Bang!
Just as Keith Fallon and his crew were publicly dealing with the imposters and the crowd's attention was fixed on them, another gunshot shattered the calm. The sound immediately drew the eyes of everyone present, including Fallon.
The crowd turned as one, and the Royal Guards rushed toward the source of the noise.
Driven by curiosity, many people, including members of the Black Thorn Pirates, followed to see what had happened.
When Fallon arrived, dragging the corpse of one of the slaver pirates behind him, he found Alucard holding a gun. Several Fish-Men of various species lay on the ground; some were clearly dead, others unconscious. One Great White Shark Fish-Man was kneeling, clutching his stomach, but blood continued to pour through his fingers. He wore a flat cap with a trident motif, a wolf-skin scarf around his neck, and extensive tattoos on his left arm.
"A-Alucard-sama?!"
Fallon gasped, subconsciously letting go of the corpse he was dragging. He recognized the face of the kneeling Fish-Man.
"The Yonko, Alucard!"
"It's one thing for the officers to be here, but why is the Captain himself here too?"
"Aren't those Hody's guys on the ground? How did they provoke a Yonko?"
"Are those unconscious guys Zeo and Ikaros? Are they even alive?"
Ignoring the frantic whispers of the Fish-Man residents, the Black Thorn Pirates stepped forward and bowed deeply. "Alucard-sama."
Fallon then looked at the struggling Hody Jones and frowned. "May I ask what happened here...?"
"Just taking out the trash. After reverting to my old self for a while, I find my old habits are hard to break."
Alucard spoke a sentence that left everyone baffled, then holstered his white pistol, Casull, and turned to leave. "I'll leave the rest to you. There's nothing left to see here."
"Yes, sir!"
Fallon and his men responded in unison. Fallon then turned toward Hody's crew with a predatory, joyless smile. "Now then... I believe you owe us a very detailed explanation."
Cold sweat dripped down Hody's face. He cursed his luck; it wasn't just bad, it was cataclysmic. He had hired fakes only to run into the real deal, and then, to top it off, he had run straight into the Captain of the real organization.
No one dared to stop Alucard as he walked away. Even though he had shot Fish-Men in broad daylight, it was partly because Hody's gang was already disliked, but mostly, it was due to Alucard's terrifying reputation.
Two hours later, in the Ryugu Palace dungeons of New Fish-Man Island.
Locked in a cage and unable to withstand the Black Thorn Pirates' brutal interrogation, Hody finally confessed. He had indeed hired the five imposters to assassinate Otohime. His goal was to frame the Immortal Pirates, thereby souring their relationship with the Fish-Men and inciting a war of vengeance against humanity.
"Jahahaha! You're an eyesore! All of you are eyesores!"
Hody, battered and bloodied, laughed maniacally after his confession. "Bowing your heads to lowly humans, gaining land wasn't enough for you? Now you want to 'interact' with them? You are a disgrace to all Fish-Men! Kill! I'll kill every last member of the Royal Family who advocates for peace with humans!"
"You bastard!"
"His Majesty turned a blind eye to your gang's antics for years, and this is how you repay his kindness?!"
The Royal Guards outside the bars gnashed their teeth in fury. Otohime looked on, her heart aching, wanting to say something, but Fallon stepped forward.
"I have zero interest in your undersea politics," Fallon said coldly. "The issue is that you defiled our crew's flag. For that alone, you deserve ten thousand deaths."
Fallon reached out, his hand transforming into a sharp, animalistic claw. "Neptune, I assume you have no objections?"
Neptune reached out to stop Otohime from speaking and whispered, "These people are extremists who inherited Arlong's will. They intended to harm you; they cannot be allowed to remain."
Neptune then gave a firm nod to the Black Thorn crew.
"Excellent."
Fallon grinned hideously and turned to his subordinates. "Get a camera. Record exactly how these pieces of trash die. Let the whole world see what happens when you impersonate us."
…
In the mid-to-back reaches of the New World, there was a very peculiar country. Wedged between the territory of the Beasts Pirates and the Calm Belt, it was a nation known as Wano Country.
Because of its unique geography, situated right on the threshold of the Calm Belt and Kaido's domain, yet also sitting on the essential sea route for the Immortal Pirates' deeper excursions into the New World, any attempt by the Beasts Pirates to seize it would inevitably draw Alucard's scrutiny.
Conversely, the Navy didn't dare barge in either, given the surrounding powers.
Alucard himself had never had much interest in expanding his territory. Unlike Big Mom, he didn't have a horde of children to manage a vast network of islands. He already felt he had more territory than he cared to govern. When Whitebeard had previously offered land as compensation for the incident involving Lucky Roux, Alucard had flatly refused.
His small boat followed the current, drifting from the middle of the New World into the latter half. The destination he was about to pass was Wano.
"Hmm?"
Sitting in the boat, Alucard looked up and spotted numerous massive sailing ships ahead. The sails bore a crimson, sun-shaped circular emblem.
Wano Country!
"Who goes there? This is the territory of Wano Country! If you have entered by mistake, leave at once! Otherwise, we shall open fire!"
Men on the ships had spotted Alucard. They were dressed in oversized kimonos, many with their hair tied in traditional Japanese topknots. They shouted their warning as they spotted the lone traveler.