With a powerful strike by Maki, Cookie Man's huge body was sent flying, many of his cookies broken and crackled. However, within seconds he was back on his feet, his cookies all healed up.
"You'll need more than muscles to beat me," Cracker said, pointing his sword at Maki.
"I'll crush you like stale cookies," she replied, eyes burning.
Yuta leaned on a nearby tree, arms crossed. "Okay, you two seem completely invested in this fight. I'll just be the third wheel. So I'll just brood here about my non-existing love life..."
Maki dashed forward, her speed causing a small shockwave. Cracker swung his sword, but Maki ducked under it and punched one of the biscuit soldiers. The thing exploded into crumbs with a single hit.
Cracker raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"She's been training," Yuta muttered, biting into an apple from his storage. She somehow was faster than earlier.
Maki's fists were covered in black Armament Haki, each strike powerful enough to shatter Cracker's biscuit armor. When Cracker summoned more soldiers, Maki spun and kicked one so hard it flew into the air like a rocket.
"Tch… is that why I hate sweet things!" she snarled.
"Nah, I'm pretty sure that's because Gojo likes it just." Yuta said to himself.
Cracker growled. "Come on, let's see what you've got!" He charged at her himself this time.
They clashed mid-air. Cracker's sword against Maki's fists. Sparks flew. She even used Observation Haki to dodge a sneak attack from behind.
"Why are there so many of these biscuit goons!?" Maki yelled, breaking another one.
"Because I'm Cracker!" he shouted proudly. "And I never fight seriously unless I'm forced!"
"You think this isn't serious?" Maki asked and punched his real body, not one of the soldiers, in the stomach. Cracker flew backward, smashing into a tree. He coughed, then stood up, his hair messy and crumbs stuck to his face.
Meanwhile, Yuta was lying down now, arms behind his head.
"Let's see. Got dragged into One Piece. Saved Ace. Fought Jack. Punched Kaido. Almost kissed Maki. Now watching her fight a cookie samurai… Almost halfway done if luck goes my way and this journey ends with Wano arc."
Back in the fight, Maki launched herself into the air and came down with a Haki-powered axe kick. Cracker blocked with his sword, but the impact cracked it.
"Cracker is cracking," Yuta muttered, impressed.
Cracker screamed in frustration and sent all remaining soldiers at her.
Maki roared and spun in a whirlwind of punches and kicks. One by one, the soldiers crumbled into dust. Problem was she was tiring out faster than Cracker.
Heavenly Restriction maybe, but almost everyone in the One Piece world are monsters when it comes to physical power. She wasn't so special in here.
Finally, she landed a clean hit to Cracker's face, sending him flying far into the forest, disappearing in the distance with a fading yell: "Maaaaaamaaaaaa!!"
While Maki won, her Haki talent was ridiculous—at this point even better than Ace who was learning Haki for a long time. This helped her out. However, it also completely exhausted her. It was clearly visible on her face, the sweat.
"Next time, I will get that k…" she couldn't even complete the entire sentence before passing out like how Luffy does when using his fourth gear.
"Not gonna lie, she's pretty cool." Yuta forgot about the entire 'having a moment' business pretty quickly. The fight immediately hyped him up. For a Shonen Jump fan like him, this was pure dopamine.
"Let's rest up here a little while."
Somewhere else, Luffy was lost.
Not "kind of" lost. He was super lost.
He had charged into the strange forest after seeing what he thought was Sanji. But turns out, nope—it was just a tree that looked like Sanji. A tree. With eyebrows???
"Oi! Sanji, your eyebrows look even curlier today!" Luffy shouted, grinning.
"I'm not Sanji, I'm a TREE!" the tree yelled, sweatdropping in disbelief. For the first time in his life, he had seen a creature which looked like a human but had even fewer braincells than bugs.
Little did he know that the size of the brain in both sizes was mostly the same.
Before Luffy could respond, more trees, flowers, and even talking mushrooms surrounded him. All of them were giggling, dancing, and whispering to each other.
"Dinner time!" one of the trees cackled.
"I bet he tastes like rubber candy!" a flower said, licking its lips.
"Stop talking about eating me! I'm not food!" Luffy yelled, punching one of the talking trees. It screamed dramatically and flew into the air.
"WAAAAAH! Why are you so mean to TREES!?"
More plant-creatures began attacking, throwing leaves like shurikens and vines like whips. Luffy ducked and weaved, but every time he punched one, three more showed up.
In the middle of all this madness, a clone of Nami suddenly ran out.
"Luffy! Over here!"
"Ah! Nami! Wait—I thought you were left behind!"
Then another Nami appeared.
"No! I'm the real Nami!"
Then a Chopper ran by.
"Luffy! Help! I'm being chased by myself!"
Luffy scratched his head. "Wait… which one of you is real again!?"
"IT'S A TRICK, IDIOT!" one of the fake Namis shouted, immediately giving herself away.
POW! Luffy launched her into the sky with a punch. "You're the fake one!"
Finally, after punching his way through an entire garden of weirdo talking plants, he found the real Nami, Chopper, and Carrot cornered by a strange woman with crazy hair, sharp teeth, and a mirror in her hand.
"HEEHEEHEE!" Brulee laughed. "You Straw Hats are SO dumb! Now say goodbye!"
In a flash, Brulee used her mirror powers to suck both Chopper and Carrot inside it.
"GYAAAAH! LUFFYYYYY!" Chopper screamed.
"HELP MEEEE!" Carrot yelled, slamming on the glass from inside the mirror.
Luffy tried to rush in, but vines wrapped around his legs, pulling him back.
"LET ME GOOOOO!" he shouted, stretching his arms to grab Brulee.
But she just dodged and laughed again. "Too slow! You'll never catch me! Mama will be so proud!"
Nami tried to help too, but the trees blocked her. That's when something shiny fell out of her shirt.
It was the vivre card that Lola had given her long ago.
One of the nearby trees spotted it and screamed, "AAAAAH! A piece of Big Mom's soul! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIVES!"
"What? Wait a second!" Nami blinked. "This thing is scaring the trees?"
All the plants suddenly stopped attacking. They stared at the vivre card like it was the devil itself.
"Wait, this card… it came from that weird zombie wedding lady!" Luffy remembered.
"Y-you mean… Lola?!" Nami said.
"Whaaa," Nami shouted, waving the paper around.
Suddenly, all the trees, vines, and talking flowers started bowing.
"Forgive us, oh honored guest! We didn't know you were carrying Mama's soul fragment!"
"Please don't tell her we attacked you!"
"We're not ready to die yet!"
Luffy blinked. "Oh… so you're scared of this paper?"
"IT'S NOT JUST PAPER!" the trees screamed. "IT'S MAMA'S SOUL!"
Brulee, seeing the plants stop, hissed. "Useless weeds! I'll deal with you later!"
She jumped back into the mirror world, leaving behind her strange forest. Luffy collapsed onto the grass.
"I'm hungry…"
Nami smacked him on the head. "Idiot! Chopper and Carrot got captured and you're thinking of food!?"
"But fighting trees is hard…"
Nami sighed and held up the vivre card. "Looks like this thing's our best chance now."
And so, the group continued—two friends down, a crazy forest behind them, and a very hungry rubber man still thinking about meat.
xxx
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