Blueno, a member of CP9 and one of Spandam's plants in Water 7 to obtain the blueprints of Pluton, was different from Rob Lucci and the others who infiltrated the Galley-La Company as shipwrights. He didn't pose as a craftsman. He opened a bar in Water 7.
Disguised as an ordinary man, he could provide Lucci and the others a meeting place and use the Paramecia Door-Door Fruit to slip into an alternate space and gather intelligence on Water 7.
The most broken aspect of the Door-Door Fruit is that it can open doors in the air, letting the user and others enter another space.
Hidden in that other space, the user can ignore all detection and secretly monitor a target.
He can also bring an entire unit to raid the heart of any location.
A Devil Fruit like that is practically strategic-class.
Having eaten it, Blueno should have been cultivated as a key asset by the World Government.
Unfortunately, he had the misfortune of a pig-headed boss.
With no powerful backing yet holding such a formidable ability, he was precisely the kind of target a transmigrator who could seize Devil Fruit powers would set his sights on.
Blueno had no idea that darkness laden with the scent of death was closing over him.
It wasn't long before Yami found him.
Those horn-like double pigtails were simply too distinctive.
Yami didn't strike at once. It was daytime.
If he killed Blueno on the spot, he might draw the World Government's eye prematurely.
Until he had fully grown, Yami didn't want the all-pervasive CP organizations locking onto him.
So he decided to wait for nightfall.
When he moved, it had to be a one-strike kill.
Otherwise, if Blueno slipped into the other space and watched from there, the hunt would become troublesome.
Suppressing his killing intent, Yami bought some drinks from Blueno.
Next, following his map, Yami went to the largest nautical outfitter in Water 7.
As the name suggests, a nautical outfitter sells tools for navigation.
Charts and charting paper. Fresh-water makers. Log Poses that store magnetism and Eternal Poses that preserve it forever. Even fishing rods to pass the time at sea. Everything was available.
Yami chose the outfitter to buy an Eternal Pose.
On every prosperous island, he would visit the local nautical shop to check for Eternal Poses he needed.
On earlier islands he had only bought Eternal Poses for Water 7 and Arabasta, none for the New World.
This time, in Water 7's outfitter, he finally found the Eternal Pose he wanted.
Without another word, Yami paid.
Then he bought a rod and bait, and a small grill with barbecue tools.
With his purchases made, Yami rode his Yagara Bull out of the central streets to a deserted stretch of shore and began to fish.
Sailing alone on the sea is deeply lonely.
There's no one to talk to, and when a sailboat meets violent weather, you can feel helpless, even despair.
At first Yami found that feeling hard to bear.
He thought about recruiting crew, finding companions to drink and chat with.
But having become a monster, he knew the weak were unworthy of being his companions.
Take on strangers and one day they might stab you in the back.
Only characters who appeared in the original story, whose personalities he understood clearly, were fit to become his crew.
Now wasn't the time to seek them out.
So he endured solitude by training and by fishing.
Before eating a Devil Fruit, Yami liked to dive to train.
With a body impervious to blades and bullets and immense strength, he could plunge deep into the sea and hold his breath for a long time.
Even now as a land-bound "devil," he was confident that if he fell overboard, he wouldn't drown.
Like Charlotte Linlin, his body would enter a protective sleep until the currents carried him to an island.
The advantage of a monster.
Since he could no longer train in the sea, fishing became his pastime of choice.
This world's oceans teem with life far beyond his original world.
He never returned empty-handed, always hauling up fish of every size and kind.
His proudest catch was a sea beast as big as a small sailboat.
It tried to eat him. He killed it with a single punch and made it his dinner.
After his physique became monstrous, so did his appetite.
So when he fished, he ate as he went.
That was why he'd bought the grill and tools.
An angler's time should pass quickly.
In a blink, night came.
After eating a bit of "snack," Yami discarded the tools he'd just bought and rode his Yagara Bull back to the central streets.
He still didn't move immediately. First he found a restaurant for dinner, then headed to Blueno's Bar to let his acting skills soar.
He ordered a large amount of alcohol and curled up in a corner to drink himself into solitude.
At first he drank slowly. As time passed and more patrons left than entered, Yami switched to chugging.
Glass after glass, bottles soon crowded the table.
He himself slumped, reeking of drink.
To Blueno and the guests, such a customer was nothing unusual.
When the bar had thinned and at last emptied,
Blueno, tired from a day's work, ignored Yami at first and cleaned the bar.
Only when he finished did he walk over, give Yami a polite nudge, and say, "Sir, wake up. I'm closing for the night."
Soft words before hard measures.
If the man didn't wake, he'd toss the drunk into an alley.
Fortunately, this patron wasn't a puddle of mush.
"Mm..."
Yami mumbled, bowed his head, planted his hands on the table, and struggled to his feet.
Then he groped blindly toward Blueno and slurred, "Dizzy... hold me. I need to pay."
Seeing Yami's flushed face and shut eyes, swaying as he fumbled for money, Blueno felt no suspicion. He let the man's hand fall on him and kindly supported him.
The next instant, his eyes flew wide.
The drunken mask vanished as Yami snapped his eyes open.
In those deep black pupils there was no trace of inebriation, only a cutting sharpness that jolted Blueno's heart.
Bang—crack.
As Blueno reflexively tried to push him away, the hand on him suddenly unleashed a horrifying pull, freezing his body and erasing the Devil Fruit power within him.
At the same time, Yami drove a fist into Blueno's left chest.
The force caved his chest in.
The impact became an invisible gust that roared out behind Blueno, tearing his clothes and flipping the tables and chairs beyond.
Such was the power of Yami's punch.
Hit once, the terror in Blueno's eyes turned to whites. He collapsed against Yami.
Not fainted—dead on the spot.
Ribs shattered, heart blasted apart by that single blow.
If gravity hadn't pinned him, that punch would have hurled Blueno's corpse across the room.
"Looks like with my physique I've become a thousand-cup undrunk."
Hoisting Blueno's body, Yami glanced at the table and the floor littered with empties and muttered, "Good thing my acting's sharp and I stay cautious even after crossing over. Otherwise this wouldn't have gone so smoothly."
For over half a year in this world, Yami had spent most of his time getting used to the powers of his new body.
Only when he ran out of money for food did he hunt pirates.
When he hunted, he kept a low profile and cut the grass at the roots, leaving no survivors, man or woman.
Because in searching for the Dark-Dark Fruit, he needed to remain low-key.
Otherwise, if he exposed his strength, he wouldn't be able to join the Whitebeard Pirates later as Thatch's underling.
Thus, though he hunted pirates, his name never made the papers.
With no intel on Yami, no Observation Haki, and a disguise as a bar owner, Blueno falling to a sneak attack was only natural.
If a monster that cautious couldn't take down a small fry with a douriki under three hundred, that would be shameful indeed.