Encounter in the Hotel

*Tap Tap Tap*

A soft knocking at the door of the penthouse suite drew the attention of both ladies and rather annoyingly dampened the good mood they had been building up.

Cherry unwillingly extracted herself from Robin's arms and marched herself over to the door and flung it open, surprising the already quite flustered hotelier who was about to knock again.

"What do you want?" Cherry interrogated curtly with a scowl.

The well dressed man with a waxed handlebar mustache almost let out a girlish squeal from the hostility that Cherry was radiating in his direction, but managed to compose himself thanks to his years of practice dealing with high profile individuals.

"Y-yes, madam. Would it be possible to ask you to downgrade to one of our standard luxury suites? Your stay with us will be complimentary and you would be doing us a huge favor!" The man spoke with haste.

Cherry glanced at the several maids waiting nervously behind the man with cleaning supplies and fresh linens. She then directed her attention to her Life Sense, quickly picking up two devil fruit users on the ground floor, one of whom had a rather powerful life force.

It was easy to understand what was going on and Cherry felt that she could forgive the man for his interruption since he was polite about the matter. She was still annoyed, however, and decided to redirect her frustration to the individuals who apparently thought they could bully her around.

"Very well, we'll move rooms." Cherry said, which caused the man to heave a giant sigh of relief before piecing together his mask of professionalism once more.

"I am MOST appreciative and do hope that you enjoy your stay in our hotel! Feel free to help yourself to room service and the minibar free of charge as well!" The man gave her a bow before directing the small army of maids to clean the room and replace the linens on the beds.

Robin and Cherry were led by the hotelier to their new room which was already prepared for them. With one last string of thank yous and bows of gratitude he left them alone.

"Do you think one of the Four Emperors showed up?" Robin asked with mild amusement, wondering who could possibly make the hotel ask Cherry to leave her room.

"Pfft, no. It might be one of their subordinates, though. I'll go check them out. If they're some of Whitebeard's or Shanks' people, I'll kick their asses." Cherry said, dropping off the balcony of their new room.

She circled around to the main lobby where the two devil fruit users were still waiting. She could already hear the shrill voice of a woman loudly complaining about how long it was taking.

"How long could it possibly take to vacate one room?! Are you trying to make us angry?! Huh?!" The woman spoke with a tone that grated on one's nerves.

Cherry peaked through the glass doors of the front entrance at the two people while using her full effort to hide her presence and removed any hostility she felt towards them in her heart.

She saw the woman who looked to be about three and half meters tall, rail thin, with grayish skin, purple hair, and a long red nose.

The man standing next to her was a bit over five meters tall with short red hair and a furry scarf around his neck and lower face. He was clearly the more powerful of the two.

The man turned his head to look behind himself in Cherry's direction.

'This guy's observation haki is monstrous…' Cherry admired silently. The one thing she hated about haki was that it was hard to get a good gauge of how good another person was at it.

Seeing she was found out anyways, she didn't bother to hide anymore and confidently strolled into the main lobby through the front entrance.

The hotelier from before had only just now arrived to tell them that the penthouse was ready for them when he saw Cherry walking towards them. He briefly imagined his hotel exploding in a massive explosion and tried to think of ways to avoid that terrible future, before realizing it was useless to resist and accepted his fate.

"Finally, it's about time, isn't it Onii-chan?" The woman said, before noticing he was looking back toward the entrance.

"I don't believe that we're acquainted; I am Harpin D. Cherry. I'm still new to the pirate game, but perhaps you've heard of my meager accomplishments?" Cherry opened with some false humility.

"I know who you are." The man spoke curtly, but his eyes betrayed a mild interest.

"Are you here for the auction as well? Perhaps we're here for the same thing, wouldn't that be fun?" Cherry said with a smile, ignoring the man's rudeness from not introducing himself. 'He probably thinks I already know who he is. I really should look through the big bounties so I don't end up in awkward situations like this one.'

The man had his own thoughts. 'Mama said she wanted to try and recruit her, but I didn't expect to meet her here. I should wait until after the auction to speak with her in case I need to use force.'

"Perhaps we can talk after the auction then. Good luck." The man cut off the conversation, turning to the hotelier who took the hint and began leading them to the penthouse.

The woman looked rather annoyed with the brief encounter, but didn't seem intent on making a scene or going against the man's words.

'He's not much of a talker, huh?' Cherry thought, both glad and disappointed that he didn't just start a fight with her. She had even been tempted to probe him with Conqueror's Haki, but thought better of it.

"I don't like it." The woman, Charlotte Brulee, complained with a pout. "Why not just capture her? It'll be easy for you, Onii-chan."

"She may not be strong enough to beat me, but she has decent chances of escaping. Besides, the lunarian woman wasn't with her and we can't let her slip away either. Mama wants them both and preferably with their consent." The man, Charlotte Katakuri, patiently explained to his sister.

"She's just some rookie. I don't think she even knew who we were!" Brulee dismissed.

"We'll try to convince her to meet with Mama, perhaps at her next tea party. If she refuses, then we'll find an opportunity to entrap her and the lunarian woman." Katakuri said, this time with a tone of authority.

Brulee grumbled a bit more, but made no complaints as she trusted her beloved older brother's judgment.

Meanwhile, Cherry had returned to the new room and explained the encounter to Robin along with the descriptions of the two individuals.

"I think they're Big Mom's children. The man should be Charlotte Katakuri, her most powerful 'Sweet Commander'. It was wise that you didn't pick a fight like I thought you would." Robin said, giving her a look that said "stop causing trouble".

"I wonder why he wanted to speak to me then?" Cherry asked.

"Because Big Mom is a collector, and both you and Cabernet are rarities, especially Cabernet. You need to be cautious, Cherry." Robin was quite serious about that.

"Okay, okay! I won't antagonize them and I'll avoid them if I can." Cherry tried to placate her, rubbing her shoulders.

'Unless they win the bid for the devil fruit, then I'm gonna do what pirates do best!' Cherry thought with a mischievous smile.