Next Bonus, 100!!
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"TEACH!"
On the blood-soaked battlefield of Marineford...
If there was one man Whitebeard could never, under any circumstances, forgive...
It was Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach!
The root cause of this entire war traced back to the moment Teach murdered Thatch, the Fourth Division Commander, stole the Dark-Dark Fruit, and fled.
So, seeing Teach standing before him, gloating, Whitebeard let out a roar of absolute, unbridled fury.
He immediately launched a devastating, quake-infused punch directly at Teach.
"Captain! Look out!"
With Sengoku's tacit approval, the Marines had backed off, temporarily ceding this section of the battlefield to the clash between Whitebeard and Blackbeard.
WHAM!
Teach was brutally slammed into the ground by Whitebeard's punch, blood instantly welling from a nasty gash on his head.
"Gaaaah! Damn, that hurts! That hurts! You really aren't holding back, are you, Pops??"
Teach wailed, clutching his bleeding skull.
"You are the only one on this ship who has lost the right to call me 'Pops'!"
Whitebeard roared, his voice shaking the earth.
"You broke the one, absolute iron rule of my ship! You murdered a crewmate!!"
"This is for Thatch, Commander of the Fourth Division!"
"I will take your worthless life myself!"
Teach scrambled to his feet, stepping into Whitebeard's massive shadow. He threw his head back and laughed. "Zehahahaha! Fine by me! That's exactly what I came for!"
He raised his hand. A swirling vortex of absolute darkness erupted from his palm, a localized black hole capable of devouring anything it touched.
Thick, inky black smoke began to pour from Teach's body.
It coiled and drifted around him, radiating an aura of profound, deeply unsettling malice.
"So this..." Whitebeard rumbled, his eyes narrowing. "...is the power you murdered your brother for?"
"That's right!"
"Black Hole!"
Teach slammed his hands onto the ground. The darkness exploded outward from him, spreading like a plague of shadows directly toward Whitebeard.
The Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit!
Teach unleashed its power against the man he had once called "Pops."
"Captain! Look out!"
Shiryu barked a sharp warning.
"Hm?"
Teach's Observation Haki screamed. A tyrannical, overwhelming aura was rocketing straight toward him.
Teach panicked.
He threw himself to the side, rolling awkwardly in the dirt, barely dodging the incoming strike.
BOOM!
The attacker slammed into the ground where Teach had just been standing, shattering the bedrock upon impact.
"Who the hell??"
Teach scrambled up and looked at his assailant.
It was a towering, heavily muscled man with long blonde hair, wearing bulky earmuffs and a military uniform.
"Bullet??"
Shiryu gasped, genuinely shocked.
"Douglas Bullet!"
Sengoku, who had chosen to sit back and watch the pirates kill each other, felt his stomach drop. His expression turned even uglier.
"That monster got out too??!!"
Garp finally sat up. The tears were gone from his eyes, replaced by a deep, troubled frown. "Just what the hell happened down in Impel Down?"
"Who knows? That bastard Jin..."
Sengoku was seething.
"Bullet!"
"It's him! The Demon Heir!"
"How is this possible??"
The Marines assembled at Marineford were the absolute elite of the organization.
Many of the higher-ranking officers had personally participated in the Buster Call that finally brought Bullet down, led by Sengoku and Garp. They remembered him all too well.
Seeing him standing there, they cried out in terror.
Teach scowled. "Bullet. You made it out of Impel Down. Why are you coming after me?"
"We don't have any bad blood."
Bullet stared at him, his eyes utterly dead and devoid of emotion. "Someone specifically requested that you not interrupt the duel between Whitebeard and Sengoku."
Realizing words were useless, Teach didn't waste any more breath. He turned to Shiryu and the others. "Hey! Jump in! Keep him busy for me!"
"I've got him!"
Shiryu drew his blade and launched a vicious slash at Bullet.
CLANG!
The strike was intercepted mid-air by a slender cane-sword.
"Shiryu. Your opponent is me!"
Shiryu's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Redfield! So you managed to crawl out of your hole too. Shouldn't you be finding a nice, quiet place to retire?"
Sengoku and Garp exchanged a dark look.
The Red Count?
Yet another legendary nightmare had entered the fray.
"Red!"
Whitebeard was genuinely surprised to see him.
"It's been a long time, Newgate," Redfield said smoothly.
He cast a quick, meaningful glance back toward Jin's position. "It seems it's time to repay that debt of honor you owe."
"Go do what you need to do. We will handle these fools."
Whitebeard paused, the pieces falling into place. He followed Redfield's gaze, his eyes landing on Jin.
"Gurararara!"
"I see how it is!"
He understood perfectly.
The Marines and the World Government wanted Whitebeard dead.
But Jin... Jin wanted Whitebeard to kill Sengoku!!!
The "debt of honor" Redfield mentioned was referring to Trafalgar Law saving Whitebeard's life.
Why wasn't Jin doing it himself?
Because he had to maintain his facade of "Justice," of course.
"Sengoku. Something is very, very wrong here."
Garp's instincts screamed at him. He sensed the encroaching danger.
"We used Ace as bait to catch Whitebeard. But someone else is using Whitebeard to catch us."
"That man..."
"I see it now. His true target was never just the pirates. It was us. It was Marine Headquarters itself!"
"It's the one hundred thousand elite Marines gathered on this island."
"If Marine Headquarters falls today, the World Government loses its primary military enforcement arm. He'll be free to do whatever he wants."
"When that happens, the entire world will descend into absolute chaos. Countless nations will be plunged into darkness!"
"He's trying to drag the entire world into the abyss of war!"
Sengoku ground his teeth, pure hatred burning in his eyes.
"Garp. We must stop him!"
Garp gave a slow, solemn nod.
He might despise the Celestial Dragons and the corruption of the World Government, but he certainly didn't want to see the global order completely collapse into anarchy.
Especially not when these bastards were actively trying to annihilate his comrades!
He was, in the end, still a Marine.
"Bullet!"
Garp's muscles bulged, his coat of justice snapping violently in the wind.
"Fist Bone!"
He leaped, launching a devastating punch straight at Bullet.
"Hahahaha... Garp!"
Bullet, utilizing advanced Observation Haki to predict the attack, immediately abandoned his pursuit of Teach. He pivoted on his heel and threw a massive punch to meet Garp's in mid-air.
BOOM!
Dark red and deep purple arcs of Conqueror's Haki erupted from the collision point between their fists, sparking like violently grinding flint and steel.
The blinding light of their clashing wills illuminated the battlefield.
Beneath Bullet's feet...
The solid bedrock fractured, splintered, and then pulverized into dust under the sheer, crushing pressure.
A brief, cataclysmic struggle.
The sheer force of the impact violently repelled both Bullet and Garp, sending them skidding backward.
CRASH!
Garp stomped his foot down hard. It sank deep into the solid rock, spiderweb cracks spreading out from the impact point, finally arresting his momentum.
He looked up.
Bullet had also been forced back several steps.
"Hahahaha! Not bad, Garp! Not bad at all! You haven't lost your edge just yet!"
Bullet clenched his fists.
A manic, burning battle lust ignited in his eyes.
"Hah... hah... this is just one surprise after another!"
Teach panted heavily, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. Seeing Bullet successfully occupied by Garp, he turned his attention back to Whitebeard. He couldn't afford to let this opportunity slip away.
But Whitebeard had already turned his back on him, charging straight for Sengoku.
Teach prepared to give chase.
"Teach!"
A massive, flaming phoenix swooped down from the sky. Marco drove a devastating, fiery kick squarely into Teach's chest, the immense kinetic force sending the large man tumbling across the ice.
Teach shrieked in pain.
"Commander Marco! I thought you were falling back??"
Marco landed gracefully, the blue flames of his regeneration washing over his wounds. He glared at Teach with absolute, murderous hatred. "Ace is dead. And you, Teach... you will not leave this island alive today!"
It wasn't just Marco.
Across the battlefield, the retreating Whitebeard Pirates, upon seeing Teach and his crew, had halted their retreat. Led by the division commanders, they turned and charged back into the meat grinder, intent on tearing the traitors apart.
At that exact moment...
In the crescent bay of Marineford...
A fleet of unfamiliar warships emerged from the mist. Some flew the banner of the Revolutionary Army. Others flew the flag of the Winter Blossom Kingdom.
"DRAGON!!!"
Ivankov, Inazuma, and the other revolutionaries standing on the shoreline gasped in shock. There, standing at the prow of the lead ship, was a deeply familiar figure.
And it wasn't just Dragon.
The four supreme commanders of the Revolutionary Army stood at his side.
WHOOSH...
A sudden, fierce gale swept across the plaza.
The Summit War... had only just begun!
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