"Thanks, Thatch. I'll tread on your bones and become the new Pirate King! Zehahahaha!!!"
After swallowing the Dark-Dark Fruit, Marshall D. Teach hurriedly fled the Moby Dick. He did not feel the slightest regret; instead, unprecedented joy had gone straight to his head.
"Finally, finally, I've waited for you—the Dark-Dark Fruit! The strongest Logia, the power to devour all Fruits, a power unlike any before!"
"Zehahahaha! Now, I'm the strongest ability user on these seas!"
The next day, dawn had only just broken. Following a night of revelry after the plundering, most of the Whitebeard Pirates had yet to wake up.
"Bleurgh! I feel awful. I threw up everything I ate. Thatch! Thatch! Make me something to eat, will you, Commander Thatch!"
Thud. A drunken member of the Fourth Division collapsed to the ground. Before he could get back up, a pungent stench of blood hit him full in the face, instantly jolting him sober.
"Commander Thatch! Someone, come quickly! Marco! Ace! Pops! Thatch has been murdered!"
A piercing scream shattered the Moby Dick's silence, and the groggy, not-yet-awake members of the Whitebeard Pirates rushed over in panic.
A moment later, several grief-stricken men carried the shrouded body of Thatch, commander of the Fourth Division, before the crowd.
"Thatch! Damn it, what happened? Who did this?!"
"Thatch, my trusted comrade! I'll carve the murderer into a thousand pieces!!!"
"Calm down. Who else hasn't shown up...?"
Even Marco's face had turned livid. As everyone looked around, Ace's eyes suddenly went cold.
"Teach. Where is Marshall D. Teach? Wasn't he Thatch's brother? Where is he now?!"
In an instant, it was as though a meteor had crashed into a placid lake, stirring monstrous waves throughout the pirate crew.
"Come to think of it, we haven't seen Teach since earlier. Where the hell