Totto Land.
There was no dramatic turn of events where confidence clashed with reality. With the existence of Vivre Cards, when the Vivre Cards of so many siblings turned to ash, even the members of the Charlotte Family, who were not willing to believe it, had to admit one fact.
In this war... they had failed.
If it weren't a defeat, BIG·MOM would never tolerate such heavy losses among her children.
In other words, this was a battle personally led by the Yonko, BIG·MOM!
It was a war where the elite forces of the Anger Legion were fully deployed!
And the result was still a defeat.
The Queen Mother Chanter was specifically targeted and sunk in the Thunderain. At this moment, on a battered Pirate Ship, BIG·MOM sat against the outer wall of the cabin, her clothes tattered. On her left was Zeus, the Thunder Cloud Homie, with dimmed outlines and a dissipating crisis.
On her right was Napoleon, the double-horned hat, which occasionally trembled. It couldn't even revert back to its double-edged sword form.
Although the Flame Homie Prometheus didn't seem to have any major damage, its personified expression looked extremely disheveled. In human terms, it looked sickly and clearly had taken a toll.
"Mother, I'm so hungry..."
Zeus had the weakest thinking ability, with a personality like that of a child. At this moment, lying on the deck, it weakly called out.
It wasn't really hungry; its soul energy was completely depleted and needed replenishment.
Homies didn't have life. They were only containers that BIG·MOM had infused with her soul. Each attack was fueled by burning this soul energy, so no matter how much they looked like they had "come alive," it was just a superficial imitation.
At the same time, Thunder Clouds and Flame Homies weren't true Logia Devil Fruit Ability users. They were just containers created by BIG·MOM to hold her soul within Thunder Clouds and flames.
Like attacks that exceeded their own defensive limits, they would be dispersed. They would also be injured when attacked.
Faced with Rowen's raging thunder, Zeus was completely helpless and couldn't unleash its power to control lightning. Instead, it was hit by Rowen's electric shocks a few times, narrowly avoiding complete disintegration on the spot.
In terms of injury severity based on Homie's unique soul concentration, Zeus was even worse off than the severed Napoleon!
BIG·MOM didn't respond, and it was as if she hadn't heard. Her expression constantly changed, as if flames were incubating within her.
They lost!
They lost to a degree that even she herself found hard to believe! There were only two enemies, but that terrifying Thunderstorm caused her once confident and proud Anger Legion to suffer heavy losses.
BIG·MOM could guarantee that if she hadn't taken the initiative to confront Rowen head-on, after the thunder in the sky ran out, he would definitely have personally joined the battle and completely drowned Anger Legion in the electric light!
If there had been only one Rowen present, BIG·MOM would have made sure that Rowen, who took her children's lives, paid a heavy price, to see if he truly possessed an Undying body.
But the arrival of Kizaru immediately took away any chance she had... Marine's Admiral, with whom she had at most a one-sided strength gap, had an overall strength that was almost equal. There was no overwhelming effect.
Moreover... the opponent was Kizaru!
His Glint-Glint Fruit bestowed upon him unparalleled speed in the world. They had fought many times before Roger became a Marine. Almost every time, Kizaru had the upper hand, but he couldn't do anything to her. So, he repeatedly retreated due to his own nature.
BIG·MOM knew best how troublesome Kizaru could be!
So, as soon as Rowen emerged in the war against Kaido, she immediately issued orders to her children that encountering Rowen meant they could abandon the mission.
She was least adept at dealing with speed-type players like Kizaru, who could fly. Now, Rowen had been added to the mix...
While Rowen was a scaled-down version of Kizaru in terms of overall strength, the destructive power of thunder, inherent to him, far exceeded Kizaru's light particles, a memory still vivid in her mind.
Thud!
The ship docked, and the army returned.
But no one cheered; a low pressure hung over the harbor.
One of the Four Sweet Commanders, Minister of Juice, Smoothie, arrived at the harbor. She looked at the scar on BIG·MOM's chest and the piercing injury on her shoulder, nervously swallowing saliva.
"MAMA..."
Smoothie called out in a low voice. "What do we do next?"
Is it revenge, or...
"From now on, you will be the Chief Minister of Totto Land, Smoothie."
BIG·MOM stated a brutal fact. Before this, the role of Chief Minister had always been held by Charlotte Perospero.
"Now go tell everyone that this year's tea party is canceled."
What?!!!
Smoothie looked up in shock, only to see BIG·MOM's bloodshot eyes.
"Understood, MAMA..."
...
The Ark began its return voyage. A new storm, fueled by the news, swept across the sea, stirring up monstrous waves.
Countless people sighed.
In the year 1518 of the Sea Calendar... it truly was the Year of the Marines!!
Following the defeat of the Hundred Beasts Pirate Crew a few months ago, now the Marines had defeated the BIG·MOM Pirate Crew. In just one year, they had achieved victory in two major military operations.
A single war victory might not matter to ordinary citizens, and Marine's victory announcements had already left them numb. Since the era of the Pirates, there have been numerous minor and major clashes between Marine and Yonko, adding up to over a hundred incidents, with dozens of Large-Scale battles reported in the newspapers.
From this perspective, this victory was not surprising.
But those with discerning eyes could see that things were different now.
Marine's attitude is much more assertive than before...
And their strength has also increased by an unknown factor!
In the battle against the Hundred Beasts Pirate Crew, the enemy paid the price of losing one of the "Three Disasters," Jack. In the battle against the BIG·MOM Pirate Crew, they even made the enemy pay with the loss of Perospero, the eldest son, and nearly half of the combat strength of the Charlotte offspring.
On the Marine side, not to mention losses, only Admiral Kizaru and Vice Admiral Soryu (Azure Dragon) participated in the battle!
In the past, even if the Marines won, they couldn't produce such a glorious result!
So, the nature of this year's victory is completely different.
The terrifying effects of the Goro Goro no Mi (Thunder Thunder Fruit) in battle were spread worldwide thanks to that Thunderain.
With one resisting ten thousand?
No!
This is with one, standing up against an army of 100,000!!
...
East Blue, Loguetown.
A girl with short orange hair hummed a tune as she approached the under-construction Independent Commission Against Corruption building. From a distance, she spotted a short and stout figure handling bricks on the open ground. She raised her hand and greeted.
"Koby!"
"1518... 151..."
Pū Tōng!
Hearing this voice, Koby, who was busy stacking bricks onto a cart, trembled all over. The bricks in his hand fell directly onto his foot.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
The girl with orange hair witnessed this comical scene and her eyes curved with an attractive smile. She couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Koby forced an awkward smile, sweat dripping from his forehead, and he turned his head.
"Nami San, are you here in Loguetown to find Colonel again?"
"No, I'm here for you."
Koby couldn't imagine that the lively and cheerful girl in front of him was the same gloomy girl they had met for the first time, her eyes filled with indelible sadness and sorrow.
At that time, Koby's heart was moved!
'I want to protect her!!' These thoughts have come to his mind!
Teenage feelings were nothing but poetry. In that battle, besides duty and courage, there were many other things mixed in.
However, after witnessing Nami's anger, Koby's dream was awakened... It's really fortunate!
Now, whenever he sees Nami, he wants to take a detour. He never expected that she would come looking for him.
"I... I'll say it upfront, Nami San!" Koby nervously swallowed saliva. "If it's about going to the Colonel's office to sneak a look at the information again, it's absolutely not allowed!"
Last time, Nami asked him to take her into the base, claiming she wanted to see what the newspapers sold exclusively in the Grand Line looked like.
In fact, being a newsbird wasn't an easy job. While Marines had Battleships transporting supplies across the Calm Belt, news birds had to rely solely on their wings for flight. If they encountered unreasonable weather or Sea Kings, the sky wasn't an entirely safe place.
Therefore, the world's most widely circulated World Economy News actually had two versions: one for the Grand Line and another exclusively for the Four Seas.
In most cases, the content of the two versions was consistent, only differing when it came to things that were not suitable to be publicized in the Four Seas.
Since Smoker was originally a Chief who had walked out of the Headquarters Recruit Camp, he still had a certain status even after being transferred. So he could get the Grand Line edition newspaper, which was extremely rare for the Four Seas.
With this premise, Koby believed it at first.
But he later found Nami flipping through the Marine Information that Smoker had left in the drawer, and, good heavens, she even ran into Tashigi coming in to file some documents...
As a result, Koby received additional training and was very miserable!!
He almost didn't make it!
Now, he was doing manual labor on the construction site, all thanks to that incident last time!
"Don't worry, I'm not that foolish!" Nami glared at Koby without hiding her irritation. She thought to herself, even if I was, can't you come up with a better excuse?
But this time, she had come to find Koby not for information, but for something else...
For something else?
Absolutely!
"Come on, take me to your training ground!"
Nami, who was only two years older, took on the role of an Aneki. She patted Koby's shoulder with a heroic air... oh no, the shoulder of this Humanoid ID card, Koby. She smiled brightly.
"I've figured out a way to pass the Smoker's Test!"
"If he dares to deny it, I'll set sail for the Grand Line on my own!"
Koby almost kneeled.
(End of this chapter)