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AN: I noticed that despite voodoo and piracy going together in many forms and media, One Piece and even One Piece fanfictions seemed to be severely lacking in voodoo, despite the fact that it's the great pirate anime that's been going on for over 20 years. This is my attempt to help rectify that. Also I tried to keep everything and everyone in character as much as I could, in the hopes of making it feel like it genuinely could've happened in the series.
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Voodoo Island.
Part 1: The Island.
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The Straw Hats had recently left Alabasta, leaving their friend Vivi behind and picking up a new crewmember by the name of Nico Robin. After almost a week at sea, they neared their next island. But said island was surrounded by an entire fleet of marine ships, one of which belonged to a vice admiral. Whether the marines were there for the Straw Hats or a different matter was impossible to say, but going anywhere near that island was not an option, so they changed course to seek out a new island before they were spotted.
Several days of sailing without directions later, they found an island.
"Land ho!"
"Looks to be a jungle island."
"It could be home to dangerous predators, poisonous plants and insects, ancient diseases, cannibalistic tribes, or even monsters that want to eat us."
"Awesome! Let's go!"
"I think we should skip over this one and find a different island!"
"Me too. I think I'm coming down with Don't-Go-To-The-Island-Disease."
"I don't wanna die there!"
Despite the protests from the more cowardly members of the crew, they still went there.
"Hey look, there's a dock over there."
"If there's an actual dock, then the place is inhabited and people go through here often enough to justify building it."
"Does that mean there's no dangerous predators, poisonous stuff, diseases, cannibals, or man-eating monsters there?"
"It means they're not nearly as likely. Especially the cannibals and man-eating monsters."
Usopp, Nami and Chopper breathed a slight sigh of relief, and Luffy breathed one of disappointment.
After docking the ship they found an old broken sign laying on the ground that read 'Monkey Island'. It looked like there was more written there, but the sign was too far gone to make any of it out. Not that they cared, as the name alone was enough to calm their nerves and make them think it was likely a rather friendly place. Robin was the only one who noticed the newer sign in the bushes that read 'Voodoo Island', but she didn't say anything.
As they followed a path that led through the jungle, they noticed it was surrounded by a vast number of wooden carvings. Far too many to be normal.
"What's with all these things?"
"They're called tikis, but there sure are a lot of them."
"Maybe they're leftovers from carving competitions."
"Or maybe they're just unsold merchandise that was thrown away."
"AAAHHH!"
"What is it?"
"I just saw one of them move!"
They looked around for a few seconds before they spotted the mouths of the tikis shift into grins. Then the hundreds of tikis all got up and charged at them armed with spears, sword clubs, regular clubs, knives, and in the case for a few of them, pliers. As Nami, Usopp and Chopper panicked, Luffy, Sanji and Zorro attacked. Robin just held back with a calm smile on her face.
"Gum-gum Gatling!"
"Oni giri!"
"Flanchet Shoot!"
Groups of them went flying with each hit. Despite their wooden bodies, the strength of these living tikis were clearly far below what the Straw Hats could handle with ease. Their numbers and the element of surprise looked to be their biggest advantages. When they realized that, Usopp, Nami and Chopper began fighting back as well.
"Exploding star!"
"Thunderbolt tempo!"
"Usopp hammer!"
And Chopper took his human form and began fighting them off.
As they battled their way through, a group of tiny tikis jumped down from above, latched onto their backs, held on tight, and then began pulling at their hair with pliers. This distracted them enough to create an opening for the other tikis. But Luffy was having none of that. He ripped the tiki off his back, threw it at the tiki horde, then punched and pulled the tikis off his friends.
"Thanks Luffy."
The fight continued, and despite a few close calls, the Straw Hats won and suffered nothing more than a few small scratches.
"That was fun," said Luffy.
"Those tikis were alive. How is that possible?" said Nami.
"We're in the Grand Line," said Robin. "While most things can be explained, literally anything is possible here and things that are impossible elsewhere happen on a regular basis here, so you shouldn't be surprised when something strange occurs."
Luffy, Zoro and Sanji nodded in agreement.
After some chat they continued onward.
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"Hold it right there!"
They looked up to see someone wearing a form covering robe made of straw and wood, with a masked hood attached to it, and was carrying a spear. With only their forearms exposed it was impossible to tell who it was, but from the voice and the height, they could tell it was a young girl. She was standing above them on a tree branch, positioned to attack.
"You won't go any further. My village will not allow..."
The Straw Hats were confused at her sudden pause.
"CUUUUUTE!" she cried as she launched herself at them like a rocket, moving so fast they couldn't follow. Before they even knew what was happening, she was behind them, holding Chopper in her arms.
"Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Kyuuuute!"
Chopper was freaked out and trying to get away, but she was hugging him too tightly. Then Nami grabbed her and dragged them along. The girl didn't seem to mind as long as she had what she seemed to think was the cutest thing on the planet. But Chopper was another story. He wanted to get away, but so far his efforts were for not. So he changed tactics by changing form. He took his human form and threw her off. The girl landed in Luffy's arms while her outfit was still in Nami's hands.
Now that they were able to get a look at her, they saw she looked to be around 10 years old, had long dark green hair, tanned skin with white tribal markings painted on, was skinny as a toothpick, wore a green dress with running shoes, and was really cute. She blushed, jumped out of his arms, said "This isn't over!" and took off running.
"What was that about?"
"From the sounds of it, she was just trying to protect her village. And who can blame her? We are pirates after all, and we're trespassing on this island," said Robin.
"Those living tikis were probably just there to do the same thing," said Zorro.
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They soon found a village. It looked like it used to be a sizable town filled with modern buildings, but the majority of it was now in ruins. Buildings had been smashed, slashed, burned, blown up, and bulldozed. It had been reduced to a fraction of what it once was. And what was left wasn't in good shape. It looked like everything that wasn't completely destroyed was badly damaged.
"What happened?"
"This place was attacked."
A minuter later...
"Wait. This place has been attacked repeatedly. Some of this destruction is old, but some of it's fresh," said Robin.
"Wow, talk about bad luck. Getting hit this hard over and over again? I'd hate to be these guys," said Usopp.
Then a group of people came running up. They were a mixture of regular white people, and tanned people with tribal markings, and all of them had weapons and farm tools that could be used as such. An old man who seemed to be their leader stepped forth.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"We're pirates," Luffy replied with a grin and without a second of thought.
The crowd tensed up and readied their weapons.
"Are you with the Voodoo Master?"
"No, never heard of him. We're the Straw Hat Pirates. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be king of the pirates."
The crowd suddenly breathed a big sigh of relief and eased up. As they did their leader put a hand to his chin and thought about something.
"I'll make you a deal. You pirates are always on the hunt for treasure, and I know where you can get plenty. The Voodoo Master's forces have been terrorizing us for ages. All the damage you see here is their doing. They've taken everything from us, including our people. Our men and women have been forced into slavery, and all our attempts to stop them have failed miserably. But they do have plenty of treasure. If you can get rid of them for us, you can help yourselves to their treasure. Interested?"
Usopp and Chopper were too scared to try attacking voodoo using pirates, Nami had berri symbols in her eyes and was drooling at the thought of a mountain of gold and jewels, Robin seemed a little interested, and Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji smiled at the thought of kicking some ass.
"I think we might be willing to help," said Nami. "What can you tell us about these guys? And how much treasure are we talking?"
"Come I'll let you know everything we know."
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A while later they had gotten the full rundown. The Voodoo Master arrived on the island a few years ago. Where he came from, his true identity, and the source and depth of his powers were all unknown. Using his voodoo magic, he took over the wildlife, the local tribes, and then the whole island. He raised the dead, summoned spirits, cast powerful curses, took whatever and whoever he wanted, crushed everyone stood against him, enslaved everyone in his path, turned countless men and women into mindless zombies, and has been oppressing them ever since. Whenever people came to the island, they always either fled, or fell victim to his might and got killed or enslaved. Except for the pirates who willingly joined him.
The Voodoo Master's forces were strong. The local tribes were primitive and simple, yet formidable and savage warriors who had protected the island from countless threats, over countless generations. They had always been on good terms with the townsfolk and enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship, so seeing them enslaved into mindless voodoo zombies was heartbreaking. His other voodoo zombie forces included pirates, marines, and sailors who stopped there, and never escaped. He also had a number of loyal subordinates that chose to side with him, a bunch of which were great warriors, and a few even had devil fruit powers. One of those devil fruits had the power to bring tikis to life, maybe two of them were zoan types, and while they lacked sufficient details, it seemed one had a plant based power, and another had a tail. There was also another one with large claws who had been seen sailing to and from the island, but they didn't know anything about him, as they had yet to meet him or find anyone who'd ever seen him in action. He could have just been a messenger boy or something for all they knew.
All of it was pretty good information, as it gave them a general idea of what they were up against, and what to look out for. It also left Usopp and Chopper terrified, and left Nami torn between her fear of the walking dead and imminent death, and her lust for treasure. But as usual, her lust for treasure was winning out.
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As they were all still taking it in, something happened. They heard crashing sounds, and felt the ground rumble. Something was heading their way, and it was big. They rushed outside to the sight of a gigantic tiki walking into the town, trampling everything in its wake. It was nearly 30 feet high and almost 15 feet wide, it had relatively short legs, huge feet, and it looked to have a huge bonfire going inside it, judging by the flames coming out of its head.
"What the heck is that?!"
"Awesome!"
"That giant tiki's a weapon they created so they can crush their enemies and suppress us without putting a lick of effort into it. I can't believe it's attacking now."
Luffy cracked his knuckles, and the crew prepared for battle.
"Gum-Gum, pistol!"
Luffy punched it hard enough to make it stumble back, Sanji followed up by jumping into the air and delivering a series of powerful kicks to its front, and then Zorro slashed it, leaving deep gashes all over. And yet it withstood their attacks and was undeterred. Then it retaliated by powering up its flames and unleashing them out of its mouth like a giant flamethrower. The Straw Hats barely managed to escape getting roasted. It then attacked by kicking debris at them, but they either dodged the pieces or struck them down. Then the pirates went on the offensive again. Usopp launched a barrage of exploding stars, Zorro cut it up, Sanji hit it with a barrage of powerful kicks, and Luffy used his Gum-Gum gatling. The giant tiki then changed tactics and tried hosing them down with boiling hot yellow liquid.
"What is this stuff?!"
"It's tree sap!"
"Careful, you'll get stuck if you get hit by it!"
The sheer amount of boiling sap it was producing ensured they had a hard time dodging it, and an even harder time avoiding it as it was completely covering the ground. First Nami and Usopp narrowly avoided a scalding stream, then landed in the sap getting their feet stuck, which caused them to fall in and get stuck. Then Robin had to dive into the cooling sap on the ground to avoid getting burned alive, which caused her to get stuck as well.
With three of their members down thanks to the hot sap, and Chopper suddenly having the girl from earlier latch onto him as if they were covered in the sap, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji realized they had to act fast to take it down before they all got caught in the sap. So they struck hard with punches, slashes and kicks, causing more damage and making it fall on its side. But then it got up again and started using its flames.
"How do we take this guy out?!"
"Quick! Put out the fires in that thing and clog its mouth to stop the sap!" Usopp yelled.
Zorro then took notice of what looked to be a broken water tower lying on its side nearby. And it was right beside the ocean. With a smirk he sliced through its base, then picked the whole thing up and quickly carried the whole thing into the water. Luffy saw that, stretched his arms out, grabbed it, lifted it over to the deeper water, scooped it full, and then brought it back to the tiki and threw it into the air where it fell on the tiki, dousing the flames, disabling the flamethrower, and cooling the sap. As they did that Sanji began kicking boulders into its mouth to clog it up.
With the giant tiki's offensive capabilities now disabled, the monster trio were able to safely wail on it until it was reduced down to piles of broken pieces of wood. At one point Zorro cut it open and sap sprayed out with unexpected force. Zorro only got a little bit on him, but his blades got covered in it and they stuck together. But that didn't stop them from finishing it off.
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With the giant tiki now defeated, Sanji helped Nami and Robin up out of the sap. Robin was clearly irritated, and Nami was furiously ranting and raving because her clothes were ruined, and she was all hot and sticky. (And she didn't get those results the way she wanted to. XD)
The villagers couldn't believe what they just saw. These pirates had just taken on the Voodoo Master's greatest weapon, and not only did they survive, they won. They turned it into a pile of kindling. They rushed over to congratulate and thank the Straw Hats, and they also led them to where they could get washed up. And Zorro was warned not to try putting his swords back in their sheaths, or he'd never get them back out again.
A short while later the girls were in a bathhouse, scrubbing off the sap. Their clothes were ruined, but the locals were happy to provide them with some spare clothing. Nami was griping and complaining for a while, but then the girl from earlier came in wearing a towel.
"Here," she said as she handed them a bottle. "This stuff will get the sap off quick and easy. And it's easy to wash off afterwards."
"Thank you. I don't think we caught your name."
"It's Tia."
"Thank you Tia."
"Listen, the others may have told you what they know about the Voodoo Master, but they don't know what I know. The second they found out about voodoo, they declared it to be evil and forbade anyone from learning anything about it. When you get right down to it, not only do they know nothing, they're all too stupid and stubborn to ever try changing that. But I'm not like them. I'm smart enough to realize that voodoo magic can be pretty powerful stuff and I've studied it as much as I could. I was only able to learn about some of the basics, but I can still help you out a lot."
"Okay, tell us all you know."
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As the girls were cleaning up and talking in the bath, the guys were off doing other things. Usopp got just as much sap on him and was currently washing it off. Sanji was struggling to find a spot to spy on the girls. Luffy killed a sea monster in one hit, and was now dragging it off to be cooked up. Chopper was enjoying being praised by the grateful locals. And Zorro was visiting someone about fixing his swords.
"I got good news. I got some stuff that'll clean that sap off quick and easy. Hang on a sec... Wait... The last bottle's gone. Alright, in that case I'll have to scrub them the old fashioned way. It'll take a while, but I can loan you some spare swords until I'm done."
The spare swords were a long way from his legendary blades, but they would do just fine. Unless his opponents had some epic swordsmen or something in their ranks.
Luffy decided to wash up before dinner, and went into what he thought was the entrance to the men's baths. Instead it turned out to be a hut with a bunch of covered tubes and a lever. He curiously pulled the lever, which removed the caps and uncovered the tubes, and was instantly greeted with the sight of Nico Robin completely naked. She was above the steamy water and was scrubbing her legs clean. Looking at another tube, he saw Nami in the nude, with her bottom half submerged in the water, and the girl from earlier, covered only with a towel. The tubes had mirrors in them and provided views of the women's baths from multiple angles for easy peeping. Sanji would've killed to have been there. And then he probably would've died from a nosebleed.
After memorizing their beautiful naked forms, Luffy suddenly remembered how much Nami charged for seeing her naked, and decided to close off the tubes, leave, and pretend he didn't see a thing.
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Everyone was now chowing down on the sea monster, while Nami spoke up.
"Listen: We lucked out and got a bunch of information, so we know the basics about what we're up against. But we only got the basics, and pretty much none of the details, so they're almost guarantied to have a bunch of surprises waiting in store for us. We do know that they had a giant tiki that used melted sap as a weapon, and we have no reason to believe there aren't more like that, so we need to be prepared. We'll need to pack something to use as shields to help block it. And maybe some extra clothes and stuff in case we get hit by sap again."
It made sense. Nami insisted the locals provide them with that stuff and persisted until they gave in. Each of them got a backup outfit, Zorro borrowed a second set of swords, bringing his total to six, and Chopper, Nami, Robin and Usopp each got a makeshift tower shield made from some broken pieces of wood that were nailed together. Not exactly high quality shields, but if the only thing they're getting hit with is hot sap, then they should work just fine.
"Before we go, Tia, that little girl who was clinging to Chopper earlier, told me and Robin what she knew about voodoo," said Nami. "The shortened version is; she didn't know much about the guy we're going up against, but standard Voodoo masters are practitioners of something called the Loa, and follow its religion to receive magic powers. These powers work by controlling a magical essence called mojo, which this island is thick with, especially at the temple. They use dolls, magical charms, amulets, and powders to confuse their enemies, inflict curses, create and control voodoo zombies, and converse with the spirits."
"Sounds crazy. What about the zombies?"
"Voodoo zombies, unlike the walking dead zombies, aren't even dead. They were normal men and women that were captured, painted from head to foot, and had curses placed upon them that stole their souls and erased their minds and emotions, turning them into obedient slaves that work as guardians, servants, and slave labour."
"Wait, so the voodoo zombies aren't dead, they're just mind controlled?" asked Usopp.
"Something like that. And it sounds like they don't try to eat people either."
Usopp, Chopper, and Nami had been overcome by fear when they first heard about the zombies. Nami calmed down after talking to Tia, and now Usopp and Chopper were breathing sighs of relief. Finding out that these so-called zombies weren't the flesh eating monsters they were picturing, really calmed their nerves.
"By the way," added Robin. "Once someone has been zombified there is still a way to save them and return them to normal. You need to destroy the objects housing their souls, which is usually a pot, jar or jewel. You could also bring them back to their senses by feeding them salt, but if you do that they'll die shortly afterwards."
Everybody took note of that, except for Luffy, who didn't understand any of it.
"This sounds like it'll be easier than what we went through with Baroque Works," said Zorro.
"He's right. Crocodile had an entire army and was one of the Seven Warlords. There's no way some guy with dolls and a few magic tricks has anything on them. Right?" said Sanji.
"Come to think of it, this island's not far from Alabasta, and you were working with Crocodile himself. Do you know anything about this guy?" Nami asked Robin.
She thought for a moment.
"Now that you mention it, I do recall hearing about a Voodoo master a while back. He certainly wasn't an ally of Crocodile, but he wasn't seen as a threat either. He took out a small handful of Millions, and the ones that got away were freaked out by him. But he never left his island, the island wasn't on any frequented routes, and there was nothing there that made it worth going to. So Crocodile ordered Baroque Works to just try to avoid the place for a while. If the people there caused any real problems before they took over Alabasta, then Crocodile would send in some numbered agents to deal with it. At the time it was just one small random issue amongst countless other much larger issues. I didn't see any need to pay much attention to it, let alone look into it, so I don't know anymore than that."
"Sounds like he's just another cowardly bully who only preys on the weak. This should be easy."
"Alright, let's go!" said Luffy.
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the island...
A marine captain was brought before a huge man in tribal clothing. Surrounding them was well over a hundred warriors, and a couple hundred captured marines.
"Captain Marcel. You came here with a thousand soldiers, and you all crushed with ease. The time has come for you to learn why even the Seven Warlords don't dare to cross paths with me."
"Voodoo Master, you'll die for what you've done!"
He held up a voodoo doll in the likeness of the marine captain. Suddenly the captain shot up into the air and stayed suspended there. The Voodoo Master broke and tore off the left arm of the doll, and suddenly Captain Marcel's arm broke like a twig and was torn off by an invisible force as he screamed in pain and blood came out like a fountain. Then he did the same to the right arm. Marcel's right arm also broke like a twig and tore off as he screamed and bled. Then he did the same to the left leg. And then the right. Reduced to a limbless, screaming, crying, bleeding torso, captain Marcel begged for death. And he got it as the Voodoo Master crushed the doll in his hand. Marcel's rib cage and internal organs were crushed like straw and grapes under a giant boulder.
"Remember this! There is no escape! There is no salvation! The only fates that awaits those who oppose me are lives of slavery, and gruesome deaths!"
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