Chapter 147: The Most Interesting Wanted Poster in History
It was no wonder that the World Government and the Marines suspected Ace. After all, among the newcomers who had recently emerged in the Grand Line, the most noteworthy was Fire Fist Ace.
The Marines' intelligence division had already gathered considerable information about Fire Fist Ace, knowing he was a Flame-Flame Fruit user capable of controlling fire. This was very similar to the mysterious black-clad figure. Of course, they didn't know if Fire Fist Ace could produce that kind of black flame; the specific abilities of a Devil Fruit were only known to the user themselves, involving fruit ability development and so on. But this alone was enough to make Ace the prime suspect.
Moreover, according to the descriptions of the Marine soldiers who pursued him from Mary Geoise, the mysterious black-clad figure seemed to possess Conqueror's Haki, which was also true of Fire Fist Ace.
Captain Tina had mentioned in her earlier report that Fire Fist Ace possessed Conqueror's Haki...
But... did Fire Fist Ace also know swordsmanship?
This was probably the most troubling issue for the Marines, because according to the intelligence gathered, Fire Fist Ace had always fought using his fists and physical combat combined with his Devil Fruit abilities. No one had ever seen him use a sword.
"Is it possible that the so-called swordsmanship was just a trick to mislead us?" one Marine officer at the meeting suggested. "After all, according to the intelligence analysis, the sword in the black-clad figure's hand didn't seem particularly distinctive."
This speculation immediately sent everyone's thoughts down a different path. The attendees almost unanimously agreed that the black-clad mastermind was Fire Fist Ace.
However, just as they were confirming this, a new piece of intelligence arrived, shattering their assumptions completely.
The new intelligence stated that just a few days ago, Fire Fist Ace had attempted to challenge one of the Four Emperors, Whitebeard, but was stopped by Sea Knight Jinbe, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Ace and Jinbe had fought for five days on an island without a decisive victor, but when both were exhausted, Whitebeard took Ace away!
The intelligence was accurate. In other words, this served as Fire Fist Ace's alibi. The timing didn't match up; Ace's fight with Jinbe had just occurred, and at that time, Ace couldn't possibly have been at Mary Geoise.
Thus, the speculation about the mysterious black-clad mastermind's identity once again hit a dead end.
At this point, the World Government and the Marines were at their wit's end. The Celestial Dragons were constantly pressuring them to quickly investigate the black-clad figure's identity and retrieve the identity chip, which was something the Celestial Dragons absolutely could not lose. But what good was just applying pressure? The World Government had no good solutions either.
Among the Marines, two people had seen Ian: one was Tina, and the other was Smoker. Unfortunately, Ian's abilities had been constantly evolving with his card growth. In Smoker's memory, Ian could use swordsmanship and had flame abilities, but the flames were ordinary, and Smoker didn't believe Ian could have the power to injure Aokiji.
The same went for Tina. She knew Ian had Haki, but back then, what he had shown her was only Observation Haki, while the intelligence described the black-clad figure as having Conqueror's Haki.
As a result, when they attended the meeting, although they briefly suspected Ian, they weren't confident enough to speak up, fearing they might mislead the investigation.
In their minds, Ian probably didn't have that kind of nerve, did he? Wasn't he aiming to be a bounty hunter to make money? There was no reason for him to oppose the Marines and the World Government, right?
It must be said here that the intelligence provided by the Celestial Dragons also misled the Marines considerably. The Musgarud family only mentioned that their identity chip had been stolen but didn't mention the disappearance of billions of Berry in cash or the Devil Fruit from the treasure room. This was unavoidable; money was nothing in the eyes of the Celestial Dragons, and Devil Fruits were just playthings to them, not worth much attention. To them, only the identity chip truly mattered.
So, this small detail gave the World Government and the Marines the impression that the mysterious black-clad figure had first infiltrated Mary Geoise, then sneaked into the Musgarud family, followed the son of Musgarud Saint into the secret room, killed him, took the identity chip, freed the slaves, and then escaped.
The entire incident seemed highly premeditated.
Little did they know that Ian's real goal was the money and the Devil Fruit; the identity chip was just a bonus. Freeing the slaves was only to create chaos so he could escape smoothly.
In other words, Ian's motive for the crime was completely different from what the World Government and the Marines speculated! They had it entirely backward!
And when the World Government and the Marines confirmed that the mastermind might be after the Celestial Dragons' identity chip, they even briefly reconsidered Doflamingo as a suspect, wondering if he wanted to return to the ranks of the World Nobles and had hired someone to steal the chip.
Thus, after Ace, Doflamingo unfortunately became the second person to be wrongly implicated.
Fortunately, when the speculation reached the Celestial Dragons, they cleared Doflamingo's name. The identity chip wasn't something anyone could use to become a World Noble; Doflamingo knew this well, so he wouldn't have done such a thing.
After a night of busy work, the World Government and the Marines' meeting yielded no conclusions, so they finally decided to issue a wanted poster for the mysterious black-clad figure.
The wanted poster was quickly made, using a photo taken by a Video Den Den Mushi in Mary Gezhou City. In the photo, the background was the blazing city of Mary Geoise, and Ian, the mysterious black-clad figure, was captured from the side.
The name on the wanted poster was also quite interesting, simply marked as "Mysterious Black-Clad Figure," with a small annotation below: "Mary Geoise Arsonist!"
The bounty was five hundred million Berry, funded by the Musgarud family, but similarly, it was only for capture alive.
When Vice Admiral Garp saw this wanted poster, he couldn't help but burst into laughter, because he knew that the most interesting wanted poster in Marine history had been born!
When Garp first heard that Aokiji had returned injured and that the black-clad figure was a flame ability user, even he was startled. He almost thought it was really Ace who had done it. Fortunately, when Ace was cleared of suspicion, Garp breathed a sigh of relief.
But Garp's mood was conflicted. It was good that it wasn't Ace, but now Ace had been taken away by Whitebeard. His grandson seemed to be going further and further down the path of piracy!
He hoped nothing would happen to him in the future...
And so, this wanted poster, along with news reports about the Mary Geoise arson incident, was distributed worldwide by News Coos the next day.
Yes, the arson incident! That's how the World Government characterized it. They had no choice; they had to control public opinion. If the truth were revealed, it would be disastrous.
Eleven years ago, Fisher Tiger of the Sun Pirates had freed so many slaves at Mary Geoise, causing a huge uproar. If this were reported as another slave liberation event, it would be an open declaration to the world that Mary Geoise's defenses were weak and that anyone who wanted to cause trouble should come quickly!
If slave liberation movements happened every few days, where would the World Government and the Marines' face be?
Not only was the slave liberation not reported, but even the killing of the Celestial Dragon was concealed!
Why? Because this was a very serious issue. The original agreement between the World Government and the Celestial Dragons was that the Celestial Dragons would give up their royal authority, and the World Government would provide them protection. The reason no one dared to defy the Celestial Dragons was that the Marines would dispatch Admirals to protect them. But if the news of a Celestial Dragon being killed were exposed, it would reveal to the world that the Celestial Dragons were just bluffing!
Even a Marine Admiral couldn't protect them, and not only that, but the culprit had escaped!
Once this illusion of inviolability was shattered, assassinations targeting the Celestial Dragons would likely become endless. Given the Celestial Dragons' habit of visiting Sabaody Archipelago for fun, all assassins and those who hated the Celestial Dragons would swarm to Sabaody Archipelago...
The World Government couldn't allow this to happen, so in their external news, they didn't mention the Celestial Dragons at all.
Covering up the truth was something the World Government excelled at, just like when they concealed the blank 100 years of history. They chose to cover up this incident as well.
However... just as there were those seeking the truth of history, such cover-ups couldn't fool too many people.
For one thing, the amount of the bounty on the wanted poster was suspicious. Even if this mysterious black-clad figure had burned Mary Geoise, why offer such a high bounty? And why require capture alive?
Moreover, since it was during the World Conference, the national leaders gathered at Mary Geoise had witnessed the incident. They naturally had their own intelligence channels to find out what had really happened. After learning the truth, the attending kings and leaders all laughed heartily, just like Garp.
As Garp said, this was indeed an interesting wanted poster!
After laughing, many kings and leaders began to have other thoughts.
"If something like this happens, what would be the result if this conference once again proposes abolishing the Heavenly Tribute system?" (.)