215 Morning at the Mermaid Cafe

'How did this happen…?' Shyarly thought to herself.

She had been relaxing by her lonesome in her closed Mermaid Cafe with a few drinks and her pipe, when two of the humans from the Straw Hat crew barged inside like they owned the place.

Although she wanted to tell them off for their rude actions, she couldn't quite bear to do so given they helped save Fishman Island from Hody and the Neo Marines. Not to mention that the scary looking one had personally saved her own life.

At least they had the decency to bring their own drinks and snacks instead of expecting her to supply them.

"What's a beautiful lady like yourself drinking all alone for when there's an island wide party going on outside?" The scary one, Cherry, had asked her.

Shyarly could see the desire in Cherry's eyes, though she was polite enough not to let her eyes roam away from Shyarly's own. She was accustomed to being desired, even by the occasional woman, so it didn't fluster her at all when she answered. "I like my privacy."

Admittedly she had said it with a bit more passive aggression than she meant to. She blamed the alcohol for that.

"We can come back in the morning if that would be more comfortable for you?" The tall one, Robin, said politely.

"... You can stay… for now." Shyarly said. That was when things started spiraling out of control.

Robin and Cherry were both fascinating women.

Robin is an archaeologist, presumably the last in the world that could read the ancient poneglyphs. The stories she could tell about the history of the world and its peoples were endless and varied, and she could tell those stories in such a captivating way. Shyarly felt that could listen to Robin speak for hours despite not having any particular interest in history before.

Cherry on the other hand was something of a philosopher. Knowing that Shyarly was a fortune teller, she spoke about her own thoughts regarding fate. The intricacies of her view on the subject were far too complex to have been made up on the spot by someone just trying to impress her, and many had tried just that before so she knew those types quite well.

She had nearly scoffed at the idea of changing fate until she had elaborated that only someone with both great power and determination could go against it, as fate had a strong corrective force. Even then there would be consequences levied upon the "blasphemer" who dared to fight against it.

Cherry's smile held a certain madness to it when she spoke of it. Shyarly had to finish off her bottle to distract herself from the odd feeling that smile made her feel. The second mistake.

From then her memory is a little fuzzy, but she knew that they talked some more and then she started to get… clingy. It had slipped her mind at the time that the reason she didn't drink around others much was that she lost her sense of personal space.

Shyarly didn't know who kissed who first, but she had a sneaky suspicion she was the responsible party, then it quickly escalated from there and now here she was. The morning sunlight shining into her bedroom window onto the nude forms of herself and her two beautiful guests clinging to each of her arms with looks of satisfaction on their sleeping faces.

"I didn't know a crystal ball could be used like that…" Shyarly said out loud.

"Hehe, did you enjoy it?" Cherry chuckled and squeezed Shyarly's arm.

Shyarly's face went bright red with all the embarrassment that the alcohol had been suppressing the night before. She extracted herself from the bed and quickly got dressed and rushed to the door of her bedroom. She stopped there and glanced at Cherry and the awakening Robin then said "I'll make some breakfast, come down whenever you're ready."

"Fufufu, she's so cute." Robin chuckled.

…

Cherry and Robin walked into the kitchen of the Mermaid Cafe where they found Shyarly starting on cooking breakfast, as well as Camie who had come in early to get a shift in.

"Oh, hey you two! Why are you coming from Madame Shyarly's bedroom? Did you have a slumber party?" Camie asked innocently with a smile.

Shyarly refused to acknowledge the question or even turn around. The pink tips of her ears were enough for any observant person to know why.

"We sure did. Although there wasn't much slumbering done." Cherry said.

"Shut your mouth or you won't get any food!" Shyarly shouted, bearing her shark-like teeth.

Cherry pouted with false aggrievement and Robin just smiled in amusement, accepting a cup of coffee from Camie gratefully.

"The others are still asleep in the palace. They really tuckered themselves out during the party last night." Camie informed them. "But Princess Shirahoshi got up really early. She was doing some kind of strange dance in the courtyard, as were the princes. I don't know why they were doing it, though, since it looked like it was really uncomfortable."

'I guess she's really going for it, huh?' Cherry thought, a hint of pride showing through her smile. 'Only time will tell if she can keep it up though.'

Shyarly served breakfast to them. It was a simple but unfamiliar meal. Scrambled caviar wrapped in a seaweed roll with strips of crab fried like bacon.

"Marry me!" Cherry cried after scarfing down the unusual but very tasty seafood burrito-thing. Robin punched her on the arm and gave her a glare that meant "You belong to me!"

Shyarly scurried away before she could be teased any more than she already had been, much to the confusion of Camie. Later she would ask Pappag if he understood what was up with them and become very flustered at the answer she would be given.

…

Tamago and Pekoms were walking down the street towards the new factory the Big Mom Pirates had recently invested in on Fishman Island. Naturally it produced sweets for Big Mom, specifically a kind of sea salt candy that could only be made on Fishman Island with its unique location in the deep sea and the techniques of the locals.

Big Mom had been pretty pissed when Whitebeard didn't die during the war at Marineford, meaning she could just claim Fishman Island for herself without going to all out war. Still, the factory produced enough candy that her appetite could be sated somewhat, so it didn't come to that.

That didn't stop her from directing her ire to a certain someone who not only helped Whitebeard survive, but later snatched away a devil fruit from her most powerful son. Nevermind the fact that he himself had been trying to snatch it from the world government's dogs.

"Bon, something seems to have happened! There is a different air about the people since last month, soir!" The man wearing an egg shell as pants, Tamago, said.

"A battle perhaps? I smell remnants of gunpowder in the air, Gao!" The lion mink, Pekoms, said.

They were passing by the Mermaid Cafe when a woman with sharp red eyes stepped outside right in front of them.

"Clear the way, Gao! Don't you know who we are?!" Pekoms shouted in irritation.

"Bon, wait a moment, Pekoms! I recognise this rude woman, s'il vous plaît!" Tamago said, pulling out a stack of wanted posters.

"Hm???" Cherry turned to them as Tamago flipped through the wanted posters. She thought to herself 'Is it a young master in need of an etiquette lesson?'