“Captain Thatch, you’re not dead!”
Looking at the figure standing alive in front of him, Teach felt as though he had seen a ghost.
The man who had just murdered Thatch without even blinking was instantly drenched in cold sweat.
He forced a stiff smile onto his face, seemingly wanting to put on the simple, unambitious persona he had always displayed.
But when he remembered that the person standing before him should already be a corpse after he had “poured his heart out” into him, the viciousness in his shifty eyes became impossible to conceal.
Teach, the mediocre and inconspicuous Second Division member of the Whitebeard Pirates, and Blackbeard Teach, the ambitious schemer who had plotted for the Yami Yami no Mi and murdered his own companion.
Two completely different identities were now overlapping within Teach himself.
“Teach, why are you panicking?”
Shiranui Rei grinned and strode toward him.
Earlier, when Thatch had passed by, Rei had only taken a quick glance at him, rapidly memorizing a few of his most obvious features.
Therefore, although the Thatch created by the Transformation Technique looked roughly identical to the real one, it couldn’t withstand close scrutiny when it came to certain details.
However, under the cover of night, Teach’s eyes were naturally more focused on the similarities than those tiny discrepancies.
Furthermore, the calmer and more composed Shiranui Rei appeared, the more unsettled Teach became.
“The Clone-Clone Fruit?
No.
There’s no one aboard the ship with that Devil Fruit ability!
“Could Marco have saved Thatch after I left?
But I clearly pierced his heart.
Even the flames of the Phoenix couldn’t possibly bring Thatch back to life!
“Could it really be… a ghost?”
As countless thoughts raced through his mind, Teach’s chest heaved violently.
He stared at the approaching “Captain Thatch” and instinctively backed away, strange legends of ghosts and spirits circulating across the sea surfacing in his mind.
Seeing Teach panic, the smile on Shiranui Rei’s lips widened slightly.
They hadn’t exchanged blows yet, so he didn’t know what level Blackbeard’s current strength had reached.
But in this initial battle of wits, he had undoubtedly gained the upper hand!
As for Observation Haki, he might never have eaten pork, but he’d certainly seen pigs run.
Indeed, Observation Haki could detect movements outside one’s field of vision, predict the trajectory of attacks, sense the strength of an enemy, and, when mastered to its extreme, even briefly glimpse the future.
But it also had limitations.
Using it required calmness and concentration, and when someone became emotionally agitated, their ability to sense things could be impaired.
So, was Blackbeard Teach emotionally agitated right now?
The Yami Yami no Mi was practically within his grasp.
He had turned against Pops and the companions he had spent years with.
And now, the Captain Thatch who should have been dead had suddenly appeared before him alive…
He probably wouldn’t ever be more emotionally agitated than he was at this very moment!
As a result, the flaws that could have been discovered with a simple sweep of Observation Haki were something Teach was completely unable to notice.
Looking at the increasingly close, dark-skinned, bulky man, Shiranui Rei’s gaze sharpened.
He certainly didn’t believe that the ambitious and audacious Blackbeard would truly be frightened into complete inaction by him.
The appearance of Thatch would shock and terrify him, but it would never make him abandon his ambitions and dreams.
A man’s dreams never end!
The fact that Teach could say something like that proved he wasn’t the sort of person who would simply sit around helplessly when he believed himself to be cornered.
Therefore, Shiranui Rei became even more vigilant.
He needed to further disturb his opponent’s state of mind.
“Teach! Why did you try to kill me?!”
He reprimanded him in a low, angry, stern voice.
Teach didn’t want to alert anyone else aboard the ship, especially that imposing, powerful man.
Neither did Shiranui Rei.
“Captain Thatch! I… I was… I was controlled by someone else’s Devil Fruit! Yes! That’s it! I don’t know what happened either!”
Teach’s bulky body suddenly dropped to his knees.
In his haste, he casually fabricated an excuse, twisting right and wrong to absolve himself while begging “Captain Thatch” for forgiveness.
But his eyes, hidden in the darkness, remained fixed on “Thatch.”
His rough palms pressed against the floor, trembling slightly.
Just as he had expected!
Even if this excuse couldn’t withstand the slightest scrutiny, years of brotherhood would still make Captain Thatch instinctively stop and think.
Those few tenths of a second when his mind was distracted would be his opportunity!
The next instant, the bulky body suddenly exploded into motion!
“For my ambition and my dreams! Even if you’re the real Captain Thatch, you’ll have to die again!!”
Teach’s face twisted viciously, killing intent radiating from him.
His legs, which had been kneeling on the ground, suddenly pushed off with tremendous force, and his bulky body shot forward like a savage leopard.
His right hand, the blood from Thatch already dried upon it, curled into a claw once more and aimed directly at “Thatch’s” heart.
If one heart-piercing strike wasn’t enough, then he’d do it twice!
“Just as I thought…”
Shiranui Rei had already been prepared.
He planted his foot firmly against the floor, and his body instantly retreated several meters, barely avoiding the claw that had reached for his chest.
Yet the violent airflow generated by the claw strike still cut painfully across the exposed skin of Rei’s cheek and neck.
“…”
His eyes narrowed slightly, and his wariness toward Teach rose another level.
The explosive power Teach had displayed in that instant was already enough to threaten his life!
As expected, how could Teach, who had waited for years for the right Devil Fruit to fulfill his ambitions, possibly have truly neglected his training during that long wait?
His apparent lack of ambition and carefree life had merely been a disguise.
If he had genuinely slacked off aboard the Whitebeard Pirates, how could he possibly have risen to the position of Emperor of the Sea and ruled the oceans only a few years after obtaining the Yami Yami no Mi?
Without a certain foundation of strength, could just anyone weak who happened to eat the Yami Yami no Mi become an Emperor?
His heart-piercing attack had been dodged by “Captain Thatch.”
Teach merely stood there in a daze for a moment.
His large mouth, with its uneven and missing teeth, slowly opened.
A dark, restrained laugh squeezed out from his throat.
“Zehahaha!”
He was clearly laughing, yet his eyes were filled with viciousness.
Relief, relaxation, and anger at having been deceived.
These complicated emotions ultimately transformed into overwhelming killing intent.
After spending so many years aboard the same pirate ship, how could he possibly fail to recognize Captain Thatch’s instinctive reaction when faced with an attack?
A strange aura spread forward from his mind.
Once his emotions had calmed down, Observation Haki once again responded to his will as naturally as moving his own limbs.
Expression, movements, aura, strength.
Every piece of information fed back to him clearly revealed that the man standing before him with “Captain Thatch’s” appearance was an impostor.
“Pirates betray and murder their own companions all the time. So why would a ghost come after my life…”
Teach’s voice was eerie.
“Zehahaha! What a pathetic disguise. It’s laughable that you actually managed to fool me just now!”
“You…”
Shiranui Rei’s eyes narrowed.
The feeling Blackbeard gave him now was completely different from before.
His fists were tightly clenched, veins bulging across them.
The murderous aura within his bulky, rugged body was deeply restrained, yet the viciousness in his eyes seemed powerful enough to make the surrounding air freeze.
His chest heaved violently.
Every heavy breath carried an overwhelming killing intent.
His body, far larger than the average shinobi, was like a mountain standing directly before Rei.
“This terrifying pressure…”
Shiranui Rei’s instincts screamed a warning.
He immediately dispelled the Transformation Technique and returned to his original appearance.
His right hand had already slipped into his ninja pouch, gripping the handle of his kunai.
The last time he had felt such pressure had been on the battlefield, when he encountered the Third Kazekage before the man had officially taken the position.
Shiranui Rei was already much stronger now than he had been back then.
Yet when directly facing Teach, whose killing intent was boiling over, he still felt an enormous pressure bearing down on him.
Among all the enemies he had faced throughout his career as a shinobi, Blackbeard Teach’s strength was undoubtedly the most powerful he had ever encountered.