The Daughter of the King (English)

Chapter 30 - A new friend

"If you're interested, I'll tell you Laboom's story." Curious, the Straw Hats listened to the story. 

Crocus told how, when he was a young man and had just taken up his position as a lighthouse keeper a few years before, a pirate crew from the West Blue came from Reverse Mounten. To his surprise, the pirate crew had been followed by a young baby whale, which they had named Laboom. The pirates had told him that on their journey they had met Laboom, who was wandering all alone in the sea. After they became friends with the baby whale, it had joined their journey and always swam alongside their ship. They had actually said goodbye to Laboom before Reverse Mounten, knowing that the Grand Line would be too dangerous for him. Giant whales, as Crocus told them, usually swam together in huge schools, their families. But to Laboom, these pirates had been his family. The pirates had been at anchor for a few months to repair their ship and during that time Crocus had even made friends with them. When the day came when they would continue their journey, the captain of the pirate crew had asked him to look after Laboom until they returned in perhaps two or three years. The captain had given Laboom his word to return one day. Instinctively, Laboom wanted to follow the pirates as they sailed into the sunset, but stayed at the port when Crocus called out to him. 

The glasses-wearing man had his eyes closed for a moment as he saw the image before his eyes. Some days it felt like it was just yesterday. He opened them again and stared at the water in front of him before saying: "That was 50 years ago." "50 years?" "Laboom has been waiting for these guys for 50 years?" asked Usopp, stunned. Nami's look had taken on something understanding as she said, "So that's why he's roaring like that. And why he keeps banging his head against the Red Line." "Yes."

It had taken a while, but they had managed toget the Going Merry through the huge gate into what Sanji called the pipesystem. Luffy shook her arms a little as she sat below the broken part of thefigurehead. She could still feel the strain in them. "I really hope I don't have to do something like that again too soon.""Those water pipes are really impressive," said the blonde as hestood with the others on the bow, "I'm surprised that the whale is stillalive with such a huge tunnel inside." "Is that more of your'humor'?" asked the white-haired man, who was sitting on his league on thesmaller part of his island and leafing through the newspaper. "That's mydoctor humor." "Doctor?" Luffy asked surprised. Crocus didn'tseem to have heard the younger one or simply ignored her as he continued. "I amhis doctor, after all. A long time ago I ran a clinic here on the cap. I hadeven been a ship's doctor years ago." "Really?" That piquedLuffy's interest. The only ship's doctor she had ever met was Hongou whenShanks was in Foosha Village. She grinned as she looked at the old man andsaid, "Hey, then why don't you become the doctor on my ship?""Don't be silly," the glasses-wearing man said, shaking his headbefore standing up and starting to climb up the ladder , which led to a footbridgenear another large gate. "Unlike you youngsters, I'm too old to rushheadlong into such stories." "A doctor," Sanji said thoughtfullyas the five looked at the old man, "So that's the reason why you live withinthe whale ." "And it's only thanks to your medical skills that thisis all possible," Nami added, her gaze gliding over the metal plates.Crocus had reached the end of the ladder and looked down at the five as hesaid, "That's right. When they get that big, there's no way to treat themfrom the outside." The white-haired man walked towards a crank. "Let'sgo." The gate began to open slowly and the Merry sailed out into the open. Theisland, which was attached to the stern, was dragged along. "We'reoutside!" Luffy shouted and jumped up, "This is the real sky!"

The Straw Hat crew was so happy to be out in theopen again that none of them initially noticed how the two prisoners slowlyregained consciousness. Unnoticed, Miss Wednesday had managed to free herselffrom her bonds and quickly set about untying Mr. 9. "Miss Wednesday, what areyou doing...?" the orange-haired man began, but his partner motioned for him tobe quiet.