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He would agree to it first. Whether he actually followed through afterward was an entirely separate matter, one that depended on his own circumstances.
His first instinct was to kill Ikki. After all, Ikki had cut down the talented crewmates he had worked so hard to gather.
"I agree. After the war is over, if I have the strength to spare, I'll help bring Ikki down." Blackbeard paused, then asked with a curious tilt of his head, "But I'm wondering why you came to me at all. And why do you want him dead?"
"We don't want you to kill him," CP0 said, shaking his head. "We need your help to restrain him. What we intend to do with him after that is none of your concern. The reason we sought you out is because we know you despise him. He killed your crewmate, after all. Forced you to build an entirely new crew from scratch."
At those words, Blackbeard's fists clenched at his sides.
When he brought it to mind himself, it was one thing. But hearing it spoken aloud by someone else dragged a deep, simmering shame to the surface. If the person standing in front of him hadn't been a CP0 agent, he might have already swung at them.
"You people have good instincts, I'll give you that," Blackbeard said, his voice edged with a sneer. "Even without you telling me why you want to restrain him, I can figure it out. You're after his ability to cultivate powerful crewmates at an absurd pace. Especially that strange sword of his."
His experience with Ikki's crew and their weapons ran deep, going all the way back to Loguetown. He had seen it firsthand there: Nami calling down blinding golden lightning, Ikki swinging a blade wrapped in dense black energy that seemed to devour everything it touched. Even now, the memory sent a tremor through him.
He wasn't a swordsman himself, but that sword was something else entirely. It was as if it had eaten a Devil Fruit. The thought of claiming it for himself had crossed his mind more than once. Even without becoming a swordsman, having access to one of those Devil Fruits would be enormously valuable.
Of course, he knew perfectly well that actually wielding the swords Ikki had cultivated through whatever unknown method he used was probably not a simple task.
In response to his guess, CP0 said nothing. Their silence was answer enough.
"I have other business to attend to. This conversation is over, Blackbeard Teach." The agent's tone was final. "Remember what you agreed to today. When this is finished, we will meet some of your conditions."
With that, the CP0 agent left.
They were confident in their ability to conceal themselves, but lingering near Blackbeard for too long was still an unnecessary risk. Ikki was at Marine Headquarters, and the last thing they wanted was for him to catch wind of this conversation.
What the CP0 members couldn't have imagined was that the very man they were talking about had already listened to every word of it.
Not just Ikki. Gion, who served within the Marines, had heard it all too. At this moment, she was shaking with barely restrained fury.
Meanwhile, below, a member of the Blackbeard Pirates stepped up behind Teach. It was a face Ikki didn't recognize, one of the new recruits Blackbeard had pulled together after Ikki dismantled his original crew.
"Captain, should we really have agreed to that?" the crewmate asked. "If things go the way we planned, won't we have no time to actually carry out their mission?"
"Zehahahaha, relax," Blackbeard said easily. "Agreeing doesn't mean I intend to follow through. But if we do reach our goal along the way, then sure, we can deal with Ikki. And not just him. His whole crew." His expression darkened. "Especially Nami."
His teeth ground together whenever Ikki and Nami's names came up. The hatred was real and bone-deep.
His plan was clear in his own mind: find powerful allies in Impel Down, then claim Whitebeard's Devil Fruit. After that, killing Ikki might genuinely become possible.
"Strange." Blackbeard suddenly frowned, his eyes sweeping the surrounding air. "I feel like someone's watching."
"Oh? Are you talking about me, Blackbeard?"
Aokiji's voice drifted over.
"Ah, Admiral Kuzan." Blackbeard's expression eased into a smile. "What brings you this way?"
CP0 had just come to him about capturing Ikki, and now an Admiral had appeared right on the heels of that. Blackbeard's smile widened, and he assumed Kuzan had come to discuss the same matter.
He was quickly disappointed. Kuzan had come on Sengoku's orders, simply to check in on what Blackbeard was doing. Even as the conversation wound down and Kuzan turned to leave, he said nothing about any plans to capture Ikki.
Blackbeard considered the possibility that the World Government had kept their decision from Kuzan, and decided not to bring it up himself.
High above, Astolfo's eagle cut swiftly through the sky.
On its back, Gion's face was set in a hard, grim expression. Astolfo looked visibly displeased. Ikki still wore a quiet smile.
"Master, how can you still be smiling right now?" Astolfo looked at him with genuine concern. "They were just sitting there talking about how to deal with you."
Astolfo had his reputation for reasoning that evaporated under pressure, but there were some things he understood clearly enough. And this was one of them.
"What's there to worry about?" Ikki said, his smile easy. "If we hadn't known about this, it might have been a real threat. But we know now, don't we? It'll be a long time before they actually move against us. We have plenty of time to make arrangements." He glanced at Astolfo. "We should be grateful, actually."
A moment before, when Blackbeard had nearly sensed them through his Observation Haki, Ikki had signaled Astolfo to steer the eagle away from the area immediately. They had heard everything worth hearing. It was time to go. The last thing he wanted was for Blackbeard to realize that Ikki already knew every word of what he and CP0 had discussed. Letting that advantage slip would be careless.
"I suppose that's true," Astolfo said, stroking his chin and nodding slowly.
"Master, is there anything we need to prepare? If you wanted to have Blackbeard assassinated right now..." Astolfo pressed a hand to his chest, his expression full of confidence. "I can handle it."