Chapter 252
Chapter 252
"Although I don’t understand what you’re talking about, it has nothing to do with us. We just need to do our job as Marines."
Sengoku frowned and spoke in a heavy tone.
He had keenly sensed that what Rorschach mentioned was an extremely confidential secret.
It would be better for him not to know too much about it.
These were matters concerning the World Government and the Five Elders.
"How pitiful."
Rorschach shook his head at this.
He understood that Sengoku was deliberately playing dumb.
Otherwise, with his reputation as the "Strategist," how could he not guess the importance of what Rorschach had just revealed?
There was actually a hidden ruler above the Five Elders.
Someone even more noble than the Celestial Dragons, above the Five Elders themselves.
Sengoku recalled something Whitebeard and Roger had occasionally mentioned — a certain unknown existence.
Back then, he hadn’t paid much attention to it. But now, combining it with the information Rorschach had just dropped, Sengoku didn’t dare to think any further.
"Hahahaha... How interesting. A new era is beginning."
"Shiki really found himself a good successor."
Whitebeard laughed heartily twice.
He knew exactly what Rorschach was referring to.
He had only learned about this person during the God Valley Incident, from Rocks himself.
After Roger completed his voyage around the Grand Line, he had also spoken about it while drinking.
"Rorschach brat, you’ve already achieved your goal of intimidating the Marines and warning those five old men of the World Government, right?"
"From now on, your days won’t be easy. You exposed that person’s existence. The Five Elders will target you relentlessly from now on."
Whitebeard turned to look at Rorschach, his eyes filled with approval.
"More or less. From now on, I’ll be carrying out a series of actions against the World Government."
Rorschach nodded.
"Why bring this up all of a sudden?"
"Since you’ve already achieved your goal, then step back. I’ll hold them off from here."
Whitebeard glanced back at the Whitebeard Pirates, who had already retreated quite far.
His gaze was filled with determination.
"Wait, I haven’t had enough fun yet..."
"Please, Rorschach brat. This will be the final battle of my journey. Just exit the stage here for now."
Before Rorschach could finish speaking, Whitebeard interrupted him.
His tone carried a rare firmness, and he had even used the word "please."
Rorschach showed a surprised expression.
Whitebeard was actually speaking to him in such a requesting tone. How rare.
Looking at Whitebeard’s side profile, Rorschach felt a rare sense of respect.
He returned to his original appearance from his dragon-man form.
"Boring. Do whatever you old man wants."
Rorschach waved his hand and slowly walked away, shaking his head.
However, he didn’t go far. He sat down on a large rock and simply watched as Whitebeard fought his final battle.
"Hmph. Thanks, brat."
The corner of Whitebeard’s mouth curved up as he muttered.
"Wait! Rorschach! Where do you think you’re going?! Our fight isn’t over yet!"
Seeing Rorschach retreat, Sengoku was the first to shout.
Boom!
What greeted him was a quake punch from Whitebeard.
Sengoku blocked the shockwave, but was still forced to take several steps back.
"Sengoku, from now on, your opponent is me. Don’t even think about taking one step past me."
Whitebeard revealed his signature crescent-shaped smile.
"Damn it... Whitebeard..."
Sengoku gritted his teeth and glared at him.
This execution could already be considered a complete failure.
Ace had escaped.
Whitebeard looked like he wanted to die here.
If they could also capture and execute Rorschach, the Marines could still salvage some of their lost reputation.
Eliminating two Emperor-level fighters in one go would be enough to wash away this disgrace.
But before that, they had to deal with Whitebeard first!
"Since you’re looking for death, don’t blame me."
"Heh heh. Come on then, Sengoku! You’ve been chasing me for most of my life. It’s time we settle things."
Both men took up fighting stances.
Aokiji, Kizaru, and the others tacitly stopped ganging up and chose to leave the battlefield to these two "elders."
Their main focus was keeping a close eye on Rorschach, preventing him from making any sudden moves or trying to escape.
Garp also remained silent, a trace of reminiscence flashing through his eyes.
Back then, he had pursued Roger while Sengoku pursued Whitebeard. They were old rivals.
Just as he understood Roger well, Sengoku and Whitebeard understood each other just as deeply.
Boom!
The clash between quake waves and shockwaves.
Their battle was extremely intense and continued for quite some time.
However, in the end, Whitebeard’s severe injuries caused him to fall into a disadvantage first.
Everyone watched this battle in silence, just like in the movie when Zephyr died.
Marco, watching from afar, couldn’t help but shed tears. The other division commanders were the same.
They shouted "Pops!" over and over, their voices filled with grief.
Marco forced himself to steady his emotions and shouted for everyone to retreat.
Boom!
Both Sengoku and Whitebeard stopped at the same time.
Whitebeard was panting heavily. The intense pain had already made his expression look extremely agonized.
He clutched his chest and gasped for breath.
"Newgate..."
Sengoku frowned, a complicated look flashing through his eyes.
Another old rival had finally been worn down.
"What’s with that look, Sengoku? Come on!"
Whitebeard felt uncomfortable under that gaze and shouted loudly.
"Then let me send you off on your final journey."
Sengoku also suppressed his complicated emotions and put on a serious expression.
The two of them faced each other. The next exchange would be the last.
Neither of them chose to attack first.
"That!! What is that?!"
"It looks like there’s something behind the fortress!"
Suddenly, a Marine interrupted the standoff.
He pointed behind Marine Headquarters at a massive figure and shouted.
"Ah! We’ve been spotted!"
The giant figure let out a surprised cry, though it sounded more playful than anything.
"There seems to be someone on the execution platform too!"
Another Marine pointed toward the execution platform.
"Finally noticed, zehahahaha."
Blackbeard Teach’s figure appeared on the execution platform.
Beside him were the criminals from Impel Down’s Level 6, along with the former Chief Warden, Shiryu of the Rain.
"You people... how did you get here?!"
Sengoku roared.
"Long time no see. I didn’t expect to see you one last time before you die, Pops!"
Blackbeard ignored him and spread his arms wide with a loud laugh. At this moment, he felt incredibly triumphant.
He had recruited powerful crew members and was about to obtain a world-destroying power.
"Teach..."
Whitebeard looked at Teach on the execution platform with a dark expression.
"Shiryu! You bastard! What happened to Magellan?! What happened to Impel Down?! How did you get here?!"
Before Whitebeard could speak, Sengoku cut in first.
"We’re standing here, aren’t we? That should answer your question, Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
"If you want the details, go check behind us yourself. From now on, we’ll be working with these guys. Please take care of us."
Facing Sengoku’s questions, Shiryu smirked, took out a cigar, and spoke slowly.
His attitude was as arrogant as it could possibly be. He clearly didn’t put Sengoku in his eyes at all.
What followed was a series of questions from Sengoku and Blackbeard’s confrontation.
Blackbeard proudly explained his plan and announced that he was abandoning his Warlord title.
"That kind of thing doesn’t matter, Teach."
Whitebeard raised his naginata and unleashed a massive spherical quake wave.
All the Marines along its path were sent flying. Blackbeard and his crew also broke out in cold sweat and quickly got up.
They couldn’t take a quake wave of this power head-on.
The quake wave shot straight toward Blackbeard and his group.
But just before it could engulf them, Blackbeard made his move. Dark energy gathered in his hand and swallowed Whitebeard’s quake wave.
Rorschach keenly noticed this detail.
Smoke covered the area around the execution platform.
"That was close... really close. That was way too dangerous."
From within the smoke, Blackbeard and his crew walked out, completely unharmed.
"Impressive... how unsightly, Pops."
Blackbeard pushed away the rubble pinning him down, shook his head, and looked at Whitebeard as he spoke slowly.
"You really have no sense of camaraderie... though I guess you couldn’t hold back either..."
Blackbeard pushed away the giant rock that had been pressing on him and shook his head while looking at Whitebeard.
"Only you are unworthy of being my son, Teach! You broke the only iron rule on my ship! You killed your own comrade — 4th Division Commander Thatch. I’ll take your life myself so he can rest in peace."
Whitebeard raised his naginata and pointed it at him, but paused because of the pain in his chest.
"Pops!"
Marco and the other commanders shouted worriedly.
Marco even transformed into his phoenix form, ready to fly across the crevice to help Whitebeard.
When they saw Blackbeard, several division commanders had turned back. Now they were anxiously watching Whitebeard on the other side.
"Marco!"
Hearing Whitebeard’s shout, Marco immediately stopped and landed back on the ground.
"No one is allowed to interfere! Do you understand?!"
Whitebeard took two difficult breaths and shouted loudly.
"Let’s settle this, Teach."
Whitebeard planted his feet firmly, already prepared to attack.
"As you wish, zehahahaha."
Teach’s palm was covered in dark energy. He pressed it against the ground, and the black aura spread across the area, even enveloping Whitebeard.
However, Whitebeard didn’t react. His sharp gaze remained fixed solely on Teach in front of him.
Suddenly, everything covered by the darkness began to slowly sink, including Whitebeard himself.
"The strongest Devil Fruit — the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit. Taste its terror!"
Teach revealed a sinister smile as darkness manifested behind him.
Whitebeard charged forward, his hand coated with the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
"It’s useless! In front of me, all abilities are useless!"
"Black Vortex."
The darkness in Blackbeard’s hand absorbed Whitebeard’s quake power.
The latter looked at the abnormality in front of him in surprise.
At that moment, Blackbeard punched him in the abdomen.
Whitebeard’s already heavily injured body was struck by the punch and went stiff.
Another quake power was erased, and Blackbeard followed up with a barrage of military-style punches.
Even Whitebeard’s Murakumogiri was sent flying into the sky.
However, Whitebeard soon found his weakness.
After feinting with a quake attack, just as he expected, Teach erased it with his Dark-Dark Fruit ability.
"It’s useless! How unsightly, Pops!"
Blackbeard then caught Murakumogiri from the sky and slashed it down onto Whitebeard’s shoulder.
With Whitebeard’s strength, this slash should have easily cut him in half. But the burden on his body prevented him from using his full power.
Combined with Blackbeard’s unusually tough physique, he barely managed to withstand the slash.
Since he couldn’t use his full physical strength, he would use the Tremor-Tremor Fruit!
"It hurts! It hurts so much!"
Teach rolled on the ground in pain.
This opening was exactly what Whitebeard needed.
He stepped on Teach’s right hand and pinned his left hand down with the hilt of Murakumogiri.
His right hand grabbed Teach by the neck as quake power gathered in his palm.
"Arrogance and carelessness... those are your weaknesses."
Whitebeard’s gaze was ice-cold as he spoke with difficulty.
His injuries had already made it extremely hard for him to even speak.
"Yameh!! Pops!! Yameh!! I’m your son!!"
"Are you really going to kill me?! Aaaahhh!!"
Teach begged desperately. But when he saw the cold look in Whitebeard’s eyes, he instantly panicked.
At this distance, unleashing the Tremor-Tremor Fruit ability on his head... one mistake and he could really die.
Didn’t Akainu get taken down after just two hits?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three consecutive explosions rang out.
Whitebeard unleashed the Tremor-Tremor Fruit ability three times in a row.
The quakes completely shattered the ground beneath them.
According to the "smoke but no injury" rule, an attack that looked fatal definitely wouldn’t kill anyone.
When the smoke cleared, sure enough, Blackbeard was lying in a large crater. He struggled to crawl out, clutching his neck and gasping for air.
"Tsk tsk... What a tough body. He actually took three full-power quakes and still didn’t go down."
Rorschach clicked his tongue in amazement. Even he would’ve had a hard time taking that.
Blackbeard’s body was tough enough to survive three direct hits. He really was something special.
Whitebeard stood in front of Teach, completely motionless.
This was the perfect moment to finish him off. But no matter how much the returning pirates on the other side shouted, Whitebeard didn’t react.
A pool of blood had already formed beneath him.
"As expected... he’s reached his limit, huh?"
"If he had still kept that Senzu Bean, Blackbeard’s entire crew might’ve really been wiped out here."
Rorschach shook his head and sighed.
He had no intention of stepping in to stop what was about to happen.
He wasn’t the Whitebeard Pirates’ babysitter. Everything Whitebeard did was his own choice.
He should also accept the ending he chose for himself.
Whitebeard slowly took one step forward.
At this moment, his state was similar to when Luffy activated Second Gear — his entire body was emitting heat, and his skin had turned red from blood congestion.
This was the final action he could take by burning the last of his life force.
His fist was coated with the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit as he punched toward Teach.
"You’re already dying... can’t you just die quietly?!"
Faced with an attack that could very well take his life, Teach pulled out his gun and made one last desperate struggle.
But that single bullet happened to hit Whitebeard’s wound, interrupting his movement.
Under Blackbeard’s command, his crew members swarmed forward and attacked Whitebeard’s broken body like madmen.
Whitebeard simply closed his eyes and silently endured the assault. In his mind, he recalled his past conversations with Roger and the adventures of his life.
It wasn’t until Blackbeard and his crew had emptied all the bullets in their guns that they finally stopped.
"Do you regret giving that Senzu Bean to Ace now, Whitebeard?"
Just as Blackbeard was about to look for another gun to continue shooting, Rorschach spoke up calmly.
"I have no regrets."
Blackbeard and his crew thought Whitebeard was already dead, but he suddenly spoke.
This scared Teach so much that he quickly backed away several steps, wanting to get away from Whitebeard.
This reaction was really quite unsightly.
"I won’t regret my decisions!"
Rorschach remained silent at this.
"Roger was waiting for a man... but that man is definitely not you, Teach."
"Just like how there are people who inherited Roger’s will, there are countless people behind me who inherited mine."
"Even if bloodlines are severed, their flames will never go out. They will continue to be passed down from the distant past. And one day in the future, someone carrying hundreds of years of history will appear and challenge this world."
"Sengoku! The World Government fears the day when a great war that will engulf the entire world finally arrives."
"Although I have no interest in it, when that treasure is found by someone... the world will be overturned! Someone will find it! People with that kind of potential have already appeared! That day will come!"
"One Piece... is real!"
With Whitebeard’s final, hoarse roar, the entire world fell into shock.
The reporters who had been taking notes were so stunned that they dropped their notepads again.
"You bastard!"
Sengoku roared in rage.
Even in death, he still wouldn’t let them rest easy!
The last time someone shouted something like this, it started the Great Pirate Era.
What kind of era would the symbol of this era’s dying words create?
"Rorschach brat... I’ll leave these guys behind me to you..."
In his final moments, Whitebeard slowly spoke to Rorschach.
"Tch... The dying wish of an old man? Fine. For the sake of you knowing my old man, I’ll accept it. I’ll make sure they all get out safely."
Rorschach nodded and agreed.
Even on the verge of death, this old man’s spirit was still so admirable.
This scene deeply moved Rorschach as well.
So, reluctantly, he would play babysitter just this once. It wasn’t a big deal for him anyway.
With both him and Little Silver’s mobility and destructive power, if they really went on a rampage, no one here could stop them.
Not even Sengoku and Garp. Because this wouldn’t be a fight — it would be a massacre. The two of them wouldn’t be able to block Rorschach if he went all out.
"Roger was right... the future belongs to you young people... I really envy that old bastard Shiki... finding a successor like you..."
"But I’ll probably be seeing him down there soon. If he finds out, he’ll definitely brag about it to me..."
Whitebeard revealed a smile as he recalled his old rival.
"Ah, but I’m not bad either... What a long journey it’s been... What a wonderful voyage..."
"Thank you all. Farewell, my sons."
Whitebeard stood tall on the battlefield until the very end.
A gentle breeze blew past, and the cloak on his back finally fell.
It revealed his back, free of wounds, along with the pirate flag tattoo he had carried his entire life.
"Pops!"
The grieving Whitebeard Pirates fell to their knees, crying as they watched their father on his final journey.
The news of Whitebeard’s death spread across the world through the visual Den Den Mushi.
"Fufufufufu... How interesting. There’s no doubt this era is about to change drastically!"
"But things won’t end so easily here. That brat Rorschach is still here, and those thugs from Impel Down have also shown up. How exactly are the Marines going to wrap this up?"
Doflamingo, who had retreated to the side because of Sengoku and the others, spoke with interest.
He was someone who really wanted Rorschach to die here.
Whitebeard was already dead. From now on, the Marines would have a huge advantage against Rorschach.
He also had to take this opportunity to end Rorschach’s life. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to quell his anger.
"What a tenacious guy. He’s finally dead, huh."
Blackbeard gasped as he spoke.
Then, his crew members slowly walked toward Whitebeard. If nothing unexpected happened, they wanted to take Whitebeard’s Devil Fruit ability right here.
But just as they were about to make their move—
ROAR!
Several massive lion heads rose from the ground.
"What the hell is this?!"
Teach looked at the abnormality around him in panic.
He then turned his gaze toward Rorschach, who was standing outside with a calm expression.
"It’s you?!"
"Damn it! ’Golden Lion II’ Rorschach! I’ve heard of your reputation."
"This old man is already dead. Are you still going to oppose me over a corpse? I thought we were the same kind of people. Compared to a dead man, cooperating with us would be much better, right?!"
Teach’s eyes showed wariness.
Now wasn’t the time to clash with Rorschach. He could only try to be friendly first.
After he got what he wanted... once he obtained that power...
Even Rorschach wouldn’t be someone he feared!
"The same kind of people?"
"You’re saying we’re the same kind of people? Don’t make me laugh."
"I’m not the same as garbage like you."
Rorschach revealed a disdainful expression. What kind of status did he have, and what kind of status did Blackbeard have? How dare he try to claim they were the same?
He wasn’t so cowardly and timid that he would be this scared of a dying old man.
Arrogance, carelessness, cowardice, and greed — Blackbeard was the embodiment of every negative trait.
Although Rorschach was also greedy... it was only in one aspect. He was completely different from this kind of trash.
As Rorschach slowly lowered his hand, several lion heads rushed forward and buried Blackbeard and his entire crew underneath.
"Damn it! Everyone, protect me!"
Blackbeard could only shout in panic and then try to use his ability to erase Rorschach’s Float-Float Fruit powers.
However, he was shocked to discover that erasing Rorschach’s ability was extremely difficult!
It was completely different from when he erased Whitebeard’s ability. Rorschach’s Devil Fruit power felt like it couldn’t be erased at all! He simply couldn’t keep up with the speed at which the stone was burying them.
All of this was thanks to Rorschach’s side-effect-free Devil Fruit. Not only did it remove the weakness to seawater, it could even resist the Dark-Dark Fruit’s ability.
The Dark-Dark Fruit’s powers were now limited to just swallowing. It couldn’t completely erase Rorschach’s Devil Fruit ability — it could only swallow the rocks.
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