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Dear Sabo
I honestly don’t know what I want to write. You’re dead, and you have been dead for quite some time now. I set out today, and while I will miss Luffy, I have to admit that I’m missing you even more.
You should have been there with Luffy, waving goodbye as I took off. Preparing to leave as well. Instead, you’ve been dead for 7 years already. I should have come after you and made sure you had a chance instead of getting killed before it even started.
I don’t know what I’ll do yet. I want to build a crew able to surpass That Man, to make my own name in the sea and be known for me instead of being His Son. The moment they find out I’ll be killed anyway.
Maybe I’ll write again,
Ace.
—
Luffy,
First of all, I’m just fine. Tell Makino hi from me.
Next, I knew I would never join another crew - or at least I always assumed I never would - but I did do that. I joined the Whitebeard Pirates, Oyaji and Marco know who my Father was, and they don’t care.
I found that while being a pirate is amazing, being a captain is not what could keep me occupied for the rest of my life. Not when I just want to make a name for myself, which is not something I need to be my own captain for. I can do that as the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates just fine.
I would ask that you join too, but you would never sail under anyone else. That’s just not in your nature and I know it. I look forward to the day we can meet each other once again. Oyaji has no need, nor want for the throne, so I can help you get it.
Talk again soon
Ace.
—
Ace
I can’t say it surprised me, I knew that you would find a place in this world. When I first read your letter I was angry. If there was a crew you should be joining it would be mine. But I know you never would, you wouldn’t be able to do that - not while also being my big brother. You’d worry too much.
After meeting Crescent Stache I know why you felt so at home with him. Why even if I didn’t understand then, why you could be yourself on his ship. He was an amazing man and I’m sorry for all those who had to lose him together with you.
Marco has been a great help in Wano, never would have expected to have all these people who cared for you, and through you for me, to help out like this. It’s not only Marco, but also Izou and the other retainers of Oden (I heard he once sailed with your dad and with your Oyaji).
Yamato has been a great help too, they don’t want Kaido taking over any less than we wanted him to reign the seas. He’ll fall, and a new yonko will stand up.
I miss you, I hope you know that.
Luffy
—
Sabo
Where are you even? I thought after losing you once I never had to be scared to lose you a second time. We just got out of Wano and the last thing we found was a news article of what happened at the Reverie.
Are you alright? Are you back with the Revolutionaries?
Please tell me you’re alright, I couldn’t bear to know that I lost both my older brothers.
Love
Luffy
—
Luffy
I’m fine, wounded and hating Blackbeard even more right now. But fine, alive and kicking Marine ass. They came for us at the Reverie and I still can’t figure out how they could possibly know that this was what we were planning.
But we all got out, we’re healing on our new base. Given that the old one was overtaken by the Blackbeard Pirates, we needed to move.
I’ll come find you as soon as possible, something is telling me that you’ll need all the help you can get when taking on Teach and Sakazuki. We can do that together, I plan on doing that together with you - for us, for Ace.
Wait for me.
Sabo.
—
Ace
I never expected to be writing a letter to you again. Least of all one that I know you’ll never read. But the only one I know that would be so proud of Luffy as I am right now is you.
He made it, Ace, Luffy made it to Laugh Tale and claimed your old man’s title. He’s the new Pirate King and in true D fashion he has made sure that the whole world knows. He is changing so much already, even more than we could have done with the RA.
It’s like… Like we were children and Luffy pulled us in even while he didn’t want anything to do with him. It’s exactly like that, only this time he managed to pull in the whole world (or close to it) to see that change is needed and they don’t need to be scared to strive for it to happen.
He’s doing amazing, Ace, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.
Love
Sabo.
—
Later on, when the Pirate King was asked about his most prized possessions, the people asking would be told about his Nakama, his ship and his hat. But with a soft look in his eyes he would take out two letters; one written by each of his brothers. They didn’t seem like much, but to the straw hat wearing man it looked like they were made of solid gold.
Sabo grinned as he looked over the letters in his journal. Both of them had been written by his brothers, one had made its way to him by news coo once Luffy came out of Wano. The other had been given to him by Marco when the blond had met the other, giving him a letter Ace had penned for him when he had just joined the Whitebeard Pirates (maybe even before that). To know that even in his supposed death Ace had thought about him was something that Sabo cherished.
On a grave in the New World, decorated with a hat, a dagger and a beaded necklace, two letters could be found lying under a bottle of sake. They were letters written to the person buried there, to tell their older brother about what happened to them, even after he was gone. Even after he wasn’t with them anymore, that didn’t mean they didn’t have things to share. Each time one of his brothers visited, another letter, or a newspaper article, or a fresh cup of sake was set out.