...
I held the grin on my face, my flourished stringy arms slowly going down to my side. My gaze focused on the stone-faced commanders. Perospero idly taking a few steps back, his gaze flickering between Big Mom and I. Panic and worry creasing his face, slowly getting the worse for wear by the second. Smoothie currently had her guard up, her gaze focused slowly on me, her sword pointed towards me. Though like her brother, silence was her method of communication.
The two of them, unlike the third commander before me, both had various degrees of wariness. Katakuri on the other end was seemingly looking towards and past me, his gaze practically looking through me. The hint of a red glint showing through. His own face, like his siblings, creasing the slightest... Though unlike them, his own fear didn't seem directed towards me, nor his mother.
His focus, admirably enough, was focused on his other siblings.
Big Mom on the other hand, her anger long gone, had a bemused expression as she locked eyes with me. Her devil fruitseeping out of her in every direction, slowly but surely covering my string based body. To no avail of course, given she'd been doing the same for the past few minutes. The storm itself slowly dying down, Perospero's floating ship swaying the slightest as the clouds slowly moved.
"Now, you might be wondering-"
"Joker." Katakuri answered, not even giving me the chance to complete the question. His gaze locked onto me just as quickly.
I slowly lowered my gaze towards the mochi user, momentarily ignoring the Yonko, a frown building on my face as the smile died down.
"I wasn't ask-"
"I don't care," Katakuri narrowed his eyes, the first commander promptly taking a few steps forward, standing directly before his captain.
My frown worsening in the process, not at his actions, but rather the distinct lack of reaction from his, from what I could recall, rather temperamental abusive parent. The woman's focus still directed at me, her power slowly but surely encompassing the rest of my body. Yet not a word came out.
Once again, however, her power seemingly surrounded me to no avail. Which given she couldn't exactly physically harm me, not with my real body half an island away certainly made enough sense. And any spiritual damage involved... Well.
Fear.
From me specifically.
Tl;dr,
Bitch was going to starve.
Katakuri's sudden movement caught my eyes again, the man's eyes widening for a split second as-
"It's a puppet-" Katakuri suddenly called out in alarm, his stance breaking the slightest.
'Swoosh' The sound echoed all around me, the sight of a black blade appearing out from my neck. The two sweet commanders' hitch of breaths overpowering the remarkably calmer weather, the ship my attacker and I stood on shaking once again.
"What the-" Cracker's voice suddenly echoed off behind me, the man's breathing rapidly speeding as he made to pull back his blade. The haki surrounding it disappearing as I promptly turned my head a complete 360, locking gazes with him in the process, eyeing the drenched armour made out of his devil fruit. The hole in my neck rapidly breaking down into thousands's of strings, with but a few left, keeping my head from falling off.
The scene still freaked out Cracker even further as the pirate managed to back-pedal a few feet- My neck strings, turning black, before immediately latching out towards the pirate. His eyes widening further as he stumbled, twisting to the side at the last second as hundreds of black-tipped strings suddenly shot towards and through his previous position.
"That's not a puppet!" Perospero's muffled voice barely reached my ears as I raised a single hand, recalling the previously sent out strings back into my reforming neck, hundreds more Haki-clad strings striking out of my hand towards the slowlystumbling commander. His brief sense of panic overriding his responsibilities as he promptly took a dive off the upside-down ship's side. Perospero's candy based fruit leaking into my peripheral, giving the falling Cracker something to grasp a hold of as opposed to the sea.
Turning my head back towards the others, my eyes briefly widened at the sight of Katakuri's Haki-clad leg inches away from my face. The leg quickly cutting through the top half of my head. My visual's and senses momentarily disappearing before quickly reforming. My hands twitching as hundreds of more haki-clad strings suddenly shot up from them, all aimed and directed to every fatal point I could make out of the red-eyed commander.
I watched, the closest thing to awe on my face, as Katakuri proceeded to dodge each and every hit, immediately reappearing beside his, now, three siblings a moment later. Perospero, not missing a beat, shot out a veritable wall of candy towards me-
"Won't work-" Katakuri's voice once again filled the clearing, my visual of the man disappearing, promptly replaced by the aforementioned candy. Perospero's power quickly covered every bit of my body, from head to toe, the man's indecipherable voice barely reaching me.
And with the metaphorical flick of a finger, I promptly awakened my devil fruit, turning the candy prison into even more strings, all of them immediately covering in Haki and once again shooting off towards-
My attack froze in mid-air. The ship jostling the slightest as Big Mom's aura suddenly came to life, her conquerer's haki screaming outwards. Three of her four commanders immediately dropping to their knees, Cracker outright passing out on the spot. The only one remotely handling it being Dogtooth, though the red glint in his eyes seemed to disappear entirely. My crew of flying journalists not skipping a beat as they high-tailed it out, their jobs already done.
There was a mad gleam in her eyes, a manic smile to match it as she stared at me, curiosity burning in her expression. One hand stretched out towards me as she started to laugh. The dread in my stomach remotely igniting as it finally occurred to me. As an epiphany hit me. One regarding the Soul-based fruit-
"I have you now!" Big Mom's words washed over me, my panic rising as I felt her power latch onto my soul-
Though it wasn't death I feared.
"Show me! Show me what you are so desperate to hide!"
-and all of it's history.
And though only a few seconds at most might've passed, I had a feeling Big Mom might've experienced it differently.
For the woman, in the span of a single second, looked to have aged a hundred years. My hands clenching and unclenching, my teeth gritting as I raised both-
And promptly found the ship I was currently standing on, suddenly start flying away from the emperor of the sea. The very clouds themselves dispersing as pure utter dread filled the woman's face. Her gaze seeing me in an entirely different light-
I watched, further agitation showing, as hundreds of bodies of water, suddenly rose. The biggest of them, a literal wave, taking Perospero's ships' previous position. Blocking my view of, and pushing the Yonko's ship away. The rest of the hundreds all surrounding my current 'hostages'.
Pushing as much force as I could into my feet, I leapt off the still flying ship aiming for the emperor herself, my mind automatically ignoring the sudden hundreds of pirates splashing into the open sea, my strings no longer holding them as I made to focus-
'CRASH' The giant body of water before me suddenly multiplied, the emperor having fed the sea surrounding us with more of her soul, three giant whirlpools forming and immediately crashing into me. My visuals and sight hammered and covered as the sea of water ravaged and attacked from every which way blocking me from moving. The three whirlpools twisting and turning as they rose into the sky, holding me in place for a moment before promptly crashing back down like a missile into the sea.
Pure anger filled my face as my string body rocketed back out of the water, my strings latching onto the sole cloud above me, my gaze rapidly turning every which way before locking onto the wave-surfing ship doing it's very best to get as far away from me as possible. The cloud-less sky's above and surrounding the emperor's ship earning a plethora of expletives from me.
I can't believe she actually ran away...
...
