Summary:
Unaware that the world’s nobles are coming, the boys continue to train and run around the mountain, getting stronger day by day. It is then that more information about the geography of the country is revealed. Behind the Gray Terminal is an area known as the Great Gate, which is part of the wall to another area called Goa. Foosha Village is also a part of this kingdom, although it is largely forgotten due to the surrounding mountains. The kingdom is divided into sections: Edge Town, which is still near the Gray Terminal, has buildings and is home to delinquents and hooligans, the City Center, where the middle class lives, and in the middle, guarded by another high wall. High Town, where kings and nobles live. Goa is said to be the most beautiful country in East Blue, even though it is segregated due to the class system.
The three boys sneak past the Great Wall one day during Gray Terminal’s regular garbage dump and go downtown and have dinner and a stomp. They escape from the window of the restaurant and escape from the guards. However, one of the citizens recognizes Sabo and calls out to him, but Sabo simply ignores the man. As they run, they ask if Sabo heard the man call his name. Sabo bluntly replied that he had not and that he must have been mistaken for someone. Once Ace and Luffy are back in the forest, they demand to know if Sabo has been keeping anything from them. After some prodding, Sabo comes clean and reveals that he is actually a noble who ran away from home. This was because his parents always pushed him and cared more about their ultimate and noble safety and status than their son, so Sabo felt like a burden to anyone in the world who cared about him. This is why he wants to become a pirate because he wants to break free from their tyrannical rule and write a book about his adventures. Ace and Luffy wholeheartedly agree and Ace declares that he will be famous and prove that his life is worth something. Luffy also declares something, but it’s not shown, only Ace and Saba’s shocked reactions. Ace pulls out some alcohol and pours it into three cups of sake, claiming that the three of them have been brothers since that day.
And day by day they grew stronger, fighting pirates, bathing together, eating together (not to mention taking food from Dadan and the crew), and rescuing each other during their journeys across the mountains. Makino and Woop Slap would occasionally come and give them new clothes. They would fight wild animals in the forest and bring them home to eat, Garp would visit them and beat them unconscious. They built their own tree house and lived in it and generally behaved as boys their age should behave. But one day, Sabo’s father found them and captured them with the help of the Bluejam Pirates, with Sabo’s father claiming that Ace and Luffy lured him away from home. Just as Bluejam was about to defeat Ace and Luffy. Sabo volunteered to go back with his father to save them, albeit with great reluctance. Ace and Luffy could do nothing but beg him to stay and become a pirate with them as he was led away.