Naruto watched the little girl for a long while. The longer he looked, the more he liked her, and he couldn't suppress the warmth in his heart.
"Hey, why are you so afraid of us?"
The little girl's eyes turned wary at once.
She was more guarded than anyone he knew.
"I keep thinking you're going to sell me..."
Naruto didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Surely he didn't look like the kind of person who'd do that.
"How could that happen? We're not short on money. What would we gain from selling you? Besides, human trafficking gets you thrown in jail."
"Actually, I can see why you'd think that. It's Luffy and the others. They just look too scary."
"If they were all as handsome as me, they wouldn't have frightened you like this. It's their fault, really."
Luffy and the others stared at him, wide-eyed.
Since when were they ugly?
As far as they were concerned, every last one of them was ridiculously handsome.
Being told to their faces that they looked scary was hard to take.
Sanji smiled and stepped forward.
Nami came over too.
"Little girl, you really don't need to worry. This pirate ship is nothing like the kind you're imagining."
"We're just out traveling. Basically, we're sailing straight ahead along this route."
Nami nodded beside him.
"Rest easy. No one aboard will lay a finger on you."
The tension that had kept the little girl on edge finally eased.
She held up her plate, licked clean, and called out.
"Another bowl!"
"I'm starving. I need to eat a whole lot more."
With that, she bent over her food and wolfed it down without a trace of hesitation.
The mood around the table was strange, no matter how you looked at it.
Still, for