OP: My Aircraft Carrier Evolves#164+165: Katakuri, the Family Man! The Paramecia Mochi-Mochi Fruit and its Awakened Techniques!

In the world of pirates, it was a simple truth: the crew reflects the captain.

Birds of a feather.

This was especially true for the most famous pirate crews. The Yonko were no exception.

The Big Mom Pirates were the embodiment of Big Mom’s will.

She dreamed of a nation where all races could live together as equals. She wanted to make everyone in the world her "Family."

And so, she had built the Totto Land Kingdom with family at its core, bound by blood.

Under her tutelage, every last one of her children was a "Family Man."

If someone were to refuse an invitation to her Tea Party, she would send them a "gift"—the severed head of someone they knew.

If her reputation was tarnished, she would fly into a rage.

If one of her powerful subordinates was defeated, she would dispatch an army of vengeance to crush the enemy.

In the original story, Luffy had crashed her Tea Party and humiliated her, and she had pursued him with a relentless, all-consuming fury.

Jin’s refusal to attend, coupled with his stunt with Smoothie and the others, had thoroughly enraged Big Mom. It was only the threat of the World Government and the persuasion of Stussy that had led to a reluctant truce, with both sides taking a step back.

Because of this, Katakuri, Daifuku, and Oven were filled with a burning anger, a contempt for Jin. They needed to restore their family’s honor.

That was why they had agreed to his proposal.

A fight.

But what Katakuri hadn't expected was for Oven and Daifuku to be taken out in an instant.

And in the clash that followed, Jin had displayed a strength and speed that defied imagination, completely overwhelming him and forcing him onto the defensive.

Katakuri was stunned, but that shock quickly hardened into a deeper fury. To protect his family, he had to be strong. He could not—would not—lose.

As a "Family Man," his family was the source of his strength.

He would not show any weakness.

———————————————

A sharp glint entered Katakuri's eyes.

"Willow Mochi!"

Katakuri’s leg transformed into a mass of mochi, splitting into a dozen Haki-hardened limbs that shot toward his opponent.

A storm of kicks blotted out the sun, a relentless, cascading waterfall of black steel that seemed to flow upward to consume the sky.

Jin’s fists were a blur, a thunderclap of motion as he met the assault, blocking every strike from every angle.

The air exploded with sound. The clash of their attacks was like a series of detonations, unleashing powerful shockwaves that kicked up a massive cloud of sand.

It was a head-on collision of pure power.

A storm of force ripped through the area.

Crocodile and Stussy retreated, Crocodile grabbing the unconscious Daifuku and Oven and moving them to safety.

Jin's fists grew faster, a whirlwind of afterimages. His power intensified, a tidal wave of crushing force.

The battle was staggering to watch.

Stussy was in shock. Jin was not just holding his own; he was decisively overpowering Katakuri. It was completely unexpected.

The roaring clash continued.

Jin grew stronger with every exchange, his movements like lightning, each punch more powerful than the last.

After trading hundreds of blows, Katakuri finally began to falter. A trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth.

His legs were going numb. A sharp, surging power was relentlessly infiltrating his body. His Armament Haki was useless against it.

It was like trying to stop water with a stone wall—the pressure was relentless, the infiltration inevitable.

Suddenly, a spark of golden light flashed in Jin's eyes. His fist erupted in a brilliant glow.

An unstoppable force, like an unbreakable drill, pierced through Katakuri’s barrage of kicks.

Katakuri's pupils contracted. Two invisible auras slammed into him.

Conqueror's Haki??

His Observation Haki showed him the future: no matter how he countered, he would be hit.

He couldn't dodge. He wouldn't dodge.

He had to meet it head-on.

He fell back, and with a roar, his arm transformed into a massive, rapidly expanding club of mochi.

He hardened it with Armament Haki and began to spin it at high speed, like a meteor hammer.

He lunged forward, unleashing his own Conqueror's Haki.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Their fists collided.

The black and red sparks of their clashing Conqueror's Haki lit up the sky, the shockwave ripping through the air.

The terrifying force of the impact rolled outward in waves, and the very ground within a three-kilometer radius was crushed, sinking under the immense pressure.

And they were at the center of it, taking the full, brutal force of the blow.

Katakuri’s entire body shuddered.

He couldn't hold.

Jin's fist shattered his defense, and he was sent flying, a spray of blood erupting from his mouth.

He was not just physically beaten. His mind, his spirit—they had also taken a heavy blow. He couldn't think.

For a moment, he was lost.

Just as he was about to hit the ground, Katakuri snapped back to his senses.

On pure instinct, his hands and feet shot out, and he landed on his back, crawling, preventing his back from ever touching the ground.

It was his obsession—his one, unbreakable rule.

CRASH!

The impact of his landing sent a massive cloud of sand into the air, leaving a huge crater.

Blood dripped from his mouth. The skin on his fist was cracked like porcelain, blood seeping from the fissures.

In contrast, Jin was almost untouched. His clothes were a little dusty, his breathing steady. It had been nothing more than a warm-up.

Stussy's expression was grave. She knew how strong Katakuri was—definitely in the tier just below the Yonko.

But now, he was completely outmatched, in terrible condition. This wasn't even a fight; it was a beatdown.

'Doesn't that mean... this king has the power to face a Yonko head-on?'

And that was in a one-on-one fight—not some drawn-out battle of attrition where he swooped in for the final blow.

"Guhahaha..." Crocodile laughed. "That bastard... he's gotten stronger again."

He had been on the receiving end of Jin's fists before. He could feel it. Jin was even stronger now. He was a monster.

A light breeze blew across the desert. Katakuri pushed himself to his feet, his body covered in blood, but his eyes were still burning with a fierce fighting spirit.

His scarf had been torn away, revealing a gruesome, stitched-up mouth. When he was a child, he had loved donuts so much that he had eaten until his mouth had torn open, leaving him with jagged, fang-like teeth.

He glared at Jin, the fire in his eyes like that of a wounded, cornered beast.

"It's not over!" he roared. "I will not fall!"

The very ground beneath his feet began to writhe and transform into mochi, spreading rapidly outward.

"A Devil Fruit Awakening," Stussy murmured, taking another few steps back.

"So this is his Awakening."

The sand beneath Jin's feet was also turning to mochi, becoming soft and sticky, trying to pull him down.

The Mochi-Mochi Fruit's Awakening allowed him to turn his surroundings into mochi, to assimilate them.

"Flowing Mochi!" Katakuri yelled, slamming his hand on the ground.

A massive wave of sticky mochi surged toward Jin, and the mochi-fied sand all around him rose up as well.

In an instant, the entire area had become a mochi swamp. Jin's legs were trapped, and the mochi hardened in an instant.

"Rainfall Mochi!"

Countless thick tentacles of mochi shot out from the ground, a relentless barrage of attacks.

Jin stood his ground, his Armament Haki an invisible suit of armor.

The heavy blows of the mochi tentacles couldn't even scratch him. It was as if they were just helping him temper his Haki.

The training of Armament Haki was all about taking hits, like forging steel. It had to be hammered a hundred times to be purified.

Relentless, controlled beatings would increase its strength. It was how Rayleigh had trained Luffy.

Katakuri watched, a chill running down his spine. This man was too strong. And so young.

He would be a massive threat in the future.

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"Peerless Donuts!" Katakuri yelled, remaining calm. Only by remaining calm could his Observation Haki see the future. He often used it to "learn" his opponents' moves and counter them.

But against Jin, it was useless.

Learn it? How could he possibly learn it? Jin had done nothing but throw punches and kicks from the very beginning. It was a pure, overwhelming beatdown of raw power—there were no techniques to copy.

It was absurd.

Katakuri controlled the ground, and massive donuts of mochi formed in the air, surrounding Jin.

Then, "Mochi Glee!"

From the center of each donut, a massive, Haki-hardened arm of mochi shot out.

A giant mochi fist crashed down, followed by another, and another. It was a spectacular and terrifying sight.

The relentless attacks came from all sides.

Jin met them with his own fists, blocking every single one.

The sound of their impacts was deafening.

"WUUUAAAAAH..." Katakuri roared, his attacks becoming more and more frantic, the giant mochi arms a relentless tidal wave of blows, each one stronger than the last.

The mochi began to glow red-hot, steam rising from its surface as if it were on fire.

But Jin was calm. In the storm of fists, the trajectory of each attack was clear in his mind.

All he had to do was follow the path, to punch, to parry.

Suddenly, a line of poetry came to his mind.

"Biting down on the green mountain, not letting go, its roots deep in the broken rock. A thousand strikes, ten thousand blows, yet it remains strong, letting the winds from all directions blow."

Though he was trapped in place, he was not in trouble. He was in complete control.

He stood his ground, an unmovable mountain. And as the fight went on, he became more and more relaxed.

His punches became fluid, natural, tracing beautiful arcs through the air.

Anyone who has been in a real fight knows that a clenched fist is not always the best. You need a certain "looseness." A tight fist can't unleash its full power.

Only when you can freely extend and retract, tense and relax, can you unleash a truly explosive force.

As he began to grasp this concept, in the midst of the battle, Jin started to understand the state that the warriors of the Flower Capital pursued.

A perfect unity—with oneself, with the world, with the flow of battle itself.

A supreme state of being.

You could call it... the Way.

In that instant, Jin, the wind, the clouds, and Katakuri's fists all existed in a state of perfect harmony.

The mochi that had trapped him had been shattered by the force of their blows.

And then, amidst the storm of giant fists, he "saw" a path. He calmly walked along it.

"What??" Katakuri was horrified. It was as if Jin could see his every move, dodging by a hair's breadth.

It was uncanny.

Danger!

Alarm bells screamed in Katakuri's mind. Behind him, more donuts formed, and from them, more giant fists. He controlled them, merging them with his own arms, creating two massive, scorching hot fists.

"Burning Mochi!"

He threw both fists, and the flames covered half the sky.

Jin leaped into the air and met the attack with his own punches.

Compared to Katakuri's spectacular display, his attack was simple, almost plain.

But his breathing, the expansion and contraction of his muscles and tendons—they were in perfect harmony.

When he threw a punch, it was not just his own strength, but the strength of the world behind him.

The world itself had become his power.

Conqueror's and Armament Haki coiled around his fists.

To Katakuri, it was as if the entire sky and earth were crashing down on him, as if the whole world were squeezing him.

Was it an illusion?

No.

It was an indescribable aura.

His "Ki" had filled the entire area, creating a "domain" of its own.

Even Katakuri's awakened state was being suppressed.

It all happened in an instant.

Their fists collided.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A dull, thunderous roar.

Jin's fist was like a cannonball, a powerful, focused strike that slammed into the massive mochi fist.

The contained power of his punch exploded outward.

There was no struggle.

With a single impact, Katakuri was sent flying, like a meteor streaking across the sky.

He lost control of his body. The immense force of the blow had left him completely rigid.

He could hear his bones cracking, his skin tearing...

Pain?

He felt nothing.

He was numb.

Katakuri looked up at the sky.

Defeated?

He had never been defeated before.

And now... his undefeated streak was broken.

How did it feel?

He couldn't say.

Pain? Anger? Disappointment?

It was none of those.

It was... a sense of relief. As if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

So this was what it was like to lose.

He fell from the sky.

CRASH!

A sand dune exploded, a fountain of sand and dirt shooting into the air.

He was driven dozens of meters into the ground, until he hit the solid rock foundation of what was once the city of Erumalu.

It was over. Jin had won.

And it had been easy.

Compared to the battered and beaten Katakuri, he had barely broken a sweat.

The gap between them was clear.

Stussy was stunned, her expression complex. The young man before her reminded her of a certain terrifying person.

"KATAKURI!"

Daifuku and Oven, who had just woken up, had seen him fall. They cried out in shock.

In the Big Mom Pirates, Katakuri was the most beloved, their "hero."

As Big Mom grew older, as her eating disorder worsened, as she became more and more unreliable, Katakuri had become the tower that protected the family.

And today, the undefeated man, their "hero," had fallen. They couldn't believe it.

They rushed toward the spot where he had fallen.

Jin's breathing was steady. He took a moment to savor the feeling. Real combat... it really was the fastest way to put his "stats" to use.

Of course, it had to be against an opponent like Katakuri, someone who could give him a good fight.

Daifuku and Oven pulled the unconscious Katakuri from the crater.

He was covered in blood, but he was still alive.

They needed to get him to a doctor, quickly.

The life force of the strong in the world of One Piece was exceptionally resilient. Unless you were killed on the spot, you could usually recover.

Like Zoro, who had taken the full force of the "Conquest of the Sea," his bones shattered, and after a short rest, he was back on his feet, as good as new. A complete freak of nature.

"Hey!" Jin called out.

Oven and Daifuku froze and turned to look at him, sweat beading on their foreheads. The contempt they had shown him before was gone.

In its place was tension, fear, and awe.

This man was terrifyingly strong.

"Remember," Jin said. "You still owe me three Devil Fruits."

"Right, of course..." Oven stammered. "We'll have them sent over."

"Good."

Jin smiled with satisfaction. Six Devil Fruits in one go. You really had to "rob" the big players. They had the connections and the resources to collect them.

"So... Mr. King, sir... can we go now?" Daifuku asked, his tone now humble, respectful, his expression cleared of all its previous arrogance.

"Go on," Jin said. "And when you're looking for a doctor, be polite. After all, you're on foreign soil. If your actions reflect badly on me, it could damage my reputation..."

"No, of course not," Oven said quickly. "You can count on us."

"Alright," Jin said. "Follow the river down. It will take you to Nanohana. Don't get lost."

"Thank you!"

Oven and Daifuku bowed politely, and then, leaving their camels behind, they picked up Katakuri and fled.