CHAPTER 5: WELCOME TO THE GIANT RECKLESS JUNGLE

The fog didn't just get thicker; it turned a weird, damp shade of yellow-green that smelled like old vegetables rotting under a porch. Leo stood up from his crate, his left ankle still feeling a little stiff, but at least it wasn't the size of an orange anymore. He walked to the front of the Going Merry, where the wood was covered in tiny beads of oily sweat from the humidity.

"I can't see anything!" Usopp shouted. He was hanging onto the side railing, peering through a small brass telescope that kept getting foggy. He wiped the lens with his thumb every three seconds. "Nami, are you sure there's an island here? What if we're just sailing into a giant cloud of poison gas?"

"The needle doesn't lie, Usopp," Nami said. She was standing at the steering wheel, her knuckles white. The Log Pose on her wrist was pointing straight ahead, completely still for once. "It's locking onto something huge. Just keep looking."

Suddenly, the front of the ship punched right through the yellow mist.

A massive wall of dark green jungle rose up out of the water. It didn't look like any normal forest. The trees were so tall their tops were lost in the gray clouds, and the leaves looked like giant green blankets hanging from the branches. Vines as thick as barrels twisted around the roots, dropping straight down into the black, murky river that split the island in half.

"Whoa..." Luffy let out a long breath, his hands resting on his knees as he leaned over the front deck. "That's a lot of trees."

"It's huge," Zoro said, walking up beside him. He didn't have his hands on his swords, but his posture was straight. He looked at a giant fern plant that was easily three times the size of the Going Merry's main mast. "Everything is giant."

Sanji stepped out of the kitchen, holding a cigarette that he actually managed to light this time. He took a long drag and blew the smoke into the heavy air. "The humidity is going to ruin our flour supplies if we stay here too long. Nami-swan, do we really have to drop anchor?"

"We don't have a choice, Sanji," Nami sighed, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. "The old guy inside the whale said the Log Pose needs time to record the magnetic field of each island. Until it fills up, the needle won't move. We're stuck here."

Leo looked at the island. This was Little Garden. In the manga, the crew splits up almost immediately, which leads to everyone getting captured by Mr. 3 and his wax powers. Leo didn't have any powers, but he had a brain full of spoilers, and he really didn't want to get turned into a wax statue.

He gave his rusty sword handle exactly three short taps—click, click, click—just out of habit. It was his personal way of reminding himself that he needed to keep things running smoothly.

"Hey, Vivi," Leo said, turning around to look at the princess. She was still holding her blue duck, Karoo, who was shivering so hard his feathers were rustling. "Don't let that duck wander off. There are tigers here that are the size of houses."

"Tigers?" Vivi blinked, her voice small. "But I thought... I thought this place was just called Little Garden because it was pretty."

"It's called Little Garden because to the guys who live here, it's just a tiny backyard," Leo explained, hopping down from the upper deck. "For us, it's a giant death trap. Luffy, don't eat any random berries you find on the ground."

"Too late!" Luffy yelled from the shore.

Nobody had even seen him jump off the ship. He was already standing on the muddy riverbank, his boots buried in thick black muck. He had a giant blue fruit in his hand that looked like an oversized plum, and he was already taking a massive bite out of it.

"Luffy! Wait for us!" Usopp screamed, waving his arms around like a windmill. "Don't leave me alone on the boat! The boat is safe! Actually, no, the boat is not safe, the water is bubbling!"

The murky river water next to the hull suddenly started churning. A massive, scaly green head with yellow eyes the size of dinner plates burst out of the foam. It was a giant prehistoric crocodile, easily eighty feet long, its mouth full of jagged white teeth that looked like stone pillars.

"Ahhhh! Monster!" Usopp fell over backward, his legs kicking the air.

The crocodile roared, a deep sound that shook the leaves off the giant trees, and lunged straight for the ship's side.

*Shing.*

Zoro didn't even yell. He just moved. He leaped over the railing, his two black-handled swords leaving their cases with a clean, sharp sound. He met the giant crocodile in mid-air, spinning around like a green saw.

*Slash!*

A massive line of red appeared across the monster's scaly neck. The crocodile didn't even get to touch the wood of the Going Merry before it crashed back down into the muddy water, completely dead, turning the river into a dark red soup.

Zoro landed perfectly on a thick root sticking out of the mud, wiping his blade on a giant leaf. "Not a bad start. Hey, cook. You want some crocodile meat?"

"That stuff is too tough to chew, you moss-headed idiot!" Sanji shouted back, though he was already jumping down from the deck with a large kitchen knife in his hand. "But I suppose I can make some soup out of the tail if you cut it right!"

Luffy ran over to the dead monster, his mouth still full of the blue fruit. "Wow! Zoro, that was awesome! Let's go look for more big lizards! Leo said there are dragons here!"

"Not dragons, Luffy, dinosaurs," Leo called out from the ship, slowly climbing down the wooden ladder to the shore. His ankle felt okay on the soft mud, but he didn't want to push it. "And they're a lot harder to kill than that regular crocodile."

Nami stood at the ship's railing, looking completely miserable. She looked at the giant jungle, then down at the red river water. "I hate this ocean. I really do. Vivi, let's stay on the ship and keep the doors locked."

"Good idea," Vivi agreed, her hand still holding onto Karoo's neck.

Leo reached the mud and looked at Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji. They were already arguing about who was going to carry the giant crocodile tail back to the ship.

"Look," Leo said, stepping between them. "We shouldn't wander around alone. There are Baroque Works agents on this island right now. Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek. They've been setting traps for the giants, and if they see us, they're going to use us as bait."

Zoro stopped looking at Sanji and glanced at Leo. "Mr. 3? The guy above the bomb idiot?"

"Yeah," Leo nodded. "He has the Wax-Wax fruit. He can make wax that's as hard as steel. He likes to turn people into artistic statues while they're still breathing. It's a really slow, annoying way to die."

Sanji pulled a fresh cigarette out. "A wax guy? Sounds like he'd melt pretty easily if I kick him with some fire."

"He's smarter than the other guys we fought," Leo warned. "He doesn't fight fair. He uses poison, traps, and hidden tricks. So don't just run off because you see something shiny."

"I'm not looking for anything shiny, I'm looking for meat!" Luffy laughed, already running down a small dirt path between two giant fern walls. "Come on! I hear something loud over here!"

"Luffy! Wait!" Leo groaned, trying to follow him, but his bad ankle made him slow.

The sound Luffy heard was a deep, rhythmic thumping that sounded like a giant drum beating against the earth. *Thump. Thump. Thump.* Every time the sound happened, the mud under Leo's boots shook, making small puddles ripple.

They walked through a massive archway made of overlapping giant leaves, and suddenly the jungle opened up into a wide, grassy plain. The grass here was taller than Leo's head, but it had been stepped on by something massive, leaving a wide trail of crushed green stalks.

And standing right in the middle of the plain was a giant.

He was easily sixty feet tall, with a massive round belly, a thick brown beard that covered his chest, and a round metal helmet with two horns on the sides. He was wearing a vest made of animal skins and held a giant, heavy iron axe that looked like it could split a mountain in half.

The giant was laughing, his voice so loud it felt like a physical wave of wind hitting Leo's face. "Gyahahaha! Who goes there?! You look like tiny ants down there!"

Luffy stopped running, his jaw completely open. "Whoa! You're huge! Hey! Look at him, Zoro! He's a mountain with a beard!"

The giant bent down, his massive knees making a sound like breaking tree branches. He put his giant hand on the ground, his fingers as thick as tree trunks. "I am Brogy! The mightiest warrior of Elbaf! What are you little small-fry doing in my garden?"

"We're pirates!" Luffy shouted back, jumping onto one of Brogy's giant fingers like it was a bench. "I'm Luffy! The guy who's gonna be the Pirate King!"

Brogy paused, then let out another massive roar of laughter that actually knocked Usopp over, even though Usopp was still back near the ship. "The Pirate King?! You?! You're too small to even be a snack for a sea king! Gyahahaha!"

Leo stepped forward slowly, keeping his hand near his dull sword. "Hey, Brogy. We're just passing through. Our ship needs to wait for the Log Pose to set."

Brogy looked down at Leo, his big yellow teeth showing in a friendly grin. "A log pose? Ah, you're going to be here for a long time then, little man. The magnetic field of this island takes a whole year to charge!"

"A year?!" Sanji's cigarette dropped out of his mouth right into the mud. "We can't stay here for a year! The ladies will go crazy! The food will rot!"

"A year is fine! More time to look for dinosaurs!" Luffy cheered, completely unbothered.

Leo knew about the one-year thing, but he also knew they weren't going to stay that long. Sanji was going to find Sanji's hidden house later and steal an Eternal Pose from Mr. 3. But right now, Leo needed to make sure Brogy didn't drink the exploding ale.

"Hey, Brogy," Leo called out, his voice loud. "Do you have any friends on this island?"

Brogy's smile faded a bit, his big eyes looking toward the other side of the giant jungle where a thin line of blue smoke was rising into the sky. "Aye. Dorry. We've been fighting here for a hundred years to see who is the greatest warrior of our village."

"A hundred years?!" Zoro looked up, his interest finally sparked. "For a single fight?"

"That's right!" Brogy said proudly, lifting his massive axe. "Every time the volcano in the center of the island erupts, that is our signal to meet in the valley and clash swords! It is the law of Elbaf!"

Right on cue, the giant dark mountain in the middle of the island let out a loud *BOOM*. A cloud of black ash shot up into the sky, and red lava started leaking down the sides like spilled soup.

Brogy's eyes instantly went wide with excitement. He stood up straight, his giant boots crushing three bushes at once. "Ah! The signal! Dorry is waiting for me! Stay here, little pirates, and watch a real battle!"

He started marching toward the valley, his giant steps making the whole ground bounce. Luffy didn't even wait for permission; he grabbed onto the strap of Brogy's giant boot and went along for the ride, swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

"Luffy! Come back!" Leo yelled, but it was useless.

Zoro turned around, a small grin on his face. "A hundred-year fight. I gotta see this." He started walking after the giant, his hand resting comfortably on his swords.

Sanji sighed, picking up his knife from the mud. "I guess I'll go make sure the captain doesn't get stepped on. Leo, you coming?"

"Yeah," Leo said, wiping some sweat from his neck. "But we need to be careful. The wax guy is probably watching that valley right now."

The valley was a massive open pit between two rocky hills. When Leo, Sanji, and Zoro arrived, the two giants were already in the middle of it. The other giant, Dorry, was just as big as Brogy, but he had a long, pointed blue hat and a long white beard that reached his belt. He was holding a massive sword that looked like a giant silver leaf.

*CRASH!*

The sword and the axe hit each other in the middle of the valley. The sound was so loud Leo had to put his hands over his ears. A giant wave of white dust flew out from the impact, knocking down a dozen trees on the hillsides.

"Gyahahaha! You're getting slow, Brogy!" Dorry roared, his voice deep and rumbling.

"You wish, old friend!" Brogy yelled back, swinging his axe in a massive circle that cut the air with a loud whistling sound.

Luffy was sitting on a high rock on the edge of the valley, eating a giant red berry he found, cheering like he was watching a boxing match. "Go! Hit him again! This is awesome!"

Leo stood next to Sanji, his eyes scanning the thick jungle bushes around the edge of the pit. He didn't see anyone, but he knew Mr. 3 was hiding somewhere nearby with his giant wax jars, waiting for the giants to tire themselves out.

The fight went on for twenty minutes. It was completely brutal. Every blow left giant cracks in the ground, and the air was full of flying rocks and dirt. But neither giant could get the upper hand. They were perfectly matched, just like they had been for the last century.

Finally, both giants backed up, breathing heavily, their massive weapons resting on the dirt.

"Gyahahaha! A tie again!" Dorry laughed, wiping some sweat from his bearded chin. "My stomach is empty anyway. Let's go drink some ale!"

"Aye! I have a fresh barrel back at my tent!" Brogy said, turning around to walk back toward his camp.

Leo's heart stopped for a microsecond. The ale. In the story, Baroque Works puts a bomb inside the ale barrel, and when Dorry drinks it, it explodes inside his stomach, wounding him so Brogy wins the fight by accident.

"Wait! Brogy!" Leo screamed, running down into the valley mud. His bad ankle gave a sharp warning pinch, but he ignored it. "Don't drink that ale!"

Brogy stopped, looking down at Leo like he was looking at a talking beetle. "Eh? What's wrong with my ale, little man? It's the best stuff from the South Blue!"

"It's a trap!" Leo yelled, his breath coming short. "The bounty hunters put an explosive device inside the barrel! If your friend drinks it, his stomach is going to blow up from the inside!"

Dorry walked over, his massive sword resting on his shoulder. He looked at Leo, then at Brogy. "A bomb inside the ale? Who would do such a cowardly thing?"

"Baroque Works," Leo said, pointing toward the thickest part of the jungle. "They want your bounties. You guys are worth a hundred million berries each. They want you dead so they can collect the money."

Brogy's face went completely red with anger. He slammed his giant axe into the dirt, burying the blade three feet deep. "Impossible! No warrior of Elbaf would fall for a trick like that! And no small-fry would dare mess with my hospitality!"

"Let's go look at the barrel then," Zoro said, walking down into the valley behind Leo. His eyes were sharp. "If the kid says there's a bomb, there's a bomb. He hasn't been wrong yet."

They all marched back to Brogy's camp, which was just a giant tent made of dinosaur skins stretched over two massive trees. In the corner was a wooden barrel the size of a regular house.

Brogy walked over, lifted the giant wooden lid, and looked inside. The sweet smell of fermented fruit filled the air.

"Looks fine to me," Brogy grunted, reaching for a giant wooden mug.

"Don't touch it!" Leo said, running up to the side of the barrel. He looked around the base of the wood until he spotted a tiny, strange white substance dripping out from one of the cracks near the bottom. It looked like melted candle wax.

Leo reached out and touched it. It was hard as rock. "See this? It's wax. The guy who did this uses wax powers. He sealed the explosive charge inside the bottom of the barrel so it would trigger when the liquid level dropped."

Sanji walked over, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the white spot. He brought his knife down hard against it. *Clang.* The knife bounced off the wax with a sharp metallic sound, leaving just a tiny scratch. "Wow. That really is hard. It's like iron."

Brogy stared at the wax, his giant fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned white. A deep, terrifying rumble started in his chest. "A trap... right under my nose... inside my own camp..."

Suddenly, a high, mocking laugh echoed from the top of the giant tent.

"Oh dear, oh dear. It seems we have a little rat who knows too much."

Leo looked up. Standing on a thick tree branch above the tent was a man wearing an extremely ridiculous blue suit with a giant number '3' shaped into his hair. He was holding a golden teacup, sipping softly. Next to him was a little girl with a pink hat and a green shirt, sitting on a stool and quietly painting a canvas with a wooden brush. Miss Goldenweek.

"Mr. 3," Leo muttered, his hand going straight to his sword hilt.

"Gyahahaha! Yes, I am the master of art, Mr. 3!" the man said, dropping his teacup into the mud. He stood up, his hands instantly turning into boiling white liquid that looked like hot candle wax. "It's a shame you ruined my perfect plan. The giants were supposed to kill each other beautifully. But now... I suppose I'll just have to turn all of you into statues right now!"

He swung his arms forward, and a massive wave of white, boiling liquid wax shot out of his fingers like a high-pressure fire hose, heading straight for Leo and the giants.

"Watch out! It hardens instantly!" Leo yelled, diving to the left into the grass.

The wax hit the side of the giant ale barrel. Within a split second, the whole house-sized barrel was completely encased in a thick, shiny white coat of stone-hard wax, sealing the bomb inside forever.

"My ale!" Brogy roared, lifting his giant axe with both hands. "You little bug! I'll squash you!"

"Don't move, giant!" Mr. 3 sneered. He stamped his foot on the branch, and suddenly a row of heavy wax shackles shot out of the ground around Brogy's giant boots, locking his feet to the earth before he could step forward. The wax hardened instantly, pinning the sixty-foot warrior in place.

"What is this?! My feet are stuck!" Brogy yelled, straining against the white crust, but it wouldn't break.

Dorry drew his massive sword, his face dark with fury. "Release him, coward!" He charged forward, but Miss Goldenweek suddenly dipped her brush into some black paint and flicked a tiny drop onto Dorry's shield.

The moment the paint touched the metal, Dorry stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes went completely blank, his arms dropping to his sides. He looked like he had just forgotten how to fight completely.

"Colors Trap: Black of Betrayal!" Miss Goldenweek said in her tiny, bored voice. "Now you don't want to fight anymore."

"Hey! What did you do to the big guys?!" Luffy yelled, jumping down from the high rock. His arm stretched all the way back, his fist turning into a blur. "Gum-Gum... PISTOL!"

His fist shot straight for Mr. 3's face, but Mr. 3 just smiled. He lifted both hands and created a thick, square wall of solid white wax right in front of him.

*BANG!*

Luffy's punch hit the wax wall. It made a loud exploding sound, but the wax didn't even crack. Luffy's arm snapped back, his knuckles red and bruised. "Ouch! That stuff is super hard!"

"Gyahahaha! My wax is invincible against simple physical strength!" Mr. 3 laughed, his fingers already shaping another wave of liquid. "Now, let's see how you look as a decoration for my parlor!"

Leo scrambled out of the tall grass, his mind racing. He didn't have Haki, he didn't have a devil fruit, and his sword was basically a piece of scrap metal. But he knew the one thing that could destroy Mr. 3's invincible wax.

Fire.

He looked over at Sanji, who was currently dodging a spray of wax needles from Mr. 3. "Sanji! The wax melts with heat! Use your fire kicks! Burn the wall!"

Sanji blocked a wax spike with his forearm, his eyes flashing under his blonde hair. "Fire? I don't have fire kicks yet, Leo! I'm just a regular cook!"

Leo blinked. *Oh, right.* Sanji doesn't learn Diable Jambe until the Enies Lobby arc, which was hundreds of chapters away.

"Then use oil! Or a torch!" Leo screamed, pointing at the giant tent where a small cooking fire was still burning under a pot of crocodile soup. "The wax is just candle material! If you get it hot, it turns into liquid again!"

Zoro didn't wait for Sanji. He ran straight for the cooking fire, grabbed a thick piece of burning wood with his bare hand, and threw it right at the wax shackles holding Brogy's feet.

The burning wood hit the white crust. Within two seconds, the hard, steel-like wax started to turn clear and runny, dripping into the mud like water.

"It's working!" Brogy roared, pulling his right foot free with a loud *squULCH*. He lifted his giant axe again, his eyes fixed on Mr. 3's little wooden branch. "Now... let's see you block this, candle man!"

Mr. 3's face went completely white. His confident smile vanished instantly. "Wait! Miss Goldenweek! Paint him! Paint him quickly!"

But it was too late. Brogy brought his massive iron axe down with all his sixty-foot strength, creating a wave of pressure that split the tree, the branch, and the wax wall completely in half.

*BOOM!*

The explosion of dirt threw Mr. 3 and the little girl across the clearing, their weapons flying out of their hands as they crashed into the thick jungle bushes.

"Gyahahaha! That's what you get for messing with Elbaf!" Brogy cheered, his giant laughter shaking the leaves once again.

Luffy ran over to Dorry, using his rubber arms to wipe the black paint off the giant's shield with a big leaf. Dorry shook his head, his eyes blinking back to normal. "Eh? What happened? Why am I standing here?"

"The bug guy used magic paint on you, big guy!" Luffy laughed, climbing up onto Dorry's shoulder. "But we beat him! Leo knew how to fix the feet!"

Zoro put his swords back into their cases, looking at Leo with a small nod. "Nice call on the fire. I didn't think candle stuff would be that tough."

"Told you, I'm the survival guide," Leo said, leaning against a giant root and finally letting his bad ankle rest. He was covered in mud, his jacket was totally ruined, and his heart was still beating too fast, but they had won the first real fight on the island without anyone getting captured.

He looked over at Sanji, who was already running back toward the jungle path. "Hey, Sanji! Where are you going?"

"The wax guy had a hidden house in the woods, right?" Sanji called back, his suit jacket flapping. "If he's an officer agent, he must have an Eternal Pose to Alabasta hidden inside! I'm going to go steal it so we don't have to stay on this lizard island for a whole year!"

Leo smiled, shaking his head. The story was right back on track. They were going to get the shortcut, save the princess, and get out of the jungle in one piece.

"Hey, Leo!" Luffy shouted down from the giant's shoulder, waving a giant red berry. "You want some of this lizard fruit? It tastes like old cheese but it's really crunchy!"

"No thanks, Luffy," Leo laughed, closing his eyes against the warm sun. "I think I'll just stick to the bread."