Fortunately for the Heart Pirates' captain's sanity, old Crocus intervened in time and mentioned that he possessed his own Log Pose. Unfortunately for that same sanity, Crocus owned only a single one.
"That's no problem!" Nami sent Law one of her most charming smiles. "We'll travel together as far as the next island, and there will definitely be spare Log Poses there!"
Law's crew, bribed by Sanji's divine food and robbed of their brains by Nami's beauty, began chattering happily, giving the girl's proposal their complete and enthusiastic approval. Luffy and Zoro's strength served as an additional argument: with people like that among your friends, no enemy was frightening. Only Law himself understood that with friends like those, enemies were unnecessary. However, understanding that was one thing, and being able to do anything about it was another. No matter how one looked at the matter, there was only one Log Pose. Waiting for another crew intending to enter through Reverse Mountain was not an acceptable alternative either. According to Crocus, sometimes dozens of ships belonging to different crews—or an entire armada led by one person—might descend from the mountain in a single day. At other times, several months passed before another vessel appeared. Law had no desire to remain trapped in one place for months… and he was not certain his newly acquired 'friends' would allow him to do so. In his opinion, the destruction of every Log Pose looked far too suspicious, especially the last one. On the other hand, there had been no need to break the last one, since it was already the last. Or had they predicted in advance that Crocus possessed a spare? What would have happened if he had several? Law could only speculate, but he maintained maximum vigilance. For the Surgeon of Death, the situation began to resemble a double-edged sword. On one side, he had gained an opportunity to observe the Pirate Slayers for longer. On the other, traveling together with such a crew might easily end in catastrophe.
In the end, after it had been decided that they would sail together—the Heart Pirates' captain's opinion was not considered by anyone, including his own crew and first mate—everyone returned to the interrupted feast. Sanji's enthusiasm showed no sign of weakening, so new dishes appeared on the table almost faster than the pirates could consume the old ones.
At some point, the conversation inevitably turned toward the history of the whale and old Crocus. It would have been stranger if no one had asked sooner, especially Johnny with his exaggerated curiosity. In the end, Usopp raised the subject. The long-nosed young man possessed the least experience in the family with bizarre encounters and incidents, so a whale with a painted stomach and iron doors in its body was practically tearing his mind apart.
"Laboon and I have known each other for many years," Crocus admitted when the long-overdue question was finally asked. Complete silence immediately descended over the entire table. Everyone was interested to some degree in the story of the whale and Crocus, so they all instantly listened with full attention. "He entered the Grand Line as a very small calf, having followed a pirate crew from the West Blue that had become his family. But the Grand Line is too dangerous for a little whale, so the crew persuaded him to remain here with me and wait for their return."
"The Grand Line is dangerous for a little whale?" Johnny muttered involuntarily. Everyone looked toward the whale, whose scar-covered head still rose from the water and could easily have passed for a full-sized island. "Old man, how quickly do whales from the West Blue grow?" he immediately asked after estimating the size of the "little calf."
"Quite quickly," Crocus replied calmly after taking a drink from his mug of beer. "Laboon reached his present size in only twenty years."
"Twenty years?!" Usopp's eyes rounded. "Are you saying those pirates left him with you more than twenty years ago?!"
"I suppose the pirate crew died?" Yosaku reached the most obvious conclusion. "It is the Grand Line, after all."
A bitter expression appeared on old Crocus's face.
"If only… They simply ran away."
"Ran away?! And abandoned the whale alone?!" Usopp failed to restrain himself again. "How do you know?!"
"As the years passed and they never returned, I assumed they were dead. Laboon refused even to listen to me, so I decided to set out and learn the truth for myself. I was fortunate enough to meet a decent pirate crew willing to take me aboard as their ship's doctor. In time, while traveling with them, I learned the truth… But when I eventually returned and told Laboon, he still refused to believe me. That was when he first raised his voice toward the sky beyond the cape and then began his insane assault upon the Red Line."
"An assault on the Red Line?!" The same question sounded from every direction at once.
"The pirates who left him promised they would return after reaching the opposite side of the Red Line. If they never do, then his whole life was wasted, his long wait was meaningless, and to him that is worse than death. For more than twenty years, Laboon has tried to break through to the other side of the Red Line. If he does not stop his madness soon, he will simply die. But my words cannot reach him."
"Now I understand what syringe Zoro was talking about," Yosaku remarked, somewhat off topic. "And the strange shaking when we were inside the whale makes sense too. He was attacking the Red Line at that moment, and you injected him with a sedative, right?"
"Correct." Crocus nodded. "As I already said, Laboon became too large for me to treat from the outside, so I had to do what I did."
"I don't know, old man. Seems to me you could have done nothing at all, couldn't you?" one of Trafalgar's men said. "After all, you owed nothing to the whale or to the pirates who left him with you. Even now, you have no obligation to do anything."
"Perhaps not, but Laboon and I share more than fifty years of history."
"FIFTY?!"
"You said twenty!" Johnny immediately accused him.
"I set sail in search of the pirates roughly twenty-five years after their disappearance," Crocus corrected him. "But more than twenty years have passed since my return. Altogether, that makes approximately fifty years."
"…"
"…"
"…"
After that revelation, the subject of Laboon and Crocus's relationship faded by itself, but it certainly did not pass without consequences. As could be expected from someone whose epithet had recently included the word 'Merciful,' Nami could not allow a whale with such a tragic history to die. Luffy categorically disagreed. He announced that if someone wanted to 'kill himself by smashing his head against a wall,' then that was his sacred, almost legal right. Afterward, Luffy himself was nearly killed against the aforementioned wall. As a result, Nami awakened her inner Luffy—that is, ignored everyone else's opinion, including Luffy's—and began conducting long daily psychotherapy sessions with the whale.
Those sessions lasted for an entire two weeks.
In the end, Laboon was fantastically fortunate that the therapy finally worked. Had it continued for another few days, Luffy would certainly have managed to wear Zoro down, after which the swordsman would have sliced the 'emo-whale' into pieces. 'Emo-whale,' because: 'He's been smearing snot across his face for more than twenty years. It even left scars!' As one could easily understand, Luffy was not delighted by such a long delay, especially for such a 'stupid' reason. Of course, he could have disposed of the 'annoying emo-whale' himself, but entirely reasonable fears restrained him: even if Nami eventually forgave him, it would not happen soon, and she would certainly never forget. But what could anyone expect from Zoro? A maniac was a maniac. Nevertheless, after walking along the very edge, the whale finally found the strength to regain his senses. Luffy still recorded Laboon as owing him a debt—never mind that Nami had done all the work while he himself had wanted to kill the whale. Consequently, Laboon acquired an enormous painted emblem of the Straw Hat Pirates across his gigantic head. The Heart Pirates painted it under Usopp's direction, together with strict instructions that Laboon show his head to every vessel entering the Grand Line. Publicity was publicity.
"I'll return in a few years to check, and if I don't find our flag on your head, you'll have only yourself to blame!" Luffy threatened in parting.
Despite his tone and words, Laboon's eyes practically shone with happiness. Many people immediately realized that all they had needed from the beginning was to give the whale some reason to live and continue waiting—even the smallest reason—and the previous two weeks could have been avoided. At that moment, Luffy began radiating almost tangible killing intent. Had he originally chosen to help Nami restore Laboon's desire to live instead of planning to have someone else kill him, the psychotherapy might have succeeded during the very first session. Naturally, in Luffy's eyes absolutely everyone except himself was to blame.
During those entire two weeks, Trafalgar Law never saw another ship from which he could borrow a Log Pose. True irony of fate: first give a man hope, then shatter it. Or perhaps that was not irony, but merely the ordinary truth of life. What Law failed to understand, despite all his intelligence, was that after two weeks of close contact with the insane Straw Hat family, leaving them was already impossible. Not once they had taken a liking to you. Moreover, close contact with Luffy had never left anyone unchanged, and when the entire family joined in at once, no chance of escape remained. Koby could confirm that.
In the end, the Heart Pirates and the Straw Hat Pirates began their first journey through the Grand Line together. In the future, that would appear deeply symbolic. Their first voyage after their first meeting with the commander of the First Division. What could possibly have been more symbolic?
========== END OF CHAPTER 1 ==========