"Why don't we head into that lighthouse and find out...?" I remarked with a shrug of my shoulders as I turned to look at the lighthouse, smiling as a little girl with green pigtails poked her head out of the entrance, intently staring at our flag.
"Pirates...?" the little girl muttered, alarm downing on her face. "Grandma! Grandma! Pirates are here!" the girl exclaimed in alarm, seemingly panicking as she turned to look at the lighthouse's entrance.
We all chuckled as the girl began pacing around, her hands in the air as she ran circles.
"Iz that true, Chimoney?!" came an equally alarmed and seemingly drunken voice from the inside. "Hurry up and get the transzponder znail!" the speaker added as she revealed herself, drunkenly walking and falling on her side as soon as she stepped through the entrance.
She was an old lady with green hair, similar to the little girl's. She wore a train conductor uniform, which along with her oval shape, round shape, and weird smile, made her look like a frog.
"Here you go, grandma! Here's the transponder snail!" the little girl said after hurriedly going inside the lighthouse, retrieving a transponder snail, and putting it in front of the old lady, who was now sitting cross-legged.
"Are we just going to let her make that call?" Law said with twitching eyes as he watched the old lady's drunken antics while she tried to dial a number with a befuddled expression.
"Would it matter?" I asked with a chuckle, shaking my head in amusement as I watched the old woman fumble around, trying to make a call, finally laughing victoriously as she finally managed to make the call.
"Ah, hello..." the old lady greeted as the other side picked up the call, staring into the distance with a weird expression. "I forgot... I forgot what I wanted to say..." she added with a thoughtful look as she hung up the call, much to Law's bemusement as I chuckled.
"So..." the old lady remarked as she looked around her for a second, her gaze finally settling on the Black Pearl. "Who are you people, and what are you doing here...?" she asked as she scratched her head and looked at us with apparent confusion.
"We're pirates..." I said as I jumped from the ship, landing a distance away from the old lady and her granddaughter, not to spook them. "I'm Johnny, and these are my crewmates," I added, introducing myself and my crewmates as I gestured towards them.
"We're not here to make trouble. we're just a little curious about this place..." I concluded with a shrug of my shoulder, putting on my best disarming smile.
"I'm Chimney," the little girl, Chimney, said while gesturing towards herself. "This is Gonbe, my cat, and this Kokoro, my grandma," Chimney added while pointing towards the blue rabbit (That looked nothing like a cat) standing on two next to her and the old lady, respectively.
"No matter how you look at it, that's a rabbit..." Bepo said as he walked from behind the others, pointing towards Gonbe while scratching his head behind the ears with a confused expression.
"Ah! A talking bear!" Chimney said, her mouth hanging open as she stared at Bepo with incredulity in her eyes, an expression Gonbe shared with her as he too pointed at Bepo.
"I'm sorry for being a talking bear!" Bepo exclaimed, his face turning blue as he bowed his head, proceeding to repeat the gesture with a downcast expression.
"How many times have I told you to stop apologizing for this and that!" Law said with twitching eyes, a tick mark on his forehead as he reprimanded the polar bear mink.
Bepo's face turned even more blue as he heard Law's words and began apologizing even more frantically, much to Law's bemusement and everyone else's amusement as we began to laugh.
"What an interesting bunch! Nagagagaga," Kokory exclaimed with a loud laugh as she took a sip from an alcohol bottle in her hand. "So, what did you guys want to ask?" she asked as she turned to look at me.
"Well, it's about that thing that just passed by..." Elly said with a curious expression as she looked at Kokoro. "Isn't that thing a train? We had something similar back home in Ballywood, but how could it float on water like that..?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Oh, you're talking about the sea train, right?" Chimney asked with a broad smile, earning a nod from Elly. "This is the only place in the world where you'll see something like that. We call it The Puffing Tom," she added, spreading her arms apart.
"It goes from island to island, moving passengers and cargo around thanks to the underwater railway," Chimney concluded, gesturing towards the submerged train track in front of the lighthouse.
"It's true. There's a railway under the water..." Elly said with an astonished tone as she moved to take a look at the underwater railway, the others following suit, other than me since I noticed it, having already known about it.
"Still... young lady. You said you were from Ballywood, right?" Kokoro asked as she looked at Elly, getting a nod in response. "Do you know an old shipwright called old Jim...?" she asked, her eyes briefly turning to look at the Black Pearl, making me raise an eyebrow.
"Oh! You know old Jim?" Elly asked with a smile as she looked at Kokoro. "He's the shipwright who built the Black Pearl for us," she added as she gestured towards our ship.
"I figured as much..." Kokoro said, still smiling as she stood up and approached the Black Pearl, though there was a subtle change in her expression that I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't from my Observation Haki.
"It's good to see he hasn't lost his touch with age..." Kokoro added as she caressed the Black Pearl's hull with a smile. "Tom would have been happy to know his old friend is still building such wonderful ships..." she added, her tone tinged with a slight bitterness, but she quickly shook her head and the bitterness along with it.
"How do you know old Jim, if you don't mind me asking...?" I asked as I turned to look at Kokoro. I could guess she knew him through Tom, the shipwright who built the Oro Jackson, Roger's ship as she was his secretary, but I didn't know for sure.
"Do you guys know Tom, from Tom's Workers company...?" Kokoro asked as she turned to look at me, regaining her cheerful tone.
"I wouldn't be much of a pirate if I didn't know about Tom, the man who built the pirate king's ship who was said to be the best shipwright of his time," I replied, smiling as I nodded my head in confirmation. "Though I'd say Old Jimm would give him a run for his money if you ask me..." I added, shaking my head, amusement in my tone.
"That he did..." Kokoro said with a smile, nodding her head again. "In any case, I was tom's secretary before he was executed, and I met Old Jim through him..." she explained, her expression turning sour as she mentioned Tom's execution.
"Old Jim was both Tom's rival and friend," Kokoro added as she took a sip from the alcohol bottle, her sour expression disappearing. "Tom always said old Jim would one day create a ship as good as if not better than the Oro Jackson... if he had the recourses..." she explained while patting the Black Pearl's hull.
"He might not have been wrong either..."