The person Bellemere couldn't handle, of course, she couldn't either.
But Bellemere was in their hands, and she absolutely couldn't back down.
If they really had bad intentions…
Nojiko only felt lucky that Nami wasn't in the village right now; no matter what, she should be able to survive.
But what surprised her a bit was that the guy with the straw hat actually handed Bellemere over to her. Only then did Nojiko slightly let down her guard.
"It seems you guys have nothing to do with those people. Come home with me first." Nojiko breathed a sigh of relief. She put down her knife and carried Bellemere into the darkness.
Luffy and Zoro followed, only to find that they had only walked a few steps before seeing many houses in the forest.
And these houses were very hidden. Each one was blocked by many trees. If you didn't look carefully, you would easily overlook them from a distance.
Luffy asked curiously, "Do all the people on this island live in the forest?"
They weren't far from the coast, so wasn't this kind of place too unsuitable for living?
"This is New Cocoyasi Village." Nojiko saw that the two of them genuinely didn't seem to know, and her suspicion lessened again. "Originally, Gato's thugs were going to occupy our village. Later, somehow Aunt Bellemere suddenly joined them and fought for a way for the village to live. We usually live in the forest, and when the Marines inspect, we move back to the old village."
She sighed, "Our village was forced to help Gato's group, although…"
As she said this, she felt a bit emotional. "After working for Gato and the others, the village conditions greatly improved. Although our former homes were occupied, if it could be compensated with money, it would be pretty good. If…"
She paused again as she said this. Zoro raised an eyebrow, "If?"
Nojiko turned her head and glanced at him in the darkness, saying somewhat powerlessly, "It would be even better if people didn't disappear from the village from time to time."
"Disappear?" Luffy asked, "Is someone kidnapping people?"
"No, it's because of… ghosts." Nojiko finally said it. "This island… has ghosts, man-eating ghosts."
"Where are they?!" Luffy immediately said, "We came this time precisely to beat all those ghosts away!"
"Isn't Bellemere also a ghost?" Zoro said indifferently. Nojiko immediately glared, "Aunt Bellemere was forced. She was turned into a ghost to protect us, and she didn't hurt us after becoming a ghost!"
Zoro said indifferently, "That's impossible. Ghosts definitely eat people. Don't think I haven't seen ghosts before."
"You think Bellemere doesn't eat people because she only doesn't eat people in front of you." Zoro thought of the ghosts he had seen before. Although he hadn't seen many, he understood them to some extent.
He hadn't seen a ghost like Bellemere who could still maintain her humanity, but after all, it was arranged by that Ghost King. Eating people was a ghost's physiological instinct, and the Ghost King had no reason to suppress this instinct of Bellemere.
"No! Aunt Bellemere is not the same as those ghosts!" Nojiko's eyes were red, and it looked like if Zoro said one more word, she would fight him to the death.
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Seeing her eyes, Zoro turned his head, "That's why I say women are troublesome."
Nojiko ignored Zoro anymore. She said to Luffy, "I don't know the ghosts' location either, but I'm sure those ghosts belong to the Gato group. Bellemere rarely talked to me about ghosts, but she became a ghost because of Gato. So there should be clues about the ghosts in the original village."
As she spoke, they had already reached the door of Nojiko's house.
Amidst three large trees stood a wooden house, neither too big nor too small. Nojiko opened the door.
"This is where Nami and I usually live. Nami is my sister, but she's not here now. Because she has excellent sailing abilities, Gato values Nami very much, so he often sends her out to sea to find a flower."
Nojiko placed Bellemere on the bed and was about to untie her ropes, but Zoro stopped her. "It's better for you not to move. Bellemere is in mortal danger at any time. Keeping her tied up, and even keeping her in a coma, is a good thing for both of you."
Nojiko frowned, "Why?"
Zoro actually didn't want to say a lot of things, but seeing Nojiko's worried eyes, he finally told her what had happened before.
Nojiko's pupils trembled. "Doesn't that mean… Bellemere is in mortal danger at any time?"
"Bellemere is still useful to the Ghost King, so she might not have any problems." Zoro said indifferently, "Alright, now you watch Bellemere here, and this guy and I are going to the original village to deal with that ghost. Oh, right, you have to keep Bellemere in a coma at all times. Ghosts have extremely strong self-healing abilities, so you can do whatever you want; this shouldn't be difficult, right?"
"..." Nojiko stared at the two of them blankly, her brain almost shut down.
"Can… can you really defeat them?"
"Yeah." Luffy turned around, adjusted his hat brim, "Of course, I can, because I'm the man who's going to be the Pirate King."
"Pirate King Roger defeated the strongest devil in history." Zoro clicked his tongue, "Don't tell me you can't even deal with this ghost."
"Strongest devil in history?" Luffy was a bit confused.
"What?!" Zoro was surprised. "You want to be the Pirate King, but you don't even know that Roger defeated Aatrox?!"
"Is Aatrox the strongest devil in history?" Luffy was indeed confused. "I heard there are eight of the most powerful devils!"
"This…" Zoro was stumped. He didn't know about the eight great devils, which was top-secret information. The lowest level of people who knew about the eight great devils would be the Seven Warlords. Although Zoro was Kenshin's disciple, Kenshin hadn't mentioned devils much to him.
So his understanding of devils was not much different from the general public in this world. However, seeing Luffy's expression, which didn't seem faked, Zoro couldn't help but frown.
If there really were eight great devils, how did this kid Luffy know about it?
Zoro had some doubts about Luffy's background, especially when he thought about Luffy using Conqueror's Haki before. He became even more curious.
The appearance of a Conqueror's Haki user in a small place like the East Blue was an extremely rare talent even on the Grand Line.
Zoro became even more interested in Luffy. He crossed his arms, leaned his head back, and as they walked out of the forest, he suddenly said, "Once I've dealt with those ghosts, sailing out with you wouldn't be impossible."
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