New World — Totto Land, Cacao Island
For a while after he said it, neither of them spoke.
The broken room still carried the aftermath of the fight. Cracked walls, shattered molds, split shelves, spilled chocolate, and Pekoms lying unconscious among the remains of Tenjin's roots and splintered timber. The sweetness in the air had become almost strange now, mixed with the scent of wood, dust, and battle.
Pudding stood there still.
Her heart had not stopped racing.
She hated that.
No—
She loved it.
And hated that she loved it.
Because his words had landed in a place she had spent years trying not to acknowledge.
'You look beautiful with it.'
So simple and direct.
No disgust.
No awkward pity.
No fake sympathy.
He had said it like it was obvious.
Pudding could still feel the warmth of it sitting in her chest like something dangerous.
So naturally, she ignored it.
Completely.
With all the skill of a woman who had spent years pretending certain wounds didn't exist.
She turned away first.
Lifted her chin.
Folded her hands before her dress.
And said, with much more composure than she actually felt—
"There's a Tart ship in the back of the island."
Tenjin, who was still breathing more heavily than he wanted to, blinked once.
Pudding kept talking before he could interrupt.
"If you go now, you can still get away. With your strength, it shouldn't be hard for you to leave Whole Cake Island from here."
Tenjin's eyes narrowed slightly.
She continued.
"And I have a Devil Fruit that allows me to alter memories. I can remove any memory of you from Pekoms. So… if you leave now, you should be fine."
Tenjin looked at her for a second longer than was comfortable.
Not suspicious.
Just thoughtful.
Meanwhile, inside her own mind—
Pudding smiled.
A darker, crueler part of her stirred awake and stretched lazily.
Yes. Run.
Go ahead and believe it.
I'll give you hope. I'll let you think you escaped. Then I'll call someone to intercept you right before you leave.
That should break you nicely.
The thought came with wicked satisfaction.
And beneath it, buried a little deeper—
A much softer thought she was trying very hard not to touch.
Unless he really does escape.
Pudding crushed that one at once.
Tenjin looked toward the unconscious Pekoms, then back at her.
"…You'd do that?"
"Yes," Pudding said.
And that, at least, wasn't a lie.
She would erase the memory.
What happened after that was another matter.
Tenjin thought for a moment.
Then nodded once.
"Alright."
Pudding blinked.
No suspicion.
No dramatic refusal.
No unnecessary bravado.
Just simple agreement.
Tenjin bent, picked up the tray of chocolates she had brought him earlier, and looked down at the absurd quantity of sweets on it.
"You're taking those?" Pudding asked.
Tenjin nodded.
"I need them."
Then, after a short pause—
"To recover."
That was so straightforward that Pudding almost laughed.
Instead, she folded her arms and looked away.
"Do what you want."
Tenjin, as usual, took that as permission.
He tucked the chocolate away as best he could, adjusted his torn coat, and moved toward the side exit of the room. His body still hurt. That much was obvious in the way he carried himself now, less loose than normal, more careful, each movement measured against the pain running through his side and shoulder.
At the doorway, he stopped.
Pudding's breath caught.
But all he said was—
"Thanks."
And then he left.
The room fell quiet.
Pudding stood there alone with her own thoughts.
And promptly lost the battle against them.
Her face turned red all at once.
She pressed both hands to her cheeks.
"W-What is wrong with me…?!"
Her heart was pounding again.
Her chest felt warm.
Her mouth trembled halfway toward a smile before she fought it down.
"No. No, no, no. That idiot is a Marine. A stupid, reckless, impossible Marine…"
And yet—
Her lips still curled upward.
Just slightly.
She looked toward the door through which he had disappeared and muttered under her breath—
"…He really said that so easily."
Her blush deepened.
Then she slapped both cheeks lightly.
"Focus."
Pekoms.
Right.
She still had work to do.
Pudding turned toward the unconscious Mink and drew in a slow breath, forcing her thoughts back into order.
Then she reached for her face.
For her eye.
For the power that lived within her.
Her hand slipped through the surface of Pekoms' mind as if reaching into something physical and unseen. Threads of memory appeared before her. Delicate, living strips she could draw out and handle with her Memo Memo no Mi.
One memory fragment came loose.
Then another.
The part that mattered.
The fight. Tenjin. The hidden Marine in the room. The words. The battle.
Pudding cut them away cleanly.
Then pressed new, harmless confusion into the empty space they left behind.
When she finished, she exhaled.
"That should do it…"
---
Several hours later, Pekoms woke with a groan.
He pushed himself upright slowly, one paw pressed to his forehead, his expression twisted by pain and disorientation.
"What the hell…"
He looked around.
Not the factory.
Not anymore.
Pudding had moved him after the fight, dragging and arranging things with the help of terrified workers until he'd been relocated somewhere less suspicious. Now he lay in a cleaner storage room, away from the ruined battle site, with signs of an "accident" prepared around him well enough to satisfy someone waking up half-concussed.
Pudding was already there when his eyes opened.
"You're awake," she said.
Pekoms blinked hard.
His head hurt.
His body hurt.
His memory—
His memory felt strange.
Like there should have been something there and wasn't.
"What happened?" he asked.
Pudding widened her eyes just slightly and let concern color her face.
"You were checking the damaged section of the factory," she said. "Part of the upper structure gave way and collapsed on you."
Pekoms frowned.
"That's…"
He stopped.
Because the explanation was plausible enough to sit in the broken space where certainty should have been.
He rubbed his head again.
"…Damn it."
Pudding stepped closer.
"Are you alright?"
Pekoms grunted and pushed himself upright more fully.
Then his face changed.
"The summons."
Pudding blinked. "Ah."
Pekoms was already moving.
"Mama wanted to see you. We've wasted enough time."
Pudding nodded quickly. "Then let's go."
And together, they hurried toward the rear port where the Tart ship waited.
Not far away—
Hidden among stacked containers and shadowed cargo lines—
Tenjin watched them.
He stayed still until they passed.
Then let out a slow breath.
'I know this is stupid.'
There was no point lying to himself about it.
It was stupid.
Deeply, obviously, unnecessarily stupid.
Dangerous too.
An Emperor's territory. An Emperor's castle. An Emperor herself.
He was injured, far from backup, and had already nearly died more than once in the past week.
And yet—
He couldn't let it go.
He wanted to see her.
Charlotte Linlin.
Big Mom.
An Emperor of the Sea.
Not because he thought he could beat her.
He wasn't insane.
Not that insane.
Even Tenjin understood there were levels to this world, and right now an Emperor sat so far above him that trying to fight one would be less "justice" and more "creative suicide."
No.
This was reconnaissance.
Just a quick look.
A quick understanding of what an Emperor truly felt like in person.
Then he would leave.
That was the plan.
'A quick glance and out,' he told himself.
He moved when the time was right.
Silent.
Measured.
He slipped onto the Tart ship unnoticed while the crew busied themselves preparing for departure, hiding among shadowed freight and structural beams with far more care than usual. The pain in his side actually helped him here, forcing him to move slower and more cautiously than his instincts preferred.
The ship pulled away from Cacao Island soon after.
And drifted toward Whole Cake Island.
The journey took hours.
The sea of Totto Land looked deceptively beautiful under the changing light—sweet-colored skies, candy-toned reflections, dreamlike islands in the distance. But the more time Tenjin spent hidden aboard the Tart, the more the beauty started to feel wrong.
Artificial.
Like a smile painted over teeth.
He remained hidden the entire trip, eating pieces of chocolate sparingly to keep his strength from dropping further. Not ideal fuel, but fuel was fuel.
Eventually—
Whole Cake Island came into view.
And even Tenjin, who did not enjoy being impressed by pirate nonsense, had to admit—
The place was absurd.
Towering confectionary architecture. Massive layered structures. Buildings that looked sculpted out of cake, cream, chocolate, and sugar by people with too much imagination and not enough restraint. At the center of it all loomed Whole Cake Chateau, enormous and decadent and impossible to mistake for anything other than the seat of an Emperor.
The Tart docked.
Pekoms and Pudding disembarked quickly.
Tenjin followed at a distance.
Careful.
Always careful.
Despite the danger of the place, the security around the inner approach was not as suffocating as he might have expected. Not because it was weak, but because people living under an Emperor's shadow often stopped imagining anyone would be stupid enough to try sneaking in at all.
That worked in his favor.
He moved from cover to cover, keeping to blind spots and structural shadows, slipping through service passages and decorative corridors until he was inside the castle proper.
The further in he got, the more he felt it.
Pressure.
Presence.
Not directly Big Mom yet.
But the weight of a place that belonged to someone monstrously powerful.
Tenjin slowed.
Then found a hiding place along an upper section near a wide chamber lined with rich decorations and enough space to host a family audience.
Below, Pekoms led Pudding forward.
He bowed his head slightly.
"Mama," he said, "Pudding has arrived."
Big Mom's voice rolled through the chamber like a giant thing shifting in its sleep.
"Leave us."
Pekoms did not hesitate.
"Yes, Mama."
And as he withdrew, the room changed.
Now it was only Big Mom.
And Pudding.
And somewhere hidden in the castle shadows above them—
Tenjin watched.
---
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