"Tsk, tsk, Ace has already made his move, so I can't afford to fall behind!"
Katakuri browsed through the memories Ace had shared with him in his mind.
—Frankly speaking, he had been going easy on his opponent.
He could have used the Devil Fruit abilities shared by Imu-version Su Yue and Doflamingo, but instead he chose to rely on his relatively weak Haki and physical condition to fight head-on against the small giant, Whitebeard.
Fortunately, after the fourfold enhancement, even their weaker aspects still surpassed Whitebeard's by a margin. Otherwise, the outcome of the battle would have been hard to predict.
After all, the opponent was a fully recovered Whitebeard—the genuine World's Strongest Man!
"Katakuri-nii-san."
Just as he was reviewing the 'memories,' Cracker's voice, tinged with a hint of amusement, sounded from behind him.
"You've been in high spirits ever since you returned from Amazon Lily. Has that Empress of the Kuja finally agreed to become your woman?"
Seeing Katakuri's gaze sweep over to him, Cracker seemed to ponder something.
"Speaking of which, Katakuri-nii-san, you must be around forty-five or forty-six this year, right? You really should find yourself a woman. Mama can't give birth to many more younger siblings at this point—it's up to us to expand the Charlotte family now."
Katakuri: …
If he remembered correctly, their thirty-ninth sister had only been born about three months ago, hadn't she?
And Charlotte Linlin was already over sixty years old this year, yet she could still give birth?
What a terrifying woman in every sense of the word!
"It's for a different reason. I can't say it now. You'll find out once we get back."
He shook his head gently, teasing Cracker in response.
"Don't just talk about me. Cracker, is there any girl you've got your eye on right now? You're not actually that much younger than me, you know!"
Hearing Katakuri's words, Cracker's expression suddenly turned dejected.
"Let's not talk about it. I'm not like you, nii-san—the woman you like is the Pirate Empress. Even though we don't think much of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, marrying her would still help expand our Charlotte family, and Mama wouldn't object. As for me, in the end, I'll probably still be used by Mama for a political marriage."
Seeing Cracker so disheartened, Katakuri paused for a moment.
Charlotte Linlin's political marriages didn't take the other party's appearance into consideration at all—she only cared about whether they could contribute to her 'Whole Cake Island.'
If there were real benefits to be gained, she wouldn't care even if Cracker married a woman older and uglier than herself!
There had been precedents before.
"That won't happen."
Katakuri's expression suddenly turned serious, and at the same time, he was giving Cracker a heads-up, speaking with absolute certainty.
"From now on, Cracker, you go find a girl you like. I promise you—from this moment on, your wedding, and the weddings of all our other brothers and sisters, will be held because of love or your own wishes, and absolutely not because of political alliances!"
Cracker, who had been chatting casually but was suddenly faced with Katakuri's serious demeanor, hadn't quite caught up yet, and muttered.
"But Mama…"
"There's no 'but'!"
Katakuri stood up and patted Cracker on the shoulder.
"I'll handle Mama!"
Just then, a panicked shout came from the deck.
"Katakuri-sama! We've run into a storm!"
"I'm on it!"
Katakuri said loudly as he walked onto the deck.
Cracker seemed to want to say something but held back, silently following behind him.
Katakuri-niisan… he seems a bit different these days, doesn't he?
…
The weather on the Grand Line had always been a mystery.
One minute it could be a frozen wasteland at minus thirty degrees, and the next, a sweltering heat exceeding forty degrees. One moment it could be a raging tempest, and the next, dead calm.
Thus, on the Grand Line, where the climate was as unpredictable as a spoiled child, navigators played a crucial role. They helped crews steer clear of many treacherous weather conditions.
But sometimes, because the weather changed so rapidly, ships couldn't turn in time before they unluckily ran straight into it.
Take now, for example.
The sky had been clear blue just moments ago, but within a mere dozen seconds, thick swaths of dark clouds drifted in from who-knows-where.
The clouds moved with alarming speed, as if someone were manipulating them from behind, swiftly blotting out the sky.
In an instant, the entire expanse between sea and sky plunged from daylight into darkness, growing dim at a frightening pace.
Boom!
Then came the thunderous roar, and fierce winds erupted.
Waves shrieked amidst furious spray. The gale scooped up layers of seawater, piling them upon one another, forming towering swells.
Wave upon wave stacked higher and higher. Amidst the surging seas, the ship rocked uneasily.
Boom!
Thunder bellowed in fury, deafening to the ears. Blue-violet lightning flashed within the dark clouds, like an enraged dragon twisting its body, casting only a brief, blinding light downward.
"Katakuri-sama?"
Seeing Katakuri step onto the deck, the crew members bowed in trepidation.
"Why have you come out? It's about to rain. Both you and Cracker-sama are Devil Fruit users—please, head into the cabin!"
The first mate, who had served under Katakuri for over a decade, turned his back to the storm and smiled nonchalantly.
"Storms like this? We've seen plenty on the Grand Line!"
Boom!
As if displeased by the first mate's dismissiveness, thunder crashed once more.
With the thunder, the gale began to converge, and the waves started to spin.
Within mere seconds, the wind grew fiercer, the waves taller.
The tempest howled. Under the complex interplay of weather systems, the winds joined hands and began to rotate, forming a tornado—a colossal waterspout that connected the pitch-black sea and sky, turning rain into whips and raging waves into serpents, a monstrous spectacle of nature's fury!
The first mate's face went pale in an instant.
A storm and a tornado—those were two completely different beasts!
Not to mention a wooden sailing ship of the pirate world—even a modern steel behemoth, if sucked into a tornado, would meet its doom with ship and crew destroyed.
"Katakuri-sama, please!"
With no other recourse, the first mate could only turn his desperate gaze to Katakuri.
"Hm."
Katakuri nodded.
He looked at the funnel-shaped vortex of violently rotating clouds not far off, which, as luck would have it, was barreling straight toward them at high speed.
At this point, he and Cracker could flee, but the ship certainly couldn't outrun it.
So it seemed the only way through was to shatter this tornado.
Thinking this with perfect composure, Katakuri drew a deep breath and tilted his head up slightly.
The next moment—
"GET LOST!!"
A terrifying wave of sound erupted from Katakuri's mouth, combined with the violent Conqueror's Haki he unleashed, like a colossal hand from the heavens that thundered through the atmosphere and charged straight at the tornado.
Invisible currents surged forward, like a wild army, a force of gods and demons.
Feeling this imposing force, cold sweat trickled down Cracker's face.
His Observation Haki told him that a terrifying invisible impact of unimaginable proportions was surging forward in attack.
Soon, the invisible hand in the air collided with the tornado. In the clash between the air currents, an enormous amount of energy was released, producing a violent explosion.
Boom!
In an instant, the explosion shattered the tornado. Then, Katakuri's Conqueror's Haki shockwave continued upward with overwhelming force, breaking through and tearing apart the lightning and dark clouds in the sky.
A moment later, the thick cloud layer was scattered. The thunder and lightning vanished into nothingness.
Sunlight once again poured down, shining unobstructed upon the azure waves of the sea, beautiful as a painting.
Witnessing this stunning scene, Cracker's eyes trembled, and he remained silent for a long time.
Just by sound and Conqueror's Haki alone, he could shatter a tornado? Katakuri-nii-san had become this strong already!
Beside him, Katakuri, who had roared and shattered the tornado and clouds with a single shout, nodded calmly at his dumbfounded first mate.
"Keep moving. We'll speed up our return to Whole Cake Island."
…
"Katakuri-nii-san, you're back."
"Mm."
"Katakuri-nii-san."
"Mm."
"Lord Katakuri!"
"Mm."
After spending several days to reach Totto Land, Katakuri headed straight for Whole Cake Island. Along the way, many of his younger siblings greeted the second son of the Charlotte family, and Katakuri nodded in response to each one.
Behind him, deliberately hushed voices continued to sound.
"Lord Katakuri is actually this handsome?"
"With a face this handsome, why does he cover it with a scarf?"
But there were also those familiar with Katakuri, such as Oven and Opera. Seeing him, they were all stunned.
"Katakuri, your face?"
Katakuri nodded lightly and smiled at the two.
"It's been healed."
At this moment, although he still wore a wide white scarf, he no longer deliberately concealed his face, revealing the face that had once borne a massive demonic mouth with crack-like repair marks on his cheeks—now restored to a sleek, thin-lipped visage of the whale-fish type, thanks to the Devil Fruit he had obtained from Im's version of Su Yue.
He asked his two biological younger brothers, who were frozen in place, still not having snapped out of the shock of Katakuri's breathtaking beauty.
"Where's Mama?"
"Mama, she…"
Oven was about to answer when suddenly, from the center of Whole Cake Island, Charlotte Linlin's roar echoed out.
"Fortalra chestnut dessert! I want to eat Fortalra chestnut dessert!"
Instantly, all the Big Mom Pirate Crew members who had experienced this before wore looks of terror.
"Oh no, Mama's eating disorder has flared up!"
Cracker, who had followed Katakuri here, said with a pale face.
"But Fortalra Island is half a month's voyage away from here! Is there any stock on the nearby islands?"
"Yes!"
Though Oven's expression was also grim, he still said thankfully.
"Chiffon's Fluffy Island has Fortalra chestnut desserts in stock. I'll go right now…"
But at that moment, Katakuri stopped Oven, who was about to set off.
"Wait. Oven, go later."
"Later?"
Hearing this, Oven looked at Katakuri in confusion.
"But the longer Mama's eating disorder is delayed, the more destruction she'll cause!"
"That won't happen."
Amid Cracker's silence, Katakuri laughed.
"This time, the home we worked so hard to build won't be destroyed so easily."
"Huh?"
Oven wanted to say something more, but saw sticky mochi masses form beneath Katakuri's feet. With a few elastic bounds, he quickly arrived before Charlotte Linlin.
At this moment, due to the onset of her food craving disorder, Charlotte Linlin's face—which had long since lost its youthful beauty—now appeared even more ferocious.
Her bloated visage, lips that were practically a gaping maw, the layers upon layers of wrinkles on her face, bloodshot eyes, and crazed gaze directly frightened many of the Charlotte family children into tears.
"I want to eat Fordra chestnut dessert! I want to eat Fordra chestnut dessert!"
Standing nearly nine meters tall, she unleashed terrifying monstrous strength. The castle structure, built from candy and confections and hard as stone, was smashed into fragments with a single punch.
The people around her fled in utter despair, faces twisted in panic, running for their lives with tears streaming down their cheeks.
"Aaaah!!"
"The captain's food craving disorder is acting up again—everyone run!"
"Mama, please, I beg you, calm down!"
After those seemingly well-intentioned shouts, amid the horrified expressions of countless Charlotte family members—especially Oven, and others—Katakuri raised high his right fist, which had turned pitch black.
You old hag, I've been putting up with you for far too long!
Craving chestnut dessert? Here, have a taste of my fist instead!