Guesswork

"Take Straw Hat Luffy's Devil Fruit ability?"

Teach's eyes widened as he listened to Bullet.

His mouth hung half open in utter shock.

"Wh... why?"

"Hmm?"

Bullet narrowed his eyes, and an overbearing aura that struck fear into the heart rushed straight at Teach.

In an instant, Teach felt every hair on his body stand on end, as though he had suddenly been targeted by the apex predator.

He immediately shuddered and nodded frantically.

"O-okay, no problem!"

Then, Teach looked around and asked tentatively, "Whose body do you want me to transfer Straw Hat Luffy's ability into?"

Bullet raised a brow. "Transfer? You can transfer Devil Fruit abilities from one person to another?"

Teach's heart skipped a beat. He wanted nothing more than to slap himself.

Damn it, why did I reveal my own secret?

Instinctively, Teach wanted to deny it flatly.

But he quickly lost his nerve.

"Uh... y-yes. But it can only be transferred into someone who doesn't already have an ability."

An unreadable glint flashed through Bullet's eyes, and his expectations for what Teach could do grew even greater.

Wasn't this just a Devil Fruit ability converter?

Blackbeard really was a humanoid treasure trove.

Then Bullet pointed at Teach. "You. You'll take his ability."

Teach's mouth fell open as he pointed at his own nose. "Me??"

When Bullet nodded, Teach froze for a moment. Then he clenched his teeth, veins bulging across his forehead as his entire face twisted.

Of course Bullet knew what he was thinking. He said calmly:

"Your body has an abnormal structure. It can contain two, perhaps even three Devil Fruit abilities. I have no interest in investigating the exact reason for now."

The detached words filled Teach with both fury and terror.

Why does this monster know my secret?

Bullet ignored him and continued.

"I know your ambitions are great."

"You hid aboard Whitebeard's ship for decades, all to wait for a Dark-Dark Fruit that might never even appear."

"Such resolve, willingly spending half your life for a single goal... even I admire it somewhat."

Then Bullet said something else that shook Teach to his core.

"The reason you waited for the Dark-Dark Fruit was because you had your eye on Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit from the very beginning, wasn't it?"

"Edward Newgate, the strongest man in the world. The Paramecia Tremor-Tremor Fruit he possesses holds the terrifying power to destroy the world."

"The Tremor-Tremor Fruit's large-scale destructive power can be called the greatest in the world!"

"The Dark-Dark Fruit can forcibly draw out the Fruit ability from someone who has just died."

"You planned to obtain the Dark-Dark Fruit first, then wait for the right opportunity to seize Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit. One Logia, one Paramecia."

Bullet's tone remained calm, devoid of any emotion, yet cold sweat kept beading across Teach's forehead.

He felt like a plucked chicken, every secret laid bare before Bullet's eyes.

Bullet glanced at him.

"Perhaps you could seize a third Devil Fruit ability as well—a Zoan ability. That would complete all three types, without them interfering with one another."

"The Dark-Dark Fruit restrains all ability users."

"The Tremor-Tremor Fruit destroys heaven and earth."

"A Zoan strengthens the body and its recovery."

Bullet gave Teach, who had gone completely rigid, a long look.

"If that happened, Blackbeard's strength and fame on the seas of the New World might rival Rocks in his prime."

"But now, make your choice."

"Die here at my hands."

"Or do as I say."

The words coming from that monster of a man filled Teach with bone-deep cold.

He gritted his teeth.

He wanted to roar in fury, leap up, and knock the man across from him down with one punch.

If he absorbed an ordinary Paramecia Rubber-Rubber Fruit,

then the ultimate plan he had spent most of his life waiting for and refining countless times would be reduced to nothing.

But.

No matter how unwilling and enraged Teach was,

he still had to make a decision now.

If he followed Bullet's orders and took the Rubber-Rubber Fruit, he could keep living.

If he defied him, he would undoubtedly die.

Teach did not believe that the terrifying man before him was joking.

Yet he still clung to a sliver of hope.

Teach immediately forced a smile. "I can take Straw Hat Luffy's ability, but... only when someone dies does the ability in their body dissipate and become possible to seize. You want Straw Hat Luffy to live while losing his Fruit ability? That's simply impossible."

He still wanted to struggle.

Teach's words made Bullet frown as he fell into brief thought.

Seeing this, Teach was delighted.

There's a chance!

"How can I successfully take the Nika Fruit while ensuring Straw Hat Luffy survives?"

Bullet contemplated this question.

In truth, he did not care in the slightest whether Straw Hat Luffy lived or died.

The pirates who had died at his hands numbered at least eighty thousand, if not a hundred thousand. One more made no difference.

Even if Straw Hat Luffy had an enormous background,

had Douglas Barrett ever feared anyone?

Bullet merely wanted to know whether this world's destiny rested upon the Nika Fruit itself, or Straw Hat Luffy.

Though doing so seemed to have no real meaning.

He simply wanted to do it.

After thinking for a moment, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck him, and he came up with a method that might work.

With that thought, he closed his eyes. His powerful Observation Haki spread out, instantly sweeping across more than half of Impel Down.

Before long, he found the unconscious Jailer Beasts.

Among them, Minoceros and Minokoala were already completely dead.

Bullet had crushed their heads directly. Even awakened Zoan ability users could not revive from that.

Inside the Dark Room, Bullet flicked his fingers.

In Scorching Hell, the unconscious Minotaurus was swiftly enveloped by countless purple particles.

Then the ground rose in a spiral, carrying the stupid Jailer Beast through layer after layer of prison floors and shooting toward the Dark Room.

As it passed through the floors where the prisoners were held, it immediately drew some people's attention.

Some attempted to stop it.

Countless cube-like particles rolled and rose from the ground, forming a gigantic face of Bullet before several hundred pirates.

"Are you... trying to die?"

At the same time, an incomparably terrifying burst of Conqueror's Haki erupted from Bullet's mountain-like body inside the Dark Room.

A mass of blue-green energy swept down in an instant, triggering streak after streak of dark red Conqueror's lightning above the hundreds of pirates.

Some weaker pirates immediately foamed at the mouth and collapsed with a thud.

"What terrifying Conqueror's Haki! That monster Bullet..."

Wariness appeared on the prisoners' faces, and they chose to back down.

Amid a rattling sound, the tray formed from purple particles carried Minotaurus's body up into the Dark Room.

Teach, whose mind had been left muddled by Bullet's Conqueror's Haki, stared blankly at the suddenly appearing Jailer Beast.

But Bullet merely pointed at it and said calmly:

"Extract the Devil Fruit abilities from Straw Hat Luffy and this Jailer Beast at the same time."

"You will take Straw Hat Luffy's ability."

"And after extracting the Jailer Beast's Fruit ability, inject it directly into Straw Hat Luffy's body."