Mousse's Scheme (Part 2)

"Yes. That's why my target is the Pudding Royal Family's secret technique, the 'King's Fist.' The Pudding Kingdom isn't very powerful, and the new king, Elizabello II, is still young. He probably couldn't even beat Sister Amande, much less you or Brother Oven. With both threats and inducements, there should be hope of making him reveal the secret," Mousse said confidently.

Although the King's Fist was extremely impractical due to its harsh requirements for use, its power—or rather, the extent to which it amplified one's own strength—even surpassed the Elbaf Spear series. Naturally, it held even greater reference value for Charlotte Oven.

There was no doubt that Charlotte Oven's transformation had been thanks to his ultimate move, Overheat. The moment Mousse had learned of that move's effects, he had realized that the same development path could be applied to his full-blooded brother, Charlotte Daifuku.

After all, the latter's Puff Puff Fruit also possessed heating and heat-resistance abilities. While it could not compare to the Heat-Heat Fruit, the improvement was already significant compared with the Puff Puff Fruit's previous development. In particular, Daifuku was slightly stronger than Oven to begin with because of his personality.

That said, Charlotte Daifuku wore a dark expression all day long and had a particularly foul mouth. Even Mousse himself had been scolded by him more than a few times.

If the family had not unexpectedly gone to war with the Navy this time, and if Mousse had not feared that when the nest was overturned, no egg would remain intact, he would never have given Daifuku any pointers!

Since he knew him best, Mousse knew that eldest brother Perospero's Lick-Lick Fruit had already been developed quite thoroughly. It was impossible for Mousse to raise his strength to another level within a year.

As for eldest sister Charlotte Compote, she was not a Devil Fruit user (Note 1). Like Third Sister Charlotte Amande, she could not take any shortcuts.

Therefore, among the Charlotte Family's second generation, the only ones who could make obvious progress in a short time were Katakuri's Triplet Brothers and Cracker. Speaking of which, the latter might even be more worth anticipating.

Without considering the King's Fist, which they had yet to obtain, Cracker's growth potential even surpassed that of the transformed Charlotte Oven!

Although Cracker had not made a move in Pharaohs and thus had not exposed his strength, Mousse knew that his improvement was at least greater than Katakuri's—and by a considerable margin.

Katakuri's Observation Haki was extremely powerful, and few opponents could even touch him. Under normal circumstances, evasion alone was enough to keep him safe, so increased defense could only be considered icing on the cake.

As for offense, Katakuri's strongest killing method had always been his trident, Mochi Thrust. Hardening his mochi had no direct effect on it; only the strengthening of his Armament Haki had indirectly benefited it.

The increased power of his fists and kicks, as well as his improved control over mochi masses, could only show their value when crushing weak opponents or in contests where life and death were not at stake. It was not useless, but it undoubtedly did not count as a qualitative leap.

Cracker's greatest Combat Power, meanwhile, lay in his Biscuit Soldiers, and his fighting style was based on head-on clashes. Without factoring in Armament Haki, however much harder the biscuits became was however much his Combat Power increased!

It was not just their defense. Their attack power had risen substantially as well, because the Biscuit Soldiers' weapons were also created through Cracker's Biscuit-Biscuit Fruit ability!

Come to think of it, Mousse had only learned during this voyage that Cracker's own sword, Pretzel, was likewise a creation of his Devil Fruit ability.

Its form and material were exactly the same as those used by the Biscuit Soldiers. Unlike Katakuri's trident, it was not merely hidden inside his body through his Devil Fruit ability.

It truly was the most unique sword in the world, yet just as Luffy and Nami had mocked when fighting him, it was not "one of a kind" at all.

It was precisely because the weapons were also created by his Devil Fruit ability that Cracker's Biscuit Soldiers could wield such tremendous power. Otherwise, if they only had defense but lacked strong offense, they would merely be a pile of punching bags. What was there to fear?

And if weapons had to be equipped separately, they would lose the advantage of being able to summon soldiers without limit.

Since it was made by his Devil Fruit ability, the stronger that ability became, the stronger Pretzel became as well.

Before going to the Faros Kingdom, Pretzel's material was still far inferior even to a Good Quick Blade. But now, it—or rather, they—had become stronger than many Great Quick Blades. Such an increase was simply astonishing!

With both his base offense and defense growing by no less than sixfold, Cracker's strength had undoubtedly undergone a complete transformation. One could even say he was more qualified than Oven to be called transformed.

Moreover, unlike Fourth Brother Oven, who had to activate his ultimate move to gain a huge boost for a short time, Cracker had improved his normal strength. Aside from making biscuits more slowly, he did not need to pay any price at all!

On top of that, Cracker was only twenty years old, so he naturally had more room to grow than Katakuri's Triplet Brothers.

As long as he consolidated the gains from this breakthrough, Cracker himself would reach a level where he could contend with an Elite Navy Vice Admiral. When the BIG Pirates faced the Navy in a decisive battle, their chances of victory would undoubtedly increase by several points.

Cracker was a strategic weapon capable of forming an army by himself. If his personal strength alone matched an Elite Navy Vice Admiral's, then even ordinary Biscuit Soldiers would be no weaker than ordinary Marine Headquarters Rear Admirals. The Navy's advantage in numbers and commanders would be almost completely erased.

Mentioning Cracker gave Mousse another idea. "Right, Brother Katakuri. Cracker's idea of creating Biscuit Soldiers should work for your mochi too, shouldn't it? With your strength, if you made a huge number of Mochi Soldiers, wouldn't that be equivalent to having a large force of Navy Vice Admirals?"

"Cracker developed that ability based on a fairy tale he especially loved as a child. I don't have a similar obsession. Even if I devoted myself entirely to it, who knows how many years it would take to master it? I'd rather focus on training my Body Techniques and Haki," Katakuri replied, making Mousse realize that he had always underestimated Cracker, that coward who was even afraid of injections.

Sure enough, no one who could become a Sweet Commander was a simple character!

That said, Katakuri did not actually think that imitating Cracker's method would be better than his current use of the Mochi Mochi Fruit ability.

After digesting the gains from the previous bitter battle, Katakuri could use his Devil Fruit awakening to completely restrain every Marine Headquarters Elite Vice Admiral except for those four Logia-type users at once. He could also create countless fists and feet for multiple attacks, and their destructive power would be no different from his own.

This was undoubtedly more efficient than blindly copying Cracker's fighting style. After all, the Mochi Mochi Fruit did not come with weapons. Even if Katakuri could create Mochi Soldiers, their attack power would not compare to that of Biscuit Soldiers.

Note 1: Many people think she has a fruit-related ability because she is the Minister of Fruit. But Daifuku is the Minister of Beans, and his Devil Fruit is the completely unrelated Puff Puff Fruit.

Besides, there had to be at least a few non-Devil Fruit users among the Big Mom Pirates' early core members. Otherwise, if they fell into the sea, no one would be there to fish them out.