Ortoren gave a somewhat helpless explanation of the situation, and only then did Charlotte Linlin realize her precious son hadn't been sidelined by the Marines after all.
"So, why are you reaching out to us?" Charlotte Linlin took the Den Den Mushi from Katakuri's hand and asked directly.
"Are you familiar with how G-5 operates?" Ortoren began.
It was clear Linlin and the others weren't too informed about Marine internal affairs. At most, they knew G-5 was different from the rest—mocked as the Marines' trash bin.
Ortoren then took the time to explain G-5's system to them.
Finally, he got to the point. "Our main work is hunting pirates, reducing their numbers in the New World as much as possible. There aren't strict orders—our freedom is high. So I was thinking, maybe we could work together in this area?"
Charlotte Linlin mulled it over, then grinned. "You mean, we give you intel and targets, and you deploy your forces to wipe them out?"
"Exactly. That way we accomplish Headquarters' objectives while also cutting down your rivals among the pirates. A win-win situation," Ortoren confirmed.
On the surface, it might sound improper—collaborating with pirates—but for the World Government and Marines, this wasn't exactly taboo. Everyone did it. The relationship between Marines and pirates, while antagonistic, was far more complicated.
Sengoku had already hinted to Ortoren multiple times not to sever ties with the Big Mom Pirates. Now, sending him to G-5, with Sengoku's sharp mind, there was no way he hadn't foreseen this possibility. Yet he hadn't warned Ortoren against it either—clear tacit approval.
After all, the outcome still meant hitting pirates. The only difference was, it wouldn't be the Big Mom Pirates being struck. But that still aligned with the Marines' broader interests.
As for the Big Mom Pirates, in Sengoku's eyes, there was no need to force Ortoren to target them specifically. The Marines had plenty of manpower. Assigning that task to someone else was easy enough.
Couldn't Sakazuki do it? Couldn't Borsalino? Couldn't Kuzan?
This was how you kept unity. Don't make relationships unnecessarily tense—leave room on all sides.
When the time came to strike the Big Mom Pirates, send someone else. When there was need for certain quiet cooperation, send Ortoren. Using everyone's strengths to the fullest—that was the right play.
Forcing Ortoren into conflict with the Big Mom Pirates, just to call it "proving loyalty," would be sheer stupidity.
"Mamamama! You make a fair point." Charlotte Linlin thought for a moment, then nodded at Ortoren's reasoning.
But soon she added, "Still, in the current New World, stability serves the Big Mom Pirates' interests best. Do you understand?"
Pirates didn't spend every day fighting and raiding. The bigger the crew, the more that held true.
Ortoren turned her words over in his mind, analyzing the Big Mom Pirates' present condition alongside the intelligence the Marines had given him.
All in all, Charlotte Linlin truly lived up to the title of far-sighted strategist. Her crew was no longer just a pirate band—they had become something closer to a nation.
By comparison, among the great pirate powers, the Whitebeard Pirates were the most unstructured.
They lived free and wild, with little regard for rules, surviving mainly through plunder and protection money.
They were the most traditional type of pirate force—built around Newgate as captain, with no clear long-term structure or formal system. That lack of order made succession impossible.
Marineford proved it: once Whitebeard himself fell, the whole crew immediately began to collapse.
The Big Mom Pirates, on the other hand, were far more advanced. They had raised the idea of piracy to the level of statehood. In the New World, with Whole Cake Island as their center, they expanded their territories outward, forming a pirate nation with defined borders.
And this nation, despite running on what looked like a crude and simplistic system, still functioned stably even when Charlotte Linlin left things unattended. That in itself was extraordinary.
If you strip away the pirate label, Totto Land meets every definition of a true New World nation.
Charlotte Linlin's crew no longer depended solely on plunder or protection fees. National productivity, commerce, taxation—every channel of revenue a state would rely on—flowed like blood to fuel their strength.
Ortoren even thought that if they kept developing along this path, the Big Mom Pirates could one day field a formal army of their own, just like other countries, without needing "savages" to serve as pirates.
That shift in concept marked their evolution—moving from the chaos of piracy toward structured order.
At Marine Headquarters, the Chief of Staff had already argued more than once: if no action was taken against Totto Land, in a few more years, they wouldn't even need to be treated as pirates anymore. Seeing them as a sovereign New World nation with its own formal military wouldn't be wrong at all.
And if you push that thought further—what if, some years from now, Charlotte Linlin cast aside the pirate mantle, declaring herself solely Queen of Totto Land? What if she agreed to pay the Heavenly Tribute and became one of the World Government's powerful allied nations in the New World? Would Mary Geoise truly refuse her?
No noble lineage is pure all the way down. Trace their family trees long enough and you'll always find dirt—bandits, rebels, pirates. Later generations might dress those ancestors up with legends, but the truth was rarely so clean.
If the Charlotte family chose that road, they could walk it.
Linlin remained a pirate simply because she wanted to. But if she ever decided to trade benefits with the World Government, to join as an allied nation instead of an enemy, the World Government would welcome her at Mary Geoise—and even grant her a seat at the Reverie.
Back to the present—Linlin's claim that stability best suited Totto Land's interests made perfect sense. With their current model, they were already far ahead of their peers in terms of structure. Time was on their side.
If in the original story Charlotte Linlin hadn't stubbornly gone to Wano alone, but instead stayed in Totto Land under the protection of her vast forces, would she have lost so clumsily?
Forget the Straw Hats—even the Marines and the World Government would have struggled to do anything against her, had she simply advanced steadily without gambling.
As Ortoren silently turned these thoughts over, Charlotte Linlin chuckled. "But since it's you asking, Mama won't say no. When you need something, come to me."
The call ended soon after, with little concrete progress.
...
On Whole Cake Island, Perospero frowned. "Mama, why didn't you just agree to him outright?"
"Perospero, you mustn't see Ortoren only as Mama's child. You have to treat him as an independent force. If I accept too easily, it'll look as if Mama depends on him. Right now, it's he who needs me." Linlin's eyes glinted with amusement.
After a pause, she added, "Still... this boy shows promise."
"G-5..." Linlin murmured while eating, her gaze flashing now and then with interest. She was clearly intrigued by this strange Marine base.
There were countless ways she and Ortoren could work together, but just as many points of friction.
Control and leadership, for one—she had no intention of bowing to her son, and he seemed just as stubborn about taking the lead himself.
Even now, Linlin was considering: with G-5 being so unique, could she use money and weapons to restrain—or even take hold of—the power in Ortoren's hands?
Yet she suspected he'd never give her that chance.
...
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