The Whitebeard he remember was bald and wore a bandana to hide his head, with only his magnificent mustache still shaped like a crescent moon. He also knew that when he was young, he had a long, golden hair and an incredibly imposing aura. He'd seen his profile and his current appearance in Marine Headquarters, but this was the first time he had actually seen him in person.
Whitebeard, Edward Newgate. He was a colossal man, more than twice Diarmuid's height, probably six to seven meters tall. His golden hair cascaded down his back like a waterfall. He wore a white captain's hat with the Whitebeard Pirates' symbol on it.
His outfit was audacious: he was bare-chested under his captain's coat. His pants were simple black trousers, tucked into black boots at the calves. Just standing there, he exuded a powerful presence.
The smile on his face, if one had to describe it, wasn't arrogant, haughty, or mocking. It was simply confident. An extreme confidence, but without that feeling of pathetic arrogance. On the contrary, it was a confidence that anyone, even a rival, would have to acknowledge. An unstoppable, invincible confidence! The smile of the World's Strongest Man.
"Young?" Newgate chuckled at Diarmuid's response, planting his Murakumogiri in the ground. He stroked his square jaw with his other hand. "Based on age, I could be your father. Are you sure you'd call that young?"
"You're in your early fifties. Isn't that considered your prime? You're at the peak of your power, so isn't that young?" Diarmuid said softly, his hand resting on the hilt of his Kokorowatari.
"Gurararararara! If you put it that way, then yes, I am young!" Newgate laughed loudly. Without waiting for Diarmuid to reply, he continued, "Speaking of which, my son really owes you Marines a lot for taking care of him this time..."
As he spoke, Newgate patted the top of Marco's pineapple-like hairstyle. Marco was helpless, but he knew it was his own fault for getting caught by Bullet, so he just grimaced and didn't speak.
Diarmuid waved his hand. "No need to thank me. We didn't even know your son was here. Besides, if you hadn't shown up today, he probably would've ended up in Impel Down."
At Diarmuid's words, Newgate's expression didn't change at all; he kept smiling. But his sons standing around him all looked enraged, as if they found Diarmuid's attitude insufferable. However, since their pops hadn't said anything, they didn't either.
"Perhaps." Newgate gestured for his sons to calm down, then looked at Diarmuid. "You must know the rules of the Whitebeard Pirates?"
"I've heard about them. It's something like... 'On this sea, everyone knows that the Whitebeard Pirates are the only ones who can bully others. No one is allowed to bully them!' Right?" Diarmuid said with a smile.
At this, the look of anger returned to Jozu's face and the others who had just been calmed down by Newgate. Diarmuid's words were clearly mocking them.
Newgate was stunned for a moment, then he burst out laughing.
"Gurararararara! You're a lot more interesting than that stiff-necked Sengoku! 'We're the only ones who can bully others, no one can bully us'? Gurarararara! That's an interesting way to put it, but you're right!" Newgate laughed loudly. After a moment, he looked at Diarmuid and said in a deep voice, "I am an overbearing man! What of it?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a powerful, domineering aura erupted from Newgate, pressing down on Diarmuid. The "Justice" coat on Diarmuid's back fluttered wildly. He narrowed his eyes slightly, but he didn't give in to the pressure.
"It's only logical. As the World's Strongest Man, you have the right to be overbearing!" Diarmuid said calmly.
The absolute rule of the Whitebeard Pirates was that no one was allowed to harm a crewmate.
That was truly domineering. They were pirates! It was as if they were saying that if they wanted to steal from someone, that person should just kneel and let it happen. If you resisted, you were "harming their crewmate," and they would come after you.
This style was no different from a common street gang. At the same time, the Whitebeard Pirates were completely shameless. They had a mentality where if you hit one of them, they would send the strongest one. And if you hit the strongest one, the whole family would come for you.
From this perspective, the Whitebeard Pirates were truly a gang of shameless bullies. But it was precisely because of their "bully" style that the crew had such strong cohesion, which in turn contributed to their immense combat power.
This cohesion was centered around the aura of Newgate, the "World's Strongest Man." Thus, this pirate crew could only be described as terrifying.
And because of their bullying nature and immense strength, they were able to dominate everything in the New World. The Whitebeard Pirates were undoubtedly the strongest pirate crew in the world at that moment.
Of course, this overbearing style and cohesion were also the Whitebeard Pirates' greatest weakness. It was just that at this stage, neither Whitebeard nor Jozu, Marco, and the others had realized this problem.
The cohesion that centered on Newgate meant that once he died, and if there wasn't a strong leader to take his place, the entire Whitebeard Pirates would rapidly decline.
The proof would be the Summit War twenty years later. After Newgate fell at Marineford, the Whitebeard Pirates went from being a top-tier crew to a second-rate one. After Newgate's death, though the crew still had many strong members, none of them could shoulder the responsibility of the entire crew like he could...
"Gurarararara, do I have the right to be overbearing?" Newgate's aura receded, and he started laughing again.
Diarmuid wondered if this guy just loved to laugh. He'd been laughing since they met. Wasn't he tired?
"Well, since you admit I have the right to be overbearing, I won't give you any trouble. For Sengoku's sake, hand over Douglas Bullet. Then we can go our separate ways," Newgate said softly, looking at Diarmuid.
Diarmuid sighed inwardly. 'Just as I thought.'
He had been wondering why Newgate's crew didn't leave after picking up Marco. Why were they still provoking the Marines? Was it because the World's Strongest Man was here and he wanted to teach the Marines a harsh lesson?
He figured it couldn't be such a shallow reason. In recent years, while the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates often clashed in the New World, Newgate and Sengoku had never actually fought. Both sides seemed to have an unspoken agreement to keep the conflicts at a certain level.
Diarmuid knew for a fact that if Newgate were to eliminate him, Sakazuki, Gion, and other Marine elites here, Admiral Sengoku and Fleet Admiral Kong would go berserk, mobilizing all of the Marine's elite forces to crush the Whitebeard Pirates in the first half of the Grand Line.
There was no doubt about that.
At present, the only pirate crew capable of standing up to the Marines was the Whitebeard Pirates. Because of this, both sides were restraining themselves. Newgate wouldn't be so insane.
So why was he doing this? Was he just trying to provoke the Marines?
Now, the answer was clear: he wanted the Marines to hand over the mastermind behind this, Douglas Bullet. Of course, Newgate wasn't saying this to protect Bullet. On the contrary, he wanted to kill Bullet with his own hands.
"'Go our separate ways...' " Diarmuid murmured softly, then shrugged helplessly. "Honestly, if you had come to me about this in secret, I would have agreed."
Newgate's brow furrowed slightly, seemingly not understanding what Diarmuid meant. But before he could speak, Diarmuid's aura suddenly surged, and in a matter of moments, it enveloped the pirates like a ferocious tiger.
"Whitebeard, let me ask you. You've been rampaging across the seas for decades. When have you ever seen a Marine Admiral Candidate compromise with a pirate? We Marines will never compromise with you pirates!" Diarmuid said sternly, coating his arms in Armament Haki.
Newgate was stunned, and then he understood Diarmuid's meaning.
If he had made some subtle hints or tried to negotiate behind the scenes, Diarmuid might have gone along with it, sold out Bullet to keep the peace, and gone home. But by saying it so openly, Newgate had left Diarmuid with no way out. Because what Diarmuid said was true.
How could a Marine Admiral Candidate compromise with a pirate? If Diarmuid were to back down here, all the respect and reputation he had built up in the Marines would be for nothing.
"Gurararararara..." Newgate laughed loudly, then spun his Murakumogiri, pointing the tip of the blade at Diarmuid. "I underestimated you. You're right. I've never seen a Marine Admiral Candidate compromise with a pirate!"
He paused, and a transparent sphere of energy formed on the tip of his Murakumogiri. Then Newgate spoke, "In that case, I'll just capture you, the Admiral Candidate, and then I'll go negotiate with Sengoku and Kong. We'll see if they compromise with me then!"
With that, Newgate swung his Murakumogiri at Diarmuid. The two were dozens of meters apart, but it didn't matter. The powerful shockwave went straight for Diarmuid, and everything in its path was shaken into dust.
Diarmuid clenched his fists. The Armament Haki on his arms instantly turned into a flowing cloud, entering the second stage. At the same time, he drew his sword, Kokorowatari.
A powerful aura of Haki, a bodiless gust of wind, and an equally powerful gravitational force all gathered on the cursed blade.
Then, without dodging, Diarmuid met the World's Strongest Man's shockwave with a single slash.
"Moko!" Diarmuid roared.
The Haki, wind pressure, and gravity were instantly compressed by Diarmuid's force, colliding with Newgate's shockwave.
The ground quickly split apart like a chasm, separating Diarmuid from Newgate. Then, the four fractured pieces of St. Poplar began to shake again as if another earthquake had struck. The sea surrounding the island surged, creating massive waves that spread out in all directions!
The clash of the two forces seemed to be tearing the very ground apart, and space itself began to shatter!
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