Inside the room.
Linlin's face still held a blissful smile. After going wild until the middle of the night, she had finally fallen into a deep sleep.
On the massive bed.
A tall, muscular pirate was jolted awake by Streusen's shouting outside. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and slowly sat up.
"Sounds like someone's looking for you, Linlin," he muttered.
He glanced back at Linlin on the bed. That stunning face made his heart stir all over again, but the moment he thought about what happened last night, his lower back and spine seemed to ache all at once.
He couldn't help but sigh. "Last night, Linlin was insane…"
He leaned over and started nudging her. "Linlin, wake up!"
"Someone's calling for you outside!"
Linlin turned over, still not waking up.
The pirate pushed a bit harder, raising his voice. "Linlin, someone's here for you, get up!!"
The result was…
A gust of wind howled through the room as Linlin, still half-asleep, slapped out with one hand.
Bang.
The pirate hit the wall and dropped like a rock, knocked out cold on the spot.
Time passed without her noticing.
Outside the door, Streusen's hands were numb from pounding, and his throat was hoarse from shouting.
Only then did Linlin slowly open her eyes. The first thing she saw was the unconscious pirate on the floor.
Her face darkened with fury. "Who?!"
"Who dared knock out Will Vergil while I was sleeping?!"
Her monstrous voice rippled out in waves, sound spreading through the air like shock rings.
Even the stone walls creaked and split under that eerie echo, cracks spiderwebbing rapidly across the surface.
Outside the door.
Streusen clutched his ears in pain, totally lost as to what was going on inside.
With his hands over his ears, he started kicking the door instead, yelling with everything he had left, "Linlin!! Linlin!! Open up already!!!"
"Something huge happened!!!"
His shouting seeped through the door and into Linlin's ears, causing her to cut off the terrifying shriek.
She dressed in a hurry, stood up, and yanked the door open, glaring down at Streusen. "Do you know who came into my room and knocked Will Vergil out?!"
Streusen blinked, stunned. Will Vergil who?
He had no time or patience for that right now. "Linlin, this is bad! Perospero and the others… all of your kids have been kidnapped! The whole island is in chaos!!"
Those were the children he had coaxed and schemed for years to get Linlin to give birth to. If something happened to them…
The loss would be disastrous.
He had gone to so much trouble to help those kids get decent Devil Fruits. Their talent was solid, and their future bright.
If they were gone…
He'd lose everything. Completely.
Those children were the future hope of the Charlotte family.
"What???" Linlin's eyes widened as she loomed over Streusen. Flames of rage burned in her gaze, her expression turning pitch black as she ground her teeth. "Someone dared kidnap my kids?!"
"Find them. You find them for me. Whoever laid a hand on my children, I will never let them go!!"
Her huge eyes glowed red with murderous light.
It was chilling.
Under that crushing killing intent, the hair on Streusen's arms stood up. Panic twisted his face. "Linlin, hurry! If we're too late, the kids could really be gone…"
Red light flickered in Linlin's eyes. Her voice was low and strained, as if trying to suppress an endless fury. "Zeus!"
"Prometheus!!!"
A white cloud and an orange fireball flew to her side. Seeing her terrifying expression, both homies broke into a cold sweat.
"Mama… Mama…"
"Go bring my children back!" Linlin ordered.
Zeus and Prometheus shot into the sky, one to the left and one to the right, spreading out to search.
At the same time.
Linlin swept her hand through the air, and white souls streamed from her palm, pouring into everything nearby – the slabs of stone, the mirrors, the tables, chairs, bedsheets, even the flowers and plants.
All of them gained self-awareness. One by one, they started yelling the same slogan:
"Find the kids, find the kids…"
Hands and feet sprouted from their bodies, and they began to move like people, scattering in all directions under Linlin's command to search for traces of the children.
…
Behind the Skull Castle.
In his dragon-man form, Tengetsu Ares spewed flames from his mouth, scorching his own body while pounding himself with an iron rod, hammering at every part of his frame.
This was his daily compulsory training.
Heat waves rolled through the air, and each impact rang out like a war drum, making one's heart tremble.
At that moment.
Slardar the sea demon rushed over, forcing himself through the suffocating heat, and came to a stop in front of Ares. "Ares, something big happened."
"What is it?" Ares asked, still hammering his body like no one else existed.
Slardar's expression was grave. "Katakuri was ambushed and taken. And not just that, Linlin's kids… they were kidnapped too."
"This has to be a planned operation. It's too coordinated to be a coincidence."
Ares paused.
In an instant, his body shrank back to its human form.
A devil's physique rivaling Yujiro Hanma's bulged under his skin, except Ares was several times bigger and far more terrifying.
Killing intent rolled off him like a tidal wave, making it hard to breathe.
His face darkened until his chiselled features were swallowed by shadow. "We're going down to the island. We're going to drag out whoever kidnapped Katakuri."
He strode off toward Beehive Island, upper body bare, each step heavy with murderous intent.
…
Beehive Island was already in full-blown chaos.
The two CP0 who had kidnapped Katakuri hurried back to their temporary base.
"The room is empty. The chief must have gotten word and changed locations. What now?" Vulture asked, uneasy.
The other CP0 rummaged through the place, quickly finding a pair of Seastone cuffs. He bound Katakuri's hands behind his back, stuffed a towel into the boy's mouth, and taped it over.
No matter how violently Katakuri struggled, it did no good.
The masked agent frowned. "What else can we do? Find somewhere to hide first. Until we're out of danger, the chief wouldn't meet us anyway."
"That'd be asking to get exposed."
Vulture nodded, brows scrunched tight. "The entire Rocks crew is probably on the island hunting us down. Where could we possibly hide that's safe?"
"Let me think…" the other CP0 muttered.
After a moment, his face lit up. "Got it. How about the place where Ares trains?"
"Ares is one of Rocks' officers. With his level of infamy, no other pirate would dare poke around his training ground. The most dangerous place is also the safest place."
Vulture hesitated. "If we're going by that logic, the most dangerous place should be the Skull Castle."
"Now that the Rocks Pirates are combing the island…"
"The Skull Castle might actually be the spot with the fewest pirates."
The two fell into disagreement.
"Then we flip a coin."
"Heads, we go to the Skull Castle. Tails… we go to the back mountain."
Vulture pulled out a shiny gold coin, balanced it on his thumb, and flicked it.
The coin spun through the air with a crisp ring.
He caught it in one hand and slowly opened his palm.
Heads.
"Then we go to the Skull Castle," Vulture said.
The other CP0 nodded. "You take him to the Skull Castle. I'll stay here and stir up more chaos to cover you."
"This area is packed with pirates from all over the seas. If I can trigger a riot, we can pin down a good portion of the Rocks crew."
A grin twisted under Vulture's mask. "Perfect. The messier, the better!"
…
After leaving the Skull Castle, Shakky immediately contacted Wang Zhi, the man in charge of island security.
She got the full story.
Katakuri had been taken.
Linlin's kids too.
Shakky's eyes narrowed around her cigarette, smoke curling past her lips. "So it really is a plan…"
"With something this calculated, it has to be the World Government."
"They managed to find an opening to break the stalemate on Beehive, huh."
With so many pirates gathered on the island, even the World Government and the Navy wouldn't dare try a frontal assault.
But this kind of scheme… its effectiveness was terrifying.
Shakky relayed the island's situation to Rocks, then received her orders to head for the prison.
She set off that way at once. "It's been two or three days, and the prison's been eerily quiet. That shouldn't be possible…"
"Their real target is definitely the Celestial Dragons."
"There is no way they wouldn't have checked the prison."
Soon.
Shakky arrived at the prison and questioned the officer in charge. Then she had him personally lead the way.
She wanted to inspect it herself, to see if there were any clues.
Outside the prison.
Two CP0 were pressed low in the grass, practically fused with the ground, only their eyes visible.
Their gazes stayed locked on the prison. "Why would Shakky, one of the Rocks crew's core members, come all the way out here to the prison during a massive incident like this?"
"Could it be that the Celestial Dragon family, the Egberts, really are locked up inside?" the other speculated. "So now that the island is in an uproar, Rocks sent her here to see if the Celestial Dragons have been rescued?"
The first CP0 frowned behind his mask. "It's very possible. But the prison is heavily guarded for sure. Just the two of us could never break the Egberts out."
"Let's finish what the chief assigned first," the other said. "All we have to do is keep an eye on Shakky for now."
"If it comes down to it, we'll have to use force…"
They kept their position, watching the prison gate.
But soon after.
They spotted someone else headed for the prison.
The Navy.
In terms of disguise and infiltration, CP0 was leagues beyond the Marines. They had been trained for this from childhood.
It was etched into their bones.
"It's the Navy. Are they planning to assault the prison?"
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