Yassop gradually woke up in a haze, only to find himself in an enclosed room. On the opposite side, through a transparent glass panel, he couldn't see anyone, but near the door, he could see an Immortal Pirates crew member squatting there, acting as his guard, with periodic snores coming from him.
"He's asleep?"
Enduring the stinging pain in his hands, Yassop carefully observed the jailer. He noticed a key hanging on his waist, which was, in all likelihood, the key to unlocking the Seastone handcuffs restraining his hands.
The cell was small, usually used as a dissection room by the research division, but it had been temporarily cleared out for Yassop's detainment. The distance from Yassop's position to the door was just over two meters.
Using his Observation Haki to sense his surroundings, and confirming there was no third person nearby, Yassop strained to stretch his feet toward the guard's body. After several failed attempts, he finally managed to kick the guard unconscious.
"Good."
Yassop was delighted. He stepped on the guard and moved his body closer. He awkwardly took off his shoes, and with the nimble toes of both feet, he removed the key from the guard's waist. He gripped the key with the big toe and index toe of his right foot, tossed it up, and caught it with his restrained hands. After about five minutes of "struggle," the handcuffs were unlocked.
Yassop rummaged through the guard's body and took a short pistol. Although he desperately wanted to shoot the man right there, the sound of a pistol firing would be too loud, so he decided against it.
Creeping along the floor to avoid the eyes of the researchers, Yassop finally saw a glimmer of light and was overjoyed.
"The prisoner escaped! Quick, follow him!"
Just then, a loud shout came from the direction of his former cell. Yassop's expression tightened. With no time to think, he quickly fled. Three hours later, at Alucard's location in the inner castle hall.
"Alucard-sama, Yassop successfully escaped, and he killed over ten of our crew members!" Several subordinates reported to Alucard in unison.
"If no one died, how would he ever believe he escaped by his own strength??" Alucard's lips curled up at the corners. "You may retreat."
"..."
Though somewhat dissatisfied with Alucard's method, no one dared to voice an opinion. They acknowledged the order and quickly left.
After more than a month of sailing, Yassop navigated a small lifeboat stolen from the Immortal Pirates. Based on his understanding of Shanks, he stopped at several small islands and finally reunited with the Red-Hair crew on one of them.
The Red-Hair Pirates had lost nearly half their personnel from the previous attack on Arderay. The re-emergence of Yassop, whom everyone had presumed dead, naturally sent them into fits of ecstasy. Shanks instantly shed his previous gloom, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Party! Let's have a party!"
Another month passed. Alucard, sitting on the throne in the inner castle hall, "emerged" from the bodies of Scarlett and Hancock. Weighing the time, he thought, "It's been two months already.
He should have arrived by now."
Thinking this, Alucard took out Yassop's Vivre Card paper. When he placed the paper on the table, he saw that the area of the paper, which had originally been burned away by a third, was now completely restored.
"It looks like you've been doing well," Alucard murmured to himself. Suddenly, Hancock, wearing a red sleeping gown, leaned in behind him. "Master..."
"It's time to destroy the Red-Hair Pirates."
Hancock saw that in the moonlight, Alucard's face was ferocious, his sharp fangs fully exposed from his mouth. The sight was utterly terrifying.
If it were Scarlett, she might have been frightened by this sight. But Hancock, instead, cupped her chin with both hands, infatuated. "Master is so wonderful even now~~"
....
During these two months, the Marines also made two major decisions. First, regarding the handling of the traitorous former Admiral Zephyr:
They would not leak a single thing about Zephyr. To the Marine internal forces, they would announce that he had gone missing.
If Zephyr, under the name "Z," committed any acts, they would temporarily pin the blame on other subordinates of Alucard, aiming to control the impact of Zephyr's betrayal to a minimum before officially announcing the matter.
After all, too much was happening already. Announcing the betrayal of a former Admiral to become a pirate would be a devastating blow to the honor of the Marines.
The other matter concerned Dragon of the Revolutionary Army.
Only Sengoku, Tsuru, and Kong within the Marines, and the highest echelon of the Government, knew his true identity as Monkey D. Dragon, Garp's son.
After a three-way consultation, Kong, despite heavy pressure, decided not to execute Dragon. Instead, he would be locked up in the underwater Great Prison, Impel Down, Level 6, for lifelong incarceration.
The reason for this decision was Garp.
Zephyr was already gone; he couldn't afford for Garp to pull any unexpected stunts as well.
Fortunately, at this time, although Dragon had overthrown a few kingdoms, his threat level was nowhere near the "World's Worst Criminal" status he would achieve a decade later.
Though sentencing him to life imprisonment was somewhat lenient, it was not entirely unacceptable.
Learning from the lesson of Shiki the Golden Lion, all powerful Devil Fruit users incarcerated on Levels 5 and 6 would have a Seastone chain added to their necks. Try cutting off your neck if you dare.
Meanwhile, in the Level 6 prison of Impel Down, Shiki was looking at today's newspaper. It had been a good seven or eight years, and Kong had actually agreed to his pre-imprisonment request to deliver him a newspaper every day.
Clang~
A sudden noise caused Shiki to stop reading his newspaper and turn his attention toward the cell across from him.
A man was being escorted into the cell, wearing the same black and white prisoner uniform as the other inmates. He had black, long, spiky hair, a red tattoo on his left cheek, and was covered in Seastone chains.
"Oh, a new neighbor, eh... And you are..."
Shiki squinted, examining the new neighbor several times. Remembering a past newspaper article, he suddenly grinned. "Oh, you're the guy that Immortal brat handed over to the Government?"