Katakuri's ship might look absurd—like a giant floating doughnut—but don't let appearances fool you.
Despite how ridiculous it looked, the ship was incredibly fast, which left Ortoren genuinely confused. How could something shaped like a lifebuoy move like that? Still, he quickly shoved the thought aside. That kind of thing was a shipwright's problem, not his.
Terian Island wasn't far from Whole Cake Island, the Big Mom Pirates' headquarters. And with Katakuri's bizarre doughnut-shaped ship, it took just two weeks before the towering castle of Whole Cake Island came into view on the horizon.
On deck, Ortoren was still bare-chested, almost like he was intentionally showing off his powerful build. This time, though, a specialized shoulder strap ran diagonally from his left shoulder down to his waist, securing his heavy warhammer across his back.
The ocean breeze gently swept across his face, making his wild brown hair flutter freely.
"First time traveling this far?" Katakuri had appeared at his side at some point.
He held a plate of donuts in one hand, and when Ortoren glanced over, Katakuri—surprisingly—showed a rare look of hesitation. Then, almost reluctantly, he lifted the plate slightly, as if asking if Ortoren wanted one.
Ortoren rolled his eyes. After this trip, he had a much clearer picture of who Katakuri was. For one thing... the man was obsessed with donuts. Milk-flavored donuts for breakfast, chocolate for lunch, green tea for dinner.
Outside of mealtimes, unless he was buried in work, chances were that if you saw Katakuri, he had a donut in hand.
It made Ortoren seriously wonder if the guy had donut syrup running through his veins.
"No thanks," Ortoren said flatly, clearly disgusted.
"You should know, sharing my donuts is the highest honor I can offer someone," Katakuri replied, clearly trying to justify himself after seeing Ortoren's reaction.
"I believe you, Donut Man," Ortoren deadpanned.
"If there's a donut planet out there, I'm going," Katakuri declared without missing a beat.
They both burst out laughing.
After the chuckles faded, Ortoren said, "Not my first time, actually. I remember when I was ten, the old man took me out to sea. We sailed for months—three or four, I think? That's how we ended up in Terian."
"Why'd he choose Terian?" Katakuri asked offhandedly.
"He never said. But thinking about it now... maybe it's because Terian's close to Whole Cake Island?" Ortoren mused, a teasing grin on his face.
Who could blame him? His old man was a total Linlin fanatic.
Katakuri didn't press the matter. After chewing a few bites of donut, he continued, "When I spoke with Mama over the Den Den Mushi earlier, she was planning to hold a grand tea party in your honor. But unfortunately, we got intel—looks like Shiki is mobilizing a large fleet of the Flying Pirates. He might be coming for us. Since we're already in a wartime state, the tea party had to be canceled."
"Well, that's not good..." Ortoren muttered.
Still, a thought crossed his mind. This year was Sea Circle Calendar 1495. If anything big was going to shake up the New World, he already knew what it would be.
A massive naval battle set to reshape the balance of power was about to erupt—the naval battle of Edd War!
Looking at the state of the New World now, ever since the fall of the Rocks Pirates and all its top dogs going their separate ways, the seas had been a chaotic battlefield of rival factions. And among all the big names currently rising, one stood clearly at the top—Shiki the Golden Lion.
They called him the "Pirate Overlord."
Compared to Shiki's current dominance, the Whitebeard Pirates came off as downright relaxed. They drifted around the world, and now and then, rumors would pop up about Whitebeard, Edward Newgate, picking up another "son" in some distant sea. It was clear they had no real ambition for conquest. As long as no one messed with them, they didn't bother picking fights with anyone else.
Silver Axe, Ochoku, and the other big names that came after Whitebeard had done well for themselves, sure—but none of them came close to Shiki. He was burning with ambition, aiming to seize control of the entire world.
As for Kaidou, Ortoren hadn't heard much about him. Judging by the timeline, though, he was probably about to start stirring up trouble in Wano Country.
Compared to Kaidou and the others, the Big Mom Pirates were actually doing pretty well. But even they lagged behind Shiki. Fortunately, Shiki was so overbearing and aggressive that most of the top figures on the seas had beef with him. He had enemies everywhere. That's the only reason Charlotte Linlin dared to provoke him in the first place.
If you had to describe the New World's balance of power, it'd be "one dominant force, many strong players." And Shiki? He was the dominant force. The Big Mom Pirates? Just one of the strong.
Given how fast his power was growing, Shiki should've been the man most likely to rise to the top of the pirate world after Rocks. Logically, he should've kept building his fleet, sweeping up Kaidou, Ochoku, Silver Axe, Charlotte Linlin—either crushing them or pulling them under his banner to revive the glory of the Rocks era.
But Ortoren knew that this year, Shiki's unstoppable momentum was about to hit a wall.
This time, the massive fleet Shiki assembled probably wasn't meant for Charlotte Linlin—it was for his destined rival... Gol D. Roger!
Shiki's armada would intercept the Roger Pirates in the waters of Edd War. When talks broke down, a fierce battle would erupt. But just as things escalated, a massive, unexpected storm would crash down, putting an end to it all and sealing Shiki's fate in defeat.
Not only would the storm shatter Shiki's pride, but it would also wipe out his mighty fleet and many of his strongest subordinates.
His path to ruling the New World would be completely derailed, and the man himself would suffer a crippling injury—getting a ship's rudder jammed into his head, permanently weakening him.
In fact, it was Shiki's fall that opened the door for the rest of the New World's pirate factions to rise and reap the benefits. Looking at the timeline, it was after this moment that both Kaidou and Charlotte Linlin began to solidify their unshakable positions at the top of the New World.
Thinking about this, Ortoren couldn't help asking curiously, "Do you know where the Edd War Sea is?"
"Edd War?" Katakuri raised an eyebrow at the question but quickly answered. "If you sail straight east from Whole Cake Island at standard speed, you'll get there in about two months."
"That close? Is it part of Totto Land?" Ortoren asked in surprise.
Two months' travel from Whole Cake Island wasn't exactly far.
"Of course not," Katakuri replied with a chuckle, waving it off. "Any sea within Totto Land is renamed 'Totto Land.' But that area is unclaimed—neutral waters. Past Edd War, though, you're in Shiki's territory. It's not far from his main base: the hidden realm of Merveille."
"I see. Sounds like I need to get my hands on a geography book, learn how all these sea zones are laid out," Ortoren said with a grin.
From what he'd just learned from Katakuri, Ortoren was becoming more certain—Shiki's fleet probably wasn't coming after the Big Mom Pirates. He was after Roger.
But where was Roger now? The Roger Pirates were notoriously hard to track. With an elite, streamlined crew sailing one ship and constantly on the move, it was almost impossible to trace them across such a vast sea.
As Ortoren and Katakuri chatted idly and mulled over these things, the donut-shaped ship finally pulled into the port of Whole Cake Island.