New World, aboard the Moby Dick.
The morning sea breeze swept across the Whitebeard Pirates' massive flagship. On the deck, First Division Commander Marco clutched a special edition just bought from a news bird, his dead-fish eyes stretched wide open.
"Marco, what's in the paper? You look like you swallowed a Sea King whole." Third Division Commander Jozu lumbered over with a barrel of sake, his voice a low rumble.
"See for yourselves. A complete madman has surfaced on these seas." Marco slapped the newspaper onto the drinking table.
The surrounding commanders crowded in.
**URGENT EXTRA: The Fifth Emperor Ascends! The Unprecedented Portgas D. Ace — Bounty: 3,000,000,000 Berries!**
"Three billion?!" Flower Sword Vista sucked in a sharp breath, the ends of his mustache quivering. "You've got to be joking! That brat Ace has been at sea less than a year! Even the old man and Roger at their peak didn't grow this fast!"
Marco strode over to Whitebeard, who sat in the main seat with IV lines threaded into his massive frame.
"Pops, big news." Marco spread the paper open. "This kid Ace — that Morgans character is calling him the 'Fifth Emperor of the Sea.'"
"Gurararara! Emperor? These brats nowadays, their prices rise faster than the tide." Whitebeard opened his eyes and let out a booming laugh.
He took the paper, scanning the front-page headline. His casual gaze suddenly locked onto a photograph.
The image showed Ace in a dark crimson coat, the long blade with its golden half-guard at his hip still sheathed. But that familiar silhouette made Whitebeard's grip tighten on his sake bowl.
"That sword... is that Roger's **Ace**?" Whitebeard murmured to himself, a flicker of nostalgia passing through his eyes. "Looks like that old bastard left some truly remarkable things behind before he died."
"It's not just the sword, Pops."
Marco pointed to the ability section of the article. "The Marines have confirmed it. Portgas D. Ace is a dual Devil Fruit user. On top of the Vermilion Bird, he's eaten a Logia-type — supposedly the Yami Yami no Mi, the one that can nullify all other abilities."
*Clang!*
At the edge of the deck, a figure hauling crates froze mid-motion.
Marshall D. Teach — the good-natured, unambitious man who always laughed heartily and never caused trouble aboard the ship — stood rigid. The bag of cherry pies in his hand had slipped and smashed to splinters on the deck, but he didn't even notice.
His pupils shrank to pinpricks, fixed on the newspaper in Marco's hand.
"The Yami... Yami no Mi?"
Teach's voice trembled. It was a tremor that rose from deep inside his bones, a mix of despair and madness.
He had hidden on Whitebeard's ship for twenty years. Twenty years!
He had surrendered his name, his status, even held back his true strength in every battle — all for that one fruit. The most vicious ability in the history of Devil Fruits, according to the encyclopedias. He had memorized every spiral pattern on that fruit, burned it into his soul.
He had believed that if he just stayed in Whitebeard's territory, if he just waited for his chance...
And now the newspaper stated clearly: a rookie named Ace had not only eaten the Yami Yami no Mi, but had grown strong enough to force back an Admiral?
"Impossible... this can't be happening..."
Teach lowered his head, shadows swallowing his twisted, nearly deformed face. His rough fingers dug deep into the wood grain of the deck, blood seeping from under his nails.
"I waited twenty years! Twenty damn years!"
He screamed inside his own skull, the venom of jealousy and hatred coiling around his heart like a nest of vipers.
"How? How does some snot-nosed brat just waltz in and steal my dream?! Three billion? Fifth Emperor? To hell with emperors! That fruit was MINE!"
"Hey, Teach, you alright?" Thatch came over and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You feeling sick?"
Teach snapped his head up. In an instant, his face was back to that signature wide, simple grin — though the gap-toothed smile looked a little forced.
"Ah... nah, it's nothing. Just got spooked by that rookie's bounty. Three billion... what a monster, zehahahaha..."
His entire plan had been destroyed.
The Yami Yami no Mi was now someone else's power. What was the point of hiding any longer on this ship?
Deep in those murky eyes, a savage, murderous intent he had never felt before took root.
---
At the same moment, in the New World, on Onigashima.
*BOOM!!!*
A massive drinking table disintegrated into dust under a single swing of a lightning-wreathed kanabo.
"That bastard Vegapunk!"
Kaido stood bare-chested, veins bulging along his thick neck. He crushed the crumpled newspaper in his fist and let out a roar that shook the walls.
"To extract my Lineage Factor and produce a piece of pink garbage! And then let some pirate brat's weapon eat it?!"
For Kaido, the "three billion" and "Fifth Emperor" headlines were irritating, but the real humiliation was the fact that someone had copied his power and treated it like a toy.
Below him, King the Wildfire and Queen the Plague wore equally grim expressions.
"Kaido, brother, the problem isn't just the color."
Queen puffed on his cigar, scanning a separate intelligence report. "That man Sabo — the staff he carries ate the fruit, and now it can not only transform into a dragon, but also fire off devastating plasma heat breaths. This means Vegapunk's cloning technology is fully mature."
"Wororororo! Emperor?"
Kaido threw his head back, draining a massive gulp of liquor, a sick and violent light burning in his eyes.
"Kill a half-dead Golden Lion and suddenly you're an emperor? The World Government and Morgans have gotten soft!"
Kaido whipped his gaze toward King.
"Where are those brats now?"
He grabbed his kanabo. "I'm going to pound that Ace kid into paste myself! And the one with the pink dragon staff — I'm snapping every bone in his body, one by one!"
"Kaido, brother, that ship can fly." King's voice was low and steady. "Intelligence says after engaging Kizaru at the Marine research base, it ascended straight into the sky and vanished. No wake, no trail."
"Who cares if it flies?! I can fly too!"
Kaido's roar shook the air as his body transformed in an instant into a kilometer-long azure dragon. He smashed through Onigashima's dome and shot into the lightning-streaked skies of the New World, his roar echoing across the clouds.
"Fifth Emperor? In front of my kanabo, you're all worthless trash!"
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