"It wasn't you???"
Brook, slumped on the ground, Franky, struggling to get up, and Robin, clutching her chest and still shaken,
all froze when they heard Gern's calm clarification.
The attacks they had just launched with everything they had were based entirely on the assumption that Gern was the enemy who had injured Luffy.
Now that he had denied it himself, they were all rather...
So you deliberately let us get beaten up, then??
Just then, Luffy finally finished off all the food, licked his fingers clean, and caught his breath.
Although his stamina had yet to fully recover, his usual spark had returned. He no longer looked as weak and dazed as before.
"Brook! Franky! Robin!!" Luffy shouted his companions' names, his voice brimming with its familiar energy.
"Luffy! Are you all right?" Robin asked with concern, casting a wary glance at Gern.
"I'm fine! Thanks to this weird old guy's food!"
Luffy patted his stomach with a satisfied smile, then turned to Gern and grinned.
"Thanks, weird old guy!"
He certainly made himself at home, still insisting on calling Gern a "weird old guy."
After all, in his eyes, anyone who gave him meat wasn't a bad person, at least for the moment.
Gern neither approved nor objected to the nickname. He merely nodded in acknowledgment of his thanks.
"Where's Blackbeard?" Gern cut straight to the point. "What exactly happened between you two? Tell me everything."
Information!
What he needed most right now was accurate information about Blackbeard's current condition, his movements, and the details of their battle!
It would determine his next assessment of the situation on Egghead and his next move.
After all, the Revolutionary Army was waiting for the signal to attack!
At the mention of Blackbeard, the relaxed smile instantly vanished from Luffy's face,