37 I Have an Offer
The whole battlefield stood in silence upon witnessing that scene. The Blackbeard Pirates stopped fighting as well, waiting for their captain's command.
"Damn it!! let go of me you bastards!! Uwaahh!!" Baby Burgess cried loudly while trying to free himself from the grasp of Bonney and Krieg, but it was no use as his strength in this current moment equals the strength of small baby.
"Keep it down or the next thing will be your head rolling on the ground" Bonney said to him.
Kai shifted his attention back to Blackbeard, cracking a confident grin before he spoke "I have an interesting offer that will benefit the two of us"
"What is he up to?" Kid questioned while watching in interest.
"You little shit, you're pissing me off…release Burgess at once or I'll make sure you experience the worst imaginable torture before you die!!" Blackbeard exclaimed in rage.
"Calm down, I thought you're a reasonable man? I'm not gonna hurt your crew member as long as you let us go…" Kai said, slowly approaching Blackbeard who glared at him in hostility "…Will you hear me then?"
"What could you possibly have that I might need? You're in no position to negotiate, if it was me, I'll be on my knees begging for mercy"
"Good thing I'm not you" Kai's response made Blackbeard's forehead veins bulge in anger, but he was still intrigued to hear what the rookie pirate had to offer "Let me ask you a question?...what is every pirate's goal?"
Blackbeard wasn't sure what Kai was trying to get to, but he proceeded to answer anyway "Money, fame, Power, influence, freedom, every pirate has their own reasons to set sail"
"You're right, but most of them have something in common…Come on, don't play dumb, you know exactly what I am talking about" Kai said, slowly walking closer to Blackbeard until he was close enough to be able to speak to him without anyone hearing.
"…The One Piece"
"Ding! Ding! Ding! Correct answer!..." Kai exclaimed, lowering his voice after that before he continued speaking so that no one hears their conversation "Now judging by our brief encounter and having some knowledge about your background, previous member of the Whitebeard's crew's 2nd Division Marshall D. Teach…I could see that you're a very ambitious man, ambitious enough to also seek the One Piece"
As those words left Kai's mouth, Blackbeard's eyes widened in surprised. He took a step back taken aback by Kai's words, but he managed to quickly regain his composure and with a serious face he proceeded to ask about Kai's identity "Who the hell are you? How does a rookie who just entered the Grand Line know about that?"
"I know a lot my friend, I also know how you killed your comrade, the 4th division commander Thatch and stole his Devil Fruit, the Yami Yami no Mi and I also know that there is someone coming after you as we're speaking" Kai stated, grinning at Blackbeard's shocked face before he continued "I got eyes and ears everywhere, that's why I'm gonna offer you an extremely valuable piece of information that can make you a step closer to finding the One Piece…so what do you say?"
Blackbeard looked overwhelmed by what he just heard "Tell me who you are?"
"I doesn't matter, do you want the information, or do I just blow up that gas bomb and get this done with?"
Blackbeard grinned upon hearing that before he started laughing hysterically "Zehaha-ZEHAHAHA!! Interesting, tell me what you got. I'll judge it after hearing you…if you play games with me, I'll kill you on the spot"
"I know where you can find one of the four Road Poneglyph that could get you to Laugh Tale"
Blackbeard froze in his place for a moment trying to digest what he just heard "T-The hell?! How do you know about that?!"
"I'm not gonna tell you obviously, but if you're interested in that information, we can make a deal"
"A deal?" Blackbeard questioned.
"You mentioned something about taking our Devil Fruit powers after you kill us…You show me how you can do that and let us go of course, and I'll tell you about the information I have and release your friend Burgess" Kai gave him an offer "I have a Devil Fruit user locked in my ship as a prisoner, we could use her to demonstrate the method. You could keep the fruit after you extract it…What do you say? It seems a pretty good deal to me"
"Go on…tell me what you have"
"…"
While Blackbeard and Kai were having that conversation, their crews were just observing them from a distance. Everyone looked tense and on guard in case anyone tries to attack them.
"What are they talking about? I can't hear anything" Bonney complained as she was very curious about the ongoing conversation.
"How surprising, the captain seem very intrigued" Van Augur remarked while resting his rifle on his shoulders "Today may be yet another of fate's crossroads"
"…"
"You're ready?" Kai asked him.
"Just spit it out already!"
"Alright…You can find a Road Poneglyph hidden within the Whale Tree in Zou, protected by the minks. Even Kaido and Big Mom have no idea about it and it's free for the grab" Kai stated "I'm sure a bunch of animal looking humans won't be that much of a problem for you"
"Zou?!! If I'm not wrong the only way you could reach that place is by using a vivre card!...How do you know all these information? Did you sail with someone before you start your journey?...Or you could be lying through your teeth, you don't think I'm that dumb?"
"You see my hair? Who does it remind you of?" Kai asked, pointing at his red hair.
Blackbeard was confused at Kai's question at first but when he thought about it, the first person came to his mind was… "'Red Hair' Shanks? Don't tell me you're related to him?!"
"He's our uncle" Of course that was a lie and the only thing in common between Shanks, Kai and Kid is the hair color, but it was the only way for Kai to justify the knowledge he possessed and make Blackbeard believe him "Me and my brother sailed with him for a couple of years when we were young, and we saw a lot of things and he also told us a lot of things, I even made some connections during the journey…"
"…He even talked about his adventure when he was part of Roger's crew, him and the clown Buggy, the one with the red nose. I heard that you three used to have a lot of fun back in the days when your ex-dad and roger used to clash, including the fact that you gave him the scar in his eyes"
Blackbeard was even more shocked when hearing about that and the first thought that crossed to his mind is that Shanks might go after him if he killed the two brothers "Zehahahaha!! This is interesting…But, what if I still refuse to tell you about how I extract Devil Fruit powers, huh?"
"Then I swear to God, we'll at least kill one of your men before we die" Kai declared while glaring at Blackbeard in hostility "We are all ready to die here, Right guys?!"
"I don't know the context but…We'll go to hell and back with you!" Killer declared.
"Yeap"
"I'm with you, Kai!!"
Heat and Wire replied with no hesitation.
"Even though you've been my captain for a short period of time but I won't betray you. I'm ready to sacrifice my life for your sake!" Gin exclaimed.
"I wanna die" Bonney bluntly said, joining in.
"I don't think that's what you're supposed to say…" Krieg gave her the side look before he spoke again "…whatever"
"Hmph…I've been ready to lay my life down the moment I started sailing" Kid declared with confidence with no ounce of fear of death in his heart.
"It won't look good if you let one of your crew members die when you could've prevented it, the rest might become a little doubtful about your leadership" Kai stated, prompting Blackbeard to finally accept.
"Hahaha—Zehahaha!!…You bastard, you're pretty good. Have it your way then. I'll show you how to do it, just know that if I find out that you are lying, I'll come back and find and then I'm gonna kill you in the worst way possible" Blackbeard said while gazing down at Kai.
"Perfect! Let's go back to my ship then" Kai turned to his crew after that, giving them the signal to stop fighting and Blackbeard did the same as well "Bonney and Krieg will keep Burgess as hostage here until we're done, just to make sure you done fuck me over. I'll release him when we finished, you have my word"
"You'd better do that"
The two pirate crews proceeded to leave together after
While walking back, Kai laughed manically on the inside with one thought in his mind 'Got you, you stupid bastard!!'
