💖 If you enjoy my work, consider supporting me on Patreon. I'm offering advanced chapters there as a thank-you to readers.
--------------------
Check out advanced chapters on : patreon.com/DragonOP
--------------------
After securing the Log Pose and the pirate's diary, Nami felt a wave of relief wash over her; even the food tasted better now that their navigation issues were solved. However, a sudden realization struck her, and she looked at the yellow-haired middle-aged man with a serious expression.
"By the way, if you want to return to the South Blue, how will you actually get there? As far as I know, the only way back to the Four Blues from the Grand Line is by crossing the Calm Belt, right?"
She leaned forward, her brow furrowed. "That place is a nightmare. I've heard there's no wind at all, so your ship would be a sitting duck. And the things living there... almost anyone who enters never comes out."
The middle-aged man's face paled, and a look of genuine worry flickered in his eyes. "This... actually, we haven't thought about it yet."
When they had set out, fueled by the excitement of found treasure and a mid-life crisis, they had only focused on moving forward. They assumed that once they traveled the world, going home would be the easy part. How could men who conquered the Grand Line be unable to find their way back to a warm hearth?
"I knew it," Nami muttered, covering her forehead. This group was driven entirely by passion, with no retreat plan in sight.
She quickly pulled the yellowed diary from her chest, flipping through the brittle pages. If the previous owner had returned to the South Blue, surely he had recorded the secret? But the leader shook his head. "We've read it many times. It mentions nothing about the return journey."
Nami scanned the pages anyway, eventually sighing in frustration. "Sigh, you're right. This guy recorded every trivial meal but skipped the most important detail. I don't even know what to say."
"If it really comes down to it," the leader said, his jaw tightening with desperate resolve, "we'll just have to row manually across the Calm Belt. We're farmers; we have strength."
"Boss! We're with you!" his brothers shouted, trying to lighten the mood with jokes about bragging rights back home. Their eyes were red, but their loyalty was unshakable.
"You young people," Crocus interjected, picking a bit of food from his teeth, "courage is a fine thing, but challenging the impossible without strength is just foolishness."
He looked at them indifferently. Crossing the Calm Belt wasn't technically impossible—he had seen the Roger Pirates do it. But those were the strongest individuals in the world. For nine ordinary men, attempting to row across the nest of Sea Kings was a death sentence.
"Then what do we do? We can't stay here forever!" the leader cried.
"Of course, there is another way," Crocus said with a profound smile.
Instantly, the entire group—including Satori and Nami—leaned in. Nami was the most eager; she had spent years gathering intelligence in the East Blue and had never heard of a safe way back. "Tell us! Don't keep us in suspense!"
Crocus pointed his finger toward the massive waterway flowing down from Reverse Mountain.
"What do you mean?" Nami asked, puzzled.
"You know this place exists because of special ocean currents," Crocus explained calmly. "If it can bring you from the Four Blues to the Grand Line, why can't it take you back?"
The group gasped in collective shock.
"You mean...?!" Nami's mind raced as an outrageous idea took hold.
"That's right. This waterway experiences a reverse current phenomenon periodically. During those windows, the flow flips. People from the Four Blues can't enter, but people from the Grand Line can ride the current back to the starting seas."
"Is that even possible?" Sanji stared at the mountain, his cigarette burning down to the filter.
"In all my decades here, I've never figured out the science of it," Crocus admitted, shaking his head. "It defies common sense. But it happens. It's not regular, though. Sometimes it's a month, sometimes it takes two years."
He looked at the yellow-haired man. "The last reversal was five months ago. If you're lucky, you won't wait long. If you're unlucky, you'll be staying with me for a year or more."
The leader shook his head excitedly, tears of relief in his eyes. "What's a little time? As long as we can get home safely to our wives and children, we'll wait as long as it takes!"
Compared to the jaws of a Sea King in the Calm Belt, waiting at the lighthouse was a luxury. They finally had a real path home.