[Author's note: I had this chapter and the few after it written before the most recent arc was published. Any similarities to that bit of story line are purely coincidental.]
Karmen sits underneath her apple trees, face emotionless and unresponsive. Sanji offers her tea, but she simply sets it on the swing and inspects her apples. They're days from being perfectly ripe and she's all but ready to stuff them into her bag and poison someone with them. Her Haki fluctuates between observation and reversing, making her hard to see at some points and nearly radiant in others like one of Nami's mirages. A few times the two spectrums were so jumbled that her onlookers' eyes were snaking over her just to find somewhere to focus on, which Sanji doesn't mind one bit.
"Would you stop that?" Zoro growls. "You're giving me a headache."
She doesn't respond or stop the fluctuations. Luffy decides to take advantage of her state and slinks up behind a tree, stretching to meet the shape at an angle where Karmen can't see. He stretches his fingers up to an amber apple and has nearly plucked it from his its branch when a sea prism feather is stuck into his shirt. He melts into a rubbery puddle while Karmen circles the other tree.
"Can't you do something about this?" Franky asks Robin.
Smiling, she crosses her arms and closes her eyes. "Ocho Fleurs." Hands sprout out of Karmen to tickle her. Her face registers emotion, but she does not laugh.
Nami takes the feather dart off Luffy and presses it into Karmen's hand as Robin stops. "Did you sleep at all last night?"
Karmen leans her head against her tree. "How am I supposed to sleep after running into Baldwin? I screwed up big time. He's had to have called my family or the government by now, which means Pierce is in even more danger. I could have slipped into that building unnoticed and searched everywhere without anyone seeing me even if it would have taken all day by myself. Instead I went and made a spectacle that the nobles are going to be talking about for a month. Do you know how much the woman who owned that mansion, Foiner Marina, loves to gossip? Everyone is going to know I was there and about everything that I said. If I wasn't so worried I'd be so embarrassed that I could die." Her Haki finally dissipates enough that they can keep their eyes on her. "And the navy will know to look for me with you guys, if Aokiji hasn't already told them, so if father gets angry, you guys are in danger too."
"Then let's go beat up your dad," Luffy says. "If he tells us where Pierce is then all we have to do is go get him."
"All the intelligence I've gathered up to this point says father's on the other side of the Red Line, meaning we have to cross Fishman Island or Mariejois to get there and neither of those places particularly welcome me right now."`
"But if he's using Pierce as bait then it means your father won't kill him until you get over there, so relax, little sis," Franky says.
"I'm just worried about how fast the news is going to get there."
"Maybe she'd feel better if you played her some dance music," Usopp whispers to Brook.
The skeleton sets his violin under his chin and leans down. "If I play you a waltz, might I see your panties?" Karmen flicks her dart into his afro and kicks his skull so he topples over backwards. Usopp sighs. "I don't suppose writing your father would do anything at this point, would it?"
"No way." She glowers. "The one I carved into that bounty hunter was my last." She gets up. "I need to do something. Maybe I'll test some poison on barnacles." Franky helps her set up a hanging bench on pulleys to lower her down to where a few sea creatures had tried taking up residence. She hooks her bag to the bench, digging past the two masks inside to find her antimony powder that she'd gathered from Franky's workshop. She smears some on a barnacle and watches it shift uncomfortably until it loses its grip and falls into the ocean. She slips the canister into her pocket and varies her toxins, using the one that makes things think that they have bugs crawling on them, one that caused people to break out into hives, one that deadened the nerves and others from the plants she'd gathered in Water 7.
Hours pass as the ship sails along. Sanji hums happily as he emerges from the kitchen with a tray of pastries. He sends the men inside to fetch their own while he places plates before Nami and Robin. "Karmen," he calls over the bulwark. "Your snack is ready!" There's no answer. He leans over the edge and sees her bag hanging from the bench, but no secretary. "Did Karmen come back on deck?" he asks.
"I didn't see her," Chopper says.
Zoro rubs his eye sleepily. "She probably used that Haki cloak of hers. She grabbed something from the workout room the other day and I didn't even know she was there." He sets his swords aside and walks towards the foremast. "I'll see if she's using the telescope or something."
"I'll look in her workstation," Usopp offers. "She probably went to grab snake venom."
Both men come back empty-handed. Zoro reports that she wasn't on the other mast or the sails. Robin goes to check the library and bath house. Nami goes to check the bedrooms. Chopper checks the medical ward. Usopp and Franky go to check the workstations. Brook and Luffy check the lounge, storage room, and cannon deck. When everyone except Chopper returns to the deck without having found her Nami stops the ship. "I think I saw a large fish pass by earlier. Maybe she went to ride it," Robin suggests.
"If she was fish riding she'd have the deck drenched by now," Franky says.
"Maybe she fell off and got eaten," she says straight faced.
Chopper returns from below deck in his reindeer form, sniffing. He circles the apple trees before ending up at the railing above the hanging bench. "Karmen's most recent scent is coming from below. I can smell fresh traces of her perfume down there too."
"Perfume?" Sanji slides down the ropes. "Franky. Pull me up," he says softly after a moment. As the pulleys work, Sanji rises, standing on the bench with a cigarette in his mouth and a concerned expression on his face. In his hand are Karmen's sea prism quills and the mask she bought at Water 7. Chopper's nose follows the mask that has the scent of extinct flowers freshly spritzed over it. Sanji steps onto the lawn and places the mask on the grass, stabbing the two pens through its empty eyes. "This was hanging from the ship like this."
Luffy rubs his chin and leans over it. "I don't get it. Where'd she go?"
"It obviously means something," Nami says. "If she had fallen off or gone fish riding she wouldn't have left it there." The crew sits around the display, throwing out several questions and few answers.
"Stabbed through the eye," Robin mutters. "Through the eye. The eyes… Pierce his eye! This is about Pierce somehow."
"What makes you think that?" Luffy asks.
"At the celebration on Thriller Bark, Karmen made a toast to Pierce's eyes and the other pirates thought she said pierce his eyes."
"Well that's part of her message," Sani comments. "Why the mask?"
"I've never seen it before," Brook says.
"She hasn't worn it since we left Water 7," Chopper says. "Does it have something to do with that?"
"Maybe Enies Lobby?" Sanji suggests.
"No. The sea train, or San Faldo to be exact," Franky says. "Puffing Tom stops there. They call it the Carnival City."
"So that leaves the last question," Nami says, holding her chin in focus. "Why did she leave her favorite weapons behind? If she just wanted to hang the mask she had plenty other quills to use." The crew stares at the metal quill pens.
"She's saying there's a reason she can't fight," Usopp says. "They've kidnapped her and told her that if she resists Pierce will be hurt." His hands ball into fists.
"There's something else you should know," Zoro says. "There's a time limit."
Karmen sits at a table in an expensive building, hair still damp from when she pulled the air tank off her head. Across the table from her sits Baldwin and a plump woman dressed in silks, jewels, and a fresh coat of makeup that is still being applied by a slave. Heavy gold eels hang from her ears. They eternally crush ships in their mouths. In front of the two people sit a transponder snail and a picture of a young man with long russet hair pulled into a low ponytail and gray eyes. The man in the picture looks like he's cussing someone out and his eyes scream with murderous rage. The blood on his shirt just at the edge of the image makes her think it was taken the night she left home or soon after. She'd never seen Pierce so angry. Government agents in black suits and sunglasses stand along the walls watchfully, but not interfering.
Baldwin looks disgruntled himself, glancing between the two women as the slave applies the final brush stroke and retreats. "I still don't understand why you won't tell me anything," he growls.
"Because knowledge is power, you twat, and you've only earned the right to sit in on this conversation," the woman says, cocking her favorite pearl handled silver pistol.
"How long have you been in the Grand Line, Mother," Karmen asks the woman calmly.
"Your father sent me after you sent that letter in the bounty hunter." She sets the barrel of her gun close to the picture and cackles. "Beautiful piece of work, really. We taught you well."
Sneering with emotion she doesn't really feel, she leans forward and rests her chin on her hands. "Tell me he's dead. He was quite rude to me. In fact, all the people you've sent have been rather annoying and trigger happy. You'd think they thought they were attempting to retrieve a slave."
"That is their usual job," Gallowcomb Antwanette Jenevive Willow says. "If you knew it was me who sent them, why didn't you come back with them?"
"They bored me and often refused my offers of tea."
"Oh. And after we went through all the trouble to special order that last one," she cackles. The snail rings and Willow answers. "Hello, Darling. Are the wedding preparations going smoothly?"
Karmen feels the hairs on her arms and neck rise as the snail's eyes narrow and raise with cold disdain and its mouth sneers. "I'm looking forward to seeing the child."
"You won't believe this. She spends a few months running around with pirates and she shows up with a tattoo. It's not even a good tattoo. It's just a bug ugly 'X' on her left arm. It's atrocious. We'll have to put her in gloves."
"Yes, just cover it for now. Have your brother burn it off later," he says. "How are you, Karmen?"
"I'm well, Father," she hears herself saying. "I understand you had trouble locating me."
"There's someone here who's been dying to speak with you, sugar pie."
She hears the other snail shifting. Theirs droops its eyes weakly and begins to pant. "Karmen?" All emotion leaves her face as she hears someone get hit. "Lady Gallowcomb," the voice corrects itself. "Forgive me if my inadequacy has caused you ill fortune."
"Lady Gallowcomb" returns to Karmen's cold eyes for the first time in two years. "Father, have you kept that waste of space servant alive all this time? You've gotten soft. I'll dispose of him properly when we are reunited. Do save me the pleasure."
"I think he'll be a perfect showpiece for the vineyard," her father says.
Seeing as Baldwin still hasn't been filled in, she decides to speak merchant code with her father. "I thought you were at the other house. I was on my way across the Red Line to drop off the profits of my business trip."
"We were, but I thought you'd feel more at home if we held the ceremony on Valcour. We have so many pleasant memories there, after all. Has your trip been profitable, pet? You'll have to tell me all about it after I've walked you down the aisle."
"Yes, Father. However I can be of use."
"It's really a shame. You're nearly too precious to let go. I'm afraid the invitation to your warlord friend has been lost in the mail. We'll send him an announcement afterwards."
"Mail birds can be so careless sometimes. Most of your messages never made it to me while I've been gone. Did you at least repay him for thwarting that assassination attempt two years ago? I've had to keep a low profile due to their continued persistence."
"We've sent him several cases of wine. Unfortunately the government has kept him busy so we haven't been able to thank him in person."
"That is most unfortunate." She leans back in her chair. "I received your report that you've been in communication with Doflamingo again. How is my dear cousin? I haven't seen him since I dropped my business log off with him in Jaya."
"He's been very helpful these past few years," her father says. "You'll see soon enough. Is there anything else you'd like to say to this waste of space before your mother prepares you for your public debut?"
"I'll be there to kill him soon enough."
"Very well, Lady Gallowcomb," the weak voice responds.
Willow hangs up the receiver. "Isn't this fun." She lowers the hammer on her pistol. "On my way over I went shopping, darling. I've got the perfect outfit for you tonight."
Karmen is lead upstairs to a steaming tub. Three female government agents follow them. Servants strip her and throw her clothes in a pile to be burned. Willow spins her daughter around and stares at the still healing bullet wound in her stomach. "A cheap tattoo and scars? You disappear for two years and come back like this?! Do you know how much a scar devalues you?" She raises her hand to slap her and an agent grabs her wrist.
"Miss Gallowcomb, you cannot harm the girl. Remember the warlord's terms."
"What terms?" Karmen's eyes narrow. "Does this have something to do with Kuma?"
"Nineteen years I've never laid a hand on you," Willow says, pulling her wrist free. "Terms and services only go as far as the fine print. There are other ways." She holds the picture of the beloved servant over an open candle and lets it burn. "I have to go change your entire wardrobe now."
As her mother sweeps from the room and the servants pull Karmen into the tub Karmen watches the remaining corner of the picture smolder on the floor. Pierce's defiant gray eye disappears into the flame. She sets her jaw and makes her decision. "In my back pocket you'll find a canister of luster dust. Please mix it with whatever makeup you've prepared for me. I'd also like a word with the chef and the head of the decoration team. If I'm going to get married this week I have a lot of work to do."