"!"
Seeing Yami step out from the other space, Carina and Nami instantly recognized the strong man they had met at sea.
At the green backdrop behind him, Carina's eyes lit up.
This man was indeed an unknown East Blue powerhouse, a user of the sea's secret treasure like Mad Treasure.
If he was willing to help, she and Nami would both live.
"An ability user like Boss Treasure?!"
At the same time, several members of the treasure hunters recognized Yami.
Wasn't this the guy they had questioned and threatened with the cannon not long ago?
"Who is he?"
Noticing his men seemed to know the newcomer, Mad Treasure asked in a low voice.
Behind his sunglasses, his eyes were full of wariness as he looked at Yami.
That air door appearing out of nothing marked the man as his kind.
Facing one of his kind, Mad Treasure dared not take him lightly.
"Boss, he's the one I ran into just now."
The underling who had aimed the gun cart at Yami answered quickly.
The words made Mad Treasure's heart sink.
Bad news.
The men had threatened someone they did not understand, and now that someone had come after them. Clearly, an enemy.
Yami did not care what Mad Treasure thought.
Stepping out of the other space, he began to let his acting fly.
Looking at Carina and Nami sitting on the ground, their bodies bound in chains, he frowned and said to Mad Treasure's crew in a deep voice, "Just as I guessed, you really were hunting them."
"Judging by the way you talk, you don't know us."
Mad Treasure held back from striking at Yami. He had his reasons.
Ability users were rare in the East Blue. He had only heard of Buggy the Clown and Smoker.
It was his first time meeting one of his kind, with no experience fighting such, and he flinched by instinct.
He could not help it. The sight of Yami walking out of the other space made the ability look higher and grander than his own.
Yami ignored him and spoke coolly to Carina and Nami. "I can save you. From now on you will be my maids. Do you agree or not?"
"I agree, I agree."
Almost as his words fell, Carina nodded and answered for herself and Nami.
His timing was perfect. Carina had no time to enact the rescue method from the original tale.
Compared to their current plight, becoming maids was nothing.
If this man turned out to be bad, they could escape later.
Saving their lives came first.
"Damn it, don't look down on me."
Seeing Yami ignore him, the wary Mad Treasure could no longer bear it.
He stopped caring that the other's ability might be stronger.
A thick iron chain extended from his palm. He raised his arm and lashed at Yami.
Yami did not dodge. He let the chain strike him.
A wondrous scene.
The chain that struck Yami did not harm him. It snapped from a rebounding force.
"You have got to be kidding."
Carina and Nami, and the treasure hunters alike, stared, stunned.
Mad Treasure staggered back a few steps. Behind the shades, his eyes were aghast, his voice shaking. "Your ability… what kind of monster are you?"
Yami still had no interest in talking.
Black mist wrapped his palm into a black hand. He raised it toward Mad Treasure and barked, "Dark Water."
Invisible gravity, like a giant hand or a stretching chain, yanked Mad Treasure.
At such close range he flew to Yami before he could react.
Yami caught him and sealed his power.
As Mad Treasure came within reach, Yami's other fist drove out.
Boom.
Compared to Mad Treasure's burly frame, Yami's fist looked like a child's, yet it landed with a terrible thunder on Mad Treasure's body.
The force pierced through him and roared out his back as a gust.
Dust rose in a wave, swallowing the treasure hunters and the two girls behind.
When the dust cleared, Carina and the treasure hunters saw the ground underfoot covered in black mist.
Invisible gravity surged from it like countless unseen hands, dragging the treasure hunters down into the black.
In moments, the whole gang was swallowed.
"Gulp."
The sight made Carina and Nami swallow hard.
Seeing Mad Treasure lying there, chest caved in, unconscious and likely dead, their hearts pounded wildly.
What kind of terrifying strength did it take to do that to a man?
The man who was about to become their master was frightening.
"Liberation."
Yami drew all the black mist back, then released a vast black tornado that hurled the treasure hunters away.
Sucked into the black hole's space and then flung down from the sky, their fates were unknown.
After taking out the trash, Yami used Dark Water again and drew Carina and Nami in.
Crack.
With a light downward tap of his finger, Yami used an overwhelming Finger Pistol to snap the chains on the two girls.
"Come with me."
Freeing them, Yami grabbed Mad Treasure by the neck with one hand and dragged the body toward the sailing ship.
From start to finish he kept a cold, taciturn air.
The mysterious and mighty image left Carina and Nami too cowed to resist. They followed obediently.
Nami glanced at Carina, trying to speak with her eyes.
Carina only shrugged helplessly to say there was nothing she could do.
Before absolute power, all schemes are useless.
Compared to falling into Mad Treasure's hands, being Yami's maid was the best outcome.
In the worst case, if this master was a bad man and took interest in a minor's body, she would be one person's plaything, not a whole gang's.
This master was very handsome, exactly her type.
Even as a plaything, it did not seem like a loss.