What you can't see... (Amisi)

[Kurosaki]

This was one of the things Nami prided herself in. The ability to look great in clothes. Now she was going to get the chance to try on some brides maid outfits! It was pretty exciting to her and the beri in her pocket was just burning right through the fabric. Though she hated to depart with it, a clothing store was one place she felt comfortable doing so in.

"Oh! What a beautiful figure you have!" said an excited saleswoman. Apparently there were a lot of them in this store. Nami smiled a bit nervously before she was led to the side and toward a stall just as the others were. She was measured and the woman exclaimed each time she saw the measurements. Soon Nami came out dressed in a perfect pink strapless pink dress, her orange hair pulled back into a pony tail, and white pearl earrings sparklying at each ear. Though those dresses weren't supposed to look good so that the bride looked the best, Nami somehow made the dress.

"Lola! Have you picked out a dress yet?" Nami called sweetly before walking over to join her friend. She was just in time to witness the shopgirl faint. "Huh?" Nami wasn't sure what had just happened. She blinked a few times and then leaned over to see the magazine clipping that Lola had brought out from under her hat.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" screeched Nami, leaping back and pointing her index finger at the picture of the dress. It was absolutely... Hideous! Nami knew that Lola didn't have a good sense of fashion but to go that far...

Trying to calm herself down from seeing that image, Nami closed her eyes and let out a sigh. When she opened them she was more reasonable looking.

"Ne, Lola? That dress... I don't think that a place like this would have it, unfortunately. So, let's just go with what is here, okay?" Nami said patiently with a tilt of her head though her eyebrow was significantly twitching as she spoke.

[amisi]

"I guess you're right," sighed Lola. "Oh well. Maybe they have something similar..." Although in any other circumstance Lola was a good friend, right now she was just too caught up in her own dress-buying frenzy to notice Sarah and Chopper looking uncomfortably trussed up in formal wear, or Nami looking positively glamorous in pink. No, she only had eyes for The Dress, or at least something that resembled it...

Her gaze roved the store, skimming over racks of tasteful white lace and beading to find something that struck her. She looked briefly at Sarah and Nami for inspiration, but quickly moved on with a frown. Sarah's dress was cute, but the colors were too dull and the skirt not nearly large enough... Nami's dress was almost the right shade of pink, but where were the mutton leg sleeves? The flounces? The bustle? And not a yard of bright yellow chiffon to be seen anywhere. Lola sighed theatrically and trudged across the store, looking as though her puppy had just died. It looked like at least part of her perfect dream couldn't come true. She supposed she should at least be happy to have a husband, since really that was the important thing, but... now that she thought of it, she'd asked thousands of men to be her husband. And the man in her fantasy wedding was indistinct, sort of hard to separate from the background... but the dress had always been at the front of the fantasy, shining brightly in its steel cage crinolined glory.

"I don't know, maybe we should try somewhere else," said Lola, wistfully examining her magazine page again. "It's a big archipelago. SOMEONE has to be selling something like this..."

"Well..." said one of the workers (who happened to be the manager). She had carefully helped her swooning coworker into the breakroom and now stood in front of the cash register with her hands folded before her, staring primly into Lola's eyes. "We do have... it."

"It?" Lola looked up and quirked an eyebrow, intrigued.

"Yes. We're not allowed to speak of it... in fact, I'm the only one allowed to handle it besides the owner. It's far too dangerous for the clerks."

"Go on." Electricity crackled in the air between them. If Lola concentrated very hard, she thought she could hear horses whinnying in the distance.

"I can't bring it out unless you swear to buy it." The manager's eyes suddenly went misty with tears. "Please, say you'll buy it, I don't... I can't... s-sometimes I just look at the box, and, and, and I see it..."

Goodness, thought Lola. It must be beautiful. If she's crying just thinking of it, imagine how everyone will feel when I wear it to my wedding...!!

"I'll take it!" declared Lola. "Bring it out and I'll try it on! Hehehe!"

The manager nodded, her chin a hard line of determination. She disappeared into the breakroom for a moment and returned wearing a large pair of sunglasses and elbow-length rubber gloves. Lola stepped back and watched with great interest as the woman padded into the dressing room and gingerly lifted the full-length mirror off the wall, revealing a safe. There was a faint rustling in the stall-- Lola's heart was racing, she could hardly breathe-- and at last the manager trooped out holding a large grey acid-free box, which she very carefully set on the floor.

"Here goes," she muttered, then removed the box lid.

Lola's expression slowly morphed from intense concentration to unbridled delight. She snatched the dress out from under the manager and dashed into the dressing room with the safe still wide open.

At last, she emerged.

(Hint: the dress is the ugliest thing ever.)

[Mikan]

Nico Robin is a woman, of course. She has the qualities, and points of a woman, and certainly love to do what every woman does. She likes to pamper herself, and she loves clothes. The only thing that makes her standout in a crowd, is mainly because of her style. And where does she get this so called 'style'? Of course, it's the power of the clothes just in front of her. But right now, who would want to look at clothes, when something that set off her mind into a huge amount of thinking just to discover what was happening.

The last thing she knew was the fliers that contained the date of Portgas D. Ace's public execution at Marine Ford. Thanks to this, her mind raced, thinking what was happening to the world, when she was beating up Absalom along with her nakama, and when they're planning the wedding. She didn't knew this event was happening, while they sit back. She never knew this, and was quite shock.

But why would she be shock? She haven't met him in person, but there was a reason why she was shock, eve though she have not met this guy even once in her life. She only heard of him in the papers. Portgas D. Ace is only the brother of her captain, but since her captain is one of the people she liked, she was taken aback by the information. As quick as her mind raced to find the answer, she took one of the papers, and went inside the clothing store. She headed straight to Nami, and handed her one of the fliers.

"We have to do something!," she said.

Then, a laugh emerge from the dressing room, cutting their conversation in half.

"FOSH! FOSH! FOSH! Cindry-chan 2, please dispose of this lady! She does not know what style is! Seriously...me fitting a tux? IN SMALL SIZE! Does she not see my form?,"

Another one of the problems had popped up.

Atleast she knew the answer. If Absalom was here.....one of his nakama might be near.

[Bear Etelka (Sarah)]

Sarah let out a small grumbling noise just standing there and shaking like she was a scared puppy. She really really wasn't used to wearing any kind of dress, that was for sure.

" H..HEy...a..are you sure I look Okay in this dress?" she asked the sales Lady who was curiously trying to put on a headpiece for the dress.

"yes! you look so cute! now hold still, of I cant fix this to your hair.

Sarah yelped "b....but I don't want to wear the head piece!" she yipped some "j..Just the dress is fine..r.really....I..I'm not the one getting married...really... I'm not" she shook her head no.

The sales lady sighed" alright then we will just...... OH GOOD HEAVENS!!!" the lady screamed seeing Lola walk out of the dressing room and shielded her eyes " my eyes!! my perfectly fashionable little eyes"

Sarah Squeaked "w,,what Is it I..." she slowly turned around to see her captain in a dress, her eye twitched a little bit and she made a face that kinda looked like 'O~O'.

She stared at Lola for a couple minutes before finally squeaking out some words" that dress is...umm....umm... very.... interesting ..c..captain..." she squeaked, it was th only word she could think of t o describe it without insulting her friend. She let out a small gulp and looked away a moment, still making the O~O face.

However her little horrified trance was broken at hearing the shouts in a dressing rooms not to far from where she stood" h..huh?" her ears flicked up "h..hey...who was that...." she looked around " SIR!!" she called out" Ya know..i..its not very nice to say things like that, and no ones disposing of anyone!" She squeaked, not even knowing the voice, all she knew was it didn't sound very nice. and despite the sales peoples pushy and sometimes insulting attitudes, she couldn't allow anyone to 'dispose' of anyone.

"And I think these people know fashion pretty well..they were probably just seeing if you liked the tux sir! there no reason to be so rude..geeze" she squeaked.

( XDD she doesn't even see who's saying it XD basically shes just yelling it to whoevers back there XD)

[Mikan]

It was, of course, Hogback. The only person able to make that laugh. That laugh still irks the ears of Nico Robin, and just wished she could shut it by sewing them with rusty needles. Oh, she really wants to do it. With that in mind, she moved the coat rack in front of the ladies, and, wa-la, Hogback was revealed. She looked at him with such disgust that it gave off a radiating aura around the archeologist.

"FOSH FOSH FOSH! Oh... aren't you the Strawhat Pirates?," the professor snapped at them. After the high-pitched giggle, his tone sound dead serious, and it felt like at any second, someone was going to die. The professor's face changed when he saw Absalom tied, unconscious. He was shocked, but he managed to hide his expression away from them. He turned around, and went out of the store.

"Whatever you're doing with him, please don't kill him. I don't think I have the strength now to get him away from all of you, so I'd rather walk away. We never spoke, or seen each other. Absalom is old enough to go back to our secret base,"

With that said, he laughed again with that annoying voice of his, and took one poster off the ground.

"Hmm, Portgas D. Ace, to be executed, FOSH FOSH FOSH!," and with that he was gone.

Robin remembered what she was going to say, but it seems they have already caught on..