"I'm afraid it won't just be the captains who die—Aunt Linlin, your children will be dragged into it too."
Faced with Charlotte Linlin's stubbornness and rising anxiety,
Ragnar only said one line—and it made the moody, natural-born destroyer freeze in place.
"What do you mean by that, Ragnar?"
"Aunt Linlin doesn't seem to understand."
The furious Charlotte Linlin was momentarily stunned.
"This sea... doesn't belong to the Four Emperors alone."
Ragnar turned his head, his gaze shifting toward the distant dark waters.
To ordinary eyes, the sea was shrouded in a curtain of black.
Endless darkness. Nothing else.
"What did you say?"
Charlotte Linlin snapped her head around, her ferocious, bloodthirsty eyes darting wildly.
Just as she was about to calm herself and activate her Observation Haki—
Ragnar raised a hand to his forehead, fingers pressing gently against his brow.
"Hmph. A coward hiding in the dark..."
A cold snort.
Then a beam of divine light split the night sky, exposing all illusions.
In the next moment—
A slouched, unkempt figure came into view.
The figure, clearly not expecting to be exposed, stiffened under Ragnar's gaze. Then, in a flash of gold—
He vanished at lightning speed.
"Yel... Yellow Monkey!!"
Linlin's face twisted in shock.
If it were any other admiral who disrupted her plans, she'd already be swinging Napoleon without a word.
But Kizaru... was different.
She grit her teeth, eyes locked on the direction he disappeared.
"Why is he here?"
"Doesn't the Navy always keep at least one admiral at headquarters?!"
King's pupils contracted, cold sweat running down his back.
He'd thought the Navy's role in this war had ended after Ragnar crushed Aokiji and Akainu.
One of the Three Great Powers—eliminated in a single sweep.
And yet, the Navy had saved their last card for now.
"Rules are for the weak," Ragnar said. "The strong rewrite them."
Even after forcing Kizaru into retreat, Ragnar didn't close his Sky Eye.
Instead, his gaze reached farther.
Out across the dark sea, a massive warship drifted silently.
Then—
That familiar golden light appeared once again.
Kizaru had returned.
But this time, there was another figure on the ship.
Old. Slightly hunched. Unassuming—until you saw her eyes.
"The Navy still has sharp ones," Ragnar said, retracting the Sky Eye.
"Not only did she see through my plan, she dared to send out their last admiral."
"Impressive."
Charlotte Linlin tilted her head. "A sharp one?"
Now that Kizaru was gone, her rage had vanished too.
Instead, she felt relief.
If Ragnar hadn't spotted Kizaru lurking in time…
If he had waited until after she'd exhausted herself against Whitebeard and Red Hair—
Just imagining it made her body tremble.
She was no longer interested in chasing pirates.
What intrigued her now was the person behind all this.
"Are you saying someone in the Navy saw through your plan?" Kaido spoke grimly.
Even he hadn't known Ragnar's true objective.
He'd assumed only someone like Ben Beckman could even come close to guessing it.
Yet someone had not only seen through it—but acted before Beckman.
Ragnar exhaled lightly.
"Crane."
"So it was her…"
Kaido narrowed his eyes as realization dawned.
"No wonder you dared to dispatch your last admiral with no backup at headquarters. If anyone in the Navy could sniff out our plans… it had to be Tsuru."
Though he'd sensed Kizaru's presence clearly, Tsuru had remained elusive—her aura suppressed, carefully hidden. She had evaded even his advanced Observation Haki.
"Damn that Crane!" Charlotte Linlin shrieked toward the heavens, her voice bursting with rage.
The very sound of her fury became a weapon—razor-sharp waves of sound erupted from her throat, rippling through the air and sea. In an instant, her Conqueror's Haki fused with that roar, blasting the surrounding waters into chaos once more.
The sea, which had just begun to settle, was churned into a maelstrom again.
"It was so close… Whitebeard and Red-Hair were nearly in our grasp!"
"Damn the Navy! Damn that old hag Tsuru!"
Her howls turned to hoarse growls, a demonic edge creeping into her bloodshot eyes. Her rage was absolute—but within it, clarity began to return.
"Those five Emperors… they were almost cooked and ready to serve. And they still slipped away!"
She exhaled deeply, chest heaving. Her voice dropped to a low, hateful murmur:
"This isn't over. Sooner or later… the Navy will pay for this."
Her sons, save for Katakuri, stood frozen in terror—none dared move, let alone speak.
Even the children of a Yonko knew: when Big Mom was like this, no one wanted to draw her attention.
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