CHAPTER 123: EMPEROR'S FURY
The momentary peace shattered as Kaido's massive form appeared beside Satoru, kanabo already swinging in a devastating arc. The weapon, crackling with black-red lightning, passed through empty air as Satoru's instincts carried him higher in an instant.
"Two Emperors ganging up on one Admiral?" Satoru's voice carried a mocking edge. "That's a new low, even for you."
Kaido's expression was unreadable. "Just testing."
"TESTING?!" Big Mom's roar shook the air. "Kaido, this is MY battle now! Stay out of it!"
Kaido shrugged, unconcerned by her fury. "You weren't making progress. I was helping."
"I don't need your help!" Big Mom's eyes blazed. "Go bother someone else. This Admiral is mine."
For a moment, it seemed the two Emperors might resume their own battle. But Kaido, after a long look at Satoru, simply turned and descended back to his ship, leaving Big Mom and the Admiral facing each other alone.
He wanted to test me with her, Satoru realized. See how I handle a fresh Emperor when I'm already depleted. Smart. Annoying, but smart.
Big Mom turned her attention fully to Satoru, and the air around them seemed to grow heavy with her focus. "I wonder what Sengoku's face will look like when I send him back your corpse."
Satoru's playful demeanor faded. His expression became serious, focused—the look of someone who recognized they were facing a genuine threat. "You'll have to catch me first, Big Mom."
Flames erupted along Napoleon's blade. Big Mom's hair ignited, her eyes blazed, and the aura radiating from her intensified to a degree that made even the watching Kaido raise an eyebrow. This was beyond her fight with him. This was something else entirely.
On the ships below, the crews watched with bated breath.
"Kaido-sama, shouldn't we—" Ember started.
"No." Kaido's voice was final. "She'd turn on us if we interfered now. This is personal for her."
"But the Admiral—"
"Watch." Kaido's eyes never left the battle. "Learn."
In the sky above, the real fight began.
Big Mom's first attack was a flaming slash that carved through the air toward Satoru. He dodged—barely—but she was already there, waiting where his trajectory would take him. Napoleon, wreathed in flame and Haki, swung toward his position.
Satoru met it with a punch wreathed in his own black-red lightning.
BOOM.
The impact sent shockwaves across the sea. Satoru felt the burn of transferred heat through his Infinity, felt the raw power behind the strike. He was thrown backward, tumbling through the air before righting himself.
She's stronger than Kaido in close combat, he realized. Her physical strength is absurd—and she hasn't even used her soul powers yet.
He looked at his fist. The skin was reddened, almost blistered. Through his Reverse Cursed Technique, it healed in seconds—but the fact that she could hurt him at all through his defenses was concerning.
"He healed!" someone below shouted. "Did you see that? His wounds just vanished!"
Kaido's eyes narrowed. Regeneration too? What can't this brat do?
Big Mom pressed her advantage. Another flaming slash—Satoru raised a hand.
"Blue."
The flames, bent, and were absorbed into a sphere of gravitational distortion. The attack simply vanished.
Big Mom burst through the dissipating flames, Napoleon already swinging. But Satoru was ready now.
I can't match her strength head-on. Not in this state. But I don't have to.
He vanished, appearing behind her, his fist coated in every enhancement he could muster—Armament, Conqueror's, Black Flash. He struck with everything he had.
The impact was catastrophic.
Big Mom's nine-meter frame launched through the air like a cannonball, faster than sound, trailing a shockwave that flattened the surface of the sea beneath her path. She crashed through the remains of Wheat Island, through the water beyond, finally coming to a stop against a massive outcropping of rock that shattered on impact.
Silence.
On the ships below, the pirates stared in disbelief. Their mother—their invincible mother—had been sent flying like a ragdoll.
"Mom!" Katakuri's composure cracked. He started forward, but Perospero caught his arm.
"Wait! Look!"
From the rubble, a sound emerged. Laughter. Low, rumbling, terrifying laughter.
"Mamamama..."
The rubble exploded outward. Big Mom rose from the destruction, and she was smiling. But it wasn't a pleasant smile. It was the smile of someone who had stopped playing and started hunting.
"You hit hard, brat." Her voice was calm—too calm. "I'll give you that."
Lightning crackled around her. Flames danced along her blade. And something else—something darker—began to manifest.
"Now," she said, "let me show you what happens when you make a mother angry."
She raised Napoleon.
And fired.
A beam of pure destruction—faster than light, faster than thought—lanced toward Satoru. It was like Kizaru's attacks, but denser, more focused, carrying the weight of an Emperor's absolute fury.
Satoru's Six Eyes screamed warning. He moved—not dodging completely, but shifting just enough that the beam caught his side instead of his center.
The pain was immediate and intense. Where the beam touched, his clothes simply ceased to exist. His skin blackened, blistered, burned. The smell of scorched flesh filled his nostrils.
He retreated rapidly, putting distance between them, already channeling Reverse Cursed Technique to heal. The burns faded, new skin forming, but the message was clear.
One hit. One clean hit, and I'm done.
"That was close," he admitted, his voice slightly rough. "Very close."
Big Mom's smile widened. "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, boy."
Satoru's expression shifted. The playful mask was gone entirely now. What remained was something colder, more focused—the face of someone who had been genuinely threatened and was responding in kind.
"You've made me angry, Big Mom."
His hands came together.
"You want to see what that looks like?"
The air around him began to warp. Blue and red spheres manifested, spinning, combining. The energy output spiked to levels that made even Kaido's eyes widen.
"Cursed Technique: Hollow Purple."
The sphere of void energy formed—smaller than the one that had erased Attia, but more concentrated. Denser. Deadlier.
Big Mom's instincts screamed. She raised Napoleon, coating herself in every layer of defense she possessed.
The sphere shot forward.
It struck.
The explosion was... silent. Not because it made no sound, but because the sound was beyond hearing—a frequency that shook bones and rattled souls. Light and darkness warred in the same space. The sea beneath them simply vanished, replaced by a crater that extended down into darkness.
When it cleared, Big Mom still stood.
But she was bleeding. Actually, genuinely bleeding. A gash across her arm, another on her side. Smoke rose from her body. Her eyes, when they met Satoru's, held something new.
Respect.
"You... actually hurt me." Her voice carried wonder, as if she'd forgotten the sensation was possible. "It's been years since anyone did that."
Satoru's breathing was heavy. His cursed energy reserves were dangerously low. But he smiled anyway.
"First time for everything."
Below, Kaido watched with something approaching admiration. He pushed her that far. While already depleted. If he were fresh...
He didn't finish the thought. Because if Satoru were fresh, the outcome of this battle might be very different.
Big Mom raised Napoleon again—then paused. Slowly, deliberately, she lowered it.
"Enough."
The word hung in the air.
"This battle is over." She looked at Satoru with those terrifying eyes. "You've proven yourself, boy. You're worthy of your title."
Satoru blinked. "That's it?"
"That's it." Big Mom began descending toward her ship. "I didn't come here to fight an Admiral to the death. I came to fight Kaido. You were just... unexpected entertainment."
She landed on her ship, surrounded immediately by her concerned children. Katakuri's eyes never left Satoru, watching for any sign of treachery.
Satoru remained where he was, floating above the devastation, processing what had just happened.
She stopped. She actually stopped.
He looked at his hands. They were shaking slightly—from exhaustion, from adrenaline, from the sheer weight of what he'd just done.
He had fought an Emperor. Not a drunk, distracted Emperor like Kaido had been, but a focused, angry Emperor at something approaching full power. And he had survived. Had even hurt her.
It wasn't a victory. But it wasn't a defeat either.
He looked toward Kaido's ship, where the Beast Emperor stood watching him with an unreadable expression.
"Next time," Satoru called out, his voice carrying across the water, "I'll be ready for both of you."
Kaido's response was a laugh—genuine, surprised, almost admiring. "I look forward to it, brat."
The two Emperor fleets began to withdraw, their business concluded, their battles fought. Satoru watched them go, floating alone above the wreckage of Wheat Island.
When the last ship disappeared over the horizon, he finally allowed himself to descend to the nearest piece of solid ground—a fragment of island barely large enough to stand on.
He sat down heavily, his body screaming with exhaustion.
"That," he said to no one, "was way too close."
His Den Den Mushi rang. He answered.
"Satoru here."
"Satoru." Sengoku's voice was strained. "We're getting reports of an Emperor-level battle near your position. Are you—"
"I'm fine." Satoru's voice was tired but steady. "Just watched Kaido and Big Mom fight. Got caught in the middle a bit."
"A bit?"
Satoru looked at his burned clothes, his depleted energy, the destruction around him.
"Yeah. A bit."
A long pause. Then: "Get back to G-8. Rest. We'll debrief later."
"Already on my way."
He hung up and sat for a moment longer, watching the sun begin to set over the churned, devastated sea.
Whitebeard, he thought again. If Big Mom is that strong...
The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating.
He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the protests of his body, and began the journey home.
Behind him, the sea slowly healed, covering the wounds of battle as if they had never been. But Satoru knew—and the Emperors knew—that things had changed.
The White Dragon had arrived. And the world would never be the same.
(End of Chapter)
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