Chapter 262
"Two minutes?"
Zaraki gave a low chuckle and rolled one shoulder as he looked from Katakuri to Charlotte Linlin.
"That's plenty."
The harbor fell quiet enough for Morgans to hear him clearly.
The bird nearly dropped his broadcast Den Den Mushi.
"DID YOU HEAR THAT?!"
He turned toward the lens.
"War Demon Zaraki has just been told that Kaido is less than two minutes from Whole Cake Island, and his answer is that two minutes is plenty!"
Morgans' voice climbed another octave.
"Plenty for what? To escape? To rescue Vice Admiral Gion and leave? Or does this lunatic actually mean he intends to settle something with Charlotte Linlin before Kaido gets here?!"
The Underworld rulers did not need Morgans to explain why the situation was absurd.
Linlin was already standing in front of Zaraki.
Kaido was approaching from the sea.
Marine warships were moving toward Totto Land.
No one sensible would have described two minutes as plenty of time for anything.
On the Kuja ship, Hancock stared toward Zaraki with a mixture of disbelief and unwilling fascination.
"He really intends to stay."
Sandersonia was still helping Gion into a safer position.
"You sound surprised."
Hancock's eyes narrowed.
"I am surprised that one man can make stupidity look so deliberate."
Gion, despite her injuries, gave a weak snort.
"That sounds like him."
At the center of the harbor, Linlin had finally had enough.
"You brat!"
Prometheus descended into her hand and swelled with heat.
"You kill my son, storm into my territory, take back my hostage, and then stand there talking about Kaido as though I'm something you can finish before he arrives?"
Fire roared around her fist.
"HEAVENLY FIRE!"
Linlin hurled Prometheus forward.
The Homie expanded into a massive wave of flame that tore across the harbor toward Zaraki.
He brought sealed Nozarashi across his body.
Mihawk's lessons returned almost instinctively.
Do not throw power everywhere.
Put it where the cut belongs.
Zaraki swung his sword.
The flying slash that left Nozarashi was narrow and controlled, and the concentrated pressure split the incoming mass of flame down the middle.
Prometheus's fire rolled apart on either side of Zaraki and burst harmlessly across empty sections of the ruined harbor rather than engulfing the Kuja ship or the watching guests.
Before the flames had fully dispersed, Zaraki moved.
His feet drove into the shattered candy ground.
Thunder Breathing sharpened the explosive acceleration of the first step, but he did not transform into lightning or fly.
He crossed the ground in a violent burst of speed and reached Linlin before the broken flames had finished falling.
Nozarashi cut toward her shoulder.
Linlin reacted on instinct.
Armament Haki hardened her forearm as she raised it across the path of the blade.
CLANG—!
The impact rolled through the harbor.
Zaraki's sword stopped and Linlin's arm did not bleed.
Her natural body was monstrously tough even before Armament Haki reinforced it, the durability that had earned her the reputation of an "Iron Balloon" throughout the New World.
Linlin grinned.
"Gahahaha! Is that it?"
Zaraki looked at the place where his blade had struck.
Not even a proper cut.
His grin widened.
"Good."
Linlin's expression changed.
Zaraki stepped back and lowered the sealed sword beside him.
"Drink, Nozarashi."
The blade changed.
The rough katana lengthened and broadened into the enormous chipped cleaver familiar to the few people who had previously seen Zaraki release it.
Dark-gold arcs crawled along the weapon, not Conqueror's Haki coating but the visible spill of Zaraki's own Reiatsu as Nozarashi began drinking from him.
Morgans stared.
"The sword changed?!"
Stussy's eyes narrowed.
No one around her had an explanation.
Hancock remembered the reports from Zaraki's earlier battles and said nothing.
Linlin looked from the cleaver to Zaraki.
"So that's the weapon you used against Kaido."
"Yeah."
Zaraki shifted his grip.
Nozarashi pulled greedily at his Reiatsu.
Stabilization allowed him to decide how much he fed the release, but the cost was still real. The blade wanted more than he intended to give it.
He let the flow open a little farther.
Then he moved again.
The second burst cracked the ground beneath his feet.
Linlin raised the same arm, coating it heavily in Armament Haki.
Nozarashi struck.
CLAAANG—!
This time Linlin moved.
Her enormous body slid backward several meters, both feet carving trenches through the shattered ground before she stopped herself.
For a moment nobody understood what had changed.
Then Morgans' camera zoomed toward her wrist.
A thin red line had appeared across the place where Nozarashi had struck.
One bead of blood gathered there.
Then another.
Charlotte Linlin looked down at her own arm.
The smile disappeared from her face.
...
Crimson blood ran slowly from the thin cut across Charlotte Linlin's wrist.
The harbor went silent.
Big Mom's extraordinary natural durability had been part of her legend for decades.
Blades, bullets, and cannon fire that would tear ordinary people apart had often failed to leave so much as a meaningful mark on her, which was why the New World had long compared her body to an iron balloon.
Zaraki had not somehow erased that durability with one hit.
He had simply proved that it could be cut.
Morgans reacted as though someone had shocked him.
"LOOK AT THAT!"
The broadcast Den Den Mushi swung toward Linlin's wrist.
"THE WAR DEMON MADE CHARLOTTE LINLIN BLEED! THE SO-CALLED IRON BALLOON HAS BEEN PIERCED!"
He nearly shouted himself hoarse.
"VIEWERS, REMEMBER THIS IMAGE! ONE OF THE FOUR EMPERORS HAS BEEN WOUNDED ON HER OWN ISLAND IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE UNDERWORLD!"