Momonosuke's defection caused an uproar within the Whitebeard Pirates.
Afterward, Jace, already depressed and on the verge of breaking down over his identity, seemed to find an outlet. He volunteered to hunt down the fugitive Momonosuke alone.
Whitebeard could not bear to see him suffer. Hoping the mission would give him a chance to clear his head, he agreed.
But as a precaution, Whitebeard still sent the crew's current vice captain, Marshall D. Teach, to follow Jace in secret.
It was ironic, really.
Over the years, as the World Government's methods grew increasingly terrifying, the pirates of the New World had found their room for survival relentlessly squeezed.
Teach, who had once harbored boundless ambition and hidden aboard Whitebeard's ship while waiting for his chance, had actually become increasingly loyal to the Whitebeard Pirates.
He had even willingly revealed his talents, securing his position as Whitebeard's second-in-command through an impressive record of victories.
Just that year, Teach had finally obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit he had always dreamed of during a clash with another pirate crew.
Yet even after acquiring that godlike fruit, Teach no longer possessed the supreme arrogance he had shown in the original course of history.
Unlike the sea of old, where fists and Devil Fruits were all that mattered, gods truly existed in the world now.
Ross's power and the order he had established had driven even an ambitious schemer like Teach into utter despair.
He was intelligent. He understood better than anyone.
A mere Dark-Dark Fruit was not worth a damn before Ross. It could do nothing to change the fact that he was an ant.
And so, all Teach wanted now was to cling to Whitebeard's protection and eke out a living in the cracks left by the World Government.
"Momonosuke was the sole surviving