While Cain and Uta were enjoying a rare moment of warmth together, another part of Totto Land lay shrouded in darkness.
"Mamamama! Caesar, when exactly is my precious son going to wake up? I'm getting tired of waiting!"
Big Mom approached with heavy, deliberate steps and loomed over Caesar Clown, who stood trembling below her.
"Soon! Very soon! I swear, he's almost ready!"
Cold sweat poured down Caesar's forehead as he raised both hands and desperately tried to placate her. Behind his strained smile, however, panic was tearing through his mind.
'Shit, shit, shit! If this gets delayed again, she's really going to kill me!'
"He's absolutely my greatest masterpiece! The most perfect giant weapon in the history of science!"
His voice trembled even as he tried his hardest to look completely confident.
"Mamamama… You'd better not be lying to me, Caesar."
Big Mom tilted her head and stared down at him with a suddenly chilling expression, drool slipping from the corner of her mouth.
"Don't think I don't know where all the research money I gave you actually went."
"Gulp…"
Caesar swallowed hard and forced out a smile that looked closer to crying.
Ever since he had been brought to Totto Land, Big Mom had thoroughly investigated his previous spending. Every bit of funding he had diverted toward drinking, partying, and personal entertainment had been uncovered, along with equipment purchases that had absolutely nothing to do with his experiments.
"I-I know! I promise I'll personally make sure he grows up properly! Just give me a little more time!"
That was what Caesar said aloud.
Inside his head, there was only one thought.
'Why the hell has the world's greatest authority on weapons of mass destruction been reduced to living like this?!'
…
Ultimately, Caesar blamed everything on one man.
Former Marine Admiral Aokiji—
Kuzan.
Even thinking about that name made Caesar grind his teeth.
Back then, he had been conducting his secret research on Punk Hazard, developing artificial Ancient Giants and weapons of mass destruction while living an extremely comfortable life. His research funding was his to spend however he pleased, and nobody had been around to tell him what he could or couldn't do.
Then Kuzan, of all people, had somehow decided to wander onto the island.
The result had been catastrophic.
Nearly every experimental furnace and research facility on Punk Hazard was destroyed, along with years of accumulated data. In the middle of the chaos, Caesar had barely managed to salvage several precious samples of giant cells before fleeing aboard one of his gas balloons.
Escaping the island only created a new collection of problems.
Big Mom had already been pressing him relentlessly for results, sending people every few days to demand progress reports. The pressure had grown so intense that Caesar spent entire nights unable to sleep.
Now he lacked equipment, proper instruments, and even the specialized culture fluid required to keep giant genes stable.
Worse still, everything produced through his incomplete process suffered from severe congenital defects. Some specimens grew three heads, others developed rotting flesh across their bodies, while others went berserk almost immediately after birth.
There were times when even Caesar felt disgusted looking at those twisted experimental failures.
But what else was he supposed to do?
He was Caesar Clown.
He certainly wasn't going to admit he couldn't solve the problem.
So he came up with another crooked solution.
He would seek help from an old colleague—
Germa 66's ruler, Vinsmoke Judge.
The two of them had once worked in the same laboratory, and Judge possessed some of the world's most advanced Lineage Factor technology and cultivation equipment, precisely what Caesar desperately needed.
Of course, Caesar himself didn't dare show his face.
He knew Judge's personality far too well for that.
So he went through Doflamingo instead.
Not to negotiate with Judge, naturally.
To steal from him.
Doflamingo sent people to "borrow" a portion of Germa's experimental data and equipment. Caesar never bothered asking exactly how they had obtained it. As far as he was concerned, the result was all that mattered.
Once he had Judge's research in hand, Caesar rebuilt his laboratory on an uninhabited island near Dressrosa.
He had to admit, Judge's Lineage Factor technology was impressive. His experimental progress immediately accelerated to more than three times its previous rate.
At the time, Caesar had been extremely pleased with himself.
'See? The old bastard is useful for something. Once I finish this, nobody will ever dare look down on the great Caesar again!'
Unfortunately, Caesar remained Caesar.
Anything that passed through his hands inevitably acquired one defining quality—
unreliable.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before one of his experimental subjects went berserk.
Fortunately, Doflamingo was in Dressrosa and prevented the incident from causing large-scale chaos on the main island.
Unfortunately, the disturbance on Caesar's smaller research island was noticed by a passing Beasts Pirates trading vessel.
And just like that, rumors about a giant superweapon began spreading across the seas.
One person told ten.
Ten told a hundred.
Eventually, even the Revolutionary Army heard about it.
The Marines and World Government had actually known about the project even earlier through Zephyr and others, and had kept a close eye on Caesar's activities. Yet they never ordered his arrest or the destruction of the laboratory.
Instead, they simply watched.
If Caesar succeeded, they could arrest him afterward and confiscate all the research.
If he failed, they wouldn't have wasted a single beli funding the experiment.
Either way, they benefited.
What nobody anticipated was Caesar being stupid enough to let the entire project become public knowledge.
The rumors spread farther and farther until, inevitably, they reached Big Mom.
Linlin immediately ordered Katakuri to personally go and "invite" Caesar to Totto Land.
After all, repeatedly demanding updates had only produced excuse after excuse. If she couldn't get results by waiting, then she might as well bring Caesar directly under her own eyes and personally "care" about the experiment's progress.
As for Monet, who happened to be organizing research data in Caesar's laboratory at the time, she was technically only a liaison sent by Doflamingo.
That distinction meant very little.
She was taken along with Caesar.
And so, the entire Ancient Giant experiment had been relocated into the depths of Totto Land.
Homies responsible for surveillance filled the surrounding area. Those strange creatures with eyes and mouths watched Caesar around the clock, to the point that even going to the bathroom came with supervision.
There was absolutely no chance of escape.
The worst problem, however, was that after the previous experiment went berserk, Caesar had only one specimen that could even loosely be described as successful.
That fell far short of Big Mom's desired quantity.
So Linlin simply changed the requirement.
If Caesar couldn't provide enough of them, then he would compensate with quality.
The single Ancient Giant specimen had to possess enough strength to fight Big Mom herself.
That demand nearly broke Caesar.
Was she insane?
What kind of monster would he have to create before it could fight one of the Four Emperors?
Even worse, the specimen matured painfully slowly.
It had grown slightly beyond five meters, but that was nowhere near the sixty- or seventy-meter height expected of a fully grown Ancient Giant, never mind the ridiculous combat strength Linlin demanded.
At its natural growth rate, Big Mom might die of old age before the creature ever reached full maturity.
Unfortunately, Linlin had no intention of waiting that long.
Under increasingly severe threats, Caesar was forced to search for shortcuts—something capable of artificially accelerating maturation while simultaneously increasing combat power.
The first thing that came to mind was one of the most infamous substances on the seas.
Energy Steroids.
The secret medicine of Fish-Man Island could drastically increase a person's strength for a short period, but only by consuming their remaining lifespan.
Since Fish-Man Island was under Big Mom's protection at the time, it had little choice but to hand over both the formula and its remaining supply when Linlin demanded them.
Not that the island had much reason to keep the stuff.
The pills caused vastly more harm than good, and no sane person would willingly take them.
Once Caesar acquired the Energy Steroids, however, his mind immediately went to work.
After extensive modification, he managed to transform their temporary burst of power into a permanent physical enhancement.
There was, naturally, a price.
The amount of lifespan consumed as a side effect increased severalfold.
Caesar couldn't have cared less.
Giants already lived roughly three times as long as ordinary humans, and Ancient Giants possessed even more extraordinary vitality.
No matter how severe the side effects became, this experimental subject would almost certainly survive until Big Mom herself died of old age.
And that was all Linlin actually needed.
She wanted a weapon capable of fighting for her during her own lifetime.
Why should Caesar care how many years the test subject had left afterward?
The Energy Steroids worked.
Muscle density, bone strength, and even the apparent maturity of the specimen's face increased at a visibly dramatic rate.
But a new problem emerged almost immediately.
Its strength had grown tremendously.
Its height had not.
Even now, the creature was only around Big Mom's own size, nowhere near the terrifying sixty- or seventy-meter stature expected of an Ancient Giant.
"What the hell is going on?"
Caesar thought about it repeatedly before eventually blaming the problem on one factor—
vitality.
The Energy Steroids must have consumed so much of the specimen's lifespan that they had exhausted the biological potential required for continued growth.
If the foundation had been drained dry, how was the body supposed to keep developing?
That meant Caesar needed to replenish the specimen with fresh regenerative vitality.
And this time, after agonizing over the decision, he finally brought out one of his most treasured possessions—
the Zoan-type Devil Fruit he had carefully preserved for himself.
The Sala-Sala Fruit, Model: Axolotl.
Axolotls possessed astonishing regenerative abilities. Their tissues were remarkably active, allowing them to regrow lost limbs and gradually recover from injuries that would be fatal to ordinary creatures.
That regenerative power was exactly what Caesar needed to compensate for the vitality consumed by the Energy Steroids and provide the specimen with additional "fuel" for continued development.
The only thing the process still required—
was time.
What a goddamn waste.
Caesar had originally been saving that Devil Fruit as part of his plans for creating his weapon known as the Land of the Dead, but survival came first. If sacrificing it kept Big Mom from ripping his soul out, then he had little choice.
Fortunately, the sacrifice produced results.
According to Caesar's estimates, the experimental subject now combined Ancient Giant blood, modified Energy Steroids, and the regenerative power of a Zoan Devil Fruit. In terms of raw destructive force alone, it should already possess enough strength to overwhelm a Sweet Commander.
Well—
most Sweet Commanders.
Katakuri obviously didn't count.
And that was before the specimen had learned even the basics of Haki.
As for solving that problem, Big Mom had apparently already sent someone to make preparations.
The method was supposedly extremely crude but effective: simply force a massive collection of combat experience and memories directly into the specimen's mind.
Caesar had no idea how Linlin intended to accomplish something like that.
Then again, considering the bizarre ways many of Big Mom's children had developed, the Emperor clearly had plenty of experience when it came to unconventional upbringing.
So Caesar wasn't particularly worried.
The road had been messy, but he had to admit the final product was impressive.
It was absolutely worthy of the man who called himself the world's foremost authority on weapons of mass destruction.
He could brag about this achievement for the rest of his life.
Of course, everything depended on one absolutely critical condition.
The specimen had to obey orders.
If it went berserk one more time, Caesar suspected his brilliant head would finally be separated from his equally brilliant body.
Yet the thing that frustrated him most was what happened immediately after he calculated the specimen's estimated maturation time.
The creature was still floating unconscious inside its cultivation tank and hadn't even opened its eyes—
and Big Mom was already too impatient to wait.
She desperately wanted to announce this "wonderful news" to the entire world.
But holding another ordinary tea party would be far too mundane.
After all, gaining the power of the giants had been one of Linlin's greatest dreams ever since childhood.
Something this important demanded a much grander stage.
And that—
was how the current marriage tournament came into existence.
The entire spectacle surrounding En-chan had been designed to gather the world's attention in one place before Big Mom unveiled the real centerpiece.
When everything was traced back to the beginning, however, the true cause was still Kuzan setting foot on Punk Hazard.
Without that visit, the chain of events leading to En-chan's marriage tournament never would have happened—at least not at this particular time. Perhaps Linlin would have done something similar several years later, but certainly not now.
And why had Kuzan gone to Punk Hazard in the first place?
If you traced that chain back far enough—
the answer was Cain.