Five days flashed by.
After learning Yami's "past," the three girls' affection for him surged again. Karina's and Nami's rose less—both had already hit a cap back in the East Blue. Nami, especially, had long since decided to repay Yami for life.
The biggest jump came from the hardest "route" on the surface—Robin.
Yami hadn't used a damsel-rescue routine like letting CP9 nab Robin and then saving her, or milking the Navy and CP for favor. He just built a persona that made Robin feel she'd found a kindred spirit, truly acknowledge Yami, and start from "comrades" and "BOSS and secretary."
Once Robin was genuinely part of the crew, raising that affection would be easy.
As said before, Robin, Karina, and Nami are the same "type" of people. To win their loyalty and hearts, there's only one way—treat them with sincerity.
They grew up being betrayed and betraying to survive. No matter how strong you are, at most they'll bow to your power for a while. The moment they find a path out, they'll take it without hesitation.
So to conquer them, you boil the frog in warm water—let them learn who you are, put down their inner anxiety, and build trust and dependence. When their feelings pass a certain threshold, you won't need to ask; they'll step up on their own.
Nami and Karina were already like that.
Robin was almost there.
—
After obtaining the Momo-Momo Fruit, Yami finally slowed his sailing pace for good.
Ever since getting the Dark-Dark Fruit, he'd spent most of his time at sea: at first hunting the Door-Door and Gaze-Gaze Fruits; then the Barrier-Barrier and Flame-Flame; and finally the Momo-Momo.
He hardly even had time to play games with the three girls and build favor.
Now that the plan had reached a stopping point, he could finally enjoy a life at sea with company.
So Yami stopped fishing alone and went on the offensive.
First came daily training. While coaching carefully, he also asked them to wear the custom maid outfits only he got to see. That faint, teasing "welfare" kept him in high spirits every day.
Then came entertainment.
Yami didn't like poker. He carved a full mahjong set by hand and played on deck with the three girls—only to get cleaned out of a stack of pocket money.
Truth be told, he didn't care for gambling; he loved ball games.
Basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, billiards—Yami liked them all.
Unfortunately, the sloop was too small. Forget basketball, soccer, or tennis—he couldn't even lay out a volleyball court. With the islands they'd hit lacking materials, and important business always pressing, he hadn't even set up a billiards table.
So for now, he could only gamble a little with the girls to pass the time.
Once they reached Water 7, Yami was determined to commission a big ship and make life at sea far richer and more fun for him and the three girls.
And so the days slipped by, with Yami and the four of them playing mahjong.
When the calendar rolled into December of Sea Circle Year 1515, their sloop finally reached Sandy Island.
"Woaah… a super-sized island. It's enormous!"
"Is this really an island and not a whole continent?"
Even from far off, the island's silhouette loomed huge. Nami and Karina couldn't help exclaiming. Robin's eyes, meanwhile, were full of anticipation.
At last—they'd made it. She hoped that Poneglyph would record the Void Century.
Once the sloop neared Sandy Island, Yami took the helm and steered into the port of Nanohana.
The Alabasta Kingdom has six cities: the capital Alubarna, the trade hub Yuba, the "City of Dreams" Rainbase, the port city Nanohana, the oasis city Erumalu, and Katorea, future base of the rebels.
The capital, Alubarna, sits inland. To reach it you have to cross a vast stretch of desert. Most outsiders first dock at the port city, then rent camels and buy fresh water before setting out across the Sandora River to Alubarna on the right bank—or to Yuba and Rainbase on the left.
Yami's group was no different.
After mooring, the first thing he did was take the three to buy cloaks.
Alabasta is also called the Desert Kingdom. Outside the six cities, it's all desert—blistering by day, bone-cold by night.
Yami didn't care about his own complexion, but he definitely wasn't going to let the girls get sun-browned. Healthy as a sun-kissed tone might be, he preferred skin fair as jade.
A side note: in the anime, Robin is depicted with tanned skin. In the original work, she isn't—her skin is fair. That mistake wasn't corrected until the post–timeskip arc; even flashbacks like Skypiea show her fair as jade. In reality here, Robin matches the original setting: fair from start to finish.
With cloaks bought, the four of them put them on at once, then went to rent camels and purchase water.
On the streets, cloaked figures were everywhere—even many locals.
Because Yami was splitting his focus to use farsight, he didn't notice that as he led the three through the crowd, a certain gaze fell on them from a shop—more precisely, on Robin as she chatted with Karina.
If Yami had Observation Haki, he would have sensed a flicker of hostility in that instant.
Follow that gaze and you'd find a tobacco-and-liquor shop where a tall figure in a cloak sat. From the wide sleeve of the cloak, a glint of gold showed—like gold hidden at the cuff.