The moment that massive orb focused on our tiny vessel, every rational thought in my head screamed the same message.
'Run. Run now. Run faster than you've ever run in your life.'
Chills spread across my back like ice water, shivers racing down my spine with the intensity of a lightning strike.
Around me, my fellow crewmates began panicking with the kind of primal terror that comes from recognizing you're about to become someone's—or something's—lunch.
"Oh no oh no oh no," Usopp whimpered, his voice climbing toward hysteria. "We're all gonna die! I-I-I-I can see my life flashing before my eyes!"
"This is bad," Nami breathed, her navigator's instincts no doubt calculating our survival odds at approximately zero. "This is very, very bad."
Even Sanji had gone pale, his cigarette hanging forgotten from his lips. "Merde," he whispered.
'At least everyone else recognizes the gravity of our situation. Surely our captain will see reason now, surely he'll realize that discretion is the better part of—'
"Did You Like That Now, You Bastard!" Luffy shouted, raising his pistol again with the kind of enthusiasm most people reserved for discovering free food. "COME AND GET SOME!!! I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU, YOU OVERGROWN FISH!"
'I take it back. There is no limit to this man's capacity for self-destructive behavior.'
That was enough. Whatever suicidal tendencies my captain possessed, I wasn't about to let them drag the rest of us down with him.
Without hesitation, I reached out with the Barbossa sword's power, seizing control of one of the ship's rigging ropes with desperation.
WHOOSH!
The rope snaked through the air like a living thing, wrapping around Luffy's waist and binding his arms to his sides before he could fire another shot.
"Hey! What—"
He spun around, his eyes wide with surprise and indignation.
THWACK!
Zoro's oar came down on Luffy's head with the sound of wood meeting skull, cutting off our captain's protest mid-sentence. The swordsman's expression was grimmer than I'd ever seen it.
"SHUT IT!!!!!!!" Zoro growled, his voice carrying the kind of authority that brooked no argument.
'Thank you, Zoro. At least one person on this crew understands the concept of damage control.'
Luffy was looking genuinely confused by our reaction. "But why—"
Suddenly, the whale opened its humongous mouth.
'Oh.'
'Oh no.'
[BUOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!!]
The roar that emerged was beyond description. It wasn't just sound—it was a physical force that hit us like a hammer blow, rattling our bones and making our teeth ache.
"AHHH!! MY EARS HURT!!!" Usopp was screaming, and we all shared the sentiment. The sheer volume was loud enough that it hurt our ears, a primal bellow that seemed to shake the very air around us.
The sound washed over us like a tsunami of pure noise, and I felt my eardrums protesting against the assault. Around me, everyone was covering their ears and grimacing in pain.
"WHAT'S GOING ON NOW?!" Nami shouted over the deafening roar, her hands pressed firmly against her ears.
'Simple. We're about to become whale food, and it's all thanks to our trigger-happy captain.'
"We're not staying to find out!" I called back, my voice barely audible over the continuing bellow.
I remembered this whale from the Manga, though the specific details had escaped me long ago. What I did remember was that this crew had somehow managed to survive the encounter, but I wasn't about to rely on plot armor to keep us alive.
'Luck is a finite resource, and I'm not in favor of gambling our lives on the assumption that everything will work out simply because it's supposed to.'
With what I hoped was dramatic flair—though it probably just looked like desperation—I took control of the ship and the surrounding elements.
The Barbossa sword's power flowed through the ship as I seized command of the surrounding water and wind alike, feeling the familiar sensation of supernatural authority coursing through my veins.
I thrust the sword forward with total intent, pushing wind and water in the same direction while controlling the ship to sail away from the whale at maximum speed.
WHOOOOSH!
The Going Merry shot forward like a rocket, the sudden acceleration catching everyone off guard.
Luffy, still bound by the rope, was suddenly swinging from the mast like a bizarre pendulum, his body stretched and bouncing with each movement of the ship.
"WHOA!" he shouted, and for once he actually sounded concerned rather than excited. "This is fast! Really fast!"
'Finally, a situation that gives even our fearless leader pause.'
Zoro immediately regained his footing with the kind of balance that only came from years of training, his expression grim as he assessed our situation.
"EVERYONE START ROWING AGAIN!" he barked, his voice cutting through the wind. "NOW!"
Sanji and Usopp responded instantly, grabbing oars and putting their backs into it with the desperate energy of people who'd just realized their lives hung in the balance.
Their faces were pale but determined, understanding that every second counted.
Nami, however, made the smarter choice. Instead of trying to row while the ship bucked and rolled beneath us, she made her way to the helm and grabbed hold of the wheel's base, recognizing that staying put was safer than trying to help row in these conditions.
WHOOOOOOOSSSHHHHH!!!!!
The speed increased even more as I put all of my focus on the sword, feeling the strain as I tried to maintain control over multiple elements at once. Wind howled past us, water sprayed in all directions, and for a moment, I thought we might actually escape this impossible situation.
'Come on, just a little further. Just get us clear of that thing's reach and then we can—'
Then I felt it. A pulling sensation, subtle at first but growing stronger by the second. The water around us was beginning to move backward, the wind shifting direction despite my efforts to control it.
"What's happening?!" Nami called out, noticing the same thing. "Why are we slowing down?!"
'No. No no no no no.'
"The current..." Zoro observed, his keen combat instincts picking up the change immediately. "It's reversing."
"Nooooooooo!" Usopp began screaming. "This can't be happening!"
We all glanced back at the same time, and what we saw made my blood run cold.
The whale's humongous mouth was wide open toward us, and everything—water, wind, marine lifeforms, and most importantly, our ship—was being sucked inexorably toward that gaping maw of doom.
'Of course. Because what's the point of running from a mountain-sized predator if it can't just inhale you like a snack?'
"OH COME ON!" Sanji screamed.
"We're being sucked in!" Nami cried out, stating the obvious with the kind of panicked clarity that comes from imminent death.
"I don't want to be whale food!" Usopp wailed.
"None of us wants to be whale food!" Zoro snapped, though his voice carried a note of concern that was unusual for him.
"DAMN!" I cursed, immediately trying to counter the force pulling us toward our doom. The Barbossa sword's power flowed through the ship as I fought against the whale's suction, trying to push water and wind in the opposite direction.
But it wasn't working as I'd planned.
The conflicting forces—my power pushing outward, the whale's suction pulling inward—created a violent whirlpool in the water around us.
The Going Merry was caught in the center of it, spinning like a top as competing currents tried to tear her apart.
The whirlpool spun us faster and faster, and despite my efforts, we were still being drawn inexorably toward the whale's open mouth.
The suction was too strong, too focused, and my attempts to counter it were only making the situation more chaotic.
"Hachiman-sama! Please Try Harder!" Usopp screamed, not being helpful in the least.
"I'm trying as hard as I can!"
"AAAAHHHHH!" Nami screamed as she was thrown from the helm, sliding across the deck before latching onto me like a koala clinging to a tree. Her arms wrapped around my waist with desperate strength, her face buried against my cloak.
Wonderful, now I have to maintain concentration while a terrified navigator is using me as a life preserver.
'And why does she have to hold on so—Focus, Hachiman!!! Inappropriate thoughts can wait until after we're not about to die!!!'
The rest of the crew was holding onto whatever they could find—rigging, railings, each other—as the ship continued its violent spinning motion.
Their faces were pale with terror and seasickness, but they were holding on with grim determination.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Usopp groaned, his face turning an interesting shade of green.
"Don't you dare!" Zoro warned.
"WAAAAAHH!!!"
"LUFFY!" Zoro shouted, and I looked up to see that our captain had somehow managed to free himself from the ropes during the chaos.
"Shit!" I controlled a rope to try to catch our airborne Captain.
But instead of returning to the ship like a sensible person would, Luffy stretched his rubber arm toward one of the whale's giant teeth, then used it to catapult himself toward the creature's upper face.
Because of course he did. Why would our captain try to escape with the rest of us when he could instead launch himself directly at the source of our problems?
"GET BACK HERE, YOU IDIOT!" Sanji yelled, but Luffy was already climbing up the whale's massive head with the enthusiasm of a child on a playground.
'Fu*k! This isn't working! We're going to die like this—caught in a whirlpool of my own making while our Captain plays mountain climber on a creature that could swallow us whole.'
The realization hit me like a physical blow. 'Our only chance of survival wasn't escape, but endurance.'
If we were going to be swallowed anyway, our best bet was to make sure the ship survived the experience intact, then find a way to sneak out afterward.
Sometimes the best strategy isn't avoiding the problem—it's surviving it long enough to find a solution.
I released my control over the wind and water, instead focusing all my power on keeping the ship together.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a bottle of Hamon Ether.
Crushing the bottle in my hand, I felt the golden energy flow through my fingers as I summoned the Gryffindor sword to my free hand. The blade materialized with its familiar weight, and I immediately began pushing all the Hamon from the Ether into the sword.
"What are you trying to do?" Nami asked, her voice muffled against my cloak as she continued clinging to me with desperate strength.
"Making sure we don't die when we get swallowed!!!" I replied matter-of-factly.
"WHEN WE GET WHAT?!" Usopp's voice cracked completely.
"You heard him," Zoro said grimly.
"I don't want to get swallowed!" Usopp wailed.
"None of us do," Sanji said through gritted teeth, "but it doesn't look like we have a choice!"
The Hamon concentrated inside the Gryffindor sword like liquid sunlight, the blade beginning to glow with its silver radiance as the Ripple energy charged it.
Without hesitation, I plunged the sword into the deck beneath my feet, sending all that concentrated Hamon directly into the Going Merry's frame.
FLASH!
The ship glowed faintly as the Hamon took effect, the energy spreading through every plank, every rope, every nail that held her together. I could feel the reinforcement taking hold, strengthening wood and metal a bit beyond their normal limits.
'Hold together, Merry. Whatever happens next, just hold together.'
"HOLD TIGHT!" I shouted to the crew, feeling the suction growing stronger as we spiraled closer to the whale's mouth.
"WE ARE!" Sanji shouted back, his voice tight with strain as he gripped the rigging with white knuckles.
"I'm holding so tight I think my hands are going to cramp!" Usopp added.
"Just don't let go!" Zoro ordered, his own grip on the ship's railing equally desperate.
Nami certainly was—she was holding onto me so tightly that I could feel things I was absolutely certain it was inappropriate to notice at a time like this.
The way her body pressed against mine as she clung for dear life, the warmth of her breath against my neck, the orange smell—
'FOCUS, YOU IDIOT!!!! Save The Hormones For When You're Not About To Be Digested By Marine Life!!!!!'
The whale's mouth loomed larger and larger as we were drawn into its depths, passing beyond the darkness of its closing jaws. For a moment, everything was chaos—spinning, falling, the sensation of being swallowed by something incomprehensibly vast.
Then, suddenly, all the turbulence stopped.
The violent spinning ceased, the roaring wind died away, and the sensation of falling came to an abrupt end. Around us, everything went quiet except for the gentle lapping of water against the ship's hull.
"Are we...?" Usopp began, then stopped, apparently unable to finish the question.
"Dead…?" Sanji completed, his voice filled with uncertainty.
"I…don't think so," Zoro replied, though he sounded less than certain.
Opening my eyes and standing to my full height—carefully, because Nami was still clinging to me like her life depended on it—I looked around at our new surroundings.
What I saw defied every expectation I'd had about the inside of a whale's stomach.
'This... this is not what I expected whale anatomy to look like.'
We were floating on what appeared to be a sea, complete with strange-looking water and what looked like an open sky above us.
In the distance, I could see a small island with a palm tree and a cottage, as if we'd been transported to some tropical paradise rather than swallowed by a mountain-sized whale.
Usopp was gasping like a fish out of water, his eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at our impossible surroundings.
Around the ship, the rest were equally stunned, their faces reflecting the same confusion I felt.
'We're inside a whale's stomach. There should be digestive acids, darkness, maybe some half-digested fish. Not... this.'
Looking more closely at the sky, I began to notice strange details that didn't quite fit with the illusion of normalcy. The light was wrong, somehow—too uniform, too artificial. And the horizon...
'Those aren't real clouds. And that's definitely not a real sky.'
"What's going on?" someone asked—I think it was Zoro, though the voice sounded distant and uncertain.
"I remember that we were swallowed by the whale," Sanji said slowly, his cigarette somehow returned despite everything we'd been through.
"We are," I answered, causing everyone to turn toward me with expressions of confusion and dawning horror.
Nami, still holding onto my cloak with embarrassing tenacity, looked up at me with wide eyes. "What do you mean by that?"
How do I explain this without sounding completely insane? 'Well, you see, we're currently inside the stomach of a mountain-sized whale, but someone has apparently redecorated it to look like a tropical paradise.' Yeah, that'll go over well.
"We're inside the whale's stomach," I said, keeping my voice as steady as possible. "And this sky is fake."
The effect was immediate. Everyone began looking around with new eyes, noticing the details that gave away the artificial nature of our surroundings.
"Wait," Usopp said slowly, his voice filled with growing horror. "Those birds... they're not moving at all. They're just... stuck there."
"And where's the sun?" Nami added, her navigator's instincts finally catching up with the situation. "There's light, but I can't see any source for it."
Zoro squinted up at the artificial sky, his expression skeptical. "This is all fake? The whole thing?"
"Look at the water," Sanji observed, crouching down to examine the surface. "It's the wrong color. Too green, like it's been dyed or something."
"That's because it's probably stomach acid," Zoro said bluntly.
"STOMACH ACID?!" Usopp shrieked. "We're floating on stomach acid?!"
"Don't worry," I replied. "The ship is protected by my ability for now. We won't dissolve."
"But how is this possible?" Nami asked, her scientific mind struggling to process what she was seeing. "You can't just... build a fake sky inside a whale!"
"Apparently, you can just paint it," I replied dryly. "And someone did."
'Once you know what to look for, the illusion becomes obvious. But it's still impressively detailed work—whoever set this up knows their craft.'
"This is insane," Usopp whimpered, his voice climbing toward hysteria again. "We're inside a whale that has its own fake world inside it! This isn't normal!!"
"Nothing about this situation is normal," Sanji said flatly, though I could hear the underlying tension in his voice.
"Well, we should—"
I was about to suggest we head toward the island to investigate when my Mantra picked up something approaching fast from the ship's starboard side.
Multiple somethings, actually, moving through the water with predatory intent.
'Damn it! Being inside a whale wasn't complicated enough—now we have to deal with the local wildlife.'
I immediately thought of using the ship's cannons with the Barbossa sword for a quick bombardment, but realized they were still unloaded from our passage through the storm.
'Tsk. No time to reload, and whatever's coming is moving too fast for conventional weapons anyway.'
"GET READY!" I shouted to the crew, jumping away from Nami's grasp and toward the ship's side while drawing both swords. "DANGER INCOMING FROM ALL SIDES!"
The crew's reaction was instantaneous—Zoro and Sanji immediately shifted into combat stances, while Nami and Usopp began looking around wildly for whatever threat I'd detected.
"What Kind Of Danger?" Zoro asked, his hand already on his sword hilts.
SPLASH!
I was still in the air when the first creature burst from the water with explosive force. It was a giant frog—easily the size of a small boat—with hideously bulging eyes and warty green skin that glistened with stomach acids.
"AAAAHHHHH!" Nami and Usopp screamed in unison as the monster revealed itself, their voices climbing toward hysteria.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Usopp shouted, fumbling for the pistol I'd given him.
The frog immediately went on the attack, its massive tongue shooting from its mouth like a pink missile aimed directly at me. The appendage was easily twenty feet long and thick as a tree trunk, moving with surprising speed for something so grotesque.
'Not happening.'
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
My consecutive cuts turned the frog's extended tongue into confetti, severing it in multiple places. The creature's eyes widened in what might have been surprise before I was upon it and brought both swords down in a devastating arc.
'Hamon—Severing Tide!'
CRACK! SIZZLE! BOOM!
The golden and silver energy tore through the creature's body like lightning through water, reducing it to chunks that splashed back into the acidic sea. The smell was indescribable—like burning rubber mixed with old fish.
'One down. But unfortunately, my Mantra is telling me there are at least a dozen more where that came from.'
More sea monsters erupted from the water around us, each one more grotesque than the last. Giant squids with too many tentacles, sharks with multiple rows of teeth, fish that had clearly adapted to live in the absence of both sunlight and sanity.
I wanted to use my pistol for ranged attacks, but with a sword in each hand, I lacked the necessary appendages for triple-wielding.
My long-range sword techniques were still a work in progress—something I'd need to address if we kept finding ourselves in situations like this.
'It is good that I know from where to start, and fortunately, I didn't need to handle all of them alone.'
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Zoro moved like a force of nature, his three-sword style carving through the attacking monsters with lethal efficiency. Each cut was precise and economical, wasting no motion as he reduced creatures to harmless pieces.
"Finally, something I can cut!" he said with satisfaction.
"Three Sword Style—Oni Giri!" His blades traced perfect arcs through the air, and three monsters fell simultaneously.
Sanji was equally impressive, his kicks sending creatures flying with bone-crushing force. He moved like a dancer, each motion flowing into the next with graceful lethality.
"Collier Shoot!" His leg connected with a particularly ugly fish-thing, sending it sailing into the distance with a wet CRACK.
"Take that, you oversized sashimi!" he declared like he was blowing off some steam.
Even Nami and Usopp, despite their obvious terror, were contributing to the defense. They'd drawn the pistols I'd given them, and while their hands were shaking, their aim was surprisingly good.
BANG! BANG! BANG! KAAABOOOM!! KAAABOOOM!!!
"Take that, you oversized tadpole!" Usopp's shots were particularly effective, each bullet finding its mark with the precision of a trained marksman.
BANG! BANG! KAAABOOOM!!
"KYAAAHHH!!!" Nami's shooting was more erratic, but she was getting the job done.
'Look at that. When push comes to shove, even the most reluctant fighters can step up. There might be hope for this crew yet.'
The last monster to appear was the largest yet—a giant squid with tentacles the size of ship masts and eyes that glowed with predatory intelligence. It rose from the acidic water like some primordial nightmare, blocking out a significant portion of the artificial sky.
Before any of us could react to this new threat, three harpoons shot out from the direction of the island, piercing the squid's body with incredible force and precision.
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
The creature thrashed once, then went limp, its massive form sinking back into the water with a splash that sent waves rolling across the strange sea.
'Well, that's interesting. We're really not alone in here.'
We all became alert again, our attention immediately drawn to the cottage on the island.
From the cottage emerged an old man with perhaps the most unusual hairstyle I'd ever seen—it looked like someone had glued a flower to the top of his head. The sight was so absurd that it left us completely bewildered.
"A flower…?" Sanji asked in bewilderment.
"What the hell..." Usopp breathed, his voice trailing off as he stared at the bizarre figure.
"Is that... is that really a person?" Nami asked, her voice filled with uncertainty.
'In a world where people can turn into smoke and stretch like rubber, I suppose flower-shaped hair isn't the strangest thing we could encounter.'
Though it certainly ranks high on the list of 'things I never expected to see.'
With surprising strength for someone his apparent age, the man began pulling the giant squid toward his island using the ropes attached to the harpoons.
The massive creature's body moved through the water like it weighed nothing, which suggested our mysterious benefactor possessed considerable physical power.
"Who is that guy?" Usopp whispered, his voice carrying that nervous edge that meant he was trying to decide between curiosity and panic.
"More importantly," Sanji added with the same wariness, "how the hell is he living in here?"
'Good question, my Mantra's telling me he's strong, but not overwhelmingly so. Probably not a threat to us, but definitely not someone to underestimate either.'
While we stood there asking ourselves who, how, and why this old guy was living inside a whale's stomach, the man in question merely fixed us with a sharp glare.
Without a word of acknowledgment or explanation, he walked to a chair that had apparently been set up on his tiny island and sat down casually, opening a newspaper as if having strangers appear in his private domain was a perfectly normal occurrence.
"Oi! Say something!" Sanji was beginning to crack from all the sudden shifts going on until now, and this guy was hammering the final nail.
But even then, the old guy just looked at us and bothered to utter a single word, like we are not worth his time.
'Oh, this is rich. We just fought off his local wildlife, and he's treating us like we're the ones intruding on his peaceful morning routine.'
The casual dismissal was frankly irritating. Here we were, trapped inside a whale, having just survived both a supernatural waterway and a battle with sea monsters, and this guy was acting like we were nothing more than a minor inconvenience to his reading time.
"Hey!" Usopp called out, his voice cracking slightly with nervousness but trying to sound threatening. "We have guns and cannons here! We won't hesitate to shoot if you don't explain what's going on!"
And there's Usopp's approach to diplomacy: threaten first, ask questions later. I'm sure that'll go over well with someone who just demonstrated perfect marksmanship.
The old man looked up from his newspaper with a glare that could have frozen seawater, his expression shifting from casual indifference to something far more dangerous.
"You better not," he said slowly, his voice carrying the kind of quiet menace that suggested he meant every word, "or someone's going to get hurt."
The threat hung in the air like a physical presence, and I watched Usopp visibly shrink back while Nami immediately moved behind me, using my body as a human shield and looking from over my shoulder.
'Great. Now I'm apparently the designated meat shield for whenever things get uncomfortable. How did I become the person everyone hides behind?'
Sanji, however, wasn't intimidated. His eyes flashed with anger as he stepped forward, his cigarette bobbing as he spoke.
"Oh yeah?" he challenged, his voice dripping with defiance. "And just who exactly is going to get hurt, old man?"
The man looked back at him with the same steady glare, then returned his attention to his newspaper with infuriating casualness.
"Me," he replied without looking up, then turned another page.
'What…' The answer was so unexpected, so completely anticlimactic, that it took a moment for it to register.
"You—?!" Sanji's angry expression faltered, replaced by confusion and then renewed irritation.
"Are You Messing With Me?!" Sanji flared, his temper finally getting the better of him.
'I see what's happening here. This old man is amusing himself at our expense. He's treating us like entertainment, seeing how far he can push us with absurd responses.'
"Don't get worked up…" Zoro, clearly as irritated as Sanji by the old man's games, stepped forward with his hand resting on Sanji's angry figure. His expression was darker than I'd seen it in a while.
"Hey, old man," Zoro said, his voice carrying the kind of menace that usually made smart people back down. "Mind telling us who you are? And how to get out of here?"
The man looked up from his newspaper with his face keeping the same glare he had before.
"Well now, that's quite rude," he said in a tone that suggested to me he was enjoying every second of this. "Shouldn't you introduce yourself first before demanding someone else's name?"
'Oh, for crying out loud. Now he's giving us etiquette lessons while we're trapped inside a whale.'
Zoro's jaw tightened, and I could see him struggling between his natural directness and the social protocol the old man was demanding.
"Yeah, right, my name is—"
Before he could fully respond, however, the man opened his mouth without any intention to close it.
"My name is Crocus, a doctor and the lighthouse keeper of Twin Capes. I am 71 years old, a Gemini, and have blood type XF. I enjoy reading, harpoon fishing, and tending to my garden. My hobbies include lighthouse maintenance, marine biology, and interior decorating—as you can see from my work here in Laboon's stomach. I dislike rude young people, cold weather, and being interrupted during my morning reading time. My favorite food is grilled squid, which works out well given my current living situation. I was once a ship's doctor for a very famous pirate crew, though that was many years ago. I've been living here for approximately fifty years, taking care of Laboon and maintaining this little paradise I've created. I have no living relatives that I'm aware of. My greatest regret is not being able to help my former captain achieve his dream, and if you must know, I prefer tea to coffee, though I'll drink either. I also—"
"SHUT UP!" Zoro roared, his sword halfway out of its sheath. "I don't need your entire life story!"
And there's the breaking point. Crocus has successfully managed to irritate Zoro past the point of reason with weaponized oversharing.
Crocus looked genuinely surprised by the outburst, blinking owlishly at the enraged swordsman.
"But you asked who I was," he said with perfect innocence. "I was simply being thorough."
'Yup, he's definitely messing with us. Time to end this farce, I'd had enough of this performance.'
Moving to the front of the ship with Nami still clinging to my cloak like a particularly anxious koala, I decided to cut through the nonsense and get to the heart of the matter.
"You ran your mouth, but you didn't tell us how to get out of here?" I asked directly, cutting straight to the point.
Finally, the old man looked up from his newspaper and pointed in a direction.
"The way out of my private resort is through that huge metal door behind you."
We all turned to look where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was indeed a massive metal door set into what appeared to be the whale's stomach wall.
The construction was obviously artificial, and the sheer scale of it was mind-boggling.
'A metal door. Inside a whale's stomach. Because apparently, someone decided that normal biology wasn't complicated enough and decided to install architecture.'
"A door?" Nami asked incredulously, her scientific mind clearly struggling with the concept. "Inside a whale? How is that even possible?"
"It's my hobby," Crocus replied with the kind of casual tone most people used when discussing stamp collecting or gardening.
"Building doors in whales is your hobby?!" Usopp squeaked.
'His hobby, he says. Building massive metal installations inside the digestive systems of island-sized whales is his hobby.'
I've officially heard everything now.
Just as we were trying to process the existence of such engineering inside a living creature, the entire whale began to shake violently. The artificial water around us churned, and even the fake sky above seemed to tremble.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The impacts came in regular intervals, each one powerful enough to send waves to rock our ship.
"Earthquake?" Sanji suggested, though his tone suggested he didn't really believe it.
"Wait, look! That's no island either! It's a ship! An iron one at that, too!" The turbulent wave made the fake island of the old man shake too, revealing what it is.
"So, then this ocean is actually stomach acid!? If we stay here any longer than this, our ship will be dissolved! Hey! What's going on now?! Oi, explain this at least!" Usopp yelled, grabbing onto the nearest piece of rigging to keep from being thrown overboard.
Crocus sighed and stood up from his chair, folding his newspaper with the resigned air of someone whose quiet morning had been thoroughly disrupted.
"Laboon, the whale, is hitting its head against the Red Line," he explained, as if this were a perfectly normal occurrence that required no further elaboration.
Before any of us could ask for clarification, he dove into the stomach fluid water with surprising grace for someone of his apparent age.
'And there he goes. Leaving us with more questions than answers, as seems to be the theme of today.'
"He's killing it from inside!" Nami concluded, her voice filled with horror and disgust. "That's why the whale is in pain! It's trying to get him out!"
'That…doesn't make sense. If this…Crocus…was causing the whale pain, why would it be hitting only its head against the Red Line? Not its side or stomach?'
Not only that, there were too many pieces that didn't fit with Nami's theory. The elaborate setup inside the stomach, the casual way Crocus treated the environment, the fact that the whale seemed to have been doing this for some time...
'This isn't about parasites or infection. This is about something much more complex.'
"It doesn't matter what's wrong with it," Zoro said with characteristic pragmatism. "We know how to get out now, so let's find Luffy and leave this place."
Typical Zoro logic: identify the goal, ignore the complications, proceed with maximum efficiency.
The rest of the crew nodded in agreement, but I decided to intervene before we fell into a disaster.
"Leaving like this would be inadvisable," I said, keeping my voice level despite the growing sense of urgency.
"Eh? Why?" Sanji asked, though something in his expression suggested he was beginning to understand.
'Time for a little reality check. Sometimes the obvious solution is the one that gets you killed.'
"Where are we right now?" I asked, letting the question hang in the air.
"Inside the whale…" Sanji replied automatically, then stopped as the implications hit him.
His face went pale as understanding dawned, and I saw the same realization spreading to the others.
"Wait,"
"Doesn't that mean…"
"That's right," I continued. "We're underwater. If we go through that door right now, we won't escape—we'll drown."
The silence that followed was deafening. I could practically hear their minds processing the trap we'd found ourselves in, weighing the options and finding them all wanting.
"Damn! That shitty bastard was leading us to our deaths!" Sanji snarled, his anger flaring as he realized how close we'd come to walking into a watery grave.
"Tsk," Zoro clicked his tongue in agreement, his expression dark with frustration.
'Not necessarily leading us to our deaths, but certainly not explaining the full situation. Whether that's malice or just his twisted sense of humor remains to be seen.'
"What are we going to do?!" Usopp asked, his voice climbing toward panic. "I don't want to get digested! And I definitely don't want to drown!"
"I don't want either of those things to happen either!" Nami added.
"We could wait until the whale surfaces," Zoro suggested, though his tone made it clear he wasn't enthusiastic about the option. "Then exit when we're at sea level."
"That would mean gambling with the ship's safety," Sanji pointed out. "The acid and all of that thrashing around... how long can our hull hold up?"
'Good question. And I happen to know the answer, unfortunately.'
"I'm protecting the ship with my ability for now," I said, feeling the continuous drain on my energy as I maintained the flow of Hamon reinforcement. "It's holding up, but it won't last forever."
The admission hung in the air like a death sentence. My supernatural abilities weren't unlimited, and everyone knew it.
[I Am Strong!] A ghostly, childish voice whispered in my mind, and I found myself responding to it automatically.
'Yes, yes, you are strong,' I thought back amusingly, touched by the ship's spirit despite the circumstances.
"Did you say something?" Usopp asked from beside me, his expression puzzled.
"No, I didn't," I replied, wondering if he was starting to hear Merry's voice as well.
'That's a mystery for later. Right now, I need to focus on getting us out of this situation alive.'
The best solution, I realized, was probably the same one I'd considered before we'd entered the whale's stomach in the first place.
But before I could voice my thoughts, something else happened that changed everything.
From a smaller door set within the large metal door, three figures suddenly appeared. One of them was immediately recognizable—rubber limbs, a straw hat, and the kind of grin that suggested he'd been having the time of his life despite being separated from his crew.
"Luffy!" Nami called out, relief flooding her voice.
Our captain saw us and waved enthusiastically. "Hey! I'm glad you guys are okay!"
Of course, he's glad we're okay. Meanwhile, we've been worried sick about him, and he's been off having adventures with strangers.
But then his expression changed to something resembling panic, and he called out, "Oh, by the way, Save Me!" before promptly falling into the stomach's fluid water.
We moved the ship toward him, and between Sanji and Zoro, we managed to haul him aboard, along with the two people who'd fallen out of the door with him.
And that's when I got my first good look at our unexpected passengers.
'Oh, you've got to be kidding me.'
The man had a distinctive "9" tattoo on his face and carried himself with the kind of theatrical confidence that screamed "secret agent trying too hard." Without a doubt, this was Mr. 9 from Baroque Works—an organization I'd specifically avoided getting involved with during my time as an independent treasure hunter.
But it was the woman who really caught my attention.
Even disguised and trying to blend in with her criminal companion, there was something unmistakably regal about her bearing.
'Princess Nefertari Vivi of Alabasta, currently undercover in Baroque Works. Which means we're about to get swept up in a country-wide civil war involving secret organizations, political intrigue, and all the complications of warfare that was well beyond my experience as a solo treasure hunter.'
Her beauty was undeniable—the kind that made even experienced pirates stop and stare—and sure enough, Sanji was already gravitating toward her with his characteristic heart-eyes expression.
'Great. Our cook has discovered a beautiful princess. This is definitely going to complicate everything.'
With her presence here, we were almost certainly going to be swept up in the events that would unfold in Alabasta.
I specifically avoided getting involved with organizations like Baroque Works for good reason. And now, thanks to our captain's talent for attracting trouble, we're probably going to end up right in the middle of their schemes.
'The thought of dealing with country-level politics and shadowy criminal networks was frankly terrifying. I'd learned to handle individual pirates and small crews, but this was an entirely different scale of problem.'
But my brooding was interrupted by Luffy, who was looking at me with the kind of expectant expression that usually meant he had an idea that would either be brilliant or get us all killed.
"Oi, Hachiman," he said, water still dripping from his hair. "Can you see if there's any treasure down here?"
'Treasure?'
"What treasure?" I asked, though I suspected I already knew where this was going. "We're inside a whale's digestive system."
"Yeah, and I saw wreckage of lots of ships at the bottom when I was drowning," Luffy explained with complete disregard for his previously mortal situation. "There's got to be something cool down there, right?"
'Ship wreckage in a whale's stomach. I suppose that makes sense—this creature is large enough to accidentally swallow entire vessels. The question is whether anything valuable survived the digestive process.'
Deciding to humor him, I pulled out Jack Sparrow's compass and opened it, focusing my intention on finding gold. The needle spun for a moment before settling on a direction, the distance counter indicated several kilometers away.
'Too far. And judging from the direction above the water, it is properly Crocus gold, so that's a no for now.'
But then curiosity got the better of me. We were officially in the Grand Line now, which meant Devil Fruits should be more common.
On impulse, I shifted my focus and asked the compass to point toward the closest Devil Fruits right now.
The needle immediately swung around and pointed in a completely different direction, with a way smaller distance—one that was much, much closer.
'Wait…What…?'
Two hundred meters. There's a Devil Fruit less than two hundred meters away from us.
I stared at the compass, certain I must be misreading it. But the needle was steady, pointing confidently toward a location that was definitely within the whale's stomach.
'That... that shouldn't be…possible.'
This challenges everything I thought I knew about Devil Fruits. Either my compass is broken, or there's something about Devil Fruits that the Manga never explained
'Like how the hell can you swallow a Devil Fruit without eating it…'
For the first time in a very long time, I felt completely and utterly confused. A question mark as large as the whale itself seemed to manifest above my head as I tried to process this impossible information.
…
A/N: There is a question that has been on my mind for a while: What happens to Devil Fruits when they fall into the sea?
Oda-sensei didn't tell us, and no one has asked him in the SBS.
Moreover, based on only what we know currently about DF, they will be lost in the sea for centuries and maybe forever, being transferred from a fish to a fish at the bottom of the ocean for a very, very long time until something happens.
And with a simple statistic (1 DF falling in the sea every 5 years or so), we are maybe looking at hundreds of DF that are now 'Sealed' in the sea over the past 800 years, which I think would be lame.
So, I came up with a guess that could be a bit interesting.
Anyway, Thank you all for reading and supporting!! Hope you enjoyed this one!
Have a good day people!
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