A Voice from the New World

At Ryugu Palace, the fine banquet has finally reached its conclusion. Nami reassures Shirahoshi, who timidly asks, "D... do you think Luffy-sama and the others will be all right, Nami-chin-sama?" Nami tells her, "Oh, don't worry yourself about them!" The crew talks about the missing treasure with very different priorities. Someone dreams, "We're gonna be the richest pirate crew there ever was!!" another shouts, "Awww yeah!!" and Brook says, "You think so? In my experience, the rock'n'roll of life is never quite so easy..." Meanwhile, Luffy has already gone to the main island to find Caribou. He calls, "Hey, check it out!! Zoro, Sanji!! I found the treasure!! That was pretty easy!!" Zoro complains, "That punch of yours already knocked him clean out, huh? Well, that's no fun."

Caribou lies defeated beside a huge heap of royal treasure, his strange body apparently having stored the loot. Usopp stares at the pile and asks, "Have you seen how much treasure there is around here?!" Nami wonders, "Is that shaggy old king really gonna just give it all to us?!!" Luffy, thinking only of the banquet, cheers, "Oh, yeah!! Now we can buy so much meat!!" Sanji looks at the unconscious Caribou and asks, "Was he storing all this inside his weird marshy body...?" The Straw Hats immediately argue about direction. Zoro points one way, someone asks, "Which way to the town, Zoro?" and the crew knows the opposite way must be right. A sudden shout interrupts them: they need a flying fish or two and must get "Back to the palace!!" Nearby at the Sweet Factory, the officials beg for time, explaining that the confectionery machines were badly damaged.

At the Sweet Factory, Pekoms of the Big Mom Pirates makes the monthly arrangement sound simple and terrifying. "I was hoping for a couple bites myself, so I'm pretty damn hungry right now!!!" he growls. "You give us the sweets on time once a month... and our Mama lends you her name as protection!!" The factory workers have failed to provide the sweets, and Pekoms does not accept excuses. "That's how it works, and don't you tell me you've forgotten!!" He says he dislikes speaking this way to people they are on good terms with, but warns, "I'm sure you know how scary our Mama can be, yeah? If you make her mad... You're done for!!!" The page introduces him as "Big Mom Pirates Pekoms, Fighter," a lion-like warrior whose glare frightens the Fishman Island officials.

Pekoms warns the factory staff, "So you better pay up what you owe, grrrhhh!!!" and says that when he glares he looks "kind of... cute..." Luffy then notices the Sweet Factory and runs toward it: "Oh hey, this is the sweet factory! Pappagg was talking about it." Sanji reasons that this must be where all those delicious sweets came from and hopes there are flying fish to spare. Luffy shouts, "Sweet Factory, here I come!!" The locals recognize him at once: "Ohh!! It's Straw Hat Luffy!!" and "Luffy-san!! Is the banquet over already?" Luffy answers with a grin that he is totally stuffed, but the meat was good and "all those tasty Fishman Island sweets were even better!!" His words land in front of Pekoms and the factory officials at exactly the wrong moment.

The factory workers panic when Luffy speaks too loudly. They stammer, "Uh, yeah... about that, Straw Hat-san..." and beg, "Could you keep your voice down?!" Pekoms hears the phrase "tasty sweets" and demands, "Who are these people...?!" Luffy notices "old Brody" nearby and openly says he has just had a ton of sweets himself: "They're great!!" Pekoms asks whether Luffy is there to buy sweets and why he does not look like a fishman. Baron Tamago calmly steps in, saying, "Listen, Mr. Pekoms, I can explain." The officials insist, "I do believe this must be Straw Hat Luffy..." and Tamago realizes he is seeing a famous pirate in these waters. But Pekoms explodes: "What is the meaning of this?!! This boy claims to have been eating your sweets! There is a very good explanation for this...!!" Tamago tries to stop him from clawing at the workers before they obtain the sweets they came for.

Baron Tamago introduces himself with deliberate politeness: "A very bonjour to you, my soft-boiled pirate friends... Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Baron Tamago!!" The page identifies him as "Big Mom Pirates Baron Tamago, Fighter (Longleg Tribe)." He wants a peaceful settlement but refuses to wait long. "Let us settle this in a peaceable manner, n'est-ce pas?" he says. "The tea party is not for another four days. As long as we take our leave by tomorrow morning, we can still make it in time." Luffy, unimpressed by the tall stranger, asks, "Whoa, it's another weird guy... Who're you?" Tamago's introduction makes clear that he and Pekoms are not random collectors but Big Mom's envoys, operating on a strict deadline tied to her tea party.

Tamago explains why the sweets matter so much. He tells Luffy, "It is a name I would advise you to remember, s'il vous-plait." The food Luffy enjoyed was "the fruits of this wonderful sweet factory's labour," and Luffy cheerfully admits, "Yeah, I have! If there's any more around, I'd be up for seconds!" Tamago says there is no more, which is the problem. He points out the large mark on the factory wall: "That is the flag of our boss, the great pirate Charlotte Rinrin. It indicates that this island is a part of the territory of the Yonkou known as 'Big Mom'." In other words, Fishman Island is currently under Big Mom's protection. The contract is business, not goodwill: Fishman Island provides Big Mom with ten tons of sweets each month, and in return she grants the island her protection.

Somewhere in the New World, on Wholecake Island, Big Mom is already laughing and waiting for the sweets. "'Course I am. The tea party's only four days away!" she says. In four days she will savor the delicious treats from Fishman Island again, and her stomach acid is "overflowing like mad" from excitement. Her subordinates ask whether she is looking forward to them too, and she answers, "Of course we are!! They're simply divine!!" When one tells her she can wait for them inside her stomach, the scene turns grotesque: someone pleads, "Whaaa?!! Please don't do that, Mama!!" and "Stooooooop!!" before screaming, "Aaaaa arghh hhh!!" Big Mom's appetite is monstrous, and the absence of sweets will not be a small disappointment.

Big Mom eats as casually as she judges nations. The sounds around her are "CHOMP CHOMP," "CRUNCH!! CRUNCH!!," "GRIND GRIND!!" and "MUNCH MUNCH!!" When Bobbin returns, he calls, "Mamaaaa!!! I just got back, boyoyoyoyong!!" Big Mom asks, "Good, good... How did it go, Bobbin?" He reports, "Perfect! It all went up in flames!!" and she is pleased: "Excellent news... I always did adore that country's baked confections..." She imagines their scent being baked through a shame even as she says the failure cannot be helped. "They failed to bake the confections they promised me," she says, and then states her rule: "People who won't give me their sweets don't deserve to live." She cannot stand people who promise sweets and fail to deliver because they are "as terrible as bitter confections." Then she casually asks, "Got any snacks?"

The bad news from Fishman Island reaches Big Mom. The messenger says, "Word came in from Pekoms just now. Shall we burn Fishman Island too?" Big Mom reacts with a huge, shadowed "What?!" and the page identifies her fully as "Yonkou Great Pirate 'Big Mom' Charlotte Rinrin." On the side of the page, the shock is echoed back at Fishman Island: "No sweets from Fishman Island?!!" and Big Mom demands, "Bring me a den-den mushi at once!!!" The threat has now become direct. Fishman Island's inability to provide sweets is being treated by one of the Four Emperors as a possible reason to burn the island down.

Back at Fishman Island's Sweet Factory, the officials plead for time. They explain that "Fishman Island's sweets are our Mama's most beloved of all," but the machines that produce the confections are badly damaged. They are willing to wait until tomorrow morning, yet being ready in two weeks is "out of the question." Sanji snaps at Tamago, "Hey, egg-man!!! Why can't you just give the guy a break?!!" Tamago answers that the boss is a woman, not a "bastard," but she is certainly not forgiving. If the sweets do not reach her on time, "the warriors of the Big Mom Pirates... will come to this island and destroy it once and for all!!" He offers a poster-like explanation of Big Mom loving sweets and says she is a fickle lady, making the threat sound almost routine.

The danger enrages Luffy. He shouts, "You're gonna destroy Fishman Island?!" and "What are you, stupid?!! You can't destroy a country over a few sweets!! Not right after we just saved it once!!!" Pekoms says that will be Big Mom on the ringing Den-Den Mushi: "I sent her a report of the situation." The call comes through with a furious "BRR BRRING!!" and the officials panic: "A... A call from B-Big Mom herself...?" Pekoms hesitates, and Tamago tells him, "Go on then, Pekoms." Luffy grabs the receiver and answers first with a blunt "Hey!!" and "Hello?" Pekoms warns, "You answer it!! I don't like getting yelled at!!" Now the most dangerous person in the arrangement is speaking not to Fishman Island's officials, but to Luffy.

Luffy speaks into the Den-Den Mushi without fear: "Are you Big Mom?!!" Pekoms desperately tries to stop him, grabbing at Luffy and repeating, "Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it!!!" The voice on the line pauses, then says Luffy's voice does not sound like Tamago's or Pekoms'. Luffy declares, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! The man who's gonna be Pirate King!!!" Big Mom recognizes the name: "Monkey... D...?" Her subordinates remember him as Straw Hat, the boy whose actions caused chaos during the war two years ago. Luffy does not wait for permission. He looks across the empty factory and states the fact: "There aren't any sweets here!!"

When Big Mom asks whether it is true that there are no sweets for her, Luffy gives the worst possible explanation and the bravest possible one: "'Cause I ate them all!!!" He doubles down, "I ate all ten tons of 'em!!!" The crowd panics and tells him, "Straw Hat-san...!! You don't have to...!!" but Luffy insists, "It's true!! I ate all the sweets on the island!!" He admits, "I didn't know they were meant for you!! I was just hungry!!" Big Mom immediately understands him better than he might expect. She calls him a simple boy and says it is not good to lie; she can tell he is trying to protect his fishman friends. But whether or not she believes the literal story, Luffy has now made himself the one speaking for Fishman Island.

Nami suddenly turns the recovered treasure into a bargaining chip. She tells Big Mom's side, "We've got tons of treasure with us right here!! You can have it all!!! That should make up for the sweets!!!" Big Mom is unimpressed: "And what am I meant to do with that?!! I can't eat treasure!!! It's tasty sweets I want, boy!!!" Luffy and Nami clarify that the bags are full of treasure, while Tamago tries to calm Big Mom down. He suggests forgiving them this once because Pekoms was attacked recently and they need to find cash quickly for repairs. He promises, "Then you would still get your sweets in a couple of weeks' time, and we could make up for all the damages we have suffered!!" On the way back, he says, he will procure the sweetest, most delectable sweets he can find to tide her over.

Pekoms angrily rejects Tamago's compromise: "Shut your damn face, Tamago, you swine!! How dare you even suggest such a thing?!" He asks what kind of worthless pirate would compromise on the treasure he desires. Big Mom, however, finds Luffy interesting. She grins and says, "Although... hahahah... I do find myself quite intrigued by this boy who defies me." Then she changes the target: since Luffy wants to protect Fishman Island so much, she will do as he wishes and change her target from Fishman Island to his crew. "Monkey D. Luffy...!! I won't forget your name... So come and meet me in the New World!!!" Luffy answers that he cannot leave the island in the hands of someone like her because it is not safe. He says, "I'm gonna find you in the New World, beat you up..." and finishes with the decisive declaration: "...and make Fishman Island into my own territory!!!"

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