Chapter 7: The Sunny Is Now The Target

The wolf had stealthily weaved its way through the back alleys and side streets as it returned to the cave where Miyakuro and his gang waited. As the lone wolf walked into the cave, a look of displeasure came across the faces of the gang. "Damn. Those things couldn't bring him back," said several of the members as their leader looked at the wolf with a grin. "Good job," he said as the wolf began to walk over to the dark leader. "What do you mean by that Miya-kun? They failed," said Yanshiro as the wolf walked by him on his way to his master. "I knew that the wolves wouldn't stand a chance against Zoro, but this was a good way for information gathering," said Miyakuro as he placed his hand onto the wolf's forehead. An aura of darkness connected the two as the sensory information passed from the wolf into the leader, allowing him to see and hear all that happened. As the transfer was complete, the aura dissipated as he withdrew his hand from the creature's forehead.

Miyakuro was getting ready to make an announcement to assault the Straw Hats when Zenmetsu Ichimonji pulsated in his hand that rested on it. "We Must Stop Them, Or They Will Take Your Power," said Yamonijo as it spoke within Miyakuro's mind. "I was getting ready to do that before you stopped me," replied the gang leader. "No, You Mustn't Go. If You Were To Get Captured, It Would Assure Your Demise." "Hmmm, you've got a point, but how are we supposed to stop them if we can't go?" "Your Men Can Go And Fight." "What? That's crazy! All of us couldn't take out Zoro, and you want them to attack his whole crew? They don't stand a chance." "You Forget. This Power That You Have Can Be Shared To Your Comrades. They Will Become Indestructible." "Really? That's awesome! Alright then, let's do it," Miyakuro responded as the mental conversation ended between the two. "Alright guys, we begin our assault on the Straw Hats. We will destroy the Straw Hats and capture Roronoa Zoro," he said to he turned towards his gang.

The men looked at their leader with confusion as they responded with disbelief. They brought up the same points that Miyakuro had brought up with Yamonijo during their conversation. "I know men. I brought this up as well, but we have something now that we didn't have then: POWER! I am offering you guys the same power that flows through me. With this new power of our, we will be unstoppable! So, what do you say? Take this power and we'll crush the Straw Hats," said the gang leader as he held out Zenmetsu parallel to the ground. "Just grab onto Zenmetsu, and this power will be yours too." As night began to creep across the sky, the first of the gang members stepped forward. "What the hell? Boss has never steered us wrong before. I'm in," he said as he grabbed onto the extended sword of his leader. "It's going to hurt for a bit, but the reward is worth the pain," Miyakuro said as the dark aura flowed from Zenmetsu into his gang member.

Everyone watched as their comrade fell to the ground, writhing in pain as the darkness went to work on changing him. After the process was complete, the newly-powered member stood up. The hesitant gang members asked their fellow member, "Are you alright, dude?" He looked at them with his red-tinted eyes saying, "Guys, I'm better than alright. The Power is awesome! It hurt for a moment, but guys, this power is fantastic," he said as he walked over and landed a punch on a stalagmite that crumbled it into tiny bits of rock. With that piece of motivation, the gang members lined up one by one, eagerly grabbing onto the sheathe of their leader's sword and becoming infused with the darkness. The screams of the men echoed throughout the cave, causing it to shake a bit from the noise. As the screams of pain died down, they were replaced with screams of power as the men began to do feats of strength they would have never done. Some were bending their pipes and crowbars, lifting heavy stones with great ease, ripping their chains to pieces, and crushing stones into dust, all with their bare hands.

Miyakuro saw that the only one not to walk up to him was his own brother. He walked over to see his brother still sitting where was. "What's the matter, Hiro-kun? Why haven't you come up to me yet brother?" Miyakuro crouched by his brother as he went to look him in the eyes awaiting his response. "I'll stay behind brother. I can't do anything now that I have no hands and all," said the somber Yanshiro as he looked upon his brother. Miyakuro placed his hand onto his brother's shoulder and smiled. "Brother, with this power, you can fight and so much more," he said as the dark aura traversed from Zenmetsu through his arm and into his brother's shoulder. "Just relax brother. Let it flow through you."

The darkness began to augment Yanshiro even more so than his fellow members. His body began to grow reaching up to the ceiling of the cave as he let out cries of pain from the stretching of his physique. After all was said and done, Yanshiro looked down to see his brother, but he still had no hands of his own. As Yanshiro was about to tell his brother off, Miyakuro cut him off. "Hiro-kun, don't worry. You will have your hands now," said the older brother as he stretched out his arm towards a pile of the crushed rock and destroyed pieces of metal. A cloud of darkness reached out from his palm, latching onto the targeted rocks and metal. "Now hold out your arms, my dear brother," he said as Yanshiro complied confusedly. Miyakuro swung the materials into his brother's stumps; the material began to mold and meld into hands of stone with knuckles made from the pieces of chain and pipe. Yanshiro was in disbelief as he wiggled each of the fingers individually. The gang saw and cheered for their fallen comrade who had returned to the fight once more. As the men cheered, Miyakuro turned towards them, saying "Now go, Wanizame no Gairo Gang! Take revenge on the Straw Hats, and bring back Roronoa Zoro!" As the gang roared with vigor on their way out, Miyakuro nodded at the wolf, causing the wolf to follow after them to once again observe and report.

After discussing about Zoro's condition and an early dinner, the Straw Hats began to set up the pattern for the ritual. Zoro stood in the center of the group as the remaining eight Straw Hats circled around him in the same pattern as written on the wall: Robin, Brook, Sanji, Luffy, Usopp, Franky, Chopper, and Nami. Robin held up her arms in her usual manner and said, "Cien Fleur." After being said, a hundred arms sprouted across the deck of the Sunny, setting a pattern that would allow one continuous path to everyone. "Alright everyone, we are about to begin. Kenshi-san, if you would be so kind to hand over your sword," said the raven-haired woman as she looked at the swordsman. Zoro's eyebrow twitched over the use of the nickname again as he thought, "Why does she keep doing that?" He unfastened the sword from the belt and handed it to Robin.

As Wado left his hands, Zoro felt a surge of the dark energy again, but it wasn't taking over his body. "What the hell is going on now? It's almost like I can sense the dark energy," he thought as he walked back to the center of the circle. He turned back to face Robin, but he saw the archaeologist shrouded in a purple aura and the sword held it's own white aura. He turned to see if his other nakama were seeing what he was, but they were standing around like usual. He looked closer at his captain to see a light red aura surrounding him. He turned to see that the other crew members were surrounded by a faint aura as well, corresponding with the ruins. "Ok, I'm starting to believe now," muttered the swordsman under his breath. Robin looked over at Zoro hearing him mumbling and asked, "Did you say something, Kenshi-san?" His eyebrow twitched upon hearing the nickname again and replied, "I said, 'Ok, let's start this thing now.'"

As the swordsman stood in the center, Robin held onto the sword as she looked at the crew. "Alright everyone, let's begin," she said as she passed the sword to the first of the hands. The hands carried the sword to Luffy, to which he picked it up and passed it back to the arms. The sword was then passed to Chopper, followed by Brooke, Usopp, Nami, Sanji, Franky, and finally back to Robin. When the sword returned to Robin, she said, "Now everyone, grab onto the hands, and we'll finish the ritual," to which everyone complied. As they grabbed onto the arms nearest them, the arms near those arms all latched on as did the subsequent arms until they were all interlocked. "Triente Fleur, Cage," said Robin as thirty more arms grew from the arms closest to Zoro, interlocking with each other forming a cage around the swordsman.

After a minute of being in the cage of arms, Zoro was growing restless. "Was something supposed to happen? I don't feel any different," he said as the arms began to disperse into their usual petals. The swordsman walked over to the purple-hued archaeologist and held out his hand and asked, "Can I have my sword back now?" Robin nodded without reply, as she couldn't figure what went wrong. As the sword returned to its original owner, Zoro's vision returned to normal, with the hues fading away from his nakama. After he reattached it to his hip, he turned to the raven-haired woman and asked, "So what went wrong?" "I-I don't know," said Robin as she shot a look to Mamiya to see if the old woman knew what was lacking. Mamiya replied with a look of confusion. Robin walked over to the old woman and both retreated to the table that possessed their notes.

As the female duo began to scour their notes for what went wrong, Zoro began to think about what had happened. "What was with that freaky aura around Robin and Wado? The rest of the crew had an aura too, but it wasn't as strong as Robin's. Is there something missing from them, or are we just too early in performing this ritual? This is frustrating," thought the swordsman as rest of his nakama began to hypothesize about what went wrong as well. Some were legitimate, such as Brook's idea of needing a song or prayer or Chopper's idea of needing the flowers specified in the ruins. Others were just plain stupid, such as Luffy's idea of including meat or Franky's idea of including cola. Their chatter was silenced as Robin called out from the dining room, "Everyone come here. We found out what went wrong." The crew gathered into the room where Mamiya and Robin stood with their notes on the table between the two groups. "We discovered what was wrong," said Mamiya as she looked at them with a look of seriousness. "It turns out that Kenshi-san has to be the dragon for this to work. It won't work any other way," said Robin as she looked at the rubbings underneath her hands. "WHAT?" The general response from the crew nearly knocked the two women off of their feet.

As the crew settled down a quick moment and the night covering the sky, Zoro felt what could be described as a bolt of lightning pass through his body as he collapsed in pain. "Zoro!" The little doctor shouted as he ran over to assess the swordsman as he screamed in pain. Robin ran around the table to see what was wrong as well. "Kenshi-san, what's going on?" The question from the archaeologist fell on deaf ears as Zoro was out of contact with the area around him. "What the hell is going on? It's that dark energy again. It's growing, like earlier with those wolves. I can hear...voices. They're coming closer. They're coming for us," thought the swordsman as he continued to writhe in pain on the ground. "Everyone stand back. We need to give Zoro some room and air. It's along the lines of a seizure," said Chopper as he held his arms up to prevent anyone getting near him. As the swordsman screamed out in pain and contorted on the ground, his crew stood there, feelings of helplessness washed over their minds as they watched their nakama in pain.

Luffy had enough of this standing by, so he did what he usually did: intervene. He jumped over the doctor and picked up his first mate by the shoulder. His crew was stunned by the actions of their captain. "OI, ZORO! KNOCK IT OFF! WE CAN'T HELP YOU IF YOU KEEP THIS UP!" Not known for his delicateness, the captain shouted this order to his nakama as the crew watched. "You shitty gomu gomu bastard! That's not gonna work," Sanji said as he turned to see that Zoro was actually beginning to calm down a bit. Zoro opened his eyes to see his captain looking at him sternly. "Aye...aye...captain," said the swordsman as he panted in pain between each word. Luffy lowered him back to the ground as Chopper and Robin ran back to him. Zoro looked up at Robin and said in his gasping manner, "They're...coming."

"Who's coming? What do you mea...," began the inquisitive woman as she was cut off by the sounds of buildings collapsing in the distance. The crew all looked towards the doorway and began to head out to investigate the sound. Robin, not wanting to leave the side of Zoro, used her powers to grow an eye on the mast, so she could see the commotion as well. Smoke and dust began to bloom above the city's rooftops and grow closer to the docks. Robin could tell that trouble was brewing and coming after Zoro more than likely. "Mamiya, you stay here with Kenshi-san. I have to go out there. Make sure you lock the door behind me," she said as she lowered Zoro to the floor carefully. She closed the door to the room to which Mamiya complied with her last request, bolting the door close. As Robin made her way to the rest of her crew, she came across the sight of twenty-four figures shrouded in darkness as they made their way to the docks, screaming "Kill the Straw Hats! Capture Zoro!" "Alright," said the captain, "Looks like we're gonna be busy tonight."