Chapter 70: Goodbye, Mama! I'm Sailing Away Tonight!
Puru-puru-puru! Puru-puru-puru!
In Charlotte Snack's jacket pocket, the Transponder Snail rang impatiently.
Snack knew—that was BIG MOM's personal snail. Only hers had the authority to be carried by him at all times.
Normally, Snack would have answered immediately to avoid angering Mama.
But now...
"He ran?"
He ignored the snail, gripping his massive sword tightly.
"No..."
Although Nezumi's sudden disappearance looked like an escape...
Snack knew better.
"That man wouldn't run."
He recalled what Nezumi said before vanishing.
"In such a short time, he already figured out my ability..."
Snack found it incredible.
His Mark-Mark Fruit ability was powerful, especially against first-time opponents. The ability to mark targets by sight and launch remote slashes usually left most people bewildered and helpless.
Snack had developed this fruit deeply, allowing him to maintain two marks simultaneously.
In combat, he used one mark for defense—the 'Guard Point'.
And one mark for offense—the 'Slash Point'.
Ideally, as long as his ability wasn't discovered, most enemies would die without knowing what hit them.
The damage transfer ability, in particular, made people believe he had incredible defense.
This was the origin of his title, the 'Strongest Shield.'
But in reality...
Snack knew his ability had weaknesses.
"I can feel he's already erased the mark I placed on him. Is he looking for my 'Guard Point' now?"
The thought terrified him.
If his 'Guard Point' was erased too, he would face a ten-minute cooldown where he couldn't use his ability at all.
Against Nezumi's omnipresent slashes, that meant certain death.
He wanted to check on his 'Guard Point' immediately.
But he didn't dare.
He feared Nezumi was still hiding nearby. Checking on the 'Guard Point' would be leading the wolf right to it.
"My Guard Point is well hidden, near the southern furnace... He can't find it quickly."
"One more minute. In one minute, I can change the Guard Point's location. Then I'll be safe..."
He muttered to himself, muscles tensed to the limit, scanning for any movement.
Even the sunlight filtering from above felt annoyingly bright.
Fortunately, a shadow soon blocked some of the light, giving him some relief...
"Hm?"
Snack suddenly realized something was wrong.
He was on the top floor of the palace, the highest point in the Caramelo Kingdom. And his slash had just taken the roof off.
With no cover, why would the sunlight disappear?
And what was casting that shadow?
He instinctively looked up.
And saw an impossible sight.
In the distance, atop the palace walls...
A gigantic hand was growing out.
"A Giant!?"
The massive hand instantly reminded Snack of the Giants—as a member of the BIG MOM Pirates, he had seen them before.
A hand several meters wide could only belong to a Giant.
But critically, this hand glowed with a sharp, blade-like light.
"It's Nezumi's ability... but how is it so huge!?"
Just as the thought crossed his mind, he realized...
There wasn't just one hand.
Whoosh!
Amidst a storm of flower petals, countless gigantic arms sprouted from everywhere in the palace.
Each one dwarfed a human. Their mere appearance crushed the surrounding Homie soldiers flat.
And that wasn't all. If it were just Giant-sized blade arms, Snack thought he might handle it.
But what happened next horrified him.
VMMM!VMMM!VMMM!
The countless giant arms sprouted, then began to merge and overlap.
Blade upon blade, arm upon arm.
They grew larger and larger—until finally, formed from at least a thousand Giant arms...
A true behemoth appeared!
A colossal arm, larger than even the legendary Ancient Giants, blotted out the sky above the palace, casting a terrifying shadow.
Meanwhile, inside the pocket dimension, Nezumi watched.
On his body, a layer of 'leather armor' had spread from his hands, covering him completely.
And his body had transformed into that of a true Giant.
Yes.
Just as Nezumi had thought—Chopper's Rumble Ball could control and alter the transformation wavelengths of Zoan users.
Chopper used it to access nearly ten different forms.
Naturally, it worked on the 'Hand of the Giant Soldier,' which was also a 'fruit user' capable of eating.
Furthermore...
"Consuming multiple Rumble Balls not only transforms Zoan users but massively boosts their power. The downside is loss of control and extreme, painful exhaustion afterward."
"But..."
Nezumi looked at the leather armor covering him and smiled. "The Hand of the Giant Soldier is just a pair of gloves. Exhaustion? Loss of control?"
Gloves don't feel pain.
This was the origin of his new move:
[Sky Slash: Thousand-Hand Giant Blade]!
"So that was his plan..."
Outside the dimension, Snack grit his teeth, staring at the behemoth in the sky.
He remembered a conversation he once had.
"Snack, your ability is strong, but not invincible."
That was his brother, Charlotte Katakuri, the strongest in the family besides Mama.
"Just off the top of my head, I can think of three ways to defeat you."
"First, finding your Mark Points. That goes without saying."
"Second, even if they can't find the points, if they have enough stamina to outlast you, you lose when you can't maintain the ability."
"If you face these two types, it means their strength is roughly equal to yours. You might lose, but you can escape."
Snack remembered asking with interest, "And the third type, Brother Katakuri?"
"The third type..."
Katakuri looked at him. Snack still remembered the warning in his eyes.
"Top-tier Haki users, or truly powerful ability users—your ability is meaningless before them. The former can negate fruit effects with Haki, and the latter won't bother looking for your Mark Points."
"They will simply... destroy everything."
"What? Are you talking about yourself or Mama?"
"No, Snack. Not just me or Mama. I'm talking about the true... monsters of this sea."
Recalling this, Snack watched the behemoth in the sky...
Crash down!
BOOM!
Just the wind pressure obliterated the palace walls.
CRACK!
The whistling sound of the slash roared like thunder.
Trees were severed, clouds were split, and birds fell from the sky.
Snack finally understood Katakuri's words.
With an attack of this range and power, his Mark Point was meaningless—because even if he transferred the damage, he was still within the attack's blast radius.
He couldn't escape.
Trembling, Snack took the Transponder Snail from his pocket.
As it connected, a dark female voice came through.
"You're slow, Snack! Why did it take you so long to pick up? Where is my 'Rainbow Candied Fruit'..."
It was BIG MOM.
But for the first time, Snack didn't wait for his mother to finish.
"Mama..."
He stared at the falling behemoth, his voice trembling. "The Zodiac... Nezumi..."
"This guy... is a true 'Monster'."
"Hah? What are you sayi—"
BOOM!
In the next instant, the snail, Snack, and the entire palace...
Were utterly annihilated by the colossal slash from the heavens.
At the same time. New World.
'Totto Land,' Whole Cake Island.
Click.
CRUSH!
The sound of the call ending and the snail being crushed happened simultaneously.
"Mamamama..."
In a cute room decorated with pink lace, a massive woman in a bicorne hat laughed.
But clearly—judging by her terrifying expression—it wasn't a happy laugh.
"Ma-Mama?"
Around her, the three top-tier Homies—Zeus the Thundercloud, Prometheus the Sun, and Napoleon the Bicorne—were nervous.
"Snack..."
"Ah, looks like he's dead."
Charlotte Linlin said. "Nezumi... The new member of The Zodiac... Mamamama... They really have no fear."
BOOM!
As she spoke, intense Conqueror's Haki and a terrifying aura erupted.
The walls shook, decorations cracked silently, and her hair floated wildly.
This was the aura of a monster standing at the peak of the world in a rage.
"Daring to kill my son... and more importantly... stealing my 'Rainbow Candied Fruit'!?"
She ground her teeth. "A bunch of nobodies from nowhere... don't think you can do this and get away with it."
She clearly valued the candied fruit far more than her son, but the Homies weren't surprised. That was Charlotte Linlin.
"Find them. I want all the intel on that organization... And..."
But what truly alarmed the Homies was what happened next. As BIG MOM spoke, drool began to drip from her mouth.
Hiss!
The saliva hit the floor, its potent acidity sizzling and smoking.
"Ma-Mama?"
The three Homies looked at each other, trembling.
They recognized the signs. "Eating Disorder!?"
"Rainbow... Candied... Fruit!"
"Quick! Get Perospero! Check the warehouse for spare candied fruit—OW! Mama, don't hit me! It's me!"
☆☆☆
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