36th Daughter of the Charlotte Family - Flampe

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In the mirror world, Luffy is still reeling from Katakuri's brutal spear attack. Katakuri looks at him and asks, "What's with that pitiful look!?" Luffy struggles through the pain with "Ugh!!" as the blow sends him crashing and screaming, "Uwaaaaa ahhhhh!!!" The mirrors around them bend and shake from the impact while Flampe and her subordinates watch from hiding. Katakuri's face tightens as he studies the result. He can tell something is wrong with the rhythm of the duel, while Flampe giggles with satisfaction over the interference she thinks will make her beloved big brother look perfect.

Katakuri keeps attacking, but his confidence is shaken by the way the hit landed. He drives Luffy down again and shouts, "Losing your footing...!!!" Luffy is thrown across the broken floor, while Flampe laughs, "Kyahaha haha...!!" Katakuri thinks back over the sequence and realizes the truth: "Big brother... to tell you the truth, even back then... I was a totally thoughtful and well-behaved girl!" Flampe imagines herself being praised, but Katakuri's focus has already shifted. The moment when Luffy lost his footing was not a clean opening; it was a mistake created by outside interference.

Katakuri remembers the exact instant when his attention slipped. He thinks, "That one moment of carelessness...!! Will be the deciding factor in this match!!!" Luffy lies on the ground, and Katakuri demands, "Why did you lose your focus...!?" As he watches Luffy move, Katakuri notices the tiny sign of a needle and the way Luffy's body reacts. Flampe, still hidden, delights in the chaos as another projectile flies. Katakuri's face hardens. He sees that Luffy's fall was not simply fatigue or weakness, and the duel has been tainted by someone else's hand.

Katakuri unleashes "Ginchaku!!" and hammers the floor with mochi fists, forcing Luffy to keep moving despite the wound. A note explains that mochi-ginchaku is a kind of mochi inside a pouch of fried tofu, often used in oden. Luffy is driven back under a rain of impacts, and Katakuri asks, "What's the matter, Straw Hat...!?" Luffy is barely upright, but he is not giving up. Katakuri's attacks are still overwhelming, yet his attention is now split between defeating Luffy and understanding the unfair disturbance that caused the previous hit.

Katakuri finally begins to acknowledge Luffy openly. Looking at the cratered battlefield, he says, "...Just as I began to acknowledge you... you decided to disappoint me...!!" Luffy, still breathing hard, thinks he saw the cause of the strange moment: "I think I saw it!" He wonders whether it was imagination, but remembers Rayleigh's lesson about observation haki: "Become able to sense it unconsciously!!" and "Because beyond that imagination... is the colour of observa-tion...!!" Katakuri stands across from him and Luffy understands the challenge. This is no longer only a contest of strength; it is a contest of perception, will, and whether he can sense what is coming without thinking.

Luffy forces himself back up, his legs trembling. Flampe sees him and sneers, "He stood up again! Pffft! What's with those wobbling legs?" Luffy wheezes, "Wheeze... Wheeze..." while Flampe prepares another shot. She says, "One more shot, then," and fires her "Sweetbread Needle!" The needle flies silently toward Luffy, aimed to make him falter again. Luffy is on the edge of collapse, but the page shows that he is still alert. Flampe thinks she is controlling the duel from the shadows, but this time Luffy and Katakuri are close to understanding exactly what she has been doing.

Luffy senses the attack. The needle shoots toward him with a "Whoosh," and Flampe gasps, "Huh!? He dodged it...? That was my silent needle!" But Luffy still collapses from the damage already done, and Flampe laughs at him anyway: "Pffff ffftt!!" Her subordinates warn, "Miss Flampe! We're going to be seen!!" but she cannot stop mocking Luffy. "Pfffttt!! Wait, please don't make us laugh too!! His legs were quivering like those of a newborn fawn... It's be... because that monkey... his foot wg... ufufu..." She calls him "so weak and covered in blood" and laughs that he "gets up again and again" only to wobble and fall back down. Katakuri notices her directly and says, "Flampe...?"

Katakuri understands the full truth. Flampe, still pleased with herself, says, "Ah! Master Katakuri is coming this way! He's going to praise meeee! My heart isn't ready for this yet." Katakuri says her name: "Flampe..." Then he confronts her: "You used your silent blowgun... to stop him from moving, didn't you...?" He pieces it together: "I attacked in his moment of weakness and pierced his stomach... I inflicted a fatal wound!!! Do you think... that I want to win like that!?" Luffy, wobbling and hurt, confirms the same realization: "I see, it was you... That... in such an intense battle, his focus was suddenly broken." Katakuri no longer sees Flampe's act as help. He sees it as an insult to the duel.

Flampe's group keeps laughing even as Katakuri approaches. They point at Luffy and say, "The fawn stood up again," and "Like a baby fawn's...!!" Flampe laughs, "Hey, don't make me laugh!!!" then announces herself grandly: "That's right, Big Brother, I did it. I'm the most thoughtful of all the younger sisters. I'm cute, right? I'm definitely the one who will be favored by the world's most perfect big brother! Big brootheeerrrr!" Katakuri watches her with disgust and asks, "What's so funny, you lot...?" Flampe has imagined praise, but Katakuri's expression makes it clear she has done the opposite of what he values.

Katakuri responds to Flampe's interference by driving his own trident into himself. Blood spills from his stomach as everyone stares. Luffy says, "He...!!" and Flampe's followers cry, "Master Katakuri?!" Katakuri turns toward Flampe with a terrifying glare and says, "Don't you dare..." His message is not subtle: no one is allowed to corrupt his duel. He has made the wound equal, matching the injury Luffy received because of Flampe's needle. The act shocks Flampe's group into silence and shows Luffy that Katakuri's pride is not hypocrisy. For Katakuri, a victory gained through hidden help is unacceptable.

Katakuri roars at Flampe's group, "Give unwanted support in a duel between men!!!" The blast of fury terrifies them. Flampe screams, "Kyaaa aaaaah hhhh!!" and tries to retreat, crying, "Kyaaaaaa!! It hurts! Don't come near me!! Don't touch me!! Monster!!" Her followers panic, asking, "Ma... Master Katakuri!? Your face... Is it cursed!?" Katakuri turns his anger into a challenge: "If you're going to laugh at that idiot... then laugh at me, too...!!!" He is breathing hard, but the point is absolute. If Luffy's stubborn, battered body is ridiculous to them, then Katakuri's own exposed face and self-inflicted wound should be mocked as well.

Flampe's admiration collapses into disgust. She cries, "So lame!!!" and her followers agree, "Agreed!! So disappointing!!" One says, "Oh, God, you're so dirty!! There's blood all over you!" and another asks, "What are you trying to achieve by piercing your own stomach...!?" Flampe says, "Someone like you can not be big brother Katakuri!!" Then she spits at him: "Your mouth is split all the way up to your ears... you look like a pelican eel!!" Her own followers beg, "Stop it, Miss Flampe! We won't be able to hold in our laughter...!" Katakuri absorbs the insult without flinching. The perfect brother image Flampe worshiped is gone, and she rejects him the moment he reveals the truth.

Flampe tries to save face by turning the crowd against Katakuri. As her group retreats, they shout, "The pelican eel is coming...!!" and "Don't get close to him!! His strength is also like a monster's!!" Flampe says, "Hurry up and take pictures. We're going to show his face to everyone!!" and threatens Katakuri directly: "I'll expose you to everyone in this country! I'll expose you to the fan club!! To all the islands of Totto Land!!" She rages, "How dare you get your dirty blood on me. You tried to threaten me!! The popular me!!" Katakuri, bloodied and calm, apologizes only for the mistake that mattered: "Excuse me, excuse... pffft pffft!! Excuse me, I'm sorry." His attention is no longer on preserving his legend; it is on restoring the duel.

Katakuri makes his apology to Luffy. Standing over his own wound, he says, "...My apologies. It was foolish of me to not notice the needle." Then he states the code behind his action: "In a duel between pirates... there's no such thing as playing dirty. Not being able to dodge it was my mistake...!!" Luffy and Katakuri face each other with new clarity. Katakuri adds, "Our spectators sure are noisy... In any case, they won't be able to handle what's about to happen." Luffy grins through his injuries, and Katakuri smirks back. The duel has become more personal and more serious than before: both fighters accept the wound, reject the spectators, and prepare to continue on equal terms.

The two fighters unleash conqueror's haki and wipe out the noisy spectators. Flampe's followers scream, "Gyaaa ahhh!!!" as the shockwave tears through the mirror world, shattering debris and dropping the crowd unconscious. Someone realizes, "Conqueror's haki...!? That monkey can use it, too...!?" Flampe collapses along with the others, and the battlefield clears. The interference is gone. Only Luffy and Katakuri remain standing amid the wreckage, both wounded, both breathing hard, and both ready to decide the duel without hidden weapons or admiring crowds.

Katakuri squares up again and declares, "I no longer... think that you're below my level." That is the true recognition Luffy has forced out of him. Luffy, battered but unbroken, answers with his own direct confidence. Katakuri asks, "Is that so!? Glad to hear it!! Thanks." Luffy raises his fist and says, "But... I'm gonna win!" The page closes with the promise of the final clash: fist versus fist, one on one. The title's meaning lands here, because Katakuri has finally stopped treating Luffy as an inferior nuisance and now acknowledges him as a worthy opponent.

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