"Brother… doesn't that mean… Luffy?"
Nami spoke softly, turning her head slightly toward Luffy.
The rest of the Straw Hat crew followed her gaze, and all eyes landed on him at once.
"Ah, Cain was adopted by Grandpa, so he's not my real older brother—but we're definitely the closest brothers ever!" Luffy explained with a grin.
A faint change flickered in Katakuri's eyes as he spoke in a deep voice.
"You can rest assured. I will never harm him—he is my younger brother after all. In our pirate crew, blood ties have always been the strongest bond. No one can sever them."
"Alright, I can tell you where Cain is."
The moment Luffy said that, not only were the Straw Hats shocked, even Katakuri himself was caught off guard for a second.
Luffy agreed so readily because he was worried about Cain and Ace.
Besides, he could tell that the man in front of him bore no ill intent toward Cain.
And since Cain was adopted—a fact very few people knew—yet this man knew it clearly, then…
"Are you serious, Luffy? You're really going to tell this guy where he is?"
Zoro demanded urgently, his hand already resting on the hilt of his sword.
"Yeah, but on one condition…"
Luffy dragged out his words, and everyone instinctively held their breath, eyes widening.
"Let me take a bite out of that ship of yours!"
…
"Teach, the one thing you never should've done was become a Devil Fruit user. And you definitely shouldn't have betrayed your comrades and hurt your brothers—you bastard, it's time you paid the price!"
Ace's voice burned with fury as he tightly locked Blackbeard in place, the Seastone handcuffs around his wrists clamping around Blackbeard's neck like iron pincers.
Thanks to a body that had long since adapted to Seastone's side effects, Ace had reached a bizarre balance of power against Blackbeard, who was also a Devil Fruit user.
"What are you idiots standing around watching for?! …That thing on his hands is Seastone!"
Blackbeard's face was flushed red from suffocation as he roared at the crew members watching from not far away.
Only now did he finally understand why his power was completely ineffective against Ace.
"No way! Getting beaten this badly by a Devil Fruit user wearing Seastone? Captain, that's just pathetic," Burgess sneered, arms folded.
"Don't forget, Captain's a Devil Fruit user too." Van Augur spoke coldly.
Before his words had even fully fallen, the gun in his hand was already aimed at Ace, who was wrapped around Blackbeard.
But just as he was about to pull the trigger, a massive fist bristling with vicious spikes swept across the area.
The force of it overturned half the street and sent the crew members who had been watching the show flying straight into the sea.
The sudden upheaval made both Ace and Blackbeard, locked in combat, go still in shock.
Katakuri stepped calmly out of the ruins nearby, and both men's expressions changed at once.
Clearly, they both recognized the leader of the Sweet Commanders.
"Where is Cain?" Katakuri asked bluntly, his tone completely flat.
"Hahahaha! Ace, you're finished!" Blackbeard suddenly burst into wild laughter, staring at Katakuri.
"Katakuri, right? As long as you help me get rid of this guy, I'll tell you where Cain is!"
Blackbeard didn't know who had caused the earth-shaking commotion on the other side of Mock Town just now, but he knew that was precisely Katakuri's target.
He immediately wanted to draw this powerful man to his side.
"Don't even think about it, Teach! And you too, Katakuri—I won't let you get past me!"
Ace had also noticed Cain fighting over there earlier.
He had no idea what Katakuri was planning, but he still intended to stop him with everything he had.
With that, he leaned backward and slammed Blackbeard's neck hard into the ground.
Seeing this, Katakuri's hands instantly transformed into white mochi and shot forward to seize the two tangled men.
The moment they neared the Seastone handcuffs on Ace's wrists, his movements abruptly paused.
Instantly sensing that strange power-suppressing effect, he deftly avoided the cuffs.
Even so, Ace and Blackbeard were lifted into the air by him.
Blackbeard still had the Seastone chain wrapped around his neck, his abilities completely suppressed, leaving him powerless to resist.
Katakuri hauled the two men in front of him and fixed Ace with a heavy gaze.
Katakuri held the two in front of him and stared at Ace. "Why? You're wearing Seastone. What makes you think you could beat me?"
Ace let out a short, cold laugh. "That's a question I ought to ask you. But I already know the answer."
His eyes sharpened. "That guy is my brother. Isn't it only natural for an older brother to protect his little brother? Come on, Katakuri!"
"So that's how it is…"
Katakuri muttered under his breath.
Then he gently set Ace down.
After glancing at the still-struggling Blackbeard, he casually flung him into the distant sea as if tossing away a piece of trash.
"Hey, you—!!" Ace shouted in alarm.
"I don't need you to lead me anymore," Katakuri said calmly, turning his eyes toward the center of Mock Town, where violent waves of Conqueror's Haki were still raging.
Even he found the scene unsettling.
"Things over there look bad."
On one side was the Blackbeard he had been chasing all this time.
On the other was his brother.
Ace did not hesitate for even a second.
He turn around and immediately followed Katakuri toward the chaotic battlefield.
Katakuri glanced sideways at Ace as they ran.
He had heard the rumors before—Ace leaving the Whitebeard Pirates to hunt down Blackbeard.
And when he had heard Ace call Cain his little brother just now, something in him really had stirred.
That was why he had helped him.
If Ace had not followed now, Katakuri would have had to rethink whether this man could really be trusted.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! LIGHTNING DEFLIBILATOR! DIE! DIE!"
Amid deafening roars, Cain's entire body was wrapped tightly in the threads Doflamingo had woven after awakening his Devil Fruit.
Yet Cain's movements did not slow in the slightest.
The long staff in his hand still carried the force of thunder, smashing down again and again.
Doflamingo had long since lost count of how many times he had passed out, and how many times he had been jolted awake again by agonizing pain.
Every time he neared death, he forced himself to drive his strings into motion with all his might, coating them in Armament Haki to protect his internal organs.
But in the end, he still could not avoid those devastating blows, collapsing into unconsciousness again and again from the unbearable pain.
This torment, worse than death itself, made him want to give up countless times.
But the unwillingness buried deep in his bones kept him hanging on to his final breath, refusing to die.
"That's Cain?" Katakuri blurted out, his eyes full of shock.
"Yeah," Ace answered grimly, staring fixedly at the crazed figure in the center of the battlefield, his brows tightening more and more.
"That's definitely his Devil Fruit ability, but Cain… he's never been the type to cruelly torture an enemy like this."
Seeing the dried, crusted bloodstains on Cain's face, a thought flashed through Katakuri's mind.
Without another moment's hesitation, he raised his hand and fired several mochi bullets straight at Cain.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Ace demanded.
The projectiles struck Cain solidly, but it was like mud sinking into the sea—they had no effect at all.
Cain suddenly whipped his head around, his scarlet gaze locking onto the two men in the distance.
Gripping his long staff tightly in one hand, he charged at them with heavy strides.
The threads wrapped around his body all snapped apart at that very moment, and then he swung down with a savage smash.
"DIEEEEE YOU BASTARD!"
"Hey! Cain! It's me, Ace! What the hell happened to you?!" Ace shouted as he leapt aside to dodge.
Katakuri also pushed off the ground lightly, calmly evading the blow.
While dodging Cain's relentless follow-up attacks, Katakuri spoke in a low voice, confirming his suspicion.
"It's just as I thought. There's something wrong with his Observation Haki."
"Observation Haki? Something wrong? What do you mean? What happened to Cain?!" Ace asked frantically, one question after another.
Katakuri's figure moved deftly through the afterimages of the staff as he explained in rapid succession.
"Observation Haki isn't something you master overnight. Forcing it past its limits, making it perceive everything around you at once—even a brain made of steel couldn't endure that." His tone sharpened.
"Right now, Cain's mind, his vision, even his reason have all been completely swallowed by a rampaging Observation Haki."
He dodged another strike and continued, each word landing harder than the last.
"In other words, no matter who he sees in front of him, that out-of-control Observation Haki will automatically judge them as…"
He paused for just a fraction of a second.
"…an enemy that must be eliminated."
Katakuri's voice fell cold and heavy.
"To put it simply—Cain has gone berserk."
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator