WORD COUNT 2127
REQUEST? YES
*WARNINGS*
Spoilers from the Whole Cake Island Arc.
Mentions of fights, hunger, etcetera.
I'm so sorry, I'm taking so long to publish, but school and other personal things are taking up the majority of my time and now I also have to study for the Entrance Exams for the Uni I want to get in, so yeah. It's a lot of work lol. Anyways, You're not here to listen... well.. read about me complaining about stuff, you want to read an ff and that's what I'll give you! Hope you enjoy.
Still nothing...
He'll be here any second.
No one was there.
I'm sure he's already searching for us.
And yet he wasn't there.
I have faith in him.
Their lives were about to end.
He's coming. I just know it.
.............................
As the captain lay unconscious on the ground, the young girl started to regain her consciousness.
Her head was spinning too much and she felt like puking, she was so weak that even though she wanted to sit up and help the captain, her limbs simply refused to follow her orders.
"I hope Luffy was right and that guy is looking for us..."
"The situation is bad... I don't think we'll be able to survive out here if he can't find us."
As much as she wanted to scream and find help, she knew she needed to save up what remained of her energy for the future, that is if they even had one.
At this point, she doubted they would be making it out alive, but she didn't want to doubt Luffy's words, even if she had always been the type to look at things in a rational way.
Her eyes became heavier with each passing second and she felt too tired to keep them open. Luffy was still sleeping and if she were to fall asleep nobody would be able to react if an enemy were to attack.
But did it really matter now? She couldn't even stand up properly, her captain was too hungry to fight, they were as vulnerable as a newborn kitty.
There was no way she would be able to help anyway, at least if she slept for a little she would hopefully get a little bit of strength back.
"Just a few minutes."
She repeated in her head as her vision became blurry...
She later woke up by someone shaking her violently.
A blonde guy?
"Hey kid, what are you doing here?! Did you get lost?"
"Wait! Where is Luffy? I... Thank the Universe, he's still alive."
"You know Luffy?"
"Yes. Do you?"
"He used to be my captain."
"Wait... Don't tell me you're Sanji!"
"Yes. He told you about me?"
"Well, it's a long story... but you might want to wake him up before he dies. He's so hungry that he almost got us killed before."
The blonde dude, Sanji, hurried over to his captain and woke him up.
Sakura was just sitting there, looking at the two of them interacting.
From what she could understand the guy was too afraid to go back to being part of Luffy's Crew, his family had been captured by Big Mom, and his biological family was going to get killed either way.
Although he didn't like his biological family, he didn't want them to die, but he didn't know what to do, all he knew was that he wanted things to go back to normal. He just wanted to live freely, away from his past, away from that place and from those people, but he was way too nice to abandon them the same way they had when he was still a child.
Luffy couldn't take his behavior anymore and angrily punched him.
As Sanji's body flew a few meters away, Sakura looked the other way, she had seen and done worse, but for some reason seeing Luffy hit his friend like that made her sick.
"Tell me what you really feel!"
The blonde cook widened his eyes and slowly sat up to look at his ex-captain.
"I want to go away with you. But I can't. I hate my family for what they did to me, but I can't simply let them die like this. Not if I can do something to stop that from happening.
They even have the Baratie with them...
I... Don't know what to do."
Luffy smiled at Sanji and with a confident look on his face, he walked towards his friend.
"Mh, I understand. I'll help you."
The young girl decided to stay back and give the two of them some privacy, even though she couldn't get away from them, not in the condition she was in.
Her head was still spinning and her eyelids felt extremely heavy, as much as she would have loved to get on her feet and prove herself useful to Luffy, her body had other plans in mind, and she fell asleep.
As much as he would have loved to let the little girl get some much-needed rest and not disturb her, he knew they had to get out of there as quickly as possible, just in case they sent more people to get rid of them.
Luffy gently picked up Sakura and gave her a piggyback ride back.
Once everyone was finally reunited they decided what to do and how they would be putting their plan in action.
Their plan wasn't simple, but Sakura was positive they would win, especially now that they had some new allies to back them up.
They were called the "Fire Tank Pirates" who seemed to know Big Mom very well and since they had the same goal, they decided to form an alliance to ultimately destroy her reign of terror.
"So all we have to do is destroy a pic of that woman and she'll lose her natural shield?"
"Exactly."
The young captain nodded and with a quick sign, he motioned to Sakura to follow him.
When the night of the wedding came they all reviewed the plan as they hid inside the wedding cake, which seemed a little too risky for Sakura's liking, since she knew how much Luffy loved to eat.
The orders they were given were crystal-clear, once they heard the signal, they jumped out of the cake and hell broke loose.
There were people going crazy, shouting and running away, people who tried to get Luffy and his copies, people who went and attacked Sakura, who swiftly moved from side to side as to not get caught.
Her movements were precise, bold, and thanks to her powers, unstoppable.
Although at first their plan seemed to have not been effective, thanks to Sakura's attack, Luffy was able to show Big Mama the broken picture of Caramel, causing her to have what seemed like a mental breakdown.
A few of the people around her collapsed to the ground as her agonizing screams echoed throughout the building.
"Was that the Haoshoku Haki?"
It didn't matter, what did matter though, was that now they could finally beat her.
They used the new weapon on Big Mama, but the missile was set off midair by her screams.
Once again, chaos began to spread between the crowd, and this time the staw hats wouldn't be as lucky.
The Fire Tank Pirates were easily defeated and forced to run away, putting an end to their alliance with the Straw Hats.
Half of Luffy's gang was nowhere to be seen, while others were in great difficulty.
"Luffy, I don't think we'll be able to resist any longer, we need to retreat!"
"Damn it! You're right... But what about Sanji?!"
...
"I'm sorry... You'll have to leave him behind for now."
And so the Straw Hats had to run away from Big Mom before a catastrophe could happen, forcing the team to separate once again.
As they ran away Big Mom had another breakdown, this time for her beloved cake that got completely smashed and is now forever ruined.
Her wrath had to be taken on something and one of her subordinates was killed in her rage fit.
To avoid any other unnecessary deaths, she was told that there was another Wedding Cake that had been stored by the Straw Hats.
If that woman was angry before, now you can bet that she's completely lost any remaining common sense.
Meanwhile, the team was still running away, hoping to reach their Ship soon.
After a few hours of playing cat and mouse with the Straw Hats Luffy saw the perfect opportunity to end this useless game.
He quickly grabbed Katakuri, who had been nothing but a big obstacle, and Brulee who had been looking at them through a nearby mirror.
While lounging at the woman in the Mirror to get in the Mirro-World, he called out to Sakura to follow him, since she was the only one who could be strong enough to fight such powerful opponents without being a weight.
The mirror world was a dangerous and unknown place, anything could be hiding in the shadows, and now that they were in Brulee's territory they had to be especially careful.
Sakura run beside Luffy, looking up to meet his worried gaze.
He had just taken one of the most difficult decisions, fighting alone knowing there would be a high risk of failing, consequently condemning all his friends to a terrible destiny, or taking Sakura, who was still just a child, in this dangerous dimension to minimize the chances of losing.
He was feeling guilty and worried, but now it was too late, and he knew it.
But he also knew the strength the snow-haired girl hid in her small body, and he was sure that if they were to test her, she would be totally able to beat him if she wanted to.
However, now it was not the time to be impressed or be eaten alive by the feelings of guilt and regret, Katakuri was right in front of them, ready to attack at any moment.
Without a single second of hesitation, the tall muscular man went for a direct hit, but Sakura stopped him.
He got angry and used his food-based attack to create a huge mochi to immobilize the young girl.
That obviously infuriated Luffy, but he wasn't strong enough to respond to any of Katakuri's attacks, so all he could do was distract the guy until Sakura was able to free her limbs from the sticky rice.
They ran away from that guy, using a broken shard of glass to communicate with the rest of the crew who was thankfully still okay. They ordered them to find every mirror they could find and get rid of them, destroying them, whatever they wanted but they had to do that quickly.
"We should go back to Katakuri before he finds us, if we surprise him we'll have a chance."
Luffy nodded and they soon met him again.
That guy was impressive, but scary at the same time, he didn't look like Big Mama at all, and if to weren't for his food-related powers, no one would ever guess he was related to her.
She wanted to test his strength to see if she would be able to take him down by herself, but whenever she would get close he would simply dodge her attacks, but strangely enough, he would never try to hit her.
"Come on! Why aren't you responding to my attacks?! Do you think I'm not a worthy opponent? Do you think I'm playing?!"
The angrier she got, the stronger her attacks, but even when she finally managed to hit him, he stood his ground and simply received.
Luffy was uncertain on what to do... She didn't seem in danger or in difficulty, in fact, it was the opposite.
"Seriously? You're not even gonna hit me now?"
Sakura stopped right in front of him, standing still, with her arms up as to protect her face from him in case he really decided to throw a punch.
"I won't hit a girl, especially a child like you. I'm sorry."
"Oh, come on! I give up. There's no point in fighting if you won't fight back."
Katakuri smiled under his scarf, his eyes were enough to show his expression and as he lowered to the ground to meet her face, Sakura could tell that below the surface, even he was a good guy.
He gently put his hand on Sakura's fluffy hair, messing it a bit.
"I'm sorry... For what it's worth.. I wasn't pretending to hold your attacks back, and when you hit me it was because you were stronger than me, I didn't underestimate your strength, you're more than a worthy opponent, remember that."
The girl smiled up at him and shouted a cheery "Thanks, big bro."
Katakuri was actually a decent human, are we sure he's seriously related to that woman? There must have been a misunderstanding. Sakura had just had the confirmation.
"Straw Hat boy, wanna fight? I won't hold back this time."
He cracked his knuckles and shot an apologetic look at Sakura, who just waved him off.
If I can't be of help physically, I'll at least be here to cheer Luffy on... Wait would it be rude if I just cheered for Luffy? After all, Katakuri has been a good person to me... What am I even saying?! If Luffy loses then nobody will be there to save Sanji or stop Big Mama.
Sakura's train of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of the two guys fighting.
Oh... seems like they're already at it.
I should pay more attention to them since there's not much else I can do now.
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TO BE CONTINUED ON THE LAST CHAPTER
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