A living corridor quickly formed among the people, at the end of which stood a young woman who looked about twenty. Shanks and his crew naturally assumed she was the mysterious Makino. She wore a yellow headscarf covering dark green hair, an orange blouse with black sleeves, a long blue skirt, and orange sneakers with white soles. The girl looked clean, neat, and sweet. She could also be called beautiful, but the aura surrounding her - a kind of peaceful and homely warmth - made her seem primarily sweet rather than beautiful. And she not only didn't look strong - which didn't mean much - but she certainly didn't possess any remarkable strength - and that meant a lot. Sweet, beautiful, weak, with a friendly smile and a friendly gaze. There was nothing remotely threatening in her appearance or behavior. Pure peace and friendliness.
Luffy's face went blank.
"…Have you been here long?" he asked, noticeably shrinking and nervously intertwining his fingers.
"Since the beginning," came the friendly reply.
Makino began to approach the boy with a slow step, causing him to immediately start darting his eyes around as if trying to figure out where to run… Although, what 'as if'? He was definitely trying to figure it out!
"…Weren't you supposed to come back only in the evening?" Luffy mumbled softly, shrinking even further.
At that moment, he resembled an ordinary child caught in the act of something wrong so much that Shanks began to doubt his own hypotheses - could he really be just a child? Perhaps too intelligent and advanced? And also cruel and bloodthirsty? Anything can happen in life! And none of them knew the story of little Luffy yet. Shanks did not exclude the possibility that the boy might indeed be an ordinary child… with very unusual experiences and mind. Over his life, he had seen too much of the impossible turning out to be quite possible, so he was not quick to dismiss any options.
"I tried to come back as soon as possible… For some reason, I was worried that in my absence, you might cause a lot of trouble," Makino said, stopping two steps from the boy and continuing to smile pleasantly.
Luffy was sweating profusely.
"And someone promised me to behave well," the girl hinted. "Promised not to cause any trouble… Well, you're right, I guess I'm just as foolish as our esteemed elder for trusting the word of a child."
Luffy looked as if he had been punched in the gut and then had something very heavy placed around his neck to prevent him from straightening up again.
"No, wait, you called him an idiot, didn't you?" Makino, still maintaining her 'pleasant' demeanor, showed no signs of reducing her 'pleasantness' levels. "Then, according to your words, I'm not just foolish but an idiot, right?"
Luffy finally broke down! He decided to act like any other child caught in the act but stubbornly refusing to admit his guilt:
" It's all their fault! " pointing at Shanks and his crew, the boy tried to shift the blame. " They refused to die! " As with any other child caught red-handed, his reasoning was completely hopeless… and slightly impressive. " If they had died immediately, none of this would have happened!" he presented his most 'weighty' argument.
The worst part was that there was indeed some twisted logic in his words. Extremely perverse and openly bloodthirsty, but logic nonetheless.
" Luffy, we both know you should be saying something completely different right now… don't make me resort to extreme measures."
It was unclear what exactly was meant by 'extreme measures,' but the boy almost fainted upon hearing those words. Shanks and his crew were bewildered, while the local residents, led by the elder, continued to gloat over Luffy's 'torments.' The crowd of adults was thoroughly enjoying the moral torment of the little boy and made no attempt to hide it. Surprisingly, the pirates were the quietest and most peaceful of all, even though they were initially the ones being attacked. Remarkable but true.
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Slap," Luffy said with a scowl at the smug village elder, bowing slightly. Despite the seemingly polite words, there was no sincerity in his voice. Moreover, he spoke as if invisible hands were squeezing his throat, forcing each new word out with effort. "I won't do it again."
After apologizing to the self-satisfied elder, the boy looked hopefully at Makino, but upon meeting her friendly gaze, he immediately dropped his head. He approached Shanks, crossing his legs. If, during the apology to the elder, Luffy's gaze had looked 'only' malicious, now his eyes reflected nothing but a wild thirst for blood. Combined with his childlike appearance, such a gaze looked foreign and unnatural. Or rather, unnatural? The thoughts of an adult consciousness in a child's body resurfaced in the pirates' minds.
"S-s-sorry… p-p-please… Mister I-don't-know-your-name… cough-cough…" If it had seemed before that the boy was being choked, now it looked as though someone had stepped on his throat. The little rascal even spat blood at the end, as if the apologies were causing him excruciating pain and damaging his insides! "I won't… cough-cough… won't do it again… cough-cough…"
Shanks and his crew stared at little Luffy with empty eyes - it was the first time in their lives they had seen such a child. And could he even be called a child? In turn, the peaceful (?) villagers continued to openly gloat over the boy's 'suffering,' while Makino merely massaged the bridge of her nose with her fingers, not commenting on the peculiarities of Luffy's apologies. The girl knew him best, so she understood better than anyone in the village the limits of what could be achieved with him. And the apologies he had given were already slightly beyond that limit. There was no point in demanding more. No point in demanding the impossible.
"Welcome to Foosha Village," Makino said, standing next to the boy and respectfully bowing to Shanks and his crew. "I offer you my sincerest apologies for our Luffy," she bowed again, creating a stark contrast to the previous apologies. "As compensation, allow me to treat your entire crew to free drinks."
A primal horror appeared on Luffy's face.
"Free drinks?!!" The deeply shocked boy exclaimed.
" After you tried to kill them, the least we can do is treat them to free drinks," Makino patiently explained.
"But they already blew up half of my underwater mines!" The primal horror was instantly replaced with tons and tons of genuine outrage. 'And I used up bullets on them! And deadly poison! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get such deadly stuff around here?! And on top of that, when I bit him," he pointed at Shanks, "my venomous fangs got dulled! Do you have any idea how much they cost me?! I could bite through steel sheets like they were paper, but now I can only bite paper! And after all my losses, you want to get everyone drunk for free?! They'll drink all the booze in your bar!!!"
"No worries, you'll pay for everything later" the 'friendly' smile returned to Makino's face.
Little Luffy literally turned to stone. His eyes rolled back, and then - without the slightest doubt, thanks to Observation Haki - he collapsed into a deep faint.
The gathered pirates initially assumed the boy had finally realized the consequences of his actions. After all, how long would he have to work to pay back the alcohol consumed by such a crowd? But the conversations that immediately broke out among the locals soon revealed the true cause of his reaction.
The little brat hadn't fainted out of fear of the consequences at all. He had passed out from sheer greed. As it turned out, the snot-nosed kid would practically strangle himself for every last berry. And that was putting it mildly.
None of the pirates had ever seen someone faint because of their own greed. The ordinary villagers, however, had witnessed it more than once - they'd known the little troublemaker for years.
"Rocky-kun, would you mind carrying Luffy?" Makino asked, turning to a young man nearby.
"Not a chance I'm setting foot in his house!" the young man immediately protested, eager to distance himself from the "good fortune" that had been dumped on him. "Only heaven knows what kind of stuff he's been cramming himself with in there!"
"I wasn't talking about his house. Just help me carry him to my bar. He can lie down in the storage room until he wakes up."
The last words were directed at Shanks and his crew.
"Please, follow me. I'm sure the quality of my drinks won't leave anyone disappointed!"
The young woman greeted the pirate crew with a sweet smile.