Mom, Just Focus on Having the Baby

Linlin's roar made the loose rocks atop the cliff tremble.

Several sharp stones rolled over the cliff's edge, crashing into the churning black seawater below.

Rektol stood on a moss-covered reef. The sea breeze tousled his pink hair.

He ignored the deafening curses above him.

With his left hand, he grabbed the tattered cloth on Katakuri's back.

The Float-Float Fruit's power activated.

Gravity instantly reversed. The two of them rose straight up along the pitch-black rock face like weightless feathers.

"Clack."

Rektol's military boot landed firmly on the gravel at the top of the cliff.

He casually tossed Katakuri aside.

The blood-covered boy staggered half a step. All ten of his broken fingers hung limply at his sides, blood dripping from their tips. Yet he stubbornly held himself up instead of falling to his knees.

His legs were planted in the mud as if they had taken root.

Linlin glared at him with huge, bell-like eyes. Her heavy breaths blew across Katakuri's face, carrying an intensely sweet, cloying scent.

"You bastard..." Linlin raised a fist as large as a water tank.

A layer of pitch-black Armament Haki instantly covered its surface. Its metallic sheen glinted coldly in the sunlight.

She truly meant to kill him.

In the eyes of this violence-loving woman, even her own son had to pay the price for challenging her authority.

Rektol stepped forward.

His three-year-old body stood in front of Katakuri. Compared to Linlin's massive frame, he was so small he looked like a walnut that could be crushed at any moment.

"Boom!"

Three hearts in his chest suddenly pounded.

Blue-white lightning instantly crawled over his right arm. The ear-piercing crackle of electricity tore through the air.

He neither dodged nor retreated. He raised his head and stared fixedly at Linlin.

In that brief half-second when the situation was on the verge of exploding—

A blood-covered arm stretched across Rektol's front.

Dragging his heavily injured body, Katakuri forced his way half a step forward.

He raised a face covered in fragments of Sea King entrails.

His teeth clicked together, and a low growl rumbled from his throat.

"Boom!"

A dark-red wave of energy erupted from Katakuri's body.

His newly awakened Conqueror's Haki erupted out of control once more, driven by his instinct to protect his family.

Loose stones around them were sent flying by the blast.

They struck Linlin's white nightgown with dull thuds.

Linlin's fist halted in midair.

It was less than half a foot from the tip of Rektol's nose. The force of the punch scraped painfully across Rektol's cheeks.

She froze.

Her bloodshot eyes locked onto Katakuri, taking in the savage, feral light within them.

This was no longer the timid brat from a few hours ago.

This was a ferocious beast that had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and crossed the boundary between life and death.

The aftershock of the Conqueror's Haki still rippled through the air.

The fury on Linlin's face gradually faded, replaced by undisguised shock and a trace of twisted delight.

"Conqueror's Haki..." Linlin murmured.

Rektol raised his hand and knocked Katakuri's arm away from in front of him.

He pointed at Katakuri and met Linlin's gaze.

"See that?"

Rektol's voice was cold enough to freeze, without the slightest trace of emotion.

"This is the bearing of the strong."

He advanced another step, his military boot crushing a shell.

"Your kind of doting, stuffing candy into their mouths, will only raise a bunch of useless weaklings who can be crushed with a pinch."

"When Rocks's blade comes down on the battlefield, all they'll do is cling to your legs and cry."

Linlin came back to herself.

She lowered her fist, and the pitch-black Armament Haki faded away.

Rektol's words stabbed into her ears like needles. She instinctively wanted to argue.

"My family..." Linlin gritted her teeth, trying to put on a mother's authority.

Rektol did not give her a chance to speak.

"Your family listens to me now."

Rektol raised his right hand.

Blue-white electricity danced across his fingertips. In the distant sky, the wreckage of the naval warships dragged back from the deserted island produced a harsh screech of metal under the pull of the Float-Float Fruit.

Absolute power.

Linlin turned her head and glanced at the mountain-high pile of spoils in the distance.

It was the wreckage of a fleet led by an admiral.

Then she looked at Katakuri, who had already undergone a complete transformation.

Even Cracker, hiding in the distance, had more than a dozen rusty iron nails floating around him in an instinctive defensive ring.

The family's strength had undergone a qualitative leap in just a few days.

This brat was not only a monster but also a born dictator.

Linlin drew a deep breath.

A heavy sinking sensation came from her high, rounded belly. She reached out to support it, and a trace of fatigue flashed across her plump face.

Rektol keenly caught the movement.

He extinguished the lightning at his fingertips.

"Mom."

Rektol's tone softened slightly, but it still carried an unquestionable command.

"Your task is to provide these excellent genes."

He pointed at Katakuri, then at Cracker in the distance.

"You just focus on having the babies."

Rektol pointed at his own chest with his thumb.

"I'll handle conquering the world."

Only the howl of the sea wind remained atop the cliff.

Linlin stared at her three-year-old eldest son, who was domineering beyond reason.

She did not curse again.

"Grrrroooow—"

A thunderous rumble rose from Linlin's enormous belly. It was so loud it sounded as if a cannonball had exploded in her stomach.

She scratched at her disheveled pink hair.

"I'm hungry."

Linlin ignored Rektol's words and turned toward the camp.

Her loose white nightgown whipped about in the wind.

"Go get some meat. I want roasted Sea King legs. Nothing sweet!"

She shouted as she walked, her rough voice echoing along the coastline.

Rektol watched Linlin's retreating back.

He knew that this hot-tempered woman had compromised.

In this world that recognized only fists, he had completely secured the position of the Charlotte Family's "emperor emeritus."

He turned around and looked at Katakuri, who was still breathing heavily.

"Go get your fingers reattached. We continue tomorrow."

Katakuri's cracked lips trembled.

"Yes, big brother."

The next day.

Morning came to Totto Land Prototype Island beneath a heavy fog.

White mist blanketed the coastline.

The sounds of hammering steel rang throughout the camp.

The pirates worked bare-chested, dismantling and smelting the stolen warships' metal plating. Following Rektol's blueprints, they poured defensive fortifications along the edge of the coast.

No one dared slack off. Cracker was supervising them.

The fat man sat on a wooden crate with roasted meat in his hand. Whenever someone slowed down, a rusty iron nail would fly past that person's scalp.

Both of Katakuri's hands were wrapped in white bandages.

He stood in the mist with his eyes closed, attempting to control the still-rough Haki within his body.

Rektol sat atop a stone house.

He tossed an unfinished apple from hand to hand.

Everything was advancing in an orderly manner according to his plans.

Once this iron fortress was complete, Smoothie's Mecha Girl modification could be put on the agenda.

Just then.

The thick fog overhead suddenly split open.

The hurried flapping of wings came from high above, and the pressure of the wind scattered the surrounding moisture.

Rektol stopped tossing the apple and raised his head.

A black bird about the size of a calf dove through the mist.

This was no ordinary news gull.

The bird was pitch-black all over, its feathers as hard as metal plates. Its eyes glowed red.

It was a messenger bird used exclusively by the New World's underground intelligence network.

The black bird circled once above the stone house.

Its two sharp claws opened.

A parchment tube fell from the sky.

Rektol reached out with his left hand and caught the tube in midair.

The black bird did not linger. It let out a harsh, hoarse cry, then flapped its wings and disappeared back into the dense fog.

The tube had some weight to it. Its exterior was sealed with black wax.

A dark-red skull seal was stamped into the wax.

Flame-shaped patterns burned around the skull.

The highest-level mobilization order of the Rocks Pirates.

Rektol squeezed the edge of the tube, crushing the hardened wax.

He pulled out the parchment inside.

There were no unnecessary words on the paper, only a single line of large characters written in heavy ink, along with a set of coordinates.

Blood seemed to have been mixed into the ink, giving off a strong, fishy stench.

Rektol narrowed his eyes.

Blue electricity danced across his fingertips, instantly burning the parchment into a pinch of ash.

The ash drifted from the rooftop on the wind.

He stood up and looked at the sea concealed by the distant fog.

His gaze cut across the horizon like a blade.

God Valley.