If it hadn’t been for Sabo, and a
handful of a little brother like you,
I wouldn’t have bothered staying alive.
Can you imagine? For Portgaz D. Ace, just being born and living life ground him down to his core.
If Gold Roger had a kid, you’d execute the spawn too.
Nobody would want such a child around. It’s just a sad fact of life.
What if we let every last person in the world with a grudge against Roger poke him with a needle? Then set him on fire, and let the entire world laugh at him before he dies!
And they’ll all say, serves you right! Gya ha ha ha!
Gold Roger brought about the Great Age of Piracy from the execution stand in Roguetown by hinting about the One Piece, a treasure supposedly containing everything in the world.
But this turbulent era was by no means a boon for everyone. The way the Ryugu Kingdom suffered at the hands of mermaid-hunters was only one example of this; lawless pirates took to pillaging and destroying in all corners of the globe.
While history ascribed many dazzling tales of heroism and grand adventure to the Age of Piracy, for the nameless common people of the time, the arrival of pirates was like a storm or drought—a merciless disaster that stole away loved ones.
“I hope his last words were ‘I’m sorry for being born, and for being the trash that I am,’” someone might say, hurling this invective like so much drivel into a spittoon. But the circumstances of that random man’s life and what Roger actually did in his were not likely to have any connection. Lowlifes who spend their days smoldering in bars and gambling dens over watered-down booze are always apt to blame their problems on others.
“The man executed by the World Government for being the worst, most despicable criminal in history should become the dirt beneath humanity’s feet.”
But he was just a pirate. Did he deserve such derision because he conquered the Grand Line and reached the final island of Laugh Tale? When a man’s already dead, you can say whatever you want about him.
Did the World Government so thoroughly smear Roger’s personal history because he knew the answer to the riddle of the One Piece? Because he stirred up the public and tempted young people into the idea of being pirates? Nobody could say for sure.
But in any case, the innocent public was given license to insult his memory, to blame him for everything and claim his death was payment for his sins. If anyone carried on his bloodline, they would also deserve to be stamped out. His wife, his children—all were fair game if you had a rock in your hand. All the world shared this common understanding. In fact, such an act would be considered worthy of praise. And this was entirely at the World Government’s direction. One might suppose that Roger’s existence, and what he achieved, were extremely dangerous ideas to the world nobles, the Celestial Dragons…
The people did not know. They mocked his life without even knowing his real name.
Gol D. Roger? Who’s that? Do you mean Gold Roger?
Do I know about him? Don’t you know whose fault it is that there are so many pirates in the world?
It’s all that Gold Roger guy’s fault.
He’s someone who should never have been born. He’s a complete and total scumbag.
A headache in life, and a headache in death. The worst trash in history. That’s all you need to know.
Back on Mt. Corvo in the East Blue, Ace was a brat with such an ornery mean streak that even the mountain bandits had trouble controlling him. Every time he wandered into town, bloodshed resulted.
What were you doing in town, Ace?! The street thugs down there were raising all kinds of hell, saying a young boy nearly murdered them.
Shut up! If I had the power, I would have killed them all!
He stared holes into anyone and anything that crossed his path.
Nobody knew about Ace’s parentage. But to him it felt like every single person he encountered blamed him just for being alive. They wanted all of Roger’s blood relatives dead.
Growing up in squalor, living off of the scraps of the mountain bandits. It was better when he was starving for food and affection. When he was old enough to think for himself, and his mind dwelt not just on life, but on death as well, Ace’s hatred festered, and not a day went by that he didn’t think of his father.
He knew that if anyone found out his father was Roger, even the closest friend would leave him. So the solution was simple: he never tried to make friends in the first place.
Bwa ha ha ha ha! I hear you’re a real handful these days, Ace!
It was Garp, the Naval officer who had left Ace with the bandits. He was a vice admiral with Navy HQ who had battled Roger in the past, such that they came to know one another in a way. One day, Roger surrendered himself to the Navy. Once he was arrested and his execution was scheduled, Roger took Garp aside and told him a secret: that he had an unborn child.
A search went out for any blood relations of the King of the Pirates. Garp warned him at once: they’ll execute your woman, and the baby if it’s been born.
But for better or for worse, Roger could see the true nature of people. And in the end, after Roger’s execution at Roguetown, Garp secretly protected the woman who gave birth in the town of Baterilla in the South Blue, after a stunning twenty months of pregnancy. The length of human gestation is typically no more than ten months. Therefore, based on the timing of Roger’s arrest, it could not possibly have been Roger’s child. No one would make the connection.
As the mother wished, Garp named the boy Ace and left the baby with Dadan, a mountain bandit he knew on the fringes of East Blue.
Every now and then, he came back to see the boy. Only Garp, Dadan, and Ace himself knew that he was the son of the dreaded King of the Pirates.
You have a grandson, don’t you, old man? Is he…happy?
You mean Luffy? He’s all right.
At the time, Ace couldn’t have guessed that he would soon end up living with that vice admiral’s grandson in the bandits’ shack in the mountains.
Old man.
What?
Would it…have been better if I was never born?
The more seriously he thought about that question, the harder it was to find the answer.
Garp considered it for a while, then gave his response.
Well, kid…only time can answer that question.