Ch. 45 establishes Gin’s split loyalty across pages 3-19. Gin is the recipient of Sanji’s mercy (pages 3-4, 12-13), warns Luffy off the Grand Line (pages 7-8), keeps Krieg’s secret fear of the Grand Line (page 8), and yet returns to Krieg and guides Krieg’s flagship to the Baratie (page 19). The two loyalties — to Krieg as captain, to Sanji as life-saver — are now on a collision course.
Why this matters
The debt-of-gratitude moral axis is one of One Piece’s most-used character engines. Pirates who owe their lives are forever-obligated in the series’ moral grammar:
Tashigi to Zoro
Tama to Luffy
Boa Hancock to Luffy
Jinbei to Tiger
many more
Gin’s split-loyalty is the first on-page instance of the device — and Oda stages it as the chapter’s emotional engine. The Ch. 67-68 payoff (Gin self-poisons rather than gas Sanji) is one of the East-Blue arcs’ most memorable character beats.