Laboon the Whale

Shalria rubbed the huge bump on her head and sucked in a sharp breath.

"It hurts! You filthy old man, are you looking for a beating? Take this!"

She coated her right hand in Armament Haki and charged straight at Garp.

"Huh? Has this brat never been beaten before?"

Bang! Another punch.

Shalria collapsed straight to the ground, her eyes rolling back white.

Sengoku slapped the table. "Garp, you're making this very difficult for me."

Garp scratched his head. "Well, I didn't expect this brat to be so frail."

The nearby CP0 agents swiftly stepped forward and surrounded Garp. One of them stepped up and picked Shalria up.

"Take her for treatment immediately."

Sengoku sat back down in his chair, picked up a document, and handed it to the sheep beside him. The sheep opened its mouth and swallowed the document.

Inside a luxurious, spotless hospital room.

Shalria lay sprawled across the bed, clutching an ice pack tightly against her forehead while continuously gasping in pain.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow... Who the hell is that old man? Why does he hit so hard?!"

The CP0 agent standing nearby spoke in a low voice.

"He is Marine Vice Admiral Garp."

Shalria froze, her face filled with disbelief.

"A Marine Vice Admiral? Are Marine Vice Admirals really that strong? Stop joking around!"

The CP0 agent stood there, speechless for a moment.

After a brief silence.

Shalria rubbed her forehead and muttered quietly.

"Forget it... That old man really is strong. I trained hard for two whole years, yet I couldn't even take one hit from him."

A crisp knock sounded outside the room.

"Reporting!"

The CP0 agent raised a hand and opened the door. A Marine soldier hurried into the hospital room.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku has approved your request. You are permitted to accompany a warship to sea and capture pirates."

Shalria was taken aback, then her face filled with disdain.

"Huh? Since when did I need his approval? What a pointless extra step. Hand it over!"

The CP0 agent beside her took the approval document from the Marine and passed it to Shalria.

Shalria frowned impatiently.

"Why are you giving it to me? I can't understand it anyway. Put it away!"

She rubbed her still-aching forehead and pushed herself up by the edge of the bed.

"Hurry up, we're going to the warship right now! It really hurts..."

Shalria led a group of CP0 agents toward the warships at the harbor.

She looked up at the distinctive dog-headed warship before her, her face full of suspicion.

"Are you sure this is the warship assigned to us?"

The CP0 crew member beside her nodded.

"That's right. This is the warship."

As soon as he finished speaking, a familiar figure stood quietly atop the warship's towering dog-head figurehead.

Garp stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at the group below him. He grinned.

"Yo, brat. Didn't you want to sail out and fight pirates? Want to head out with this old man?"

Shalria's mouth fell open. She pointed rigidly at Garp on the bow, completely dumbfounded.

"You, you, you..."

Garp replied casually.

"What about me? Come catch pirates with this old man. You won't go wrong."

Shalria swallowed and instinctively took a small step back.

Garp leaped from the high bow, plummeting down and landing heavily behind Shalria.

Shalria whipped around and looked up at Garp before her.

"Brat, once you accept those orders, you're a member of the Marines. Deserting before battle won't do."

"I-I'm not!"

"Whether you are or not isn't up to you."

Garp grinned, grabbed Shalria by the collar, and leaped up again, carrying her onto the warship's deck.

The CP0 agents beside them exchanged glances. Without hesitation, they followed suit and leaped onto the warship.

Charlos's large ship slowly sailed onward.

A series of dull, booming thump, thump, thump sounds echoed from afar, clearly reaching the ship across the sea.

Charlos bit into his popsicle and looked into the distance.

"What's that?"

Amina moved to the rail and followed his gaze.

"Looks like a mountain."

"A mountain?" Charlos frowned.

"Two mountains. It looks like one mountain is ramming into the other."

As he watched the enormous shadow, a figure from his memories flashed through Charlos's mind, and he understood.

"I know what's going on."

"What?" Amina turned to look at him.

"Legend says there's a giant whale near Reverse Mountain. It's spent years constantly ramming into the Red Line, trying to smash that mountain apart."

Amina tilted her head, her face full of disbelief.

"What an absurd whale. But it really looks just like a mountain to me."

The large ship continued slowly approaching. As the distance closed, the enormous silhouette gradually became clearer.

"It really is a whale."

The massive whale, Laboon, gradually stopped ramming the mountain and floated quietly on the sea.

Its head was covered in crisscrossing scars of varying depths, a horrifying sight.

Amira looked at the colossal creature, a pang of pity rising in her heart.

"Charlos, it has so many wounds on its head."

Charlos glanced at her. "What, do you want to treat it?"

Amira nodded firmly.

"I was thinking about it. It looks too pitiful."

Charlos pondered for a moment before speaking. "How about you fly over and take a look first?"

Amira froze and turned to look at Charlos.

"Huh? What?"

"I said, fly over and take a look first."

Amira did not understand Charlos's intentions for the moment, but she still spread her white wings, flapped into the air, and flew toward Laboon.

Charlos finished the popsicle in one bite and casually tossed the stick behind him.

Amina steadily caught the popsicle stick, then looked up at Charlos.

"Why did you make my sister fly over and take a look?"

"If she doesn't see it for herself, she won't understand just how enormous it is."

"Oh." Amina tossed the popsicle stick into a nearby trash bin.

Meanwhile, Amira flapped her white wings and had already flown back onto the deck.

Charlos looked at her. "So? What do you think now?"

Amira gently shook her head.

"My earlier thoughts were too shallow."

The luxurious ship drew closer and closer to Laboon, and the winds and waves on the sea grew stronger.

Charlos asked, "How big do you think the gap is between our ship and that whale?"

Amira lowered her head in thought for a moment before answering slowly.

"Even if our ship were twice as large, it would probably only be as big as one of its teeth."

The luxurious ship had drawn alongside Laboon.

Charlos leaped onto the top of the ship's tallest mast, took a deep breath, and shouted at the giant whale on the sea.

"Hey! You're Laboon, right?!"

Laboon's enormous eye slowly turned, heavily fixing its gaze upon Charlos atop the mast.

Facing the colossal creature, Charlos secretly marveled.

I'd only heard that it was huge. I never imagined it would be this terrifyingly enormous.

Standing atop the mast, Charlos shouted at the giant whale, "Why are you ramming into the Red Line?"

Laboon's huge eye shifted slightly, looking directly back toward the Red Line ahead. It completely ignored Charlos on the mast.

Charlos's heart sank slightly. Damn, it's just ignoring me?

At that moment, a figure leaped down from atop Laboon's massive head and landed steadily on the large ship's deck.

It was an elderly man with graying hair and round-framed glasses.

After landing, the old man adjusted the round glasses on his nose, looked up at Charlos atop the mast, and asked.

"Hey, brat, how did you know this whale is called Laboon?"