"White Flame!!!"
A tall, thin man waved frantically as he shouted across the rubble.
The surrounding citizens turned toward him, puzzled.
"White… Flame?"
"Who's that?"
But the man he called out to suddenly froze.
The cigarette between White Flame's fingers paused midair.
Slowly, he turned—his sharp eyes locking onto the stranger.
Someone… calling my name?
His brows furrowed.
No one should know that name.
Not Kyros, not Rebecca—they only ever called him "Benefactor."
To the world, he was the Man-Eating Monster, the Devil of Dressrosa.
People knew his face, his legend, his terror… but not his name.
Only he himself remembered White Flame.
Yet this stranger had spoken it perfectly.
"Little Black. Bring him here."
At the command, an invisible force lifted the thin man clean off the ground.
He yelped in surprise as he floated toward White Flame, feet dangling helplessly.
White Flame's gaze was cold and steady.
"Who are you?"
"And how do you know my name?"
"White Flame—! It's me!"
"I'm Da Niu! Don't you recognize me?"
The man's voice cracked with desperation.
"Da Niu…?"
The name rang hollow in White Flame's memory.
He had never seen this man before—
and the fragile, hollow-eyed figure before him hardly matched the image of someone called "Big Ox."
"White Flame, we grew up together!" Da Niu stammered.
"We were kids in Angel Town! We used to play every day—you, me, the others!"
"Don't tell me you've forgotten all of it!"
White Flame's eyes narrowed.
"Then tell me this—why are we here in Dressrosa?"
At that question, Da Niu's expression darkened.
His jaw clenched, hatred burning through his sorrow.
"Because of Kaido of the Beasts!"
His voice trembled with fury.
"One of the Four Emperors… Kaido?"
White Flame's tone was unreadable.
"How could a nameless little town have anything to do with a man like him?"
He knew Kaido well enough by reputation—
the beast who sought death yet could not die,
the creature called "the world's strongest living thing."
He attacked Marine fleets for sport, challenged the other Emperors on whims,
and had recently begun whispering of a war that would shake the world itself.
But Angel Town—a quiet, forgotten place on the map—
what could it possibly have to do with that monster?
"You really don't remember?" Da Niu's voice broke.
"It was one of his Disasters—Jack the Drought!"
He spat the name like poison.
"Jack came to our town saying the Beasts Pirates needed tribute—five hundred million Berries. He gave us three days."
"If we didn't pay, he'd wipe the town off the map."
Da Niu's hands shook as he spoke, every word dripping with grief.
"We begged. We sold everything—houses, land, heirlooms. The mayor even mortgaged his home. Somehow, we scraped together the money…"
"But Jack didn't care. He came back anyway."
"You stood up to him, White Flame!" Da Niu cried.
"You shouted at him—asked why he'd destroy us after we'd paid!"
His voice fell to a whisper, trembling.
"And do you remember what he said?"
White Flame's expression darkened.
"What did he say?"
Da Niu's face twisted with rage and grief.
His next words came out as a snarl:
"He said—'Destroy you—And what of it?'"
The crowd around them fell silent.
"That's what Jack said."
"He's a monster. A devil. He just wanted to kill, to break things. He never planned to let us live!"
Da Niu's voice cracked into sobs.
"He slaughtered the mayor, burned the town, even the children—four years old, some of them… they didn't spare anyone!"
Even Kyros's hardened eyes trembled at the story.
He knew that kind of despair—
the helplessness of watching your home destroyed by those who saw you as nothing.
It was the same nightmare Doflamingo had brought to Dressrosa.
"Destroy you—And what of it…"
White Flame repeated the words softly, the chill in his voice like winter steel.
Then his lips curved into something halfway between a smile and a snarl.
"Heh. Not a bad line."
He could almost understand it.
Power ruled the world.
The strong did what they wished.
The weak had no right to question, no right to speak.
When a fist could decide life and death—
what use were words, or justice?
"If I want to kill you, I kill you."
"If I want to burn your town to the ground, I do it."
"What business is it of yours?"
That was the language of this world.
And White Flame, more than anyone, understood it.
"Then tell me—how did we survive the Beasts Pirates?"
By now, White Flame was certain.
Angel Town wasn't a lie.
That was where he came from.
"It was Uncle Lonte," Da Niu whispered.
"He… he stayed behind. Held them off so the rest of us could escape."
Tears streamed down his face.
"Without him, none of us would've made it here."
"When we reached Dressrosa, you were half out of your mind. You stumbled into the streets and ran straight into the king—Doflamingo himself!"
"He threw you in prison. We searched everywhere, but you vanished. Everyone thought you were dead… even me."
He wiped his eyes, smiling through the tears.
"But then, I saw the wanted poster—'The Man-Eating Monster.'"
"No one believed me when I said it was you."
"But it was you. You destroyed the Donquixote Family—you, who survived Angel Town."
"White Flame… I can't believe I finally found you again!"
White Flame stood silent, processing the fragments of memory returning to him.
So that was his past.
Angel Town.
Kaido.
Jack.
A forgotten childhood, buried under endless years of violence and blood.
He finally understood where he'd come from—
and the name that had been burned into his soul.
"Kaido of the Beasts…"
"Jack the Drought…"
White Flame's eyes glinted like tempered steel, and a faint smile ghosted across his face.
"At last," he murmured, smoke curling from his lips,
"something in this endless life might actually be interesting
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