Big Mom Pirates, Arrival and Reunion
_________ POV Narration _________
The Whole Cake Chateau had certainly seen better days.
Months had passed, yet the Big Mom Pirates were still working and fixing the castle and its surroundings.
The attempt on Big Mom's life had been a devastating affair for her entire crew.
The only reason she was now alive was explicitly because Enel, the only one capable of fighting him at the time, didn't want to murder her.
Even though he didn't kill Big Mom, Enel had still done a lot more damage than anyone else would've been able to in such a short time.
It was to the point where Charlotte Linlin was still bedridden, despite her inhuman endurance and physique.
In stark contrast, Katakuri and even Oven had already recovered from their fights.
Oven himself was beyond salty at having lost to two rookies, not even captains of their own crews.
But the real reason he had lost was because he had not gotten to maintain his mechanical limbs whilst in prison.
Had his limbs been up to scratch, he would have crushed the newbies he faced. However, he may not have been able to kill them due to Enel's interference, which ended up saving him in the end.
Even with his failure to stop the Strawhats, he was still given a lot of praise for helping his siblings and holding off two rather powerful combatants, even if he hadn't won specifically, they had still been stopped from doing further damage to their family.
And because of that, as well as their Mother still being unconscious, Oven was allowed to roam free after the Tea Party Assassination incident.
But he wasn't exactly ecstatic about that. He had a lot of work on his plate now, and most of it was concerning rebuilding the palace.
All of his siblings had to let go of their rivalries. They all came together under the leadership of Perospero, Katakuri and Oven to start rebuilding.
Thankfully their family hadn't lost any siblings, even Bruelle was left unharmed at the shore of one of their islands.
Overall, it could have gone much worse, and it likely would have if Enel really wanted to kill any of them.
Oven made sure to point that out and didn't allow any of his siblings to antagonize his friend, even though he had fried their mother.
In the end, the entire incident had started due to a third party's assassination attempt, which Big Mom took as an affront and attack from Enel.
The Lightning Emperor hadn't been the first one to make a move, although he did seem to be protecting the straw hats and their associates to some extent.
Oven just rationalised it as Enel wanting to minimize casualties in general, and most agreed with him.
Katakuri had gone deeper and deeper into his training as soon as his body could move from the beating that Luffy had given him.
He had lost, but the bout had been really close. Luffy was sickeningly talented, consistently getting stronger throughout their fight until the very end when Luffy overcame Katakuri's observation and future sight.
It was a final clash that thundered throughout the mirror world, but it ended with Katakrui receiving a punch that had knocked him out cold.
The Dough Man was sure that he had damaged Luffy as well, but by the time he woke up, there was no one left nearby.
A hat covered the lower half of his face. His injuries were also mostly closed as well, but his mind was still rattled.
Oven also continued his training, this time altering his mechanical limbs even further to withstand his Devil Fruit's power.
The two of them spared for days on end when they could, most of the time they ended up drawing, but most of the time Oven won.
Katakuri's dough was getting cooked constantly, Oven was simply a bad match-up for him.
Even then, his future sight gave him an advantage, and it allowed Oven to learn some new tricks to surprise his opponents.
In those few months, Oven had even attained a small glimpse of Future Sight, although he was still not at Katakuri's level.
Currently, most of the Big Mom Pirates were gathered in the largest hall of the rebuilt castle.
And in the middle of that hall sat a gigantic bed in which lay their mother.
She was still covered in bandages from head to toe, parts of her skin were burnt off, and her eyes were still firmly closed.
"Mother should be waking up soon, right?" Smoothie, the tall juice devil fruit user sighed as she eyed her mother's current state.
Without her, they were a lot weaker. That was true for both physical and mental strength.
They weren't prepared to lose their mother, simply put.
"I think she'll be up any second now, Perorin♪~" Perospero chimed in as he took another lick of his large candy cane.
"Any second since last month to today..." Charlotte Compote, Big Mom's first daughter scowled a bit as she spoke.
Her features were very similar to those of their mother, although she was a lot smaller in stature, and her hair was green. She was wearing a dress and had what seemed to be a fruit bowl with ice cream on her head.
"Let's try to be more positive, big sis..." Charlotte Daifuku, Big Mom's third son, responded with a scowl of his own.
He was one of Oven's older brothers, and overall not one of his bigger supporters.
With a mean look and a tall stature to match Katkauri, as well as broad shoulders to match Oven, he was a mountain of a man. Although he was far weaker than both.
"At this stage, our doctors have done as much as they could... I think it may be an internal conflict as well at this point..." Oven sighed as he crossed his arms.
"Mother is not weak. She will wake up, and she will want to grow stronger as well I reckon..." Katakuri shook his head as he remembered how quickly their mother had lost to Enel.
Her burnt figure falling out of the sky, even consuming some of her lifespan to face Enel was ineffective.
It was surely to be a traumatizing experience. The dough human doubted that their mother had ever lost to anyone in such a fashion.
"But can someone at her level really grow much more..." Smoothie sighed as she lamented on her own strength.
"One can always grow stronger. If anything, I think our friend Enel had proven that there are powers even beyond our understanding..." Katakuri responded to his little sister's lament quite comfortingly.
But his tone was also etched in frustration. There were simply levels that he was never going to be able to reach, and that thought in itself was likely what stifled his growth.
But it couldn't be helped.
He simply couldn't envision himself doing what Enel could. Raining thunder and destruction upon entire islands without even breaking a sweat.
The powers of a god were sure to stir envy in the hearts of others.
Silence descended upon the room for a few moments, as everyone stared at their mother and thought more about Katakuri's words.
Although the assassination was unsuccessful, the entire Big Mom Pirates was humbled that day. They had yet to even recover from it fully.
The silence stretched further as they all seemed to enter their own worlds.
That silence was broken only by an outside sound... Something that Katakuri and Oven seemed to pick up on first.
The two of them raised their heads and looked at the side of the room with confusion, almost as if they were staring through the wall.
Then everyone heard it. Drumming.
Rhythmic and brooding, steady and powerful. The sound of war.
"Are we being attacked!?" Smoothie immediately drew her blade, and they all ran outside, only to stare at Enel's army in the distance.
At that point, Smoothie couldn't help but drop her blade, her grip on it loosening out of shock.
"Is that..." Katakrui's red eyes widened for a moment, his eyebrows shooting up in recognition.
"Enel's army... Yes, it is..." Oven spoke out as a smile grew on his face.
The closer the Sky Islands got, the louder the drumming was, and like always, it adjusted itself to not hurt the eardrums of any regular folk that happened to hear it.
The Charlotte Family was transfixed on the islands as they got closer and grew further and further in size, the closer they got, the more amazing the scene became.
Many felt as if the heavens had descended a bit closer to the earth, allowing them to take a peek at the serenity of the afterlife.
But the Charlotte Siblings had all heard Oven's words. They knew the truth. The islands in front of them belonged to a man.
Not just any man, but the man that had wreaked havoc on their home a while back.
But even if any of them held a grudge regarding that, they weren't able to do anything now besides staring up in awe, fear, and envy.
A range of emotions that all of the siblings shared.
Katakuri felt both envy and awe. He also felt conflicted, unsure how to face Enel after all that had happened.
And Oven simply felt happiness. He was finally going to be able to join his friend. He was happiest knowing that Enel hadn't forgotten about him, that he was passing by their islands.
When the islands finally reached the skies above their home, they all looked up to it.
"... Do you all think we should join him despite everything? -Perorin♪" Perospero couldn't help but ask his siblings, he was unsure if everyone would be on board with it, but he knew something for a fact...
'Oven and Katakuri are definitely going with him...' He could already see it in their eyes. They saw a challenge, they wanted to participate in the upcoming war, to take that opportunity to hone their skills.
"That would be-" Smoothie was about to speak her mind, her tone a bit annoyed at the notion of joining Enel's army. But she was swiftly interrupted by a much more imposing voice.
"That would be only natural." It was womanly, loud and confident.
Everyone immediately turned back and looked to see their other, still wearing a large hospital gown and covered in bandages.
"M-mother!" "Mother you should be resting!" "Y-you're awake?!?"
All of her children rushed to her, crowding around her and making her sigh a bit as she also looked up.
The Sweet Empress couldn't help but smile as she took in the size of Enel's army. She didn't need a newspaper to realize that Kaido was likely out of the picture already.
And even if he wasn't, she now knew that neither Kaido nor her were ever a match for Enel.
"I am healthy and fine, I just needed some rest. I got enough now." Big Mom responded to her children's concern with a rather unusual warm smile.
All of her children seemed to be taken aback by it, in a good way of course.
But Perospero also had something else gnawing at his mind.
"Mother... Are we truly joining the Sky King's march?" The candy devil fruit user looked up at his mother with a conflicted gaze.
"Of course we are. At this point, it's either we join him, or we sit idly by while the score gets settled... Whoever is likely to win, is also likely to erase us as well."
Linlin spoke in a rather defeated tone. She truly felt as if she wouldn't be able to defend her homeland from whoever managed to win the war.
Swooping in and trying to finish off the winner was also not something she was confident of doing on her own, so she only really had one choice.
But when she looked around, she could still see some confusion on the faces of her children. So with a deep sigh, she proceeded to explain further.
"If the Government wins, they would want no influential figure from this era to survive.
If Enel wins then he is likely to eliminate piracy... He may spare us, but I don't like taking chances."
"Well, it's true that I would spare you." A voice responded to her, and the tall figure of Enel appeared right by Big Mom's side.
The atmosphere turned tense for a moment, but it seemed to immediately calm down as they noticed the placid look that their mother gave Enel.
"Nice of you to make an appearance personally... And here I thought you'd try to avoid me." Linlin smiled as she spoke, further unnerving some of her children with her cheerfulness.
"Why would I be avoiding you? I am not the type to get hung up on misunderstandings." Enel gave her a small laugh as he crossed his arms.
He then looked up a bit, and a stone seemed to descend at great speed.
Linlin looked up at it as well, and immediately she seemed to become more guarded.
From it jumped down the figure of a youthful man with long blonde hair. He had deep blue eyes and he wore a rather simple opened-up white shirt and loose black pants.
At his waist was a sabre that Big Mom recognized as well.
"Guzman... You've certainly not aged a day. Or rather, you've aged backwards." Big Mom smiled a bit, her eyes shifting a bit towards the sheath of Francisco's blade.
"What can I say? Good thing I remembered to put on moisturizer, huh?" Francisco laughed a bit, before turning around slightly and looking at the members of the Charlotte Family.
"Damn... You've got the biggest family I've ever seen... I sure hope one of those is mine..." Francisco narrowed his eyes, and immediately everyone gave him a weird look.
"What? We were both young and available! Now that I think about it, this may just be another one of the reasons why Kaido detested me..." Francisco rubbed his chin as he seemed to suddenly remember something.
Enel just stared at him, blinking a few times. He didn't even know where to begin to respond to such a statement.
Big Mom was the same as Enel at first, but she burst out laughing at some point afterwards.
"MamaMamama~ You really haven't changed a bit!" Her hearty laugh dispelled some of the awkwardness that Francisco's words had brought.
"Honestly, I was worried that you were holding a grudge... I guess you were always the bigger person, huh?" Big Mom's tone became a bit melancholic as she spoke.
"Heh, I may have held a grudge for a while. But after so many years, I'd rather look forward to the future instead of lamenting on the past." Francisco smiled at Big Mom, he decided not to comment on her appearance at all, knowing that age just had its way with some people.
"We have a lot of catching up to do... We how about we do it in the sky?" Big Mom laughed a bit as she then gestured for all of her children to start packing up.
"We will continue our journey in 5 hours, anyone that wants to come with us is free to do so." Enel spoke out before waving to Oven and Katakuri, he then turned into a bolt of lightning and disappeared.
At that point, everyone got to work. And the strongest members of the Charlotte Family joined in.
Some decided to stay back and defend their home in case something happened. But most of them boarded the Sky Islands, and Shiki was more than happy to give them a small island to inhabit.
After they were settled in properly, Enel started looking forward to their next stop, which was Wano, of course.
Since he hadn't felt Zunesha anywhere yet, Enel assumed that he'd find him nearer to Wano. Or maybe the elephant had decided to hang around Joyboy?
Regardless, Enel was going to find out one way or another.
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