While an Executive of the Rocks Pirates waited on Sicily for Rocks's return.
In a stretch of the West Blue, a lone Island Whale had, days earlier, been lured by the Rumbar Pirates' merry singing and began tailing the music-loving pirates.
Captain Yorki and musician Brook soon spotted the little tag-along.
With the whole crew's unanimous vote, they adopted the human, clever whale and christened it: Laboon.
From that day, Laboon the Island Whale joined the Rumbar Pirates, taking the jolly musicians as his new family and refuge.
Amid their cheerful adventures, the Rumbar Pirates reached an island of red earth.
Brook, the music pirate who once served as a royal guard, was entertained by the island's count.
During the feast, Brook's exquisite melodies captivated the count's young son—Patrick Redfield.
Redfield, who had 'seen' endless filth and ugliness since childhood, heard pure, genuine joy in Brook's songs.
For the first time, he found no dark, sordid thoughts in another person.
At this point Brook had yet to pick up his habit of asking to see people's panties.
Otherwise Redfield would never have clinked cups and shared stories with such a lecherous fellow.
Infected by Brook's musical creed, Redfield began to admire the freedom-chasing, joy-seeking pirate musician.
Still, as the count's heir, the young Redfield had no plans to sail as a pirate.
And Brook, ever principled, had no wish to abduct the son of the lord who'd hosted him so warmly.
Brook seemed to sense Redfield's turmoil and pain.
He encouraged the boy: should the chance to sail ever come, he would surely find true comrades and roam the seas in freedom.
The seed of becoming a free pirate took root in Redfield's mind.
Yet as the count's heir, the youth could not yet abandon Red Line Island's people and simply dash to sea.
The Rumbar Pirates did not linger; they soon departed to continue their merry voyage.
They loved collecting and playing folk songs from every isle, and even more they loved creating new tunes together.
They were pirates who lived for joy, music, and adventure.
Watching their ship vanish beyond the horizon, Redfield's eyes brimmed with envy.
Back in the castle, however, he 'heard' the fear and slander the servants and guards harbored toward the Rumbar Pirates, and his face darkened.
The Rumbar Pirates were unlike any other pirate crew.
A born Observation Haki prodigy who could see through everything, Redfield grew ever more disgusted with his own clan.
Even his father and kin looked vile and ugly in his eyes.
Outwardly courteous, his count father secretly feared the pirates and considered calling the Marines to claim the bounty—only abandoning the idea for dread of reprisal.
Redfield loathed such two-faced ugliness.
He hoped that one day he would meet friends as pure as Brook.
--- Deep in the New World.
Among the Wano emigrants who had survived the treacherous Sky-Sea Waterfall, yet another savage storm scattered the fleet.
The clans were forced to fend for themselves.
A powerhouse of the Ugetsu Clan survived the waterfall but perished in the tempest—ship and crew lost to the deep.
Fūgetsu Kisaburō, with a handful of kin, drifted out of contact with the rest and pressed on.
Knowing nothing of the outside seas, he carved a path with gokudō kaisen and peerless swordsmanship all the way to the Calm Belt skirting the West Blue.
Unaware of the belt's dangers, they sailed straight in.
There they tasted the ocean's terror: monstrous storms and Sea Kings towering like mountains.
Only Fūgetsu Kisaburō, by sheer might, escaped into the West Blue.
Half-mad with regret, he cursed ever leaving safe Wano and dooming so many kin.
Thus the West Blue gained a fearsome, half-crazed samurai... while the Shimotsuki contingent fared far better.
Shimotsuki Kōzaburō and Shimotsuki Furiko led the survivors toward the calmer front half of the New World, learning the world's ways.
They learned the East Blue was relatively peaceful and set a course to settle there.
In Wano the Shimotsuki were already pre-eminent, even eclipsing the Kozuki.
For their great service against the Kurozumi treason and as descendants of the Dragon-Slayer Ryuma, they had been granted the Kurozumi fief of Hakumai.
Now the clan held two great domains—Ringo and Hakumai.
The Kozuki kept the capital, Flower Capital; the Fūgetsu ruled Kikakei; the Ugetsu held Udon; and the wild region of Kuri remained in chaos... The Shimotsuki line flourished, while the Kozuki had only one heir—Kozuki Oden.
Though Shogun Kozuki Sukiyaki still favored them, the Shimotsuki knew their rise threatened Kozuki rule.
Perhaps from loyalty, or perhaps because some kin truly yearned for adventure, an outlawed emigrant band was formed.
After Sukiyaki traded the cursed sandai kitetsu for his Enma, the famed smith Kōzaburō—creator of wado ichimonji and Enma—resolved to leave Wano.
He would found his own Shimotsuki village or island beyond the seas.
Wano could not abide a third Shimotsuki daimyo.
Even if the clan had strength enough to pacify chaotic Kuri, the shogun would never hand half the country to one house.
He preferred Kuri remain lawless rather than let another Ryuma-like hero unify it and become daimyo.
Sukiyaki's plan was for his son, Oden, to grow up and tame Kuri.
He had long since prepared the blades Enma and ame no habakiri for that day.
Making Oden lord of Kuri would benefit both the nation and the Kozuki clan.
The four-year-old Oden was already a handful; sending him to Kuri would be good training.
Sukiyaki was proud yet exasperated by his mighty son, hoping that in time Oden would mature and shoulder Wano's future...---