The fire wall was dimming, but it had distracted Big Mom enough for the moment to be far behind them. If they got everyone off the ship, that would be for the best. But they'd need an instant coup de burst to get away soon enough to not be attacked by the yonko herself. Luffy was unsurprised to find Katakuri there, he could smell him. Smelled sweet, from the mochi, but also like blood. Law never smelled like blood. Though maybe it was because the guy just drank some.
Nami got on Jinbei's back as they ran, not having time to stay and fight fodder, and released a bunch of weather eggs that formed thunder clouds from above. The fire was completely dimmed, and Nami released a thunderbolt on them all. Nobody was surprised it did nothing but surprised Big Mom slightly, though she was still crazed about the cake. She was insane! Luffy got grumpy without food, but never like this!
"Wedding cake! You fools have it, don't you?!"
"Do we look like we have a giant cake, you crazy hag?!" Zoro shouted. He'd been pretty silent. Big Mom seemed to not have heard him, or didn't process his words. She stomped towards them faster, running now, even when she was so fat and huge. Luffy was glad he'd taken out Zeus instead of the sun. He would have been more trouble than some fire.
Too bad Ace wasn't here, they could have a fire fight. Luffy looked up when he heard someone flying over, and Pudding and Chiffon were on a flying carpet. Luffy was angry at Pudding for everything she'd done, but she was there to not get in a fight with any of them. When Sanji said he was glad she was okay, her face turned red, and then she started acting mean again.
Though the reason they were there, regardless of Pudding's strange behavior, was to ask Sanji to help them bake a new wedding cake to give to the rampaging yonko and calm her down. Sanji agreed, and the three bakers and chefs rode the carpet to Chocolate Town, where the cake ingredients were for the new cake.
Man, why couldn't Big Mom just eat the leftovers of the cake? It was only one side that had grass stains! Sure, it didn't look as good as a perfectly intact version, but still, this was overkill, wasn't it? "Zoro, now you're the one to protect them all!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Roger, captain!" he said dutifully. They were making it to the coast soon, with a commotion behind them like crazy. There were a lot of pirates there. 85 Big Mom kids, jeez. When they came out of the clearing, Big Mom tearing through the trees after them, Luffy saw everyone on the ship - there were a lot. And he could sense a ton of them with his haki, all inside. Though they were heading back into the interior, their presences were fading away. No doubt with the mirrors. There was one big enough in Nami's room for them to come out of. Though Luffy was surprised Katakuri could fit through it or even under the same roof as them.
"Brook, Chopper!" Luffy shouted in worry when he saw they were coated in candy.
"So, you survived Straw Hat," a guy with a long tongue, the one who Luffy thought had trapped people and Bege in hard candy. Then they saw the yonko right behind them, and looked very frightened. Even her kids were scared of her like this, which wasn't exactly an encouraging realization.
Pedro said, "Looks like we got beaten to the punch by trouble! Dogtooth, Perospero!" He knew the tongue guy's name. Well, Luffy had heard he had been here before. So he knew them more than the Straw Hats did.
"Fufufu, congratulations on making it this far! I'm absolutely touched!" He formed some sort of candy wall, thick and with spikes. Well, this wouldn't stop Luffy. He used his attack he'd helped craft by thinking of Sanji's diable jambe, and twisted his stretched arm around enough for the friction to put it on fire, before he slammed it into the candy wall, breaking through it and aiming at Perospero, only to be countered by Katakuri.
"Capture Straw Hat!" Perospero shouted at his brother, probably younger based on the crinkles on the candy man's face. Luffy bit into his hand when he was caught in the mochi and rubbed his acidic blood all over the hand. It did hurt badly, and Luffy took this distraction again and wriggled out as Zoro sliced his arm apart like before.
Luffy moved to pummel him, but his attack was almost identical to Luffy's. That was… slightly concerning but also surprising. Well, mochi stretched, too, right? Luffy's rubber was better, though. "Luffy-kun, get Dogtooth off of this ship!" Jinbei shouted. They couldn't leave with him still on it.
"He came from the mirror's right?!" Luffy made a jet gatling at the mochi man, but he formed holes all around him into the mochi. Luffy assumed he was a logia, but he couldn't tell. Luffy's hands weren't going through him, his mochi was going around them. There was so much going on around them, so many sounds from out to sea to the forest to what was going on on the ship and around the ship.
Luffy stretched an arm to rocket himself up to Jinbei when it was grabbed. Luffy pulled back, aiming at stretching Katakuri's arm out until Zoro could chop it off again. I just grew back, which was annoying. Zoro had all three swords out. "Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro," Katakuri said calmly, Luffy's arm free. "Are you Straw Hat's guard?" Luffy had trouble focusing on him when his crew and allies were bustling around to try and escape.
"In a sense you could call it that," Zoro replied around the sword between his teeth. Luffy could hear Chopper making sounds of fear and worry, covered in candy. Luffy ran to him to try and break it. He still had a bleeding hand, though the blood was dry. He smashed his hand into the candy and started to break it off from that focal point.
When Perospero was about to attack once again, Pedro was there lightning quick, but was deflected. "Do you know what my bounty is? 700 million! You have no chance against me. It's best to just give up at this point." the candy man sure liked to brag about things, it seemed. Zoro was at a standstill with Katakuri, neither moving.
"I'm taking Straw Hat with me, Mama's orders," the large man said calmly. Then he pulled something out of his pocket. "Along with this." He was holding the vial of blood stone in his fingers. Luffy wasn't too bothered by that, they'd done a ton of research on them already. "Though I've been told not to touch it or I'll get sick and die."
Luffy regretted telling him anything useful. If he was an enemy now, then Luffy would have rather never met him. He learned some more from their conversation, but not anything he truly wanted to know, like the seastone reaction. Luffy zipped inside and to the armory, coming back out with a seastone bracelet in his pocket.
He left just as soon as he smelled gunpowder from the left, and watched as Pedro exploded. "Pedro!" they all screamed. The explosion was so big it rocked the boat and melted the candy. Katakuri was distracted by his brother being blown up, but so were the Straw Hats, neither side taking advantage over this instant. The candy was destroyed when Perospero was melting away from the ship and also off of Brook and Chopper, the latter Luffy couldn't free fast enough. Big Mom fell over from the huge explosion. Pedro… there was zero way he was alive.
Carrot made to jump over and get to him, but Nami stopped her. "He saved us! Until just now, the change of escape was zero!"
"Let's fly! You replaced the cola, right?!" Luffy called. "If we don't use this chance, we're never getting outta here! If we don't get away now, we'll never be able to face Pedro again!" They were getting preparations done, furling the sails. But Katakuri was properly pissed right now, his brother presumably dead or extremely burnt and in agony if he was still alive.
"Every last one of you bastards, getting fired up!"
Carrot attacked when Zoro shouted about Big Mom being awake, grabbing the ship. Luffy ordered him to go after Big Mom while she was still on land. She was holding onto the ship regardless. Zoro ran at her and let out a slash she dodged, only some of her hair was cut off, and she seemed to not realize it.
Katakuri was distracted by this and moved after Zoro. "You're not getting any of my crew!" Luffy shouted. "Guys! Make it outta here! I'll definitely see you later!" Luffy grinned.
"Luffy, no!" Zoro shouted, but Luffy had already grabbed onto Katakuri and dragged him into the mirror world behind him. This may be what he wanted, as he couldn't get out of here without Brulee's help, but it was better than having both the strongest Charlotte and Big Mom attacking the ship and those on it at the same time.
He stood tall in front of Katakuri, and surrounded by enemies. Many were little chess pieces, who were offed before he and Nami got caught, before Zoro fell over the cliff. They all died, their souls leaving at either Luffy or Katakuri's presence, since neither were bothering to hide their angry and intense auras.
"Well done," the yonko pirate said.
"In here, we can fight as much as we want!" Luffy slammed his fist into the mirror behind him. Nobody would get on his ship again. He wouldn't allow it. Luffy was annoyed already by the audience. They hadn't even started fighting yet. Luffy knocked them all out without breaking eye contact with his enemy.
Luffy let loose a hawk gatling, wishing he'd gotten some blood. Well, he could come back for one of these men and drink from them. This was a dire situation, he didn't care about any morally wrong feelings he might have later. But Katakuri's mochi arms all hit back at Luffy's hits. He met each one with a haki covered fist of his own.
It was like his devil fruit was a rubber logia. Had the properties of rubber and the seemingly logia effect of none of the hits that should totally be hitting him! "In terms of power, there's nothing you can do that I can't do better. Speed, power, all of it. You are inferior." Looks like any respect towards one another from before was thrown out the window.
"Like rubber would ever lose to mochi!" Luffy shouted back. "Gomu gomu no hawk stamp!" But the kick missed. No, the enemy pirate dodged it easily, even though Luffy had been in gear second. He thrust a hand out, stretching and hardening, and nailed Luffy in the face. It hurt, damn it. But he grabbed onto his arm, trying to do anything to fight back. He was then slammed into the ground hard.
He was then punched again, sent flying into a wall. Luffy coughed from the impact, but wiped his mouth. Katakuri was looking at his own fist. "You didn't say your blood was acidic," he said in his monotone voice.
"I can't exactly fight well, and you don't look like you'd stab me. Any weapon you wield will dissolve in my blood."
"That is too bad. Though you're not good enough to make me draw my weapon." Luffy narrowed his eyes. He blew air into his fist for an elephant gun, pulling it back and snapping it forward. But the other nameless creature made his own fist huge, pumping mochi into it instead of air. It met Luffy's attack in the middle of them.
Luffy grit his teeth, trying to think of any way to defeat him. Using gear fourth would be useless. There was no way he'd survive or get away for the ten minute mark. If Sanji had been on the ship, maybe Luffy would have brought Zoro with him as back up. Damn it. And a blood source if necessary. Shit, that was a mistake.
The mimic attack was stronger, and rammed Luffy into a wall, glass shards managing not to pierce his skin by covering his back in haki as fast as he could. The impact was still intense though. He fell to the ground, coughing.
"That should be enough, right? For an elephant gun," Katakuri said, fist back to normal. Luffy was out for a moment, unconscious until he woke back up. While Katakuri was on the phone with the alive Perospero, Luffy took the chance to zoom to the nearest person, not one of the chess pieces, and bite into his neck, drinking quickly.
Katakuri seemed surprised, but was still on the den den. Luffy dropped the nearly drained carcass, and Brulee screamed about it. Though she was one of those who knew about her brother. Or so he thought. Luffy felt much better, much more energized than before. He didn't care if the guy died.
Perospero said he was with Big Mom, chasing after the Straw Hats. Pedro was confirmed to be dead, and Luffy felt anger that he'd been unable to take his enemy down with him. Luffy wasted no time, not caring if he was still on the den den, and attacked, faster than before, getting behind him and kicking his arm.
Luffy snatched the den den out and crushed it. "Don't be distracted in our fight," he said in anger. He dropped the dead den den.
"Very well, you have my full attention," Katakuri said, seeming unbothered. Did he ever show any emotion other than stoic boredom? Luffy darted out of the way from a few powerful punches. He dodged before he was trapped in mochi. He grabbed at it and ripped at it fruitlessly before he bit onto it and tore.
His teeth were covered in haki, which was hard to pull off, and they weren't exactly especially sharp to do much damage, but he'd ripped into enemies before. Sometimes he won because of that. Luffy caught him by surprise and blew a blast at him, blowing him apart into mochi. He'd been holding it for a few hours to not disrupt the tea party. He was glad he could suppress it more. It seemed he was improving at that after two years of training. Maybe experience and the fact sometimes it would be troublesome gave him more control.
Luffy dropped down. "Big brother!" Brulee shouted in horror. Luffy caught his breath, but knew the guy wasn't dead. He reformed in mochi. Was he really a logia? Luffy's never been good with logias. And the seastone band… could he do it? No, he should wait. He might need to wear it later, and he couldn't tell if it would even fit over his wrist. But there was that option. He could consider that.
The teen was glad he'd gotten it before he was off. "It seems you have seastone with you. I can smell it." Luffy scowled. "What do you plan to do with that? Even if you did cuff me, I could win against you."
"You don't know that, shut up!" Luffy said angrily, retreating a few paces. Suddenly a punch threw him meters away, rolling over and over, hitting the ground hard if he wasn't rubber, and caught himself before he hit the wall.
"Brulee, get up. Go take the soldiers to his ship, light it on fire or something," he said dismissively. It was really annoying how he was being completely underestimated. He decided he wouldn't wear the seastone, and cheat. People told him a while ago that it was a weapon he could use, but all it did was raise his power level. It did feel like cheating.
He pulled it out of his pocket and threw it to the side. "I don't need that to beat you," Luffy snarled. Katakuri raised his brows so slightly.
"Brother, we found a mirror to the Straw Hat's ship!" one of them shouted gleefully, Luffy shot a punch at them, but was hit instead by a fist. But he wasn't letting them harm the Sunny. He grabbed the mochi and twisted, kicking off of it and shooting after those with the mirror to his ship. He was punched away and rolled.
"Don't you hurt my nakama!" Luffy raged. He shot forward again and managed to grab the mirror and kick in the faces of the long necked people. They passed out, and Katakuri was very angry. Luffy smashed the mirror to bits before he was grabbed and squeezed around the throat.
"And don't you hurt my little siblings. What happened to our one on one, Straw Hat?" Luffy pointed out that they were the ones that interrupted. "You could have ignored them." Luffy was getting very frustrated and annoyed. He couldn't land a good hit on him, and wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't using the seastone.
He was punched again, barely having the time to look up. His enemy was just as fast as Luffy's gear second. Luffy rolled into a pile of shattered mirror, and found it was the one he'd come out from. He grabbed a shard and called for his crew. "Can you hear me? Somebody respond!"
"I'm here, Luffy!" Nami shouted. Luffy got right to the point and shouted at her to shatter all of the mirrors on the ship. He was running away while talking to her. Katakuri wouldn't just let him have a break to contact his crew. "What are you saying?! Then you have no way back!" Nami protested.
"I know, just do it! I'll figure it out, don't worry about me! I need to focus on this guy and worrying about you being hurt and me not doing shit will distract me!" Luffy shouted, dodging a punch just barely as it broke apart the ground. He heard the heavy footsteps, and was annoyed the man was just leisurely walking behind him. He knew Luffy had nowhere to really go, and Brulee wasn't going to get caught anytime soon with Katakuri around to stop him.
Nami gave in and started to tell everyone to break the mirrors, but was distracted and went silent. "Nami?"
"Sorry, Luffy… I think we're done for," she said, voice quiet and shaking.
"What the hell do you mean 'we're done for'?! What's going on over there?!" Luffy demanded, very worried at hearing screams and shouts and the word "tsunami". Why would there be a tsunami here? Was there an earthquake, or was it a devil fruit? He bet on the devil fruit, but it wasn't like they'd know if there was an earthquake outside of the mirror world. "Oi, guys!"
No sound. Without Katakuri having any connection to the outside world, and with none of his crew answering, nobody knew what had happened. "Oi, Nami, Brook, Zoro!" Luffy shouted in panic. Katakuri took advantage of this and punched his back, sending him face first into a mirror. The glass pierced his face, and he cried out, just glad they didn't get his eyes.
He pulled them out of his face, hissing. They weren't all that deep, but enough to cover one of his eyes with a steady stream of blood. He wiped it away, hissing again at the pain. Well, he'd suffered worse, but he wasn't going to lie that having it in his face had hurt pretty bad. He turned and glared at his enemy.
There was nobody around to get blood from, so he couldn't heal the cuts quickly. At least now Katakuri couldn't punch his face without burning himself. He still was sporting the heavy but small burns from the previous encounters with Luffy's acidic blood.
Suddenly, mirrors all around started to break. Some were far from them, but Luffy could hear it easily. But his crew were alive, at least for now, when Nami came back on. Zoro wanted to talk to him, raging in the background about the mirrors breaking. He was really worried about luffy. They all were, but especially Zoro it seemed.
"Luffy, get away from them so we can talk," Nami said. Luffy used gear second to get away while Katakuri didn't follow as fast. Luffy zoomed away and down the hall, passing thousands of mirrors. For now, he had to run. Carrot on the other end said everybody was okay, and Luffy let out a relieved sigh. Smiling hurt the cuts on his face, though.
Nami told him they were all alive, thanks to Jinbei. Zoro stopped yelling. But now that all of the mirrors were broken, like Luffy'd ordered, he had no way out and back onto the ship. The new plan was to meet them all on the chocolate island, where the cake was being made and the last place in Totto Land before they were free.
At 1 am, Luffy was to meet them there. But then Katakuri was there, with the ground turning into mochi, like when Doflamingo changed the area into strings! He'd bragged about an awakened devil fruit, which made it clear Katakuri was in another league than regular devil fruit users.
He was stuck to the ground and then nailed in the stomach, breaking the mirror. He kept a shard in his mouth for safe keeping as he was attacked, barely dodging a kick before he was hit mercilessly by multiple, just like a jet gatling, only with actual feet. He'd made more of them with his mochi.
The hits hurt, and he couldn't get out of the way. He spit out the last shard of mirror, and grit his teeth before he plastered a smile into his voice. "Hurry up already, guys! Come on, I'm gonna drop dead waiting here!" He wasn't confident at the moment, but wouldn't let himself die or be captured.
He was assuming he was being beat up to make him easier to capture. Though he could have been captured already, or Katakuri could be attempting to instead of pummeling him. "Go! I ain't planning on dying here!"
Katakuri took out a weapon in his mochi body, as if he was storing it inside somehow. "Most people do not die because they want to. Deaths are, for the most part, unwanted occurrences." Luffy glared at him, wiping blood out of his eye again. Brulee appeared from the nearest mirror to spout a bunch of nonsense over Katakuri being perfect, he never laid down, he never ran. Since the day he was born, he hasn't lay down.
She bragged over him being perfect, a superhuman. "That's unfortunate," Luffy said. Katakuri narrowed his eyes. "You think anyone can live up to that BS? Well, he won't be so perfect once I defeat him! Now go away!" he shouted in annoyance with the witch. He tried to punch her, but was grabbed around the arm and thrown into a wall.
Luffy saw a chance when Katakuri made to impale him with his weapon, a trident of some sort, as tall as he was. He barely ducked and used this instant to reach into the enemy's pocket and yanked out the blood stone. He wrapped a piece of his sleeve around his hand before he broke the vial and held the blood stone.
He slammed it into the mochi fist above him, holding the trident. This was what made Katakuri truly widen his eyes. After all, Luffy had told him the blood stone was what caused Gold Roger's death. Luffy shoved it in so deep only the tip was out.
"Big Brother!" Brulee shouted, though she didn't know just how bad this could be. And it wasn't the stone from sky island, which only gave Luffy his strange power. This one was the one from land, the kind Roger had touched. The yonko pirate pulled it out.
"Now you've done it," he said darkly. Luffy ran to the side, dodging a stab. "How do I cure it? Tell me!" Brulee asked what he meant, but Luffy said he didn't know any cure.
"If there was one, he would have found it!" Luffy shouted. Brulee was worried, but took the distraction to tell Perospero on a snail she had, about Nami's plan, where they were to meet up. Luffy was furious, but he couldn't deal with that when he was focused on dodging the spears.
Katakuri said, "I won't capture you alive, Straw Hat. You're too dangerous to let live!"
"Good, I'd rather die than have the shame of being captured and tested on from the likes of you!" Luffy replied defiantly.