...
Ace ultimately said nothing. He simply gripped his water pipe tightly and walked out of Dadan's noisy wooden house without looking back.
Seeing this, Luffy followed without a second thought, sticking to Ace like a little tail.
As Ace silently headed deeper into Mt. Corvo, Luffy started chattering noisily in his ear again.
"Hey! My name's Luffy! I'm not mad about you spitting on me anymore! Let's be friends!"
Luffy had always been this straightforward since childhood. Sensing Ace's strength and uniqueness, he genuinely wanted to befriend this cold older brother.
However, what greeted Luffy's enthusiasm wasn't words.
Ace suddenly stopped in his tracks, casting a cold glance his way—an icy, sculptural stare.
Without any warning, he raised his foot and savagely kicked the trunk of a tree taller than Luffy!
"Crack!"
The trunk snapped instantly and crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Luffy's eyes nearly popped out of his head in fright. He let out a sharp scream, hugged his head, turned, and bolted, instantly hiding behind a large rock, trembling all over.
Ace didn't even glance at him and continued walking up the mountain with an expressionless face.
After a while, noticing the lack of movement outside, Luffy cautiously poked his head out. Seeing Ace's receding figure…
After a moment of hesitation, he actually scurried after him again, muttering encouragement to himself under his breath: "I… I'm not scared at all!"
Ace, walking ahead, furrowed his brows in irritation.
When he reached a simple rope bridge connecting two cliffs, he stopped once more. A flash of determination crossed his eyes.
He swung the water pipe in his hand and smashed it viciously into one of the bridge's main support ropes!
"Bam! Crash—!"
The rope snapped, and the entire bridge collapsed in an instant!
Luffy, who had just reached the middle of the bridge, let out a terrified scream. Together with the shattered planks, he plummeted into the deep ravine below!
That evening, Ace returned to Dadan's house carrying the fish he had caught.
When Dadan and her underlings asked why Luffy hadn't come back with him, Ace simply continued expressionlessly scaling the fish, replying coldly: "Who knows where he is."
His tone was flat, without the slightest ripple.
Dinner time passed, night deepened, and Luffy still hadn't returned. Dadan's subordinates began to grow restless, their faces filled with fear.
"Boss… the kid didn't really meet with something bad, did he?"
"It's already night… the mountain's so dangerous…"
"If he's dead… Mr. Garp will definitely tear us all apart and throw us in prison!"
Compared to her panicking underlings, the drunken Dadan appeared unusually calm. Hugging her sake bottle, she let out a burp and slurred with surprising certainty: "Quit… quit your yapping! Don't worry…
That… that rubber kid… he's got a tough life… he definitely won't die… burp…"
Whether it was genuine intuition or the alcohol giving her courage, she didn't seem to believe Luffy would disappear so easily.
At that moment, Ace was alone behind the house, rinsing his body with a bucket of water. Staring at his still-youthful yet gloom-shrouded reflection in the water's surface, his eyes once again sank into a painful vortex of memories.
The reason he was so closed-off, cold, and even aggressive stemmed from the bloodline he could never choose—one reviled by the entire world…
His birth father was the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.
This "cursed" lineage was like a heavy shackle. From childhood, he had grown up under the strange, fearful, and even hateful gazes of those around him.
He had even vaguely overheard Dadan, drunk, muttering with the other bandits things like "No surprise—he's that devil's son." Those words stabbed like thorns deep into his young heart…
This only reinforced his belief that he should never have been born, that he didn't deserve warmth.
A full week passed.
Just as Dadan's underlings were on the verge of despair, steeling themselves to report the bad news to Garp, a staggering, heavily injured small figure appeared at the wooden house's doorway.
It was Luffy!
By now, Luffy's clothes were in tatters—reduced to a few rags barely hanging on his body. His exposed skin was covered in scrapes, bruises, and scabbed claw marks…
His small face was so filthy that only his still-bright eyes could be clearly seen.
But he was alive—and he had walked back on his own!
The moment Dadan saw him, her drowsiness vanished. She shot up from her chair, rushed over, and anxiously examined his wounds from head to toe, her voice cracking: "You… you little brat!
Where the hell have you been this whole week?! How did you end up looking like this?!"
Luffy scratched his hair, now tangled with grass blades, grinned widely in his signature carefree way, and began explaining:
"I accidentally fell off that broken bridge… then a pack of wolves chased me around the valley for a really long time! But I beat them all away!"
Luffy gestured animatedly, his tone even carrying a hint of pride. He never once mentioned Ace cutting the bridge, attributing the entire mishap to himself.
Seeing Luffy looking so battered yet full of vitality, Dadan's suspended heart finally settled. What followed was a surge of nameless anger.
She grabbed Luffy by the collar, dragged him straight to Ace's room, shoved him inside, and roared: "Get in there! From now on, you're rooming with Ace!"
Luffy was tossed into the room, stumbled, and immediately collapsed face-first onto the floor.
Yet the instant his head hit the floor, an earth-shaking snore erupted—
"ZZZZZZ…"
He had fallen asleep instantly!
Dadan, standing at the doorway, watched this scene with her jaw practically dropping to the ground, unable to close her mouth for a long while.
This brat… just how thick were his nerves?! After such a terrifying week, he comes back and just passes out the moment he hits the floor?!
[Outside the God Valley light curtain]
"Hey! Roger!"
Golden Lion Shiki floated in midair. Watching Ace's memories on the light curtain—filled with resentment and pain—he mercilessly launched into taunt mode at Roger below.
"Look at your son's state—he seems to really hate you! Tsk tsk tsk… Looks like you're not much of a father either! Even your own son despises you this much!"
Roger listened to Shiki's mockery while watching Ace suffer because of his identity on the light curtain. A complicated, bitter expression appeared on his face.
He let out a helpless sigh: "There's nothing I can do… Even if you say that now, I can't change anything.
My… my son actually ends up living so miserably in the future…"
A deep sense of powerlessness and guilt surged in his heart. Even though it was a future event, learning of it now still left him feeling far from good.
The light curtain continued to advance. Through segments of memories and interspersed narration, the powerful figures in God Valley gradually learned the full story of how Luffy and Ace met, clashed, and slowly accepted each other on Mt. Corvo.
At the same time, one previous mystery was finally resolved: the true identity of Sabo, the Revolutionary Army's Number Two!
Big Mom's earlier guess had hit the truth exactly! This boy Sabo—who in the future would faint from grief upon hearing news of Luffy and Ace—was indeed their sworn brother!
The scene flashed back to Sabo's past: born into nobility yet yearning for freedom, witnessing the Celestial Dragons' atrocities, getting cannon-fired by his family's ship, gravely injured and falling into the sea—only to be rescued by Revolutionary Army leader Dragon who happened to pass by…
Finally, the scene froze on a warm, hopeful moment:
In their familiar secret base on Mt. Corvo, three battered but brilliantly smiling boys raised their sake cups high and clinked them together crisply!
"Starting today, we're brothers!"
The three shouted in unison, their young voices brimming with unshakable determination and joy.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves and fell upon them. The long-standing frost on Ace's face finally melted completely, revealing a heartfelt, warm, and relieved smile.
He even later sought out Makino specifically to earnestly learn basic etiquette—just so he could become a more proper, more respectable older brother.
That bond of brotherhood—born from rejection, testing, and ultimate protection—reached its most beautiful peak in this moment. As if all the shadows had dispersed, the future seemed filled with light.
Yet this heartwarming scene only stirred even more complex, unspeakable emotions in the hearts of Roger, Garp, and others in God Valley who knew the eventual fates of Ace and Sabo.
This fleeting happiness only highlighted the cruelty of destiny that would follow.
...