"Marines?"
Marshall D. Teach raised his head and looked at the rolling sea ahead, narrowing his eyes.
The fierce wind howled across the ocean. The waters ahead seemed to be boiling, with countless bubbles rising to the surface.
Their target was right in the center of that bubbling area.
Above them, the winds surged, and clouds gathered, as though a great storm was about to descend.
Splash!
The currents churned violently, sending sheets of seawater into the air and causing the entire raft to sway violently.
Looking across the heaving waves, Teach soon spotted a battleship.
The distance was still too great to clearly see the people aboard, but the vessel had suddenly appeared from the western side of the Straw Hat crew's route.
"Can you get a clear look?" Marshall Teach shouted loudly.
"Yes! I've already locked onto the man standing at the bow." Van Augur replied in a deep voice.
Within his scope, the image swayed slightly before a sharply featured man with short black hair came into view.
"Never seen him before. I don't recognize him!" Van Augur narrowed his eyes and shouted.
"He's probably some nobody Marine officer, just another insignificant grunt! Why don't we take them out and continue pursuing the Straw Hat brat? The storm looks like it's about to hit!" Jesus Burgess slammed his fists together and grinned viciously.
"I was thinking the same thing." Van Augur laughed.
The suddenly appearing battleship had completely blocked his line of fire toward the Straw Hat crew, forcing him to pause his attack.
"Zehahahahaha! Never underestimate anyone." Marshall Teach, however, held a different opinion.
But his words were merely a warning. He had no intention of stopping his men.
Van Augur naturally understood.
Smiling faintly, he kept his eyes fixed on the tall man standing at the bow, carefully aligning the crosshairs with the man's forehead.
"To expose yourself so openly within firing range… Should I call you foolish or fearless… You unknown Marine?"
His voice was soft, carrying both mockery and coldness.
Suddenly, the man aboard the battleship looked up. His eyes seemed to have noticed them and turned in their direction.
"So you've noticed? But it's already too late." A cold smile appeared on Van Augur's lips.
His index finger slowly pressed against the trigger.
The pressure steadily increased.
Meanwhile, Marshall Teach's attention remained focused on Straw Hat Luffy's ship.
He could vaguely hear sounds of excitement, joy, and fear coming from aboard.
"What a shame. You're one of the few true pirates left in this world. Chasing your dreams, that's what people like us are supposed to do." He thought to himself before shifting his gaze toward the battleship.
A flash of golden light entered his vision.
As the sea mist dispersed and the waves briefly lowered, the golden staff mounted at the ship's bow became visible.
At the same time, the tall man standing there came fully into view.
"Hm? This man looks familiar." Teach froze.
The sharply defined face.
The short black hair.
The bulging muscles that seemed ready to tear through his clothing.
That powerful physique… He felt as though he had seen it before.
But where?
For a moment, Marshall Teach couldn't remember.
Instinctively, however, he felt that this was an extremely important figure.
So why had he suddenly forgotten him?
Beside him, Van Augur pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The sudden gunshot snapped Marshall Teach out of his thoughts.
At that very instant, a bolt of lightning seemed to flash through his mind.
"It's him?!"
His head jerked upward while shock and disbelief instantly covered his face.
"Who is it? Teach, do you know him?" Van Augur asked curiously.
He was completely confident in his shot. The bullet would undoubtedly hit its target.
"We're finished!!" Marshall Teach suddenly trembled.
Seeing the smoke still rising from Van Augur's sniper rifle, sweat instantly appeared on his forehead, and his body shuddered involuntarily.
At that moment, Straw Hat Luffy, their plans, and everything else were completely forgotten.
Only one thought remained in Teach's mind.
"Quick… RUN!!!... Get out of here!" He roared without the slightest hesitation.
His heart pounded wildly.
His face was filled with fear and shock. At the same time, disbelief and frustration surged through him, igniting a nameless fury.
"Are you kidding me?! How many years has this guy been gone? And he just happens to appear here?!"
"And I just happened to run into him!"
"And what's even more ridiculous is that one of my men actually shot at him!"
Marshall Teach was completely dumbfounded.
He had never imagined himself to be this unlucky. All he had wanted was to capture a rookie worth 100 million berries.
Instead, he had run into the one man he least wanted to meet in his entire life.
Kojin!
The terrifying man whose name had echoed throughout an era.
The man who had once fought Whitebeard one-on-one and ended that battle in a draw.
As someone who had personally witnessed that battle, Marshall Teach knew better than anyone what kind of terrifying power was hidden within that body. Even after obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit, he would never willingly face this man unless absolutely necessary.
"Huh?" Van Augur and everyone else aboard the raft stared blankly at their captain.
"Do you know him?" Doc Q asked.
"Of course! In the current era, he's probably the most terrifying person in the entire Marine force!" Marshall Teach replied in a trembling voice.
"I hit him with that shot, Teach!" Van Augur said in a deep voice.
"It was useless!!" Marshall Teach roared. "You don't understand how terrifying that man is!"
Spinning around abruptly, he ran straight toward the helm, intending to personally take control of the raft and turn it around to flee.
"How could it be useless?" Van Augur froze.
He refused to believe his shot had missed.
Raising his sniper rifle again, he aimed at the man standing aboard the battleship. The moment he clearly saw the man's condition, his pupils contracted violently.
A bullet was suspended in front of the man's forehead, crackling with electricity.
Even more unbelievable was what happened next.
The bullet slowly emerged from the electric field and dropped gently into the man's palm.
Then the man looked toward them.
Despite the immense distance separating them, those eyes seemed to clearly reflect their raft and every person aboard it.
"Stop standing around! If we anger that man, we'll be in serious trouble!" Marshall Teach shouted.
The others finally snapped back to their senses.
Although they still didn't understand why their captain was so frightened, none of them objected.
They immediately began helping him prepare to leave the area.
Just then…
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed across the sea.
A massive column of water erupted skyward, twisting and spiraling as countless ripples spread outward in every direction.
The seawater churned violently, causing their raft to sway even more fiercely.
"The Straw Hat crew is going up into the sky!" Burgess shouted, pointing at the ship being carried upward by the water column.
"We can't worry about them anymore!" Marshall Teach said through gritted teeth, his expression dark.
His eyes remained fixed on the battleship ahead. As the waves rose and fell, the vessel appeared and disappeared from sight. But he was absolutely certain that Van Augur's shot had already alerted its occupant.
"Don't tell me he'll actually attack us in this sea and under weather this terrible?" Burgess shouted.
"Idiot! Never underestimate that man's strength!" Marshall Teach roared back.
Sweat covered his forehead.
A chill ran down his spine.
Because as the raft rose and fell once more, bringing the battleship back into view, he clearly saw blue arcs of lightning beginning to flicker around the tall man's body.
The meaning of that sight was unmistakable.
Crackle!
Suddenly, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky.
The space before Marshall Teach and the others brightened instantly.
Then they saw him.
A figure wrapped in crackling lightning now stood atop the mast.
No one had seen him move.
"It was you. You were the ones who fired at me just now, weren't you?"
The low, icy, and terrifying voice entered their ears alongside the crashing waves and the roar of the giant water column rising into the sky.
Together, they created an indescribable sense of pressure.
A shadow seemed to descend over Marshall Teach.
Looking up at the figure standing atop the mast, he swallowed hard before forcing a smile.
"A misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding! Our target was Straw Hat Luffy!" Marshall Teach took several steps backward, fear written all over his face.
Van Augur and the others were equally tense, staring warily at the unfamiliar figure before them.
"If I'm not mistaken… You're that kid who used to sail on Whitebeard's ship, aren't you?" Kojin looked down coldly from above.
"My name is Marshall Teach. I hold Senior Officer Kojin's strength in the highest respect." Teach replied with a broad smile.
"Teach. I heard you killed one of your own crewmates and betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates. You really are a born traitor." Kojin said flatly.
Teach's pupils contracted.
Yet the smile on his face never changed as he carefully replied:
"Everyone has the right to pursue their dreams. The people of the Whitebeard Pirates and I were never walking the same path."
After he finished speaking, the man atop the mast remained silent.
The waves crashed against the raft.
The massive wooden vessel rocked violently, throwing spray everywhere.
Every member of the Blackbeard Pirates stared upward at the figure looking down upon them.
The pressure in their hearts grew heavier and heavier.
"Heh."
After a long silence, a soft chuckle finally sounded.
"You don't actually think that saying a few words will make me forget the shot you fired at me, do you?"
Kojin's eyes locked onto the rugged man below.
They were ice-cold.
"Marshall Teach!"
In an instant, Teach's expression changed dramatically.
His body retreated rapidly.
As he lowered his head, a flash of ferocity and murderous intent appeared on his face.
At the same time, Van Augur raised his rifle without hesitation and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The gunshot rang out once more.
And with it, any possibility of avoiding battle disappeared.
The war between the two sides had become inevitable.
(End of Chapter)
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