King was the most pragmatic of the officers. He didn’t care about the means used in battle, and if he judged that the situation was unfavorable, he wouldn’t zealously continue fighting.
With his current abilities, fighting a Marine Admiral wasn’t particularly difficult. Before his blue flame mode ended, Kuzan wouldn’t be able to do anything to him. The problem was that it was meaningless—Admirals weren’t that easy to kill. Even if facing a truly equal opponent, it would take several days to determine the outcome.
Unless someone was determined to die, dealing with such monsters was extremely difficult when they tried to escape. Moreover, Momousagi was also nearby. King couldn’t afford to split his focus while facing Kuzan, as Momousagi could pose a genuine threat to him.
Since the current battle situation was unfavorable, it was best to retreat and wait for the next opportunity. He had no intention of getting into a situation where someone had to rescue him after things went south—that would be utterly humiliating.
To put it bluntly, his fighting style had no bottom line. This also indirectly showed that he didn’t care about pride as much as others did, but that didn’t mean he had none at all.
As a senior officer of the Beasts Pirates and member of Arceus Familia*, getting captured by the Marines would be far too humiliating—he had no intention of ending up like one of Whitebeard’s men. [TN: DanMachi]
So, the “Marine idiot,” faced with a noble aerial unit like him, could do nothing but stand there and watch.
“Admiral Kuzan, why are you here?”
“I was asked to come by someone, but that wasn’t the original reason.”
According to the original timeline, Kuzan should have been here because of Robin, giving the Straw Hats a warning. But things were different now—he had nothing to do with that group and was merely patrolling the nearby seas.
His appearance here was somewhat related to Garp.
Although Garp is always acting like a fool, he is, after all, a high-ranking Marine officer—there’s no keeping internal affairs hidden from him. Strictly speaking, Momousagi is one of the few officers who has a close and familiar relationship with Garp, which is precisely why she was chosen to lead this mission.
But Garp was still uneasy. He was worried that someone might try to attack Ace midway, so he had Kuzan come to check on the situation. As for himself…
He was a Marine, but he was also Ace’s “grandfather.” If he personally escorted Ace, he feared he wouldn’t be able to control himself and might make a mistake. To this day, no one knew just how much he had let slide during the Summit War.
Based on the limited information available, when considering the damage Marineford sustained during Shiki the Golden Lion’s attack, one couldn’t help but suspect that Garp might have been responsible for that as well.
At this stage, if his hands “slipped,” no one would be able to say anything about it. The hero’s halo gave Garp too many privileges, and his strength was enough to justify that reputation. Even the World Government found it difficult to deal with this troublemaker.
“Admiral Kuzan, Vice Admiral Strawberry….”
“I know. Let’s gather his remains first—we’ll talk about this later. But what is this black thing?”
“This is… Blackbeard, the one who captured Fire Fist Ace. He was Conflagration’s target. It was my misjudgment. I should take full responsibility for Strawberry’s death.”
“Alright, we’re Marines—this kind of thing is inevitable. Don’t blame yourself too much. Let’s return to Marineford first. It seems the higher-ups value this Fire Fist quite a lot. I wonder what they’re planning.”
As he spoke, Kuzan looked down at the dark, indistinct mass on the ground. While Kuzan’s ice had extinguished King’s flames, before that, Blackbeard had been burned badly. Blood was still seeping from the hole in his eye, yet judging from the rise and fall of his chest, the guy was still breathing.
Whitebeard, old and frail, had half his head blown off by Akainu and still managed to keep fighting for a while. It wasn’t surprising that the abnormal Blackbeard hadn’t died yet.
Aside from a few unlucky ones, most people in this world had extraordinary vitality. Meanwhile, Doc Q trembled as he made his way over to Blackbeard.
After feeling around, he pulled out a Seastone nail. The moment the Seastone left his body, darkness once again engulfed Blackbeard, and the damage-reducing effect of the Dark-Dark Fruit resumed working within his body.
“Captain Teach, looks like you might make it.”
“Is it difficult to treat?”
“Very difficult. Over 80% of his body has severe burns, and his left eye was pierced clean through by a blade. There’s also some kind of explosive force that went off inside it. If Captain Teach’s body weren’t already so abnormal, he’d be long dead.”
Looking at the severely wounded Blackbeard, Doc Q didn’t seem worried. In fact, he looked excited, as if he found dealing with such a gravely injured patient intriguing.
“But that guy’s sword is really strange. Did he plant a bomb in the blade?”
“It wasn’t a bomb—that’s an application of Armament Haki. It’s too early to explain this to you.”
“Van Augur is definitely beyond saving. Let’s focus on Captain Teach saving first, or we might as well start preparing to disband.”
“Cough cough—now that would be an interesting event. Let’s hope our captain is tough. And let’s hope this Dark-Dark Fruit is as miraculous as he claimed. But his eye… it’s done for. Was it fate that our captain had to lose an eye?”
After Doc Q performed emergency treatment on Blackbeard, the Blackbeard Pirates set off with Ace and the Marines, returning together to Marine Headquarters. The Marines had their own matters to handle, while the Blackbeard Pirates were wary that King might still be lurking nearby. If they moved alone, they risked King circling back to finish them off.
Meanwhile, in the laboratory on Onigashima, Queen was conducting a new experiment. The Rumble Ball delivered earlier by the Dragonites had already been placed on his analysis platform, providing him with a great idea.
However, the final results had some issues. This drug was not suitable for humans. If it were to be used by human Devil Fruit users, it would require a complete overhaul and extensive fine-tuning.
At this moment, Queen was using an experimental strain of bacteria to test the effects of the new Rumble Ball, but so far, he hadn’t been able to cultivate a successful sample.
He wasn’t just sitting around waiting, though—he was also working on shaping gunpowder.
The equipment he carried weren’t some ordinary flintlock that could fire with any haphazardly packed black powder. The small missiles demanded extremely high-quality gunpowder—not just in purity, but even their shape had to meet precise specifications.
Due to their small size, the gunpowder fuel needed to burn completely to ensure sufficient range.
However, his missile accuracy seemed to have a problem. They often misfired and hit him instead. To improve precision, he had redesigned the small missiles installed in his body.
But this highly sensitive missiles couldn’t be mass-produced by machines in one go—it had to be manually engraved with tools. Every single cut required extreme caution, as even the slightest static electricity or spark during the process could cause instant combustion or even a catastrophic explosion.
“Good, slowly… slowly… just a little more.”
Queen muttered to himself as he carefully moved the engraving knife with his right hand.
“Lord Queen! Your petri dish—it’s a success! It worked!”
“Boom!”
Queen had previously ordered his assistants to notify him immediately if there were any results from the new Rumble Ball experiment. His subordinates had indeed followed his instructions—but as he took in Queen’s soot-covered, disheveled appearance, he couldn’t help feeling his timing was… less than ideal.
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