"Is that Lord Nereus's daughter? She's so cute~ I heard Lord Nereus parted ways with that woman long ago. I wish I could be her stepmother..."
By the side of the street, a boldly dressed female pirate was speaking her mind to the pirate next to her, without a care.
Fullalead Island is inherently a place that worships strength. Good looks paired with top-tier strength, along with the unique bonus of not being interested in Shakuyaku's charm. Such people were rare here.
"Keep dreaming. Why would Lord Nereus ever fancy trash like you? The Mermaids around him are way prettier than you."
"Can't I even fantasize?"
"You should think more about our next move. I hear something big's about to happen on the island. The leaders of the Rocks Pirates seem to be discussing something."
As these pirates whispered among themselves, they failed to notice a mound of earth beside them slowly moving forward, heading right in Nanamo's direction.
When passing by them, a huge head suddenly popped out of the mound.
"She's right. You aren't Boss' type. Bushishishi~~"
After saying that, the head dove back underground.
"Wha… who was that?"
"No idea. Must be… a Fish-Man?"
"Fish-Man… can even swim through soil?"
The same situation occurred all along the way—a huge head would occasionally emerge from underground, observe the surroundings, and then retreat back down, startling quite a few people.
He wasn't an enemy, but rather Big Pan, the one Nereus had mentioned would accompany Nanamo.
Big Pan was also a Devil Fruit user. For most Fish-Men, the inability to swim after eating a Devil Fruit was a huge drawback.
But some Devil Fruits actually suited Fish-Men unexpectedly well. For example, the Water-Water Fruit that Big Pan ate. More accurately, it was the Paramecia-type • Swim-Swim Fruit."
It didn't really have anything to do with water itself. It simply allowed its user to treat the ground and walls as if they were the surface of water, and swim freely through them.
For a human, this fruit didn't offer much of a boost. In the original timeline, this was the fruit eaten by Senor Pink under Doflamingo.
For Senor, it wasn't a big improvement. Just a new way to launch sneak attacks.
The Lineage Factor from this fruit was also used by Vegapunk in Seraphim-S Shark, I.e. the Jinbe version of the Seraphim.
With the help of this fruit, the Fish-Man version of the Seraphim could treat the ground as water, using Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu to manipulate the terrain. A single punch can create an impact as devastating as a mountain collapse.
Big Pan's combat talent wasn't as high as the other three officers, so when this Devil Fruit was found, Nereus gave it to Big Pan to shore up his strength.
Now, for Big Pan, even on land he was still in his element.
He could not only swim and hide underground, but even breathe down there.
Big Pan's massive body swam through the ground, and soon Nanamo arrived at Charlotte Linlin's base, which was the harbor on the other side of the island.
But the mood here was heavy.
The other children of the Charlotte family were nowhere near as cheerful as Nanamo.
Right now, Charlotte Brûlée was lying there, a gruesome scar slashed across her face, stretching over her entire cheek. The blood on her face and the blood-soaked clothes clearly showed this was a fresh wound.
With purplish red short hair, sharp teeth, and stitched scars on both sides of his mouth, a ten-year-old boy stared at Brûlée lying on the ground with a face full of rage and disbelief.
"What happened? What's going on? How did Brûlée get hurt so badly?!"
"It was those guys you taught a lesson to earlier. They came back for revenge."
Perospero, the eldest son standing nearby, answered the boy's question, and this angry boy was none other than Charlotte Linlin's second son, Charlotte Katakuri.
A descendant of outstanding talent. Though only ten years old, he already displayed extraordinary fighting power.
The scars at the corners of his mouth weren't from battle, they were actually self-inflicted, split open from stuffing too many donuts into his mouth at once.
"Revenge? Why little sister?! If those b*stards wanted payback, they should have come for me!"
Still so young, Katakuri couldn't understand why those people, if they wanted vengeance, didn't come for him and instead targeted his innocent sister.
"Isn't it obvious? Of course it's because those guys are afraid of you. They don't dare provoke you, so they turned their attention to Brûlée. Is Mama off somewhere, busy with something else right now?"
Nanamo, who had just arrived, overheard Katakuri's furious questioning. She tossed the snacks she'd bought aside and came over as well.
"Big sis? Mama got some kind of news earlier, and then went to a meeting…"
It was still Perospero who answered, and he wasn't surprised Nanamo would come over. After all, it was normal for this big sister to drop by; it was just a coincidence of timing.
Charlotte Linlin herself was still someone these pirates feared. Attacking her children while she was away was already a brazen move; if they'd tried it in her presence, it would've been suicide.
"I knew it. Do you know who did it?"
"Of course… it was those pirates from the Chubby Bottle Pirates…"
Katakuri nearly spat out the words through clenched teeth. Anyone could feel his rage was about to overflow.
"Then let's go."
"Go where?"
"Where do you think? Obviously to get revenge. If they can go after Brûlée for payback, we can fight back too."
"No, they did this because of me. I'll take care of it myself…"
"Idiot, what are you talking about? She's my sister too, you're only my little brother. With something like this, how could big sister not step up?"
"Big sister, big brother, I'm okay, really… this injury doesn't even hurt, you don't need to go after them…"
Worried her siblings might get hurt, the injured Brûlée actually tried to talk them out of it, but her words had little effect.
Nanamo was still able to keep her emotions in check, but Katakuri's fury had completely exploded.
He no longer cared whether Nanamo was coming with him. He grabbed a tablecloth, wrapped it around his neck a few times as a scarf to cover his mouth, then picked up his trident and rushed off down a side path.
Nanamo followed right after.
"Wait! Princess Nanamo, and her little brother, I think this matter should be carefully considered!
We should first assess the enemy's strength, then report to Mama or Lord Nereus before taking any action!"
Hermes's words didn't have any effect. The two had already charged out. Seeing this, Hermes didn't hesitate, hurrying after them, while Big Pan underground also changed direction.
After flying a short distance, Hermes suddenly remembered something. He stretched his body back and sent his head over to Perospero.
"Long-tongued brother, go notify Mama, right now! Immediately! At once! I'm leaving first!"