Unedited chapter uses first pov

We are on our way down the mountain into the Grand Line when a giant wall comes into our vision. Luffy and I are on the figurehead as usual and the others I'm not quite sure. A loud sad moaning sound fills the area.

That's the sound of a whale.

The fog clears, and we see the giant whale himself up ahead.

"What are we gonna do?" Usopp shouts.

"Fight it?" Luffy asks.

"Idiot!" Nami screams. "How are we supposed to fight a 100-ton whale?!"

"I'd septuple that 100-ton part," I say.

"How do we escape?!" Usopp shouts.

"Calm down!" Sanji fusses. "If this creature looks like a giant wall to us we must be a speck. Besides, we've seen bigger. Take the pink dragon we saw. That dragon was 2 times the size of this whale."

"And whales won't eat you," I mention.

We end up crashing into it, breaking off the figurehead. This causes Luffy to get pissed, and he punches the whale in the eye, causing the whale to open its mouth and swallowing the ship. Luffy and I manage to get off the ship and climb to the top of the whale.

"Oh, man, everyone's been swallowed whole..." Luffy says. He then gets pissed off again and begins punching the top of the whale. "Hey you! Can you hear me!? Spit 'em out! I want my friends! Damn you!" The whale roars and begins to go under the water.

"Luffy! Stop!" I shout at him.

"Where do you think you're going?" Luffy shouts. "You jerk!" He begins stomping, trying to gain the attention of the giant whale. "You give them back right now! You... whale! Urgggh! Listen, you big jerk! I'm not gonna ask again!"

I spot a hatch in the whale's head and realize something. "Luffy! Stop! They're fine!" I shout, grabbing his arm.

"Let go, Fia! He just swallowed our friends!"

"No, they're fine. Let's hurry inside before we drown," I calmly say. "We can't survive in the water, Luffy. We both have Devil Fruit powers."

"Inside?"

"Look."

We hurry inside right before the whale goes under.

"What? I don't know much about whales, but since when do they have doors and lighted hallways?"

"Because it's an island whale."

"Island whale?" Luffy asks.

"Island whales mean they are so big that you're able to live inside one as if it's a giant mansion or paradise," I explain. "Not many of these can be found now-a-days."

"That's weird," Luffy says.

"You have no idea what I just said, do you?"

"Nope, but I get what you mean."

"Do you really?" I ask.

The whale begins to slam itself into something, causing us to go flying down the hallways, smacking into the ceiling, walls, and floor repeatedly.

"Ugh, so dizzy..." Luffy complains.

"Oww, dammit!" I shout.

"I'm gonna hurl!"

"You better not hurl on me!" I fuss.

"Aahh!" we shout, continuing down the hallway into the light at the end.

We smack all around until we finally stop and land on the ground.

"Son of a bitch..." I cry out, holding my healing head. "That kinda hurt." I sit up and see Luffy with swirls in his eyes next to me.

"Hey, that's weird. The whale's got a river inside it too?" Luffy says, sitting up and looking at the stream beside us.

The ground begins to shake and it begins to tilt, causing us to slide down it.

"No, no, no!" Luffy and I shout, trying to run back up it. We end up failing and falling backward. "Ah!" We continue to fall until we smack into two people we've never seen before and begin to fall out into water.

"Not good! We're going to fall into gastric acid!" the man says.

Correction, stomach acid not water.

"Luffy? Fia?" Zoro says confused.

"Zoro! Is everyone okay?" Luffy asks. "So, um, I could use a hand."

We splash into the stomach acid, and I remember I can't swim because I supposedly have Devil Fruit powers. Sanji rescues me, and Zoro gets Luffy. We also save the two people we ran into. I immediately don't like them.

"I don't claim to speak whale, but it seems to have calmed down a bit," Nami says.

"Seems that way. Now, we saved your lives for the time being, but you better talk and make it quick," Zoro says.

"Mister 9, these heathens are pirates," the girl whispers.

"Yes, that's painfully obvious, Miss Wednesday," Mister 9 says. "But if we speak to their humanity and compassion they should understand. Maybe."

So they must be a part of Baroque Works.

"You parasites are still here?!" an older gruff voice says. We all turn to look. "I grow weary of this and for the last time, as long as I draw breath you will not lay a single harmful finger on Laboon!"

"He's back again," Longnose says.

"Who's the old guy?" Luffy and I ask.

Mister 9 and Miss Wednesday begin to laugh obnoxiously.

"You can't bully us into abandoning our mission," Wednesday says.

"We were sent here to hunt this whale, and that's exactly what we're going to do. And this time, we won't let you interfere," 9 says as they both lift up bazookas. "We're about to give this whale a new blow hole! Fire baby!"

"Roger!" Wednesday says.

The cannon balls shoot off, and the old man runs and blocks them with his body.

"He jumped straight into the line of fire!" Usopp shouts.

"Did he just–?! Was he protecting the whale?" Sanji asks.

"No shit," I say. "Where were you when he was talking about protecting the whale?"

The girl laughs. "Your defiance is pointless."

"Go ahead, waste your time," 9 says. "But make no mistake, that hulking beast will provide food for our town!" They begin to laugh like maniacs.

"What's going on?" Nami asks.

Luffy gets annoyed and punches their faces together.

"Thank the Devil you did that," I say. "I was just about to do that."

They fall to the ground in a big heap.

"Um, what was that for?" Longnose asks.

"I just... wanted to hit them," Luffy growls.

"Same here," I admit.

We tie up the two and rescue the old man.

"I thank you for saving my life," the old man says. "Though, I must ask, why did you do it?"

"I wasn't trying to save you," Luffy admits. "There's just something I didn't like about those two."

"Okay, I think it's time we get some answers," Nami says. "Who're these guys, and how did you end up in this whale?"

"These two are thugs from a nearby town, looking for whale meat," the old man explains. "If they caught him, Laboon could feed the town's people for two or three years easy. All they're concerned with is filling their fat, greedy bellies."

"Laboon?" Nami questions.

"The name of the whale," I say before the old man could.

"That's right," he says. "He's an–"

"Island whale," I say. "One of the most extraordinary and rare whales in the world."

"Yes, and there's a reason he keeps hitting himself against Reverse Mountain," he says. He goes on to explain the tragic story of the whale.

"50 years?" Zoro says.

"So Laboon has been waiting all this time for his friends to return?" Usopp asks.

"No wonder he's upset. That kinda wait would drive anyone crazy," Nami says.

We end up leaving the whale.

"Don't you think 50 years is a bit extreme?" Usopp says. "Those pirates like to test someone's patience."

"Idiot, don't you get it?" Sanji fusses.

"This is the Grand Line, his friends are dead," I finish for him.

"That whale could wait forever," Sanji says, blowing out a puff of smoke. "They won't be back."

"Sad to say, but that's probably true," Nami says. "Back in the days when those guys traveled the Grand Line, it was an uncharted sea which is a thousand times more treacherous than it is now."

"Why are all of you being so pessimistic!" Usopp shouts.

"Because it's true," I tell him. "They're all dead."

"How would you know?!" Longnose shouts.

"Because I–" I sigh. "Just tell them already, old man."

"It's true, the lesson here is that reality is cruel, and Laboon's crew is dead. The truth is they abandoned their quest. I learned they turned tail and left the Grand Line," he says.

"I don't believe it," Usopp says. "Why abandon him like that? Why would anyone abandon such a loyal creature? Just look at him! It's cruelty on a grand scale!"

"But if you know all this, why haven't you told him?" Nami asks.

"Laboon knows, he just refuses to believe," I say.

"How did you know that?" the old man asks.

"I can feel the souls of animals. I can talk to them," I say.

He goes on to continue explaining the story. I watch as Luffy rips off the main mask and hurls it into a wound on the whale's head. Then Luffy and Laboon get in a big fight.

"I can always tell when someone's itching to fight," Luffy says.

He goes off on this whole explanation thing as I pick up the mask and hold it in place as Longnose patches it back together, grumbling about how he always has to fix things. Luffy does a horrible paint job on Laboon's head of the straw hat skull from the ship, promising that they will do battle again someday and that this symbolizes that promise. Luffy ends up finding a log pose rolling around on the deck and then he ends up being the one to break it. The old man ends up giving us his own since he's obviously not going anywhere anytime soon. We end up taking those annoying people, Mister 9 and Miss Wednesday, to the next location, Whisky Peak.

...❤️💚💜💛💙...