The clash of Armament Haki didn't last long. Both Katakuri and Finn retracted their strength simultaneously, each taking several steps back. The air between them crackled with residual energy.
Katakuri's eyes narrowed, a murderous glint replacing his usual calm demeanor. He swung the trident in his hand, then thrust it forward with inhuman speed. His arm stretched impossibly far, the mochi-enhanced limb extending like a striking serpent. The weapon's three prongs reached Finn's chest in a heartbeat.
Sōzai intercepted the strike with perfect precision, blade meeting trident with a metallic ring. At the same moment, something shifted within Finn. An inexplicable force surged through his body and into his sword.
A roar erupted along the blade, low and primal, carrying the distinct echo of a tiger's growl. Then, to Katakuri's surprise, a spectral tiger materialized from Sōzai itself. The ghostly beast lunged forward with devastating momentum, its form wreathed in gravitational energy.
Katakuri's eyes widened fractionally. The trident in his grasp suddenly felt impossibly heavy, as though it had transformed into lead. Without hesitation, he swelled his free arm into a massive, club-like appendage wrapped in dark Armament Haki. The enlarged limb crashed downward, dispersing the gravitational tiger in an explosion of force.
But the attack didn't stop there. The oversized arm continued its trajectory, bearing down on Finn with unstoppable momentum.
"Muso Donuts!" Katakuri snarled.
Finn didn't even try to dodge. Instead, he released the power coiled within him without reservation.
"Gravity Domain: Repulsion Barrier!"
Katakuri's arm slammed downward, but it never connected. Half a meter from Finn's body, the blow struck an invisible wall. The impact rippled outward in concentric waves, visible only as distortions in the air.
"Repulsive force?" Katakuri's voice carried genuine surprise.
The barrier wasn't absolute, though. Katakuri felt the initial resistance, impossibly strong at first, like striking solid steel. But even as his muscles strained against it, he could sense the repulsive force beginning to weaken under sustained pressure.
Before he could capitalize on that weakness, Finn extended a single finger, pointing it through the air like a gun barrel.
"Shigan: Gravity Impact!"
A lance of energy shot from his fingertip, crossing the distance to Katakuri's chest in an instant.
Mochi exploded outward as the attack punched clean through Katakuri's torso, leaving a gaping hole. But there was no blood, no pain reflected in those crimson eyes. Finn's lips pressed into a thin line. The attack had missed.
At the last possible moment, Katakuri had transformed the targeted area into mochi, allowing the projectile to pass harmlessly through his altered body structure. It was similar to a Logia's elemental intangibility, but more refined. More dangerous. Unlike passive elementalization, this technique could potentially even dodge Armament Haki-enhanced attacks.
Finn didn't give him time to counterattack. His foot slammed into the ground, releasing another pulse of gravitational force.
Katakuri's eyes widened. He braced for crushing pressure, but instead, his body suddenly became lighter. Too light.
"It's not pressure..." His voice rose in alarm. "It's weightlessness?!"
His feet left the ground. His entire body floated upward, unmoored and helpless, like a ship caught in zero gravity. For one critical second, Katakuri was completely vulnerable.
Finn seized the opening with ruthless precision. His blade swept upward, deflecting the trident aside, then he drew Sōzai back. Power gathered along the dark edge, gravitational energy condensing into something terrible and beautiful. Then he brought it down like a guillotine.
"Gravity Blade: Tiger Slash!"
The flying slash erupted from his sword, not just a cutting edge but a mountain given form and momentum. Katakuri, suspended helplessly in mid-air, had nowhere to dodge. The attack struck him full-on.
It felt like being crushed beneath a collapsing fortress. The slash, wrapped in exponentially multiplied gravity, hammered into him despite his hastily raised Armament Haki. His defense might as well have been paper.
"Ggh..." Blood burst from Katakuri's mouth. His weightless body, suddenly subjected to crushing force, plummeted like a meteor. He crashed into the ground with earth-shattering impact.
The ground didn't just crack. It shattered. Stone and dirt exploded in all directions as a crater formed beneath the force of Katakuri's landing. The Sweet Commander was driven deep into the newly formed pit, buried in rubble and devastation.
After launching that attack, Finn felt a moment of clarity wash over him. An epiphany.
He'd always known his Devil Fruit was powerful. In theory, at least. The vague memory of Fujitora casually pulling meteorites from the sky had told him that much. But he'd never truly felt it until now.
Fighting Katakuri, a genuine powerhouse, had crystallized something in his mind. His ability wasn't just strong. It was abnormal. Overwhelming. Perhaps even broken.
And more importantly, he'd realized something fundamental: his power didn't need fancy techniques or creative applications. It just needed more. More force. More gravity. More devastation.
Sometimes, absolute power was the answer.
The revelation lasted only a heartbeat, but it was enough. Katakuri exploded from the crater, not even bothering to wipe the blood from his lips. He abandoned his trident, instead launching himself directly at Finn with raw speed and fury.
Finn had been admiring his own capabilities. Katakuri, meanwhile, was experiencing something between shock and fear.
The Rear Admiral before him was powerful, certainly. But by raw skill alone, they should have been evenly matched. Katakuri might have even held a slight edge in combat experience and technique.
But that Devil Fruit ability. That cursed ability. It turned a close fight into a one-sided beating. How was that fair?
For years, Katakuri had taken pride in his Mochi-Mochi Fruit. A Special Paramecia with Logia-like qualities. It had made him nearly untouchable, a Sweet Commander worthy of his mother's faith.
But now, facing what Sengoku had called a "top-tier Paramecia," he understood the gulf between good and exceptional. A truly powerful Devil Fruit didn't just add to one's strength. It multiplied it.
I can't let him use those abilities freely. I need to close the distance and end this quickly, before he buries me.
Katakuri closed the gap in an instant. Finn's reaction was nearly as fast.
"Grilled Mochi!"
Katakuri's arm swelled to enormous proportions, wrapped in hardened Armament Haki and compressed into a dense, devastating mass. Then it launched forward like a rocket-propelled battering ram.
The distance was minimal. The speed was incredible. Finn knew this technique from the manga. It was Katakuri's ultimate close-range attack, one that combined rubber-like expansion with mochi compression to create devastating kinetic force.
No time to dodge. Finn wrapped Sōzai in Armament Haki, channeled gravitational force through the blade, and slashed upward to meet the attack.
The impact nearly tore his arms from their sockets.
Despite Finn's considerable strength, despite the gravitational enhancement, the sheer weight behind that blow exceeded his expectations. It was like being struck by a Sea Train at full speed. Sōzai was ripped from his grasp, and his body was sent flying backward.
He tumbled across the ground, carving a furrow through dirt and stone before finally skidding to a halt. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.
A shadow fell over him, blocking out the sun. Katakuri descended like divine judgment, not giving Finn even a moment to recover. The Sweet Commander's fist, wreathed in pitch-black Haki, drove downward with crushing force.
"Mochi Thrust!"
Finn's response shocked even Katakuri. In the split second before impact, Finn planted both hands, kicked off with his feet, and executed a perfect backward flip. The punch cratered the ground where he'd been lying an instant before.
Can't he feel pain? Katakuri's mind raced. That should have stunned him.
Normally, after taking a serious hit, the body experienced a moment of rigidity. Pain receptors firing, nervous system recalibrating, instinctive responses to injury. It was involuntary.
But this Finn, despite coughing blood from the Grilled Mochi, moved like he was completely uninjured. As though pain simply didn't register.
Before Katakuri could process that disturbing realization, Finn raised one arm toward him. Five fingers spread wide, palm facing forward.
Katakuri's instincts screamed danger. Armament Haki flooded across his body. Then Finn's hand clenched into a fist.
"What is this?" Katakuri's body tensed, ready for anything.
His feet suddenly left the ground.
Weightlessness again? Based on the previous exchange, he knew how to respond. But something felt different this time.
Then the ground beneath him began to crack.
Chunks of earth and stone lifted into the air alongside him. But instead of floating aimlessly, they flew toward Katakuri. Adhering to his body. Wrapping around his limbs.
Finn's grin was almost feral.
" Gravity Domain: Planetary Devastation..."
At that moment, Finn finally understood Borsalino's philosophy.
When your ability was powerful enough, why bother with anything else? Why worry about complicated strategies or elaborate techniques? No matter how skilled the opponent, no matter how creative their fighting style, none of it mattered before absolute power.
Borsalino had embraced that truth completely, developing the Glint-Glint Fruit to devastating effect.
Finn had tasted that same intoxicating certainty. But unlike the Vice Admiral, he wasn't quite ready to become a one-trick pony. Raw ability was crucial, yes. But if you ever encountered someone who could counter or nullify your power, you'd be helpless. Embarrassingly so.
Still, for now, he had a Sweet Commander to bury.
Finn poured everything into the technique, refusing to let his mind wander again. He'd been thinking about this move for a while, inspired by certain other gravity users in fiction, but had never actually attempted it. Katakuri was about to become his test subject.
As Finn gradually intensified the gravitational pull, Katakuri found himself unable to break free. Weightlessness prevented him from generating force or leverage. Meanwhile, earth and stone continuously tore themselves from the ground, drawn irresistibly toward the floating Sweet Commander.
In moments, Katakuri was encased in rock, only half his head visible. His red eyes blazed with fury. Armament Haki erupted across his body in waves, trying to shatter the prison, but it was useless.
Soon, even his head was covered. The rocks formed a perfect sphere, suspended in the air by Finn's gravitational manipulation.
But Finn wasn't finished. He wanted to see this technique taken to its limit. More gravity. More earth. The intact ground fractured and crumbled, its mass feeding the growing sphere.
Three minutes passed. Then five.
When Finn finally released his concentration, a massive crater had opened in the earth before him. It looked almost apocalyptic.
Suspended in the air above it floated an enormous sphere of compressed earth and stone. It was nearly the size of a Marine warship. Spectacular. Terrifying.
"Is he actually sealed in there?" Finn stared at his handiwork, slightly amazed. "That felt... easier than expected. Katakuri is supposed to be one of the strongest of our generation. Does that mean I'm actually too strong?"
The thought was equal parts thrilling and surreal. He'd just fought Charlotte Katakuri, future Sweet Commander and right hand of an Emperor, and it had felt almost... manageable.
Maybe Sengoku had been right about top-tier Devil Fruits after all.