“Hurry up and work! Otherwise, the next lash is going straight onto that lord of yours!”
The prison guard cracked his whip, showing not the slightest trace of friendliness or admiration, only intense disgust.
Smack!
The whip struck Kin’emon across the back. More than the pain itself, the verbal threat forced him to work even harder.
In another direction, a smile appeared on Kid’s face. By all rights, there was nothing for him to be happy about.
But hearing that the Straw Hat crew had been completely “eliminated” just like the Kid Pirates gave him a slight sense of equality.
“These naive idiots. They can still laugh even after getting thrown into prison, acting like they’re just here for work. I’d like to see how long they can keep smiling.”
While mocking others, Kid failed to realize that he was doing exactly the same thing.
As all manner of bizarre scenes played out inside the prison, Yamato was staring at the holographic battle map before her on Onigashima.
“Gen-gar!”
From the shadows, a Gengar wearing a reporter’s hat jumped out. While saluting Yamato, it also uploaded some information into the Beasts Pirates’ intelligence system.
Gengar, capable of moving through the shadow world, had already become the Beasts Pirates’ frontline war correspondent, responsible for scouting battles outside their territory.
“I see. The Marines deployed two Admirals over there…”
The holographic map shifted. In the waters of Totto Land, the war had just officially begun.
Not long ago, in the Totto Land waters, a massive fleet of warships was slowly advancing.
Over the past period, they had already occupied two islands on the outer edge of Totto Land. Although this was the territory of an Emperor of the Sea, the officers of the Big Mom Pirates were not as powerful as those of the Beasts Pirates, and their defensive capabilities in the outer waters were nowhere near as strong.
They were more than sufficient for dealing with pirates who had just entered the New World, but under normal circumstances, their main purpose was little more than providing early warning.
With the Marines mobilizing a massive force for a full-scale assault, they had no choice but to wait for reinforcements from Whole Cake Island.
“Reporting, Admiral Fujitora! Admiral Kizaru! The pirates in the outer waters have been defeated and driven back. At our current speed, we’ll soon enter the central region of Totto Land!”
Ten warships sailed at the very front as the vanguard, while Issho and Borsalino held the rear. According to the previous division of missions, attacking the Big Mom Pirates was their assignment.
“The early stages of the operation have gone quite smoothly. Have we captured any of Big Mom’s children?”
“No. They seem to have received some information in advance. The officers left outside were all Homies created by Big Mom’s ability. After being defeated, they turned into this…”
The Marine lifted a cage containing rabbits, mice, and various other strange animals. There was even a piece of cake inside.
They were also an important part of the Big Mom Pirates’ officers. For example, the rabbit was Crane Rider Randolph, a special warrior created when Charlotte Linlin infused a soul into a rabbit.
Once he suffered severe damage and the soul Charlotte Linlin had infused into him disappeared, Randolph reverted to his original form as an ordinary rabbit.
“Cacao Island is up ahead. If the operation goes smoothly, we should be setting up camp there tonight.”
“Slurp… But will the operation… slurp… really go this smoothly? Launching such a massive war regardless of the cost, are our actions truly worth it?”
Kizaru studied the sea chart and Eternal Pose as he judged what lay ahead. It was not as though the Marines were completely incapable. Of the three pirate crews that currently existed, the Big Mom Pirates had been around the longest.
Before Kaido and Red Hair had even established themselves in the New World, Big Mom already had territory of her own. The Marines were not so incompetent that they could go several decades without obtaining Eternal Poses for these islands.
Danger was relative. Even with their massive-tonnage warships, when circumstances allowed, they would still dock at night and make camp ashore.
Fujitora, however, was slurping his udon. At the prewar meeting, he had opposed this war.
Pulling troops from every other region and concentrating them all in the New World was unquestionably dangerous for those other areas, especially when they did not possess an absolute advantage in combat strength.
Fighting like this meant that even victory would be a pyrrhic one. Never mind Fujitora’s own ideals, even the hawkish Akainu had initially opposed starting a war this way. Unfortunately, the Five Elders simply refused to listen to them.
“Whether it’s worth it or not isn’t for me to decide. But to be honest, I really didn’t want to see things come to this.”
Kizaru took the tea handed to him by a nearby soldier. As Admirals, no matter how much they disliked it, once they received orders, they had to carry out the mission.
But no one could stop them from complaining about it.
“Hm?!”
Fujitora set down his udon and turned his blind eyes toward the sky. Though he could not see, he had already sensed the presence above.
“Looks like someone troublesome has arrived.”
Kizaru’s tone remained leisurely, but he had already risen from his seat. The shadow on the horizon was drawing steadily closer.
“All hands, prepare for battle. This time is different from before. What we’re about to face is a true Emperor of the Sea.”
Wooo—! Wooo—!
Alarm bells blared across the warships, and the Marines tightened their grips on their weapons. They had won their probing battles against the Homies.
But one did not become an Emperor of the Sea simply by commanding a large enough force. Aside from Morgans’ own hype, the reason they could be called emperors was because they possessed enough power to dominate an entire stretch of sea.
“Cognac: Mama-Mash!”
A shrill voice rang out from the sky. Charlotte Linlin stood atop Zeus’s thundercloud, with Napoleon, wrapped in Prometheus’s flames, raised high above her head. As Charlotte Linlin brought the blade down, a slash brimming with destructive force descended upon the foremost warship.
“Ama no Murakumo Sword!”
If left unchecked, Charlotte Linlin could cripple the front-line warship with a single strike. Taking advantage of the high speed granted by the Glint-Glint Fruit, Kizaru became unusually serious and intercepted Charlotte Linlin’s slash by himself.
Yet in that brief opening, Charlotte Linlin had already landed on the deck of the lead warship.
“Enemy sighted! Fire!”
The guns and cannons on deck quickly locked onto the enemy before them. The soldiers mechanically repeated the motion of pulling their triggers, pouring out firepower without restraint, but against Charlotte Linlin, known as the Iron Balloon, attacks like these were utterly insignificant.
Forget using Haki or parrying, the shells and bullets could not even break her skin.
“Mamamama~ You dared attack my territory, so you’d better be prepared to pay the price! Zeus! Prometheus!”
“Got it, Mama!”
Zeus turned pitch-black, and lightning rained down across the deck. Prometheus swelled like a sun and scattered flames everywhere. In the blink of an eye, the Marines aboard had suffered heavy casualties.
“Gravity Blade: Raging Tiger!”
From another warship, Fujitora swung his blade through the air. The sudden immense gravity pressed down on Zeus and Prometheus, throwing them off balance and forcing them to halt their assault.
“Sacred Yata Mirror.”
Kizaru likewise used his ability to appear before Charlotte Linlin. He understood very well that rather than saying their mission was to defeat the Big Mom Pirates, their true objective was to kill or capture Charlotte Linlin.
But Charlotte Linlin seemed to have anticipated Kizaru’s movements and slashed at the spot where he would appear ahead of time. Had Kizaru not split his body apart in time, the strike might have cut him in half at the waist.
“Get out of here as quickly as possible. This isn’t a battlefield you can set foot on.”
Using antigravity to fly, Fujitora rode over on a small plank of wood and signaled for the other soldiers to transfer to the other warships as quickly as possible, putting distance between themselves and the main battlefield that was about to erupt.
But escaping was not so simple. Fujitora and Kizaru could keep Charlotte Linlin occupied, preventing her from freely attacking the other Marines.
The problem was that the warships could not withstand their battle.
Amid the violent shaking, Marines continuously fell into the sea.
If this had been ordinary waters, falling overboard would not have been particularly dangerous. After all, Marines who could not swim were extremely rare.
But this was territory ruled by Big Mom, and besides Charlotte Linlin herself, her children had already appeared on the battlefield as well.
“Tropical Torment!”
Beside Cacao Island, Charlotte Oven plunged both hands into the sea. The power of the Heat-Heat Fruit continuously flowed through his arms. At this moment, his hands were like heating coils inside a thermos, and in a mere instant, bubbles began rising from the sea.
The boiling sea not only inflicted tremendous injuries on the Marines who had fallen overboard, but even the Marine warships stationed nearby were affected.
Behind Cacao Island, the massive fleet belonging to the Big Mom Pirates also revealed itself.
“Target the Marines! All forces, attack!”
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