119 A sneaky type and a war

(AN: Describing every clash gets boring and tedious, not just to write but probably also to read so use your imagination and create epic sounds and visuals in your mind. Watch episode 1074 of One Piece and use the clashes as a resemblance or something like that, I don't know.)

"Jackson brat!"

"Linlin hag!"

Jackson countered wittily before they disengaged from their little 'greeting', but as soon as he stepped a few meters away from Big Mom, light lasers were shot to his face. They caused a violent explosion upon impact since they couldn't quite pierce Jackson's muscles, protected by his conqueror's haki.

"You demon of bad luck! Just roll over and die!"

"Now now Linlin, that's not a nice thing to say."

Contrary to her expectations, her quick attack just now didn't seem to have the intended effect since from within blazing flames and flying dust, Jackson's voice resounded, almost leisurely.

Admittedly, it wasn't an attack performed to seriously hurt him, but Big Mom did expect more than a few slightly charred spots on his skin and a torn sleeve, which revealed his muscular and defined right upper arm.

*Ikkoku Sovereignty! *

The time for a far stronger follow-up move, she planned to gain from her quick attack, now turned out useless as Jackson countered it with a massive flying sword slash. Her Ikkoku and his slash once more unleashed a force, on par with natural catastrophes until they cancelled each other out and dissipated into streaks of gold and red light, respectively.

"Linlin, you… became stronger. A lot stronger actually. Is it your devil fruit awakening?"

Again, Jackson initiated a conversation. Big Mom couldn't stand it how he made it seem like everything's easy. How, despite her being his opponent, the thought of defeat just wasn't in his mind.

"Prometheus."

"Aye, Mama!"

"Zeus."

"Aye, Mama!"

She called her remaining homies. A fire guardian, blazing with pristine flames and a giant mass of violently crackling lightning descended to her left and right side.

"*whistles* quite impressive but you're not the only one with homies you know?"

Jackson remarked sarcastically before calling his own homies.

"Sabo! Enel!" Augur! Jump her!"

Funny enough, all three actually came rushing to his side after hearing Jackson shouting. He took a good look at them and mentally noted how serious their wounds were before asking Sabo for the overall situation. After all Jackson just arrived.

"We'll survive. Luckily, Law didn't get hit too hard so whatever we are missing now, he will fix it later."

"Guess that's good enough. Now go back and finish her remaining forces. We could compete who finishes first, me or all of you."

Everyone looked at him funnily. It was that look, Jackson often got when others couldn't quite understand his thought process.

'Did he call us over for some weird flex of his?'

Enel didn't voice out his thoughts despite believing that he was right. All the while Big Mom was seething. She couldn't even remember when was the last time someone provoked her so much and in such a silly way.

An annoying overly confident grin, childish but effective provocations and the ability to make it look like a situation was under his control, despite having to risk his life. For a second, she remembered the face of someone who once annoyed her to no end. A cheeky grin and imposing mustaches were his trademarks so to speak.

'Weird. Similarities keep coming up the longer I interact with him. Just now he reminded me of Roger for the 3rd time today. He even has his weapon.'

While Big Mom was getting lost in what she would describe as bad memories, his homies went to regroup with everyone else. Or at least tried to, before Prometheus and Zeus made a move.

"You bastards think you can just come and go however you like?"

"We will make you pay for hurting Mama so much!"

Flames and Lightning gathered around them in a life-threatening manner but-

*Bam! Bam!*

Masses of fire and lightning were sent flying like rag dolls before they noticed what happened.

"Going after my friends while I am standing right in front of you? Courting death!"

Jackson, using soru, just appeared like a ghost out of nowhere, and simply punched them away, though that gave Big Mom an opportunity, which she didn't let slip by.

He was surprised by her extreme speed, since for a short moment she resembled a streak of light before arriving to his left and swinging Napoleon, with all her strength.

Having misjudged her speed, cost him the opportunity to properly parry so all he could do was try to block it head on and take the blunt force. Or so she had envisioned it to play out.

"Getsuga."

Jackson indeed had to block and before he could cast a counter move, Big Mom pressed on hard. All that conqueror's haki around his cutlass moved in a uniform way to form a black energy mass, which Linlin recognized from her fight with Kuina. But unlike Kuina, Jackson didn't try to shoot it at her and just had it cover [ACE].

"Damn, who would have thought that you are the sneaky type."

*flirty wink*

"Can't you just shut up and crook quietly?!"

Linlin rebuked, clearly feeling her brain cells and blood vessels being attacked by his words. What she should have felt instead was her conqueror's haki, in which she coated Napoleon, being chipped and eaten at by Jackson's haki technique.

Unfortunately for Big Mom, she only noticed the anomaly once it was too late. With her haki suddenly broken through the backlash she suffered gave Jackson an important edge, who catapulted her into the distance.

Yet even while being sent flying, Linlin countered by shooting a massive light beam straight at her opponent. If not for foresight triggering and warning Jackson he could have suffered serious injuries. What happened instead was him tilting his upper body, letting that death laser shoot past him by a hairs width. Judging by the following explosion and heat wave it generated, dodging it was a good thing.

'She became a lot stronger. Her new homie, is a pain in the ass and resembles Kizaru's powers. Must have gotten it from Augur's laser shot. Her brute strength equals mine, to say the least, and that strange movement technique, during which she resembles a light streak, enhances her speed to my level, when using soru. Not to mention that I have yet to see what her awakening might still be capable of.'

Despite him being an insufferable annoyance to Linlin, he still took mental notes and evaluated her powers and skills.

'Be it as it may, I am still superior in haki and wielding of haki. This should give me a deciding edge if abused correctly.'

For some reason the conclusion he reached made him smile widely. Analyzing his opponents strengths and comparing them with his own. Tactically planning to abuse whatever advantage he had. Being similarly matched in physical aspects. For the first time in over 2 years, Jackson felt like seriously going all out against his opponent.

While his training sacrifices near fish-men island were plenty strong and sometimes even stronger that him, going after sea beasts for so long made it feel more like hunting than fighting properly. Big Mom, after her awakening on the other hand, matched him greatly in strength, so much so that he might need to go all out.

(AN: Minus muscle and speed form, if you remember them that is.)

His battle intent rose sharply. There was no haki involved but the air around him now felt completely different than it did before. Some distance away, all Jackson Pirates and Big Mom Pirates felt their neck hair stand on edge, despite being in the middle of a deciding battle.

"Could it be… Is captain getting excited for a fight?"

Shachi asked Penguin and Bepo, wondering if they should just pack up and leave Jackson to it.

"I seriously hope not. As you know, he has a terrible habit to limit test once he starts to enjoy a fight. Problem is only god knows what his current limit is…"

They gulped nervously wondering if they should ask Augur and Sabo to get them out of here.

Navy HQ

Sengoku walked quickly towards his office, wearing a frown as deep as it was 6 years ago, on the day they ambushed Jackson and his crew.

He just came back from an emergency meeting with the five elders but no discussion was held. All 5 had already made up their mind and decided by themselves, probably long before calling him.

That was nothing new to him and it was certainly not why he was so shaken up. Sengoku's mind is just rebooting from shock, thanks to what he just heard.

"A big war lies ahead of us."

"Gather and recruit all possible forces no matter the means."

"Support from us 5 elders is assured."

"We don't have too much time, for by the end of this year…"

"We will remove the 4 emperors and seize all of the new world."

(AN: Hey, it's me just dropping off a short chap, mainly to buy myself some time in between important events. As always, correct me if you find mistakes, comment a short chap review if you have time and no idea what to do with it, or just comment some funny memes you have on your phone/pc. Also like always, hope you enjoy reading this ff and that you will be back for more. Till then.)