"Damn it all. Why does Hawk-Eye get to have such an adorable daughter? Next time he visits, we're watering down his wine."
"Why not just drug him—then when he wakes up still groggy, mock him for being fit to sit with the dogs."
The little brat really did drive back one of the Four Emperors...
Hancock sat with elegant composure on her coiled serpent, ignoring the Red Hair crew's fawning attention entirely. Her eyes followed the tail swaying behind Yimi as the girl puttered around.
The Navy ship had been sunk. Kaido's vessel was in pieces. As a matter of course, Yimi and Hancock had found themselves temporarily sheltered with the Red Hair Pirates.
The one being discussed lay sprawled at the bow—as motionless as she'd been the day Mihawk first carried her home, letting the ship take her wherever it pleased.
She genuinely suspected the system's evaluation criteria were broken. She'd clearly knocked Shanks flat, and the Four Emperors counter was still one short.
Or maybe Red-Haired Shanks was a fake Emperor.
"Want some grilled meat?" The man who'd taken a solid knock to the head offered her a sizzling, richly colored slab—bigger than Yimi's own head, skewered lengthwise on a stick—as if the whole thing had never happened.
Meat in this world was bizarre. One stick punched horizontally through a chunk larger than Yimi's head.
"Yes." Yimi reached up a paw.
Shanks pulled it back, grinning like a fool as he pointed to himself. "If you want it, call me Uncle Shanks."
"Uncle Shanks." Yimi grabbed the hem of his coat and gave it a tug.
Say the word, get the food. Even easier than tolerating a head pat.
"Heh heh."
Having successfully obtained her prize, Yimi lifted the meat and held it out to Hancock.
Hancock raised an eyebrow and studied the small girl for a moment.
She noticed I avoid getting close to men—and brought the meat over herself?
Hancock lifted a strand of hair from her forehead with a practiced flick of her fingers. "I'm pleasantly surprised you managed a considerate thought for once—but these hands have never touched anything this greasy, and they're not about to start."
"I want you to blow on it." Yimi stretched up on her toes and bestowed an exclusive title: "Snake Lady."
"..."
Fine. Don't blow on it. But this woman is also going to scold her? Definitely a cat's natural enemy.
The little cat shuffled a bit further away after Hancock drummed a knuckle against her temple.
Compared to other pirate crews, the Red Hair Pirates were notably easygoing. They'd hauled the surviving Marines out of the water rather than leave them to drown—and couldn't even be bothered to fit the lot of them with Seastone cuffs. Just tied them up and dumped them in a corner.
Setting the meat aside to cool, Yimi wiped her oily paws on Shanks' coat, then wrapped her palm in the greatly-amplified Conqueror's Haki.
What she'd absorbed wasn't Kaido's Conqueror's Haki directly. She'd drawn out the nutrients from his flesh and blood and converted them into Haki. Even at only seven meters tall, Kaido's physical constitution was in a different league from some enormous squid that didn't even qualify as a Sea King.
She'd only managed about a second of extraction. Even so, the quality of her Conqueror's Haki had multiplied several times over—which left the ignorant young cat with a small, unexpected prick of guilt.
He'd been such a good person, and the cat had drained his nutrients. Next time they met, she'd make him a whole pot of something to properly make it up to him.
"You've improved so fast." Shanks hung over the railing beside her, eyebrows up. "Who taught you your Haki?"
"Rayleigh."
"Rayleigh?"
Another old acquaintance.
Shanks smiled with a trace of nostalgia. "Where's he living these days?"
He hadn't seen the man in a while. Once this mess was sorted out, he should go visit.
"Shanks. We're here."
The silhouette of Marineford was visible now.
One hour remained until Ace's execution.
As the flagship of one of the Four Emperors, the Red Force left any Navy mass-production vessel in the dust for speed—but even so, by the time they arrived, both sides had been fighting for some time.
Several miles of sea surrounding Marineford had been frozen into thick solid ice—Aokiji's doing, effectively more than doubling the island's usable area from its original modest footprint.
The Navy had a hundred thousand elite troops. The Whitebeard Pirates' alliance fielded sixteen divisions and forty-three affiliate crews, their combined attacking force approaching fifty thousand.
The gap in numbers looked decisive. But it was the Navy's side showing the lower morale—of the three Admiral seats that should have been filled at the top, only Kizaru was present, and he was already occupied tangling with Whitebeard's division captains. Aokiji, formerly an Admiral, was stationed on the execution platform to oversee the proceedings. The third Admiral seat stood empty.
And Whitebeard himself had already entered the fight.
"That's..." Ace, kneeling at the highest point of the execution platform, had the clearest view of anyone. He couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"Time for us to make our entrance—let's put a stop to this unnecessary mess." Shanks called everyone to jump from the ship.
"The Queen Mama Chanter?! Why is it here?!"
The panicked cry from the Marines below made Shanks blink.
The what?
For one brief moment he genuinely thought he'd boarded the wrong ship.
He turned the other direction—and found himself looking at a garishly painted, enormous vessel approaching from the opposite side, its figurehead a massive sculpted face whose eyes actually rolled, scanning the ice stretched out below.
"Mamamamama! So you were running this way, Red Hair... Zeus!"
"Hey, Mama."
A face-bearing white cloud cushioned a massive, corpulent figure—a pink-haired old woman, roughly Kaido's dimensions, appearing on a battlefield where no one had anticipated her.
"BIG MOM!"
"Why is she here?"
"We're in trouble now..." Aokiji glanced sideways at Garp.
Can't slack off now, can you.
The battlefield prepared for Whitebeard now held two—or rather three—Four Emperors. Whatever their respective purposes, this was not good news. Because this entire war was being broadcast live to the entire world.
Which of the Four Emperors was strongest? Since they almost never fought one another to a clear conclusion, any debate was futile.
But which of them was the most terrifying? That question had a very clear answer.
Charlotte Linlin. This woman in her sixties—whether ally, enemy, or biological child—everyone who had ever known her was gripped by absolute, bone-deep fear of her.
"Erratic" no longer came close to describing her. "Mentally unhinged" were the only words that truly fit.
"Old woman." The corners of Whitebeard's mouth dropped when he saw her.
Shanks had tried to warn him already. Whatever that woman had come here for, she'd almost certainly come to take his life in the chaos.
"I'm not here for you, you half-dead relic, Newgate." Big Mom's gaze skipped right over Whitebeard and swung toward Shanks' ship.
On the ship: a small girl attempting to lift one stubby leg over the railing, who had eventually concluded it was simply faster to squeeze through the gap underneath.
"Found you~"
Big Mom grinned, baring a spectacular mouthful of impressively ugly teeth. She let Zeus carry her over and scooped Yimi up in both palms.
"What exactly do you want?" Benn Beckman raised his gun to her head.
"Who are you?" Yimi stood up in Big Mom's palms and looked up at her, genuinely puzzled.
Big Mom pressed her cheek against Yimi's and nuzzled. "I'm your maternal grandma~"
"Grandma?" Yimi held both hands against the enormous face and studied it closely.
"Grandma?" Beckman was struck dumb as well. Why does everyone keep trying to claim they're related to this kid?
Yimi pushed against the face with both hands, hard. "You're not my grandma!"
There was, in fairness, one thing Big Mom and Yimi's actual grandmother shared: pink hair. Unfortunately, back when she'd been a pure cat, Yimi's eyes hadn't been capable of distinguishing so many vivid colors.
Big Mom held her out at arm's length, eyes narrowed. "Little one—have you ever seen your mother?"
"I have." The little cat had learned to be first to the buzzer. "I watched my mother give birth to me with my own eyes."
"..."