Soul and Fear

_________ POV Narration_________

Big Mom licked her lips greedily as she stared at Enel.

She knew that he was decently strong, so she was rather excited to taste his soul. But first, she decided to take a look at it.

She had seen many souls, and she had had the pleasure of tasting most of them. Either Marines, Bounty hunters, or even her own children. To her, all souls looked the same.

But what she saw made her stop in her tracks completely. Her gaze became stony, almost looking petrified.

It wasn't something natural, Linlin simply couldn't understand what she was looking at.

It was strange, but the second she tried to stare at Enel's soul, she felt odd... She realised it rather quickly, Enel simply had no soul.

No life energy to speak of, it was as if she was looking at a corpse, but that corpse was moving around perfectly and seemed to be able to talk too...

The more she looked at the enigma in front of her, the weirder she felt.

She was about to open her mouth and ask Enel where his soul was, but then she felt as if something else was looking at her, something that slightly unnerved her.

She felt that she could see another pair of eyes right on Enel's shadow, red eyes that stared at her with disinterest as if she were an insect.

She raised an eyebrow at first prideful as she was an Emperor of the Seas. Her Conquerer's haki flared up at that gaze, as she imposed herself.

Her children around her seemed to react to that all of them stepping backwards hoping to not get caught up in her rage. Enel also raised an eyebrow at the outburst, he was getting a rather strange feeling as well.

Big Mom was confident in herself, but the more defiantly she stared at Enel's shadow, the larger it became, and the pair of eyes seemed to become more bloodshot as if finally acknowledging her.

More and more eyes started appearing inside the enlargened shadow, tentacles seemed to be extending towards her, trying to grasp at her. She could feel them, not on her body, but on her soul...

She had never felt that insignificant before, this was the first time since her childhood that she had felt so panicked, that she had felt she was no longer in control of anything.

'... What the hell is this... Thing?' Was all that she could think of.

She quickly took her gaze away from him, no longer trying to find Enel's soul as cold sweat filled her back.

She could feel it, if she was any weaker, that gaze that had stared back at her would've broken her will completely.

She couldn't understand it, but one thing was pretty clear to her, his soul was almost certainly off limits... If he even had one.

"W-what...?" Big Mom herself was shocked by how weakened her tone was. And her children now also noticed that something was wrong.

They all rushed to her side as she fell backwards on her ass, she rubbed her forehead in pain.

Enel stopped twirling his staff as he looked a bit confused.

"...What?" Enel could also feel something strange, it was as if there was someone else standing behind him.

He turned around, only to see the hallway he had come from. Completely empty, with no sign of anything even moving... Even the wind refrained from making any sounds.

Oven and Katakuri had also rushed to their mother. Even if she was callous and uncaring toward them, they were still fiercely loyal to her.

Enel didn't bother stopping them, he was still frozen there as some sweat appeared on his brow as well...

'What the hell is he doing here...' He could recognize that presence... But that didn't serve as any peace of mind.

"Enel... Was your name, right?" Big Mom said as she was slowly starting to get up. She was still clearly weakened, which was shocking to all of her children.

Katakuri looked toward Enel with anger in his gaze. 'What did he do?!' He knew that Enel didn't move at all, he had been keeping a close eye on him.

That question was automatically answered though when Katakuri saw the panicked and confused expression on Enel's face.

"Y-yes... That's my name." Enel said as he started regaining his bearings. Whatever that thing's motivations were, Enel knew that he now had to deal with them.

"... I don't know what you've gotten yourself into, but I don't want you anywhere near me or my children..." Big Mom said as a serious look reached her eyes.

Although she was uncaring to most of her children, she still had her motherly instincts.

Seeing all of her children rush towards her, and try to support her even when she was weakened... It gave her a warm feeling.

They were her family, even if she had seen them as tools, that didn't matter. They were hers anyway.

"... What did you see Linlin?" Enel had realized, to some extent, what had happened. It wasn't that hard for him to piece it together.

A few minutes of silence passed by, no one spoke a single word, and no one even bothered to address the fact that Enel wasn't using honorifics with Big Mom either.

"I don't know... But I don't think I want to know either. Some things are better left unknown in this world." Big Mom answered, at this point, she seemed to have recovered her strength.

Her children looked shocked at the weird turn of events. They also didn't stop Enel when the latter turned around and simply started leaving in a hurry.

Perospero and Smoothie were about to follow Enel, to make sure that he wouldn't escape. But Big Mom reached out her arm and stopped the two of them.

This made the others even more confused, as they had never seen their mother act like that.

"Mother... What happened?" Oven asked, the concern in his voice was evident as he looked in the direction Enel had retreated on.

"... Enel has no soul." Big Mom ended up saying after another period of silence. The Emperor was still trying to make out what had actually happened, her thoughts were all jumbled up as her mind seemed to be unable to forget the gaze that had stared her down.

She didn't bother telling them about it though, to her, they had no need to know that. As she had said, some things were better left unknown.

This made the eyes of everyone in the room widen, as they saw their still flabbergasted mother sit on her throne with a loud thud.

"T-that must be a mistake, right? Even if he was a resurrected corpse, he'd still have one..." Persopero said as he grasped at his hat.

All of the people within the Big Mom Pirates had a lot of knowledge when it came to souls. Big Mom herself was supposed to have complete control over souls.

No one, not one of them had heard of a soulless human before. All living beings had souls, there shouldn't have been an exception to that rule. Anything other than that was simply unnatural.

"I know what I saw. There is no mistaking it. Don't get involved with him, if you encounter him in the future just run." Big Mom seemed to not budge one bit on this issue, so none of her children insisted on that line of questioning.

"U-Understood mother... Let us get you some sweets! We wouldn't want to dampen your mood like this..." Perospero, being the oldest son, was quick to recover and try to placate his mother.

The last thing he needed was for their mother to throw a tantrum and destroy the Chateau again...

"No. That won't be necessary. All of you can leave, for now, I want to be alone."

At this point, everyone in the room was worried. Big Mom wouldn't simply refuse sweets...

Still, they decided to just listen to their mother's words and leave. Whatever had happened, she could likely handle it, as she was a Yonko for a reason.

But Oven looked at his mother weirdly. He knew that something else had happened, most of his siblings were likely aware of that too.

He had also noticed how Enel had turned around in that exchange. Nothing was behind him, but he had simply never seen that much panic in Enel's gaze...

Not once during their journey was he that confused, and never did his face turn such a pale colour.

Whatever their mother had felt inside of Enel, it managed to scare the both of them somehow. And Enel was apparently just as unaware of it as his mother...

Oven was quick to start walking towards where Enel had fled, only to not find anything at all. Even with his observation, he couldn't feel him anywhere nearby...

On the floor, he could just see a few parchments. On them were drawn schematics for a mechanical arm and leg similar to that of Kyros.

Oven smiled at that, Enel must've drawn them while he was sleeping during their flight.

Oven exited the palace and looked in the distance with a confident smile.

'I hope our paths cross again... I will be stronger by then... Maybe I will be the one to help you when we meet.'

Oven then turned around, going back into the castle as he started contacting mechanics and doctors to put the mechanical limbs together.

Not all of his siblings had such positive thoughts though...

Persopero, the eldest sibling, only had one thought in mind 'Soulless or not... We cannot let this slide, I can't forgive him for making a mockery of mother!'

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Hope you liked this chapter!

It probably wasn't what anyone expected to happen :))

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