"All right! Don't think about it!" Gabi said with a bitter smile.
He couldn't shake off the memory of the overwhelming pressure he'd felt when speaking to Ayanami Kaito earlier. That suffocating aura had pressed down on him like a mountain, stealing the breath from his lungs and freezing him in place. His instincts had screamed at him with maddening intensity—don't provoke him, don't seek death!
"What do you mean, we're just giving up? That's a hundred million Berries!" the bald man snapped, frustration dripping from his voice. "If we pulled this job off, we could rest for at least a month!"
Gabi's eyes swept across the gathered bounty hunters, their faces filled with greed and expectation. He exhaled deeply, repeating Kaito's words to them.
"It's not that I don't want to take this job," he said helplessly, "but that man already knows exactly what we're planning."
The bald man frowned. "So what? If he knows, and still came here alone, isn't he just seeking for trouble?"
"Do you really think someone like that is a fool?" Gabi asked sharply. His tone turned grim as he continued, "He came here because he's absolutely certain he can deal with every single one of us. Honestly… I think he's just waiting for us to make the first move—so he'll have an excuse to wipe this place out."
The room fell silent. Faces paled as his words sank in.
"H-He wouldn't do that… would he?" the bald man muttered, unease flickering across his expression.
"What do you think?" Gabi shot back. "He's a pirate with a hundred million on his head. You think someone like that got famous by being merciful?" He shook his head. "Do what you want—but I'm out. I'll hand him the record pointer for Alabasta, and pray he leaves town quickly."
Without another word, Gabi turned and hurried out, leaving the rest of the bounty hunters exchanging nervous, silent looks.
---
Later, under the hot afternoon sun, Gabi jogged down a dusty street, clutching a glass sphere in both hands. He found Ayanami Kaito standing calmly near the port, his expression unreadable.
"Sir! This is the record pointer you wanted!" Gabi said breathlessly, wiping the sweat from his brow as he offered it.
Kaito accepted it with a nod, examining the device closely. Inside the transparent sphere, a compass-like needle floated, constantly pointing in one direction no matter how he turned it.
The record pointer—essential for navigation across the Grand Line. On Earth's unpredictable seas, the magnetic forces, currents, and wind patterns of each island were wildly different, rendering normal compasses useless. This special pointer stored magnetic signatures, allowing travelers to safely move between islands. Without it, one would simply vanish into the endless waves.
"This pointer records four islands," Gabi explained quickly. "We're here now, and the other three are Little Garden, Drum Island, and Alabasta. You can reach them in sequence."
"Understood," Kaito said simply.
In a single smooth motion, he flicked his wrist—and a thin black needle appeared between his fingers. With barely a sound, he sent it flying into the distance.
It vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Sir? What was that?" Gabi asked, confused.
"You'll understand soon enough." Kaito gave a faint, meaningful smile, patting Gabi's shoulder before his body lifted gracefully from the ground.
Within moments, he soared high into the sky, heading toward the direction the pointer indicated.
Gabi stood frozen, his mouth slightly open as he watched Kaito disappear into the clouds.
He'd heard stories from sailors and bounty hunters returning from the Grand Line—tales of people who could fly using extraordinary martial arts or secret techniques like the Navy's "Moonwalk." To see it with his own eyes, however, was something else entirely.
Only a true monster could move like that.
He gulped, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple. Someone who could casually defy gravity like that was the kind of person whose bounty wouldn't be less than five hundred million. A walking disaster.
"Thank goodness I didn't listen to Baldy," he whispered. "If we'd tried anything, this entire town would've been wiped out."
---
"Mayor Gabi! Mayor Gabi!" A panicked shout tore through the air. A young bounty hunter stumbled toward him, pale as a sheet. "Something terrible happened! Baldy—he's dead!"
Gabi froze, eyes narrowing. "What?"
"He just dropped dead! He was fine a moment ago!"
A chill crawled down Gabi's spine. A black needle… The memory flashed in his mind like lightning. He didn't wait for another word and sprinted toward the bounty hunters' base.
Inside, chaos filled the small wooden building. Several men stood around a chair, faces ashen.
"Lord Gabi!" one of them cried. "Baldy was sitting here just now, and he suddenly collapsed! There's a tiny wound—like he was pierced by a needle or something!"
Gabi stepped forward silently. His eyes locked on the dead man's head. A tiny, clean hole marred the center of his forehead. Turning it slightly, he saw a matching exit wound in the back.
"Where exactly was he sitting?" Gabi demanded.
"Here," one of the men said, pointing at the chair.
Gabi's gaze traced the line of trajectory toward the far wall—and his stomach dropped. There, glinting faintly in the dim light, was a thin black needle embedded in the plaster, a faint smear of blood on its tip.
He carefully pulled it out, his hands trembling. The metal felt unnaturally cold.
"It really was him…" he whispered, his voice barely audible. His face drained of color as his heart pounded violently in his chest. "So this is what that man meant."
---
The death of the bald man was little more than a passing thought to Ayanami Kaito. By the time word spread through the town, he was already far away, cutting across the twilight sky like a streak of black lightning.
To him, those bounty hunters were nothing more than insects—barely worth remembering.
With the record pointer secured, Kaito's journey was swift. What would take ordinary travelers days or even weeks, he crossed in mere hours.
His destination loomed ahead: Alabasta, one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms on the Grand Line. The capital, Alubarna, housed over sixty thousand soldiers—without even counting its civilians.
As Kaito descended, the last rays of the sun painted the land in molten gold. Endless dunes stretched to the horizon, the desert shimmering like an ocean of fire.
"Damn, it's hot," Kaito murmured.
He adjusted his flight path toward the heart of the kingdom. There, he was certain, he'd find not only the record pointer's next destination but perhaps something even more valuable—the eternal pointer, a permanent navigator's tool.
Soon, this land would face the chaos brought by Monkey D. Luffy and his crew. The droughts, the rebellion, and the shadow puppeteer behind it all—Crocodile, one of the Warlords of the Sea.
---