One Piece: Nobody knows Devil Fruits better than me.

Chapter 246 Chasing Souls in the Underworld, Tiqi’s whereabouts!

As someone who has followed Whitebeard for decades, he is one of the most senior members of the entire Whitebeard Pirates.

Marco the Phoenix is ​​now somewhat nervous.

His gaze swept across his surroundings.

Rat head mask, tiger head mask, monkey head mask—and, well, the sheep head mask that just left not long ago.

Yes.

The significance of having three top officials from each of the twelve constellations on the high seas today is self-evident.

Let alone Marco.

Even the Four Emperors and their generals would be extremely wary of these three.

Especially after witnessing Shen Hou single-handedly take down the entire bullfighting arena, killing three God Knights and a Shichibukai.

Marco genuinely felt that the entire ocean might have underestimated the power of the twelve zodiac signs.

And that’s not the point.

The most important figure at this moment is the one standing at the center of the three twelve constellations, surrounded by stars, with starlight flowing on his mask.

That is the 'Star Lord'.

"As expected, he came in person."

Marco thought to himself—although he had already guessed something from what Shenhou had told him before.

But seeing the Star Lord appear before him in person still made him feel solemn.

But he quickly calmed himself down and observed the Star Lord's movements seriously.

At this moment, a corpse was placed in front of the Star Lord.

That was the body of the balloon vendor 'Assoria', which Marco had brought not long ago.

At that moment, the Star Lord slowly reached out his hand towards the already stiff corpse.

Then, Marco saw an incredible sight.

Then, the Star Lord's hand touched Assorilia.

The latter's body then began to relax from its stiff state at a visible rate.

His previously pale skin regained its rosy hue.

"Resurrected!?"

Marco was almost stunned.

But he soon discovered—it was not a resurrection.

Because Assoria's body appeared to have come back to life.

However, he still showed no signs of life.

He was simply reverted to his 'just-dead state'.

Immediately following, the Star Lord raised his hand and grabbed again.

"Buzz!"

An invisible chill began to permeate the air.

"Click!" "Click!" "Click!"

The area around the Star Lord's body even began to freeze rapidly.

That was not ordinary frost, but...
A chilling aura emanating from the underworld, cold enough to freeze the soul.

Holding the chilling aura emanating from the Yellow Springs, the Star Lord gently squeezed it.

"Buzz!"

Then he saw a phantom soul being pulled out from the other side of the underworld.

But the posture that soul possesses is clearly precisely that.
"Assoria!?"

Marco's eyes widened.

At this moment, he finally realized what Shenhou had meant when he told him.

For the Star Lord, even the realm of life and death can truly be crossed!?

"This power... Is this guy a 'god'?"

Marco's shock was beyond words.

But clearly, he didn't know that.

"It works!"

At this moment, Roy was also sighing in his heart.

[Netherworld Fruit LV5 - Additional Effect: This is the Netherworld: When you have a complete and recently deceased, freshly killed corpse, a fragment of a soul can briefly return from the Netherworld to the mortal world and exist in soul form for three minutes. There is a one-month interval between each use.]

[The maximum duration of existence is fifteen minutes. The stronger the soul, the more complete its consciousness will be after the summoning and return, and it can be integrated into the body for combat.]

The souls that are brought back will lose their Devil Fruit abilities from their previous lives.

The special effects of the Underworld Fruit do indeed possess the power to transcend life and death.

Of course, the limitations were also obvious—the body of the deceased must be intact and recently deceased.

But
【Fresh Fruit LV5 - Can restore nearby rotten meat, water, vegetables, and animal corpses to their freshest state】

The 'Fresh Fruit' can restore the corpses of any living being to their freshest state—which directly allows Roy to break free from this restriction.

After this experiment, Roy was able to confirm it.

"That new clone can be completed."

"And thanks to this operation, I even obtained additional 'materials'."

He secretly thought.

But at the same time, his actions did not stop.

After bringing Assoria's soul back from the other side of the underworld, he raised his hand and stuffed the soul back into the corpse.

then
The next moment, Assoria suddenly opened his eyes.

He seems to have 'resurrected'.

But
“￥%￥%”

At this moment, he kept uttering incomprehensible babbling, and his body began to convulse.

Seeing this, Roy was not surprised.

The stronger the soul brought back from the underworld, the clearer its consciousness, the longer it can stay in the mortal world, and it can even engage in combat.

Without a doubt, Assoria was not a particularly powerful individual—even without engaging in combat or expending energy, he could only remain in the mortal realm for a few minutes at most, and his consciousness would be completely unclear.

But for the Star Lord, that was enough.

because
"Buzz!"

He raised his hand again, and an invisible force pressed down on Assoria, who was struggling.

He gently patted the latter's head.

He extracted images of things from Assoria's mind, one by one, like film reels.

After doing all this, the Star Lord looked at Marco.

"Come and see."

"This is the memory you want to know."

".memory?"

Meanwhile, Marco was completely dumbfounded.

He only became solemn after realizing what the Star Lord was saying.

That's right.

Bringing the soul back from the underworld, stuffing it back into the body to temporarily 'revive' the other person, and then extracting their memories—this streamlined process is clearly the trump card that Shenhou promised Marco to use to find the truth about Teach.

For Marco, however, this power was clearly beyond comprehension.

But he did not hesitate and immediately walked up to the Star Lord.

He looked at the film in the Star Lord's hand.

then
"Buzz!"

As the film reel magnified in his field of vision.

Marco was then drawn into a memory.

He felt as if he had become Assori—a supernova who had recently entered the new world.

He was ambitious, yet cautious, navigating a perilous new world.

After entering the New World, he defeated several pirates and even stole a precious Devil Fruit—everything went smoothly, and he seemed to be getting closer to his dream of becoming the 'Pirate King'.

It was on that day that Assuria, who was holding the Devil Fruit and considering whether to sell it, met someone.

He was a fat man.

He was missing several teeth, had a rugged appearance, and looked sloppy and casual.

Assoria recognized the pirate flag on the other ship; it was the flag of the 'Whitebeard Pirates'.

Therefore, he originally intended to avoid his opponent—he had considered challenging the Four Emperors, but it was too early now.

But what he didn't expect was...
Upon seeing the fruit in his hand, the fat man excitedly steered the boat closer.

"Hahaha! I never expected that—going out to buy supplies for my father would lead to something like this. This fruit actually ended up in the hands of a newbie like you?"

He laughed.

"With it, the Dark Fruit will be unnecessary, and I can obtain the 'supreme power' that my father spoke of."

"It's fate, give it to me!"

With these words, the two sides began to fight.

"."

Marco was stunned as the memories continued to this point. Because the memories he was seeing now were different from what the Whitebeard Pirates knew.

As far as they knew, Teach was attacked by Assoria while out purchasing supplies and was ultimately killed.

But now it seems that the truth is quite the opposite.

It was Teach who attacked Assorilia.

"and then?"

So, the question arose in Marco's mind—and then what happened?
And soon, he saw the answer.

During the battle, his once very familiar partner, named Teach, displayed a power far beyond Marco's comprehension.

In his memory, although Teach was a very senior member of the Whitebeard Pirates, his strength was only average.

He did not consume the fruit, so neither his domineering aura nor his strength was outstanding.

"Hahaha! Captain Marco, isn't this you, Dad, and the other captains?"

"I just need to stay by your side and help out. After all, I don't have that much ambition."

He always said that, and he seemed honest and simple.

But now, in Assoria's memory...

The power that Teach displayed was unbelievably strong.

even
"Zi!"

During the battle, Marco also saw black and red lightning flashing around Teach's body.

That's 'Conqueror's Haki', and it's extremely powerful.

And as it should be.

Assoria suffered a crushing defeat when Teach unleashed his true power.

"Thief hahahaha!"

In his memory, the image of Teach laughing wildly as he ate that fruit was crystal clear.

But it was precisely after this scene that...

"Ok?"

Marco then noticed that the image he was seeing suddenly began to blur.

Assoria's memories became fragmented.

Marco could only see the massive explosion in those fragmented memories.

He saw the 'supply transport ship' belonging to Whitebeard and Assolia's own pirate ship, along with all the crew members on both ships, dead.

Immediately following this is the scene where Assoria uses his abilities to escape to Dressrosa, and then he is attacked by him.

So far
"Buzz!"

Memories fade.

Marco stood there, stunned for a long time, before looking at the Star Lord: "Star Lord, what happened in the end?"

He asked this question.

"His memories were distorted by some force."

The Star Lord did not hide anything: "It was that person named Teach."

As he said this, Roy's expression beneath the Star Lord's mask was actually one of great surprise.

He can naturally judge the situation.

From the moment Teach ate that fruit, Assoria's memories began to become distorted and blurred.

This state is clearly abnormal and is most likely related to the fruit that Teach ate.

Loy was unable to determine exactly what had happened.

However, he was certain of at least one thing.

"Teach did not eat the Dark-Dark Fruit, but ate another fruit instead."

This was the most unexpected thing he could remember.

As far as he knew, Teach had been infiltrating the Whitebeard Pirates for so many years for the sake of the Dark-Dark Fruit, a special fruit.

To be even more precise.

Roy believes that the Dark-Dark Fruit may be as special as the 'Nika Fruit' in some ways—it may also be able to break free from the 'boundaries of the world'.

The basis for this guess is very simple.

In the original story, Teach possessed two Devil Fruit abilities simultaneously through the Dark-Dark Fruit, and it even seems that he could gain a third ability.

This is a unique situation in the original work.

From Roy's current perspective, this incident itself is evidence of breaking free from 'shackles'.

Therefore, he can draw a conclusion from this.

"The reason why Teach pursued the Dark-Dark Fruit in the original work was because he also wanted to break free from the constraints of the world. After all, he inherited Rocks' ambition to become the King of the World."

"Breaking free from constraints is a necessary part of this ambition, an indispensable first step—otherwise, even someone as strong as Rocks would only face defeat when facing Im."

"If he can't even complete this most basic first step, he'd rather stay in the Whitebeard Pirates for the rest of his life."

This can reasonably explain Teach's behavior patterns in the original work.

but now
The Dark-Dark Fruit is not Teach's only goal—he seems to be open to another fruit besides the Dark-Dark Fruit.

This is very strange.

"Given his unchanged ambition, could the fruit he obtained be as special as the Dark-Dark Fruit, granting him a way to break free from Im's shackles?"

Roy found it hard to believe—the Nika Fruit and the Dark-Dark Fruit are such rare fruits.

Besides that, there was another key point in Teach's words.

That is.
He mentioned Lox.

Clearly, the 'father' Teach was referring to was not Whitebeard, but rather his biological father, 'Rocks'.

"The supreme power that Lox mentioned to him?"

Roy frowned.

When did you mention it to him?

"Was it before or after the God Valley Incident?"

But it was precisely during this time that Roy was pondering countless thoughts.

Marco, on the other side, also had a furrowed brow.

"boom!"

At the same time, after Assoria's memories were extracted, he collapsed to the ground again.

His body stiffened again, and he experienced the process of death once more.

His soul then drifted out of his body and returned to the other side of the underworld.

Of course, this time no one will disturb his peace.

Assoria's second death interrupted Marco and the Star Lord's thoughts.

then
“I remember you mentioned before—that guy named Teach, his Vivre Card.”

Shenhou looked at Marco and asked this question.

"Yes, his life card has completely disappeared."

Marco nodded.

This is precisely what he cannot understand.

Marco could see Teach's ambition from his hidden power—just thinking about the purpose and danger of such a powerful figure hiding in the Whitebeard Pirates for so many years sent chills down his spine.

Therefore, he could naturally realize that Teach was not harmed by someone else.

On the contrary, he actively chose to bring about the current situation.

But therein lies the problem.

Teach's Vivre Card truly vanished—it was made by Marco himself, and there was absolutely no way it could have been faked.

Therefore, this means that his body has indeed died.

What exactly were Teach's plans and ambitions that led the situation to this point?
"."

Marco's expression kept changing, and then...
"I have to leave."

He looked at the star lord in front of him: "I need to report this matter to Father."

He made a judgment.

This is also the consistent behavior pattern of the Whitebeard Pirates members.

Encountering a problem you can't solve?

Then let Dad handle it!

but
"About Dad's invitation."

Although Marco was still puzzled by Teach's situation, he naturally did not forget his father's invitation to the Star Lord.

"Yes, Shenhou has already relayed it to me."

Upon hearing this, the Star Lord nodded and calmly said, "However, I have some matters to attend to recently—I will visit 'Whitebeard' in a while."

Marco had no objections after hearing the Star Lord's answer.

After all, he knew that after reporting Teach's situation, the Whitebeard Pirates would definitely not have a peaceful period of time.

so.
"In that case."

Marco opened his arms.

With wings ablaze by an inextinguishable flame, he soared into the sky.

"The Whitebeard Pirates await your arrival!"

(End of this chapter)