The old man leaning heavily on his wooden crutches led Carl and the rest of the group into a dilapidated house. The structure was pitifully run-down. Even though the walls were completely constructed from solid stone blocks, the entire building gave off a dangerous feeling that it was on the verge of crumbling into dust. Furthermore, the interior was entirely bare. There was only a small, rotting wooden table and a few rough stone blocks serving as makeshift stools in the center of the main room. There was absolutely no real furniture to be seen anywhere.
The old woman who had sold them the umbrellas earlier also followed them inside. She took the initiative to grab a few heavily chipped clay bowls and slowly poured out some fresh water for her pirate guests.
Tashigi looked around the empty, depressing room and felt a pang of sympathy. "Old man, where is the rest of your family?"
"Family? They're all dead. They would've died a long time ago if things were different. If I hadn't been the designated village head of this miserable place, I would've perished alongside them." The old man let out a deep, heavy sigh and offered a miserable, self-deprecating smile.
Tashigi froze in place, her eyes widening in shock. She immediately bowed her head in a deep, formal apology, completely unsure of what she could possibly say to comfort him in that moment.
The old man showed a surprisingly kind smile. He clearly didn't expect this young pirate girl to possess such a good heart, nor did he expect her to apologize so respectfully to a useless old man like himself. Perhaps these particular pirates weren't nearly as vicious as he had originally imagined.
The old woman walked over and gently helped the old man sit down on one of the stone piers, acting as a silent source of comfort.
The old man sat quietly and pondered for a long while before finally opening his mouth to speak. "This place is known across the sea as Thunder God Island. Because of its highly unusual geographical location, for thousands of years, terrible thunder and violent lightning automatically fell onto the island just like an endless rainstorm. In the distant past, people honestly believed that this was the sacred island where the God of Thunder resided, so that's how the island officially got its name. Therefore, back in the year 970, many desperate people chose to permanently settle down on this dangerous island in order to obtain the divine protection of the God of Thunder. Moreover, our clever ancestors also managed to develop a special umbrella that can completely avoid the falling thunder and lightning, allowing normal people to live safely on the island and travel in and out without being killed."
As he spoke, the old man reached out a trembling hand and picked up one of the umbrellas resting near the wall.
"Look closely here. There's a very special type of ore inlaid directly onto the internal ribs of the umbrella. We call it the lightning-proof stone. As long as this unique lightning-proof stone is carefully inlaid according to the specific structural design of the umbrella, the effect of automatically repelling the lightning strikes can be achieved. In addition to that, the material used to create the umbrella canopy must also be made from a special insulating fabric, otherwise, the person holding it will still be struck and burned to ash by the lightning."
The old man gave a very thorough and detailed introduction regarding the inner workings of the umbrella. He spoke openly, acting as if he wasn't afraid of leaking any important trade secrets. Perhaps the construction of the umbrellas wasn't actually a secret in the first place.
Of course, very few people could genuinely understand the complex mechanics he described. In the entire group, probably only Franky could fully comprehend the advanced engineering required to make it work.
Carl leaned against the stone wall and asked a direct question, acting as if he didn't care about the old man's delicate feelings at all. "So, what exactly is the current situation here on Thunder God Island? You haven't actually been protected by this supposed God of Thunder, have you?"
The old man froze again. He realized that if he didn't explain the situation clearly today, this persistent outsider would simply never stop asking questions.
Moreover, the other members of the group were also incredibly curious about the underlying truth. The obvious tragedy surrounding the village chief and the intense, paralyzing fear displayed by the rest of the villagers were far too obvious to ignore. It clearly showed that the village received absolutely no divine protection from any god of thunder, but instead, they were facing a very real and terrifying danger.
It was highly likely that the old man's family members had died directly because of this exact danger.
Before the village chief could figure out how to answer, the old woman abruptly took over the conversation. "How could there possibly be any divine protection from Thor! There's no god here. It's just a bunch of damned, bloodthirsty pirates!"
"Old girl! Don't speak such dangerous nonsense!" The old man quickly tried to reprimand her, his eyes darting toward the broken window in terror.
"Why can't we speak the truth? Old brother, think about how much we've suffered under their boots. Our beloved relatives have been taken from us and have left this world one by one. Are we really even alive at this point? Rather than continuing this torture, it'd be better to just let them kill us all and be done with it!" The old woman was acting very strangely at this moment, her voice trembling with an intense, overwhelming outrage.
The old man opened his mouth to argue, but the overwhelming grief choked him, and he couldn't make a single sound.
The old woman continued her tragic explanation. "About ten years ago, a massive group of powerful and cruel pirates arrived here on our shores. The captain who leads that group of pirates is an incredibly powerful monster. The violent lightning that constantly strikes the island can't harm him in the slightest, and the lightning itself is even directly controlled by his hands. The thieves violently took over the entire island as a matter of course, and their arrogant leader also claimed himself to be the true Thor! The pirates demanded to enslave several of our local villages, but we couldn't be reconciled to such a cruel fate, so we bravely rose up and tried to resist them. But those pirates were simply far too powerful for ordinary farmers to fight. My precious child, my brother's child, and many other brave people were brutally beaten to death in the streets by them. Later on, the pirates gathered up the surviving children and threatened to execute them all right in front of us. They asked us to surrender immediately. Our remaining villages had absolutely no choice but to choose to submit and become slaves in exchange for the lives of the innocent children."
Speaking of this horrible memory, both the old woman and the old man completely broke down and burst into bitter tears.
Tashigi, Franky, and Brook listened to the tragic tale, and their hearts were instantly filled with immense righteous indignation. They gripped their weapons tightly, wishing they could hunt down and tear those cruel pirates to bloody pieces right then and there.
The old woman roughly wiped the tears from her wrinkled cheeks and continued speaking. "After we surrendered, they set up their cruel system. The young and strong men are permanently assigned to the deep caves to mine the dangerous lightning-proof ore, while the women are strictly required to produce the special umbrellas with all their available strength. Then, the pirates come down to collect everything. But they also kindly allow us to sell a small portion of the umbrellas to lost travelers, only so they can return and violently collect heavy protection fees from us every single month. Those poor souls who fail to pay the required protection fee will either be killed on the spot or forced to mortgage their children and their daughters-in-law to the pirate crew. After doing a careful calculation of the passing time, it has truly been exactly ten years. For the past ten years, living under this torment, we've actually been no different than walking corpses!"
"This entire group is nothing but damned scum!" Tashigi clenched her fists tightly, her voice trembling as she was driven almost entirely into a state of blind rage. She was obviously acting out of pure, unadulterated anger.
The others in the room didn't give up too much ground regarding their own fury. Although they all logically knew that most pirates traversing the seas committed all kinds of terrible crimes, including burning villages, killing innocents, and looting treasure, and everyone standing in the room was technically a pirate themselves, they still couldn't comfortably sit back and listen to such horrific things.
Now that they had personally heard the truth today, they were definitely not going to give up on this matter or simply walk away so easily.
Carl frowned deeply, crossing his arms over his chest. He really didn't have any immediate impression or memory regarding this specific group of pirates from his past knowledge.
He began to analyze the situation logically in his mind. Besides the Rumble-Rumble Fruit that was previously eaten by Sanji, and the Electric Fruit that was currently eaten by Carl himself, was there actually any other Devil Fruit in existence that could naturally control lightning on such a massive scale? Could it possibly be some kind of unique racial talent or mutation? Or perhaps it was some kind of highly advanced technology mimicking Devil Fruit powers?
Carl genuinely couldn't figure out the underlying mystery right away, but he wasn't particularly worried about the threat it posed.
If the pirate captain controlling this island was genuinely strong enough to casually control the weather and subjugate an entire island in the dangerous waters of the New World, he would have easily become one of the Yonko of the sea a long time ago. Since his strength clearly wasn't recognized on a global scale, then there was absolutely nothing for the crew to worry about.
At this exact moment, a loud commotion suddenly broke out on the muddy street right outside the dilapidated house.
A harsh, arrogant male voice was heard swearing loudly at the villagers. "All of you young and strong rats get out here right now! It's time for your daily mining shift! All the women need to come out here too, and you better hand over your entire daily quota of umbrellas immediately! Don't even think about resisting us, or I swear I'll slaughter you all right where you stand!"
Hearing this cruel, mocking voice echoing through the village, the expressions of the Straw Hat crew instantly darkened. A heavy, dangerous aura filled the small stone room.
When the terrified villagers heard the familiar, hateful words, they slowly walked out of their crumbling houses in a sparse, defeated line.
The young and strong men carried their heavy iron pickaxes and rusty shovels over their tired shoulders. They walked out of their rooms with completely numb, dead eyes, having lost all hope long ago. The women followed closely behind the men, acting incredibly cautiously while fearfully clutching bundles of finished umbrellas to their chests. Some of the younger women even deliberately knelt down to rub dark fireplace ashes and thick mud all over their faces. They did this on purpose, desperately hoping that they wouldn't look beautiful and subsequently be dragged away and ruined by these absolute beasts.
Tashigi and Franky couldn't bear to listen to the harassment for another second. They were the first ones to push the wooden door open and follow the villagers out into the muddy street.
Outside, they immediately spotted five or six incredibly sleazy, cruel-looking pirates standing confidently in the center of the road. The thugs were holding sharp cutlasses and loaded flintlock guns, roughly checking the quality of the umbrellas being handed over, and blatantly taking the opportunity to physically harass some of the trembling women.
The moment one of the pirates turned his head and saw Tashigi stepping out of the house, his greedy eyes lit up instantly.
"Hey, look at this! Who does this pretty little beauty belong to? It's definitely the first time I've ever seen such a high-quality face in this dump. Come over here right now and let your big brother play with you for a while!"
The pirate sheathed his sword and walked directly toward Tashigi with a disgusting smirk plastered across his face. He reached his dirty, calloused hand straight out, aiming directly toward Tashigi's face.
Seeing this sudden development, the other pirates immediately stopped caring about collecting the umbrellas. They all laughed maliciously and completely surrounded the area, eager to see what would happen.
But in the very next second, a blinding flash of cold steel cut through the gloomy air. The pirate who had arrogantly stretched out his hand was directly beheaded by Tashigi in a single, flawless motion. The pirate's severed head tumbled into the mud, and a massive geyser of dark crimson blood sprayed high into the air like a pressurized water jet.
The remaining pirates were completely startled by the sudden violence. The smiles vanished from their faces, and they all froze completely in place, unable to comprehend what had just happened to their comrade.
"You absolute scum. Every single one of you deserves to die!"
It was the very first time anyone in the crew had seen Tashigi display such an intensely hostile and ruthless side. In a sudden, violent flash of movement, she charged straight forward and passed completely through the line of the remaining pirates. The sharp blade of her sword sang through the air, and the severed heads of three more pirates instantly flew up toward the dark, stormy sky.