Inside the palace, Katakuri – who had been about to enjoy a proper meal – suddenly stood up from the dining table and dragged Cracker outside.
The king panicked, thinking he had failed as a host, and hurried over to apologize before anything went wrong.
But Katakuri paid him no mind, striding forward with Cracker and smashing straight through the palace wall as they charged out toward the town beyond.
"Brother Katakuri, what happened?" Cracker asked quickly. Katakuri held immense authority in the family, and Cracker knew his Observation Haki was strong – he must have sensed something.
"I saw two people planning to attack us inside the palace," Katakuri said bluntly. Of course, what he meant were images of the next few seconds.
In truth, Enel had already been ready to blow the palace apart and strike Katakuri down. But he sensed Katakuri's movement and held off, chasing after the man with Crocodile beyond the town's borders.
"Show yourselves. I know it's you – the bomb maniac Enel!"
Before the king could even process what was happening, Katakuri had already chosen their battlefield. Cracker – that old schemer – heard that a fight was about to break out and immediately summoned his Biscuit Knights without a word, hiding his true body among the cookie constructs.
Cracker's talent and strength were considerable, but he had one glaring weakness: he could not tolerate pain. Even a simple needle prick was unbearable.
So at the start of every battle, he concealed his body inside a biscuit man. Even his bounty poster did not show his real face – just an abstract cookie figure.
"As expected of you, shark-mouth," Enel descended from the sky, gazing at Katakuri with a provocative stare.
Crocodile chose a more dramatic entrance. He arrived like a sandstorm carried on a hurricane, his figure materializing from the swirling dust.
"Aren't you the pirates who burned our flag before? I can't believe you dare show your faces in front of us!" Cracker sneered.
He and Katakuri were already the two strongest fighters in the family besides Big Mom. The remaining Sweet Commanders had not yet reached their peak.
"What's there to be afraid of? Don't forget your brother Katakuri was our defeated opponent!" Enel grinned.
But Katakuri was not shaken by his words. His previous defeat had many reasons, and one of them was fighting alone. In a proper one-on-one, he was confident he would not lose to anyone.
"What are you two blathering about? Long ears – one for each of us. Let's end this quickly!" Crocodile muttered, rolling his dead-fish eyes in irritation.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a yellow sand blade erupted from behind Katakuri, cleaving the towering man in half at the waist in an instant!
The cunning sand crocodile launched his ambush before he even finished speaking – but unfortunately for him, his target was Katakuri.
Katakuri had already foreseen Crocodile manipulating the sand behind him, forming high-speed cutting blades. So he split his body in half before the attack landed.
In the instant of being cut, his entire form transformed into two blobs of white, sticky substance.
Before disappointment could even cross Crocodile's face, Katakuri's mochi body stretched through the air – and in a flash, he was right in front of Crocodile!
"You picked the wrong opponent, boy!"
His upper body reverted to its original form while his lower half remained as mochi. Both arms were coated in Armament Haki and covered in spikes, ready to deliver a devastating blow to Crocodile!
Crocodile's pupils dilated in shock. With his half-baked Observation Haki, he could not react to Katakuri's attack at all. By the time his brain registered the signal, the opponent's fist had already transformed into a spiked mace – the razor-sharp black spikes were nearly piercing his very eyes!
Boom!
At that moment, an explosion erupted.
Crocodile quickly realized that the attack which should have impaled him had somehow changed direction.
The opponent's fist was now colliding with Enel's fist, and the resulting blast sent a wave of heat crashing into the crocodile's face – making the gap in power all too clear.
He immediately dispersed his body, shot Katakuri a furious glare, and then transformed into a sandstorm to attack Cracker instead.
On Katakuri's side, the two had locked in a brief stalemate before separating, each regarding the other with grave expressions.
"Your opponent is me!" Enel looked relaxed on the surface, but it was far from easy.
Katakuri was even more solemn.
He had originally intended to kill Crocodile outright, but at the moment he struck, he saw Enel destroy Crocodile's body a split second before him.
In the future Katakuri had seen, Enel's blow carried no Haki – so it would not cause real harm to Crocodile, instead allowing him to escape unscathed.
Seeing this, Katakuri immediately changed targets, abandoning Crocodile to attack Enel and catch him off guard.
But the Enel he had foreseen without Haki was fully prepared when they collided, giving Katakuri no advantage.
This meant that this man called Enel had also seen through to the future after Katakuri changed his course. Katakuri found this unbelievable.
He had assumed this was just one opponent alone – no red-nosed fellow or red-haired fellow – here to throw his life away. Now it seemed taking him down would not be so easy.
"This guy… this level of Haki… just who are you?" Katakuri's mind raced.
Enel and that red-nosed fellow's mastery of Haki could not possibly be that of a mere rookie pirate.
True rookie pirates, no matter how talented, would only reach the level of Crocodile or Mihawk when they first entered the New World. Making a name for oneself there was no simple feat.
"Surprised? My Observation Haki has been far stronger than others' since the day I was born," Enel said proudly, though he also held some respect for Katakuri. "But you – being able to see so far into the future. That truly is incredible."
In truth, Enel could not see more than a dozen seconds into the future like Katakuri. The only reason he could keep up was because he heard the voices inside his opponent's head.
[
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