359 Brulee's Trap

The Thousand Sunny dropped anchor outside of Whole Cake Island shortly after dawn.

"Don't worry about Pedro-san and I! We'll retrieve the road poneglyph etching as well as keep an eye out for Pekoms-san," Brook reassured the others in his gentlemanly manner.

"Taken right out from under us and I didn't even notice. I'm ashamed," Pedro sighed. "Fortunately it seems Cherry caught wind of it and gave chase. I hope she and he both are still okay."

"If there's anything you can bet on, it's Cherry's safety. I'd sooner believe the World Government controls the weather than that Cherry is in any real danger," Nami sounded confident.

"Big Mom can control the weather…" Pedro said.

"""Huh???""" came cries of disbelief.

"Within a certain range of course, but… easily for kilometers around." Pedro elaborated, thinking he probably should have done so earlier.

"Don't fret, Nami. A navigator of your skill, one with such a hardy crew by your side, needn't worry about Big Mom's storms at all." Jinbe added genuinely.

Pedro and Brook went below deck and launched the shark-shaped submersible with the latter piloting it. The rest went ashore.

"Look! It's Pudding and Sanji, up there! Just like Pudding said she would!" Luffy became excited and ran ahead.

"Don't get out of sight, Luffy! We're in hostile territory, remember?" Nami called out behind him, sighing when it was unclear that Luffy even heard her. "Why is he always so reckless?"

The group followed after him, but didn't make it far before Luffy stopped and looked around in confusion. He shouted out, "Hey Sanji!!! Pudding!!! We're here!!!"

"Where could they be? We're here just on time," Chopper wondered.

"I saw them just up there, but they're gone now…" Luffy pointed out a hill.

"We should be wary. This stinks of a trap." Jinbe reasoned.

"Pudding wouldn't trick us! She's nice!" Luffy refuted.

"Perhaps her plan was thwarted, and now the Big Mom pirates have disguised two of their crew as Pudding and Sanji to lure us in. That would explain why they disappeared before we got close." Jinbe advised.

"Hrmmm…" Luffy scrunched up his face in annoyance. He couldn't complain about pirates fighting dirty, but he didn't have to be happy about it.

"What if it isn't a trick, though? Then Sanji would think we didn't come for him…" Chopper spoke dejectedly.

"Yosh! We're going in!" Luffy decided.

Luffy marched ahead with purpose, passing the first few trees with the others accepting his decision for now; at least until they got some evidence that pointed one way or the other.

"Hey, Sanji!" Luffy spotted something and accelerated deeper into the woods. "Huh? He was just here!"

"Maybe this really is a trap, Luffy. We should head back." Nami's cautiousness was beginning to take over.

"No way! Not until we find Sanji!" Luffy was determined.

Hiding out of sight in the boughs of a tree, Brulee watched over the rookie pirates. More than half of them were fools, easily manipulated by herself and the homies. Only Jinbe posed any real threat by her reckoning, but Cracker could take him without a problem on land.

'I can't help but feel a bit guilty about this though. At least Mama wants them alive, so I can just do what I'm supposed to.' Brulee thought to herself.

Normally she'd be thrilled for the chance to show some silly rookies how big the world really was, but since these were the friends of someone who had helped her, she couldn't find her usual enjoyment in the thought of tormenting them.

'Oh well, Cherry insisted I didn't go easy on them, so I'm not going to.' Brulee nodded to herself.

Brulee gave a hand signal to her subordinate homies to begin the operation to entrap the intruders, who were currently marveling at the tasty looking flora.

The moment the group was just over halfway across the bridge, a massive crocodile appeared from beneath the surface of the juice river and chomped down on the bridge and destroyed it. The group managed to leap to the other side of the bridge in time to avoid being eaten.

"Oh, it was just humans. My bad…" The crocodile started walking away down the river as if that was no big deal.

This was a manufactured "close call" designed to push them further into the forest without them even realizing they were being led around by the nose, whilst at the same time confusing them and thus making them less likely to take note of less conspicuous occurrences.

Whilst they were distracted, another Luffy appeared among them.

""Who the heck are you?!"" both Luffys shouted at each other.

Luffy immediately became hostile towards this imposter whilst the other Luffy copied him just like a mirror would. Brulee had to hold back a laugh as her movements were guided by her devil fruit, mimicking Luffy's ridiculous movements in his efforts to "stump" her.

""Stop copying me!"" Luffy and Bru-Luffy shouted childishly.

"There's Sanji!" Carrot called out.

They all turned and saw him lying on a high branch several trees away.

""You guys go get Sanji! I'll hold this joker off!"" Luffy and Bru-Luffy called as they clashed together.

Jinbe didn't immediately follow after the others who heeded Luffy's command, instead studying the two and rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Sadly he had lost track of which one was the true Luffy due to the distraction and Luffy's struggling against the imposter.

"Do you trust me, Luffy?" Jinbe asked.

""Of course I do!"" Luffy and Bru-Luffy said immediately whilst pulling at each other's stretchy faces.

"Then don't dodge!" Jinbe reared up and plunged his haki-coated fists down towards the two's heads!

One Luffy jumped out of the way and the other got smashed into the ground.

"Why'd you try to hit me Jinbe?! What if you'd hit the real me?!" the Luffy who dodged cried out.

"I did hit the real you," Jinbe said without a hint of doubt in his voice. "Isn't that right, Captain?"

The Luffy on the ground slapped his fist down on his hand. "Oh! You're so smart, Jinbe! Shishishi!"

The two of them looked up at the Luffy who had dodged to find that he was gone, before Luffy hopped up and brushed himself off. Then they both left to follow after the others.

'That Jinbe is even more decisive than I gave him credit for. To think he'd attack his own captain just to root me out,' Brulee pondered, realizing that she'd have to step up her game. 'Straw Hat is a fool, though. What if Jinbe himself had been an imposter? That thought didn't even occur to him. I can use that…'

…

Cherry was having a very nice breakfast at a very fancy hotel, observing her crewmates movements on the other side of the island via Life Sense and chuckling to herself. She found the fact that the entire damned forest was animated by Big Mom's devil fruit to be especially funny.

"What's so funny?" a long limbed, rather beautiful woman asked her as she approached.

"I remembered a joke, but I would just mess it up so don't ask." Cherry said. "Who are you?"

"I am one of the sweet generals, Charlotte Smoothie. You will NOT be leaving my sight until after the wedding, do I make myself clear?" Smoothie asked, though Cherry suspected that there was only one answer that the tall woman would accept.

Cherry considered saying no just to see what she'd do about it, but she had a better idea. An idea that would undoubtedly infuriate the woman than a simple refusal to cooperate would, if she could only read Cherry's mind.