章 271: 270. Heartbroken

After leaving Alabasta, the Straw Hats go to Drum Island to meet Dr. Kureha & Dalton. It's a teary meeting between Chopper and Kureha. Until the old woman suddenly hits Zoro in the face when he calls her granny.

Anyway, Drum Island which now has become Sakura Kingdom has changed a lot. They are obviously more prosperous now compared to when they came here and recruited Chopper. There are more people here and the towns are bustling with life.

Also, the giant rabbits are now living with the humans peacefully. They replace horses or even reindeer as transport animals in exchange for food and good living places. These rabbits are intelligent, so they are much better than normal transport animals.

The Kingdom now has a lot of doctors too since Wapol's defeat. A lot of these doctors were the ones who followed Wapol and now they are turning new leaves. Now they are working for the people under Kureha's lead and she also teaches them many things to improve their skills.

Kureha also tests Chopper's medical skills to see how much he has improved. The old woman isn't disappointed and actually is very pleased by Chopper's current skills. After all, Chopper knows a lot of things that even Kureha doesn't know.

Well, he has gone to many dangerous places and faced strange diseases or poisons in the last 3 years. So it's not strange that he has encountered things that Kureha never saw and gained a lot more knowledge to show her.

Chopper also shows her his current strength and battle skills. It makes Kureha even more relieved because she knows how dangerous this world is and Chopper now has a high bounty. So he needs to have a certain level of strength to protect himself.

They stay in Sakura Kingdom for a week before going to Little Garden to meet Brogy and Dory. Little Garden is like Jon's hometown in this world because it was the place he got sent to after his reincarnation. Also, they have fulfilled their promise to the 2 Giants about going to Elbaf and need to tell them both.

However, when they arrive on Little Garden, they can't find the Giants. It makes Jon panic because for him, those 2 are like his parents in this world. Now they suddenly disappear and it makes him very worried.

"DORY! BROGGY! WHERE ARE YOU? COME ON! DON'T PLAY WITH ME! SHOW YOURSELVES!"

Jon is running around the island with many shadow clones to find them. He is panicking and can't think clearly even though he is very level headed and always thinks rationally most of the time. But the thought of losing his family makes all his rationality gone.

Jon searched the whole island, checking every place, flipping every stone, but still can't find them. His crewmates are running after him and find him crying very loudly while punching a giant boulder. They never saw him so heartbroken before.

"Jon, calm down! You need to calm down now. It may not be what you think of. They may have returned to Elbaf."

Jon suddenly pauses and quickly teleports to the ship before returning with their main denden mushi. He makes a call and someone picks it soon.

"Loki, it's me, Jon."

<Oh, it's you. What is it? Are you guys coming here again? I've heard about it, you know. You have found Laugh Tale, right?>

"Yeah, but that's not why I called you. Have you heard about 2 old Giants named Dory & Brogy?"

Jon's eyes widened when he heard that

"Coming home?! Do you mean they came back to Elbaf?"

<Yeah, many old people were excited about it and made a big celebration when they returned, so it left an impression on me. Why? You have some grudges with them?>

"No! No, I don't have grudges with them. There's no way I'd have grudges with people who took care of me as family. I'm just looking for them because I can't find them where we last met. So they're safe, huh? I'm so glad."

Jon is weeping again when he knows that both of them are safe.

<Eh? Are you crying? The strongest man is crying?>

"Why? I can't cry? Don't think I can't beat your ass just because I'm crying."

<T-there's nothing wrong with crying. I cried too sometimes.>

Loki is panicking a bit when Jon talks about beating his ass. There are only a few people that Loki fear and one of them is Jon. After all, he knows that beating him is like a walk in the park for Jon.

"Well, tell those 2 old men that we will go to Elbaf to meet them in maybe a few months."

"No need, it'll just make me miss them more. Knowing that they are fine is enough."

Jon closes the call with a very relieved heart. He's really worried that something bad has happened to Dory & Brogy. He knows they are strong, but there are still stronger people and cunning people who can defeat them with tricks.

"What should we do now then?"

"Well, no need to stay here anymore. There's no one else here anyway, so there's no use staying. Let's just go to our next destination."

The Straw Hats go to their next destination right away. Meanwhile, Loki is looking for Dory & Brogy to tell them that Jon called him. The 2 of them laugh happily seeing Jon & the Straw Hats are fine and even want to meet them in Little Garden.

"Gabababa! Now I feel bad for coming to Elbaf without telling the kids, Dorry."

"Gegyagyagya! But it might be better this way. You know how much Jon likes to brag about the things he does without our help. If we returned faster as we planned before, then he wouldn't have had the chance to brag to us because we would be there to help him a few times. We'll at least help him at the war in Elbaf."

"Gabababa! You are right. I was worried, but he has gotten so strong that we may lose to him rather easily now. When I read the news of him destroying Celestial Dragons alone, I was shocked, but also very proud of him."

"He always worked very hard to get stronger, so it's not that surprising."

"You're right."

""Gegyayagya/Gabababa!""

The 2 old giants are talking about Jon happily while Loki just stands there wondering what kind of story these 2 had with Jon to be like this. They realize his gaze, so he tells him to sit and start telling Loki their past with Jon.

"ACHOO! Huh? Does someone say something about me?"

Jon is sneezing while playing with a wood puppet using chakra threads. He is bored, so he tries to play with a puppet. His puppet has a very simple design without any weapon in it because he only made it for entertainment.

But maybe he will try to make puppets with weapons if he gets better with this jutsu. He wants to be as proficient as Sasori and is able to control hundreds of puppets at once. Of course, his puppets need to look cool, so he needs to work on his craftsmanship or he can just ask Usopp & Franky to make them.

Anyway, they finally arrive at Calm Belt after sailing for a day. At first, they planned to go to Twin Cape to meet Crocus & Laboon so Brook can fulfill his promise. But then Brook remembered that he promised Laboon he would come from the other side of the Reverse Mountain to show that he has succeeded at exploring Grandline.

So they decided to halt going to Twin Cape and go to East Blue first. They will go to Reverse Mountain later after they finish their business in East Blue. Now, they need to cross the Calm Belt to reach East Blue.

They sail on Calm Belt smoothly because they've coated the bottom of their ship with seastone. But they are still vigilant of their surroundings because Seakings can suddenly come out and see them. There's no wind in Calm Belt, so they use propellers to move their ship.

It takes 3 days to cross the Calm Belt and they get attacked a few times by Seakings that come out of the water then see their ship. Those Seakings ended up in their stomachs or storage to be food supplies though.

"So this is East Blue, Luffy's hometown."

"Oh right, you haven't gone to East Blue yet, huh, Chopper? Well, I'll show you around. I'm a very well known and respected knight of East Blue. Everyone knows me as The Great Captain Usopp here."

"Woah! Really, Usopp?"

"Of course."

"Well, I don't know about you being well known as a knight. But I surely know you are now famous as a pirate. I'm sure you have a lot of bounty hunters as fans now. They will swarm you to take your head. If I were still a bounty hunter, I would come straight at you to get that head worth 950 million."

"Hey, I'm actually quite tempted to get a free 950 million. Should we give Usopp to the Marine? I can disguise my appearance with a jutsu so they won't recognize me."

"Oh, good idea Jon. But we need to split the rewards among all of us."

Usopp backs off and hides behind the mast while sweating because of their teasing. They don't look like they are joking with the greedy look in their eyes, after all. So obviously they can scare Usopp and even Chopper believes they will really sell Usopp that his body is shivering.

Anyway, they keep joking as they sail to their 1st destination in East Blue, Baratie.