Chapter 216 — The Sea Is Wide for Fish to Leap, Nine Snake Island

Sabo appeared before Ace.

His gaze was dark and veiled, complex emotions lurking behind his eyes.

Because of a single cannon blast, he had once forgotten this brother of his.

But now, all those memories had come surging back to life.

For Ace and Luffy, Sabo would brave fire and water, travel to any world, any dangerous corner.

How could a mere Impel Down possibly stand in his way?

"Ace, it's been a long time."

Sabo tried to keep his voice calm and even.

He was disguised as a jailer, wearing none of his own true features.

They had not met for many years, yet hearing that voice and seeing those familiar eyes, Ace recognized the newcomer at once.

"You're... Sabo!"

Ace's expression froze for an instant, then melted into wild joy.

That joy was not for himself, not because hope of survival had appeared, but purely because the man before him was Sabo.

His sworn brother.

Pure delight spread the smile through Ace's eyes.

All his former dejection, despair, and resentment vanished like smoke.

Ace felt that this was the most precious moment of his life.

"Brother Ace, who is this?"

The Knight of the Sea Jinbe fixed his righteous eyes on Sabo, his tone calm, not in the least like a prisoner awaiting execution.

"My sworn brother, and Luffy's too—Sabo!"

Ace spoke with a note of pride.

He wanted to give Sabo an embrace.

But all four of his limbs were bound fast by special chains; he could not move.

"Shh... wait until I've gotten you out of here."

Sabo sighed.

If it were only Ace, the target would be far smaller.

But it was plain that if he dared suggest abandoning Jinbe and Diamond Jozu, then with Ace's temperament, there was every chance he would rather stay in Impel Down.

Luffy, Ace, Sabo.

The three sworn brothers were remarkably alike in their stubbornness.

At the thought, Sabo's lips curved upward slightly.

And wasn't that precisely why he had come all this way, risking capture to slip into Impel Down?

After all, as the current second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army, Sabo's bounty was in no way lower than Fire Fist Ace's, and in political significance he was not a shade inferior either.

The World Government and the Celestial Dragons had long since hated him to the bone!

"Escaping Impel Down as a group of three will lower our success rate a great deal—but I've made thorough preparations."

Sabo smiled faintly and used reward points to exchange for several single-use skeleton keys, which he used to unlock the shackles and cell chains of all three.

"This is the Cloak of Invisibility, from a world of magic. Drape it over yourselves and you can conceal your forms."

As he spoke, Sabo draped the intangible, formless cloaks over the three of them.

A wondrous sight unfolded.

Light passed straight through their bodies.

It was as though all three had gained the power of the Clear-Clear Fruit.

"Truly amazing."

Diamond Jozu could not help but marvel.

"Magic? What's that?"

Jinbe was a man of scholarly spirit; when he met with something he did not understand, he simply asked outright.

"A special power system from another world. Hard to explain in a few words—think of it as this cloak having eaten the Clear-Clear Fruit; the effect is about the same."

Sabo drew a deep breath. "So long as we don't run into a master of Observation Haki, there won't be any problem."

To save Ace, he had drained his entire reserve of reward points, and had even borrowed from senior Reincarnators at interest.

"I hope all of this won't be in vain."

As he spoke, he cast three bodies of flesh and blood into the cell and locked the chains once more.

These were false flesh purchased with reward points—"gigai," corpses crafted to resemble Ace, Jinbe, and Jozu.

They had flesh and blood, breath and heartbeat, but no soul—mere empty husks.

"That way, we needn't worry about the other jailers' routine inspections."

Sabo clapped Ace on the shoulder through the cloak of invisibility.

By birth date, Ace was two years older than Sabo.

But a full year of battle and missions in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire had shown Sabo a far broader world and given him far more experience.

Now it seemed that he was the elder brother.

That feeling sat poorly with Ace.

He felt he ought to be the great tree sheltering his younger brothers from wind and rain, not the one being rescued.

Still, Ace did not sulk at a time like this.

He was not the sort to make a fuss.

The four of them left the sixth level of Impel Down together.

Along the way they met with only one small problem—the former government official imprisoned for the wanton slaughter of innocents: Shiryu of the Rain.

He sensed the three people beneath the cloaks of invisibility.

"Hey... brats, how about taking me along too?"

A twisted smile surfaced on Shiryu's hideous face. "Otherwise, I'm not sure I can keep this mouth of mine shut."

There was a reek of blood in his words.

An ordinary pirate or warrior might have been scared out of his wits.

But who was Sabo?

A qualified Reincarnator who had survived eleven main-god missions!

The humanoid lifeforms he had killed with his own hands numbered no fewer than Shiryu's.

At those words, Sabo merely raised his head slowly and fixed him with a cold stare. "If you want to die, you're welcome to try."

A sharp, frigid killing intent, almost solid, pierced into the depths of Shiryu of the Rain's heart.

His breathing broke rhythm for half a second.

"What a formidable brat..."

Shiryu smacked his lips, then burst out laughing. "Get lost, then—I don't want any part of your mess!"

A textbook case of stubbornness yielding.

"Heh..."

Sabo gave a soft laugh and departed calmly with Ace and the others.

Under the eyes of all present, the four of them walked openly out of Impel Down.

From that day on, the sky was high for birds to fly, the sea wide for fish to leap!

Once they had left the great undersea prison, the four of them found the leisure to chat.

Only then did Sabo learn that the Knight of the Sea Jinbe had been thrown into prison for refusing the Navy's forced conscription—and even for causing a great uproar at Navy Headquarters.

This was a man worthy of respect.

For the sake of that sliver of possibility for peace, he had willingly given up his lofty station.

……

By the time Sabo succeeded in rescuing Ace, the battle between the Straw Hats and Aokiji and Kizaru had also ended.

As Navy Admirals, neither Aokiji Kuzan nor Kizaru Borsalino was willing to fight to the death like a dog of the Celestial Dragons.

They too had their own dignity.

A brief pursuit, a few exchanges, enough to show they had done their best—that was all.

After Uchiha Sasuke joined the battlefield and merged with Uzumaki Naruto into the formidable Six Paths Sajin, they had already given up the fight in their hearts.

There was no need for that.

In the end, it was Bartholomew Kuma, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, who stepped in and sent the entire Straw Hat crew flying.

This threw them completely off their original course.

Uchiha Sauta leaped from the Golden Merry and landed on the island.

He raised his wrist and scrolled through the portable data terminal, then concluded: "This place is..."