Adam's "booming" voice rang out inside the Guild.
"Ah, yeah, I'll have to head out again for a while to take care of a few little things."
Barn dug his pinky into his ear, which was aching a little from the noise, and spoke.
"Master, please don't leave again. Lia's so worried about you!"
Just then, a soft, sweet voice reached Barn's ears. It belonged to his little apprentice, the young blacksmith Lia.
Hearing Lia, Barn crouched down, rested a hand on her head, and ruffled her hair as he spoke affectionately.
"Little Lia, your master will be fine. Even when I'm away, you'll still have that brat Adam, won't you? If anyone bullies you, go find him. He'll take good care of you."
Little Lia enjoyed having Barn stroke her head. She immediately gave him a sweet smile and murmured her agreement.
Barn turned his head toward Adam and said with a broad smile,
"You'll take 'good care' of Lia, won't you? Hmm?"
There was clearly a deeper meaning behind Barn's smiling question.
Adam had been straining his ears to listen to the conversation between his master and his junior apprentice. Now that Barn had asked him that question, his face turned bright red.
"Huh? Ah, yes! I'll definitely take good care of little... Lia."
"Ha ha, hahahaha!"
Hearing Adam stammer, Barn could already picture his embarrassment and couldn't help laughing aloud.
"What are you laughing at, you lousy master!"
Barn shook his head and chuckled.
"Ah, love is in the air! Heh heh. Fitz, let's go!"
"Chirp, chirp!"
Seeing his master leave, Fitz immediately followed him out, leaving Adam alone in the room again.
"Spring? But it's clearly autumn outside..."
"You're saying you want to build a house? Inside a whale?"
Golden Lion stared at Barn in disbelief as he spoke.
"Yes. I've made up my mind!"
Barn clapped his hands on the shore. A huge shadow appeared beneath the sea, then burst through the surface-a gigantic whale whose forehead was covered in alarming scars. It was Laboon.
Seeing that Barn had called him, Laboon excitedly nudged him with his head and let out a cheerful cry.
Golden Lion finally recovered from the stunned daze Barn's earlier announcement had left him in, then asked,
"Even if you want to build a house inside this whale, how are you going to..."
Before Golden Lion could finish, he was interrupted. Barn tapped Laboon's mouth, and Laboon obediently opened it with a smile. With Fitz perched on his head, Barn walked straight inside...
"...get in?"
Only after Barn had gone inside did Golden Lion finish his question. The scene before him felt utterly unreal.
Barn got eaten?
That was Golden Lion's first thought.
But suddenly, a flashlight came flying out of Laboon's wide-open mouth, heading straight for Golden Lion's head!
Golden Lion reached out and caught it. For someone as powerful as him, that hardly posed a challenge.
At the same time, Barn's voice rang out again.
"Hurry up! What are you dawdling for, Shiki!"
It was Barn's voice, coming from inside the whale.
Still dubious, Golden Lion switched on the flashlight and used his ability to fly into the whale's mouth.
"Whoa, are we really inside that whale? What's with all these pipes and wires everywhere?"
Golden Lion had entered Laboon's body, but instead of the fleshy walls he had imagined, he found something resembling a steel fortress. Naturally, he was stunned...
"Huh? Really? Crocus probably did it. He mentioned painting inside Laboon's stomach."
Barn recalled what Laboon's insides had looked like after Crocus remodeled them in the anime he had watched in his previous life. He hadn't expected the work to be finished this early, but he wasn't particularly interested, because he couldn't see...
One flying and the other walking, the two arrived in an open space.
The place felt suddenly vast and open, with light, a sea, an island, and even seagulls-at least, that was what Golden Lion saw.
"Did we come out through the whale's anus?! I don't remember an island like this nearby!"
Golden Lion froze. He would never have guessed that this was Laboon's stomach, though the idea certainly sounded a little fantastical...
Barn couldn't see any of it. He kept walking, then stepped straight into the "sea"...
"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."
"What's that sound?"
Golden Lion heard a strange noise...
"Yeah, I hear it too. For some reason, my foot seems to hurt a little."
Hearing that, Golden Lion naturally looked down at Barn's foot. It was standing in the green "sea," with bubbles rising around it amid a steady hissing sound...
"Ah! So that's where the sound's coming from! You idiot! That's stomach acid! Get out! Is your foot okay?"
Golden Lion hauled Barn out of the stomach acid, only to discover that the shoe on that foot was already gone...
Golden Lion wiped the sweat from his forehead. A moment later, and a powerful fighter might have inexplicably ended up disabled...
Only then did Golden Lion notice that the seagulls, coconut trees, and everything else above Laboon's stomach were painted on. Even the "sun" was nothing more than a large light bulb. He finally realized they were still inside the whale!
"You really want to build a house somewhere like this?"
Golden Lion looked at Barn as though asking, "Are you sure there's nothing wrong with your head?"
"Yes, exactly. I can't see, so I can't sail on my own. But with Laboon, I can go anywhere I want!"
Barn "looked" at Golden Lion and said with a smile.
Golden Lion slapped his forehead, his expression saying, "You're hopeless."
In the end, Barn built his house inside Laboon's stomach. Unlike Crocus, however, he also built a bridge over the sea of stomach acid, at Adam's insistence...
"Where are we going now?"
Golden Lion asked as he and Barn sat drinking in the little house on the island in the middle of Laboon's stomach.
"The Sabaody Archipelago! It's been ages since I last saw Whitebeard, so I'll go catch up with him. Oh, and I'll need your ability to get Laboon over Reverse Mountain."
Barn poured the liquor in his hand down his throat, then spoke.
"Whitebeard, huh? It's been a while since I last saw him too. Heh heh, let's set off, then!"
Barn nodded and called out.
"Fitz!"
A little purple bird flew in from outside, landed on Barn's head, and bent down to look at him upside down.
"Go tell Laboon: the Sabaody Archipelago!"
"Chirp, chirp!"
Fitz gently pecked Barn's forehead, then flew out. He emerged through Laboon's blowhole and chirped at him several times.
"Chirp, chirp, chirp! (The Sabaody Archipelago.)"
Laboon gave a few cheerful cries, then submerged once Fitz had flown back inside him.
Laboon was happy. He could finally sail with his companions...
After using Golden Lion's ability to get Laboon over Reverse Mountain and saying hello to Crocus, the two "rode" Laboon to the Sabaody Archipelago...
"Pops, we're here! Are we heading to the East Blue to find Mr. Barn now?"
The Moby Dick emerged from beneath the sea, coated in a soap-bubble membrane. The coating burst apart, and Marco's excited voice rang out at the same time.
"Mm!"
Whitebeard gave a steady nod.
"Pops! There's another ship underwater beside us!"
"Huh? No way. Didn't we just check that ours was the only ship?"
Marco looked over in disbelief.
The shadow rapidly expanded, then Laboon's scar-covered head broke through the surface.
"W-w-w-whoa! It's a whale!"
Laboon's sudden appearance startled Marco so badly that he fell onto the deck.
Then he saw a man fly out of the whale's blowhole. The man glanced at Whitebeard and spoke.
"Whitebeard? What are you doing here?"
Whitebeard looked up at him too.
"So it's you, you golden-haired mutt! Gurararara!"
A vein bulged on Golden Lion's forehead, and his expression instantly darkened.
Just then, another man climbed out of the whale's blowhole. It was Barn!
"Mr. Barn!"
Marco cried out excitedly.
Barn smiled and "looked" at Marco, giving him a nod, then turned his head toward Whitebeard and said,
"We meet again, Whitebeard."