Chapter 038

On a certain island in the Grand Line, numerous pirates camped out lazily in a dark forest. The officers of the pirate crew all looked up as one of their crewmembers came running frantically. "Captain!" he shouted fearfully. The man he was addressing handed him a drink as he ran up, and the frantic man quickly chugged it before continuing. "Captain! Ha-Haw-Hawk-Eye—" the man froze as he felt a looming presence behind him, and quickly dashed off to the side.

"You sure are complacent, camping out on an island such as this," the intruder said calmly.

The pirate captain looked up at the man, fighting off a persistent headache. "Yo, Hawk-Eye. I'm not feeling well today. You come for a duel?"

"I have lost interest in dueling with a one armed man such as yourself." Mihawk said. "I merely came here to tell you of some very interesting pirates I met. They reminded me of a story you once told me, about an interesting little kid in an unassuming village." He pulled out two wanted posters.

"Is that…?" Yasopp trailed off.

"No way…" Lucky Roo said.

Red-Haired Shanks stared down at the wanted posters in his hand before he looked up, a mad grin etched across his face. "So, you've finally come, Luffy."

The storm continued as the Going Merry took full advantage of the wind and shot towards the southwest. Nami was looking down at the Grand Line map they'd acquired in Orange Town with a troubled expression. "This doesn't make sense. I thought the rumors were just that, but according to this map, they're completely true."

"Rumors?" Luffy asked. "Oh, you mean about the mystery mountain."

"Sure," Nami replied, not really paying attention as she tried to puzzle out their next course of action. She called everyone inside for a meeting about what to do next, and when everyone gathered around, she set the map down on the table. "So apparently, the entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain," she began.

"A mountain?" Usopp asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Exactly," she said. "I didn't believe it myself at first, but all signs point to the intersection of the Grand Line and the Red Line as the entrance. It's called Reverse Mountain.

"So, what? Is there a cave that we have to go through? Do we just ride the currents?" Sanji asked.

"You're partially right," Nami said. "There is a current, but it's supposed to take us up the mountain." Usopp looked at her skeptically.

"How is our ship supposed to climb a mountain?" he asked, trying not to sound disbelieving.

"Because it's a mystery mountain," Luffy said with conviction.

"But why can't we just enter directly from the South?" Usopp asked.

"Technically we could," Zoro cut in, "But there are certain reasons why we should go through the entrance."

Nami shook her head. "The entrance is the only way. Otherwise anyone could go to the Grand Line. Most people who try don't even make it there."

"Oh, that's right," Sanji said. "I heard entering the Grand Line was really dangerous, but entering through the Calm Belt is almost impossible."

"Well, in that case, you better adjust our course to the west, because the storm we're in is about to end," Luffy commented, looking out the window. Nami's eyes widened in horror and she frantically started turning their ship towards the west. When she got back, she was sweating nervously.

"That was close. We almost went into the Calm Belt," she said.

"What's the Calm Belt?" Usopp asked.

"The Calm Belts are two strips of sea that surround the Grand Line. There's never any wind, so if you go there, you're stuck. It's also a nesting place for some of the world's largest sea kings, which makes it impossible to cross. That's why not just anyone can enter the Grand Line."

Zoro just smirked. "Well, we're not just anyone." He gestured to Luffy. "When are you gonna learn not to underestimate our captain?" Nami turned questioningly to Luffy, who scratched his head.

"I guess I could get a sea king to give us a ride," he said nonchalantly. Several eyes widened at this.

"And how would you do that exactly?" Sanji asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, that's right, you weren't there when Luffy explained it," Zoro said. "Basically, 1 in a million people in the world can awaken an ability called Conqueror's Haki. It allows you to challenge other sentient beings to a clash of wills, and the being with the stronger will wins. Usually this ends in the Conqueror winning, but strong willed people and even some other intelligent creatures can resist the power. Luffy is an awakened Conqueror, so taming sea kings isn't out of the question."

The Straw Hats all seemed equally taken aback by this information. Sanji, to his credit, took the explanation without blinking until the mention of taming sea kings. "But like Zoro said, there's a reason why we need to go through the entrance," Luffy said. They all looked at him curiously. He pointed at them, as if in reprimand.

"Listen up! We have to go through the mystery mountain because it's cooler that way!" Nami and Usopp face faulted, and even Sanji lost his composure at that.

"Well, there's that too," Zoro said. "But we also have to keep our pride intact. It wouldn't look good if our crew took the easy way in."

Nami was starting to get annoyed. "All right," she said. "Can you guys think of one logical reason why we should enter through the front?"

"We just gave you two!" Luffy protested. At the menacing look on her face, he went on, "But if you must know, normal means of navigation don't work in the Grand Line. If we entered through the Calm Belt, we'd just be stranded in the middle of the sea without a Log Pose."

"Log Pose?" Nami asked curiously.

"It's the special type of compass used in the Grand Line." He pointed at the compass in Nami's hand. "That won't work in the sea we're going to. It'll just spin around randomly."

Nami looked extremely disconcerted at this. "So, then, how is a Log Pose any different? If a normal compass can't lock onto the earth's magnetic field, how will a special compass do it?"

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