I apologize in advance for the short chapter.
Having finally caught up with Luffy, the group made their way down the street. As they did, they noticed that there were fewer and fewer people along the road, as if the area was avoided by the townsfolk.
"That's weird," Usopp muttered, looking around. "I-Is there something wrong with this place? Are there traps? Oh god, there're traps, aren't there!?"
"Calm down," Sanji said. "There aren't any traps."
"How do you know!?"
"I don't."
Usopp whimpered.
"This is it, isn't it?" Zoro asked, stopping in front of a small and filthy wooden shack. The others stopped too and saw the sign hanging on the door, reading THE TRADER.
"Must be," Sanji said with a shrug.
Luffy immediately strode forward and pushed open the door. "Hello?" he yelled. "We're looking for Nami—I mean, a princess!"
The others came in and Zoro smacked Luffy. "Be patient. We don't even know if this guy is here."
The single room held a wooden counter with a door behind it and two seats near the door. Luffy took a breath and yelled "Hello?" again.
This time, there was a click and a greasy-looking man rose up from behind the counter. He was balding, had an upturned nose, and wore an expensive suit.
"Hello, hello," he said smoothly. "How may I help you?"
"Are you the trader?" Sanji asked.
"I am indeed," the Trader confirmed. "You all seem a little young . . . but no matter. Are you here to buy or sell?"
"We don't wanna buy or sell anything," Luffy said. "We're looking for someone."
"A girl," Usopp added. "Uh, if she was here, it would've been about ten years ago . . . brown eyes, orange hair?"
The Trader frowned. "Oh come now, if she was here ten years ago, she's long gone."
"Obviously," Zoro snapped. "Just tell us if she was here."
The Trader sighed and took out a book from behind the counter. He opened it and started flipping through it—based on the flashes of photos, dates, and notes that the Strawhats saw, it was some kind of registration book.
"Is this her?" the Trader asked, flipping around the book and pointing to a picture of a young girl with orange hair and a pink dress. She looked frightened in the photograph.
Sanji took out his photo and compared it. "Yep, that's the one," he said. "Good to know she came through here."
"Hang on," Usopp muttered, peering at the notes next to the photo. "Why does it say 'Sold by Telly' and 'Bought by Rico'?"
The others leaned in, reading the notes. "Yeah, that's weird," Zoro said, looking at the Trader. "What's that about?"
The Trader looked surprised. "Isn't it obvious?"
"If it were, we wouldn't be asking, now would we?" Sanji said, irritated.
The Trader shrugged. "It means that this property—" he gestured to the photo. "—was sold to me by a man named Telly and bought from me by a man named Rico."
There was a moment of silence.
"Property?" Zoro asked at last.
The Trader seemed even more surprised. "Are you telling me that you didn't know what kind of place this was?"
"We were only told that you kept track of everyone who passed through," Sanji said, his voice trembling slightly with anger. "No one told us that you were running a slave trade."
"That's not my fault," the Trader said with a shrug. "I don't exactly advertise my business."
"What's a slave trade?" Luffy muttered to Usopp.
"It's where people are bought and sold to be used as slaves," Usopp whispered back. "As in they have to work for other people without getting paid and they're treated like trash most of the time."
Luffy frowned.
"What's behind that door?" Zoro asked, pointing to the door behind the counter.
"Hold on just one moment," the Trader snapped. "If you're not here to buy or sell, you'll have to leave."
"I don't take orders from you," Luffy said. He went behind the counter, pushing the Trader aside, and he pulled open the door to find a flight of stairs going down, apparently underground. The others followed and the Strawhats headed downstairs.