Six Hours

The temperature at high altitudes is around minus forty degrees Celsius.

Sabo's face stung from the wind, and a thin layer of frost formed on his eyelashes. Each time he blinked, the frost would crack and then reform.

The inner walls of the wind tunnel are made of compressed airflow, invisible to the naked eye but perceptible to the body. The air density on both sides is more than three times higher than that of the normal atmosphere, forming an invisible tube that envelops him and propels him southward at a speed more than ten times the full speed of a sailing warship.

The Dragon's Storm-Storm Fruit.

Absolute control over the atmosphere in an Awakening state.

This wind tunnel stretches from the sea area where the Revolutionary Army Headquarters is located all the way to the sky over Alabasta, spanning a distance of more than half the world, but its stability is so precise that the error in the flow rate of every inch of air does not exceed 0.5 percent.

This is the most refined use of power that the dragon has ever exerted on this world.

Sabo maintained a diving posture in the air duct, with his arms close to his sides to reduce wind resistance, the tubes clipped to his belt at his waist, and the hat strap pulled tightly against his chin by the wind.

His eyes were half-closed, not because he was sleepy, but because the wind was too strong; keeping his eyes open would cause his tear ducts to stop functioning within three seconds.

I'm calculating the time in my head.

Forty minutes have passed since we left headquarters.

He had an estimated journey time of six hours, and he still had five hours and twenty minutes left.

And CP0.

He was unaware that CP0 had arrived.

He only knew one thing: from the Five Elders issuing the order to CP0 arriving at the target location, the World Government's highest execution efficiency was within twelve hours.

More than an hour has passed since the Sky Screen was paused. If the Five Elders issued the order immediately after the Sky Screen paused, CP0 could arrive in Alabasta as early as eleven hours before the Sky Screen is restored.

The window of opportunity left for him is shrinking.

It's shrinking every minute.

The temperature inside the duct caused him to lose some sensation in his fingertips, but he did not use Armament Haki to cover his entire body to resist the cold, because that would consume his stamina, and he needed to be in peak combat condition when he reached his destination.

He chose to remain conscious in another way.

Remember.

Alabasta.

He had never been to that country.

All his knowledge of that country came from newspapers, from the Revolutionary Army's intelligence files, and from snippets of information left behind after Luffy's adventures spread around the world.

But he knew Vivi.

It's not because she's a princess.

It was because one piece of intelligence among all the reports about the unrest in Alabasta made him stop what he was doing at his desk.

Princess Vivi, at the age of fourteen, infiltrated the criminal organization Baroque Works under an assumed name, spending two years there in an attempt to thwart Crocodile's plot against her country from within.

Fourteen years old.

Undercover agent.

Two years.

When Sabo first saw this intelligence report, he squeezed his teacup, and a crack appeared on the inside of the cup.

When he was ten years old, he sailed out to sea alone and was hit by Celestial Dragons's cannonball, after which he lost his memory.

He joined the Revolutionary Army at the age of fourteen.

At the age of fourteen, Vivi chose to face one of the Shichibukai.

This choice doesn't require courage.

Courage is a matter of a moment.

Two years of undercover work requires something else entirely: the ability to endure fear and loneliness alone every night, yet still put on the mask and keep going the next morning.

Sabo knew what that thing was.

He learned the name of that thing during his training with the Revolutionary Army.

Belief.

Later, when Sky Screen was reviewing Doflamingo, Vivi appeared on screen.

She stood on the balcony of the Alabasta Royal Palace, looking at the Sky Screen with her father. Her expression became solemn after learning the truth about Dressrosa, but there was no breakdown, no fear, only a quiet anger.

Sabo paused on that image for two seconds.

Then he wrote a line in his notebook.

Person to watch: Neferutari Vivi.

It's not because of her political value.

It was because he saw a color he recognized in her eyes.

He had seen that color in Luffy's eyes before.

I've seen it in the eyes of dragons too.

I've seen it when I look in the mirror.

At a certain point, the airflow in the duct experienced a slight fluctuation, causing Sabo's body to bounce gently, pulling him back from his memories.

The speed is increasing.

Dragon increased the propulsion of the air duct at headquarters.

What does that mean.

Sabo bit the inside of his lip.

The dragon sensed something.

As an Awakening user of the Storm-Storm Fruit, Dragon's perception of the global atmosphere allows him to detect abnormal signals within a certain range.

If changes occur in the air pressure and airflow in the direction of Alabasta that are not natural phenomena, such as high-speed moving organisms disturbing the local atmosphere.

The dragon will know.

The accelerated airflow was his answer.

It's too late.

CP0 has arrived.

Sabo's teeth loosened his lips, and the metallic taste of blood spread in his mouth.

He adjusted his posture, changing from a dive to a vertical downward press with his head down, so that his body and the axis of the air duct were completely aligned, minimizing wind resistance.

The speed increased again.

The sound of the wind in his ears turned into a sharp whistling. The thin air at high speed was compressed to a critical state, and a very thin layer of water mist began to appear around his body. It was the product of water molecules in the air condensing under high pressure.

Sabo knew that if he maintained this speed, he could reduce his arrival time in Alabasta from six hours to four and a half hours.

However, the cost is that his legs will experience six times the impact of a normal jump upon landing.

Who cares?

Vivi cannot die tonight.

His fingers touched the metal surface of the tube at his waist. The tube was colder than the surrounding air, so cold that his fingertips felt a burning sensation the moment they touched it.

The dragon added a final pulse at the end of the wind tunnel.

Sabo's body transformed into a shooting star high in the sky, plummeting from the northern sky towards the southern desert.

He was four hours and eight minutes away from reaching Alabasta.

Beneath the south wall of the Alabasta Royal Palace, the eyes behind the white mask had already counted the intervals between the passing patrol guards.

Each set lasts 30 seconds.

The distance from the south wall to the study window takes twelve seconds.

That's enough.