Homies not only have different personalities, but also differences in status.
Ordinary Homies take on the attitude of servants when facing Charlotte Linlin's children.
But Homies like Hermes, who were split off from Charlotte Linlin's own soul, are different. Not only do they have a higher status, but they only obey orders from a select few.
For example, Hermes will only take orders from Charlotte Linlin herself, Nanamo, and Nereus.
When it comes to commanding the Homies, Nanamo and Charlotte Linlin have higher priority.
If Nanamo and Katakuri are going out to seek revenge, Hermes can't really stop them and can only have Perospero go notify Charlotte Linlin, in case things spiral out of control.
Perospero turned around to look for a Den Den Mushi, but the previously flat ground suddenly bulged up, and not noticing, Perospero tripped.
"When did a dirt mound show up here..."
"Sorry, you're too small, I didn't see you. So Miss Nanamo went that way."
Nodding to himself, Big Pan once again dove underground, resuming his work as a stealthy bodyguard.
"Hey, Katakuri, why are you covering your face?"
"In the end, Brûlée's injury happened because of me. From now on, I won't expose this 'weakness' anymore."
Because of his mouth and sharp fangs, Katakuri wasn't very popular on the island. His only playmates were his siblings.
Perospero once told him that if he wanted to make friends, he should cover his mouth, then he'd have a lot more friends.
At the time, Katakuri scoffed at this, acting like he didn't care at all. Anyone who made fun of him, he'd just beat them up.
Until Brûlée got hurt today.
"What kind of weakness is that? By your logic, should I wrap myself up like a mummy whenever I go out?"
"Big sis, our situations are different. Nereus... Mr. Nereus only has you as his child, but Mom has lots of kids.
Perospero isn't strong enough, so this responsibility naturally falls to me.
I was too naïve before. Brûlée's injury made me realize: you can't show any weakness. Only perfect terror can make enemies afraid."
Katakuri paused to think about how to address Nereus, since Charlotte Linlin always believed in keeping the children and discarding the father. Katakuri was still unfamiliar with the role of a father.
The status of the fathers of his other brothers and sisters was equally insignificant, rarely even appearing within his line of sight.
Moreover, just as Katakuri said, even though Charlotte Linlin had a lot of children, her way of raising them has always bordered on a semi-free-range approach.
She'd make sure the kids wouldn't die prematurely, but how they grew up was up to them. Having the older kids take care of the younger ones was completely normal.
As the strongest son, even though Katakuri was only ten, he matured faster, and Brûlée's injury only sped that up.
"Suit yourself, but I've got to say, there's nothing weird about you at all. You're actually quite handsome."
"Thanks."
Nanamo was two years older than Katakuri and a hybrid Fish-Man herself, so she understood Katakuri's feelings.
She was good-looking, with an exotic kind of beauty, but discrimination didn't disappear because of that.
Forget about being a demi-human, sometimes, just a different skin color, or even a single mole on someone's face could become the target of group ridicule under the influence of certain individuals.
Even Charlotte Linlin, their mother, didn't treat everyone completely equally. Her goal was to have children of every race, but the appearance of some children still made Charlotte Linlin uncomfortable.
For example, Pudding from the Three-Eye Tribe. Her third eye on the forehead often drew comments like disgusting from Charlotte Linlin.
On this island, compromise is useless; staying silent only marks you as an easy target to bully.
Both Nanamo and Katakuri understood that if you didn't stand up for yourself, people would just keep pushing further.
The trident dragged along the ground, its sharp blade creating sparks as it scraped over the bricks on the ground.
Before long, under Katakuri's lead, Nanamo arrived at the base of the Chubby Bottle Pirates.
"You're here, Katakuri. I've been waiting for you a long time."
The captain of the Chubby Bottle Pirates was a fat pirate with several missing teeth. Shaking his coat, he clapped his hands smugly.
"You even brought a little girl with you? You really must look down on us."
From the shadows around them, more and more pirates stepped out, all armed, surrounding Katakuri and Nanamo in the middle.
In the sky above, Hermes naturally saw all of this as well. At this moment, its expression was grave as it looked down, occasionally adjusting its angle to check if anyone else was hiding.
The humanlike expression on the cloud gradually scrunched up, as if it couldn't understand what was happening below.
The reason was simple: these pirates were too weak.
Even though Hermes was just a Homie, it had seen its share of big scenes. By observing humans' movements and sensing their aura, it could make a rough judgment of their strength.
With only these people below, not to mention both Nanamo and Katakuri, even if it was just Katakuri alone, they wouldn't be able to handle him.
So why did people like this dare to ambush Katakuri? Even if they did succeed, there was no way they could withstand Charlotte Linlin's retaliation afterwards.
As a reliable Homie, Hermes figured the other side must have a backup plan, so it stayed on alert for unexpected developments, but didn't intervene in a situation Nanamo and Katakuri could handle themselves.
"Katakuri, what's that thing on your face? Pretty funny looking."
The Chubby Bottle Pirates still had the mood to mock Katakuri, but their mocking tone quickly turned into unspeakable fear as they heard Katakuri's cold reply.
"You actually... scarred my little sister's face..."
"S-sorry, it was our mistake..."
From Katakuri, the captain of the Chubby Bottle Pirates felt a sense of impending death.
But what was done was done; apologizing now was useless. The only answer was Katakuri's trident.
The captain of the Chubby Bottle Pirates saw with his own eyes that his most prized fighter lasted only two rounds against Katakuri.
In the first round, his weapon was flicked away by the trident; in the second, his heart was pierced by the sharp blade. And Katakuri didn't even pause, charging at him like a death god.
"Don't... don't just stand there! If you don't want to die, get him together! You few, grab that little girl!"
Nanamo's delicate appearance seemed to the captain like the weak point to exploit.
While the rest of the crew moved to surround Katakuri, the captain himself rushed straight at Nanamo, swinging his long sword, intending to take her hostage.
Before he could reach his target, though, a smooth, dainty hand directly caught the blade of his sword.