Before Dawn

The countdown numbers in the Sky Screen jumped across the twelve-hour mark in the skies around the world.

There are six hours until the next round of reviews begins.

Alabasta, the Royal Palace study.

The circular gap in the ceiling had been temporarily covered with planks and canvas, but the desert sunlight still seeped in through the gaps in the canvas, casting a few dappled spots of light on the ground.

Sabo sat on the windowsill, his back against the window frame, his left foot resting on the edge of the windowsill, his right foot dangling against the wall outside the window, his pipe lying across his lap, and his hat pulled down lower than usual.

He has been sitting in this position for six hours.

I didn't sleep.

When Vivi pushed open the door, she was carrying a tray with two glasses of water and a plate of chopped dried desert fruit on it.

You didn't sleep a wink all night.

"I'm used to it."

Sabo took a glass of water, took a sip, and found the water to be at the perfect temperature.

Does the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army often stay up all night?

"The work of the Revolutionary Army's Chief of Staff is often much harder than staying up all night."

Vivi sat down in the chair next to the desk, the same spot where her father had sat the night before. The back of the chair still bore the slight creases of Cobra's robe.

My father went to rest, so I'll take his place.

You should rest too.

"I can't sleep."

Vivi touched the thin chain she had just hung around her neck, and tucked the brass key from the chain inside her collar.

"Sabo."

"Um."

"Were you serious about what you said last night, about our family becoming living evidence after the list is released?"

"Yes."

"And then what?"

Vivi's fingers stopped at her collarbone, the edges of the brass key faintly visible through her clothing.

"After the list was released, the whole world knew the truth, and then what?"

"What do the Revolutionary Army want with this truth?"

Sabo turned around from the windowsill, tucking both feet inside the window to face Vivi.

"Overthrow the World Government."

His answer was direct and unembellished.

Vivi's expression didn't change; she had already guessed the answer.

What happens after it's overthrown?

"To establish a new order."

What kind of new order?

"The Great Kingdom projected on the Sky Screen embodies the principles of freedom, equality, and coexistence."

Sabo ran his fingers over the handle of the tube.

"Mr. Long's goal is to realize that ideal."

"Through war?"

Sabo was silent for two seconds.

"If it can be avoided, Mr. Long does not want war."

But what if it's unavoidable?

"Then let's use war."

Vivi looked into Sabo's eyes, searching for something in them, something similar to what she had seen in the mirror when her country faced the threat of Crocodile.

She found it.

You're a lot like Luffy.

"It doesn't resemble it at all."

"Luffy is the same way. He tells you what he's going to do first, and then no matter how much you ask him about his methods and plans, his final answer will always be the simplest sentence."

Vivi's lips curved into a slight smile.

"I'll save you, I'll defeat him, I'll become the Pirate King!"

He doesn't explain the process, he only gives you the result.

"And then you inexplicably started to believe him."

Sabo tapped his finger on the tube for a moment, then he smiled.

That smile was different from all the expressions he made when facing the white mask; it carried a very personal warmth.

He's been like this since he was a child.

"When he said he wanted to be the Pirate King when we were kids, Ace and I both thought he was talking nonsense."

"But after he said it a hundred times, we believed him."

The desert outside the window gleamed white in the midday sun, and waves of heat rose from the ground, distorting the distant horizon into a wavy illusion.

Vivi removed her fingers from the thin chain around her neck.

"Sabo."

"Um."

"If Mr. Dragon arrives, if the list is published, if the World Government is truly overthrown."

Her voice slowed, each assumption sounding like a weighing.

What will happen to a country like Alabasta?

"We are Affiliated Nation, and our security and trade depend on the World Government system."

"What will happen to our people if the system collapses?"

After listening to the series of questions, Sabo shifted his gaze from Vivi's face to the stack of notes still on the desk. The notes contained Cobra's handwritten summary of the Sky Screen's contents from the previous night. The handwriting was neat, but the spacing between the lines was getting narrower, indicating that he was writing in a hurry.

Mr. Long does not yet have a complete answer to this question.

His voice was half a tone softer than before.

But he's looking for it.

"What are you looking for?"

"Find a way to rebuild everything without breaking everything."

Sabo flicked the end of the tube with his finger, and the metal emitted a short hum.

"The emergence of the Sky Screen changed many preconditions. Mr. Dragon's previous plan was to gradually dismantle the foundation of the World Government over ten to twenty years."

"But the Sky Screen dug away most of its foundation in just a few days."

"It's too fast."

"It happened so fast that even the Revolutionary Army itself wasn't prepared to take over that vacancy."

He looked at Vivi.

"So your question is not something I can answer."

"But if you'd like, you can ask Mr. Long yourself after he arrives."

Vivi clenched her fingers on her knee for a moment, then released them.

Do you think he'll give me a good answer?

"Uncertain."

Sabo's answer surprised her.

Mr. Long is not good at giving good answers.

"But he's someone who listens attentively to questions."

The heatwave outside the window was suddenly replaced by a fresh breeze, which shifted from due south to southeast and was a level stronger than before. The breeze whipped up a few grains of sand from the windowsill, which then struck the metal surface of the pipes with a soft, clinking sound.

Sabo's body tensed up the instant the wind shifted.

He looked up at the sky.

A very thin crack appeared in the clouds in the southeast direction, extending from above the horizon and pointing straight up to the Alabasta Royal Palace.

It was almost exactly the same ventilation shaft he had seen when he arrived last night.

But their directions are different.

The wind last night came from the north.

This one comes from the East.

"Vivi."

"What's wrong."

Sabo stood up from the windowsill, the tube in his hand, his hat pressed down with his other hand.

Go and call your father.

"Mr. Long has arrived."

Vivi's body stiffened for a moment in the chair.

She looked out the window at the sky and saw the approaching crack in the clouds.

There is a black dot at the end of the crack.

The black dot was falling toward the Royal Palace at a speed that did not belong to any known aircraft or person with flying abilities.

It wasn't a fall.

It is an arrival.

The black dot was surrounded by a swirling airflow, the speed of which gradually decreased as it approached the ground, creating an incredibly precise deceleration buffer.

At a height of about fifty meters above the Royal Palace roof, the airflow completely dissipated.

A person landed on the stone pavement outside the Royal Palace, with such precision that not a single pavement paved with the stone was broken.

A grey-green cloak, with a hood that covered most of his face, revealed a chin whose outline was exactly the same as the face that had been projected onto the Sky Screen.

Pell saw the man from the rooftop.

His hand tightened and then loosened its grip on the scimitar in an instant.

Not an enemy.

But it is more dangerous than any enemy.

Monkey D. Dragon's gaze swept across the outer walls of the Royal Palace, pausing for a second in the direction of the study window.

He saw Sabo standing on the windowsill.

Sabo made a gesture to him.

The dragon's hood fluttered slightly in the wind, and then he strode toward the main gate of the Royal Palace.

His footsteps were very light, the sound of them falling on the stone pavement completely drowned out by the desert wind.

But everyone in the Royal Palace felt it.

A kind of pressure.

It's not pressure from the level of force, but the weight of existence itself, like the density of air increasing by a few percent in the direction it approaches.

The countdown numbers on the Sky Screen continued to tick high above.

Five hours and forty-seven minutes.

Five hours and forty-six minutes.