Chapter 181: The Bond of Father and Son
Center of the Deserted Island - Battlefield
Ash flew over the scorched earth; the flames had yet to disperse.
Whitebeard, Edward Newgate, held Murakumogiri in hand, facing off against Roy from a distance. Intense killing intent brewed between the two, yet the blade did not fall.
He hummed low in his throat, Roy's piercing words from a moment ago echoing in his mind:
"Teach snatching his brother's fruit?! What on earth..."
In this moment, his brows furrowed tightly. His eyes held shock, confusion, and even a trace of imperceptible panic.
Roy ignored his contemplation. He grabbed at the empty air with his right hand—
"SWISH!!"
A spatial tremor sounded abruptly.
A charred black figure was violently dragged out—it was the critically injured, yet still living Blackbeard Teach!
He was held in mid-air like a dead dog. His clothes were tattered, skin scorched, body twitching, yet he still instinctively muttered:
"Dark... Dark-Dark Fruit... is mine... is mine..."
Seeing this, Whitebeard's expression changed drastically, rage exploding in his eyes!
"ROY!! Give Teach back to me!!"
He took a violent step forward. Murakumogiri trembled in his hand, the aura of the Quake-Quake Fruit flickering ominously.
However, Roy was unmoved. A cold sneer appeared in his eyes. "Newgate... you really are regressing as you age."
He looked down slightly at the charred and manic man in his hand, enunciating every word:
"To dare take Rocks' spawn as a son... you sure have a big heart."
"BOOM—!!!"
This sentence was like a thunderclap, exploding in the minds of everyone present!
Whitebeard's pupils contracted violently. Murakumogiri nearly slipped from his fingers.
"What... what are you saying...?" His voice was low and hoarse, revealing disbelief.
Teach, suspended in mid-air, seemed to sober up instantly. The manic smile on his face froze. His eyes bulged as he stammered, "How... how do you... know that?!"
Roy's eyes showed no ripple of emotion as he sneered. "What, surprised?"
He held Teach like a trophy, his gaze sweeping over Whitebeard's shocked face.
Teach began to struggle madly, his eyes filled with terror. "Let... Let me go!!!"
Whitebeard's eyes were a mix of fury and confusion, rendering him speechless for a moment.
...
[One Piece Style Flashback · Over 20 Years Ago]
An image slowly surfaced in Whitebeard's mind.
In a certain town, a young Teach knelt before him. Soaked to the bone, clothes in tatters, yet his eyes were firm. "Please..."
"I have nowhere else to go..."
He had looked at the boy for a long time back then.
That blurry face, in his eyes, almost overlapped with the silhouette of a certain ghost in his memories.
A sense of familiarity that could not be described in words—
"It's like... the shadow of that man, kneeling alive before me."
He knew clearly that the boy hugging his leg could not be an ordinary person.
But in the end—
"What is your name?"
"Teach."
"Understood. Get on board."
...
[Return to Present]
Whitebeard's fingers stiffly gripped Murakumogiri. His face was dark as iron, standing silent like a giant tree bent by time.
He looked at the son who had always called him "Pops," realizing he truly was the biological flesh and blood of Rocks D. Xebec.
In this moment, for the first time in a long, long time, his conviction wavered.
Roy watched all this coldly, letting out a scoff. His voice was indifferent but hit like a hammer:
"You should know better than anyone what kind of person Rocks was. So I'll ask you one more time—"
"Newgate,"
"What exactly are you thinking?"
The sea breeze sobbed, ash drifted in the air. The silence was oppressive.
Whitebeard stood like a mountain, gripping his blade, silent.
His cloudy eyes moved slowly between Roy and Teach.
"Rocks' bloodline..."
He murmured low, as if recalling, and as if asking himself.
Teach, held firmly in Roy's grip, body broken and flesh torn, felt Whitebeard's hesitation. Terror flooded his heart! He convulsed violently like he was electrocuted!
"No... no... if I really fall into Roy's hands... I will definitely die!!!"
Terrified to the extreme, he struggled violently, screaming with all his might: "POPS—!! SAVE ME!!!"
This cry of "Pops" struck Whitebeard's heart like a blunt hammer, shaking him slightly.
After seconds of silence, he finally inhaled slowly. Brows locking tight, he slammed Murakumogiri heavily into the ground!
"BOOM!!!"
The earth cracked, and a wave of air kicked up a circle of scorched dust!
"Roy..."
His voice, deep as the ocean floor, rang out. Aged, but firm:
"...I don't care whose child he is."
"As long as he is on my ship—"
"He is Whitebeard's son!!!"
His aura exploded outward, as if the heavens were collapsing and the earth cracking.
Roy stared coldly at Whitebeard, his tone laced with icy sarcasm:
"...Is that so?"
His gaze suddenly swept to the side, pointing at Ace—the boy clutching the black wooden box, covered in blood.
"Even if he would kill your other sons on the ship for the sake of a fruit..."
"Would you... turn a blind eye to that too?"
"BOOM—!!!"
As the words fell, they struck Whitebeard's heart like lightning!
For the first time, his expression wavered!
"IMPOSSIBLE!!!"
Whitebeard roared. The vibration current on Murakumogiri blasted away the sand and dust for a hundred meters.
But in the instant that roar left his mouth—
Whitebeard's eyes instinctively glanced at Teach.
In that instant, his breathing stopped.
...
Those eyes.
Teach's eyes weren't looking at "him," nor were they looking at his "savior." They were staring fixedly at—
The black box in the distant boy's arms!
The madness, greed, bloodlust, and distortion in his eyes could not be concealed.
It was a kind of... instinctual greed where even humanity was on the verge of collapse.
Whitebeard froze in place.
His gaze moved slowly from the box to Teach's face.
At this moment, that charred face was wearing a highly incongruous, hideous grin. "That is mine..."
"That is the destiny belonging to me..."
Whitebeard's fingers trembled slightly. His lips moved, but he seemed to have lost all power of speech.
What he saw was no longer the boy kneeling on the ground hugging his leg, begging to "let me on the ship."
But a monster willing to trample on all family bonds and swallow all trust.
Whitebeard's hand shook.
"Teach... would you really... do such a thing?"
Roy's voice fell slowly at this moment, like a death knell. "You always knew."
"But you didn't want to admit it."
"Because you sensed it long ago—"
He lifted Teach higher in his hand:
"This man is not your son at all."
Roy's tone was calm, his gaze sharp as a knife. He held Teach high, as if holding up a rotten, corrupt truth.
The air fell into a deathly stillness.
Whitebeard stood amidst the scorched earth, fingers trembling slightly. Murakumogiri hung heavy in his hand. His expression lost its usual majesty, as if he had aged ten years in an instant.
"I..."
He murmured to himself, chest heaving, his expression struggling back and forth between trust and wavering.
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