In the blink of an eye, the dozen fierce beasts lay whimpering on the ground, temporarily disabled.
No contest. The beasts were strong enough for a major, maybe, but against an Admiral? Not even close.
Gale shook his hand, retracting his claws. He stepped forward to investigate. Something was definitely wrong here. He had to find out who was behind this.
But after two steps—
"Don't hurt them!"
"Leave this place!"
"Bad people! Get off our island!"
A crowd burst from the trees and rubble. Old people and children, mostly, holding pitchforks, clubs, even stones. Their faces showed fear and anger, but also determination. They stood between Gale and the fallen beasts, shielding them.
Rhett: Oh. More interesting than he expected. A village of only old people and children? How hard could that be to guess? It's not like they all went to work in the city.
Some were barely teenagers. They looked like ordinary villagers, but now they formed a fragile human wall. They knew they might not survive this.
They stared down the Admiral and his terrifying group. Rhett waved cheerfully. No one waved back.
An old man with white hair, leaning on a cane, shouted at them.
"You demons! You already took our homes! Now you want to take our last guardians? Leave us alone!"
Gale: "???"
Joy Boy: "!!!"
Rhett raised an eyebrow, a grin spreading across his face. He loved this kind of twist. He didn't really care about being impersonated — if he didn't see it, it didn't matter. But it was like a toad on your foot. It didn't bite, but it was annoying.
The villagers and their beasts stood together. Gale frowned, stopping in his tracks.
He was tough, but he wasn't unreasonable. The scene clearly had more going on.
Joy Boy looked at the villagers protecting the beasts, then at the temporarily "defeated" creatures. Guilt and confusion filled his face.
"Rhett... did we make a mistake? They don't seem like bad people. Should we help them?"
Rhett lounged lazily, blood mist drifting around him. He yawned.
"Help? Who? How? We don't even know what's going on. Let them explain first."
His gaze swept over the villagers, landing on the most emotional young man. A flicker of assessment in his crimson eyes.
It wasn't that Rhett lacked empathy. His Observation Haki was sharp. But he was in his fifties now. He could control his emotions. He could sense as much as Joy Boy, but he'd seen too much suffering. This was just another chapter in the endless cycle of pirate-Navy corruption.
The boy, feeling Rhett's gaze, finally snapped. His fear and anger reached their limit.
He raised a trembling hand, pointing at Gale in his Admiral uniform.
"It was you! It was Navy soldiers in the same uniform! Leading pirates! They took our food, our money! They hurt people! They said they'd kill us all!"
The boy's eyes were red. "If it weren't for Big Chubby and the others using illusions to make them think we were all dead, we wouldn't have escaped!"
He pointed at the empty village, at the fallen beasts, tears finally falling. "We just wanted to hide. Quietly. Why do you keep coming after us? Why hurt the animals that protect us? Do you really want to destroy us? Then none of us have to live!"
A fruit flew into his mouth. His body began to change. Black lines appeared on his face. His form shifted. The beasts around him started to grow, becoming more aggressive.
"Bufeng!" the village elder called out, but it was too late.
The boy had already changed. "Elder, I know why my father chose to live in the forest. Now I have the power to protect everyone."
The villagers joined in, shouting, crying, accusing. Their anger and despair mixed with determination.
"Yes! The Navy led them!"
"The pirates called that Navy man 'sir'!"
"We saw it with our own eyes!"
"We have nothing left! You devils! Pay for our families!"
Gale's face turned dark. His fists clenched. The soldiers behind him looked shocked.
"Admiral Gale..."
"We're supposed to be the good guys. How could we work with criminals?"
Joy Boy was stunned. His face twisted with shock and anger. "The Navy... leading pirates to rob civilians? That's wrong!"
He looked at Gale, his eyes full of questions.
Rhett watched, his smile growing wider.