The three of them reached the captain's cabin.
Under the bed, Carina indeed found a smaller safe.
After forcing it open, a handful of dazzling gemstones came into Carina and Nami's view.
In addition, there were over a dozen gold bars and over a dozen stacks of ten-thousand-Beli notes.
"As expected, the valuable stuff is hidden here."
At the sight, Nami's blue eyes instantly turned into \$ signs, glittering with golden light.
Carina pinched her chin, estimating. "These gems and gold bars, plus what's in here, are worth at least around thirty million Beli."
"As much as thirty million?"
Karl couldn't help exclaiming. "Such weaklings, yet richer than some wanted pirates?"
"Either they were rich to begin with, or precisely because they're weak, they act cautiously," Carina said gravely. "If it's the latter, who knows how many innocent lives they've taken."
"Pirates are the biggest trash in the world," Nami agreed, her little face openly showing disgust and hatred for pirates.
"Hm?"
Carina glanced at Nami in surprise. Taking in the look on her face, she understood that Nami must also be one of the victims of the Great Pirate Era.
So Carina grabbed a handful of gems and stuffed them into Nami's hands, then gave her a few gold bars and several bundles of Beli.
Under Nami's gaze, Carina grinned. "I don't know why you went to sea so young, but sneaking aboard at such risk—you must really be short on money."
"Fine… consider it my cut."
Looking at the gentle smiles on Carina and Karl, Nami's eyes stung, but she forced back the urge to cry and put on a tough, tsundere face.
Karl and Carina only smiled without a word.
Once upon a time, they had walked the same way.
Unlike Nami, who had always survived on wits alone, Karl and Carina leaned on each other—brains to live when weak, force to live when strong.
Seeing their former selves in Nami, they didn't mind lending a hand.
Karl even made a decision in his heart: before leaving the East Blue, he'd pull this girl out of the dark if he could.
If they hadn't met her, Karl wouldn't have meddled.
But since they had, whether because she reflected their past or because of fondness from a former life, he didn't mind doing something that cost him little.
"You probably don't have a ship, right? Take this one."
Back on deck with the loot, Carina waved to Nami.
"Um…"
Just as the two were about to leave, Nami—who'd hesitated the whole way—suddenly mustered her courage and said nervously, "C-can I join you?"
"…"
Karl and Carina paused, exchanged a glance. Then Carina asked with interest, "Why do you want to join us?"
"I'm weak, and I hate pirates."
Nami laid out her value earnestly. "I'm a navigator. I've always used that skill to join pirate crews and then looked for a chance to steal their treasure. But I don't want that life anymore, so please let me join. I won't be a burden."
Karl and Carina fell silent again.
Seeing Carina's eyes turn to him once more, Karl gave a small nod for her to decide.
After their tacit, wordless exchange, Carina got her "answer." A bright smile bloomed on her cute face as she looked at Nami and asked, "Can you cook?"
"Eh?"
Nami blinked, then, seeing their smiles, nodded again and again. "Mm-mm… I can, I can."
"Then please take care of us from now on, Cat Burglar." Carina held out her hand.
"Thank you… thank you…"
Nami finally couldn't hold back and burst into tears, dropping the treasure and throwing herself into Carina's arms.
In that moment, she loathed how hostile she'd been a short while ago.
To bear malice toward a sisterly angel like this—how inhuman she'd been.
What she didn't know—
Carina wasn't some softhearted saint. If she hadn't seen their former selves in Nami, and if her sensitive heart hadn't faintly sensed the aura of desperation clinging to the girl, she wouldn't have agreed to let her join.
The Phantom Thief and the Cat Burglar, a pairing that joined hands in the original—now, they truly "joined hands."
You could only call it fate.
After their duo became a trio, Karl returned to the small single-cabin sloop.
"Carina, shouldn't we sail that ship in and sell it?"
Watching the pirate ship shrink in the distance and Nami take over the helm, he asked.
"Forget it. It wouldn't fetch much anyway."
Carina looked disdainful. "A ship that's housed that many people? I don't want it."
Then she said to Karl, "The rest is up to you, Sir Knight."
"Time for fireworks."
Karl quipped, biting into an apple from who-knows-where. Under Nami's gaze, he slowly raised his right hand.
Silvery light like fireflies appeared out of thin air, condensing in his palm into a long spear wrapped in white bandages.
With a flick, the silver-white spearhead peeked from the bandages and began to glow gold.
Like charging up, the golden light turned the spearhead brilliant, then flowed downward, turning the bandages and the shaft beneath them gold as well.
Karl shifted into a throwing stance.
With Observation Haki giving him a god's-eye view, he took aim at the pirate ship and hurled the glittering spear.
Swish—Boom!
A golden shooting star flashed and vanished.
A deafening explosion rolled from ahead.
An incomparable shockwave roared into a gale, nearly capsizing the little sloop.
Staring at the huge mushroom cloud rising over the sea, Nami clutched the helm, jaw dropping, eyes wide—her worldview utterly shattered.