Chapter 8: Failed Operation
Before dawn, the four of them arrived at Gray Terminal.
The entire wasteland looked eerily quiet.
At this hour, the heaps of garbage were only vague silhouettes in the darkness, rising like dead hills beneath the fading night sky. The usual stench still lingered in the air, but the noise was gone. Most of the people here were thugs, scavengers, and drunkards. None of them had the habit of waking early, and Bluejam's men were no different.
It should have been the perfect time to move.
In theory.
Ace, carrying a can of gasoline in one hand, yawned so hard it looked painful.
"Why did we have to come before sunrise?" he muttered, eyes half closed. "This is even worse than yesterday."
The trip from Dadan's hideout to Gray Terminal took two or three hours on foot. To arrive before dawn, they had been forced to get up in the dead of night.
That alone was enough to make the entire plan feel like it had been designed by a lunatic.
Sabo, who was still awake through what could only be described as sheer willpower, gave a tired sigh.
"No choice," he said. "At night, it's harder to retreat if things go wrong. During the day, there are too many eyes watching. Dawn is the best window."
Then he lowered his eyes and looked at the burden in his arms.
His expression darkened.
Why?
Why was he carrying Axel?
And more importantly, why could he not wake him up?
Axel was sleeping soundly in his arms, completely at peace with the world, as if he were not in the middle of an operation but on some luxurious morning stroll.
The truth was simple.
While asleep, Axel's vector manipulation reflexively treated sound as something to repel, which meant most attempts to wake him never properly reached him. Combine that with the fact that he was already a heavy sleeper to begin with, and the result was this absurd situation.
Sabo had tried shaking him earlier.
It accomplished nothing.
A while later, they reached the planned arson point.
Sabo let out a breath, crouched down, and carefully set Axel on the ground.
"Alright," he said, panting slightly. "We wake Axel, get into position, and start the oper..."
He stopped.
Then slowly turned his head.
The space beside him was empty.
His expression froze.
Only Axel was there.
Ace and Luffy were gone.
For a long second, Sabo said nothing.
Then a vein bulged on his forehead.
"Those two...!"
He spun around and found Ace almost immediately.
The future Pirate King's brother had somehow managed to fall asleep in the middle of the road, still clutching the can of gasoline like it was a treasured possession.
Sabo stared at him.
Then wiped sweat from his forehead with the blank expression of a man whose soul was being steadily crushed.
"Fine," he muttered. "I found Ace. So where's Luffy?"
The instant he said it, a terrible premonition crawled down his spine.
He turned.
And there was Luffy.
Walking cheerfully toward a nearby shack.
The same shack that belonged to one of the outposts they were supposed to lure away with fire.
Sabo's face twitched.
"That idiot!"
He did not hesitate for even half a second and instantly sprinted after him.
Luffy, meanwhile, had only one thought in his head.
Warm bed.
He had woken up too early, he was tired, and there was a house right there. In Luffy's mind, the logic was perfect.
So he walked right up to the door and started knocking.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Sabo nearly had a stroke on the spot.
Inside the shack, a gruff, sleep soaked voice answered.
"Who the hell is knocking this early...?"
The door creaked open.
A middle aged pirate stepped out, his hair messy, eyes half closed, and expression full of deep resentment toward anyone alive before sunrise. He looked around groggily, clearly not expecting trouble.
At first, he did not see anyone.
Then he lowered his head.
There stood a child in a straw hat carrying a suspiciously large bottle.
The pirate blinked.
"Huh...? Wait... you look kinda famil..."
Luffy had already started trying to walk past him into the house.
At that exact moment, Sabo arrived like a bolt of lightning.
He seized Luffy from behind, blocked the pirate's line of sight as much as possible, and forced a bizarre laugh.
"Haha... you're dreaming."
The pirate stared at him.
"What?"
"You're dreaming," Sabo repeated, smiling with the desperation of a man one wrong word away from total disaster.
The pirate blinked again.
Then, unbelievably, he nodded.
"Oh. So it's a dream."
And shut the door.
Sabo froze for half a second.
...It worked?
He did not question fate's brief moment of mercy. He snatched Luffy up properly and ran.
A few seconds later, the pirate opened the door again.
"Wait... that really didn't feel like a dream."
He looked outside.
No one was there.
He scratched his head.
"Eh... was it a dream?"
Meanwhile, Sabo dragged both disasters back to Axel's location, dropped Ace and Luffy beside him, and collapsed onto the ground in utter exhaustion.
A moment later, Axel's eyes opened.
He sat up slowly, rubbed his eyes, and looked around.
"Hm?" he mumbled. "Wasn't I sleeping? Why am I here? And why do you look like you fought a war?"
Sabo's face darkened even more.
He had been holding himself together through sheer discipline, but hearing that question nearly broke him.
"Wasn't this your plan?" he snapped. "You proposed the dawn raid! And then you went to sleep! At least pretend to suffer with me!"
Axel blinked.
Then looked to one side.
Ace was still asleep.
Then to the other.
Luffy was also asleep.
He pointed at them.
"To be fair," Axel said, "those two are sleeping too."
Sabo fell silent.
That was exactly the problem.
A few hours later, the sky brightened, and Gray Terminal slowly began to wake up.
More smoke rose from the trash piles. Voices started echoing in the distance. People stirred from their shacks and dens. The perfect moment for a pre dawn operation had passed completely.
Ace finally woke up.
Then Luffy.
Axel, upon noticing the others were still asleep beside him, had apparently decided that a little more rest sounded like a fantastic idea and simply lay back down for another nap.
Which meant Sabo had spent the entire time alone, tense, exhausted, and forced to keep watch while the other three treated the mission like a picnic.
Now, with everyone awake at last, Sabo stood in front of them, face shadowed, voice trembling with restrained rage.
"So," he said, "wasn't the entire plan completely meaningless?"
There was a brief pause.
Then Axel, Ace, and Luffy nodded together with surprising unity.
"Yeah," Ace said.
"It was," Axel agreed.
"Totally meaningless," Luffy added.
Sabo stared at them.
Something inside him cracked.
"Then what," he said, voice shaking, "was the point of all my effort?!"
Ace waved a hand dismissively. "Don't sweat the small stuff, Sabo."
Luffy nodded with great seriousness. "Yeah. It's not good for boys to cry."
Axel, after a moment of thought, added, "Makes sense."
Sabo's expression turned terrifying.
"If it's such a small thing," he said darkly, "why didn't any of you agree to trade places with me on the way here?" He pointed furiously at Luffy. "And you do not get to say that to me!" Then he turned to Axel. "And what do you mean, 'makes sense'?!"
Before Sabo could continue, Ace smoothly shifted the subject with the shameless skill of someone who had done this many times before.
"The weather's nice," he said. "Let's get started."
Axel nodded immediately.
"Good idea."
Luffy raised a fist. "Yeah!"
Sabo stared at the three of them.
"You... you absolute..."
Then he stopped.
Because sadly, this was not even the first time something like this had happened.
He exhaled slowly and decided not to waste any more energy screaming at a wall, a deep sleeper, and Luffy.
Instead, he forced himself back into strategy mode.
"Fine," he said, pointing toward the outposts. "Everyone's mostly awake now, so listen carefully. We move quietly. No one gets spotted if it can be avoided."
He looked at the two gasoline cans.
"We light the garbage piles behind the two outposts. Once the fire starts, their men will focus on that. Then we move."
Luffy instantly shot up a hand. "I'll do it!"
Sabo ignored him without hesitation.
"I'll take one side," he said. Then he looked at Axel. "Who's taking the other?"
"I will," Axel said. "I can move in and out without making a sound."
That much was true.
By altering the direction of sound vibrations, Axel could prevent noise from spreading at all. As long as he stayed out of sight, infiltration was simple.
Sabo nodded.
"Good. Ace, stay here with Luffy. If someone notices us, engage immediately and we'll regroup with you." He paused, then added with extra emphasis, "And most importantly... watch Luffy. Do not let him run around."
Luffy tilted his head, utterly unable to understand why that instruction was necessary.
Ace, however, nodded with rare seriousness.
After everything that had happened so far, he understood that point very well.
"Alright," Sabo said. "Move."
Axel shot off instantly.
He ran toward his assigned outpost with silent speed, heading for the trash pile behind the structure. The plan was simple. Set the garbage alight, make the men inside rush to deal with the fire, then use the confusion to begin the real attacks.
The gasoline was only there to ensure the fire caught quickly.
They did not want the entire garbage mountain going up. Even if Gray Terminal was full of scum, there were still people living there. The point was distraction, not slaughter.
Axel slipped behind the building under the cover of his vector manipulation, silent as a drifting shadow. He poured the fuel, ignited it, and immediately withdrew.
The fire caught fast.
Smoke began to rise.
Flames licked greedily through the pile.
Axel glanced back once, then allowed himself the smallest nod.
Surprisingly smooth.
Then he heard shouting in the distance.
Very familiar shouting.
He turned.
And saw them.
Ace, Sabo, and Luffy were running straight toward him.
A large group was chasing them.
Axel stared for a beat.
Then he heard Ace yelling, "Luffy, you idiot!"
Sabo, somehow still finding the strength to be furious, snapped right back, "Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on him, Ace?!"
Ace looked offended. "What was I supposed to do? One second he was there, the next second he was gone!"
Meanwhile, Luffy was laughing like this was the funniest thing in the world.
"Hahaha! They noticed me!"
Axel closed his eyes for one brief moment.
Yes.
The operation had failed.
Completely.