30: Chapter 30: The Spark That Awakens Sabo's Memories!

The storm reached its most violent peak in an instant.

Green currents of air, mixed with cold rainstorms, howled wildly through the narrow streets.

At the core of the storm that had risen from nowhere, a tall, mysterious man wearing a dark green cloak stood quietly in the curtain of rain.

Smoker bit down on his cigar, staring intently at this suddenly appeared green-cloaked stranger.

Because of the tearing winds, his two cigars, which had originally been flickering with sparks, now only had a faint, dull red glow left.

"Who... are you?!"

Smoker shouted.

In his current knowledge, there had never been such a person in the bounty wanted posters, or even in all the intelligence files of the East Blue.

He did not know that the man before him was the leader of the Revolutionary Army, whom the World Government desperately tried to hide and who would be known in the future as the "World's Worst Criminal" — Monkey D. Dragon.

He only knew that the appearance of this man was accompanied by a terrifying wind pressure that nearly overturned the entire Loguetown.

"Obstructing the Marine from capturing pirates, whether you are a bounty hunter or an outlaw, is an absolute felony!"

Smoker took a deep breath; his cold and resolute backbone meant he had no intention of backing down.

His arms instantly transformed into vast, rolling white smoke again. With the jet force of the smoke, he dashed toward Rice, who was blocking his path, with the speed of a shooting star, forcibly penetrating forward!

"Get... out of my way!!"

"White Blow!!"

Within the smoke, a heavy fist, accelerated to the extreme by the smoke and as heavy as steel, wrapped in fierce winds, slammed directly into Rice's chest.

Rice stood in the rain, letting the fierce wind blow through his soaked black hair.

Looking at the incoming white smoke, a surge of heart-pounding, warlike excitement welled up in his deep, pitch-black pupils.

Ordinary pirates, when facing Logia-type powerhouses capable of elementalization, couldn't even touch the opponent's physical body.

But, how could the top disciple of Garp be an ordinary person?

"In the East Blue, how strong do you think a Logia-type is, Smoker?"

Rice let out a long laugh in his heart.

His body, standing where it was, erupted in an instant with a force as heavy as a mountain, causing large sections of the marble ground to shatter under this immense pressure.

Rice slowly raised his right hand, silently mobilizing the Armament Haki within his body in his mind.

He condensed the intangible spiritual power into an indestructible pitch-black armor, wrapping it around his body!

"Hum—!!"

Under Smoker's shocked gaze, Rice's right fist was instantly and rapidly enveloped by a layer of extremely pitch-black, hard, horn-like material resembling flowing obsidian, refracting a cold and supremely noble metallic black light!

[White Dove · Black Fist Impact]!

No extra frills.

The heavy fist, wrapped in iron-black Haki, due to the extreme high-speed friction, created a shrill sound of the atmosphere being torn apart in mid-air, meeting Smoker's White Blow head-on!

"Bang!!!"

A dull and terrifying sound of impact exploded in the rainy night.

Smoker, who had originally turned into intangible smoke, felt as if he had been struck by lightning the moment their fists collided.

His eyes were filled with unbelievable shock in an instant!

Because he could clearly feel that hard, unimaginably domineering pitch-black power had forcibly torn through his smoke elementalization, precisely and accurately slamming into his physical chest hidden deep within the smoke!

"Puhah!!"

Smoker spat out a large mouthful of blood, flying backward like a kite with a broken string, sliding miserably for dozens of meters on the wet stone road, his Jitte almost flying out of his hand.

"Able to hit my physical body... Is this, Armament Haki?!"

Smoker knelt on the ground, clutching his slightly collapsed chest, blood spilling from his mouth where he bit his cigar. His eyes were now filled with indescribable trembling.

A young bounty hunter who had just set sail in the East Blue had not only mastered Observation Haki but had actually mastered a second type of Haki!

"Whoosh—!!"

Before Smoker could struggle to stand up, the green-cloaked man standing in place slowly raised his right hand.

The green gale between heaven and earth underwent a liberating upheaval in that instant!

A violently raging, eerily glowing green tornado, ignoring the direction of the sea breeze, swept across the entire street in an instant.

"Damn it... What is going on with this wind?!"

Smoker bit his cigar, using his Jitte to firmly stab into the ground to force himself to steady his body.

Due to the raging wind, he couldn't open his eyes at all, let alone see the true face of the green-cloaked man deep within the white smoke.

The Marine soldiers were blown away in large numbers like withered leaves.

And at the center of that storm.

The tornado formed a towering, almost tangible green wind wall, completely isolating the Marine soldiers and the severely injured Smoker on the outside.

In the center of this narrow, quiet wind wall, only Rice and the man in the dark green cloak stood, separated by layers of rain, confronting each other coldly.

Dragon pulled at his green cloak, his eyes, weathered by time and filled with coldness and determination, falling on Rice, his low, hoarse voice clearly audible in the wind and rain:

"As expected of the successor taught by old man Garp. This Black Fist really has thirty percent of his strength from back in the day."

The air currents around Dragon surged, like the core of a storm:

"Rice, what exactly is your purpose in stopping the Marine and waiting for me here?"

Rice flicked one hand, and the pitch-black Armament Haki wrapped around his fist quietly receded.

He looked at this leader of the Revolutionary Army, the corners of his mouth slowly curling into a smile that was extremely playful and cold:

"I stopped him for Luffy's sake. But I stayed to wait for you for the sake of another person."

"Oh?"

Dragon's eyes flickered.

Rice took a step forward, letting the rain wash over his chest. He looked straight into Dragon's eyes, and in a cold tone that was extremely calm yet capable of shattering the psychological defenses of any revolutionary, he slowly said:

"Dragon, the golden-haired boy you brought back to the Revolutionary Army headquarters—the one who was shelled by the Celestial Dragons ten years ago and lost all his memories—Sabo, is he doing well now?"

"Boom—!!"

The moment he heard that name, Dragon's body trembled violently!

His resolute face, which was usually as cold and calm as marble, was instantly taken over by an expression of extreme shock, vigilance, and disbelief!

Sabo's background and the past incident of being shelled by the Celestial Dragons were known only to a few core cadres in the entire Revolutionary Army.

And yet, why did this young man from the East Blue know it so clearly?!

Looking at the Revolutionary Army leader whose expression had changed drastically, Rice's face was cold and stern, his voice sounding ethereal and mysterious in the gale:

"This era has already begun to run wild and out of control. In the near future, his brothers will step onto the world stage and will also encounter terrifying, unpredictable storms."

Rice pointed to the pier behind him and said in a cold, almost prophetic tone:

"Dragon, do you want that amnesiac fool Sabo to, one day in the future, only be able to remember everything in tears of blood after reading the obituary of his sworn brother?!"

"Obituary?! What nonsense are you spouting?!"

Dragon's pupils constricted.

Although he didn't know about "Ace dying in the future," hearing Rice mention "future storms" and "obituaries" in such a certain, cold tone, almost like a divine prophecy, his heart sank heavily in an instant.

The cards this young man had revealed forced him to think deeply.

"If you don't want him to live a life of regret and pain, after you go back, tell him two names. One is 'Ace,' and the other is 'Luffy.'"

"Tell him that the three of them once drank the sworn cup of wine in the forest behind the mountain; that was their life-long vow."

"Dragon, give this amnesiac boy his soul back."

As Rice's words fell, the entire ruined street, which had been raging with wind, fell into a deathly silence in an instant.

Dragon stared intently at the young man before him.

Between his fingers, the wind pressure gradually subsided.

As the leader of the Revolutionary Army, his wisdom and insight were extremely high.

He knew that Rice was not lying, and even more so, he knew that what Rice had given was the only spark that could thoroughly awaken Sabo's memories and reshape his soul.

"Who... exactly are you? Why do you know these things?"

Dragon's voice was trembling.

"Me? I'm just the old man's disciple."

Rice let out a hearty laugh, turned around, stepped through the heavy rain, and strode toward the pier where the white dove was docked.

Dragon stood in the wind and rain, watching the tall and domineering back of the young man as he gradually went away in the night, and took a deep breath.

He knew that after tonight, the trajectory of the entire world's destiny had been completely rewritten under the wings of the White Dove.

And Sabo of the Revolutionary Army would reignite his raging fire at the call of those two names.