A Joke
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One Piece: Desperate
🕑 Added 2021-08-22 16:11:39 +0000 UTCChapter 83
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-Max POV-
Katakuri was a hard opponent to fight.
That was the conclusion I had come to as I sensed thirteen mochi donuts forming around me, with Haki imbued fists shooting out. Each of the attacks was strategically positioned where it would hit me even if I tried to dodge. Fighting against future sight was hard as it was annoying.
Hell, he probably knew what move I was going to make even before me.
Baam! Baam! Baam! Baam!...
A barrage of punches landed on my body, though the injuries initially weren't anything too big, they had started adding up and one of my right ribs had cracked. Though I didn't show any sign of discomfort on the outside, that will only show him where he should attack.
Initially, he had been surprised by my speed mode, but he had gotten used to it after a while.
By now he only flew on a mochi platform with his eyes closed, the man's concentration was at its best. My eyes wandered towards Negan and I saw him fighting against Perospero, Cracker Daifuku, Smoothie, Oven, and a bunch of other people. He was getting destroyed, though no-hit had landed on his body, it wouldn't be long before so much teaming up against him would lead to his loss.
But by now, Raynare should already be above the clouds and ready to offer assistance while Reiju was preparing the plan that we talked about.
Baam! Baam!
Another two hits hit me on the back. Even though I dodged the other eleven hits that continued to rain down on me like a machine gun, the damage was slowly summing up.
My <Speed Form> during Awakening doesn't have the strong defensive prospects of the other forms or even my normal Awakened form. But, if I was in a high defense but low-speed form, he could just choke me using mochi. Luffy had almost died multiple times because of that.
Still, though, this guy really inspires my inner killer instincts. I wanna see what he sees, what was his view of things? For someone like me, having future sight was something that would be hard to wrap my head around it and grasp. But… I wanted it so bad… like a thirsty man in a desert. The future sight…
My Haki, it's an extension of my will, I wanna be at the top of the world. My Devil Fruit wasn't anything special, but that wouldn't matter.
I have made it special, right now I was at the same speed, or even faster than Luffy's Gear 4: Snake Man. Keeping this form isn't hard and I can do this for eighteen hours before my speed might start dropping. Luffy could barely keep his transformation for half a dozen minutes.
This fruit had already turned special… so I also had to change myself. But right now there was no risk to my life, even as Katakuri slowly but surely started injuring me, his punches wouldn't lead anywhere as with my order Reiju can drop a poison that kills people after one minute. So even if Katakuri can see fifteen seconds in the future, he wouldn't be able to stop the poison.
In the end, my life wasn't really in danger, I never fought someone I wasn't confident in being able to kill. Even if Big Mom came, I was confident in running away from her. At least, in theory, plans sometimes didn't go my way and reality had many alternatives so I have to be careful.
After all, even if I poisoned Katakuri, someone like Smoothie could get the poison out of him by using her Devil Fruit.
"You shouldn't be distracted!" He yelled out as hits rained down on me and a couple of <Shigan> air bullets dealt with that.
After all, I wasn't here to beat the Big Mom pirates. Though this was the perfect chance to obtain Future Sight, my specialty also had always been Observation Haki. Even Garp commented on this, meaning that it was good. I didn't have a lot of things going on for me, but having talent wasn't necessarily all that important in this world, effort mattered more.
"C'mon now, don't be disappointed in me Katakuri, it's just that your hits aren't that strong," I said with a smug smirk. Though it was a joke, there was some reality to it, his attacks barely did more damage than I could regenerate. If he had access to a wider form of Awakening it would have been different, but we are in the middle of the sea. He can't turn water into mochi.
His response to my provocation was to create more mochi fists and attacks. This time, there was a split second where I saw an opening.
****
In that split second that Max saw an opening, he could see an attack that would land against Katakuri. The latter had a trident made out of mochi, his original one had already broken.
He stabbed toward Max, but he dodged it and only his afterimage was hit.
Max then clenched his fist, his arm enlarged and muscles puffed up. In an instant, he was changing from his Speed Mode into Strength Mode, though only in one arm.
BAAAAM!!
Katakuri was hit head-on, this time he couldn't dodge correctly and his head started bleeding… his eyes rolled on the back of his head. Max though wasn't done and took that chance as he saw Katakuri had blacked out for a split second.
Though Max didn't notice a small mirror behind him about the size of the tip of a finger.
An arrow made out of candy came through the small mirror and hit him straight in his side, piercing straight through.
"Ugh!" Though small, the attack had stopped Max from slashing and bisecting Katakuri in that split second. "You need to stop interfering."
He shot a small blast of air from his finger and it went through the mirror that had now become a doorway to the other side.
"Aaaahhh!!" Brulee's scream rang out.
This woke up Katakuri, making him open his eyes. "Don't mess with my family!" He yelled out at Max, moving towards him at top speeds, veins popping in Katakuri's forehead.
The anger he felt made Max smirk. By the time Katakuri noticed his mistake, it was too late.
Max's ax cut him from the hip to his shoulder. "Bad move."
But it didn't stop there like a fist infused with an advanced form of Armament Haki also landed on his chin, breaking his jaw and part of his skull in impact.
'Heavy!' That was the thought that Katakuri had, the split second where his emotions took over and his Observation Haki failed to see the future. All long he had been able to keep up with Max by predicting his moves.
In reality, Max's attack power was off the charts, an Awakened Zoan combined with powerful Haki wasn't something you wanted to get hit by.
"This fight is finally over," Max muttered, breathing heavily as he looked down at his wound. "I congratulate you Katakuri, I can… see now…"
Max looked at the sky as the clouds darkened.
*sigh*
"Sometimes seeing the future sucks," he said dejectedly. "Because no matter what, you can't change it."
A giant mirror appeared in the sky and a dark cloud with a giant-like figure wearing a pink dress with pink hair came out. "Mamamama~ little bear, I think you have wandered outside of your territory."
Charlotte Linlin, also known as Big Mom, stood amongst the clouds with her giant sword leaning on her shoulder, and a miniature sun seemed to burn above her.
"Mama, should we burn him?" Asked Prometheus, the miniature sun.
"Or electrocute him?" Questioned Zeus, the giant dark cloud she was standing on.
"Or slash him up?" Inquired her sword with an evil look on its face.
Max contemplated running for a second, he just had to jump in the water and three submarines were waiting to pick him up. Of course, that was all if he didn't get boiled alive by Oven first.
"So, would you believe it if I said that I came here to just talk?" Max spoke softly, sighing in annoyance.
Big Mom didn't say anything and just looked at the downed Katakuri. "Brat! The time for talking is over!"
She charged at him, fast for someone her size, especially since they were mid-air.
"My luck sucks these days," complained Max, as he took out a fourth Rumble Ball and ate it.
<Awakening: Emperor Form>
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A/N: It might seem like Katakuri was able to keep up with Max easily, but we saw the fight mostly through Max’s eyes and Katakuri isn’t the most expressive person. The mochi-man had a hard time keeping up, Max’s physical power is off the charts, and while he might not have Big Mom’s natural steel-like skin defense, his defense was no joke either.
P.S: Max has plans for most situations but plans sometimes don’t work, and he expects it. That’s why he doesn’t like betting on his side plans.
