The Copyist (One Piece & OC)

Chapter 72: Treasure Hunt Gone Bad

"That way."

"Wrong again."

"Okay, let's head in the opposite direction." Sanji concludes, earning a laugh from me.

"Hey!"

Luffy joined in on the laughter. "Look, a crowd." Lu stops as we examine the scene in front of us.

I sigh, knowing what's to come. Sanji raised an eyebrow in question at my demeanor. "You'll find out soon enough." I explained, earning a nod in return.

"Oh, this is the Candy Factory! Pappagu told me about it!" Luffy continued.

"Oh? I hope we can find a flying fish here." Greenie comments.

"I guess they're making those yummy sweets here!" Lu ignores the swordsman. "Hey, Candy Factory!" He shouts towards the group, stealing their attention in the process.

"Luffy-kun? Why are you here?" One of the ministers questioned. Others in the crowd were also shouting various questions about the banquet and the food.

"Yeah, I ate a lot! The meat was good but those sweets from Fish Man Island were unbelievable!"

The crowd all froze at his words since they were in the company of Big Mama's pirates. They were here to collect the monthly candy tax only Hordy had destroyed the factory during his war on the island. And now, my sweet, dumb, child-hood friend just outed them for giving him what was left of the candy.

The townspeople were desperately trying to communicate to him not to speak about it, but all the signs were flying over the rubberman's head.

"Oh, old Mr. Catfish, it's you!" Lu addressed the minister.

"Did he say 'sweets'?! Who are they?!" A speaking lion angrily inquired. He flipped through a stack of papers in his hands before stopping on one in particular. "Oh yeah, he's Straw Hat Luffy! Definitely! What is that notorious pirate doing here?"

"Well, um.." the minister started before being interrupted by the lion.

"Hey brat! Which sweets are you talking about?!"

"Well, Mr. Pekoms let me explain." The minister tried again.

"Who are you?!" Lu questioned the minx with a smile. "You're not a fishman are you? You came to buy sweets? I just finished stuffing myself full of them!"

"What?!" He snapped his head to the minister. "What's going on here?! He just said he ate them!"

"W-Well...there is an explanation..."

"Oh? A talking lion? But I guess that's not such a big deal. We've got something similar." Lu kept on adding fuel to the simmering fire as he closed the distance between him and Pekoms. "This lion's got an unique face!"

"What?! Are you messing with me?!" He lifted his shades off his face to appear more intimidating. Unfortunately for him, it made him look cute.

Lu busted out laughing, spraying saliva as he did.

"Eh! Gross! Why you!"

"Pekoms!" A new voice interrupted the raging lion. "Making such threatening faces doesn't help us in collecting the sweets." The new person was sitting on a bed of rocks.

He too wore black shades that covered his eyes. His long, pointed nose was inside of a large tea cup as he sipped the drink, leaving his mustache slightly damp. His body was that of, well, an egg. He had long legs that sprouted from an egg shaped torso while his head had a flat plate on top to rest his teacup. The non-egg parts of him were covered in a pink suit that matched the color of his teacup.