They were relieved not to be tied together again before Rikka shoved them into the room. The familiar blackness encompassed them, and when Zoro opened his eye again, he was in the center of a moist, white cloud.
Stones crunched under Zoro's boots as he took a few steps forward in the roiling fog. As far he could tell, he was on a rocky cliff that plunged right off a sharp edge into the grasping ocean below. The sound of the sheets of saltwater that leapt up to try to devour him were irritatingly loud and monotonous, and it made the swordsman want to find Sanji all the sooner.
He heard faint sobbing dead ahead, and he followed it, carefully watching his step in the smothering mist.
The swordsman almost tripped over the tiny child at his feet. The ratty kid was crying softly as he looked out at the ocean, his whole body shuddering.
"Oi, kid, you ok?" Zoro asked.
"Don't look at me," the child replied in a weak, high-pitched voice.
"What's wrong?" The green-haired man insisted, becoming more disturbed as he caught sight of the boy's bony, emaciated arms that reached up to hide his face.
"Get the hell away from me!" the boy shrieked hoarsely, curling in on himself.
Zoro crouched down over sets of scratch marks etched into a flat stone and gently peeled the kid's stick-thin arms away from his sunken face. The stunned swordsman recoiled, his features twisting in horror as he saw a curly eyebrow framing a wide, bloodshot blue eye. Sanji's bones could be clearly seen through thin, hanging skin. His normally golden blond hair was dirty and wiry, and his lips were chapped and peeling.
"Shit!" Zoro spat. "Cook, what the hell did those fuckers do to you?! This is sick!" he yelled, waves of murderous rage spilling through him.
"Zoro," Sanji whimpered as he reached out to him. The swordsman gently picked him up and brought him to his lap, allowing the featherlight cook to hang from his neck as he cradled him.
"I never wanted to come back here again, marimo," Sanji snuffled, and fresh tears spilled out.
"This actually happened?!" Zoro stood with the miniature cook in his arms, looking at the island anew. He glanced down in horror at the scratch marks beneath his feet. There were so many days recorded there.
"We got shipwrecked here and almost starved to death. The shitty geezer should be on the other side," the child Sanji said.
The swordsman felt sick to his stomach. He was in the middle of Sanji's private, painful memories, memories the cook probably would never have willingly shared with anyone.
Zoro rounded the island, but found no one else. The cook was incredibly light, shivering in his arms. He flung his gaze hatefully at the false sky.
"Oi! Damn witches! This is sick! Who cares about whether we can see this damn thread or not! I'd rather us be enemies again before you put him through this hell!" Zoro screamed, his voice echoing out over the violent water. If the mastermind of the trial heard him, they remained mute.
The swordsman sank down on a rock, holding the young cook against his body. Sanji buried his face into Zoro's neck, breathing more steadily now, and he caught the other man's scent radiating from his skin. It was the essence of steel, metallic and earthy, like a freshly sharpened kitchen knife. Another hot tear spilled down his ashen cheek.
"You smell good, marimo," the cook commented shakily.
"Quiet. Just close your eyes and stay like that. Concentrate on me," his deep voice soothed.
"We have to figure out what to do to get out of here," Sanji desperately said.
"Just say you love me or something. Like when we kissed before," Zoro suggested, his back teeth painfully gritting together to keep from screaming out in rage.
"I can't say something like that so lightly," the cook's boyish voice protested.
"We have got to get you out of here," the swordsman bitterly ground out. He cringed as looked down at the emaciated kid in his lap.
"Don't look at me," the cook demanded irately. "You must think I'm weak. I've been through this before. I can handle it," Sanji assured, releasing his hold around Zoro's neck and settling on the ground next to him.
"Well I can't. I'm going to slice open whoever did this to you," the green-haired man growled, fingering his katanas.
Sanji had just opened his mouth to reply when the whole world rocked, flinging them flat on the ground.
"What the hell?" Zoro exclaimed after the lurching stopped. He scrambled to his knees and found Sanji. "Oi, you ok?"
The cook groaned, pushing himself to his feet. "Yeah. What the hell was that?" he croaked, coughing.
The swordsman flung his gaze up, glaring intently at the sky. The clouds that rolled overhead were now a dark, murderous red. Something suddenly seemed very wrong.
The air in front of them wavered like a mirage, and Rikka's head poked through a fissure out of nowhere. Through the crack, Zoro could see the candlelit background of the temple.
Panic was evident in her round, worried eyes. "Something's wrong. Come with me!" she yelled, waving them towards the opening.
"You're right, something is fucking wrong, you assholes! Change him back!" the swordsman demanded in a dark voice that would have made weaker minds run for cover. He indignantly threw his finger back to point at the tiny, starved cook.
"Don't talk to a lady like that, marimo," Sanji growled.
Rikka's eyebrows curved up in pity. "I'm so sorry, Sanji-kun. I don't have the Dream Dream power so I can't manipulate the fabric of this illusion like the boss can," she explained woefully.
"Where the fuck is your boss, then?!" Zoro barked, his fists balling up so tightly they ached.
"Quit it, marimo!" the young cook commanded.
"Bring him. I fear this place is no longer stable. The boss is missing, and she is the one creating this place," Rikka said, her face creased with deep lines of worry. She took a step back to make way for them to pass through the portal back to the temple.
"Can you walk?" Zoro asked softly as he stopped in front of the cook.
'There's nothing wrong with my legs, shitty marimo," Sanji replied testily as he stood and marched through the fissure.
Luffy carried a large leg of meat in his fist as he sprinted with the rest of the Straw Hats through the temple grounds, cannonballs whistling overhead.
"Those pirates are back with friends, Luffy!" Nami shouted to him, deftly assembling her ClimaTact as she ran.
"Right! Let's get Zoro and Sanji and kick their asses! They ruined our banquet!" the wiry captain shouted back, gnawing a strip of meat off the bone.
As they approached the main temple structure, they found it engulfed in flames, plumes of black smoke stretching in columns and blending into the darkness of the midnight sky.
"Sanji!" Luffy yelled as he spotted a familiar shock of blonde.
His soot-covered, sleeping form had been pulled away from the building and was being watched over by an older red-robed priestess. Another young attendant was sprawled out next to him.
Luffy shook the cook by his shoulders. "Oi! Wake up! This is no time to take a nap! Where's Zoro?"
"Sanji!" Chopper flung his medical pouch down, hurriedly digging out some tools to examine him with.
Nami bent down to the slender priestess laid out next to Sanji and checked her breathing. "She's out cold, but she seems to be ok," she told Chopper.
"Wait! It is impossible to wake them while they are linked to our Lady's mind. She and one of your crew are still in the temple! Please save them!" the priestess begged, tears streaking clean paths on her smoke-dusted cheeks.
"Stay with them, Chopper. Everyone, find their cannons," the dark-haired captain said as he stood, donning his straw hat low over his eyes as he threw a glare at the towering flames.
An eerie orange glow flickered over his face as he entered the fiery temple, the crew watching on.
Another tremor ripped through the temple, causing dust to cascade from cracks in the ceiling.
When the shaking subsided, Rikka rose from the floor, her huge grey eyes trained on the the shifting stones of the ceiling.
"This is bad. I've never experienced it, but the boss said that if she ever passed out while using her Devil Fruit powers, she'd have terrible nightmares," she told them, her voice thin with dread. Rikka bent down to Sanji's fragile form.
"I'm so sorry, Sanji. I never really know what she has planned in a dream until it happens. Had I known…" she trailed off, her eyes downcast with guilt.
"It's alright, Rikka-chan. I'm ok, I promise," Sanji assured her with a sweet smile.
The brooding swordsman's motionless form watched on like a stony gargoyle as he glared at her from the ground.
"What are you going to do about all of this?" Zoro demanded as he rose.
"I'm going to go to the real world to see what's wrong. I wish I could take you too, but I'm the only one here who's been granted permission to move freely out of the dreams. The only thing is, I won't be able to come back without her power once I leave," Rikka warned.
"Then get out of here. I'm done with all of you love temple people anyway," Zoro huffed.
"Damn it, marimo!" Sanji stalked over to him, scowling up at the towering swordsman. "I told you not to talk to her like that!"
"She is partly the reason you're like this right now!" Zoro yelled heatedly.
"Well if that's true, which it isn't, then Rikka-chan also deserves credit for last night, but I don't see you complaining about that!" Sanji bit back.
Rikka threw her hands up and waved them frantically. "Wait, guys! He's right, Sanji-kun. Things might get worse if I don't go and see."
She took a small, wavy-bladed dagger from the folds of her yukata and swiped it down in front of her, tearing a huge gash in the air. Harsh light spilled into the room, momentarily blinding them.
"Be careful. I fear the nightmares might be worse than just earthquakes," she cautioned them, her voice steeped in worry. With one last look at each of them, she stepped through the split, leaving them completely alone.
"You're such an asshole," Sanji said in disgust, his hands planted on his bony hips.
Zoro didn't rise to the bait. "I hate seeing you like this," he said more gently than he intended to as he peered into Sanji's dirty, gaunt face.
The cook's posture softened. "I don't like me like this either," he sighed, pausing.
"Oi, marimo. I don't want people ever knowing anything about this, ok? I'd rather they find out I screwed you than about something like this," Sanji said as his sight fell to the ground.
The swordsman raised an eyebrow. "You'd really rather have people find out that we slept together on purpose than you nearly dying due to an accident?" he asked slowly, doubt delaying the words.
"Well I definitely don't want anyone finding about that either, but-"
The miniature cook suddenly whipped his head to the side as a series of chilling howls poured in from the town square. He and Zoro exchanged an uneasy frown.
"Nightmares?" Sanji mouthed.
A deep, wet chuffing sound reverberated from the steps to the temple. Zoro silently drew two swords and sidestepped towards the entrance.
Sanji watched their red thread feed out as his soul mate moved further away. He clenched his teeth as saw the swordsman scowl dangerously, then tie his black bandana on, placing Wado into his mouth.
Sanji began to round the altar towards Zoro, but the swordsman's eye slid over to him. He gave the cook an almost imperceptible head shake.
Zoro was staring down a giant, human-like skeleton crouching down and filling the tall entryway, pitch black and glistening as if covered in tar. Pointed incisors lined a gaping maw as its empty sockets locked onto him.
The cook leaned out as far as he could, peeking around the stone altar. He froze, his mouth dropping in disbelief.
A deadly aura flared around the swordsman, feral and predatory like a prowling tiger. In one smooth motion, he raised his katanas over his head and dropped them behind the blade in his mouth.
"Three Sword Style..."
Dry joints creaked nauseatingly as the creature crawled eagerly towards Zoro, bones scraping against the stone floor.
In an instant, the swordsman closed the distance to the dripping black nightmare. "Ul-Tora Gari!"
As splinters of bone exploded from Zoro's blades in the the entryway, the ceiling behind the altar caved in and another glistening skeleton rode the massive stone blocks down, screeching as it dropped on all fours, caging Sanji within its legs.
The cook ducked as its claws sailed just over his head with a rushing whoosh of air, then rolled to deliver a kick to its inner femur. In Sanji's weakened state, he didn't even rattle the limb.
Zoro had just finished slicing the skull of the first skeleton in half when he looked over to see Sanji's tiny body squeezed in the lattice of flat bones of the skeleton's hand.
The swordsman sprinted towards him, his katanas gleaming jet black in the darkened temple like spikes of treacherously sharp obsidian.
"Oi, behind you! Worry about yourself, you shitty bastard!" the cook squeaked out, his lungs compressed by the nightmare's grip as he was brought towards its mouth.
Zoro snatched a look over his shoulder. The bones he had just rended in a spray of fragments were vibrating and knocking together like hollow tree branches as they systematically built themselves up again like a giant puzzle.
The swordsman's gaze quickly flicked back as he heard Sanji cry out in frustration, desperately trying to wriggle out of the skeleton's hold before being fed to a cavern of curved teeth.
Zoro's grip twisted on the hilts of his swords as he focused his attention back on the first skeleton just in time to block a battering ram of knife-like fangs as long as his arm with a disconcerting smack of bone against steel.
The swordsman shifted his weight smoothly as energy flowed seamlessly from muscle to swords. A trio of scything slashes ripped through the creature, sending the bones scattering in a flurry once again.
The swordsman scoffed at the vibrating pile of pieces, his patience evaporated. He quickly vaulted over a fallen pillar to where the second skeleton was now creating a cloying dust cloud by slapping the ground and pulling down pillars and statuary like a giant cat hunting for a mouse.
He wasted no time splitting this one down the middle as well, and while it was twitching he searched for Sanji.
"Cook!" he called, the pit of his stomach bunching up tightly like an angry fist. He heard stones clatter to his right, and the small, haggard form of Sanji stepped from the shadows, his arms crossed.
"I can take care of myself, marimo. Don't change the way we fight just because you got into my pants, alright?" the cook said pointedly.
"Don't be stubborn, idiot curly brow! I know you can't fight right now, or else you would have kicked the shit out of that thing," Zoro said gruffly.
Sanji suddenly jerked violently on Zoro's robe, pointing behind him.
The swordsman spun around to see the two broken clusters of bones converging, transforming into something absolutely immense. Two dark, dripping halves of a skull formed thick shoulder armor and spires of extra ribs fanned out of its main head like a horrific crown. The monster crouched down on its cobbled together limbs, its mouth yawning wide open at them.
They began to gag as the rising scent of rotten eggs suddenly fouled the air.
"Fuck!" Sanji cursed, seizing Zoro's hand and yanking him behind a column just as a tidal wave of boiling hot flame rushed around them, singeing their clothes and hair and bathing them in the nauseating scent of sulfur.
"You've got to be kidding me! It breathes fire now?!" Zoro yelled over the deafening rush.
As it subsided, the swordsman carefully peeked out. Flames dripped sloppily from the skeleton's jaw as it scanned the columns for movement.
Zoro looked down at Sanji, whose sharp eye urgently darted around the room, his mouth set into a grim line.
"It would be easier to fight if we weren't in such a small space," Zoro spoke in a low voice, bending down to the emaciated cook to be heard. "How fast can you run right now?"
The cook's eye sank to the ground, giving Zoro his answer. The swordsman crouched down.
"Get on my back," he told the frowning cook.
"I'm not weak, I can run just fine," Sanji growled, planting himself.
"We don't have time for this! Look, it's just a means to an end like before, ok?" Zoro explained quickly.
"That's a terrible example, marimo! That kiss led to other things!" Sanji whispered harshly.
"Wouldn't that make it a good example then?" the swordsman grinned.
The skeleton's head appeared between two columns down the line, huffing for their scent. Sanji silently climbed onto Zoro's back.
The swordsman stepped from behind the column, his powerful aura snapping like lightning through his body as he slid into a wider stance and placed Wado Ichimonji back into his mouth. He coiled like a spring as he brought all three swords parallel.
"Three sword style...Tatsumaki!"
A tornado of slashing wind spun with fury through the ruined temple, covering brick and bone alike with a flying barrage of vicious attacks.
Zoro sprinted around the dramatically collapsing skeleton, leaping over slabs of fallen stone and emerging onto the temple's front steps.
They had traded one hell for another.
Under a horrific, bloody sky, gnashing creatures of every sort ran wild through the square, slaughtering the throngs of people that not long ago had been happily buying and selling their wares.
As he ran down the front steps, Shusui slipped from Zoro's right hand and fell on the stone with a ringing chime of metal. He lurched to a stop. He had never dropped a sword without taking a very heavy hit first.
Incredibly embarrassed, he bent to pick it back up. The swordsman flinched. His right hand and forearm were completely transparent, his new stub of an arm sinking through the hilt with no resistance at all.
Sanji dug his fingernails into his shoulder, cursing. "Let me see," he whispered, reaching his bony arm down Zoro's chest.
The green-haired man reluctantly brought his arm up, allowing the cook to wave his hand through the disappeared limb. Sanji quickly checked his own body, then hissed out a breath of air.
"We need to get going, marimo," he said numbly as the sounds of the skeleton's creaking joints drew closer to the entrance.
Zoro nodded, sheathing all swords except one with his left hand and descending the last steps.
"I remember how to get to the cabin, so maybe we can hang out there while Rikka-chan gets this thing all sorted out, if there aren't freaking skeletons crawling all over it or something," the cook offered, tiredly burying his face into Zoro's shoulder.
"Oi, cook. If I disappear or something…"
"Shut the fuck up, Zoro! Now go left. That's the side your sword is on right now, idiot," Sanji said acidly, all the while squeezing the swordsman's neck so tightly it ached.
