An elderly man emerged from the small house on the island, and the entire crew was astonished by the display of his strength when he single-handedly defeated the massive squid. Intrigued and anxious about their unusual surroundings, the crew began to question the old man. However, the man’s arrogance and dismissive attitude grated on their nerves. He introduced himself as Crocus and revealed that he was the lighthouse keeper of Twin Capes.
As Crocus confirmed their location within the whale’s stomach, he gestured toward a massive gate that served as their exit and urged them to leave. The crew was baffled by the existence of an exit gate within a whale’s stomach, and they also noticed that the interior of the whale’s stomach had been painted over.
As they prepared to exit the whale, the ground beneath them suddenly trembled. Crocus explained that the whale was once again bashing its head against the Red Line. Nami recalled that the whale’s forehead was covered in scars and that it had been bellowing up at the sky during this behavior. She deduced that Laboon, as the whale was named, must have been suffering. She also realized that, since Crocus lived inside Laboon, he might be planning to kill the whale from within.
Meanwhile, as Laboon continued bashing its head, Luffy was thrown and tumbled down a corridor within the whale’s body. In another part of the whale, two mysterious individuals, Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9, conversed. They had successfully infiltrated this far inside the whale and were plotting to eliminate Crocus to save Laboon for their town’s sake. Luffy’s uncontrolled descent eventually led him to collide with them, and all three were propelled into a waterway, then into the sea. One of them managed to save Luffy, while Crocus climbed up the exit gate and entered a room.
From within the room, Crocus injected sedatives into Laboon to calm him down and reflected that bashing against the wall wouldn’t change anything, even if Laboon did it until it died.
Back on the ship, Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 were saved and detained, but Crocus emerged from the exit gate, proclaiming that he wouldn’t let anyone harm Laboon as long as he lived. Suddenly, the two rogue individuals raised their explosive weapons to fire at Crocus, who sacrificed himself to shield Laboon from the blast. Witnessing this, Luffy swiftly knocked out both of the mysterious individuals with a single punch, and the crew realized that Crocus had been trying to protect Laboon from such threats.
Crocus explained that Laboon was an island whale, the largest species of whale in the world, originally from West Blue. He shared Laboon’s heartbreaking story. Many years ago, while Crocus was a lighthouse keeper, a friendly group of pirates came down Reverse Mountain, and Laboon, just a baby whale at the time, had followed their ship. To Laboon, this pirate group became his pod. When the pirates’ ship was damaged, they stayed at Twin Capes for several months to repair it. When they eventually left, the captain asked Crocus to look after Laboon for 2-3 years, promising to return when they had circumnavigated the world. However, it had been 50 years since that group had left, and Laboon had faithfully waited for their return, still believing that his friends would come back. This unwavering hope was why Laboon continued to bellow and bash his head against the wall.