Watching Roger's Execution at the Start

With that thought, Atlas slowly rose from the sea and flew toward the shore of Raijin Island.

Soon, the coastline came clearly into view.

At the same time, a small boat of unusual design was lowered onto the sea.

Its hull was black all over, not as though it had been painted, but more like wood charred by lightning. The material did not look sturdy enough for a long voyage.

It had little room aboard, no more than an ordinary fishing boat.

Once the boat settled on the water,

several people in green jumped aboard, pulled out oars, and rowed hard toward Atlas.

The boat soon drew near.

The green-robed group looked up at Atlas, who was floating in midair.

"Are you going ashore, Navy officer? You can't do that without a lightning-proof umbrella!"

The leader, a green-robed elder, forced a stiff smile onto his pallid face. Raising a long green umbrella, he called up to Atlas in a hoarse voice, hawking his wares.

Thunder roared and lightning surged. A silvery-white flash lit the leader's face.

Wrinkles covered his face. Perhaps because he had gone years without sunlight, his skin was deathly pale. Beneath a sharp hooked nose sat loose, yellowed teeth with gaps between them. His grin stretched almost to his ears, unsettling enough to raise goosebumps.

"Do you... need an umbrella?"

When Atlas did not answer, the green-robed elder asked again.

"Your umbrellas... can protect people from lightning?"

The lightning on the island was ordinary natural lightning, with no special properties at all.

But in a storm this dense, an umbrella would do no good.

You could carry an entire house onto the island and still get struck!

Atlas had a theory.

Long ago, a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user must have achieved Awakening, then fought an enemy and permanently