Once Queen had departed with Arceus and others, Perospero and his crew found themselves trapped in the seasand, unable to break free. For ordinary pirates, the waterlogged seasand was too heavy for them to exert any force.
As for Perospero, the seawater above was what was restricting him. It wasn’t until other members of Big Mom’s crew arrived that Perospero was dug out.
“Brother Peros…”
“Oh, Compote, it’s you. Wasn’t Mom supposed to come personally?”
Charlotte Compote, the eldest daughter of the Charlotte family. Seeing that the person who had come was Compote, Perospero breathed a slight sigh of relief. As long as Charlotte Linlin herself didn’t come, it means her anger was at least still under control.
“Mom is still very angry, but don’t worry too much, Brother Peros. Your punishment this time probably won’t be too severe, I think?”
“What happened?”
“Mom originally wanted to come in person, but she received a phone call from someone earlier. It’s possible that this matter is no longer something we can handle. Additionally, Totto Land has some guests of Mom’s right now, so that’s why she didn’t come herself. But since you didn’t bring back the bananas Mom wanted, punishment is definitely unavoidable.”
Perospero sat down on the ground with a headache. “Not too severe” meant he wouldn’t have his lifespan extracted, but what the actual punishment would be was hard to say.
“Sir Perospero, actually they didn’t take all the bananas.”
After returning from the banana forest, some people brought back something that made Perospero slightly happy. They were the damaged bananas affected in the previous battle – some with burnt outer skin, some cut by candy fragments, and some squished.
After loading all the bananas and banana seedlings onto the ship, the hold was already full, and they also needed to take away the prisoners and other pirates, so these damaged fruits were left behind here.
Looking at the damaged fruits, Perospero felt conflicted.
Charlotte Linlin’s anger was partly related to food, and it was simple to calm her rage – find the food she needed. But these were all damaged fruits.
“Compote, you’re willing to help me, right?”
“Brother Peros, what do you want to do?”
Compared to their mother, the Charlotte siblings were more harmonious, especially during Big Mom’s eating disorder episodes.
Not everyone in the Charlotte family is skilled at cooking, especially the sons. However, the daughters of the Charlotte family are somewhat good at making desserts.
And Compote is particularly good at making Fruit Compote. The chopped fruits are boiled thoroughly, and after sweet spices are added, it is mixed with syrup for consumption. In the past, this was a way of preserving fruits, which is also known as fruit canning. Depending on the different cooking times and sugar content added, different dishes can be created.
Seeing Perospero’s gaze, Compote seemed to understand what he wanted to do.
“Brother Peros, do you want to…”
“Ah, cut off the bad parts, and then process it so that we can bring it back for Mom.”
You never know in what environment or with what materials your food was processed, as long as it tastes good and the issue isn’t exposed, it’s not considered a big deal.
Big Mom doesn’t really care much about food safety and hygiene. Homies, which she has imbued with her soul, run around in various places every day. When her eating disorder breaks out, she’ll even eat the houses made of food. But no one has ever heard of her getting a stomach ache.
As for why he still had bananas even after failing, he just needed to explain that he had robbed them during the previous battle. Big Mom’s intelligence plummets when faced with food.
Compote chose to deceive her own mother instead of exposing Perospero. This kind of thing isn’t a big deal, as long as they don’t speak, no one will know.
Only those who came with Perospero knew about this. The people who came with Compote were not here, and Perospero wasn’t worried that his people would report it.
“You all know Mom’s personality. If I’m punished, there is a high chance that you will lose your lives. If you want to survive, work obediently according to Compote’s instructions. As for reporting to Mom, I believe you won’t do such a stupid thing.”
“Sir Perospero, don’t worry. We understand.”
There’s no such thing as credits and mistakes canceling each other out in the Big Mom Pirates. At most, the punishment would be reduced from taking away 50 years of lifespan to taking away 40 years. Even if they do nothing, they will still be punished upon returning. Therefore, they might as well board Perospero’s ship.
After simple processing, they obtained a lot of bananas that looked fine. Although they were not yet fully ripe, they were suitable for this purpose.
Perospero’s devil fruit ability can provide a lot of high-quality syrup. Although some people may find it too sweet, it does not have a significant impact on Big Mom.
After processing, they got a big bowl of Fruit Compote, with bananas as the main ingredient and other fruits as the garnish.
There aren’t any major issues with these ingredients. They just experienced a few minor mishaps earlier, so Compote didn’t mind and even tasted them herself.
“This taste… no wonder it piqued our mother’s interest. But Brother Peros, if mom becomes addicted to this taste, what will we do if she asks us to keep looking for this banana in the future?”
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Let’s get past this first.”
Tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, as for what to do with the east wall, he doesn’t have time to think about it now. He needed to save the west wall first. [TN: Figuratively it means resorting to a makeshift solution, which is not likely to solve the problem.]
With a nervous heart, Perospero and Compote boarded the ship back to Totto Land.
Not long ago, on the main island of Totto Land – Whole Cake Island.
After the last eating disorder ended, the Big Mom Pirates returned here.
Perospero was unable to bring back the bananas within the specified time, and the others couldn’t find a substitute for this type of banana.
They tried various bananas of Totto Land, but none of them could match the sweetness of this banana. Moreover, this type of banana also contained a unique sweetness of other fruits and cleverly blended them together.
This challenged Big Mom’s patience to some extent. She was supposed to go and look for Perospero personally, but at this time, Kaido’s call arrived.
“You mean that island belongs to you?”
“That’s right, Linlin, your people invaded my territory. That’s not really appropriate, is it?”
“Mama-hahaha~ Mama-hahaha~ Kaido, it seems like you’ve been doing alright lately. However, I’m very interested in that thing.”
“But they belong to my subordinate. You can forget about taking them away if he doesn’t agree.”
“It seems like we can’t settle this over the phone.”
“Don’t worry, I’m already on my way.”
Saying that, Kaido hung up the phone, and at this time, Big Mom also heard the commotion outside the gate.
“Mom! Not good, something’s coming!”