"Damn Arton—he ruined my whole plan!"
Teach clenched his teeth so hard his jaw looked ready to crack.
He was furious that Arton had gone and spilled his abilities to the world—especially now.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have cared if Ace knew what he could do. At full strength, Teach was confident he could beat Ace even with that knowledge. But he'd only just gotten rid of the dark energy Nojiko had left inside him thanks to Doc Q's treatment.
If he had to fight Ace right now, he needed every advantage—especially Ace not knowing what the Dark-Dark Fruit did. Too bad. That ship had sailed.
Ace tilted his head, intrigued. "So you're pissed, huh, Teach? What—did Arton's injuries you're carrying still not heal up?"
Teach's smile twitched. "Uh… Ace, you're not seriously gonna take advantage of me here, are you?"
Ace let out a low chuckle, his eyes full of disgust. "What do you think? Give it up, Teach. If you stop struggling, I might even let you keep a shred of dignity."
Flames roared to life in his palm.
Teach threw his arms open like he was welcoming an old friend. "Come on, Ace, there's no need for this. You fought Arton too, didn't you? Don't you want payback? Join my crew—let's go teach that bastard a lesson together, yeah?"
Ace shook his head. "You and I aren't the same. When I fought Arton, it was a match. What you did was a fight to the death."
Me? Go all-out and try to kill Arton? Yeah, right.
For Uta's sake alone, that was never happening. Besides… Ace didn't even dislike Arton. If anything, the guy had grown on him.
Ace exhaled, done wasting words. He lifted his hand, ready to hurl the fire—and then something dropped from the sky, slipping into his Observation Haki.
"A newspaper?"
He raised a brow, watched the news bird fly off, and dispersed the flames as he caught the paper. Teach frowned, but didn't take it as a taunt. He bent down, picked up the other copy that had fallen nearby, and unfolded it too.
Both of them knew how this worked: news birds usually charged you. So if a bird was just handing out papers for free, that meant one thing—there was a massive story inside.
And today's paper had already been delivered hours ago.
Which meant this was an emergency edition.
Teach's eyes barely skimmed the headline before his mouth flew open. "The hell…? Arton, that son of a—! He fought Admiral Kuzan?!"
He read faster, face darkening with every line.
"Useless—absolute garbage!" Teach snarled, crushing the paper under his boot and grinding it into the dirt. "An Admiral couldn't even stop him? You Marines—do you even want to catch Arton?!"
Ace snorted. "All that proves is even an Admiral can't just take Arton."
Then his tone shifted—less mocking, more genuinely impressed.
"But damn… Arton really is a monster. And Robin—her Devil Fruit is insane. Those two—seriously—holding back on me like that. Robin can use fire, and neither of them showed it during our match. Not even once."
Chapter 526: Kuzan Did All He Could
Ace had already been curious about what Robin could really do. Now that he'd seen the news—Robin could wield flames, and not just any flames, but the kind that could go toe-to-toe with Admiral Kuzan—his curiosity only spiked harder.
Before he even realized it, a dangerous little urge sparked in his chest: I want to test my fire against hers.
Anyone with eyes could tell it. Robin's flames were probably her true ace-in-the-hole—the kind of thing you only reveal when you're forced to. And how could Ace, a Logia Flame-Flame Fruit user, not be curious about that?
He looked back down at Teach's group, his own fire rising again with a low, hungry roar.
"Let's wrap you up already," Ace said coldly. "Then I'm going to go see Arton."
Teach ground his teeth and swallowed the newspaper into a bloom of darkness.
"Damn you, Arton… One day, I'm taking every last ability the Flameblade Pirates have," Teach spat, glaring up at Ace on the roof of a ruined building. "And don't think you've already won, Ace. Unlike you—I'm not alone."
Laffitte, Doc Q, and the rest of the Blackbeard Pirates stepped forward, weapons lifting and locking onto Ace.
In the past, Teach would've scoffed at the idea of needing backup against Ace. But right now—still not fully recovered—he couldn't afford pride.
Ace's smile turned razor-thin. "Fine. Then let's see what you've got."
He raised both hands, shaping them like pistols and aiming straight at the crew. He wanted to see it for himself—without getting close, how the hell was Teach supposed to make that darkness grab hold of him?
…
Meanwhile, at Marine Headquarters.
Fleet Admiral's Office.
"Yes… I understand. Yes—consider it done. We will not fail."
Fleet Admiral Sengoku nodded along, almost bowing into the Den Den Mushi.
If any other Marine officer had witnessed that scene, they would've been stunned speechless. But Kizaru—standing in the room and reading the latest newspaper—understood perfectly.
Because the voice on the other end wasn't some ordinary superior.
It was the Five Elders: the men sitting at the very top of the World Government, the ones who controlled the Marines' funding.
Kizaru skimmed through the paper Sengoku had handed him. Between the report and the tone of Sengoku's call, a bad feeling crawled up his spine.
He was just considering whether he could slip out with some convenient excuse when Sengoku ended the call, turned, and fixed him with an ominous stare.
"Oh my… how scary," Kizaru drawled. "Please don't look at me like that, Fleet Admiral. You're making me wonder if I did something wrong."
"You didn't," Sengoku said, shaking his head—his expression heavy. "At least, not when it comes to Arton."
Then he exhaled, the kind of tired that sank into the bones.
"Borsalino. You heard what I just heard. The Five Elders are furious that Kuzan failed to capture Arton and the Flameblade Pirates. Which means our next steps don't change—we're still moving to arrest Arton and dismantle his crew."
Kizaru let out a long, resigned sigh.
"But, Fleet Admiral… Kuzan did everything he could. That sudden updraft? That was pure bad luck—an accident. And now, at the end of it all, we don't even know where Arton went." He tilted his head, voice light, but the complaint was real. "So how, exactly, are we supposed to catch him?"
He'd gotten the message loud and clear: Sengoku was lining him up to make another trip—to go visit the Flameblade Pirates again.
Sure, the Glint-Glint Fruit was great for hunting slippery pirates.
That didn't mean Kizaru had any desire to take that assignment.
Because Arton… Arton was a nightmare to deal with.