Sunlight wakes Karmen in the morning while most everyone else sleeps on. She puts the mossy green liquid dial and the silver necklace in her pocket and shakes Usopp awake, motioning for him to be quiet. They tiptoe over sleeping pirates until they're in the rubble outside. "Why aren't you asleep?" he asks. "I thought for sure you'd be hung over."
"I need your expert craftsmanship." And he's hooked. "I'll make you a present too." She removes the contents of her pocket and holds them up for him. "Can you attach these two like you did with my bracelet?"
"You're making a matching set? What poison are you going to put in this one?"
"Sake." He looks at her. "It's not for me." She holds up her charm bracelet and examines the small green shells dangling there. "I need Nami to shock some more of my Plucharon. Those zombies wiped me out."
"Aren't you getting low on your Little Garden poisons?"
"This will be the last dose of Plucharon I make. It's kind of fitting though," she says, smiling wistfully. "The New World will bring new adventures and new poisons for me to try. They use poison a lot over there. That's half the reason I decided to start my immunities training."
"How many poisons are you taking a day now?" he asks, bending a piece of metal around the shell.
"About fifteen that I put in my tea, all in Chopper approved doses, of course. I've been able to make a lotion out of some, so contact poisons won't have so much effect. I only use that one for a few hours before my bath through. I have to wash the tub afterwards, but it kills two birds with one stone."
"Isn't it counterproductive to clean after you take a bath?"
"Not if you don't want the rest of the ship developing mysterious rashes." He hands her the finished product. She hugs him. "You're so handy. Thank you for putting up with my weird requests."
"Karmen," Usopp starts as she pulls away. "Chopper says you may have seen Pierce's shadow before Luffy took down Moriah."
"I know now that Pierce is alive." She smiles softly. "Your stories helped keep him that way. I really owe you. If there's anything that I can ever do, let me know."
"Just get him back safe so that you can smile happily without regret."
"Then I guess I should start planning some things with Luffy, then." She twirls the necklace around her finger and prances off to the ship. When she arrives, Robin is on deck reading a book. "You're up early. Weren't you all asleep?"
"We woke up super early to make sure you didn't work too hard," Franky says from the doorway. "The guys back at the mansion finished their jobs early and went back to sleep."
She notes the dirty rag in his hand. "You cleaned? Everything?"
"Most of it."
"What am I supposed to do until we're ready to ship out?"
"Dr. Hogback had some books on toxins that we recovered," Robin says. "We put them in your section of the library."
"New books?" Karmen starts to step towards the library, but shakes her head. "I can't sit still now. Not in a normal way, at least. I need to do something… active. I've already done this weeks' share of overthinking yesterday. Though, I guess I did leave some wine bottles in tact…"
"I may have overlooked the crow's nest," Robin says. "I carried some cleaning supplies up there, but I was distracted by this chapter."
"You mean you aren't going to tie me to a chair if I try to climb the ratlines?"
Franky takes a drink of cola. "You'd just cut your way out, little sis." Robin chuckles.
Karmen runs to the library and tucks one of the books into her waistband before scurrying up the ratlines. Instead of going inside, she climbs the outside of the observatory and clings to the flagpole, surveying the ocean over the wall of Thriller Bark. "How's the view?" Robin asks through the transponder snails. Karmen holds up a thumb. She sees them exchange a fist bump as they leave the ship. She pulls out the book and begins reading about common household toxins. A few chapters in, she makes a mental note to raid Frank's scrap pile for traces of antimony, an irritant found in most metals. With her contact resistance from her toxic lotion, it probably wouldn't bother her too badly, but put in a make-up or hand cream, it could be a useful distraction.
After a while the wind becomes so strong that it's hard to hold the book open and her butt is stiff from trying to stay put on a curved roof. She tucks the book back into her pants and lets herself slide down to a window. She hangs upside down over it and swings the window outward. Twisting around, she lets her feet dangle inside and slithers in like a backwards snake. She sees the cleaning supplies Robin left and instantly notices a heavy odor of man-sweat. She opens the other windows. Other than the weights and a couch lining the walls, there isn't much to the room. She likes the telescope and decides she'll have to go stargazing sometime.
Cleaning only takes thirty minutes, even with scrubbing each weight until she could see her face in them. She likes the acoustics in the small room, so she straps weights to her ankles and tap dances while reading more of her new book. Two hours later her left arm is marked up with scribbled notes that will take three days to wash off.
"That was fun to watch."
"Luffy?" She turns from where she had been leaning to return the ankle weights to find the captain sitting in the window. "How long have you been sitting there?"
"A while. I called up but you were really into your book."
"I was trying to find uses for some of these toxins. I think better when I'm moving."
"We'll get to meet Pierce soon, right? That's why you've been working so hard, even though we can't go anywhere until Zoro's better."
Karmen dries her face on a towel and drops it on the scuff marks she's made, using her foot to scrub them away. "He's so close, Captain. I just want to be able to look into his eyes and know he's safe." She replaces the used towel and puts the one from the floor with the cleaning supplies.
"When we get there, I might have to kick your dad's butt."
"I'll handle daddy. You take out the security."
"You'll be looking for Pierce, right?"
"I know where he'll be. I have a few things I want to say to that man before I disown him. If I find Pierce first then I may kill my father before I can say them. He's not a kind man, Luffy. I'm sure Pierce has suffered these two years. After seeing how I reacted when Usopp was hurt in only one day, I'm afraid of what I might do."
"You won't kill him." Karmen is surprised by the sure tone of Luffy's voice. "No matter how bad of a guy he is, he's still your father. That's why you've been so frustrated, isn't it?"
"Partially," she agrees. "Another is that in all our battles, I've never killed anyone, except zombies, but they were already dead. If I were to kill him, I'm afraid of becoming like him. What would keep me from killing my mother or other nobles like them? I have a cousin who killed his own family. He never stopped."
"No matter what happens when we get there, we'll make sure that doesn't happen, 'cause we're your family now." His words strike a cord inside her. How many happy trios of mother-father-daughter's had she watched in the street and she found her real family in a rag tag bunch of misfits.
"You're right," she says with a smile. They're her rag tag bunch of misfits, but there was someone missing. "Thank you, Luffy. I'd like to discuss something with everyone later, if that's alright."
"We'll do it once Zoro's better," he agrees.
"Luffy! Did you give Karmen her breakfast?" Sanji's voice calls from the deck below. Luffy grins and jumps out the window. Karmen follows using the ladder. "I swear," Sanji grumbles as they watch their captain run away with a goose egg. The chef holds up a plate of food. "I thought he might eat it so I brought more."
She takes the plate and thanks him, sitting on the swing to eat it. "I feel like I said something weird last night," she admits.
Sanji gets a sly grin. "You confessed your undying love for me and asked me to whisk you away into the sunset. Being a gentleman, I decided to wait until you were sober."
"Nice try."
"Can't blame a guy, right?" He shrugs. "We just had a heart to heart. To sum it up, you said you don't dislike me anymore."
She remembers how he shook in front of Kuma when he offered to trade his life for the crew. "How can I dislike you when you cook like this?" She takes a few bites, savoring each one. "And I was unfair to you. I was paranoid and looking for enemies in every shadow. Since joining this ship you've done nothing to deserve that. I'm sorry for my prejudice."
"I said so last night, but I don't mind repeating myself. I like who you turned out to be. I'll save the poetry, but you're a fine mademoiselle. Pierce is lucky to have a woman like you fighting for him."
"We're sure to run into a lot of nobility searching for him. There are some scary people in the North Blue and the New World. There's always the threat of being recognized. If my suspicions are correct, this goes far beyond just my parents. I want to be Valentine so badly, but I think I need the Scarlet Secretary a while longer."
"You'll always be our dear Valentine, no matter what you hide under that veil."
Karmen spends the day embroidering silk squares into handkerchiefs. Each had the letter of the name of the person it was to be given to as well as a few personal touches. Luffy's has a straw hat, pink gum bubbles, crowns, and generic Jolly Rogers. Nami's has berry symbols, maps, treasure chests, and books. Usopp's has cross hairs, sling shots, the word "captain," and triumphant men standing on the bow of boats. Sanji's has kitchen knives, black shoes, ladles, and blue circles with a dividing cross in the middle with the four oceans labeled N, S, W, and E. Chopper's has red medical crosses, candy, cherry blossoms, and skulls and crossbones. Robin's has books, flowers, relics, and poneglyphs. Franky's has wrenches and hammers, Speedos, cola bottles, and pirate ships. Brook's has violins, music notes, bones, and whales. She makes Zoro's last. At this point her hands are sore and stiff, but she makes herself finish, sitting by his bedside for motivation. If he can offer his life to Kuma and survive, she can finish a few thousand stitches in a day. She talks while she works, not really caring what comes out of her mouth so long as he has something to listen to.
"I know you aren't fond of my fairy tales. I can't imagine why, but we do seem to have a few cultural differences. There's one story that I like, but never really gave any credit to. They say if you fold a thousand paper cranes you can have a wish. I don't know how the bird equivalent of a dead tree can grant wishes, but I like that a thousand is a good, even number. You usually stop on even numbers when you're working out. It's not something that I've paid much attention to. I actually only noticed it the other day. It's weird having you work out in the crow's nest all the time now. I miss the clank of metal. Sanji's cooking makes similar sounds, but it doesn't have that rhythm. Something about it reminds me of a tango. Maybe now that Brook is with us we'll have more dancing. Do you think Luffy would learn any traditional dances? He usually just hops around with chopsticks up his nose. If I keep up this subject then I'll have ball gowns in your handkerchief instead of stomach scarves." She pulls out a stitch and examines the developing boarder. His has flexing arms, stomach scarves, beer mugs, and three swords over a globe. "One monogram to go and I'll have them all finished. You aren't getting yours until you wake up, so open your eyes soon, ok?" She finishes his and tucks it into her basket, carefully folding the others and passing them out to the crew.
"Karmen," Sanji starts carefully. "This fabric is… Don't tell me you…" Tears begin welling up in his eyes.
"Yes, it's that beautiful wedding dress Nami was in. What did you expect? I narrowly escaped a fatal wedding. You're lucky I didn't set it on fire. Just be happy that you can carry it with you wherever you go now."
"I'll cherish this forever." He spins in happy circles, clutching it to his chest. He nearly breaks out into poetry but catches himself just in time. "Thank you very much," he says instead.
"That's better."
The next day she sits in the manor embroidering again. She put silver quills and scrollwork on her veil to make it look like a snake's mouth with fangs and fruitless grape vines into the red skirts of her dress. The stems spiral into faces and wine bottles and goddesses. In the underskirt, she embroiders quills, the Straw Hat Jolly Roger, and fish. She makes sure to include an undulate stingray, using three colors to mark the back, adding a few mermaid purses and made it look like they were bobbing with apples.
The fabric gets pulled from her hands by the outer skirt. "I thought you hated the vineyard."
"It's about time you woke up." She spreads the fabric in Zoro's hands. "It's camouflage, in a sense, for where we're going. I need to be clearly associated with Valcour if I'm going to show my face around nobles. And for the rest of the time it's a reminder of what I'm fighting for."
"It sounds like you've been planning." He hands her dress back.
"How are you?"
"I'm good." She raises her eyebrow at him questioningly but doesn't say anything. She knows more than anyone that a person isn't "good" after receiving someone's suffering. "I'm recovered enough to go ahead and get the "What did I tell you" lecture over with, so go ahead."
She looks him over, examining him closely with her Haki. Any normal person would be in a coma or dead. "You're alive and coherent. That's all that matters."
That night, as the crew prepares to leave, Karmen stops in the cemetery to admire the grave Franky and Usopp made for Brook's crew. She places a hand of goodbye on the hilt of Zoro's dead sword, and leans a broken piece of porcelain with a freshly painted paw print against it.