Pocket Thief [Katakuri x Reader]

4. Build Up

Meetings among the Big Mom pirates are either well organized or break out into a fight, today seemed like it was the former.

"If you got something to say then say it to my face-!" Cracker slams his hands on the table, stirring a few teacups.

"All I'm saying is that you would keep track of your production if you weren't so busy playing around with your biscuit soldiers." Snack says passive-aggressively, crossing his arms over his chest to avoid any able slamming.

"Are you deaf or something? I'm telling you we sent that shipment days ago!" Cracker responds.

"Oh yeah then where did it go?" Amande butts in. "Production on Nuts Island lowered because of it, do you have any idea how much paperwork I had to file through??"

Katakuri keeps his eyes closed while he listens to his brothers and sister argue among themselves. After a while he eventually stands from his seat, the rest of the siblings stay quiet, eyeing him almost expectantly. "It's time for my merienda," he says simply, gaining Perospero's approval to leave early.

"Go ahead, you can rejoin us for the second half of the meeting perorin." the eldest waved a hand to Katakuri before directing his attention to Cracker. "You'll have to recover make up for the lost shipment one way or another perorin, I suggest you use those biscuit soldiers to find that shipment, I want to know where it went and why you lost track of it in the first place." the eldest states calmly, unlike his worked up younger brother.

"But that's gonna take me forever!" Cracker whines.

"Then you better get started."

_____

Cracker's shipment wasn't the only one that disappeared from the radar, slowly but surely more and more ships started going missing even though they barely started sailing. Even with this chain of events the Big Mom pirates tried to keep it under wraps from the public eye. Meanwhile, the common folk like you who just live day by day are more sensitive to the little changes when doing simple tasks like buying groceries

"150 berri for this melon? That's double the price from last week! It's not even in good condition."

"You buy what you see, leave it or take it!" the salesman defends, even if the patch of mold is as clear as day.

"I'm not gonna spend 150 berri for food poisoning-!"

"Well too bad, last time I checked you want a melon and I happen to sell them." the man crosses his arms over his chest rather stubbornly.

"Oh you know where you can shove your moldy ass melon-?" you begin, however your voice lowered when you saw a kid walk up the stall.

"Dad, when are you gonna come home with meat? We wanna eat something else that isn't fruit salad." the kid asks innocently. The man hushed the boy, looking at you with embarrassment.

"Tell momma I'll try to bring something different, even if its just a few carrots." the older man whispers to the child, handing him a small melon. "Why don't you take this melon and try to sell it to the lady at the spice stall."

The kid nods, grabbing the melon before rushing off somewhere else.

"Your kid?" you ask, the tone of your voice much more docile and calm than a while ago.

"Yeup." he grunts, rubbing the back of his neck in a more comprehensive voice.

"No way to hide that, he's like a carbon copy of you." Your compliment brought a smile to the man's face.

"He does doesn't he?" This surprisingly lighten ups the mood, his grumpy expression relaxing with the conversation. The man sighs, rubbing the back of his neck apologetically. "Sorry miss, good fruit is harder to come by ever since the shipments become less and less." the older man explains.

You sigh. "It's fine, things have been hard for me too." you agree. Digging into your pocket for any spare change. The lack of clients has left you as broke as these market sellers, not to mention paying renovations didn't help in the slightest.

"And yet, the more fortunate have access to all the goods while us peasants are left with rotten fruits." he grumbles while you count the coins on your hand, barely reaching the amount he asks for.

The salesman tries to give you your change but you reject it with the shake of your head. "Keep the change," you shrug. "If I were that kid i'd be sick and tried of fruit salad by now." you joke.

The man gives you a brief chuckle. "You're not as bad as I thought."

"Likewise."

______

Purururu

Ka-cha!

"What is it? I'm busy!" Cracker complains through the den den mushi. Anyone would be as grouchy as he is if they were stacked to the brim in paperwork.

"Sweet Commander Cracker we finally found the missing shipment-!"

Cracker's frown turned upside down at the news, maybe he'll be able to save himself from these documents after all!

"Give me the location, I'll send a few workers to pick up the cargo for me."

"... Uh about that. You're not gonna like it."

When he heard the news that his ship was found, Cracker imagined there would only be a few missing crates or damaged ones, but no. The ship, or what is left of it, is left in shambles without a single crate in sight.

"It's only been two weeks?! How could so much cargo disappear in a matter of days?" Cracker slams his sword against a part of the ship debris, absolutely pissed off to no end. Looks like he'll have more paperwork to sort through.

"We found this note left behind." one of the officers hands it to the sweet commander.

This didn't help in the slightest, with Cracker almost shredding the paper at the sight of a laughing face at the bottom. "Send a message to every vigilance tart-" he grips the paper in his trembling hand. "I want to know who these thieves are and I want their heads served on a silver platter-!"

But there are things better said than done.