The scene cuts back to the cliff side we saw at the end of the prologue; this time, a thick blanket of snow rests on the scene. A bit farther into the snow-laden forest is a lake, frozen solid with a thick sheet of ice. A certain brunette steps around snow dusted bushes, now clad in a black winter jacket with white cuffs and a downward-facing arrow stripe, loose jeans, and black knee-high winter boots. A white scarf is wrapped around her neck, with an occasional thin stripe of blue and green, alternating, and white figure skates are slung over her shoulder by the laces. Arid appears to be mildly amused by something.

"There are three things I love the most about the winter season. One" – she leans against a nearby tree and proceeds to take off her left boot – "is how the snow transforms a landscape into something magnificent. Two" – by now she has both boots off, and is currently tying the laces on her left skate – "is when we celebrate the coming of a new year, the birth of Jesus, and spend time with family. And three…"

*Pause*

Arid smirks at the sound of rustling bushes a little ways back. "And three is to have the perfect ammo for a good prank."

~Earlier~

The plot bunny exits its cave hideout, and immediately notices a pencil-thin line on the snow in front of it. It scoffs and rolls its eyes in exasperation. Honestly, if you're going to pull a decent prank –

The plot bunny steps over the line, and its foot makes contact with a thin line of fishing wire, hidden under the snow.

TWANG! FWOOMP!

…And as there was, or had been, a fair sized pile of snow had been pushed from the roof of the cave onto the unsuspecting plot bunny, via the same wire being connected to a large branch from an evergreen. Perfectly positioned to sweep the camping snow when the trigger was released. After digging itself out of the heap, it was then the plot bunny noticed a small, blinking red light…

~Now~

Arid, now with both skates on, glided over the ice as she listened to the sound of leaves rustling, now accompanied by irritated growls that spoke of promise for payback and righteous vengeance. It wasn't three seconds until a snowball the size of a medium-sized snow-globe whizzed past her left ear. Arid turned, and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the plot bunny furiously skating after her with a bazooka aimed at her head! Apparently, that was the cause of the larger than normal snowball.

Arid blinked once, twice –

PING!

– and the last thing we could see were two blurs racing all over the lake, and somehow managing to hit the frozen stream.

An explosion followed a few moments later.

*Disclaimer on the first chapter*

Everyone who'd witnessed Danny's sudden transformation and departure, taking Luffy with him, couldn't help but stare in shock at the spot he'd left. Moriah was the first to recover. "So, it seems that the boy is a Devil Fruit user himself, hmmm…? Now this is a new developement! Kishishishishi!" while he seemed pleased about a challenge on the outside, Moriah was internally debating whether or not he should either steal Danny's shadow, or convince the boy to join him. With strange powers like his… He mentally slapped himself. No. He would deal with the boy later. He had other matters to attend to. He grinned down at his newly claimed prize.

Now Chopper, understandably, wasn't in a decent mood. Out of himself, Nami, and Usopp, he'd taken this revelation about Danny the hardest. And saying that he's scared just wouldn't sum up all the mish-mash of emotions he was going through. For example:

Shock.

How long has he been dead?!

Nervousness.

What if… What if he was only gaining our trust so he could…

Fear.

Ohmanohnohe'saghostohGodwhere'dhetakeLuffyohno…

Betrayal.

He was dead this entire time, and yet he played off as a living being…

And, surprisingly, a hint of anger.

Why didn't he tell any of us?! Was he even planning on saying something, or was he just going to hide it for the rest of all days?

"Calm down! Strawhat Luffy's shadow!"

Chopper's attention instantly snapped to Moriah – the Devil Fruit user had Luffy's shadow in his fist, said shadow raving – (the mini-doctor quirked a brow; he could only imagine what was being said…) – and struggling in an attempt to escape.

"I'm your new master!" Chopper wasn't sure if it was Luffy's shadow actually stopping to consider what it had heard, or if Moriah's literal power over shadows was holding some kind of hypnotic power. Either way, the captain's shadow ceased its struggle.

"From now on you will live as a zombie; you will be given a body and a voice." No. No. No, he couldn't be suggesting that…! "Forget what it was like to have once been connected with a human. Submit to me and become my soldier!"

Chopper's eyes widened in horror. Nononononononononono…

The shadow nodded.

"Kishishishi! So we have an agreement." Moriah grinned, and turned to a gigantic corpse – wait, what?!

The shadow…!

As it seemed, Luffy's shadow snapped out of whatever trance it had been under, noticed the giant corpse and Moriah right next to it, and resumed its struggle. "Now wake up" – Moriah slammed the shadow into the corpse, its struggling slowing as it faded into the body – "from this five hundred year sleep…"

Silence.

Then the giant's hand twitched.

Danny was angry. Annoyed with the spirit-ghosts for dragging him into a strange world against his will, livid with Moriah for stealing Luffy's shadow – he paused in midflight to adjust his grip on said older teen, and proceeded to faze through the last few walls of the forbidding castle. But most of all, he was furious with himself. Had he not been so paranoid, had he been a bit more open to the people who welcomed him with open arms, about where he came from, about his powers, then Luffy wouldn't have had his shadow stolen, and they all wouldn't be stuck in a creepy snake pit with zombies lurking at every corner! One of these days…

Danny gently dove towards the forest. He couldn't have these thoughts now, not when he had someone to protect. At least he'd be able to have some leverage if someone or something decided to try and gain the upper hand.

Danny's feet ghosted the dark ground in a fairly open clearing, propped Luffy up against the closest tree, and promptly facepalmed after a few seconds when he realized that what he was doing wasn't going to do anything. If he did get in a fight with multiple zombies, who's to say that he wouldn't stray too far? It would be difficult enough to defend an unconscious person by himself, and there was always the chance that Luffy would be nabbed in the middle of a struggle. Why didn't he think of heading back to the Sunny –

His ghost sense went off.

"Ah, so you did make it here. Good." Danny's eyes narrowed angrily when he heard the voice, and turned around with ecto energy dancing around a clenched fist. The spirit-ghosts were back, headed by the one who pushed him into the portal.

"What do you mean, 'make it'?! What was I supposed to 'make it' to? Not being able to save someone from having his shadow stolen? I sure hope not!"

The leader's brow rose. "I take it you met Gekko Moriah, then."

"Do you know what you're supposed to do?" a random spirit-ghost spoke up from the crowd.

Danny hid his surprise with a frown. "All I know is that this Moriah character steals the shadows from other people to animate his zombies." A white brow rose. "And I would assume this was your intention for me to find out?"

There was almost nothing aside from the darkness and cobwebs in his mind. He was alone. He didn't like it. He wanted to move, to speak, to see someone, and to wake up…! So why couldn't he? Was the will to taken away from him? Or did that bastard Moriah do something? All he could remember through the haze was a shadow…

"…know what you're supposed to do?"

…Hmm? Who's that?

"All I know is that this Moriah character steals the shadows from other people to animate his zombies. And I would assume this was your intention for me to find out?"

Hold on… That voice… He knew that voice. But where…?

"They" – there was a slight pause – "will not be able to continue their journey should they be incapacitated on this accursed island." A heavy sigh.

"Why did you send me to a place I wasn't familiar with? And, how am I supposed to help anyone if all you talk about is stolen shadows?"

Silence followed.

The darkness tried pressing down on him. He pushed back.

"How am I supposed to help Luffy and his crew get out of this? What should I know?"

!

The mystery-person knew his name! Who is he? How'd he get to Thriller Bark? Why was he at Thriller Bark? Did he…

The darkness was converging on him again. No. No! He wanted to know what was going on, who these people were, why –

Blank.

Danny sighed and extinguished the ecto energy from his hand. "So let me get this straight. All of you" – he gestured to the crowd – "have had your shadows stolen by Moriah, and he has to be wailed on heavily to release all of them –"

"Once someone has been burned by sunlight, the shadow of that person disappears."

"– and the only way this can be achieved is if I help the Strawhat Pirates take him down. I'll ask this only once: why push me into a matter that's not mine?!"

The lead spirit-ghost smiled. "As an acquaintance of yours might say this, 'all will be revealed in time.'"

…WHAT.

"In the meantime, I suggest you take your friend back to your vessel."

Danny stared for twenty seconds, even after all the spirit-ghosts disappeared.

Blink, blink.

"Dammit Clockwork, if you put them up to this, or something…!"

Danny sighed, walked over to Luffy, slung him over his shoulder again, and took off in the direction of the Thousand Sunny.

The webs pinning the galleon in place barely even got a second glance as Danny soared onto the grassy deck.

Zoro and Sanji unconscious in the dining room, however, was another story.

Danny, with a surprising amount of calm, pulled a chair away from the table and propped Luffy up on it. Then, after confirming that the moss-head and dart-brow indeed didn't have shadows, he stepped back to get a view of the two. After a few seconds, he pulled out his phone, thankfully still having plenty of battery life left, snapped a picture, and after carefully putting said phone away…promptly fell over laughing. Well who could blame him? Whoever had the two with em' decided it was a good idea to 'decorate' them (Zoro and Sanji) with chopsticks and wooden clothespins!

After a good three minutes, Danny finally sobered enough to pull out the offending items, grab himself a chair, and settled down nearby (in that way where you'd find some teen sitting on a chair backwards) to keep an eye on the three. Apparently, watching someone who was unconscious was enough to make Danny himself tired.

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get a little rest…

~Timeskip~

Danny stirred at the sound of someone shouting. He was up in a second when he heard an angered demand.

"Who are you!? What are you doing here!?"

Danny's attention snapped to the four figures standing in front of the doorway. Robin had her arms crossed, seemingly calm, while Franky cracked his knuckles, wearing a pissed expression. And as for Usopp and Chopper… Thankfully, they weren't in attack mode, but they had the oddest of expression on them. This was Danny's first meeting with the Straw-Hats all over again – except this time, tension was running high.

If he did anything to Sunny…

Why is he glowing?

Staycalmstaycalmstaycalmstaycalm…!

Oh no, why so soon?

Oh no, do they know?

"Yes, this is an unusually short chapter, but I was doing the best I could in a three-day time limit; especially if I was going to post this today…"

*Chainsaw roars in the distance*

"…Anyways, one of you wrote your dislike about my AN's, 'how long and misleading they are' and whatnot." Arid cuts a sharp right, spraying snow everywhere. At some point during the story, she had switched her skates for a snowboard, and was currently using said board to jump an obstacle. "And I do sympathize with you, I really do. It's just that it's not everyday I see an AN where the author is actually interacting with the plot bunny instead of the usual chit-chat."

Arid barely evades the lasso tossed by the bunny, now on a snowmobile.

"Gotta go! And Merry Christmas!"