When Loa saw Luffy in the Sakura Kingdom, he asked in a deliberately threatening tone, "Where are you going next?" What he really wanted to know was whether Luffy had received Ace's message.
When Luffy set out for the Grand Line, Dragon would have made time in his busy schedule to see him off in person. Ace was sure to have heard the news too.
That was why, in the original story, Ace had left a message in Drum Kingdom saying he would wait ten days for Luffy in Alabasta. While pursuing Blackbeard, he wanted to see the little brother who kept declaring he would become the Pirate King.
The bond between the three ASL brothers went without saying. After Sabo was "killed," Ace, unruly by nature, had even asked Makino to teach him manners so he could set a good example for Luffy. He had become polite and humble.
He had never shaken his strange habit of eating without paying, but the Ace of later years truly was nothing like the boy he had once been.
He had done it all for Luffy, his brother despite their lack of blood ties.
So once Luffy entered the Grand Line, Ace would surely find a chance to meet him, see how he was doing, and fulfill his duty as an older brother.
Yet Luffy had said he did not know where they were headed. He had even needed to ask Nami, his navigator. Clearly, he had not received Ace's message.
Did changing the story mean Ace would only leave Luffy a message later on?
Given the Navy's insistence on accompanying him to Elbaf, Loa found it easier to believe Ace really had been captured than to believe in that kind of coincidence.
What he had said to Fujitora tonight was only