【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Okay, let me take a look." Lucci stood up and walked towards Ace's previous position, sat down and put the map on his legs. He could see from the map that Ace did put in an effort for this, there were a lot of almost illegible scribblings and smudged ink marks on the map, and there was what looked like a burn mark in one corner.

Some of the islands that Teach had passed by were also marked on the map. Lucci looked carefully at the map in his hand and marked some islands that Ace had missed.

Lu Qi looked at the islands marked on the map where Tiki had passed by, and said in deep thought, "From the islands we tracked where there was news of Tiki, we know that he rarely stays in one place for a long time."

"Yeah, that's right. So far, almost all the islands he's stayed on have been small islands," Ace agreed.

Luqi reviewed the information about the islands they had received news from Teach, and added, "And they are islands without a navy."

"Yes, just like he tried to hide from the navy." Ace said disdainfully, "He is just afraid of being found out by the navy. He will no longer have the protection of his father's symbol, which will attract a lot of enemies for him."

"If they had a pointer, they should have chosen a direction from when they left Drum Island. If we arrive in Alabasta and don't hear any news from him..." Lucci pondered, tapping his chin with his hand.

"If we don't get any information about him in Alabasta, then he may not have ever been to Alabasta. After all, it's impossible for him to bring anything good to Alabasta." Ace added.

"That's right, so he must have a record pointer. He might have gone directly from the east or west of Alabasta." Lucci concluded, "He can't have remained unknown. He must have gone to the eastern route, and the two routes, the eastern route and Alabasta, will eventually intersect on Jaya Island."

"So if we don't hear any news about Teach in Alabasta, we will just go straight to Jaya Island?" Ace said.

"This is just a guess." Lucci said with a smile, "He may also go from the western front. In that case, we may have gone to the wrong place completely."

"It's okay." Ace said with a smile, "I believe you."

"Stupid, this is not a matter of whether you believe it or not." Lucci said helplessly, "But there is another way, that is, we search both lines."

"You mean we should look for it on different routes?" Ace asked.

"Yeah, if one of the lines has news, we can regroup." Lucci thought seriously, "With the life paper, it will be fine, but we should try not to track separately. If Teach knows that we are separated, he may ambush us in return."

"Don't think too much." Ace said with a smile, then looked at the island getting closer and closer, raised the pointer on his wrist and took a look, "We're here at Alabasta, let's go to the island first."

They were getting closer and closer to the white desert of Alabasta, and finally Ace used his fire to speed up the Rocket, and they soon successfully landed on the island.

"We need to look for any clues on Teach," Ace announced as he stood on Center Street.

"Yeah." Lucci smiled. Although he didn't agree with Ace's attempt to ask vendors one by one, this was also a way of finding out, wasn't it? He didn't let him go just because he was avenging Ace for what he did on the ship.

Lucci followed Ace and watched him stubbornly ask every vendor. Almost all the vendors on the entire street had been asked by him if they had seen Blackbeard.

This soon proved to be an obvious futile effort, as they failed to obtain any information about Blackbeard after an entire afternoon of questioning.

Lucci followed behind Ace calmly, occasionally asking vendors what they were selling, expressing his interest, or stopping to listen to some of the locals' conversations, trying to find the information he needed, until Ace urged him on and they headed to the next street.

Lucci hid in the shade between one of the stalls. To be honest, he didn't understand why Ace didn't feel hot. Well, maybe it was because he was the user of the Flame-Flame Fruit and the heat had no effect on him.

But the desert conditions were still a little too hot for him, and he thought he might need to change his attire into clothes and boots more suitable for traveling in the desert.

Ace soon noticed that Lucci was no longer following him, so he stuffed the crumpled wanted poster in his hand into the pocket of his shorts, then turned around to look for the missing Lucci. Well, it couldn't be said that he was missing, because as soon as he turned his head he saw the man hiding in the shade between the stalls, and since there was a piece of black cloth in between to block out the sun, it provided him with a good place underneath.

Lucci could feel Ace walking towards him, and he didn't need to see the expression on his face to know that he must be pursing his lips in frustration at not getting any information.

"How about we go eat first?" Luffy asked with a smile, even though he was feeling irritated by the hot weather.

"Let's go," Ace sighed, a weak smile on his face.

The first thing Lucci did after arriving at the tavern was to ask the waiter for a pot of water. To be honest, it was too hot and he really couldn't adapt to the weather here. Lucci poured himself another glass of water and then looked at Ace. He had completely adapted to the weather here and was even like a fish in water, which made people jealous.

He turned his head and looked out the window. They had spent the entire afternoon without obtaining any intelligence. The information from the market did not allow them to make any effective progress. Moreover, the vendors here had an inexplicable sense of nervousness. Even the air was filled with a hint of tension. He did not know if it was related to this country. After all, a rebellion was going on.

"gentlemen?"

Lucci blinked quickly to get rid of the random thoughts in his mind and looked at the bartender in confusion, who was standing in front of him with a nervous look "Sorry, what's wrong?"

"Um...your friend...uh...he didn't eat the desert strawberries, did he?" the servant asked hesitantly, nervously grasping the rag in his hand.

"What's wrong?" Lucci asked confusedly, not quite understanding why the bartender asked that.

"Strawberry desert," the bartender kept repeating, his eyes constantly switching between him and Ace who was sleeping next to him.

"No, don't worry, we didn't eat the desert strawberries." Lucci said with a smile, trying to reassure the attendant. He probably thought that Ace suddenly fell asleep because he was poisoned.

"I think... your friend must have eaten them. They are poisonous." The attendant's eyes began to become sympathetic. He looked at Ace and said, "Because he looks dead."