Chapter 179: Chaos at the Tea Party! Chiffon's Escape!
While Doflamingo and Umit were each lost in their own thoughts, Kai found Viola.
"They are going after the Fish-Men. Those high-and-mighty Celestial Dragons promised Doflamingo the right to return to the Holy Land."
Thanks to the power of her Glare-Glare Fruit, Viola had seen their inner thoughts as clearly as if they were written on a page.
"Interest moves the human heart," Kai said quietly.
A cold, dangerous light flickered in his eyes. "Looks like your luck is not so great this time."
Ever since he had forged a firm alliance with Fish-Man Island, the Beasts Pirates' deterrent power had drastically cut the number of Fish-Men being hunted and sold.
The market price for mermaid slaves had shot through the roof. For the wasteful Celestial Dragons, that was no problem.
No price was too high if it meant flaunting status among their own.
The problem was supply.
And everyone in Mariejois knew how quickly the Celestial Dragons burned through their slaves.
Before long, living mermaids inside the Holy Land had become a kind of hard currency, a luxury that wept and screamed.
To keep their edge in that sick competition, some Celestial Dragons came up with what they thought was a brilliant idea.
If the auction houses and slave traders were incompetent and inefficient, then why not bypass them?
Why not create their own dedicated mermaid-hunting squad?
It was only natural that Doflamingo, who had both the power and the incentive, entered their sights.
One spot among the Celestial Dragons, in exchange for a steady, high-quality mermaid supply line.
To them, it was a bargain.
"Kai-sama, do we move?" Viola asked through gritted teeth, hatred hard in her eyes.
She had nothing but loathing for the man who had enslaved her country.
Play with him a little. To catch a thief, you catch him with the loot in his hands.
Doflamingo had been fronting the Beasts' arms trade for years. If nothing else, he had put in the work.
If Kai wanted to take him out, it had to be with a clear pretext.
The Beasts Pirates were no longer wandering raiders. They were a major power set on ruling the sea. Even something as "intangible" as reputation had to be taken seriously.
Still, Doflamingo's attempt to turn traitor was the perfect excuse.
Kai had been wondering how to justify wiping out the Donquixote Family.
Right then, sweets began to fall from the sky without warning.
Cakes, puddings, and cookies, in a riot of shapes and colors, laughed as they landed before the guests.
"Please eat me!"
A mousse cake that looked dangerously delicious gazed up at Kai with shining, hopeful eyes.
He frowned, stomach twisting, and casually tossed it back into the air.
These talking desserts always gave him the uncanny sense that he was "eating people." He could not stomach it.
The regular Tea Party guests were long used to this. They laughed, grabbed their favorites, and dug in without a second thought.
It was a classic Tea Party event.
Charlotte Linlin loved nothing more than watching her guests drown themselves in sweets. It gave her a twisted sense that anyone who loved dessert was one of "her people."
Kai watched people gobble up smiling pastries all around him and could not shake the feeling that he had walked onto the set of a live-action Madman's Diary.
Cold crept up his spine.
"Mama mama! Seeing you all enjoy my sweets this much makes me so happy!"
Laughing, Linlin swept into the venue in a pink puff dress, ringed by children like a queen at court.
"Enjoy everything that is about to happen today, everyone!"
Thunderous cheers answered her.
Whatever they truly felt, every face had to wear its brightest, most enthusiastic smile.
After the grand entrance, the guests took their assigned seats.
Kai was guided to the place of honor beside Charlotte Linlin. Loki, as groom, had a specially built table and chair big enough for his frame.
Then, led by Head Chef Streusen, a line of cooks solemnly escorted a towering cream cake more than twenty meters tall into the center of the grounds.
The cake was a work of art, layers of icing swirling like sculpture.
Its rich sweetness almost seemed solid, seeping into every breath, teasing every tongue.
Streusen bowed. "This wedding cake was prepared overnight with Chiffon's help. It is her specialty, chiffon cake."
"Mama mama. You did well. This old lady is very satisfied."
Linlin's eyes lit up. Joy spilled across her face until drool slipped from the corner of her mouth.
"So beautiful."
"Amazing."
"What a solemn, magnificent masterpiece."
The guests chimed in on cue, heaping over-the-top praise and pushing the mood toward a small climax.
With the wedding cake in place, it was time for the most important figure in Linlin's life to appear.
A King soldier emerged from deep within the castle, leading two Queen soldiers.
All three looked deadly serious as they bore a small but gorgeously decorated chest.
The moment that box appeared, the noisy hall went mute as if someone had hit a switch.
Every gaze followed it with grave respect, as if they were witnessing a holy relic.
The box was set down with great care in front of Linlin.
"Kai."
Linlin's face shone with pride, like she was showing off a treasure. "Allow me to introduce our Mother properly—Sister Carmel."
Smiling, she reached out one massive hand to open the lid.
Red light flickered for a heartbeat in Kai's eyes. The corner of his mouth curled. "I am looking forward to it."
Good work, Chiffon.
At the same time, Katakuri's face suddenly darkened. Realizing something was very wrong, he spoke up, trying to stop her. "Wait—"
Too late.
The lid came up, and everything inside the box lay bare before Linlin's eyes.
"Mother's photo… Who? Who did this?!"
Her smile froze. Shock and disbelief twisted her features.
The relative calm in her presence was shattered.
Her Conqueror's Haki turned wild and chaotic, roiling like a volcano about to erupt.
Fate was not done.
The wedding cake suddenly swelled.
A heartbeat later—
Boom.
Explosions ripped it apart. Fire and icing blasted skyward. The cake was reduced to scorched rubble.
Yamato stared at the ruin, full of regret. "What a waste. I really wanted to taste it."
The others nodded.
Just from the look and the scent, you could tell it had to be top-tier.
While they mourned the loss of good food, Charlotte Linlin moved into a full rage state.
She had already been reeling in fury and grief from the destroyed photo. Now her long-awaited wedding cake blew up right in front of her…
At that moment, she was like an empress who had lost her last anchor.
"Carmel… cake…"
A single tear hit the ground.
"Ahhhhh!"
Linlin threw her head back and screamed.
It was more than sound. It sounded like a demon shrieking up from the pit.
Worse, the cry carried her Conqueror's Haki at full power.
Sound waves and Haki fused into a storm that swept the field.
Guests dropped in sheets, collapsing unconscious where they stood.
Even many of her own children were not spared. Under their mother's indiscriminate blast, they shrieked and crumpled.
On Kai's side, his crew took the hit as well.
Reiju, Viola, Bonney, and Chopper groaned the instant the scream hit their ears and sagged to the ground.
Ace, Zoro, and Sanji dragged every scrap of strength they had to stay upright.
"Damn it. I will not fall to a mere Yonko."
All three growled the same words through clenched teeth.
Under that crushing pressure, the seeds of Conqueror's Haki Kai had planted in them finally cracked open.
They awakened.
And grew.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Three nascent but unyielding waves of Conqueror's Haki burst from within them, fragile but stubborn as they pushed back against Linlin's soul-splitting voice.
"Not bad," Kai said.
Sitting at the eye of the storm, he looked utterly unchanged. Watching their struggle, he nodded once, satisfied.
It was as if the Yonko howling beside him did not exist.
The main table area was wrecked now. Only he and Linlin remained standing.
Katakuri had seen the danger the moment his mother's state turned, and had withdrawn far out of range in advance.
After another ten seconds or so, Linlin's massive frame wobbled. Drained by the emotional outburst and the power it had cost her, her legs buckled, and she crashed to her knees.
A smear of red appeared where her kneecaps hit stone.
Kai caught the detail, and his eyes narrowed.
So the "Iron Balloon" body was not just raw flesh toughness.
Once her Conqueror's Haki had been burned out, the so-called Iron Balloon burst.
Did that mean her body was actually being reinforced by Conqueror's Haki?
Conqueror's Haki used for defense?
He had never heard of that.
But it was not impossible.
If people could be born with special Observation Haki, then a special form of innate Conqueror's Haki for defense was not a stretch.
While Kai's mind raced over the implications, Linlin finally noticed the one man still sitting calmly nearby, expression infuriatingly composed.
"Kai…?"
Driven over the edge by her eating disorder and her grief and rage, her thoughts were a mess. Of course, she latched onto the calmest presence in sight as the culprit.
"You. You ruined my Tea Party. You destroyed Mother's photo."
Her huge body trembled with rage as she pointed at him. "I knew it. You never wanted Loki to be my son-in-law."
"Oh, come on."
Kai leaned back slightly, a mocking smile on his lips instead of fear.
He met her murderous stare and said clearly, "Charlotte Linlin."
"Are you brain-dead?"
The survivors who had just struggled back to their feet froze, minds blank.
They had not heard that wrong.
Kai had just insulted Charlotte Linlin. He had cursed out a Yonko to her face.
"Big news. This is earth-shattering news!"
Morgans was the only one on the verge of exploding with excitement.
His bird eyes gleamed. Ignoring the danger, he raised his camera snail and started hammering the shutter.
Kai was not done.
"You did not really think I was sitting here quietly because I feared you, did you?" he snorted. "If it were not for the fact that Loki truly likes Chiffon, you think I would sit here and play house with you?"
"Play house?"
Linlin's face went black. Her voice twisted with fury. "You are saying… my Tea Party is playing house?"
"If your hearing's bad, I can spell it out again."
Kai did not flinch. "Your Tea Party is just playing house."
He flicked a hand toward the guests. "You really think they are all here because they just love your sweets so much? Hm?"
Hey?
The guests nearly jumped out of their skins. Their hearts howled.
Why were they being dragged into this? Let the monsters fight each other.
A few quick thinkers rushed to clear themselves.
They swore up and down, and they were here for the desserts. Every trip across the sea was purely for the joy of Whole Cake Island's sweets.
There was no talk of proving loyalty or splitting interests.
Seeing Linlin's expression ease a fraction, the balance was shattered again as a King soldier ran up, panicked.
"N-not good! The… the bride is gone!"
"What?!"
Linlin's face twisted into something truly monstrous as she turned her killing intent on the hapless messenger.
"Mama, please calm down. Maybe Chiffon just had to step away for something. Or she went to fix her makeup or use the bathroom," Cream Minister Opera said, forcing himself to speak.
In response, he got nothing but his mother's cold, merciless soul curse.
"Life or bride!"
"No, Mama!"
Katakuri saw the future, panic in his voice as he tried to stop her.
Too late.
"M-Mama—"
Opera's eyes bulged in horror. Terror turned his legs to lead. He could not move, only watch her massive hand, shimmering with a deadly aura, close around him.
"Sp-spare me—"
Before the plea finished, a translucent soul was torn from his body.
Opera's eyes rolled white. His bulk collapsed like a snapped puppet, hitting the ground with a dull thud and never moving again.
"Brutal," Kai muttered, shaking his head. "Killing your own son like that."
By comparison, Kaido almost looked like a decent father.
Yamato threatened to kill Kaido every other day. At worst, he had tossed her into prison or smacked her around, never once really trying to end her. He had even allowed the crew to call her "Yamato-oyabun" just as she wished.
Ignoring the raving Linlin, Kai turned to Loki, who stood there hollow-eyed from the string of shocks.
"Hey, Loki. Time to go. Looks like your bride is not ready to walk down the aisle yet."
Loki let out a long breath.
Cold reality washed over him at last.
Only now did he truly recall how off Chiffon had seemed after he proposed.
He had thought she was overwhelmed with joy.
He now saw it for what it was: resistance.
"Kai… then why did she say yes?" he asked, lost and bitter.
"Are you stupid? How could she dare say no? Of course Linlin forced her," Kai snapped.
"And that is on you. Who proposes like that? You barely met her a few times, never really talked, and you jumped straight to marriage. Anyone would be scared."
"What should I do then?" Loki asked.
He did not want to give up. It was the first time a girl had truly moved his heart.
"Relax. When it comes to romance, I am an expert," Kai said, patting his chest. "I will teach you a few tricks later."
Loki thought of the girls gathered around Kai on Rayquaza and nodded solemnly. "Then I will leave it to you."
In that moment, a faint sense of belonging to Rayquaza quietly settled in his heart.