Chapter 91: Two More Zombies

Hi, all! It seemed like most people liked the last chapter, though no one was happy to see "that cat-faced bastard" get away. You needn't worry. See, I thought that Sanji fighting him would be too similar to the Anime and Luffy fighting him would be cliche and too quick, so he'll get a different opponent soon.

In other news, a reviewer PMed me and mentioned that I had forgotten to give Franky his Straw Hat tattoo. Indeed I had, so I will rectify that by describing it in this chapter.

Chapter 95:

Two More Zombies

"'Tri-Horn' Coby and 'Mood Painter' Grace," Moria read, his eyes flinting from the wanted posters in his hand and the unconscious pirates in the cage before him. The male of the two had been relieved of his weapons on the way there, the two swords sent down to the armory where they were being examined; it had been foolish to leave the master with his. "Perona had these two for how long?"

"About an hour," Hildon answered from his perch. "She was trying to get answers out of them, but I don't know if she got what she wanted."

"Humf," Moria huffed. "It was probably something about those 'cute little pirates' she was fawning over when the Straw Hats first arrived. Ah well. It doesn't matter. Hogback!"

"Yes?!" the new zombie with Chopper's shadow responded, stepping out of the shadows and all but bouncing.

"Do we have any zombies ready for a painter girl and a boy with three horns?"

"Ah, yes, for the girl," Hogback responded, "but it wouldn't be too hard to add horns to one of the other zombies."

"Get to work, Doctor," the shadow-man ordered. "I'm counting on you."

"Just because you say~"

"Get to work!" the Warlord yelled, cutting the dancing zombie off. Hogback jumped and nodded before grabbing a coffin and running out of the room.

"Quite energetic, isn't he?" Hildon chuckled. "I've never seen him move so quickly."

"I hope it passes soon," Moria grumbled. "I'd like the quiet mad genius back rather than the bubbly idiot the reindeer's shadow has turned him into."

"You know how the personalities are, Master," Hildon waved off. "It's an animal shadow in a human body. Just give it a few hours."

"Yes," the man sighed. "Where are Perona and Absalom?"

"Mistress Perona is in her room; you know how she is about work, but last I heard from the spider-mice, Lola was chasing Master Absalom along the northern shore. She's really determined tonight after hearing he was willing to marry."

"I wish that aspect of her personality had faded by now," Moria shrugged, "but obsessions don't go away. Ah, but what are we waiting around for? We might as well pass the time with taking the shadow of this young lady! Hildon, if you would?" The vampire-like zombie nodded and swooped down, flicking the switch on the giant spotlight Moria used for shadow-stealing before moving toward the coffins on the east end of the room. The large man, meanwhile, opened the cage and pried the woman out, hanging her by the hook so her feet just touched her shadow on the floor. "Do you have the right body yet, Hildon?"

"Yes, Master," the zombie replied, scooting a smaller coffin to the large man. Once it was within arms length, Moria reached over and all but ripped off the lid. Inside was the body of a young teenaged girl with shoulder-length blonde hair dyed with different strips of color and grey-tinted skin. Scars stitched together with thread of all colors littered the girl's body, the most noticeable of which ran from the bridge of the nose to above the right eye and was closed with green stitches. Also visible were the swirling scars in blue going down the left arm, purple wrapping around the right, and the orange scars looping around the right leg. The corpse's clothing included a sleeveless, rainbow-striped crop top, jean shorts, and brown hiking boots. The short shirt not only revealed the stomach, but also the bellybutton piercing that was there and the X-shaped red and gold scar that contrasted with the skin tone. The tattoo on the left arm read "Z-892", showing that the body had been waiting for a soul for a short while.

"Good choice, Hildon," Moria complemented. "With a body this similar, the personality of the shadow might not last five minutes."

"It's not often we have young, female shadows," Hildon agreed, "so there's something of a backlog with bodies like this one."

"Yes, I know," Moria acknowledged. "Now go fetch the boy's swords from the armory and check in with Hogback. I'd like to take the boy's shadow as soon as I'm done with this one."

"Understood, Master!" Hildon bowed and took wing, flying down one of the corridors. Moria watched until he was out of sight before turning back to the task at hand. He reached down over the coffin, peeling the redhead girl's shadow off the floor and pulling her forward by her feet. Moria sighed.

"It's always better when they scream and beg," he whined, hefting up his scissors in preparation of removing one more shadow. With a snip, Grace's shadow was separated from her feet, leaving the girl free to swing back. Her shadow wiggled, trying to free it's arms from Moria's massive hand while the Warlord brought it up to his face.

"Renounce your past self and release your identity. I am your new master. Accept this contract and have new life!" The shadow nodded weakly, allowing Moria to swing it down into the body of the blonde. Her heart beat once for the first time in a year and her eyes opened to reveal two different eyes, one blue and the other green. "Welcome back to life, Iro," Moria greeted, naming the zombie. "Why don't you take your weapons from your former master and wait with me?"

The new zombie nodded, walking over the Grace who was still hanging from the hook. Reaching up, the zombie relieved the ginger of her hat, her palette and paints, and a box of rice crackers. Silent as the dead, she walked back to Moria, sat down to lean against him, and opened the box.

"A zombie after my own heart!" Moria noted. "Kiishishishi!" The shadow-man and the zombie sat in silence for the next few minutes, the only actions either of them doing including moving the unconscious girl back into the cage and chewing on rice crackers. Coby started to stir.

"Ow," he moaned, a hand coming up to rub his head in an attempt to soothe the pounding headache there. "What hit me?" Blinking his eyes clear, he noted that he was not on the Sunny like he was expecting, immediately putting him on alert. The familiar weight of his Sabaku no Kiba was absent and a bracelet made of Sea Prism Stone was clasped on his right wrist. A paint-splattered smock in the corner of his vision attracted his attention.

"Grace!" he cried, shuffling over to the unconscious female. "Grace! Can you hear me?" Coby reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder and tried to shake her awake, but the girl didn't so much as stir. "Grace, please wake up!"

"Kiishishishi!" Moria laughed at the display. "Good. You're awake. It's more fun when they squirm. This one didn't make a peep when I took her shadow."

"You bastard!" Coby yelled, grabbing the bars of the cage. "Give Grace her shadow back right now or I swear to Goda-!"

"You'll what?" the Warlord questioned with a smirk. "I'm out of your league. There's nothing you could do to even touch me. I've already taken five of your crewmates' shadows; I only need five more before I send you all adrift into the Florian Triangle. And that number's about to go down by one!"

"We're back, Master!" a trio of voices cried, three small zombies running into the room with a coffin in their hands. "Master Hogback said he had too much work to come back himself, but he finished this for you!"

"Good, good. Bring it here."

"Yes, Master!" The trio ran over, dropping the box they carried at the feet of the Warlord. Moria, however, made no move to reach for it.

"Iro," he stated, causing the new zombie to look up at him. "Open that coffin for me."

"...Ok." The zombie yawned, stretching. Leaving the box of crackers behind, Iro stood and walked over to the closed coffin. She stood next to the wooden box, staring at it as if wanting the lid to remove itself. When no such thing occurred, the zombie girl sighed and set her hands on the lid, pushing it off of the box to reveal the box's contents.

Inside was the body of a young man with brown hair. He was very pale from lack of blood flow and was dressed in what appeared to be a business suit, tie and all, though the tie had different dinosaurs on it. Despite this apparent normality, the image of a regular body was ruined by the three horns implanted in the face of the man. The two horns which protruded from the forehead were elephant in origin and the third, which was stitched into the nose, seemed to come from a rhino, but neither of those animals could have been very old based on the sizes of the horns, each one about 10 inches.

"Is that-?" Coby began.

"What?" Moria taunted. "What were you going to say? Is that your shadow's new body? Because it is!"

"No," Coby denied. "I was going to ask if that is the zombie with Grace's shadow."

"...Kiishishishi!" Moria laughed, throwing his head back. "Kiishishishi! Kiishishishishishishi! How cute! You care more for this little girl than about yourself! Well why don't I do you a favor and take your shadow so both of you can spend the rest of your lives in the shadows together! Iro!" The zombie turned. "Subdue this pirate."

"...Understood, Master." The zombie girl approached the cage, pulling out Grace's pallet and paintbrush. Coby backed away, getting as far from the undead as the cage would allow, but he knew it was to be a fruitless endeavor. Grace's aim with liquid paint was phenomenal and he was defenseless without his swords or powers. He closed his eyes, silently cursing his uselessness.

Captain Luffy. Save us.

"Colors Trap, Sadness Blue."

"KIISHISHISHISHI!"

Captain Luffy. Save us.

"Coby?" Luffy questioned, stopping in the middle of the hallway. Nami continued forward a dozen steps, causing Luffy's arm to stretch due to their conjoined hands.

"Luffy?" she asked, turning and releasing his hand which snapped back to its proper length. "What's wrong?"

"I could have sworn I just heard Coby's voice." Luffy's gaze roved over the stone walls, passing over Nami in the wedding dress she had torn for more maneuverability, but whatever power was allowing him to hear these voices was fading quickly. Coby's voice was the clearest thing he'd heard all night, but now he couldn't even feel Nami who was right next to him.

"...What'd he say?"

"Help us," Luffy answered without hesitation. "Moria must have captured him and Grace."

"Damn it," the navigator cursed. "What do we do now? We were assuming they were either lost or that whoever had them wasn't going to give them to Moria so soon."

"Guess they changed their mind," Luffy shrugged. "Since Moria has Grace and Coby, I suppose we could just all attack him at once."

"Come on," Nami insisted. "We're almost to the dining hall, I remember the way since we passed the bathroom a couple corridors back."

"Whatever you say." The duo continued down the hall, shoving the doors at the end open to reveal the downward staircase it led to. The rest of the crew jumped at the sudden sound, turning to look at the newlyweds. The zombies that Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Grace had beaten up earlier in the night were all now motionless, the last few stragglers still trying to hold their stolen shadows to no avail.

"Bad news, everyone," Nami began.

"You two are getting divorced?" Sanji tried, attempting to hide the hope in his voice. "What a shame. I'll make you a pick-me-up as soon are we're out of here, Nami-swan!"

"What? No! Moria has Coby and Grace!"

"No!" Amy yelled, covering up the cook's disappointed sigh. "If that bastard lays even a finger on my little sister, I swear I'll eviscerate him from the balls up!"

"Oh dear," Robin sighed. "In that case, there will be two more zombies we must defeat. I wonder what they'll look like." She gasped. "Oh my! I don't have a wedding gift for our newlyweds!"

"Couldn't you be a little less nonchalant about this?!" Gin questioned. "That makes five of us without our shadows now."

"Yeah," Merry acknowledged, "but most of us know the weaknesses of our crewmembers better than they do. We shouldn't have trouble taking down their zombies. I've still got a beef with Gin's to settle."

"Except that you're coming with me," Usopp stated. "I'm not letting you out of my sight until this island-ship is nothing but a spot in the distance."

"Uncle Usopp!" Merry whined.

"No, he's right," Nami commented. "We should stick together in pairs; they were able to pick us off when we were in bigger groups. Our zombies could be scattered all over the mansion, too, so we'll split up and take down every zombie we see, but aim for ones you can identify. I'll go with Luffy."

"I'll take Gin," Amy announced. "If we don't find his shadow by daybreak, then I can shield him with my parasol."

"But Amy-chwan-!" Sanji gasped.

"And I will take Mr. Swordsman," Robin offered, ignoring how Sanji's head whipped around to stare at her. "I'll be able to 'keep an eye on him' in case he gets lost."

"But Robin-chwan-!"

"I don't get lost," Zoro mumbled. "The world just moves around me."

"I guess I'll go with Reindeer-Bro," Franky commented. "He doesn't weigh much, so we can get places super quickly if I carry him. And worst comes to worst, I can stuff him in my freezer and he'll be fine. Also, I would like to note that the Thousand Sunny was my super wedding gift to our captain and navigator." Franky struck his usual pose with his forearms together to make a start. He had added to the design, each star now holding half of a metal skull, one half black with white highlights and the other with its colors inverted. The skull, which came together in Franky's Super Pose, also bore a blue pompadore not unlike the cyborg's.

"Yohohoho!" Brook laughed. "I suppose that leaves you and me, Sanji-san."

"Damn it," Sanji cried, punching the floor with tears streaming down his face. "All my mellorines are leaving me for the shitheads! All I'm left with is the corpse!"

"There there, Sanji," Luffy chuckled, rubbing circles over his back. "There will be plenty of other women to turn you down."

If anything, Sanji got more depressed.

"Alright, everyone!" Nami shouted. "We don't have all day! Let's get to it!"

"Yeah!" the assembled crew yelled with much enthusiasm, minus Sanji.

"And someone find the their money vault while we're at it!"

"Yeah..." the assembled crew muttered with less enthusiasm.

"...And the food!" Nami added.

"YEAH!"

End of Chapter 95

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-SwordOfTheGods