Chapter 121

Hey guys! A chapter delayed... cuz there's so much to keep track of, haha. Nonetheless, I am posting this chap with a slight uncertainty; if you do find an error, please do notify me!

With that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and have a wonderful Fridayyyy!

[Just wondering, who do you hate more? Sakazuki or Teach?]

________________________

"Zeha...ha...hahahaha!!!" Teach laughed boisterously with joy as he gazed at Whitebeard's deceased body, "Oh, for how long have I waited for this moment?!!"

Sengoku's eyes narrowed, "Do know that I won't let things go your way, Blackbeard...!"

Teach frowned upon realizing Sengoku's presence, "Tch, how troublesome. Wolf!!!"

"Waa, what is it, captain?" From a distance away, a gigantic member of the Blackbeard pirates, Sanjuan Wolf, cried in surprise, abruptly turning his body while doing so.

*BOOOM*

Due to the sudden movement of his huge body, one Vice Admiral was knocked back.

"Oops... sorry..."

"I'm about to do it now!!! Carry me and run!!!" Teach yelled as he swiftly approached Newgate and Laffitte followed with a huge black cloak in his hands.

"Cloak...?" Sengoku muttered in confusion, "Just what are you up to, Blackbeard?"

Teach simply grinned as Laffitte covered him and Newgate's corpse with the cloak, before tying them up together and carrying them onto Wolf.

"Hoho, run as fast as you can, Wolf. Captain depends on you." Laffitte smiled as he took a seat next to the baggage of cloak that Teach and Newgate were within, on top of Wolf's head.

Simultaneously,

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Sengoku blasted an impact wave with his palm, causing the enclosed cloak carrying Teach and Newgate, Laffitte, and Wolf to be blasted back helplessly.

"Ahhhhh, do your job properly, you guys!!!" Within the enclosed cloak, Teach's shriek was heard.

"Owwwww…" Wolf frowned in pain and gazed at his bruised left arm, but began to run with his large legs.

"Hm, we almost died there, didn't we?" Laffitte stated as he gazed at Sengoku, who knelt down on one knee from exhaustion from facing Newgate beforehand.

At the same time, the rest of the Blackbeard pirates ceased to fight the Vice Admirals and began to retreat along with Teach, Laffitte, and Wolf.

Momonga's eyes narrowed.

"Chase them! We can't let them escape!" Strawberry, another Vice Admiral, barked in anger.

"Why, of course."

The group of Vice Admirals all leapt at once, chasing after the cornered Blackbeard pirates.

Subsequently, Sengoku muttered in realization as he stood back up wobbly, "Cloak... darkness... the Logia-type fruits tend to have a specific terrain that they are able to exert the full strength in. For Sand Sand fruit, a desert. For Magma Magma fruit, a volcano. If so, how about Dark Dark fruit?

...Total darkness, where no light enters... just like what's going on in that cloak right now."

However, Sengoku couldn't figure out any further as to why Teach would create such an environment for the dead body of Newgate.

"Sengoku."

From Sengoku's right, Tsuru quickly approached with a serious expression,

"We got too many casualties. If we stop the war now and focus on treating them, many more can survive."

Sengoku, with a stoic expression, locked his eyes onto the Blackbeard pirates, "Hm..."

Tsuru sighed, "There's no point in continuing this, 'Fleet Admiral' Sengoku. The entry of the Grimheart pirates messed everything up. All three Admirals and Garp, our greatest forces aside from you, were defeated by Grimheart himself. All the World Government agents, whose mission, from what I heard, is to seize Nico Robin, were wiped out by his crew. From Grimheart's appearance, this war wasn't about Whitebeard. It was about Grimheart, Sengoku.

Do you truly believe that preventing their escape is still possible when he is still standing?"

Sengoku massaged his temple for a brief moment, before voicing up, "Begin withdrawing the soldiers and have the severely wounded ones be given appropriate medical attention."

Tsuru nodded with a relieved smile, "Leave it to me."

"Kuzan." Right after, Sengoku called Kuzan, who revealed himself from the side, "Protect the fallen ones, will you? Leave the Blackbeard pirates to the Vice Admirals."

"Got it, Sengoku-san." Kuzan nodded before propelling himself toward the sea, where many Marine warships and the World Government ships were being burned by the Prominence, and many pirate ships were sailing through the gaps in the outward direction.

Meanwhile,

*SPLASH*

"We found Vice Admiral Garp!! Hurry up and retrieve him!!!"

"Low body temperature, shattered arm, and lungs filled with water!! He requires immediate medical attention!!"

"Bring him to the backline safely!! Don't let him die, you got that?!!"

"*Cough* *Cough*..."

Garp began to cough out a large volume of water and his body began to warm up. He surely possessed a vigorous life force.

""Vice Admiral Garp!!!""

"We're so glad that you are safe!!"

While Garp has successfully been rescued,

"Ace." Marco, with sorrow in his tone, spoke up while ruffling Ace's hair, "...You guys get ready to escape from here."

Jozu retorted in vivid anger, "But Marco, what about pop's body—"

"Leave it to me."

Ace stood up wobbly before turning his hateful eyes to the Blackbeard pirates,

"I'm going with you, Marco. I'm not taking 'no' as an answer."

Marco and Ace glared at one another for few seconds, before Marco gave in with a sigh,

"The rest of you, you heard that. Get ready."

Vista, after wiping the tears from his eyes, nodded in a resolute expression,

"Of course."

_______________

'One Piece does exist, huh?'

Newgate's impactful words were played over and over within Rowan's mind.

'Whitebeard. For that for a split second, you made my heart beat from the excitement of finding and the seizing the One Piece for myself.'

But only for a split second.

'Rest in peace.'

Rowan had no interest in something as vague as that. Who knows, perhaps Roger hid it somewhere else out of greed, and told a lie to everyone. What was the basis of Rowan's thought for this?

'Because the name of the so-called final island is freaking Laughtale.'

Nevertheless, Rowan got rid of such a trivial thought within himself.

'Even without Whitebeard, their fleet is a very valuable ally to keep. Also, Ace is a familiar friend of mine, and heavily related to the canon—not that I care.'

Rowan opened and closed his left hand repeatedly, 'Barely any Haki left, along with only one arm available for use. Feels as if my strength has been sapped out of my body; oh well, as long as Akainu, Kizaru, and Garp are out.'

As for Kuzan?

Compared to magma and light, ice felt underwhelming to Rowan; he couldn't feel much threat.

After all, magma was dense and heavy, light was fast and unpredictable. But Ice? To Rowan, it was simply weak. Even if Kuzan lowered the temperature, he could easily counter it by the application of his bounce.

*Creak*

Now, the cabin door to the Prominence opened, and Rowan, who had an arm sling and bandage wrapped around his broken right arm, took steps out to the deck, where his crew, Youchiha family, Nami, and Urouge were seen to be resting. The backup unit of the World Government has already been dealt with.

""Rowan!!"" Carina and Nami shouted in delight.

"Well, it seems like our deck surely have gotten lively, eh?" Rowan grinned as he looked around.

"Captain, with due respect," From the side, Dan spoke up in concern, "you should still be lying down. Even with your healing factor, the damage you sustained this time isn't something that can be alleviated within an hour."

"I'll do that later, Dan." Rowan took more steps forward and stood right before the figurehead, taking a look at the current Marineford.

"Marco, Ace, Aojiki, some other marine officers—Vice Admirals in terms of rank? And the Blackbeard pirates." Rowan muttered as he gazed at the particular scene keenly, "Just what value does the deceased Whitebeard's body hold to you, Blackbeard?"

Although he couldn't perceive through the black cloak, he got a sense that what Blackbeard was about to do now, was dangerous.

"Captain," From Rowan's left, Alfred asked seriously, "What shall our next course of action be?"

Turning his attention away from the scene, Rowan grinned, "We still haven't tried out all the newly-implemented functions of Prominence yet, have we?"

<Hell yeah!!>

Alfred's eyes flashed dangerously, "Understood."

Nami, Urouge, and the Youchiha family watched in confusion as Alfred moved to a different section of Prominence where one large button lied, while Cavendish took a hold of the steering wheel, positioning Prominence above one flipped Marine warship.

Carmen smirked as she explained to the confused visitors, "We call this move 'the Scorching Sun.'"

Upon Alfred pressing the button, from the gaps between each jet dial that was attached below the Prominence, around 200 heat dials revealed themselves.

"Every time Dan or I use our abilities to charge up the Prominence, we also charge up these heat dials that are capable of... well, you shall see."

At the next moment, the immense amount of heat was released toward the flipped warship below; the air in which such heat travelled through, shook wildly.

And as such heat collided with the warship, the whole ship was instantly set on fire and the whole nearby body of water boiled and evaporated.

"...This is probably the scariest ship I've ever come across." Sob muttered, "A ship capable of flying, and now, is able to unleash an attack as potent as this."

"Well... the problem of this though... is that Prominence is no longer as good when it comes to sailing through the sea. After all, there's just too much stuff that we added on her; too heavy to float." Carina would no way in hell admit that it's primarily due to storing an incredible amount of wealth.

Nevertheless, the Prominence, through Cavendish's control, gracefully flew on top of the Marine warships and the World Government ships, successfully setting them on fire.

"Ahhhh!!!"

"Jump into the sea!!!"

The Whitebeard fleet was initially confused by the sudden ignition of fire on the ships of their foes but came to cheer loudly as they sighted Prominence, who flew domineeringly, and left a trail of fire as she did so.

"Hurry, use this chance to quickly escape from these marines and World Government agents' grasps!!" Rakuyo, the 7th Division Commander of the Whitebeard pirates, ordered as they began to jump back to the still-available ships of theirs to sail away from the chaotic sea.

"Don't let this opening provided by the Grimheart pirates pass by!!!" Jozu commanded in a gruff tone as he lifted up one burning Marine warship by himself, causing many to drop their jaws in shock. Subsequently, Jozu threw it toward the enemies right in front of them, who were rendered immobilized by fear.

*BOOOOOOM*

Them, along with the now-broken ships, sank altogether, providing a gap for the paddle ship to make its way through.

"Everyone, sail out!!" As Vista stated, he turned back to see Marco, Ace, Kuzan, and the Blackbeard pirates clashing against one another, for Newgate's corpse.

*CLANG*

Shiryu and Vice Admiral Momonga clashed their swords against one another daringly.

"Those Rokushiki techniques are really annoying, you know that, Momonga?" Shiryu grunted as he parried Momonga's slash and attempted to push the latter back, only to see that Momonga utilized Geppo to propel toward him once again.

"Shiryu..." Momonga's eyes briefly gazed at Laffitte, whose hand was still holding an active visual Den Den Mushi, "How unsightly."

"Weehahaha!!! Why are you guys so mad at us?!" Burgess laughed boisterously as his Haki-imbued fist clashed against Vice Admiral Strawberry's sword.

As the Blackbeard pirates, except for Laffitte and Wolf, were occupied by the marine officers,

"Phoenix Talons!!!"

Marco came in, attempting to slam his talons into Laffitte's side, who nimbly dodged it by hopping upward. However, Laffitte's eyes were widened in surprise at the next moment,

"Oh boy."

"Full Metal: Mass Impact!!!"

Ace came in from the side and crushed his steel-clad fist onto Laffitte's face, causing the latter to lose his grip on his cane and visual Den Den Mushi, and crash into the sea.

*SPLASH*

"Oh no... *Cough*... Laffitte is in danger now..." Doc Q, who clashed Vice Admiral Stainless's sword with his scythe, muttered weakly.

*BANG*

Van Augur, who shot a bullet while stepping back to dodge a slash from Vice Admiral Doberman, who quickly swung his sword back up to parry the bullet, shouted in urgency, "What about captain then?!!"

"Your captain?"

At this moment, the Blackbeard pirates knew that something was wrong.

Van Augur turned back and was met with Ace, the 2nd Division Commander of the Whitebeard pirates, holding the neck of Teach with one hand.

"Kergh... I was so close!!!! No... no no, I was a second away from attaining it!!! Damn you, Ace!!!" Teach screamed at his lung as his plan has failed; he did not manage to attain the power of Tremor Tremor fruit in time.

Marco, while flapping his huge flame wings up and down, was holding onto Newgate's deceased body carefully.

"We got no idea what you are saying, Teach, but in pop's stead, I will end your life."

Marco shouted, "Ace!! We got no time for that!! We achieved our goal, so let's escape before it's too late!!"

Marco wasn't aware that Sengoku was planning to withdraw, but nonetheless, he was still right; staying in Marineford for a long period of time will only further endanger them and their crew.

"Kek..." Teach reached out his darkness-clad right hand to Ace in an attempt to stop the latter, however,

"Do you think I'm going to fall for the same trick twice?" Ace growled with the veins popping out from his forehead, as he grabbed onto Teach's wrist with his free hand, before crushing it.

"AHHHHHHH!!!"

"It's only your hands that have the nullifying effect. As long as they don't touch me, it's fine, isn't it, Teach?"

Ace's eyes flashed murderously as his Conqueror's Haki blasted forth,

"You are like a cockroach, Teach. No matter what I did to you last time, you somehow survived, perhaps due to that weird body composition of yours, eh?

And if so, I will at least take your hand."

At the next moment, a gory moment occurred, where Ace, without any hesitation, brutally ripped out Teach's right hand from his arm.

"F***!!!" Van Augur cursed in a cold sweat as he hurriedly ran to Teach.

From afar, Rowan witnessed such a scene with a chuckle,

"Damn, that's brutal."

Nami shivered on Rowan's right, "Why are you smiling, Rowan?!!"

Carina snorted, "You've been more brutal before. Admit it."