Hello!
Everyone read the chapter this week? It's a shame we didn't get an explanation about Sanji...although, to be honest, I personally don't think he's actually a prince or a Celestial Dragon or whatever else everyone's thinking. I think he's just been MISTAKEN for somebody else, like Duval's been thought to be Sanji because of the old bounty poster. XD The "he's royalty" theories kinda take second seat to that particular funny idea.
Thanks to xTSUNAKOx for the Fav and Follow!
xenocanaan - *chuckles* Don't worry, I've got plans for some of the stuff that they're gonna run into in the New World...it's gonna be fun, I can assure you. Luffy's not gonna know about the alien bit for a while, though - he's gonna figure it out sometime in the New World. And it's not gonna be so much that "Maria's an alien" and that she's actually something else...
All Barrels (Guest): Oh? *looks at summary and gasps* Oops! I'd thought I'd added that in when I was moving on to this arc! Thanks for the catch!
Guest(1): *cackles* Yeah; I know, right? It's like Sanji gets all the unappealing pictures on purpose! I mean, with the way his nose is flared in that particular one...Oda, you left him without ladies for far too long. I think something gave in his brain somewhere.
CrazyQuilava: Well, the new chapter's here! :) And I know which secret you're referring to, and it's not going to show itself this arc - you're gonna have to wait a bit for that. It's not gonna take too long for it to show up, though...I mean, I've got 20-something chapters for this arc, not like Water 7's 50-something.
Guest (2): I'm glad you're excited! Because I am, too! Don't worry about the misreading thing - you probably just skimmed over this whole chunk of replies just to get to the chapter. I do it sometimes, too. And Maria will be on her own after the Great Separation - Kuma doesn't let any of the canon Straw Hats stick together, and I don't let Maria stick with anybody, either. Makes things more interesting that way. :)
And now...onto the chapter!
Chapter 64 (or 6) - Gecko Moria's Zombie Horde
Maria's POV
"So, what are you guys all doing out here, huh?" Luffy sat down on a tombstone that looked more like a spike of rock, glaring at the zombies that we had all clobbered. A good number of them were in the back, rolling around on the ground in order to try get rid of the fire that was still burning up their bandages.
"Uh, well...zombie stuff, mostly," one of the zombies in the front of the group muttered. "Y'know - bein' buried, hanging out, rotting and stuff."
From where I was standing next to Robin and Franky, I had to wonder how exactly it was that zombies could form a coherent sentence like that. When I pictured zombies in my mind, I saw mindless, rotting corpses that essentially bit people and spread their own kind like a disease. These...were like a more mild version of that. They still stank, sure, but it didn't look like they were necessarily rotting to pieces at this point.
"Yeah, pretty much," another zombie added quickly.
"Yup, same here," added a third.
Makes me wonder if they're hiding something.
Luffy seemed to think the same thing. He lowered his head, hiding his eyes under the brim of his straw hat. "You're not lying to me, are you?"
The three zombies responded defensively, waving their bandaged hands in front of them like it might be able to ward off something. "No, really! That's the truth - we swear!"
"I see...then let me ask you something. Did a man with a long nose, a woman with orange hair, and a reindeer that looks like a raccoon-dog come through here?"
"I don't think I'll ever be able to understand what makes people think that Chopper's a raccoon," I muttered, frowning. Robin made a humming noise, but didn't offer anything else.
"Oh, yeah. Right." One of the zombies shifted a bit. "Well, we may have seen them, but we're not supposed ta..."
May have seen them? I blinked a couple times when I heard that.
"Sorry, we can't say." Another one picked up when the first one trailed off.
"Yeah," spoke up a third. "We're all under specific orders to not share information about stuff like that with anyone. Sorry about that."
"Yeah," added a fourth. "We have our orders."
That brought up a chant from all the zombies. "Orders! Orders!"
I was starting to get a bit irritated. These zombies were more annoying than terrifying, and it really made no sense to me. Undead monsters were not supposed to act like they had brains. They technically weren't supposed to work at all after someone had keeled over.
"Oh, I see. So, you're not gonna tell me, huh?" Luffy started cracking his knuckles. He could, surprisingly enough, be a pretty good interrogator when he wanted to be.
The chant faded out, and the three zombies that had spoken up first said rather quickly, "I mean, yeah, we saw them!"
Ha! I thought I had heard them say something like that earlier!
"These zombies are wimps," Zoro muttered.
"Can't argue with that," I responded. "Not to mention they're nearly completely brainless."
That got a grunt and a smirk from the swordsman, but he quickly regained a more serious expression.
Luffy jumped off the tombstone. "Those guys are a part of my crew. You didn't do anything to them, did you?"
The zombies suddenly looked a little nervous.
"W-wait - they're on your crew?" one of them asked.
A zombie with (oddly enough) red skin popped his head off and held it above the rest of his body. The action was really creepy - definitely not natural, either. "We didn't do anything to them - I swear!"
"Right," another agreed. "We did nothing at all!"
That started yet another chant. "Nothing at all! Nothing at all!"
I could feel my temperature rising a bit as flames started to lick at my arms and my shoulders. "This isn't helping us...I feel like I should just turn the lot of these undead freaks into a mass funeral pyre so that we can move on and find them sooner."
Zoro started smirking again; he looked almost demonic.
"I want the truth, right now." Luffy didn't sound like he wanted to wait around for much longer, either.
"This guy did something." One of the zombies pointed at the guy who could pull off his head and put it back on.
"Hey! Shut up, tattle tail! And anyway, you're the one that bit 'em!"
What?!
"Actually, we all did," a third zombie stated weakly.
"IDIOT!" A number of the zombies dogpiled the one who had spoken. "Shut up!"
They bit them? If they haven't turned into zombies themselves by now, then I'm only going to count them lucky on that.
My phoenix staff was promptly set on fire, and the Will o' Wisps started to appear again around me. Definitely going to get them turned into a funeral pyre.
The others seemed to think the same thing - Robin got ready to use her Devil Fruit, while Luffy and Franky cracked their knuckles in preparation for the beat-down.
Which we promptly gave them.
Time Break - a few minutes later
"Looks like they ran out of here and headed to that mansion up ahead," Luffy finally commented as the last zombie was stuck head-first into the ground. The zombie stopped yelling about his head being on fire a couple seconds later. "I'm glad they're all right...but I'm not so sure about Brook, though."
I gave a humming noise in response, glad that I was able to help pound the information out of the zombies the old-fashioned way. I have to admit, I'm glad that those three weren't taken out by the zombies in the graveyard...but there was still something about that mansion that reminded me of a Pokemon Graveyard - maybe it was just the general air of the island itself.
"He's probably fine; don't worry about him." Sanji waved off Luffy's concern for the talking skeleton.
"Let's find the others." Zoro started forward, towards the open gates at the other side of the graveyard. The rest of us moved after him, and we soon left the zombies behind and entered what looked like the forest again.
"Man those zombies were a lame bunch of weaklings," Luffy commented, making his way to the front of our group.
"Pounding their sorry faces in doesn't even count as a warm-up," Franky said dryly.
"Still, this is no time to let your guard down," Zoro spoke up. "You never know when someone a whole lot stronger than those guys is gonna show up."
"Yeah." I nodded, fingering my phoenix staff. "I mean, this entire island feels like some kind of...I dunno, Halloween-only island or something. Like the creatures and monsters that live here are built for scaring wimps to death."
The comment got me a weird look from Luffy. "Halloween?"
It took me a moment to notice the look I was getting. "Um...it's a festival of some kind where people dress up in costumes and play tricks on each other for a good scare. It's usually on the last day of October."
"An interesting festival," Robin remarked. "And an interesting notion."
"Huh." Sanji blinked a couple times before looked over at Zoro and grinned widely. "Hey, wait - you're not getting scared, are you? Gonna cry?"
"Up yours!" Zoro glared at Sanji. I winced a bit at the implied swear. "I'm not scared! A swordsman is never scared!"
Um...I'm not so sure about that...
"We'll see about that," Sanji sent an equally angry glare back at Zoro.
"Come on! You wanna piece of me?!" Zoro rammed his head into Sanji's, and the two started pushing back and forth against each other.
"Wait! Please! Stop - hold on a minute!"
Now that was a voice that I hadn't heard before. And it sounded like it was coming from somewhere behind us, too...
Zoro and Sanji stopped fighting as the lot of us glanced back to see who it was that was shouting. I blinked a couple times out of curiosity when a figure emerged from the trees, panting - he had probably ended up running after us...whoever he was.
I frowned, cautious of the fact that another zombie could have decided to run after us. Did this one want to lead us into a trap?
"I saw you fight those zombies," the figure wheezed - sounded like an old man. "All o' ya have such unbelievable strength. There's something I'd like to talk to you about - would you please listen?" He raised the lantern he was holding...and I had to admit, I ended up flinching back a bit when I saw the face the old man had hiding under his hat.
"An old man with serious injuries?" Luffy asked.
"We told you - they're zombies!" Zoro, Sanji, and Franky barked at once.
I gripped my staff a little more tightly, wondering if even more zombies were going to come out of the woodwork - literally, since we were standing in a forest, now.
"Actually...he's right on the money," the man with the lantern wheezed.
"What?" I blinked a couple times out of surprise.
"That's too confusing! Can't you just be a zombie?! Geez!" Seemed the boys were surprised by that, too.
"All right." Luffy moved towards the man, then stopped a few feet away from him and crossed his arms over his chest. "So what did you want to tell us?'
The man dropped to his knees and placed the lantern on the dirt road. He must have been more tired than I had originally thought. "There is an evil man that must be brought down, and I think that you kids are strong enough to do it. He's left a trail of victims in his wake, and if you defeat him, they'll all be rescued."
"Victims?" I repeated. What did he mean by that? And who was the man that this guy was talking about?
"If you'd help me get my shadow back, I'd be ever so grateful!"
Get his sha-wait a sec. I looked down at the lantern...and noticed that the man didn't have a shadow underneath him.
Just like Brook.
"Your shadow?" Sanji repeated in surprise.
"Hold on - did we just find another guy who had his shadow stolen?" Franky asked.
"Yeah!" I nodded, pointing at the ground beneath the old man's feet while Luffy moved forward into a crouch. "Look!"
"Damn, that sucks," Zoro muttered. "So who's the guy who did that to you?"
"That's what I'd like to know," I piped up in agreement.
"Is he here?" the swordsman pressed. "Somewhere on this island?"
The old man brought one of his hands into a fist, making small tracks in the path with his fingers. His body seemed to shake, and I wondered if it took a lot of strength just to say the word of the shadow thief.
"Mor...Moria."
Robin gave a small gasp, and I gave the archeologist a curious look. She didn't look back at me, though, because the old man continued to speak.
"His name is Moria, and he's terrifying."
"Moria!" The way Robin said the name...it sounded like she recognized it. And she didn't necessarily like the person who owned the name. She moved forward a bit - maybe so that the old man could see her. "You don't mean Gecko Moria by any chance?"'
Gecko? Who has the name of a lizard in their own name?
The old man let out a gasp. "That's right - that's him."
Luffy got up and turned to look at Robin. "Robin, do you know this guy?"
"Yes." Robin sounded really grim. "But only by name. And if I remember correctly, his former bounty was even higher than yours, Luffy."
"Former bounty?" I wasn't necessarily sure what that meant, but I hoped it didn't mean anything bad for us.
"Wait." Sanji turned to face Robin with a serious and slightly nervous expression on his face. "So that means-"
"Yes. Gecko Moria is one of the Seven Warlords."
I did a double-take when I heard Robin say that. "Wait - aren't those the guys who are sponsored by the government?" Thank you Nami for filling me in on what exactly was going on when I couldn't remember it.
"Are you sure? Really?" Luffy sounded somewhat anxious.
Robin gave a shaky nod. "Yes. Gecko Moria is a man of many mysteries."
Franky turned to look at the old man. "But...what's a big shot like that doing in a dump hole like this?"
"Good question," I muttered, thinking back to what Nami had explained about the "Seven Warlords." She hadn't been able to fill me in on any of the identities of the Seven - she didn't know all of them - but Usopp had told me about the Warlords that they had run into on their journey.
"Hawk-Eyes" Mihawk - the man who's been called the World's Greatest Swordsman...and the man that Zoro hopes to defeat. Considering that Mihawk is the one who gave him that scar...I wouldn't blame him for it.
"Sir" Crocodile - the man with the Sand Sand Devil Fruit, who Luffy had defeated on a desert island early on in the Grand Line.
And now, the shadow-stealing Gecko Moria...oh, boy.
"I'm not sure, exactly," the old man stated, bringing me out of my thoughts. "But I can tell you that he's left behind many victims - most of which are wandering around lost in this very forest!"
"Just how many is 'many'?" Zoro asked, frowning.
"Who knows? The fact that you were all invited here as well means that Moria is out to get you too! No doubt about it..."
I blinked a couple times. There was something about that man's statement...
Zoro seemed to pick up on it, too. "Invited? But we weren't-" He paused, and a frown came over his face. "I see..."
See what? I still wasn't exactly sure what it was that the old man meant. Did it have something to do with something that happened before we arrived-
Wait. That barrel with the flare! That must be what the old man means!
The old man started crying. "We hide in this dark forest, scared of the zombies and the other creatures here! We can't head out to sea because we'd be exposed to the sun. With this body weak and the way it is, it's hard to find the will to keep on living."
I flinched a bit at that. To have a life without being able to touch the sun...and living in a place where it was Halloween Central 24/7...well, it's not my idea of paradise, that's for sure!
"Just once before I die, I want to be able to walk under the sun - to feel its warmth on my skin!" The old man started to move forward, reaching for the lantern. "Just one more time."
The man's hand slipped on the lantern, sending it rolling around on the path in a circle. It caused our shadows to shift around a bit as a result, and...I have to admit, the information that I had just been given made me freak out a bit.
A shudder was passing through me when Luffy suddenly reached out and grabbed the lantern. I admit, I jumped a bit - I hadn't heard Luffy move back into a crouch.
Franky started bawling. Loudly. "What a touching story! You've been through so much! Such a heart wrenching story! But I'm not crying - got it?!"
"Yeah. Sure, Franky." I rolled my eyes at the cyborg.
"Come on, you big crybaby," Zoro grumbled. "You're way too compassionate about this kind of stuff."
"Enough of this." Sanji pointed at the old man. "Hey, creepy grandpa! Only ladies can persuade using their tears! Show a little backbone, will ya?"
"Sanji!" I turned sharply to glare at the cook. "Leave him alone - don't say anything like that until you've possibly been in his shoes!"
That comment got me a weird look from Zoro, and a strange feeling going down my spine. Something told me that I might end up eating those words...
"Well, you're in luck," Luffy finally stated. "We're already looking for a guy that steals shadows, and I'm pretty sure that he's the one." He started to rise out of his crouch. "If he's coming after us, then that just makes things easier."
"Easier?" I blinked a couple times as an incredulous look came over my face. "If we're going to rescue a shadow while also making sure that we can keep our own, I don't see how that's going to make things easier."
"I'm gonna kick his ass, and if that saves you while we're at it, that's fine by me. Okay?" Obviously, Luffy didn't hear a word of what I had said.
"That's very kind of you!" The old man clearly sounded relieved. "Thank you! You've given me new hope!"
"We can't thank you enough!"
"We're counting on you!"
"Yeah - tear Moria a new one!"
I jumped when I heard the voices, and I looked around a bit. There were figures standing just off the path, hiding behind trees. More people who had their shadows stolen?
"What the hell?" Sanji turned to look at the forest. "The other victims, huh? It's not polite to eavesdrop."
"Oh! Sorry about that, Mr. Freaky Curly-Eyebrows Guy."
I sighed and shook my head while Sanji fumed.
"That's a crappy way to apologize!"
Luffy laughed. It didn't seem like he was too bothered by all of this.
Still...someone stealing shadows...what exactly were they being used for?
"Well, come on, guys." Luffy turned and looked at the rest of us. "Let's head over to that mansion. We can meet up with the others and then kick Moria's ass!"
"Sounds good to me," Zoro commented, grinning widely.
I hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. There was something about all of this that was making me feel uneasy, but I didn't know if that was because of the ghost that ran me through, or just the overall feel of the island. I would have stopped and thought about it, but...well, Luffy was planning on taking on Moria, so we weren't going to be sticking around for very long.
We started moving forward again, leaving the old man and the other victims behind. As we went, I decided that now would be as good a time as ever to actually eat something - keep my strength up for the fight ahead. So, I fished the box of food out of my satchel and opened it up, eating it as we walked. It took me a moment to figure out how to use the chopsticks, but I was able to manage.
I'd nearly finished it off when a drop of water landed in the box.
"Rain?" Luffy glanced up.
It didn't take too long for it to really start coming down.
"Man, that sure came from out of nowhere," Zoro commented.
I grabbed the orange hood that was attached to my jacket and flipped it up over my head, stuffing the empty box back into my satchel before zipping up. I saw Robin holding her backpack over her head while Franky held one of his arms over his own.
"It's really coming down," the cyborg commented. "Do we run for the mansion?"
"Hang on a sec," Luffy responded.
"For what?" I looked over at my captain curiously.
"I see something behind the mansion." Luffy frowned a bit. "It looks like some kind of mark."
"A mark?" I looked back ahead of us. We were nearly at the mansion - just another set of gates and we'd be there - so Luffy had to have stopped us for some reason...
"The rain's clearing the fog," Zoro commented. "I think I can see it." A frown flickered over his face. "Is that...a flag?"
I blinked a couple times to get the rain out of my eyes, then frowned a bit in order to try and see what it was that Zoro had just spotted. It took me a moment to see what looked almost like a skull, which almost seemed to be hovering in the middle of the air.
Franky spoke up. "No...I think that's a...a sail."
"What?" We all looked over at Franky with expressions of surprise, and I did a double-take on the mark. My frown deepened when I noticed that there was this large black thing that the mark was on, and it was a darker color than the fog and the sky...which were almost a purplish color.
"Yes, you're right."
I practically jumped out of my shoes when I heard the voice behind us, and I turned...only to see the old man with the lantern standing there.
"Why are you still following us?!" Zoro, Franky, Sanji, and I demanded at once.
"Right about what?" Luffy asked, turning and looking at the old man curiously.
"Like he said, what you see is a sail of gigantic proportion," the man explained. "It's so large that seeing the entire thing at once is quite difficult."
"But why would an island need a sail like that?" I asked.
"Thriller Bark is not the island it appears to be. Believe it or not, it's actually the world's largest pirate ship!"
"A what?!" I couldn't quite believe my ears.
"This whole island is a pirate ship?" Sanji repeated. I noticed that he hadn't taken the time to try and relight the cigarette that was in his mouth.
"The largest one in the world?" Zoro was obviously trying to wrap his head around all this, too.
"Awesome!"
Of course Luffy would be the one to say that.
"I get it." Franky pushed Luffy back a bit. "So, Thriller Bark, huh? A 'bark' is a type of sailing ship with three or more masts."
"Then...the 'thriller' part probably comes from all the monsters around here," I noted, thinking back to my previous Halloween comment. I couldn't help but hear some kind of song in the back of my mind, too, and some kind of dancing group making zombie-like movements.
"What do you mean?" Sanji gave me a curious look.
"Well, people sometimes go and do things for the thrill of it," I remarked. "On Halloween, I've known a lot of people who have gone to fake haunted houses because they want the thrill of being scared. They'd really get that here, that's for sure."
"But..." Franky paused. "It's hard to believe that this entire island is some sort of boat."
"The back of the mansion is where you'll find the main mast," the old man explained, pointing towards the building that we were heading for. "It's also the home of Gecko Moria."
Oh, great. I know where we're headed next.
I was about to let out a resigned sigh because of what we were going to do next...but then I jumped a bit when I heard what sounded like a bell tolling from the mansion behind me. On a whim, I started counting the tolls.
One...Two...Three...Four...Five...Six...Seven...Eight...Nine...Ten...Eleven...Twelve
"It's midnight," I spoke aloud. I shuddered a bit. "Also known as the Witching Hour. What a time to start heading in there."
Luffy glanced over at me and blinked a couple times. Then he walked over to the black iron gates that separated us from the mansion. He promptly pushed them open wide.
"Well, here we go." He looked up at what was ahead of us. "To the ghost mansion!"
"Here we go" indeed...
Did anyone else catch the origins behind the name of Gecko Moria's island ship? Thriller Bark?
Whelp, I'm gonna have to leave you there. See you next week!