Sailing was a very boring thing.
For the strong, it was tolerable—even relaxing at times.For the weak, however, every little change in the wind or waves made their hearts tighten and their nerves fray.
Because beneath the beautiful surface of the sea, deadly danger lurked everywhere.
Storms, whirlpools, hail, tsunamis, and other natural disasters…
These were far more terrifying than most of the strong men in the world. If your navigation skills weren't good enough to handle those crises, you would simply be buried beneath the sea.
That was why every proper ship had to have a doctor and a navigator.
Doctors and navigators were second only to the captain—almost on the same level as the vice-captain.
Take the original Straw Hat Pirates, for example.
Without Nami and Chopper, Luffy could never have become the "Fifth Emperor" in just over two years.
Without Nami, his reckless sense of adventure would have ended in disaster again and again.
Especially when Nami felt the wind—she could read weather changes hundreds of miles away.
It was almost more exaggerated than Enel's Observation Haki, amplified by his lightning.
Voyages were long and bumpy. El wasn't afraid of the creatures in the ocean—what he feared most was the ocean itself.
On the endless sea, even if nothing happened, the feeling of loneliness was magnified to its limit by the ice-cold water all around.
El's mental state wasn't at the level of "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk.
Even Mihawk, sailing alone, would get bored and sometimes chase down weak people who annoyed him just to pass the time.
After recruiting Carina and Nami, El truly understood the benefits of having a crew for the first time.
When they were bored, the three of them would sit by the small cabin window, watching the waves and playing cards to kill time.
When he was hungry, he no longer had to rely on his own crude cooking.Nami and Carina would prepare food for him.
Their cooking was simple and amateurish, but to El, it was delicious.
In this world, during his first five years, he had never eaten his fill.During his three years of training, all he ever had was plain roasted meat.
He had never tasted food like this in this life.
And at night, when he slept, he was no longer alone.
Yes, the trio slept together.
The small cabin sailboat they'd bought was a "luxury" model among small boats—it at least had an enclosed cabin, so they didn't have to sleep on open deck and could cook and wash inside.
But the cabin wasn't very spacious.
After dividing space for a kitchen, toilet, and a tiny sitting area, there was only one small bedroom left—and that alone was already a luxury.
The room was so cramped that there wasn't even space to lay out a futon on the floor.
Fortunately, the bed was wide enough for three children to squeeze in.
For Carina and Nami, who were only eight, and for El—who'd already lived two lives—it felt completely natural to share a bed.
The girls hadn't fully learned to think about such things yet, and even though El understood, his young body certainly didn't cooperate with any strange ideas.
And even if it did, there was no way he would act on them.
In this world or the previous one, that kind of thing would invite divine punishment.
With Nami's navigation skills and Carina's intelligence, all El had to do was give them authority and directions. The rest would sort itself out.
Under their guidance, the trio reached their first target island in just a few days.
Their first target was a crew ranked in the top three of East Blue for two years running, with a bounty of 14.5 million Belly, commanding over six hundred men and ruling a small town—
The Saw Blade Pirates.
Just like the Straw Hats, their name said it all.
From the name alone, it was obvious that the saw blade was the symbol of this pirate crew.
"The captain of the Saw Blade Pirates… they say that before he became a pirate, he was just an ordinary lumberjack," Carina read aloud from the ranking magazine.
"An employee of some landowner—nothing special. What was special was his physical strength. The reason he got his bounty in the first place is that he killed that landowner, slaughtered the whole family, stole their wealth, and used that to rise quickly. In just two years, he became one of the big pirates in the East Blue, breaking the ten-million Belly mark."
"His weapon is a huge, ridiculously oversized saw blade."
Carina's expression darkened slightly as she continued:
"Judging from the way he wiped out his employer's whole family, this guy's personality must be extremely cruel. There's no way he's even remotely 'good.'"
"What pirates are ever good?" Nami said coldly.
Carina glanced at her in surprise.
That tone… definitely hides a story.
"If that's the case," El said, tying his long silver hair back into a single ponytail with the band around his wrist, the corners of his lips lifting, "let's get rid of a menace for the people."
"Mm!"
Carina and Nami recalled the sight of El's flying slash splitting a ship and their eyes lit up like gold coins.
Belly, here we come.
"Nii-san, their crew has over six hundred people. Do you want to make a plan first?" Carina asked.
"No need to complicate it…"
El waved off the idea with total confidence.
"You two just follow me and enjoy the show."
When they landed and moved toward the center of the island, Carina and Nami quickly saw another side of El's power.
With his Observation Haki, it was like he had a third eye watching everything from the sky.
El had never been to this pirate-ruled island before. He hadn't asked around for information on the town or about the Saw Blade Pirates' base.
Yet, very quickly, he found a lone pirate.
Whoosh—bang!
Spotting the isolated pirate, El didn't even draw his sword.
Instead, he showed off a level of physical strength completely unnatural for a boy his age.
With a single thought, Life Return (Seimei Kikan) boosted his speed from zero to the max.
Carina and Nami only heard a sharp crack of air in their ears—by the time they registered the sound, El was already standing in front of the pirate.
With one punch, the pirate collapsed to his knees. El caught him by the neck with one hand.
In that split second, El secretly used his memory-reading ability—
taking the chance to skim through the man's memories and obtain all the information he needed about this pirate-controlled town.