Squard's Betrayal

"Pops!"

Squard's low voice sounded behind Whitebeard.

"Hmm..." Whitebeard turned slightly at the sound and looked back. "Squard, are you all right?"

"I'm fine!"

As he spoke, Squard slowly walked toward Whitebeard.

"Is that so? I couldn't reach you earlier. How are things at the mouth of the bay?"

With his back to Squard, Whitebeard asked the question calmly.

"The allied pirate crews seem to have taken heavy losses. I came here by a side route."

Facing Whitebeard's back, Squard's gaze kept shifting, as though he could not bring himself to look at him directly.

"Sengoku won't show us any mercy. We'll have to throw everything we have into this fight."

Whitebeard's voice was low and steady, as though he had noticed nothing amiss.

"You've figured out the Marines' strategy, haven't you, Pops?"

Squard raised his head and stared at Whitebeard's back, as though he had made up his mind.

"Sengoku and I go way back."

"I see. So the Marines are closing in from behind. That suits me just fine."

At Whitebeard's answer, Squard's expression darkened.

"Whitebeard, watch out for Squard!"

Just then, Jiang Lin transformed into a blue Phoenix and shouted a warning to Whitebeard.

"I hate to have put you all through so much..."

Whitebeard lifted Murakumogiri slightly and spoke to Squard in a calm voice, as though he had not heard Jiang Lin's shout.

"I understand. This is a fight for your family. Whitebeard would never abandon his family. That's why everyone followed you into this hell."

"I just wish... we could have been part of that family too!"

Squard's words came slowly. Just as the sheath slipped from his hand, a dark cannonball hurtled toward him and Whitebeard.

Whoosh!

Shnk!

Two cuts sounded in quick succession from the bow of the Moby Dick. The first came from Whitebeard as he sliced the cannonball apart. The second came from Whitebeard's chest: Squard had gripped his sword with both hands, turned toward Pops, and driven the blade into him.

The long blade pierced Whitebeard's body, dealing him a heavy blow.

Squard's shocking act stunned the entire battlefield. Everyone who looked toward Whitebeard was aghast.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

As silence fell over the battlefield, Squard's breathing sounded unnaturally loud. When he pulled out his sword, his hands trembled uncontrollably with fear.

"Wh-who stabbed him?"

"That's... yes! It was Squard, captain of a pirate crew under Whitebeard! Squard of the New World!"

The Marines stared in shock at the sudden infighting among the Whitebeard Pirates, then turned toward the Moby Dick.

"Whitebeard, why?"

Pure blue flames blazed around Jiang Lin. As he looked at Whitebeard, his eyes were filled with confusion.

Jiang Lin knew Whitebeard could have prevented this. Instead, Whitebeard had let it happen.

That was not what Jiang Lin had expected.

"Squard! Why did you do this? Answer me, Squard!"

Soon after Jiang Lin reached the Moby Dick, Marco swept onto its bow with blue flames burning around him and slammed Squard to the deck with one hand.

"Sh-shut up! You're the ones who forced me to do it!"

Squard's face was full of resentment and anger. He showed no sign of believing he had done anything wrong.

"What did you say? Do you even know what you've done?"

Marco's voice shook with rage. He wanted to kill the traitor on the spot.

Clang!

A sharp sound rang out. Whitebeard swayed and began to collapse.

"Paw-Paw Fruit equipped. Duration: ten minutes. Cooldown: thirty seconds."

As the system's voice sounded, Jiang Lin caught Whitebeard before he fell. He lightly struck Whitebeard with his right hand, now bearing a paw pad, and knocked a massive red paw-shaped mass out of his body.

"Squard, you can bear the weight of your own crime!"

Jiang Lin gave Squard, who lay beside him, a light kick and sent him into the crimson paw.

"Ah!"

Intense pain and the weakness of blood loss immediately left Squard drained. Having taken the damage from the sword thrust he himself had delivered, he collapsed to the deck, his vision blurred.

"Enough of this ridiculous charade, Whitebeard! You made a deal with the Marines, didn't you? They promised that the Whitebeard Pirates and Ace would be saved, didn't they?"

Squard struggled up from the deck. Half-leaning against the ship, he pointed at Whitebeard and shouted his accusations.

Squard's words startled the pirates of the crews allied with the Whitebeard Pirates.

If everything Squard said was true, then those allied crews would be the ones sacrificed in the deal.

"Listen to me, all of you! We've been set up!" Squard forced himself to keep shouting. "I never knew Ace was Gol D. Roger's son. You know how much I hate Gol D. Roger. Why didn't you just tell me Ace was Roger's son and that you wanted to make Ace the next Pirate King..."

"You talk too much!"

Jiang Lin compressed the air between his hands until a white sphere formed, then spread his hands without hesitation and released it.

The paw-shaped mass of compressed air shot from Jiang Lin's hands straight toward Squard.

"Do you have any idea what you've done, Squard? Raising your sword against your own Pops... What a foolish son you are!"

Whitebeard shattered Jiang Lin's attack with a punch. Then he reached out with his left arm and, to Squard's astonishment, pulled him into an embrace.

The meaning of the ambush mattered far more than Whitebeard's wound. If Whitebeard could not even dodge an attack from one of his own men, then to the Marines—especially the rank-and-file Marines—he was no longer the invincible figure they had believed him to be. The effect on the battle would be impossible to measure.

Morale had always been crucial to winning a war. Now that Whitebeard had been wounded by a surprise attack, the balance of the battle had begun to tilt inexorably toward the Marines.