Chapter 7: The Thief and an Acquaintance

When the sailboat docked, Link finally understood where this town's confidence came from.

On a flagpole in the harbor, a flag was hanging.

Link recognized the flag. It depicted a smiling skull with a slash through it.

This symbol was extremely famous in both the pirate world and the underworld.

Because it was the symbol of the Donquixote Family.

The head of this family was one of the Royal Seven Warlords of the Sea, "Heavenly Yaksha," the underworld broker Joker, a man whose influence spread across the world and who had connections in both the light and dark on this great sea—Donquixote Doflamingo.

Of course, the vast majority of people only knew Doflamingo as a Warlord and one of the kings of the underworld, but few knew that he was a former Celestial Dragon. Even though he was stripped of his status as a World Noble, he could still leverage the World Government's network. Even if he committed a heinous crime, he was an existence that could not be executed.

Furthermore, he had a very close cooperative relationship with one of the Four Emperors, "Beast" Kaido.

With such a network of connections, aside from a few superpowers, no one was willing to provoke the Donquixote Family.

The Donquixote Family was a very famous arms dealer in the underworld. They not only sold arms to war-torn countries but also to the World Government. When pirates and Marines ran out of munitions at sea, they also needed to purchase from the nearest black market. Therefore, the Donquixote Family was a very famous existence in both the first and second halves of the Grand Line, as well as in the Four Blues.

Pirates from the Four Blues, unless they were targeted by the Donquixote Family—which at best meant a sharp increase in the cost of buying weapons on the black market, and at worst meant being hunted by the Donquixote Family's assassin group—were completely unwilling to offend the Donquixote Family.

Therefore, these pirates naturally did not dare to cause trouble on this island.

After furling the sails and dropping anchor, Link and Nami disembarked from the ship.

As soon as they set foot on shore, the two of them attracted a lot of attention.

After all, it was common knowledge on the sea that the captain of a specially painted sailboat was either a person of status or wealthy.

So, the people on the docks subconsciously sized up Link, wanting to see if he was a "familiar face" from their memory.

And indeed, quite a few people recognized Link, and their expressions changed slightly.

Some pirates and informants, who were specifically left behind to watch the ships and gather intelligence, immediately and quietly left to report this discovery to their superiors.

Besides these people, there was a cloaked person who also recognized Link.

But the cloaked person's gaze did not linger on Link for long, shifting instead to Nami beside him.

If Link had mastered Observation Haki, or if his perception technique had reached a level where he could sense emotional changes, he would have discovered that this cloaked person's gaze held a hint of surprise and joy.

When Link and Nami left the docks and walked into the town's streets, this cloaked person also quietly tailed them from behind.

Link quickly discovered the "mouse" behind them, but he didn't pay it any mind.

This kind of petty thief was a common sight even in the East Blue.

As long as the other party didn't make a move, Link couldn't be bothered to act.

But clearly, this "mouse" was not honest, and also very unlucky.

The mouse suddenly accelerated, running towards Link and Nami.

Just as Link was forming a one-handed seal, preparing to create a wooden spike to pierce the person, his perception technique seemed to discover something, and Link suddenly stopped his actions.

The cloaked person quickly ran past Nami, "accidentally" bumping her shoulder in the process.

"Stop! Give me back my wallet!"

Having lost her balance, Nami did not panic. She reacted extremely quickly, grabbing the cloaked person and shouting angrily.

Nami was also an expert in this kind of brush-by theft.

In the original story, when she said goodbye to the villagers, Nami had simply run past them and stolen their wallets.

When the cloaked person bumped into her just now, Nami clearly felt the wallet in her pocket disappear.

"Ushishi... It's been a few years, you've grown up quite a bit, little cat burglar."

The captured cloaked person did not struggle desperately, but let out a unique laugh in a pleasant girlish voice.

Hearing this strange yet familiar unique laugh, Nami's delicate body trembled. Memories uncontrollably flashed through her mind, and she stammered, "You... you are..."

The cloaked person turned around, took off the hood to reveal a head of beautiful long purple hair and a beautiful face with delicate features, and grinned at Nami, "Ushishi... Long time no see, Nami."

Looking at the fully matured face, Nami's beautiful eyes widened, "Carina, it's really you!"

After speaking, Nami, like a different person, had the look of surprise on her face instantly replaced by anger.

She pounced on Carina in front of her, her hands forcefully pinching the other's cheeks as she shouted, "You traitor, I've finally found you!"

"Huh?"

Carina looked at Nami in disbelief, then also angrily pinched Nami's cheeks back, shouting with a muffled voice, "Who... who are you calling a traitor?"

"Who else but you?"

Nami's voice was equally muffled. "Back then, you clearly promised me you would come back, but you never did... and you stole my share of the treasure!"

"Nonsense! If I had gone back, we both would have died! If I hadn't stolen your treasure and left a taunting note, making Mad Treasure think you were even more miserable, you wouldn't have had a sliver of hope to live," Carina said. "That was the only way we could both possibly survive."

Hearing this, Nami's movements paused slightly, and the grudge in her heart was instantly resolved.

It was just as she had thought, this vixen hadn't abandoned her!

Seeing Nami stunned, Carina couldn't help but break free from her hands, rubbing her reddened cheeks and rolling her eyes, "Besides, I was chased by Mad Treasure for a long time. I was almost caught once, so I had no choice but to flee to the Grand Line."

"Serves you right." Nami also rolled her eyes at Carina.

This action also allowed the former thief duo to bury the hatchet and become friends again.

"Nami, is this your friend?"

Link finally interjected.

Sizing up the purple-haired, blue-eyed beautiful girl in front of him, Link recognized her from the conversation the two girls just had.

Carina, a character who did not appear in the original story, was a songstress and phantom thief who appeared in "Film: Gold," and was Nami's partner when she was just starting out.

Through the plot of the movie and the performance in the flashbacks, Carina should have been Nami's "carry" back in the day.