The Most Heinous Power! Blackbeard's Darkness Attacks Ace!

As the wider world buzzes about the Straw Hats' fresh bounties, Blackbeard pores over an account of their deeds at Enies Lobby and predicts those rewards will climb. His crew muses about crossing paths with them once more, and Blackbeard sets his sights on reaching the rookie pirates ahead of the Navy. As his men move through a wrecked town on Banaro Island, they pass Ace crouched on a rooftop, who calls out to Teach and says the two of them need to talk. The narration confirms history-shaping events are unfolding here, three days before the Straw Hats' bounties reach the wider world.

Blackbeard urges Ace to join him instead of fighting, bragging of a flawless route to the title of Pirate King and revealing his plan to make for Water 7, kill Luffy, and hand the corpse to the World Government as a prize. Ace refuses to let his younger brother be slain. When Van Augur's bullet passes harmlessly through Ace's Logia flame body, Ace strikes back and lands Fire Fist squarely on Blackbeard, wreathing him in flame. Recovering, Blackbeard confesses to murdering Thatch, the fourth division commander, to claim the Yami Yami no Mi. That fruit had been his quarry for decades, the reason he kept a low profile aboard Whitebeard's ship. He then unveils its power, raising a black pillar and declaring that his body is made of darkness just as Ace's is made of fire.

Blackbeard's Black Hole engulfs and crushes the whole town before Liberation flings the wreckage back out. Ace's flames still burn him, and Blackbeard explains that his darkness draws in everything, pain included, so unlike other Logia users he cannot turn intangible to slip a blow, paying for his power with far worse suffering. With Black Vortex he hauls Ace in by gravity and grips him, showing that contact lets him cancel a Devil Fruit user's powers and hit them outright. The two trade devastating blows until both stand spent. Turning down a final offer, Ace conjures the Flame Emperor while Blackbeard raises one last pillar of darkness, and the attacks collide in a blinding flash. The result goes unseen save for Ace's fallen hat, as the narrator promises the clash will trigger a chain of events that reshapes the world. Debuting here are Thatch, Banaro Island, and the Yami Yami no Mi itself. This entry also wraps up two storylines at once: the Post-Enies Lobby Arc as well as the larger Water 7 Saga.