“Teach… you… you!!!”
After being treated this way by his good brother, Thatch couldn’t even form a complete sentence once he realized what had happened.
He struggled to turn his head and met those cold, savage eyes with disbelief.
This guy was… Teach?
It was clearly the same face, yet his aura and expression were completely different from the man Thatch had seen day after day.
His friend, his brother, was that simple and rugged big man.
He absolutely couldn’t be this ambitious bastard who would slaughter his own brothers…
How could he have become like this?
“Teach, I… I will never…”
I will never forgive you!!!
Even his final words came out in broken fragments.
The light gradually faded from his once-bright eyes, and the ruined body of Thatch, his heart pierced through, was thrown to the floor by Teach like a piece of discarded cloth.
Even as the life slowly drained from the corpse, traces of flour from the cherry pie he had just been making for Teach still clung to his hands, stark white against the dim floor.
“I’m sorry, Captain Thatch…”
Teach looked down at the body on the floor.
He stared at the companion who had joined the Whitebeard Pirates alongside him in his youth and supported him all these years, his face twisted with ferocity.
“But you only have yourself to blame!”
Decades of brotherhood!
The care Thatch had shown him by making cherry pie whenever he was hungry in the middle of the night!
The way Thatch would block enemy attacks for him in battle!
But why did it have to be you who found this fruit?
Why did you have to say that you would choose to eat it if it turned out to have a powerful ability?
It wasn’t his fault.
It was all Thatch’s fault!
You brought this upon yourself, Captain Thatch!
You were asking to die, Thatch!!!
Teach’s heaving chest gradually settled, and the viciousness in his eyes faded.
He knew he didn’t have much time left.
Once dawn arrived, the powerful backer that had protected him all these years—the Whitebeard Pirates—would become the most terrifying enemy he would face in the future!
He had already prepared a small boat for leaving the Moby Dick.
All he needed to do next was enter Thatch’s room, take the Yami Yami no Mi, and escape aboard the small boat while the night was still deep and no one had noticed anything.
Even Pops wouldn’t be able to easily find him in the vast ocean.
And even if the Whitebeard Pirates eventually discovered his whereabouts, by then he would have already grown in the shadows and mastered the power of the Yami Yami no Mi!
Thinking of this, he suddenly began laughing.
His hairy chest and belly heaved violently as he struggled to suppress the sound.
“Zehahaha! Looks like this fruit chose me after all!!”
It just so happened that his friend Thatch had found the fruit, forcing him to make such a dark decision in order to obtain it.
He had even been forced to turn against Pops and the companions he had spent decades with!
But from another perspective, wasn’t this proof that the Yami Yami no Mi had chosen him?
He slowly extended his right hand.
Thatch’s blood was still warm, coating his dark hand and forearm.
Under the dim light of the kitchen, the blood-covered hand looked particularly terrifying.
Teach walked over to the table where Thatch had been working moments earlier.
With his blood-red right hand, he roughly grabbed a handful of cherries prepared as ingredients.
Without caring that they were stained with blood, he stuffed them all into his mouth.
He chewed loudly, then praised them in a muffled voice.
“Such sweet cherries, Captain Thatch!”
Just as he had always praised the cherry pies Thatch baked himself.
…
“Tch, this ship is seriously huge.”
The man who should have already been dead was now wandering around the cabins of the Moby Dick.
Looking at the countless identical doors, the corners of Thatch’s mouth twitched.
Of course, this “Thatch” wasn’t the real Thatch.
It was Shiranui Rei, disguised using the Transformation Technique.
When Thatch and Teach had passed by earlier, Rei had observed them carefully.
Thatch hadn’t appeared to be carrying the Yami Yami no Mi on his person.
So there was no need to guess where this “treasure of the sea” had been hidden.
He had kept it in his room.
Transforming into Thatch’s appearance was meant to make moving around easier.
The problem was that Rei had absolutely no idea where Thatch’s room was.
It was the middle of the night.
Apart from the crewman standing watch in the lookout post atop the distant mast, the deck was practically deserted.
But even if he encountered one of Whitebeard’s crew members now, he couldn’t simply grab someone and ask where Thatch lived.
First, asking someone where “he” lived would immediately reveal that there was something wrong with this “Thatch.”
Second, this world possessed a power known as Observation Haki.
Based on Shiranui Rei’s guess, Observation Haki had a similar effect to the sensory abilities of sensory-type shinobi and could potentially see through the Transformation Technique!
The reason Teach and Thatch hadn’t noticed him when he had transformed into a wooden barrel earlier was simple.
Just as sensory-type shinobi didn’t constantly keep their sensory abilities active, people with Observation Haki wouldn’t keep their Haki activated every second either.
But if he exposed himself while talking face-to-face with someone, and the other person became suspicious and swept him with Observation Haki…
“Observation Haki, huh? That’s certainly an enviable ability. I just don’t know whether someone born in the shinobi world like me can learn it.”
Shiranui Rei imitated Thatch’s posture, stroking his chin as he pondered.
Things had reached a stalemate.
All he could do was find somewhere nearby to hide temporarily.
He didn’t know where Thatch’s room was, but Teach definitely did.
Teach should have already given Thatch quite a bit of “heartfelt advice.”
His next step would naturally be to sneak into Thatch’s room and take the fruit he had dreamed of obtaining.
In other words, as long as Rei waited somewhere near the cabins where the crew lived, he would inevitably see Teach returning.
The only unfortunate part was that Rei’s original plan of secretly stealing the Yami Yami no Mi and slipping away had fallen through.
He would still have to confront Teach, whose strength remained unknown.
Yet the prospect of an unknown powerful enemy didn’t frighten him.
Instead, the corners of his mouth curled upward slightly.
The blood that had gradually cooled after he left the battlefield of the Second Shinobi World War seemed to be beginning to boil once more.
Still wearing Thatch’s appearance, Shiranui Rei chose a position with the widest possible field of view and concealed himself in the darkness.
Not long afterward.
Accompanied by deliberately light, furtive footsteps, a bulky figure entered Shiranui Rei’s field of vision.
Teach’s eyes were filled with suppressed excitement.
He didn’t glance around nervously.
Instead, his gaze remained fixed on the door to Thatch’s room.
At this moment, he was essentially racing against death itself.
If someone aboard the Moby Dick happened to sweep the area with Observation Haki right now, his crime would instantly ignite the entire Whitebeard Pirates.
Even if Pops didn’t personally intervene, several division commanders working together could easily capture him, leaving him trapped with nowhere to run.
So he had to hurry!
Take the Yami Yami no Mi, then escape aboard the small boat!
“Who’s there!”
His footsteps stopped in front of Thatch’s door.
Just as he was about to push it open, he suddenly sensed something wrong.
His sinister gaze instantly locked onto a corner in the distance that was concealed by shadows.
A trace of killing intent began to brew in his eyes.
Whoever it was, anyone who had discovered what happened had to die!
However, in the next second, the figure hidden in the shadows took a step forward and revealed itself.
The moment he saw who it was, Teach’s murderous expression froze.
He stood rooted to the spot as though struck by lightning, several beads of cold sweat appearing on his dark forehead.
He remained motionless for a long while before finally forcing a sentence out of his throat.
“Captain Thatch, you’re not dead!”
His fingers subconsciously rubbed against his right hand, still stained with blood.
He desperately tried to calm his surging emotions, but the tremor in his voice was impossible to conceal.
His mind had gone almost completely blank.