The people at the port all spoke at once about their own troubles. Kuzan, Tsugikuni Yoriichi, and the other Marines were immediately flooded with all kinds of information, unable to make sense of it all at once.
All they could gather was that a large number of children had disappeared from the island—several dozen in total.
"Quiet down, everyone. Please, calm down."
"Let this old gentleman speak first! Then we'll listen to each of you one at a time and find out what happened."
"If everyone talks at once, I can't make heads or tails of it!"
To get a clearer picture of the whole situation, Kuzan raised his voice. As soon as he spoke, the dock quieted considerably. Only some of the parents who had lost their children were unable to control their emotions and continued sobbing.
Seeing that the situation was under control, Kuzan helped Mayor Siso to his feet and asked the old man kindly, "Sir, may I ask your name?"
"I think you can represent everyone here. Could you please tell us the details of what happened?"
While Kuzan spoke with Siso, a wooden ladder had already been lowered from the warship. Tsugikuni Yoriichi led more than a dozen Marines down from the ship one after another, gathering around Kuzan as they focused their attention on Siso.
"Base Commander Kuzan, my name is Siso. Thanks to everyone's trust, I am currently the mayor of Migo Town."
"Over the past ten days or so, several dozen children have disappeared from Migo Town!"
"During this time, I mobilized the townspeople to search carefully, but we couldn't find any trace of those children."
"Not a single one!"
"I suspect they were abducted by a human trafficking ring. That's why we can't find them anywhere on the island!"
"We're all