Chapter 690: Ian's Two-Sword Style
To be honest, when Smoothie first opened her mouth to curse her, Reiju was stunned for a second.
Although she had sensed Smoothie's hostility before, she had no idea where it came from.
But Reiju was no weak woman, so snapping back to her senses in an instant, she immediately kicked out sideways at the sword Smoothie was swinging toward her!
With a bang, the jet shoes on Reiju's feet carried immense force, deflecting Smoothie's sword to the side, and it struck the ground instead.
Seeing her attack fail, Smoothie immediately reached out to grab Reiju. Her body was enormous, making Reiju look like a doll in comparison.
But with her battle suit on, how could Reiju be caught so easily? Before she even retracted her right leg, her jet shoes activated again, and with an agility impossible for ordinary people, she performed a backflip in midair, dodging Smoothie's hand.
At that moment, Gaji nearby snapped out of his shock and quickly said to Smoothie, "Miss Smoothie, don't fight! Let's talk this out! The Vinsmoke Family is not your enemy!"
His shout distracted Smoothie, but Reiju remained focused. Hovering in midair, she suddenly charged straight forward and punched Smoothie hard in the face, sending her flying.
"You...!" Gaji stared at Reiju in disbelief, then stomped his foot in fury. "Reiju! What the hell are you doing?!"
"It's useless, Father!" Reiju said, hovering in midair. "The Big Mom Pirates have never had good intentions toward us Germa. I sensed their hostility during the wedding, and didn't you hear what Katakuri said just now?!"
"But... but that was all a misunderstanding!" Gaji gritted his teeth.
"Even if it's a misunderstanding, do you think they'll listen to your explanation?" Reiju said, pointing behind Gaji.
Gaji turned his head and saw Charlotte Amande, the cigarette-smoking Ghost Lady, already charging forward, apparently planning to support Smoothie.
In that instant, Gaji finally realized there was no turning back. The Big Mom Pirates truly regarded the Vinsmoke Family as enemies...
"Damn it!" Charlotte Amande's first target was Ichiji, but since they had come for the wedding, Ichiji wasn't wearing his Germa battle suit. Facing Amande's swinging sword, he could only jump back to dodge, and asked Gaji angrily, "Father! What the hell do we do?! Give us a straight answer!"
Gaji looked at Reiju, who was once again locked in battle with Smoothie, and then at Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji, who were being forced to dodge everywhere. He knew he had to make a choice.
So he grabbed Caesar, who was trying to sneak away, and shouted at him, "Caesar, you're fast! Go to our room and get our battle suits! They're on the cabinet next to the bedroom—four suitcases: red, yellow, blue, and green!"
Even if he didn't want to fight the Big Mom Pirates, Gaji wasn't about to die here.
Caesar screamed and struggled, "I'm not going!"
"Bastard!" Gaji roared. "Do you think you can escape far? Even if you run now, if the Big Mom Pirates win this fight, you'll still be hunted down in the end! Do as I say, and you might have a chance!"
"Fine... fine, I'll go!" Caesar said with a grimace. It seemed Gaji's mention of being hunted by the Big Mom Pirates had truly scared him.
Turning into a wisp of green smoke, Caesar drifted toward the castle to find Gaji and the others' battle suits.
As for Gaji and Ichiji, they had no choice but to join forces to surround Amande...
The Vinsmoke Family was in this mess, and the underworld big shots like Ferud weren't faring much better. Oven and Daifuku were chasing them down, forcing them to resist as well. While these big shots might not have high combat prowess, they always had ways to survive. In the underworld, if you were truly helpless, you'd just be handing yourself over to be killed.
However, whether it was these underworld big shots or the Vinsmoke Family, they had managed to draw a few of the Big Mom Pirates' senior officers away from Ian. So when Katakuri led his remaining brothers and sisters to face Ian and his Dragon Hunter Pirates, the two sides seemed evenly matched...
"Ian, it's not too late to back off now!" Katakuri said, his arms hanging at his sides but his fists clenched tightly, his face dark and gloomy. "Take Capone Bege and get off Whole Cake Island, and I'll pretend this never happened!"
Ian chuckled, resting the tip of his Thousand Cherry Blossoms blade on the ground in front of him. "Feeling guilty? Why else would you say something like that? But yesterday, when I wanted to leave, you wouldn't let me. Now I don't want to leave, and you're telling me to go. What exactly do you want?"
Faced with Ian's mockery, Katakuri could only let out a long sigh. "Then there's nothing to talk about! Come on, let me show you that the Big Mom Pirates aren't so easy to defeat!"
Ian smiled and shouted, "Let's go!" then vanished from his spot in an instant!
Katakuri's eyes narrowed, and he immediately punched forward!
Boom! His fist collided with Ian's blade. The powerful hardening of Armament Haki gave his fist the ability to face a weapon head-on. The clash between the two erupted in a powerful shockwave, blowing everyone nearby away!
Looking at Ian, whose entire body was blazing with golden aura, Katakuri began to match his strength. Veins bulged all over his arm, and the same was true for Ian.
When he realized neither could overpower the other, Katakuri's other arm suddenly stretched out, striking at Ian's abdomen from below!
"Power Mochi!"
Facing Ian, Katakuri dared not be careless and went all out. However, just as he threw his punch, a sudden burst of flame rose from his feet.
"Flame Descent!"
Ian concentrated all his Armament Haki on his abdomen to defend against Katakuri's attack while simultaneously launching a surprise strike.
Bang! Ian was sent flying by Katakuri's punch, but Katakuri was also hit by Ian's lightning-fast flame. His entire body caught fire, and he let out a scream, quickly shaking off the charred mochi from his body.
Ian drove his Thousand Cherry Blossoms blade into the ground to increase resistance and stop his slide, then kicked off again, charging at Katakuri at supersonic speed.
He knew well that the way to counter Katakuri's Observation Haki was to match him in speed. Even if Katakuri could "see" fragments of the future, as long as Ian was faster, he wouldn't be able to react in time!
In an instant, Ian was in front of Katakuri, thrusting his blade at Katakuri's throat. At this extreme speed, Katakuri knew he couldn't turn into mochi in time to dodge, so he could only twist his head desperately to avoid it. However, along with Ian's thrust came a crackling bolt of powerful lightning! Katakuri narrowly avoided the blade's edge but was grazed by the surging electricity!
The powerful current flowed through his entire body, causing him to freeze for a moment.
Seizing the opportunity, Ian suddenly freed one hand and thrust it straight into Katakuri's chest!
When he pulled it out, Ian was holding a tenth of Katakuri's soul in his hand. Katakuri reached out in panic to snatch it back, but Ian crushed the soul light in his hand the moment it left Katakuri's chest!
Pfft! Katakuri immediately spat out a mouthful of blood!
If he could still rely on his tough body to resist Ian's flames and lightning, then against this soul-grabbing move, he was completely helpless!
Their exchange had lasted only a dozen seconds, but in that short time, Ian had already severely wounded Katakuri!
As Katakuri staggered back two steps, clutching his chest to steady himself, he realized that Ian had suddenly stopped.
Ian stood not far away, first sheathing his Thousand Cherry Blossoms blade, hanging it at his waist, then smiled slightly. "Sorry, Katakuri. Your Big Mom Pirates have too many officers, so I had to finish this quickly!"
Before Katakuri could respond, he saw Ian suddenly clasp his hands together and then slowly pull them apart.
At the same time, Katakuri watched in astonishment as a sword he had never seen before materialized out of thin air between Ian's parting hands!
This new sword was completely different from the Thousand Cherry Blossoms Ian had been holding. The hilt of Thousand Cherry Blossoms was pink, while the hilt of this new sword was a deep green.
Ian hung both swords at his waist, then slowly drew them out, one in each hand.
Holding the two swords, Ian smiled at the stunned Katakuri. "Well, let me explain. The one in my left hand, with the pink hilt, is called Thousand Cherry Blossoms. And the one in my right hand, with the green hilt, is something I recently acquired. Its name... is Black Wing Great Demon!"
"So now, you're facing a two-sword style opponent!"