At the port of Kenzan Island, Katakuri's pirate ship lay in ruins, its masts broken and hull shattered. A massive Marine warship had taken its place, anchored in the harbor. Across its deck, Marine officers escorted Katakuri's captured younger brothers toward the holding cells below.
On the warship's command deck, Admiral Zephyr stood with his arms crossed, staring up at the enormous sphere of earth and stone floating above Kenzan Island's interior. His weathered face showed genuine surprise.
Beside him stood Stussy, the Commander of CP-9. Her usual composed expression had cracked, replaced by wide-eyed astonishment as she gazed at the same impossible sight.
She'd watched it happen with her own eyes. Charlotte Katakuri, the infamous Sweet Commander whose name carried weight throughout the New World, had been gradually entombed within that ball. Buried alive by gravitational force.
The scene triggered a recent memory. Her own brief clash with Rear Admiral Finn at the orphanage, just weeks ago. Even then, she'd sensed he was holding back. Concealing his true capabilities.
But she hadn't imagined the scale of what he'd been hiding.
When the World Government had ordered her to cooperate with Finn on this capture mission, she'd been annoyed. After all, the Rear Admiral had bested her once already. Working with him again had felt like salt in a fresh wound.
Now, though, she felt nothing but relief that she hadn't refused. Making an enemy of this monster, even from a separate organization, would have been... unwise.
"Admiral of the Marines..." Stussy murmured, the words escaping almost unconsciously.
She remembered Finn's parting words at the orphanage. His casual invitation. Her dismissive response, telling him that perhaps when he became an Admiral, he'd be worthy of making such offers.
At the time, it had been half-mockery.
Now, watching that floating sphere of devastation, the prospect didn't seem so far-fetched. If this man didn't die young, if he continued developing at this rate... becoming an Admiral seemed almost inevitable.
"Not yet at Admiral level." Zephyr's voice cut through her thoughts. He'd apparently heard her whisper. A knowing smile crossed his face.
He paused, then continued with a tone of genuine reassessment. "But perhaps we've all seriously underestimated his strength. Myself included. You never truly know until you see it yourself. I'd thought he was roughly Vice Admiral level, slightly below Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino. But now..."
Zephyr's gaze returned to the floating sphere. "I was wrong. Finn has become one of the Marine's solid pillars. He's every bit the equal of those three monsters."
After a moment, he glanced at Stussy with a slight grin. "Give him a few more years, and he really could reach Admiral-level combat power."
Finn was twenty-two years old. Zephyr found himself genuinely believing that before this young man turned thirty, he'd stand among the world's strongest fighters. One of the Marines' true apex combatants.
The thought filled him with satisfaction and no small amount of fortune. Traveling to the North Blue's 113th Branch to recruit this kid, bringing him back to Marineford for proper training... it had been one of the best decisions of his career.
And that fortunate encounter at the Edd War, where Finn had first caught Sengoku's attention...
Through various coincidences, the Marines had gained a tremendously important asset.
"I believe your judgment, Admiral." Stussy nodded slowly, still processing what she'd witnessed.
After a brief pause, she asked, "Is it over, then? Should we make landfall?"
Zephyr chuckled, shaking his head. "Over? Not yet. Katakuri isn't someone who goes down that easily. If he were, his reputation would be hollow. He's got something held in reserve. I'm certain of it."
Meanwhile, inland, Finn stood beneath his creation, gazing up at the massive sphere of compressed earth and stone. He allowed himself a slight smile as he mentally assessed his condition.
The damage wasn't insignificant, but it wasn't crippling either. Externally, he was mostly unscathed. Internally, however, the Grilled Mochi had done its work. The penetrating force had damaged his organs, leaving him with dull, persistent pain.
Still, if this was the price for defeating and capturing Charlotte Katakuri alive, it was an absolute bargain.
But even as that thought crossed his mind, something shifted. A sudden spike of unease.
Finn's eyes narrowed. His gaze snapped back to the floating sphere.
It looked the same. Solid. Unchanged. Yet something felt wrong.
Before he could identify the source of his instinct, the sphere's surface began to ripple. The stone and earth softened, transforming into something viscous and glutinous. Like mochi.
"This is..." Finn's eyes widened in genuine surprise. "Devil Fruit Awakening?!"
In his memories, Katakuri's ability had indeed been awakened. But that was supposed to be over twenty years in the future. During their entire fight, Katakuri hadn't shown a single sign of awakened powers, so Finn had naturally assumed he hadn't reached that level yet. The intelligence reports certainly hadn't mentioned it.
Before he could process this revelation, the massive sphere exploded.
Mochi rained down like a torrential downpour, countless gelatinous projectiles falling across the battlefield. Finn's Observation Haki flared to life instantly. His eyes sharpened. Sōzai slashed upward in a perfect arc.
A mass of mochi liquid descended directly above him. An arm emerged from it, wrapped in Armament Haki, intercepting his blade with a metallic clang.
Finn immediately kicked backward, evading the cascade of falling mochi. The gelatinous substance struck the ground around him, squirming and writhing like living matter.
Then it began to coalesce. The scattered mochi crawled together, forming a tall silhouette.
Katakuri.
The Sweet Commander looked worse for wear. His breathing came in ragged gasps, and the scarf that normally concealed his face had been torn away, exposing the jagged, sharp-toothed maw beneath. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Clearly, enduring the Planetary Devastation head-on, being compressed within that sealed space, had inflicted serious injuries.
"Three months ago," Katakuri said, his voice strained but firm, "I awakened my Devil Fruit ability. But I've never shown this power in battle. In those three months, I haven't encountered anyone qualified to force me to use it."
His crimson eyes locked onto Finn. "I have to say, Rodriguez Finn, I never expected the first time I'd deploy this power against an enemy would be against a mere Rear Admiral. But I must admit... your strength is far beyond that rank. I haven't fought Borsalino, Sakazuki, or Kuzan, the three 'monsters' your Marines produced in recent years, but I believe you stand as their equal."
His tone carried genuine respect.
Finn, gripping Sōzai, stood several meters away. His expression had grown serious. "Thank you for the recognition."
"In the name of Katakuri," the Sweet Commander continued, his voice taking on a formal quality, "I acknowledge you, Finn. You are an opponent worthy of my full effort. Regardless of this battle's outcome, you have earned my respect."
Finn blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the declaration. Then his lips curved slightly.
"Though you're a pirate," Finn replied, "from a warrior's perspective, I respect an opponent like you as well. Be proud, Katakuri. You are also worthy of Rodriguez Finn's full strength. And in the distant future, you'll look back on this battle with pride."
Katakuri's expression shifted, something approaching a smile flickering across his monstrous features. Then his eyes hardened.
"Mochi Feast!"
The Devil Fruit power surged outward from beneath his feet. Wherever it touched, the ground transformed, taking on the properties of mochi.
This was one of the hallmarks of Paramecia awakening: the ability to assimilate surrounding matter and convert it into the user's element.
Without wasting a second, Katakuri bent at the waist, pressing both hands to the transformed ground. The mochi liquefied instantly, then erupted upward in multiple high-pressure streams, shooting toward Finn like water jets.
Katakuri knew his limitations. His awakening was only three months old. He hadn't fully mastered this power, hadn't properly developed its applications. Moreover, maintaining the awakened state drained his stamina rapidly. He couldn't sustain it for long, which was precisely why he'd avoided using it until now.
He needed to end this quickly.
"Gravity Blade: Tiger Bite!" Finn met the surging mochi head-on, his sword slashing through the air.
Brutal gravitational force crushed the advancing streams, compressing them into dense clumps. But awakened Devil Fruit powers weren't so easily dismissed.
The assimilation continued spreading across the ground, the transformation racing toward Finn's position like a creeping infection.
"Gravity Domain: Suppression Zone!" Finn swung downward at the ground before him.
The unassimilated earth collapsed instantly, forming a deep fissure. But the mochi-converted ground merely dented slightly before bouncing back to its original shape.
Then the entire surface rose, transforming into a tsunami of mochi that crashed toward Finn like a tidal wave.
Finn's blade became a blur, cutting intricate patterns through the air. His Devil Fruit power pulsed outward. The ground beneath his feet lost weight, and a square platform of earth and stone separated from the surface, carrying him upward just as the mochi tsunami swept through where he'd been standing.
But Katakuri wasn't finished. The mochi wave collapsed, then dozens of projectiles launched skyward from the assimilated ground, filling the air like a dense rainstorm of glutinous bullets.
Finn didn't hesitate. His power expanded outward in an invisible sphere. Gravity pressed down on every mochi projectile simultaneously, stopping them in mid-air beneath his floating platform.
Then, without warning, one piece of mochi, less conspicuous than the others but closest to Finn's position, changed. Katakuri's figure emerged from it in a contorted, impossible angle.
The transformation was too sudden. Before Finn could react, Katakuri had broken through the gravitational pressure and closed the distance. In an instant, his arm wrapped around Finn's neck like a python.
The next moment, explosive force erupted from Katakuri's grip. The impact hurled Finn downward toward the mochi pool below.
Blood burst from Finn's lips. Just before he plunged into Katakuri's trap, he forcibly applied gravitational manipulation to his own body, rendering himself weightless.
His descent slowed. Then stopped. He kicked off the air with Geppo, regaining stable footing in mid-air without actually touching the mochi-transformed ground.
But Katakuri had anticipated that. Two enormous arms erupted from the mochi pool, one from the left and one from the right, closing on Finn like a giant clapping its hands.
"Mochi Clap!" Katakuri's voice boomed across the battlefield.
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