Marine Headquarters, Marineford—
Kaito sat idly in his office, lazily flipping through the documents on his desk.
A knock came at the door, and Kalifa walked in holding a newspaper.
She placed the newspaper in front of Kaito and said,
"Boss, something happened with the Whitebeard Pirates!"
"Hmm?"
Kaito picked up the paper and glanced at it, immediately noticing the bold headline at the top.
"Shocking Turmoil! Internal Strife Within the Whitebeard Pirates!"
Kaito raised an eyebrow. The image of Blackbeard popped into his mind.
As he continued reading, the details were exactly what he expected—the main figure in the report was indeed Blackbeard.
...
...
The article described how Marshall D. Teach, a former 2nd Division member of the Whitebeard Pirates, had murdered all the 4th Division members over a Devil Fruit. He had now defected and formed his own crew, calling himself "Blackbeard."
Aside from that, the article dedicated significant space to hyping up the Devil Fruit he had stolen, even claiming that with it, Blackbeard could now challenge the Yonko.
However, it didn't provide any concrete information about the fruit's abilities.
Seeing this, Kaito chuckled. In his opinion, that Devil Fruit had to be the Dark-Dark Fruit—otherwise, Blackbeard wouldn't have betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates over it.
Though the timeline seemed to have moved up a bit, the outcome hadn't changed—Blackbeard still got the fruit he had so desperately desired.
Only this time, he went even further. In the anime, he merely ambushed and killed Thatch. Now, he had wiped out the entire 4th Division. Clearly, some subtle changes were already in motion.
Kalifa noticed Kaito silently reading and smiling, and couldn't help but ask,
"Boss, don't you think the article's tone is a little strange?"
Kaito looked up at her, set the newspaper down slowly, and asked,
"Oh? Strange how?"
"Don't you think it's overhyping that Devil Fruit a little too much?"
Kalifa's point wasn't without merit. As everyone knew, no matter how powerful or valuable a Devil Fruit was, once someone ate it, its significance became moot.
Even if the user was killed, the fruit would only reappear somewhere in the world at random—it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
As far as Kalifa knew, there was only one person with a method of killing a Devil Fruit user and directly acquiring their abilities: Kaito.
So to her, this newspaper seemed like it was written specifically to bait Kaito.
Kaito saw the implication too, but he didn't care if this was some sort of scheme aimed at him. After all, all fear stems from lack of firepower....
With his current strength, the only one he considered a threat was that mysterious figure Imu. No one else could really overturn him.
In fact, Kaito felt like thanking whoever wrote that article—if not for them, how would he have known Blackbeard already got his hands on the Dark-Dark Fruit?
That fruit had long been on Kaito's Devil Fruit watchlist—he was never going to let a treasure like that slip by.
With that thought, Kaito smiled and said,
"Heh... whatever reason that person had for leaking this news, that Devil Fruit is mine."
After speaking, he stood up from his chair and said to Kalifa,
"Kalifa, you'll need to handle things for me here for a while. I'm going to pay Blackbeard a visit."
Kalifa adjusted her glasses with a sigh.
Even if you didn't say it, Boss, I'd still be the one doing all this work...
She gave a small mental complaint, then quickly shifted into work mode. Nodding, she said,
"Go ahead, Boss. I'll take care of everything here."
Looking at his capable little secretary, Kaito smiled, pulled her into his arms, gave her a gentle kiss, and in the next instant—vanished.
...
West Blue, in a small, rundown nation—
On a dilapidated street, a group of soldiers had surrounded a tall, slender man wearing a black top hat.
Despite being surrounded, the man showed not a trace of fear. In fact, it was the soldiers who were drenched in sweat, too scared to make a move.
After a long, tense standoff, one of them finally shouted,
"Lafitte! Your abuse of power has sparked public outrage! The king has ordered us to expel you!"
The man in question was none other than Lafitte, one of the earliest members of the Blackbeard Pirates, known as the "Demon Sheriff."
Even as the soldiers shouted, Lafitte wore a mocking smile. Tipping his hat slightly, he replied,
"Just a little excessive force and His Majesty is already displeased? How troublesome."
His dismissive attitude enraged the soldiers.
"'A little'?! You destroyed an entire street! Do you know how many innocent people died?!"
"I didn't want to—but they were just too weak."
Lafitte twirled the dark red cane in his hand, completely ignoring the men in front of him.
"You bastard! I'm locking you up if it's the last thing I do!"
Several soldiers couldn't hold back anymore. Weapons raised, they charged.
That was when Lafitte moved.
A flash of cold light swept across the street—and then he was back where he started.
The soldiers who had rushed at him suddenly froze in mid-motion, as if someone had hit the pause button.
Only when Lafitte slowly slid his sword-cane back into its sheath did their bodies erupt in sprays of blood, collapsing lifelessly to the ground.
The remaining soldiers were instantly paralyzed with fear. None dared approach, let alone attack him.
Looking at the trembling crowd, Lafitte's eyes showed nothing but scorn. With a strange, sing-song tone, he said,
"Looks like this country has no place for me anymore. Guess I'll be on my way~"
With that, he turned to leave.
No one dared stop him. If anything, they wanted this walking disaster gone as fast as possible.
But not everyone was ready to let Lafitte walk away so easily. A voice suddenly called out:
"Zehahahaha! Now that's an interesting guy. Aren't you going to stir things up a bit before you go?"
Lafitte paused.
He turned to look at the far end of the street, where several figures had appeared at some point.
Leading them was a sloppy-looking, overweight man.
It was none other than Marshall D. Teach—Blackbeard—who had now been on the run from the Whitebeard Pirates for some time.
He had already formed his own pirate crew and begun recruiting.
Among those now standing beside him were his helmsman, Jesus Burgess; his sniper, Van Augur; and his ship's doctor, Doc Q.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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