Journey to One Piece

78. Laboon

The next few days it went as normal as possible for a ship that was going to set sail to the Grand Line. Sanji had finally cooked the sea fish that he won in the competition and Ken had to admit that the sea fish was more delicious than the typical dishes of Sanji.

The Straw Hats were really lucky in finding a cook like Sanji. Ken could already see the Grand Line and there was no sign of Apis. It was either she didn't exist and the whole plot was for the fillers or she failed to save her dear friend.

Ken hoped that it was the outcome which was good. He didn't mind helping the island and also get rid of the villainous navy and that weird Devil fruit user. Ken was busy practising his Haki when Namu shouted saying that the Red Line was visible. Everyone ran to the deck to see how it looked.

"This is huge. I can't even see the end."

"The clouds have covered everything."

"And crossing the Red Line we will reach the Grand Line." Luffy said as his voice quivered with excitement. Ken too was visibly shaken seeing the straight mountain like structure. The more he looked at the Red Line the more a singular thought was screaming in his head.

This Red Line was a fake one. Fake not in the sense that it didn't exist but more so in the thought that the Red Line was built artificially. The Red Line was a straight one and so was the Calm Belt. One thing that he knew from his previous world was that Gods hated straight lines. Any mountains, terrains, ocean, rivers, lakes... never followed a straight line.

A straight line was more in the line of human obsession and this Red Line was screaming of human intervention from far. It may also be because of slightly different laws of physics that this world held but then again there was an existence of lightsabers in the Ancient Kingdom. So who could deny the fact that there might be technology which could terraform a planet.

The weather had become increasingly bad as they got closer to the Grand Line. The clouds had turned dark with strong currents and incessant rains.

"I have seen the map and I still can't believe it. How is it possible to go up the mountain?"

"This is called Reverse Mountain where all the sea flows upwards and the change course to enter the Grand Line." Ken said as he saw the map which denoted the Reverse Mountain and the Red Line that they had taken away from Buggy.

"So we just need to find the entrance?"

"Ask Zoro to find the entrance." Ken said.

"Nope. No way. I will rather rely on my navigational skills than to trust Zoro with the ship. He will just kill us."

"True." Everyone nodded their heads in acceptance.

"Oye!!" Zoro shouted.

Going Merry had started sailing quite fast while the sails were taken down. The current was strong and it was better just to follow it and just adjust the directions. After much struggle they were finally able to see the small crack in the Red Line.

"Found it. Follow the current guys."

The ship soon entered the crack but it was not without any hiccups. Ken had to fly and make sure that the ship was in the correct direction by pushing the ship from outside. If he didn't do so then the rudder of the ship would just break and Ken didn't want that in his conscience.

He wanted Merry to be fully fit till they reached Water 7. Or at least good enough to sail the whole Grand Line. With that the ship started to sail upwards. It was there when everyone came together for a small banquet in order to welcome their new journey and adventure.

"I want to draw the map of the world." Nami said as she put up her foot over the barrel.

"I want to find All-Blue."

"I want to be the greatest swordsman ever."

"I want to be a ... I want to be a brave warrior of the sea."

"I want to find the truth of the world and hopefully change it."

"I want to be the Pirate King."

With those legendary proclamations the Straw hats which were going to cause havoc in the Grand Line were on their way towards the entry to the sea. But as expected nothing went right for the Straw Hats. From afar they could see a huge blue mountain right at the entrance of the Grand Line.

"What is this? Why is there a mountain in the sea? It shouldn't be there."

"Oye Nami, are we really in the Grand Line? Why is there a mountain?"

"Idiot, control the rudder or else we will be pulverized."

The current was too strong and in no way the ship was changing its direction. Ken had a headache seeing this. He thought his intervention would change some things but it seemed like he was too optimistic. Laboon was still here guarding this line like an idiot.

"I will change the course." Ken said as he again flew to the side to push the ship away and go towards the side.

"Thank.. Thank you Ken.. If you weren't here we would have been dead. I ... I don't know why there is a mountain here. Maybe I was wrong to judge that my navigational skills were enough to reach the Grand Line." Nami was in self reproaching behaviour.

Ken just shook his head and said

"You are not wrong and this isn't a mountain. It's a whale. More correctly an Island whale."

"Huh?"

"What?

Ken just didn't reply more and just started pushing away from the strong current. Laboon had still not noticed them and was just putting its head high up and floated. The currents were too strong and Ken had to use quite a bit of strength to make sure that the head of Merry was fine. He didn't want to be in the stomach of such a big whale.

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