Chapter 96: Crushing the Blackbeard Pirates
Yumesaki asked with a hint of curiosity, "And what would that be?"
Orochimaru replied, "Our research into Devil Fruits is nearing its final stages. The Zoan types have already been cracked, and the Paramecia types are currently in the process of being deciphered. Because of that, we want to capture someone to unravel the secret of consuming more than one Devil Fruit."
"Blackbeard, huh?" Yumesaki murmured.
Yumesaki was able to consume more than one Devil Fruit partly because he possessed the power of a Shinigami, which allowed him to purify the essence of the Devil Fruit's power.
However, Orochimaru and the others couldn't do that. If they wanted to consume more than one Devil Fruit, they had to find Blackbeard and solve the mystery of his unique body.
"Exactly. Blackbeard," Orochimaru said, his tongue flicking out rhythmically. "Based on our investigation, it seems Blackbeard is currently located in Mock Town."
Mock Town was located in an independent city on the western side of Jaya Island. As a gathering place for pirates outside of government jurisdiction, the town was famous for its culture of reckless spending.
One could say it was a pirate's paradise, comparable to the lawless zones of the Sabaody Archipelago.
In the original timeline, after Luffy entered the Grand Line, he had once encountered Blackbeard here.
So, it wasn't strange at all for Blackbeard to appear in such a place.
"Alright, I'll go along with you guys."
It just so happened that Yumesaki was also a bit curious about this place called Mock Town, so he took Hashirama, Issho, Tobirama, and Orochimaru with him to the island.
With these four by his side, capturing Blackbeard would be incredibly easy.
Even if Blackbeard had reached the level of an Emperor at this point, he wouldn't be able to withstand an assault from this team.
Once Yumesaki's group entered Mock Town, the first thing they saw wasn't a landscape littered with corpses or a mass slaughter.
Although Mock Town was a den for pirates beyond the law, the place still had its own set of rules.
It was just that the place was, indeed, extremely chaotic.
Yumesaki hadn't walked more than a few steps when he saw a drunkard being thrown out of a bar.
On the side of the road, two pirates were engaged in a duel; instead of stopping them, the people surrounding them continued to provoke and egg them on.
"Go for it, Duck! You're the leader of the Mad Lion Pirates!"
"Don't lose, Chiro! Show them the dignity of the Blood Ghost Pirates' captain!"
After the crowd cheered them on with total disregard for the trouble they were causing, the leaders of the two pirate crews fought desperately in the street. The scene was bloody and brutal.
There were even people nearby setting up small bets, placing wagers on which pirate captain would emerge victorious.
Blood and combat seemed to be a common occurrence in this place.
Issho's face remained calm. His Observation Haki had already captured every movement in the vicinity, but he didn't stop it. The people here, one by one, were far from being good souls.
Even if they killed each other until every last one of them was dead, he wouldn't feel a shred of sympathy.
At most, he would bury the bodies once it was over.
Don't misunderstand—it wasn't because he felt pity. Rather, leaving so many corpses exposed to the air would easily trigger an outbreak of disease. So, out of consideration for the living, the bodies had to be buried.
"I found him."
Right at that moment, Issho suddenly spoke up. "Blackbeard is in the bar just ahead."
Yumesaki nodded, and the group entered the bar one after another.
Even though it was still the middle of the day, the inside of the bar was rowdy and packed with pirates everywhere.
Yumesaki's arrival didn't draw any particular attention.
In their eyes, Yumesaki and his companions were just a group of unknowns. They didn't even have bounties, making them completely unworthy of notice.
Yumesaki's eyes swept across the entire bar, and he immediately spotted the members of the Blackbeard Pirates sitting in a row at the edge of the counter.
Besides Marshall D. Teach, also known as Blackbeard, whom Yumesaki was looking for, there was the helmsman Jesus Burgess, the sniper Van Augur, the navigator Laffitte, and the ship's doctor Doc Q.
These individuals were the original members of the Blackbeard Pirates.
Others like Avalo Pizarro, Catarina Devon, Sanjuan Wolf, and Vasco Shot were currently still locked away inside Impel Down. It wouldn't be until the period of the Marineford War arc that they would be rescued by Blackbeard and join the crew.
Thus, the Blackbeard Pirates at this moment consisted of only a few people.
Sensing someone staring at him, Blackbeard Teach instinctively searched for the source of the gaze.
In an instant, his eyes collided with Yumesaki's.
Yumesaki smiled slightly and decisively activated his mental manipulation magic. Blackbeard Teach instantly became stiff and dazed.
This technique was practically foolproof. Neither Gekko Moria nor Shiki had been able to escape Yumesaki's manipulation; Blackbeard Teach, naturally, couldn't break free from this move either.
Without mental resistance, there was essentially no cure for this technique.
Of course, among the Devil Fruits, there were surely some that enhanced mental strength.
However, that certainly didn't include the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, the Float-Float Fruit, or even the Dark-Dark Fruit.
It was only natural that Blackbeard Teach fell under his control.
"Eh?"
The moment Blackbeard Teach was manipulated, several people around him noticed the change in his demeanor.
Jesus Burgess, Van Augur, Laffitte, and Doc Q all sensed an attack in that split second.
But unfortunately, as fast as their reactions were, Yumesaki's group was even faster.
Tobirama started by hurling a kunai toward Doc Q. The man dodged it without a second thought.
But in the next heartbeat, Tobirama had already appeared behind him.
Flying Thunder God Slash!
This was a move that even Uchiha Madara's younger brother, Uchiha Izuna, hadn't been able to respond to in time, let alone a mere ship's doctor.
Doc Q's head was severed in an instant. He died, truly and utterly dead.
The Blackbeard Pirates lost two of their combatants in a single encounter, leaving them completely shocked.
Yet, at the exact moment Doc Q's head was cut off, a massive, crushing pressure descended violently upon the survivors.
Press-Press Fruit: Gravity Field!
There was no doubt that Issho had made his move.
The moment the Gravity Field descended, Tobirama had already removed himself from the area using the Flying Thunder God, so he wasn't affected.
In contrast, several members of the Blackbeard Pirates were instantly slammed face-first into the ground.
Moreover, everyone else in the bar besides Yumesaki's group was caught in the crossfire.
With the addition of Chakra power, Issho's control over the Press-Press Fruit had reached a higher level, allowing him to increase the Gravity Field by more than a hundredfold.
As this pressure came down, not a single member of the Blackbeard Pirates was able to withstand it.
Especially Van Augur.
The man was just a sniper. Although his physical condition was quite good and surpassed that of ordinary pirates—having even learned Haki—he couldn't be compared to Laffitte, much less Jesus Burgess.
The second the Gravity Field hit, he let out a cry of pain and immediately blacked out.
Of course, the other people in the bar suffered the same fate. Almost the moment the Gravity Field descended, they were pressed down and knocked unconscious.
In the entire building, only three people remained conscious: Blackbeard, Jesus Burgess, and Laffitte.
However, Blackbeard was being manipulated and had no power to resist.
As for the other two, they were surrounded and suppressed by the Gravity Field, unable to even bring out fifty percent of their strength.
Both of them realized simultaneously that they had lost this time.
The enemy acted with absolute decisiveness. Add to that their strange abilities—one with teleportation, one with a Gravity Field—and the fact that they struck first. How were they supposed to fight back?
It was simply impossible.
Laffitte shouted out at the first opportunity, "I surrender!"
He was deathly afraid that if he were too late in surrendering, he would be wiped out by the enemy.
The Blackbeard Pirates had only just been formed recently and didn't yet have the solid bond they would have in the future. In the face of a great disaster, it was only natural for everyone to look out for themselves.
What truly made them fully submissive was when Blackbeard obtained Whitebeard's Gura Gura no Mi during the Marineford War.
It was only then that Blackbeard Teach truly conquered this group of people.
Although some were currently following Blackbeard, they hadn't reached the level where they would throw away their lives for him.
Surrendering was a perfectly normal tactical move.
Beside him, Jesus Burgess heard Laffitte give up so easily. He stared at his comrade with a face full of disbelief, as if asking why he lacked loyalty so completely.
Surrendering that fast—was he even human?
What's more, this guy actually surrendered before he could. Truly not human.
"I surrender too!" Jesus Burgess's shout was even louder than Laffitte's.
It couldn't be helped. He was scared too; he was still young and didn't want to die.
If he ended up getting his head chopped off like Doc Q, it really wouldn't be worth it.
Yumesaki raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Issho understood the signal and released the Gravity Field.
"The two of you truly intend to surrender?"
"That's right, we surrender." Laffitte and Jesus Burgess raised both hands obediently, terrified that a single wrong move might cause a misunderstanding and get them killed.
That would be incredibly unfair.
Yumesaki turned and asked Issho, "What do you think? Should we accept their surrender?"
Issho shook his head and said, "I do not know them."
Yumesaki said, "The tall, thin one is named Laffitte. He was a policeman from West Blue. Because of his use of excessive violence, he became quite famous with a terrible reputation there, and was eventually exiled from the country."
"The other one is named Jesus Burgess. He possesses great strength, but I don't know much about his past. Judging by his character, however, he probably isn't a good person either."
Tobirama remarked, "Perfect. We aren't good people either."
Ninjas were never good people; they were tools for killing.
Issho asked, "Have you ever slaughtered civilians?"
"No." Laffitte shook his head. When he was a policeman in West Blue, he only abused his authority and used violence; he had never done anything of that sort.
Jesus Burgess's answer was even simpler. "Hah! Why would I slaughter weaklings like that?"
As long as civilians didn't provoke his anger, he wouldn't slaughter them. He preferred interacting with the strong.
Although Issho's Observation Haki hadn't reached the level of mind-reading, he could use his Haki to sense malicious or benevolent intent. He could sense the movement of clouds in the sky and pinpoint the exact position of meteorites in outer space to pull them down with his fruit's power.
Whether these two were lying or not, Issho could tell.
The two of them seemed to be telling the truth.
Therefore, he didn't oppose Yumesaki recruiting them. After all, in this era, there weren't many people who were purely good.
Not slaughtering civilians was already considered quite good.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
50 Power Stone = 1 Bonus Chapter (Up to 5 bonus chapters per week).
Read other translated novels first rather than Webnovel
Join my Patreon to get access to more chapters from Webnovel here:
patreon.com/FaaanzKun