One Piece confirms Laffitte's mission, and it's not what fans had been expecting

Laffitte appears to be one of Marshall D. Teach’s most loyal followers in One Piece. Known as “Demon Sheriff” for his past as a violent law enforcer, he plays a key role in the Blackbeard Pirates as the crew’s navigator and chief of staff. Despite his seemingly polite and affable demeanor, Laffitte is a ruthless, cruel pirate, which only adds to the depth to his enigmatic figure.

During the Egghead Arc, the Blackbeard Pirates split themselves into three subgroups. One attacked the Heart Pirates on Winner Island, while the second one remained on Hachinosu, and the third one went to Egghead. Laffitte was not seen with any of these groups, leading fans to speculate about his strange absence.

The “Demon Sheriff” is a master of stealth, suggesting he could be up to some special task. After keeping fans waiting for so long, One Piece author Eiichiro Oda finally revealed Laffitte’s current location and assignment. The revelation was reportedly made in the latest installment of the manga, One Piece chapter 1126, whose official release is scheduled on Monday, September 16, 2024 on Shueisha’s MANGA Plus website and app.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1126.

One Piece chapter 1126 confirms that Laffitte is up to something big on behalf of Blackbeard

The confirmed spoilers of One Piece chapter 1126

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In the previous One Piece chapters, Marshall D. Teach "Blackbeard," assisted by some of his officers, attacked the Heart Pirates, led by Trafalgar D. Water Law, one of the Worst Generation’s Eleven Supernovas. The ensuing battle resulted in the debacle of Law and the others due to their utter defeat.

In the meantime, other prominent members of the Blackbeard Pirates, including Shiryu and former Marine Admiral “Kuzan” Aokiji, have had their hands full on their own lair, the island of Hachinosu. Aiming to rescue his beloved subordinate Koby, who the Blackbeard Pirates had abducted, “Marine Hero” Monkey D. Garp raided the island.

This led to a tremendous conflict, which eventually ended with Garp single-handedly confronting Kuzan, Shiryu, and the others to cover the escape of Koby and the remaining Marine officers of SWORD. According to the leaks, One Piece chapter 1126 sees Blackbeard finally return to Hachinosu.

Laffitte as seen in the series after the timeskip (Image via Toei Animation)

After scolding his subordinates for the escape of Koby but also complimenting them on their capture of Garp, Teach contacts Laffitte, allowing One Piece fans to finally learn the whereabouts of the elusive “Demon Sheriff,” who is shown hiding somewhere in the headquarters of the oceanic shipping company “Umit Shipping” while watching some ships that were on fire.

Laffitte immediately answers Blackbeard’s call. As Blackbeard asks him what the Revolutionary Army is up to, Laffitte replies that they are sabotaging the food shipments to starve the Celestial Dragons of Mary Geoise. This is a reference to the Revolutionary Army’s strategy, which began during the recent Levely.

Marshall D. Teach "Blackbeard" (Image via Toei Animation)

After destroying Mary Geoise’s food reserves, the Revolutionaries are preventing any food shipment from reaching the Holy Land, which will soon become a major concern for the World Government. The previous installment of the One Piece manga, chapter 1125, has already highlighted how the food shortage is causing great distress to the Celestial Dragons.

Amused by the possibility of the haughty nobles dying of starvation, Laffitte starts laughing. Blackbeard laughs as well. However, he also tells Laffitte not to let the fun make him forget about certain “preparations” he is supposed to make. This marks the end of their conversation.

At the moment, Laffitte is keeping tabs on the Revolutionary Army

Laffitte and Shiryu (Image via Toei Animation)

One Piece chapter 1126 revealed that Laffitte’s mission is to observe the movements of the Revolutionary Army. However, the chapter didn’t disclose the preparations that Blackbeard mentioned as part of Laffitte’s assignment. It should be noted that there’s bad blood between the Revolutionary Army and the Blackbeard Pirates.

At the end of the Dressrosa Arc, the Blackbeard Pirates attacked the Revolutionary Army’s secret base, the island of Baltigo. Dragon and the others escaped, but the incident destroyed their base. Shortly after, the Navy and CP0 arrived. Teach, and the others clashed with CP0 before fleeing the scene.

Monkey D. Dragon and the Revolutionary Army have always been interested in managing the trafficking network to sabotage the World Government’s supply chains. Given both this and the bad relations between the Revolutionaries and the Blackbeard Pirates, it’s interesting to see what Teach’s interest in the matter is, as that would explain his future move.

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As the magnate who leads the homonymous shipping company, “Shipping King,” Umit plays a pivotal role in those traffics, to the point where he became known as one of the so-called “Emperors of the Underworld.” The Revolutionary Army is now sabotaging Umit’s headquarters, which would clearly be bad for his business.

It's possible that Teach sent Laffitte to offer Umit the help of the Blackbeard Pirates in stopping the activities of the Revolutionary Army. Of course, in exchange, Blackbeard will want something in return. As revealed in the previous One Piece chapters, Dr Vegapunk made use of Umit’s shipping services during the construction of Egghead.

Perhaps, Umit has copies of the blueprints of Egghead, and Blackbeard wants them to build his own version of the laboratory. It’s also entirely possible that he simply sent Laffitte to steal those copies and pin the blame for the theft on the Revolutionary Army.

Regardless of what Laffitte’s exact role will be, this character is absolutely intriguing, especially as he is still shrouded in mystery. He ate a still-unknown, presumably Zoan-type, Devil Fruit that allowed him to sprout wings on his back and fly. He can also hypnotize people, like Brook of the Straw Hat Pirates does.

Laffitte infiltrating Mary Geoise's meeting (Image via Shueisha)

Despite being a rookie pirate, Laffitte bypassed all the security defenses of Marineford and the Pangaea Castle, thus successfully infiltrating two of the most highly guarded places in the One Piece world. He remained undetected while sneaking into a room where Sengoku, the Navy’s Fleet Admiral, and living legend, “Hawk Eyes” Dracule Mihawk, the World’s Strongest Swordsman, and several other Warlords were present.

All of these individuals, especially Mihawk, should be proficient Observation Haki users, but they couldn’t notice Laffitte until he revealed himself. Granted, Observation Haki isn't a passive ability, as it requires a conscious effort to focus on what the user wants to sense. If the user isn’t actively focused, they won’t be able to perceive or predict anything, no matter how high their skill with the Color of Observation is.

Laffitte's character is just so intriguing (Image via Toei Animation)

This was shown multiple times in One Piece, with powerful Kenbushoku users unable to sense incoming threats simply because their Observation Haki wasn’t active at the time. For example, Kaido couldn’t notice the Red Scabbards when they were sneaking up on him, even though he was able to use an advanced form of Observation Haki, the Future Sight.

No one in the room was particularly focused when Laffitte sneaked in. Nevertheless, fans are understandably eager to learn more about Laffitte and his mysterious abilities. Named after the real-life 19th-century French pirate Jean Laffitte, the “Demon Sheriff” is the only Blackbeard Pirates member whose Devil Fruit name and powers have yet to be revealed.

He seems to be one of the people that Teach trusts the most, entrusting him with important tasks, such as delivering his Warlord joining request to the World Government, opening the Gates of Justice to enter Marineford, and now the mission at Umit’s headquarters.