Storyline
Ten years ago in East Blue: The world aristocrat Saint Jalmack attacked Sabo’s ship with a bazooka because it was in his way. Sabo has a hard time controlling the fire on his ship. Saint Jalmack is told that there is only one child on the ship, but he does not care and fires another shot. Sabo’s ship goes down in flames, to the shock of Dogra, who has been watching everything with binoculars.
Dadan’s hut: Since neither Dadan nor Ace have been heard from since the fire and their chances were also poor, everyone is downhearted. But then the mountain bandits hear from one of their comrades that the two have returned. Everyone immediately rushes out of the cabin and sees Ace carrying the wounded Dadan on his back. Luffy can’t help but cry and has to hug Ace. The latter smacks his little brother upside the head and asks what there is to cry about since they are alive after all. The robbers ask Ace what happened. He tells them that they were able to defeat Bluejam and had to run through the fire, as it had already blocked all escape routes. This left Dadan injured and Ace supplied them with stolen medicine from the city.
Luffy wonders how Sabo is doing. He’s glad that at least Ace and Dadan are back. Meanwhile, Dadan inquires to Ace why he didn’t run away in Gray Terminal. Ace explains that sometimes he gets carried away and feels like he left something important behind. Ace guesses that because Luffy was behind him, he didn’t want to run away, thus protecting him. Dadan then recalls a conversation with Garp where he told her about Gold Roger never running away or retreating. Had he done so, his crew might have been in danger. He always protected his friends; that’s why he was said to have once defeated an entire country’s military just because one of them had spoken ill of his crew. Even Garp respected Gold Roger because of this, even though he was a pirate. That’s probably why he grants Roger his last wish and looks out for Ace.
In the evening, Dogra returns and is greeted by Luffy, who tells him of Ace’s and Dadan’s return. Dogra, however, can only half-heartedly rejoice and later tells what he saw. Ace can’t believe this and pushes Dogra to the ground, wanting him to stop lying. However, Dogra explains that he clearly saw Sabo, who must have run away from home again, designed his own pirate flag and sailed out to sea, but was shot down in the process. Everyone is very upset by Sabo’s sudden death. Ace immediately wants to take revenge on the one who killed his brother. However, Dadan throws Ace to the ground. She explains that this land, this world killed Sabo. If he is also killed now as a nameless child, he will soon be forgotten. Ace’s father changed the world with his death, but as Ace is now, his death would change nothing. To keep Ace from doing something stupid, Dadan has him tied to a tree. Luffy cries the entire night.
The next day, a letter is delivered from Sabo, sent before he left. Ace wants to read the letter immediately and promises not to run to town. In the letter, Sabo explains how much he cares for his brothers and that he wants to sail off as a pirate to escape the country. Since the brotherhood of three was Sabo’s greatest treasure, Sabo asks Ace to take good care of Luffy, the weakest of them. Ace, meanwhile, has gone to the shore and is venting his feelings. He weeps bitterly.
Over the next while, everything slowly returns to normal. Only Luffy is still dejected and lies motionless on the shore. Ace hits him on the head and asks how much longer he’s going to mope around. Ace explains that their treasure was stolen, by whom he doesn’t know, but he doesn’t care. Ace and Sabo had saved up the treasure for their pirate life. In the end, Sabo didn’t need it, which is why they should do as he did and just sail off when they’re ready. Luffy tearfully explains that he wants to get a lot stronger so he doesn’t lose anyone else. Luffy wants Ace to promise him not to die too. Ace thinks he’d better worry about himself because he’s much weaker. Still, Ace promises him, after all, he promised Sabo he’d take care of Luffy. Ace wants to live a life of freedom with no regrets with Luffy, instead of Sabo, who never really knew freedom. Since Sabo would have become a complete noble at 18, Sabo actually wanted to start his pirate life at 17. Therefore, Ace and Luffy also decide to set sail as soon as they are 17.
| TV Episode Guide | Post-War Arc (Anime) |
