Ending the Matter! Whitebeard vs. The Blackbeard Pirates!

Teach climbs out from the rubble of Marineford alongside his pirates and a band of escapees who had been confined at Impel Down's Level 6. Whitebeard steps forward to hold him to account for slaying Thatch and for the part he played in bringing about Ace's death. Across the wrecked plaza the two trade heavy blows. Although the Yami Yami no Mi lets Teach shut down Devil Fruit powers, the old captain still catches him with a brutal swing of his bisento, forces him to the ground, and locks a hand around his throat.

The grip is not enough to finish him. Recovering, Teach's followers close in around the weakened Emperor and pour gunfire and steel into a frame the war has already broken, while his own children look on in heartbreak at the treachery.

As the end nears, Whitebeard's thoughts drift to his last conversation with Gol D. Roger. In it he came to understand the meaning carried by the middle initial D, and Roger even revealed the path to Laugh Tale, a place the old captain swore he would never sail toward. He tells Teach outright that the man Roger awaits is not him. He promises that Ace's resolve will be picked up by others and that the flame handed down will never be snuffed out.

Facing Sengoku and the World Government, Whitebeard says they live in fear of the day a war ignites and engulfs everything. He declares the fate of the world is none of his concern, yet he swears that whoever lays claim to Roger's treasure will flip the whole world over, and that such a finder is certain to come. Grinning at a frightened Sengoku, he draws one final breath and bellows that the One Piece exists. The Visual Den Den Mushi relays the cry directly to the gathered crowd at the Sabaody Archipelago, and Sengoku, knowing the weight of those words, curses him.

Surrendering to his wounds, the captain thanks his sons and tells them how glad he was to have sailed alongside them for so long, then he is gone. The Whitebeard Pirates break down weeping. Marines on the field stare in shock, because Edward Newgate has died upright, his corpse refusing to topple. He had taken 267 sword cuts, 152 bullets, and 46 cannon blasts, yet when his coat slips free it shows that no wound at all scars his back, for never in his life did he turn and run.

The installment opens with no narration, probably to leave more room for the captain's final fight. The animated clash between the two leaders is lengthened, with Teach landing strikes on the torso and chin and Whitebeard throwing several more quake punches that do nothing before he turns to his bisento. The bisento cut is rendered far less graphically than in the manga, and afterward Whitebeard is unable to move. His body flushes red with rising smoke, an echo of Luffy's Gear Second, to signal his fury. His speech is extended, Teach reacts aloud to his last words, and Jinbe glances back for a moment as he dies. Where the manga leaves swords driven through him front to back, the anime puts no blades in his body and keeps his back clean. The opening sequence now includes the full Blackbeard Pirates instead of only the originals and Shiryu, and a recap of his wounds and the damage he dealt to fighters like Akainu is added.