"Lucci set the records when there were none, so of course, he'd stand out. That doesn't mean those who came later couldn't or didn't break them."
massive headcanon
It is a fact Lucci set records in CP-9, not my personal headcanon. He surpassed all of the previous records and made a name for himself as a genius. And Lucci was a rival comparable to Jabra before they left for water 7. All of them got stronger over five years. Kaku was stronger than Jabra physically when he returned to EL, meaning he surpassed whatever PL Lucci had at 25. So the records set by Lucci were being broken by him as far as strength goes.
"What's shown in the story is Lucci at 28 is less than half as strong as 25-year-old Kaku."
that's not been shown at all
Kaku still hasn't done anything to arrive at that conclusion.
I asked for evidence
you are putting feelings out.
My bad. I thought it was common sense that pre-skip characters are far weaker than post-skip characters. Be my guest if you wanna still pretend Kaku is still weaker than pre-skip Lucci. I'll explain my case nonetheless, CP-0 is the strongest of the CP organizations. Kaku, like Lucci, wasn't just promoted to CP-0 but he's also a masked member, which is an elite class even within CP-0. That means he's at least improved drastically over the TS. We still don't know how much he improved. What we do know is Kaku's rankyaku post-TS is way bigger than pre-skip hybrid Lucci's best Rankyaku move:
Doriki i.e., physical strength directly translates to how good their Six Powers are. Given how base Kaku's Rankyaku is bigger than pre-skip Hybrid Lucci's, even the most clueless can now safely say Kaku is stronger than pre-skip Lucci. Kaku also face-tanked a laser beam, something pre-skip Lucci isn't capable of doing. Lasers are some of the most dangerous attacks in the verse. For whatever it's worth, he also implied he could damage the Seraphim in this chapter. That is also something pre-skip Lucci can't even dream of doing.
so your argument is basically the three year age gap
that lucci has on kaku
rather than who is shown as the brightest prospect since cp9 in the story itself. tears
oden at 8 was stronger than zoro was at that age and could wield enma comfortably at 18
while zoro struggled at 21
who has more potential ?
arguing like an amateur.
Would have been cooler if you were more focused on putting up an argument instead of being emotional for the sake of it. Oden is just like Lucci in a way. Oden grew faster than others and exhausted his options to grow stronger quicker than others. That's why everyone and their moms are impressed by him while Zoro won't receive the same treatment despite having better potential. Zoro, like Kaku, demonstrated better and more consistent growth than Oden, much like Kaku. Who's called a natural-born monster? Oden. Who's gonna end up stronger? Zoro. Who has higher potential in the end? Zoro. Kaku is the same as Zoro.