Chapter Four

Sabo is Dead!

Yuki had wanted to practice her swordsmanship the entire day, complaining about needing a break from boys. The boys went to a ramen shop, and someone called Sabo out when they ran away. It turned out that Sabo was the son of a nobleman, and Yuki went to see if she could've gotten into the upper level of the city, to spy.

Yuki was good at stealth missions, and often acted as a scout for the group. She had almost made it to Sabo's mansion when she was caught by guards and thrown into the stockade. Ace and the others were worried about her, but they got abducted in the Grey Terminal while trying to free her.

Sabo, who had been sent to his dad, heard about how the nobles planned to burn out Grey Terminal and all of the people who lived there. What scared him the most, though, was that they planned to release the prisoners right before they set fire to the place. He and the others knew Yuki had been captured. She would die!

Somehow, Sabo had gotten Yuki out of the prison before the set date, but he couldn't get out of the city to warn Ace and Luffy. Sabo and Yuki knew they would try to rescue them, so they continued to try and escape, hoping the others would come.

Ace paced in circles. He was nervous. Would the plan work? He had to cross his fingers and hope it would. Both Yuki and Sabo had been missing for over three days. It didn't look too good to him. Sabo had probably gotten back with his family, but what would the guards do to Yuki? Ace worried some more.

Luffy dragged Ace to the Grey Terminal that evening. The only problem, something the two kids didn't know, was that that night was the date of the burning. Yuki and Sabo were on the inside of a locked door, still trying to free themselves. Then the fire started.

Walls of flame rose in every direction, the heat forcing people to the very heart of the trash dump. Ace and Luffy were desperately trying to reach the wall of the city, but it was no good. They were caught in the trap, like two mice in a blazing maze.

Suddenly, a large burst of something invisible cut a path through the fire. The hot, charred ground was still smoking, but every person there would've rather get burnt feet than die, their skin licked by the flames, being blackened and turned to ash and dust.

Ace and Luffy were caught by the pirates Sabo's father had hired, though, and they couldn't escape. The pirate blamed them for not being allowed to flee the flame before, for not being let into the city. Ace desperately defended Luffy, and when he had collapsed, the person they least expected to see came bursting through the fire. Dadan rushed to their side, beating the pirates up with a heavy wooden club they had seen sitting in a corner of her house.

Two mountain bandits followed, retrieving the slightly battered and exhausted Luffy. Ace and Dadan stayed to prevent any of the pirate crew from following their nakama. The next morning, Ace and Dadan returned, though they were near death. Luffy was crying.

"Ace...!" Luffy sobbed.

"Hey, baka! Don't cry, I'm not dead, am I?" Ace said.

"No, but..." Luffy trailed off, still crying.

Ace bopped him on the head. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. And we didn't see Yuki or Sabo anywhere, either, so you have nothing to worry about, little brother." Ace grinned from ear to ear, even though it hurt. He didn't want Luffy to worry about him or the others.

Luffy nodded in response, and wiped away his tears. What Ace said seemed to make him a lot happier. They ate their breakfast in silence, though. In truth, both of them were still worried about their friends.

Sabo and Yuki were crying. They knew that the others had been caught in the fire, because Yuki had scaled the wall and watched with a telescope. She had seen Luffy and the other mountain bandits leave, but not Ace and Dadan. She and Sabo feared the worst had come to be.

"Ace is tough. There's no way he and Dadan died. They were just... resting until morning. Or, or they left from a place I couldn't see..." Yuki said, trailing off. Her brain was betraying her, imagining scenes where Ace was lying on the ground, covered in burns. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll bet that's what happened," Sabo agreed, though it was clear he felt the same way she did. Miserable. Their friends were in trouble, and they couldn't lift a finger to help them.

While they were sitting in an alley crying, the rest of the city was getting ready for a visit from the tenryuubito (celestial dragons). The world nobles were, surprisingly, making an appearance the next day, and everyone was invited to watch. No one knew why they were coming, but no one cared about that. Everyone was eager to see them.

When the next day rolled around, Sabo made his escape. He had forgotten about the tenryuubito and set up his small fishing boat, leaving at the same time the others were arriving. One tenryuubito saw and ordered him blasted out of the water. Sabo died, and Yuki was watching, again helpless to do anything to stop it. She ran to the edge of the city, and the guards let her pass into the ash-filled Grey Terminal. Yuki ran all the way back to Dadan's house, heavy tears falling from her eyes, which had now turned red.

When she reached Dadan's house, she was relieved to see Luffy and Ace sitting on the grass outside. The boys, when they noticed her, got to their feet and tackled her, crying and yelling about her disappearance. Yuki was almost happy, until Ace scrambled backwards, seeing her face.

Ace looked at her in shock, staring, mouth open. Her eyes, which were usually a dark shade of green, had turned vibrant red. Luffy noticed, too, and ran to hug his unhappy friend. Ace just stood there, still surprised. When Yuki spoke, he was brought back to reality.

"You guys..." she said, crying again. "I hoped you were okay... but I have bad news."

"What? What is it?" Luffy asked. Just then, one of the mountain bandits returned, shouting something to them.

"Sabo is dead!" he yelled. Ace took a step forward, and then ran to the nearest tree, banging his head against the trunk and sobbing. He cried out, letting all around him hear the pain he was in.

"It's all my fault! I couldn't save him! I couldn't do a thing!" He wailed on and on, so Yuki got up from the ground and hugged him tightly, willing silently that he could stop punishing himself.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. Blame me, if anyone. I was there, and I couldn't lift a finger to help him." It was the second time she couldn't help those she loved, and just sat there, watching. It made her feel horrible, worse than the others around her. Misery engulfed her whole, gnawing at her mind.

"But, we were the older brothers! We were supposed to protect you two!" Ace said.

"No, it's okay. We'll protect Luffy together. We still have one person to look after, don't we?" she responded, trying to reassure him. "Let's make a promise."

"Well, I can't-" he began to say.

"No, you can. Together, we will protect each other, never turning our backs, never betraying one another. Promise me?" Yuki said, pushing him to accept, whether or not he felt like he couldn't protect anything.

"Fine, I accept," Ace replied. Luffy joined in, announcing his approval. "Sabo wanted to leave this country when he turned seventeen, because you became a citizen when you turn eighteen. We should all leave on our seventeenth birthday, okay?"

"Alright, I'm good with that," Yuki replied, grinning. "It gives me seven more years with both of you." After she said that, her eyes started to fade back to green. Ace, who had been watching them nearly the entire time, calmed down after that.

"Yosh! I'll do the same! Yuki, I'll leave a year after you, right?" Luffy chimed in, getting excited. "We still have a long time together, don't we?" All three of them smiled, fondly remembering the time they and Sabo had spent together. Those promises were, in their own way, a memorial to the nakama they had lost.