Invitation to the Palace

"Hey, Nami! This is Den, he's my teacher's younger brother. He said he knows where the Sunny is and was just about to take me there." Franky said, seeing Nami and Cherry approach.

"If it's my brother's pupil, then there's only one ship that washed up at the Sea Forest recently that could fit the bill." Den said.

"Who's that, by the way?" Franky asked, pointing at Cherry who was obscured by large bags of clothes.

"It's me. Since you're going to the ship anyways, why don't you take all this junk with you?" Cherry answered.

"Sure thing." Franky accepted, easily grabbing the large bags and hoisting them over his shoulder.

"Now I just need to find a way into the palace. Pappag said he knows the princess, so maybe he can help." Cherry said.

"The palace? Is there a reason you want to go there? They don't let in many visitors, and human visitors are almost unheard of." Den said.

"I want to see if it can burn down even though it's underwater." Cherry spoke thoughtlessly, and somewhat truthfully.

"What the hell are you saying?! She's just joking, don't pay any mind to her!" Nami shouted whilst shaking Cherry by the shoulders, then tried to salvage the situation.

Den didn't look very convinced by Nami's reassurance, but he couldn't imagine his brother's pupil, whom he has read about many times from Kokoro's letters, would travel with a crazed maniac like that.

"Are you upset at King Neptune or one of the princes by any chance? If you are, there must be a misunderstanding. They are all kind and wise mermen who always seek peaceful resolutions when conflict arises." Den asked just in case. He couldn't simply ignore a potential attack on the royal family.

"I suppose my two good younger brothers, Borke and Slenk, were put to death 'peacefully' then?" Cherry asked.

Nami gasped and Franky grimaced, they both knew about Cherry's errand to fetch those two. If that really happened, then the Royal Family was in big trouble and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Den heard the names and thought they sounded familiar. After a moment he remembered hearing about their arrest and the subsequent verdict against them.

"Perhaps you should not be too hasty. I have heard about those two, but they may yet still live. King Neptune rarely hands out death penalties and even when he does he often drags his feet for as long as possible. This particular case is also very controversial, I think it's very likely that those two are still alive." Den explained.

Cherry calmed down a bit at that, though she still gave off a slightly menacing aura.

"We'll see when the time comes." Cherry said, then walked away without another word.

Once she was out of sight and earshot, Den let out a sigh. "It's good that she calmed down. If she made trouble in the palace, King Neptune wouldn't be able to go easy on her."

Nami and Franky shared a glance and wordlessly agreed not to tell the poor, ignorant Den that Cherry alone could probably destroy the palace as she claimed she would.

…

Aboard the royal gondola.

"This fiend is very sneaky. There have been no signs of his movements and no more witnesses to give us directions." Prince Fukaboshi spoke, clearly distraught at his ineffectiveness at catching a single criminal.

"He's a logia fruit user after all. He can slip into places nobody else can squeeze through." Sanji said seriously, lighting up a cigarette.

"It would be better to split up at this rate, Akkamanbo!" Prince Manboshi suggested.

"Mm, that may be what is necessary, but I fear he may overpower us if we are divided." Prince Fukaboshi worried.

"AHHHHH!" A woman's scream was heard in the distance.

"Quickly, men! We must arrive before it is too late!" Prince Fukaboshi ordered hastily.

"Yes, your majesty!" The royal guards urged the large fish pulling the gondola to speed up.

They arrived at the location of the screaming woman in less than a minute, but what they found there wasn't quite what they expected.

Several mermaids with residual bits of mud clinging to them were being comforted by other citizens who came at the sound. At the center of all this was a familiar greasy creep desperately gripping the arm of Cherry as she squeezed his throat.

"Is that the last of them?" Cherry asked Caribou.

Caribou nodded frantically, or he tried as best he could with her claw around his neck.

Cherry squeezed him a little harder.

"I was only asking to see if you'd play nice. I already know there's one more in there. Let her go. Now." Cherry spoke coldly.

Caribou "spat" out the last mermaid without any further hesitation. He cursed Cherry in his heart, but as a survivor he knew that now was the time to be deferential. Otherwise he felt like he would die from his head popping off, let alone suffocation.

"Oh, you got him, Cherry! Good job, shishishi!" Luffy called out from above.

"Cherry-swaaan!" Sanji called out her name just because.

Cherry turned to look at them and studied their new acquaintances.

"It's the princes! They must have gotten word of the kidnapper somehow and come to the rescue as well!" A nearby fishman reasoned quietly, but loud enough for Cherry to overhear.

The three princes in question felt the shift in her demeanor, the biggest change was in her eyes. They recognized those eyes and felt a chill down their spines.

An awkward moment of silence passed.

"Are your men going to capture this criminal, or do I need to keep touching his filthy neck?" Cherry asked.

Prince Fukaboshi was the first to snap out of his daze and ordered his guards to capture the pirate.

"Thank you on behalf of the royal family for taking care of the kidnapper, Miss Cherry. If you would like, you and your friends can come to the palace for a meal. Your captain also happened to rescue our sister's pet shark from a Kraken on your journey here." Prince Fukaboshi offered, trying to keep a natural demeanor.

Cherry smiled and leapt onto the Gondola. The reason she went looking for Caribou was to take out her frustrations against him after Pappag admitted to her he couldn't actually get her an audience with the king. So this worked out quite well for her.

"Good job, captain. I'm sure the palace has lots of good meat." Cherry praised him.

"Really?! Do you have good meat?!" Luffy asked Prince Fukaboshi with drool spilling out of his mouth.

"Actually mermen and mermaids don't eat meat." Prince Fukaboshi said. When Luffy practically deflated he said "Ah! But we do eat shellfish!"

"Shellfish isn't meat! I want meat!" Luffy threw a tantrum.

"Shellfish is better than meat." Cherry said.

"What did you say?!" Luffy got up in arms immediately and grabbed Cherry by the collar aggressively.

"You can't grab a beautiful lady like that Luffy!" Sanji got angry as well.

"This is going to be a long ride…" Usopp lamented.

Despite Cherry seeming quite jovial now as she argued with her captain over frivolous things, the three princes were quite nervous. Their father had ordered that the person whom they previously thought was Hawkeye to be invited to the palace though, so they would go along with that plan for now.