"Th-this is...!!!"
"You've got to be kidding. Doesn't this guy's ability only activate through touch? Could it be that he once touched...?"
Vivi, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji's faces turned utterly horrified. They never expected this freakishly perverted guy before them to have touched that man?!!!
Only Chopper, Nami, and Usopp were completely baffled.
"Nani nani, why did you all stop talking? Hey, Zoro? Sanji?"
Chopper was also shocked, his small body constantly looking from side to side—but he was only shocked by his family's reactions.
The same went for Nami and Usopp. Since they had never seen his true face, they only felt a faint unease.
That man had vanished from the seas for far too long, and his activities had mostly been confined to the New World.
So aside from some old-timers who had seen the world's grandest spectacles, many people no longer mentioned that man's name. His Wanted Poster rarely circulated due to his sensitive identity, so news of him had become scarce in Paradise.
"Who is that? Just looking at his appearance is terrifying enough."
Usopp muttered a complaint, but no one answered him.
In the end, Vivi's pupils trembled as she explained to them.
"The person this guy transformed into was once the king who held absolute dominion over these seas..."
"[Black Spear] Dotol Austin!!!"
"What? So he turned into Aus—"
Nami and Usopp both relaxed at first, but they abruptly froze halfway through their words.
Then their mouths fell wide open, their eyeballs nearly popping out of their sockets.
"Ehhhh!!!!"
The two of them shook like seaweed, as if they had been struck by some enormous shock.
Only Chopper remained as clueless as ever, adorably dumbfounded as he looked around.
"Austin? Who's that?"
Seeing their reactions, Mr. 5 put on one of Austin's signature smiles.