Enel vanished quickly, and came back just as fast. In barely five or six minutes, a black-clad figure descended from the sky with a tightly wrapped captive in each hand. After landing beside Yemu and the others, he tossed one of them onto the ground and said lightly,
"Done!"
The members of the Whitebeard Pirates were all stunned.
Marco was the first to recover, his brows knitting slightly.
"Observation Haki on this level. Just as terrifying as the legends say."
Yemu paid the Whitebeard Pirates no mind. After nodding to Enel, he crouched down and pulled the masks off the two black-clad captives.
What appeared before him was a little unexpected.
The plain-looking man didn't matter much. What caught his attention was the other person. Under the black mask was the face of a delicate yet strong-willed girl.
"A girl!?"
Everyone was surprised.
Yemu didn't say anything more. He just said to Enel,
"Wake them up."
"Leave it to me."
As soon as he spoke, Enel raised a finger, and a current of electricity shot from his hand into the two of them.
Sparks flew instantly. The unconscious pair cried out in pain and slowly woke up.
Seeing that, Yemu could not help grumbling inwardly,
"He really has no idea how to go easy on a girl."
At that moment, the one who woke first was unexpectedly the seemingly fragile girl. She slowly opened her eyes, then, as if she had discovered something terrifying, tried to struggle to her feet in panic. But Enel's lightning was no harmless stun. The moment she got up, her body went weak, and she dropped right back onto the ground.
Then the man beside her waking up caught her attention. Only then did she seem to understand what had happened. Clenching her fists tightly, she shouted angrily,
"Who are you? Are you with the World Government?"
"The World Government!!!"
Everyone froze for a moment, but Yemu was the first to realize what that implied. He turned to look at the man beside her.
"So that means you're one of them?"
At that moment, the man who had just come to recognized the people standing in front of him. His pupils widened, his face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat poured down his body as he stammered,
"T-the Sky Pirates... the Whitebeard Pirates..."
The woman beside him was in the New World, but clearly had never heard those names. The blank look on her face made that obvious. But there was one thing she was sure of. This man was terrified.
"So these are pirates!?"
She stared at the pirates and Yemu in shock.
"Unfortunately, that's not the answer I wanted. Enel."
"Got it."
Enel understood at once. He raised a finger, and in a flash of lightning, the man's screams rang out again and again.
The woman beside him was obviously startled.
About a minute later, the current finally stopped. Looking at the man, whose whole body was now smoking black, Yemu said,
"Now can you answer me?"
"Y-yes... Please don't kill me. I'm a member of CP7, codename Vulture. We were sent here to handle the final cleanup on Warship Island."
"Cleanup? Does that have something to do with this woman?"
The moment Yemu said that, the CP7 agent codenamed Vulture's face turned ugly, and he hesitated.
The woman beside him, however, seemed to spot an opening and shouted anxiously,
"You pirates are after treasure, right? I can give you treasure, as long as you agree to take the job!"
"A job!?"
The instant those words came out, everyone froze, then burst into laughter.
"Hey, little girl, you've got the wrong idea. We're the Whitebeard Pirates. There's no way we'd do something like mercenary work..."
"Hahaha! Someone wants to hire the Whitebeard Pirates? That's a first!"
"Hahahahaha..."
The laughter from the underlings made the woman's face darken. Then, with a determined look, she forced herself back to her feet.
"I can't fall here. Everyone's waiting for me!"
With that, she hurriedly tried to leave.
Seeing this, the CP7 man beside her quickly said,
"Um, members of the Sky Pirates, members of the Whitebeard Pirates, we should leave this island first and talk later. There isn't much time left."
This time, everyone was stunned.
"What do you mean?"
Marco asked with a frown.
"Well... that..."
Even though he was a spy from the CP intelligence agency, he clearly was not the kind of man prepared to die for the mission. After hesitating for a moment, he spilled everything.
"In fifty-three minutes, Warship Island will be completely blown up!"
Everyone was shocked.
Marco seemed to think of something.
"Come on, seriously? Just to keep us pirates from taking anything, they're willing to blow up the whole island?"
But that clearly was not the reason. After Marco said that, Vulture's expression changed at once, as if he wanted to speak but did not dare.
Tiger, however, seemed to remember something.
"Is it to hide the fact that your World Government has been enslaving and oppressing pirates?"
The moment he said that, before Vulture could even react, the woman beside him blurted out in anger and panic,
"We're not pirates, and we're not criminals. We were just deceived by the World Government!"
Tears in her eyes, she said,
"This island's original name was Treasure Island. We are the island's native people, the Harrot Tribe. Our people have a gift. We can change the nature of the earth and turn it into all kinds of minerals. That's why this island is filled with precious ore deposits. For hundreds of years, we lived peacefully with this island. Then, eighty years ago, people from the World Government found us. They claimed they wanted to help our tribe develop and built a shipyard on Treasure Island. We believed them at first. Only later, when they started ravaging Treasure Island to extract its minerals, did we realize they had only ever treated our island as a tool. The poisonous fumes from smelting metal caused disease, and many of our people died because of it. We tried to resist, but they captured all of us and, under the name of pirates, forced us to work for them. And now they want to erase their crimes by wiping out both the Harrot Tribe and Treasure Island."
After she finished, she glared furiously at the CP7 agent codenamed Vulture.
Only then did everyone understand that Warship Island had such a story behind it. Their gazes toward Vulture immediately turned hostile.
Vulture hurriedly tried to explain,
"Uh... I was only following orders... Besides, that's not the important part. The important thing is that we leave this place first..."
Yemu asked instead,
"Is there really no way to stop it?"
Vulture explained with a pale face,
"To completely destroy Warship Island, the World Government used Power Stones. They've already been placed all over the island, and the detonation device was activated long ago. There's no way to disable it. If it weren't for this woman, I wouldn't still be here either..."