Chapter 97: The Crew Reunited

Chapter 101:

The Crew Reunited... Sort Of

"Thunderbolt Tempo!" Lightning flashed from the indoor stormcloud Nami had created, the electricity frying a half-dozen zombies. On the other side, another three undead were becoming nothing more than a puddle of goo via Grace's black acid paint. Both girls panted slightly, having been fighting many of these small-scale battles since they'd separated from the others.

"Where to now?" Grace asked.

"My money senses are tingling," Nami responded with a whisper, the shadows of her enemies floating away. "This way." She bolted down a side corridor perpendicular to the way they had entered, leaving Grace hard-pressed to keep up. The navigator slid to a stop before a large, round, iron door that was pushed halfway open. Two small voices echoed from within.

"This is the last of it," the first of the two said. "I hope Mistress Perona has all of the food stored."

"Of course she will," the second voice scolded. "She was pushing those other zombies hard to ready the Straw Hats' ship before we leave. I'm certain it's ready by now."

"Then let's get going!" Two small squirrel zombies trudged out of the room, a golden pot filled with gold coins held between them, only to freeze as their eyes registered the two women outside the door. Nami stared down at them, a sickly-sweet smile stretched over her face.

"Pardon me," she muttered as her eye twitched, the end of her Clima-Tact crackling. "What was that about our ship?"

"You bastard! I'll knock you down a peg! Special Attack: Oil Spill!" Angered, Usopp fired several dozen pellets of slippery oil at Oars' stumbling feet. The oil did as intended, stealing what balance Oars and causing the Titan to fall.

"Timber!" Amy called, jumping into Luffy's hands as he fired a Gum-Gum Bazooka. The blonde was launched over the falling behemoth before she increased her mass as far as she could. A human woman with a mass of aproxamently 10,347 kilograms crashed into the back of Oars' head, more than doubling his current speed. The titan's face hit the ground with a shockwave, blasting everyone but Amy away from the sight of impact and cause the walls on the edge of the courtyard to crumble. All was still...

"Get up, Oars!" Moria's voice all but sang. "We're not done yet! Kiiishishishi!"

"Master Moria?" Oars asked, looking around frantically. "Where are you?"

"I'm up here, Oars," Moria responded, drawing the downed titan's attention to where he stood on a parapet overlooking the courtyard. "What are you doing on the ground?" the Warlord asked. "Get up!"

"Yes, Master!" Oars quickly reacted, slinging his head to the left and throwing Amy off.

"MORIA!" Luffy yelled, grabbing a slab of rubble and launching it at the Warlord. Oars was quick to intercept, smashing the rock with a giant fist. Luffy was not deterred, however, slinging whatever debris he could get his hands on.

"Strong Right!" Oars countered, punching the debris into useless bits. "Don't touch my master, Straw Hat!" Luffy and Oars charged each other, the titan having all but forgotten about the other pirates. The rubbery pirate jumped up with a burst of steam, reaching the zombie's large gut. Unfortunately, he did not know how to use Moonwalk, but it was a good thing his was immune to most blunt-force trauma.

Oars' fist met Luffy's entire body in a shallow uppercut, intercepting the Jet Rifle the pirate had prepared. The captain spun away from the battle with a string of curses that would have made Garp give him a Fist of Love for the language.

"Luffy!" the present crew cried as their Devil Fruit-using captain vanished into the forest.

"One down, ten to go," Oars mused. "This is a super piece of cake!"

The rest of the Straw Hats in the remains of the courtyard stared up at the behemoth, each one thinking the same thing, a thought voiced by Coby of all people.

"...Shit."

"Your sense of direction, or lack thereof, is an anomaly of science," Chopper stated as leaves from the nearby trees rustled his fur from where he was riding Zoro's shoulders.

"Shut up, Chopper."

"He's right, though," Robin added. "The only way I could think of to explain it would be Devil Fruit powers, but you can still swim."

"It's not my fault the world moves around me!"

"Zoro, which way is north?"

"The way where the earth rises."

"..."

"Wait a second," Chopper muttered, blinking slowly as he took in the grey stone walls around them. "Weren't we just in the forest?"

"And there are no doors near us," Robin agreed, crossing her arms and using her powers. She closed her eyes for only a few seconds before opening them again. "It appears that we are on the fourth floor of the mansion now. It also appears that Franky is across the bridge to our left."

"That's convenient," Chopper muttered.

"Let's go get him," Zoro sighed, turning right.

The shipwright of the Straw Hat Pirates started coming to slowly, a dull throb in his chest making him feel like something was missing. He was too groggy to actually identify what was missing, if there was indeed something amiss, but the feeling was still there in his metal chest. Shaking his head slowly to try to clear most of said grogginess, the cyborg took in his surroundings.

He couldn't feel the floor under him, which was a little disconcerting, and there seemed to be something wrapped around most of his body. The memories of that night came to him, helping him identify the stuff as webbing from those mouse-spiders. It also helped reveal that the missing thing was his shadow. Where it was now, he hadn't a clue.

"-ent the opposite direction. I do not understand. Your direction defies all known physics."

"Shut up!"

"Franky!" That last one what Chopper, Franky believed. He'd only been with the crew for a week now, but several of the members, including the doctor, had very distinct voices. The cyborg turned his head as much as he could, only seeing his saviors out of the corner of his eye. Zoro quickly pulled out his newest sword, Shusui cutting through the webbing like warm butter and setting it alight with blue flames. Robin's arms then pulled Franky off the hook and dropped him on the ground. Franky reached up, ripping the webbing out of his mouth.

"Ow! What's up, guys?"

"Nothing good," Zoro answered with a scowl. "Only you and Chopper are missing your shadows, but yours in a giant monster and Chopper's is a crazy quack."

BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP...

"Yes?" Robin answered, opening her snail.

"Uh, Robin? Zoro-Sensei?" Coby asked over the snail. "Any chance you two can come to the courtyard?" Someone screamed through the snail, but it sounded distant.

"What's wrong?"

"We're just having a little trouble with- OH SHIT! USOPP, WATCH THE HANDS, HE'S GOT A POST!"

"STRONG BATTER!"

"I CAN SEE THAT! WHERE'S GIN?!"

"AMY'S LOOKING FOR HIM IN THAT DAMN RUBBLE OVER THERE FROM WHEN OARS USE A COUP DE POO ON HIM! IS MERRY AWAKE, YE- FUCK! AMY!"

"We're on our way," Zoro grunted before Robin shut the snail. "Now where's the-" The building shook as something slammed into the outside. The stonework cracked and shattered on one side, Amy barreling through the room to dent a large steel door on the other side. Chopper ran to her side while the other three pirates looked through the hole her body had made.

The courtyard and everything surrounding it was a mess, Oars standing in the middle of it and swinging a wooden post the length of his arm like a baseball bat. He'd ripped it from somewhere in the mansion, most likely. Their crew, or those who were still awake and around, scrambled around on the ground like tiny ants as they tried to fight the behemoth. Zoro was able to pick out his student's pink hair as he jumped out of the way when Oars brought the post down. Coby managed to avoid the shock that knocked Usopp over, twisting around in the air to bring his pair of swords down on the weapon. The post split in two places, losing almost a forth of its total length.

"My bat!" Oars yelled while Zoro smirked, a smirk mirrored by his student on the battlefield. "You'll pay for that, Pinky!"

"Don't forget about us, you shitty woman hitter!" a flaming Sanji shouted, kicking Oars' right wrist. "Diable Jambe: Grill Shot!"

"Well done, Sanji-san!" Brook called jumping off Oars' makeshift bat as the giant was forced to let go, the skeleton using his lesser weight to continue running up the side of the zombie. "Aubade Right-Hand Strike!"

Pink jets of light shot out from the dead man's rapier, shooting towards and impacting Oars' face. Oars stumbled back, a hand on his face as he glared at the pirates. Over it all, Moria laughed like a madman.

Zoro, Robin, and Franky glanced at each other, nodded, and jumped through the hole to join the fray.

"Get away from our ship!" Nami ordered, glaring down at the Ghost Princess and her minions, the zombies loading the Thousand Sunny with food, water, and money for the rosette's escape. Next to the navigator was Grace, holding out the tails of the Risky Brother squirrel zombies, the only things that remained of them after the girl's acid paint.

"Tch," Perona scoffed. "Well, if it isn't two of the uncute pirates. You don't really think you can stop me, do you?" Two hollows popped out of the girl's hands, circling around her. "You're nothing against my Negative Hollows."

"Mistress Perona! Look out!"

"Where did he come from?"

"Run!"

Perona turned around to yell at the undead, but her voice died in her throat as she came face-to-thigh of a mountain of a man who could rival Moria in height. He wore mostly black, the only exception to this rule being a white crosshair on his zip-up jacket and a black-on-white polka dot hat with black bear ear decorations. Black gloves covered his hands, one of which held a bible next to his broad chest, and his square face showed no emotion.

"Who the Hell are you?" Perona demanded, showing no fear in the face of this new player even as she backed up.

"Where is Gecko Moria?"

"Hell if I know! Master Moria's somewhere on this Goda-forsaken island, but I don't care where he is. I'm leaving!"

"I see," the man hummed, removing one of his gloves. "If you could take a vacation, where would you go?"

"I don't know why it would matter to you," Perona growled before her voice suddenly became lighter and wistful, "but I would like to go to a dark and gloomy castle surrounded by dead trees!" Her gaze hardened. "But that doesn't matter. Negative Hollow!" Perona launched her ghosts at the man.

Then suddenly, she was gone.

"Mistress Perona!" the zombies cried in worry. The giant man remained as emotionless as ever, slipping his glove back on. "Oh my Goda," one of them whimpered. "Th-That's the Tyrant Kuma! One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea! He... He just killed Mistress Perona!" Kuma looked up slowly, square glasses that reflected light resting on Nami and Grace.

"'Cat Burglar' Monkey D. Nami and 'Mood Painter' Grace Marigold, worth 30 million and 20 million Beris respectively, members of the Straw Hat Pirates. I suppose this means I arrived later than hoped." Then, he wasn't on the dock where Perona had been, but right behind them. The girls gasped and spun around, but the man wasn't facing them or making any aggressive movements. "My current mission does not involve interacting with your crew, thus I am under no obligation to take you in." He started to take a step before pausing. He said one more thing before he vanished.

"Also, Monkey D. Nami, your father-in-law sends his congratulations."

End of Chapter 101

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-SwordOfTheGods