Summary:
While Pedro and Brook take the Shark Submerge III to Whole Cake Island to search for Big Mom’s Road Poneglyph, the rest of the Sanji Retrieval Team arrives on the island. Although they have seen Sanji several times, they are forced to chase him because he keeps running and eluding them. They end up in a forest made up mostly of sweets and come across a talking crocodile who almost eats them. While chasing Sanji, Luffy suddenly encounters a mirror copy of himself that mirrors his movements perfectly. Unaware of what is happening, Luffy attacks his doppelgänger who counters with the exact same attacks.
The Sanji Retrieval Team excitedly watches as the Shark Submerge III emerges from the third dock of the Thousand Sunny. Pedro and Brook are inside, ready to sneak in and get Big Mom’s Road Poneglyph. Pedro apologizes for having to take Brook on the mission too, but the Straw Hats don’t mind and Brook says he’s a good sneak. The duo then go underwater and swim through the river leading to Whole Cake Island.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Sanji Retrieval Team is skeptical of Luffy’s claim that he saw Sanji and Pudding on the beach, as he didn’t see the two of them, but got out and explored the beach. To their confusion, they didn’t see Sanji or Pudding anywhere, as Pudding had agreed to bring Sanji to this beach. To the delight of his teammates, Chopper discovers that the beach is made of whipped cream, and then suddenly sees Sanji standing by some woods in the back. They call out to him, but he doesn’t respond and instead runs into the woods. Confused, the team chases after him into the forest. Nami is especially confused as she remembers Sanji promising to return during his captivity on Zou. However, Luffy, Chopper, and Carrot are quickly captivated by the forest, which consists mostly of candy. They decide to split up and look for Sanji, but Nami points out that they would get lost that way and seem more interested in the candy lying on the roads they want to look for. The team tries to deny it, but are quickly distracted by the edible nature along the way, including a river of watermelon juice and a donut bridge.
Nami tries to snap them out of their distraction, but as they walk along the bridge, a giant crocodile jumps out from below and takes a large bite out of the bridge they were standing on. They barely manage to escape his jaws and avoid being eaten, and when they recover, Carrot asks Luffy if they should fight the crocodile. Luffy decides not to, and the crocodile looks at them as he decides not to eat them since they’re human before walking away on their hind legs. Nami is shocked to see a talking crocodile and is confused that Luffy didn’t think anything of it, but Luffy points out that they already have two talking animal-like creatures with them in the form of Chopper and Carrot. Suddenly, Luffy finds himself face to face with his duplicate and quickly confronts him. His duplicate seems to be a mirror image of himself, perfectly mirroring all the actions he does and things he says, and things like Luffy’s scar and accessories are reversed on the duplicate. Luffy gets angry at his mirror duplicate and attacks him, but the duplicate perfectly matches his attacks with the same ones. Suddenly, the team sees Sanji lying on a nearby tree branch with a lollipop in his hand, but again Sanji doesn’t seem to hear their calls and runs off again. Luffy tries to go after Sanji, but runs into his doppelganger and engages in a fight as they tell the others to go after him. As Nami, Chopper, and Carrot run after Sanji and try to keep up with him in the lollipop forest, Luffy continues to fight his mirror duplicate to a draw, angrily asking what it is, to which the duplicate simultaneously asks as well.