Chapter 26: New Dawn
He sensed more than saw the Lord of the Coast swimming around beneath them. It was just a shadow under the waves, hard to pick out in the weak evening light, but undeniably there. He didn't even need to use observation haki to confirm it.
"Relax," he told the guy next to him with a nudge.
Sabo, tense, didn't take his eyes off the water. "You aren't seriously about to tell me that thing is friendly."
"What? No. It's just, I've run into it before, and it knows me."
"It's afraid of you, you mean."
"Same difference, right?"
"You're sure it won't attack?"
"No, but even if it does, we're right by the shore."
"You're an anchor. You'll sink."
"That's what you're here for!" He grinned and slapped Sabo on the back before heading to the wheel to bring the ship properly into port at Foosha Village. Crashing into any of the few fishing vessels there wouldn't set his homecoming off on the right foot, probably. And there was one larger vessel taking up most of the free space, so he had to be extra careful.
If his smile slipped when he thought about how Sabo—if he'd had his memory back—would've cracked a joke about the both of them fishing out Luffy a hundred times, that was his alone to know.
Meanwhile, Sabo remained on the deck, keeping watch in case the old sea king decided to take his chances. When they hit shallow water and the Lord of the Coast swam away, Sabo joined Ace up by the wheel. They took in the approaching dock in silence. Ace was hoping the sight would inspire Sabo to say something, but Sabo just seemed to be looking at the quiet village and its windmills and lush farmland with quiet appreciation and zero recognition.
"You grew up here?" he asked when they had docked and Ace was tying up their ship. The village was quiet; made sense, it was late. They'd only barely made it here before the sun set.
"Nah, not in the village. This was Luffy's home way more than it was mine. It's where he met Shanks."
"Red Hair Shanks. The Emperor."
"Yep." Knot tied, Ace stood and tipped his hat up to peer down the pier and to the main street. He pointed at one of the few buildings with light spilling out the windows. "There, that bar."
"Eh?" Sabo squinted, trying to read the sign in the dark. "Partys Bar?"
"Makino runs it. She's amazing, I think you'll like her a lot. She's the one who taught me to be polite."
"You needed lessons on manners?"
Ace snorted. "I was raised by bandits and lived in the woods. Yeah, I did. When I ran into Shanks, I wanted to be able to thank him properly." Seeing the question in Sabo's eyes, Ace explained, "The guy was kind of a hero to Luffy—still is—and he saved Luffy's life from that sea king out there. Without him, I never would've met the kid. I just wanted to let him know I was grateful for that."
The closer they got to the bar, the louder the conversation from inside. Must've been a rowdy group; Ace could hear the shouts, laughter, and jeers even at this distance.
"And did you?" Sabo pressed. "Thank Red Hair, I mean."
"Of course I did, I said I would. Tracked him down to a freezing island in the New World. He thought I was there to fight him."
"That's probably why most upstart pirates approach him."
"He threw a party once I said I was Luffy's brother. Great guy. Drank my entire crew under the table even though I'm pretty sure his entire crew was still drunk from their last party. Crazy bastards, the lot of 'em. Haven't seen 'em since, though. Don't think Luffy's even met 'em since he was kid."
"Do you think—"
The door to Partys Bar banged open and Sabo cut himself off. Light, heat, noise, and a very drunk man spilled out of the opening. The man staggered down the steps while slurring a call back to the people inside that he was going to take a piss. He nearly hit Sabo, who deftly dodged but—nose wrinkled at the reek of alcohol coming off the man—stuck out a foot in retaliation. The guy tripped, windmilled his arms for a moment, and then fell.
He didn't get up.
Ace raised an eyebrow at Sabo, who shrugged. Shrugging back, Ace crouched next to the guy and poked him. He wasn't dead, judging by the incoherent mumbling, just completely sauced.
"How's that going to help?" Sabo hissed.
"Who says I'm trying to help? Look." Ace poked again so Sabo would see what he was poking: a tattooed jolly roger on his forearm.
"Do you recognize it?"
"Do I look like I know every pirate crew that goes stumbling around the East Blue?"
"This is your home, isn't it?"
"Aren't spy networks more your thing? No, I don't recognize it. But," another burst of raucous laughter from inside had Ace frowning, "I've got a bad feeling."
It was just laughter and conversation, but there was an edge to it, some pervasive undercurrent of something unpleasant that had his hackles rising like he was five years old again. For that feeling to come from Makino's bar wasn't only wrong, it was a wrong that he had to make right.
"Come on."
"Starting a fight already?"
"Says the guy who tripped him. You can always go back to the ship."
Sabo favored him with a sharp smile. "No need."
Inside, as Ace had suspected, the rest of the pirate crew were making nuisances of themselves. Chairs had been tipped over, beers spilled, mugs thrown, and tables shoved all over while they made themselves right at home. Not a single local resident was inside, a massive red flag on its own even without the mess. Ace took that all in with a single sweep of his eyes, not even breaking stride on his way to the bar.
Behind the bar was the only other person in this place besides Sabo who mattered: Makino.
She was older than the woman he remembered. Of course she was; it had been a few years. But still, the stray strands of gray in her hair, the extra wrinkles around her eyes—they caught him by surprise. Almost enough to make him stumble.
Almost.
"Hey, more beer!" someone yelled, breaking the hush that had fallen over the room when Ace and Sabo had walked in. Makino, though, was frozen in shock.
"Sorry to impose when you're so busy," Ace said, sliding into an empty stool. The pirates were all at the tables. He was willing to bet nearly all of them were too deep in their casks to balance on a stool.
"It's no trouble," she replied automatically, deaf to the repeated calls for refills and staring at Sabo as he claimed the seat next to Ace. "I…It's been a very long day, I think I'm seeing things."
Ace let the giddiness that had swept through him that first day on the boat surge anew. "You're seeing exactly what's there. Makino, let me reintroduce you to my brother. Sabo, this is Makino, probably the only reason I can last more than ten seconds in polite company."
Makino reached over the bar to take Sabo's hand in both of hers. Her eyes shone with the promise of relieved tears. "You survived? That's incredible. We were all worse for your loss, and I can't imagine how happy Ace had to be when he found you. But…" She furrowed her brow and Ace knew what she was going to ask. Sabo, already opening his mouth for the apology, found himself interrupted for the second time that night by a pirate. This one slammed down a near-empty mug of beer onto the bar. Some of its contents splashed out onto Sabo's coat and Ace's arm.
"Beer," growled the pirate, who had to be at least seven feet tall and was built like a bear. He also, Ace noted, looked, swayed, and smelled like most of a brewery had gone down his throat in the last couple of hours. "I ain't asking again."
Makino blinked, then took her hand back from Sabo to wipe her eyes and smooth out her apron as a calming gesture. "Just one moment, I'll—"
The pirate, reaching between Ace and Sabo, grabbed her by the collar and yelled, "BEER! NOW!"
Sabo and Ace moved in unison. Sabo grabbed the guy's wrist and broke his grip while Ace took him by the back of the head and bounced his face off the bar. As his legs folded, Ace kicked his body away so it skidded into a nearby chair, upsetting it with a great clatter of falling wood.
He frowned at the new smudge on the bar. "Sorry, Makino. Can I borrow a napkin? Actually, wait, I'll just use Sabo's—"
"Don't you dare!" Sabo snapped, twisting his chest—and his fancy neck napkin thing—out of Ace's reach.
Behind them, the entire bar was up on its feet, a dozen pissed-off pirates peeved about the two of them providing some humility to their crewmate.
"Quite a homecoming," Sabo noted. He and Ace left their stools in unison, Ace cracking his neck with his free hand, Sabo pulling his pipe from his back.
"I bet I'll get more."
Sabo scoffed. "In your dreams."
The pirates threw taunts and jeers their way; in reply, Ace threw his stool and Sabo his pipe. The missiles crashed into their intended targets—the two closest idiots—and sent them reeling back into their friends. Ace, following his stool, kicked the off-balance guy in the face and used that impact to get his left foot into the chest of another.
A one-handed diving somersault carried him under a retaliatory sword slice and he kicked up with both feet this time, launching the attacking swordsman into the ceiling, where he hung, head stuck in the broken plank he'd hit.
Catching a blur of yellow out of the corner of his eye, Ace turned that kick into a modified handspring and got to his feet in time to punch the guy trying to sneak up on Sabo, who was fending off four swordmen simultaneously and looking delighted as he did it.
Ace recognized that look. He was playing with his food.
His loss. Ace stole three of his targets with a one-handed fire gun and laughed at the look on Sabo's face. "Gotta be faster than that, 'Bo!"
Sabo's eyes widened and he lashed out with a sweeping blow from his pipe. Ace ducked under it, catching and pulling down his hat with his free hand, while the pipe whistled through where his head had been. The pirate who'd been sneaking up on Ace took the pipe to the jaw and went crashing into the bodies of his dazed brethren by the door.
"And you," Sabo said archly, "have to watch your back."
He thrust the pipe behind him, taking another pirate in the stomach without even looking.
"It's not my fault my haki's still recovering!" Ace protested.
"Nor is it mine. You're the one who started this competition, and I just want to say, eight."
"Eight?"
"Pirates."
Ace scowled. "Seven."
The guy he'd kicked into the ceiling finally tumbled down amid a rain of splinters.
"Eight," he amended. Sabo tsked.
"A tie feels awful."
As one, they turned toward the door, where the pirates were beating a hasty retreat. Those still conscious were dragging out the ones who weren't so lucky. Seeing them looking, the pirates' efforts turned rather more desperate.
Ace looked at them and saw nine, ten, and eleven. Even twelve if he could get there first, injured arm be damned.
He didn't get there first, but only because Sabo tripped him, the dirty cheater. Ace retaliated by yanking Sabo's hat down over his eyes while they took the brawl to the street outside. Their totals were neck and neck, and no matter how far down the road they kicked the pirates, they never kicked so hard the pirates couldn't pick themselves up and keep running.
They had a ship to catch, after all.
It was, in a way, like old times. Sabo knew some new tricks, he moved faster, and he hit harder, but the bones were the same. Wherever Ace wasn't, Sabo was, and vice versa.
With the Spade Pirates, and Deuce in particular, Ace had almostfound that same rhythm again. But it was never quite right. The Whitebeards, too, came close. Thatch matched on the close-quarters side of it, but his swords weren't the same as a pipe, and so Ace had given up ever completing the melody and burned up the song with flame. He didn't have to think about the boy who wasn't there when that boy had never made a rhythm with the Mera Mera no Mi.
He was here now, though. And every time Ace used his flames, the rhythm they were building stuttered and turned into something jagged and misaligned. So, even though the doc will kill him, Ace switched from using fire to using his fists—fist. And feet. And occasional elbow, plus one knee to the groin because fighting dirty was how he and Sabo had always fought, and it just felt right.
Down the main street they beat the pirates, and then up the dock, and finally next to their ship. The pirates scrambled up the gangplank, then hauled it up after themselves like that would slow Ace or Sabo down in the slightest.
They pretended like it did, though. They had no interest in sinking the ship or making the pirates stick around here; it wasn't like there were local authorities capable of doing much about them, much less imprisoning or charging them. And they definitely had no interest in bringing the marines around.
Shifting his weight to make the wooden planks of the dock creak under his boots, Ace gingerly flexed his arm. He'd kept it in the sling, and his shoulder felt okay despite all the jarring. He was probably fine. He was about at the point he could remove the sling, anyway, at least according to Sabo when they were still a couple hours away from Dawn Island and Ace had been getting twitchy.
"All Revolutionaries know first aid," he'd claimed. When Ace had pointed out how examining his arm didn't qualify as first aid, Sabo had said, "Some Revolutionaries learn more about how bodies work because it can be quite useful for injuries."
He had, Ace had noted at the time, neglected to mention whether the injuries were inflicted on themselves or others.
"I thought you said this was a quiet town," Sabo drawled, watching the pirate ship slink off toward the horizon after a few cannon shots to ward off the Lord of the Coast. To their credit, they weren't stupid enough to try firing on the island.
"It is! Just…most of the time. At least it wasn't bandits."
"Bandits?"
"Yeah, they've got territory all over the mountain. They used to be a nuisance here, but they got better when Dadan's family took over. Which is good, because you can't chase bandits off an island like you can pirates." Ace blinked a few times, a familiar fuzzy feeling crawling through his brain, then hurried out, "We'll visit 'em tomorrow."
"Visit—"
A freshly developed reflex had Sabo catching Ace before he could faceplant into the ground.
Snoring, Ace was oblivious to Sabo's deep sigh, which carried in it intermingled notes of mild exasperation and growing fondness. He'd pulled this stunt several times on their journey to Dawn Island, and Sabo was starting to recognize the subtle fogginess that clouded Ace's expression and voice in the instant before he dropped.
Sabo slung the snoozing pirate over one shoulder and, after one last glance to make sure the other pirates wouldn't be coming back—they wouldn't be stupid enough to risk crossing that sea king's territory a third time—he took them both back to the bar.
A few local residents, woken up or otherwise disturbed by the fighting, had emerged from their homes. Sabo waved them back from their porches.
"Just some pirates deciding it was time to leave," he said when their curiosity remained. "Apologies for the disturbance."
They were, thankfully, willing enough to take the word of a stranger carrying another stranger like a sack of potatoes. Small towns, Sabo thought in wonder. More accurately, East Blue small towns. Those mountain bandits must've been the only real trouble they ever saw—other than the sea king.
He did a quick pulse of observation haki before entering the bar to make sure the pirates were truly gone and to make sure he wasn't going to hit Makino with the door. When he did, he was reminded of how Ace felt. He'd considered him like a hearth before and found the comparison lacking. Now, with more context, he suspected Ace wasn't the hearth. He was the home.
And Sabo ached for not remembering him.
Makino, having already swept the debris off to one side, abandoned her mop and bucket when they entered. "Oh, dear, is he—"
"Just asleep," Sabo reassured her. "I think he should wake up soon, right?"
"I knew he had narcolepsy, but I haven't seen him have an attack since he was much younger. Here, the floor over this way is clean. Let's just lay him down."
She untied her apron and wadded it up for Ace to use as a pillow. "There. That ought to help."
They surveyed their handiwork for a moment before Makino, still kneeling next to Ace, reached out a hand and stopped just short of touching Ace's chest. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Sabo admitted. "He had that when I met him."
"When you…met him?" She pulled her hand away and stood, smoothing her skirt while she gave Sabo a curious look. He braced himself for the inevitable. "Earlier, it sounded like Ace was reintroducing you."
It wasn't a question, not really, but it was a question all the same. "I was in an accident when I was young."
Makino nodded. "The Celestial Dragon attack. I remember."
"Were you there?"
"No, I…I only heard about it after. It was a terrible thing." Most every time Sabo'd heard that phrase in his life, it'd held notes of imperious apathy. A kind of oh, the peasants are suffering again. How terrible. Anyway. In Makino's voice, though, he heard nothing but genuine distress, and echoes of her own grief. It made his chest tighten. "I'd never seen Luffy so upset."
He wondered briefly at why Straw Hat Luffy would care so much, reasoned it had to do with him being Ace's brother, and then dismissed the matter for now. He already had a light headache, so he wasn't keen on the idea of juggling more in his brain than he had to. "I lost my memory in that attack."
Makino brought her hands to her mouth, then reached out, almost like she was going to pull Sabo into a hug. She settled for holding his shoulders, then abandoned her restraint and hugged him anyway.
"I'm so sorry that happened," she said as he awkwardly reciprocated the gesture, "but I'm so grateful you survived. Does Luffy know?"
"I…I doubt it. Ace and I have only been traveling together for a little while."
"Well, I'm sure he'll be thrilled whenever he hears." She pulled away from him, and he wordlessly offered her a handkerchief from his pocket. She smiled in thanks but simply used her sleeve instead. "What are you two planning to do here?"
"The guy with the plan is currently snoring down there, but I think he's trying to get me to remember things. Familiar sights, people, places. He mentioned visiting bandits—he said he grew up with them, I think."
Makino was nodding, which reassured him that he hadn't misheard Ace's absurd history.
"He was really raised by bandits?"
She laughed. "You were too, for a while." She was oblivious to his stunned reaction and clapped her hands together. "I have completely abandoned my manners, I'm so sorry. Can I get you some drinks? Food?"
At the mention of food, Ace stirred and sat up, blinking. "Huh. I fell asleep."
"Yeah, you did." Sabo helped him to his feet and gestured to the stools at the bar. Ace joined him there, offering Makino her apron back when he did. "I don't know if you heard Makino, so: you want food?"
Ace's stomach let out a growl in answer to Sabo's question. Makino laughed.
"Those pirates didn't clean out everything, I'll be right back," she promised, and disappeared into the kitchen.
"How long was I out?" Ace asked while Makino fetched some of whatever smelled so delicious back there. "Looked like you two were chatting."
"Just a few minutes, and we were. You were really raised by bandits?"
Ace made a so-so gesture. "My shitty gramps dropped me at their doorstep when I was a baby and kind of forced them into it. They weren't happy about it, I was even less happy about it, and I kind of…terrorized them. For years."
"And…now you want to visit them."
Unable to stop the redness flushing his face and creeping down his neck, Ace wished Makino would hurry up with that food. "I got better, okay? Politeness lessons, remember? Between you and Luffy—" he stopped, realizing he'd just given away something huge. Sabo narrowed his eyes.
"Between me and Luffy…what? What did we do?"
Clearing his throat, Ace looked anywhere but at Sabo. "You just helped me get out of my own head, I guess. Maybe. A little, anyway."
Sabo leaned closer, that damned tactic of his successfully making Ace uncomfortable. "Ace. Who was I to you?"
The past tense made him wince. "Gave it away, huh?"
"You're an awful liar."
"I didn't lie. I just…"
"Didn't tell the whole truth. Yeah, I know the strategy. Spy, remember? You've had a couple weeks of dancing around the truth. I let you dance because I'm nice like that, but I'm not that nice. Your time's up."
Ace's throat bobbed. Staring into Sabo's eyes, one brilliant blue and the other closer to gray from long-ago damage, a thousand nights spent with a kid who was dead and alive and dead dead dead stopped up his throat. He was there, somewhere, behind those pupils. He had to be. He had to be.
He couldn't lose him again.
"My brother," he whispered, because a whisper was all that could make it out. "You're my brother."
Sabo blinked and leaned back, surprise overwriting the determination to learn more. "Brother? But…" He furrowed his brows. "The sake, wasn't it? We swore brotherhood. You, me, and Straw Hat Luffy."
Ace bit back the urge to tell him to drop the Straw Hat epithet and just nodded. His eyes were watering, the traitors, and he kept that moisture from escaping as actual tears through sheer stubborn force of will.
"Huh." Sabo rested his elbows on the bar and stared down at his hands. "Brothers. I had brothers."
"Have." The correction slipped out before he could stop it, and fuck, that was his heart in his throat, on his sleeve, in the air between them. "Luffy and I are still here. You're still here."
He didn't like the look on Sabo's face, didn't like the way his fingers curled toward fists, didn't like the way he drew breath with his shoulders already coming up defensively.
"I brought food!" Makino swept back in from the back with arms laden by platters of food. Ace's stomach growled something fierce and he dropped the topic in favor of stuffing his face.
"Mm," he managed between bites. "Thish'sh'elicious. Thanksh!"
Sabo devoured some of his own but paused long enough to explain, "The only place we stopped at since reaching the East Blue was that floating restaurant. I was afraid Ace's growling stomach would capsize our ship before we made it here."
Ace smacked him with his spoon for that one, then recovered the utensil for its more valuable service of shoveling food into his mouth. Neither he nor Sabo had Luffy's appetite, though they did plenty of damage, and by the time they were approaching full, Makino was presenting them with the final plate.
Picking the last of his meal out of his teeth with a toothpick, Ace sat back on his stool with a contented sigh. Sabo was wiping off his mouth with his napkin looking just as satisfied with the five stacks of plates and bowls they'd managed to accumulate between themselves.
"Ace," Makino said after carting those stacks into the back to be washed later, "can I ask you something?"
"Sure, ask away."
She gestured at his chest. "What happened?"
The toothpick snapped in his fingers. He picked out the splinters with a wince and waved off her apology. "It's fine, it's fine." He saw Sabo looking and figured he'd been wanting to ask the same question but had just been too tactful to do it. Or he'd figured Ace wouldn't answer. "I made a mistake and Akainu almost got me."
Sabo stiffened. "The admiral?"
"The one and only."
"You encountered him twice?"
"Basically." Mindful of his painfully full stomach, Ace stood and turned so Makino could see the damage on his back. "I'm fine now, but…it was close."
Makino reached across the bar, then hesitated. "May I?"
"Sure."
"What was the tattoo?" Makino's fingertips ghosted over the lingering edges of the Whitebeard jolly roger, making Ace shiver.
"It used to be Whitebeard's mark. I talked to the guy who did it, but he said the scar tissue wouldn't take to a repair job. Too much, too thick. I think I'm gonna get a new one on my arm instead."
"On your arm?" Sabo asked.
"Yeah, my right arm, I'm thinking right about here. I've already got yours on my left, and that's not going anywhere."
Sabo shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. "Ace, I'm hardly a pirate these days, you don't have to—"
"Shut up."
"I just don't want you to—"
"Sabo!"
Sabo flinched at Ace's tone. So did Makino, her touch vanishing from Ace's skin. Ace dragged in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Sorry," Sabo offered the ensuing silence. "I didn't mean to be rude."
Ace only answered when he was back on his stool and sure he could speak calmly. "This means more to me than just your dream of being a pirate. Even if that was all it meant, I'd never get rid of it."
Though he looked like he wanted to protest, upon seeing the dangerous light in Ace's eye, Sabo wisely chose to stow his quibbles with Ace's perspective on the tattoo.
"I think another jolly roger on your other arm would look nice," Makino said.
"It'll be a lot smaller," Ace said, grateful for the shift in topic. "The one on my back took weeks to heal completely and it itched. Man, it itched." Maybe that had been a kind of practice for all his healing burns. "Anyway, I think we'll stay the night here, then head for Mount Colubo in the morning. From there, you can decide if you want to see the Gray Terminal and the capital. How's that sound?"
Sabo nodded. "Works for me."
"Great. After we're done here, if you're willing, I'll introduce you to the Whitebeards. I've told them plenty about Luffy, but nothing about you. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces."
Looking a little thin around the edges, Sabo managed a smile that Ace—distracted by another question from Makino—didn't realize was fake.
The dirt trail wound around the mountain without any seeming commitment to one direction besides vaguely up. Many side trails split off from it, most of them game trails, some so overgrown they were only another year from disappearing entirely.
"That was ours," Ace said, gesturing to one that split off to follow a nearby creek. "In the spring, that was the best place to hunt deer on the whole mountain. We could climb up in the trees and wait for the herds to come through for water."
"You had to ambush them?"
"We were kids. Couldn't exactly outrun 'em, and we usually only had pipes for weapons. You're the one that found the spot, too. Luffy kept trying to fight you for your perch on the tree 'cause it was the most comfortable."
"You didn't want it?"
"You found it first."
Ace kept up a steady stream of stories like that to keep at bay the discomfort that hadn't left Sabo's expression since their conversation at Partys Bar. He didn't want to know what Sabo had been about to say about their brotherhood. He did not want to know.
So he kept talking—with one brief interruption when a bear crossed their path—until his throat was hoarse and the trees finally thinned out to reveal the clearing the Dadan Family called home. Nostalgia tightened Ace's throat when he saw the old, red-roofed cabin looking just as he remembered. There were even a couple lines of laundry strung up to dry between the building and a nearby tree. No one was in the watchtower built into the roof, not that the thing saw much use after the other mountain bandits and Bluejam Pirates were dealt with.
"That idiot!"
Sabo flinched at Ace's outburst. "Jeez, what now?"
"Look!"
"The…" Sabo squinted and read from the blue sign over the open first floor: "Luffy's Kingdom?"
"Bastard took over my kingdom." Ace crossed his arms and glowered at the three-story amalgamation of what had once been his and Luffy's kingdoms sitting just to the left of the main cabin's front door. His own orange sign was sticking out of the top but Luffy had crossed out the words with more black paint. "I'm hitting him for that for sure."
"Right," Sabo said slowly, eyeing Ace with obvious confusion.
"That came after you—after you left. Me 'n Luffy were trying to be more independent, so we made our own kingdoms."
"Directly outside a bandit hideout."
"We still needed to use their bath. And kitchen."
"Right, of course. Very understandable."
Well aware that Sabo was ribbing him and deciding not to rise to the bait like the mature oldest brother that he was, Ace strode toward the door.
Eyeing the spiked metal decoration hung up over the entrance, Sabo nudged him. "This is where you grew up?"
"Yeah, more or less."
"More or less?"
"I spent most of my time out here," he gestured at the forest with his free hand. His sling was stuffed into the blue pocket in his shorts, and while his shoulder was sore, it was feeling a hell of a lot better than before. Deuce's notes had mentioned that he shouldn't keep using the sling longer than he absolutely had to; something about weakening the muscles there. "But it was a roof over my head when I needed it. I shared a lot of the stuff I caught with the family so they'd quit complaining about having to raise me, too. You even stayed here when your old place got too dangerous."
Sabo frowned and glanced back at what Ace was dragging behind him but kept quiet while Ace knocked.
"Oi, Dadan! It's me, open up!"
"Is it even locked?"
"I'm being polite." He knocked again. "C'mon, you old hag! I brought lunch!"
From inside the cabin came faint yells, then the tromping of feet until finally the door was flung open and a very familiar, furious face framed with curly orange hair was glaring down at them both.
"Don't you two idiots know where you are?" Dadan demanded, nearly sending her cigarette flying from her mouth. Ace grinned at her.
"Hi, Dadan. Miss me?"
Her thunderous scowl froze on her face, then melted away. "A-Ace?" Her eyes slid to Ace's left and nearly bugged out of her head. "SABO?"
"SABO?" echoed the bandits coming up behind her, all looking fit to faint. Sabo tensed only for that tension to get knocked out of him when Ace slapped him on the back.
"Yep, we're back!" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the carcass of the bear. "And, like I said, we brought lunch!"
Stunned speechless, Dadan vaguely gestured at the bear and a handful of bandits, all of whom were looking at Sabo like he was a ghost, shakily collected it and dragged it off to the kitchen. Ace, meanwhile, threw his arm around Sabo's shoulders and pulled him inside, heedless of Dadan's staring.
"So, this is the place," he was saying. "Dropped off when I was a baby. Feel free to look around, see if anything's familiar."
Eyeing the bandits looking at him with shock and confusion, Sabo tugged his hat lower over his eyes. "I'm not sure that would be productive."
"Fair enough, they've reorganized things a bit since I was last here. C'mon, take a seat, stay a while!"
Ace dropped down onto the floor by the firepit in the center of the main room, where someone must've been cooking some stew because it smelled delicious.
"Any of that left?" he asked Dogra, who was the first to trail after them.
"Uh."
"Here," said Magra, holding out two bowls and spoons.
"Thank you." Ace served Sabo and himself with the last of what was in the pot, then devoured his own portion in just a couple of gulps. He raised an eyebrow at the bandits staring at him. "What? Something on my face?"
They swiftly shook their heads. One of them nudged another and said, not quietly enough, "I didn't think the manners would stick."
Ace grinned as that guy's friend elbowed him hard in the side. Dadan broke through the crowd and waved at her people to disperse.
"You've all got your own jobs," she griped. "It's going to rain tonight, someone had better bring that laundry in! You can say hi to these brats on your own time." Unlike her people, she dropped down next to them. Ace noted the presence of a second, newer cigarette in her mouth. "What are you back here for? Him?" She nodded at Sabo.
"In a way," Sabo answered cagily, before draining the last of his stew.
"He lost his memory in the attack," explained Ace. "I found him and dragged him back here from the New World to see if we could knock anything loose."
Dadan coughed a little bit at the mention of the New World but recovered, and didn't even lose a cigarette in the process. "Is it working?"
"If seeing your ugly mug didn't help, I'm not sure what will." Ace easily swayed back to avoid Dadan's reflexive punch, then brightened. "Oh! That reminds me. I got something for you—something other than lunch."
The smell of which wafting in from the kitchen was making his mouth water, but he ignored that for now while he dug through his bag. First came the recipes and dried ingredients he'd grabbed for Thatch, and he carefully set those aside. After a little more rummaging, he produced what he'd purchased in Alabasta: those earrings with red beads.
"For you," he said, holding them out to her. "I picked them up in Alabasta, figured you'd like them."
To his left, Sabo was looking between Dadan, the earrings, Dadan's necklace, and the necklace around Ace's own neck. He sucked in a breath and hit his fist on his palm. "Oh, that's why!"
"Oi, what's that supposed to mean?"
But by then Dadan was taking the earrings and running her fingers over their beads, her expression noticeably blank.
"Boss?" asked Dogra, the only one not chased away to do chores. "Something wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Are—"
"I'm sure!" She spun around and hunched her shoulders. Ace exchanged a look with Sabo, a smile to Sabo's confused frown.
"Did you get anything for us?" Dogra asked hopefully.
"Sure I did. That."
Dogra looked where he was pointing and saw the massive platter of meat getting carried in from the kitchen. Ace got to his feet and cracked his knuckles, then glanced at Sabo when he made no move to stand.
"You might want to get up."
"What? Why?"
The moment the platter hit the floor, the bandits descended on it with a vengeance. Ace threw himself into the fray with a yell and found it disturbingly easy to shove aside the people who'd once been so much bigger than him. Securing several pieces, he extracted himself from the horde and returned to the fire pit with a victoriously massive bite of the first chunk.
Sabo dropped down next to him a moment later, several pieces of his own in hand while he straightened his hat.
"Is it always like that?"
"Pretty much. Though I usually get first claim on what I bring in." He eyed Dadan when he said the last bit. She had, while he was claiming his food, dried her eyes and put the new earrings in to replace the gold and white hoop earrings she'd worn for as long as Ace could remember.
"You said it was a gift," she sniffed, before she reached out and accepted the pieces handed to her by another bandit. As the boss, she didn't have to fight the way the rest of them did. While she chewed her first bite, she jerked her chin at his chest. "What happened to you, brat?"
"Ran into a marine admiral a couple of times. This one," he rested a hand over his scar, "was a while ago." He indicated his arm. "This was recent." He ran through an abbreviated version of his latest fight with Akainu, spitting crumbs the entire time. "It'll be healed soon," he said while gnawing on a bone to get the last slivers of meat off it. "Just gotta keep changing the bandages."
As Ace was polishing off his food, Sabo was staring around the room. Pochi the dog, much older and stiffer now, wandered over from his bed of old towels in the corner to inspect the oddly familiar new arrival. Sabo gave him a few scratches under the chin before sending him over to Ace, who glared at the dog until he stopped a pace away from Ace's last piece of meat.
"I can't believe you really were raised by mountain bandits," mused Sabo.
Ace laughed. "Yeah, Gramps overlooked a lot of their crap if it meant they'd give me a roof over my head. Luffy, too. You shoulda seen the looks on their faces when he brought a second kid up the mountain."
Dadan nearly spat out her food. "You're the one who was the menace, you brat!"
Ace laughed harder. Pochi seized his opportunity and snatched the last piece of meat from Ace.
"Hey, you stupid mutt!"
But since Pochi was shuffling out of reach and had already gotten his whole mouth around the piece, Ace sighed and gave up with a grumble.
"You wouldn't remember this if Ace ever told you about it," Dadan said, turning to Sabo, "but this idiot nearly killed Luffy more than we ever did."
Sabo looked askance at Ace, whose irritated expression turned sheepish. "What is she talking about? I thought you were brothers!"
"We are!" Ace defended. "Just…not then. Not yet. He lived, anyway. He was a tough little shit."
"What did you even do?"
"Not much."
"Ace."
"I'm being serious. All I did was kick a tree at him, trigger a rockslide on him, hit him off a bridge into a wolf-infested gorge, lead him to a gator-infested pond, kick him off a cliff into a vulture-infested valley, lead him off another cliff into piranha-infested waters—"
"Okay, enough, enough with the thing-infested things! Jeez, you really wanted him dead."
"I went through so many cigarettes in those three months," Dadan bemoaned.
"MONTHS?" Sabo cried. "Ace!"
"I had reasons! I was trying to keep him away from you and our pirate stash. Didn't work, though."
Heaving a sigh, Sabo massaged his temples. "You keep giving me headaches."
"You're the one who agreed to kill him when he found us!"
"You suggested it first!"
They blinked at each other. Sabo sat back.
"You…" Ace started, but Sabo shook his head.
"No, just…just a feeling." He winced and rubbed at his temples again, then clambered to his feet. "I'm gonna get some air."
Ace watched him go, torn between worry for the clear pain Sabo was in and joy that Sabo remembered. Sure, it was only a small piece, a tiny fragment of a moment, but it was something. He was in there. He was.
He turned a grin on Dadan. "Did you see that?"
"Ace," she warned, but he didn't hear her. He crammed the last of Sabo's lunch into his mouth, shot to his feet, and went out after his brother.
Sabo stood at one of the main trails leading north from the bandit's den, hands hanging loose at his sides while he stared up at the forest.
"Hey," Ace called. "We can head this way to the Gray Terminal. If we're fast, it won't even take an hour. I'm sure I remember the best way." He put a hand on Sabo's shoulder. Sabo flinched at the touch and Ace tried to pretend it didn't hurt. "So, you wanna go?"
Sabo's left hand flexed in and out of a fist before he slowly nodded, mouth settling into a grim line. "Lead the way."
Unlike their walk to the Dadan Family den, their jog out to the Gray Terminal was mostly silent. Ace couldn't ignore the air of increasing don't talk to me rising from Sabo, and for his part, Sabo wasn't exactly asking many questions anymore. Was that a good thing? Ace wanted to think so. He also wasn't an idiot.
"We'll take a detour here," he said, turning onto a side trail.
"What's this way?"
"The treehouse. Man, I hope it's still standing. This place gets some pretty wild storms sometimes."
"Treehouse?"
"Treehouse, hideout. You'll see."
"I guess I will."
The new path took them through a couple of thickets and up a small cliffside, then opened up into a clearing delineated by a number of fallen trees. Ace slowed to a stop, catching sight of the old wooden signpost with faint chalk marks still visible on it.
"What is it?"
"Our scoreboard. This was our training ground. See all the destroyed rocks and trees? Huh. More destroyed rocks than I remember. Must'a been Luffy."
"Was this also Luffy?" Sabo pointed at the three pipes stuck into the dirt at the foot of a tree. One was straight up, the other two crossed in front of it. Ace grinned wide.
"Yeah. Yeah, it was."
Sabo stepped up to the small memorial and traced a finger along one of the pipes. Ace held his breath—an action Sabo noticed, prompting him to draw his hand back and avoid meeting his gaze.
Before the silence could sour, Ace gestured over his shoulder. "C'mon, the treehouse is just up this way."
They kept going along the path until finally they reached the shade of the biggest tree for miles in any direction. Ace paused by its massive trunk, hands on his hips while he stared up into its branches.
"You lived in a tree?"
"Yeah! Right there." He pointed at the lowest branch, a delighted smile on his face because it was, in fact, still there, albeit looking smaller than he remembered. Sabo walked up next to him and peered up, having to hold his hat to keep it from tipping off his head. His gaze caught on the circular treehouse tucked against the trunk on that branch.
"A treehouse."
"Sure is." Ace punched his shoulder, still grinning, nostalgia making his whole body warm and fuzzy. "You designed it, even! C'mon, I want to see if they're still in there."
The rope they used to use to climb up had fallen down since Luffy left the island, chewed through at the top by some curious animal or just rotted by time. Ace climbed the tree itself instead, able as an adult to reach handholds that would've been too far apart for his childhood self. He could've also shot himself straight up with his fruit, but that felt like cheating. As he climbed, he was aware of Sabo following suit behind him.
He hauled himself into the treehouse proper and took stock. His head promptly smacked into the ceiling and he crouched down, groaning. Sabo jumped up behind him, swiftly ducking through the entryway and staying ducked while he looked around.
"Wow, it's a mess in here."
It was. Ace had seen evidence of it from the ground, but up here it was undeniable. Years of storms had taken their toll, stripping wood planks and turning the interior into a disaster zone. The curtains, rotted at their ends, had been ripped from the rods over the windows and scattered around. The wheel was askew, its nails having slowly come out over time. But, he was delighted to see while he straightened up as much as the ceiling allowed, the nail holding the net of sake cups was still in place.
"Never mind the mess. Look!"
"Cups?"
"I can't believe these are still here. Ah, I should've brought sake," he realized, putting a hand to his forehead. "I guess it wouldn't be the same without Luffy here, though. Next time."
He let the cups rest against the wall again but Sabo didn't respond. Ace glanced over his shoulder and saw him just standing there, staring at the cups, face pale.
"Sabo?"
He blinked and glanced at Ace. "Sorry, did you say something?"
"Just your name. You okay?"
"I'm fine." Doubt lanced through Ace and showed plain in his expression, earning a scowl. "I'm fine," Sabo stressed. "We still have to see the Gray Terminal, right? We don't have time to hang around here."
With that, he turned and leaped from the treehouse. Ace rushed to the doorway in time to see him land with a neat roll, effortlessly handling a drop that easily could've killed him the last time he was here.
Trying to hide his uneasiness, Ace—after a glance back at the slanted wheel and scattered cloth—followed. They could clean up another day. He struck out on the far more hidden path leading to the place where everything had gone so right when he was five and so, so wrong all those years later.
The closer they got to the Gray Terminal, the more tension radiated from Sabo. Ace could feel it even without tapping his observation haki and it was putting him on edge too.
They crested the final rise and stopped between the two old trees framing the end of the path. Down the hill, the ground itself flattened out on its approach to the massive gray walls that marked Edge Town. Overtop the ground, though, were mounds and mounds of garbage. Smaller than they used to be, but ever-growing.
Even the fog that contributed to the Gray Terminal's name had come back in full force in the years after the fire, fed both by garbage and mist pouring in off the ocean. Ace couldn't help wrinkling his nose when the smell, which had been faint while they were still in the protective embrace of the woods, hit in full force. Beneath the all-encompassing trash were more specific smells: oils, tarnished metal, sweat, salt, mold, and rotting wood, among a thousand others.
One last scent wound its way to him and he scowled. "Still?" he muttered, wishing the undertones of smoke and ash would dissipate. They wouldn't, he knew. Probably not ever, not as long as the Gray Terminal remained. The new layers of trash ensured the charred old ones were shielded from the elements.
Sabo had stopped next to him, unable to take a single step farther. He looked out over the Gray Terminal with confusion at first, but Ace saw his nose twitch, suspicion overwrite the confusion, and then horror drown out the suspicion.
"They burned it," he whispered. "That's why it smells like that, right? They burned all of this. The whole Gray Terminal."
Ace eyed him and spoke carefully. "Yeah. They got Bluejam—a pirate—to put explosives all over the Gray Terminal. Luffy and I even helped him because we needed the money. But we didn't know they were explosives, or we," he squeezed his hand into a fist, "we never would've helped."
"Was I there?"
"No. You…your father found us and took you away, that's why it was just Luffy and me. We didn't—we didn't see you again."
"That's where it happened, isn't it?" Sabo pointed to a spot just past the harbor barely visible beyond the capital's wall. "Where the Celestial Dragon tried to kill me."
"Yeah."
Sabo stared at that spot for a long minute and then looked at Ace blank-faced. "They burned this place, shot me down, and you…you chose to become fire?"
Ace went still, then looked away, a muscle in his jaw feathering. Luffy hadn't asked in Alabasta, and Ace had thought—naively, it seemed—he'd never have to explain that choice.
"I don't run," he finally said, focusing on the Gray Terminal and the memories of a fiery hell brought to life amid its mounds of trash. "Not from anything. I didn't know what the Mera Mera no Mi was when I ate it, but using its power—that never bothered me. Fire…it took so much from us. I couldn't stand being afraid of it."
He exhaled and tried to pretend his whole chest wasn't shaking. "If I'd had the fruit that day, when they set fire to everything, or when the stupid noble came to town, then the fire wouldn't've been so dangerous. Now, I can show everyone what it means to start a fire they can't control. They can get exactly what they deserve."
"Are you—"
"Only if you want to." Ace lifted his eyes to the city proper, Edge Town and High Town and the royal palace squatting above them all. "They deserve it."
Sabo leaned against a nearby trunk, eyes squinted but not in an attempt to bring anything he could see into focus.
"You okay?"
"Fine," he answered, distracted. "Just…not enough sleep, lately." He pinched the bridge of his nose for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and then pushed off the tree. "Let's head back to Dadan's. Turning in early tonight might help."
Clearly, going into the Terminal itself or anywhere near the Capital was off the table. "If you're sure you're okay."
"I'm fine, Ace. Let's just go."
Worried, he stuck close to Sabo the whole way back. Most worrying of all, Sabo was too distracted to snap at him for it.
In the morning, Sabo didn't wake up.