"Hey! You creepy old man!"
Luffy leaned over the railing and shouted rudely, "Who are you? And why did you come out of a whale's stomach?!"
Crocus didn't answer.
Instead, he stared straight at Luffy, his gaze so intense it felt like he was trying to see through him.
They locked eyes for a full ten seconds.
The atmosphere became unbearably awkward.
"If you keep staring at me like that…" Crocus suddenly spoke, his tone solemn,
"I'm going to…"
"Going to what?" Zoro asked warily.
"I'm going to… blush."
"..."
Everyone collapsed on the spot.
"What kind of answer is that?!" Usopp yelled. "Is this old man crazy?!"
"I am the lighthouse keeper of Twin Cape—Crocus."
Seemingly quite satisfied with everyone's reaction, the old man finally introduced himself at a leisurely pace.
Ronan and the others jumped off the Going Merry onto the open ground in front of the lighthouse.
The moment they landed, Sanji—who had been on full alert just a second ago—had his attention instantly hijacked by the blue-haired girl tied up on the ground.
"Oh! My love radar is going wild!"
Sanji switched modes instantly, eyes turning into giant hearts as he slid to his knees in front of Vivi.
"Who is this beautiful lady? Why is she being treated so roughly?! This is an insult to beauty itself!"
"Let us go, you old geezer!"
Vivi ignored Sanji's lovestruck routine and instead shouted angrily at Crocus. Though she was in a sorry state, her eyes burned with stubborn resolve.
"We won't give up our mission! That whale is our prey!"
"Prey?"
Zoro frowned and glanced at Crocus.
"They?" Crocus casually found a lounge chair and sat down, his tone flat.
"They're just ruffians from a nearby island town—whalers. They keep trying to hunt Laboon for food and oil. Every time, I throw them out."
"Laboon?" Luffy turned to look at the massive whale.
"That's the name of this island whale."
Crocus pulled a newspaper from his shirt and gazed at Laboon in the distance, a trace of sorrow slipping into his eyes.
"You're probably wondering why its head is covered in scars, right?"
Everyone looked at Laboon.
Indeed, the whale's enormous head was crisscrossed with deep, trench-like scars—some long healed, others still bleeding. It was a shocking sight.
"It did that to itself."
Crocus's voice grew low as he began telling a story of waiting and promises.
"It started fifty years ago…"
When Crocus finished, the area fell into complete silence.
Even Luffy—the least sentimental of them all—was quiet.
He stared at the massive whale, the earlier hint of "looks tasty" gone from his eyes, replaced by deep shock.
Fifty years.
For humans, that was most of a lifetime.
For this whale, it was countless days and nights of lonely waiting.
"So sad…" Nami covered her mouth, eyes welling up. "That's why it keeps ramming the Red Line… to see its friends again…"
"Laboon…" Usopp sniffed loudly. "That's one manly whale."
Ronan stood quietly to the side, listening.
Even though he already knew the tragedy of the Rumbar Pirates, hearing it laid bare in this real world still weighed heavily on his heart.
Looking into Laboon's sorrowful eyes, Ronan thought:
This isn't an anime scene meant to make you cry.
This is a real world.
Every legend here is soaked in blood, tears, and obsession.
Brook is still alive.
The promise is still valid.
But Laboon doesn't know that—
so it keeps hurting itself to fight back against despair.
...
Twin Cape, beneath the lighthouse.
The sea breeze carried a chill as it passed through Crocus's petal-like white hair.
The air was heavy with something called time, pressing down on everyone's chest.
After hearing Laboon's story, no one spoke.
This wasn't just a whale waiting—it was a vigil spanning half a century, one seemingly doomed to end in nothing.
"Huff…"
Sanji leaned against the lighthouse wall and lit a cigarette.
Through the drifting smoke, his expression was unusually deep—and painfully realistic.
"Fifty years… For humans, that's basically a whole lifetime."
He flicked the ash away, his voice calm but tinged with helpless pity.
"In the place known as the pirate graveyard—the Grand Line—
forget fifty years. Even surviving one year is a miracle."
"They're probably all dead. No matter how long it waits, it's pointless."
"Don't say that, Sanji."
Nami hugged her knees on the stone steps, staring at the scarred whale in the sea.
"I've heard it too… the Grand Line fifty years ago was even more chaotic and terrifying than it is now…"
"You guys—!"
Usopp suddenly jumped up, emotions overflowing.
"Why do you have to be so realistic?! They could still come back!"
"Maybe they just got lost! Maybe they're on their way back right now!"
He pointed at Laboon, his voice trembling.
"Isn't this beautiful?! It's a promise between companions!"
"It's a whale that believes without doubt—one that keeps waiting even if its head breaks open!"
"How can this story end like that?!"
He turned to the lighthouse keeper, desperate for hope.
"Right, old man?! They're not dead, right?!"
Crocus pushed up his glasses, his eyes calm like still water.
As the former doctor of the Pirate King, who had sailed the entire Grand Line, he knew better than anyone how cruel that sea truly was.
"Yeah… I get how you feel."
His voice was steady, emotionless—yet every word cut deep.
"But reality is harsh. Through various channels, I've confirmed the truth…"
"The Rumbar Pirates… were wiped out in the Grand Line."
Those words pronounced Laboon's "death sentence."
Ronan stood silently, emotions tangled.
They were dead—
and yet, in another way, they still lived on.
Brook was still drifting alone in the Florian Triangle, guarding that promise.
But that truth couldn't be given to Laboon yet.
Just as despair threatened to solidify—
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A crisp set of footsteps broke the silence.
The one who had been quiet all this time—Luffy—suddenly moved.
He pulled his straw hat low, said nothing, and walked past everyone, step by step, toward the shore—straight toward the mountain-like whale.
"Luffy? What are you doing?"
Zoro immediately sensed the change in Luffy's presence.
That was the aura of battle.
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