Two months later.
Alucard, sitting at the bow of his ship, ready to head to the New World, looked at the day’s newspaper.
[The Demise of Ohara, Birthplace of Demons, due to Attempts to Revive Ancient Weapons and Destroy the World.]
[Nico Robin, the Devil Child, only seven years old, sinks 6 battleships, bounty: 79,000,000 Berries.]
"Oh... so that happened," Alucard mumbled to himself, reading the day’s headlines. He felt no significant emotional response; or rather, it simply wasn’t sothing that interested him.
Alucard already possessed one of the four Road Poneglyphs, but he had absolutely no interest in its contents. He only kept it because it was sothing the World Governnt desired, thinking it might bring him unexpected amusent in the future, nothing more.
Ohara reviving Ancient Weapons? To ordinary people, this was indeed chilling news, but to seasoned pirates like Alucard and Charlotte Linlin, who had many dealings with the World Governnt, they vaguely knew this was likely just another trick by the World Governnt. Best to ignore it.
However, less than a month after the news of Ohara, another major headline erged that shook even the "Three Monsters" and Whitebeard.
The legendary pirate Golden Lion Shiki, a rival to Roger and Whitebeard, had escaped from Impel Down!
The legend of the Underwater Great Prison, Impel Down, had been broken!
On that day’s front page, besides Shiki’s bounty poster, Alucard also saw a close-up of his two severed legs, still bound by Seastone chains in Impel Down.
"Oh... so he’s out, Golden Lion." Alucard saw these two close-ups and suddenly rembered Shiki’s fate, which seed to be... defeated by plot armor. Thinking of this, Alucard couldn’t help but let out a strange laugh, "Hey, no way? You, who turned the world upside down just by escaping prison, ended up losing to a kid like that?"
"At least co up with a new way to play, wouldn’t you?" Alucard chuckled slyly.
...
On one of the seven magnetic routes from the first half of the Grand Line to Sabaody Archipelago.
Red, who had already witnessed Roger’s final monts in Loguetown, intended to embark on his voyage once more, aiming for the title of "Pirate King."
Aboard a commandeered pirate ship, Red sat in a chair, legs crossed, reading today’s newspaper. He muttered to himself, "I thought I wouldn’t get another chance to fight you, Shiki. With your legs cut off, how much strength do you have left now?"
"Hmm?" Suddenly, Red’s eyes narrowed. With a hint of displeasure, he said to the pirates rowing, "Why are you slowing down? Sail faster."
"Yes, sir! Our deepest apologies!" Over a dozen pirates behind him quickly apologized. They weren’t Red’s subordinates, of course, but the original owners of the ship he had seized, now forced into "slavery."
...
Sabaody Archipelago.
Inside a typical tavern.
A man with glasses, his lenses glinting, looked at the newspaper. "You’re out, Shiki. But now that you’re out, what do you plan to do?"
"Rayleigh..." A childish yet awkward voice ca from the doorway.
...
anwhile, in the New World.
On a deserted island very close to Marine Base G-1.
Shiki, still in his prison uniform, endured the intense pain as he bound his two swords to his severed legs. Though tears welled in his eyes from the agony, a smile he couldn’t suppress spread across his lips.
After strapping the twin blades to his legs, Shiki spread his arms towards the setting sun on the horizon and roared with laughter, "Jihahahahaha! World! I, the Golden Lion, am back!"
After several minutes of booming laughter, the Golden Lion regained so composure. He used his power to pull down a news bird, quickly scanned its contents, then muttered to himself, "First, I’ll rendezvous with Indigo and the others. After that, let’s see... I think I’ll pay that annoying Whitebeard a visit."
"Hmm?" Suddenly, Shiki noticed a piece of news from a previous report. "Fleet Admiral Kong, Alucard, and Red engaged in a three-way free-for-all, ending only after half of Sabaody Archipelago and the Celestial Dragons’ territory were mostly destroyed."
"Red, have you fully recovered?" Shiki mumbled to himself, seeing Red’s face in the newspaper. Then, a close-up of Alucard appeared, and in an instant, he rembered the boy he had observed during the Battle of Edd War.
"That kid from back then has gotten strong too!" The Golden Lion crumpled the newspaper into a ball and casually tossed it onto the shore. Using his abilities, he slowly floated into the sky, his excitent undiminished. "Looks like coming out this ti was the right choice!"
...
One Month Later.
Alucard and Red successively arrived in the New World from "Paradise." The era of competing legends seed about to officially begin.
In Whitebeard’s territory, on the Moby Dick.
"Roger is dead. It seems it’s your era now, Whitebeard," Golden Lion said, holding a large bottle of South Blue specialty liquor, just like Whitebeard’s.
After gulping down most of the dozen-plus liters of sake in one go, Whitebeard slamd the bottle down beside him and scoffed, "If you’ve co here to chat idly, I can sink you to the bottom of the sea right now, Golden Lion."
Hearing Whitebeard’s words, the Golden Lion wasn’t angered; instead, he laughed heartily, "Jihahahaha! You’re still that annoying bastard, which puts my mind at ease."
Finishing his sentence, a cunning glint flashed across the Golden Lion’s face. "I plan to disappear for a while, then show this soft era what true pirates are like."
Whitebeard’s brow furrowed, an instinctive sense of unease flashing through his mind. "What devilish sche are you up to now?"
Just then, a mber of the Whitebeard Pirates stumbled, rushing towards Whitebeard and the Golden Lion. Amidst the astonished gazes of the surrounding crew, he frantically cried out, "P-Pops! There’s... there’s another pirate crew invading our territory!"
"Huh?" The Golden Lion instinctively bit down on his cigar.
anwhile, Diamond Jozu, standing to the Golden Lion’s right rear, angrily demanded, "Which suicidal rookie pirate crew is it this ti?"
Rookie pirates aiming for Whitebeard’s head for a quick rise to fa, though not nurous, had been seen quite often recently. Jozu secretly thought that these new guys really didn’t know their place!
The Whitebeard pirate, kneeling on the ground, twitching nervously, then scread on the verge of a ntal breakdown, "It’s, it’s, it’s Alucard and Red!!"
——————
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