{T/N: The title is a reference to Ace's tattoo, A(ce)S(abo)C(ry baby)E(dward Newgate). But since he hasn't met Whitebeard yet, he probably doesn't have the tattoo.}
"Sabo, Christine sent word urging us to hurry."
An inconspicuous sailboat sailed along the rippling ocean swells.
On deck, a mischievous-looking young girl wearing a small hat with goggles hung up the Den Den Mushi and spoke sweetly to the young man ahead of her.
The young man also wore a top hat with goggles and had wavy blonde hair. A faint smile always played at the corners of his mouth, giving him a gentle face — but the burn scar over his left eye added a resolute edge.
Sabo leaned against the mast with his hand supporting his face, complaining listlessly, "Seriously, what do Mr. Dragon and the others want? Why did they call us here?"
The lively Koala came up behind him, raised her fist, and lightly knocked the back of his head, "Be more composed. The leader asking you to do things means he trusts you."
She leaned close to his ear and said softly:
"I've heard that many Revolutionary Army soldiers admire you."
Sabo blinked, "So what?"
Koala sighed, "So I think the leader will promote you again. You're the youngest and most promising officer in the Revolutionary Army."
Sabo waved his hand nonchalantly, "Impossible! If that old stubborn Mr. Dragon promotes me, I'll eat my pipe!"
Koala gave him a big eye roll — this guy was all talk.
"But why does Mr. Dragon insist on having that pirate join our operation?" Sabo pondered.
Koala crossed her arms and smiled, "Noyer's Copy-Copy Fruit is a treasure for any faction. If we can't recruit him, we at least need to leave a good impression. From what we've seen, he isn't a terrible pirate, and he's already established communication with us."
Sabo nodded and asked curiously, "You mentioned another pirate would be joining. Who is that?"
Koala pulled out a wanted poster from her bag and read deliberately, "His name is Portgas D. Ace, the recently famous Fire Fist. His bounty has been rising rapidly."
"Ace…"
Sabo spoke the name softly, and those two familiar voices echoed in his head again.
"And also… Luffy?"
Koala startled, "Who's Luffy?"
Sabo clutched his head, eyes wide as he desperately tried to remember.
His slightly aching mind told him that before he lost his memory, he definitely knew the owners of these two names — and they must have been very important!
"Ah! We're arriving at the Favonius Kingdom!" Koala shouted happily, pointing at the shore, "Christine is there too. Is that person next to her Noyer?"
Sabo turned to look. Sure enough, standing beside Christine was that handsome man with a sword at his side.
But when he glanced to the side, his gaze froze. Ace stood on the shore with tears streaming down his face, frantically waving his hands and crying out loud while excitedly pounding on Noyer.
"Wahhh… Sabo! Noyer, look! It's really Sabo… Gyaha!"
After being vigorously slapped on the back by the clumsy Ace, Noyer's veins bulged. He turned around and kicked him down, cursing, "Get excited on your own! Don't wipe your tears and snot on me!"
Sabo stared at Ace in a daze as memories from his past began to surface.
A dark, terrible noble family… he had escaped…
In that place, he met the two most important people in his life. They built the "ASL Secret Base" (their treehouse), became sworn brothers, and promised to set sail together as pirates.
But later, his parents dragged him back home. Sabo escaped and secretly set sail alone, only to be sunk by cannon fire from the Celestial Dragons.
{T/N: Saint Jalmack is the one who shot Sabo. Twice…}
The fragments of memory continuously reorganized. His blank childhood mind was painted with color once again, and that comical crying face suddenly overlapped with the brother in his memory.
Kicked away by Noyer, Ace got up. Seeing the ship getting closer, he finally couldn't hold back and rushed forward.
Ace lunged forward, crying and laughing at the same time, shouting, "Sabo!"
"Ace!"
With his precious brother reappearing before his eyes, Sabo instinctively called out. Tears streamed down his face as he rushed forward.
The two brothers collided together and bawled like children, babbling incoherently. No one could make out what they were saying.
Koala walked down from the ship in astonishment and came to Christine's side, "What's going on?"
Noyer smiled as he watched the two embracing and rolling around, "Brothers reunited. Looks like Sabo's memory has returned."
Koala looked at the two radiating bromance and said in surprise, "Sabo and Fire Fist Ace are brothers?"
Christine nodded helplessly, "I didn't believe it at first either, but now it seems it's really true."
The two brothers cried for a long time before finally holding back their tears and walking toward the three of them.
Sabo put his arm around Ace's shoulder and introduced him to Koala, "Koala! This is Ace, my sworn brother from childhood!"
Koala bowed slightly. Sabo turned to Noyer, removed his hat, and said earnestly, "Thank you, Noyer. Ace told me you brought him to find me."
Ace added gratefully, "That's right! Thanks so much, Noyer!"
Noyer smiled and shook his head, "It's nothing, just a small favor."
Koala looked at the kingdom in the distance, "We still have a mission. Let's head back first."
"Okay!"
Sabo and Ace had reunited, and now the two were inseparable — even a saw couldn't cut them apart.
All the way back to the base, the two never stopped talking. If you didn't know they were brothers, anyone would think they were acting awfully gay…
Koala watched as her partner's soul was instantly stolen away. She pouted slightly and said quietly with some displeasure, "Their brotherly bond is really strong…"
Noyer, with his keen hearing, glanced back at her and smiled knowingly.
Koala, known as the "second sister-in-law", was Sabo's childhood friend who grew up with him. Back when Noyer was following the manga, he had shipped this couple plenty.
{T/N: The first sister-in-law is Boa Hancock, with Luffy.}
Now that he was seeing reality, why were these two even wearing matching outfits…
The group returned to the Favonius base, where Dragon was waiting.
Watching Sabo and Ace reunite, he showed no particular expression — just silently patted Sabo's shoulder.
Dragon spread out a sea chart, "This map shows the route the Heavenly Tribute must take, and it's where we'll execute our plan."
The chart had several obvious symbols marking the positions of various ships.
"We're divided into an infiltration squad and a surrounding force. For the infiltration squad, we'll have to rely heavily on Mr. Noyer."
Noyer nodded, "No problem. Infiltrate and cut off the communication equipment — easy!"
Ace grabbed Sabo's arm excitedly, "Then Sabo and I will be together! We'll wait for your signal with the surrounding force!"
Noyer covered his eyes — you said you'd come with me earlier.
◇◆◈◆◇
The plan had been discussed for several days, but before everyone could finish preparations, the Heavenly Tribute fleet arrived on schedule.
After all, this wasn't a performance — they couldn't exactly ask the government to cooperate and rehearse the whole process first.
In the planned sea area, a massive fleet sailed in from the distance.
Each ship had guards — half were government and Marine guards, the other half from the home country.
One ship carried vast amounts of money and resources. Government agents stood alert at various points on the deck, vigilant for any disturbance.
At the sun-drenched bow, Christine swaggered out.
She wore a luxurious platinum-colored knight's outfit with a longsword hanging at her slender waist, her elegant silver hair shimmering brilliantly in the bright sunlight.
When the government personnel saw her emerge, they couldn't help but glance at her a few more times.
This knight commander named Christine was an ally of the nation contributing the Heavenly Tribute on this ship, specifically invited to help guard it. Apart from government personnel, almost everyone on this ship was a guard from her knight order.
The government's senior agents looked down on the experts invited by the allied nation, which saved Christine a lot of trouble.
Behind her followed a man of medium build with a fierce-looking face. That person was none other than Noyer, who had used his ability to transform into someone else's appearance.
He had settled Robin and the others, leaving Enel and Wyper to recover from their injuries. He'd only brought Lucci and Blueno, whose abilities and experience were extremely helpful.
Especially Blueno — the Door-Door Fruit's ability allowed Revolutionary Army soldiers to appear without a trace on ships and in various locations.
Wearing an ugly face, Noyer discreetly assessed the ship's personnel and guards. With chests puffed out, they were clearly experts proficient in Tekkai and other techniques, with well-developed muscles and decent physiques. On the entire ship, there was hardly anyone who didn't know Rokushiki — completely different from the common Marine soldiers Noyer had encountered before.
Moreover, each fleet transporting Heavenly Tribute had a Marine battleship providing close protection nearby, in addition to the government guards on the ships.
With such tight security, no wonder the Revolutionary Army had to go to such great lengths. Even the infiltrating Revolutionary Army soldiers were extremely elite.
After several revisions to the plan, Noyer's mission had become quite simple.
Every ship in the Heavenly Tribute fleet was equipped with Den Den Mushi. The infiltrating soldiers had to cut off all communication snails to the outside world. However, both the transport ships and Marine ships had lead vessels equipped with Visual Den Den Mushi for surveillance, monitoring every move of each ship.
This world had cameras too — even with Blueno's Door-Door Fruit, if they showed their heads and got caught on camera, the other ships would send out distress signals.
The two lead ships were heavily guarded, and they were Noyer's most important targets. A completely silent takeover of the fleet was impossible — the goal was simply to maximize the effectiveness of the infiltration team's actions.
If the fleet's distress signals could be cut off, it would buy time for the surrounding forces. So his actions were critical — essentially serving as the starting gun for all the Revolutionary Army's moves.
Noyer followed Christine, and the group stood in formation like a small squad, pretending to patrol normally.
Lucci appeared to be looking straight ahead, but was quietly observing the positions of the surrounding Marine ships. The blind spots were minimal — every ship's movements could be seen from elsewhere. Except for inside rooms, there were hardly any dead angles.
As Christine led the squad on patrol, a petite young woman approached them. This girl wore government attire and had a lackey following behind her. A girl who looked less than five feet tall actually had a grown man as her subordinate.
Seeing Christine approach, she raised her hand to stop them, "Commander Christine, if you have nothing to do, please don't wander around the ship."
Christine squinted and smiled warmly, "Guarding the Heavenly Tribute from our allied nation is our duty too."
The man behind the girl frowned and scolded, "Just follow your superior's orders — why all the talk?"
As Christine was about to respond, Noyer let out a mocking laugh, "A kid who's still wet behind the ears sure has trained herself a good dog."
Provoked, the man immediately lost his temper. He stepped forward, grabbed Noyer by the collar, and cursed, "What did you say?"
The girl said expressionlessly, "Commander Christine, your subordinate's mouth needs discipline. How about I teach him a lesson for you?"
The girl gave a look. The man immediately understood, grabbing Noyer and sneering wickedly, "You little punk! Let's find somewhere quiet where you can learn how harsh society can be!"
Watching the girl drag Noyer away, Christine's face looked troubled. She had to swallow her anger and say, "My failure to control my subordinates — I leave him to your disposal."
The girl sneered and nodded, then silently followed the man.
Christine secretly smiled and exchanged glances with Lucci and Blueno — time to act.
Noyer was dragged away and thrown into the cargo hold at the bottom of the ship.
The other guards who witnessed this watched with glee. Someone had actually dared to provoke a government expert — he probably wouldn't walk out alive.
Before long, the girl walked into the cargo hold with her hands behind her back, quietly watching the man teach Noyer a lesson. After a short while, the man lay on the ground with wide-open eyes, not even a breath left in him.
Another identical-looking man walked over, except his aura had changed.
Noyer transformed into someone else again, carefully adjusting his voice as he greeted the girl, "What should I call you?"
"Momomi. Call me superior from now on." The girl had a petite frame, but her expression remained perpetually cold.
Noyer showed no restraint. Seeing no one was around, he raised his hand and affectionately patted her hair, smiling, "A loli with that kind of expression isn't very cute, you know."
Momomi felt the warmth on top of her head. She looked up at Noyer and said in a bone-chillingly cold voice, "Shut up. Remove your hand."
"I won't…" Noyer teased, but immediately realized something was wrong.
He had clearly opened his mouth — so why was no sound coming out?
He looked at Momomi in shock, as if roaring inside his mind. The Nagi Nagi no Mi? That was Donquixote Rosinante's ability!
Right… Corazon had died, so the Devil Fruit naturally reappeared. This Revolutionary Army member Momomi, who had infiltrated the government, must have inherited the power to become a Soundless Human.
No wonder Christine and the others had her coordinate with his actions.
Momomi watched Noyer quiet down and said matter-of-factly, "Don't let my height fool you — I'm already 27 years old. Show some respect."
Huh?
Noyer looked at the loli before him with even greater shock — she really didn't look her age at all. A woman nearing thirty, short, flat-chested, with a childish voice and youthful face — truly bizarre.
They were the same age — just look at Miss Robin!
Once, for the sake of great scientific research, Noyer had risked his life to take measurements — her bust was one meter, not a bit less. That pair of enormous peaches was practically as big as his own head!
Long live 2D…
But later, he was nearly buried alive by Robin…
◈◈◈
T/N: Comment, give me Power Stones, like and favorite, it all supports me and makes me go foward with this. Appreciate my other stories as well, I guarantee the good work!
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