Chapter 320: Is This an Omen?
“C-Captain! We... we're doomed!”
In a corner of the deck, hidden behind a pile of stacked barrels, two figures were trembling. One of them, a sailor missing a hand, spoke with a tearful face, whispering to a man wearing a captain's hat with a long scar across his face, "Maybe... maybe we should surrender?"
The scar-faced pirate captain clutched a pistol in his hand, but now he was holding his head in terror, saying, "It's... it's useless! Even if we surrender, the Whitebeard Pirates won't let us go!"
"If only I hadn't robbed that merchant ship..." the sailor sobbed. "I... I don't want to die!"
Just as the sailor finished saying this, a voice suddenly sounded beside his ear: "Since you don't want to die, then kill your captain, and I'll spare you!"
When the voice came, both the sailor and the captain were startled. They quickly turned to look, only to find that the battle on the ship was already over.
On the entire pirate ship, all those who had resisted had been eliminated, and those who surrendered had all been captured. The Whitebeard Pirates had taken control of the vessel. Standing before the two of them was a man dressed in white, looking somewhat like a chef's uniform. This man had brown hair styled into a pompadour.
"S-Satch Commander! Please spare me!" the scar-faced captain immediately knelt down and begged.
Satch pulled out a comb and leisurely groomed his pompadour, saying nonchalantly, "You're the captain of the Scarface Pirates, huh... Tch! I've heard of a dozen pirate crews with such lousy names... I must say, your crew has some nerve. You knew full well that merchant ship was under the protection of our Whitebeard Pirates, yet you still dared to attack? And not only that, you killed everyone on board. Did you really think we wouldn't find out it was you?"
The scar-faced captain couldn't defend himself. He could only desperately knock his head against the deck, thudding loudly, not daring to stop even as blood began to flow from his forehead.
"Since you dared to provoke the Whitebeard Pirates, you should have been prepared for the consequences!" Satch put away his comb, glanced at the one-armed sailor, and said, "What I said earlier was true!"
Hearing Satch's promise, the sailor behind the scar-faced captain's eyes instantly changed, becoming exceptionally ruthless. Without hesitation, he used his remaining arm to raise his sailor's knife and plunged it fiercely into the scar-faced captain's heart from behind!
"You... bastard!" The scar-faced captain's eyes widened. With his last strength, he slowly turned around to look at the sailor. The betrayal from his subordinate didn't surprise him. He only said to the sailor, "Do you... do you really think that by doing this, you'll... you'll survive?"
After saying this, the scar-faced captain collapsed to the deck and breathed his last.
The sailor panted heavily, his eyes bloodshot, his face twisted with ferocity. He didn't care about any of that. All he thought about now was how to survive.
Satch watched this scene and couldn't help but shake his head. He said to the Whitebeard Pirates gathered behind him, "Strip this ship clean!"
"Yes, Commander Satch!" The Whitebeard Pirates laughed heartily and began to carry out the order.
This operation had only involved the Fourth Division of the Whitebeard Pirates. This so-called Scarface Pirates had been audacious enough to plunder a merchant ship flying the Whitebeard Pirates' flag and kill everyone on board. When the news reached the Whitebeard Pirates, the Old Man was furious!
How long had it been since the Whitebeard Pirates had faced such a serious provocation?
At Whitebeard Old Man's command, Satch's Fourth Division set aside their other tasks and pursued the Scarface Pirates across the New World.
Eliminating this pirate crew hadn't taken much effort. Under Satch's leadership, the Fourth Division completed the job cleanly and efficiently.
In this world, everything comes back around. As a pirate, you can lack strength or fame, but the most important thing is to have good judgment! The Scarface Pirates had been foolish enough to provoke the Whitebeard Pirates, and the outcome was predictable.
Everything the Scarface Pirates had plundered was taken as spoils of war, including all the goods in the storage room at the bottom of the ship's hold.
Satch had been leisurely sitting on the ship's railing, combing his pompadour, when a Whitebeard Pirate ran up to him, panting, "Commander Satch! Come quick! We found something good in the hold!"
"Oh?" Satch raised an eyebrow. He said to the others on the deck, "Keep an eye on this guy!" Then he followed the reporting pirate into the hold.
The one-armed sailor who had assassinated his own captain didn't dare move a muscle under the watchful eyes of the Whitebeard Pirates monitoring him...
When Satch followed the pirate to the bottom of the hold, he understood why the pirate had said they found something good.
Among a box of broken pineapples lay a purple Devil Fruit, looking very conspicuous.
"Ha!" Satch laughed out loud with joy when he saw the Devil Fruit. He walked over, picked it up, examined it carefully for a few moments, and said, "So the Scarface Pirates weren't completely useless after all. I didn't expect them to have hidden such a treasure!"
Holding the Devil Fruit, Satch returned to the deck and asked the one-armed sailor, "Where did you get this?"
The sailor stared blankly at the Devil Fruit in Satch's hand, shaking his head, "I... I don't know!"
In fact, he really didn't know. How Devil Fruits appear and under what conditions remains a mystery to the world. This purple Devil Fruit, the sailor had never seen before. It was as if it had suddenly materialized.
Satch questioned him further but found he couldn't get any answers, so he stopped worrying about it.
However, the members of the Fourth Division were genuinely happy for Satch. Although Commander Satch was already very strong, he wasn't a Devil Fruit user. Now, unexpectedly obtaining a Devil Fruit from this mission meant that the Fourth Division's strength was sure to increase.
It was well known that in the Whitebeard Pirates, there was a rule: whoever found a Devil Fruit got to eat it! Unless the finder was already a user, in which case it would be handed over to the Old Man for distribution.
The pirate who had reported earlier said excitedly, "Commander Satch, I wonder what kind of fruit you got. If it's a Logia, that would be great! The new Second Division Commander, Fire Fist Ace, is a Logia user, and he's very powerful!"
Hearing the name Fire Fist Ace, Satch couldn't help but smile warmly.
Despite the incident with Ian, Ace had still been scolded by Whitebeard Old Man after Teach woke up. But true to being a son the Old Man valued, in the past few months, Ace had repeatedly achieved significant merits for the Whitebeard Pirates. After consulting with Satch and the other division commanders, the Old Man still allowed Ace to become the Second Division Commander.
In truth, Satch knew in his heart that if Ian had been willing to join the Whitebeard Pirates, the Old Man might have favored him for the position of Second Division Commander. But unfortunately, Ian had done that to Teach, leaving the Old Man with no choice but to let him go.
He heard that after becoming a Warlord, Ian had taken over an island in the New World as his territory. He wondered how he was doing now... It had been a few months since the Teach incident. The Old Man's anger might have subsided by now. Maybe Ace would find time to secretly visit Ian?
Come to think of it, Teach was actually a decent guy. Despite what happened between him and Ian, he didn't seem to hold any grudge against Ace. They could even chat and laugh together. When the Old Man was selecting the Second Division Commander, Teach even voluntarily stepped aside and let Ace have the position. Sigh... He wondered what Ian had been thinking back then, to have such murderous intent toward Teach...
Shaking his head, Satch pushed the thought aside for now. Holding the Devil Fruit, he ordered the Fourth Division to return.
Once everyone from the Fourth Division was back on their ship, someone curiously asked Satch, "Commander, what about that one-armed guy? Are we really just letting him go?"
Satch snorted coldly, "I only said I wouldn't kill him! I didn't say I'd let him off. The rudder of that pirate ship has been destroyed, and everything on board, including the food, has been taken. Let's see how he survives at sea under these circumstances!"
The members of the Fourth Division followed Satch's words and imagined the scenario, then couldn't help but shiver in unison. "In that case, even if he doesn't starve to death, he'll probably go mad, right?"
"If he had been tough and resisted to the end, I might have actually let him go," Satch said. "But from the moment he didn't hesitate to stab his own captain, his fate was sealed! Betraying companions and one's own captain always leads to only one outcome! That's the rule of the Whitebeard Pirates!"
Everyone nodded in agreement and said no more. They set sail, preparing to return to the Whitebeard Pirates' territory.
On the empty sea, a battered pirate ship drifted aimlessly, carrying only a ship full of corpses and a one-armed sailor wailing in despair...