As Carina and Nami headed to an uninhabited island to split the loot, Yami finally understood that familiar feeling.
"Hey… brat, did you see two girls pass that way?"
"Two of them—one with short orange hair, one with short purple hair."
"Spit it out, or I'll blast you to pieces!"
Yami's skiff was about to brush past a medium twin-masted sailboat.
Two rough-looking men at the rail shouted the questions, and another man rolled up a gun cart, aiming the cannon at Yami, his tone full of threat.
"I did. They were rowing a skiff, with a big sack stuffed full of things on board."
Yami pointed in the direction, answering very honestly.
"Make speed—catch them!"
At his words, the men brightened.
With a barked order, crewmen heaved out two giant oars to add power, driving the ship after Carina and Nami.
Watching the sailboat shrink in his eyes under wind and muscle both, Yami's lips curled. "So that's why it felt familiar—the movie plot."
He kept the thousand-mile eye locked on the ever-diminishing ship and focused on the burly man seated mid-deck.
A skiff's view is low; without the thousand-mile eye he would never have noticed that brute.
Seeing the brute told Yami exactly where the familiarity came from.
The man on the ship was Mad Treasure, a Chain-Chain Fruit user.
He was a treasure hunter who appeared in Film: Gold and the special Heart of Gold.
And those two girls were Nami and Carina.
Carina, likewise a key supporting heroine in Film: Gold, had a beautiful singing voice and a razor-sharp mind. Like the "Cat Burglar" Nami, people called her the "Phantom Thief" Carina.
"I was wracking my brains to find you, and here you come to me. I won't be shy, then."
Yami chuckled. "'Buy one, get one.' Today might be my lucky day."
He was in the East Blue not only to seek two Devil Fruits but also to recruit Nami.
After so long sailing alone—and now even getting lost—Yami knew how vital a top navigator was.
In this era, no one's gift for navigation surpassed Nami's.
So when he resolved to form a crew, the first recruit had to be Nami.
Thus, after scouting Enel and Wapol, he had come straight to the East Blue.
Searching for one person in the vast sea is a needle-in-a-haystack task.
Yami had thought finding Nami would be harder than finding that Devil Fruit.
Yet on the way to the fruit, the people he sought delivered themselves.
Buy one, get one.
Yami opened an air door, stepped into the other space, and used Moonwalk to chase after Mad Treasure and the others.
Soon he overtook Mad Treasure.
The man had apparently fixed Carina and Nami's position and was steering toward the uninhabited island where they were splitting the loot.
Yami didn't make a move to help Nami and Carina by removing Mad Treasure.
If he wanted to recruit the two, he needed Mad Treasure's assist.
So he quickly passed Mad Treasure and reached the island where Carina and Nami were dividing the haul.
Within the other space, Yami looked the two over again and liked what he saw more and more.
In his mind, plans turned for recruiting them and making them his right and left hands swiftly.
He wouldn't play a simple hero-saves-the-beauty.
A "yasashii" rescue only earns initial goodwill.
A coincidence that neat might even make them suspicious.
Even without suspicion, who knew how long he'd have to grind favor to win them over.
Yami didn't have the time or the mood to court them slowly.
If not a yasashii method, then another—one that made them recognize his position from the start.
He watched in silence as they hid the treasure and waited for Mad Treasure's arrival.
Soon, Carina and Nami finished stashing the loot and walked toward their skiff.
But when they reached the cove where the skiff was moored, they saw a familiar sailing ship and a gang disembarking.
"Not good!"
At the sight of the gang, both girls' faces changed sharply.
Worse, the gang spotted them at the same time.
"The Cat Burglar and the Phantom Thief—grab them!"
"You brats, hand back my treasure, now!"
…
The angry shouts, thick with killing intent, made the girls' bodies tremble.
They turned and ran without hesitation.
But in the midst of their growth spurts, they couldn't outrun grown men.
After fleeing into the rocky belt of the island, they were run down by Mad Treasure's men and thrown to the ground.
Mad Treasure arrived and, without ceremony, lashed them with iron chains, then bound them up.
Facing the treasure-hunter crew, Carina and Nami went pale.
Nami's eyes in particular filled with terror; her slender frame shook beyond her control.
For the first time since she put to sea she had truly stumbled—and for the first time since Arlong's pirates she felt the choking nearness of death again.
Mind blank, Nami didn't know what to do.
Unbidden, her thoughts flashed to Belle-mère and the villagers, and to the pact with Arlong.
She mustn't die, she could not die.
Beside her, Carina's face was just as white and fear clouded her eyes too.
But with strong nerves and a nimble mind, she quickly pressed the panic down and searched for a way to save herself.
Saving herself wasn't hard; saving her partner too and leaving both unharmed—that was the true difficulty.
Creak.
As Carina feigned calm and plotted a rescue, the sound of a door opening reached every ear.
On an uninhabited island, the sound of a door is unbelievable.
So Nami and Carina, stunned with fear, and Mad Treasure's gang, ready to torture them, all glanced in the direction of the sound by reflex.
There in the air not far away, a translucent white circular door appeared out of nothing.
When it swung open, a young man in a long black coat and trousers stepped slowly out of a green-tinted space.