"Treasure!!!"
Thanks to an inside man and Nami's uncanny treasure radar, Buggy's base in town was stripped clean in no time. Nami came away with a sack holding over six million berries, and a just-awakened Buggy nearly fainted again at the sight.
While Nami was happily counting her haul, Bai Ye reached out his infamously sinful hand.
"Much obliged, Miss Nami. To thank you for your contribution to this little operation…" he said, pausing theatrically as Nami's hopeful eyes widened. He fumbled in the sack for a moment, then pulled out a roll of bills.
"Let this ten thousand berries be your service fee."
"One ten-thousand Berries?!!!" Nami nearly lunged at him. This cat burglar had never been treated so insultingly. Between the four million they found aboard the ship and Buggy's loot, the score from this raid alone approached ten million Berries. If all of it were hers, she'd be well on her way to the hundred million she needed to free her village.
Nami knew, of course, that without Bai Ye and the others she would never have gotten a single Berry. Still—ten thousand? She blinked in disbelief.
"Is Miss Nami dissatisfied with the amount of money?" Bai Ye teased. "I'm surprised you're so scrupulous—refusing to give any reward to someone who didn't fight or even gather intel. Alright then…"
He made a move to take the pouch back.
"Don't be presumptuous!!!" Nami snapped, baring her teeth. Not even ten thousand—this man was a demon.
Bai Ye laughed. "I'm only kidding."
He took advantage of the moment. "Nami, why not join us? Be our navigator. Every haul of the Straw Hats score, you'll get your share."
"Who asked you?!" Nami rolled her eyes. "I already told you — I hate pirates!"
"You said you hate pirates," Bai Ye interrupted gently, "but we're not the kind you hate, are we? The sea is vast. Not every pirate is a monster."
He looked at her with a meaningful gaze. You who have seen the Marines' corruption should understand that. Nami felt a chill. How could he know about that? She pushed the thought away and assumed he was referring to the events at Shells Town.
"Even so…" she began, but Bai Ye cut in again.
"By the way," he said, lifting the sack, "Luffy already decided earlier to give half of Buggy's loot back to rebuild the town."
Luffy's impulsive generosity made sense—he was the kind to throw money away for what he thought was right. At the same time, Bai Ye knew this was a problem if they wanted to grow wealthy. Luffy would keep spending for noble reasons, so Bai Ye's job was to create income, to open up sources of wealth while the captain focused on the big heart things.
Nami wanted to object—until she remembered Luffy. Somehow, it felt reasonable.
And Bai Ye wasn't lying. In the original story, Luffy did donate half of Buggy's treasure to the town. But Bai Ye also remembered how that attitude had kept the Straw Hats perpetually broken. Now that he'd crossed over into this world, he wouldn't allow the same fate to repeat. He had plans to both let Luffy be generous and to make sure the crew actually kept and multiplied their money.
After the battle and the town's rebuilding decision, Shells Town staged a several-day festival to celebrate the Straw Hats. During that time Bai Ye completed the formal handover of Buggy and Alvida to the Marines from the 153rd garrison and collected Buggy's bounty: 15 million Berries. With that cash, plus the earlier 7 million he'd already taken, Buggy's remaining 5 million found aboard, and Nami's personal ~2 million, the crew's coffers swelled to nearly 30 million Berries.
In Bai Ye's head the math was simple: a soon-to-be crewmate's money is the crew's money. He also knew Nami had once saved almost a hundred million in her secret stash—money that, in canon, had been taken by the corrupt Marine colonel. Bai Ye would not allow that to happen here. If he could secure Nami's funds and keep the bounty flows steady, the Straw Hats' wealth would skyrocket.
If Nami could read his thoughts she would have screamed: Are you a demon, you bastard?!
A few days later, at Orange Town's harbor, Mayor Butler and his dog XiuXiu led the townspeople to the dock. They bowed low to the departing ship.
"Safe voyages to you! To Luffy and his companions!"
On deck, Luffy sat at the bow, gazing at the map Bai Ye had laid between them. "Wow—this must be the Grand Line chart!" he said, awed.
"It fits," Nami added. As a navigator she could spot the difference: East Blue had no fixed route like this. The map's lines were unlike anything carved into the local sea lanes.
"Yosh! With this, we can enter the Grand Line!" Luffy cheered, slapping his palm.
"We should have our own ship," Zoro said casually. He didn't care much, but if they were pirates he wanted a proper vessel.
"Of course! We're pirates—of course we need our own ship!" Luffy echoed, thrilled.
"No problem, Captain," Bai Ye said, smiling. "The place we're headed next has shipwrights. We'll get a proper pirate ship soon."
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