The first time such a warning had surprised the pirates, but now Shanks himself found that he was seriously considering the elder's advice. Who knows what else this… um… maniac might have up his sleeve? To be fair, the kid didn't quite fit the maniac profile, though he clearly wasn't all there - that much Shanks could say for sure! With various stabbing, cutting, and shooting weapons, and bullets or poisons, Shanks had no problem dealing with them - unless his opponent was someone like Mihawk - but he had always struggled with clever attacks or traps. In turn, Luffy seemed to prefer clever attacks and traps when direct attacks failed. Problematic. And at that moment, the captain of the Red-Haired Pirates realized that he was genuinely afraid of untying the seven-year-old boy. It would have been funny if it weren't true. For a moment, the future seemed incredibly frightening, but he quickly tried to push the thought away.
"So, how were you planning to deal with my crew?" Shanks asked, once again addressing the now untied little Luffy.
The scowling boy, now rubbing his sore arms and legs, shot a furious glare at everyone around him, showing no distinction between pirates and villagers. Sometimes children could be more cruel and heartless than adults, but they were only so because of their innocence. They simply did not realize that their behavior was cruel or heartless. Luffy was certainly not one of those children. Shanks could say with full confidence that the boy sitting in front of him was cruel by nature, making him only resemble a child outwardly.
"I would blow you all up," Luffy answered Shanks' question with brutal honesty, giving him a bloodthirsty look that could easily be mistaken for that of an enraged Sea King.
"Blow us all up?" the man asked, confused. "And how would you do that? We've defused your mines!"
Actually, they had exploded, but who cared about such trivial details?
"I mined the whole dock months ago," the boy grinned maliciously. "You're all standing on one big pile of explosives!" it was hard to believe, but his gaze became even more bloodthirsty.
Shanks and his crew changed their expressions simultaneously. The men immediately realized that most of the dock looked suspiciously new, as if it had been recently built or renovated. Everyone present suddenly felt very uneasy. Although the strongest people in the crew would definitely survive, how many others would perish? The strangest thing was that the unease spread not only to the pirates but also to the local residents. This could be easily judged by the sudden change in their expressions, making them, in this regard, indistinguishable from the pirates.
"LUFFY!!!" For his considerable age, the elder had surprisingly powerful lungs... apparently due to ample practice. "You promised me not to mine the dock!!!"
The old man looked as if he didn't know whether to clutch his heart, his head, or the boy's neck first.
"Well, I promised, so what?" Little Luffy rolled his eyes and began picking his nose with the most indifferent expression, as if all his previous malice and bloodthirstiness had never existed. "I constantly promise my grandpa that I'll become a marine… I wonder how much longer that old fool will believe me. And anyway, I'm just a little kid, and kids are supposed to lie. You should ask yourselves what kind of adults you are if you believe a child's words unconditionally. Idiots.
That's probably what an adult would sound like if he were reborn as a child but retained the memories of his past life… Or if an adult's consciousness were transferred into a child's body… Or if some fruit could roll back age and Luffy became a victim of its power. Shanks wouldn't be surprised by any of these options - he and his crew had long since gotten used to the fact that such fantasies, including the most absurd ones, had a surprising tendency to become reality. Mainly on the Grand Line, though. However, users of Devil Fruits existed in all corners of the world, and East Blue was no exception. Not to mention that several Devil Fruits capable of realizing some of these scenarios immediately came to mind. And such thoughts among Shanks and his crew best reflected their experience with another manifestation of the impossible and incredible. Where any other person in their place might have taken everything at face value - after all, what kind of childhood did Luffy have and what had he been through? - the pirates immediately began looking for hidden tricks. To be fair, this approach greatly helped them survive on the Grand Line. Though no one dismissed ordinary explanations either.
While Shanks and some particularly perceptive members of his crew tried to 'get to the truth,' mentally proposing various hypotheses about Luffy's 'true' identity, the village elder, upon hearing the boy's answer, nearly had a heart attack:
I-i-idiots?" the old man managed to squeeze out through his rage, practically gasping for breath. "We're idiots?! After all your antics, we're still idiots?! After everything you've done, we're the idiots?! M-m-m…" The elder's lips trembled as he tried to continue, but he was so angry that he could barely speak. "M-m-Makino! WHERE IS MAKINO?!!"
Shanks' crew had no idea who this Makino was, but seeing how Luffy's arrogance vanished instantly upon hearing her name, the pirates immediately concluded that she must be incredibly impressive. Almost the "Pirate King," if not quite.
"How old are you?!" Now it was Luffy's turn to shout angrily. "I just told the truth, and you immediately complain to Makino?! If you tell her even a word, your house will be the next thing I fill with explosives!"
"Don't worry, Luffy, he won't have to tell me anything," a pleasant voice sounded from somewhere behind the gathered villagers.