"What... are you?"
Hancock instinctively rubbed her slightly throbbing temples. Her voice carried the grogginess of someone who had just awakened, along with deep hesitation. She had sounded especially uncertain on that final word, "you."
Ever since she had been born on Amazon Lily, everyone she had seen and known had been female. She had never encountered such a being as a man.
The corner of Dawn's mouth twitched slightly. Rationally, he knew that children on Kuja Island truly had never seen men, but being questioned to his face about whether he was human was still a little too much to take.
Stussy and Nojiko, who had followed her in, saw Dawn's rare expression of embarrassment and covered their mouths as they let out suppressed laughter.
Dawn shot the two unsympathetic women an irritated glare, then turned back to Hancock, who was still somewhat dazed. A gentle smile returned to his face.
"My name is Dawn..."
He gave a brief introduction, then explained the world's most basic common sense regarding men and women to the girl from the land of women in the simplest terms possible.
"So... so you're a man!"
Hancock suddenly understood, an unusual expression appearing on her face.
"I thought men were all like the formal crew sisters said—creatures with green faces and fangs, cruel and terrifying by nature."
All along, the formal crew members of the Kuja Pirates had deliberately demonized the image of men so that apprentice crew members like Hancock would not become curious about men from the outside world too early.
"Then... why am I here?"
After figuring out what species Dawn was, Hancock turned to the question that concerned her most. Her eyes held vigilance and unease.
Dawn gathered his thoughts and briefly explained how he had happened across a group of