One Piece: It's always been you

Chapter 27 The Little Firecracker Explodes at the First Light

When Yu got home, she focused on figuring out how to break the biscuit armor on her own. She probably couldn't improve her strength anymore, so she could only rely on technique and learn to use skill.

But it's easier said than done.

For several days in a row, Yu was still only able to fight against the biscuit armor. What Cracker himself looked like was still a mystery to Yu.

However, there were still gains. Yu had completely mastered the One-Sword Style that her friend had taught her, and even improved upon it to develop her own unique method. This was largely thanks to the practical experience she gained from fighting Cracker, and of course, it also owed much to the extra guidance Katakuri gave her every night when he brought her milk.

Thinking of this, Yu reached out towards the table, only to grab nothing. Just as she was about to pull her hand back, a hand opened Yu's palm and placed a cup of warm milk on it.

You took a sip, looked up and blinked, "I want something iced."

Katakuri, as always, disagreed! In his view, drinking milk was no different from tasting black tea; black tea tastes best when hot, and the same principle applies to milk. Moreover, and most importantly, drinking it iced was bad for your health.

"Drinking iced drinks makes it harder to grow taller."

......

"What kind of twisted logic is that? Besides, I'm not short either. Although I can't compare to the extraordinary genes of your Big Mom family."

"Don't you know how short you are?" Katakuri's sudden remark almost made Yu spit out the milk in her mouth, but he changed the subject, "How's the harvest these past few days?"

"Not bad. It's just that I still couldn't break through his armor, and I still don't know what the brat looks like."

Are you so curious about what he looks like? You didn't go to such lengths to remove my scarf back then!

"He has not yet truly used his abilities."

This sudden remark caused You to fall into deep thought.

That seems to be correct. Although the cookies were created using his abilities, he hasn't really used them for anything other than as armor. In physical combat and swordsmanship, he's barely on par; what if he added his abilities to that?

Yu felt like she had suddenly gone back to square one, realizing that she was still not capable enough.

"You can heal the wounds caused by Devil Fruits, so have you ever thought about turning that into a method of attack?"

With that, Yu gave Katakuri a thumbs-up and praised him.

Yu then began a new brainstorming session. Katakuri neither left nor spoke, but sat to the side, casually picking up a notebook from Yu's desk and flipping through it.

It's not anything important. It contains pictures of some food, sample results, and ingredient ratios. Some of them are recipes I've seen before, while others are recipes I haven't seen before, which are ones that Yu has researched himself. I haven't tried them yet, but judging from the looks of them, they should taste pretty good.

The sudden blank page made Katakuri think it was the end. But to his surprise, it was just a break in the middle, and a striking line of text caught Katakuri's eye—"The Tsundere Man and His Donuts."

Next to the words "tsundere man," there's a drawing of Katakuri saying in a serious tone, "From now on, you're in charge of my afternoon tea." Besides that, there's a footnote in the margin—"Tsk tsk tsk, this tsundere man likes the donuts I make but won't admit it, so he just bosses me around!"

Katakuri glanced at Yu, but seeing that she was still concentrating on her work, he looked away and continued watching.

Each subsequent page features a different flavor of donut, with modifications made to the recipe for each flavor, and each page also includes different annotations.

— Arrogant men are so strange. They have to eat alone. How am I supposed to know if the food is to my liking?

—It's been days already, is he only eating donuts?! I'm completely out of ideas!

—I! Had afternoon tea with him today!

—Ka-2 even hums a tune while enjoying afternoon tea, how adorable!

——......

—Karry, aside from being a bit arrogant, is actually quite... good.

Katakuri finished reading them, his heart filled with warmth. Ever since Yu took charge of afternoon tea, there were so many different kinds of donuts available, and sometimes when he wanted a certain flavor, he would be drawn to another. Yu was very good at catching his taste buds.

However, Katakuri is taking this notebook away. Yu even drew herself lying down, humming a song and eating a donut inside. If she just leaves it lying around on the table like that, and someone sees it one day, her image will be ruined.

Although her drawing was very beautiful, it was still confiscated!

Katakuri's thinking is correct. Yu was indeed very casual about this notebook, so much so that it wasn't discovered until much later that it had disappeared.

Katakuri took the notebook back to his room and returned. Yu was still engrossed in his work, completely unaware of what Katakuri had done or that his notebook was missing.

One person sits at the desk brainstorming, while another sits behind them with their eyes closed, occasionally glancing at them.

After an unknown amount of time, even breathing came from the desk. Katakuri opened his eyes, looked at the pink head sleeping soundly on the desk, gently rubbed it, reached out and carried the person to bed to rest. After making sure the person was alright, he closed the door and left.

"Hey! What's wrong with you today?"

Cracker had been fighting with Yu for a while and realized that her attacks were weak today. To be precise, it seemed like she was just playing around. Just when he thought she was going to make a move, she would withdraw.

After a while, Cracker got a little annoyed.

"Did you give up because you realized you had no hope of breaking through my armor?"

"Hey kid, don't be in such a hurry. The real show is just beginning."

After Yu finished speaking, her plan reached its final step. She leaped away from Cracker, watching with great interest what would happen next.

"boom"

With a snap of his fingers, Cracker clearly felt his biscuit armor crack from the inside out, and something seemed to be growing wildly and spreading throughout his body.

Yu's playful attacks were intentional, designed to get the seeds inside the biscuit. Once the number was sufficient, she would let the seeds grow and destroy the biscuit from the inside. Her external power was insufficient, but the seeds, once they reached a certain number, provided they had enough power.

Furthermore, she didn't just randomly place seeds. After several days of battles, Yu had roughly figured out some of the more vulnerable spots on the Biscuit Armor. Targeting the problem effectively would yield twice the result with half the effort.

"No wonder you were hiding inside your armor!"

The armor shattered, revealing Cracker's true form. Seeing the once towering Biscuit Warrior suddenly shrink, Yu found it amusing; apparently, his brother had shrunk because he wasn't tall enough.

Looking at this kid, I bet he's not even as tall as me. Katakuri was mocking me yesterday for not growing tall enough; now I have a reason to drink iced milk.

"So it's because you're not tall enough. I see you can't even..." Hmm? Something seems off?

As Yu slowly approached, he realized something was wrong. Although Cracker wasn't as tall as the Biscuit Warriors or Katakuri, he was taller than Yu. Milk! Drink more milk! For calcium!

"Even what?"

"It's nothing..." Yu didn't want to continue the topic of height. "How is it? Your armor is broken."

It was broken, but not completely. There were still some small pieces on Cracker's body, which he had to brush off himself. While brushing the cookie off, he tucked his weapon, the "Pretzel," behind his waist. "I didn't know you could use your abilities like this! I underestimated you."

"Hahaha! Hahaha! Your hairstyle!" Yu burst out laughing as soon as she saw Cracker's appearance. "Are you serious about this hairstyle?! It's so funny?! Hahaha!"

"Hmm? You have a problem with that?" Cracker glanced at the two tufts of hair at the back of his head, the tips of which were sparkling, and thought to himself, "I look really cool!" He liked it!

"No...opinion, it's beautiful! From now on, I'll call you Little Firecracker." You laughed, clutching her stomach and wiping away her tears. "Little Firecracker, when is your hair going to explode? Are we going to see fireworks?"

"No! If you want to see, I can show you around the stars right now." Don't think that just because you're one of Katakuri's men, I won't dare to hit you.

"Little firecracker, don't explode at the slightest touch. I'm not saying anything more, hahaha."

Yu straightened her posture, put on her back, and put away her smile, becoming very serious. If it weren't for the tears welling up in her eyes, Cracker would have really believed it.

"I have to say, after seeing this hairstyle so many times, it actually looks pretty good."

"..."

"Don't be angry, how about this? I'll take you to another island for a stroll, as compensation." Actually, Yu wanted to go out for a walk herself; it's good to practice regularly and relax. Besides, she hadn't seen Little Pudding in a long time.

"Aren't you afraid your brother will find out? Besides, you don't look like you know the way." Cracker asked sincerely.

"It's okay, I'll be back before your brother arrives, he won't know. It's fine if I don't know the way, you definitely do." Yu stood on tiptoe, hooking her arm around Cracker's neck. "Let's go!"