Chapter 278: Invitation
Dialogue "sample"
Thoughts 'sample'
Author notes -sample-
Disclaimer: One Piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.
Chapter 278: Invitation
"Greetings Strawhats, as I said before, my name is Pekoms." He pointed to the man at his right.
"This right here is my mate, Baron Tamago, and the last one…"
"Capone Bege!, you joined Big Mom?!" Law interrupted Pekoms.
The short man groaned.
"Yes, I did. I also married one of his daughters, so me and my crew are all now members of her family."
He scanned his surroundings and tried to stop for a second where he saw Sanji.
"Yes, Bege and his Fire Tank Pirates are a recent addition to our family." Admitted Pekoms.
"Let's get this over with, we are in a tight schedule." Tamago huffed with annoyance.
"You said you had a message, what is it?, is it from that Big Moma?" Asked Luffy.
Pekoms flinched at hearing the way Luffy referred to their Captain.
"Yes, we do. News has arrived to our ears that your crew has custody of the scientist known as Caesar Clown. You see, that man has a bit of a story with our Captain. To make the story short, he compromised to do something, took the payment, and never delivered what he promised to do. Momma doesn't take these insults lightly. So, BigMom has requested for Caesar to be turned into our custody so he may be delivered back to Whole Cake Island and receive his punishment."
"That sounded more like an order than a request." Vivi pointed out.
"No matter the case." Baron Tamago frowned.
"Give this person to us and we will have no further issues with your crew!."
"So, you also want that Caesar guy? That's...well that's too bad, we don't have it anymore." Said Luffy.
"Are we supposed to just believe that?" Bege grumbled.
"But is true!, Traffy gave him to the Marines." Luffy added.
"Traffy?" Pekoms looked around the crew members.
"That's me…"
Law lowered his face with embarrassment at the name Luffy gave him.
"Is true. We had no more use for him, so I turned him over to Admiral Fujitora. He is probably on his way to Enies Lobby already, or maybe they will take him directly to Impel Down, who knows."
"I see…that is very problematic." Pekoms looked remarkably worried now.
"We can't just leave it like that. You know that won't be enough for her!." Tamago shouted.
"That's right, we need to inspect the ship at the least. Or we could just take them back to the island with us. If someone is going to be punished i-"
"Vivi stop!" Luffy shouted the order with a level of authority that took the three visitors by surprise at seeing his quick change of demeanor from his goofy normal self.
It was then that Bege noticed something poking at the back of his neck. When he turned around, he was horrified to find a big needle made of pure crystalline ice, pointing at his face.
He felt his blood run cold at the realization. Without the Strawhat Captain's intervention, he would have died before understanding what happened.
Seeing this, both Pekoms and Tamago looked behind them but found no sharp objects pointing at them.
"Where did that come from?" Asked Pekoms. They thought to have a good understanding of the capabilities of every Strawhat member before going after them, just in case things went south. But it had become obvious that some miscalculation had taken place because they had no idea Vivi could do that.
"I was only going to give him a warning, I promise!" Vivi raised her hands defensively and gave her Captain an innocent smile.
"A warning was more than deserved. If they think they can come into our ship and do whatever they want." Zoro growled. his right hand was touching the pommel of his sword.
"L-Let's calm down, everyone." Pekoms stammered the words and hurried to defuse the situation.
"We did not come here to fight." He has come to realize that things will not end up well for them if a fight were to start here. And he was sure that his two companions did too.
"Well, we already told you that Caesar is not here. And our Captain is terrible at lying anyway. If we were hiding that man in here, he would have blurted something stupid by now." Sanji explained.
"Yeah, like the sam-mmmm!"
Luckily, Robin was quick to react and used her ability to cover Luffy's mouth before he could reveal that they were hiding a samurai.
"I understand…" Pekoms and Tamago stared at Luffy for a moment, trying to understand what he almost revealed.
"We do not want to put your word into question, Captain Luffy." Said Pekoms.
"Mmmm!" Luffy's mouth remained covered, just in case.
"We do have one more business with your crew," Tamago said, but he now sounded more respectful.
They saw the short man called Bege pull out an envelope from his jacket before walking straight to Sanji.
He then handed the well-decorated envelope to him, much to everyone's surprise.
"Here is an invite to Mama's Tea Party. And the grand event this time is a wedding. The groom will be the Vinkmoke family's third son, Sanji…and the bride will be the 25th daughter of the Charlotte family, Myukuru."
"A tea party?" Asked Nami.
"Sanji's family? he never mentioned them." Commented Brook.
"A wedding?" Exclaimed Usopp.
"Sanji is getting married?" Wondered Chopper.
"Take it," Said Bege, pushing the invitation into his hands.
Sanjis cigarrete fell from his mouth.
"Why would they do this now?!"
"Like I would know what that family of yours is thinking," he grumbled.
"But I can tell you one thing. Refusing is not an option you want to take...trust me on this one."
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