Water continuously flowed from Reverse Mountain's canal into the sea below, the whoosh and splash of the current echoing incessantly.
Once the giant whale closed its mouth, the fierce winds ceased, and the surrounding sea surface returned to calm.
Luffy, panting slightly, sat on the head of the whale floating on the sea. Beads of sweat were visible on his forehead, his expression grim as he muttered to himself, "What do we do now? Everyone's been eaten!"
"Hey! Spit them out!"
Standing on the whale's head, Luffy frantically hammered its skull with his fists, creating loud thudding sounds. "Give them back to me!"
They had just entered the Grand Line, and now Tom and the others had been swallowed whole by this whale, leaving him alone. Seeing the whale about to dive, Luffy grew both anxious and furious.
"Give me back my crew! They still have to adventure with me! They're my most important friends!"
Boiling with rage, veins bulged on Luffy's forehead. His face darkened slightly as he roared at the whale, which was now sinking.
Just as the whale's massive body was about to submerge completely, Luffy accidentally noticed something not far from him—a door-like structure on the whale's body. Though curious, Luffy didn't hesitate and ran toward it.
Meanwhile, Tom and the others, having been swallowed into the whale's belly, all stood at the bow, staring at the scene before them, unable to hide their shock.
The surroundings were calm. Blue sky and white clouds above...
The Going Merry now rested before a small island. On the island was a house with a few pieces of laundry hanging outside, a lounge chair, and a small table beside it. A tall coconut tree provided shade.
"What's going on?"
Tom, bruised and swollen, stood beside Nami. Although Zoro and the others were surprised by Tom's miserable condition, they were even more baffled by their location.
Before Tom could even find an excuse to explain why he'd been beaten up by Nami after the ship was swallowed—a fact he tried to conceal—Usopp guessed he must have accidentally bumped into something when the ship was rocking violently.
So Tom didn't need an excuse after all. He had to admire Nami. When the ship was swallowed and everything turned pitch black, he had accidentally done something he shouldn't have to her. He had thought...
Who would have guessed that in the complete darkness, Nami still managed to pinpoint Tom. Consequently, in the utterly black environment, he was unluckily beaten beyond recognition by Nami.
To avoid others discovering he was being beaten, Tom had gritted his teeth and stayed silent. His endurance was truly astonishing.
By the time everyone's vision returned, Tom was already sprawled on the deck with several large lumps on his head, looking utterly miserable.
"What do you all think?"
Nami asked Zoro and the others beside her. She sneakily cast a glance at Tom's badly swollen face beside her, her own cheeks slightly flushed, thinking to herself: You idiot, the clothes you're wearing now are all bought by me. You think I'd give them to you for free? They have my name printed on them. After doing something like that and not even saying a word, trying to slip away... If there's a next time...
Tom would never have dreamed that the new clothes Nami gave him earlier had the characters for "Nami" printed small in the center of the back—the kind that glows in the dark.
"How should I put this... I always thought we were eaten by a whale."
"Is this a dream?"
"It must be a dream."
The moment Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji said this, a giant squid emerged from the sea before them.
This squid was several times larger than the Going Merry.
"And this?"
Nami stared blankly at the giant squid glaring ferociously at them and asked.
"A Squid King! Is it an illusion like the island ahead?"
Tom looked at the Squid King waving its long, soft tentacles not far away, smashing them toward the Merry. He originally wanted to settle accounts with Nami—getting beaten up by her over a dream was unfair.
But before Tom could speak to Nami, the Squid King's tentacle attacked, immediately sending Nami and Usopp scrambling backward, screaming, "This is definitely NOT an illusion!"
"I'll handle it!"
Tom reached out and stopped Zoro and Sanji, who were about to attack the Squid King, speaking with confidence.
But before Tom could even make a move, several long spears shot out from the small island, piercing the Squid King's head with pinpoint accuracy. It immediately stiffened and sank beneath the waves.
Tom stood there, watching his prey vanish from sight. His jaw nearly dropped as he cried out, "My prey! How could it just disappear? This must be the illusion!"
"You idiot! It's good that thing's gone!"
Nami shouted at Tom. She was starting to lose it. Why were they swallowed by a giant whale only to end up in such a bizarre place? It looked like the sea but wasn't. A Squid King even attacked them. Who knew what would happen next? She pursed her lips, crying, "Enough, I'm done. I want to go home."
"Captain Luffy's nowhere to be seen. What should we do?"
Usopp wept, his courage now almost on par with Nami's.
"Can't you stop being so childish? We've already entered the Grand Line. The real great adventure is just beginning."
Tom looked toward Nami, speaking with confidence.
Seeing Tom's carefree attitude, Nami's fine eyebrows twitched incessantly. She thought: It looks like you're already enjoying yourself, aren't you?
"That's right, Miss Nami. I'll protect you."
The moment Sanji finished speaking, Usopp said to him, "Then protect me too, okay?"
"You're a man, aren't you? Go stand over there. I only protect women!"
Sanji immediately rejected Usopp's request.
"You still have the mood to chat? Someone seems to be coming out of the house."
Zoro stood at the bow, looking at the house on the small island. One hand rested on the hilt of his sword, his expression turning wary.
"I hope it's a person coming out of the house."
"If it's not a person, I'll deal with it."
Sanji and Tom came to the bow, standing beside Zoro, looking at the house on the island. They could faintly hear footsteps.
At that moment, Luffy had already entered the whale's body through the door he discovered earlier. He stood in a corridor-like passage, utterly amazed. "How can this be? Why is there a door on the whale? And a passageway inside?"
After thinking for a moment without reaching a conclusion, Luffy simply charged forward down the passage.
Back with Tom and the others, Usopp suggested using the cannon to blast the small island. Just then, a person emerged from the house.
At first, Sanji thought it was a flower walking out because the person's hair resembled a blooming blossom. The top was pale yellow, the roots light purple, the two colors intertwined together, looking quite strange. It was an old man with a very deep scar on his left arm, wearing reading glasses, with a figure-eight-shaped white beard on his chin.
Tom, seeing the old man holding several thick ropes connected to the spears that had pierced the Squid King's head, said to Zoro and the others, "Look, that old gentleman took out the Squid King with one shot."
"Is he hunting, or was he trying to save us?"
Sanji couldn't tell for the moment if the old man emerging from the island house was friend or foe.
The old man with flower-like hair and reading glasses dropped the ropes. As he walked toward the nearby lounge chair, he glanced at Tom and the others. His exceptionally sharp eyes seemed full of killing intent, inexplicably exerting a heavy pressure. The atmosphere instantly grew tense.
Sanji and the others and the old man stared each other down. Even after the old man plopped into the lounge chair and picked up a newspaper, neither side looked away. The old man's unusually sharp gaze remained unchanged.
"Say something, will you?!"
Sanji said angrily. He and the old man had been staring for a long time, and the old man hadn't uttered a word, nearly driving Sanji crazy.
But upon hearing Sanji, the old man, sitting in the lounge chair, merely continued staring over with his very sharp eyes, still silent.
"If you want to fight, I'm ready! We have cannons!"
Usopp, seeing the old man's somewhat fierce and menacing expression, spoke as if ready for a fight, but his face betrayed panic. Moreover, as he said this, he had almost already moved to the stern, putting the maximum distance between himself and the old man on the island.
After a moment of silence in the lounge chair, the old man finally said with a stern face, "Don't say things like that. People can die."
"Who's going to die?!"
Hearing the old man's words, Sanji thought he was dealing with a vicious character who wanted to kill them all, his expression growing increasingly serious.
"Me."
The old man's answer was simple and unexpected, giving Sanji the feeling of being toyed with. He immediately flew into a rage: "So you're the one who'll die?!"
"Don't get so angry."
Zoro pressed a hand on the shoulder of the furious Sanji, who wanted to rush up and beat the old man. Smiling, he asked the old man on the island, "Sir, can you tell us who you are? And what is this place?"
Instead of answering Zoro, the old man told Zoro to introduce himself first, as that was proper etiquette when asking someone's name.
Zoro thought the old man made a good point, so he solemnly and seriously reported his name: "I am Roronoa—"
"My name is Crocus. I am the lighthouse keeper of Twin Capes. I am seventy-one years old, blood type AB, Gemini."
Crocus interrupted Zoro before he could finish, not only giving his name but also revealing his age, zodiac sign, and blood type.
"Can I cut him down?"
Zoro genuinely felt he'd been played and instantly flew into a rage, grabbing his sword hilt. Thankfully, Tom stopped him in time: "Calm down. Don't be so impulsive."
"Really now. He's an old man over fifty. You're both being so rash, getting angry so easily. Isn't that just letting people laugh at you?"
After saying this to Sanji and Zoro, Tom squatted down on the ship's railing and asked Crocus, sitting in the lounge chair, "You took out that Squid King so easily. Are you skilled at hunting?"
Crocus didn't answer Tom. Instead, he said Tom's manner of speaking was too casual. Tom thought about it; the other party was an old man, so he should at least use honorific language. So he used "you" respectfully and repeated the question. But after Crocus and Tom stared at each other for nearly two minutes, Crocus finally said, "Were you talking to me?"
"I'm gonna whack him with a pole!"
Tom had waited so long, using respectful terms several times, only for the old man to say that. He immediately lost control. If Sanji and Zoro hadn't grabbed him together, he would have truly pulled out his fishing rod and started a fight.
"See, you're just the same."
Nami looked at Tom, who was being held back by Zoro and Sanji, with a thick black line on her forehead.
"You ask me what this place is?"
Crocus still held the newspaper, addressing Tom and the others. "I'm not a hunter. I'm a doctor. You've barged into my private villa, yet you have the nerve to speak so boldly. Do you think this is the belly of a mouse?"
Hearing Crocus's words, Tom and the others lowered their heads—they were truly inside the giant whale's stomach.
"What will happen to us? I don't want to be digested."
Nami worried that if they couldn't get out, it would be terrible.
"Don't worry. We'll eventually be excreted."
Seeing Nami's worried expression, Tom kindly said something to comfort her. Subsequently, Nami gifted him an iron fist.
Zoro and the others on the ship were thinking about how to escape the whale's stomach, their heads hurting. But soon, Crocus pointed to the other side and said, "The exit is over there."
"There's actually a way out?!"
"Why is there a door inside a whale's stomach?"
"And the door is up in the sky."
Sanji and the others looked in the direction Crocus pointed. Sure enough, there was a door standing there, with blue sky and white clouds beside it, which felt very strange.
Looking up carefully, Usopp realized the blue sky, white clouds, and seagulls above were all completely motionless—they were simply painted.
"Who would paint inside a whale's stomach?!"
The moment Nami asked this, Crocus said, "It's merely a hobby of mine, this doctor's way of passing the time."
"You... what are you doing here?!"
Usopp, learning it was Crocus who painted inside the whale's stomach, was so shocked his eyes nearly popped out.
"Never mind. Ignore him."
After Zoro said this to Usopp, he told Nami, "Since there's an exit, let's leave this place as soon as possible."
Just as Zoro and Nami were talking about leaving, Tom excitedly shouted, "So this is a whale's stomach! It's my first time in a place like this. I want to enjoy the feeling of fishing here."
"We're leaving immediately! What could you possibly catch in a place like this, you idiot?!"
Nami bared her sharp teeth, speaking to Tom, who had excitedly taken out his fishing rod ready to fish.
"I think you can still catch things here. Didn't a Squid King appear earlier? There must be other creatures here. Rarely do we come to a whale's stomach, I don't want to miss this opportunity."
Tom was just about to cast his hook when the ship shook violently, nearly making him stumble.
The ocean constituted by stomach acid was now rough and surging, churning with massive waves that caused their ship to rock incessantly.
Then Nami discovered that the small island where Crocus was located was actually an iron ship, rocking with the rolling waves. After all, the seawater here was stomach acid; using an iron ship made sense, as a wooden one would eventually melt.
Usopp urgently asked Crocus what was happening. This time, Crocus didn't joke with Tom and the others, answering very seriously, "The whale has started ramming its head against the Red Line."
Crocus's words startled Zoro and the others. Recalling the whale's appearance, its head was indeed covered in crisscrossing, horrifying scars, which spoke volumes.
Nami further speculated that the reason the whale surfaced and roared at the sky was because it was in great pain, even resorting to crazily ramming the Red Line with its head. And that was Crocus's goal—to kill the whale from inside its body.
Hearing Nami's words, Usopp bluntly said Crocus was despicable, using such a despicable method to capture a whale.
"I don't think you're right."
Tom rejected Nami's inference. "If he really wanted to kill this whale, why would he bother decorating this place so nicely and painting here? If it were you, would you paint on the stomach lining of a whale you were about to kill?"
Counter-questioned by Tom like this, Nami was also a bit stunned—it really didn't make sense.
"This isn't the time for that. Regardless of that guy's purpose for being here, we need to leave as soon as possible. If we stay, the ship will melt."
"As pirates, even if he really intends to harm this whale, we have no reason to interfere with his whaling activities. Let's just go."
Zoro and Sanji were right. The most important thing now was to escape the whale's stomach. While they were talking, they saw Crocus jump into the stomach acid sea for some unknown purpose.
"You don't object, do you?"
Nami looked at Tom. This guy was earlier itching to try fishing here. Leaving now probably meant he'd be very unwilling.
"Are you an idiot?"
Tom said to Nami, "If we can leave, of course we leave first. But won't there still be some time before the ship passes through that exit door?"
"You're not thinking of using that little bit of time to try and catch something in this whale's stomach, are you?"
As Nami had Zoro and the others use oars to row the ship toward the door, she asked Tom.
It couldn't be helped. The sea of stomach acid was currently too turbulent for the ship to sail normally to the exit door; they had to use oars.
"You really don't understand, do you? The thing about hunting is that until the very last moment, you never know if your prey will appear, if it will take the bait. That feeling of filled with anticipation... you probably find it hard to understand, right?"
Tom saw Zoro and the other two rowing. Judging by the ship's speed, they would reach the exit door soon and didn't need his help. He took out his fishing rod and, while talking to Nami, forcefully cast his hook.
At that very moment, from a small door high up in the whale's stomach, three people suddenly flew out one after another. Tom's just-thrown fishhook hooked onto one of them. Still chatting with Nami, he felt a slight change in the rod. His heart leapt with joy as he said to Nami, "Look! Prey already took the bait so quickly!"
As he said this, Tom gently pulled the line, reeling in the hooked prey. It felt rather light. He turned his head to look and saw dangling from the hook an unconscious woman with a long ponytail and aqua-blue hair...
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T/N :
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