Somewhere in the New World, aboard Charlotte Linlin's pirate ship…
Linlin sat in a chair with her upper body slumped over the table, staring at the Transponder Snail in front of her. She had just dialed Zechs' baby Transponder Snail.
Buruburu… Buruburu… Buruburu…
The snail kept ringing.
Minutes passed, but there was still no response from the other side.
Linlin's expression darkened. She cut the call and pouted, muttering to herself, "How long is he going to take?"
It had already been a week since their battle against Admiral Kong and their subsequent retreat. Since then, Linlin had tried to contact Zechs repeatedly via the Transponder Snail to check on his situation and reunite.
But no matter how many times she called his transponder snail, there was never any answer.
Frustration bubbled up inside her.
She slammed her fist onto the table, cracking the wood with a loud crack.
Zeus and Prometheus both flinched. Several members of Linlin's crew did the same.
Everyone could tell she was angry and very unhappy.
But none of them knew what to say to calm her down. Some had even begun quietly to wonder whether Zechs might already be dead.
Just then, Streusen approached her carrying a large plate filled with delicious sweets and a pot of tea. He placed it on the table in front of her and spoke in a cheerful tone.
"Linlin… for now, forget about him. Here, have some Semla. It's your tea time, isn't it?"
If there was anyone secretly pleased by Zechs' absence and by the fact that he wasn't answering Linlin's calls, it was Streusen. In fact, he sincerely hoped that Asmodeus Zechs was already dead and would never return to Linlin's side.
At the same time, he had been making extra efforts to please her, constantly preparing her favorite sweets in hopes of regaining her favor, and perhaps one day obtaining the same closeness with her that Zechs had.
'Well… she may not be a virgin anymore,' he thought, but that's fine. 'She can still give birth to my Perospero and Compote.'
With that thought, Streusen waited eagerly for Linlin to start eating the Semla he had prepared for her. Normally, sweets always excited her. Once she sees sweets and begins eating, she forgets everything, her troubles, her worries, even the people around her.
He expected the usual scene: Linlin devouring the desserts and praising their taste, perhaps even crying at how delicious they were.
But this time, things were different.
Linlin didn't look excited at all. In fact, she didn't even start salivating at the sight of the large plate of Semla.
The sight of the Semla reminded her of another day long ago, her sixth birthday.
Back then, Mother Caramel and the other children from the Sheep's House had prepared Semla for her. She had eaten them all with delight. But after that day, those people had suddenly disappeared.
She had never seen them again.
For years, she had tried to find them, but no matter how hard she searched, there was never any trace.
Thinking about their disappearance now made her recall something else: how Zechs had suddenly vanished from her side as well.
'Zechs… are you going to abandon me and disappear like this too?' she wondered silently.
The thought made her eyes sting with tears.
She stared at the Semla for a moment longer before shaking her head, "I'm not in the mood for this right now."
"N-not… in the mood?" Streusen stared at her in disbelief.
He wasn't the only one shocked. Almost everyone in Linlin's crew froze, 'A-Ane-san… isn't in the mood for sweets prepared by the Head Chef?'
The scene was completely unexpected. From everything they knew about their captain, Linlin was so obsessed with sweets that she rarely shared them with anyone else. Most of the time, she would devour everything herself without leaving even a single piece behind.
So seeing Linlin push aside a full plate of sweets was something no one had anticipated.
Streusen stammered, his expression turning stiff and uneasy. "I-if you're not in the mood for Semla… then how about I prepare something else?" he asked, clearly eager for her to eat something he had made.
But Linlin remained silent for a moment before shaking her head, "…I'm not in the mood."
Hearing her refuse again, Streusen's face darkened.
At that moment, words he had overheard between Asmodeus Zechs and Linlin suddenly echoed in his mind, the conversation that had taken place on the deck while she had knelt before Zechs in a disheveled state.
Zechs: 'Between my cum and your head chef Streusen's cooking… which is better?'
Linlin: 'Of course it's your cum. How could Streusen's cooking even compare to that? This is definitely the most delicious thing in the world!'
Remembering those words, Streusen felt as if the chef's hat on his head had turned green with envy. A sharp pain stabbed through his chest, and he nearly felt like coughing up blood.
'S-so… that's the reason you won't eat my sweets…?' he thought bitterly. 'Because you want… that instead?'
A storm of emotions churned inside Streusen: bitterness, jealousy, sadness, and humiliation. Yet there was nothing he could do about it.
Linlin, however, didn't notice his reaction at all. Her thoughts were fixed elsewhere, on Zechs.
'No… I won't let you abandon me and disappear like this. Definitely not.' With that thought, she turned toward Zechs' navigator, who had been staying aboard her ship along with the rest of Zechs' surviving crew.
"Rob," she asked, "don't you have Zechs' Vivre Card?"
Rob shook his head. "Captain didn't want a Vivre Card made."
"Why?" Linlin asked.
"Um… I'm not really sure," Rob admitted, scratching his head. "But he once said something like, 'If there's a Vivre Card of mine, it'll be difficult to go out to buy milk.'"
Linlin frowned. "Go out to buy milk? What does that even mean?"
Rob shrugged. "I don't understand it either. The captain often says things that make no sense to me or anyone else. Then he just laughs and refuses to explain."
Linlin sighed. "He's not answering the Transponder Snail… and there's no Vivre Card either," she muttered to herself. "So how are we supposed to find him?"
In fact, another possibility had already begun to creep into her mind, the possibility that something terrible had happened to him… that he might even be dead.
But she refused to think about that.
Just as she was wondering what to do, one of her crewmates suddenly ran toward her and reported in a panicked voice.
"Ane-san… trouble! Marine warships are here again!"
"What?!"
Linlin immediately forgot everything else and shot to her feet. She rushed outside, with Zeus and Prometheus following close behind, leaving Streusen standing there with an increasingly sour expression.
…
Standing on the deck, Linlin raised a monocular to her eye and spotted several Marine warships approaching in the distance.
"Damn it… It's that monkey again," she muttered irritably. "And he even has that chump Sengoku with him…"
The Marine ships were still far away for now, but if they continued on their current course, they would eventually close in on her ship, just as they had a week ago.
If Zechs were here with her, she might have tried to fight. Emphasis on 'might' because she knows that fighting would have been a terrible idea.
After all, it had taken both her and Zechs to barely defend against Kong; even then, Zechs' ship was destroyed, and god knows, here he is at the moment, and now Sengoku, who is also the user of a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, was there as well.
She knew she wasn't going to escape at all if she ended up engaging… and knew what she should be doing, "I guess we have to bolt again."
Having made her decision, she immediately ordered her crew to get moving. At the same time, she turned to her two strongest homies.
"Create a thunderstorm," she commanded. "Make it difficult for them to get close."
"Hai, Mama."
Zeus and Prometheus nodded and began their work. Soon, a violent thunderstorm started forming, one that targeted the distant Marine ships while leaving Linlin's own vessel untouched.
Rumble… rumble!
Lightning crashed down from the sky again and again, striking toward the Marine warships. Yet Linlin quickly realized something was wrong, the attacks weren't having any effect.
"What the hell is going on?" she muttered with a frown.
…
Standing at the figurehead of one of the Marine warships, Kong calmly peeled a banana in his hand. He glanced at the lightning bolts crashing down around the fleet and chuckled, completely unconcerned.
"Bananananana… it's not going to work, Charlotte Linlin," he said lazily. "Knowing what you can do with that cloud homie of yours, we came prepared."
He took a bite of the banana and glanced at the metal rod fixed to the side of the warship, its base dipped into the seawater.
"Lightning won't work… not with that thing in place."
…
Back on Linlin's pirate ship—
"It's a lightning rod," Rob muttered while looking through the monocular.
"A lightning rod?" Linlin frowned. She had never heard of such a thing. "What's a lightning rod?"
Rob quickly answered her doubt.
"You can think of it as a magnet for lightning," he explained. "Any lightning that strikes nearby gets drawn to the rod instead. The current then travels through it and into the sea, so the ship itself stays unharmed."
"Huh? Doesn't that make Zeus's attacks almost useless?" Linlin muttered.
"…Yes," nodded Rob after some hesitation.
Linlin bit her lips and began thinking, 'Since Zeus' lightning is useless… something else would have to be used here…' and began to wonder what else she could do. Fighting was the last thing she wanted right now, so she needed another way to deal with the situation.
After a moment of thought, an idea came to her, 'If Zeus's abilities aren't working… then I'll just create another homie.'
She already knew what kind of homie she wanted.
Gathering a portion of her own soul, she formed it in her palm into a translucent pink sphere. Without hesitation, she dropped it into the ocean below.
A moment later, the sea stirred.
A small mass of water separated from the sea's surface, rising into the air and gathering into the shape of a large droplet. The watery form, resembling a cheerful slime, wobbled slightly before calling out happily, "Mama…"
"I'll call you… hmm…" Linlin paused for a moment, thinking. Then her eyes lit up. "Oceanus."
"Oceanus? I am Oceanus, Mama!" the water homie replied happily, accepting the name she had given it.
Linlin nodded and issued her command. "Oceanus, create tsunamis! Sink those Marine warships so they can't chase us."
The new homie nodded eagerly with a sinister smile, "Understood, Mama!" and then plunged back into the ocean.
Rob watched with bated breath as the ocean around them suddenly grew still. The unnatural calm made him frown.
"Is it not working?" he murmured. "Is the Devil Fruit power being negated because of the seawater…?"
But the next moment shattered that thought.
The stillness vanished as the ocean suddenly began to churn. The water surged violently, and a massive wave rose from the sea, towering higher and higher…
Rob's mouth fell open in shock as he stared at the enormous wave, easily over a hundred meters tall.
"R-right…" he muttered to himself. "Seawater doesn't negate Devil Fruit powers… it only weakens the user if they're submerged. There's no reason her homie would be affected…"
Linlin grinned fiercely, "Good, Oceanus… now sink them!"
"Hai, Mama!" Oceanus answered loudly.
The gigantic wave surged forward, racing toward the Marine fleet, ready to crash down on the warships and drag them to the bottom of the ocean.
…
On the Marine warship—
Kong had been grinning ear to ear while casually enjoying his banana, thinking that Charlotte Linlin couldn't escape anymore and was already in the bag. All he had to do was place the cuffs and collar on her and deliver her to the Holy Land to complete his mission and then he can finally go to the Banana Island.
'There's still enough time… with this, I'll be able to make it to the banana island and enjoy all the Bananas…'
But the moment he noticed the colossal tsunami rising from the other side of the sea, his expression froze. His jaw slowly dropped as he stared at the towering wall of water, hundreds of meters high, rushing toward the Marine fleet, "This… this isn't good…!"
On the warship beside him stood a young man with black hair styled in an afro. He wore a white and yellow pinstripe suit beneath the Marine cloak of justice, its blue epaulets marking his rank as a Rear Admiral. A pair of round glasses rested on his face.
This young man was none other than Rear Admiral Sengoku. He had joined the Marines six years ago and had already risen to the rank of Rear Admiral.
Although that was an impressive achievement, it was only the beginning of his career. If Zechs or Pudding had been present, they would have known that within the next two decades, he would rise even higher, becoming one of the three Admirals and eventually the Fleet Admiral of Marine Headquarters.
Like Admiral Kong, he was a man with a remarkable future. Even now, he possessed tremendous untapped potential, thanks to his Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit and his Conqueror's Haki.
Standing at the goat-shaped figurehead of his ship, Sengoku also noticed the rising wall of water in the distance.
Seeing the tsunami, nearly a hundred meters tall and rapidly approaching, he couldn't help but tense up. Turning toward Kong's warship, he shouted, "Admiral! A tsunami is coming our way!"
A vein bulged on Kong's forehead as he shouted back, "I know! I can see it too!"
Sengoku quickly realized his mistake and nodded. "Right… you can see it too." Then he asked, "What should we do, Admiral?"
Given the size of the tsunami, and the fact that it spread across a vast stretch of ocean, simply changing the fleet's direction wasn't a real option. Even if they did turn away, they would lose track of Charlotte Linlin, and it could take a long time to find her again. That would only make things more troublesome.
Hearing Sengoku's question, Kong fell silent for a moment.
'Damn… is this just bad luck?' he wondered. 'Did a natural tsunami appear at the worst possible moment… or did Charlotte Linlin cause it herself?'
Honestly, he couldn't be sure. Tsunamis weren't rare on the Grand Line, especially in the New World. In fact, he would prefer it to be nothing more than bad luck, because the alternative was far more troubling. If Charlotte Linlin could create a tsunami on top of a thunderstorm, then she would be far more dangerous than they had assumed.
But this wasn't the time to dwell on that.
Right now, they have to deal with the incoming wave.
"What else can we do?" Kong barked. "Prepare to tear through the tsunami. We're not letting it stop us from capturing Charlotte Linlin."
"Understood, Admiral!" Sengoku replied with a sharp nod.
A tsunami might be disastrous for most people, but for monsters like them, men with overwhelming strength and powerful Devil Fruits, it was hardly an insurmountable obstacle.
At Kong's signal, both of them decided to take action and activated their Devil Fruit powers.
Kong's body began to glow with a fierce red aura as his form started to change, from a three-meter-tall human to a thirty-meter-tall great ape…
At the same time, Sengoku's body shone with golden light, rapidly growing larger as he transformed.
Sengoku had eaten the Zoan-type Hito Hito no Mi, Mythical Model: Daibutsu. In this form, he could transform into a gigantic golden Buddha, nearly as large as Kong's Ozaru beast form.
His Devil Fruit also granted him the ability to unleash powerful shockwaves from his palms.
The moment his transformation was completed, Sengoku thrust his hands forward and fired massive shockwaves toward the approaching tsunami.
'Impact Wave!'
At the same time, Kong roared, unleashing devastating sonic blasts from his mouth.
'Great Roar!'
Their combined attacks tore massive gaps through the towering wall of water, allowing the Marine warships to sail through the broken wave as the Marines on board cheered, "OOooh… we escaped it… for a moment, I was really worried that we might sink…"
Kong and Sengoku both felt a measure of relief and were about to deactivate their Devil Fruit powers now that the tsunami had been dealt with.
But at that moment, from her pirate ship, Linlin crossed her arms over her chest and smirked, "So you dealt with it… But now… what are you going to do about the dozen other waves, you monkey?"
That was the problem.
It hadn't been just one wave.
Behind the first tsunami, a dozen more loomed in the distance, lined up one after another. Each was just as massive as the first. Linlin had already anticipated that a single wave wouldn't be enough, so she had ordered Oceanus to keep creating more, wave after wave, to stall the Marine fleet or sink it entirely.
Kong and Sengoku quickly realized the situation wasn't over. They would have to deal with far more than a single tsunami.
Their expressions tightened, especially Kong's. At that moment, he seemed to understand perfectly, "This isn't a coincidence… Charlotte Linlin can actually create tsunamis as well…!"
The realization was troubling. If that were true, it would have significantly raised the level of her threat.
The Marines aboard the warships also noticed the incoming walls of water, and panic began to spread.
"A-are we really going to die…?"
There was no time to dwell on it.
"Everyone—hold onto something tightly!" Kong and Sengoku shouted at the same time.
The Marines immediately grabbed whatever they could, bracing themselves for the impact.
Meanwhile, Kong and Sengoku prepared to break through the next waves. They could handle the tsunamis, but doing so would take time and drain their strength.
And that delay was exactly what Linlin needed.
While the Marine fleet struggled against the relentless waves, her ship sailed away at full speed, disappearing into the distance.
Realizing that Charlotte Linlin was slipping away once again, Kong clenched his teeth and roared, "This isn't over, Linlin!"
Linlin only laughed in response. "Mama… mama… first survive this," she called back mockingly. "Then say that this isn't over."
After saying that, Linlin turned away, no longer paying attention to the Marine fleet. With her three homies, Zeus, Prometheus, and the newly created Oceanus, following behind, she began walking back toward her cabin.
As she made her way inside, she murmured quietly to herself, "Zechs… where the fuck are you? You didn't really… die, right?"
…
At the same time, on a certain island in the New World—
A barefoot girl moved slowly through a wet, muddy rainforest. Her clothes were torn and disheveled, her face smeared with dirt, and her brown hair hung in tangled strands around her shoulders. Several wounds marked her body, and even her lip was split and bleeding.
The rain and mud only made her look worse. In her current state, she might easily have been mistaken for a thief, or perhaps a tribal girl who had lived on a remote island far removed from civilization.
Yet despite her miserable appearance, she carefully searched the forest floor for specific plants, roots, flowers, stems, and herbs.
"This should… um… work… if I remember correctly… and maybe I can find…" she murmured.
After some effort, she managed to pull a certain root from the ground, pricking her fingers in the process. She barely reacted. Casually licking the blood from her fingers, she placed the root into a makeshift cloth bag she had fashioned by tearing strips from her own clothes.
As she continued searching, she suddenly noticed a small snake slithering along a nearby tree branch, clearly poised to strike.
Without hesitation, she grabbed a pointed stone from the ground and hurled it.
Tuk… Puff.
The stone struck the snake squarely in the head, killing it instantly.
Seeing the successful hit, the girl smiled faintly and praised herself, "Um… good shooting skills as always. With this, lunch is secured."
She carefully approached the dead snake, picked it up, and draped its body around her neck. With no other way to carry it, that was the simplest solution while she continued searching for more herbs she remembered from her knowledge.
After several more hours of searching, she finally sighed.
"I couldn't find them all…"
She had looked for a long time but still hadn't managed to gather every herb she needed. Glancing up at the sky, she noticed the sun beginning to set.
Realizing that the remaining herbs might not even grow on this island, she reluctantly gave up. Shaking her head, she began leaving the area and soon arrived at the bank of a nearby river.
At the riverbank, a massive Megalodon, dozens of times larger than the girl, lay half-submerged in the water, seemingly asleep. One part of its enormous body rested in the river while the rest remained above the surface.
Despite standing beside one of the ocean's top predators that could eat the girl alive in a single bite and not even feel like having eaten anything, the girl did not feel any fear.
She gently caressed the shark's rough scales and spoke softly, as if speaking to a domesticated pet, "Meg-chan… it's time to wake up."
"Zoooo~"
At her voice, the giant mackerel shark stirred and slowly woke. It made a low sound that the girl recognized as a pleased rumble.
She giggled lightly, "Ehehe… Meg-chan likes it when I stroke her scales, right?"
"Zooooo~"
The shark responded again before lowering itself deeper into the water, leaving only its large dorsal fin above the surface.
Taking the opportunity, the girl jumped onto its back and grabbed the fin tightly as the massive shark began swimming through the river.
As Meg-chan glided through the water, the girl watched the scenery pass by. Her expression slowly grew complicated and melancholic, as if she had drifted into her thoughts.
"Zooooo~"
She only snapped out of it when the shark suddenly slowed and came to a stop while signalling her that they had arrived at their destination.
Looking around, she realized they had indeed reached her destination. Carefully, she jumped down from the shark's back while holding tightly to her cloth bag and the dead snake she carried.
"Thank you, Meg-chan," she said softly.
She stroked the shark's scales one more time, making it rumble contentedly before it dove back into the water and swam away, likely to hunt for its own meal.
The girl didn't linger either.
Moving quickly, she made her way toward a crude shelter hidden among large jungle leaves. She pushed through the foliage and carefully pulled the leaves back into place behind her to conceal the entrance.
Inside the shelter, she looked toward the figure lying within and called out gently, "Zechs-sama… I'm back."
But there was no response.
Her expression became somewhat downcast.
After placing the dead snake on a nearby leaf, she turned toward the unconscious and wounded man lying on a makeshift bed of leaves and grass.
Biting her lip, she spoke to him with teary eyes, "Zechs-sama… It's already been more than a week… when are you going to wake up?"
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New week, new PS goal, please please help me reach it to stay motivated!!!
The new PS goal is to reach 70 PS within the next 24 hours.
And don't forget to leave comments and reviews to keep me motivated.
Of course, if the readers wish, they can certainly read up to 20 advanced Chapters on p-a-t-r-e-o-n: Knockturn_Alley