49 Chapter 49 - Laboon

(A/N: Majority seem to want Jin to meet Robin before heading back, which is very understandable. Robin is top waifu material, after all. To do so will barely fit within the 7 day time frame canonically, but luckily I have magic fingers that can shorten that timeline a bit, lol. Anyway, since some people don't seem to want to stick around in OP world too long, maybe 3-4 more chapters for OP, but I'll see how it goes when writing it. Fourth tutorial will be, like, half as long as this one. At the very least, the Laboon part all fit into this nice and neat double-length chapter. Around 3k words, hence the late post. Kek.)

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The Straw Hat crew ran about the ship in a frenzy trying to prevent the Going Merry from smashing into rocks amidst the surging current forcing them toward the entrance to the Grand Line. Although the Straw Hats fought for their lives to keep a straight course, Jin couldn't wipe the smile off his face. He felt like he was riding an intense water coaster at a theme park.

Unlike the Straw Hat's original voyage, Jin's barriers helped steer the ship, preventing the crew from breaking the lever for the rudder. The Going Merry still sustained damage, though.

Before long, they sailed through the rough waves under the Torii-esque archway. Misty seawater sprayed everywhere due to the wild current carrying them up the mountain, leaving a salty taste on Jin's lips. After surmounting the peak on the upward water current of Reverse Mountain, the rest of the crew finally got the opportunity to rest and enjoy the unusual voyage.

"Woohoo! Full speed ahead!" Luffy yelled and laughed in pure excitement.

In the distance, a low roar almost similar to that of a pitch-shifted creaking board echoed out.

"Did you hear that?" Zoro asked.

"Could be the wind," Nami suggested.

"Heh," Jin chuckled to himself.

"What are you laughing about?" Nami asked.

"Hm," Jin considered for a moment, but then smiled and said, "You'll see."

"What is that?" Usopp wondered aloud, peering into the distance through his goggles.

Sitting on the mast, Sanji yelled, "Nami! There's a mountain ahead."

"Mountain?" Nami repeated. Then, she glared at Jin.

"What? You can see the big guy already."

At the bottom of the slope, they saw a massive black object protruding from the surface of the sea. Most of them initially assumed it to be some sort of mountain, but as they got closer, they couldn't believe their eyes. A massive black whale the size of an island poked its heavily scarred head out of the water, all the while wailing in a low and rumbling tone that made their bodies vibrate as though they stood in front of a massive speaker at a dubstep concert.

"Haha! He really is massive!" Jin commented, enjoying the sight of a massive creature he could never see back home.

"This isn't the time for that!" Nami chided, throwing a fist at his head. Luckily, he cast a defensive barrier in time. Somehow, she smashed through it, but he at least bought himself time to dodge.

'...What? Was she really that strong at this point?' Jin wondered. Then, he recalled all the times she handed out beatings to the other guys in the crew when they acted stupid and nodded in realization.

"Quick! There's a space to the left! Turn portside!" Zoro exclaimed.

However, they didn't get the chance to start turning. The whale sank back into the sea. Strong currents picked up and rushed toward its open mouth. Since Luffy was sitting on his special seat the whole time, it caught him by surprise. He fell off.

"Ah! Luffy!" Nami exclaimed. Her voice didn't reach him, but they saw him stretching his hands to pull himself on top of the whale.

"Well, he should be fine, but I'll double check. See you in a minute," Jin said, quickly flying off on his barrier board.

"Ah! Don't leave me to die in this fish's belly!" Nami yelled, grabbing onto the board.

"NO! Nami-chuaaan!" Sanji yelled, his voice fading into the distance.

Barely maintaining balance since he didn't expect a stowaway, Jin grunted. Seeing the girl dangling from the edge of his barrier with her fingers slipping off, he sighed and grabbed her arm. He picked her up… and tossed her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Phew! I almost died," Nami said. Then, upon realizing her position with her face against Jin's back, she blinked a few times as though processing the situation. Then, her face reddened a little, and she complained, "Can't you at least carry me kindly since I'm a girl?"

"Easier to carry this way," Jin casually replied while flying between the teeth of Laboon's almost closed mouth. "Hm. Escaped by the skin of his teeth."

"Now's not the time for jokes!"

"As a Straw Hat, it is always the time to make jokes. Except when it's not."

"Ugh. Whatever…" Nami's voice trailed off. A moment later, she grinned and said, "One hundred thou- no- Two hundred thousand berries."

"..."

"You get to touch a pretty girl like me, so pay up."

"...You can swim, right?"

Suddenly finding herself hung upside down by the ankle, Nami blinked. Then, she looked down and saw the whale trying to dive underwater. She screamed.

"No! Forget the money! Please don't drop me!"

The next moment, she found herself held in a princess carry, but she didn't even know how it happened.

"It's fine to be greedy, since we need money, but at least don't take advantage of your crewmates for goodness' sake," Jin grumbled, annoyed that she asked for every berri in his possession.

Luckily, the girl remained quiet and laid in his arms as still as a dead log. Her compliance gave Jin the opportunity to fly down to meet Luffy on top of the whale.

"Ah, Jin! Nami! You're alive!" Luffy exclaimed, letting a sigh of relief slip from his lips. Then, he pointed at the top of the whale and said, "Look, there's a door on this whale."

"Yeah. Let's go ahead and enter before the seawater touches you," Jin said, landing next to his pirate captain. Nami dropped from his arms without looking at him.

Jin let the other two enter the small hatch first and followed behind. Inside, they found a metal pathway illuminated with ovular lightbulbs.

"What is all this?" Luffy wondered aloud in a curious tone.

"I don't know," Nami answered while touching the walls in an investigative manner. Then, she looked at Jin as though looking for an answer, but he simply shrugged in response.

"Eh? It's just you two?" Luffy suddenly realized. Then, narrowing his eyes at Jin, he suspiciously asked, "Did you leave them behind?"

"Kinda. They sailed into the whale's stomach, which is safe, at least for a little bit. Wanted to make sure you made it out okay, and Nami hitched a ride unnecessarily."

"I went with you because I didn't want to get eaten!"

"Eh? The whale ate them?! Why'd you leave them behind, Jin?!"

"Like I said, they're fine. We'll meet them if we follow this hallway."

"Oh, okay."

"What? How do you know?" Nami asked.

"I have the ability to know certain things sometimes. Like the stuff about the log poses."

*Jiiiiii~*

"If we can meet them at the end of this hallway, then let's go!" Luffy said, leading the way with large and adventurous steps.

A few minutes after they started walking, the hallway started shaking as though there was an earthquake. Even using barriers did not prevent Jin from stumbling, especially since Nami wrapped herself around him the moment it started. Their faces ended up close together, but the quaking made it impossible to care about it at the moment. The subtle softness pressed against his chest elicited a small increase in his heart rate, but he quickly suppressed it. Rather, the uneven shaking made both of them feel queasy.

"I think I'm going to throw up…" Nami groaned.

"Just don't do it on me," Jin grumbled.

While Jin and Nami tried not to throw up on each other, Luffy ragdolled down the hallway and out of sight. Grunting slightly, Jin cast a wider barrier board, but with barrier wheels. He didn't know if it would work at first, but since he knew the structure of a skateboard, it turned out okay. The breaks between the quakes gave him the opportunity to speed along behind Luffy.

By the time he caught up, he saw two silhouettes in the distance standing next to a metal door built into the upper part of a large gate-like structure. The quaking settled down, but then the whole area tilted downward. Both Luffy and Jin sped up, though Luffy couldn't help it.

"Ah! I can't stop!" Luffy yelled.

"Hah. How fun," Jin commented with a small smile. Then, he looked down and warned Nami, "Hang on tight. This might get a bit rough."

"Got it," She replied, hugging him tighter.

'She got comfortable real quick…'

Some screams echoed off the metal walls from ahead of them. A loud bang erupted the next moment. More light filtered in from the door slammed open by three bodies. Jin followed them out and erased the barrier wheels.

Down below, Sanji, Usopp, and Zoro gaped at the sight of several people tumbling through the air toward the whale's stomach acid.

"Guys! You're alright, just like Jin said! Well, in any case, please help me out!"

"I got it!" Jin yelled back. He clapped his hands behind Nami's back, which made her blush ever so slightly since she thought he was hugging her back. His next words erased that assumption from her mind. "Barrier Make: Orb Prison x3."

Three translucent orbs formed around the three falling people. The two strangers slammed into the barrier and whimpered in pain. On the other hand, Luffy bounced around inside his orb like a pinball. The three of them looked like coin machine gacha prizes.

'Can't leave them behind without taking that log pose, after all,' Jin thought, glancing in Vivi's direction. The blue-haired girl met his gaze almost as though she could feel him looking at her. He smiled in a friendly manner, which elicited a frown in response. He noticed her mumbling to herself, but the sound did not escape the barrier. However, even with his lack of ability to read lips, he could tell she was assuming he had a devil fruit.

'Wonder what people would think when they meet the actual owner of the barrier fruit. That'd be interesting.'

Setting aside his musings, Jin landed on the deck of the Going Merry alongside his three barrier orbs. He released Luffy, who splatted onto the deck before bouncing onto his back. He sat up immediately.

"Uwoh~ That was a close one! Thanks, Jin!"

"No problem."

"Then, who are these people?" Zoro asked, raising a brow at the capsuled pair, ignoring Sanji who was foaming at the mouth upon seeing Nami casually hugging Jin.

"Hm… weirdos," Jin mumbled, rubbing his chin. He released the barriers around them with an amused smile. Neither of the two expected it and tumbled to the ground. They then looked back at him with wary gazes before observing the rest of the Straw Hats. While the two whispered to each other, Jin looked down into Nami's eyes and asked, "Are you planning to let go anytime soon?"

"I could save so much energy by just riding you all the time. It would be like free transportation. I'd never have to walk again," She mumbled to herself like an accountant counting costs.

"..."

Nami laughed a little at the fact that Jin didn't have a retort this time before letting go. In fact, her first sentence made him speechless. Turning around, she then observed the strangers carefully.

Back near the door they entered the whale's stomach from, an old man with flower petal-like hair stood on the platform there and yelled, "I won't let you lay even a single finger on Laboon for as long as I live."

The two 'weirdos' laughed, picked up bazooka-like weapons, and aimed at the stomach wall. They commented about how being inside the whale would make it easier to kill and fired their weapons. However, barriers appeared directly in front of the cannonballs they shot. An explosion rattled the area, though Jin cast another barrier to protect the deck of the Going Merry. In the end, the two ended up sprawled out on the floor with burned clothes and singed hair.

"Eh?"

"What'd you do that for, Jin?" Luffy asked.

"Ah, well, that old man was about to jump in front of those cannonballs."

"Oh! Good job, Jin! I'd have knocked 'em out, too!"

From there, the old man swam over and thanked the Straw Hats for stopping the two from hurting Laboon. He then explained the story of how Laboon was left behind fifty years early by his pirate family since they thought the Grand Line was too dangerous for him, though they promised to come back for him at the end of their journey. They never did. All throughout the story, Jin envisioned the jolly face of a certain musical skeleton in his mind.

By the end of the story, they sailed back outside of Laboon through the large iron gates. The group debated what to do with the two people who tried to attack Laboon. Zoro suggested tossing them overboard, but then Jin suggested extorting them, to which Nami happily voted in favor. Luffy and Usopp didn't care either way, especially Usopp. Poor guy was deep in his feelings after hearing Laboon's story. Sanji… was too busy admiring Vivi to make any suggestions.

With that taken care of, Jin took the log pose from Vivi and handed it to Nami.

"Here."

"What's this? A gift? I'm not erasing your debt for this," Nami replied despite taking the watch-like object.

"It's a log pose."

"Eh? Really? This ugly thing?"

"You'll need that to travel the Grand Line," The old man commented. "Normal compasses don't work here."

"I'm aware. Jin here told me about it," Nami said, pointing Jin out.

The old man narrowed his eyes at Jin for a few moments. Then, he asked, "Have you traveled the Grand Line before?"

"Not personally, no."

"Hmm. Well, whatever. Must've been my imagination."

The next order of operations was dinner. The old lighthouse keeper talked a little more about how the crew who left Laboon behind ended up fleeing the Grand Line later on despite promising to come back for him. Although Jin knew otherwise, he didn't bother saying anything.

Luffy quietly nibbled on some fish bones as the old man finished his story. Then, without warning, he stood up and charged at Laboon. Well, somehow, a ship's mast ended up in his hands.

"Gomu Gomu no Flower Arrangement!" Luffy yelled, slamming the sharp broken end of the mast into an open wound on the whale's head.

Silence fell. Laboon trembled with a startled and confused expression in his eyes. Then, he yelled, which made everyone backpedal a few steps, bodies trembling under the loud low decibel roar. Laboon flailed, eventually splatting Luffy onto the ground near the massive lighthouse.

"Big dummy! Come at me!" Luffy yelled.

Luffy's rubber fist smashed against the whale's head. Laboon dropped its entire weight on him in retaliation.

Most of the Straw Hats watched with baffled expressions, but Jin only smiled wryly.

'Even with some changes, Luffy is still Luffy.'

Laboon charged at Luffy in fury, but then Luffy yelled at him, stopping him in his tracks.

"It's a tie!"

Puzzled by the small human's antics, Laboon halted and listened.

"I'm pretty strong, right? Our fight has yet to finish, so we must fight again! Your old friends might be dead, but from now on, I'm your rival! Once my crew finishes sailing the Grand Line, we'll come back here to see you again, and we'll duke it out again! Got it?!"

Giant tears formed in Laboon's eyes. He then hummed a low tone of agreement.

"Luffy will always be Luffy, huh…" Zoro mumbled, smiling at his captain's weird methods.

"Yeah. There's only one Luffy," Jin remarked.

From there, Luffy started painting a messy Straw Hat logo over Laboon's scars. While he occupied himself with that, one of the two stowaways finally woke up. Vivi sat up as though waking from a nightmare and looked around warily. Frightened by the sight of potential enemies everywhere, she shivered, grabbed her companion, and tried to sneak away. Unfortunately for her, a certain orange-haired girl wouldn't allow free money to escape so easily.

"Where do you think you're going?" Nami asked with an intimidating smile.

"Kyah!" Vivi screamed, dropping Mr. 9 on the ground. Poor guy would probably end up with more bruises.

Raising her arm with the new log pose strapped to her wrist, Nami said, "One million berri, and we can give you a ride."

"Ah! Our log pose! Give it back!"

Vivi tried to jump up, but a hand pressed down on her shoulder and held her down.

"Careful, there, miss. Can't have you stealing from us," Jin said, smiling down at her. The poor girl's heart rate practically doubled upon seeing what she assumed to be a powerful Devil Fruit user.

"Oi, Jin. You need to be gentle with a beautiful lady like her!" Sanji chided while approaching him.

"Define gentle."

And thus, the Straw Hats gained some hostag- temporary companions on their journey toward the next island. Of course, they spent a few hours fixing the mast first. Mr. 9 put in some very helpful and needed labor there. Such a kind and generous man.