—Broadcast—
Jinbe, the Sea Knight displayed on the Sky Screen, proved himself a genuinely honorable man. He wanted to proactively sever all connections with the Big Mom Pirates, refusing to allow his presence to cause excessive bloodshed on Cake Island. As an outsider who'd only recently sworn brotherhood with Charlotte Linlin, he possessed no right to endanger her children and subordinates.
After filling the ceremonial sake cup with trembling hands, Jinbe raised it toward his lips to drink the wine of severance—the symbolic act that would formally dissolve their alliance. But unexpectedly, Charlotte Katakuri interrupted the fish-man before the liquid touched his tongue.
The Sweet Commander admired such kind-hearted individuals immensely, but he absolutely couldn't tolerate this evasive behavior. Allowing an outsider to sacrifice himself to spare them combat would bring unbearable shame to the Big Mom Pirates' reputation.
"Jinbe, please lower that cup and take back your sake of severance." Charlotte Katakuri's voice carried absolute conviction, his stance radiating unshakeable determination. "The situation hasn't deteriorated to such desperate extremes. Even a Marine Admiral cannot simply take you from Totto Land unopposed."
As the strongest Sweet Commander, if Charlotte Katakuri didn't stand up to defend his mother's dignity and territorial sovereignty, then his younger brothers and sisters would possess even less capability to do so. Protecting this family represented an older brother's fundamental responsibility—a red line the Marine absolutely could not cross without facing consequences.
"I've already summoned reinforcements from across the island," Charlotte Smoothie added, her confidence bolstered by fighting alongside her strongest brother. The prospect provided tremendous motivation for the female Sweet Commander. "Even if brother Katakuri and I cannot defeat the Admiral individually, we can certainly delay this fish-man long enough for Mother to intervene."
Unfortunately, she failed to recognize reality's harsh contours, her pride blinding her to the catastrophic disparity in power. She was about to involve far more innocent people in violence that served no strategic purpose.
It seemed negotiation had become impossible. Admiral Kisame's face twisted into an expression of profound impatience. He genuinely hadn't expected the Big Mom Pirates to display such catastrophic stupidity. Wouldn't simply handing over Jinbe allow both sides to conclude this matter quietly? Why did they insist on testing a powerful warrior's patience to its absolute limits? What force had granted these Sweet Commanders such delusional courage?
"Jinbe, don't blame me for the current situation." Kisame's voice dropped to a dangerous register, shark-like eyes narrowing with predatory focus. "These stubborn fools need to learn a harsh lesson about which force truly masters these seas."
Seeing that Hoshigaki Kisame had genuinely become angry, Jinbe desperately tried to intervene. The former Shichibukai wished he could dive into the ocean and swim to his kinsman immediately, placing his life directly into Kisame's hands to spare Cake Island from the approaching catastrophe. Unfortunately, he moved far too late—everything had already escalated beyond the point of peaceful resolution.
Admiral Kisame's hands rose before him, fingers forming the familiar sequence of seals with practiced precision. He intended to deploy large-scale water-based ninjutsu, creating the most advantageous battlefield possible for a fish-man combatant.
"Water Style: Water Prison Shark Dance Technique!"
The instant Kisame completed the final hand seal, massive quantities of seawater materialized around his body as though summoned from nonexistence. The liquid expanded continuously, forming a giant ellipsoidal prison that grew with terrifying speed. Within seconds, the water construct had completely engulfed everything in the immediate vicinity, transforming the coastal battlefield into an aquatic domain.
Charlotte Katakuri activated his advanced Observation Haki—the specialized ability allowing him to perceive the future itself—and sensed the catastrophe about to unfold. But by the time he wanted to save his sister, the opportunity had already vanished. The water prison's formation speed proved impossibly alarming, its expansion swallowing the battlefield faster than even precognition could counter.
The strongest Sweet Commander alone managed to escape the technique's area of effect through desperate use of his Mochi Mochi no Mi, stretching his body away from the water's grasp at the last possible instant. Jinbe and Charlotte Smoothie weren't nearly as fortunate—both became trapped within the massive water prison, suspended in the aquatic sphere like insects preserved in amber.
Jinbe was a fish-man who'd never consumed a Devil Fruit, retaining his species' natural ability to breathe through gills in aquatic environments. He opened his eyes beneath the water for the first time since the technique activated and immediately saw Charlotte Smoothie's desperate struggle. The woman had been completely immobilized by the seawater, her Devil Fruit powers stripped away by the ocean's natural suppression. She held her breath with visible strain, cheeks puffed out as her lungs screamed for oxygen. If someone didn't extract her from the water prison immediately, she would drown here within minutes.
But just as Jinbe began swimming toward Charlotte Smoothie's floating form, a bandaged sword emerged from the shadows like a predator striking from ambush. The blade left a deep wound across the fish-man's torso, and blood erupted from the gash, dyeing the water around the Sea Knight crimson.
"Why is my Haki and physical strength decreasing so rapidly?" Jinbe's mind raced with alarm as he recognized the symptoms. This relatively small wound should mean nothing to a fish-man under normal circumstances—his species possessed robust constitutions and rapid healing in aquatic environments. But the blade that struck him today proved fundamentally different from ordinary weapons. After being cut, he felt crucial energy draining from his body through the wound like water through a sieve, causing his swimming speed to decelerate noticeably.
"Jinbe, stop this pointless struggling and completely sever your connection to pirates." Kisame's voice echoed through the water with perfect clarity despite the aquatic medium, his words reaching the Sea Knight's ears as clearly as if spoken in open air. "Sooner or later, they will all be completely eradicated from these seas. Join the winning side while you still possess the choice."
The figure who'd attacked within the water prison was none other than Hoshigaki Kisame himself, the massive sword in his hands finally revealing its true form. The white bandages that previously concealed the blade's appearance had dissolved in the water, exposing what lay beneath.
The weapon proved bloated and grotesque—a dark blue blade covered entirely in vicious barbs that jutted from its surface like a predator's teeth. Upon closer inspection, the most disturbing detail became apparent: the sword actually possessed organic features. A mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth. A tongue that swayed slightly in the current. Eyes that tracked movement with predatory intelligence.
This wasn't merely a sword. This was a living creature shaped into a weapon.
The blade was called Samehada—Sharkskin. It served as Hoshigaki Kisame's most trusted combat partner, a symbiotic relationship spanning years of bloodshed. During battle, Samehada didn't simply cut and chop enemies. The creature could bore holes into opponents' flesh, actively absorbing their Haki and physical stamina through the wounds it created. Then it transferred that stolen energy to its wielder through the handle, providing constant replenishment.
In theory, this horrifying ability could transform Admiral Kisame into a perpetual motion machine of violence. He wouldn't feel fatigue even after fighting continuously for ten days or half a month—Samehada would simply drain enemies dry and feed their life force back to Kisame in an endless cycle of parasitic sustenance.
Charlotte Smoothie finally reached her limit within the water prison. The last reserves of air in her lungs depleted completely, her chest burning with the desperate need to breathe. The woman who could no longer suppress her body's reflexive response involuntarily gasped, and seawater rushed into her mouth and down her windpipe. She experienced the unique agony of drowning—the suffocating panic, the burning in her chest, the instinctive terror as her body fought for oxygen that wouldn't come.
After receiving Kisame's warning, Jinbe still didn't stop his rescue attempt. He continued swimming toward Charlotte Smoothie's position with single-minded determination, ignoring the blood streaming from his wound and the weakness spreading through his limbs. For this stubborn individual who refused to accept the offered mercy, Admiral Kisame chose not to continue attacking with Samehada.
Instead, he kicked Jinbe directly in the chest with devastating force.
Kisame held absolutely nothing back in the strike. The impact to Jinbe's sternum generated enough kinetic energy to shatter at least several ribs, possibly more. The fish-man curled around the pain radiating from his chest cavity, his attempted rescue of Charlotte Smoothie rendered completely futile as the kick sent him rocketing through the water toward the opposite side of the prison sphere.
Charlotte Katakuri watched helplessly from outside the water prison, unable to intervene. As a Devil Fruit user, he absolutely couldn't risk entering the Marine Admiral's chosen battlefield. He understood with crystalline certainty that even if he dove into the water prison, he'd accomplish nothing except handing his own life to the enemy. The price of reckless heroism would be dying alongside his sister rather than saving her.
At this most critical moment—balanced on the knife's edge between life and death—an elderly woman who resembled a fairytale witch joined the battlefield. She carried a transparent mirror in her gnarled hands, the reflective surface gleaming with supernatural light. The mirror swept across everyone present in a single fluid motion, marking each participant with invisible targeting.
The strange and terrifying mirror world erupted into existence, dragging Hoshigaki Kisame, Jinbe, Charlotte Katakuri, and the drowning Charlotte Smoothie into an alternate dimension through the reflective surface.
The water prison formed by the Water Style: Water Prison Shark Dance Technique didn't accompany the combatants into the mirror world. Because the caster had departed from normal space and entered the different dimension contained within the mirror realm, the technique lost its connection to Kisame's chakra supply. The massive sphere of suspended seawater transformed back into ordinary ocean and merged with the surrounding sea, dissipating as though it had never existed.
When everyone opened their eyes again, the environment surrounding them had transformed completely. Countless mirrors stood erected in impossible configurations—floating in the sky, embedded in the ground, suspended at strange angles that defied gravity. Space and time appeared visibly distorted, reality bending around the reflective surfaces in ways that made depth perception meaningless.
Such a bizarre environment immediately put Kisame on high alert. His shark-like eyes tracked the mirrors warily, analyzing potential threats and tactical disadvantages. Any battlefield he didn't fully understand represented dangerous terrain.
Charlotte Smoothie collapsed beside her family members, coughing violently as she expelled seawater from her trachea and lungs. The experience of drowning within the water prison had proven agonizing beyond description for someone unaccustomed to such helplessness. She'd genuinely believed death was imminent during those terrible seconds when her lungs filled with liquid and darkness closed in around her consciousness.
"I almost thought I was going to die," she gasped between coughing fits, her voice raw and shaking. "Thank you, Brûlée. Thank you for saving me."
"I'm just relieved you're all unharmed," the elderly woman replied, her scarred face creasing with genuine relief despite her witch-like appearance. "The mirror world is our home territory. Here, we possess every advantage."
Although Charlotte Brûlée appeared as an ugly woman bearing a prominent facial scar from childhood trauma, she remained Charlotte Katakuri's most beloved sister. When her brother faced mortal danger, his sister had rushed to the rescue without hesitation or concern for personal safety. Their bond transcended the typical sibling relationships that characterized the Charlotte family—this represented genuine love rather than mere familial obligation.
The seriously injured Jinbe was helped to his feet by Charlotte Katakuri, the strongest Sweet Commander supporting his weight as they moved toward a relatively safe corner of the mirror dimension. The former Shichibukai clutched his broken ribs with one arm, blood still seeping from Samehada's wound. He would play no further role in the coming battle—his condition had deteriorated too severely.
Charlotte Katakuri turned to face Hoshigaki Kisame, his expression grim with determination. In this mirror world, perhaps they actually stood a fighting chance.
But Kisame simply smiled, revealing rows of shark-like teeth that promised nothing but violence.
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