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A sea breeze swept past, calming their racing hearts and trembling hands.
A thick mist swirled around them.
As they sailed out of the turbulent waters, they looked back. The towering Red Line was so tall they couldn't even see the top.
"Wow... we came all the way down from up there and didn't die! Lucky!" Maya said, shielding her eyes with her hand.
Penguin ran to the bow and leaned on the rail. "Hey, Law! Is this really the Grand Line?"
As far as the eye could see, the sea was a vast, waveless expanse. The sky and the water seemed to be perfectly still.
Law stood with his arms crossed, his cursed sword held tight. His gaze was dark and heavy.
Bepo lay on the deck in a starfish position, gasping for breath. "I'm alive! I'm actually alive!"
Suddenly, Shachi cried out, "Hey! Look! Is that an island up ahead?"
Everyone looked.
In the distance, something black was floating on the water, like a reef.
"I don't know... I feel like it's moving."
"I think so too... and it's coming this way..."
"Hey, it really is moving! What is that?"
Jin gazed into the distance.
"Wooooooooo..."
A mournful, muffled, massive whale's cry answered them. It wasn't the demonic carrier. It was a real whale.
A black wall, blocking the entrance to the Grand Line.
"It's that whale," Jin said, recognizing it at once.
Laboon, the Island Whale that Roger's ship's doctor, Crocus, had been taking care of.
He hadn't seen him on the way in.
But he was here now.
That thing was incredibly powerful. If it hit them, or swallowed them, they'd be in serious trouble.
He had no desire to be "pulled out" of its stomach.
Jin steered the demonic carrier, trying to avoid Laboon.
As they drew closer, the waves from the Island Whale were as tall as mountains.
"SO... BIG...!!!"
"What is that thing??"
"A monster of the Grand Line!!!"
Law and his crew were all in a state of shock.
Even Robin's eyes were wide. She hadn't encountered it when she had entered the Grand Line.
Laboon wasn't always here.
"He's huge..." Jin said, also taken aback. Seeing a colossal creature in a video or a picture was one thing. Standing before it was another thing entirely.
The massive Island Whale's head broke the surface, rising higher and higher. The water that cascaded from its back was like a waterfall from the sky. A thick, massive, black wall, standing in the middle of the sea.
And then—
"WUUUUUOOOOOOOO..."
A deep, ethereal roar from the monster of the deep, so loud that everyone had to cover their ears.
BOOM!
The giant whale began to ram its head against the Red Line, sending massive waves crashing outward.
Blood seeped from the scars on its head.
Even from a dozen nautical miles away, the impact was staggering.
"What is it doing?"
"Is it trying to break through the Red Line??"
"What a terrifying monster!"
Suddenly, Maya said, "It's sad. It's calling for its friends."
"Eh??"
Everyone looked at her.
Law was a little surprised. The king's little personal secretary... it seemed she had some special ability, an affinity for animals.
Maya walked to the rail and looked at Laboon. "I can hear sadness in its voice."
"Friends?" Robin mused. "Other whales like it?"
Maya closed her eyes and listened.
In Laboon's "Voice," she could see images from the past, from when he was just a "little" Island Whale.
...
"Laboon! We'll see you when we get back from our trip around the world!"
But... that had been fifty years ago.
The world had changed. Time had passed.
Laboon had not seen his friends return. He had only heard the news of their death.
He refused to believe it.
To find his friends, he had begun to ram his head against the indestructible Red Line, covering himself in scars.
...
With her shamaness's talent and her Observation Haki, Maya could feel Laboon's sorrow. She couldn't help but begin to sing.
She placed a hand on her chest and, in a prayer-like posture, began to sing a hymn from her homeland.
The words were foreign, but the melody was gentle.
Like a mother, the sea, comforting her child.
The heavenly voice, a song of the soul, seemed to become light, floating across the sea on the wind.
Law, Robin, Reiju... they all fell silent.
Laboon, who had been about to ram the Red Line again, stopped.
His massive eye swiveled slightly. He saw the tiny ship in the distance.
He "heard" it.
Someone was speaking to him. Soothing his sorrow.
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Inside Laboon, in a "sea" of stomach acid, there was a small island.
Crocus, holding a rope, was about to administer a tranquilizer. He looked up in surprise.
"He's stopped?? What happened?"
He was the keeper of the Twin Cape Lighthouse and one of the best doctors in the world. He had been taking care of Laboon for years.
He knew that once Laboon started ramming the mountain, he wouldn't stop until he was completely exhausted.
Fearing that Laboon would die, he had used his incredible surgical skills to modify the whale's body. He had also invented a tranquilizer to calm him.
"Hm?"
Crocus could feel it... the "power" of Observation Haki, and a voice that soothed the soul.
"WUUUUUOOOOOOOO..."
Laboon once again roared at the sky. But he didn't ram the mountain.
"Hey! It's coming toward us!" Reiju said.
"It's really coming!" Penguin cried. "If it hits us, we're dead!"
Jin watched calmly.
"No!" Maya said. "It means no harm! It's coming to thank us!"
"Thank us?" Robin said, surprised.
Everyone calmed down and chose to believe her.
Laboon floated on the surface, slowly approaching.
The emotion in his eye had softened.
He blinked at Maya and let out a gentle sound, then nodded his head up and down, just like a person.
"Is he really saying thank you?" Reiju said, amazed. Although Jin could be a handful at times, there was one good thing about being here: she didn't have to hide her emotions.
"That's amazing, Miss Maya!" Bepo said, impressed. "Can you really talk to whales?"
Maya nodded.
Her ancestor had been able to seal an awakened Devil Fruit "demon." She had been a powerhouse, at least on the level of a Yonko commander, Jin estimated. And she had possessed an incredibly powerful Observation Haki.
Law's eyes narrowed. "Hey, Is that a person on its head?"
Jin looked over.
Crocus?
Crocus had also seen them. "Pirates, was it your voice that stopped Laboon?"
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