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Chapter 227: The End of Teach
🕑 Added 2025-10-03 13:36:17 +0000 UTCChapter 227: The End of Teach
He's... sharing Pops's drink with me?
Teach looked down at the gourd, a little surprised. Hmph. So the kid has some manners after all. This twenty-year-old vintage was something Pops only broke out for the most honored guests. Still, if he thought a single drink would be enough to earn his forgiveness, he was sorely mistaken.
"Zehahaha! To think you'd remember a small fry like me, my lord!" Teach said, scratching the back of his head with a humble grin. "But the fruit wasn't your fault. I was just being impulsive. It's on me. The past is the past. But I won't be returning this drink! Zehahaha! ... Uh, Pops, is it okay if I drink it?"
"What a stupid question, Teach!" Whitebeard laughed. "You're a grown man! If you want to drink, then drink! Stop acting like a child!"
"As a son, I have to ask my father's permission," Teach said with a goofy smile. He raised the gourd and began to chug. He drained it in seconds. "That's good stuff, Pops!"
Shane watched him silently. Only when the gourd was empty did a small smile touch his lips. Truth Serum. He had bought it just after leaving Water 7. For the next twenty-four hours, the user would be overcome with an irresistible urge to confess, and every word they spoke would be the absolute truth. It was time to see if it worked.
"They say that in wine, there is truth," Shane said casually. "You say the past is the past, but there's one thing I still don't understand. Why did you react so strongly to that fruit? Even Marco couldn't stop you."
This guy again? Teach thought, annoyed. Why is he so hung up on that? As if I'd ever tell you the truth. He was about to make up some excuse when his mouth opened of its own accord.
"YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO ASK ME THAT?!" he roared, his voice filled with a sudden, shocking rage. "It's because the fruit you pulled out looked exactly like the one I've been waiting twenty years for! You tricked me!"
The deck fell silent. Everyone, including Marco and Jozu, stared at Teach in shock. What's wrong with him? Why is he so angry? And when did he get the guts to talk to an Emperor of the Sea like that?
"?" Whitebeard looked down at him, confused.
Teach himself was frozen, a cold sweat breaking out on his brow. What's happening? Why did I say that? I was just going to make something up!
"Oh?" Shane leaned forward, a devilish grin on his face. "Go on. What fruit is so special that you'd wait twenty years for it?"
"The Dark-Dark Fruit, you ignorant fool! The embodiment of darkness, the strongest of all Logias! It's the only fruit worthy of my ambition! The only fruit that will allow me to surpass Whitebeard and become the strongest man in the... NO!!!" Teach screamed, his eyes wide with terror. He clawed at his own throat, trying to stop the words, but it was no use. The Truth Serum was rewriting his will, and the dam of his ambition, held back for two long decades, had finally burst.
"Twenty years!" he roared. "For twenty years, I've been hiding on this ship, waiting! While second-rate losers like Thatch and Blamenco became commanders, I was still a no-name grunt! All for the Dark-Dark Fruit! With it, and my special body, I can take any other power in this world! And my first target was you, Pops! I've been coveting your Tremor-Tremor Fruit for a long, long time!" He pointed a trembling finger at Whitebeard, his eyes burning with greed. "You're old! You're not the world's strongest man anymore! That fruit is wasted on you! It should be mine!"
"What are you saying, Teach?!" Jozu's face contorted with rage. "You're drunk! Apologize to Pops, now!"
"Drunk? I'm not drunk!" Teach snarled. "Shut up, Jozu! You're just a pretty boy with a shiny arm! Who are you to give me orders?!"
"That's enough!" Jozu's arm transformed into diamond, and he lunged at Teach.
"Zehahaha... You want to fight? You?" Teach's fist, coated in a thick, black layer of Armament Haki, met him head-on.
BOOM!
The deck exploded in a shower of splinters. When the dust settled, it was Jozu who had been thrown back, his diamond arm covered in a web of cracks. Teach had barely stumbled.
"Zehahaha! See that?! This is my true power! I've been hiding it all these years!"
"TEACH!!!"
Whitebeard's roar was like a clap of thunder. He stood up, and a terrifying wave of Conqueror's Haki, thick with rage, washed over the deck. Teach froze, a flicker of fear in his eyes.
"Pops..." Marco stepped forward, his face pale, but he didn't know what to say. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was this the same Teach he had known for decades? Was his humble, honest demeanor all a lie? The evidence was undeniable...
"Shane, my boy," Whitebeard said, turning to him, his voice dangerously calm. "You put something in that drink, didn't you?"
"Something like that," Shane said, taking a sip of his own ale. "As the World's Greatest Swordsman, my intuition is pretty sharp. From the moment I stepped on this ship, I could feel this guy's killing intent. I just wanted to know why. The truth... was a little more than I bargained for. You should be thanking me, Whitebeard. You've been nursing a viper in your bosom."
Whitebeard's face was like stone. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he picked up his bisento.
"Teach," his voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of a coming storm. "I'll ask you one last time. Were those the words of a drunken fool, or the truth from your heart?"
"What's the point in asking?" Teach sneered, taking a step back. "What are you going to do, Pops? Kill me for a few stray words? So much for the great Whitebeard's famous tolerance!"
"You're wrong, Teach," Whitebeard said, a look of profound disappointment in his eyes. "You don't know, do you, Teach...? You just... don't know..."
"The son of Rocks, the man who once made the world tremble... how could he ever be an ordinary man?! I knew who you were the day you begged to join my crew! Your ambition, your strength, your Haki... you never had to hide it, Teach!" Whitebeard's voice rose to a roar. "You want to surpass me, to become an Emperor, to take the Dark-Dark Fruit and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit... I don't care! Do you have any idea how big the deck of this ship is?! You think it's not big enough to hold your pathetic little ambition?!"
The words were a thunderclap that stunned everyone on the deck. Rocks?! Teach is the son of... Rocks D. Xebec?!
"So you knew all along, Pops..." Teach said, a twisted smile on his face. "Then what's all this about? You think I can just go back to being your good little son?"
"If that were all, of course you could!" Whitebeard said, a flicker of pain in his eyes. "But... you are not worthy!" He took a step forward. "Tell me, Teach, do you remember the battle of Koron Island, five years ago?"
Teach's face paled.
"You remember," Whitebeard's voice was like ice. "Koron Island, G-14 as the Marines now call it, was our territory. You and five of our brothers were ambushed by a Marine fleet. They were all killed. You alone escaped. You came back, crying, and we comforted you."
"But now we know the truth," Marco said, his face a mask of grief and rage. "With the strength you've shown today... they didn't have to die, did they?!"
"You watched your brothers die to protect your secret! You abandoned your own family for your ambition!" Whitebeard roared. He grabbed Teach by the head and slammed him into the deck. "A man like you... is no son of mine!!!"
CRACK!!!
A wave of tremor energy shot through Teach's body. He screamed as blood poured from his eyes, ears, and mouth.
"Zeh... hahaha..." even now, he was laughing, his voice a bloody gurgle. "What's it got to do with me, Pops?! I just... didn't save them! That's not the same as killing them! According to your own rules... it's the Marines you should be after!"
