Chapter 19: The Island Whale, Laboon

One again, I have received the review count I asked for, so, once again, you lovely readers have earned another Wednesday chapter. Here, we have the entrance of the Grand Line and our favorite whale, so let us begin.

Oh, and to Nwandu225: Thank you so much for your extensive review. I was elated read your opinion. As I mentioned, I try to have a 2k word minimum and, while some chapters may fall just short, others can be one-and-a-half times that length. It is simply my comfort zone. Enjoy.

Chapter 19:

The Island Whale, Laboon

It took eight days to get to the entrance to Reverse Summit and the ride up and over was the thrill of a lifetime for all. Gin had been up the mountain once before, but that did nothing to detract from the awe of going again. Nami had explained a few hours before going up about how the stream worked through heavy currents. Luffy, of course, had not understood a single word of the explanation and had taken to calling it a "mystery mountain" while Zoro had not believed it to be possible. Reaching the top of the mountain, the Going Merry nearly flipped before turning to the only stream going down.

"Woo!" Luffy cheered, an arm wrapped around the top of the mast as the wind resistance caused his body to flail backwards. "This is the best!"

"My ears!" Coby cried, the sudden ride up and the subsequent descent causing his eardrums to pop far more times than was recommended.

WHAAAAA

"What was that?!" Nami yelled over the rushing wind.

"What was what?!" Usopp yelled back. "I can't hear anything over the wind!"

"Maybe it was the sound of my love?!" Sanji swooned, slipping backwards since he let go of the railing to offer the woman a hug.

WHAAAAA

"No, that!" the navigator answered, waving the flirtatious cook off. "You heard it that time, right?!"

"I heard something!" Coby offered. "Don't know what, though! It almost sounded like a foghorn!"

"Oh shit!" Gin yelled from the mast, the sight of a big black hump appearing through the mist at the bottom of the mountain. "There's an island whale at the bottom! We have to turn or we'll hit it!"

"Coby!" Luffy ordered. "Usopp! Sanji! To the rudder!" The trio ran to the turning point of the ship and started pulling, but the current was too strong. The rudder broke with a loud crack.

"We have to slow down!" Zoro yelled.

"The rudder broke!" Usopp panicked.

"Why didn't you mention the whale before?!" Nami shouted at Gin.

"It wasn't in our way last time!" Gin snapped back. They were getting closer and the Straw Hats thought it was going to be the end of them. Luffy ran to the inside cannon. With his crew's screams in his ears, he fired, the opposite momentum slowing them to the point that only the figurehead broke rather than the whole ship, the ram-shaped wood falling onto the deck with a thump. Luffy didn't seem to care that they were lucky for only that amount of damage, though.

"You bastard!" he shouted at the whale, a large, black animal whose entire nose was covered in great, crisscrossing scars. Zoro and Gin rowed around the large mammal as fast as they could to try to avoid an incident. "That was my special seat!" The captain threw his arm forward, nailing the giant in its giant eye.

"You idiot!" everyone yelled, Nami going the extra mile and hitting her boyfriend over the head as hard as she could. The whale's mouth opened, sucking in gallons upon gallons of water, and the Going Merry with it.

The Straw Hats had just been eaten by a whale.

It was a bumpy trip down the animal's gullet, throwing the seven-person crew around their ship. The chef, the sniper, and the pink-haired boy were relatively unharmed in the dining room where the rudder was located, but Nami slammed into Luffy and Gin was thrown over the side.

"Man overboard!" Zoro called from where he'd crashed into some barrels. Luffy hopped up, one arm around Nami to keep her close and make standing faster. His other arm stretched over the side in Gin's general direction. It bounced around for a few moments before he felt something latch on and pulled it in.

"Look, guys!" Luffy joked as he hauled the Man-Demon onto the deck. "I caught a big one!"

"Now isn't the time for jokes, Captain Luffy," Coby whined, a large bruise on the right side of his face from where some of Usopp's flailing had been too close. Seeing no immediate danger, most of the crew took in their surroundings while Sanji eyed Luffy's left arm, which was still around Nami's shoulders, with disdain.

They seemed to be on a green sea. Fluffy white clouds hung in an azure sky. Birds could be seen soaring through them, but their calls were nowhere to be heard. A tiny island seemed to bob in the water, a tiny house atop it. Their view of the island was suddenly obscured by a giant, pink beast.

"Giant squid!" Nami, Coby, and Usopp screamed, the latter two grabbing each other in fear and the former grabbing the captain. The monster trio smirked in excitement, ready for a fight. Three harpoons sprouted from its head in three spurts of blood before the squid fell backwards, dead. Following the lines from the fired weapons, the crew saw a man in the doorway of the house.

"Could it be?" Gin mumbled before the man stepped into the light. He was an older man who was balding, but his lack of hair was augmented by the purple-and-yellow feathers that made up a plume-like thing on the back of his head. A Hawaiian shirt and purple shorts covered his form, and a round pair of glasses sat on his face. "It is. Old Man Crocus."

"You know this guy?" Zoro asked, eyeing the stranger warily.

"Yeah," the former Krieg pirate answered. "He greeted us the last time I entered the Grand Line and gave us a log pose."

"Hi!" Luffy waved, releasing Nami from his grip. "That was really cool, but can you tell us where we are?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the other man asked. "You were just swallowed by an island whale."

"We were eaten?!" Usopp panicked, again. "We're all gonna die!"

"Oh calm down, boy," Crocus placated. "I can get you out easy enough, but-"

There was an explosion that cut the man off. The whale cried out in pain as all attention was dragged to the two eccentric figures on the metal balcony that the pirates had not noticed before. There was a man and a woman, both armed with rocket launchers.

The man had medium-length ginger hair, a dark green vest with a red ascot, and a crown on his head. Two marks like the number nine were painted on his cheeks, one under each eye. He also had green disco pants and shiny, black boots.

The woman had long, light blue hair in a single ponytail and pale skin. She was dressed in a purple and pale-blue zigzag crop top that accentuated her assets, a light green coat, and white shorts. She also wore heeled boots to make her the same height as her apparent partner.

"It seems that wasn't enough, Ms. Wednesday," the man commented.

"Indeed not, Mr. 9," Ms. Wednesday agreed. The pair prepped their weapons again, but Luffy was faster. His hands shot out, grabbing the man's shirt and the woman's hair, and pulled them to the Merry. The duo lost their grips on their weapons as they were pulled through the air. The man, Mr. 9, landed with a thud on the deck that knocked him unconscious. Sanji reached out and caught Ms. Wednesday, but rather than saying thank you, she smacked the chef for thinking he was having lecherous thoughts. (If the hearts in his eyes were of any indication, she may not have been that far from the truth.)

With Sanji and the mystery man out cold, Nami tied up Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9 and Coby tried to awaken the chef. Crocus explained that they were from a company that had been trying to hunt Laboon, the whale, for several months to use him as food, but he'd fended them off. The pirates, Crocus, and their two hostages exited through a large metal door in the side of the whale.

When Usopp questioned the morality of hollowing out a living whale, Crocus told him of his bond with Laboon and how he came to be the whale's caretaker. That was over 50 years ago and Laboon had been hitting his head on the Red Line for all that time, convinced that his friends were still alive and traveling.

Luffy, of course, decided that Laboon just wanted a good fight and attacked while everyone else either called him an idiot or started repairing the ship, the most noticeable addition being the steel plate holding the figurehead in place, almost looking like a choker. In the end, Luffy called his fight with Laboon a draw and pained his disfigured drawing of the Straw Hat jolly roger on the whale's scarred head, forcing Laboon to stop beating it against the Red Line lest the skull-and-crossbones be ruined and their deal for Luffy to return be off.

The captive agents had tried to escape, but the ropes holding them had been too tight for them to wiggle out of. They managed to jump over the side of the Red Line but were unable to swim, forcing Gin and Sanji to rescue them from drowning. Bending down, Coby picked up a weird-looking compass on a watch strap from the deck; the agents' log pose.

"Hey, Gin?" the boy asked. "Is this one of those log poses you and Nami were talking about?"

"Yeah," Gin responded, taking it from his grip. "We should give it to Donna Nami since she's the navigator."

"Hey!" Mr. 9 cried out. "That's my log pose! Give it back!"

"Pirates," Gin gave as an explanation. He took the navigation tool to the orange-haired girl, passing by Sanji who was on his way to prepare the elephant bluefin tuna he'd gotten in Louge Town. While he did that and Nami talked with Crocus about the weather patterns in the Grand Line, everyone else got busy either helping to repair the ship from the beating it took or training on the shore by Crocus' lighthouse.

The table was set. Everyone was eating, drinking, being merry, and defending their plates rather well from Luffy's thievery when Ms. Wednesday swallowed her pride and spoke up.

"Could..." she swallowed. "Could you please take us back to our home?" she asked. The woman seemed pained by the words. Suddenly, her stomach growled, followed by that of her partner.

"Not until you apologize for trying to kill Laboon," Luffy answered through a mouthful of fish.

"I cannot apologize," the woman responded. "We were hunting the whale to help feed our home because there is a food shortage. I can only promise that we will not hunt this whale again." Her stomach growled again, causing the blunette to blush.

"I guess I can understand that. Coby, cut their ropes. I'm inviting them to eat with us."

"Are you sure that is wise, Don Luffy?" Gin questioned as Coby stood, taking his plate with him due to knowledge that it would be raided if he left it. Two swift cuts later and the duo were free of their bonds. "I don't think they're trustworthy," Gin finished.

"Might I remind you of your origins before joining this crew?" Zoro pointed out.

"...Touché."

Ms. Wednesday shuffled over to the table, Mr. 9 trailing behind. Sanji had set up a fancy seat for her (complete with a glass of wine) and a lawn chair for the male. The Love Cook proceeded to shamelessly dote on both Ms. Wednesday and Nami, the latter not bothered at all and the former very.

"So what happened to your boat?" Nami asked, trying to make conversation.

"It was destroyed by a storm," the other woman answered bluntly.

"And you thought you could carry the whale back without a ship?"

"Yes."

"Oh... Uh, where do you live?"

"A town called Whisky Peak. It's one of the first islands in the Grand Line."

"Then tha' sounds like our des'ination," Luffy interjected. Nami smacked him for talking with his mouth full.

"So you'll take us home?" Ms. Wednesday asked hopefully.

"Sure," Luffy swallowed. "Why not? We needed to pick a route anyway." That settled, lunch became a more subdued affair. Luffy continued to snag food from all but Nami, but he became less successful as the meal went on.

With lunch over and the Going Merry repaired, they crew plus two prepared to depart on their first adventure into the Grand Line.

"Let's go!" Luffy cheered from his special seat. "Onward! To Whisky Peak!"

End of Chapter 19

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-SwordOfTheGods