"Mamamama! So that future sight of yours isn't all that great after all. Even if you see what's coming ahead of time—what difference does it make? What you can't dodge, you can't dodge!" Charlotte Linlin laughed as she looked at Katakuri, half of his body blown away.
"Katakuri-nii!" All around, the children of the Charlotte family wore expressions of pain and sorrow.
"Elbaf Spear: Ikoku Sovereignty… the secret technique of the Giant Kingdom of Elbaf… what a terrifying move!" came a voice—astonishingly, it was from Katakuri, the very man whose body had just been halved.
"His half-destroyed body is… talking?!"
"Did Katakuri-nii's soul return?!"
"G-Ghost! It's a ghost!" shrieked several of the Charlotte children, completely spooked.
"Don't make a fuss," said Perospero with a frown. "Katakuri's a special Paramecia-type Devil Fruit user—he can manipulate his body like he's Logia-class, phasing through attacks."
"So that means… Mama's attack didn't actually land on him?" Charlotte Cracker, the tenth son, exclaimed in surprise.
"It's been so long, I nearly forgot," Linlin said with a snort. "You're a special Paramecia—user of the Mochi-Mochi Fruit. You can semi-elementalize your body and make physical attacks pass right through you… I must admit, I'm surprised you dodged my Ikoku Sovereignty."
"But that's as far as you go," she added, lifting her massive greatsword, Napoleon, once more.
"Ikoku Sovereignty!"
The terrifying slash came crashing down again—this time with even greater power, wider and more devastating. It looked like it would erase Katakuri entirely from existence.
"Grilled Mochi!" Katakuri's face shifted.
His fist, wrapped in intense Armament Haki, shot forward like a rocket, crashing head-on into the monstrous slash.
Grilled Mochi—a powerful technique where he compressed his Mochi-Mochi Fruit powers and infused them with Armament Haki. The move's power once rivaled Luffy's Gear Fourth: Kong Gun.
But this time—against Linlin's Ikoku Sovereignty—it lasted barely a second before being shredded to nothing.
At this point in time, Katakuri's strength had not yet reached the heights he would attain in the future… while Charlotte Linlin stood at the absolute peak of her power. In fact, she might be even stronger now than she would be decades later.
After all, Linlin was currently only in her early forties. When Luffy encountered her at Whole Cake Island, she was already way older. And even with her freakishly monstrous constitution, she must have begun to decline by then.
Katakuri's Grilled Mochi was obliterated in an instant.
Still, it bought him a brief window—just enough time to leap away and avoid being cleaved in two again.
Even so, the sheer impact of that slash caused the entire Cake Castle to tremble. A long gouge was carved into the ground, and one of the castle's walls was completely blasted through—leaving behind a gaping hole.
"She's just as terrifying as ever… this kind of power really does feel hopeless." Katakuri's expression was grim—but a flicker of determination burned in his eyes. "But I have to overcome it. Only by overcoming this wall… can I walk the path I've chosen for myself!"
From his back, he pulled out a sharply pointed trident. His arm morphed into mochi and wrapped around the weapon, then spun like a drill. With a roar, he lunged forward and thrust the spinning trident straight at Linlin.
"Mama, watch out!" many of the Charlotte family members shouted instinctively.
"How could Katakuri…?"
"He actually dared to attack Mom?!"
"Did no one confiscate his weapon? Were we too careless?!"
When Katakuri had entered, none of them thought he'd dare attack Charlotte Linlin. After all, he was once part of the Big Mom Pirates—even though Linlin had clearly come to kill him, they still didn't believe he would retaliate.
Because of that, no one had thought to confiscate his trident.
"Clang!" The rapidly spinning trident struck Linlin's body—but it stopped cold.
Katakuri's all-out strike hadn't even pierced her skin. It didn't leave so much as a scratch.
Katakuri's expression changed dramatically.
"You're still far too weak if you want to hurt me!" Linlin bellowed.
With a violent pulse of her power, she blasted Katakuri backward. Then, without pause, she lunged forward and threw a punch.
The force behind her fist was monstrous—so much so that it sent Katakuri flying like a cannonball.
By the time he stabilized himself in mid-air, Katakuri felt his arms had gone completely numb.
Sheer destructive power. Unbreakable defense. Everything about her made Katakuri feel an overwhelming sense of despair.
But even under this crushing pressure, there was still no sign—none—of his Devil Fruit awakening.
One of Katakuri's goals in returning to Totto Land—aside from settling things with the Big Mom Pirates—was to use Linlin's immense pressure to force a breakthrough and awaken his Devil Fruit.
But what Katakuri didn't realize was this:
Rosinante had only achieved his own Devil Fruit awakening not merely because of pressure—but because he had released all limitations on his body's use of the Devil Fruit.
The human body, due to its natural instincts of self-preservation, often subconsciously restricts the use of a Devil Fruit's true potential.
Without breaking those internal limits, no amount of combat or danger could force a genuine awakening.
Only when the body is trained to a sufficient level, and the user has spent years adapting and integrating with the Devil Fruit's power, can an awakening become possible.
And even then—it takes immense stamina to trigger the deep core of a Devil Fruit's power.
Rosinante, at that critical moment, had fully abandoned all restraint—both physically and mentally. Backed by his immense life force, he could recklessly burn through his energy to unlock the fruit's deepest potential, resulting in its awakening.
Katakuri, while strong and highly skilled with his fruit, still lacked that final edge—both in raw power and in bodily harmony with the Mochi-Mochi Fruit.
If I can't awaken my Devil Fruit… I might really die here today!
"Katakuri…" came a voice.
Just as despair started to creep in, Linlin was already upon him—her sword swinging downward once more.
"Clang!" Katakuri raised his trident and blocked the slash.
But the tremendous force behind the sword drove down through his weapon—and in the next moment, he dropped to his knees, unable to resist.
Where he knelt, the ground beneath him shattered and cracked apart, inch by inch…