"Brook!" Luffy, Usopp and Nicole greeted the familiar skeletal man "Brook-chin!" Camie also greeted.

"Oh, Luffy-san, Usopp-san and Nicole-san, and it's been a while Camie-san, could i look at your panties" the skeletal man greeted in return before Pappagu the starfish hit him.

"She's a mermaid" Pappagu said before also greeting the others "Straw! Nose! Eyes! I missed you guys, i didn't know that you were here" he said.

"Long time no see" Luffy said greeting the starfish back as he jumped into his hands.

"So you were with Pappagu" Usopp said.

"Yes, i didn't expect to be rescued by Pappagu-san, i was so lucky" Brook said before laughing a bit.

"Yeah, that was just as surprising to me, while i was polishing off an idea for a new design at the cove, i saw some bones drifting on a log towards me" Pappagu explained.

"Soul King, come see us again" one mermaid hanging on the skeletal man's side said and kissed his boney cheek.

"I had a wonderful time" the other mermaid said kissing Brook's other cheek.

"I'll be back, beautiful mermaids" Brook said.

"What?!" Usopp exclaimed in shock and surprise.

"I'm going boneless!" Brook said before falling into a pile of bones and then reassembling himself as he stood up "Oh i can't exist without bones, oh i don't care if i die now, oh no i'm already dead!" he said and the others sweatdropped.

"He certainly got more lively" Nicole muttered.

"Yeah i wonder what's going on inside" Luffy said.

"Wait, wait, wait, you aren't leaving today are you? I know you are interested in the café but you can come back with everybody later, i was gonna take Bone to my house now, come with me, do you like sea monster meat?" Pappagu asked getting out of Luffy's hold.

"Do you have meat?" Luffy asked squatting down to the starfish's level.

"I'm wild, i don't wanna eat seaweed or shellfish, what i mainly eat is violent sea monsters!" Pappagu said.

"Oh Pappagu, i almost forgot, here are your clams for today" Camie said offering a clam to the starfish.

"Wow! Camie's clams are the best!" Pappagu cheered.

"So you do eat clams!" Usopp said hitting the starfish's back.

"Damn" Luffy sighed slumping down.

"There there" Nicole said patting his back "Maybe once we meet up with the others we can go fishing for sea kings, make an adventure out of it" she said.

"Really?!" Luffy asked, literally bouncing back up, as he drooled.

"Sure" Nicole smiled.

~

"Unlike Merfolk, Fish-Men eat meat and fish, so it's not like we don't have them here" Pappagu said.

"Oh, glad to hear that!" Luffy cheered.

"Oh, just what i was looking for, hey taxi!" Pappagu called the floating fish taxi over and everybody climbed on board, as Brook was coming aboard though he spotted something.

"What? Vander Decken! He's a ghost, why are they looking for him?" the skeletal man asked looking at a poster warning about the supposed ghost.

"Oh, this guy was on the ghost ship that we saw?" Usopp asked.

"What? Did you guys see him?" Pappagu asked.

"Yes" Brook said.

"The whole nation has been looking for him for years! He's a pirate, an undersea bandit, i'll tell you about it later, get on first" Pappagu said and everyone climbed on board the taxi before the floating fish took off.

"Vander Decken was sending love letters to the Mermaid Princess of the Ryugu Kingdom at least once a week, before long the letter became packages, then threats to marry him" Pappagu said while eating the clams he got from Camie.

But Usopp and Luffy weren't listening.

"Vander Decken, what a creep, bet he feels he's entitled to have her cause he's liked her for so long! But she probably hasn't even seen him, i hate men like that the most, i'll cut him in half as soon as i get the chance!" Nicole ranted angrily.

"Indeed! His eccentric behavior made the Mermaid Princess afraid and it became a national concern" Pappagu was cut off by Camie jumping in.

"Yeah, the Mermaid Princess' father, king Neptune got mad and those three princes that we just met have been looking for him with the army but they can't find him" the mermaid said.

"Camie, Camie, i was just telling them about it" Pappagu muttered but Camie ignored him and continued.

"King Neptune, the God of the Sea, who runs this country has four children including the Mermaid Princess, the mermaid princess is the youngest and the three princes are older than her" the mermaid explained.

"But what i can't understand is, Vander Decken must be a ghostly pirate from hundreds of years ago" Brook said.

"Well those legends are often exaggerated, he truly existed and in fact i heard that the legendary captain Vander Decken reached Fish-Man island and died here, the ship that you saw was the Flying Dutchman wasn't it? It's his descendent who is on the ship" Pappagu said.

"Vander Decken the Ninth!" Camie said jumping in and cutting off the starfish.

"What his descendant? Oh is that so? That means he's not a ghost, i thought it was a real ghost and felt more dead than alive since i'm a skeleton, that's good, that's just good" Brook said.

"Makes sense if you think about it, the original Vander Decken was probably one of the first people to reach Fish-Man island but couldn't make his way back, so he settled down and likely had children that were half Fishman and so on until the current generation" Nicole said.

"When i look closer, Merfolk and Fish-Men are all different" Luffy said looking down to the streets they were floating above.

"There are old mermaids, like granny Kokoro" Usopp said.

"Look, there's a baby" Pappagu pointed out "The father is a Fish-Man and the children are Merfolk and Fish-Man, when a mermaid and a Fish-Man get married their kids could be either Merfolk or Fish-Man, either boy or girl so there are four possibilities" the starfish explained.

"So that's why they're all different, interesting" Luffy said.

"Alright, let's get on the highway" Pappagu said and the fish taxi landed in some fast flowing water fashioned into a road with bubbles speeding up their journey.

"It's fast!" Luffy grinned before he noticed something "What's that?" he asked.

Nicole noticed it too *That's Big Mom's flag* she thought to herself.

"That's a candy factory" Pappagu explained.

"No, why is there a pirate flag?" Luffy asked.

"That? You can see the same flag at the entrance of the island and at the harbor, that flag is protecting Fish-Man island, the mark belongs to a pirate called Charlotte Linlin of the New World, also known as Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors" the starfish said.

"T-the Four Emperors?" Usopp asked.

"Before the war Whitebeard was protecting the island from pirates but now it's Big Mom, but she demands a lot of sweet candies every month in exchange, that's what the factory is for" Pappagu explained.

"Candies?" Luffy echoed.

"This country can't exist without the protection of those powerful people, that's how dangerous this place is where pirates come and go frequently" Pappagu said.

"But she's protecting the country after old man Whitebeard, isn't Big Mom a good person?" Luffy asked.

"It's hard to say, Whitebeard never demanded anything, so Big Mom views it as business, maybe" Pappagu said.

"One of the Four Emperors like Shanks, wonder if i'll meet her someday" Luffy said wondering outloud.

Nicole chuckled a bit "I have a feeling that day might be sooner then you think" she said.

"Look forward! We're in Fishverly Hills, the town of the celebrities!" Pappagu said.

"That tall building right in front of us is Pappagu's house" Camie said.

"That?! That's too much for a starfish!" Luffy, Usopp and Brook all yelled in synch.