"Hand over the Devil Fruits!"
The same demand left both mouths—and then steel moved.
Shiki whipped out Oto and Kogarashi. One lazy cross-slash scissored down toward the Queen Mama Chanter.
"Eyes up—Golden Lion's slash incoming," Katakuri warned.
Charlotte Linlin snorted. Her right fist went pitch-black, then crack—she shattered the cross-slash with a single punch. Shards of sword-light rained into the sea and diced the surface into neat squares, tofu-cut tidy.
"Kehehe… still the same monster of a body," Shiki laughed, unsurprised.
Linlin's Soru Soru no Mi burned a lick of lifespan; power surged through her frame. She bent her knees, then launched—one step and she was in Shiki's face. A Conqueror's-laced haymaker hammered his forehead.
The Golden Lion shot backward like a fired shell, blood and a few teeth spraying. He smashed into Hachinosu's port and plowed a long, ugly trench.
"Almost forgot," he muttered around the gap in his grin. "This woman can burn lifespan whenever she feels like it."
Overhead, Linlin barked a word and a white thundercloud zoomed underfoot.
"Zeus—go."
"Y-yes, Mama!" The cloud bore her after Shiki, skimming the wind.
Pirates near the port went white. "They—they're fighting!"
"Run for it! BIG MOM's here—she'll steal our lives!"
The weak scattered screaming. The strong stayed, eyes hot. Flying Pirates' Admiral versus the BIG MOM Pirates' Captain—two of the era's Five Peaks. Worth losing a limb to watch.
"Ahh… that hurt. My teeth," Shiki groused, rubbing his skull as wounds already began knitting. He glanced up—Linlin hovered on Zeus, casting a fat shadow.
"Kehehe… my bad. I've got no Fruits on me, but you do, Linlin. You definitely brought a haul."
He slapped his palm to the dirt. The Fuwa Fuwa power pulsed downward.
"Lion's Might — Earth Coil!"
The island heaved. Ground buckled up as if a mountain range were standing. Two colossal lions roared from the earth and lunged, jaws yawning wide from either side.
They clapped shut on Linlin, swallowing cloud and woman in a single crunch.
Linlin's arms shot outward and arrested both stone maws. Veins crawled across her brow. "You think this works on me!?"
The lions warped, dissolving into an ocean of soil that buried her, then clenched tight into a floating sphere—a compact coffin in the sky.
"Kehehe! For old times' sake—give me half and I'll let you out."
Hidden watchers sucked air through their teeth. Casual island-scale terror—just another Tuesday with two apex monsters.
"BIG MOM's losing?"
"No… she's coming out!"
Cracks veined the earthen globe. Black-red lightning bled from the seams—then the sphere detonated into grit.
"Hmph." Linlin dusted herself with a flick. "Napoleon."
Her hat unfolded into a massive blade. She dove—blade-first—at Shiki.
"Monster constitution," Shiki spat, crossing both swords to catch the blow.
Impact caved the ground. The shockwave bulldozed everything in a few-hundred-meter circle into flattened ruin. The port descended into chaos.
—
Atop the Skull Grand Hotel, Dimon sat cross-legged with a gourd and took a long pull.
"On my trade fair grounds? Planning to turn the island to mulch?"
Linlin showing up—expected. Shiki dropping in—less so. If he let them keep going, they could fight ten days and nights, and when they were done the only thing missing would be Hachinosu.
"Yare yare… troublesome."
He set the gourd down, stood, and the centenarian guise peeled away. What stood up was Dimon—no disguise, no mask.
Only one person here could stop them now. Once upon a time, Rocks put a lid on them. Today, it was his turn.
"Twisted Future — Giant's Future."
He stepped—and appeared above them. The Years-Years power pulsed, and Dimon's body surged, flesh spinning into the proportions of a giant.
"What—?" both Linlin and Shiki blurted as the sky went dark.
A hand like a falling continent slapped down left and right.
"Do me a favor—stand down."
Both pirates cratered, the island shuddering like a bell.
Linlin blinked stars—and then everything went black as the giant's palm pinned her. Shiki tried to kick away; it was like Sun Wukong trying to leap out of the Buddha's palm—he got one body-length up before another hand splat-pinned him.
"So you are here," Shiki croaked, grinning crooked with gaps, not the least embarrassed to be caught wrecking the venue a day early. He'd assumed Dimon would make a last-second entrance. Instead, the host had been here all along.
"You trying to dismantle my island?" Dimon rumbled. He lifted them both by the scruffs like misbehaving cats. "If you want to brawl, take it to sea. Don't tear up my floor."
"Fine, fine—his fault," Linlin huffed, tossing her hands and glaring at Shiki. "He tried to rob my Fruits. Robbing me is robbing you, Dimon. How about we team up and gut him first?"
Shiki clicked his tongue. "Then I'll rob someone else, all right? Place is crawling with pirates."
In the shadow of the giant, the two apex predators dropped their hackles at once.
Around the ruins of the port, eyes burned bright. Whispers turned reverent.
"The legendary Brewer—Dimon."
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