Arton might have debuted only recently, but what he'd done on this sea was more than enough to prove his strength.
As for Blackbeard, though he was from the Blackbeard Pirates, his fame was still quite a ways off from Arton's.
Arton teaming up with Nojiko to defeat the Blackbeard Pirates was perfectly normal.
"Hold on, can I ask something?"
"Morgans, since you ran into the Blackbeard Pirates earlier, can you tell me where they are now?" Ace turned to Morgans and asked.
"That's right, I'm very interested in that one too." Arton nodded.
He'd let the Blackbeard Pirates get away before; if he could learn their current location now, Arton wouldn't mind going over to settle his unfinished business with them.
Since they were already enemies, Arton didn't mind taking care of things once and for all.
"Well, by now it's been quite a while since I saw them. Even I don't know where they are now."
"And since they were injured by you, they'll definitely try to hide their tracks." Morgans shrugged as he spoke. "Finding them now should be quite difficult…"
"Damn it, that guy's gone to ground again?" Ace clenched his fists tightly.
Arton also felt a bit helpless about this situation.
That said, it wasn't like he had no way to give Blackbeard a bit of punishment.
"Morgans, are you interested in getting to know Blackbeard a little better?" Arton asked.
"Blackbeard? He does have a few points that are worth reporting on but compared to you, he still falls way short." Morgans said with a grin. "Rather than writing about him, I'd much rather cover you."
"Really? And if I told you that the scars on Red-Haired Shanks' face were given to him by Blackbeard, you still wouldn't want to dig deeper into Blackbeard?" Arton asked.
"What? The scars on Red-Haired Shanks' face were made by that guy Blackbeard?" Ace exclaimed.
"The Yonko Shanks—how could Blackbeard possibly leave scars on his face?" Morgans asked. "Arton, are you serious?
"Of course it's true. I've got no reason to lie, do I?" Arton nodded as he spoke. "It doesn't benefit me in any way."
Kujaku: "That's strange. Why would Arton tell Morgans something like that?"
Whitey Bay: "Could it be that Arton wants to use Morgans' mouth to spread news about what's special about Blackbeard?"
Monet: "If information about Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit gets exposed, he's definitely going to attract a lot of attention."
Reiju: "Those Devil Fruit users who end up facing Blackbeard will probably be a lot more cautious, too."
Hancock: "In the future, even if Blackbeard wants to steal others' Devil Fruits, it'll be much harder."
Doll: "If Morgans can expose what's special about Blackbeard, then we won't have to bend over backwards trying to convince the higher-ups in the Marines about him."
Gion: "It's just that if that happens, Blackbeard will probably have a hard time becoming one of the Seven Warlords, and then we won't be able to use him to our advantage."
Thinking that far, Gion couldn't help feeling a bit regretful.
Even though she'd already confirmed from Arton that Blackbeard wasn't someone who would honestly serve as a Warlord and work for the Marines and the World Government, she couldn't deny that Blackbeard had considerable value as a tool.
With her foresight, Gion was confident she could make good use of Blackbeard first, and then, when he was about to betray the Marines, arrest him.
It was just that from the way Arton was acting now, it seemed she was about to lose that chance.
In fact, things were just as Gion and the others had guessed.
Arton really did plan to thoroughly expose Blackbeard.
Since he currently had no way to find Blackbeard and cut off future trouble at the root, Arton didn't mind sharing some of Blackbeard's traits and making his future moves a lot more troublesome.
Just imagining Blackbeard's suffocated expression after his special nature was exposed made the corners of Arton's mouth curl up uncontrollably.
Chapter 414: Blackbeard, the Man Who Wounded Red-Hair
"Arton, let's talk about Blackbeard." Seeing how serious Arton was, Morgans nodded as he spoke.
He had to admit, Arton had successfully stirred up his desire to dig into Blackbeard.
Even Ace sat back down again.
He wasn't an idiot—if Teach really had the strength to injure Red-Haired Shanks, then he needed to properly learn everything he could about Blackbeard.
At the very least, it might make things easier when he faced Blackbeard next time and give him a better chance to avenge his good friend Thatch.
"When it comes to Blackbeard, you can't avoid talking about his ability to endure and bide his time."
"That guy, in order to obtain the Devil Fruit he'd dreamed of for so long, joined the Whitebeard Pirates when he was still very young."
"After all, back then, the Whitebeard Pirates were practically the strongest crew in the world, so that was where he had the highest chance of getting his dream Devil Fruit."
"Once he got that Devil Fruit, what he needed to do was leave the Whitebeard Pirates and go pursue his own ambitions."
"To pull that off, he had to keep a low profile, so the Whitebeard Pirates and the Marines wouldn't put too much attention on him."
"To the point that, even though he had a certain level of strength, he still didn't become the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and instead let Ace have that chance to be a division commander."
As Arton spoke up to that point, he glanced over at Ace.
Hearing all this, Ace couldn't help grinding his teeth.
He hadn't thought much of it before, but now that he really thought things through, he felt what Arton said was exactly the kind of darkness that fit Blackbeard.
Even so, he was still a bit doubtful about Blackbeard being able to injure Red-Haired Shanks.
"A Devil Fruit…?" Ace knit his brows tightly. "Could it be the one Thatch found?"
Hearing Ace's words, Morgans raised a brow and said, "So you're saying Blackbeard has already gotten his hands on that Devil Fruit now."
"Still, the world is so big—even the Whitebeard Pirates can't necessarily find that one Devil Fruit Blackbeard dreamed about for so many years."
"Did he never consider the possibility that he might go his whole life without ever encountering that fruit?"
Arton shrugged and said, "He probably did think about that. But even then, I'd say he was prepared to spend his whole life on Whitebeard's crew if he couldn't find it."
Hearing that, Morgans couldn't help sighing a little.
"If what you're saying is true, Arton, then Blackbeard really is someone capable of accomplishing big things."
"But Arton, while what you've said does have some news value, it's not that much."
"Most people out on the sea probably aren't that interested in Blackbeard's past. Of course, the part about him injuring Red-Haired Shanks is an exception."
Arton nodded. Naturally, he knew that what he'd said so far wasn't enough to truly hook Morgans.
"In that case, what if I told you I know exactly what kind of power Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit possesses?" Arton said.
"The Dark-Dark Fruit, huh… I've never heard that name before."
"But since it's a fruit Blackbeard chased after for so many years, it must be pretty amazing." Morgans' eyes stayed locked on Arton's. Clearly, he was extremely curious about what Arton was about to say.
Arton didn't bother hiding it. After thinking for a moment, he laid out the abilities of the Dark-Dark Fruit in detail.
Once he finished, he glanced over at Ace.
I wonder if, now that he knows about Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit abilities, he'll still be able to defeat him. Arton thought to himself.
Since he had it in for Blackbeard, Arton naturally hoped Ace could come out on top in their inevitable clash.
That way, Arton could save himself the effort of going out of his way to hunt down the Blackbeard Pirates.
....
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