Journey to One Piece

80. Crocus

He then proceeded to pull the small boat from the sea to the shore of the Twin Capes. Crocus was more confused by looking at Ken. This guy could fly and throw weird looking weapons at the cannon balls to make them explode.

In all his years of experience he had never seen such a specimen. He at first thought it was Moonwalking like the ones of the marines but he didn't see the burst of air on his foot so it was definitely a Devil fruit. Maybe it was a close relative of Shiki's devil fruit which could make things fly and also make himself fly.

"Ken, who are these people?"

"I don't know. Since they wanted to hurt Laboon, I took care of them." Ken said. The identity of Vivi would come out in due time so it was better to leave the explanation at her. Crocus had stopped thinking of Ken and looked at the duo who had been trying to kill Laboon for sometime now.

Crocus then explained that these two were someone who had come from a nearby island and had been trying to kill Laboon. The Straw Hats of course got angry and were glad that Ken had taken care of them and tied both of them. Luffy meanwhile had a grand idea of trying to cure the 'disease' of Laboon and went straight to the deck.

"Luffy, if you hurt Merry, I will personally kill you."

"Uh... I just want to take the mast and stop Laboon. Take Enma but lay on the hand on the ship I will hunt you down to the ends of the planet."

Ken said with a very strict tone. In the original story, Luffy uprooted the mast and hurt Laboon to make a deal with Laboon that he would come back and have a rematch. Due to this the mast of the ship was destroyed and they had to repair it multiple times in the future. No way Ken was going to allow that. He was very protective of Merry and would never hurt it.

"Good idea."

"Summoning Jutsu."

The crew members had heard of Enma but have never seen him before, so when the old guy appeared he was an instant celebrity. Enma had been with Luffy for quite a long time so the others were dying to know more about Luffy. Enma didn't expect that in these few days he had already made new friends in the sea.

"Oye kid. How did you bring a person from the Mink Tribe here?"

"What is a Mink tribe?" Luffy asked as he was confused.

"You don't know that this person is a member of the Mink Tribe?"

"He is not from the Mink tribe." It was Ken who answered.

"Not the Mink tribe? Then where are you from?" Crocus was confused and then Ken gave a small run down of how summoning beasts worked and since Luffy was a ninja he could call them when he needed help in fights. Crocus was wide eyed listening to this. He never heard of this before.

"So you and him are a ninja?"

"In a sense, yes." Ken explained. Crocus was curious of the ninjas that these two brothers were but didn't ask.

"Ossan, what is a mink tribe?" Nami was curious about the Mink tribe and asked.

"Go to the Grand Line and find it out yourself." Crocus said as he didn't want to spoil and Ken also didn't speak of the Mink Tribe. If he revealed everything he was sure Luffy would hate him. He lived for adventure and explorations. So it was better to just wait.

Nami didn't ask anymore while Luffy went to have a match with Laboon with the help of Enma. And at the end of the fight Luffy spoke those legendary words of getting back and battling him again.

Ken felt a little bad for both Laboon and Brook. Both were separated by not such a long distance but still couldn't see each other. Though Ken knew about Brook he didn't speak about it. Brook was going to meet Luffy anyways and they wouldn't have to wait much.

After getting to understand how a Log Pose worked they were ready to set sail. While everyone was boarding the ship Ken went to talk with Crocus in private.

"Crocus-san do you have medicines that could help us battle diseases we might catch if we are on an ancient island?"

"Ancient island? What does that mean?"

"You know an island that has dinosaurs and everything that is ancient."

"Oh! I do have the medicines but how do you know that I would have one?"

"You were a member of the Roger Pirates and the ship doctor. You might have hidden it quite well from others but something will always slip by."

Crocus was stunned when he heard that. He knew that Luffy was the one who had the straw hat of Roger and Shanks had passed on the Straw Hat. But his name was always anonymous to the general public and most of the people knew him as the lighthouse keeper.

"Hahaha.. Kid you are more interesting than the Straw Hat boy. Does he know that you recognized me?"

"Telling him is useless anyways. Though I would have loved it if you had joined our ship but I guess you will refuse that as you have already lived it."

"You are right. I will give you some medicines for the diseases that would commonly occur in ancient islands and give a general way to combat it. But if anyone does contract any disease it's better to find a doctor for the ship."

"If there is a huge problem I will come back personally with the patient." Ken said.

"Patient? What if you get sick?"

"I never get sick." Ken said and he walked away. It was the truth. He could never get sick as his body was too strong and no virus could affect him. Crocus found it weird when he said that but didn't think much. He wrote down the general symptoms one could face on an ancient island and ways to combat it.

This was done for only one person. Nami.