"No way. I'm sure this direction is right. Why haven't I found it yet?"
Days later, a skiff drifted on the sea.
Able to go days without food or water, Yami held an East Blue chart he'd bought in Loguetown in one hand and, in the other, a compass whose needle he spun, grumbling, "The Grand Line is better. Wherever you go, a Log Pose or an Eternal Pose settles it."
From that one complaint it was clear Yami was lost.
It was only natural.
On the boundless ocean, a single wave or a shift of wind could send even a crew astray.
What makes the Grand Line frightening is its fickle weather.
Without a Log Pose, or without watching its changes, you could sail a whole day and end up circling in place.
Keep your eyes on the Log Pose and advance as it points and, so long as you don't sink en route, you will reach the next island.
So for Yami, sailing the Grand Line was easier than the Four Seas.
The Four Seas are too vast.
The Grand Line is just one route caught between the Blues and the Calm Belt.
The Four Seas cover most of the planet's waters.
Likewise, they hold the most islands and member nations.
Without an Eternal Pose, finding a specific island in one of the four largest seas takes more than a map. It takes real seamanship.
Born in a modern city and rarely ever on a boat, Yami had no seamanship.
Once he'd mastered his new body, he rushed straight into the Grand Line.
He learned to read a compass from a clerk at a nautical shop.
Only now did he feel how vital a navigator is, and his resolve to form a crew grew firmer.
Heaven seemed to hear him.
As Yami scratched his head and prepared to find an island to recruit a temporary navigator,
a skiff roughly the same size as his own, but with one more sail panel than his, glided toward him from ahead.
Two skiffs meeting on the open sea was no less unlikely than Yami casually hunting a pirate crew and finding the Logia Dark-Dark Fruit in a random chest.
Seeing the skiff ahead, both Yami and the people aboard it blinked in surprise.
He had been using the thousand-mile eye to search for that island and truly hadn't noticed a boat in front of him.
Before the god's-eye view, a skiff was as small as an ant on the ground.
As the boats brushed past, each side saw the other clearly.
Yami was surprised to find only two girls aboard.
They looked about the same age, thirteen or fourteen by their builds and faces.
Their hair colors were different, one short orange, one short purple, and their eyes brown and blue.
They were also eyeing Yami.
Look closely and you'd see wariness in their expressions.
Judging by their look, if not for the wind pushing them along or for fear that changing course would draw Yami's attention, they would never have let the skiffs pass so near.
Yami also noticed their nerves and felt a trace of approval.
No wonder such young girls had made it to sea together; that level of caution deserved praise.
He glanced at the bulging burlap sack behind them, the very reason for their vigilance. Even without x-ray sight, he could tell what it held.
Treasure, and not a little of it.
Few could see such a sack and feel no greed.
Yami was one of the few.
As a transmigrator and a strong man, he had countless ways to get rich overnight.
The simplest was to go to Sky Island, find the City of Gold, then sell it to the Golden Emperor; Yami could pocket hundreds of millions at once.
More extreme would be using the Door-Door Fruit to slip into royal vaults and steal.
So he gave the bag a single look and looked away.
Yet before looking away, he studied the two again.
For some reason they felt oddly familiar.
Watching his skiff recede, the two girls breathed out in unison.
The purple-haired girl muttered, "A face I've never seen. Has another strong one shown up in the East Blue?"
"A strong one?"
Hearing her partner, the orange-haired girl asked curiously, "Carina, how do you know he's strong?"
"Ufufufu. Nami, your powers of observation need work, or you'll get burned."
Carina let out her peculiar laugh, teased without malice, then shared her hard-won experience.
She pulled a chart from her bodice, pointed to a spot, and said slowly, "We're in a stretch of sea ringed by uninhabited isles. The nearest town, at my skiff's speed, is at least two or three days away."
"My skiff has a sail. His skiff doesn't."
"But did you notice there was nothing on his skiff at all?"
"One man sailing this expanse with no fresh water and no food, showing no surprise at meeting us and not even calling out, clearly in good shape and not a castaway needing rescue."
"If I'm not mistaken, he had a chart and a compass in hand, which says his navigation isn't that great. He's either hunting an island in this sea or heading to another."
"Either way, it means he can survive here without relying on a big ship or top-tier navigation. That's a strong man's confidence."
"Ama… amazing."
Nami stared, once more feeling the suffocating crush of her partner's brains.
Since meeting, she'd gotten used to being carried along and had learned from Carina.
But even so, the gap was still this wide.
She had watched the man too and only noticed that he was handsome, while Carina had seen all that.
What a fox she was, with eyes that sharp and a mind that quick.
No wonder Nami could never beat her.
"Ufufufu. There's a lot to learn. Do your best."
Satisfied with Nami's expression, Carina smiled in triumph and encouraged her.
Then Carina drew in her smile and said, face serious, "That strong one was a wake-up call."
"Compared to a sailing ship, a skiff sits too low. Without a spyglass always scanning around, I only spotted another skiff when it was close."
"There's no cover on a skiff. My sack of treasure is far too conspicuous."
"Good thing that strong one had no ill will. Otherwise I'd at best have lost the sack and at worst ended up a corpse in the sea."
Nami's face went pale, her eyes full of aftershock.
Habit made her ask, "So what do we do now?"
Carina studied the chart, then pointed. "We head to an uninhabited island and split the haul, then I'll hide my share alone. When we have a big ship someday, we come back and dig it up."
"Right."
Nami nodded and trimmed the sail with fresh resolve.
After Carina's analysis, a sense of crisis churned in her chest.
Only by hiding the treasure would she feel at ease.