"I know who he is!" Sanji grins triumphantly as he steps out of the bathroom after his shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, and with his hair still wet.
Zoro tries not to stare as droplets of water slide down the cook's body before they drop to the floor, "What are you talking about, cook?"
"That Absalom, I know where I've seen him before. I remembered while I was in the shower."
"Really, cook, in the shower?"
"Oi, shower time is my thinking time."
"Thinking time? More like wan-"
"Shut up!"
"What I was-"
"Shut up!"
"I-"
"Shut up!"
Zoro grins and slowly parts his lips as if he's about to speak.
"Shut up!"
"I didn't say anything that time," the swordsman smirks as he meets the cook's glare.
"That might be what you do, but I don't…"
"Whatever you say, cook~."
Sanji rolls his eyes and goes to grab his clothes, Zoro wishing that the towel wasn't there as the blonde bends down with is back towards him, "As I was saying, I remember where I've seen Absalom before. He's the creep who was staring at me as I went to sleep the first night we were here."
"He what?!"
"Calm down idiot, he didn't do anything else other than stare at me, though that was creepy enough…"
"I told you we shouldn't trust him."
"Yeah, and I told you I agreed with you…I'll tell the others about it later, for now just hurry up and get dressed. If we don't go for breakfast soon, there'll be nothing left, especially with Luffy there," Sanji says as he goes back into the bathroom and locks the door before changing.
It has almost been a week since they turned up at this hotel, and so far, there have been no more sightings of that strange ghost since the first night, and they haven't been able to find anything useful to help them solve this mystery either. However, the strangest thing is that no one seems to be bothered or worried about this ghost that is threatening them, and Zoro wouldn't be surprised if this was all one big hoax for the hotel to live up to its name about being one of the most haunted places. Either way, they can't leave yet as they are booked to stay here for another week, and besides, Nami is still determined to find out more about the treasure more than anything.
Once again, as with every meal they've had here, Law is hitting on Sanji, but what annoys Zoro the most is that the cook is flirting back. When the blonde first started flirting back with Law, Kid would shoot him deadly glares and threaten him when they were alone, however, now the man doesn't seem bothered by it at all. Sanji reckons it's to do with the fact that Kid knows he isn't going to sleep with law, he just finds it easier to play along instead of ignoring the other man, plus, he finds it slightly fun to wind up Zoro. The cook doesn't know why that pleases him, or why Zoro seems bothered by it, but he isn't going to pass up an opportunity to piss the swordsman off.
Sanji smirks as he leaves the table and heads back to his room, he and the other Strawhats' had agreed that they would meet in Zoro and Sanji's room this time to discuss what they are going to do about their ghostly situation.
The blonde sits down on the bed and isn't surprised to find that Zoro has followed him up there.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"What are talking about, marimo?"
"You know what I'm talking about."
"Well I don't know, almighty moss, please, do tell," Sanji grins smugly as he sprawls back onto the duvet.
Zoro grips the cook's shirt and yanks him back to sitting up on the bed, their faces inches apart, "Why are you flirting back with that bastard?"
"Oh, you mean, Law~?"
"Yes him! Don't tell me you like him?"
"Then I won't tell you~," Sanji smirks and bites his lip as he glances to Zoro's lips for a quick second before focussing back on the marimo's eye.
"Do you like him or not?"
"I don't see why that is any of your business."
"Well it is my business!"
"Why?"
"Because I…I…," Zoro's cheeks flush slightly and he bites his lip, glancing to the floor as he lets go of the blonde and takes a step back from the bed.
"Because you what, marimo?"
"Nothing… Doesn't matter…"
The cook sighs and looks down as he fixes his shirt, "If you must know, I don't like him like that."
He glances back up to Zoro, though the swordsman still won't look at him and an uncomfortable silence filled with crushing tension surrounds them. The silence is only interrupted when Luffy bounds into the room, followed by the rest of the gang, and the tension evaporates, though Sanji can tell that Robin seems to be a bit suspicious about what happened between him and Zoro before they turned up.
"Right, we're going to have to search this place again, make sure we didn't miss anything," Nami says as she takes out her map of the hotel, "Robin wants to check the library again so Luffy and I will go with her…Chopper and Usopp, you check out the rooms on this floor… And Zoro and Sanji, you two can the check the top two floors."
Everyone nods and murmurs in agreement before heading to their allotted places.
Usopp follows behind Chopper, who's in his walk point and is sniffing the floor as they go along the corridor.
"What can you smell Chopper?"
"Hmm…. I'm not sure…But it's coming from in there," the reindeer says as he nudges at a door.
Usopp takes out his copy of the master keys set and looks for the right one. After finding the right key, he manages to open the door and they step inside. Chopper sniffs out the smell as Usopp looks around the room. The room is a large bedroom which has a king sized bed and old wooden furnishings. There is also a large bookcase filled with worn out books, and there is a chandelier hanging on the ceiling.
"This must be one of the luxury suites. It's double the size of our room," Usopp says as he joins Chopper at the bookshelf, "What is it Chopper?"
"The smell seems to be coming from here."
Usopp and Chopper start searching the bookshelf, checking out the books and seeing if there is anything hidden behind them. They jump when a loud bang and click comes from behind the bookshelf and it moves by itself. It slides to the left, revealing a large, dark tunnel.
"A secret passageway…I wonder where it leads to…"
"I don't think we should go in there… I-it looks scary… and dark…C-Chopper?"
"But that weird smell is definitely coming from down here. I need to find out what it is."
Usopp sighs and quickly glances around before using the torch on his phone and following after his nakama. They come to a spiral, stone staircase and start heading down. Once they reach the bottom, there are several different tunnel openings around them in a circle. They decide to take the one to their right, from the view of getting off the bottom step, and as they head deeper down into the tunnel, Usopp notices a thick fog that has started to appear at their feet, and they hear an echo of a loud, deep laugh.
"Zehahahaha!"
The ghost of a large middle-aged man, that they had seen the first night they were here, appears in front of them. He has a large hairy chest and has long, thick, curly black hair which falls down to the back of his neck and is kept in place by a black bandana. He also has a small scruffy black beard. The ghost is in an open buttoned white shirt with rolled up sleeves, green trousers with black line patterns, a yellow sash around his waist and classic black swashbuckler boots complete with large bronze buckles.
Usopp and Chopper scream, frozen in fear as the ghost pulls out a sword. Their eyes widen and they quickly dodge as the ghost makes a swing for them. It chases them back down the tunnel, and manages to scratch Usopp on his hip with his sword. They frantically run as they try to shake off the ghost and up the stone stairs. Once they get back to the room, they rush to push the bookshelf closed and sigh in relief as they sit in front of it and try to catch their breath, Usopp wincing slightly in pain as he clutches his hip and presses on his cut to stop it from bleeding.
"I'm so bored~ and hungry~," Luffy whines with his face squished down on the table in the large library.
Nami rolls her eyes and ignores him as she looks through some of the books from one of the many bookshelves.
"Nami, come and have a look at this. I think I've found our ghost."
She puts her collected books down then walks across the room and over to Robin. In the book that Robin has open in her hands is an old black and white picture. The picture is of a group of men, and in the middle of them all is a large man resembling the ghost which is haunting the hotel.
"Yeah that's him," Nami grins, "Who is he?"
Robin flicks through the book and shows Nami what she has found, "our ghost is a man called Marshall D. Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard."
"Blackbeard? I'm sure I've heard of him…"
"You most probably have. I've read all about him, but there has never been a publicly known picture of him so I've never known what he looked like until now. He is famously known as a criminal from the early 1900's. The man was a merciless killer and hungry for power. He worked in the illegal drugs and weaponry trade and was mostly known for his reckless nature. He was also a pirate and found a lot of treasure."
"Hmm, and he was never caught?"
"No, people knew of him but they could never catch him. He and his crew moved around, this hotel, which used to be a house, must have been his last base."
"So how did he die?"
"Well there have been many reports from alleged ex-crew members, and rumours, but the story which is believed to be true is…," Robin explains as she flicks back through the book and finds the picture she showed Nami earlier, "that his crew here, were sick of Blackbeard and the way he treated them. It was said that he also never shared his treasure with his crew, and always kept it hidden from them. Eventually they snapped and rebelled against him, murdering him in his bedroom. The crew then searched the house but could never find the treasure."
"So it could still be here in this house, if they never found it?"
"Possibly…"
"Nami grins and takes out her maps of the hotel, old and new, "then I'm going to be the one to find it."
"Eh~, we're going on a treasure hunt~!" Luffy beams as he rushes over to them, now actually interested in what's going on.
"Yep, treasure hunt," Nami grins, just as excited as Luffy.
Robin chuckles as she puts the book she is holding back on the bookshelf and joins them in looking at the maps.
"Hey, wait a second, Marshall D. Teach?" Nami ponders out loud and points to a section, which is on the middle of the third floor - though back then on the old map it was the top floor - , "If that was his name, then could these initials that we couldn't figure out before, 'MDTR', stand for Marshall D. Teach's Room?"
"Yes, that looks about right. We should go and check it out after we meet back up with the others."
Luffy grins as he looks at the map, "Maybe Usopp and Chopper have already seen it. They were searching the rooms on the third floor, right?"
Sanji sighs as he and Zoro walk along the corridor on the fifth floor; they'd been in and out all of the rooms on the fourth, and most of the rooms on the fifth.
"How many rooms are left?" Zoro asks.
"How the hell should I know? These bloody hallways seem never ending."
The bang of a door slamming shut startles them and they peek around the corner to find Absalom and Perona, pushing around a cart of cleaning products.
"As I've already said, I'm not doing it anymore! I don't want to be involved any longer, and neither does Cindry!"
"B-but, boss will…!"
"I don't care what boss says or does, he's not cute!" Perona screeches, "Now hurry up and get in that room while I clean this one, I want to finish and go for lunch already," the pink haired woman pushes Absalom into one of the rooms before going into another.
Sanji and Zoro stare blankly at the now empty hallway then glance to each other.
"What shall we do now, cook?"
"…Well we can't search those rooms, if they hear or see us they'll know we've been snooping around. Let's just head back to our room and tell the others… this information might be important."