Staring at those powerful horns, Katakuri's thoughts drifted once again, pulling him back to secrets whispered from years past.
It was eighteen years ago, when Ortoren was born. Katakuri had only been two at the time, so naturally, he remembered nothing himself. Everything he knew about that period came from stories Mama had told him.
Back then, Charlotte Linlin was still sailing under the banner of the Rocks Pirates. But not long after—just a couple of years—the Battle of God Valley erupted, and the once-feared Rocks Pirates crumbled. The key figures all went their own way, shaping the chaotic, power-divided landscape of today's New World.
So technically, Katakuri and his brothers, now twenty, and Perospero, Charlotte's eldest son at twenty-two, all had their diapers changed aboard Rocks' ship. It's even possible they once peed on legends like the infamous Shiki, Whitebeard Edward Newgate, or Kaidou. Of course, maybe they got flicked away by them too… ahem.
Benn Ortoren was also born aboard the Rocks Pirates' ship. Like the others, he should've carried the Charlotte name, growing up there through infancy. If he'd been lucky, maybe he could've tugged Whitebeard's beard a few times—or even pissed on Shiki's golden mane.
His father was Benn Seronis—a name likely forgotten across the seas today. But twenty years ago, he was a force to be reckoned with in the New World. A Bull-type Mink from the Mokomo Dukedom, Benn Seronis had once been one of its fiercest warriors. After heading to sea, he turned pirate and racked up a bounty of 300 million Belly.
And mind you, this wasn't during the early years of the Great Pirate Era when bounties were handed out like candy. This was twenty years ago—back when a bounty meant something. Three hundred million was enough to mark you as a true heavyweight on the seas.
One day, that fearsome pirate, Benn Seronis, challenged the Rocks Pirates—and was promptly defeated by Charlotte Linlin, then a combatant aboard the ship.
At the time, Linlin was in her early twenties, still at the height of her beauty. But she'd already started her "Charlotte Family" initiative and was well into it—four children born by then.
That's right. Charlotte Linlin gave birth to her first child, Perospero, at just eighteen years old.
So, after losing to her, Benn Seronis essentially became Charlotte Linlin's "spoils of war." She happened to be between partners at the time, and as a strong Mink with solid combat credentials, Benn Seronis naturally became her next "husband" for expanding the Charlotte line.
Beauty and strength—Charlotte Linlin had both in spades back then. Despite being dragged into the family against his will, Benn Seronis only resisted for a short while. Before long, he'd become another man under her heel.
In Ortoren's memory, his eccentric old man adored Charlotte Linlin right up until his death. There was never a trace of resentment, only deep, unwavering love. If nothing else, it spoke to just how irresistible Linlin had been in her youth.
While Benn Seronis might've loved her, to Charlotte Linlin, he was merely a means to an end. Eighteen years ago, Ortoren was born. Linlin, trying out a Mink partner for the first time, had high hopes for this child.
But the result was humiliating.
Ortoren seemed cursed by the Mink bloodline. Aside from the small, tender horns on his forehead—proof of his impure heritage—there was no other sign of Mink lineage. He looked more like a human than anything else.
Worse still, despite his human-like appearance, he had no intelligence. His eyes were dull and lifeless, his behavior no different from a beast's cub, and his body was frail beyond belief. He showed none of Charlotte Linlin's monstrous bloodline, and certainly nothing of the battle-hardened Mink ancestry either.
At first, Charlotte Linlin believed the child was simply too young, that he hadn't developed yet. She patiently cared for him for nearly six months, waiting. But in the end, she had to face the truth—Ortoren was a failure. He couldn't even be called a sentient being. Enraged and humiliated, Charlotte Linlin nearly killed him then and there. It was only because Seronis fought desperately to protect him that Ortoren survived.
Furious and ashamed, Charlotte Linlin immediately cast both Ortoren and Seronis out—banishing them from the Charlotte family and the Rocks Pirates' ship.
And so, Benn Seronis took Ortoren away and raised him alone. Eventually, the child gained sight and, for the first time, experienced the full moon... On that night, the beastlike, mindless Ortoren died—and in his place, a soul from beyond the pirate world was reborn.
To the old man Seronis, it was as if the Moon God had blessed his poor, pitiful son. After that full moon, Ortoren awakened to intelligence, and his frail body began an astonishing transformation at a terrifying pace.
Even so, Seronis never sought out Charlotte Linlin again. Instead, he took his son to an obscure island where they began a life of seclusion.
But by the time Ortoren turned ten, Seronis could no longer restrain the full force of his son's "Sulong" transformation under the full moon. That year, the island where they'd quietly lived for a decade was reduced overnight to a vision of hell—completely devastated by Ortoren's rampage.
Afterward, they moved to Terian Island. Every year since, as the full moon approached, Seronis would take Ortoren to a nearby deserted isle. There, Ortoren would unleash his fury, tearing the island apart. Once the full moon passed, they would return to their peaceful life on Terian.
Two full moons a year—years passed this way without incident. Until about a year ago.
Seronis had grown old.
Unlike monsters like Charlotte Linlin, Seronis had no extraordinary gifts. He only made his name as a Great Pirate after turning forty, and years of battle had left him with hidden injuries. Three days before his sixty-second birthday, Seronis passed away quietly beside the fireplace, a peaceful smile on his face, Ortoren by his side. Though he had spent his final decade in seclusion, his life as a once-feared pirate could still be called a "sinful" one.
After burying his father, Ortoren prepared to face his first full moon alone. He readied his boat as usual and, days before the moon's rise, set sail for the deserted island he had ravaged so many times before.
That twilight, he sat quietly beside a massive boulder on the island, awaiting the moon's ascent—to lose control again, to let the island bear the brunt.
But as dusk fell, a fleet arrived—sails bearing the Big Mom Pirates' emblem. They had come to claim Terian Island, which once belonged to Shiki the Golden Lion, and add it to Totto Land's domain.
Leading them was none other than Charlotte Katakuri, Charlotte Linlin's most prized son.
That day, Katakuri planned to use the deserted island as a forward base for his final assault on Terian.
That day, the Charlotte family's ultimate masterpiece—Charlotte Katakuri—encountered a rampaging monster on the island... and was nearly killed.
And that day, after all those years, Benn Ortoren came once again into the view of the woman who had given him life—Charlotte Linlin.