Origins

One night, Ryan sought Shanks out alone.

The two sat in rocking chairs to enjoy the cool air, gazing at the scattered stars overhead. Ryan spoke first. "Shanks, how did you get that scar on your face?"

To open Shanks's heart, he needed to start shallow and work his way deeper, step by step. Ryan had actually known the answer to this question for a long time.

"A man named Teach from Whitebeard's crew." Shanks said solemnly, "He's an old rival. Long ago, when the Roger Pirates and Whitebeard Pirates fought, we were both apprentices already crossing blades."

"Though he's very strong, he remained obscure within the Whitebeard Pirates. He must have had his own purpose for hiding beneath Whitebeard's banner!"

Shanks stroked the scar beside his eye as he spoke slowly.

"Just how strong is Teach?" Ryan asked. He really was curious about this. How strong was Blackbeard without a Devil Fruit?

"Very strong. He was evenly matched with me. Though I was careless at first, I didn't underestimate him afterward. This scar was left by him then, and it still aches faintly even now."

"You need to watch out for him in the future!" Shanks warned.

Though Shanks's words carried a slight air of bragging, there was no denying that anyone who could fight him to a standstill was indeed powerful.

"You knocked out his teeth too, didn't you?" Ryan said with a smile.

"Yeah. Uh... you've met Teach?"

"I have. I'm on pretty good terms with Marco and the others."

"Oh, right. I remember you once attacked the Holy Land—Mary Geoise together!" Shanks suddenly laughed. "A year ago, while Whitebeard was away, we seized quite a lot of his territory!"

Shanks still remembered that incident vividly. Territories in the New World were intricately entangled, and he often