Chapter 24: Twin Cape
"We're finally here…" Kid exclaimed, stretching his arms in excitement.
"…We are in the Grand Line!!"
As our ship touched the water once more, a cacophony of howls, cries, and crashes greeted us from below, emanating from underwater. The mountain behind us vibrated, as if something powerful was colliding with it.
Everyone on board was able to hear the loud sounds.
"What the hell is that?" Kid's voice broke through the noise. But the only visible things other than reverse mountain are the two lighthouses situated at its bottom, at the exist that leads into Paradise.
'It must be Laboon head-butting the Red Line' Kai thought in his head before he turned to Killer "Let's move to the northern lighthouse" Killer nodded, steering the ship towards a low area in front of the lighthouse.
The crew dropped the anchor and placed a thick wooden plank to disembark before they made their way to the lighthouse.
Bonney scanned the area, curiosity in her eyes. "Is this place inhabited?"
"It looks well-maintained, so meeting someone wouldn't surprise me," Killer replied.
Of course, Kai was already aware that Crocus inhabit this place and he's the caretaker of the Twin Cape.
Approaching the building, Kai suddenly remembered something. He reached into his pocket, retrieved a Log Pose he'd bought in Minami Town, and tossed it to Heat.
Heat caught it and examined it closely. "What's this?" Kai proceeded to explain how the Log Pose work.
"It's a Log Pose, you will need it to navigate the sea from now on"
"A Log Pose? It looks like a compass" Heat said while examining it closely.
"It's a specially designed compass that records magnetism levels," Kai explained. "Normal compasses won't work in the Grand Line. This is the only way to navigate this sea."
"Ohh, good thing you know about that we could've been in big trouble otherwise" Heat replied.
Kid chimed in, "Or we could've just taken it from the next person who arrived here."
Kai continued, "We'll need to stay here for a few days until the Log Pose records the magnetic fields of the next island."
Kid inquired, "Which island are we heading to first?"
"We don't know. We'll need a map to decide. There are seven routes we can choose from starting here," Kai explained before an elderly voice interrupted them.
"You came prepared with a lot of knowledge young man" The man said, prompting everyone to turn to his direction. He was a stocky muscular old man who has an appearance based of a flower "Yet another pirate crew, it seems that this new age is getting more chaotic by the day" he muttered to himself.
'Crocus!' Kai instantly recognized him.
"And who the hell are you?" Kid asked him.
"If you want something from someone, it's proper manners to introduce yourself first" Crocus calmly responded.
"What?!..." Kid looked irritated by the old man words, but he proceeded to do so "My name is Eustass Kid--" Before Kid could finish speaking, Crocus already started introducing himself as well.
"I am Crocus. I am the keeper of the Twin Capes Lighthouses. I am 71 years old, blood type AB--"
"I'm going to kill this bastard!!" Kid snapped and tried to jump at him before Killer and Bonney stopped him.
"Calm down, Kid!"
Kai introduced himself while slowly approaching him "I'm Eustass Kai, and this is my crew. We'll be stopping here for a little while, I hope you don't mind"
"As long as you don't cause trouble you can stay as much as you need, but I won't allow any rampaging. After all, your exploits over the past three years in South Blue have reached even the people in the Grand Line" Crocus said with his arms crossed before he spoke again "It seems that you did your research and came prepared before embarking here…"
"…it's a good thing, common sense is useless in this sea. The islands in the Grand Line contain a lot of magnetic minerals. Because of that, they are causing abnormalities throughout the Grand Line…"
"…Furthermore, the currents and the winds don't have constancy." Crocus stated.
"I see, navigation in this sea won't be an easy task." Heat remarked.
"That's why you need a Log Pose to travel around the Grand Line. From here a Log Pose can record seven different levels of magnetism, each leading to one of seven different islands, each of which is the first island in one of seven different island chains that one can travel across to traverse the first half of the Grand Line…"
"…Once you chose one of the seven routes you will be bind to it until you reach the end of the first half, unless you have an Eternal Pose which always points to a specific island." Crocus explained.
"In other words, we won't be able to go back." Kai said, before a grin stretched on his face. He was very excited to embark in the journey in the Grand Line 'The real journey starts here'.
"Even better, if someone doesn't have the guts to risk it all for his dream, then they better stay out of this sea." Kid declared.
"We actually don't have a map of the Grand Line, can you lend us one if you have it?" Kai asked him. Crocus sighed loudly before he turned back and went to the Lighthouse and came back with a map in his hands.
"Here, choose wisely," he said, handing me a map.
Near the Lighthouse, I laid the map on a nearby table, and everyone gathered around.
"Alright, now the big decision, which route are we choosing" I said, while carefully examining the map.
(Picture of Paradise Map for reference)
"We should just go with the middle one" Without thinking about it too much, Kid pointed at the middle path on the map.
"I don't think it will make much difference considering that we don't have enough information about any of these places" Killer pointed out. He couldn't be far from wrong, Kai knows a lot of the islands actually, precisely the ones that the Straw Hats visited.
Although he was tempted to go their route, but they were a few things stopping him from doing so. The first problem is after going to Whiskey Peak, the Log Pose will take them to Little Garden, which will take a whole year to reset.
The Straw Hats were lucky to get their hands on an Eternal Pose, but that might not happen for Kai and the rest.
"Quit thinking about it too much and chose already, Kai" Kid said with impatience.
"I'll go with whatever Kai chose" Bonney said.
"You know what? Half of the fun is not knowing where you're going. Let's just go with the middle route as Kid said" Kai finally made up his mind.
"Then it's decided, you'll have to stay here for the next two days until the Log Pose record the magnetic of the first island" Crocus said, and just as we finished speaking the sound of splashing was heard and an extremely large whale appeared near the Victoria Punk. His eyes alone were several times bigger than the ship.
Everyone looked taken aback by his appearance, and although Kai already knows about him from the manga seeing him in the real life was something else. His size was unlike anything they've seen so far.
"What the—What's that creature?!" Kid got on guard and was ready to fight as well as everyone else except Kai who proceeded to stop them.
"He's Laboon. Don't worry he's friendly as long as you don't challenge or annoy him" Crocus reassured them.
"Was he the one making those noises earlier?" Kai inquired, though he already had the answer in mind.
"Yeah…" Crocus began recounting the tale of Laboon and the Rumbar Pirates. Kai was well aware of all the details, including Brook's survival, but he wisely kept silent about it.
…
Two Days Later,
On the Victoria Punk's deck,
Kai and Kid were doing a special training, Kid was sitting cross-legged on the floor and blindfolded while Kai was carrying a big wooden bat on his hands. While blindfolded, Kid was trying to dodge Kai's attacks.
It's the Observation Haki training that Rayleigh used to train Luffy.
FWOOSH!! FWOOOSH!!
THUD!! Kid dodged the first five attacks before he got hit in the head and was sent rolling on the floor.
"Ouch—THAT HURTS A LOT YOU BASTARD!!!" Kid yelled in pain, then took off his blindfold and tossed it to Kai, who promptly threw the bat back to Kid "Your turn!"
The two continued the training for a while before Killer interrupted with some news.
"The Log Pose is set, we can leave anytime" Killer informed them.
Kai turned to him and spoke "Well, there is no reason to stay here anymore. Let's set sail!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone