"Hey, Crocus," I spoke up. "I already know about Laboon's past, so if you don't mind, do you know if any ships have been sunk here in Laboon's stomach acid?"
He raised his eyebrow. "Why, yes, there have been. Why?"
I shrugged. "Just gonna find some extra treasure so that Nami doesn't murder me."
"Oh, I see."
I pulled some water out of the acid, wrapped it around my body in a thin, protective layer, and dived into the stomach-acid ocean. It was tinged green, like I've said before, and little bubbles floated everywhere. I swam down with some powerful strokes and noticed that the floor of this whale's stomach was littered with the skeletons of dead people. I shuddered at the sight. Seeing the broken skulls staring up at me like that was creepy.
At the bottom of the vat of acid, I found a ship that was still being eaten away. It was large, had holes all over it, and had a half-digested crow figurehead. I swam through one of the holes and began searching the rooms. I appeared to be in the boy's cabin, but I couldn't be sure. There was one chest, but it was empty. I supposed that at one time it must've contained clothes.
I pounded against the door, but it wasn't budging. I threw a mighty punch at it. The door splintered. With another punch and a kick, it was smashed to pieces. I swam through the hall I was now in and looked for the storage room or cargo hold. That was where any treasure was likely to be held.
About ten or fifteen minutes later, I resurfaced, dragging four large canvas bags with me. Two had been wrapped around my neck with some rope (kept dry because of my powers) and the other two were in my hands. Lucy was still trying to climb that palm tree—only the gods knew why—and the other Straw Hats were listening to Crocus's story, which was just finishing up.
"Oi, everyone!" I called, dripping water on the edge of the island/ship/resort. "I'm back!"
Nami turned to me and her eyes changed to belli signs, making me sweatdrop. Her face lit up. "Whoa! You hit the jackpot!" she approved. "That has to be at least 200,000 belli there! Maybe even 300,000!"
I blinked. "That much? Okay, you can keep all the belli I won from the contest, but I get all this treasure."
"EHHH? We'll split it fifty-fifty."
"What? No way! You didn't even do anything! Eighty-twenty me."
"Seventy-thirty me ."
"Sixty-forty ME."
Lucy erupted into giggles. "You two are funny!"
"SHUT UP!" we shouted in unison.
She pouted and went back to trying to climb the tree, muttering about meanies.
"Fine," I muttered. "I'll give you three of these bags, but I'll keep one of them, plus the bag of belli I already have."
The money-grubbing navigator shrugged. "Fair enough."
"This water pipe's incredible," said Usopp. "It's a bit surprising that he's still alive with such a huge tunnel inside of him." We had set sail again and were in a large, round passageway beyond the door in Laboon's stomach. As it turned out, this was the only way out of that whale. I just hoped that when we exited, he wasn't underwater.
"Is this your idea of having fun ?" Sanji added.
"This is my 'doctor' fun," Crocus admitted. He was sitting on his one-man resort, which was floating down the water pipe to the front right of the Going Merry.
"Doctor?" Zoro repeated.
I snickered. "This ship really echoes. And you guys need to pay more attention. Didn't I already explain to you that Crocus is trying to heal Laboon and that he had to make all of this because it's nearly impossible to treat a creature his size from the outside?"
"Oh, yeah."
"You're a bright young lass," said the ex-pirate.
I frowned. "No, I'm just a psychic." But secretly I was pleased.
"Yuril's right," Crocus continued. He already knew our names because we'd introduced ourselves after saving Vivi and Mr. 9. "I am this whale's doctor. Once upon a time I ran a clinic on this cape, and before that I was a ship's doctor."
Usopp stared at him in awe. "So you really were a member of Gold Roger's crew?"
"That's right. Roger was one of the most respectable men who ever lived, despite the fact that he was a pirate. He truly deserved to be called the pirate king."
"Who would've thought that we'd meet the doctor on Roger's ship inside the belly of a whale?" Nami mused. "I thought that the Marines had executed all of his crewmates, though."
Crocus snorted. "That's what they want you to think. In truth, we simply broke up and went our different ways after Roger was executed. I chose to run a clinic here on the Twin Capes. I heard that Silvers Rayleigh is somewhere near the other side of the Red Line. One of our cooks ran off with one of our snipers to the North Blue. I'm not sure about the rest."
"Really?" Lucy asked. "You were a doctor? Then you should be our ship's doctor! We still need one."
I shook my head in wonder. She was always two steps behind everyone else, that girl, and yet somehow she always knew just who to fight and who was a friend.
"Don't be stupid," the old man chuckled. "Unlike you six young'ins, I don't have the energy to go around doing foolhardy things anymore." His ship halted next to another iron ladder, which he quickly scaled.
I raised an eyebrow. "Says the guy who stopped two cannonballs with his body."
He reached the top and turned to me. "That was an accident."
"Sure. You accidentally ran to the edge of a fifty-foot high platform and jumped directly into the path of two cannonballs. Pure accident."
Crocus ignored me and hurried to the end of the catwalk he was now on. "Enough with this nonsense," he said, gripping a wheel. "Here we go!" He twisted it and the passageway in front of us slid apart, allowing me to realize it was actually two enormous retractable doors. Light crept through the widening crack, and I saw that the water in the pipe was just that—actual water, not stomach acid. The Merry passed through the doors and emerged under the blue sky.
I grinned. "We're finally outta there!"
"WE'RE OUT!" Lucy cheered, standing on the broken figurehead triumphantly. "IT'S THE REAL SKY!"
"But 50 years?" Nami frowned, thinking about Laboon's story.
Usopp scowled. "Those dumb pirates sure are making him wait a long time. If they're dead, that's one thing, but if they escaped..."
"Didn't Yuril say they died in the Florian Triangle?" Sanji remembered. "That's very likely. This is the Grand Line we're talking about. There are all kinds of nasty ways to die here."
"And the Florian Triangle's one of the most mysterious parts of the Grand Line," I added. "It's a triangle-shaped stretch of sea between the City of Water, Water 7, and Fishman Island that all ships on that path must pass through if they wish to get to the end of the Grand Line. And every year, hundreds of ships disappear there. The Rumbar Pirates, the pirate who Laboon followed to the Twin Capes, sailed through that stretch of sea about fifty years ago and never came out. Only one of their crew is still alive, and he's sailing that dark triangle blindly, unable to come out into the sunlight. His name is Brook and he's a walking, talking skeleton now because of the Revive-Revive Fruit."
"A skeleton!?" Nami shrieked. Usopp made a strangled yelp of fear and hid behind Lucy, who blinked at him in confusion. "H-H-He's a ghost!?"
I shook my head. "Nah, he's alive. In fact, he's as afraid of ghosts as the next guy."
She stared at me through half-lidded eyes, though still quivering. "A ghost who's afraid of other ghosts."
"Well, the gods still believe in God. And no, Brook's alive. Not a ghost. The devil fruit he ate allowed him to come back to life, but by the time he found his body again, it was already a skeleton. He's gonna join our crew. He needs to in order to keep his promise with Laboon."
Crocus frowned, back on his resort. "So that's what happened to those fellows, eh? That's too bad. At least Brook is still alive. He was one of Laboon's favorites."
"A skeleton?" Lucy asked me, eyes sparkling. "He's a walking skeleton!? Cool!"
"WE ARE NOT LETTING A SKELETON BE ON OUR CREW!" Nami roared, a fiery aura erupting around, her face looking like a shark.
I glared at her, my eye twitching. "YES WE ARE!"
"NO WAY!"
"DEAL WITH IT!"
"YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE WHO JOINS!" she pointed out.
"Oi, break it up," Zoro cut in.
I thought about that one. Nami was right. I wasn't the captain. I couldn't say who was joining or who wasn't. But Lucy, on the other hand, was, and she already seemed captivated by the fact that Brook was a skeleton... plus he had another quality that would greatly appeal to her.
I turned to Lucy, much to the others' surprise. I grinned evilly at Nami, then told my captain, "Hey, did I mention that Brook is a musician?"
Cue sparkles. "REALLY!? Yahoo! Everyone, we're getting Brook to join our crew!"
I smirked at Nami, who was crying anime tears and had a depressed aura around her. "Yuril: 1, Nami: 0," I snickered.
"SHUT UP!"
Crocus sighed. "Even if you do find Brook and get him to join your crew, unless you find a way back here, to the Twin Capes, the deep scars in Laboon's heart will still be there. And the Grand Line is a dangerous place. The seasons, the tides, the weather... they all go about in unpredictable patterns. Common sense and logic is worthless in this ocean. The terror of the Grand Line quickly overwhelms the weak of heart."
I grinned. "Good thing none of us have weak hearts, eh?"
Nami looked from Laboon to the old man. "But if you know all this, why haven't you told him? Wouldn't it be easier on him if he knew the truth? He seems to understand human speech remarkably well for a whale."
"The whale knows everything Crocus knows," I said. "When we were riding that current on Reverse Mountain, I was able to translate Laboon's moans as, Give me back my friends ! He refuses to believe they aren't coming back, instead believing that the Rumbar Pirates are on the other side of the Red Line, and that it is the only thing keeping them from coming back."
"How sad," Usopp sniffed. "What a touching story!"
"His home is the West Blue," said the doctor, "and now he's too big to even go home. All he wanted was to continue to be nakama with those good-natured pirates."
I blinked. "Oi, where's Lucy?"
Suddenly an angry roar rose up from the middle of the ship, and I swiveled around to see none other than Lucy carrying almost all of the mast and taking a running leap onto Laboon. I stared, my eye twitching. All my stuff was in the crow's nest, which was on the mast. This would include the belli I won in the Loguetown contest, my suitcase, my iPod, and my laptop. And now, because of Lucy's incredible stupidity, they were falling into the ocean.
"LUCY!" I roared. "YOU JUST DUMPED EVERYTHING I OWN INTO THE SEA!" I immediately willed them to be dry, just in time, too. They hit the sea with a splash and began sinking. "That idiot," I sighed, summoning my stuff out of the ocean.
"He does realize that's our mast, right?" Usopp asked in a deadpan tone.
"Lucy-chan!" Sanji cooed. "Are you feeling all right? Do you need me to make you a calming cup of English tea? What are you doing?"
"Looks like he's going mountain climbing," Zoro remarked as Lucy tore up the side of the humongous Island Whale.
Our idiot captain reached Laboon's head and gave another high-pitched roar. "Gum-Gum..." she shouted. "FLOWER ARRANGEMENT!" And she stabbed the mast into the whale's head.
"That's the mast, right?" Zoro was saying in calm anger.
Sanji nodded. "Yep. Our only mast."
"Right off of our ship," Usopp sighed. "QUIT BREAKING THE SHIP, IDIOT!"
Laboon roared, tears building up in his eyes, and he splashed around in the sea, throwing a giant wave of water over our ship. All of us were crying anime tears and shouting, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?"
The enormous whale leaped up into the sky and Lucy clung onto the top of the mast for dear life, shouting in surprise. Laboon landed on the flat surface of Reverse Mountain just at the bottom of it, tearing a thick line in the rock with the mast and then stopping.
"OI, GIRL!" Crocus yelled in a panic. "STOP THAT! YOU'LL BE KILLED!"
I shook my head at Lucy's idiocy. "Nope, it'll take more than that to kill Lucy. She won't die even if she's crushed."
"She's more of a monster than monsters," Nami agreed.
I thought back to those Archetypes I'd fought on Conomi Island. Well... maybe she wasn't more of a monster than those things. They'd been pure evil .
Lucy and the whale sparred for a few minutes, Laboon slamming into her and throwing her back into the lighthouse on the cape, and Lucy landing a few rubbery punches on his head. Then, just as the lonely whale was rearing in for another attack, Lucy put up her hand in a stopping sign. "It's a draw," she announced, grinning.
Laboon froze and looked at her in confusion.
Lucy wiped her mouth. "Your old nakama used to spar with you, didn't they?" she asked. "I can always tell when someone's itching to fight. Well, tell ya what. My crew and I are gonna sail the world and find the One Piece. When we come back, we'll finish this fight. But I better warn ya, I'll be a lot stronger than I am now."
There was a pause where neither of them made a move. Then Laboon reared back and moaned at the sky. "' It's a deal, Straw Hat girl!' ...He says," I translated, grinning.
Crocus stared at Lucy in awe.