Seeing that even his final trump card had failed, Blackbeard was completely consumed by despair.
"You... what kind of monster are you?!"
"You? Calling me a monster?."
Kaito suddenly tightened his grip on Blackbeard's throat, and in an instant, the latter's face turned purple.
"Please, don't kill me! I-I'm a member of the Whitebeard Pirates! If you kill me, aren't you afraid of going to war with the Whitebeard Pirates?"
Blackbeard never had any real sense of pride — that much was obvious from how he cried out "Pops!" when Whitebeard beat him at Marineford.
Now facing death, he no longer cared about dignity. He tried invoking the name of the Whitebeard Pirates, hoping it might make Kaito hesitate.
But what he had clearly forgotten was that the very reason Whitebeard had formed an alliance with Red-Haired Shanks… was the man standing right in front of him: Kaito.
Kaito chuckled and said, still holding Blackbeard by the neck,
"You really think I'm afraid of Whitebeard?"
...
...
"He's allied with Red-Hair! Can the Navy really afford to go to war with two of the Four Emperors at once?!"
"An alliance? You mean the Old, Sick, and Crippled Alliance?"
Those words — "Old, Sick, and Crippled" — hit Blackbeard like a slap, freezing his expression.
Because when he thought about it… it wasn't actually wrong to describe the Whitebeard–Red-Hair alliance like that.
"Old" and "Sick" clearly referred to his former "father," Whitebeard. "Crippled" meant Shanks. But "Weak"... Blackbeard had no idea who that was supposed to describe.
Even now, inflated by the confidence of having the Dark Fruit, he still didn't dare call either Whitebeard or Red-Hair "weak."
But to Kaito — whether it was Whitebeard or Red-Hair — both were already in the "weak" category.
Maybe only if all Four Emperors joined forces would Kaito be remotely interested.
Blackbeard was starting to suffocate under Kaito's tightening grip. In a panic, he summoned a mass of darkness, transforming it into a giant black mouth in an attempt to swallow Kaito whole.
But the attack lacked strength. Kaito simply used Almighty Push and disintegrated the dark mouth into nothingness.
Driven by desperation, Blackbeard abandoned any semblance of dignity and instead went straight for a bite, sinking his teeth toward Kaito's arm.
That, Kaito definitely hadn't expected. Staring at Blackbeard's rows of teeth — still with some leftover food stuck between them — he grimaced and let go, releasing his grip.
Blackbeard, having barely escaped death, didn't care about appearances anymore. He rolled away from Kaito as fast as he could.
Kaito frowned and looked at him in distaste.
"Are you part rabbit or something?"
He asked that because Blackbeard's sudden attack reminded him of an old saying: "Even a rabbit bites when it's desperate."
Still catching his breath from nearly suffocating, Blackbeard froze at the question.
"Part rabbit? What does that even mean?"
Of course, there were no zodiac animals in the pirate world, so Blackbeard didn't understand the reference.
Kaito didn't bother to explain.
He'd already decided: he was going to take the Dark Fruit.
But this time, he had no intention of physically touching Blackbeard again — who knew what kind of dirty tricks this guy still had up his sleeve?
He pointed a single finger at Blackbeard. A small, deep purple lightning sphere formed at his fingertip before a burst of concentrated lightning shot forward.
"Cero."
This technique was inspired by Ulquiorra from Bleach: compress massive energy, then unleash it in a piercing blast.
Ulquiorra's Cero was green. Kaito's version was deep purple.
The lightning bolt flew so fast that Blackbeard didn't even have time to react — it pierced through his left chest, dropping him to the ground.
But Kaito didn't move in immediately to reclaim the fruit.
Through the sensory network of the Heavenly Net, he could still hear a heartbeat coming from Blackbeard's body.
Kaito looked at him thoughtfully. According to One Piece, Blackbeard had a strange body structure — different from normal humans.
Some had even speculated that he might have more than one heart.
Kaito was certain his Cero had obliterated Blackbeard's heart… yet, judging from what he sensed, it seemed the man might actually have another one.
Sure enough, Blackbeard stirred.
Though he'd been lying there like a corpse just a second ago, he suddenly moved. He struggled to his feet and glared at Kaito with a dark, murderous look.
A stream of black mist seeped out from his body and gathered around the wound on his chest.
Moments later, the darkness faded, and the gaping hole left by the Cero had closed up. Aside from some residual blood, it looked like nothing serious.
The Dark Fruit was a truly unique Logia. It couldn't allow the user to become intangible — in fact, it doubled the pain of any attack taken.
But in return… it could absorb damage.
In the anime, when Ace used flame to stab through Blackbeard, the man used darkness to absorb the damage. Later in the fight, his body didn't even show a wound.
But that only worked if the user survived the attack. If they died outright, the fruit couldn't save them.
What let Blackbeard get back on his feet now was his abnormal physiology.
In this way, the Dark Fruit really was perfectly suited for him — like it had been made for his body.
After sealing his wound, Blackbeard gasped for breath. Having your heart blown apart by lightning — especially lightning that doubles the pain — was no joke.
He pressed his hand against his right chest — the location of his other heart.
Feeling it still beating strong, Blackbeard let out a sigh of relief. If it weren't for this second heart, he'd already be a corpse.
Kaito silently marveled at Blackbeard's bizarre biology… then calmly raised his finger again, aiming for the right side of his chest.
One shot wasn't enough? Fine, then two.
Seeing Kaito's movement, Blackbeard's expression changed drastically. In a panic, he summoned darkness to shield his right chest.
If he took another Cero there, he really would be finished.
But just shielding himself wasn't enough — he couldn't just sit there and die.
Darkness spread beneath his feet, rolling out like a wave. He was preparing for a last-ditch effort.
Raising his right hand, the darkness gathered toward his palm, gradually forming a pitch-black sphere — a miniature black sun.
Similar to Ace's Flame Emperor… this was his strongest technique: Black Hole.
Seeing this familiar scene, Kaito's interest was piqued. He raised his own arm, and a purple sphere of lightning appeared in his palm. In the next instant, it expanded into a massive ball of energy — the same size as Blackbeard's — but pulsing with violent arcs of electricity.
A black sun and a purple sun appeared almost simultaneously, unleashing a powerful shockwave the moment they formed. A second later, they collided.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion echoed across the heavens and earth.
The black and purple energies clashed like two titanic beasts. But the stalemate lasted less than a second — the black energy was swiftly overwhelmed.
In the end, only the purple energy remained, engulfing the entire island.
Lightning surged into the surrounding sea, causing tidal waves to erupt skyward.
As if declaring to the world… who was really the strongest.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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