"Now that you've eaten your fill, surely you can talk to me, right? It gets pretty boring being alone.
Actually, I've been thinking since earlier that you three look familiar. What are your names, and how did you get captured?"
Hancock continued to ignore Wood's questions. Although he had indeed given them food, that didn't change the fact that he worked for the Celestial Dragons.
But just because Hancock didn't answer Wood didn't mean Sonia and Mary wouldn't.
Hancock was more mature, after all, she was already twelve. Mary and Sonia, however, were still children.
In their eyes, Wood had given them tasty food and was nothing like the bad people at the auction house. He also seemed cheerful and kind, not like a bad person at all. So they answered Wood's questions without thinking.
"Big brother, we were kidnapped by slavers from the Nine Snake Pirates and brought to the Sabaody Archipelago.
My name is Mary. My sisters are Sonia and Hancock. Could you let us go?
If we make it back to the Amazon Lily Kingdom, we'll repay you someday..."
"Mary, he's one of those bad people. Don't think he's a good person just because he gave you a little food!"
Hancock cut Mary off before she could finish.
The three sisters had been kidnapped because they trusted people too easily. As a result, Hancock now deeply distrusted everyone around her.
What Hancock didn't notice was that the moment Mary told him their names, Wood froze in place.
Mary and Sonia were one thing, but the name Hancock was famous to anyone who had watched One Piece!
Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress, was known as the World's Greatest Beauty. She was a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit user with the Love-Love Fruit, and would become one of the Shichibukai in the future. She had both strength and beauty in abundance.
No wonder Wood had thought they looked familiar. He'd run into some major figures!
According to the timeline, Hancock and her sisters had indeed been taken to Mary Geoise at this point.
They would then suffer for years at the hands of the Celestial Dragons, until the Fish-Man hero Fisher Tiger climbed Mary Geoise with his bare hands. After he freed the slaves, the three sisters seized the opportunity to escape Mary Geoise and eventually returned to the Amazon Lily Kingdom.
Twelve-year-old Hancock didn't yet have the peerless beauty she'd later be famous for, but it was already clear from her face that she would grow into a true beauty.
Mary and Sonia weren't as beautiful as Hancock, but they were still quite pretty. Wood really couldn't understand how they could end up looking the way they did twenty years later...
Devil Fruits could alter a person's appearance to some extent, but Mary and Sonia's future looks seemed to put them beyond the bounds of normal humanity.
Now that he knew the three sisters were the future empresses of the Amazon Lily Kingdom, Wood had wanted to take the chance to earn some goodwill.
But before he could say a word, the brig they were aboard suddenly began to rock violently!
There was no wind or swell on the sea, and the weather was perfectly normal. This couldn't happen unless they'd struck a hidden reef or something else had occurred.
Gion had earned top marks in navigation at the Marine Academy, and with a nautical chart to guide her, she wouldn't make the mistake of steering into a reef.
That meant the ship's violent rocking could only have been caused by an outside force.
"Wood, our ship is under attack from below. They must be after the captured mermaid.
If the hull is breached, the two of us might be fine, but everyone else will surely die here."
There were no other ships nearby, and the ones capable of drilling into their hull were most likely Fish-Men. Even though Gion hadn't said it outright, Wood could guess as much.
Fish-Men and merfolk both lived on Fish-Man Island. Fish-Men had fish-like faces and human bodies, so most were ugly and shunned by humans.
Merfolk, on the other hand, had human torsos and fish tails, and were generally very beautiful. The wealthy of this world often kept them as pets.
Merfolk were the fastest swimmers in the world. Fish-Men couldn't match them in speed, but they were formidable fighters.
The most common way Fish-Men attacked human ships was by drilling through the hull and making the people aboard fall into the sea.
Once they were underwater, Fish-Men were invincible!
Fish-Men had always considered humans an inferior race because humans couldn't breathe underwater. They were different: they could move freely both on land and in the sea.
And from a biological perspective, Fish-Men had indeed evolved further than humans.
After all, they were amphibious and possessed intelligence equal to that of humans. Their ability to breathe underwater alone was proof that they were better adapted to the world.
Wood and the others had only just left the Sabaody Archipelago. Even if the ship sank, Wood and Gion could use Geppo to get back to the island.
But what about everyone else aboard? Regardless of their strength, their hands and feet were shackled, and they were locked inside a huge iron cage.
If the ship sank, everyone except the mermaid, who could breathe underwater, was as good as dead!
That was probably the Fish-Men's original goal. They'd chosen this moment to attack because even Fish-Men couldn't swim across the ocean without getting exhausted.
Besides the mermaid aboard, the Fish-Men didn't consider any of the others their kind—not the slaves, nor the people escorting them. If they died, they died. No one would feel sorry for them.
Feeling the ship rock back and forth, Gion didn't hesitate. She stripped off her outer clothes, revealing a bikini that gave Wood quite a view, and prepared to jump into the sea.
Fighting Fish-Men underwater was undoubtedly a foolish move, but Gion really had no better option in this situation.
"Let me go down. You protect the people aboard."
Seeing Gion about to jump into the sea, Wood took off his shirt first. Before she could say a word, he leaped from the ship into the water.
Humans had poor visibility underwater, and Fish-Men were incredibly fast in the water. Wood had already awakened Kenbunshoku Haki and mastered it to a certain degree, so he was definitely better suited than Gion to fight the Fish-Men underwater.
Before you continue