"Hah!"
Feyyun, boasting a physique ten times larger than even a standard giant, hoisted a massive warship into the air as if it were a toy. She slammed it down onto the frozen sea with a deafening crash, obliterating the hull before moving on to her next target. Following her lead, the giant warriors who had sworn their loyalty to Kanata fell upon the Big Mom Pirates' subordinate crews. Even those who had carved out infamous names for themselves in the New World were finding that they were no match for the sheer, raw power of the warriors of Elbaf.
Watching the devastation from a distance, Scotch couldn't help but mutter to himself. "I'm just glad they're on our side."
"You don't hear much about giants with Devil Fruit powers," one of his subordinates remarked. "I wonder how they really feel about it?"
"Fighting with nothing but their bodies and their weapons is the way of Elbaf," Scotch replied, "but I've heard they don't necessarily despise the fruits either."
The giants who had officially joined Kanata's ranks were given the right to claim a Devil Fruit as a reward for their service. Two of them had requested the power and were now transformed into Power Users. Both had consumed Ancient Type Zoan fruits. A giant is a natural disaster on their own; give them the evolutionary boost of an ancient beast, and very few people in this vast ocean could ever hope to stand against them.
Scotch checked the status of the ships outside while talking with his men, eventually leaning back to light a cigarette.
"The exterior seems stable for now. That just leaves Big Mom's brats who managed to slip inside."
"Aren't you going to head in, Scotch?"
"We can't have every executive running to the interior. Someone has to keep an eye on the big picture."
A thunderous boom echoed across the island as Kanata and Linlin collided, followed by the distant, blood-chilling roars of the rampaging giants. Scotch pulled out his Baby Transponder Snail. Despite his claim of staying put, he knew he'd have to step in if the internal defense crumbled. Information was their most valuable currency right now.
"This is Scotch. The situation out here is under control. Does anyone need backup?"
"This is Jorge," a voice crackled back. "No issues on my end so far."
"This is the Southern Residential District," another voice reported. "Junshi and Zen are currently engaged with three enemy executives. The battle is a stalemate for the moment."
"Then they'll be fine. I'm not about to go sticking my nose into a fight involving those two," Scotch said.
Intervening in a clash of that magnitude was a good way to get killed by collateral damage. He was just about to settle in and spend the rest of the day sinking ships with the cannons when a new signal came through.
"It's me! Me, me, me!"
"State your name, you idiot. What is it, Kuro?"
"I've got something I want to try. Can you give me a hand?"
"Huh? You'd better not be planning something tedious again."
Whenever Kuro got an idea, trouble was usually close behind. Still, the situation was too dangerous to let him wander around alone. Scotch sighed, checked his blade, and began cutting his way through the Chess Soldiers toward Kuro's location.
+++
"Are you serious about this?"
Teach frowned, looking at Kuro with a mix of disbelief and doubt. Kuro just laughed. "It'll work, trust me."
The two of them stood before a large mirror, waiting for Scotch to arrive. Kaie and Gloriosa had been with them moments ago, but they had moved out to sweep the endless waves of Chess Soldiers. Even as homies, they weren't weak, but several of their broken forms already lay at Teach's feet.
Teach gripped the iron claws on his right hand, keeping a sharp eye on the mirror. He wasn't sure if Kuro's plan was actually feasible, and his honest instinct was to get Kuro away from the front lines. He couldn't afford to let the man die here.
"Then at least let's put some distance between us and the mirror until Scotch gets here. If we stay here, more trash is just going to keep popping out."
"Heh, I'll handle them if they do."
"I'm the one who killed the last batch!" Teach snapped.
Kuro's ability was undeniably powerful, but his base combat skills were shockingly low. In a close-quarters brawl, even a Chess Soldier could potentially take him down. If Teach hadn't been acting as his shield, Kuro would have been in serious trouble by now.
"Just leave it to me. I had a brilliant realization."
"I have a bad feeling about this..."
While they were bickering, Scotch finally arrived. Kuro didn't waste a second and immediately began his preparations.
"Alright, what's the plan?" Scotch asked.
"The enemy is coming out from the mirrors. If this is a Devil Fruit power, then the user has to be inside. And if they're a Power User... they can't escape the gravitational pull of the Darkness."
The logic was simple. Kuro boasted that with the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit—the natural enemy of all Power Users—he could pull even someone hiding within the Mirror World out into the open.
Ignoring their skeptical looks, Kuro pointed his right arm toward the mirror with absolute conviction. He had already sensed the presence of the ability user on the other side. If he could see them, he could drag them in.
"Black Vortex!!"
In the face of an infinite gravity that not even light could escape, the barriers between worlds meant nothing. Brulee, the master of the Mirror World, was forcibly dragged through the glass and into Kuro's grasp.
"Gyaaaaaah!! What... what is happening?!"
"How do you like that!" Kuro shouted.
He immediately seized Brulee by the throat, intending to nullify her powers. But in the split second before he could solidify his grip, another shadow lunged out from the mirror.
"Gack! Katakuri?!"
"What are you doing to my sister?!"
Katakuri thrust his trident toward Kuro with terrifying speed. However, Brulee was directly in his line of fire. Fearing he might hit his own sister, Katakuri's strike hesitated for the briefest of moments. That was all the opening Teach needed.
Teach's iron claws lashed out, tearing into Katakuri's arm and sending a spray of blood into the air.
"Ugh...!"
"Zehahahaha! I didn't actually think that would work!"
Teach laughed, delighted that the half-baked plan had actually succeeded. Kuro kept his grip on Brulee, ensuring her powers remained suppressed. If they could just finish off Katakuri, who had come out as her guardian, the Big Mom Pirates' infiltration strategy would fall apart. They could then pick off the trapped children one by one.
"For a random idea, you're actually proving useful," Scotch noted. "Should we just kill her now to close the mirror portals?"
"I don't know," Kuro replied. "If the Mirror World is sustained by her power, killing her might just eject everyone inside back out into our territory at once."
If they killed her now, there was no telling where the enemy soldiers trapped inside would end up. It was safer to keep her alive until they could sweep the rest of the intruders.
"I will not let you kill her!"
"Try and stop us!"
Teach began parrying a flurry of trident strikes from Katakuri, who was significantly larger than even Scotch. While Teach focused on the defense, Kuro hoisted Brulee over his shoulder and scrambled to put some distance between them.
Naturally, Katakuri wasn't about to let them go. But he wasn't just fighting Teach; Scotch was waiting for his opening.
"More-More... Hundredfold...!"
Scotch coated his right arm in Armament Haki, his skin turning a deep, metallic black. He aimed with lethal precision.
"Guillotine Lariat!!"
He struck with a speed that even Katakuri's highly trained Observation Haki struggled to track. The blow collided with Katakuri's neck with the force of a falling mountain, sending the massive man flying through the air and crashing into the wall.
"How was that?!" Scotch shouted, pumping his fist.
Teach remained wary, his eyes fixed on the settling dust where Katakuri had landed. When the silhouette emerged, Katakuri showed no signs of a fatal injury. He simply glared at them with eyes like a predator's.
"As expected of a top executive. I was foolish to underestimate you," Katakuri said.
"Almost no damage? These Big Mom brats are made of iron," Scotch grumbled.
"The next one won't hit."
Katakuri twisted the arm holding his spear, spinning it like the barrel of a rifle before lunging forward.
"Mochi Thrust!!"
"Whoa!"
Scotch barely managed to block the strike with his Haki-infused sword, but the sheer momentum forced him backward. Teach immediately closed the gap. Katakuri showed no signs of looking down on them for being younger; he utilized his Mochi powers to their fullest, unleashing a relentless barrage of strikes to pin Teach down. Teach parried each one, looking for a gap, but he soon realized Katakuri's true target wasn't him.
"Save me! Brother!!"
"Quit struggling! You're going to get us killed!" Kuro yelled.
As a non-combatant, Kuro had no way to defend himself if Katakuri turned his full attention toward him. He held onto the thrashing Brulee, praying the attack wouldn't come his way. It was a vain hope. Katakuri's arm stretched out like dough, reaching straight for Brulee.
In a flash, Brulee was snatched back, and Kuro was sent tumbling across the floor.
"Are you alright, Brulee?"
"I... I think so..."
"Stay close to me. You need to get back into the Mirror World... no, that's useless."
As long as Kuro was present, she would just be dragged out again. Katakuri realized he had to protect her within his own reach while taking Kuro out of the equation for good.
"Crap, he's locking onto me now," Kuro muttered.
He drew two short daggers he kept for self-defense. It was a meager defense at best, but he wasn't going to die without a fight.
"You're a threat to our future," Katakuri stated coldly. "It's best if you're erased here."
"Heh, give it your best shot."
Holding Brulee in his left arm, Katakuri leveled his spear with his right and lunged at Kuro. Even a glancing blow would be fatal. He swung with the intent to end Kuro's life in a single stroke.
However, the strike was intercepted by a returning Scotch.
"Teach!!"
Teach lunged at Katakuri from behind. Katakuri instinctively liquified his body to let the attack pass through him, but the assault didn't stop there. Teach kicked the very air, performing a mid-air pivot that brought him around to slash at Katakuri's face.
"Zehahaha! You're too slow!"
Members of the Twilight Pirates were given the opportunity to learn the Six Powers if they showed the aptitude. Teach and Kaie, both possessing talent far beyond their years, had already mastered several of the techniques.
While it didn't take Katakuri's eye, the three claw marks left a trail of blood that significantly obscured his vision. Though his Haki meant he didn't rely on sight, the injury was a distraction he couldn't afford.
"Ugh...!"
"Brother?!"
"I'm fine. But... this is getting dangerous."
Katakuri knew he wouldn't lose to the two of them, even with Brulee as a handicap. However, as long as he was pinned down here and couldn't bring in reinforcements, the internal forces of the Big Mom Pirates were being overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the Twilight army.
"Brulee, get a message to Cracker and Perospero. Things have become much more complicated than we anticipated. Our strategy has failed."
Kuro's existence had overturned their every assumption. Continuing the internal collapse would only lead to their own forces being whittled away. They needed a new plan. Katakuri began to calculate his next move even as the blood continued to flow.
+++
The weather was deteriorating at an impossible rate.
Lightning strikes were hitting the ground at random, and a tempest of rain and wind whipped across the battlefield. It was hard to believe this was the work of a single person. Linlin, standing nearly as tall as a giant, laughed as she unleashed her Haki without restraint.
"Ma-ma-ma-ma!! Cognac—Mother's Blade!!"
She infused the "Sun" Prometheus into her blade, swinging it with a layer of Haki. Combined with her monstrous strength, it was a strike that meant certain death for anyone who took it head-on. At least, that was true for anyone weaker than her.
"God-Slayer."
Kanata's thrust, imbued with Haki and extreme cold, met Linlin's blade directly. The collision created a massive shockwave, and the sound of the atmosphere bursting from the sudden thermal expansion echoed across the frozen sea.
Linlin immediately grabbed the "Thundercloud" Zeus with her free hand and swung him down toward Kanata.
"Thunderbolt!!"
Kanata sensed the attack with her Haki. Even as her upper body was scorched by the lightning, her body of ice regenerated instantly. She used the momentum to kick the hilt of her ice spear, sending it flying at Linlin. Linlin twisted her body to avoid it, and their weapons clashed once more.
"You're strong, I'll give you that," Kanata noted. "Any other pirate would be dead by now."
"Don't lump me in with those small-fry!"
They were locked in a stalemate, each searching for a gap that would allow them to kill the other. Amidst the struggle, Prometheus and Zeus moved on their own, trying to create an opening for their master. Zeus distracted with lightning, and as Kanata dodged, Prometheus grew into a massive fireball and lunged at her.
"Burn!!"
"Prometheus... I couldn't handle you before, but don't think I'm the same person I was back then."
As a flame with a will of its own, Prometheus couldn't be dealt a finishing blow with standard Haki. However, Kanata had mastered the Foxfire Style in Wano—a school of swordsmanship dedicated to cutting through and burning with flames.
"Foxfire Style—Flame Splitter!!"
Whether her weapon was a sword or a spear made no difference. Kanata swung her Haki-blackened spear, cleaving the descending Prometheus in two.
"GYAAAAAAAH!!"
"Prometheus?!"
For the first time since his creation, Prometheus screamed in agony. The shock was so great that even Linlin's eyes widened in pure astonishment. For a split second, she left an opening—and against an opponent like Kanata, that was a fatal mistake. Linlin's body, famous for being as hard as a "steel balloon," was no tougher than paper before Kanata's current strength.
"Kneel."
Kanata swung her spear in a diagonal slash across Linlin's torso. Linlin dropped to one knee, though she didn't fall, glaring up at Kanata with a demonic intensity.
"Tch... it was too shallow."
The strike had bypassed even the invisible armor of Haki that Linlin always wore, but it hadn't been enough to end her. She lived up to her reputation as one of the Four Emperors. Fine, then. I'll just pierce her heart next time, Kanata thought, leveling her spear again.
"Ugh... Prometheus!!"
Linlin grabbed the two halves of Prometheus and forced them back together, wrapping the flames around her body. The intense heat began to melt the ice beneath her, but she hopped onto Zeus to ignore the footing, swinging her blade with a newfound madness.
The steel rang out as Kanata parried a strike aimed at her neck, the shockwave shattering the surrounding ice.
"Clever. If you wear him, I can't target him individually," Kanata said.
But wearing the flames didn't make them any more effective against Kanata. It protected Linlin from the cold, but when one of her homies was dedicated to defense, her offensive options were naturally halved. Zeus alone couldn't corner her.
"You brat...!!"
Linlin continued to bleed from the gash on her chest, but her presence didn't waver. It was a wound that would have been fatal to any normal person, but she didn't seem to care. Kanata didn't let down her guard either; she generated a second ice spear, wielding both in a dual-stance to prepare for the next exchange.
"I'm not underestimating you. I knew that to face a former member of the Rocks, I'd have to be capable of this much. I simply prepared accordingly."
She hadn't established a perfect counter for Zeus yet, but managing to neutralize one of the homies was a stroke of luck. The sudden invasion had been unexpected, but her preparations were sixty percent complete. If she could take Linlin's head here, she would achieve one of her primary goals.
Kanata hadn't received any emergency reports from the interior, so her crew was clearly holding their own. That meant there was nothing standing in her way. She would dismantle the Big Mom Pirates right here.
"Your story ends today."
Shiki, Kaido, Newgate—if they were former Rocks, she had a reason to take their heads. She would erase the negative legacy her parents had left behind with her own hands.
...Except for Gloriosa, who had shown no desire for conflict, making her an exception.
"Ends?! Don't make me laugh!! You're the one who's going to die!!!"
The air crackled with the force of Conqueror's Haki as Kanata braced herself. Linlin's flame-wreathed blade lashed out again and again with terrifying speed, but Kanata parried and deflected every strike with her twin spears. She wasn't losing in terms of raw strength, but she purposely allowed herself to be knocked back to create distance for a final charge.
She threw one ice spear directly at Linlin's heart. As Linlin batted it aside, Kanata lunged to pierce the opening with the second spear—and in that exact heartbeat...
"I have you."
Striking from Kanata's blind spot while she was entirely focused on Linlin, the Gourmet Knight Streusenswung his blade down toward Kanata's heart.
***
10 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
https://patreon.com/Well_being