"You... also came in?" Katakuri looked at Luffy standing opposite him, slightly surprised.
"Haha, of course! This is a fight between the two of us!" Luffy replied, having already deactivated his previous form to let his body recover.
Though his stamina duration in Fourth Gear had drastically scaled up over time, he understood that the monster standing before him wasn't an enemy he could systematically dismantle using Fourth Gear alone. He needed to evolve. He needed to get stronger.
In the back of his mind, the parting words Drake had drilled into his consciousness kept repeating in a continuous loop:
"Luffy, keep one thing in mind. If you want to defeat a freak who can process the future, your movements must be entirely fluid, and you must learn to see the future yourself. I'm leaving him in your hands; I hold zero doubts that you can achieve it!"
"Oh, and there's one more asset I should probably introduce to your calculations: actually... Conqueror's Haki can also be infused!"
"Go. The moment you secure your victory, I'll be there to extract you."
Directly following that data input, the spatial matrix had shifted, and he had materialized here.
"Conqueror's... can also be infused..." Murmuring the phrase softly beneath his breath, the grin on Luffy's face grew blindingly bright.
To defeat a monster who can process the future, I must learn to see the future myself, eh...?
Then let the battle commence!
"You actually intend to trade blows with me!?" Katakuri asked, his sharp gaze locking onto Luffy as he evaluated his parameters seriously. "Your current metrics are insufficient. Every single one of my baseline attributes completely eclipses yours. Furthermore... your strikes stand zero mathematical probability of making contact with my frame."
"A variable like that—how the hell am I supposed to know unless I try!?" Luffy countered, entirely unfazed by the assessment as he threw his frame forward.
He snapped his right arm back. "Second Gear!"
WHOOSH! In a fraction of a millisecond, his silhouette evaporated from his coordinates, blitzing straight toward Katakuri's flank. "Gum-Gum Jet Pistol!"
BANG! Katakuri casually raised a single hand to block the high-velocity strike, simultaneously driving a heavy counter-punch forward.
The assault vector was too blindingly fast for Luffy's sub-second reaction speeds to handle. Left with no clearance to execute a dodge, he hastily crossed his arms to buffer the impact.
Yet, the raw kinetic force still blasted him backward through the air.
BOOM!
His frame slammed heavily into the distant structure, shattering a massive array of mirrors into fine dust.
"You are fundamentally outmatched. Without utilizing your previous advanced transformation, your probability of success drops to absolute zero," Katakuri spoke calmly, his voice flat.
However, a dense layer of confusion remained lodged in his thoughts. He still hadn't processed the exact mechanics of how the two of them had entered this independent space. Although Pudding had been operating in his immediate vicinity on the outside, there hadn't been a single mirror within their structural quadrant capable of facilitating an entry into the Mirro-World. Even his predictive Observation Haki had returned a complete blank regarding the transit vector.
This anomalous variable left a lingering knot of unease in his chest.
Furthermore, the sheer pressure Drake exerted on his instincts was terrifying. He held a private calculation that if he had been the one tasked with intercepting Drake, his defensive line wouldn't have sustained the pressure for long.
The data verified his hypothesis perfectly; his calculations were entirely sound. His legendary, top-tier predictive Haki carried absolute zero utility when mapped against Drake's combat parameters.
Because Drake's teleportation velocity was simply too instantaneous. Even if Katakuri successfully processed a future snapshot of Drake's trajectory, his physical frame lacked the baseline acceleration required to mount a reaction.
That was the absolute disparity in their metrics.
The solitary reason the Emperors of the Sea could engage Drake on relatively equal terms was that their baseline combat velocity was exceptionally high. Though their speed didn't map perfectly to Drake's instantaneous displacement, their ultimate defensive parameters and reaction thresholds occupied the absolute peak of the monster tier.
To a master of space like Drake, anyone operating below the Yonko threshold wasn't an entity capable of surviving a single serious exchange. Because the moment he launched an offensive, he possessed the leverage to permanently terminate their life signs!
If Katakuri were to engage in a sustained duel against Vale D. Drake, the exact microsecond he allowed a structural opening to manifest in his perimeter, a single flash of Canhong would result in his immediate decapitation!
This wasn't hyperbole; this was a precise calculation of Drake's current tier of lethality.
"Cough, cough..." Luffy dragged himself out from the debris, his unwavering gaze locking right back onto Katakuri's position.
If he could successfully re-calibrate his senses to process the immediate future, his probability of victory would shift from zero to a statistical reality!
Casting a brief glance at the faint strands of dark crimson lightning beginning to arc across his knuckles, Luffy's lips curled into a sharp grin.
He had cracked the underlying theory behind the advanced application of Conqueror's Haki. Utilizing this force would undeniably provide the offensive output necessary to shatter Katakuri's defenses—assuming he could actually make contact with the target. Otherwise, the payload carried zero baseline utility.
I have to see the future!
Luffy took a deep, deliberate breath, focusing one hundred percent of his cognitive energy onto tracking every micro-movement of Katakuri's frame.
"Why have you halted your offensive? Have your spirit parameters broken down?" Katakuri asked.
"Hmph! Until I systematically take you down, I'm not leaving this space!"
Though his words carried a roaring heat, Luffy didn't launch a reckless attack. He maintained his focus, keeping his senses entirely locked onto Katakuri's form.
"Since you refuse to bridge the distance, I shall initiate the vector!" Katakuri materialized in front of Luffy's coordinates in a flash, the Mogura swinging through a sweeping horizontal arc to cleave him in half.
Luffy's pupils shrank. Moving on pure reaction speed, he tilted his head back to dodge the steel. But Katakuri's predictive Haki had already processed the micro-adjustment; he smoothly shifted his weight and drove a heavy heel straight into Luffy's midsection.
BOOM!
Without a shred of surprise, Luffy was blasted backward through the air once more.
As his strike connected, a wave of strategic anxiety rippled through Katakuri's mind. If he couldn't rapidly liquidate this target and map his coordinates back to the physical chateau, there was zero guarantee his family's sovereign territory wouldn't be permanently compromised.
Under standard parameters, with Mama anchoring the grid, Katakuri would hold zero anxieties regarding the defense of their domain.
But the exact microsecond he locked eyes with Drake, his confidence had shattered. Especially after watching Perospero get his arm cleanly sliced off in a casual, effortless exchange.
In that localized microsecond, his predictive Haki had carried zero operational utility. Because the exact instant his brain processed the future snapshot of the severed arm, the physical limb had already been disconnected from the frame.
It wasn't a calculation latency in his Haki; it was a baseline velocity deficit against Drake's execution speed!
BOOM!
"Dah!" Luffy violently threw a mass of heavy stone debris off his chest, a sharp stream of air escaping his nostrils. "Hmph!"
"Again!"
Staring at the rising Luffy, Katakuri's expression turned remarkably grave. He hadn't applied any internal restraint to his previous strike. Yet, the rookie was pushing himself back to his feet as if his structural integrity hadn't sustained a single point of critical damage.
This...
In that exact microsecond, he fully processed the underlying motivation behind Drake's parting words. This independent space was a specialized duel engineered explicitly for the two of them. A combat grid where outside variables were completely prohibited from interfering!
Drake wanted Luffy to evolve, but more than that, he held absolute, unwavering confidence that Luffy possessed the leverage to break through Katakuri's myth.
The realization stripped Katakuri of his calm composure. This conflict was an immutable mathematical necessity.
But how the hell did he drag us through the reflective threshold without utilizing Brûlée's coordinates? Although the query remained unanswered, he understood that dwelling on the mechanics carried zero baseline utility right now.
He could officially confirm one variable: their presence within this dimension was entirely a product of Drake's spatial architecture, completely independent of Brûlée's Devil Fruit loops.
"Come then! Let us verify exactly what brand of unearned confidence prompts your brotherhood to calculate that a rookie like you can dismantle my myth!" Katakuri roared, charging straight back into Luffy's sector.
"Bring it on!" Luffy bellowed, his forearms darkening as he swung to meet the advance.
The Physical Sector (Outside)
"Niisan! Brother Katakuri!" Brûlée stared at the empty space where Katakuri and Luffy had been standing just a moment ago, her face a mask of complete, paralyzed bewilderment.
The two combatants had literally evaporated from the grid without a single trace of spatial resonance. How was this possible?
"Huh!?" Inside the stone fortress of Big Father, the members of the Straw Hat Pirates and the Fire Tank Pirates were equally struck with alarm.
"Luffy!?" Chopper's big eyes immediately welled with tears.
"This... where the hell did Luffy's signature go?" Sanji's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
"Luffy!!" Nami screamed at the empty air.
"Save your breath, Nami! Luffy has engaged his designated target in a private duel; I've already shifted their coordinates to a secure combat grid," Drake's voice suddenly boomed across the entire summit, cutting through the panic. "All units of the joint alliance, focus entirely on your extraction protocol! Leave the rearguard vectors to Kenshin and me!"
"We'll be linking up with your coordinates shortly. Move out!" Having delivered the final directive, Vale D. Drake gripped his sword tightly and launched his frame straight back into the heart of the enemy army.
To be completely honest... the thrill of this high-intensity combat was beginning to thoroughly hook his instincts!
"Eh?" Hearing Drake's authoritative command, Nami and her companions froze in surprise.
Sanji cast a long, calculating glance toward Drake's silhouette as he traded blows with the vanguard. Though this marked his absolute first encounter with the spatial captain, he harbored zero internal doubts regarding the validity of the man's words.
Because he was Luffy's older brother!