'One Piece' Just Showed A New Side Of Katakuri

The Straw Hat Pirates have been caught in a major struggle against Big Mom during the Whole Cake Island arc, and the last few chapters of the manga have only increased the danger by splitting up the crew into equally perilous situations.

The Straw Hats have been fighting off Big Mom on the deck of the Thousand Sunny, but Luffy is having an equally tough time against Katakuri in the mirror world. But Katakuri has developed in a way fans didn't expect in the latest chapter of the manga.

After figuring out that Luffy is gaining the ability to see into the future like he can, Katakuri vowed to end the fight sooner rather than later and dealt a fatal blow to Luffy. But it turned out this fatal blow was only dealt because Luffy had "slipped." Angered at this, Katakuri hates the idea that Luffy is suddenly losing his fighting spirit (especially at the sight of Luffy keeling over every time he stands).

But it turns out that Katakuri's sister Flambe has been shooting invisible darts at Luffy, and the poison has been having a negative effect on Luffy. Katakuri is angered by this once more, since he had come to respect Luffy's tenacity, and once he finds out Flambe is the one hindering Luffy goes off.

Revealing his full face to Flambe, he yells at her to stop interfering in the fight and feels a bit of dishonor for dealing a fatal blow when Luffy was being attacked from the outside. After Katakuri and Luffy release a bit of their conqueror's haki and knock out everyone watching their fight in the mirror world, the two vow once again to have a fair fight.

Katakuri then pierces himself with his trident, to even up with Luffy's wound, as he remembers all the times he was made fun of for his face as a child. But his pride in this fight against Luffy takes precedent over everything else as he even smiles a bit before their final confrontation begins.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Eiichiro Oda also revealed some upcoming news for One Piece's future at Jump Festa 2018. Not only will the manga see Wano sooner rather than later, the next villain of the series is "one of the legends which lurks in the One Piece world. The greatest enemy ever for Straw Hats will hinder their way...Can you believe Marineford Summit War will look 'cute' compared to that?"

One Piece is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW.