"Why can't I be here?"
Looking at Purple Hair, whom he had known for years, Loa smiled warmly. "Long time no see, Vice Admiral Momonga."
Momonga froze for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "Yeah. It really has been a long time, Vice Admiral Loa."
"No, no. I'm not a vice admiral at Marine Headquarters anymore." Loa released the two fists he had been holding and corrected him. "If word of that gets out, we'll both be in trouble."
"You're afraid of trouble?"
Momonga rubbed his aching fists. During their conversation, the two had quietly tested each other. The result was clear: against Loa, Momonga had no chance.
"After everything you did at Marine Headquarters, I find that hard to believe!"
"People change, Vice Admiral Momonga. Honestly, I really do hate trouble now."
While the two chatted calmly, everyone else in the room except Luffy stared at Loa in terror. The Marines fared a little better; anyone sent on a mission with Momonga was a seasoned veteran. The pirates were another story. Usopp, the most timid of them, dropped straight onto his backside.
"This is bad! This is really, really bad! Why is that Monster here? We're going to die, aren't we? We're all going to die!"
Of everyone on the seas, the people who feared Loa most were not the Marines whose top five fighters he had defeated single-handedly last year. They were still the pirates. Ever since he had entered the public eye, Loa had shown zero tolerance for them.
If he was here, didn't that mean their whole group was done for?
"Hey, Usopp. Who is he? He's really strong!"
From his companions' reactions, Luffy knew the man was someone important. But given Luffy's personality, he could hardly be expected to remember someone he had never met.