When Jiru entered into the room, she halted her steps, astounded by all the females there, ready to strip her down and make her up. Behind her, Vivi, Nojiko and Nami pushed her deeper into the room. The sleeping cots had been shoved to the walls, and the room transformed into a dressing room – complete with mirrors, tables of clothing supplies and paneled room dividers. Chairs had been brought in for all who were present in the room, which numbered in the twenties.
"Nami!" Jiru hissed, unable to stand the scrutiny of all the strange females. Vivi, apparently, had brought her court's worth of female assistants. The shy pirate woman loathed to be the center of attention of so many people. "What are they all doing here!"
"Oh just shut up already and go stand on that stool." The half-agitated, half amused Maiden of Honor prodded her anxious friend and pointed to the foot-tall brown stool that was in the center of the room.
"Uh, what is she doing on the stool?" Jiru forced herself to move on, refusing to be crippled by 'stage-fright' pointed to the red-clad Amazon woman who stood nobly on the stool reserved for the bride.
Boa Hancock was surrounded by her white-dress-clad group of five-exclusively invited Amazon Lily women. She wore her normal, Kuja icon-print dress, the skirt slit high up her thigh and her impressive cleavage spilling out. The whiteness of the Empress's dress was blinding enough to make a person blink. The black-haired Empress of the Amazoness Island stood stiffly on the booster, expecting to be catered to as the 'bride.' It was intimidating at first; but now was annoying. Having the over-bearing, in-love-with-the-groom Empress in the room was most likely the worst idea of the day. Nami place a series of fingers on her temple, trying so hard not to lose it completely and wreck the room in a tantrum.
"Hancock-sama." Nami now was completely flustered. "For the last time, PLEASE stop expecting us to put the wedding dress on you. For one, it wouldn't fit."
The most beautiful woman in the world turned away from admiring herself in the three-paneled, full-length mirror to face Nami.
"HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME IN SUCH A MANNER!" The female Shichibukai was doubled over backwards, her imperious finger pointed accusingly at the navigator, the red lacquered nail gleaming in the room's light. Her large chest was thrust into the air like two mountains. "I will NOT allow Luffy-chan to marry anyone but me!"
"Ohhh, she's serious!" A red-headed Amazon woman gasped.
"Indeed, she is! Look how far she looks down when talking to them." Another girl giggled.
"Hebi-hime-sama!" The rest echoed. "You are so beautiful!"
In the corner, the amazingly sober Matron of Honor, Koroko, laughed her unique laugh. "Well, I'd never think I'd see a day of such importance."
"Nyah!" At the cream-dress-clad woman-mermatron's feet the blue rabbit, Gonbe, agreed.
"Hey, she's here!" Chimeny, the youngest to participate in the ceremony, jumped to her feet and rushed over to Nami, Vivi, Nojiko and Jiru. "Hello again, Jiru-sama. How are you this morning!"
The girl, having befriended the Mugiwaras during their first Water-7 adventure years ago, was now four years older and budding into a very pretty girl. Being a youthful twelve years of age, the blonde-haired, exuberant girl was to be the ring-bearer. Today she wore a simple white dress, with flowery trim on the skirt portion. Her normally two-pigtailed, waist-length hair was undone and combed back and done into a French-braid. It shone like golden honey.
"Hi there, Chimeny." Jiru turned to speak to the girl; choosing her as the less intimidating party to interact with. "I was doing just fine, until I got in here."
"Oooohhhhhh, whatcha gonna do? Run away and hide?" Chimeny looked interested in her suggestion. "I'll tell on you to Luffy-chan!"
"Hehehehe, I would pay to see that." Nojiko had coaxed the heart-broken Empress off the stool and off to the side – and was currently sweet-talking the angry woman into thinking Luffy would marry her next. The cerulean-haired con-woman gave her younger sister the thumbs-up before turning back to the love-sick empress. It would be bad form if the Empress decided to use her Gorgon's Eye to turn the bride to stone. Luckily, the Empress perpetually had her head in the clouds of love when thinking about the Mugiwara pirate captain who was the groom; she had that bad a case of love.
"Don't worry, Chimeny-san." Nami laughed as she and Vivi managed to stand their friend onto the stool. "We won't let her run away anytime soon."
Chimeny nodded happily and turned back to her pet cat (rabbit) Gonbe. The blue cat-rabbit currently held on to the two significant rings; wearing them first over his eyes, then on his ears, and finally on his front paws. The rabbit's antics amused the Alabastian women while they all waited for the bride. If anyone was keeping record, the rabbit was the only male within eight yards of the bridal-dressing room. Lucky him – too bad he wasn't there to be a pervert. The animal was more interested in playing games with miscellaneous items in the room.
"Nyah!" The rabbit spoke as Chimeny picked him up.
"Ok, let's get started!" Nojiko quickly shut the room's door behind her; having managed to extradite the belligerent love-sick Shichibukai and her entourage from the room. "We have less than forty minutes before the ceremony and we just now got our hands on the bride."
Princess Vivi, nodding to Nojiko, clapped her hands together and turned to her court attendants.
"Let's go for broke!" the blue-haired, desert-tanned woman laughed and held out the precious package of wedding dress to the bustling women aids.
Across the room, and watching the crazy scene unfold, chairs were occupied by two quiet females. Nico Robin and Camie the mermaid hadn't said a word since the bride had entered the room. Words weren't that necessary between the archeologist, the mermaid and the treasure hunter; having given their greetings to each other another with polite nods. The dark-haired older woman knew that if she allowed her younger friends to strike up a conversation, the women of the room would there until nightfall; and that wouldn't do when the ceremony was set for noon – mere forty minutes away.
"Whew, they finally found Jiru-chin." Camie exhaled in relief, sitting back in her red-velvet chair.
She had given her mentor, Hachi, a Den-Mushi – by Robin's request – to give to Luffy, so that the female side of the building could speak to the male side without crossing physical paths. Camie, like the Mugiwara females (Nami, Vivi, Jiru and Robin) knew there would be medical disaster if any of the beautifully dressed females happened upon certain groomsmen of the ceremony. Sanji, the pirate cook, would bleed himself to death at the sight of so many lovely women in silky crème-colored dresses.
"Indeed, I feared that we would have to postpone the event, and drive Senschou-san even crazier." Robin chuckled softly, keeping her hand on the small Den-Mushi that lay hidden in her lap. She, Nami and Nojiko had conspired to tease their captain by allowing him to listen in on the conversations that would take place during the preparation of the bride. "Unfortunately, she was humoring Samurai-kun by allowing him to lead the way back."
Camie, still young enough to retain her vaunted mermaid's tail, wore an off-white dress with elbow-length laced sleeves. The shimmery white skirt billowed around her fish-tail, was long enough to hide the oceanic part well. Pappug had truly outdone himself on her dress. The only other dress more exquisite than hers was the bride's dress. Camie looked over to the short-height female and smiled. Her dark-brown haired friend was stripped down to her panties (white with blue dots) and at the mercy of the five Alabastian women who lived for moments like these.
Arrann, Melinda, Cortiga, Val'Lau and Ferinda had accompanied the blue-haired Vivi-hime to Water-7. Camie was thrilled to make new friends from foreign countries. The mermaid laughed as the bride yelped, her self-awareness of nudity making her move and earn a pin-poke to the side.
It had been five months since she and Hachi received the invitations and directions from Luffy-chin. She was thoroughly surprised when Hachi mentioned it had been about time the two pirates decided to pair-up. When asking Hachi what he meant, the octo-man embarrassingly explained that their friend, Luffy, had been very fond of his treasure hunter nakama. Camie flipped, exclaiming she never knew. That was weeks ago, and now it was the day of the official ceremony and Camie was nothing but super-excited.
Thinking back on when she first met the bride, the mermaid fell into recollection. It was Luffy-chin that saved her from being eaten by a sea-beast. She had fallen from the sky, out of the monster's mouth, and onto their pirate ship's deck. Camie was flakey back then, and had to think hard on when she first saw the treasure hunter. It had been after the pirates assisted her in rescuing Hachi from the Flying Fishmen Gang. The woman had revealed herself from below deck and played it casual.
It wasn't until later, that the two really gotten to know each other; having been kidnapped together and sold to the Human Auction House on Shabody Grove 1. Camie had been terrified by the ordeal, having early taken the chance to go on land to fulfill a childhood dream of going to the Shabody Amusement park. She had done so, and had been mermaid-napped, being sold to the Human Auction house as a slave. Jiru-chin had been captured with her, and went through the same thing; only the female human kept her cool. Despite being injured, the pirate woman stuck close to her, and told her to just keep hope: Luffy would soon find them and set them free. Jiru-chin ended up being right – Luffy did come and save them – but not until Camie had been technically sold to an awful Tenryubito (a Celestial Dragon). Hachi had tried to restrain an angry Luffy, and ended up being shot. That started a chain of events that spiraled out of control; but in the end, they all got away safely.
Camie was glad to have met Luffy-chin and Jiru-chin. They both were brave and confident. It was to that extent that Luffy-chin and Jiru-chin chose her and her friend, Pappug, to design and make the groomsmen clothing and the ladies' dresses. The mermaid helped him, of course, and used her knowledge of the Mugiwaras to help Pappug make the dresses/suits to best suit the person wearing it.
"CAMIEEEEE!" Jiru's voice snapped the mermaid out of her thinking fog. "This dress is absolutely the best!"
The sea-green haired mermaid looked to the bride on the stool and gasped. The Alabastian women had finally removed the wedding dress and it was angel-sent.
The first, off-white, shimmering layer was a simple, one-piece evening gown; going down to her ankles. Being sleeveless and covering the neck, the gown had been personally fitted for the lithe pirate woman. The second layer, the layer with all the frills and folds, was pale purple-hued white. A strand of gold trim ran down the center front of the dress to the frilly, folded skirt piece. Being bunched and poofed just right, the cloth sparkled with tiny bits of sequins that were sewed into the fabric. It went around the length of her first-gown – being set at knee-level – and came together to be held by the gold sewn diamond-shaped patch of cloth. The sleeves were counted as a third layer, because they weren't part of first two layers. Grey arm-shoulder bands held up the aqua-tinted billowing sleeves – ending with the same grey trim in ermine fur.
"Oh wow!" Camie breathed as the Alabastian women, her, Nami, Vivi and Nojiko stood back to admire the dress. It sparkled in the room's light, dazzling the women's eyes. The silky sheen of the skirt was enough to birth the urge to stroke the slickness of it.
"Oh my god, Jiru, you're going to kill Sanji-kun if you walk out in this dress!" Nami's heart fluttered in her throat at the flowing dress. "I…I almost want to wear this myself!"
"I'll charge you one million Beri, if you wanna wear it, Nami-chan." The immobile Jiru chuckled from her stool-top perch.
"HELL NO! I'll kick your ass if you put a debt on me!" Nami's awe-filled face switched and she looked hilarious.
"Relax, Nami-sis." Nojiko laughed from beside her. "She's just trying to be funny, aren't you?"
"Yea, Nojiko, you know me too well, how DO you do it?" Jiru, being covered in the appropriate under-garments stared at the dress in equal awe. "I was only in your village for what, a month?"
Jiru spoke back to when she first fell on Vearth, the One-Piece planet. Her location on Vearth was Cocoyashi Village and Arlong's Park. The Golden Thief preferred to forget the more depressing days of her stay under Arlong's bully-rule. She and Nami's sister ended up forging a friendship.
"Doesn't matter, I can read you like an open book." The indigo-haired tattooed woman laughed freely. "It's been years, hasn't it, since you became a genuine Cocoyashi Villager."
"Yea, I just now remembered you telling me you met Luffy and Nami on the island of Cocoyashi." The blue-haired Vivi joined in the conversation. "But you weren't born there, you fell from the sky."
"Oh, Vivi-chan, you're so right." Jiru replied. "I hated the fact that that idiot bully Arlong got me first, but it turned out ok, since Luffy-chan rescued Nami-san and me."
The room was quiet for a moment, the Alabastian dressers standing quietly to the side, allowing the VIP women to take in the view of the dress and mull in their own private thoughts.
"If I may, Vivi-hime-sama." Arr-Ann politely cleared her throat. "We really need to finish preparing the bride."
"Oh course!" Vivi snapped out of her reverie and smiled. "We still have so much to do and the clock is ticking."
~ROBIN!~ a masculine voice cut through the silence, making some of the females jump in surprise.
~Robin!~ It was Luffy's voice, and the source was coming from Robin's lap. ~Finally, I wanna talk to her, let me talk to Jiru!~
They all looked over to Robin, who – in what had to be the first time in her life – blushed with embarrassment. The historian's red face clashed with her indigo-white dress and evening gloves; the dress was different only because Robin had insisted on having a dark-colored outfit.
"NOOOOOOO!" Jiru, the bride-on the stool, shouted loudly; restraining herself from throwing her arms around her under-dressed body. "Why is Luffy's voice coming from your lap, Robin!"
"Ah, well, I…" Robin's face was still red as she lifted the Den-Mushi from her silk-dressed lap. "I asked Mermaid-san to ask Octo-san to give Senchou-san a Den-Mushi."
"WHYYYYYYYYY?"
"To listen to what we were saying."
"ROBIN!" Jiru wailed, as the whole room laughed at the situation. "TURN IT OFF!"