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In the world of pirates, it was a simple truth: the crew reflects the captain.
Birds of a feather.
This was especially true for the most famous pirate crews. The Yonko were no exception.
The Big Mom Pirates were the embodiment of Big Mom's will.
She dreamed of a nation where all races could live together as equals. She wanted to make everyone in the world her "Family."
And so, she had built the Totto Land Kingdom with family at its core, bound by blood.
Under her tutelage, every last one of her children was a "Family Man."
If someone were to refuse an invitation to her Tea Party, she would send them a "gift"—the severed head of someone they knew.
If her reputation was tarnished, she would fly into a rage.
If one of her powerful subordinates was defeated, she would dispatch an army of vengeance to crush the enemy.
In the original story, Luffy had crashed her Tea Party and humiliated her, and she had pursued him with a relentless, all-consuming fury.
Jin's refusal to attend, coupled with his stunt with Smoothie and the others, had thoroughly enraged Big Mom. It was only the threat of the World Government and the persuasion of Stussy that had led to a reluctant truce, with both sides taking a step back.
Because of this, Katakuri, Daifuku, and Oven were filled with a burning anger, a contempt for Jin. They needed to restore their family's honor.
That was why they had agreed to his proposal.
A fight.
But what Katakuri hadn't expected was for Oven and Daifuku to be taken out in an instant.
And in the clash that followed, Jin had displayed a strength and speed that defied imagination, completely overwhelming him and forcing him onto the defensive.
Katakuri was stunned, but that shock quickly hardened into a deeper fury. To protect his family, he had to be strong. He could not—would not—lose.
As a "Family Man," his family was the source of his strength.
He would not show any weakness.
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A sharp glint entered Katakuri's eyes.
"Willow Mochi!"
Katakuri's leg transformed into a mass of mochi, splitting into a dozen Haki-hardened limbs that shot toward his opponent.
A storm of kicks blotted out the sun, a relentless, cascading waterfall of black steel that seemed to flow upward to consume the sky.
Jin's fists were a blur, a thunderclap of motion as he met the assault, blocking every strike from every angle.
The air exploded with sound. The clash of their attacks was like a series of detonations, unleashing powerful shockwaves that kicked up a massive cloud of sand.
It was a head-on collision of pure power.
A storm of force ripped through the area.
Crocodile and Stussy retreated, Crocodile grabbing the unconscious Daifuku and Oven and moving them to safety.
Jin's fists grew faster, a whirlwind of afterimages. His power intensified, a tidal wave of crushing force.
The battle was staggering to watch.
Stussy was in shock. Jin was not just holding his own; he was decisively overpowering Katakuri. It was completely unexpected.
The roaring clash continued.
Jin grew stronger with every exchange, his movements like lightning, each punch more powerful than the last.
After trading hundreds of blows, Katakuri finally began to falter. A trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth.
His legs were going numb. A sharp, surging power was relentlessly infiltrating his body. His Armament Haki was useless against it.
It was like trying to stop water with a stone wall—the pressure was relentless, the infiltration inevitable.
Suddenly, a spark of golden light flashed in Jin's eyes. His fist erupted in a brilliant glow.
An unstoppable force, like an unbreakable drill, pierced through Katakuri's barrage of kicks.
Katakuri's pupils contracted. Two invisible auras slammed into him.
Conqueror's Haki??
His Observation Haki showed him the future: no matter how he countered, he would be hit.
He couldn't dodge. He wouldn't dodge.
He had to meet it head-on.
He fell back, and with a roar, his arm transformed into a massive, rapidly expanding club of mochi.
He hardened it with Armament Haki and began to spin it at high speed, like a meteor hammer.
He lunged forward, unleashing his own Conqueror's Haki.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Their fists collided.
The black and red sparks of their clashing Conqueror's Haki lit up the sky, the shockwave ripping through the air.
The terrifying force of the impact rolled outward in waves, and the very ground within a three-kilometer radius was crushed, sinking under the immense pressure.
And they were at the center of it, taking the full, brutal force of the blow.
Katakuri's entire body shuddered.
He couldn't hold.
Jin's fist shattered his defense, and he was sent flying, a spray of blood erupting from his mouth.
He was not just physically beaten. His mind, his spirit—they had also taken a heavy blow. He couldn't think.
For a moment, he was lost.
Just as he was about to hit the ground, Katakuri snapped back to his senses.
On pure instinct, his hands and feet shot out, and he landed on his back, crawling, preventing his back from ever touching the ground.
It was his obsession—his one, unbreakable rule.
CRASH!
The impact of his landing sent a massive cloud of sand into the air, leaving a huge crater.
Blood dripped from his mouth. The skin on his fist was cracked like porcelain, blood seeping from the fissures.
In contrast, Jin was almost untouched. His clothes were a little dusty, his breathing steady. It had been nothing more than a warm-up.
Stussy's expression was grave. She knew how strong Katakuri was—definitely in the tier just below the Yonko.
But now, he was completely outmatched, in terrible condition. This wasn't even a fight; it was a beatdown.
'Doesn't that mean... this king has the power to face a Yonko head-on?'
And that was in a one-on-one fight—not some drawn-out battle of attrition where he swooped in for the final blow.
"Guhahaha..." Crocodile laughed. "That bastard... he's gotten stronger again."
He had been on the receiving end of Jin's fists before. He could feel it. Jin was even stronger now. He was a monster.
A light breeze blew across the desert. Katakuri pushed himself to his feet, his body covered in blood, but his eyes were still burning with a fierce fighting spirit.
His scarf had been torn away, revealing a gruesome, stitched-up mouth. When he was a child, he had loved donuts so much that he had eaten until his mouth had torn open, leaving him with jagged, fang-like teeth.
He glared at Jin, the fire in his eyes like that of a wounded, cornered beast.
"It's not over!" he roared. "I will not fall!"
The very ground beneath his feet began to writhe and transform into mochi, spreading rapidly outward.
"A Devil Fruit Awakening," Stussy murmured, taking another few steps back.
"So this is his Awakening."
The sand beneath Jin's feet was also turning to mochi, becoming soft and sticky, trying to pull him down.
The Mochi-Mochi Fruit's Awakening allowed him to turn his surroundings into mochi, to assimilate them.
"Flowing Mochi!" Katakuri yelled, slamming his hand on the ground.
A massive wave of sticky mochi surged toward Jin, and the mochi-fied sand all around him rose up as well.
In an instant, the entire area had become a mochi swamp. Jin's legs were trapped, and the mochi hardened in an instant.
"Rainfall Mochi!"
Countless thick tentacles of mochi shot out from the ground, a relentless barrage of attacks.
Jin stood his ground, his Armament Haki an invisible suit of armor.
The heavy blows of the mochi tentacles couldn't even scratch him. It was as if they were just helping him temper his Haki.
The training of Armament Haki was all about taking hits, like forging steel. It had to be hammered a hundred times to be purified.
Relentless, controlled beatings would increase its strength. It was how Rayleigh had trained Luffy.
Katakuri watched, a chill running down his spine. This man was too strong. And so young.
He would be a massive threat in the future.
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