Conversation
Madam Pearl arrived with the food, tall, blue-haired and sumptuously dressed, followed by a lean young man carrying a folding stool. Law politely rose, quietly taking note that their host was definitely a mermaid; there were a number of minor but distinctive medical differences even if you couldn't see the tail. On Sabaody, where slavery was rampant and mermaids were a good way to make a fortune, that was a serious risk to be taking.
"A gentleman!" Pearl exclaimed with a coy smile. "Such a rare quality in a pirate; do sit down, Trafalgar-san; I wouldn't dream of interrupting your meal." Her assistant unfolded the stool for her to sit on then left the room, closing the door behind him.
"Silvers Pearl, I presume," Law drawled, taking a sip of the sake. It was very good.
The woman smiled. "So well-informed too! I like you, Law-san; do call me by my given name."
"Pearl-ya," Law conceded. "How is it that a mermaid comes to live and work openly in the lawless zone, so close to the slave trade?"
Pearl chuckled, resting her cheek on her hand. "My dear Surgeon of Death, I firmly believe that a lady's home is her castle and no slaver has ever darkened my door more than once; they certainly never leave." She glanced at him from under her lashes. "Of course what happens outside my domain is beyond my control, but those within it are mine to protect and command; I'm sure you understand."
Law understood alright: the Blue Pearl teahouse was a kingdom within a kingdom, a pirate ship without a keel or sail with this lady as its captain. "You run a very tight ship," he commented.
"You liked my girls," Pearl noted with distinct approval. "I pick the ones who work out front for their brains, you know; the charming airheads are all very well but they take a lot of looking after, so I keep then in-house."
"Amber seems the more physical type," Law noted.
"Amber-chan?" Pearl repeated disingenuously. "She was a dancer before she was a waitress, true, but she is a very capable child; very diplomatic."
Law suspected that half that diplomacy came from the amount of bare skin on display and the other half from her evident combat ability, but said nothing. That wasn't the direction he wanted to steer the conversation in. "I met your daughter in town the other day, Pearl-ya," he said easily. "Dracule Lisska, I believe her name is. My height with white hair and attached to the Straw-Hat Pirates?"
"So you met my baby, did you?" Pearl teased. "And now you're asking after her. Is Law-san in love?"
"I am interested in a woman who thinks nothing of flaying and who can speak to people in their minds," Law responded, not rising to the bait. "And I find it strange that I've never heard of her before. Does she never leave the archipelago?"
Pearl chuckled. "She's almost never here, Law-san, she travels so much. But my daughter is usually the very soul of discretion so it is unsurprising that one so new to the Grand Line is unfamiliar with her. And she thinks nothing of flaying those who bear the Hoof of the Dragon because she believes that we are all equal before god, nobility be damned." The Dark King's daughter smiled widely, the expression so like her father's in its mocking glee it nearly made Law flinch. "There are no slaves in my care and never will be; just as I will not bow to anyone save of my own free will within my own home."
"Do you not get Tenryuubito as guests?" The food was certainly good enough.
Pearl raised an eyebrow. "My establishment is insufficiently high-class to attract that kind of customer, Law-san."
Law smirked; he guessed that any World Nobles who visited found plain waitresses, poor service and bland food. Sneaky.
"As for my dear daughter," Pearl sighed, "she has gone and fallen for a most unsuitable swordsman. However he at least seems to return her interest, so I am prepared to give him a chance. What she sees in him I do not understand when she knows so many more experienced men."
"Would that swordsman be the Pirate Hunter?" Law guessed, remembering Lisska's arrival at the Auction House.
"Yes, it would," Pearl sighed moodily, raising a hand absently towards her hair and distracting Shachi into spilling his drink down his front. "So many strong, capable men out there who worship the ground she walks on and she throws herself away on a lone swordsman with a grand ambition. Tsk." She played with her fan. "I hoped she had learnt from my mistakes, but it seems not."
"Dracule Mihawk?" Law guessed, not sure why this woman was sharing so much so freely but willing to take advantage.
Pearl fanned herself. "He was such a bad boy back then," she said wistfully, "but he loved to fight more than he ever cared for me. If it weren't for Lisska-chan I'd never have seen him again after our fling came to an end. He certainly doesn't love me, but I don't much care for him either anymore so it balances out." She frowned. "Law-san, do try not to harass my daughter to the point she feels the need to tell her father about it; he takes her wellbeing very seriously. Too seriously; murdering her former conquests was a little over the top."
Law blinked. Hawk-Eyes had killed off all his daughter's exes? Perhaps Roronoa wouldn't be around much longer after all. "That does seem… excessive," he agreed, adding this new variable to his plans for the future. If this Lisska was the lever that could move the solitary, unpredictable Hawk-Eye Mihawk then she was worth keeping track of and possibly making an alliance with.
"It was; if she'd wanted them dead she would have done it herself," Pearl said matter-of-factly. "Lisska-chan is self-sufficient like that."
"What does she do for a living?"
"My baby is a Pose Artificer," Pearl said proudly. "The Marines pay her very well for her work and she sells to the private market as well. Having a Government contract provides her with all kinds of advantages, as you can imagine." She glanced at Law again, meeting his eyes with a disconcertingly shrewd expression.
Law could see the advantages of such an arrangement; no doubt Lisska filled her mother in on all kinds of things she picked up from the Marines and being an Artificer meant she could travel constantly to all kinds of unusual places without it being questioned; truly an information goldmine. It also meant Lisska could get into places and meet people that were not usually accessible to the common man, let alone a pirate or the child of a pirate. "She must meet a lot of interesting people," he murmured, lifting his glass to his lips again.
"Vice-Admiral Garp is always very kind," Pearl confirmed sweetly. Law choked on his drink.
Law turned the hat over again, still thinking deeply. Pearl had talked a lot, but very little of what she had said was actually useful. Helpful, but not useful. More disconcerting had been her final comment when he paid the bill and left.
"When you see my daughter, give her a kiss from me," Pearl had added as he walked out the door. He'd looked back to ask why she thought he'd be going anywhere near the younger woman any time soon and had been silenced by the cool, shrewd look on the mermaid's face. It had made him feel like he had suddenly woken up on the operating table to find her riffling through his organs.
Since Marineford Law had guessed that Pearl had connections to the Revolution and Monkey D. Dragon, which might explain why she had so deftly and easily steered the conversation away from Straw-Hat he hadn't even noticed until several days later. Her daughter's interest in Roronoa was the obvious connection but even that didn't make sense. She wasn't part of the crew, just a tag-along with a romantic attachment to the Pirate Hunter. So why…
A loud roar and violent splashing out to sea distracted him from his thoughts and Penguin used the binoculars to take a closer look. It was apparently a dead Sea King.
"It's dead! Something just killed that thing!" Penguin shouted.
"A monster of that size?!" Shachi asked.
"I couldn't see what it was fighting," Penguin admitted. "This is one terrifying ocean."
A splash down by the submarine caught Law's attention and he saw a man climbing up onto the rocks. That was odd.
"Hey! Who are you?!" Shachi called out.
"Dear me," said a familiar voice as the man looked up and Law recognised him. "Ah, I know you people: we met at the Sabaody Archipelago."
Silvers Rayleigh, the Dark King himself. How unexpected.
"Well you see," the aging pirate went on, "I ran into a nasty storm out at sea. My boat sank, so I had to swim the rest of the way. My body really doesn't move the way it used to; I really am getting old."
"A storm?" Penguin yelled, sounding slightly hysterical. "There are no storms in the Calm Belt! Which means your boat sank outside the Calm Belt and you actually swam all this way?!" he paused, possibly for breath. "Then, the one who was fighting that Sea King, was that you as well?!"
"Hm, now then," the Dark King said, wringing out his jacket and putting it on, "I'm guessing that Luffy-kun is somewhere to be found on this island?"
Another connection. What a surprise.
"Old man Rayleigh!" came a familiar voice from the forest behind him. Law turned to see Straw-Hat being carried by Jinbe and accompanied by a scruffily dressed woman. One of the locals?
"Lisska! What on earth are you doing here, my girl?" the Dark King boomed. "I thought you were in the New World!"
Apparently not. Law frowned; where on earth had she come from? And, more to the point, how had she gotten here?
Pearl plays with Law, but he is at least aware enough to realise he's being played.