He had always treated them with deep respect.
There was simply no way he could believe that Teach would kill him over a single Devil Fruit.
He was a swordsman by training. A Devil Fruit wasn’t a necessity for him; if Teach had wanted it, all he had to do was ask, and he wouldn’t have refused.
But the one telling him this was Pops. And on this point, there’s no way Pops would ever lie to him.
They had all seen with their own eyes how much Pops valued family.
With a mix of doubt and trust, he and his comrades continued the banquet. When it finally ended and he returned to his room, Teach actually showed up.
Inside the cabin, Thatch and Teach opened some drinks and started to get tipsy. Once they’d had plenty, Teach seemed to get a sudden burst of excitement. With feigned curiosity, he asked Thatch:
“Commander Thatch, I heard you seized a Devil Fruit. Could I take a look at it?”
Though Thatch appeared to be thoroughly drunk on the surface, inwardly he had never stopped dwelling on Pops’ warning. He dared not let his guard down for a single second. When he heard Teach steer the conversation toward the Devil Fruit, his heart tightened a little.
This process… it’s unfolding exactly the way Pops described. Next, am I going to be ambushed, just like he said?
Thinking this, Thatch pretended to be completely unbothered as he took the Devil Fruit from a cabinet beside him.
“Bahahaha! I never expected to get this lucky either, actually scoring a Devil Fruit.”
“Though I’ve got no clue what kind of fruit this is. I figured I’d look it up in the encyclopedia later.”
“Let’s hope it’s a powerful one. Otherwise, as a swordsman, I wouldn’t be interested in eating it.”
As Thatch spoke, laughing and pouring more wine down his throat, he watched Teach. By now, Teach was completely mesmerized by the Devil Fruit in Thatch’s hand. The smile at the corner of his mouth grew broader and broader, even turning savage.
“I found it… I finally found it.”
“It really is the one… Gyahahahaha!”
Muttering to himself, the look Teach gave Thatch lost all trace of warmth. Out of seemingly nowhere, a sharp dagger appeared in his hand.
“Sorry, Commander Thatch. I can’t just stand by and watch someone else eat this Devil Fruit!”
Saying this, right before Thatch’s eyes, he lunged forward, stabbing the dagger straight toward his heart. Thatch, whether out of shock or simply not reacting in time, made absolutely no move to defend himself.
It was just that the disappointment and sadness in his eyes grew clearer by the second.
But Teach, already consumed by his obsession with the Dark-Dark Fruit, had long since failed to notice.
Closer… closer… Soon, he would have the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Then he’d grab it and escape the Whitebeard Pirates—
BOOM!
A violent, overwhelming burst of Conqueror’s Haki exploded outward. A deafening roar tore through heaven and earth, and the surrounding air seemed to be violently shaken apart by a colossal force.
Everyone was jolted awake by that terrifying pressure.
The sea churned, and the entire ocean began to quake violently because of it.
Countless towering waves shot into the sky, forming enormous waterspouts that reached up to the heavens, swirling around the Moby Dick as if the world itself was coming to an end.
“Teach!”
An enraged and ice-cold voice rang out beneath this monstrous Conqueror’s Haki. Teach’s movements froze. Beads of cold sweat dotted his forehead like a dense rash.
Of course, he still wanted to finish off Thatch—kill him and snatch the Dark-Dark Fruit—but under the crushing weight of Whitebeard’s Conqueror’s Haki, his body simply refused to obey.
What the hell?!
Pops has aged this much and he still possesses such terrifying Conqueror’s Haki?
No… this level of Haki is even stronger than when Pops was in his prime!
“I heard Pops’ voice! Did something happen?”
“Why is Pops this furious?! And this phenomenon… it’s just like twenty years ago!”
“Pops just shouted Teach’s name. Did Teach do something to make Pops this angry?”
“…”
Every crew member was jolted wide awake by Whitebeard’s voice and that fearsome Conqueror’s Haki. They scrambled frantically from the cabins, rushing to Pops’ side.
Following Pops’ line of sight, they saw Teach clutching a dagger, his expression twisted and savage, standing right in front of Thatch, who was holding the Devil Fruit.
“Teach, you should remember the rule of the Whitebeard Pirates: never harm one of your own brothers.”
“What exactly were you planning to do just now? Kill Thatch?!”
Whitebeard stared at Teach with a deadly intensity, his body radiating a terrifying aura that made every single person tremble.
Teach couldn’t stop his body from shaking. He knew perfectly well what he was doing, and he knew the price for breaking the Whitebeard Pirates’ iron law. But everything had been going so perfectly…
The Dark-Dark Fruit appeared. He was about to get his hands on it. Kill Thatch, escape from the Whitebeard Pirates, and build his own crew.
Everything was so perfect… so why did Pops have to show up right now?!
This doesn’t make any sense!
This isn’t how it was supposed to go at all!
“Teach! You actually tried to kill Thatch?! Do you have any idea what you were doing?!”
“This is unforgivable! This is the one thing you absolutely cannot do, Teach!”
Ace, Marco, and the others stared at Teach in disbelief. They could never have imagined that the seemingly simple and good-natured Teach, the one who drank with them all the time, would try to murder Thatch. The rest of the crew were also glaring furiously at Teach. In the Whitebeard Pirates, you could get away with a lot of things… but this? This was absolutely off-limits!
Facing the furious glares of everyone around him, Teach was now in a state of extreme panic. He wanted to say something, do something to reverse this situation. At the very least, he absolutely could not admit to it. Otherwise, forget the Dark-Dark Fruit—he was a dead man for sure!
“When Pops told me, I didn’t believe it.”
At that moment, Thatch, the very man Teach had been targeting, suddenly spoke up, looking at Teach with profound disappointment.
“I couldn’t imagine that someone I treated as family, as a brother, would want to kill me over a Devil Fruit.”
“But Teach… you’ve disappointed me beyond words.”
“It’s just a Devil Fruit. If you’d just asked, you think I would’ve said no?”
“I’m a swordsman through and through. Eating a Devil Fruit or not doesn’t mean that much to me. If you could unlock this fruit’s true potential, I would have happily given it to you. But instead… you tried to kill me!”
“Did you ever, in your heart, truly consider me—consider any of us—your brothers?!”
Just a Devil Fruit!
A mere, worthless Devil Fruit!
Although Thatch’s words were filled with genuine emotion, Teach had no mind to listen to him right now. He was solely focused on figuring out how to escape this situation.
Run.
He had to run!
He bit down fiercely on the tip of his tongue. The searing pain gave him momentary control over his body. Without a shred of hesitation, he plunged the dagger directly into Thatch’s abdomen, then seized the Dark-Dark Fruit, burst through the cabin wall, and leaped straight into the sea.
“TEACH!!!”
