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Whitebeard's hand clamped around Teach's arm, quake power surging into it.
Fear twisted across Teach's face."Stop, Pops! I'm your son! You wouldn't kill me, would you?"
But Whitebeard's power only grew. The gale of it shredded his cloak, the pressure filling the battlefield with flying stones and choking dust.
Teach cowered on the ground, shaking, fighting to stand."Damn it… why won't this monster stay down?!"
"Finish him, Pops! End it now!" the Whitebeard Pirates cried from afar.
But then, one by one, they noticed something wrong."Wait… Pops? Why aren't you moving?""Why's he just standing there?"
Blood poured freely from Whitebeard's body, soaking the earth.
Marco's voice trembled. "It's not that he isn't moving. His wounds… his condition was already too far gone before this fight. His body can't hold out anymore."
Still, Whitebeard dragged himself forward, step by step, toward Teach.
Teach had just managed to stand, his face slick with blood. When he saw Whitebeard coming, fear twisted his features."Monster! You're supposed to be dying! Why won't you just stay down?!"
Whitebeard lifted his left hand, white energy spiraling around his fist again.
The strike would have crushed Teach's skull—
But in his panic, Teach drew his pistol and fired. A spray of blood burst from Whitebeard's chest. The quake energy flickered out.
Teach fired again, and again, bullets ripping into Whitebeard's arm. His great fist fell limp, blood flooding from his mouth.
"Kill him! Now!" Teach shrieked, his fear naked.
His crew swarmed Whitebeard, blades and fists tearing into his body. Blood spattered the ground with every blow.
"Pops!!!"
Even as their attacks rained down, Whitebeard's mind was filled with memories of Roger. His lips finally moved.
"Roger… the man you waited for… it's not Teach."
His eyes snapped open, and Teach flinched.
"Just as there was one who inherited your will… one day, someone will inherit Ace's as well. Even if bloodlines are cut off, their flames will never die. They'll be passed down from the distant past, again and again… until, one day, someone will bear the weight of centuries and challenge this entire world!"
Whitebeard's hand tightened around Ace's red bead necklace.
"Sengoku… you Marines fear it, don't you? That great war that will one day engulf the world! I don't care about treasure myself… but when that treasure is finally found, the world will be turned upside down. That day will come."
His final words thundered across the seas, shaking every soul who heard them.
"One Piece… is real."
Sengoku's furious roar shook the battlefield."You damned fool!!!"
Teach only laughed, wild and deranged."Hahaha! What a grand last speech!"
Whitebeard's voice softened."Forgive me, my sons… I've left you with this wretched traitor. But my journey ends here. Thank you… farewell, my sons."
The Pirate King World – Reality
The moment Whitebeard declared the treasure was real, the seas erupted. Pirates everywhere turned their ships toward the New World, hungry for the chance.
"One Piece is real! Usopp, set sail! I'll be Pirate King before anyone else!" Luffy shouted, his grief over Ace momentarily washed away by sheer excitement.
Whitebeard Pirates
"Teach, you bastard!" The crew wept openly, fists clenched. "After everything Pops did for you… you killed him!"
Whitebeard himself stared at the screen, his expression strangely calm."So that's how I'll leave this world…? Hmph. As long as I had my sons with me, this life was enough."
Naruto World
"One Piece? What's that?" Naruto's eyes sparkled with stars. "A treasure, right? That's what the old guy said!"
Sasuke watched Whitebeard lay down his life to protect his family.
"Does someone like that really exist? Someone willing to die for his family?" His voice cracked, bitter. "Then why… why could that man slaughter his whole clan? Kill his own parents?"
He fell to his knees, fist slamming into the ground in pain.
On the Screen
The Whitebeard Pirates wept, sobbing uncontrollably.
Teach screamed in disbelief, his face pale."He's dead… but he's still standing!"
The Death of Whitebeard
Though his body has fallen, his spirit never bent.
Even as he fought, torn and battered, he stood like a monster out of legend.
In this single battle, he took:
267 sword strikes
152 bullets
46 cannon blasts
And still, his back never lost its dignity.
In all his years as a pirate, he never once turned to flee.
He died at seventy-two—A man who once rivaled the Pirate King himself.
Edward Newgate. Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates.
The man the world called Whitebeard.
He fell in the great clash at Marineford Bay, where the Whitebeard Pirates battled the Navy and the Seven Warlords of the Sea united.
"What a spectacle! A day like this will shake the very world!"Doflamingo laughed wildly, his voice sharp and grating. "But don't think it's over yet! With the world's most dangerous criminals here— and even Impel Down's former warden—what's that bastard Teach plotting?"
Blackbeard stepped closer to Whitebeard's body.
Behind him, the Whitebeard Pirates were retreating in tears and rage."Fall back! Don't waste Pops' sacrifice!" they shouted.
But the Marines raised their cannons, making it clear they had no intention of letting them escape.
From a crack in the earth, Akainu dragged himself back up, his face drenched in blood.
"Everything's gone just as planned… Captain," Blackbeard sneered, his grin stretching wider. "Now, the real show begins!"
His crew threw a black cloth over Whitebeard's standing corpse, shrouding him in darkness. Blackbeard stepped beneath it with him.
"What are they doing now?!" The Marines watched in confusion.
"That bastard Teach… what's he planning to do with Pops' body?!" the pirates cried out.
The Blackbeard Pirates circled the shrouded figure protectively.
As the Whitebeard Pirates tried to retreat, the sea ahead suddenly froze solid. Admiral Aokiji emerged, ice-cold mist spilling off his body.
At the same time, molten rock burst up from the ground, blazing straight toward Luffy.
Jinbei, clutching the wounded boy, turned to find Akainu standing before him, magma roaring across his body like a living inferno.
"I told you—none of you are getting out alive."His eyes burned with fury. "Accept death, you worthless fools."
"..."
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