Totto Land Kingdom, Cake Island.
"MAMA—MAMA—MAMA—!!!"
A huge, crazed laugh erupted from the palace atop Cake Castle, shaking nearly the entire island.
Big Mom—Charlotte Linlin—sat on her massive throne, gripping a crumpled newspaper, laughing so hard she rocked back and forth, tears shooting from her enormous eyes.
In front of her, a long table was piled high with exquisite cakes and sweets of every kind.
"The World Government! The Celestial Dragons! They're all gone! MAMAMAMA!!!"
Laughing wildly, she grabbed a three-tier cream cake and stuffed the whole thing into her mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing it down.
"This is… this is too wonderful!!~!"
Down below, the Homies swayed with her mood, chirping in gleeful, chattery voices.
Several of her older children—Perospero, Katakuri, Daifuku, and others—stood beneath her, each wearing a different expression.
Perospero licked his candy cane, a shrewd glint in his eyes.
"Mama, for us, this really is the best news imaginable~ With the World Government collapsing, so many restraints and rules are gone~ We can expand our territory much more freely~ Perorin~"
"Exactly! MAMA!"
Big Mom snatched up a chocolate fountain and tossed it—cup and all—into her mouth, crunching it to pieces.
"No one will dare point fingers at us anymore! Totto Land will become the strongest nation!"
Katakuri stood with his arms folded, silent.
His scarf covered the lower half of his face, but the eyes above it were unnervingly calm—tinged with a hint of doubt.
"Katakuri, what do you think?"
Smoothie, one of the Sweet Commanders, asked quietly from the side.
"It's not that simple," Katakuri said, voice low. "The one who destroyed the World Government wasn't us, and it wasn't any other Emperor either. It might not even have been the Revolutionary Army. It was an unknown existence with terrifying power."
He paused. "Mama—while we're celebrating, shouldn't we first find out… what this 'unknown' is? And whether it might take an interest in Totto Land next?"
Big Mom's laughter slowed for a moment.
Her huge eyes rolled toward Katakuri. The manic amusement was still there, but something else flickered behind it.
"Katakuri, my son."
She licked the cream off her lips.
"Are you… afraid?"
"I just think that before we enjoy the feast, we should confirm there isn't a fiercer beast hiding in the kitchen," Katakuri replied, neither servile nor defiant.
"MAMAMAMA!"
Big Mom burst out laughing again.
"A beast? Even a beast likes sweets! If it likes sweets, it can be Totto Land's friend! Or…"
Her laugh suddenly took on a cold edge.
"Or we'll turn it into ingredients for a delicious dessert!"
She rose to her feet, her colossal body casting a heavy shadow.
"Notify every island! Every child!"
Her voice boomed through the palace.
"Celebrate! Throw me an unprecedented sweets banquet to celebrate those disgusting Celestial Dragons finally being finished!"
Ambition and greed glittered in her enormous eyes.
"Send out our intel teams—I want to know exactly what happened over at the Red Line."
"And find out which territories are ownerless now!"
"Yes, Mama!" Perospero bowed at once.
Katakuri said nothing more.
He knew that when Mama fell into this kind of extreme excitement and greed, there was no point trying to talk her down.
All he could do was raise his guard in silence—and pray that the "unknown existence" truly had no interest in sweets or Totto Land.
Cake Island slipped into the opening notes of a frenzy.
But beneath the sweet fragrance, dark undercurrents had already begun to stir.
…
Wano Country, Onigashima.
"ROAAAR—!!!"
A deafening dragon roar, thick with savage rage, exploded from the peak of Onigashima!
The soundwave became a visible shockfront that tore apart the heavy clouds overhead, even making the waterfalls below stutter for an instant!
A massive azure dragon rolled through the clouds, every scale reflecting a cold, steel-blue gleam.
In Kaido's lantern-like dragon eyes burned a furious blaze—and the violent, stolen-prey wrath of a predator.
"The World Government—!!! The Celestial Dragons—!!!"
His bellow cracked like thunder across heaven and earth.
"They were supposed to be destroyed by me! I was supposed to be the one to end this boring era!"
"Who was it?! Who got there before me?!"
His dragon body lashed wildly through the air, whipping up hurricane winds.
Below, Onigashima's structures creaked under the pressure.
The Beasts Pirates' grunts flattened themselves to the ground, trembling.
"Kaido-san, please calm down!"
Queen the Plague shouted up at the sky, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"King!"
Kaido ignored him, swiveling his enormous dragon head toward the figure hovering nearby, wreathed in flames—King.
"Investigate! Find out who did it, and do it fast! Did that old bastard Whitebeard leave something behind before he died? Or did that red-haired punk hide something from us?"
King's wings beat slightly. From behind the mask, his voice was cool and obedient. "Understood."
"And another thing!"
Kaido panted, scorching breath spilling from his jaws.
"The Navy—those dogs without a master—must be in total chaos right now. This is an opportunity!"
His huge eyes locked onto the world below.
"Gather every last bit of our strength. Get ready!"
"Kaido-san… are we attacking the Navy?"
Jack the Drought asked in a heavy voice, excitement seeping into his tone.
"Attacking? No."
A grotesque grin twisted across Kaido's dragon face.
"What I want is total chaos! War! I want this world to become a true 'world of oni'!"
"ROAAAR—!!!"
He threw his head back and roared again—but this time, mixed into the fury was boundless fanaticism and ambition.
"If the old era was ended by some unknown bastard, then the new era will be written by me—Kaido of the Beasts! Worororororo—!!!"
Within that roar, every Beasts Pirates member on Onigashima—Tobi Roppo, Headliners, even the ordinary Gifters—felt their captain's boiling battle-lust and craving for disorder.
Fear was driven away.
In its place rose anticipation—for the lawless war to come.