【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Luffy grabbed the mainmast, pressed his straw hat down, and felt a sudden wave of dizziness. The surging waves violently rocked the Sunny, forcing it to spin continuously in the whirlpool. He felt extremely disoriented, but Luffy felt even more excited.

The ship tilted violently in the raging waves, and everyone clung tightly to the east and west railings to hold on and resist the inertia of the huge whirlpool so as not to be thrown out.

……

Dizziness and suffocation filled his mind. The swirling waves crashed against his chest, and the seawater kept splashing onto his face, as if it couldn't wait to drag him down. Lu Qi thought vaguely that the seawater didn't seem to be trying to drown his body, but rather his soul. The air in his lungs was constantly being squeezed, and the heavy sense of powerlessness made it extremely difficult for him to even open his eyes.

The brightly colored ships disappeared from the blurry view as they were swept away by the sea. Lucci vaguely realized that he had been thrown off the ship. "How dangerous," he thought calmly, seemingly unaffected by the possibility of his death. In the distance, Luffy's voice echoed in his mind: "You won't leave me, right?"

In the instant he was completely pulled down by the familiar heaviness, he reached out and used all his strength to press down on the thing in his hand. Before his consciousness completely disappeared into darkness, Lu Qi faintly heard a long cry.

......

After a series of thrilling spins, everyone collapsed on the deck. Luffy lay on the deck, panting heavily, with a bright smile on his face. It was so exciting!

Luffy rubbed his chest. An inexplicable discomfort had been lingering in his chest since earlier, but the dizziness of excitement made him ignore it. Luffy exhaled heavily, leaped off the deck, grinned, and tried to ignore the discomfort in his heart. At this moment, a loud cry attracted his attention.

"Poohoo!!"

"Huh? What's that sound?!" Franky asked in confusion.

Only then did they realize that their boat was in the middle of a huge group of whales.

"The White Dragon Current must have broken off because of these whales," Nami breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, they hadn't been swept too far by the current and ended up in unknown waters.

"Island whales?" Ace looked at the large group of giant whales swimming past them, somewhat puzzled. "Aren't they only found in the West Sea?"

"Laboon!?" Luffy exclaimed in shock as he looked at the whale.

Brooke cried out, tears streaming down her face, "Laboon!! You've grown so much!"

“Don’t talk nonsense! Laboon is in the first half of the Grand Line. Someone as big as him can’t even fit through the caves on the Red Line!” Usopp immediately retorted.

"Some of them do indeed have the same wound on Laboon's head," Zoro remarked.

"It looks exactly the same!" Luffy exclaimed in shock as he looked at the whale with the wound on its head. "So it wasn't Laboon after all!"

"Is this the time to calm down and appreciate the whale?" Sanji interrupted, seeing everyone's excitement. "Let's first check if anyone was swept away by the current! Robin, Nami!"

"Hi!" Robin and Nami responded.

"Alright, everyone's here!" Sanji shouted immediately. "Let's get out of here right now! If we hit a whale, the ship will be smashed to pieces!"

"Sanji, you're including us too!" Chopper shed two thick tears.

"Sanji, the others survived too!" Usopp shouted, tears streaming down his face.

"Nami-san, give the order!"

"That's good!"

Upon hearing Nami's answer, Sanji immediately gave a thumbs-up and echoed, "That's right, just keep it that way, you idiots!"

“Ace.” Luffy looked at Ace standing next to him.

"Hmm," Ace replied, his gaze still fixed on the island whales. After a while, when Luffy didn't say anything more, Ace turned to Luffy with some confusion. "What's wrong, Luffy?"

"I..." Luffy frowned, somewhat conflicted. He didn't know why he suddenly called Ace's name, but his current mood was a bit like... Before Luffy could figure anything out, Nami's words interrupted this inexplicable feeling.

"Such a large pod of whales has created a current. It would be even more dangerous to go against the current. Raise the sails fully and keep the ship in the same direction as the whales!" Nami shouted.

Luffy and Ace, who were closest, immediately ran to pull up the sails, and they quickly lowered them.

"Follow the ocean current!"

"Okay!" Luffy shouted through gritted teeth, gripping the sail ropes.

By the time they had steered the ship steadily into the pod of whales and successfully aligned the Sunny with their direction of movement, Brooke had regained his composure.

Brooke stood on the deck and played Binks's Wine for the whales, hoping to convey through music that Laboon was still alive and growing up healthily to the whales who might be Laboon's relatives.

The group listened quietly to the beautiful melody on the deck. As the music faded, they soon saw the surface of the sea aboard the whale. Luffy grinned, ready to embark on his adventure in the new world.

"Ooooooo!!"

"New World!!" The Whale Sunny broke through the sea and successfully arrived in the waters of the New World.

"Is this the new world?"

"The weather is terrible."

"The sea was completely red!"

"The sea of ​​fire surged and rolled!"

"It's like the entrance to hell!"

"That's exactly what I wanted!!" Luffy shouted excitedly.

Ace smiled. The New World was indeed dangerous, but it shouldn't be that they would face such a sea climate right after coming out of the sea. It could only be said that Luffy was really lucky. He was just about to complain to Lucci when he belatedly realized that Lucci didn't seem to be on the deck. Was that guy still at the lookout? Ace looked around and scratched his head in confusion.

"Wow! Look! The volcano on that island is erupting!!" Luffy laughed excitedly as he looked at the island that was erupting, eager to see the first island they had landed on in the New World.

"Huh?!" Usopp shuddered when he heard the sound of a volcanic eruption coming from the island. He met Nami's equally terrified gaze and became even more frightened. Clearly, something was wrong with that island!

"Listen up, Luffy! Even in the unusual New World, it's absolutely abnormal if none of the three pointers point to that island!!" Nami shouted at the incredibly excited Luffy, pointing at the pointers.

"Whether we're pointing at it or not, it's already in front of us, let's land!!" Luffy shouted excitedly, completely ignoring Nami's words.

"No, we can't get any closer to the island!" Nami cried out in shock, looking at the sea engulfed in flames. "That's a sea of ​​fire!"

"I don't understand what you're saying!" Luffy grinned, practically trembling with excitement.

Nami covered her face in despair, praying silently to all the gods that they could leave the island safely. Glancing out of the corner of her eye at Ace, who remained calm, she angrily shouted at him, "Ace, why don't you try to stop Luffy! That island is really dangerous!"