An island somewhere in the West Blue.
After finishing a full day of training, Yuri returned to town.
As he walked down the street, his eyes suddenly lit up as though he had spotted something.
Following his gaze, one could see a group of people making their way down the street.
They looked vicious and intimidating, and every one of them carried a weapon.
The townspeople hurriedly moved out of their way in fear.
Many of them whispered among themselves, saying that these people were pirates.
However, it wasn’t the fierce-looking pirates who caught Yuri’s attention.
It was a little girl among them whose hands had been tied behind her back.
She looked only eleven or twelve years old.
Although she was dressed in shabby clothes, her delicate and beautiful features were still clearly visible.
Her large eyes, in particular, were extremely striking.
She would undoubtedly grow into a breathtaking beauty in the future.
The moment Yuri saw the little girl, he strode into the middle of the street and blocked the group’s path.
“Brat, who the hell are you?
Got a death wish, standing in our way?”
“Do you even know who we are, kid?”
Seeing Yuri block their path, the pirates shouted angrily.
“Hey, you’re Nico Robin, right?
My name is Yuri, Gadile Yuri.
I’m looking for crewmates before I set sail.
Want to join my ship?” Yuri completely ignored the vicious pirates and simply smiled at the little girl.
Robin stared at him blankly after hearing his words.
Her large eyes were filled with surprise, shock, confusion, and even a faint trace of anticipation.
“Brat, are you looking down on me?
I’m Bruce Menka, a pirate with a bounty of nine million Berries!” The pirate leader flew into a rage when Yuri completely ignored him.
He wanted this brat to understand just how terrifying he was.
“Small fry don’t get to speak here.” Yuri grinned.
At the same time, he raised one hand and pinched a coin between his thumb and index finger, aiming it at Menka.
Just as Menka wondered what Yuri intended to do, sparks of electricity flickered across Yuri’s fingers and arm.
The next instant, an orange-red beam shot from his hand.
Menka didn’t even have time to react before the orange-red light struck him.
His body and those of several pirates behind him were pierced through almost simultaneously.
Menka looked down at the gaping hole in his chest, disbelief spreading across his face.
How could this be possible?
He was a pirate with a bounty of nine million Berries!
So fast…
Filled with unwillingness, Menka lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground.
“Someone’s been killed!”
The townspeople screamed in horror and fled in every direction.
The remaining members of the Menka Pirates broke out in cold sweat.
What the hell had that been?
A coin?
But how could it be so fast?
There had only been a flash of orange-red light, and their captain and several officers had been pierced through at the same time.
Was this brat a monster?
If he wasn’t, how could he possibly do something like that?
“Still not leaving?” Yuri asked with a smile.
As he spoke, he took out another coin and balanced it on his thumb.
With a light flick, the coin flew into the air, fell back down, then was flicked upward again…
Watching the coin rise and fall above Yuri’s hand, the pirates were drenched in cold sweat.
“If you’re still here in another moment, then you can all stay forever,” Yuri said.
“Run!”
The pirates could no longer suppress their fear.
They scattered in every direction and fled.
Yuri extended one hand.
Electric sparks flickered across his palm, and as they danced, streams of black material rose from the ground.
Yuri clenched his hand, and the black material formed into a long, humming blade.
The weapon vibrated continuously at an extremely high speed.
Holding the long blade, Yuri pointed it toward Robin.
Robin could clearly sense the terrifying sharpness of the weapon.
At the same time, she was astonished.
The blade was actually composed of a massive amount of iron sand.
As the iron sand vibrated at high speed, it was like an ultra-high-speed electric chainsaw.
Robin believed it could easily cut through any stone, perhaps even steel.
Naturally, cutting through her would be just as easy.
At that moment, Yuri swung the blade toward Robin.
Robin shut her eyes.
Just as she thought her body was about to be brutally sliced apart, the pain she expected never came.
After a long moment, she opened her eyes and discovered that the ropes binding her hands had somehow been severed.
So Yuri’s slash had only been meant to cut her free.
“What are you standing there for?
Come on.
I’m starving, and you must be hungry too.
Let’s get something to eat first.
We can talk afterward.” Yuri waved to Robin.
“Oh…
okay!”
Robin froze for a moment before following him.
…
“Go ahead and eat.
I’m not bragging, but I’m pretty good at cooking too.”
Yuri placed a generous spread of food on the table, said a few words to Robin, then immediately began devouring his meal.
He had spent the entire day training, and his stomach had been growling for quite some time.
“Mm, it’s delicious!”
Robin took a bite, and her eyes immediately lit up with delight.
As expected of a scholar, even though Robin was just as hungry, she still maintained an elegant manner while eating.
She was completely different from Yuri.
After finishing the meal, Robin became so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes open.
Today had truly been exhausting.
Three years ago, Robin’s homeland, Ohara, had been destroyed by the World Government’s Buster Call because its scholars had researched forbidden history.
After escaping, Robin wandered from place to place, taking whatever work she could find just to survive.
However, because of her identity and astonishing bounty, she had repeatedly been betrayed and abandoned by others.
To survive and evade the Marines’ pursuit, she eventually joined a pirate crew.
Unexpectedly, after the pirates recognized who she was, they secretly turned against her and captured her.
They planned to exchange her for the bounty.
After enduring so much, Robin had just eaten a satisfying meal, and for some reason, she suddenly felt safe.
For the first time in three years, she felt this peaceful.
As soon as her heart relaxed, she fell asleep.
Looking at the sleeping Robin, Yuri picked her up and carried her to the bed.
So soft.
So smooth.
He finally understood what people meant by a body being light and delicate.
Although Robin was currently nothing more than a skinny little girl, Yuri saw her as a future great beauty.
That was because Yuri was a transmigrator.
It had already been five years since Yuri arrived in this world.
The very year he transmigrated was the year Pirate King Roger was executed.
In his previous life, Yuri had been a university graduate who had only just entered society.
Things weren’t going well at work, so, feeling depressed, he invited a few friends out for drinks to vent his frustration.
He never expected to drink himself senseless and wake up in another world.
Gadile Yuri was the name of this body’s original owner.
Gadile Yuri had been an orphan who survived from childhood by stealing whatever he could, never knowing where his next meal would come from.
When Yuri first transmigrated, this body had only been eleven or twelve years old.
His transmigration hadn’t come with any cheat ability either.
Fortunately, he soon discovered that this body was already a Devil Fruit user.
Yuri’s ability was magnetism.
He had no idea whether it was the same Devil Fruit that Eustass Kid of the future Worst Generation would possess.
However, as a modern person who had consumed countless novels and anime, Yuri had a very different understanding of magnetism.
Whenever he thought of magnetism, one distinctive girl immediately appeared in his mind.
Misaka Mikoto.
And so, he began trying to develop his magnetic Devil Fruit by imitating Misaka Mikoto’s abilities.
After five years, he had successfully recreated most of her techniques.
Electromagnetic force, electromagnetic waves, the Railgun, the iron-sand sword, and even the electromagnetic giant from the third Railgun series had all been developed.
The only problem was that his physical strength was still insufficient to use the electromagnetic giant.
Of course, he couldn’t reproduce Mikoto’s purely electrical abilities, such as calling down lightning or firing spears of electricity.
His ability was magnetism, after all, not electrokinesis.
With the power of his magnetic Devil Fruit, Yuri had already gained considerable strength.
The only thing limiting his abilities was stamina.
Using these techniques consumed an enormous amount of both physical and mental energy.
As far as mental strength was concerned, Yuri didn’t need to worry much.
He was a transmigrator.
When he transmigrated, the soul of this body’s original owner hadn’t disappeared.
Instead, it fused with Yuri’s soul, causing his mental strength to skyrocket.
It was precisely thanks to this enormous increase in mental power that his Observation Haki awakened not long after his transmigration.
However, Yuri’s Observation Haki was more like a form of mental perception, making it even more useful than the Observation Haki possessed by ordinary pirates.
His physical strength, on the other hand, was lacking.
After all, this body had originally belonged to nothing more than an ordinary child.
That was why Yuri had focused heavily on training his body over the past few years.
Thanks to his relentless training, he had already achieved considerable results.
Although he was still far from the monsters roaming the seas, Yuri believed that, with his abilities, there was no one in the West Blue stronger than him.
Recently, Yuri had also been considering whether it was time to set sail.
How could he come to the world of One Piece and not venture out onto the seas?
But before officially setting sail, he needed to find a few trustworthy companions who also possessed some strength.
As a Devil Fruit user, he was naturally rejected by the sea itself.
Sailing was, in truth, a very dangerous thing for someone like him.
In the original story, many pirate crews might have appeared extremely united and loyal.
But pirates were still pirates.
The world of piracy was filled with deception and betrayal.
Most pirates went to sea for money, beautiful women, or simply the freedom to do whatever they pleased.
How could people driven by motives like that possibly be truly united and loyal?
That was why, before setting sail, Yuri first needed to find crewmates he could trust.
What Yuri hadn’t expected was that the moment he started thinking about crewmates, he would run into Robin.
Judging from Robin’s situation, she had clearly been betrayed by pirates who intended to exchange her for the bounty on her head.
So Yuri stepped forward without a second thought and saved her.