"Is this the Grand Line?"
Carina glanced around, took something from her pocket, and said in surprise, "The compass really is dead. What a magical sea."
At that, Nami rolled up her sleeve, looked at the Log Pose on her wrist, and was equally surprised. "The needle moved. So this sea really does have a special magnetic field."
"In this sea, all sorts of impossible things happen."
Yami let the furled sails down. "Pick any heading and go. The needle will lead us to a starting island."
"Okay."
Nami nodded, then steered the ship ahead.
But not long after they left Twin Capes, the three received the Grand Line's baptism.
First a squall, then a blizzard, then blistering sun, then a thunderstorm… just as Yami had said, Carina and Nami experienced four seasons in rapid rotation the moment they entered the Grand Line.
Such capricious weather tormented Nami, a first-time helmswoman who hadn't yet adapted to the Grand Line's rhythm.
And Carina finally understood why this sea was called a pirates' graveyard.
It isn't the natives of the Grand Line that are terrifying. It's this ocean itself.
The baptism lasted three to four hours, leaving both Carina and Nami exhausted.
They had to go out just to shovel snow several times.
During all of it, Yami kept his hands off.
If he were alone, this baptism wouldn't matter at all.
Before it even began, he'd have opened a massive air door and hidden the ship in the pocket dimension.
Now that one person had become three, Yami didn't do that.
Without weathering wind and rain, you can't grow.
Nami has the talent to become the world's number one navigator. In the original story she was only eighteen, and a few months after entering the Grand Line she dared to head ten thousand meters up.
Besides that innate first-rate talent, she gained experience through adventure, far beyond anything from her East Blue days.
So this baptism truly was a baptism for Nami.
…
After it ended, the two girls who'd been busy for hours went to shower.
"Master, you aren't peeking at me bathing, are you?"
Carina, now in a classic maid outfit, had just come out of the cabin and saw Yami at the rail holding an OK sign to his eyes.
Knowing that gesture meant farsight and mind reading, Carina teased him.
"Relax. If I wanted to look, I'd go in openly."
Yami didn't lower his hands, eyes fixed on the sea ahead. "Too small for now."
"Ushishi… Master, what are you looking for?"
Carina let out her signature laugh and came to his side to ask.
She clearly didn't suspect he was peeking.
After this time together, Carina knew what kind of person Yami was and had fully accepted her role.
Just as Yami had said, if he wished he could have gone in openly, because he was the Master.
It was the kind of master–servant bond without a contract, where the master could control everything.
But Yami did no such thing, because the two girls really were too young.
In Carina's eyes, it wasn't just that she and Nami were too small. It was that Master was a man of rare character.
If he weren't, would he have turned back to rescue upon hearing Mad Treasure's target?
If he weren't, would he have gone hungry and still given food to his maids?
If he weren't, would he have so gently pulled Nami from her sea of suffering?
If he weren't, would he have told them the greatest secret that could shake the world right after meeting them?
Especially that last one. If it were her with mind reading, she couldn't trust a stranger that quickly.
Having witnessed Yami's strength and character, Carina accepted reality so fast and acknowledged Yami as Master.
In the few years she'd been at sea, Carina could carry Nami not just because of a nimble mind, but because she'd seen the world's darkness earlier than Nami.
A dark world not only forced a clever girl to grow up early, it made her understand how hard it is to find someone as good as Yami.
So after accepting her role, Carina decided to go on the offensive.
She would not be a mere ornament. She would be Yami's right hand.
Yami didn't know her resolve. If he had, he'd have laughed with satisfaction.
Hearing Carina's question, Yami didn't hide it. "I'm searching for a place. There's a Devil Fruit I want there."
Carina blinked, then her eyes widened in delayed shock. "M… Master, how far can your farsight reach?"
"Within a radius of four thousand kilometers," Yami said.
"Hiss…"
That number made Carina suck in a breath.
Anyone with a bit of common sense knows what four thousand kilometers means.
Not to mention being able to use both x-ray sight and mind reading within that range.
No wonder Master didn't land on Sixis Island. She'd thought farsight only covered a single island. She had underestimated him.
Add to that a Logia Dark-Dark Fruit that can seize other powers, and a Paramecia Door-Door Fruit that lets him walk the pocket dimension, and Carina seemed to see something.
Master's fruits all felt like broken-tier abilities.
With Master's power, if he wished, he wouldn't stop at just three fruits.
So Master intends to use many Devil Fruits to make himself an all-around, unsolvable existence.
…To use a suite of broken-tier Devil Fruits to become utterly unsolvable?
In that moment, Carina realized the truth.