Chapter 74: The Whitebeard Pirates

Chapter 74: The Whitebeard Pirates

Chapter 74 The Whitebeard Pirates

The atmosphere of the whole of Marineford was struck with an oppressive silence following the Fleet Admiral's announcement of Ace's lineage. Shock and awe radiated from the assembled army of Marines and even from some of the gathered guests.

A few parties from the Seven Warlords seemed intrigued by the revelation and their anticipation of the coming chaos only deepened.

Rayleigh glanced over at Justice and Goddess of Ice, noticing that they were trying to hide some of the shame they were feeling. They, just like every other Player and man of common sense, were easily able to read between the lines. Would the Marines patiently wait for every pregnant woman to have their kid and do a DNA test to confirm it wasn't his?

It was obvious that the Marines had killed every pregnant woman and newborn child and since they didn't even get the right one, it meant that they had killed numerous innocent lives for literally no reason at all.

After he took a moment for the tension to rise, the Fleet Admiral continued, "Was it two years now? You took your mother's name. As the Captain of the Spade Pirates you ascended through the pirate world with your superior strength and we finally noticed that Roger's blood had survived. But Whitebeard realized it at the same time we did. In order to raise you to be the next Pirate King, he took in his former rival's son onto his own ship!"

Ace shouted in rebuttal, "No! I joined his crew to make Whitebeard the next Pirate King!"

The Fleet Admiral shot down, "You're the only one who thinks that. We couldn't take any rash action against you because you were protected by Whitebeard! If we left you alone, slowly but surely, you would start to gain the qualities to stand at the summit of the Pirate World! That's why there is so much meaning in cutting you down today! Even if it means total war with Whitebeard!"

Rayleigh could not help but ask a certain question in the Chat Room.

[Swordsman: So does anyone plan on saving Ace?]

[Justice: Wait, are you really gonna help the Pirates?]

[Swordsman: I have yet to hear a crime he has committed other than being a pirate. Is that alone worth execution to you?]

[Dragon Chef: He's right. Ace can't inherit Roger's crimes since Roger was already executed for his crimes. And executing him for something he hasn't done yet is even more pointless. I'd get him out of there myself, but Titan got me in our match so it's up to him now.]

[Titan: Don't worry, I'll save him. Whitebeard plans to die today so I'm gonna try and take in as much of his crew as possible.]

[Captain Jack: Don't worry, if he does die, I'll destroy the entirety of Marineford and every Marine in it.]

[Goddess of Ice: You wouldn't dare!]

[Captain Jack: If you don't want to find out, then you'd better make sure Ace successfully escapes. The party is about to start.]

As if on cue, a panicked Marine ran up to the execution platform and shouted to Sengoku, "Fleet Admiral Sengoku! We have a report! The Gates of Justice have begun to open without anybody's orders! We can't contact the control room!"

The Fleet Admiral ordered to the assembled army, "Here they come! All men to your battle stations!"

Rayleigh looked past the open space that led into Marineford's inner harbor and saw dozens of irregular ships, all with a variation of the Jolly Roger on their forward flag.

Every flag was recognizable and many of the gathered Marines started listing off the flags and crews they knew while shouting for orders so they would know what to do. The problem was that Whitebeard's pirate vessel did not seem to be leading the pirate fleet. He definitely had to be there, so where was he? The Marines in charge couldn't decide what to do before they found him.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on how one perceived it, they did not have to look for long as bubbles started surging up from the center of Marineford's inner harbor. With a massive surge of water, three massive ships and a fourth that was even larger rose from beneath the water's surface.

None of the ships looked part-submarine which meant they used a different method to sail beneath the Marine's sight before breaching the water's surface. Rayleigh figured they used bubbles.

Marineford was very close to Sabaody Archipelago, a place that had massive trees which produced a soap bubble-like resin. This resin could be used to coat ships, allowing them to go underwater, but the bubbles popped if you were too far from Sabaody and the resin-saturated water, so this was the only place that such a tactic could be easily used.

The largest of the four ships was carved to look like a massive white whale and appropriately named the Moby Dick. On the sculpted head of the deck, in plain view, was another of the strange humans with impossible body proportions. Standing over three times taller than a normal human adult was the heavily muscular titan known as the world's strongest man, Edward Newgate, also known as Whitebeard.

The man did not shout but his voice carried throughout the venue. "My beloved son had better be unharmed." His eyes locked on Ace's position and he chuckled. "You wait right there Ace."

After announcing himself to Ace, Whitebeard then announced himself to the Marines. With his fists.

Whitebeard smashed the air on both sides of him. The sound of cracking was noticed before the actual cracks in the air became visible. It was like a pane of very thick glass was around the old man and had just been smashed and the spiderweb of cracks just hung in the air, relative to the man's position on the swaying ship.

Rayleigh's expanded senses noticed the invisible shockwaves from the cracks that propagated out and down. Moments later, a dull sound inaudible to humans reverberated beneath their feet. It was something that happened prior to earthquakes, the vibrations of seismic plates shifting against each other. Whitebeard's fists had caused the earth beneath the sea floor some distance from Marineford to crack and shift, causing an earthquake.

From the platform, Ace mumbled a few things before shouting, "Why couldn't you guys have just forgotten about me?! It's my own fault I ended up like this!"

Whitebeard seemed to have no problem lying aloud, "No. As I recall, it was I who told you to go after him, my son."ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

The large old man ignored Ace pointing out his lies and continued, "I told him to go, right Marco?"

Behind him, one of the few Division Commanders with a normal body shape, Marco the Phoenix, confirmed aloud, "Indeed, I heard it with my own ears. We're sorry for putting you through this trouble, Ace."

He then gave a speech about how they were here to send a message about what happens to those who touch the crew of Whitebeard.

A moment later, the physical reverberations of the earthquake Whitebeard created were felt by all in Marineford. Windows and foundations cracked and hundreds of soldiers toppled over from the intense shaking. Those with a bit of experience knew that the shaking was only a prelude to the true consequence of Whitebeard's previous action.

The water that had been jutted up from the seaquake had flowed toward Marineford and now created two massive tidal waves, both taller than an 80-story skyscraper. If nothing was done, Marineford and everyone within would be underwater in another twenty seconds.

Aokiji moved quickly, using Moonwalk to gain altitude, and froze a line of ice from his hands to both waves. The moment the lines of ice extending from his palms reached the waves, they seemed to instantly freeze. Aokiji then tried sending lances of ice at Whitebeard but the attacks were shattered with a wave of his hand, causing Aokiji to fall toward the water of the inner harbor. The moment he touched the surface, Aokiji flash froze the water, preventing the ships from getting closer and stopping further ships from entering the inner harbor.

The inner harbor of the Marineford had hundreds of defenses and once the ships were rendered immobile, every cannon started opening fire to destroy the ships and kill the pirates within.

Whitebeard's crew had no intention of remaining sitting ducks so many vigorously launched themselves into the fray, leaping off the ships onto the ice to rush into the harbor on foot. Others stayed on the ships and used their own cannons to attack Marineford from within.

The Vice Admirals stood in front of the common cannon-fodder Marines at the head of the harbor to take the first wave and push them back while the Marines used their rifles to fire shot after shot, trying to thin the numbers.

Rayleigh's attention turned to the side when Mihawk took a step forward and gripped his blade. After locking eyes with Whitebeard, Mihawk slashed down, sending a flying slash in Whitebeard's direction.

Rayleigh did not know why, but Mihawk's slash did not contain any Conqueror's Haki. His own flows did not command the flow of the world to move forward. Was he hiding it from the Marines or was he just being lazy?

In either case, the slash was halted before it reached the ship by a man only a little smaller than Whitebeard. The shine that reflected off the man's body was something Rayleigh recognized as the effect of the same Devil Fruit as the Player Glitter, the fruit that allowed a person to turn their body into diamond.

Most of the pirates onboard swam to the nearest shore while others were dragged or thrown from the water. Rayleigh guessed that they were devil fruit users.

Rayleigh got a very good look at Luffy and sighed. He was pretty sure what he was seeing was not normal.

Rayleigh did not know if it was because of the method he used to awaken his Observation Haki or if it was due to the interaction between his Force senses and his Observation Haki, but he was 100% certain that he could feel things using it that others could not. Or maybe they did notice it, but could not define or recognize it.

The flow of the world circled Luffy almost lovingly. Did he eat the Human Human Fruit Model: Main Character? Was that how Plot Armor worked?

Rayleigh only had to wonder what he was doing here for a moment before Luffy shouted, "Ace! I finally found you!"

Rayleigh rolled his eyes. Of course, the soon-to-be executed, son of the pirate king, person who had not actually committed any egregious crimes, was close to the Main Character. This battle would determine the future of the world. Of course, the Main Character should fall from the sky and end up in the heart of it.

Rayleigh also felt some Force presences sneak into the group from the sea, near where the Sea Kings were wreaking havoc. Some entered the fight against the Marines while others snuck deeper into Marineford.

Goddess of Ice stationed herself outside and froze the water surrounding Marineford after getting the Marine vessels to point their cannons at the Marine ships. This stopped the Marine ships outside from getting through via ship and sealed the water's surface to block the sea kings from entering combat without breaking the ice.

Like the Pirates inside, the pirates outside thought to jump off the ships and charge forward, but Justice stayed at Goddess of Ice's side and rained rapid-fire light shots faster than the Pirates could charge forward. These two essentially halted the 43 Whitebeard ships outside, preventing the inner fleet from receiving any reinforcements.

Some Giant Marines and one sandy pirate tried to attack Whitebeard but the former were crushed by Whitebeard and the latter was stopped by Luffy who then took a moment to chat with Whitebeard before bouncing off in the direction of the execution platform.

Rayleigh kept a Will using Clairvoyance on Luffy and the world seemed to move to assist his every step. This was worth paying attention to because Rayleigh learned more about the flow of the world and because there was a lot of collateral damage from those attacking Luffy and Rayleigh intended to avoid it.

Like Kizaru shooting a laser at Luffy. Luffy was pushed out of the way by the wink of the large-headed pervert, but the blast from the laser was like that of a hundred grenades. Rayleigh was far enough away to be fine, but he wore his Mandalorian Melee Shield and would activate it if that kind of explosion got too close. His body didn't need the protection, but his new clothes did.

Ace shouted at Luffy to run away and get out of there, but Luffy shouted back, "I'm your brother!"

At this announcement, Fleet Admiral Sengoku got back on the transponder Snail and reported that Luffy, "Is the flesh and blood son of the Revolutionary Dragon."

The pile of defeated pirates had grown quite large at this point and Rayleigh was looking for either a Swordmaster or a Devil Fruit user. Even among the Division Commanders, there weren't a lot of Devil Fruit users.

The problem of who to challenge solved itself though when he noticed the screams of Marines. The pirates in prisoner getups from the fallen ship happily joined the fight and many of them were very strong. They were also very excited to torture and kill Marines so it didn't take long for a new pile to start forming near an open space next to where that weak, red-nosed pirate had been shouting at Whitebeard from.

At one point Mihawk played with Luffy, seemingly intent on testing Luffy's Plot Armor to see if he would survive. One slice that Luffy dodged split the frozen tidal wave horizontally, causing it to slide forward and into the Marine ships outside the walls of Marineford.

What stopped Mihawk's game was the Division Commander named Vista, someone Rayleigh had been wanting to fight after warming up, but it seemed that Mihawk had gotten him first. That wasn't fair.

Seeing his chosen target taken by his teacher, Rayleigh couldn't see another Swordmaster among the Whitebeard Pirates so he decided to fight that Diamond Guy and see if he could cut through his Shatterpoint and break him, something even Mihawk had not done with his less-than-serious slash.

The Diamond guy was fighting a Sand Logia user who also seemed to be a pirate. From the context of their shouting, the sand guy wanted to kill Whitebeard and the Diamond dude was getting in his way. That meant the sand guy would not mind in the slightest if Rayleigh took his dance partner for himself.

Or at least that had been the plan.

Rayleigh waved a hand to the side to send the fired explosives coming toward him back to their senders.

The pair of figures took the impacts point blank without dodging, causing a deafening explosion Rayleigh used a bit of Force Muffle to shield himself from to prevent hearing loss.

Once the smoke cleared, Rayleigh spotted the pair of Players. One he recognized, the other he did not. Neither had the slightest bit of damage from the explosion.

Dyna Might shouted, "I've got a score to settle with you, Swordsman."

Rayleigh ignored the bombastic idiot and addressed the lady at his side, "And why are you here? Have we met?" The pale-skinned Player had short, white hair and wore sunglasses. She was a bit taller than Dyna Might who was stockier.

The lady answered, "No, this is our first meeting, but I'm here on business. You remember Enigma, right?"

"The guy who got in my way during the Chimera Ant thing? Yeah. What about him?"

"Well, he made a new character after Hisoka killed his first one and made a little deal with me. If I kill you, he swore to be my subordinate."

Rayleigh asked, "And is that price worth it? Is the power of a guy who had to start over worth making an enemy of me?"

"Well, it's worth an attempt at least. His potential is quite high."

Rayleigh shook his head. He guessed that this girl was also a 20-Talent Player and knew that Enigma was as well. A 20-Talent Player with another 20-Talent Player as a minion would have an excellent advantage against others when the Players started fighting each other in the future.

Too bad she had to target him. He wondered how she would feel when she figured out how much she lost from this deal.

Rayleigh raised his sword into a defensive posture and said, "Ladies first."

She smiled and raised her hand. From it, her aura expanded faster than a bullet, something Rayleigh detected using Force Danger Sense and calculating the future through the senses he felt using Observation Haki. Rayleigh vanished from his position and reappeared, sword swinging.

Rayleigh didn't intend to cut off her head. Her arm would do just fine as a test to see if this Hunter had the right to hunt him.

The moment Rayleigh's borrowed sword made contact with her aura, the aura started propagating itself, expanding endlessly. Rayleigh pushed his Haki-infused, Nen-coated sword further, but the closer to her skin the sword got, the greater the degree of expansion of her aura, pushing the sword away.

Rayleigh's danger sense went into over-drive and before Rayleigh could remove the sword, her aura expanded out like a battering ram, launching Rayleigh into the hull of one of Whitebeard's ships, neatly planting him into it.

All of Rayleigh's Wills analyzed what happened and arrived at the same conclusion. Gojo Satoru. This girl made a Gojo Satoru build. And she was here to kill him. Rayleigh couldn't help but smile.

*Author's Note*

Sorry that took a while. I really didn't want to just do what everyone else did but then I had to figure out what to do and then make sure I'm not just doing something that everyone else does. I eventually decided to Go Big or Go Home, so there will be stuff that has never been in this fight in other fanfics. I also had to decide how the Players would act and how the consequences of Rayleigh's actions would be realistically implemented. Would a snotty, entitled teen put a bounty on another Player? Yes. Yes he would. Especially if he doesn't know how strong said Player actually is.

I finally figured out a timeline for how everything will go down and how to write it. It did take longer than I thought it would, but at least it will be good.