A/n: The fight is still the same, but the way they see eachother is the main difference. I want them to grow to like eachother instead of reader automatically liking kata and viceversa with the reader's baker self.
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"Prepare the cannons and contact the sweet commanders!" Was the last thing the big mom pirates said before they were overrun by a group of masked thieves, they dressed in rugged and worn out dark clothing, almost like ordinary bandits if it wasn't for the colorful carnival masks on their face.
The big mom pirates were seized and tied up, a few were killed while those that gave up were spared. Either way, they were outmatched with the help of their leader, a pufferfish Fishman dual-wielding a pair of blades in each hand. His back is dark gray with light tones in front, a cigar on his lips, a dark blue bandanna on his forehead and a matching sash tied around his black surfer shorts. He eyed the seized ship and the tied up pirate staff, a grin curving up behind his own mask.
"Call our transportation, let's take their cargo before the surveillance tarts show up."
"Yes sir!" the thieves followed command. One of them pulling out a den den mushi while the rest keep watch and retrieve the goods. Three of them went to the storage area, opening the doors in hopes of finding liquor from Liquor Island but instead they were met with empty boxes and a large mirror. "What the hell?" they exclaim, a hand coming out from the glass.
After 5 minutes of sending them away, the fishman turned in direction the storage room in frustraition. "What's taking them so long?" he huffs. He went up to the room himself only to get thrown back with splintered wood and debris, barely recovering himself midway to avoid slamming into the mast.
"The fuck, wasn't this ship supposed to be empty??" he refers to the to the other thieves.
"We already checked! it was empty when we took over."
"THEN WHERE DID THIS FUCKER COME FROM?!" one of them shouts, quivering slightly at the sight of a large man with black clothing bursting from the mirror inside the storage room.
Another meeting is being held at the Whole Cake Manor, but in an attempt to avoid information leaks only a few were invited or informed of the situation.
"Thieves? That's why we were called in for? So what, we have a ton of whatever they steal." Gallete shrugs off.
"First it's just weapons and ingredients, but what if it's something mama wants? You know how destructive her hunger pains are!"
"Compote is right, if we don't find these bastards it's just a matter of time before they start giving us major problems."
"How are we supposed to find them? We may have a huge information network, but I already sent every goddamn vessel and tart out at sea and non of them have seen anything out of place." Mont-d'Or questions.
While they spitball ideas and suggestions back and forth, Smoothie is the first to come up with a suggestion that doesn't involve looking for the thieves. "What about we set up a trap?"
"A trap? what kind of trap?"
Smoothie uncrosses her arms from her chest, turning to look at Brulee. "A mirror in every ship, big enough for anyone to cross through."
The fishman looks uneasy at being caught, but despite the unexpected opponent he played along with the intended plan and stood his ground, pulling out his blades as the rest of the thieves tense up for another fight. "Doesn't matter, we've avoided getting captured this long and today i'm not planning to change that."
For Katakuri, this fishman held up for a decent amount of time but even then it's not enough to impress him in the slightest. The sweet commander crouched over the fallen fishman, smacking away his cheap mask to reveal a bloody nose and an irritated stare. "I'm guessing you're the captain?" Katakuri inquires, but the fishman didn't reply. "You and your crew depended too much on hiding, it was just a matter of time before we found you, you didn't stand a chance against me."
The pufferfish winces at the sight of the chess-like soldiers coming from the storage room, quickly overruning the ship and capturing the rest of the thieves. Katakuri enjoyed the fear in his eyes, but something changed when his den den mushi started ringing, the fishman loosened up and broke into a chuckle. "I don't, but she does." he smirks. Katakuri irked an eyebrow, fetching the snail and answering it.
"Sorry for the delay, I couldn't find my coat and-"
"Who is this?" Katakuri speaks into the receiver, hearing and audible 'oh?' from the other line.
"You're not Val." was all they said before they hung up.
The question still lingered on Katakuri's eye but the fishman kept his lips shut. Katakuri felt the hair on his nape stand up all of a sudden. Something wasn't right.
An heavy object suddenly crashed in the middle of the deck, it was a cannon ball. There were no ships in sight so it couldn't have been fired, eventually another one landed on the deck seemingly from the sky, soon followed by many more. Damaging the ship by causing dents and holes on deck if it wasn't for the few swordsmen on the ship preventing further damage, but they were soon met with something that there weren't able to cut through. The remains and pieces of a broken ship falling from the sky. "Steer the ship away from the debris! " Katakuri ordered the man at the steering wheel, barely managing to dodge the large wooden remains as they rounded past the rock blocking their way.
He created harden mochi barriers to keep the scraps of debris from landing on his crew, throwing mochi punches towards the wooden remains rather effortlessly in a way to punch them away.
"Where is the debris coming from?" one man asked. "Maybe it came from a sky island?" another man questioned. "WHAT'S HAPPENING??" the rest of the crew were just as confused. The crew asked among themselves once the debris stopped falling.
Katakuri caught sight of a broken ship mast fall from the sky, unceremoniously landing in the ocean with the rest of the scrap. Katakuri walked to the edge of the ship with narrow eyes. Upon closer inspection towards the wood debris floating in the ocean water he saw the mast with its flag intact, recognizing the jolly roger to belong to the big mom pirates. Meaning that the debris was the remains of one of their own missing ships.
"Men, go to your stations!" Katakuri barked orders at his crew, pulling mogura from his body. "We're being under attack." his eyes went to the wounded fishman, his smile still intact.
The hairs on the nape of his neck stood once more, slashing a piece of debris thrown at his way. "I don't appreciate you beating up my first mate." a feminine voice called out from somewhere above Katakuri. He raised his view to notice an intruder standing above the ship masts, upon revealing herself the tied up thieves shout in joy, proving this is one of them.
Katakuri spared a glance at the fishman, only to realize he vanished in thin air like the rest of the masked thieves. He paced around to get a good look at the newcomer. "I assume you're the leader of this operation." Katakuri narrowed his eyes.
You jumped down from the ship mast, standing in front of the sweet commander. You to slowly circled around each other like predators awaiting to attack, never breaking eye contact with each step. "I guess you can say that, though i'm not one for tags," Her appearance is a mysterious one. Face covered by a carnival crescent moon shaped mask, her causal and rugged outfit contrasting with the fancy coat hanging from her shoulders.
Katakuri was the first to thrust his trident at you, causing you to jump roll behind a wooden mast for protection. The minister created two other mochi hands to make a clapping motion from behind the mast, hoping to catch you like mosquito without any success. He figures it has something to do with whatever technique you used to make your subordinates disappear.
Without looking back, the mochi man dodged a piece of ship rubble you threw from behind just like earlier, questioning how you managed to move as fast as you did without him noticing.
After effortlessly blocking another large piece of wood you launched at him, Katakuri quickly recover his stance in an attempt to punch you, only to find nothing. Your abrupt disappearance annoyed him once more. But there was no way you'd be able to get far, so it was logical for him to assume you hid among the crowd of his crewmates. It was halfway there, but although his color observation wasn't perfect yet, it was enough to help him find you.
Standing out among his pirate crew like a vegetable in a cookie jar.
He stretched out a mochi hand to grab you, only for you to literally slip from his fingertips.
"Whoa-! Almost got me there." you chimed, jumping a top the big mom pirates' heads as you made your way to higher ground in a blink of an eye.
The pirates surrounding the area ran in your direction in a petty attempt to capture you.
"Idiots! How could you not see her?" Katakuri called out to the mom pirates, receiving both surprised and fearful looks.
"We didn't notice her boss, honest!" one of the men apologized. "She appeared out of nowhere!" the rest of the pirates joined in by pointing their guns at you. "Let's shoot her down!" the pirates starting firing their rounds at you will you run from one place to another.
You kept running towards the rest of the pirates in a flash, disappearing from one spot after the other only to appear a few meters away, pushing and kicking men into each other in a playful manner. As if you were just making fun at their attempts to capture you.
"Where'd she go?!" you would often hear them shout.
Maybe his crew couldn't see it, but Katakuri started to notice how you weren't exactly running or jumping per see, his trained eye distinguished how you were moving without taking any steps, almost as if you were transporting.
"There she is, give her hell!" the pirates shouted once more, emptying their rounds towards you.
The smell of gunpowder tickled your nose as you avoided the bullets aimed your way, covering behind a pole once more before appearing on top of the mast where the ship sails were hung. You received the gunfire with open arms without taking a step from your spot. There was no doubt the bullets were being sent your way, but neither of them landed on a single hair of yours. Katakuri's eyes grew wide when he saw something in front of you. It was almost transparent, but judging from the sun's reflection there was something round in front of you, like a distorted screen swallowing the bullets from one side and preventing them from reaching you on the other side.
"Thanks for the gift, I'm touched~" You jest by placing your hand over your heart, smirking down at the pirate men and their empty guns. "But if you really want to experience hell. Let me return the favor," You crossed your fingers in an odd gesture (maybe that's how you activate your ability?), aiming your hands towards the pirates below you before shouting the name of your attack.
"HELLFIRE!"
A storm of bullets fell upon the pirate crew in all directions, seemingly out of nowhere. The pirates ran in circles in an attempt to avoid the gunfire, occasionally running into each other or dropping to the ground.
"What's going on!?"
"They're bullets, get down!"
"But she's not using any guns!"
Katakuri on the other hand stood his ground, from his position he was able to decipher the strange object in front of you was. Upon better inspection and from a different angle, the round transparent screen had a purple hue to it when something emerged from it, in this case the stream of bullets which appeared from thin air.
'A devil fruit user' the thought crossed his mind.
After the gunfire ceased, Katakuri thrust his trident in your direction, brushing against your shoulder by an inch even if you disappeared only to reappear on the now bullet covered ship deck.
"I'm your opponent, not them." The sweet commander affirmed strictly as his hand recovered mogura, his stare sending pleasant chills up your spine.
"Don't worry, i didn't forget about you~" you responded fearlessly.
It's a miracle that the ship hasn't sunken with the amount of holes mogura left on deck, splintered wood flying everywhere and anywhere, causing the rest of the pirates to back off from the fight. But no matter how many times Katakuri attempted to stab you, you kept appearing and disappearing in a blink of an eye, to the point he was growing impatient and irritated. Not just because he couldn't catch you, but because you refused to fight yourself.
He felt like you were simply toying with him at this point. To open portals you need to perform specific hand gestures, so by the time you feel cramps in your hands, you knew you had to cut this fight short. "Oh, would you look at the time." You pretended to look at an invisible watch on your wrist "It was fun mochi, but I should get going now." You started walking backwards into one of your portals while facing him.
Angered and annoyed, Katatkuri didn't allow it. He stretched his mochi hand after you even though you dipped into the odd portal, he felt he grabbed onto something so he was quick to pull his hand out of your rabbit hole before it disappeared. But alas, he didn't grab you by the leg as he expected, instead opening his palm to see he grabbed a grenade. Reacting quickly and tossing it off deck to prevent any further damage on the ship.
"Katakuri-sama are you alright?" one of the subordinates asked him, noticing how the eldest Charlotte had a vein popping on his forehead, his eyes concealed by a looming shadow. Even though he technically didn't lose, the encounter with the thief left a bitter taste in his mouth.
There's no doubt this is gonna tater his perfect image.
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[Originally uploaded on: 19/May/20]
[Re-written: 15/Mar/21]