Back at the stall, the sun was setting. Nami was counting coins, her fingers moving fast. Vivi was helping a last customer, her posture regal, her smile warm but distant—a queen granting an audience.
Mira was twirling for her fan club, her maid dress flaring, her headband catching the fading light. Robin stood with her arms crossed, relaxed now that Takuya was back, her eyes still scanning but her shoulders loose.
Nami looked up at Vivi. "How much did we make?"
Vivi glanced at the pile. "Almost two hundred thousand berries."
Nami's eyes turned into berry symbols. "Two hundred—"
"Thousand," Vivi confirmed, smiling at Nami's expression.
Takuya walked up, the south bird tucked under his arm. The South Bird held there like a cat that had given up on struggling. The bird's head pointed south, unmoving, its beak slightly open, breathing hard from the adventure.
"Found it," he said. "We leave at dawn." He glanced at the bird. "He's tired. Let him rest in the ship."
He looked at Nami. "How many did you sell?"
"Almost two hundred," Nami said, not taking her eyes off the money.
Takuya nodded. "Good enough." He looked at Robin. "Any trouble?"
Robin smiled. "None worth mentioning."
"Good." Takuya's voice dropped, his eyes moving toward the main street where the first shouts of confusion were starting. "Because trouble is coming here. Pack up. Let's watch the show from somewhere far away."
He handed the south bird to Mira, who took it gently, cooing at it like a pet. "Hello, Mr. South Bird. You're going to help us find the sky."
The bird pecked her finger. Mira giggled.
Nami grabbed the money. Vivi folded the table. Mira waved goodbye to her fan club. Robin walked behind them, her hands loose, her steps light.
They found a spot on a rooftop overlooking the town. The last light of the sun faded. And then the screaming started.
The drugged cookies had kicked in. People weren't just hungry—they were desperate. Their bodies felt the rush, the high, and then the crash. They wanted more. They needed more.
A man punched his friend for a half-eaten cookie left on a table. Two pirates flipped a stall looking for the source. A woman screamed that someone had stolen her cookie and started throwing chairs. A fat man in a striped shirt was crying in the corner, snot running down his face, wailing, "I just wanted one more! Just one!"
The chaos spread like fire.
Nami watched, her mouth open. Then she turned to Takuya. "You drugged the cookies."
Takuya said nothing. He just watched the chaos below like it was a nature documentary. A man ran past holding three cookies, chased by five others. Takuya tilted his head slightly, observing.
"You can't just—you shouldn't do that to normal people. You need to apologize." Nami grabbed his arm. "Wait. We ate those cookies too. Me. Vivi. Robin. Mira. What's going to happen to us?"
Takuya looked at her. "You've already eaten enough cookies with the cures mixed in that you're immune. All of you are. Unless I change the quantities or the配方, nothing's going to happen to you."
Nami blinked. "Cures? You've been giving us cures this whole time?"
"You think I'd let my own people get caught in the crossfire?" He raised an eyebrow. "I'm not an amateur."
Nami opened her mouth, closed it, then shook her head. "That's not the point. The point is—"
"The point," Takuya interrupted, turning to face her fully, "is that if I apologize, you'd have to give back all the money you scammed off them."
Nami's face went blank.
"Especially you," he added, gesturing at the bulging money pouch in her arms. "You're the one who sold those cookies at sky-high rates. Five hundred berries each. Almost two hundred sold. You're looking at a hundred thousand berries in pure profit. Do you really want to hand that back?"
Nami's lips pressed together. Her fingers tightened around the pouch.
The chaos below continued. A man tripped over a barrel and face-planted into a pile of fish guts. Someone threw a chair through a window. The crying fat man had now curled into a fetal position.
Nami's face went through a series of expressions—shock, outrage, calculation, and then... peace. A strange, unsettling peace.
She smiled. Bright. Innocent. Completely fake. Like a saint who had never done anything wrong in her entire life. Like an angel who had never even thought about money.
"What are you talking about?" Her voice was sweet. Too sweet. Syrup sweet. Honey sweet. The kind of sweet that rots your teeth just by hearing it. "I don't see any fighting. All I see is you, my darling. The rest of the world has gone blind for me."
She blinked at him, eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings.
Everyone stared at her.
Vivi snorted first, covering her mouth. Mira burst out laughing, holding the south bird in her arms, the bird looking deeply confused by everything happening. Robin covered her mouth with both hands, her shoulders shaking. Even Takuya cracked a smile—a real one, not his usual smirk.
"You're unbelievable," he said.
"I'm practical," Nami replied, still holding her money tight against her chest like a mother protecting her newborn child from a pack of wolves. "There's a difference."
"You sold the cookies," Takuya said. "You took their money. You're just as guilty as I am."
Nami's eye twitched. "I didn't know they were drugged."
"You didn't ask."
She threw her free hand up. "Why would I ask if cookies were drugged? That's not a normal question! 'Excuse me, sir, before I sell these, are they laced with anything?' Who asks that?!"
Takuya tilted his head, calm as still water. "You sell cookies in a pirate town. You charge five hundred berries for something that costs fifty to make. And you didn't think to ask if there was something special in them?"
Nami opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Her finger pointed at him, then dropped, then pointed again.
"...That's different."
"How?"
"Because—" She stopped. Her eyes darted left, then right, searching for an escape route. Finding none, she jabbed her finger at his chest. "You're deflecting! This isn't about me! This is about you drugging innocent people!"
A loud crash came from below. A man threw another man through a table. The table shattered. The thrown man got up and threw a chair back. Someone screamed, "WHO ATE MY COOKIE?!" Another voice answered, "I DIDN'T EAT YOUR STUPID COOKIE!" The first voice: "THEN WHY IS THERE CRUMBS ON YOUR SHIRT?!"
Takuya gestured toward the chaos with a lazy wave of his hand. "Innocent?"
Nami looked at the fighting, the shouting, the crying fat man now sucking his thumb in the corner. She looked back at Takuya.
"...They were innocent before you drugged them."
"They were pirates, Nami."
"They were paying customers!" She stomped her foot.
"Who you robbed."
"I didn't rob them!" Her voice rose an octave. "I provided a service! A delicious, overpriced service!" She hugged the money pouch tighter, pressing it against her ribs like it was part of her body. "And I'm not giving it back."
Takuya raised an eyebrow. "So no apology?"
Nami narrowed her eyes into slits. "I'll apologize when you apologize for making me an accomplice to mass cookie poisoning."
"You're not an accomplice." Takuya crossed his arms. "I'm the producer. But you? You're the dealer. You're the one putting the product in their hands, taking their money, sending them on their way with a smile. I just bake. You push."
Nami's face went red. Red like a tomato. Red like her hair. Red like the sunset behind them.
"I am not a drug dealer!" she shrieked.
"You're holding a bag of money from drug sales," Takuya said flatly.
Nami looked down at the pouch. Then up at him. Then down at the pouch. Then back at him.
"That's—that's different."
"How?"
"Because—" She stopped. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.
Vivi was now openly laughing, holding onto Robin's arm for support, tears streaming down her face. Mira had put the south bird on her head and was spinning slowly, trying to make it dizzy. The bird's head stayed pointing south. Mira kept spinning.
Robin wiped a tear from her eye. "I haven't laughed like this in years."
"Don't encourage him!" Nami snapped, whipping around to face Robin. Her face was still red, her eyes wild. "You're always on his side! You're the closest to him, you always favor him, and you're not helping!"
Robin didn't flinch. She just smiled, smooth as silk. "I'm encouraging both of you," she said. "Equally."
Nami's eye twitched again.
Another crash. Another scream. A man ran past their building holding three cookies, pursued by five others. Nami watched him go, then looked at her money pouch, then at Takuya.
"...How long does the drug last?"
"About an hour."
Nami did some quick math. "And then they'll just... go home?"
"They'll crash. Sleep it off. Wake up with a headache and no memory of why they're covered in bruises."
Nami nodded slowly. "So... no permanent damage?"
"None, that they don't inflict upon themselves or someone else."
She exhaled. "Okay. Then I don't feel bad."
"Of course you don't," Takuya said with a low sarcastic chuckle..
"I'm practical," she repeated, patting her money pouch. "There's a difference."
Loud footsteps approached from below. A man in explorer's gear—tall, broad-shouldered, with a pipe in his mouth—stood in the middle of the chaos, looking around with a tired expression. He had a monkey on his shoulder and a skull tattoo on his chest.
Below, a new wave of chaos erupted. Someone had found the remaining cookie stash and was holding it above their head like a trophy. A dozen pirates surged toward them.
Mont Blanc Cricket stood in the middle of the street, his pipe hanging from his mouth, his eye twitching. He stepped over an unconscious body and looked up at the rooftop.
His eyes met Takuya's.
"Who did this?" Mont Blanc Cricket muttered to himself, stepping over an unconscious pirate. "Who turned my quiet island into a cookie warzone?"
"Did you do this?" Cricket called out while looking at Takuya.
Takuya waved down at him. "Depends. Are you angry?"
Cricket looked at the crying fat man, the overturned stalls, the man now licking cookie crumbs off the ground. He looked back up at Takuya.
"Yes," he said. "I'm angry."
Takuya nodded. "Then yes. I did this."
Nami buried her face in her hands. "I can't believe this is my life."
The chaos below showed no signs of stopping. A man was now trying to climb a lamppost to escape the mob, clutching a single cookie in his teeth. His pants had fallen down around his ankles, but he didn't seem to notice or care. Another had stripped off his shirt and was waving it like a white flag, screaming, "I DON'T HAVE ANY MORE! I SWEAR! I ONLY ATE TWO! PLEASE!"
A bald pirate was crying in the corner, rocking back and forth, whispering, "The crunch... the sweet, sweet crunch... I need it again..."
Two men were locked in a fierce staring contest over the last cookie crumb on the ground. Neither had blinked in three minutes. A woman had climbed onto a barrel and was preaching about the coming of the "Cookie Messiah" to a crowd of unconscious bodies.
Cricket stood in the middle of it all, pinching the bridge of his nose. His monkey chattered nervously on his shoulder, covering its eyes with tiny paws.
"You," Cricket said, pointing his pipe up at Takuya. "Come down here. We need to talk."
Takuya smiled. "In a minute. I'm enjoying the view."
Nami peeked over the edge of the rooftop. Her eyes moved across the chaos—the man on the lamppost, the crying bald pirate, the staring contest, the cookie messiah preacher. Her stomach twisted.
She looked down at the money pouch in her hands. Heavy. Full. Stolen, basically. She had scammed hungry people into paying five hundred berries for cookies that cost pennies to make. Sure, they were pirates. Sure, they would have robbed her if they had the chance. But still...
She looked at Takuya.
He raised an eyebrow at her and gestured toward the money pouch with his chin. 'Well? Want to give it back?'
Nami looked at the pouch. Then at the chaos. Then at the pouch again. Then back at Takuya.
She stuck out her tongue at him.
Then she hugged the pouch tighter and turned back to the chaos without a single shred of guilt left on her face. 'Mine. All mine. Finders keepers, druggers weepers.'
Robin moved closer to Takuya. A small ear sprouted on the side of his face, near his jaw. A tiny mouth bloomed beside it, hidden by his collar.
"The people who were following us," Robin murmured through the sprouted mouth, her voice barely a vibration against his skin. "I don't see them anymore."
Takuya's expression didn't change. He kept watching Cricket climb onto the awning below. "How many?"
"Three. Maybe four. They didn't look exactly like they were spying on us, but their actions were very shady even for bystanders. They were there an hour ago. Keeping their distance. Watching the stall."
Robin's real eyes swept the rooftops opposite them, the narrow side streets, the doorways of closed shops. Nothing moved. "Now they're gone. Either they lost us in the commotion, or they decided to cut their losses."
Takuya nodded slowly, his lips barely moving. "Or they're very good at hiding."
"Should I have Mira look around?" Robin's sprouted mouth curved into a small smile. "She's very enthusiastic."
"No," Takuya said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "She's good at being found. Not at finding. There's a difference."
Mira stopped spinning, the south bird still balanced on her head. "Master! Should I go find the bad guys? I can sniff them out! I once found a lost kitten in a burning building!"
Takuya looked at her. "That building wasn't burning, Mira. You set off the fire alarm because you burned toast."
Mira paused. "I still found the kitten though."
"The kitten was sitting on your head."
Mira touched her head. The south bird pecked her finger. "Oh. Right." She shrugged, then went back to spinning, the bird bouncing gently with each turn. "Well, I'm still good at things!"
A/N: If my story made you smile even once, that's a win for me. That's what I want to live for—brightening dull days and reminding people that joy still exists. My dream is to make a difference in someone's life through my stories, to someday reach a legendary level of storytelling, and spread as much happiness I can in this world, before I take my leave from this world.
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