"Now that you've all eaten your fill, can we talk? Otherwise, it's pretty boring to be alone."
"I've actually thought for a while that you three look familiar. What's your name, and how did you get captured?"
Hancock continued to ignore Wood's questions. Although he had indeed provided them with food, it didn't change the fact that he was working for the Celestial Dragons.
However, Hancock's silence didn't mean that Mary and Sonia would react the same way.
Hancock was more mature, being twelve years old, but Mary and Sonia were still children.
To them, Wood was different from the bad people at the auction because he had given them food. Wood's sunny and kind appearance also made him seem less like a bad person, so they unconsciously answered his questions.
"Big brother, we were kidnapped from the Kuja Pirates and taken to the Sabaody Archipelago. My name is Mary, and my sisters are Sonia and Hancock. Can you let us go? We'll repay you if we can return to Amazon Lily..."
"Mary, he's with those bad guys! Just because he gave you some food doesn't make him a good person!"
Hancock cut Mary off before she could finish speaking, scolding her sternly.
The three sisters had been captured because they trusted others too easily. This had made Hancock extremely distrustful of anyone around them.
However, Hancock didn't notice that when Mary mentioned their names, Wood was momentarily stunned.
Mary and Sonia's names might not ring any bells, but the name Hancock was a different story for anyone familiar with One Piece.
Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, renowned as the most beautiful woman in the world, a Paramecia-type Mero Mero no Mi user, and a future member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. She had power and beauty, an iconic figure in the world.
No wonder Wood had felt they looked familiar—he had encountered a significant character!
According to the timeline, Hancock and her sisters were indeed captured and taken to Mariejois at this time.
They would suffer under the Celestial Dragons for years until the Fish-Man hero Fisher Tiger climbed the Red Line and freed the slaves. Only then did the three sisters manage to escape and return to Amazon Lily.
At twelve years old, Hancock wasn't yet the unparalleled beauty she would become, but her face already showed signs of her future stunning looks.
As for Mary and Sonia, while they weren't as beautiful as Hancock, they were still attractive. Wood couldn't quite understand why the two of them would undergo such drastic transformations twenty years later...
While Devil Fruits could cause physical changes, Mary and Sonia's future appearances seemed to go beyond normal human characteristics.
Realizing that the three sisters in front of him were the future Empresses of Amazon Lily, Wood had initially intended to win some favor from them.
However, before he could speak, the brig they were on suddenly began to shake violently!
The sea was calm, and the weather was normal. Unless they had struck a reef or encountered some other danger, this kind of shaking shouldn't have happened.
With Gion's perfect navigation skills and the sea charts to guide them, they shouldn't have made such a mistake as steering the ship into a reef.
This meant that the cause of the ship's violent shaking was likely an external force.
"Wood, our ship is under attack from below. They're likely after the captured mermaid. If the hull is breached, we can manage, but the others on board will be in serious danger."
There were no other ships nearby, and given that the attack came from below, Wood could easily guess that the attackers were likely Fish-Men, even without Gion explicitly stating it.
Fish-Men and mermaids both lived on Fish-Man Island. Fish-Men had fish-like faces and human bodies, often considered unattractive and discriminated against by humans.
Mermaids, on the other hand, had human-like upper bodies and fish tails, typically possessing great beauty, often kept as pets by the wealthy in this world.
Mermaids had the fastest swimming speed in the world, while Fish-Men, though slower, had strong combat abilities.
One of the Fish-Men's favorite tactics for attacking human ships was to breach the hull, causing the ship to sink and leaving the humans helpless in the water.
Because once in the water, the Fish-Men were invincible!
Fish-Men believed humans were an inferior race because they couldn't breathe underwater. In contrast, Fish-Men could move freely both on land and in the sea.
From a biological standpoint, Fish-Men were indeed more evolved than humans.
After all, they were amphibious and possessed intelligence equal to humans. Their ability to breathe underwater alone made them more suited to the world's environment.
Wood and Gion's ship had just left the Sabaody Archipelago. Even if the ship sank, they could use Moonwalk to return to the island safely.
But what about the others on board? Not to mention their individual strengths, they were all chained up and locked in a large iron cage. If the ship sank, everyone except the mermaid would likely die.
That was probably the Fish-Men's intention. They had chosen to attack now because, even for Fish-Men, it would be exhausting to swim across the open sea.
And aside from the mermaid, the Fish-Men didn't care about the other slaves or their human captors. They weren't their kind, and their deaths wouldn't matter.
Feeling the ship's continuous shaking, Gion immediately removed her outer clothes, revealing a bikini that caught Wood's attention. She was preparing to dive into the sea.
Fighting Fish-Men in the water was a foolish move, but given the situation, Gion had no better options.
"Let me go. You stay and protect everyone on board."
Seeing Gion about to jump into the sea, Wood quickly removed his shirt and, before Gion could respond, jumped into the water.
Humans had low visibility in the water, and Fish-Men were incredibly fast swimmers. With his mastery of Observation Haki, Wood was indeed better suited for underwater combat against Fish-Men than Gion.