Duel on Banaro Island

The Duel on Banaro Island was the engagement between Marshall D. Teach and Portgas D. Ace that initiated the Battle of Marineford.

History
More than 22 years ago, Marshall D. Teach read in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia about the Yami Yami no Mi and started searching for it. He believed that by joining the Whitebeard Pirates he had a better chance of finding it. He joined the 2nd division, and Portgas D. Ace became his division commander less than 5 years ago. More than 2 years ago, the 4th division commander Thatch found the devil fruit. The ship's rule was that anybody that finds a devil fruit has the right to eat it. For that matter, Teach killed his crewmate, stole the devil fruit and fled. Teach violated one of the ship's rules: to not kill a comrade, so the 2nd division commander, Ace took responsibility for Teach's actions and started to search for his former comrade.

The Duel
The Blackbeard Pirates invaded the small Banaro Island. Ace, finally found Blackbeard. As Ace sat on the building, Blackbeard greeted him as his former commander, but Ace deemed that an insult because of the former's actions. Despite this, Blackbeard asked if Ace would join his crew so they could capture Straw Hat Luffy. Ace refused, stating that Luffy is his little brother, much to the formers surprise, and he will not allow Teach to hurt or kill him. Van Augur shot at Ace with his gun, but the bullets go through Ace, who countered with his Higan (Fire Gun). Jesus Burgess lifted a building and attempted to smash Ace with it, only for him to use his Mera Mera no Mi ability to destroy the building with his Hibashira (Fire Pillar). Whilst Blackbeard angrily tells his crew to stand down as they are no match for that man, the all get hit by Ace's Hiken (Fire Fist). When Blackbeard stood up, he ordered his crew to leave the town while he took care of Ace. Blackbeard explained why he killed Thatch and unleashed a dark shroud exclaiming "Ace, you are fire... I am darkness!!"

Blackbeard proceeded to use his Yami Yami no Mi powers to swallow the town, intentionally missing Ace, then expelling it later with the dark aura around him swirling and violently releasing the remains of the town as a demonstration of his power. However, Ace is apparently unimpressed, and uses his Hotarubi: Hirudama (Firefly Fire: Body in Flames) technique with his Mera Mera no Mi powers, and was mildly surprised that the attack could not just pass through him as he is a Logia Devil Fruit user. After the initial shock of the attack, Blackbeard consumed the flames with his dark aura, stood up and explained that his power makes him absorb everything, including knives, punches, flames, lightning etc. In fact, he perhaps takes even more damage than a normal human. But in exchange for that, he used his Kurozu (Dark Vortex) technique to grab Ace's body and activate the Yami Yami no Mi's most devastating feature: the power to nullify any Devil Fruit's powers upon touch. After Ace realized he could not use his Logia fruit powers, Blackbeard delivered a powerful punch to his stomach, smashing him onto the remains of the town. Blood came spilling out of Ace's mouth, realizing he felt pain for the first time in a long while.

Blackbeard gloats that after exposing the "weakness" of all the so-called overconfident Devil Fruit users, he cannot be defeated, because his ability is truly the power of the "Devil". However, Ace pointed out that it only works if Blackbeard touches him, to which Blackbeard counters by saying he has already proved that Ace cannot escape him, and used his Kurozu technique to attempt to draw him in and grab him again, but Ace fought otherwise, and countered by throwing his Shinka: Shiranui (Sacred Fire: Mysterious Light at Sea) technique in the form of two fire lances into Blackbeard's chest, forcing him to punch Ace on his neck. Ace was again thrown into the town's remains as Blackbeard attempted to consume the flames with his powers. Ace realized that if he took a hit like that again, Blackbeard would break his neck, and immediately retaliated from a distance with his Juujika (Cross-Fire) technique, as Blackbeard after successfully consuming the flames from the previous attack, took it head on.

As the battle rages on, the Banaro Rocks collapsed due to the amount of power both combatants are using. Both Ace and Blackbeard were exhausted, but it seems that Ace was truly worn out. Blackbeard gives him one last chance to join his crew, but stubborn and determined to the end, Ace refuses. Blackbeard, impressed by his strength, expresses his mild disappointment and said the world could have been theirs for the taking, before unleashing a massive dark shroud. Ace at the same time unleashed his own ultimate technique: Dai Enkai: Entei (Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor). Both prepared to fight to the death, "The Sun" and "The Night" clashed, forming a massive explosion of energy that almost consumed all of Banaro Island.

Aftermath
As a result of defeating the infamous Portgas D. Ace, Marshall D. Teach was granted the title of Shichibukai. The Marines scheduled Ace's execution, so Ace was taken to Impel Down prior.

Edward Newgate, Ace's captain, was famous for his love for his comrades, and thus he prepared to go to war in order to save his "son". Whitebeard rounded up 43 pirate crews from the New World. Sengoku predicted the pirate's actions, so he called all of the most powerful marine forces at Marineford and the Shichibukai. Boa Hancock was threatened with the revoke of her title and Jinbe was imprisoned in Impel Down for refusing to fight in the upcoming war.

Hancock eventually agreed to join the war, in order to sneak Monkey D. Luffy in Impel Down. The infiltration was successful, but Luffy was eventually defeated by Magellan, poisoned by his powers and sent to Level 5. Luffy was saved by Emporio Ivankov's tension hormones, but by the time he recovered Ace was already taken to Marineford. He rounded up allies, and made the biggest escape in the history of Impel Down, escaping along with 271 other prisoners, and the only escape since Shiki's 20 years prior.

Meanwhile, Marshall D. Teach, abused his Shichibukai title to get into Impel Down. He used the ruckus created by Luffy's escape to get to Level 6, defeated Magellan and recruited the most evil criminals ever caught.

During the war of the best, Blackbeard reappeared along with his new comrades from Impel Down, killed Whitebeard who was close to death already, and stole his devil fruit power through unknown means to become the first person ever known to hold 2 devil fruit powers. Later Blackbeard used his intelligence of his former captain's territories to ascend to the title of Yonko. One year after the battle of Marineford, the Blackbeard Pirates fought again against the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates led by the former first division commander Marco, in the Payback War, that ended in a crushing defeat for Marco and his allies. It was after this incident, that Blackbeard started to be known as an Emperor and claimed the former Yonko's territory.

Upon Edward Newgate's death, his era ended. The 2 legendary marines, Sengoku and Monkey D. Garp left the marines, considering that their era ended together with Whitebeard's death. With Ace's death, his adoptive brother Luffy realized that he was too weak for the New World, so he decided to train for 2 years. The Straw Hat Pirates then returned 2 years later and went into the New World.

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