though his soul had left his body.

"What's going on? Didn't it notice we fired a cannon?" Usopp asked as he struggled to his feet.

"Maybe it's just too slow," Nojiko said. She could only explain it by assuming that the Island Whale was so huge that its reactions were sluggish. Otherwise, how could it take a cannon shot without responding?

"Anyway, run while we can!" William hurriedly shouted. If they did not flee now, then when would they? Even if being swallowed by the Island Whale would not kill them immediately, they would still have to face its stomach acid.

"Row! Get us out of here!" Zoro and Sanji immediately found oars and prepared to row with all their strength to escape the dangerous whale, but Luffy apparently had no intention of letting them get their wish.

"You actually... broke my first-class seat!" Enraged, Luffy struck the Island Whale's huge eye with a Rubber Gun. The eyes were the most sensitive organs of any animal. After taking a punch like that from Luffy, even the slowest creature would know it had been attacked.

"Idiot!" Faced with Luffy's idiotic behavior, everyone kicked him once. They had seen people drag down their teammates before, but never an idiot who dragged them down this badly. Was he trying to get everyone killed together?

"It noticed us! What do we do?" Seeing the Island Whale's eye fixed on them, the Straw Hat Crew had no idea how to handle the situation.

"Let's settle this one-on-one, bastard!" Luffy stood up and shouted angrily. He did not notice the panicked expressions of his companions behind him at all, yet he still righteously wanted to fight the Island Whale. The entire Golden Merry would not even be enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.

"Shut up, idiot!" William finally could not take it anymore and knocked Luffy unconscious with a fist infused with Armament Haki. If he kept letting Luffy mess around, everyone on the ship would die without even a grave.

"We're going to be eaten!" The Island Whale suddenly opened its mouth, clearly displeased by Luffy's earlier actions. The tiny Golden Merry was swept into its mouth by the seawater, then swallowed in a single gulp.

They were inside the stomach of the Island Whale Laboon, yet there was a bright sky and a calm sea here.

"This has to be a dream, right?" Alvida said in disbelief as she looked at the blue sky and white clouds overhead.

"It must be a dream, right?" Even Usopp, who could lie without blinking, could not believe what he was seeing. The others found it even more impossible to believe.

"Weren't we swallowed by a whale?" Zoro was curious as well. Why had they arrived in such a strange place after being swallowed?

"That sky is fake, and this seawater is stomach acid!" William said, looking as though he had just discovered it. Of course, he could not say that he had known all along. Still, knowing where they were did not mean they were safe, especially since they were sailing on stomach acid. The ship would not be able to endure it forever.

"So we're still inside the whale's stomach!" Though everyone sighed in relief, they realized that they now had to figure out how to get out.

"Then why is there an island over there?" Usopp asked, pointing at an island not far ahead.

"Who knows?" William could not explain it for the moment. The fake sky and seawater could be discovered through careful observation, but how was he supposed to explain the island to everyone?

"It's the Squid King!" A giant squid roughly the size of the Golden Merry suddenly emerged. It was clearly one of the sea creatures Laboon had accidentally swallowed earlier.

"Thousand Tile True Punch!" Koala did not hesitate to use Fish-Man Karate and knocked the Squid King down with one punch.

"Hm? That's a move like the Fish-Men use?" Sanji said thoughtfully. When he had faced the Arlong Pirates before, he had fought a Fish-Man Karate expert, so the impression had stuck with him.

"Koala is an acting instructor of Fish-Man Karate!" After revealing Koala's profession, William deliberately provoked Sanji to give him motivation to train. "If you want to play the hero and save a beauty next time, you should train harder!"

"I've had enough! I want to go home!" the sisters cried in terror. First there had been an Island Whale, then the Squid King. Who knew what monsters they would face next?

"Me too!" Nami said, still shaken. Nojiko, equally frightened, held the scared Nami in her arms, trying to calm both of them.

"So this is how terrifying the Grand Line is?" Alvida, who had once been a pirate captain, did not look much better. The nonstop dangers were beyond anything she had ever heard of.

"Someone's coming out!" Koala said. Having lived on the Grand Line, Koala had naturally seen plenty of storms and rough seas. Danger at this level was not enough to frighten her, but she still watched their surroundings vigilantly. What puzzled her was that William looked just as shocked as everyone else. What was going on?

Though the original Colonel William had come from the Grand Line, this William was facing a scene like this for the first time. Even Sanji, who had visited the Grand Line as a child, was just as frightened now.

"Say something, you old bastard!" Seeing that the newcomer sat down without a word and began reading a newspaper, Sanji shouted furiously.

"If you want to fight, we'll oblige! We have a cannon!" Usopp, having calmed down, shouted with great vigor. Though he would have been more convincing if his legs were not shaking.

"You'd better not. People will die." After waiting a while, the strangely dressed old man on the island finally spoke. Yet his eyes remained on the newspaper, completely ignoring the Straw Hat Crew.

"Who are you saying will die?" Sanji asked rudely, feeling threatened.

"Me!" Faced with the old man's frank response, everyone was furious.

"Let me ask," William said, stopping the angry Sanji. He politely asked, "Sir, could you tell us who you are? Where is this?"

"Before asking someone questions, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" Before William could begin introducing himself, the old man spoke first. "My name is Crocus. I'm the keeper of Twin Cape Lighthouse. I'm seventy-one years old, a Gemini, and have AB blood!"

"I want to kill this old man!" William said darkly, feeling that Crocus had toyed with him.

"Forget it, calm down," Sanji said, having already cooled off.