While Orin and Katakuri were in the Mirror World during this time, Big Mom was hot on the heels of the fleeing Luffy and the others, vowing to wipe them all out. Jinbe and Luffy cooperated with each other, with Nami, Brook, Chopper, and Carrot providing support, struggling to move toward the Thousand Sunny.
Just as Luffy was about to explode, he suddenly saw a murderous guy step out of the mirror on the ship, his whole body covered in metal accessories, his footsteps crisp and forceful on the deck. Katakuri came in wanting to kill Luffy, but Luffy dragged him and ran into the Mirror World, and Pedro also sacrificed himself, holding Perospero back and at the same time breaking the binding on the Thousand Sunny, letting Jinbe and Nami use the Coup de Burst to send everyone flying toward the outskirts. In the end they couldn't get far—Big Mom soon arrived riding Prometheus, and even turned the sea into Homies, planning to flip the Thousand Sunny directly. Jinbe stepped forward.
"How could I ever let you destroy our ship, Big Mom!!!"
He held the helm and pulled the Thousand Sunny out of the tsunami, then chose to face the rampaging Big Mom head-on.
"Jinbe, hand over the cake!!!"
"This is the Thousand Sunny—there's no cake you want here!!!"
Big Mom flew into a rage and slashed to the side with a blade. Jinbe used Armament Haki and blocked it with his solid martial arts.
"You dare to ally with the Straw Hat crew, Jinbe!!! Aren't you afraid I'll destroy Fish-Man Island?!!!"
Starving and furious, Big Mom glared at Jinbe and shouted.
"If you can do it, then go ahead and try!!! Just a Yonko!!!"
If it were the old Jinbe, facing someone using Fish-Man Island as a threat, he might have had to worry about his homeland's safety. But now, half of it belonged under Orin-sama's banner, and the other half belonged to Sadgeo, so the security had greatly improved. Even if Big Mom wanted to target the half of Fish-Man Island under Sadgeo's control, she would have to seriously consider whether she could face the wrath of two emperor-class powerhouses at the same time. Don't forget that the ceiling of combat power among fish-men—Tiger, whom even Jinbe himself couldn't match—was still alive. Although he kept a low profile, before coming to Cake Island, Jinbe had gone to see him once. If old Jinbe could trade a few moves with Big Mom, then Tiger, who had worked for Orin-sama for so many years, went without saying. Tiger's technique of using Armament Haki like real flowing water and combining it with Fish-Man Karate was something even Jinbe couldn't contend with at all.
...
On the other side, the Mirror World.
After dragging Katakuri inside, Luffy now also saw the scene on the Thousand Sunny through mirror fragments. Though he was worried, right now he clearly faced an even more terrifying crisis—that was the murderous Katakuri in front of him. Luffy swung back a punch and smashed the mirror leading to the Thousand Sunny to pieces.
"Let me be your opponent!!!"
"Just what I wanted."
One fought for his companions and his dreams, the other for his sister. With reasons they absolutely could not lose, the two stared each other down. No more nonsense—the fight to the death between men began immediately. Luffy clenched his fists, steam rising all over his body, his skin turning red.
"Gomu Gomu... Gatling!!!"
Fists coated in Armament Haki rained down on Katakuri like a storm, and Katakuri, in the midst of fighting Luffy, regained his confidence. Countless mochi fists grew from his back, calmly catching all of Luffy's punches.
Katakuri transformed his mochi, forming an even larger mochi giant fist and slammed Luffy into the wall. Once again, Luffy felt that stifled frustration he had when fighting Sadgeo—the opponent knew all your moves, and every single one was stronger than yours. The attacks he threw were all seen in advance by Katakuri, who could turn his body into mochi to dodge them. A one-sided beating began. Watching Luffy take punch after punch, Armament-coated mochi attacks poured onto him like they were free, yet this guy acted like nothing was wrong, getting back up every time.
Orin yawned as he watched this long beating session. It seemed that unless you were far stronger than Luffy—like Kaido, using Conqueror's Haki Infusion against someone like Luffy who couldn't do it yet, a dimensionality-reduction strike—you couldn't end the fight quickly and force out his Nika form in a desperate situation. Katakuri was strong, but his Armament was only limitedly stronger than Luffy's, so the fight would drag on, and in the process, Luffy's Observation Haki was also improving at high speed. There was just no helping it...
Katakuri was pouring on the pressure when, in the next second, he saw a scene: inside the black box in Orin's hand, a girl was imprisoned, and Orin told him,
"Finish it quickly~"
Flampe!!!
Although Flampe wasn't the sister closest to Katakuri, as the second son, Katakuri dearly loved all his siblings. The moment he saw this, the little caution he had left vanished, and he launched a series of furious mochi bombardments.
The awakened ability activated, turning the entire Mirror World into mochi, coated with Armament Haki and smashing down wildly. Luffy, who at first still had some breathing room, was immediately beaten senseless.
"Ugh—"
His eyes rolled back, blood spraying from his mouth, his face swollen, his consciousness starting to fade. This isn't right... In the past, when fighting others, who wasn't talking while fighting, and even when getting hit there was room to breathe? Why is this going straight for the kill?
"This won't do..."
Panting, Luffy coated himself in Armament Haki to block the attacks from the awakened Armament mochi. Taking advantage of the dust cloud, he blew himself full of air.
[Fourth Gear]!!!
"I will absolutely defeat you and return to my companions!!!"
"I will absolutely kill you, for my beloved sister."
The two sides clashed again in a fierce struggle. After entering Fourth Gear, Luffy relied on Ryuo to scatter quite a bit of the Armament mochi from the soft interior, and with his extremely high combat talent, he also began training his Observation Haki with his eyes closed. Relying on sheer grit, he endured Katakuri's brutal beating, and his Observation Haki began to faintly foresee the future.
Orin noticed this. The scales of victory were no longer slowly tipping toward Katakuri's side, and for a moment it started to become evenly matched.
"This won't do..."