Watching Roger's Execution at the Start

A light voice pierced the thick layer of mochi and reached Katakuri's ears. Alarm bells rang in his head. Every muscle tensed, and he thickened the mass of mochi he had created!

Boom!

Another violent explosion rang out, but Atlas showed no sign of delight. Katakuri had been fully prepared to defend himself.

When the smoke cleared, a blackened sphere hung in the air. It soon crumbled into black powder, which vanished from sight in the howling sea wind.

"Your Observation Haki really is frightening! You can predict most of my attacks?"

Atlas rolled his neck, loosened up, and spoke with a grave expression.

Whoosh!

Without waiting for an answer, Atlas closed in. He was ready to settle this in a straight-up clash of fists.

Katakuri reacted just as quickly. His arm turned to mochi, and Armament Haki coated it! He did not have Atlas's terrifying reserves of Armament Haki, but together with his Observation Haki, he could still hold out through a prolonged fight.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Fists and feet collided, their Armament Haki ringing like tortured metal. Every so often, Atlas used Life Return to swell his arms, thick muscle fibers brimming with frightening strength.

Katakuri fought like a creature of tentacles, splitting countless Armament-coated appendages from his body. With the Future Sight granted by his Observation Haki, he blocked every one of Atlas's attacks with precision!

"Looks like Atlas has met his match..."

Watching from afar with Observation Haki, Gion was worried. Atlas held the upper hand for now, but Katakuri's Observation Haki was a little stronger. His ability to see the future was absurdly powerful. Not one of Atlas's attacks had truly landed on him.

Gion did not know about Atlas's terrifying ability to heal himself. Her slender, pale hand had already come to rest on Kompira at her waist. Atlas had asked for a one-on-one fight, but as a fellow Marine, she would not stand by and do nothing.

Far off in midair, the battle had reached a fever pitch. Judging by appearances alone, Atlas was the more battered of the two, though he had suffered no serious injuries. Katakuri still looked much as he had when he arrived, aside from occasionally rubbing his numbed fist.

Damn it! I can't use Devil Fruit Awakening up here!

Katakuri seethed. His awakened Mochi-Mochi Fruit could transform his surroundings, giving nearby objects the properties of mochi and letting him control them. But there was nothing around him to transform in midair. Atlas had smashed the only ship into wreckage.

Was Atlas strong? Of course he was! He was a man with virtually no weaknesses in martial skill, physical strength, or Haki. Katakuri had to ask himself how much chance he would have against a monster like that if he had not trained his Observation Haki to the point of Future Sight.

He did not know the answer. Too many factors could decide a battle, but his chances would certainly be worse than they were now.

"Marine, you've earned my respect. But I can't forgive you for hurting my family! You're staying here today!"

"Sliced Mochi!"

Katakuri's arm suddenly swelled to enormous size. Spikes sprouted across it, making it resemble a club. He coated it in Armament Haki and spun it at high speed. His arm turned to mochi, its pliant length sending the club hurtling toward Atlas's face like a flail!

"Bring it on!"

Atlas showed no fear. Through Life Return, his already powerful frame rapidly grew to five meters tall. The broad muscles of his back formed the likeness of a ferocious face. Black-and-red Armament Haki saturated every muscle fiber, while two mysterious markings rose from the corners of his eyes and met on his forehead. His whole body radiated explosive strength!

Life Return: Armament: Martial God Form!

Bang!

Atlas swung his massive fist straight into Katakuri's club! Both attacks relied on raw power, but with the Ox Talisman, Atlas had the edge!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Terrifying bursts of air erupted around Katakuri. In this contest of pure strength, he could not stop himself from flying backward, straight into the distance!

Undercurrents ### "Katakuri! You can't beat me, even with Observation Haki that lets you see the future!"

Katakuri said nothing. He merely watched Atlas speak, his gaze devoid of emotion.

Atlas did not mind. "Even if you fight me for days on end, you'll be the one who runs out of strength. Besides... I'm not a Devil Fruit User!"

Katakuri did not question him. A man with that kind of conviction would have no reason to lie. He also knew he had rushed out here, and a female Swordsman from the Marines was watching nearby. If the fight continued to the end, he would lose.

"Come on! One last strike, with our lives on the line!"

Katakuri tore off his ragged clothes, baring his heavily muscled torso. He swiftly produced a great mass of mochi and wrapped it in Armament Haki!

"Come on!"

Atlas drew a deep breath and pushed his Observation Haki to its limit. Every muscle tightened as the Armament Haki coating him grew denser. He knew that if Katakuri chose to leave, he could not stop him. The gap between them was not that large.

"Explosive Fist: Armament!"

"Sliced Power Mochi!"

The blazing explosive force slammed into the strange, club-like fist. A terrifying shockwave battered them both, and the surrounding air seemed ready to be sucked away into a vacuum.

Both men were hurled backward. Katakuri rode the force of the impact and flew into the distance.

Atlas did not pursue him. He forced himself steady in midair and silently watched Katakuri recede...

"How did it go, Kanos?"

Back aboard the ship, Gion looked the battered Atlas up and down, covering her smile with a hand.

"Ah, I'm fine. He was pretty strong."

Atlas casually brushed the dust from himself, then pulled off the strip of cloth still hanging from his body. He turned to his adjutant. "Bolton, sorry for the trouble, but could you get me a change of clothes? Thanks!"

"Yes! There's no need to be so polite, Commodore Atlas!"

Bolton was excited. He had followed Atlas for only a few days, but Atlas's strength had already won his complete admiration.

The New World, Totto Land Waters.

It was a dreamlike stretch of sea, filled with the sweet scent of desserts. Cream flowed in gentle streams, and a huge ship was, bizarrely, singing a song!

This was the Big Mom Pirates' flagship, the Queen Mama Chanter! Around it sailed distinctive ships belonging to its officers, while tart-shaped ships bearing numbers formed the outermost ring. Together, they made up the fleet of a mighty pirate power in the New World!

At that moment, aboard the Queen Mama Chanter...

Big Mom sat at the head of the room, her enormous belly jutting out. Her already fearsome face looked especially dark. Katakuri sat silent to her left. To her right stood Perospero, holding a giant lollipop with his scarlet tongue sticking out.

The atmosphere in the hall was frozen. Perospero did not even dare lick his lollipop, afraid that one careless move would draw Big Mom's fury and cost him his life. They had received dreadful news: Big Mom's fourth son, their brother Charlotte Oven, was dead!

There was a bitter irony to it. The Big Mom Pirates were a mighty crew built around family, bound by blood. Yet Big Mom's children had never felt a shred of motherly love from her, only a tyrant's severity.

"Mama-mama! You're telling me Oven died at the hands of a Marine? Katakuri!"

Big Mom's purple-shadowed eyes widened like bronze bells. She thrust her heavy face close to Katakuri's. He could clearly see every crimson blood vessel in her eyes. She looked like a demon from hell.

Katakuri remained silent and met Big Mom's gaze without fear. Only the coldness of his expression betrayed how he felt.

No one cared more deeply for his younger siblings than Katakuri, and no one grieved more than he did. But the tyrant before him was not grieving. She merely felt humiliated!

"Mama-mama! What a worthless brat, making me lose face like this! Katakuri, why didn't you bring that Marine back?"

"I'm sorry, Mama. That Marine was strong. I couldn't avenge Oven."

Perospero was stunned. He was the eldest of Big Mom's children, but Katakuri was the strongest, the man hailed as the Charlotte Family's greatest creation. This was the first time he had heard the man whose back never touched the ground say anything like that!

"Mama-mama! You're worthless too. Are you ready for me to kill you?"

Big Mom laughed in her fury. Her heavy face looked more dreadful than ever, her gaping mouth like the entrance to hell itself!

"Mama, calm down! Katakuri can't die. We'll have plenty of chances to kill that Marine and restore your honor!"

Cold sweat poured down Perospero's back as he tried to reason with the furious Big Mom. As he had said, Katakuri could not die at her hands. Not only would the crew lose much of its strength, but their younger siblings would turn away from her. Katakuri was the brother they admired most; even Perospero had to admit that.

Besides, Perospero was close to Katakuri himself. The older children had faced life-and-death trials together when the crew was first taking shape.

"Mama-mama! I'll spare you this time. Make sure you bring me that Marine's head, Katakuri!"

At those words, Big Mom stopped activating her Devil Fruit power. For all her volatile moods, she was a cunning pirate queen who could rein in her emotions when it mattered. No one became a dominant power in the New World by being a fool.

Even Kaido of the Beasts, who looked more like a brute than anyone, had plenty of tricks up his sleeve.

"Yes, Mama!"

The New World, G-5 Base.

"Hahaha! Atlas, you really did it, kid! That old woman Big Mom must be losing her mind right now."

The voice alone gave Garp away. He was grinning with excitement as he repeatedly slapped Atlas on the shoulder.

Atlas, meanwhile, looked helpless as he reported the mission's events to Vice Admiral Tsuru, who sat behind her desk.

As the news spread, undercurrents began to stir throughout the New World...

A War of Spies ### The New World, Pirate Alliance waters.

Gloom gathered beneath a dark sky. Swamps covered the land, and mosquitoes swarmed everywhere. The island looked like an untouched wilderness. Dense tropical rainforest and cramped spaces made it stifling to be there.

"Hey, Blood Scythe! Why do you always pick places this gloomy? Can't you pick somewhere normal for once?" complained a dark-skinned giant nearly five meters tall. The heavy flesh of his face shook as he spoke, making him look like a walking fortress.

"Exactly. How crude can you be? You should've let me find a sunny beach. We could have soaked up the sun and admired beautiful women in bikinis. Now that would be living!"

A man dressed as a gentleman chimed in. The effect was rather comical. He was completely bald, with severe eyes and brows crowded onto a broad face. Even the bow tie at his neck looked out of place. He was a poor imitation of a gentleman.

"Hehahaha! Yermak! Klaus! You two complain too much! I happen to like the feeling of mosquitoes feeding on blood..."

The speaker had a sinister face, a long nose hooked like a hawk's beak, and a chilling voice. He even stuck out his scarlet tongue to lick his dry lips.

"Enough arguing. Tell us why you called this meeting, Blood Scythe!"

Francis could not help interrupting them. He had no desire to sit through their complaints and waste his time, especially when he had come with a mission of his own.

"Fine. Let's get to it. Did you read the paper a few days ago?" Blood Scythe Lakeham asked in a low voice.

"You mean the report that Oven of the Big Mom Pirates was killed by a rising Marine star? That even Katakuri, their greatest creation, couldn't do anything about him?"

"Hehehehe! Of course. Didn't that tell you anything?"

"Our chance has come! If we defeat one of the New World's dominant powers, we can finally establish ourselves here and become the undisputed pirate power!"

Lakeham sprang to his feet, his voice ringing with excitement. He looked like a religious zealot.

Francis watched him with an odd expression. He was starting to wonder whether Lakeham had come with the same goal as he had.

"Blood Scythe, it takes all four of our crews together just to stand against Whitebeard and the others. Even then, we're barely hanging on, holed up in a forgotten corner of the New World!" Yermak, the one dressed as a gentleman, objected.

"You fools. Can't you see what the Marines are doing? First the Whitebeard Pirates, then the Big Mom Pirates. The Marines have decided to move against these so-called pirate powers. The New World can't hold this many of them. We have nowhere left to retreat!"

"The Whitebeard Pirates survived countless Marine assaults in the last era. Whitebeard himself is called the World's Strongest Man. How are we supposed to challenge a lion like him?"

Klaus's muscles bulged, but that did not mean he was stupid. He understood the gap between their strength and that of the other three dominant powers all too well.

"The Big Mom Pirates!" Francis, who had been silent until now, spoke up, dropping his suggestion like a bomb.

"Why them?" Yermak asked, amusement in his eyes. None of the dominant pirate powers could be handled by any one of their crews, so they had no choice but to act together.

"According to my information, that old woman Big Mom is heavily pregnant and still some time away from giving birth. That's bound to limit her strength. And Oven, one of her older children, was killed by a Marine. Most of her other children are still too young to be strong enough."

"So the Big Mom Pirates are at their weakest right now. The Whitebeard Pirates have fought the Marines more often, but I haven't heard of them losing anyone crucial. As for Kaido of the Beasts, he controls Wano Country. Its geography makes it easy to defend and hard to attack. Both would be much harder targets for us."

"Once we bring down the Big Mom Pirates, we can take their place as a true power in the New World! They say Big Mom has a Road Poneglyph, too. Even the One Piece might be within our reach!"

Francis laid out the situation in the New World point by point. The future he painted set everyone's heart racing.

The other three lowered their heads in thought, eyes flickering as they silently weighed the risks and rewards. Yermak gave a scornful laugh. "And then the Marines round us all up, leaving us to grow old alone in Impel Down?"

"Don't worry. The Marines are probably too busy fighting the Whitebeard Pirates to spare us a thought. Besides, we're pirates who live with our lives on the line. Since when did we become so timid? This is our last chance, and you all know it!"

Francis was right. Pirates were no different from gamblers. Gamblers wagered money at the table, while they wagered... their lives!

The risk was enormous, but so was the potential reward. If they succeeded, they would have a place in the New World.

"Hehehehe! I'm in!"

Blood Scythe Lakeham, who had been vocal throughout the meeting, was the first to accept Francis's plan. That only made Francis more suspicious of who he really was.

"Fuck it! I'll take the gamble!"

"...I'm in too..."