A figure strode slowly out of the settling crater.
"Man... that really was a long nap..."
Short golden hair, bright and spirited eyes, and a gentle, disarming smile.
It was none other than Sabo, propelled across the seas by Kuma's ability!
Sabo blinked groggily, surveying his surroundings in mild confusion. "Where in the world... is this?!"
Stretching limbs that had remained motionless for nearly an entire day, Sabo let out a wide yawn and stepped out of the swirling dust.
"Hey there!"
In a nearby corner, a small head bobbed in and out of hiding. Sabo immediately stepped forward to offer a friendly greeting.
The first order of business after landfall was naturally determining his exact coordinates.
"Little guy, could you tell me where we are?" Sabo asked, closing the distance toward the child.
Huddled in that corner was a boy of roughly seven or eight. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, seeing the child stirred an uncanny sense of familiarity within Sabo's chest.
Instinctively, his demeanor softened into genuine warmth.
Seeing that Sabo bore no ill intent, the little boy mustered his courage and stepped out into the open.
"Who... who are you? How did you fall out of the sky?" the boy asked, steeling his nerve.
"Me?" Sabo began, only for his pupils to contract sharply mid-sentence.
Looking up, he caught sight of the boundless expanse of dark mist churning across the heavens, relentlessly blotting out the sky.
So that's the thing... Sabo murmured under his breath.
"What?" the boy asked, looking at him in confusion.
"Hahaha... Nothing. My name is Sabo! You can just call me Sabo." He knelt down to eye level with the child. "What's your name, little guy?"
He finally realized why the boy felt so familiar—his aura bore an uncanny resemblance to Luffy when he was small!
The sight of the boy dredged up memories long buried beneath the dust of time, memories that remained the most precious treasures of his entire life.
Missing out on growing up and adventuring alongside Luffy and the others had always been his deepest, enduring regret.
"I'm Einosuke. Big brother, you can just call me Suke..." The boy lowered his head, suddenly overcome with shy embarrassment.
"Alright, Suke it is. Tell me, Suke, do you know what this town is called?" Sabo asked.
"This is Loguetown—the town called the Beginning and the End," Suke answered.
Suddenly, the boy snapped his head up, summoning every ounce of courage within his small frame. "Big Brother Sabo! Could... could I ask you for a favor?"
Sabo paused for a moment before a warm smile spread across his lips. Big brother... How deeply he missed being called that!
Luffy was never one to throw the title of "brother" around lightly, yet in their hearts, Luffy would always be their beloved little brother.
And they were the elder brothers whom Luffy had spent his childhood striving desperately to catch up to.
That bond would never change!
"Whatever it is, just say the word," Sabo chuckled. At the same time, a trace of bewilderment tugged at his thoughts. Loguetown!
He was intimately familiar with the name. Back in his East Blue days, he had yearned so fiercely to set sail alone.
His very first objective had been entering the Grand Line!
And the gateway to the Grand Line was precisely this town of beginnings and endings: Loguetown!
What baffled him was that from their headquarters, reaching this destination meant traversing nearly the entire length of the East Blue. Across such a staggering distance, Kuma's calculations shouldn't have launched him this far out.
To think I'd land all the way out here!
Still, it works out fine!
The root of this local chaos might as well be severed right here.
"What's wrong? Where are you taking me?"
Suke had suddenly seized Sabo's hand, sprinting at full tilt down an alleyway.
"Big Brother Sabo, you fell from the sky like a superhero! Can you help us defeat the bad guys?"
Before long, they arrived at a broad thoroughfare.
Suke pointed across the street toward an assembled mob, shouting, "It's them! It's those bastards! Ever since they showed up, our town has turned into this..."
Across the cobblestones stood a motley crew of armed thugs, clad in bizarre, ragged attire, eyeing Suke and Sabo with mocking amusement.
"Suke, who are these guys? Are you saying..." Sabo swept his gaze across the street, and everything fell into place instantly.
Crumbling, vandalized storefronts, the foul stench of smoke and decay hanging heavy in the air, cracked cobblestones, and the faint, muffled weeping of women and children echoing from the shadows...
It was the textbook aftermath of a fallen perimeter, a tragedy carved out by unrestrained lawlessness.
To the former Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, scenes like this were all too familiar from the battlefields he had traversed across the globe.
Evidently, this town had just weathered a horrific disaster beyond ordinary comprehension!
"Oi! Isn't that brat Suke over there? How did that meteor falling from the sky not crush your little skull? You've got nine lives, kid!"
"Don't bother thinking about that stubborn little brother of yours, though—we're not letting him off the hook."
"BWAHAHAHA...!"
The cutthroats across the street roared with mocking laughter.
"You bastards!" Suke's face flushed with fury, his small eyes glaring murder at the mob as his frail shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
A steady, heavy palm settled gently upon his shoulder. Looking up, Suke was met with Sabo's radiant, sunlit smile, instantly chasing away the biting chill of the street.
"So you have a little brother, Suke. That's wonderful..."
"Is he in danger right now?"
Trembling slightly, Suke looked into Sabo's eyes before nodding with fierce determination. "Yes!"
In a torrent of frantic words, he spilled everything.
Sabo's smile was the kind of warmth that, once experienced, etched itself permanently into the soul, impossible to ever forget.
Though they had just met, Suke trusted him implicitly. There was no complex reason—pure instinct!
During the recent riots, the boy had lost his parents, leaving only him and his younger brother to scavenge the streets.
Moments ago, his brother had crossed these thugs and been dragged away.
They had declared they would execute the child in the town square today!
"Listen to me, Suke. As an older brother, you must possess the strength to protect your little brother! And if you don't have it, you fight with everything you have to obtain it!" Sabo spoke as he began striding forward into the street.
"This world is drowning in malice. The more you cower, the more you run away, the less likely you are to ever see the light—and the less capable you will be of shielding the people you care about most..."
"If you can't protect them, you don't deserve to call yourself a brother!"
Sabo's tone was heavy with absolute conviction. The scene before him resonated with vivid echoes of the past—how he and Ace had thrown their lives on the line to tear Luffy from the jaws of death back on Mt. Colubo.
It was then that they had understood Luffy's pure heart, cementing their bond as three brothers, before later crossing paths with Drake...
The past felt as vivid as yesterday. And now, he had finally returned to his homeland, the East Blue!
"Even so, you're still young. Everyone stumbles into overwhelming hardship... into moments of pure despair."
"Suke, remember this feeling forever. Remember this exact agony..."
"As for right now, leave this hellish mess to me. After this, grow strong!"
"Grow into a true older brother who can shield your little brother from anything!"
The moment the words left his lips, Sabo's body dissolved into a roaring blaze, hurtling straight into the heart of the mob like a living inferno.
Agonizing shrieks tore through the air in rapid succession as scorching flames swallowed the entire street.