“Huff…” “Huff…” “Huff…” Teach lay sprawled on the beach, gasping for breath.
He was completely drenched, but not with seawater.
After swimming while dragging a stone and completing the rest of his training, the seawater had long since evaporated from the heat of his body.
Now, he was soaked in sweat.
The sun slowly rose over the horizon, casting a golden glow across the sea.
Teach saw the same sight every day.
He lay there until his breathing gradually steadied, then climbed to his feet and returned to his small wooden hut.
Along the way, he passed several diligent fishermen preparing to head out to sea early in the morning.
The moment they saw Teach, they hurriedly kept their distance and did not even dare make eye contact.
The man Teach had kicked into the sea the previous day had suffered several broken ribs and nearly died.
News of the incident had already spread throughout the small town, making the islanders even more afraid of Teach.
He knew nothing about it, nor would he have cared if he did.
The man had only himself to blame for his loose tongue.
Teach normally left ordinary people alone as long as they did not provoke him.
Dragging his exhausted body back to the hut, he quickly rinsed himself off before taking out the grain and vegetables he had bought the day before.
He mixed everything together and boiled it in a pot.
He could not afford to be picky.
As long as it was not poisonous, it was good enough.
Once it was ready, he sprinkled in a little salt and began shoveling the food into his mouth.
“Ah…
Refreshing!” Teach rubbed his flat stomach and lay down on the bed.
Whenever he finished eating, he closed his eyes and rested for a while.
It was his substitute for sleep—a small comfort he gave himself.
He remained there for a long time, gradually recovering the energy he had spent during the night’s training.
Teach did not need sleep, but his stamina was not limitless.
He could still become exhausted.
Suddenly, he pushed himself upright and sprang out of bed.
“Damn it.
Another day without anything happening.” Grumbling, he picked up his fishing gear and headed to his usual spot.
He skillfully baited the hook and cast his line.
Then he sat motionless, staring blankly at the sea.
In truth, his Observation Haki allowed him to sense where the fish were and even identify their species.
If he used a harpoon, he could catch them far more efficiently.
But he chose not to.
Fishing had become part of his daily routine.
It also gave him a way to recover his strength in place of sleeping.
By noon, the dock had become crowded.
Even so, no one dared approach the prime fishing spot occupied by Teach.
Not even the middle-aged fisherman who had spoken to him the day before came near him.
Days passed like this, with Teach repeating the same simple routine over and over.
One day, he decided to enter the sea again and hunt another Sea Beast to improve his meals.
He stripped down to nothing but his shorts.
This time, in addition to his usual claw gauntlet, he brought a short knife.
He had borrowed it from the burly blacksmith, who had become extremely accommodating and lent it to him without hesitation.
Teach fitted the gauntlet over his right hand and tucked the knife securely into the waistband of his shorts.
Then he plunged into the water and swam out to sea.
Teach frowned.
His Observation Haki could sense only small fish nearby.
With no other choice, he continued farther from shore.
One nautical mile.
Two nautical miles.
By the time he finally sensed something, the island was already far beyond his sight.
At the edge of his Observation Haki’s range, he detected a large Sea Beast—one even bigger than the creature he had hunted before.
Without hesitation, Teach changed course and swam toward it.
This Sea Beast was even stranger than the last.
It had a duck’s beak and webbed feet attached to the body of a fish.
Instead of scales, its body was covered in soft down.
Teach stared at the bizarre creature, momentarily speechless.
He could not help wondering what it would taste like.
The Sea Beast did not seem to notice him as it swam toward the surface.
Teach followed beneath it, quietly approaching from below.
He remained undetected until he reached one of its webbed feet.
The surrounding water resisted his movements as Teach poured strength into his right arm.
His claw gauntlet tore through the water and slashed across the Sea Beast’s webbed foot.
“Quack!” A thunderous cry came from above.
The webbed foot was severed, leaving the injured leg twitching in the water.
Teach immediately pressed his advantage and swung his claws again.
At that moment, a massive yellow beak plunged beneath the surface.
Its flattened upper and lower jaws were lined with countless tiny, tightly packed teeth.
One glance was enough to tell Teach that this duck-like creature was a carnivore.
If it bit him, his body would be riddled with holes.
Teach hurriedly raised his claws to block.
“Crack!” Two of the three claws on his gauntlet snapped.
That useless bastard repaired my claw gauntlet into a complete piece of junk.
Fortunately, Teach had been cautious enough to bring a spare weapon.
He discarded the ruined gauntlet, which now had only one claw remaining, and drew the short knife from his waistband.
When the enormous beak lunged at him again, Teach narrowly twisted out of the way.
Using his smaller, more agile body, he circled the Sea Beast and occasionally slashed it with the knife.
More and more wounds appeared across its body, and its movements gradually slowed.
Just as Teach prepared to finish it off, his Observation Haki detected something enormous rapidly approaching.
The creature was nearly five hundred meters long.
A Sea King?
Teach did not dare waste another second.
He immediately abandoned the wounded Sea Beast and swam toward Bass Island.
If he could reach the shallow coastal waters, the Sea King would not follow him.
The moment he turned away, a powerful suction force erupted behind him.
The surrounding seawater dragged him backward.
“Damn it!” Teach had encountered Sea Kings in these waters before, but they had usually been only one or two hundred meters long.
Today, he had run into an especially large one.
Using both his arms and legs, he fought against the current, broke free of the suction, and swam toward the surface.
He did not need to look back.
His Observation Haki had already told him that the dying duck-like Sea Beast had been swallowed whole.
Teach swam toward shore with all his strength, silently praying that the Sea King would not take an interest in him.
Unfortunately, luck was not on his side.
The Sea King did not seem satisfied with its meal and quickly took an interest in the tough, 1.9-meter-tall morsel fleeing ahead of it.
It chased Teach from behind, churning the water violently as the distance between them rapidly shrank.
Every sweep of its tail propelled it forward by a hundred meters.
“Roar!” The monster released a deafening cry.
It opened its abyss-like mouth and inhaled deeply.
Seawater poured into its jaws, dragging Teach backward with it.
Rows of sharp teeth, each larger than his entire body, gleamed coldly within its mouth.
“Damn it!” Teach planted his feet between the teeth of its lower jaw and wedged his short knife against the upper row, desperately preventing the mouth from closing.
“Crack!” The knife shattered.
The blood-red maw snapped shut.
At the final instant, Teach launched himself through the narrowing gap.
The Sea King chewed several times but felt nothing inside its mouth.
Its enormous eyes, each nearly as large as Teach himself, searched the surrounding water.
Teach desperately swam toward the shallows, cursing the blacksmith in his heart.
He would definitely kill that swindler.
With a reliable weapon, he might have been able to put up a fight.
But underwater, the resistance of the sea weakened his punches, while the Sea King’s slippery hide made them nearly useless.
He had learned that lesson during a previous battle against a smaller Sea King.
While Teach fled for his life, a massive ship appeared in the distance.
It sailed in the same direction as him, heading straight toward Bass Island.
The vessel was shaped like a whale, and a black flag flew from its mast.
Upon the flag was a skull wearing a crescent-shaped white mustache.
It belonged to the Whitebeard Pirates—the crew Teach had spent all these years waiting for.