After disposing of Burgess's corpse, Marshall D. Teach departed Jaya Island with his three surviving companions.
Oboro returned to the tavern in Mock Town's center.
"Where are the others?"
Dom exhaled with relief upon seeing Oboro return safely.
He sensed that Teach was genuinely dangerous.
While Dom trusted Oboro's abilities implicitly, he couldn't help but worry that something might go wrong. However, Oboro had explicitly ordered them not to follow.
From outside the town, the crew had witnessed the extraordinary battle scene triggered by Oboro's clash with Blackbeard. They'd expected Oboro to return with either corpses or captives from the Blackbeard Pirates, but apparently, he'd done neither.
The confrontation had ended surprisingly quickly.
"They've left."
Oboro spoke quietly.
Released?
Rob Lucci pondered this development.
From their brief encounter, the Blackbeard Pirates exhibited similar predatory instincts to the Hell Pirates, and Teach with his companions were undeniably dangerous. It was somewhat surprising that the God Slayer showed no interest in recruiting them, instead choosing to let them escape.
"That Blackbeard was formerly a member of the Whitebeard Pirates."
The others entered the room and took their seats, awaiting their meal.
Dom initiated the conversation.
Apparently, while Oboro had been pursuing Teach, Dom had gathered intelligence about the man through local information brokers.
"Hmm."
"Seems he murdered his division commander for a Devil Fruit."
"He's extremely dangerous."
"Well, betrayal and murder aren't uncommon on these seas. Many pirates would turn against their own crewmates for treasure, even if they'd been fighting side by side moments before." Kaka crossed his legs and grumbled. "But for such treachery to occur within the ranks of a Yonko crew... it's rather unbelievable. Overall, his motives are understandable, though still despicable. Being a pirate shouldn't just be about material gain, that's too shallow and boring."
"Besides, I heard Whitebeard treated his 'sons' aboard his ship exceptionally well..."
"I killed that purple-haired one... but I granted divine power to the rest."
Oboro added, leaning back in his chair.
No one reacted with surprise.
After all, this wasn't the first time Oboro had bestowed power upon pirates.
It all depended on his underlying purpose.
For example, the pirates in the North Sea had been used to create chaos and buy time during the Battle of Twin Capes.
"Captain, do you believe Blackbeard and the others can succeed? Will they cause significant trouble for the World Government?" Lucci inquired.
He needed to understand Oboro's intentions. If the Hell Pirates allied with Blackbeard, he would need to alert his superiors.
"That's one reason... but I didn't grant them power out of any desire to exploit them, I did it out of sheer boredom." Oboro smiled, while Lucci appeared puzzled and somewhat confused.
Oboro continued, "Teach is a complete opportunist. We'll settle our accounts with him in the New World eventually. In other words, he'll become one of our future enemies."
"Since he's an enemy..."
Lucci hesitated.
Why not eliminate him now?
And why instead grant him divine power?
Boredom?
"I hope he can provide some pressure for me. A strong opponent serves as motivation, doesn't it?" Oboro smiled, glancing at Lucci.
For excitement... or perhaps to add spice to his sea voyage?
The God Slayer's intentions remained unpredictable, but that was certainly a possibility. However, Lucci sensed the truth was more complex than Oboro revealed.
After a while, everyone began eating.
Oboro's thoughts turned to his system.
He was currently running low on card resources. The abilities bestowed upon the Blackbeard Pirates consisted entirely of experience cards and skill cards, no bloodline cards. Among the cards given to Teach and his three companions were resource cards converted from their previous elimination of Marine Vice Admiral John Giant in the East Blue Goa Kingdom, covering swordsmanship, taijutsu, and Haki techniques intended for Lafitte. Although the skill cards weren't perfectly suited to Lafitte's fighting style, Oboro had deliberately given them to him as a way of clearing out "waste cards."
Since Lafitte wasn't truly one of his subordinates, it didn't matter.
The skill card Blackbeard received derived from a Blood Demon Art from the Demon Slayer world. It had been used by a member of the "Twelve Demon Moons" at one time. The ability, called "Shadow Clone," created duplicates condensed from darkness, each retaining a portion of the original's strength. Their combat power amplified during nighttime hours.
Conversely, during daylight, their power weakened significantly.
The maximum number of clones was limited to ten.
This ability complemented Teach's Dark-Dark Fruit powers perfectly, making it a valuable addition.
Oboro's primary reason for granting this ability was that the Blackbeard Pirates would divert much of the World Government's attention in the future. Teach's ambitions centered on world conquest, which meant that, at least in the short term, he would serve as an inadvertent ally to the Hell Pirates.
Currently, Oboro's system contained fewer than twenty cards equivalent to Upper Moon demon bloodlines. Lower-tier cards had been depleted, used extensively during the Battle of Twin Capes and previous North Sea expansion campaigns. Due to his severe injuries when defeating Golden Lion Shiki, he'd been unable to properly harvest the pirate's legacy. By then, those floating islands had been completely destroyed or had plummeted into the sea, their remaining value minimal. Shiki's surviving crew members were either dead or wounded, and with Marine forces approaching, time had run out.
With fewer than twenty bloodline cards remaining, any future attempts to create new oni would require careful consideration. The quota for this otherworldly power was running low. Therefore, Oboro intended to reserve all remaining cards for core Hell Pirates members.
Dom and the others would each command a fleet or squadron, and they would need powerful support.
As for experience and skill cards, their supply was also dwindling, but pirate life provided abundant targets for acquisition, so this wasn't immediately concerning.
Bloodline cards, however, were relatively unique. While many pirates possessed interesting bloodlines, few offered genuine combat enhancement.
Most were functional bloodline races.
For instance, Oboro had "extracted" a bloodline card from the giant vice admiral he'd previously slain.
But using it on anyone else wouldn't necessarily transform them into giants. At best, it might increase their physical size and strength to a limited degree, perhaps because this world's will actively resisted him.
He currently possessed three top-tier resource cards, unused:
Golden Lion Shiki, Muzan Kibutsuji, and Doma.
Now that Oboro had gained a comprehensive understanding of this world's power scale, Doma's resource card would likely prove insufficient to artificially create a "Vice Emperor"-level warrior, unless the transformation target already possessed tremendous strength.
However, if the resource cards of Muzan Kibutsuji and Golden Lion Shiki were utilized strategically, there was a genuine possibility that the Hell Pirates could gain a Vice Emperor, or even a monster rivaling the Four Emperors themselves.
He had rushed to Sky Island for precisely this purpose.
Enel.
Otherwise, by the time Monkey D. Luffy and his crew arrived, the defeated Sky Island "God" would have already escaped to the moon.
It was worth noting that Oboro wasn't attempting to recruit Enel, rather, Enel represented a resource point he was determined to acquire. Just like with Golden Lion Shiki, if Enel refused to join the Hell Pirates, then his fate would mirror Shiki's demise.