Van Augur

Van Augur, nicknamed "The Supersonic", is the sniper of the Blackbeard Pirates, as well as one of the Ten Titanic Captains, as the captain of the Third Ship.

Due to his actions and role, he is a minor antagonist in the Jaya Arc, a supporting antagonist in the Impel Down and Marineford Arcs, and a major antagonist in the Final Saga.

Appearance
Augur is a rather thin man, with light brown hair that hangs down to his lower neck. He is extremely tall, standing at around the same height as Blackbeard, who is over 11 feet tall. He appears calm all the time, even in battles, and his typical expression is generally emotionless. His eyebrows are almost always furrowed in what looks like a saddened expression, and he rarely smiles. The left lens of the black glasses he wears is a normal, rectangular eyepiece, but the right side is circular and holds what appears to be a cross hair.

He sports a large black hat, protruding out to both sides. Its shape bears an uncanny resemblance to an upturned boat's hull. Augur is constantly wearing a long black cape, under which he wears a button-up, pale lavender shirt with loose sleeves, and simple black pants, with a maroon belt with an aqua outline that goes over a small portion of his shirt. He also wears black shoes. Due to the size of his rifle Senriku, he carries it leaned against his shoulder.

After the timeskip, Augur has grown a goatee.

Personality
Augur is extremely calm and analytical even during battle. He very rarely changes his facial expression. However, in his confrontation with Ace on Banaro Island, he showed a darker side - showing a devilish grin after a failed kill shot. Like his crewmates, Augur is a heavy believer in fate. He displays very strong loyalty to Blackbeard and the rest of the crew. He has no qualms about ending the lives of some seagulls to assert his luck on whether they would die from his shots or not.

Marshall D. Teach
As one of the four original recruits of the Blackbeard Pirates, Augur his fiercely loyal to his Admiral, however he will not hesitate to scold Teach for his rash actions and sometimes act as the voice of reason. He comes to Teach's aid when he feels it is necessary as seen during the crew's encounter with Ace and the battle with the Heart Pirates.

Abilities and Powers
As the sniper of the Blackbeard Pirates and one of its founding members, Augur is a powerful pirate. After the timeskip, he has become one of the Ten Titanic Captains of the crew that personally guard the Emperor Blackbeard, and has gained great authority in the crew as captain of its third Ship.

Physical Abilities
Augur is shown to have great speed in shooting and running, as he did during his battle against Portgas D. Ace, by dodging their fire bullets. His powerful eyesight makes him a valuable asset as a scout for the crew, as he managed to spot Akainu on board an approaching Marine battleship. He also demonstrated superhuman stamina for his slim figure when he withstood one of Gura Gura no Mi of Whitebeard shockwaves (though not a direct hit) and Fleet Admiral Sengoku's shockwave with the rest of the Blackbeard Pirates, and recovered quickly.

Devil Fruit
Augur ate the Wapu Wapu no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows him to teleport himself and others from place to place.

Marksmanship
Augur is possibly one of the greatest master marksmen in the entire series. With his favorite rifle Senriku, Augur is able to fire bullets over tremendous distances with extraordinary accuracy. This is shown when Chopper suggested to Usopp that the seagulls flying around their ship were sniped from an extremely long distance, Nami immediately disclaims it since they could not see the island Augur was on, saying it was 'impossible' for any sniper to do. Augur was even able to tell after he shot the birds that one of them did not die immediately, showing his immensely sharp vision. Another example of his immense marksmanship skills (which is seen in the anime) is when he shot through the bullets of Impel Down's staff, and then through the barrels of their guns, destroying them. It was because of this that he was also able to discern Akainu being on board of the incoming battleship from afar.

Weapons


Augur uses a rifle called Senriku (千陸) in battle. The rifle is extra-long in length, and allows extraordinary long-range shooting. Combined with his eyesight and immense marksmanship skills, this makes Senriku a lethal long-range weapon. However, he also used it for pointblank attack against Whitebeard.

Past
So far most of Augur's past is unknown, such as how he joined Blackbeard's crew in the first place and where he obtained his gun; all that is known about his past is that he was born in the East Blue.

Sometime after joining the Blackbeard Pirates, Augur and the entire crew attacked Drum Island forcing the cowardly King Wapol to flee.

Jaya Arc
On the roof of a house in Mock Town, Augur shoot three seagulls, to see which one of them would die painfully and which would die quickly. During the night, after Teach discovers Luffy's 100,000,000 bounty, they decide to head out to capture him. After setting sail, the crew search for the Straw Hats until dawn, where he asks if anyone has seen anything yet. Here he also overhears Teach and Burgess's conversation. Once they find them, the crew rush towards them with the intention of capturing them. However, a Knock Up Stream destroys their raft and sends the Straw Hat Pirates to Skypiea. When his captain tells Burgess that they will meet the Straw Hats again, he affirms this by commenting that this is how the world works, that only the strongest survive.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc


When he and the crew looted a town on Banaro Island, read about the incident with the Straw Hats at Enies Lobby. Laffitte mentioned the Sea Train and the fact that Water 7 was nearby. Augur claims that she is not very far from there. When they were about to go out for Luffy, Portgas D. Ace appeared. When Ace rejects his captain's proposal to join his crew, Augur shoots him, but to no avail. Sarcastically, Ace tells him that he doesn't have good manners and tries to hit him with fire bullets, which Augur manages to dodge, while Burgess also participates in the skirmish. At that moment, Teach tells them they can't beat Ace and therefore to get away, but they are all hit beaten by the latter. He then retreats along with the rest on the orders of his captain.

He watches the fight from afar, where he claims to have thought that the holders of the devil's fruits would become fragile if they were found without their powers, but Ace is the commander of one of divisions of Whitebeard, defining his impressive fighting skills. He also adds that fate places them in front of one of his crossroads.

Impel Down Arc
The Blackbeard Pirates sailed to Impel Down and passed through the Gates of Justice. They reached the prison as Monkey D. Luffy was rioting in Level 4. As they made their way through Level 1, they encountered former Head Jailer Shiryu, and then made their way down to Level 4, where they encountered the escaping prisoners.

After musing that their meeting was fate, not coincidence, Augur stood by as Blackbeard and Luffy briefly fought. After exchanging words with the prisoners, the Blackbeard Pirates continued on their way to the lower levels and confronted Chief Warden Magellan, who poisoned them with his Hydra technique. Later, the whole crew was saved by an antidote from Shiryu, who accepted Blackbeard's offer and joined their crew.

When they reached Level 6, the Blackbeard Pirates had the prisoners fight to the death with the survivors joining the crew.

Marineford Arc


Augur was spotted along with the other members of the Blackbeard Pirates on the execution platform where they were watching the events that unfold on the battlefield. They had come to Marineford because they wanted to witness Ace's death. After Blackbeard confronted Whitebeard, the Blackbeard Pirates struck down Whitebeard. After Whitebeard died, Augur assisted his crewmates in covering Whitebeard with a black cloth and guarded Blackbeard as he started to demonstrate his powers. Blackbeard later emerged and demonstrated the power of the Gura Gura no Mi. Sengoku in his Buddha form then attacked the Blackbeard Pirates, blasting them with shockwaves. While Blackbeard fought against Sengoku and Monkey D. Garp, Red-Haired Shanks arrived on the battlefield. The Blackbeard Pirates decided to leave rather than fight the Red Hair Pirates.

Post-War Arc


The Blackbeard Pirates made their move in the New World, taking out Jewelry Bonney in the process. The crew was bickering amongst each other on a fiery island. The Blackbeard Pirates' raft was brought close to the point of destruction due to Sanjuan Wolf's size, and they seemingly got in contact with the Marines to trade Jewelry Bonney for a battleship. On look out, Augur alerted Teach that the battleship had arrived, but not for a trade because Akainu is on board. Knowing that the deal would not happen, the Blackbeard Pirates fled, leaving Bonney and her crew behind to be arrested.

During the Timeskip
One year after the war at Marineford, the Blackbeard Pirates fought against the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates and ultimately won.

At some point, the Blackbeard Pirates expanded, and Augur became one of the Ten Titanic Captains, leading the third ship of the fleet.

The Blackbeard Pirates used their captain's knowledge of Whitebeard's former territory to conquer it. Now that Blackbeard had become an Emperor, the Blackbeard Pirates were hunting down powerful Devil Fruit users in order to absorb their abilities. Afterwards, the crew arrives on an island in the New World, where some of them are frozen by former Admiral Kuzan. However, the latter and Teach start talking and drinking, so Kuzan gets rid of the freeze. As he celebrates, Augur overhears the conversations related to the fight between Kuzan and Sakazuki. The the crew tells Kuzan about the Road Poneglyphs that are needed to reach Laugh Tale, and "the man with the Burn scar" who is rumored to possess the fourth and final one. Then, upon hearing Lafitte suggest they steal his devil fruit, Kuzan starts freezing some of the crew again, but Teach managed to convince Kuzan to join the crew instead.

Following the defeat of Ochoku in the Rocky Port Incident the Blackbeard Pirates made the island Hachinosu their base of operations.

Zou Arc
The Blackbeard Pirates later attacked Baltigo, the Revolutionary Army's headquarters. Baltigo was destroyed by the time the Marines and Cipher Pol arrived, but the Revolutionary Army was able to escape. However, the Blackbeard Pirates fled after briefly clashing with Cipher Pol.

Levely Arc
After the events at Totto Land, Augur listened to his captain's comments about Luffy being too soon to be called an Emperor in Hachinosu.

Germa 66's Ahh... An Emotionless Excursion
Augur and Kuzan went to Cacao Island. When Charlotte Cracker tried to stop them from kidnapping Pudding, Kuzan froze Chocolat Town, including Cracker and the residents. Augur and Kuzan then took Pudding back to their ship.

Egghead Arc
After Koby was abducted by the Blackbeard Pirates and taken to Hachinosu as a prisoner, Augur was present with his fellow Titanic Captains as Teach revealed a plan to use Koby as a bargaining chip in order for Hachinosu to be recognized as a country affiliated with the World Government. Knowing that either Law, Kid, or Luffy would travel to Winner once they left Wano, Teach decided to wait there with, Augur, Jesus Burgess, Doc Q and Stronger to steal the copies of the Road Poneglyphs from whichever crew that would arrive. When they saw the Polar Tang of the Heart Pirates, they attacked it, blasting several holes in the sub's hull. At that moment, Augur teleported Burgess to the island. During Teach's confrontation with Law, Augur tried to shoot the latter, but Bepo told Jean Bart, who shielded Law from the attack; here Augur then commented on Jean Bart's resistance. Meanwhile, he realized that Law hurt Teach; so Augur criticized his captain for having launched into a fight without a strategy. Likewise, he approached him and asked if they should retire, to which Teach refused. Later the crew managed to defeat the Heart Pirates, leaving nearly all of them at sea along with the Polar Tang, sunk and destroyed. However, when Teach was thinking about what to do with Law's fruit, Bepo took a special drug made by Chopper that allows him to transform into Sulong without a full moon and attacked the crew, before swimming away, taking Law with him.

Major Battles

 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Drum Kingdom
 * Van Augur and Jesus Burgess vs. Portgas D. Ace
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Impel Down Guards (Level 1)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Edward Newgate
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Fleet Admiral Sengoku
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Bonney Pirates
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Whitebeard Pirates (under Marco, unseen)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Revolutionary Army (unseen)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Cipher Pol (unseen)
 * Van Augur and Kuzan vs. Charlotte Cracker
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Heart Pirates

Translation and Dub Issues
In the VIZ Manga his name was initially spelled "Ogre". The edited for television Funimation dub also spells it this way, but the closed captions spell the name as "Auger". With the release of Funimation's "Season Three First Voyage" (the first set of the Skypiea Arc), this was confirmed to be the case. The subtitles for both the Japanese language track as well as the subtitles translating just the signs and title cards for the dub both spell his name "Van Auger"; however, Oda has stated in Chapter 595 of the manga the official spelling of his name, "Van Augur". VIZ adopted the spelling "Van Augur" starting with Chapter 1063.

Early Concepts
An early concept of the Blackbeard Pirates was shown in One Piece Green: Secret Pieces. Though Augur was not seen, he was originally named Van Wagot (ヴァン・ウァゴット).

Playable Appearances

 * One Py Berry Match

Support Appearances

 * One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum

Trivia

 * Augur's name may be based on John Auger, a pirate who was active in the Bahamas in 1718.
 * Augur's name and beliefs in fate may also be based on an augur, a priest and an official in the classic Roman world who could read the future and fates of others by interpreting the flight patterns of birds. Fittingly, during Augur's introduction, he shoots seagulls to see which ones were fated to die.
 * Augur's appearance and sharpshooting abilities are similar to the character Adolphus from Terry Gilliam's film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. In the film, Adolphus is a rifleman and a henchman of the titular character with superhuman eyesight, who uses his shooting skills to detach an apple from a tree about nine hundred miles away. His overall appearance and the size of his rifle all contribute to Augur's resemblance.
 * Augur is the only known member of the Blackbeard Pirates to originate from the East Blue.
 * When the Blackbeard Pirates were mentioned during the Drum Island Arc, there are a few silhouettes shown. Augur is the only one of the crew that was depicted correctly.
 * In the beginning of the ninth One Piece film, Augur is seen with the rest of the five original Blackbeard Pirates attacking Drum Island.
 * At the age of 27, Augur is the youngest member of the Ten Titanic Captains.
 * Augur's favorite food is yaminabe pot luck.
 * Curiously, in One Piece Blue: Grand Data File, that covers the East Blue Saga to the middle of the Jaya Arc, Augur is referred to as "Mysterious Sniper" (謎の).

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