Chapter 254: Bad News

The weather at sea is capricious; in just a few minutes, a storm had brewed.

The undulating seawater frequently churned up waves dozens of meters high, yet it failed to shake the warships of Totto Land; the forward speed of Katakuri's group was not hindered in the slightest.

Only the unease in his heart had not subsided despite Flampe's comfort, and a bone-chilling coldness periodically seeped through the pores of his skin.

That was not coldness, but a crisis sensation that penetrated to the bone.

Katakuri's Observation Haki, even placed within the scope of the entire world, remains one of the existences closest to the pinnacle.

Besides the perceptual ability he developed to foresee the future, Observation Haki's own intuition toward crisis has not weakened; instead, it has become even stronger due to the growth of his power.

"Something's wrong!"

The increasingly bone-chilling sense of crisis gave Katakuri goosebumps:

"What accident has happened to Mother?!"

"No!"

After that exclamation, the question in Katakuri's mind immediately found its answer.

The storm that had just gathered in the high sky dispersed.

Several islands floating high above the heavens abruptly appeared before Katakuri's eyes, their shadows casting down to nearly obscure the entire sea surface.

"This is..."

Katakuri stared blankly at the floating islands in the high sky; memories from decades ago completely resurfaced in this moment.

He recognized that thing.

And among men capable of achieving such a feat, within his knowledge, there was only one.

"Jin Shizi—Shi Ji!"

"Wasn't this guy imprisoned by the Marines in Impel Down over ten years ago?!"

"How could he appear here!"

"Did someone else inherit the Float-Float Fruit after that guy died?!"

"Impossible!"

"Only Jin Shizi alone is capable of achieving this level!"

Overturning the great sea at will, manipulating seawater to submerge a nation.

Even among users of the Float-Float Fruit who have appeared throughout several hundred years of history, only Jin Shizi has been able to achieve this degree.

There cannot be anyone else!

The next instant.

The familiar figure emerging high in the sky confirmed Katakuri's guess.

Compared to twenty years ago, Jin Shizi had aged considerably.

His face was covered in wrinkles, and obvious age spots had even appeared, yet the Haki surrounding his body was no different from back then.

Even though time had not spared him and his body had declined, Jin Shizi remained the king who once dominated the skies.

"Linlin's son?!"

"It seems my luck is not bad; Knight Gao Wen truly is your scapegoat, and the clues regarding Pluton must also be in your hands, yes?!"

"Submit or die!"

As Jin Shizi's arrogant voice fell, the great sea churned, and the wind and waves grew even more turbulent.

Merely the waves he whipped up already reached heights of a hundred meters; the entire ocean lay under this man's control.

Only Mother can contend with this guy!

In merely an instant.

Katakuri realized this point.

He is strong.

But ultimately, between him and those supreme experts who command wind and rain upon the seas, there exists an insurmountable gap.

That is not something that can be bridged merely through the accumulation of time.

Talent, mentality, and fighting spirit—perhaps each receives varying degrees of emphasis due to individual reasons, but none can be lacking.

Even Big Mom, whose talent is outstanding and truly unprecedented in history, has fought battles and clashed with strong foes too numerous to count.

"Flampe, retreat!"

"With our strength, we cannot contend with that guy!"

"How can this be?"

Flampe said in disbelief:

"Even Brother Katakuri is..."

This was the first time Flampe had seen this man retreat without fighting, so much so that her face was written with shock, leaving her momentarily stunned.

But the pirates on the ship had already reacted a step earlier; the sails billowed, swollen and deformed by the howling sea wind, and even the masts emitted creaking sounds.

Whoosh—!

The sailing speed of the Totto Land pirate ship suddenly increased, reaching the vessel's tolerance limit within a few breaths.

If an opponent is so formidable that even Katakuri cannot muster the will to fight, it can only mean that the other's strength far surpasses one's imagination; that can only be a powerhouse on the same level as Big Mom.

Flee!

Flee as far as possible!

At this moment, this was the only thought in everyone's minds, yet merely the next instant, a strange sensation of weightlessness made their breath catch in their throats.

"What's going on? Is our speed really this fast?!"

"What's happening?!"

"Is our ship floating?!"

……

While everyone stood bewildered, Flampe, standing on the deck, stared blankly at the sea before her.

She knew clearly that it was not the ship that had floated up, but the entire sea itself.

Everything was under that man's control; such power far exceeded what could be described as merely "powerful," surpassing the realm of human capability and reaching another domain entirely.

"A god?!"

Flampe finally understood why Katakuri had issued the order to retreat the moment he saw those few floating islands appear.

"What do we do, Brother Katakuri...?"

Tears already choked Flampe's voice; at this moment, Katakuri had become her only reliance.

"I will hold them off; you take this chance to escape!"

Katakuri's voice was firm, carrying a will as hard as metal.

Shiki was absolutely not a character who would remain content; once he obtained the Pluton blueprints, he would inevitably strike against the entire world in the future, just as he had done twenty years ago.

This fellow's goal had always been the entire world; in the future, he would inevitably threaten everything in Totto Land.

Moreover, betting his life, Katakuri could not allow the younger brothers and sisters on the ship to fall into Shiki's hands.

Then, before Flampe could react, Katakuri gripped the trident in his hand tightly and leaped high into the sky.

Haki surged around him, and his eyes already carried the resolve to die!

"It seems you have made the wrong choice; after all, you are Linlin's offspring. Speaking of which, I still had some acquaintance with her back on the Rocks Pirates' ship."

"What a pity."

Shiki's voice carried a hint of regret, yet those eyes held only a ruthlessness that had never changed.

He reached out and gripped the empty air.

In that instant, the sky-filling dark clouds seemed to come alive, churning and soaring, condensing within the blink of an eye into hundreds of lion heads that opened their bloodied maws and bit down toward Katakuri.

Boom!

The sea of clouds churned, nearly connecting with the seawater.

In merely an instant, Katakuri was swallowed by the dark clouds, unable to even let out a single scream.

His offensive was crushed instantly by Shiki's overwhelming power, and the pain everywhere on his body made him realize he no longer possessed any strength to resist.

The gap... was too huge!

The gap between Mother and me was never this large, absolutely not.

Is this the power that once contended with Whitebeard and Luo Jie?!

Tsk...

For some reason.

Before losing consciousness, the last scene that floated in Katakuri's mind was actually Roubo Luqi disregarding everything to stand before him, buying time for his companions.

Now that the roles of attacker and defender had reversed, Katakuri realized that he and Roubo Luqi were the same kind of person.

"Truly..."

"It is not just that fellow who is ridiculous; I am as well..."

……

……

……

The next day.

Dawn.

The former site of the Totto Land Fleet.

The flowing magma had already cooled and solidified, leaving behind pieces of scorched black volcanic rock; even the sand in many places presented colors like glazed glass, glittering brilliantly under the sunlight.

Yet Perospero had no mood to appreciate such a beautiful scene; his gaze fell upon Big Mom, who had awakened not long ago in the distance.

The injuries on Big Mom's body had basically healed.

The burns left by Chi Di Cang Xing had completely healed; new skin covered her entire body, and even the hair on her head that had been burned away had grown back, though only as a thin layer.

A ship's sail, which had remained unburned because it was too far away, was draped over Big Mom, barely covering her body but unable to conceal her extremely gloomy expression:

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

"Decades of accumulation, more than half lost in a single night; even the children besides Perospero died in that explosion."

"I will definitely kill you!"

"No!"

"I will make you endure the most painful torture in this world, dying with unwillingness and resentment!"

Curse after curse poured from Big Mom's mouth; coupled with her current wretched appearance, it instead gave her the posture of someone venting impotent rage.

Perospero could not help but think of this point, yet in the end, he lacked the courage to speak the truth of last night aloud.

Gao Wen's attack had indeed destroyed more than half of the fleet, but quite a few had also entered Big Mom's stomach.

He did not know whether Big Mom had truly lost her memory or was subtly coordinating her story with him.

But he knew that once he spoke this fact aloud, given Big Mom's personality, she would never allow him to live, no matter what.

Therefore, those people could only have died at the hands of Knight Gao Wen!

However, what now lay before Totto Land was no longer the question of how to take revenge on Gao Wen.

"Mother, for us right now, the most correct strategy is to retreat immediately and stabilize the overall situation."

"In any case, over on Katakuri's side, the key figure who obtained the Pluton blueprints; continuing to stay here brings us no benefit whatsoever and instead makes us an easy target for everyone."

Big Mom turned her head to look at Perospero, fury burning constantly in her eyes:

"What did you say?!"

"Mother, calm down a bit; you should be able to see it, right?"

Perospero sighed, voicing his opposition to Big Mom's will for the first time:

"Just how severe the problem before us truly is."

"You..."

Big Mom froze for a moment, her gaze falling upon Perospero, her face filled with astonishment that transformed into gratification in the next instant.

If her praise of Perospero before had merely been a symbolic expression of her stance,

then now, this eldest son who had always been overshadowed by Katakuri, and even by Smoothie, Cracker, and others, had truly caught her eye.

"Very good."

"You may stop me at a critical moment, but if your reasoning fails to convince me, even as my eldest son, you must pay the price."

Perospero sighed again, more certain in his heart that no matter the cost, he could not allow this country to remain under Big Mom's rule.

His gaze no longer avoided hers; meeting Big Mom's eyes, he slowly spoke of the situation now facing Totto Land.

Everything that had happened consecutively last night was, for him and for Totto Land, nothing short of a nightmare.

The events in Water 7, along with the attack on Totto Land, would spread across the entire sea within a few days.

The explosion last night produced flames visible from hundreds of miles away; this point did not even require proof.

Ordinary pirates might not be the brightest, but those powerful enough to stand firm on this sea, or even confident enough to come to Water 7 for a share of the spoils, were no fools.

With their capabilities, they would soon deduce the truth of the matter.

What now lay before them was no longer the question of how to obtain the Pluton blueprints, but whether, after obtaining them, Totto Land's remaining strength could protect them.

And this was merely one of the problems facing Totto Land.

Nearly half of the nation's fleet, along with countless combat forces, had been destroyed by Gao Wen.

Upon returning to the New World, the most severe test facing Totto Land was whether it could defend its current territory.

"Do you understand now?"

"Mother..."

"Although we have obtained the Pluton blueprints, our losses this time are far greater than anticipated."

"Once other factions perceive this, what we face next may be a multi-front encirclement and suppression."

Big Mom fell silent, her fists clenched, the fury in her eyes nearly igniting her entire being.

Everything that happened last night was, for her, almost akin to humiliation.

Yet how could she fail to see that the situation before her was, just as Perospero said, so severe it could not be ignored?

For a long while.

Big Mom took a deep breath, barely suppressing the rage in her heart, and with great difficulty spat out a single word:

"Good!"

"Next time!"

"Next time, I will definitely chop that bastard into pieces and feed him to the dogs!"

"I mean what I say!"

Seeing this, Perospero also breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly soothed her:

"Thinking about it positively, this matter might yet become our opportunity."

"Katakuri has already obtained the Pluton blueprints; as long as we can construct it according to the drawings,

"with the power of an Ancient Weapon capable of destroying a nation with a single shot, we could even challenge the World Government directly!"

"By then, the landscape of this sea will inevitably be rewritten, and everything will submit beneath Totto Land's sturdy ships and powerful cannons!"

"Mother~ Mother~"

A slight smile appeared on Big Mom's face; she had already begun envisioning where she would start building her hegemony after obtaining Pluton.

That brat Kaido still owes me a huge favor; all these years we've kept to ourselves, but if he's willing to bow his head, I might just spare him...

As for that brat Shanks, let him repay the debt Luo Jie owed me back then,

That old thing Whitebeard must absolutely die; oh right, and the World Government...

One faction after another flashed through Big Mom's mind; she nearly saw the day she would seize everything with Pluton.

Truly something to look forward to!

With such thoughts, her hatred for Gao Wen seemed to lessen considerably.

However.

As time passed, there was still no word from Katakuri's ship.

One day, two days...

By the night of the third day, Big Mom, having waited for three days, finally grew somewhat impatient; frowning tightly, she asked:

"Still no word from Katakuri? Calculating the time, he should have arrived yesterday!"

(End of Chapter)