The battle between Alucard and the two warships led by Rear Admiral Delasol in the New World was immediately reported to Marine Headquarters. Along with the report were the eyewitness accounts of Alucard’s abilities.
This information was collectively sent to the Marine’s scientific research unit for analysis, then forwarded to Chief of Staff Tsuru, and further up to Admiral Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong.
Vegapunk was extremely interested in Alucard’s abilities. Upon hearing about the incident, he immediately expressed his willingness to conduct research.
The ability to recover from any severe injury, twin guns, instant weapon manifestation, and human absorption—all these capabilities easily brought to mind a bizarre Devil Fruit.
However, even after thoroughly searching the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, no fruit perfectly matched Alucard’s characteristics.
Therefore, Vegapunk made a conjecture: Alucard was not an ordinary human; he might be a special race, similar to the currently discovered Fish-Men, Merfolk, or Mink, or perhaps he consumed a Devil Fruit. This could better explain his multiple abilities.
Regarding Vegapunk’s conjecture, because there was still too little intelligence, the Marines temporarily withheld judgment. They distributed the information gathered about Alucard from this battle to other officers and soldiers, including the ability to sink into shadows that Zephyr and Kuzan had previously provided.
On the other side, there was the matter of the Roger Pirates. Borsalino was still too green. Even though he launched a sneak attack on the Roger Pirates while their captain and vice-captain were absent, he ultimately fell short against the combatant Gaban, and was eventually forced back by Roger himself, who had rushed back. By the time Garp’s reinforcements arrived, the Roger Pirates had long since made their escape.
According to Roger’s slip of the tongue, he and Alucard had encountered each other on Sabaody Archipelago.
Afterward, the Marine who provided intelligence to Borsalino and his group couldn’t be found. After roughly understanding the sequence of events, Chief of Staff Tsuru boldly speculated that perhaps the intelligence about the Roger Pirates was sold to Borsalino’s group by Alucard. His aim was to use Roger to draw away Borsalino and the majority of the Marines, allowing himself to escape safely.
Alucard could easily achieve this by eliminating a small squad, seizing their Den Den Mushi, or by threatening a Marine into doing it, then silencing them.
After thoroughly dissecting the situation, Tsuru increasingly felt that this young man, who was less than twenty years old according to the records, was not simple. Not only were his abilities terrifying, but his cunning and intellect were equally formidable.
While Tsuru had deduced the situation, someone within the Roger Pirates, currently on Fish-Man Island, had also reached the same conclusion.
According to Gaban, during the several days he guarded the ship, he never sensed the presence of enemies through his Observation Haki, yet a large number of Marines inexplicably appeared to pursue them.
For such a thing to happen, either Gaban was negligent, or one of their crew members exposed them. Rayleigh felt both conjectures were unlikely.
Finally, recalling Alucard, who had said some strange things to them before they landed on Sabaody Archipelago, he couldn’t help but arrive at the same conclusion as Tsuru.
However, Rayleigh kept it to himself, as it was merely a speculation. The most important thing was that everyone on the ship was safe.
After concluding his battle with Rear Admiral Delasol, Alucard embarked on a journey to find the island Vegapunk had mentioned: Baizinbur Island.
Vegapunk had provided a roughly drawn map, sketched by hand. Their meeting at the time was too urgent, and it was impossible for things to simply disappear from the research lab.
Even for a map, Vegapunk feared discovery by the Marines or the World Government, so he could only resort to hand-drawing it.
Sailing in the New World made one susceptible to the weather. Even with Hidden Shadow navigation, a slight misstep could lead to confusion about direction.
Alucard remembered how Donquixote Doflamingo had once traveled alone, without a compass or similar equipment, and easily reached Punk Hazard from Dressrosa. Such a feat could only mean he was intimately familiar with those locations.
"Tom seems to have prepared special Eternal Poses for New World navigation here..."
Alucard retrieved an Eternal Pose with three rings from his room and sailed in the direction drawn on Vegapunk’s map. Since no distance was marked, Alucard could only proceed slowly.
After five days of sailing, Alucard successfully arrived at an island. The island wasn’t particularly large. What made Alucard stop wasn’t his usual need to replenish his alcohol supply, but rather a very conspicuous object on the island’s dock that caught his attention.
On the dockside, a towering flagpole stood, with a flag fluttering in the wind. On the white skull was a crescent-shaped white mustache curling upwards at the mouth.
It was the mark of the Whitebeard Pirates!
Alucard was intrigued by someone capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Pirate King. Could Whitebeard be on the island?
After docking his ship by the shore, Alucard officially landed on the island. Seeing Whitebeard’s flag waving on the flagpole, he suddenly recalled that he didn’t have a personal flag yet. Did he need one?
"Never mind, that’s a small matter for later," Alucard shook his head with a chuckle, then turned and walked into the city.
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