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Of course, Bai Ye wasn't about to say, Because I watched the anime~
Instead, he casually flipped his wrist and pulled out an old, faded photo.
"After the Pirate King conquered the Grand Line for the second time, he showed up in Loguetown in East Blue and took this rare photo at a bar called 'Gol D. Roger'."
Bai Ye explained, pointing at a man in the photo.
"It's been 25 years, but your bright crimson afro is still unmistakable, old man."
Nami and the others passed the photo around and looked closely at the person he was pointing to.
"Yeah… that really does look like him." They all agreed.
"Hahaha, you guys are really something."
By this point, Crocus knew there was no point hiding anything and admitted who he really was.
"Hey, Luffy! Aren't you gonna ask the old man where Raftel is? That'd help us get there faster, right?"
Usopp suddenly asked.
"Nope!"
Luffy smiled, as if he honestly didn't care.
"I wanna find it myself. That's our adventure."
"Hahaha, not bad, Straw Hat Kid."
Crocus burst out laughing, clearly impressed.
Then he shared with the crew all kinds of tips and warnings about sailing the Grand Line.
And when he found out that Luffy's straw hat had once belonged to that red-haired brat Shanks, the way he looked at Luffy changed again.
A few days later, the Log Pose Nami had bought finally finished locking onto the next island.
The Straw Hat crew said their goodbyes to Crocus and Laboon and continued their journey.
Crocus stood on the shore, watching the Merry sail off, Laboon by his side.
One more thing—before Luffy drew the pirate flag on Laboon's head, Bai Ye gave the whale a healing pill to help his wounds fade completely.
Crocus watched this in quiet amazement.
"That's one hell of a pirate crew."
Thinking back on the past few days, Crocus couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.
"Are they... the ones we've been waiting for?"
He muttered to himself, "Shanks gave that hat to this kid..."
"He really is something else."
"Right, Roger?"
But what none of them realized… was that from the very beginning, two people had been watching them from a nearby reef.
"Mr. 9, are you sure you've got the right group?"
A blue-haired girl lowered her binoculars and glanced at the blond man next to her, whose face had two big 9s on it.
"No mistake, Mr. Wednesday."
The man lowered his binoculars too.
"Even if I got the faces wrong, there's no mistaking that Straw Hat flag."
"They're the Straw Hat Pirates—the East Blue crew that got a 240 million bounty on their first wanted poster."
These two were members of Baroque Works. Their original mission was to kill Laboon and bring him back to the town as meat.
But after spotting the infamous Straw Hat Pirates, they wisely dropped the idea of attacking head-on.
This just goes to show how much Bai Ye's presence had already changed the course of events without even meaning to.
The man pulled out a newspaper from his coat, opened it, and pointed to a photo.
"And that's their captain."
The blue-haired girl looked at the photo.
A boy wearing a straw hat, smiling brightly at the camera.
Behind him, smoke rose from some kind of wreckage.
"Monkey D. Luffy, huh?"
The girl murmured, locking eyes on the headline above the picture—
"The Boy Who Walked Away from the Pirate King's Execution Platform—The Next One?"
She looked down, lost in thought.
The man's voice continued,"Judging by their course, they're probably headed straight there."
"Can't tell if they're lucky or unlucky..."
"That's the last place a pirate crew should be going."
Then he turned to the blue-haired girl and said,"Alright, let's go tell Mr. Wednesday. We'll head back to town first and let them know what's going on."
"Who knows—might save us from getting punished for failing the mission."
The blue-haired girl nodded in agreement.
The weather on the Grand Line is totally nuts.
One second it's all sunshine and clear skies—Next second? Bam. It's like spring turned into full-blown winter.
Thick snowflakes started falling, covering the Going Merry in a soft white layer.
"This is awesome, Sanji.I feel like I came back to life after drinking this."
Bai Ye sipped the hot tea Sanji had made and gave him a grateful look.
Sanji froze for a second at the compliment—Then immediately kicked Luffy who was standing next to him.
"Learn from him, you freeloader!"
He was so pissed he even added a bit of Haki to that kick.
Luffy: "Huh?! What'd I do?!"
"Hey, hey, hey, Luffy! Check this out!"
Usopp shouted, all excited:"Feast your eyes on this masterpiece I poured my soul into—""My snow sculpture! The Snow Queen!!"
"WHOA!!"
Luffy totally forgot he just got kicked.
His eyes lit up as he ran over to Usopp:"That's amazing, Usopp!"
And then—
BAM! BAM!
Nami, fists clenched and looking ready to kill, yelled,"Get back to shoveling snow! Quit messing around!"
Luffy, Usopp: "We're sorry!" x2
Just then, Zoro shouted from the crow's nest:"Hey, Nami! There's an iceberg dead ahead!"
"What?!" Nami turned pale."Usopp, turn the rudder!""Luffy, get the sails down!"
"Move, move, move! ... Phew. That was close."
Gotta say—sailing the Grand Line really is way more exciting than the East Blue.
While the crew was still adjusting to this kind of wild trip, they'd already quietly arrived at their next stop:
Whiskey Peak – The Town of Welcome
"What? You're saying the Straw Hat Pirates are coming here?"
In town, a middle-aged man asked the two people in front of him.
"Yeah. They passed through Reverse Mountain and reached Twin Cape not long ago. If our timing's right, they should be here soon," Mr. 9 confirmed with a nod.
"The Straw Hat Pirates, huh..."
The man thought about the info he'd heard.
The new pirate crew shaking things up in the East Blue—this was their first trip into the Grand Line.
"Based on the bounties, their captain and vice-captain are the real troublemakers."
"Captain Luffy's bounty is 60 million, and that Tianshi guy—Bai Ye—he's got 100 million on his head."
Just thinking about those numbers made the man sweat a little.
After all, even Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, only had an 81 million bounty.
"....."