***Amaya's POV***
The fun party life didn't last long as Jimbe gathered everyone to discuss updates on the world while the Straw Hats were away. The first of the two big pieces of news was that there was a new head of the Marines: Akainu. The rat that tried to kill Ace.
Luckily for me, I already knew this piece of information. When I was on Gloomy island with Hawkeye and Perona, Hawkeye kept me in the loop of world news. He loved to sit and read the paper when he wasn't training me to the bone.
After I heard the news, I got in contact with Ace to deliver a message to the man with a proposition. Time will tell if he accepts or not, but there's no rush at this point.
The second piece of information was that the Blackbeard pirates were now considered one of the four emperors of the sea. They were on a hunt for people with powerful devil fruits as they could somehow steal them by killing the original wielder.
So far they haven't targeted anyone that I've copied powers from, which was good news for me. I doubt I'd be one of the targeted for two reasons. One, I'm supposed to be dead, according to the world, and two, my power would be useless to them if they can somehow already take the power.
After Jimbe caught everyone up to date, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and I sensed an odd presence nearby. We followed the trail to Shirahoshi's room. The swamp man who was a prisoner of ours when we arrived on this island was attempting to kidnap the mermaid.
The moron acknowledged us before he continued his pursuit, chuckling his weird and disturbing laugh. When his brain caught up with his actions, he started sweating bullets at our presence.
Luffy gave a single swift punch towards the man, sending his flying off the castle, the castle's bubble, and all the space in between. As the minister was profusely thanking us, he let it slip that that man was also a treasure thief. Nami wasted no time in pounding the four of us after the thief, making us too fly through the air.
"Hey look! Ama, Zoro, Sanji! There he is! That was easy!" Luffy said, pointing to the bloodied man on the ground.
"Well, he's not wrong." I comment, earning a snicker from Greenie.
"He got knocked out cold already by your punch. How pathetic!" Greenie adds on.
All around the man were hoards of treasure. Gold coins, crowns, jewels, literal chests of goods were just laying around.
"There is so much treasure scattered around here." Sanji speaks. "Is that furry king really going to give us all of this?"
"Cool! We can buy lots of meat!" Luffy exclaims, lifting a treasure chest above his head.
"I can't believe he was storing all of this in his gloopy body." Greenie mentions.
I pocket the small gold bar after he said that. "Great, now I don't even want to touch it." I give a fake shudder. Despite what I said, I snagged a few more pieces of jewels into my pockets without the others noticing. Call it life insurance for facing Nami later.
The guys packed all the treasure into three humongous sacks before heaving them over their backs. They almost fell over backwards when they first tried to pick them up.
"Alright! Let's go back to the palace!" Luffy orders.
"How?" Greenie questions.
"We need a flying fish." Sanji reminds Lu.
"Which way is the town, Zoro?" Lu questions.
"That way."
"Try again, Greenie."
"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.
"Let's settle this peacefully-soir. The tea party is four days from now-bon. We can make it on time if we leave here tomorrow morning-jour."
"There's another odd one! Who are you?" Lu questioned.
"Bon to meet you, you half-boiled pirates." The man greeted in pun. "My name is Baron, Tamago-soir! Now, you gentlemen, oh and lady." He paused in seeing me before continuing. "Did you say you ate the sweets from this factory-c'est si bon?"
"He looks like a compass." Greenie states.
"There's something seriously wrong with your head." I retort.
"Ama-swam, I love with you're so brutal with your retorts!"
I ignore the blonde as I focus on Lu's conversation.
"Yes, I did! I wanna have some more if they have any!" Luffy answers unknowingly.
"They don't. That's why we don't know what to do-bon!" He does a hand gesture that directs our attention to the jolly roger decorating the candy factory. "That big mark on the factory is the jolly roger of the great pirate and our boss, Charlotte Lingling-soir. It claims that this island as Big Mama's territory, she is one of the four Emperors. Which means that Fish Man Island is protected under Big Mama's name-bon!" The tall man finished his explanation.
"Sounds like a nice person! I wanna meet your boss! Big Mama, huh?" Lu still had his goofy smile on his face, still not quite understanding the situation. How far from the truth he was.
"Don't mistake our arrangement. We have a business arrangement."
"Huh?"
"In exchange for ten tons of sweets a month, we allow them to use the mark-bon."
"Ten tons?" Lu asks.
"Yup, Mama loves sweet candies more than anything-soir."
Sadly that includes her own children, despite everything they do for her.
Sanji and Zoro seemed to have grasped the situation as their faces were clouded.
"Sweets from Fish Man Island are her favorite. So we'll wait until tomorrow morning." the baron claimed.
"No, Baron, I already told you." The minster spoke up. "The factory's giant cooking machines are broken and we need at least two weeks to repair them!"
"That's not acceptable-soir."
"Hey Tamago! Why can't you wait?!" Sanji interjected.
"Is your boss's mind as small as his balls? He's one of the Four Emperors, isn't he?" Greenie added.
I nearly face palmed. Didn't the large feminine lips on the jolly roger or even her name give it away that she was a woman?!
"Zoro, 'he' is a 'she'. She's the only female among the Emperors." I corrected him.
"Indeed, this red-head is correct. Mama is a great woman pirate-vous plait. I don't think she has balls-jour."
"Oh, she's a madam." Sanji starts to blush slightly.
"Why am I not surprised?" I mutter to myself. "Yes, she is, and she has had over eighty kids, right?" I question allow.
Sanji nearly turned to stone.
"Your knowledge is impressive, mademoiselle. You seem familiar, but I can't place your name?" The Baron's tone was that of a question, but I had no need for him to know of me.
"I'm no one of consequence. Just a friend passing through." I avoided the question.
"What's gonna happen if you can't have them on time?" Sanji asks after he snapped out of his funk.
"In that case," he swung his walking stick hard into the ground. "The deal it off! Vicious members of the Big Mama Pirates will descend on the island and destroy it in no time- vous plait!"
Luffy's pupils debilitated, realization dawning. "Destroy the island?!" He angrily questions. "Are you nuts? You can't destroy a country over candies!"
And this is coming from Lu.
"This island has just been saved!" Lu continued.
The Baron didn't speak at first as he slowly went to grab the drink sitting on top of his head. "I can't believe it- bon. They aren't even half-boiled, they are raw." He laments into his tea. "What should I do with those fearless rookies-jour?" He questions himself.
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
A snailsponder was going off. The odd thing was that the two aggressors in our situation both started to sweat at the sound.
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
"It must be Mama! Grr!" Pekoms spoke. "I told them what was going on a while ago."
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
The town's people were getting antsy after hearing that Big Mama was calling in person.
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
No one was making a move towards the phone yet, letting the ring become more of an ominous sound.
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
The Baron walked over with Pekoms, but they still made no move to pick up the receiver.
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
"Hey Pekoms!" The Baron tried to push off the deed.
"Why don't you pick it up? Grr! I don't wanna get yelled at!" Pekoms refuted.
Clank
"Hello?" Luffy aggressively answered the call. "Are you Big Mama?"
You're not Tamango, are you? Nor Pekoms. The ladies voice came through the snail. Who are you?
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! I'm gonna become the King of the Pirates!"
The town's people along with Big Mama's lackeys were nearly trembling at the scene.
Monkey D.? Ah, you're Garp's grandson! Now I remember. You were the brat who meddled in the war two years ago.
"The sweets are gone!" Luffy changed the subject. "I ate them all!"
So it's true that they don't have any! They must have ten tons of them!
"I ate ten tons of them!" Luffy shouts back.
"Why is he saying that?" The Baron shouted in shock.
Sanji and Greenie were standing in a composed manner, along with myself. At this point, none of us would be surprised with Lu's antics.
Everyone was frozen as we awaited Big Mama's response.
You fool! Stop lying! You're covering up for the Fishmen, aren't you?
"But it's true that I ate them! I didn't know they had to go to you!" Lu retorted. He then took off the large sack of gold he was carrying as Greenie and Sanji added theirs to the pile. "We have a lot of treasure with us here. You can have it all! In compensation for the sweets!"
"'Treasure!?'" The Baron and Pekoms yelled in shock.
Eh, I can't eat treasure! What I want is sweet candies!
"Hey, wait a minute! Is that all treasure?" Egg-man asks.
"Yes, it is." Lu nonchalantly responds.
The Baron snatched the responder from Lu. "Mama, this is Tamago! Let's think about this. A few days ago, that brat, Captain Kid, sank two of our allies' ships-bon!"
I smirk, hearing what Kid's been up to. Glad to hear he's doing well.
"Kid?" Lu questioned.
"It's that guy! The rookie who's worth over a 100 million that we met at the Sabaody! He's also the punk who flirted with Ama-chan!" Sanji huffs.
"It was a huge loss, and to be honest, we've been in need of money lately-bon." Tamago persuaded. "So how about we save the fun of eating sweets for a couple of weeks and take the treasure and forgive them? I think it's the best plan for us-jour. If you want candies, we could get something sweet and delicious on our way back."
Screw that, Tamago! How could you say such an embarrassing thing?! Pirates shouldn't compromise on what they want!
"I-I'm sorry-soir!"
Having said that, that brat who stood up to me has piqued my interest. Have it your way, instead of the Fish Man Island, I'll have my vengeance against you all! Monkey D. Luffy. I know your name now. Come to the New World!"
"Sure, wait for me there." Lu responded in a serious voice. "There's some business I want to settle with you, too."
Huh?
"I can't leave it in your hands-that's too dangerous! I'll kick your ass all over the New World and make the Fish Man Island my territory!"
You insolent brat! We'll see how long you can keep that attitude.
Clank
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Question: Do you guys like waiting a little longer for longer chapters, or do you like having these shorter ones?
Hope you enjoyed! Until Next Time...
World_Imaginer