Three hundred meters away, on the third floor of a half-destroyed high-rise, a black silhouette crouched within a gaping breach in the wall. The figure wore a black mask that resembled a hybrid between a hound and a crow. Cradled in his arms was a large-caliber, pitch-black sniper rifle, its muzzle still trailing a thin wisp of blue smoke. At his feet, a brass casing over ten centimeters long lay on the floor, radiating residual heat.
"Someone who can see the future... Truly the natural enemy of us snipers," Lucien muttered under his breath, reaching down to stroke the large black wolfhound resting beside him, known as Uken.
Uken nudged Lucien's palm with his head, letting out a low, soft whimper.
The moment he pulled the trigger, Lucien had seen through his scope exactly how Katakuri's head had morphed into mochi, shifting to create a precise hollow space ahead of time to let the bullet pass harmlessly through.
At that moment, Katakuri glared in Lucien's direction. A chilling glint flashed in his eyes as he said coldly, "A rat trying to ambush me from the shadows? You have a death wish!"
The moment the words left his lips, his lower body liquefied into a torrent of viscous mochi, flowing rapidly across the terrain directly toward Lucien's position.
"I've been spotted!"
Lucien was startled, blurting out, "What incredibly sharp perception!"
Despite his shock, Lucien's movements did not falter for a single second. He realigned his sights, pulling the trigger repeatedly at the oncoming torrent of liquid mochi.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A succession of deafening, artillery-like reports rang out. With every crisp mechanical rack of the bolt, hot, smoking brass casings over ten centimeters long clattered onto the floor.
Lucien fired five consecutive shots, each bullet carving deep craters into the earth or cleanly punching through thick concrete walls. Combined with his initial shot, he had entirely emptied his magazine.
Yet, not a single round managed to score a true hit on Katakuri. Every single shot was cleanly evaded as the man seamlessly transformed his body into his element.
Before long, just as Lucien was slapping a fresh magazine into his sniper rifle, Katakuri had already closed the distance to within fifty meters.
"It's useless!"
Katakuri's torso rapidly materialized from the liquid mochi, his gaze freezing cold as he locked eyes with Lucien up in the ruined building.
He extended his hand and flicked his thumb, launching a thumb-sized red jellybean. It flew with the velocity of a real bullet, ripping through the air with a piercing shriek.
In that split second, Lucien, who had just finished reloading, violently jerked his head aside. A sharp gust of wind grazed his ear, followed by a sharp crack as a small hole was punched into the wall directly behind him.
"Using jellybeans as bullets?"
Lucien glanced back at the puncture mark in the wall, rubbing his slightly reddened right ear.
"A miss?"
Katakuri knit his brows. The liquid mochi vanished as his lower body rapidly coalesced. He leaped into the air, reaching out toward Lucien with an open palm.
Instantly, his arm morphed into a thick, yellowish-white stream of mochi, extending across the distance at blinding speed.
"Get out of the way!"
Suddenly, a burly, imposing silhouette materialized right beside Lucien. The newcomer grabbed Lucien, hoisting him out of harm's way, while driving a colossal fist straight toward Katakuri's oncoming palm.
In that fraction of a second, the crimson light in Katakuri's eyes flashed violently. His expression shifted drastically, as though he had just foreseen an incredibly grim outcome.
In the very next instant, right before the two fists could collide, the extended mochi arm snapped backward at terminal velocity, breaking contact just millimeters away from the incoming fist.
"Mountain Axe Backan!"
Katakuri stared intently at the massive, muscular figure standing within the ruined building, uttering the man's identity syllable by syllable.
"Tch~ You actually pulled it back!" Diego Backan smacked his lips, muttering in sheer annoyance, "As expected, you saw the future just now, didn't you?"
If their fists had collided, Backan's unique ability would have instantly decayed and corroded Katakuri's arm into nothingness. Unfortunately, Katakuri had used his precognition to foresee the catastrophic consequences of the exchange, completely ruining Backan's trap.
"I knew Aeridar wouldn't have come here with just Enel," Katakuri said, his gaze sweeping over Backan and Lucien before scanning the surrounding area. "Who else is here? Show yourselves!"
The words had barely left his lips when a faint pop of compressed air snapped right behind him. A figure appeared out of thin air, causing an intense, overwhelming sensation of impending mortality to hit Katakuri. His skin crawled and his scalp went entirely numb. Without a single thought, he violently twisted his torso around, crossing his arms before his chest in a desperate guard.
In that blink of an eye, a phantom-like Aeridar appeared with a savage grin on his face, delivering a lightning-fast punch straight into Katakuri's crossed forearms.
BOOM!
A muffled detonation erupted, and a violent shockwave tore through the air, causing the ground beneath them to fracture into a web of deep fissures.
"Ugh—"
Katakuri's entire frame shuddered violently. A muffled groan escaped his throat as a metallic sweetness welled up in his mouth. An excruciating, bone-snapping agony radiated through both of his arms. Under the immense weight of the kinetic force, his feet were lifted completely off the ground, and he was sent flying backward like a cannonball.
CRASH—
With a thunderous explosion, Katakuri crashed cleanly through a building dozens of meters away, his massive frame buried under a mountain of shattered brick and mortar as a powerful column of dust and pressure shot into the air.
Despite the sheer force of the impact, he chose to forcefully twist his body midair, ensuring he landed face-first rather than allowing his back to touch the ground, stubbornly preserving the flawless, unblemished image he had maintained his entire life.
Watching Katakuri forcefully contort his body midair just to avoid landing on his back, Aeridar recalled the intelligence reports they had gathered over the years. A mockery stretched across his lips as he chuckled sneeringly, "Refusing to let your back touch the ground... What a truly 'perfect' man!"
Katakuri's gaze remained dark and sullen. Without uttering a single word, he placed his palms flat against the earth, slowly pushing himself up as rubble cascaded off his shoulders.
Once fully on his feet, his expression grew incredibly grave. He locked his eyes firmly onto Aeridar and demanded, "Since you are standing here... does that mean Mama has been defeated?!"
Sizzle... Sizzle...
Suddenly, a flash of blue lightning arc cracked through the air. A figure entirely shrouded in a thunderous, tengu-shaped armor of electricity materialized, stopping directly in front of Aeridar.
"The battle is already over?"
Enel asked, his voice laced with genuine astonishment. He found it difficult to believe that Aeridar could have defeated one of the Yonko, Charlotte Linlin, in such a short amount of time.
After all, he was no longer the arrogant 'God' of the Sky Island, one who had once peered at the world as though through a keyhole. He now understood with absolute clarity exactly what the title of 'Yonko' truly signified on the blue sea.
"No! That's not it!"
Before Aeridar could even reply, Katakuri shook his head, his voice dropping into a steady, definitive rumble. "If you truly possessed the power to defeat Mama in such a short window without paying a catastrophic price, you would have brought the entire main force of the Chris Pirates to flatten Totto Land, rather than infiltrating with a mere handful of men!"
"You must have simply gained a temporary advantage, or used some other method to trap Mama. You... are looking to retreat!"
Katakuri was remarkably composed. His analytical mind remained sharper than ever. His mother's monstrous strength had been proven true countless times across the New World over the past several decades.
Even if it were Whitebeard in his absolute prime, it would be impossible to cleanly defeat a fully healthy Big Mom in such a short engagement without sustaining severe damage himself.
"Brilliant! Truly brilliant!"
Aeridar looked at Katakuri with genuine surprise, unable to stop himself from clapping in admiration.
Had it been anyone else, seeing the opponent who had just clashed with Big Mom suddenly appear before them would have thrown their mind into complete chaos. They would never have been able to deduce the situation with such cold, logical precision as Katakuri just did.
An analytical mind this sharp was exceedingly rare across the entire grand line.
"The brat from back then has truly grown into a formidable monster. How time flies!"
"The man hailed as the greatest masterpiece of the Charlotte Family certainly lives up to his reputation!"
At that moment, Zephyr and Myles Dimitri materialized behind Katakuri, positioning themselves at perfect angles to form a tight, suffocating perimeter around him.
"..."
"Two more troublesome figures... Myles Dimitri, and the former Marine Admiral, 'Black Arm' Zephyr!" Katakuri stood motionless amidst the ruins, his eyes growing increasingly grim.
"I heard that Kuzan, who is also a former Marine Admiral, has established ties with the Blackbeard Pirates. Tell me, Zephyr-san... is this a tradition passed down through generations within your Marines?"