"Alabasta Kingdom," a superpower located in the first half of the Grand Line, is a kingdom built in the desert, hence its nickname, the "Desert Kingdom."
The island it occupies is one of the largest islands in the first half of the Grand Line.
The Kingdom of Alabasta is vast and prosperous, yet, unknown to anyone, it is suffering from a man-made disaster.
For the past year, it hasn't rained in the Kingdom of Alabasta, except for the capital, Alubarna. For a desert kingdom severely lacking water, this is a catastrophe.
With no replenishment from rainfall, some desert oases have begun to dry up, forcing the commoners who rely on them for survival to relocate to larger oases.
Despite the drought lasting over a year, all citizens still believe in their country and their king.
Furthermore, the fact that it only rains in the capital, Alubarna, leads the citizens to attribute this phenomenon to their benevolent king, further strengthening their trust in him.
However, an event that occurred a few months ago plunged the country into complete chaos.
Nanohana.
A port city in Alabasta, renowned for its perfumes.
Early in the morning.
Firebird, along with his two subordinates, waited at the port dock outside Nanohana.
"Sigh!"
Firebird leaned against the wall under the eaves of a port building, a cigarette between his fingers, staring at the distant sea and sighing repeatedly.
To his left, his two subordinates sat on rocks, sorting through the packages in front of them, which contained equipment for photography.
One subordinate straightened up, polishing a camera lens in his hand.
Hearing Firebird's sigh, he glanced at him helplessly.
"Boss, you've been sighing for days. You need to cheer up!"
"What do you know?"
Firebird raised the cigarette in his hand, bit down on the filter, and took a deep drag.
The smoke swirled in his lungs, then through his windpipe, and out of his nose.
He turned to his two subordinates and said sternly, "That was a battle between world-class swordsmen! Right before my eyes..."
"Right before my eyes, and I couldn't capture it."
"Sigh!"
With that, he took another big puff of his cigarette and sighed again.
"Do you know how that feels?"
"No."
The two subordinates shook their heads repeatedly.
They had worked in the Four Seas before. They had never even seen a swordsman, let alone a world-class one, so how could they have photographed such an event?
The subordinate who was polishing the lens stopped his work, tossed the cloth back into the bag, then bent down, took out his camera, and, while attaching the lens, said to Firebird.
"Boss, isn't Silver Hair Brother arriving soon? You can ask him then!"
"Ask?"
Firebird's smoking paused. He stared at the subordinate with a strange look in his eyes.
He thought to himself, "Who do you think I am? Do you think I'm really that close to that silver-haired guy? 'Ask him'? He's a super pirate with a bounty of 1.5 billion! Aren't you afraid of death?"
Shortly after Kouta and his crew left Little Garden, the World Government learned of their whereabouts. If the World Government knew, then Morgans certainly knew.
Therefore, Firebird was one of the first to know of Kouta's reappearance.
On the day he received the message from Morgans, he called Kouta and learned that they were going to Drum Island first, then directly to Alabasta.
Calculating the travel time from Drum Island to Alabasta, he immediately led his subordinates from Raindinners to the port city of Nanohana.
However, on the day they were supposed to arrive in Alabasta, Kouta and his crew did not show up.
He ended up waiting in vain for a day.
When the Flying Dutchmen was still nowhere to be seen on the second day, he couldn't help but call Kouta again. From the phone call, he learned that Kouta had just finished fighting Mihawk.
This filled his heart with regret.
Why didn't he go to Drum Island to meet Kouta after receiving the news!
As he was once again lost in regret, unable to extricate himself, his subordinate's loud shout came from beside him.
"Boss, look! Isn't that Silver Hair Brother's ship?"
"Where?"
Firebird quickly straightened up, his spirits instantly lifted, and his gaze followed the direction of his subordinate's finger towards the distant sea.
There, on the horizon where the sea met the sky.
A small sailing ship with a sheep's head was rapidly approaching.
"That's it."
Firebird's face lit up with excitement as he saw the distinctive sheep's head of the Flying Dutchmen, his previous dejection completely gone.
"That's Silver Hair Brother's ship. Quickly..."
He turned to his two subordinates and said, "Pack up quickly and let's go to welcome Silver Hair Brother and the others."
With that, he turned around, raised his foot, and walked quickly towards the dock.
He wanted to personally welcome Kouta.
Thinking of the information he had gathered over the past few months, his heart stirred with excitement.
"This time, it's bound to be another world-shattering piece of news."
...
At the bow of the Flying Dutchmen.
Kouta looked at the prosperous city embedded in the golden desert and a smile appeared on his face.
"Finally, we're here."
He turned his head and shouted towards the crow's nest, "Arlo."
"Yes."
Arlo poked his head out from the edge of the crow's nest and asked below, "What is it?"
"You can take down the flag now."
"Take down the flag?"
A look of confusion crossed Arlo's face.
"Mm!"
Kouta turned around, leaned against the railing, and looked at the flag fluttering at the top of the mast. "We'll be staying in Alabasta for at least four or five days. If we don't take down the flag, I'm afraid our ship might be taken by other pirates or the navy. After all, there are plenty of people in this world who don't know their limits and aren't afraid of death!"
"Oh!"
Arlo nodded, turned around, wrapped his arms around the mast, and climbed to the top to retrieve the flag.
Before he could climb down, Kouta's voice came from below again.
"Don't bother coming down yet. You can furl the sails too while you're at it. We're almost there anyway."
"Understood!"
Kouta watched Arlo busy himself, then turned around, leaned on the railing, pulled out his wine gourd, and took a drink.
Behind him, Kuina, wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt and shorts, her hair tied in a ponytail, was lying on a lounge chair, reading a newspaper.
She put down the newspaper, watched the slowly rising sails, picked up her tea from the coffee table beside her, took a sip, then stood up and walked over to Kouta. She pushed her sunglasses up onto her forehead, leaned on the railing, and looked at the approaching port with curiosity in her eyes.
She had seen Winter Island.
She had seen Spring Island.
She had even seen Summer Island.
This was their first time seeing a desert, a true desert kingdom.
The weather nearby was really good.
After sailing to the vicinity of Alabasta, they hadn't encountered any strong winds or rain for a whole day, mostly clear skies.
However, good as it was, the hotter and drier it got the closer they got to Alabasta.
It was said that it hadn't rained here for over a year. With such extreme water scarcity, she wondered how this desert kingdom had managed to survive for over a year.
Thinking of this, she withdrew her gaze and turned to look at Kouta, her eyes filled with tenderness.
Perhaps this was the reason Kouta was so insistent on coming here.
She knew Kouta had many secrets.
She knew it from the first day Kouta arrived at the dojo.
Kouta always thought she didn't know.
She had grown up with Kouta since childhood and paid him immense attention. How could she not know about the newspapers he read and the books he studied?
But she never asked. She believed that if Kouta wanted her to know, he would tell her, and if he didn't, it was because he couldn't. Kouta did have secrets, big secrets.
However, he never hid anything from Kuina. He told her everything he could.
There was only one thing he might never tell Kuina until his death.
After all, the matter of transmigration was too fantastical, it was better to keep it buried.