Rejecting the Mochi-Mochi Fruit, Katakuri Wants to Become a Dragon

Refusing the Mochi-Mochi Fruit, Katakuri Wants to Transform into a Dragon

Linlin strode heavily into the newly built stone house.

A strong scent of caramel instantly filled the cramped space. The scent was cloyingly sweet, even overpowering the salty stench of the sea.

She stood before the iron cradle.

In her hand, she pinched that pale yellow fruit which a maid had already sliced open. The pulp was covered in eerie spiral patterns, and the skin was still oozing viscous juice.

A Paramecia, the Mochi-Mochi Fruit.

"Eat it, Katakuri." Linlin's thick fingers pinched a piece of fruit pulp, shoving it straight toward the mouth of the sleeping infant in the cradle.

This was good stuff that she had gone to great pains to get.

Katakuri was startled awake by the commotion, instinctively opening his mouth. Two rows of sharp teeth that had yet to fully grow were exposed.

Just as the fruit pulp was about to touch the infant's lips.

A black shadow suddenly flashed under the scorching sun outside the door. A gust of hurried wind tore through the caramel scent inside the house.

Three-year-old Rektol, like a solid cannonball fresh from the barrel, charged directly in from outside the door.

He leaped high, leveraging the momentum of a short-distance sprint. His right leg was pulled taut straight, his knee generating a brief sound of air friction in midair.

"Bang!"

Rektol kicked squarely against Linlin's thick wrist.

His strength was shockingly great. Linlin had not defended against it at all, her wrist jerking fiercely to the side.

That sliced piece of the Mochi-Mochi Fruit flew out of her hand, tracing a yellow parabola in midair.

With a dull thud.

The fruit smashed viciously against the hard stone wall, instantly turning into a clump of sticky mush as it hit.

Rektol failed to land steadily. A three-year-old child's legs were somewhat short after all, and the soles of his shoes slipped against the rough stone slabs.

He staggered a bit, sitting down hard onto the dust-filled floor.

Yet this did not affect his imposing aura in the slightest.

Rektol scrambled up in one fluid motion, dusted off the dirt on his pants, and pointed at the mush on the wall, roaring, "Even a dog wouldn't eat this trash of a fruit!"

The stone house instantly plunged into a dead silence.

In the corner, the maid holding a basin of water opened her mouth wide, her hand trembling as the bronze basin crashed onto the top of her foot. She did not even dare to let out a miserable scream, tightly covering her own mouth.

On the wall, the juice of the Mochi-Mochi Fruit dripped down the gaps in the stones.

One drop. Two drops.

Linlin maintained her feeding posture. That huge mouth smeared with cheap lipstick closed bit by bit.

The muscles on her cheeks began to twitch violently, emitting a teeth-grating sound of friction.

"Rektol..."

Linlin's voice sounded as though it were being forcefully dragged through a rusted bellows, "You brat, do you know what you're doing?"

She snapped her head around. Her eyes instantly became bloodshot with a dark red, resembling an enraged mother bear interrupted while feeding.

"That's a Paramecia! The Mochi-Mochi Fruit!"

Linlin slammed a hand down onto the stone table beside her.

The two-inch-thick granite tabletop shattered in response. Shards of rock spattered everywhere like bullets, pockmarking the walls.

"I killed the leaders of three pirate crews and chewed up their bones just to snatch that back from the black market deep in the New World!"

She stepped forward, her massive shadow enveloping the entirety of Rektol.

"And you kicked it to pieces with a single kick!"

A violent wave of air gushed out from her body. The maid was blown directly airborne, the back of her head striking the doorframe before she passed out with her eyes rolling back.

Rektol stood in place.

Facing Linlin's materialized pressure that could practically kill, he did not even blink his eyes.

A sound akin to battle drums resonated from deep within his chest cavity.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Three hearts simultaneously entered an overloaded pumping state. Scorching blood flow surged wildly through his blood vessels to wash over his entire body, and his skin rapidly took on a layer of dark red steam.

A primordial, tyrannical aura exploded outward with his three-year-old body at the center.

This was not the ability of a Devil Fruit. It was simply the terrifying might produced after his Godly Mutant Physique compressed physical strength to its absolute limit.

It faintly carried a trace of an unformed Conqueror's Haki Prototype.

The air in the stone house instantly grew as viscous as glue.

The torch on the wall went "sizzling", its flame compressed down to the size of a mere soybean as it flickered uncertainly.

The solid iron bars of the cradle emitted an unbearable creaking sound, actually beginning to bend and deform inward.

Linlin's breathing hitched momentarily, battered by this suddenly erupted aura.

She instinctively took half a step back. Her large sole crushed the scattered stones, grinding them into powder.

She looked at her eldest son with eyes full of shock.

This brat's power had multiplied countless times compared to when he was just born in the ship's cabin three years ago. He was simply a completely unreasonable monster.

Rektol raised a short, thick finger, reaching past Linlin and pointing straight at Katakuri in the cradle.

So what if it's Paramecia? Mochi? That soft, mushy stuff that shatters at a pinch isn't worthy of him!

Rektol's voice was not loud, but every word hammered against Linlin's eardrums, making her ears buzz.

My younger brother is a man who will become the right hand of a Four Emperor in the future.

He is going to possess the most unresolvable defense and the most tyrannical destructive power on this sea. He's going to trample all those self-righteous trash under his feet!

Rektol pushed forward a step, raised his head, and stared fixedly at Linlin's bloodshot eyes.

Mere mochi, how could it be worthy? I am going to make him transform into a dragon!

Transform into a dragon.

These four words struck Linlin's forehead like a heavy hammer. She was completely stunned.

Her rage was forcibly and abruptly cut off.

She naturally knew the legends of the sea, and she also knew what these four words represented.

Zoan, Mythical Zoan, Fish-Fish Fruit: Azure Dragon Form.

That was the admission ticket hailed as the strongest creature. It was an invaluable treasure that Rocks had always wanted to get his hands on, and for which he was even willing to plot a world-shaking battle to snatch.

"You've lost your mind..." Linlin's chest heaved violently as she took heavy, ragged breaths. "That devil fruit hasn't even truly appeared yet. Even if it appears, Rocks will absolutely never let anyone else have it! With your current strength, going to snatch it is courting death."

"That's my business. What the hell is that Rocks anyway?" Rektol tilted his head and spat a mouthful of saliva onto the ground.

In the cradle, Katakuri had long since become fully alert.

He did not cry in fright from the tense atmosphere in the room like an ordinary baby.

Amidst the blast wave from just now that had nearly blown the roof off, he gripped the already bent iron bars tightly, barely managing to stand straight in the cradle.

The corners of Katakuri's mouth split outward from the exertion, revealing his trademark sharp fangs.

He opened his round, wide eyes, looking straight at the older brother shielding him.

That back, which wasn't tall and had even fallen flat on its butt upon landing just moments ago, looked like an insurmountable iron fortress in his eyes right now.

An inexplicable surge of warmth churned within the infant's tender chest.

The seed of admiration frantically took root, sprouted, and drove deep into Katakuri's bones and blood at the bottom of his heart.

He cooed twice, laboriously extending his short, small arms toward Rektol, as if responding to that statement of transforming into a dragon.

Looking at the second son's reaction, and then at the arrogant eldest son.

Linlin gritted her teeth, forcefully suppressing the shock in her heart. She knew Rektol was a madman who meant what he said.

She put away her violent aura and sat heavily onto the sole remaining wide-backed wooden chair. The chair let out a dangerous groan.

"Fine. The Azure Dragon Fruit. I'd like to see how you plan to snatch it from Rocks's hands."

Linlin reached up and wiped the sweat from her face.

She narrowed her eyes, looked Rektol up and down, and suddenly retorted, "Since you look down on the Mochi-Mochi Fruit, what about these past three years?"

"I found so many good devil fruits for you, and you threw them all away. You stubbornly refused to eat them, what on earth were you waiting for?"

Rektol did not look at Linlin.

He turned his head, his eyes covered by a faint layer of blue light. The All-Knowing Eye activated instantly.

His vision pierced through the stone house's walls, crossed the coastline of the headquarters, and stabbed straight into the distant horizon.

The originally clear sky was darkening at an eerie speed. Thick, ink-like thunderclouds rolled and gathered frantically at the end of the sea horizon.

The humidity in the air was dropping precipitously, replaced by scalp-tingling static electricity.

Rektol looked at the thunderclouds outside the window. The beating rhythm of his three hearts gradually synchronized with the storm brewing in the clouds.

He clenched his fists, feeling the sweat oozing from his palms.

"What I've been waiting for has arrived."