Chapter 18: Blackbeard's Terror
"Whitebeard's already there? That was fast… he left the Moby Dick barely a minute ago, and he's already found Blackbeard."
Seated in a chair on the Moby Dick's deck, Ryū watched the livestream playing out inside his mind.
The image quality was flawless. He could see every detail of Blackbeard's face — and the expression morphing across it in real time.
He couldn't read Teach's thoughts. But from the way the man's face was shifting from shock to horror to outright despair, it wasn't hard to guess.
This man knew he was about to die.
And Ryū's guess was dead-on. That was exactly what Blackbeard was thinking.
Yukari Yakumo ahead of him — radiating a threat level that made his survival instincts scream.
Whitebeard behind him — on an island he had no business being on.
Teach's brain crashed.
He couldn't understand why Whitebeard was at Fish-Man Island. He couldn't identify the dangerous girl with the spatial abilities. He couldn't figure out why she was helping Whitebeard.
The only thing Marshall D. Teach knew with absolute certainty was this: if he didn't escape Fish-Man Island, the only word that described his future was death.
He'd been reincarnated barely one or two months ago. How much could he have possibly grown in that time?
Even he knew he stood zero chance against Whitebeard right now.
Especially with that bizarre girl backing Whitebeard up.
Watching Teach's terrified expression through the livestream, Ryū calmly took a screenshot, tweaked the color grading to black-and-white, and posted it to the group chat.
It looked like a funeral portrait.
RawrSoFierce:
"The Dimensional Chat Group's first-ever illegal reincarnator kill. Screenshotting this for the group album as a memento. [Image]"
Crazy Diamond:
"Killing an illegal reincarnator? So that Blackbeard guy is about to die? Can someone give me the quick rundown on what's happening here?"
Crazy Diamond:
"Also — is that a human body?! He just stomped the ground and left a crater ten meters wide!! If he stepped on a person, they'd be paste!!"
Kaguya-sama:
"The ugly one is Blackbeard Teach. He murdered one of Newgate-san's sons."
Kaguya-sama:
"On top of that, the chat group flagged him as an illegal reincarnator in the Group Quest."
Kaguya-sama:
"So Blackbeard Teach is on the Dimensional Chat Group's kill list. Check the Group Quest in the upper right, newcomer."
Crazy Diamond:
"A murderer, huh? Then he's getting what he deserves."
While the chat was still buzzing, Whitebeard had already launched his assault.
And he'd opened with a killing blow.
In the livestream, Whitebeard gripped his massive bisento — Murakumogiri — with both hands. A faint white glow wreathed the blade. The air around him began to tremble, vibrating at a frequency that made reality itself seem fragile. A crushing, suffocating pressure erupted outward.
He didn't waste a single word on Teach beyond what needed to be said.
The memory of Thatch's blood-soaked corpse burned behind his eyes. Volcanic rage poured through his voice.
"Marshall D. Teach! I treated you as my own son — and you repaid me by betraying your family! You murdered Thatch! I see your ambition for what it truly is now!"
"Today — I, Edward Newgate, will clean house right here! Thatch deserves justice, even in death!"
"KAISHIN!!!"
Veins bulged across Whitebeard's massive arms like writhing serpents. His towering frame radiated an aura of absolute devastation.
He swung Murakumogiri in a single, titanic arc — and the blade struck nothing but air.
The air shattered.
A sound like a thousand wine glasses exploding simultaneously filled the world. Cracks ripped through the very fabric of space, racing toward Blackbeard at speeds that made bullets look pedestrian. Hurricane-force shockwaves tore through the atmosphere. The ground beneath their feet splintered and collapsed layer by layer, debris and dust blasted skyward by the gale.
The earth convulsed as if struck by an earthquake of catastrophic magnitude. Spider-web fractures spread endlessly across the terrain.
Teach nearly lost his footing from the violent tremors alone.
"N-No…! My Dark Vortex can only absorb and cancel fruit abilities in a small radius — but this attack's area of effect is absolutely insane!"
Teach's heart lurched. The wall of spatial cracks rushing toward him, the razor-sharp gale shredding his skin — everything about this situation screamed one thing:
Whitebeard knew his ability.
It felt exactly like the old man had studied his Devil Fruit power and designed his attack to counter it perfectly.
But that was impossible — Teach had only had the Dark-Dark Fruit for days. He'd barely managed to develop one technique: Dark Vortex. And that technique's critical weakness…
It was as if Whitebeard already knew about it.
He'd only invented this move in the past few days. Was this just a coincidence? Just his imagination?
A thousand thoughts collided in his skull. But the spatial cracks were already upon him. Teach gritted his teeth, sucked in a breath, and activated his fruit's power. A massive black void materialized in front of him like a shield.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit's devastating quake force reached Teach's position. A portion of it struck the black void — and vanished into it without a trace, as if swallowed by an abyss. Absorbed completely. Not a ripple.
But that was only a fraction of the total attack.
Teach's expression shattered.
The rest of the tremor force curved around his shield — flanking him from both sides — and slammed into his body. In that instant, it felt as though every organ inside him had been pummeled by hundreds of invisible fists. His skin split open. Cracks spiderwebbed across his flesh like fractures in ceramic.
A geyser of crimson blood erupted from his mouth, spraying a full meter through the air.
Blood seeped from the countless fissures covering his body, painting him red from head to toe.
He looked like a man made of blood.
"Gkh— *cough cough*! What… monstrous power! Damn that old fossil — *cough* — why is he here on Fish-Man Island?! What the hell went wrong?!"
Teach staggered backward, each retreating step cratering the ground beneath him. Blood poured from his mouth in a continuous stream. Every nerve in his body screamed with agony.
The pain twisted his face into something barely human.
But the terror in his eyes hadn't faded one bit.
Because he could see Whitebeard charging toward him, Murakumogiri in hand.
The distance between them was roughly a hundred meters.
But Teach could clearly make out the volcanic fury etched across Whitebeard's face.
"MARSHALL D. TEACH! Today — you die alongside Thatch!!!"
With that thunderous roar, the earth convulsed. The ground fractured outward in every direction, dust and debris erupting skyward.
Whitebeard's towering frame — nearly seven meters of pure, undiluted wrath — materialized twenty meters from Teach.
Twenty meters.
And closing.
Teach's pupils contracted to needlepoints.
The cold, unmistakable certainty of death gripped his heart.