— Real World. Whole Cake Island. —
None of Linlin's children had objections to their mother's decision regarding Kozuki Momonosuke. Their concerns were practical rather than moral.
ally: Charlotte Perospero, as the eldest, was already running calculations about obstetric risk. Their mother was in her sixties. Her physical constitution was extraordinary by any measure, but the biology involved in what she was proposing was not fully covered by extraordinary physical constitution. The Big Mom Pirates had many doctors. They did not have a specialist.
Perospero put "kidnap a qualified gynecologist" on the agenda before the meeting had properly concluded. Nothing was permitted to happen to his mother. Whatever the future held, it would not include a preventable medical complication.
The news traveled quickly.
It always did on Whole Cake Island, where the population lived in the contentment of people whose food and shelter were secured in exchange for periodic contributions of lifespan — a price that, weighed against the alternatives available in the outside world, most residents had concluded was acceptable. Life outside was free and unpredictable. A shipwreck, a pirate encounter, an illness far from any port — any of these could end a young life without warning. Life under Big Mom's management was controlled, but it was continuous.
When a happy event occurred, everyone on the island was invested in sharing it.
Kozuki Momonosuke was not aware that he was currently the subject of a happy event.
He was aware that the courtyard he and his retainers had been assigned was comfortable. He was aware that the food being delivered was extraordinary. He was aware that Kinemon had been attempting to taste-test everything that arrived in case of poison, and that after several days of consistent non-poisoning, Kinemon's vigilance had been supplemented by the young master's impatience, and the young master had been eating directly and rapidly and without waiting.
He was also aware, in the vague way of someone who has not been given information but can sense a general direction, that something about his situation had changed in the past day. The crowds at the perimeter of the courtyard had started small and become substantial. People pressed against the outer boundary in numbers that required Big Mom Pirates crew members to manage. They wore the clothes of ordinary Whole Cake Island civilians, not the distinctive fashion of Linlin's children.
Kinemon observed his young master's physical development with the distress of a loyal retainer who understands that this trajectory will create problems later. The child had been hungry for a long time before arriving here. He was compensating comprehensively. His physique was, in Kinemon's private assessment, developing in a horizontal direction.
Kanjuro was standing at the courtyard's edge, trying to resolve the sounds from outside into something intelligible. The mixture of voices and the distance made it difficult.
"It's lively today," he said. "Everyone seems to be watching us."
"Watching us?" Momonosuke extracted his head from a pile of food items and looked out at the assembled faces. "Why?"
The hundreds of eyes looking back at him carried a variety of expressions: curiosity, amusement, a anticipatory excitement that he did not have the context to interpret.
The comments being exchanged outside were not quiet.
"So Wano samurai all wear their hair like that. No aesthetic sense at all."
"Don't talk carelessly. That's Lady Linlin's new husband. You'll get yourself in trouble."
"Lady Linlin's body is like a mountain. Can this child actually—" The rest of the sentence dissolved into laughter from the group around the speaker.
The men had moved directly to anatomical speculation about the wedding night. The physical discrepancy between the parties involved had apparently inspired considerable creative discussion about how such an arrangement would function in practice. The women were focused more on Momonosuke's general presentation, which they found underwhelming compared to the version of him the Sky Screen had broadcast — the future lord of Wano Country was, at present, a small boy sitting inside a pile of pastries.
"The Sky Screen gets people's expectations too high," someone observed. "Meeting him in person after all that — you feel let down."
"It's not the Sky Screen's fault. The person just hasn't grown into it yet."
The noise eventually reached an administrative threshold, and Charlotte Smoothie arrived.
The crowd response to her appearance was immediate and genuine. She was popular here — the combination of long legs, exceptional looks, and well-established capability produced the kind of admiration that people in physically vulnerable positions feel toward people who are not in physically vulnerable positions. Her presence was both reassuring and intimidating in equal measure, and the balance between those two things was exactly right. The discussion about Momonosuke did not stop, but it became quieter and better-behaved.
She took a position at the courtyard entrance and made it clear, without saying much, that this was where the boundary was.
Charlotte Hikaru's name was in the civilian conversations as well. The Sky Screen had shown her — a small girl with black hair who had, in the future broadcast, done something impressive enough to save Charlotte Katakuri from a Marine Admiral's attention. The people of Whole Cake Island had adopted her as a figure of anticipation: a child who did not yet exist, whose eventual birth they were treating as something to look forward to on their collective behalf. The stronger the next generation of Big Mom's children, the more secure the lives of everyone on the island.
They approved of Linlin's plan for exactly this reason, and they said so to each other with the warmth of people who are genuinely invested in the outcome.
Momonosuke's attention had moved from the crowd to Charlotte Smoothie.
He was, by his own assessment, precocious. He had, in addition, seen the future broadcast and had certain relevant information. In that future, Charlotte Smoothie — long legs, excellent figure, the particular quality of someone who is comfortable with their own presence — was identified as his fiancée. The future version of himself had good taste. He could not argue with that.
He was, at present, a boy with food on his face looking at a woman approximately the size of a building, and the gap between current circumstances and future ones felt significant. But the direction was correct.
Kanjuro had finally decoded enough of the surrounding noise to assemble a coherent picture of what was being said.
He stood very still for a moment.
Kozuki Momonosuke. Lady Linlin's new husband. The bridal chamber. The physical logistics of the arrangement, as discussed at some length by the crowd. Lady Linlin's most recent positive pregnancy test was not something anyone was anticipating yet, but the general intention had apparently been communicated to the population and received with enthusiasm.
Kanjuro thought about the future lord of Wano Country, and about the nature of service to the Kozuki clan, and about the image of a very small horse and a very large cart.
He could not find the right expression for his face. He tried several. None of them were adequate.