The moment Luffy and the others arrived, Alvida had recognized them at a single glance.
After all, setting sail into the vast unknown of the Grand Line—and even pushing all the way into the New World—had been driven entirely by her obsession with chasing after Luffy.
In the end, recognizing that closing the distance between them had become a hopeless dream, she chose to chart a course back to the East Blue, the waters where her journey had begun.
What she had never anticipated was crossing paths with Luffy again so soon—and in the presence of all four legendary brothers assembled together.
In an instant, her gaze shifted completely.
By now, the commander's great broadsword was bearing down straight toward Sabo's neck. A lethal glint flared in the general's eyes—so what if these brats could fly?
Once his head was cleaved from his shoulders, he was just another dead man!
Yet just as he expected hot blood to erupt into the sky, a voice echoed like a demon whispering straight from the abyss, drilling into the deepest depths of his soul:
"Go back and tell Sterry that every trace of nobility in the Goa Kingdom must be abolished within twenty-four hours! Otherwise, he will lose every scrap of power he holds today!"
The commander's pupils shrank into pinpricks. His frame locked up as though struck by an immobilization curse, unable to twitch a single muscle.
Resting against the keen edge of his heavy cleaver were two slender fingers, pinching the cold steel with effortless poise.
The fingers appeared entirely relaxed, resting against the blade as though weightless. Yet though the commander threw every shred of his physical might into the blow, the sword remained frozen in mid-air.
Suspended in the sky, caught in bizarre, absolute stasis.
Only now did his racing mind register the name Sabo had just uttered: Sterry!
Wasn't that the sovereign name of their King?!
This youth had casually addressed their monarch by his personal name without a shred of deference!
"Who... who in the hell are you people?!" the commander forced the words past trembling lips.
This was the third time he had barked this question, yet each instance had carried a vastly different weight.
The first time, when Sabo and his brothers dropped out of the sky, it had been raw bewilderment.
The second time, driven by surging arrogance, he had shouted it to inflate his own bravado.
And this third time, having witnessed Sabo's terrifying might firsthand, it was a hollow, trembling plea born of pure despair.
Just what kind of unfathomable monsters were these four?!
"If you don't even recognize them, you're not fit to call yourself a soldier of the Goa Kingdom," Alvida spoke up suddenly from below.
"They are the Legendary Four Brothers! The supreme legends of our East Blue!"
"WHAT?!"
Alvida's proclamation detonated across the ranks like an artillery shell.
The commander's eyes bulged in sheer horror, his face draining of all color.
In that heartbeat, the grave warning the King had delivered before their deployment roared through his memory:
No matter what happens! Foosha Village—you are not to lay a single finger upon it!
At the time, he had scoffed, assuming the King was merely being overly paranoid.
Looking at the situation now, it had been an act of immaculate foresight!
The legendary four brothers had actually returned in the flesh!
More than that—no wonder Sabo's features had struck him with such intense familiarity! Wasn't this man the elder brother of the King himself?!
He had seen Sabo's royal portrait hanging within the palace halls. Everything clicked into place with terrifying clarity.
"That's enough. Take your men and leave," Sabo said, flicking his wrist to cast the commander downward like a ragdoll. "Tell Sterry that I will pay him a personal visit tomorrow. Tell him to have everything in order and wait for me."
"Now... all of you fall back!"
VROOOM!
A terrifying, razor-sharp aura detonated outward from Sabo's frame, generating concussive shockwaves that swept the vanguard of the army off their feet.
Air currents rippled like rolling tides.
Dragging himself up from the dirt with agonizing effort, the commander looked around only to find that the fifty-thousand-strong army he had marched into the valley was strewn across the earth, every man paralyzed in breathless dread.
He had never seen a mortal capable of such horror.
No, this could no longer be called human—this was the wrath of a god!
Conqueror's Haki!
Drake and his brothers watched on without the slightest hint of surprise. Sabo's innate genius had never lagged behind theirs; if anything, it shone even brighter.
Given the terrifying heights his combat prowess had reached, lacking Conqueror's Haki would have been far more shocking.
"Retreat! Fall back!"
With that panicked order, the fifty-thousand-strong force that had marched in with world-swallowing arrogance turned tail like whipped dogs, scrambling away from Foosha Village in utter disgrace.
From the moment Sabo's identity was laid bare, the commander's will to fight had evaporated entirely.
The gulf between them was heaven and earth—they simply did not belong to the same realm of existence.
Along the retreat path, the commander turned his head back toward the silhouette of Foosha Village, a heavy sigh tearing from his chest.
It seemed... the aristocratic order was truly destined for the gallows!
The Goa Kingdom was teetering on the precipice of an unprecedented, earth-shattering upheaval.
Anyone could foresee the coming storm—it would be an unsparing purge drenched in rivers of aristocratic blood.
Within Foosha Village, silhouettes began emerging cautiously from the wooden cottages.
Under the crushing siege of the massive army, the villagers had barricaded themselves indoors. Because Sabo and his brothers had clashed with the commanders high in the air, the townsfolk hadn't caught sight of their saviors.
Only after the royal army broke ranks and retreated did people trickle outside to survey the aftermath.
"Everyone!"
Before the villagers could make sense of the barren hills, a blur of motion materialized right in front of them, bursting with boundless joy: "It's been so long!"
The figure threw both arms wide—and in an impossible display, his rubber limbs stretched across the entire dirt road, scooping the gathered villagers into a massive, sprawling bear hug!
The terrified villagers froze, but as their gazes fell upon those impossibly elastic arms, absolute recognition washed over them.
No one in the world possessed arms like these except one boy!
"Are you... Luffy?!"
"And the rest of you... Ace, Sabo, Drake... you're all back..."
"You really came home! You're the ones who saved our village, aren't you? Thank the heavens... thank the heavens!"
"Quick! Someone run and fetch the mayor! And tell Makino right away—she's been worried sick about Luffy and the boys for years! Go, hurry!"
In the span of a breath, the entire village erupted into wild celebration.
The suffocating dread of being besieged by tens of thousands of troops vanished as if it had never existed, replaced by radiant, long-awaited smiles across every face.
The four brothers looked at one another and burst into warm, easy laughter. Luffy was undeniably the most animated of the bunch.
When it came to personal ties with the villagers, Luffy held the deepest roots; long before he ever met Ace and Sabo, he had spent his earliest childhood running through these very streets.
Ace, Sabo, and Drake had come to know the villagers through him. Yet since they were Luffy's older brothers, to the people of Foosha Village, they had always been family.
Before long, parted by the cheering crowd, Mayor Woop Slap and Makino hurried toward the center of the road.
The instant her eyes landed on Luffy and his brothers, Makino pressed a trembling hand against her mouth, choking back the sobs threatening to spill over.
She had watched these boys grow from reckless runts into young men; to them, she had been both a caring elder sister and a surrogate mother.
Aside from Sabo, the three of them had grown up as orphans under these skies.
"Hey! Makino! And Mayor Gramps!" Luffy grinned from ear to ear, laughing with unrestrained delight. "Shishishi...!"
"Why on earth did you troublemakers come back?!" the mayor gasped, half in shock and half in reprimand.
By all accounts, the four of them should have been navigating the treacherous reaches of the Grand Line!
"Alright, come out now, Dadan. Weren't you pining after these boys day and night? Why are you trying to hide away at a time like this?" Makino chuckled, gently pulling a massive, familiar figure out from behind her back.
Though she had tried to conceal herself, how could Makino's slender frame ever hope to hide Dadan's towering bulk?
From the moment she arrived, Ace and the brothers had spotted her lurking in the back.
"Gah!" Pushed out into the open, Dadan let out a flustered squeak. Lifting her head, her gaze locked squarely with Ace and the others.
Both sides froze in place.
"Y-You brats... you really came back..." Dadan managed after a long, choked silence. The moment the words left her mouth, she whipped her head around, her broad shoulders heaving in violent shudders.
She broke down into uncontrollable, weeping sobs.
"Dadan..."
Ace, Sabo, Drake, and Luffy felt their chests tighten, their expressions softening into profound warmth. Raising their hands in unison, they called out with radiant smiles:
"Hey! Everyone! Long time no see!"
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