Chapter 101: Katakuri's Fear!
[New World - The Sea of Juice - Outer Borders of Totto Land]
The New World was a graveyard for the unprepared, a sea where the weather killed more sailors than pirates did. Yet, cutting through the chaotic violet waves was a ship that looked like it belonged in a child's fever dream.
It was a massive vessel, the "Queen Mama Chanter" (singing ship), though in this specific fleet, it was accompanied by several heavy tart-ships. The hull was crafted from wood enchanted to look like giant biscuits and chocolate slabs.
The railings were twisted candy canes, gleaming with varnish. The sails were embroidered with the grinning, maniacal face of a homie, and the figurehead—a giant singing sunflower—hummed a low, unsettling tune in the wind.
"Sugar and spice... waves and ice... who are we going to kill toniiiiight~?"
The air around the ship smelled faintly of caramel and butter, a sickly sweet scent that masked the smell of gunpowder stored below decks.
This was the elite fleet of the Yonko, Big Mom Pirates.
On the bow of the flagship, a tall man stood like a monolith against the gale.
He was massive, standing over five meters tall. His crimson hair spiked upwards, defying the wind. He wore a spiked leather vest that exposed his muscular torso, marked with the tattoo of the Charlotte family. A fluffy, massive scarf made of mochi covered the lower half of his face, hiding his mouth, but his sharp, narrowed crimson eyes missed nothing.
Charlotte Katakuri.
The second son of the Charlotte Family. The strongest of the Three Sweet Commanders. The man with a bounty of 1,057,000,000 Berries. The undefeated legend who had never let his back touch the ground.
He stood with his arms crossed, his trident Mogura resting against his shoulder. He was meditating, extending his Observation Haki miles ahead, scanning the future for threats.
"Seriously... Mama is being overly dramatic again, isn't she?"
A petulant, high-pitched voice broke his concentration.
Katakuri didn't flinch, but his eyes shifted slightly to the side.
A young woman with fiery red hair and a butter-yellow coat walked up to him. She wore a feather dress and carried herself with the arrogance of a princess who had never known hunger or fear.
Charlotte Galette, the Minister of Butter.
She kicked the candy railing idly, chipping a piece of hardened sugar.
"It's just a newcomer pirate crew called 'Suzaku,' and you, Katakuri Nii-san, have to go personally?" Galette complained, examining her manicured nails. "Why are we sailing all the way out here? Even if they luckily defeated a few Marines or tricked some stupid Giants, it shouldn't warrant such a big fuss, should it?"
She pouted.
"Why not send Cracker? Or Snack? Or even Perospero could handle a rookie. Sending you is like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. It's insulting to your status, Nii-san."
Around them, the other crew members—Chess Soldiers and younger siblings—nodded in agreement. To them, the Big Mom Pirates were the apex predators of the sea. They lived in a paradise of food and power. Rookies were just ingredients to be crushed.
Katakuri didn't open his eyes fully. But the invisible aura of authority he exuded suddenly spiked.
The air temperature on the deck dropped. The singing figurehead stopped humming instantly.
"Silence."
His voice wasn't loud. It was deep, rumbling in his chest like a subterranean earthquake. It carried an undeniable sense of command that froze the blood of everyone on deck.
Galette flinched, taking a half-step back. "N-Nii-san?"
Katakuri slowly turned his head to look at his sister. His gaze was incredibly sharp, devoid of the coddling warmth she expected.
"Galette," he said, his voice heavy. "Never let the word 'newcomer' blind you. Arrogance is the quickest path to the grave in this sea. Have you forgotten the lessons of the New World?"
He uncrossed his arms, the leather of his gloves creaking.
"Their achievements were not handed to them on a silver platter. They were forged by stepping on the Marine's face. They punched and kicked their way through Enies Lobby, survived a Buster Call, and fought Garp."
He paused, letting the weight of the names sink in.
"Defeating an Admiral's cadre... injuring Akainu... such seemingly fantastical feats... listen to me closely, Galette."
He looked her in the eye.
"Even I... cannot guarantee I could do those things easily."
"Huh?"
Galette's beautiful eyes instantly widened, full of disbelief. Her jaw dropped, ruining her elegant composure.
"Even... even you, Katakuri Nii-san...?" she stammered, her voice rising in panic. "You're joking, right? You're undefeated! You're the perfect human! You can see the future!"
In her perception, Katakuri was a god. He was the invincible wall that protected Totto Land. To hear him admit uncertainty was like hearing the sky admit it might fall.
"Cannot guarantee means cannot guarantee," Katakuri stated, his tone completely unruffled, objective and cold. He didn't suffer from the delusion of invincibility that plagued his siblings.
"What's more, according to the latest intelligence from Morgans, the bounty on their cadres alone—that Ulquiorra, and the woman Albedo—has already surpassed many of our veterans."
He looked at the horizon, his scarf shifting in the wind.
"So, put away your arrogance from Totto Land. If we truly encounter them, we must show due respect and caution. Do not act as freely as before. Do not provoke them unless I give the order. Do you understand?"
Galette was completely stunned. She opened her mouth but couldn't utter a single word. The fear in her brother's voice—however slight—terrified her more than any monster.
The other crew members on deck also looked solemn. The festive mood of the candy ship had evaporated, replaced by the grim reality of a warship heading into battle.
Seeing his sister's pale face and trembling hands, Katakuri's heart softened.
Despite his cold exterior, he loved his siblings. They were the only reason he maintained his facade of perfection. He had to be the monster so they didn't have to be.
His blade-sharp gaze softened slightly. He sighed, raising his massive hand to gently place it on Galette's head.
"But... don't worry," his voice softened considerably, rumbling like a purring tiger.
"If there's any danger we can't handle... your big brother will stand in front of all of you. I won't let anyone touch you. I will crush them before they reach you."
Galette looked up, tears welling in her eyes. "Nii-san..."
This promise, like a stabilizing anchor, instantly calmed the unease in everyone's hearts. As long as Katakuri was there, they were safe. He was their shield.
However, just as this brief moment of warmth began to spread...
FLASH!
Without warning, at the distant horizon, a light even more dazzling than the sun suddenly flared.
It turned everyone's vision a stark, blinding white. For a second, there were no shadows, only pure, searing light that erased the boundary between sea and sky.
"My eyes!" a crew member screamed, covering his face.
The light flashed and vanished.
Then, silence.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
The laws of physics dictated that light traveled faster than sound. They waited in the eerie quiet.
BOOM...!!!
A terrifying roar, loud enough to shatter eardrums and vibrate bones, slammed into them. It sounded like the sky itself had cracked open. It was the sound of a nuclear detonation.
The entire ship, and even the entire sea, trembled violently with this colossal sound. The candy railings vibrated until they cracked.
"Wah ah ah ah...!"
"Wh-what happened?!"
"Is it an earthquake?! An underwater volcano?!"
The crew members stumbled, losing their footing as the ship rocked wildly.
Katakuri's face, the moment the light flared, had already become unprecedentedly grave. His veins bulged.
He suddenly looked up. A deep red glow flashed in his eyes.
[Advanced Observation Haki: Future Sight]
He peered five seconds into the future.
He saw it.
He saw a wall of water towering over the ship. He saw the candy hull splintering. He saw Galette screaming as she was swept into the ocean. He saw the ship capsizing, dragging them all down to the dark depths.
"EVERYONE! HOLD STEADY!"
His furious roar snapped them out of their panic. It was a command that demanded obedience.
"GRAB SOMETHING! NOW!"
His voice had not fully subsided when the terrifying sight appeared on the horizon.
The sea line... began to rise.
It wasn't an ordinary wave. It was a circular tsunami, hundreds of meters high, created by the displacement of millions of tons of water from Suzaku and Madara's clash. It looked like the mouth of a beast poised to swallow the entire world.
Like a colossal moving mountain of blue death, it rushed towards them with an aura of utter destruction.
"We... we're going to be swallowed!" Galette cried out, her face pale with fright. She clutched tightly to Katakuri's leather vest, burying her face in his back. "Nii-san! Save us!"
Facing this apocalyptic scene, Katakuri didn't flinch. He didn't step back.
He stepped forward, planting his feet on the deck.
"Devil Fruit Awakening."
"Mochi Thrust!"
He stomped his feet.
SQUELCH!
Thick, white, sticky mochi surged from his legs, flowing over the deck like a living wave. It wasn't soft; it was dense and heavy.
It instantly covered the entire floor, wrapping around the feet of every crew member, binding them firmly to the ship so they wouldn't be thrown off by the g-force. It coated the railings, reinforcing the brittle candy wood.
At the same time, Katakuri raised his massive arms.
"Kaku Mochi (Block Mochi)!"
A giant wall of hardened, rectangular mochi rose from the bow of the ship. He coated it instantly with Armament Haki, turning the white dough into black steel. It formed a prow designed to cut the wave rather than ride it.
"BRACE!"
CRASH...!!!
The towering tsunami slammed violently against the Haki-infused mochi wall.
The sound was deafening. The entire ship groaned under the pressure. The keel screamed.
The ship was thrust high into the air by the immense force, tilting at a dangerous angle of sixty degrees.
Water crashed over the sides, tons of it, but the mochi seals held. The crew remained stuck to the deck, safe from being washed away. The Haki-reinforced prow sliced the wave in two, forcing the water to flow around them.
For ten agonizing seconds, they were inside the wave. Then, they broke through the crest.
The ship slammed back down onto the calm water on the other side, rocking violently, but it didn't capsize.
Ultimately, under Katakuri's terrifying defensive abilities and quick thinking, they weathered the storm with barely a scratch.
"Hah... hah..."
Galette gasped for air, her knees weak. The mochi released her legs, retracting back into the deck. She fell to her knees, coughing.
"Hey... Katakuri Nii-san..."
Her voice was tearful, her whole body trembling. "It was so scary... what was that just now? A natural disaster? An Aqua Laguna?"
Katakuri didn't answer immediately.
He slowly lowered his arms. His chest heaved once. His gaze was fixed on the turbulent sea ahead, churned by the violent explosion in the distance.
His eyes were filled with dread.
He could feel it.
The residual "aura" in that area. The heat that lingered in the wind. The static electricity that pricked his skin. The sheer, overwhelming Will.
It was so powerful that it made his heart palpitate.
That wasn't nature, Katakuri realized, sweat beading on his forehead under his scarf. That was Haki. That was a clash between Kings.
Someone... no, two people... just fought there. And their clash created a tsunami that reached us miles away.
Hearing is not as good as seeing. The reports were one thing, but witnessing this scene—where even the aftershocks of a battle could trigger a natural disaster—was another.
Katakuri felt immensely fortunate for his prior cautious judgment. If they had sailed into that blindly, arrogantly assuming they were the strongest... they would have been sunk.
He took a deep breath. His Observation Haki was frantically warning him of the danger ahead—a red alert screaming "DEATH"—but at the same time... it pointed to an incredibly clear answer.
"My intuition tells me..."
Katakuri's voice was low and powerful, clearly reaching every crew member's ear in the silence that followed the wave.
"We found them."
He turned around, surveying the faces still shaken with fear. He needed to be their pillar. He needed to be the invincible brother.
"The Suzaku Pirates are ahead."
He gripped his trident, Mogura.
"Everyone, be on high alert! Prepare for combat, but do not fire unless attacked! We are walking into a lion's den."
"We... will go take a look. But we walk softly."
Even his usually most boisterous sister was now quiet, just clenching her fists tightly, not daring to even breathe. The reality of the "Fifth Emperor" had just washed over them in the form of a tidal wave, and it was colder than the sea.
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