On a dark, stormy night, lightning flashed; thunder roared. Everyone ran to the safety of their homes. From past experience, storms were a dangerous thing on Arashima. A group of nine heavily cloaked figures opened the door to a dimly-lit bar and sat down near the back. They ordered enough food and drinks to fill a monster before quietly chatting amongst themselves. After their meal arrived, however, they stopped to dig in. One of them looked at another table, hearing an interesting conversation.
"I heard that the Strawhats are at it again." A commonly dressed person spoke to his friend over a mug of beer. He lifted it high before chugging it down. His friend looked like some sort of hard-boiled reporter with a pen and notepad in hand.
"Yeah? What'd they do?"
"They destroyed another fleet of Marine ships. Those pirates must be monsters, destroying everything that comes across them." The reporter twirled the pen in his hand before looking around. The commoner noticed and casually brought his head closer. Then, the reporter spookily said,
"I heard that they are monsters… And that ship of theirs is a ghost ship." The man widened his eyes, but laughed off the words.
"Impossible, there's no such thing as monsters or ghosts… Heck, the captain even looks like an innocent kid." The reporter shook his head,
"No, no, no… That's what he wants you to believe… I heard that the captain lures people with his childish guise and gobbles them up in alleys at night."
"Seriously? Crap, I'm getting goosebumps now…"
"And that's not all… There's nine demons on that ship of theirs. And…" As he trailed off, the pen fell out of his hands. The man gulped as he looked at his friend,
"…And?" After picking up the pen, he creepily stared into the man's eyes.
"…It's that ship of theirs… I heard that at night, the sunflower petals turn crimson red with blood; the eyes glare with angry slits. A kid told me that the ship even grows into a giant lion with razor-sharp teeth that once ate a town off the map."
"A kid?" Once again, the reporter looked around before nodding.
"A kid… He was a bloody mess; his eyes were obsidian black like the devil's!"
"Poor thing… Did the Strawhats get him?"
"That's what he said… And he even warned me that the monsters weren't the only things that you had to worry about…"
"Shit no, what more is there?"
"…Seven mysteries…" If the reporter's voice hadn't dropped deathly low, then the man would have laughed at the randomness of the two words.
"What the hell? Seven mysteries? What does that have to do with anything?" The reporter shook his head at the questions with a pale, ghostly look.
"You don't understand… They're seven bloody mysteries of the ship that are fucking scary." The man gulped,
"Y-you… You don't mean…"
"Yeah, horror stories… Bloody real ones." The man put on his bravest face and nervously laughed.
"Yeah right… I bet there's nothing scary about the seven mysteries. Let's hear them." The reporter nodded and began,
"In the morning, the ship seems to be a normal one; well, except maybe cuter than normal… But at night, that's where everything changes…
The Strawhats have this little lawn and garden on deck with flowers and all in it… They used that as a graveyard to bury the bones of those they killed into the dark cold ground. Millions of people that they killed lie there, including the marines that they recently destroyed. He says that every blade of grass represents a life that they have killed. When it's a new moon out and the night is chilly, the grass starts bleeding out pools of blood. Then, the ghosts of the dead start chanting incomprehensible mantras that can make people go mad.
Then, the second mystery is the black fishman shadows in the aquarium tank. I heard that Strawhat defeated and drowned many fishmen in there in envy since he couldn't swim. So when you open the lights in the room at night, black silhouettes that resemble floating fishman corpses appear.
Next, I heard that in the infirmary is a mad scientist like doctor who likes dissecting humans. Every other night, if you open the door to the infirmary, then bloody organs would litter the floor still alive and functioning.
Fourth, the captain's a monster with a black hole for a stomach. So in the men's quarters where they sleep, there are always humans on the floor for a midnight snack. So sometimes at night, bloody handprints from desperate people trying to escape would appear on the door.
On the ship, there is a library. Faces sometimes appear on the cover of the books and scream for help or mutter wispy words. I heard that they use the blood of their victims as ink to write.
On the deck of the ship, there are also orange trees. Some prisoners escaped, but couldn't get off the boat since they were at sea. So they chose to hang themselves on the orange trees. Every now and then, hanged bodies would appear on the branches and the oranges would become the heads of those who they had killed.
The last mystery is in the kitchen. Sometimes, the light would flicker and the fire on the stoves would light up. Then, the shadows created by the fire would look like pieces of meat."
The whole bar was silent and the lights were turned all the way on with candles decorating the room every here and there. During the story, the bartender and some customers lit up the room out of fear of something popping out of the dark. The reporter drank some beer to satisfy his parched throat. Everyone within hearing distance stared at him. Then, thunder boomed making everyone jump out of their skin. The man recovered first,
"D-dude, that was fucking freaky… I hope I never meet the Strawhats…"
"Yeah." Then, they realized something at the same time.
"Hey, the last one wasn't scary at all, just random. Why meat?"
The End.
Oh wait, what? What about the "group of nine heavily cloaked figures" in the bar? Luckily, they booked an inn that night and didn't have to stay at their ship. At the start of the seventh mystery, they all left together in a group due to the pleas of four of them.
You want to know who they were? What was under their cloaks? Okay…
The nine heavily cloaked figures absent-mindedly walked into the same room before retiring for the rest of the night. All of them took off their damp cloaks revealing pale, frightened faces. As soon as they did, Zoro smacked Luffy on the head to the immediate surprise of the others. Luffy sheepishly grinned and Robin chuckled as Zoro stated,
"Robin, this is why you don't let Luffy read any of your books when he's bored."
The End