One Piece: It's always been you

Chapter 17 Why is she hiding behind her brother?

"I love you, please marry me."

"Lola, wait a minute before proposing, hurry up and find Pudding!"

Meanwhile, Brulee and Chiffon, unable to find Brulee, searched for her in the crowd, while Lola rushed up to propose to the person she liked as soon as she saw him.

"Sister Lola, you're really something." Qi Feng couldn't help but complain.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." Lola scratched her head. After being rejected, Lola began to seriously search for Pudding. "Pudding!"

“This won’t do any good. I’ll use the mirror to see if Pudding is there.” Brûlée took out the mirror and looked for Pudding.

"Sister Yu, you've eaten so much candy, you'll get cavities." Pudding leaned on Katakuri's shoulder, staring at Yu who was intently eating candy behind her.

"No, my teeth are fine. Little Brin, don't worry."

Yu wasn't worried about what Pudding was thinking at all. Actually, she hadn't eaten many; she'd only had one candy so far. It's just that Yu liked to suck on her candy, which gave Pudding the impression that she had been eating candy constantly and had eaten a lot of it.

As for the bag of candy in her hand, she stole it from Katakuri. Of course, Yu only did it because Pudding was around, and Katakuri wouldn't do anything to her for the time being. Normally, Yu wouldn't dare do it at all; she couldn't win...

"Katakuri-nii, where are Lola and the others? We still can't find them..."

"No rush." ​​Thanks to Lola's call of "Breen," he roughly knew they were nearby, so he wasn't in a hurry to go looking for them.

"Little Pudding, since your brother said so, let's play a little longer. Tell me if there's anything you like, and I'll buy it for you!" You leaned in and patted her chest.

"Hmm, there's nothing I really want. Actually, you can find everything here in the whole world..." Pudding pouted, not wanting to disappoint Yu's kindness.

"That's true. How about I make you some desserts when we get back to the Kingdom of Ten Thousand?"

"Can you teach me, Sister Yu?"

"Of course! I'm very talented at making food!" Yu proudly raised her head slightly.

“They also have a talent for creating chaos,” Katakuri’s eerie voice came from the side.

"Create chaos? Yu-neechan, what does Katakuri-nii mean by that?"

"It means nothing, don't listen to his nonsense." Yu glared at Katakuri fiercely, and she absolutely refused to admit it. It was just that the kitchen wasn't cleaned up in time; what nonsense about creating chaos was being exaggerated.

"Brother Katakuri?"

Huh? Little Pudding didn't speak. Whose voice was that? You looked in the direction of the sound and saw three people approaching. One had purple hair and slightly dark skin, while the other two had pink hair and... alluring red lips...

Yu didn't recognize the three people, but her first reaction upon seeing them was to hide behind Katakuri. She didn't know why she did it; it was just an instinctive reaction.

"Bree, Lola, Chiffon!" Pudding called out excitedly, "I've finally found you!"

"Breen, where have you been? Do you know how long I've been looking for you?" Breen was worried about Breen, but she couldn't suppress her anger.

"I'm sorry, Brulee. I mistook someone else for you. But Yu-nee saved me, and I also met Katakuri-nii." Brulee pouted, but she became a little excited when she mentioned Yu.

"It's good that you ran into Katakuri," Chiffon said.

"Sister Yu, why are you hiding behind your brother? Come out and meet Sister Brulee and the others."

"Y-you...hello...ah. I'm...Yu." Yu hesitated as she emerged from behind Katakuri, trembling as she extended her hand to Brulee.

Brulee glanced at Katakuri, and seeing that he didn't say anything, she also extended her hand. However, Yu quickly released her hand after a brief squeeze, retreating behind Katakuri to keep her distance from them and trying her best not to look at them.

Katakuri observed all of these actions, but said nothing. Katakuri believed that since Yuu could accept him and was so close to Pudding, it was only a matter of time before she got along well with Brulee.

"Brother, is this the one Mom asked you to find?" Brûlée whispered to Katakuri.

"Ah."

"She doesn't look particularly special. Mom even prepared a tea party to welcome her." In Brûlée's opinion, Yu was even a little scared of herself; there was nothing special about her at all. However, her pink hair was quite unique. Unlike her mother's pink hair, hers had some white streaks hidden among the pink.

"You've sneaked out; it's about time you went back."

"But, Katakuri-nii, I want to play a little longer~" Pudding said coquettishly, but when she saw Katakuri, she could only look to Yu for help, "Yu-neechan, Pudding wants to stay with you a little longer."

"Huh?" Yu was hiding behind Katakuri when Pudding called out to him unexpectedly. "Listen to your brother. We're going to Whole Cake Island soon. We'll see each other again soon."

"Let's go, Pudding." Brûlée took Pudding and, together with Lola Chiffon, returned the way they came.

Katakuri and Yu didn't linger in the town any longer, returning to the ship and speeding up their journey back to Whole Cake Island.

At night, Yu strolled onto the deck and saw Katakuri still sitting under the sail. Yu silently walked over and sat down next to him. The two sat there silently, understanding each other perfectly.

The moon was obscured by clouds, then reappeared; obscured again, then reappeared again. Katakuri kept his eyes closed, while Yu watched the light on the ground fade into darkness and then back to light. How much time passed...

"Katakuri..."

"You today..."