DAP ME UP, MY NINGAS (NO-LOOK 2.0)----
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POWAAAAA....
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Drop some memes.
HERE<---
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Attendance Please:
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Everyone sat on the spare chairs outside Crocus's cabin, the silence of the Twin Capes broken only by the distant crash of waves and the creaking of old wood settling.
The sun beat down on them with a warmth that felt almost intentional.
Luffy, Yuji, Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji sat shirtless, wearing only their shorts, their soaked clothes draped over the rope like limp flags of surrender. Nami was in the ship's bathroom, taking a shower.
Yuji leaned back in his chair, arms folded behind his head, letting the sun press its warmth into his bare chest. His lean, compact muscles relaxed under the heat like coiled springs finally allowed to rest. His pink hair, still damp, hung loosely around his face. He was built like Thor from Record of Ragnarok, and if any woman had glanced his way at that moment, she would have fainted on the spot.
(PIC:)
He flexed his fingers, watching the tendons shift beneath his skin, and felt a quiet delight in the sensation.
In his original world, he had suffered a serious injury to his right leg, and due to his family's financial difficulties, it was never fully treated. Running and jumping became distant memories. For years, he walked by placing his entire weight on his healthy left leg, sitting on benches while others his age enjoyed their lives.
But he had never blamed his family. From a very young age, he understood something that most adults never do: the world is unfair, and it doesn't owe you an explanation.
His father, a zoologist with a PhD from one of the country's well-known institutes, had done everything right. He applied everywhere and tried everything. Yet, the universe responded with silence after silence, door after door closing in his face. It was as if fate itself mocked him, pushing him back just to see if he would stay down. But the man never did. Whether life was harsh, brutal, or simply indifferent, he kept moving forward, no complaints, no surrender.
Yuji had taken that as his example. He immersed himself in his studies, pursuing a future where he could finally look his father in the eyes and say, "It's time for you to rest, Dad. Let me handle things from here."
And then the universe said, "Nope," ripped him from his world, and dropped him into the One-Piece world, another middle finger to his father, another silence where an answer should have been.
Yuji exhaled slowly. "I miss my family," he muttered, the words barely escaping his lips before the sea breeze carried them away.
He turned his head and watched Usopp, who was hunched over his work like a surgeon in the middle of an operation. The sniper had completely disassembled his pistols and rifle, their parts carefully and deliberately arranged on a cloth. His fingers moved with precision. New components gleamed among the old, modifications of his own design. If there was one thing you could count on in this world, it was this: when it came to unique inventions, always bet on Usopp.
Yuji's gaze drifted to Luffy, who had cornered Crocus and was chatting with him relentlessly, embodying the boundless energy of someone who had never considered the idea of too much. The old lighthouse keeper's expression had long since shifted from irritation to something resembling spiritual exhaustion. He looked like a man who had witnessed countless things and was now being asked, for the fiftieth time, whether whales could do backflips.
"Say, Mister Crocus," Yuji spoke up, and the sudden shift in his tone drew everyone's attention. "I thought there would be an island whale blocking our path here."
Crocus blinked. "How do you—" He stopped. Understanding flickered across his weathered face. "I see. Your grandfather must have told you about it."
Yuji simply nodded, allowing the old man to connect the dots himself.
"Yeah, you're right. There really is an island whale here." Crocus waved a dismissive hand. "He's... sleeping right now, so you don't have to worry about anything."
Luffy's eyes widened. "Wait, so the island whale is real?!" He pumped both fists into the air, nearly tipping his chair over. "Sugoi! Now I really want to see him!"
Crocus rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Jeez, kid, can't you settle down for just one second?!" He turned to Yuji, Zoro, and Usopp with a look of near desperation. "How in the world are you all handling him?! It must be a real headache!"
"Just go with the flow, old man," Zoro replied, his eyes already half-closed. "Just go with the flow."
The lighthouse keeper shook his head, but something flickered behind his eyes, a ghost of recognition. "You remind me of someone who would definitely say something like that." He paused, then looked around as if doing a mental headcount. "By the way, where's that blond cook of yours gone—"
"WHAT IN THE WORLD?!"
The shout tore through the afternoon calm like a cannon shot, emanating from the lighthouse.
Yuji and Zoro were on their feet before the echo faded, alertness coursing through their bodies. Usopp scrambled up, clutching his half-assembled pistol, his eyes darting between the lighthouse and his unfinished weapon. Luffy tilted his head in pure, unfiltered confusion.
And Crocus? Crocus facepalmed with the slow, deliberate motion, as if he had just been caught with his hand in the world's most incriminating cookie jar.
Sanji came stomping toward them, rage radiating from him in waves. His jaw was set, his fists clenched, and behind him walked a blue-haired girl.
Yuji blinked at the sight of her. 'Vivi?!'
"Oi, cook!" Zoro's voice cut through the tension. "Why the hell did you shout like that? And who is she?"
Sanji ignored the swordsman completely. His gaze was fixed on Crocus, and it was murderous. "Now give me one reason, old man," he said, each word carved from ice, "why there was a girl tied up and locked in your lighthouse with some ugly mug."
"Tch." Crocus clicked his tongue. "I should ask you who gave you permission to stick your nose into someone else's private property."
Sanji's teeth ground together. "Don't change the subject, you old fart. Answer me."
"Watch your tone, boy." The old man's voice dropped, and suddenly the air around him grew heavier. "Don't think my age makes me weak. You'd best stay in your lane."
The tension thickened, coiling around them like a living entity. The blue-haired girl, whom Yuji recognized as Vivi, stepped backward, fear flickering across her face.
Then Yuji stepped forward.
"Okay, cut this crap out." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried weight. "Sanji, back off. Right now."
Sanji whirled on him. "What?! You're asking me to back off?! This old bastard kept a poor, defenseless lady locked up in that lighthouse for who knows how long, and you're telling me to back off?!"
"She looks like she could kick Usopp's ass," Zoro said flatly.
"Oi, don't drag me into this," the sniper muttered.
Yuji shook his head, exhaling slowly. "Look, Sanji, I understand where you're coming from, and I'm with you on that. But we can't just go in guns blazing. Who knows?" His eyes flicked to Vivi, holding her gaze. "Maybe she did something that made Mister Crocus tie her up."
Vivi's flinch was almost too subtle to notice, almost. Yet, no one there failed to see it.
Usopp raised his pistol, aiming it squarely at her. "Looks like she's the one who's in the wrong here."
Sanji stood frozen as the realization hit him like a wave. He glanced from Vivi's guilty expression to Crocus's knowing glare, and the righteous fury drained from his face, replaced by something closer to shame.
"What happened, brat?" Crocus's voice was sharp but not unkind. "Can't shout at me anymore?" He shook his head and turned his frown toward Vivi. "Remember the island whale I was talking about with Itadori-boy? She and her partner tried to kill him."
"My people were starving!" The words burst from Vivi like water through a cracked dam. "We needed the food!"
"Oh, I know what kind of people you and your group are," Crocus's voice hardened. "If you had wanted, you could have hunted something else, anything else. But no, you and your stubborn partner kept coming after Laboon. So, I had no choice but to lock you both up."
Vivi's mouth opened and then closed. The words she sought did not exist.
"Hey, guys, I'm back."
Nami's voice floated up from the steps as she climbed into view, her hair still damp from her bath. Everyone turned toward her, and in that split second of distraction, Vivi moved.
She lunged at the nearest person, Luffy.
It was a desperate, calculated move: use the smallest one as a hostage, create leverage, and escape.
What she hadn't anticipated was that the smallest one was Monkey D Luffy.
Before she could even process what had happened, his fist connected with her skull. The blow was casual, almost lazy, but Vivi crumpled to the ground instantly, unconscious.
"Bad girl," Luffy said to her unconscious form.
Silence.
Everyone stared at the scene, the pirate captain standing over the would-be hostage, the blue-haired girl sprawled on the ground, and the sheer absurdity of what had just happened in the span of three seconds.
Nami looked around, her expression caught somewhere between confusion and exhausted resignation. "Okay... what in the world is going on here?"
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Usopp told her everything.
By the end, Nami was staring at the bound figures, Vivi and her oddly dressed partner, with a mix of pity and exasperation.
Both captives sat under Crocus's glare like scolded children, unable to meet anyone's gaze.
Nearby, Sanji had retreated to the sidelines, his head hanging low. The image of himself, the chivalrous defender of women, shouting righteous fury at an old man who had been right all along played on a loop in his mind. Zoro was having a field day with it, his smirk so wide it practically needed its own chair.
Luffy, oblivious to the cook's inner turmoil, patted Sanji's back with the gentle reassurance.
Yuji shook his head slowly as he watched everything unfold.
Usopp turned to the old lighthouse keeper. "Say, old man, this whale you're protecting, is it your pet or something?"
"No," Crocus's voice softened, the hard edges melting away. "Laboon is not my pet; I am his caretaker."
He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice bore the weight of five decades.
"You see, many years ago, a friendly group of pirates came down Reverse Mountain. Behind their ship followed a little whale named Laboon. They had been sailing the West Blue together. Their voyage was going to be dangerous, so they left Laboon behind. Normally, island whales travel with their own kind in pods, but for Laboon, those pirates were his family."
The old man removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"Their ship was damaged, so they stayed here at the Twin Capes for several months. I became good friends with them. Then, on the day they left, the captain asked me if I would take care of Laboon for him, just for a couple of years. 'We're going to sail around the world and come back here,' they said. Laboon understood, so we waited here together."
He looked down.
"That was... fifty years ago."
The words landed like stones dropped into still water.
"F-fifty years?!" Nami's voice cracked.
Crocus nodded. "Yes. And tired of just waiting, he started banging his head against the cliff, calling to the other side. He thinks something bad happened to his friends, that they need his help." His jaw tightened. "But I'm afraid the truth is even crueler than that. Those pirates... fled the Grand Line. I have it from a reliable source."
"What?!" Usopp's horror was evident. "How could they do something like that?!"
"The Grand Line is a cruel place, boy," Crocus said, his eyes growing distant as he gazed beyond the horizon. "Everything you've ever known, heard, or learned means nothing in these waters, the seasons, the climate, the ocean currents, even the air currents. Nothing here is ever normal. Weak hearts soon give in to fear on the Grand Line."
Zoro clicked his tongue. "So the weak-hearted cared more about their own lives than the promises they had made and ran off."
Luffy's frown deepened. "So they did abandon the whale. And even after fifty years, he still believes in those jerks."
"But why don't you tell Laboon the truth?" Sanji spoke up, momentarily forgetting his earlier shame. "He can understand human speech, can't he?"
Crocus closed his eyes. Defeat, pure, exhausting defeat. "I told him the whole story, but he wouldn't listen. That's when he started hurting himself." He opened his eyes, which glistened. "I've tried everything to make him stop, but he refuses to face the truth. I'm afraid that if he keeps ramming his head against the Red Line..." He trailed off, unable to finish. "We have an odd relationship, but we've been together for fifty years. I can't just stand by and watch something happen to him."
Silence fell over them, heavy, suffocating, and absolute.
Even the two captives, the ones who had tried to kill Laboon for meat, looked down in shame. Whatever justification they had been clinging to had crumbled to dust.
Then the sea erupted.
A bellow, deep and resonant, rose from beneath the surface. With a geyser of white water, an enormous black shape burst into the sunlight, Laboon. His body blotted out the sky, a mountain given flesh, scars crisscrossing his head like a map of fifty years of grief.
Usopp and Nami hit the ground, their legs giving out beneath them. Zoro and Sanji broke into cold sweats, their bodies reacting to the sheer size of the creature before their minds could fully process it.
"Holy shit," Yuji breathed, a shaky grin spreading across his face. Seeing Laboon in a manga was one thing; seeing him in real life was something else entirely.
"SUGOI!" Luffy practically vibrated with excitement. "Oi, Flower Pops! Why didn't you tell us Laboon was this big?!"
Crocus's eye twitched. "Haven't you been listening? He's called an island whale! Can't your brain figure out the size just from hearing the word 'island'?"
"Oh yeah," Luffy nodded wisely. "That totally makes sense."
Crocus shook his head and looked toward the whale, his expression darkening. "It seems the sedatives I administered have worn off. This is not good."
"Wait—" Nami's voice rose several octaves. "You gave him sedatives?! How does that even work?! Do you see the size of that whale?!"
"I make my own stuff," Crocus answered, as if that explained anything. "Just for him."
"Those scars..." Zoro's eyes narrowed as he traced the jagged lines covering Laboon's head. "They don't look good."
"Yeah, those are from him ramming his head against the Red Line."
And as if Laboon had heard his name, the whale turned toward the massive cliff face and slammed his head against it.
The impact echoed like thunder.
"LABOON!" Crocus's voice cracked. "STOP IT! I BEG OF YOU! PLEASE!"
But the whale kept ramming, again and again. Each impact sent tremors through the rock beneath their feet.
Nami covered her mouth and turned away, unable to watch. Usopp clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, memories of a father he had waited years for rising unexpectedly in his mind. Sanji and Zoro stood frozen, watching an innocent creature destroy itself over a promise broken half a century ago.
But Luffy was not having it.
He bolted toward the edge of the cliff, legs pumping, and launched himself at the whale. His arm stretched back as he screamed into the void:
"GUM-GUM PISTOL!"
His fist connected with Laboon's exposed eye.
Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Nami, Crocus, and the two captives watched in unified, slack-jawed horror as the whale's eye reddened and filled with tears.
"BOOOOWWAAAHHH!"
"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!" Every single person, except Yuji, screamed at Luffy, their eyes filled with murderous intent.
Yuji simply closed his eyes and made the iconic Speed expression.
Laboon tilted his massive head and flung Luffy off, sending the rubber boy crashing into the mountainside. But before the dust could even settle, Luffy was already on his feet, sprinting back toward the whale with a grin that had no business being on someone who had just been swatted like a fly.
They met in the middle.
Luffy launched another Gum-Gum Pistol. Laboon rammed his scarred head into the attack. The collision sent shockwaves rippling across the water. Luffy was hurled backward; remarkably, Laboon was also pushed back by the force of the blow.
The whale steadied itself and locked onto the spot where Luffy had crashed. It moved to ram the mountain itself—
"IT'S A DRAW!"
Luffy's voice rang out, bright and unwavering.
Laboon stopped. The great whale looked down at the strange, small human standing amid the rubble, and confusion flickered in his large eyes.
Luffy dusted himself off and looked up without a trace of fear. "I'm pretty strong, huh? Our match isn't over yet. We still have to settle it."
Crocus stared, bewildered.
"Your friends may be gone," Luffy continued, walking toward the edge where Laboon hovered. He reached out and gently pressed his palm against the whale's scarred head, the same head that had been slammed against unyielding rock for fifty years. "But from now on, you've got a rival. Me."
His voice softened, but it did not waver.
"After we circle the Grand Line, I'll come back here. And we're going to fight again." He grinned. "What do you say? Do you want to be my rival?"
For a long moment, nothing stirred.
And then, tears began to fall from the great whale's eyes, tears of something Laboon had not felt in fifty years: emotions buried beneath scar tissue, stubborn will, and the unbearable weight of waiting for people who would never return.
The whale looked down at Luffy, the impossible boy who had punched him in the eye and called it a draw. For the first time in five decades, Laboon saw something new on the horizon.
Hope.
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Usopp's Sinper refile:
Pistols:
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See you in next chapter.
Peace out...