Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 2: The situation doesn't seem so bad after all?

Bane didn't know whether this was a portal or not, since he had never seen one with his own eyes.

For now, let's call it the Gate of Transcendence.

As the portal opened, it seemed as if time and space around it were slowly frozen until the portal was fully formed.

At this moment, Bane could feel that his physical strength could not support the door for much longer, and he instinctively sensed that he could close the door at any time!

This doesn't seem to be the kind of interdimensional portal described in the newspapers. In the past two weeks, Bane has inquired about a lot of information about interdimensional portals. As far as he knows, interdimensional portals vary in size. Some large interdimensional portals are towering into the clouds and can be clearly seen from hundreds of miles away.

There are also passageways that are the same size as normal room doors, and they are not very noticeable.

However, without exception, these interdimensional portals were uncontrollable when they first appeared. They could not be closed casually, and there was no record of them absorbing anyone's physical strength to open.

"Could it be that my transmigration situation has changed? Is the legendary benefit about to arrive!?" Bane thought excitedly.

At the same time, the originally colorful halo dispersed, and Bane was gradually able to see the situation outside the door more clearly.

The spacetime over there seems to be still not fully formed, as if it is still frozen.

Taking advantage of this first-mover advantage, Bane peeked inside and, well, you know what, he made an unexpected discovery!

The scene outside the door looked like a murder scene. A man dressed like a cook, with blood on his back, as if he had been stabbed in the back, lay on the wooden floor of the dimly lit room. The murderer had not yet left, and from this angle, the murderer was facing away from Bane.

Judging from his back view, the killer was stout and had a black headscarf wrapped around his head. His messy, wavy long hair peeked out from under the headscarf and draped over his shoulders, with many ends tangled. This suggests that he was usually quite unruly and unkempt.

At this moment, the murderer seemed to have just succeeded and was in high spirits. He held a blood-stained dagger in one hand, which looked like the murder weapon, while in the other hand he held up a strangely shaped fruit, which was probably the murderer's target.

When Bane first saw the scene, he felt it looked very familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

It wasn't until he clearly saw the strange fruit that the murderer was holding up almost to his face that he suddenly realized what was happening.

"Isn't this a Devil Fruit?" Bane exclaimed.

There's no way around it, the images of Devil Fruits are just too distinctive. Bane used to be a guy who liked reading these comics and watching anime.

He already felt the scene looked familiar, and now, looking at the Devil Fruit, he immediately realized what was going on.

The portal opened up the world of pirates, and at this very moment, it should be Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach's last night working for the Whitebeard Pirates!

That was the night he murdered Thatch, the fourth division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, and stole the legendary Dark-Dark Fruit, the most vicious Devil Fruit in history!

Just as Bane realized what was going on, the space-time here seemed to return to normal in an instant.

"Hahaha, Sachi, blame your own fate! I absolutely have this Dark-Dark Fruit!" Teach laughed wildly, holding the Dark-Dark Fruit.

He seemed to be venting all the ambition and desires he had hidden over the years, showing off his achievements to a corpse.

But before he could finish speaking, he suddenly seemed to sense something was wrong, as if someone was watching him from behind!

Bane, being a decisive man, didn't wait for Teach to finish speaking before he snatched the Dark-Dark Fruit that was being held right in front of Teach's face!

Without daring to utter a single unnecessary word, Bane silently chanted "close the door" the moment he seized the fruit. Bane was well aware that although Teach only became arrogant after obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit, his strength was still formidable even without it.

After all, this guy was the kind of man who could leave an indelible scar on Shanks' face even when Shanks went all out.

The reason he wasn't well-known in the Whitebeard Pirates was because he deliberately kept a low profile, not because he was bad!

His actions were tantamount to defecating on Teach's head. Given Teach's emphasis on the Dark-Dark Fruit, this act of snatching it would immediately turn them into mortal enemies. With his strength—enough to get his head smashed in a street fight—he probably wouldn't be able to defeat Teach with one hand. Running away was the most important thing.

Therefore, the moment Teach turned his head, he saw Bane closing a door that had inexplicably appeared!

"Damn it, give me the Dark-Dark Fruit!" Teach roared furiously, a powerful aura erupting from his body.

He reached out to grab the bastard who had appeared out of nowhere inside the door, but in the next instant, the door vanished, along with his Dark Fruit!

In that instant, Teach's face turned green!

He waited so many years in the Whitebeard Pirates, just for a chance to get the Dark-Dark Fruit, just to prove himself. But he killed Thatch and had the fruit in his hands, only to have it snatched away by some bastard who appeared out of nowhere at the last minute. You can imagine how frustrated he must feel right now!

Without a second thought, Teach unleashed his powerful Observation Haki, enveloping the entire ship and the surrounding sea.

At the same time, his outburst of anger and momentum during his loss of control had alerted the others on the ship, who also noticed something amiss.

"Teach!?" A handsome young man quickly pushed open the cabin door and rushed in, asking anxiously, "What happened!?"

If Bane were still here, he would immediately recognize that this handsome young man is none other than Portgas D. Ace, the second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, the son of the Pirate King Roger, the spark that ignited the Marineford War, and the eldest son of the strongest man in the world today!

Ace rushed in and asked a question, but before Teach could reply, he saw Sachi lying in a pool of blood.

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

"Sachi!?" Ace exclaimed in surprise and anger, and knelt down next to Sachi to check the situation.

At the same time, Teach quickly regained his senses. His Observation Haki had failed to find the bastard who had stolen his victory, and the situation needed to be dealt with!

"I just finished drinking with Sachi, and he was about to see me out when suddenly someone opened a strange door in this cabin. It must have been someone with some kind of ability. That guy snatched the dagger from my waist and stabbed Sachi in the back, and also stole Sachi's Devil Fruit!" Teach recounted the situation through gritted teeth and with an angry expression.

After confirming that Sachi had stopped breathing, Ace's expression was one of extreme anger, his eyes filled with pain, but he did not doubt Teach.

After all, he still had a deep trust in the Whitebeard Pirates' crewmates, and Teach's furious expression just now clearly didn't seem like an act. Moreover, in his view, Teach had absolutely no reason to kill Thatch!

In addition, Ace was not a meticulous person to begin with, so he believed Teach on the spot as soon as he opened his mouth!

"Did you see what he looks like? How dare he touch someone from our Whitebeard Pirates? Even if he escapes to the ends of the earth, I will find him and kill him to avenge Thatch!" Ace asked, his expression a mixture of grief and anger.

Teach nodded, suppressing his anger as well, and said, "I've seen it clearly. I'll have an artist paint his portrait later. I'm going to find this bastard and tear him to pieces!!!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the portal, Bane stood in the dimly lit stairwell, looking at the Dark-Dark Fruit he had snatched from Teach. He stroked his chin and muttered to himself, "After leaving that world, does this Devil Fruit still possess its original abilities?"

But considering that many strange and unusual forces that don't belong to this world have already shone brightly here after passing through the interdimensional gate, then this Dark Fruit should still be effective, right?

Regardless, Bane felt a smile on his face as he sensed the interdimensional portal within his body, which seemed ready to reopen at any moment provided he had enough strength. He thought to himself, "The situation doesn't seem so bad after all?"

(End of this chapter)