11 11. Blackbeard enters the War.

│3rd Person POV│

[Marineford, War of the Best…]

Sengoku was in a pinch at the moment.

If he made the decision to end the war, everyone would think that the Marines only took action because Whitebeard was growing older and weaker.

The moment Whitebeard was returned to his Prime Strength, the Marines decided they didn't want to continue the war anymore.

"Cough—! Cough—!! This war shouldn't go on any longer, Sengoku!"

Before Sengoku could make a decision, Garp's words reached his ears.

Looking over, he could see Garp getting out of the rubble surrounding him before standing up with blood pouring out of the corner of his mouth.

He started walking and after arriving beside Sengoku, Garp continued speaking, "Whitebeard won't revert to his older self anytime soon. Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Borsalino together may hold off Whitebeard for a few minutes!

"However, who would stop the other Commanders once they also start taking action? Not to mention the revolutionary Ivankov, Jinbe, and the other New World Pirates?

"You noticed that the Pacifistas have already been dealt with, right? As things are now, even if we managed to hold on until Whitebeard becomes his older self once again, by then, how many of our men would have perished?"

Having nothing to retort to Garp's words, Sengoku just looked at Garp with his eyes filled with unwillingness and anger.

Receiving no response, Garp continued, "Even if we somehow managed to win this war from here, we would be severely weakened. Kaido or Linlin wouldn't miss such a golden opportunity to eradicate us in such a scenario.

"There's only one way to end this without getting crushed. You know it as well as I do."

"Garp… Don't say another word!" Sengoku said through gritted teeth.

He knew that everything Garp said was true.

From the moment Whitebeard was de-aged by Bonney, he had been racking his brains to come up with something, anything to turn the war back in their favor, but nothing seemed to come to mind.

When Garp and Whitebeard clashed, he had been hoping that Bonney would get knocked out. But, that didn't happen.

Finally, Sengoku opened his mouth and announced with extreme unwillingness, "Marines, attend to the wounded! The War—!!"

Before Sengoku could finish speaking, Whitebeard suddenly punched the air with his right hand covered in a transparent bubble.

The next second, the tall Marine Headquarters building started breaking down.

It happened so fast that none of the Admirals could take action to stop Whitebeard's attack.

"Whitebeard!! You—! What are you doing!? Do you not want the war to end!!??" Sengoku bellowed angrily. After much reluctance, he took such a hard decision, only for Whitebeard to suddenly attack.

On the other hand, Whitebeard merely glanced at Sengoku for a second, before focusing his gaze on where the Marine Headquarters building had stood just moments ago.

Suddenly, Ace appeared beside Whitebeard and stared in the same direction as the latter.

Seeing them, everybody also followed suit.

At the back of the Marineford, there stood a giant creature in prison attire. There was a group of people standing on the left shoulder of the giant creature.

"He's… No, It can't be!!" A young marine exclaimed, recognizing the giant creature.

At this moment, Sengoku found the missing Warlord and exclaimed angrily, "You—!! How did you get here!?"

"ZEHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You aren't an old man anymore, Pops!" Blackbeard said while laughing, trying not to show how he was really feeling at the moment.

After expanding his crew with the death row inmates from Level Six of Impel Down, Blackbeard departed from there onboard a Marine Battleship.

He had arrived to participate in the war at the last moment, expecting Whitebeard to be at death's door.

However, he found out that instead of taking his last breath, Whitebeard was completely unharmed while looking just as he did in his prime.

He wanted to withdraw right away, however, before he could give the order to retreat, Whitebeard obliterated their cover in a single punch.

"Teach!"

Hearing Blackbeard's words, Whitebeard muttered. He was no longer smiling as he looked at Blackbeard with a wrathful gaze.

Just then, a marine officer came and reported to Sengoku about an unidentified Marine Battleship passing through the Gates of Justice some time ago.

"So that was them!! However, there should only be marines in the control room, and I didn't hear of any disturbances! How did the Gates open!?" Sengoku asked no one in particular.

In response to his question, a member of the Blackbeard Pirate, Laffitte, explained how he snuck in and hypnotized the marines of the control room to let any Marine Battleships through the gates.

Blackbeard took the opportunity to declare, "Zehahaha!! I don't need the title of Warlord anymore. I only sought the title to easily infiltrate Impel Down!"

Gritting in his teeth in anger for being fooled to such an extent, Sengoku asked rhetorically, "You were planning on freeing them all along!?"

"ZEHAHAHAHA!! Yes, everything was about this from the start! Now you understand!"

Just then, Whitebeard had enough of hearing Teach bragging about his plans. He was about to take action when Ace stopped him by placing a hand on his right hand.

Taking a step forward, Ace questioned, "So, why did you decide to come here at this time, Teach?"

Blackbeard stopped laughing for a moment and looked at Ace. Instead of answering his question, he mocked, "It's good to see you perfectly healthy, Ace! Zehahahaha!"

"Well, if you're not going to answer, I will try guessing it! Correct me if I am wrong, alright?" Ace said with a smile.

This response of Ace was totally unexpected for Blackbeard. He had answered Ace in such a mocking manner to goad him into attacking.

Then, he would've taken the opportunity to take Ace hostage, securing his group a way out of there. However, he had never expected Ace to respond in such a manner.

Ignoring Blackbeard's slightly shocked face, Ace continued, "If things had gone here according to the Marines' plan, Pops would have been at the end of his rope now.

"Additionally, the three Admirals would have also been in a varying state of injuries. Such a scenario would have been a perfect opportunity for you to step in and take Pops' life with your own hands, right?

"A spectacular way of announcing yourself and your crew to the whole world, isn't it? Did you have something like this in your mind when you decided to come here?

"I even think that you were planning this from the moment you handed me over to the Marines. Am I right? Or do you have a much deeper and unthinkable plan?"

Blackbeard couldn't help but gulp and take a step back after hearing Ace's words. This wasn't the Ace he knew.

Ace wouldn't have ever been able to read him like an open book previously.

"Well, let's not dwell on the why right now anymore, alright? I believe Pops has some words he wants to say to you!" Seeing that his words had the desired effect, Ace took a step back and gave the stage to Whitebeard.

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"So, Portgas-ya is also adept in mental warfare!" Law muttered in a small voice after witnessing what just happened.

From beside him, Bonney asked him in confusion, "Huh? What mental warfare?"

In response, Law explained without any hesitation, "By revealing Blackbeard's thought process in such a way, Portgas-ya showed that he is capable of easily figuring out Blackbeard's plan with minimal information.

"He put a doubt in Blackbeard's mind that Ace could do it once, he could do it again."

Bonney still didn't understand clearly, however, she chose to let it go as understanding this wasn't that important to her.

Meanwhile, after hearing the conversation between Law and Bonney, Marco said to himself, "Ace, you've truly grown up, both physically and emotionally, in such a short time!"

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After Ace stepped back, Whitebeard looked at Blackbeard and declared, "I won't call you my son anymore, Teach! You killed one of your own comrades, breaking the only ironclad rule on my ship!!

"By killing an idiot like you, Thatch would be able to rest in peace!!"

Just as he finished speaking, Whitebeard enveloped his left fist in a transparent bubble before thrusting his fist toward Sanjuan Wolf.

ARGHH——!!

All the eleven members of the Blackbeard Pirates screamed together after experiencing the shockwave produced by Whitebeard's punch.

The shockwave was so powerful that Sanjuan Wolf was toppled over and buried in the rubble of the former Marine Headquarters building.

As for the other members of the Blackbeard Pirates who were on his shoulder, they got thrown away in different directions.

Shiryu, the former Head Guard of the Impel Down, and Laffitte were even thrown directly into the sea area behind Marineford Island.

Fortunately, the Marine Battleship they used to arrive on the island was stationed at the back of the island, just where Shiryu and Laffitte fell.

Emerging out of the rubble, Blackbeard said with blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, "I guess you are not going to hold back!!"

Immediately afterward, he shouted, "Augur, take us out of here!"

Knowing that his objective couldn't be achieved today, Blackbeard decisively chose to retreat without a second thought.

"You aren't going to leave this island alive, Teach!" Whitebeard said as he jumped high in the air and raised his Murakumogiri above his head with both hands.

As he was coating his blade with Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki, Whitebeard saw a glimpse of the future with his Advanced Observation Haki.

Then, instead of going for a close-range attack as he had previously chosen, Whitebeard changed into a long-range attack by also coating his weapon with the power of his Devil Fruit.

While still in the air and far away from Teach, Whitebeard swung his naginata, cracking the air in front of him.

A much more powerful shockwave was launched forward just as Augur suddenly appeared behind Blackbeard.

Seeing this scene, Blackbeard wasn't scared as he knew that this was about to happen the moment Whitebeard jumped into the air.

Having been a crew member of the Whitebeard Pirates for close to two decades, Blackbeard was very familiar with Whitebeard's fighting style.

He knew that he might end up facing Whitebeard in a battle once he abandoned the crew after gaining the Dark Dark Fruit.

So, Blackbeard had studied Whitebeard's battle style every time he fought a battle.

He wasn't scared because he already had his counter ready.

"Dark Star!!"

Darkness spewed out from both of his hands in huge quantities and took the shape of a really big ball.

The big ball of darkness shot forward and met with the shockwave produced by Whitebeard's attack.

Unfortunately, the big ball of darkness was only strong enough to stall the shockwave for two seconds before it dissipated.

Fortunately, two seconds was plenty of time for Augur to warp Blackbeard out of there.

Meanwhile, the shockwave struck the ground and shook up the entire island of Marineford once again.

Huge fissures began to emerge here and there, forcing almost everyone to scramble around for stable ground.

"Whitebeard, if you continue like this, the island won't survive!!"

Once things calmed down, Sengoku noticed the extremely bad state of the island and he couldn't help but shout out angrily.

Whitebeard ignored Sengoku and looked at the Marine Battleship that was starting to sail away from Marineford Island once he landed on the ground.

All the eleven members of the Blackbeard Pirates were on the Battleship at this moment.

Suddenly, Whitebeard looked at the area just above the Battleship and a slight smirk appeared on his face.

…To Be Continued!

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A/N_1: No excuse! I just wasn't in the mood to write anything the previous two days.

A/N_2: In Canon, it hadn't been made clear excatly when did Augur got his Warp Warp Fruit. So, I made it so that Teach took it from a Level 6 prisoner.

I did this so that I can portray that the Blackbeard Pirate escaped the pursuit of Prime Whitebeard in a reasonable way.

I have something planned for Blackbeard, so I need him alive.

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