There comes a time in a man's life when he has to make a tough choice. Today was one of those days for Katakuri.
The choice in question for the Charlotte family's second son was between getting his ass handed to him by a woman a fraction of his size in front of a crowd of his family members and notable figures of the underworld, or pretending that he didn't notice her and focusing on something that he can actually change.
As for why he had suddenly lost confidence in defeating Cherry?
Well, she was currently manhandling Daifuku's genie. Whilst the genie wasn't as powerful as Katakuri himself, it was supposed to be unkillable and the main weakness of it was Daifuku himself, as his devil fruit didn't enhance his actual body in any way and he had to continuously rub his belly to maintain the genie.
*snap*
Cherry snapped the genie's neck for the fourth time, causing it to dissipate and re-emerge from Daifuku's belly. His younger brother was sweating bullets and his breathing was labored, suggesting that a previously unknown weakness of his devil fruit was that his own stamina would be sapped each time he had to revive the genie, something he'd never had to do before.
Cherry, meanwhile, seemed to be having a grand old time. She smiled and laughed and danced around, taking great joy in the act of murdering a pseudo-living creature over and over again. She made no attempts to capitalize on the opening left each time Daifuku had to reconstitute his genie.
The genie itself just seemed perplexed, rather than afraid or disturbed. It possessed a form of intangibility that couldn't be bypassed with armament haki like logia fruits could, so the fact that this random woman was able to do just that was a new experience for it as well.
Katakuri didn't want to deal with that right now. Instead he focused on Straw Hat, or rather on his many doppelgangers. He recognised it as his sister's technique, so he also knew there would be no distinguishing between them unless Luffy revealed himself. Why did there have to be so many variables?! It made it so much more difficult to predict the future.
"Which one is the real Straw Hat?! Reveal yourself!" Big Mom shouted in a rage, fully intent on killing him.
'He isn't just going to out himself…' Katakuri thought.
"It's me!" Luffy casually revealed himself, almost causing Katakuri to plant his face into his palms from second hand embarrassment. He heard Cherry cackle and say, "What was the point of the copies then?! Hehehe!!!"
Now that Katakuri knew which one was the real one, it quickly became clear what he was after, though he could scarcely believe it. Straw Hat Luffy was beelining for the picture of Mother Caramel.
Katakuri lifted his leg in preparation for a brutal front kick that would smash into Luffy's side and send him flying away from the picture, only for his eyes to flash and force him to dodge instead as a drill-headed spear ripped through the air where he had been standing a moment before.
"Uh uh uh~!" Cherry chimed, catching the spear with one hand and a lightning bolt turned sword in the other. "You can play with my captain later if you like, Kitty Kat, but he's got work to do before that~!"
Luffy nearly made it to the picture of Mother Caramel before he got tackled by a shirtless man with a fiery orange hairstyle shaped like an anchor.
"Ah-tatatatata?!" Luffy yelped as the man, Charlotte Oven, began to steam.
"You aren't going anywhere, Straw Hat!" Oven shouted as he wrestled with Luffy.
*Sploosh!*
Oven and Luffy got soaked in tea as Jinbe leapt to Luffy's rescue, immediately cooling Oven down.
Big Mom loomed over them both now, however, putting them into an incredibly dire predicament. "Straw Hat! You'll pay for destroying MY wedding cake!"
"Your cake? It's Sanji's wedding, not yours! That means it's his cake!" Luffy got pointlessly defensive.
Cherry's laugh was over the noise again. She clocked Daifuku hard on the jaw, rattling his brain in his skull into unconsciousness. A swing of her sword sent a buzzing slash hurtling straight into Big Mom's undefended buttocks.
Big Mom barely reacted to the attack, merely turning her gaze to Cherry briefly and saying, "I'll deal with YOU shortly!"
This was enough time for Luffy and Jinbe to get the hell out of dodge, though. Or rather, it was enough for Jinbe to scoop Luffy up and run away whilst carrying him, since it was iffy whether Luffy would actually run away from a direct confrontation with Big Mom.
Before Big Mom could give chase…
*crunch*
The sound of glass breaking, though not very loud by any means, was somehow heard over the din of the chaotic fighting. Brook stripped off a cartoonish mask in the guise of Luffy as he stood over the now broken picture of Mother Caramel.
"Oopsie~! Yohohohoho~!" Brook laughed to himself.
The entire venue went quiet, even the Luffy-animals stopped to see what everyone was staring in horror at.
Big Mom was the last to notice. Oven tried to distract her to no avail as she turned to see the shattered picture frame.
Bege and his men prepared themselves to act, putting their earplugs in and readying their needle bazookas.
Cherry disappeared without a trace in the brief moment that Katakuri had stopped keeping one eye on her, causing him to curse.
Big Mom's eyes started to swirl in confusion and agitation, then the violence kicked into full gear once again. The Charlotte family quickly tried to put down the interlopers before their mother's wail could happen and incapacitated them for a short period.
Sanji charged for the table that the Vinsmokes were sitting at, with Pudding hot on his heels with a pistol that she had hidden beneath her dress.
Meanwhile, the Vinsmokes had gotten themselves trapped in hard candy courtesy of Perospero. Other Charlotte Siblings stood behind each one, armed with a pistol and specialized candy jacket rounds to pierce through their augmented skin.
Judge was blubbering like a baby, his sons were finding some small amusement in the fact that they had gotten so thoroughly fooled, and Reiju awaited her death calmly and wished for Sanji's safety.
…
"Hey, Brulee. Are you ready to go?" Cherry asked from inside the ruins of the cake where the mirror was hidden.
"Why even bother asking?" Brulee grumbled.
"Hey now, I care about your feelings!" Cherry argued.
"I feel like I want to be released," Brulee said.
"I acknowledge your feelings and I'm sorry that you'll have to wait a bit," Cherry said shamelessly. "Now, into the pocket you go. I don't think this cake mirror will survive the scream, so I'll keep you and the escape mirror tucked away until afterwards."
Cherry pulled Brulee out of the cake mirror and stuffed her into her pocket, which she had confirmed had some air inside, just not enough for someone who needs to breathe to stay alive for more than maybe half an hour.
Brulee did put up a small resistance despite knowing it was useless and was tucked away safe and sound.
Cherry briefly wondered whether the scream was even coming though. Bege had said that it only took Big Mom three seconds to go into her hysterics, and they were pushing five seconds now. Surely Bege wasn't so inept as to not even get that far?