Singularity

Let's go back to the day before to explain the current situation.

"We're going to disguise ourselves and go on the island tomorrow."

Hancock had gathered her crew to give them instructions.

"Daisy, you'll be in charge of the disguises. We'll be using the male clothing you've been collecting from those we robbed."

"Awesome! I get to mess with everybody's faces!"

Daisy's big smile grew bigger as makeup brushes and other various items appeared in her hands.

"Wait, we're going to disguise as men? Can that even work?"

Elder Nyon asked.

"Daisy is skilled at makeup and stuff like that. She sometimes practices on the others all the time. She even stole clothes to use as practice. If you're not convinced of her skills, we'll use you as a practice dummy."

Hancock clapped and the girls held on to Granny.

"H-Hey! What are you doing?! Unhand me!"

"We're going to finally make some use of you."

Hancock smirked as Daisy slowly approached Elder Nyon.

"No, wait! Stay back! I would be ugly as an old man!"

"You're already ugly now. So what's the difference?"

"What did you say, little b—Hey, why are you taking my cloak off?! Stop, this is elder abuse!"

Chaos ensued as the girls changed Elder Nyon's appearance. After a while, she had been transformed into an old man.

"What did you do to me?!"

She screamed in horror as she looked in the mirror.

"I-It looks good on you, Granny. Y-You look just how I'd imagine."

Hancock was fighting to keep herself from laughing. Elder Nyon dejectedly fell to her knees and stared off into the distance.

"Now that you've seen Daisy's skill firsthand, let me continue to explain our plan."

Hancock put on a stoic expression.

"We will take half of the crew and use lifeboats to approach the island. The other half will take the ship and move away so it doesn't get found when they patrol the area."

She pointed at her sisters.

"Sandersonia and Mariegold will remain here on the ship to make sure everything is safe. We will keep you updated with a call at midnight every day. If we miss one-midnight call and still haven't called by the morning you guys are to invade the island with the intention of burning it to the ground."

"Yes, Sister."

Marie and Sonia nodded with serious expressions.

"Rindo, Daisy, Cosmo, Marguerite, Ran, Sweet Pea, and Aphelandra will follow me and Luffy to the island."

"I'm coming too!"

Elder Nyon sprung up.

"If we leave everything up to you we might end up fighting the entire island."

"Well, you already look the part, so why not? Besides, I can secretly ditch you on the island."

Hancock whispered the last part.

"What was that?"

"Anyway, our objective is to get supplies to last us until we reach Sabody. We also need to figure out where on the Calm Belt we are. With this in mind, we will spend days on this island."

"I want to know what's the deal with this island too. The government might be hiding something we can use to negotiate better conditions with them."

Elder Nyon added.

"All I care about is feeding Luffy so do what you want as long as it doesn't interfere with that."

Hancock was dismissive.

"We will go with the story we were on a cruise ship heading to Sabody but it was attacked by Dracule Mihawk."

"Mihawk? Where?!"

Luffy started looking around.

"He's not here, Luffy~. It's a lie."

"Oh, I see."

"Ahh~. It's adorable how clueless he can be sometimes~."

Hancock looked at Luffy with a flushed face for a while before pulling herself together.

"Ahem. Like I was saying, we'll use Hawkeye's name because of his infamous whimsical behavior. We will damage the lifeboats at a bit to make it look like we made a desperate escape. Rindo will then act as the former captain and do all the talk."

"Really? Sick!"

Rindo's eyes sparkled.

"Why Rindo, Snake Princess?"

Ran asked.

"That's because Rindo is very sociable and is able to talk herself out of trouble, as you should experience many times before."

Ran nodded.

"If there's any other reason, Luffy and I are too famous. We need someone to draw attention from us as much as possible. Especially, the women. We need the women to stay away from Luffy as much as possible."

Hancock looked at Luffy.

"Luffy, do you want a disguise too?"

"Sounds fun."

"That's good. I have the perfect disguise."

A small grin appeared on her face.

"One that will surely keep the girls away."

Present time. Caria was unknowingly leading the disguised Kuja Pirates deeper into the island while Rindo was talking to her.

(Our every move is being watched.)

Hancock thought while scanning the area with her eyes.

(I can sense a few strong presences.)

She looked at Caria's back.

(That girl is incredibly strong. Outside of Luffy and myself, there's no one in our crew who can beat her. She's pretty small though. I wonder what kind of fighting style she uses.)

She scanned the area again.

(There are two presences on the same level as her watching us in this town.)

She spread her senses a bit more.

"?!"

Her eyes widened.

"Luffy, the hills."

Luffy nodded to her whispers.

"There's a really strong guy up there."

Luffy's grin was unbecoming of the lady he was currently portraying as.

"Hey, don't you think that girl is a little ugly?"

"Yeah, especially when she's next to that tall handsome guy."

"Huh?"

Hancock's head spun around like an owl's as she looked behind her with bloodshot eyes.

"Ugly? Who dares to call my lover ugly?"

"Ekk!"

Her demonic expression, cold tone, and the inhumane way her head twisted around sent shivers down the women's spine.

"Was it you? Was it you, you hideous baboon-looking bit—Mhm!"

Elder Nyon jumped up and covered Hancock's mouth.

"Stop picking fights with an island of combatants!"

Hancock glared at the girls with crazed eyes as Elder Nyon had Luffy drag her away.

"Do you want us to all be killed?! We just got here!"

Elder Nyon scolded Hancock who melted in Luffy's arms.

"Don't bother me, Old man. Can't you see I'm in Heaven?"

Her body started to look like goo as if she actually melted.

"Hm? What's wrong, Luffy?"

She looked up when Luffy stopped walking. He was looking around with a troubled expression.

"W-What is this?"

"What are yo—"

Hancock swallowed her words. She stood up straight and looked around.

(What's going on here?)

"What's with you two?"

Elder Nyon was perplexed by their behavior.

"Are you guys coming?"

Caria stopped and called out to them.

"W-We're coming now! Come on, let's go!"

Elder Nyon spoke with a rough voice and started pushing Hancock and Luffy. They started walking but weren't even hiding the fact they were looking around as if searching for something.

"What's with you two? You're drawing unnecessary attention."

Elder Nyon whispered.

"I know you've gotten old, but I can't believe your Haki has diminished to such a pitiful level. How are you not sensing this anomaly?"

Hancock spat out while still looking around.

"Can't you just explain without disrespecting me?!"

"There's one big presence."

Luffy muttered.

"How big?"

"I don't know if big is the right word. I think it's more vast than anything."

Hancock added.

"I'm not getting what you're trying to say."

"What we're trying to say is there's a single presence covering this whole town."

Hancock shook her head.

"This whole island."

"Do you know where it's coming from?"

Hancock and Luffy nodded after some hesitation.

"That guy sitting on that stool over there."

"That old woman watering those flowers."

"That couple eating together."

"That teen watching us from the roof."

"That bartender preparing drinks."

The more Hancock and Luffy pointed out people the wider Elder Nyon's eyes became.

"What you're saying is....Wait, that doesn't make sense."

"It doesn't but it's happening right now."

Hancock's eyes narrowed.

"The countless people on this island share a singular presence as if they're all a part of a single entity."