Hey, everyone! So I'm back on this story after being away from it for so long, and I am SO SORRY I couldn't find the time to finish it sooner! I also want to apologize for some writing mistakes I have made, and will probably continue to make, though hopefully not as often these days.

I think I was around 15 when I started writing this, which is no excuse for being god awful at spelling and proper grammar and all that shit, but I was dumb as a bag of rocks back then XD I see so many mistakes in the story I could have avoided with just a little more effort. And after posting chapter 7 I went and re-read all the reviews and failed to thank or acknowledge true lovers of my story properly, and I just want to say right now that it is a true honor to me that people enjoy it so much.

And to my most faithful past reviewer, DokiWulf, Idk if you're still interested in this story, or care how it ends, but I'M SORRY I NEVER RESPONDED TO YOU! YOUR REVIEWS WERE ALWAYS SO GREAT I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

And to anyone else who reviews from now on I will be sure to try to get back to you if you have questions or just wanted to correct a mistake I've made.

Anyway. On with the chapter.


Chapter 8:

Weakness

Corderoy wished the crew luck as they filed out of his safe haven. They all thanked him profusely as they left in a flustered hurry.

All except the swordsman.

The old man hoped so much that they would find their friend. If not for the lot of them, then for the swordsman alone. Corderoy had known the devastation of losing his captain to a premature death. He wouldn't wish that on anyone.

And the look in that young man's eyes was no different than his own when he was in his boots all those years ago.

"So," Sanji sighed. "Where should we start?"

"He ran off to the south of the island." Nami said. "So if we search toward the south then maybe we can hunt him down."

"If he's still alive."

"Robin." Usopp said quietly.

"Sorry." Robin apologized, scooping up Chopper from the ground as she walked. Poor kid looked about ready to fall asleep where he stood.

"I'm an optimist at heart." She shrugged, turning back to Usopp. "Just a realist when I speak."

"Ugh."

"Alright. We're spreading out. We'll cover more ground that way." Zoro announced. He didn't even bother turning to look at his crew before he continued deeper into the forest.

"Search wherever you like until you find him. If you do, take him to the ship. We'll all meet there at sunset. None of us are to still be out after dark."

Then he was gone.

The rest of the day was hot and humid; standing in the sun, searching for hours without a break. By the time the sun began to set, the lot of them had soaked through their clothes with sweat.

Usopp broke through the tree line onto the beach. He was practically dragging himself toward the ship at this point. He was almost certain he was completely dehydrated.

He startled as he heard rustling of bushes and branches about twenty meters off. His panting silenced for a moment as he held his breath in anticipation.

It was still plenty light out, so it shouldn't be the monsters, but the not knowing was what had his heart rate speeding up and his lungs locking.

A burst of red hair busted out of the foliage, and Usopp heaved a sigh of relief as Nami dragged her feet through the sand. She locked eyes with him, not looking much better than himself at the moment, and shook her head as a sign that she didn't find him. Usopp nodded, making his way over to her to pat her on the shoulder.

The two of them helped push each other toward the ship, ready to get into the galley and guzzle down every drop of filtered water they had.

Except the crumpled form of their captain on the deck had the two stopped in their tracks, before running to his side.

"Luffy!"

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.

.

"How is it that none of us thought to check the ship first?" Sanji asked.

He was running awfully low on cigarettes, but that didn't stop him from lighting them up one after another. He was currently on his third for the night.

"Well we assumed when he monster-ed out on us, he would most likely be among... the other... monsters?" Usopp offered, scratching at his nose. "Not that he'd come to his senses and come back home."

Luffy lay back in his nest on the table. He wasn't unconscious, thank the stars, but he wasn't quite lucid either.

The boy was sweating like he was in an oven. His hair was drenched, and his face was red and feverish. He panted to breathe efficiently, and his eyes were glazed over, darting back and forth like a sluggish sensory overload. His fingers clinched and uncurled, fists flexing but not sure what to grasp at. Occasionally he would cry out, or his arms would fly up and attack his own throat. His fingernails left bleeding marks where they had dug into his skin more than a few times.

While they waited for the others to arrive, Nami and Usopp had taken turns between holding him down and keeping him cool with a wet kitchen rag.

The rest of the crew had filed in later in the evening, all equally as worried to find Luffy in the state he was in. Zoro had made it back last, just before the sun had set. Weather this was because he couldn't bring himself to give up searching until the last possible moment, or because he had trouble finding his way back, they weren't sure.

When he got back and saw Luffy as a sickly mess, he was dutifully at his side. When Chopper and Sanji arrived Chopper had suggested they tie him down.

They gave it a shot. Ropes held tight to each of his elastic limbs. They assured he was kept in place, even if he became overshadowed again and went ballistic.

They all sat around for a while in the galley. The lights were kept low, in attempts to avoid drawing too much attention.

Zoro had ordered that they barricade themselves in the Galley. They didn't want any of those inky bastards getting to anyone else.

"We'll bring him to the old man at first light." Zoro instructed.

He sat at Luffy's bedside, running his thumb over the dark tan skin of their captains wrist. "I'll take first watch."

"Mmm yeah, you've been up for at least thirty-six hours." Usopp said with a blank face. "I wouldn't trust my unconscious ass in your sleep deprived hands for five minutes, let alone a hand full of hours."

"He's got a point." Sanji agreed. "I should take first watch."

Everyone seemed okay with that. Sanji moved to sit at the table across from Zoro.

Even after a half hour had passed, and everyone else was asleep, Zoro refused to lay down and get some rest.

"You should really get to sleep." Sanji suggested, resting his chin in his hand. "You're gonna kill yourself at this rate."

Zoro was quiet, and Sanji was a little annoyed for a second thinking he'd been ignored. Zoro's hand gripped at Luffy's arm for just a moment before loosening up, and he kept his silver eyes fixed on the dark complexion of their captain's young face.

"If he dies, I die."

Sanji...

Wasn't sure what to say to that.

He was too tired. Too tired to ask what that was supposed to mean, and too tired to argue. He thought Zoro probably was too.

"Okay." He said simply, crossing his arms on the table, and lowering himself to rest his jaw on them. "Okay."

The hours passed quick enough. Sanji woke up Usopp to take over, and he and Zoro talked for a while about the game plan for the morning.

Luffy was restless. Twitchy.

And he was expelling an ocean of sweat from his body. The quilt beneath him was practically soaked through. Zoro never took his eyes off him. Not once.

"So we take him to old man Corderoy at sun up. Then what?"

"Then he tells us how to fix this." Zoro stated. "We fix it, then we find a way out of here."

Usopp remembered what Corderoy said. How exorcising the demons, or illness -or whatever- would require salt water. Being practically drowned in salt water. Luffy being a devil fruit user was a high risk, and even if he wasn't it would still be about a fifty-fifty shot at success. The old man had gone over all kinds of different outcomes, making sure they all knew exactly what they were heading into.

Usopp didn't have the heart to bring that up at the moment though.

Instead, he took to checking the windows in the galley religiously, keeping watch on the outside. He also kept a weary eye on Luffy, just in case he went murder crazy, like the old man had mentioned.

After his two hours of watch were up, Usopp woke up Robin to take over for him. She was happy to do the job.

She sat silently with Zoro, quietly impressed how he was able to stay awake so long.

She kept her nose buried in a book by soft candle light while her eyes sprouting from the walls kept a look out on the outside. Zoro had taken to a dishrag and a cool bowl of water, keeping Luffy as cooled off as he knew how.

"How did that book of yours end?"

Robin looked up curiously, Zoro's eyes stayed trained on their friend.

"Well, there was a lot of action, and drama. The two went through quite an ordeal. The book leaves off with them in a rather rough patch,"

Zoro nods.

"But it's a three book series, so I'm sure they'll pull through. They still have a long way to go in the series for the main characters to die so quickly." She assured him, blue eyes twinkling.

Zoro nodded again. More affirmative. Self assuring.

In all actuality, the two boys in the story were separated, and the prince was killed. However, Robin was not about to tell him that.

She wasn't actually heartless.

"I'll have to find the next two books at the next island, if I can." She hummed, flipping a page in her current book. "That cliffhanger has me on the edge of my seat."

Somehow, to her amazement, Zoro managed to crack a smile at that.

That right there was enough to lift some of the weight off her shoulders, if only for a moment.

The moment was short lived.

Robin gasped, dropped her book on the table and stood from her seat as Luffy's torso lurched upright- as if he'd been shocked with a defibrillator. His whole body would be seizing if Zoro hadn't instantly jumped to restrain him. Luffy's eyes fluttered open and closed, brown irises darting back and forth erratically.

"Robin, what's happening to him?"

"I don't know!" She said worriedly.

While Zoro had their captain pinned by the shoulders, Robin took to sprouting arms from the table to keep his legs from kicking.

He made small pitiful noises at first, which grew into distressed, frustrated grunts. When his struggle got loud enough to reach angry growls, it began to wake the rest of the crew.

Sanji was up first, followed closely by Nami. She elbowed Usopp awake quickly before rushing after Sanji to the table to help out. Usopp roused Chopper as nicely as he could, but that didn't help the child much once he was awake and thrust back into the nightmare they were forced to endure.

"What's wrong now?" Nami asked frantically. "Is he going to go wild again?"

"No!" Zoro grit his teeth. All his muscle was failing him against the supernatural force of the devil fruit user's wiry body, but he fought to keep him still with everything he had. "No, we keep him here! If he loses it again, we do whatever it takes to keep him on this ship!"

"Chopper, is there any way you know of that can calm him down?" Sanji called towards the doctor as he clip-clopped his little hooves over. "A sedative, or some kind of pressure point we can use to put him out for a while?"

Nami and Robin stepped aside to make room for the reindeer, and Nami bent down to lift the boy up onto the bench so he wouldn't have to climb.

Chopper had approached with resilience and determination, but seeing his captain now- thrashing, clawing at Zoro and the table like an animal- he was hit with the sudden, heavy realization that he was way out of his depth.

"I didn't get the chance to restock all the medical supplies we needed before leaving the last island. We don't have any sedatives." Chopper rattled out at lightning speed. "There's a point at the base of the neck, where it meets the shoulder, that should knock him out but-"

Sanji was jabbing his fingers into the place instructed before he could finish, then trying again, and again when it did nothing to help. Chopper sighed.

"But since he's made of rubber I doubt it would work..." The child finished.

"Could we... maybe tie him down?" Usopp asked, noting how blunt finger nails dug scratches into Zoro's arms and carved grooves into the table.

"He would break through rope and chains." Zoro huffed with effort.

"Great! That's just great. What now, Zoro? Are we just going to hold him down for the rest of the night?" Nami demanded.

It seemed like everything was too loud, happening too fast. Everyone yelled over each other trying to find a solution as Luffy hissed and howled to get free. His eyes kept flickering, face twitchy. It wasn't like before. He wasn't trying to get away from anyone. He was just restless and in discomfort.

It took Zoro all of three seconds in this chaos, silvery eyes darting across Luffy's face, to understand that he wasn't about to lose his mind. He looked like he was having a nightmare.

Next thing he knew Zoro was snapping orders. He wasn't sure what he was saying, mind too wrapped up in how Luffy's face -twisted up like that- made something deep in his stomach feel like teeth sinking into it. But everyone was rushing to get places with a purpose. Sanji and Nami took position at the windows, Nami's staff in hand at the ready. Chopper had shifted to his horn point, standing guard at the door with Usopp, who shivered slightly but kept his slingshot's aim locked on target.

Robin looked Zoro over uncertainly where she continued to stand at the table with him. They would let him go on the count of three and see what happened from there. Shocking clear grey eyes met with gem stone blue, and Zoro nodded.

"One." He said, fingers flexing around struggling shoulders.

"Two" They spoke together. They took a deep breath, preparing themselves for three.

Then Luffy went still.

The galley was abruptly left in silence. The crew all glanced at one another, not knowing what to do.

Zoro lessened his grip, and slowly took his hands away from the captain in relief, but also a baited suspense.

Robin followed his lead and disbanded her extra limbs, leaving Luffy laying quiet and lifeless.

And he lurched again.

Nami shrieked while most of the others jumped in surprise. Luffy made a heaving sound, and his body started again.

Zoro feared he might need to throw up. He wanted to lift him up into a sitting position, or onto his side at least, but he wasn't sure if he should.

Luffy made a sputtering, choking sound. Like someone gasping for breath, only pushing air out of their lungs frantically instead of trying to draw it in.

It could be a trick.

Or his best friend could be about to asphyxiate on his own vomit.

And with that his mind was made up. He moved forward to help Luffy into a better position.

He didn't quite make it in time when a dark mass began to crawl from his open mouth. Fingers, like the legs of spiders. They reached passed his lips, visible shadowy digits closing around his jaw to drag itself from his esophagus.

All stood by watching in horror as whatever it was- a shadow monster, the illness- broke the surface.

It cried out something painful and shrill, not paying any mind to the others in the room as it scrambled and clawed to get out of Luffy's body like it were being subjected to the flames of hell inside him. Once liberated it flopped off the table to the floor gracelessly. It looked lost, and frantic and hostile once it took notice to the six other people standing around it.

Zoro recognized it. This was the thing that slipped onto the ship and melded into Luffy's body the night he'd seen it. But it wasn't the same now. It was weaker. Almost shriveled looking.

The light. Zoro thought. These things only came out at night, in the dark. The galley lights must be having some kind of effect on it. So...

"Why did it come out?"

Another ear piercing sound shook the very vessel they stood on. The whites of Luffy's eyes stained inky black, the veins in his face running dark under his skin, and he reared up to roar at the intruder with a violent rage.

The dark shadowy shape cowered away from him as everyone covered their ears form the scream. Then the black faded from Luffy's face and his frame went limp again, crashing back down onto the table where he lay.

The air in the galley seemed to be electrified. There was a static charge that had everyone zapped into paralysis.

The sudden idea to light the intruder on fire made Zoro start to formulate a plan, but that too was interrupted before he could start by a water balloon whizzing by and exploding over the creature on impact. Water spilled out over it, and it screamed something long and suffering as it all but fell apart where it crouched.

The sound was terrible, and watching it disintegrate and melt away into a dark puddle on the floor was even worse.

When all was quiet again, they all collectively turned their heads toward Usopp, who held another water balloon drawn back in his slingshot ready to fire. His stiff muscles relaxed and he took in a great gulp of breath as he felt the aftershock of cowardly panic setting in.

In the middle of catching his breath, he looked at everyone with a simple shrug and huffed. "Well... Corderoy was right... They sure hate salt water..."

.

.

.

Luffy woke up not long after that. He was dehydrated, and still fighting his fever. His friends crowded him with questions and concern, but, mentally, he was still too far out of it to make any sense.

He mumbled and drawled when he had the mind to speak at all, and at one point he'd fallen over trying to get up to get to the sink for water. After that he drank two whole buckets of it. Sanji had brought him a third, but Luffy had only lifted it over his head and dumped it over himself.

The captain seemed content sitting there atop his soaked blankets, feeling the cooling water sinking into his skin.

His crew had so many questions.

Was he okay? Did he know what was happening to him? Did he need anything else?

Luffy took a few moments to breathe, letting his mind catch up with his body. When he finally had his equilibrium back, he started answering the questions he could, and began asking some of his own.

"What the hell?"

"Yeah, that's what we've been wondering." Sanji sighed after they told him what was wrong with him.

"So this only really gets bad when I feel like dying?"

"Killing yourself, you mean? Yeah. We think so anyway." Usopp answered. "Or it gets bad when you turn into a demon and start trying to kill all your friends? Or it gets bad when you set shore on a crazy island of suicide monsters in the first place! It get's pretty bad then too!"

"'S a good thing I don't feel like dying then."

"What do you feel like?" Nami asked carefully.

"Hungry."

The crew seemed to collectively sigh at that.

"Is it gone?" Sanji guessed hopefully. "Maybe he's cured now. Maybe he's back to normal." The cook stood up immediately, going to prepare something for their captain to eat.

"I'm not sure." Chopper said, feeling uneasy about the way his eyes and the veins beneath his skin had turned black. "We should take him to the old man when the sun is up just to be sure."

"Mmm, I didn't mean now." Luffy said, eyes closed as he scratched the back of his ear. "I meant the last time I was awake. When we were on the beach. I was hungry then."

He pulled his hand back from his ear to inspect it as he stuck another finger up his nose to dig around lazily. "I mean I'm still hungry now. But I was real hungry then. Don't think I've ever been that hungry before."

Then his hands dropped into his lap, and he turned to look Zoro in the eyes. "I wanted to eat you."

And if everyone in that moment felt lightheaded, like the air around them was too thick to breath, no one voiced it. Probably because they were a little too startled to speak before digesting what was just shoved down their throats.

"Eat me?" Zoro ventured first.

"Yeah." Luffy said simply. "I wanted to take a bite right out of your arm. It was confusing and kinda weird, so I ran. Then I forget what happened after that. Except I woke up in the middle of some kind of... moke?"

"Moke?" Usopp said, eyes narrowed.

"One of those circles full of water. With a island in the middle."

"A mote?" Robin supplied helpfully.

Luffy pointed at her with a grin as he poked his nose with his other hand.

"So you woke up in the middle of a mote, and then?" Nami asked.

"Uh, I stretched across and came back to the ship. No one was on board though, and I was too tired to move anymore so I fell asleep on the deck. That's all I remember."

His friends contemplated this for a few moments.

"I'm not hungry enough to eat any of you anymore. So that's good. That weird jerk in my stomach was making me like that, but I think I got him to leave." He said, as he rubbed his hands over his flat belly.

When everyone was frozen- thinking over his point of view- longer than he was comfortable with Luffy snapped, "Sanji! Hungry!"

Clicking his tongue, Sanji went to the fridge.

"Well, this is good right?" Usopp asked. "Doesn't the demon leaving his body mean its out of his system? That means he's fine now."

"Doesn't it only leave after it's host is dead, though?"

"Nami! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!" Usopp hissed.

Zoro nodded. "She's right. This seems too easy. Tomorrow we go to Corderoy and try to be sure."

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.

Sanji ended up making all the pork they had left in storage. Luffy ate like he was starving. For all they knew, he might have been.

Chopper asked him questions about his mental state. Which he answered to the crew's apparent satisfaction. The little reindeer did a full checkup on him while he ate. Everything about him seemed normal enough.

Once Luffy had some food in him, and they'd determined they didn't have to worry about him too much at the moment, they decided they should go back to taking watch shifts and trying to get some rest.

Luffy and Zoro sat side by side on the table while Nami pulled up a chair to the window to keep an eye on the beach.

Neither wanted to go to sleep; Luffy because he'd done far too much sleeping for too long, and Zoro was simply unwilling to take his eyes off him. So they stayed up talking quietly to each other as everyone else but Nami let themselves get some shuteye.

"Are you really feeling alright?" Zoro attempted to whisper.

It must have been the fifth time he'd been asked that, and Luffy was getting a little aggravated.

"Yeah! Yeah I feel fine!" He sighed back exasperatedly.

Zoro nodded to himself as they knocked their shoulders together.

"When morning comes we're going to go see a guy about making sure you're "demon free", as Usopp's been calling it. Then, when we're sure you're good to go, we're leaving the island."

"What about Nami's log pose? Has it set on the next island yet?"

"Doesn't matter." Zoro said sharply. "It's dangerous here. Too dangerous for us to stay long term, we're low on supplies, and can't use anything on the island for food or medicine. The sooner we leave, the better."

Nami, who was listening in, clicked her tongue and rolled her neck to look back at them. While she agreed the island was scary, and they needed more food and water and medical supplies, they couldn't just leave whenever they wanted.

"How are we going to find land again without the log pose, Zoro?" Nami asked sternly. "We may run out of everything while we're here. But at least we would have land. A place to be. What do we do if we leave without a heading and run out of food and water while out wandering the red line aimlessly?"

Luffy looked at her wide eyed while Zoro seemed to sulk and bite his cheek.

Nami sighed. "We'll ask Corderoy tomorrow if he knows how long it takes for the log pose to set. We'll figure out what to do after that."

She went back to watching the beach through a pair of binoculars after that.

"Who's Cory Dough Roy?" Luffy asked Zoro quietly.

He made a little grunting noise, then told Luffy all about the old man they'd run into the night before.

He decided to give every detail he could remember about the guy, just to pass the time. How he'd found them and sheltered them. How he'd been stranded on the island for years after his crew died. And everything he'd told them about the weird parasitic nightly inhabitants of the island.

For some reason, Luffy hadn't felt the need to take his hat back from his first mate just yet. So he sat, glancing over every now and then just to admire how it looked sitting atop that head of green hair.

Somewhere in the story Zoro's rhythm slowed down, and soon enough he was fighting back yawns and willing his eyes to stay open. Luffy wasn't paying much attention when suddenly that green head, straw hat and all, leaned down heavily against his shoulder.

He craned his neck to look down at his friend curiously as Zoro snored loudly against him. Luffy looked around, not really sure what to do. When he was about to maneuver the other down onto the table top beside him, Nami said in a hushed voice. "He asleep? Finally! Poor bastard's been up way too long."

"What should I do?" He asked, as small as he could since he couldn't whisper to save his life.

"Let him sleep. I knew he was going to crash at some point."

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's probably fine. Just has his twenty hour a day sleep routine all out of wack. Just give him a few hours to rest up."

Luffy didn't dare move him now. Not if it risked waking him up. So he stayed perfectly still, supporting the other's weight like a stone wall. When Zoro would shift, he would shift with him to be sure he didn't fall over. Soon enough the two of them were set up comfortably, Luffy's leg folded under the other, one hanging off the side of the table with Zoro's head in his lap.

And that's how the remainder of the peace of the night was spent.


To Mala, I'm glad you like the story and think it's scary enough XD I like horror, but feel like I fall short sometimes when trying to write it, so thank you for the encouragement! I'm hoping to finish the story with a tenth chapter sometime near the end of next month at the latest. :D