Mt. Colubo, the clearing behind Dadan's bandit hut.
The moon hung high, a silver coin tossed into a sea of stars. Below, a bonfire roared, fueled by dry cedar that crackled and spat sparks into the night. A massive wild boar turned on a spit, the aroma of rendered fat and charred herbs heavy in the air.
"Wooo... so good! I'm starving!"
Luffy sat cross-legged, his rubber arms moving so fast they became a blur. He jammed fistfuls of roasted meat into his mouth, his cheeks bulging like two overstuffed balloons. Despite the bandages crisscrossing his face, his appetite remained a force of nature.
On the other side of the fire, Sabo was buried in a mountain of glittering loot. He held a small, leather-bound ledger, a quill scratching rapidly as he tallied their spoils by the flickering orange light.
"So," Ace started.
He was bare-chested, his lean muscles throwing long shadows across the grass. He tossed a pure gold coin into the air, catching it with a rhythmic clink. He looked at the grease-stained Luffy with a faint, knowing smile.
"You've been through three years of my hellish training. You aren't a pushover anymore. How did a slow, clumsy oaf like Bluejam actually manage to bag you?"
Luffy struggled to swallow a massive hunk of boar, chased it with a gallon of water, and then slammed his fist into the dirt.
"It wasn't a fair fight! I was hunting for rhinoceros beetles near the edge of the Terminal when they swarmed me!" Luffy shouted, his face flushed with indignation. "They said you and Sabo had been 'disrupting' their Underworld business lately. They tried to make me tell them where our base was. As if I'd talk! But then they used a weird net with stones attached... the second it touched me, my strength just evaporated."
Ace's hand stopped mid-toss. The gold coin landed in his palm with a heavy thud.
Sabo also paused his writing, looking at Luffy with a complex expression. Facing a pirate with a double-digit bounty would make most adults wet their pants and spill every secret they held. Yet this ten-year-old kid had gritted his teeth and endured a day of torture without whispering a single word.
"You idiot," Sabo sighed, though he couldn't suppress a proud smile. "You could have lied. You could have led them into the territory of the mutated Great Bear on the back mountain. Why did you have to take the hits?"
"Because I don't lie to trash like them! And I would never betray Ace or Sabo!" Luffy declared righteously, before immediately returning his focus to a roasted leg of meat.
"Hahaha!"
Ace's laughter was wild and arrogant. He stepped forward, rubbing Luffy's hair so vigorously the boy's head wobbled.
"Well done, Luffy. A real man of the sea never betrays his brothers, even at the cost of his life." Ace's lips curled into a defiant arc. His voice was rough, but his eyes held an absolute, predatory protectiveness. "But next time you see trash like that, forget the beetles. Run back and tell me. I'll go twist their skulls off myself."
"Hehehe, I know!" Luffy grinned, his heart as light as air.
Ace pulled his hand back and walked over to a weapon he had driven into the mud earlier. It was a heavy, single-edged machete he'd liberated from Bluejam's personal stash. The blade was broad, a cold, dark cyan steel, with a handle wrapped in black animal hide.
"The weight is... acceptable. It'll do for a few years."
Ace swung the blade casually. It tore through the air with a piercing sonic boom. For Ace, refined swordsmanship was currently secondary to raw power; this blade was less a sword and more a heavy blunt instrument for crushing anyone in his path.
"Sabo, what's the final count?" Ace asked, shouldering the massive blade.
Sabo closed the ledger, his blue eyes flashing with excitement. He lowered his voice. "We're rich, Ace. Bluejam has been plundering merchant ships for decades. Between the gold, jewels, and cash... we're looking at roughly eighty million Berries."
"Eighty million?" Ace raised an eyebrow. "In a backwater place like the East Blue, that's more than enough for a proper start."
"Eighty million for a ship?" Sabo looked surprised. "With that kind of money, we could go to Syrup Village or a major shipyard and hire master craftsmen for a top-tier schooner. Should we look abroad?"
"No, we don't need to go that far." Ace shook his head decisively.
He used the tip of his machete to scratch a rough map into the dirt. "No matter how good the timber is in the East Blue, it's just sturdy firewood compared to the Grand Line's insanity. We have four years until we set sail. Sabo, take the funds and find a Master Shipwright secretly—either in Goa or a nearby port town. No flashy designs. I want a black, high-speed vessel built from the hardest wood available. Something sturdy enough to survive the currents of Reverse Mountain."
Sabo nodded, catching the vision. "So, this eighty-million-Berry ship... it's just a 'transition vessel'?"
"Exactly." Ace looked up, his dark eyes piercing through the bonfire's smoke, looking toward the distant, shrouded horizon. "A ship worthy of the name The Eclipse—a base from which we'll rule the world—can't be made of ordinary wood."
Ace grinned, the firelight dancing in his eyes like a conqueror's ambition. "When we hit the Grand Line, I'm taking you both to the clouds. There, amidst the gold, are vessels crafted with 'Island Cloud' technology. That is where we will find our true flagship."
Sabo gasped. "The clouds? Ace... you mean the legendary Sky Island? That's just a fairy tale!"
"It's real. And soon, it will be my territory." Ace laughed, sticking his machete back into the mud.
"Um, Ace," Sabo said, glancing back at his ledger and then at the meat-obsessed Luffy. "Luffy sets sail three years after us. Since we have the budget, should we have the shipwright build a small sloop for him in advance?"
Luffy stopped chewing. He swallowed, wiped the grease from his mouth, and sprang up like a coiled spring.
"I don't want it!" Luffy shouted, crossing his arms in a giant 'X' over his chest.
"Huh? Why?" Sabo blinked. "It would be much safer."
"I don't want a ship you guys made!" Luffy's eyes shimmered with a fierce, independent light. "If a pirate's adventure is prepared by someone else, what's the point? Listen up! When I set sail, I'm starting from zero! I'm going to find ten amazing crewmates on my own! And we'll get a ship a hundred times cooler than yours! I'm the man who's going to be the Pirate King—I don't need hand-me-downs!"
The clearing went silent for a heartbeat. Then—
"Hahahaha!"
Ace laughed so hard he nearly doubled over, slapping Luffy's shoulder with enough force to nearly bury him in the dirt. "Well said! That's exactly what a man's adventure should be!"
A glimmer of genuine respect flashed in Ace's eyes. But respect didn't stop him from mocking his younger brother.
Ace's grin turned playful. "But Sabo, you're definitely overthinking it. With this kid's brain? He can't tell north from south. Even if you gave him a battleship, he'd hit a reef on the first day without a navigator."
"Ace! Stop looking down on me!"
"I'm calling it now," Ace teased, rubbing his chin. "By the time you're seventeen, you won't even have enough for a rowboat. You'll probably have to crawl into an apple barrel and just drift away!"
"I won't crawl into a barrel! I'll have a super big ship! Just you wait!"
Luffy brandished his fists, fuming, while Ace and Sabo shared a laugh. Sabo closed the ledger and tucked it into his coat, his heart full. The dream was no longer just a thought—it was a plan.