Chapter 22 - Blackbeard?!

**Previously**

"So Ace," Luffy said in a serious voice getting his attention. "Mind telling me just what exactly you are doing here in Paradise?" Luffy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well..."

**Present**

"Well... I'm hunting someone," Ace said causing Luffy to look at him with one of his eyebrows raised. "Not just someone, a pirate to be exact," he added causing Luffy to chuckle.

"What, turning into a bounty hunter now?" Luffy asked with a chuckled as he jumped up and sat down on one of the barrels on the deck.

"No, this isn't about the money...it's more about vengeance," Ace said with a serious tone causing Luffy to look at him strangely.

"Who is this pirate?" Nami asked Ace.

"His name is Blackbeard," Ace said with a lot of venom in his voice. This caused everyone's eyes to widen in shock. It was the second time that this pirate's name had come up with the first time being back in the Drum Kingdom.

"Blackbeard?" Chopper asked causing Ace to nod his head. "That's the pirate hat attack my home," he added in a slightly sad voice causing Nami and Nojiko to place their hands on his shoulder.

"This is the second time I heard about this pirate named Blackbeard," Luffy said in a serious voice. "Who is he?" he asked while looking at Ace.

"He may be going by Blackbeard now, but you name him by another name...Luffy," Ace said seriously while looking at Luffy. "Marshall D. Teach," Ace said causing Luffy's eyes to widen the size of dinner plates.

"Marshall D. Teach?" Vivi asked in a confused voice. "Who is he?"

"He is a member of the Whitebeard pirates," Luffy said in a disbelieving voice. "Why the hell you want to kill that fat f.u.c.k?" Luffy asked in a confused tone while looking at Ace. "All that idiot knows how to do is eat pie," he added. Ace looked at Luffy with a grim look on his face before he spoke in a pained voice.

'Just how powerful is her?' she asked herself while looking at Luffy.

"I'm going to kill him in the slowest and most painful way possible," Luffy said in a cold whisper before a loud thunder boomed overhead sending vibrations for miles.

"Oh no, you don't!" Ace yelled before marching up to Luffy. "He is mine!" he yelled while looking Luffy dead in the eyes.

Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill him the next time I see him!" Luffy replied equally as loud.

"Teach was in my division, he was one of my men!" Ace shouted. "I'm responsible for dealing his punishment," he said causing Luffy to growl before nodded his head. "Good," Ace said before he walked back to his earlier position while the rest of Luffy's crew remained silent as they watch the interaction between the two brothers while at the same time noticing the skies were beginning to clear up.

"Why did he kill Thatch though?" Luffy asked causing Ace to growl as he leaned against the side of the ship.

"He killed him over a devil fruit," Ace said with a growl causing everyone's eyes to widen.

"What kind of devil fruit?" Luffy asked in a curious voice.

"I don't know," Ace replied with a sigh. "Thatch didn't know either but apparently Teach knew," he said in anger. Luffy didn't say anything, instead, he hopped off the barrel that he was sitting on and began walking up to the upper deck towards his private quarters. Everyone watched Luffy enter his quarters and ten seconds later he came back out carrying a c.h.e.s.t. Nami, Zoro, and Usopp recognized it from when they got the Going Merry. The three of them saw Luffy take the c.h.e.s.t into his room but they never saw it after that. Luffy walked down the stairs with the c.h.e.s.t before walking up to the barrel that he was previously sitting on and placing the c.h.e.s.t on top of it. Everyone began to gather around Luffy wanting to see just what exactly was in that c.h.e.s.t. Luffy reached into his coat and pulled out a key before he opened the c.h.e.s.t causing everyone's eyes to widen at what was inside. When Luffy opened the c.h.e.s.t, everyone saw the c.h.e.s.t filled with devil fruits of all shapes and colors and on top of them was a thick book with the picture of a devil fruit on the cover.

"Yeah," Luffy replied before he grabbed the book that was on top of it all.

"Where did you get...?" Nojiko asked in a similar voice to Johnny.

"I have my ways," Luffy replied cryptically before he closed the c.h.e.s.t and began to open the book.

"What's that book, Luffy?" Zoro asked while looking at the book.

"This is a book of all the known devil fruits," Luffy replied as he flipped the pages of the book allowing everyone to see on each page there was a different devil fruit's name, pictures, and other information about the fruit. "Regardless of what we may think of Teach right now, he and Thatch were friends," Luffy said causing Ace to growl. "And there is only a handful of devil fruits out there that he would be willing to kill his friend for. Mine is one of them," Luffy said as he flipped through the pages.

"The old man's one is up there as well," Ace added as he looked at the pages Luffy was flipping through.

"Big Mom and Kaido's fruit being up there as well," Luffy added before he turned to Ace and spoke seriously. "However, seeing as how he calls himself Blackbeard and has this whole 'black' thing going on...I can only guess that this is the fruit," Luffy said as he stopped on a page with a large, round, light purple fruit made up of many small teardrop-shaped components with swirl patterns, and green leaves sprouting from the top. Its overall shape and appearance closely resemble a pineapple or a bunch of oversized and teardrop shaped gr.a.p.es. "The Dark-Dark fruit," Luffy said.

"That's the fruit!" Ace yelled out in surprise as he stared at the picture.

"It is one of the more powerful devil fruits out there," Luffy said getting everyone's attention. "And also, a pretty stupid fruit if you ask me," he added confusing everyone. "It's really powerful because one of its abilities allows the user to cancel another person's devil fruit powers just by touching them," he said causing everyone's eyes to widen.

"I do not know," Luffy replied with a shrug. "So, when you find him, don't make him grab a hold of you," Luffy said to Ace.

"Why is it stupid though?" Vivi asked causing Luffy to chuckle.

"It is stupid because of his weakness," he said vaguely "The Dark-Dark fruit is a logia class devil fruit. All logia class devil fruit allows their user to turn into a certain element and their bodies in a sense can become that element anytime the user wishes. Likewise, every element has a weakness and that weakness becomes the devil fruit user's weakness, understand?" Luffy asked while looking at his crew and brother trying to see if they are following what he was saying. The all nodded their heads slowly letting Luffy know that they understood some of what he was saying. "Okay, let me give you an example. My element is lightning or in other words electricity. Rubber is an insulator meaning that it cannot conduct electricity making it my weakness. Meaning if you take a rubber bat and hit me with it, instead of it passing through me like everything else it will hit me," he said causing a look of realization to flash across all of their faces.

"So, in Ace's case, anything covered in water can do damage to him?" Usopp asked with a questioning look on his face.

"Correct," Luffy replied.

"I still don't get how that makes the Dark-Dark fruit a stupid fruit to have," Nojiko said while looking at Luffy.

"It is stupid because its element is darkness making its weakness light," Luffy said causing Sanji and Usopp to smile finally understanding what Luffy was getting at. "Meaning if Teach ate that fruit he can't turn himself intangible like other logia users during the day because of the sunlight," Luffy said with a chuckling thinking about how stupid teach was. "Hell, I doubt he could even do it at night due to the moonlight," he said.

"So, wait let me get this straight," Ace said getting everyone's attention. "The only way for him to utilize that devil fruit to its full potential is by being in a pitch-dark room?" He asked causing Luffy to chuckle and nod his head.

"You're right that is stupid," Sanji said as he took a puff of his cigarette.

"I'm going to get-" Sanji said but was interrupted by Luffy.

"Shhhh! I heard something," Luffy said as he held his index finger up in front of him. Everyone became silent to try and listen for what Luffy heard. They could all hear something but couldn't make out what it was.

"What is that?" Vivi asked trying to make out what the sounds were. They were interrupted from their listening by Zoro's voice.

"Guys," Zoro said getting all their attention. "We've got company," he said while pointed to the front of the ship. Everyone snapped their heads around in the direction of where Zoro was pointing and saw about 7 sh.i.p.s with the Baroque Works symbol on it headed their way. Luffy narrowed his eyes and used his observation haki to try and sense for something on the sh.i.p.s.

"Those are the Baroque Works Billions' ship!" Vivi said in a panicked voice as she looked on at the incoming sh.i.p.s with fear written all over her face.

"I'll take care of them," Ace said with a smirk. Just as he was about to hop off the Going Merry, Luffy's voice stopped him.

"No, leave it," He said causing everyone to look at him with a puzzled look on their face.

"Huh? Why!?" Vivi yelled/ask.

"Just trust me," Luffy said as he walked to the left side of the deck. "Nojiko, take the helm and hold her steady," Luffy said causing her to nod before making her way to the rudder. Luffy's entire crew was on guard and was ready to defend against any attack while Luffy was relaxed and not all that worried about a threat. As they sailed closer, they all began to recognize a ship in between all the Baroque Works' sh.i.p.s that did not have their symbol on it, instead, it had a dog's skull with two crossbones on it.

"That it is," Luffy replied with a smirk.

"But wasn't he with...ohhhhhh!" Yosaku said as realization flashed across his face. The Going Merry sailed in between two of the Baroque Works sh.i.p.s and everyone saw all the sh.i.p.s were filled with bounty hunters. On the ship sailing by on the left side of the Going Merry Luffy's and his crew all saw Gem, Mikita, and Marianne standing on the deck staring at their captain with smiles on their faces.

"I take it everything is going according to plan?!" Luffy asked while looking at Gem.

"It is, Captain!" Gem said while giving a salute to Luffy.

"Good, call me when everything is set!" Luffy said before he turned and looked at his confused crew. "Princess, where are we going next?" Luffy said while looking at a confused Vivi.

"Umm...right," the princess said getting over her shock. "We are going to Erumalu, the green city," she said causing Luffy to nod before looking at Nami.

"Nami, you and Vivi plot our course," he said causing to nod their head before they made their ways to the upper deck. "Sanji, prepare lunch for everyone," he said to Sanji causing him to nod and head into the kitchen. "The rest of you follow Nami's orders," he added causing Johnny, Yosaku, Usopp, and Chopper to salute before replying.

"Aye, Aye, Captain!" they yelled. Luffy then looked at Ace and smirked before he spoke.

"How about a drink for old time sakes?" he asked as he pulled out a bottle of whiskey.

**CHAPTER END**