The jungle of Little Garden was a green hell.
It wasn't just that the trees were big; they were aggressive. The ferns were the size of galleon sails, blocking out the sun and trapping the humidity in a thick, steamy layer near the ground. The air buzzed with the sound of insects that were disturbingly close to the size of cats.
Ben, however, was in paradise.
"Fascinating," he murmured, kneeling beside a cluster of vibrant, purple mushrooms that seemed to be pulsating with a faint, rhythmic light. He waved his wand over them, checking for magical resonance.
He plucked a sample of things he found interesting, shrinking it instantly with a casual flick of Command T, and deposited it into a vial.
Behind him, the "Cowardly Duo" were not sharing his academic enthusiasm.
Nami and Usopp were no longer two separate people. They had fused into a single, trembling entity of survival instinct. They were walking lock-step, back-to-back, clutching each other's clothes so tightly their knuckles were white.
"Ben..." Nami squeaked, her eyes darting around the shadows. "Can we go back? I think I saw a mosquito the size of a toaster. A toaster, Ben! Mosquitos shouldn't have appliances as a size reference!"
"This is it," Usopp whimpered, his long nose twitching like a radar dish. "I can feel it in my bones. The 'I-Will-Die-If-I-Enter-A-Prehistoric-Jungle' disease is flaring up! It's terminal!"
Ben stood up, dusting off his knees. "Nonsense. Look at this fern! Its sap has properties similar to Wiggenweld Potion. If I refine this, I could make a healing salve ten times stronger than standard medicine. Just a little further."
"A little further?!" Usopp shrieked. "We've been walking for twenty minutes! In dinosaur time, that's like... a hundred years!"
As if summoned by the word "dinosaur," the jungle went quiet. The buzz of the giant insects stopped. The wind died down.
THUD.
The ground shook. A puddle of water near Nami's foot rippled.
THUD.
"What... was... that?" Nami whispered, tears already forming in her eyes.
The canopy ahead of them exploded. With a roar that sounded like a tearing sheet of metal, a massive head burst through the trees.
It was a T-Rex. A literal, living, breathing Tyrannosaurus Rex. Its teeth were the size of swords. Its eyes were yellow and hungry. Saliva dripped from its jaws, landing on a fern with a heavy splat.
"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Nami and Usopp screamed in perfect harmony, hugging each other so hard they fell over.
"DINOSAUR! IT'S A REAL DINOSAUR! WE'RE EXTINCT! WE'RE FOSSILS!" Usopp wailed.
The T-Rex lunged. It moved with terrifying speed for something so large, its jaws snapping open to swallow the screaming trio whole.
Ben didn't flinch. He didn't run. He simply sighed, as if interrupted in the middle of a good book.
He raised the Elder Wand. He didn't use a flashy elemental spell. He used precision.
"Diffindo."
A thin, invisible blade of pure magical force sliced through the air. There was a soft swish sound.
The T-Rex kept moving forward, but its head did not.
The massive head slid cleanly off the neck. The body took two more steps, momentum carrying it forward, before collapsing with a ground-shaking CRASH. The head landed with a wet thud a few feet away from Nami, its eyes rolling back.
Silence returned to the jungle.
Nami and Usopp slowly uncurled from their fetal positions. They looked at the dead dinosaur. They looked at Ben, who was calmly wiping a speck of dust from his wand.
"GABABABABABA!"
A new sound. A laugh. It wasn't human. It was deep, booming, and seemed to come from the sky itself.
"Who's there?!" Usopp shrieked, raising his slingshot with trembling hands.
A shadow fell over them. A shadow so large it blocked out the sun.
They looked up. And up. And up.
Standing over them, peering through the gap in the trees, was a Giant.
He was colossal. Easily sixty feet tall. He wore a red viking helmet with horns, a massive beard that bristled like a forest, and carried an axe that could cleave a ship in two. He looked down at the dead T-Rex, then at the three tiny humans.
"Who stole my lunch?!" the giant roared, his voice shaking the leaves.
Nami and Usopp's souls left their bodies. They turned white, blue, and then transparent.
"G-G-G-GIANT!" Usopp screamed.
The giant pointed a finger the size of a log at the T-Rex. "I was hunting that! I've been tracking it for ten minutes! Which one of you ants killed it?"
Nami and Usopp immediately, instinctively, and without hesitation, pointed at Ben.
"HE DID IT!"
Ben sighed. Loyalty, thy name is Straw Hat.
He stepped forward, looking up at the massive warrior. He offered a polite, courtly bow.
"My apologies, oh mighty warrior," Ben said, his voice amplified slightly with magic so the giant could hear him clearly. "The beast attacked us. It was a matter of survival. We did not mean to steal your prey."
The giant blinked. He looked at the tiny, white-haired man who spoke so boldly. Then he looked at the clean cut on the dinosaur's neck.
"You did this?" the giant asked.
"Yes," Ben smiled. "But since it was your prey... please. Take it. We have plenty of food on our ship. Consider it a gift."
The giant stared for a second longer, then threw his head back and laughed again.
"GABABABABA! You are an interesting little human! You kill a rex and then give it away! I like you!"
He slammed his axe into the ground. "I am Brogy! The Red Ogre! A warrior of Elbaf!"
"Elbaf?!" Usopp's fear suddenly vanished, replaced by a spark of recognition. "The... the village of warriors? The land of giants?"
"The very same!" Brogy boomed. He looked at the dinosaur. "Well, since you gave me the meat... it would be rude not to share! Come! Join me for lunch! I have a grill hot enough to roast this beast whole!"
He paused, a hopeful glint in his massive eyes. "Tell me... do you little humans have... booze?"
Ben grinned. He reached into his magically expanded coat pocket. "Brogy-san... we are pirates. Of course we have booze."
Brogy's face lit up like a lighthouse. "GABABABABA! THEN YOU ARE GUESTS OF HONOR! COME! TO MY HOME!"
He grabbed the T-Rex by the tail, slung the multi-ton carcass over his shoulder as if it were a backpack, and began to march through the jungle, crushing trees beneath his boots.
Ben turned to Nami and Usopp. "See? Friendly. Come on."
"Friendly?!" Nami hissed. "He's the size of a building! He could crush us by sneezing!"
"But he's from Elbaf!" Usopp whispered, his eyes shining. "The land of my dreams! Nami, we have to go! This is destiny!"
Nami groaned. "Fine. But if I get eaten, I'm haunting you both."
---
Brogy's "home" was a testament to the terrifying ecosystem of Little Garden. It wasn't a house; it was a giant, bleached skull of some ancient, colossal sea monster, propped up against a cliff. A fire roared in the center of the clearing, large enough to burn down a city block.
Brogy deftly skinned the T-Rex and slapped a massive slab of meat onto the fire. The smell of roasting dinosaur fat filled the air—rich, gamey, and delicious.
As the meat sizzled, Brogy sat cross-legged (which still made him thirty feet tall) and looked at his guests.
"So," Brogy rumbled. "You are pirates. It has been a long time since I saw pirates. Fifty years? Maybe more."
"You've been here fifty years?" Nami asked, nibbling on a cracker she'd brought from the ship (she didn't trust the dino-meat yet).
"Longer!" Brogy laughed. "I have been here for one hundred years!"
"A HUNDRED?!" Usopp choked. "But... why? Why stay on this monster island?"
Brogy's expression shifted. The jovial host vanished, replaced by something ancient and solemn. A warrior's pride.
"I am fighting a duel," Brogy said. "A duel of honor. Against Dorry the Blue Ogre."
He pointed toward the other side of the island, where a massive volcano smoked ominously.
"We are both captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates. One hundred years ago, we had an argument... which became a duel. By the laws of Elbaf, only the gods can decide who is right. So we fight. Every day. Until one of us falls."
Usopp sat mesmerised. The firelight reflected in his goggles. "For... a hundred years? Just for... honour?"
"Just for honour," Brogy confirmed, nodding. "We have forgotten the reason for the argument long ago. But the fight... the fight is our life now. It is the pride of Elbaf!"
Usopp stood up. His knees were shaking, but not from fear this time. "That's... that's incredible! To fight for a century... to never give up... that is the path of a true brave warrior of the sea! I... I want to be like that! I want to go to Elbaf one day!"
"GABABABA!" Brogy laughed, slapping his knee. "You have spirit, Long-Nose! Maybe one day you will!"
"The meat is done!" Brogy announced. He pulled the massive slab off the fire. "Now... about that booze?"
Ben stood up. He pulled a standard-sized bottle of sake from his coat.
Brogy looked at the bottle. It was the size of a toothpick in his hand. He looked disappointed. "Ah. Little human booze. It is... appreciated. But it will barely wet my tongue."
Ben smiled. "Don't worry about that, Brogy-san. Allow me."
Ben placed the bottle on a flat rock. He stepped back. The green magic of Command T flared around his hands.
"Command T: Expand."
VWOOOOOOOOM.
The air warped. The small glass bottle suddenly surged outward. It grew. And grew. And grew. The glass thickened, the liquid inside multiplying by the gallon. In seconds, the bottle was the size of a water tower. It was now perfectly scaled for a giant's hand.
Brogy's jaw dropped. His eyes popped out.
"WHAT?!" he roared. "It... it grew! How?! Did you eat a Devil Fruit?"
Ben shook his head, the green aura fading. "No Devil Fruit. I am a Magician. Just a little trick to ensure our host doesn't go thirsty."
"GABABABABA!" Brogy howled, grabbing the massive bottle. "A MAGICIAN! I love this sea! You humans are full of surprises!" He popped the cork (which sounded like a cannon shot) and took a massive swig. "AH! GOOD SAKE!"
They ate and drank. The dinosaur meat was tough but flavorful. The atmosphere was warm. For a moment, the terrors of the Grand Line felt far away.
And then... the earth screamed.
KRAKA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The central volcano erupted. A massive pillar of smoke and ash shot into the sky. The ground shook violently, knocking Nami over.
"What is it?!" Nami yelled. "Is the island exploding?!"
Brogy stopped drinking. He set the bottle down gently. The laughter vanished from his face. His eyes became hard, focused, and terrifyingly intense. He picked up his massive shield and his axe.
"No," Brogy rumbled, standing up to his full height. He loomed over them like a god of war. "That is the signal. The volcano tells us it is time."
"Time for what?" Usopp whispered.
Brogy looked toward the other side of the island, where another massive silhouette was rising from the jungle.
"It is time to fight."
He looked down at Ben, Nami, and Usopp. "Thank you for the meat. And the drink. But now... I must go. Dorry is waiting."
He began to walk, his footsteps shaking the earth. THUD. THUD. THUD.
Ben watched him go. He felt the shift in the air. The raw, unadulterated Haki of two giants preparing to clash.
"Come on," Ben said to Nami and Usopp.
"Where?" Nami asked. "Back to the ship?"
"No," Ben said, his eyes locked on Brogy's retreating back. "We're going to watch. You don't get to see a hundred-year-old duel of honor every day. And besides..." he grinned, "I think I need to collect some data on Giant combat styles."
Usopp grabbed his bag. "I'm coming! I have to see it! I have to see the warriors of Elbaf!"
Even Nami, despite her fear, was drawn by the gravity of the moment. "Fine. But we stay far, far away!"
They followed the giant through the jungle, toward the clearing where the two titans would clash, the ground shaking with every step of their anticipation.
---
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