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The atmosphere on the Dream Chaser had been suffocatingly heavy ever since Satori went missing. Nami, Sanji, Vivi, and Chopper moved like ghosts, their eyes constantly scanning the horizon for any sign of spiky black hair or a waving tail.
After Nami had personally scouted the currents, she managed to calculate a likely trajectory. However, every person on that ship knew the truth: finding one boy in the vast, churning maw of the Grand Line was a one-in-a-billion miracle. The complex magnetic fields and shifting tides made their search feel like trying to find a needle in an ocean-sized haystack.
The fear was unspoken but thick. What if he hadn't been swept away? What if something else had taken him? As the minutes turned into hours, Nami's anxiety reached a breaking point.
A Beacon of Hope
Just as despair began to set in, Vivi—who had been glued to the binoculars—let out a piercing cry. "Everyone! I see a ship over there!"
"A pirate ship? Marines?" Nami shouted, rushing to her side.
"No... it looks like a passenger ship!" Vivi replied, squinting through the lenses. In the Grand Line, passenger ships often maintained fixed routes between economic hubs.
Nami's mind raced. If Satori realized he was lost, he'd look for a ship. Any ship. It was a slim hope, a desperate gamble, but they had no other choice. "Sanji! Head toward that ship! Now!"
The Return of the Wayward Saiyan
Fortune, it seemed, was smiling on the crew. As they drew closer, Vivi's voice cracked with pure joy. "I see him! I see Satori! He's right there!!"
Minutes later, the Dream Chaser pulled alongside. Satori bid a cheerful farewell to Captain Steve and leapt back onto his home deck, followed closely by the freckled man in the cowboy hat.
"Nami! Sanji! Vivi! Chopper! I finally found you!" Satori beamed, his tail wagging with excitement.
The reactions were immediate:
Vivi was nearly moved to tears.
Chopper let out an excited "Quack!" of relief.
Sanji offered a cool, welcoming smile.
Nami, however, chose a different approach. Her relief was the greatest, but it manifested as a flurry of "loving" punches to Satori's head. "Where did you run off to?! Do you have any idea how worried we were?!"
"I just wanted to catch a fish!" Satori mumbled, rubbing his head. "Then the water went whoosh and I couldn't see you anymore."
The Secret of the Life Card
As the reunion settled, Ace, who had been leaning against the railing, decided to offer some veteran advice. "If you're afraid of your companions getting lost, there's a way to ensure you can always find each other."
He reached into his cowboy hat and pulled out a small, unassuming scrap of white paper.
The Vivre Card (Life Card): A special paper made in the New World. It is tied to the life force of its owner. No matter how far apart people are, a fragment of the card will always tilt and move in the direction of the person it belongs to.
Ace demonstrated by handing a small piece to Satori. Immediately, the paper in Satori's palm began to twitch and slide toward Ace.
"How amazing!" Nami's eyes practically turned into Berry symbols. "With this, we'd never lose Satori again! How do we make one?"
Ace laughed awkwardly, scratching his cheek. "Ah... about that. I just remembered. You can only get the materials and find the craftsmen to make these in the New World."
Nami's face went flat. "Are you kidding me?! We're barely at the start of the Grand Line!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Ace waved his hands. "I forgot for a second. But hey, if you make it to the New World, look me up. I'll help you get one made."
The Reveal
As Ace turned to look back at the passenger ship, his shirt shifted, revealing the massive purple-and-white tattoo on his back: a skull with a white mustache over a cross of bones.
Vivi's face turned deathly pale. She had spent two years in the underworld of Baroque Works, and she knew exactly what that mark meant.
"You... you're from the Whitebeard Pirates?!"