I am very sorry for how long this chapter took! I am back at home and so expect the next chapter to be up tomorrow! (and also to be longer). Anyways, I just saw the last Harry Potter movie and even though it was nice I was quite angry at them eating several important parts of the book . I will be re reading that book again very soon lol. Anyways, onwards with the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own this story.
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Ace's POV:
I stared at the skeleton dumbfounded. I didn't know how to react, even though I had seen a lot of different kinds of people and creatures. I was standing in front of a talking skeleton. A talking skeleton. No matter where you emphasized the phrase it still seemed awkward, strange and most importantly: impossible. I could only stare at the skeleton that had just talked without knowing very well what to say. What could I say? I could see him staring at the abyss in front of us after casting a brief glance at the three of us.
"What and who are you?" I then asked the skeleton, doubt and a slight twinge of curiosity obvious in my voice.
The skeleton then turned around and looked at me. I couldn't read his expression due to his appearance. He suddenly tilted his head and greeted me in an extremely formal way. "I am Brook, and I am a vampire" he said.
"You're a vampire?" I heard Marco say, interest obvious in his voice.
"Yes, but I was converted under very exceptional condition" The skeleton then said.
"Oh" I heard Marco then add once he had heard the answer of the strange vampire.
After that was said an uncomfortable silence was created, which made all of us quite tense. I still was standing there, looking at the skeleton while thinking what the hell the skeleton was doing there and what he had to do with Luffy. Speaking of Luffy, where was he? What had he done to go through this last test?
"Have you done anything to Luffy?" I then asked the skeleton with a menacing glance.
The skeleton looked surprised at me. "Luffy? Do you know him?" He asked then, surprised.
"Yes" I simply replied "I want to find him" I said then added.
The skeleton looked at me, thinking about what he would answer. After several seconds he opened his mouth and started talking about what had happened here before. "I see" he said, with an undertone of voice that suggested that he knew more than what he was about to explain. "I was charged a long time ago of waiting here for the two chosen ones, but when one of the ¡m finally arrived here he said that he was enough to save everything on his own, without his other half" Brook said.
My face suddenly turned into one of concern. "Luffy did what?" I shouted out of worry.
Brook laughed. "Yohohohoho! So much concern, you really are the other half!" He said, with that strange laugh of his again.
"How did you know that he is the other half?" Marco immediately asked with a demanding tone of voice.
"Yohohoho! Like discovering who Luffy really was it has been very easy to discover that you are the other half, especially because I once met the two original ones and both of you are exactly the same as they were, at least physically" Brook explained. "And then there is that concern on your eyes that a person can only have for someone really close and important. The same concern that your ancestor had for the other one" Brook then added, with obvious amusement on his face.
I felt my face become as red as a tomato as he mentioned this. Were my feelings that obvious? I heard Marco laugh at Brook's comment just before he himself started talking.
"So the other one went through here?" He then asked.
"Yes. This is the third test, and as you can see the enormous abyss in front of us is what is stopping us from reaching the last room, where the entrance to the other world surely has to be at" Brook answered.
"How did Luffy enter it then?" Jimbei then asked.
"He walked through it" Brook then said "Yohohoho! It scared me so much that I could have died, but I'm already..." Brook started saying.
"Walked?" I suddenly shouted, interrupting Brook unconsciously.
Brook pouted several times, clearly not liking that I had interrupted him from saying what he was going to say without knowing that I had done this. He then was quiet for very few seconds before he started talking again.
"Yes, he walked through it" Brook then said with a dead serious tone of voice.
I stared at Brook, then at Marco and at Jimbei and then at the abyss, not managing to understand what could have possibly happened and what Luffy had done to manage to cross the abyss.
"He just walked straight through it, he was so concentrated on what was in front of him, what he would have to do and exhausted from the other tests that he didn't even notice me when I was calling him and telling me to stop" Brook then added again.
I didn't reply anything, and I started looking at the abyss. I then walked towards it, noticing that the other three vampires behind me were also staring at the path. I looked at it for several seconds, trying to find some kind of visible way of crossing the abyss. I was trying to locate some sort of path created by rocks or a rope above the abyss, but I didn't manage to find anything at all. "How could he have possibly passed?" I wondered aloud, as I stared at it. I could only see the immense fall that was in front of me and the other side of the abyss that seemed more unreachable than ever. I couldn't figure out how Luffy could have possibly gone to the other end. Brook had said that he had just walked forwards, not noticing him. But how could he have done this? Was it because he was a chosen one? No. It couldn't be that. I was the other chosen one, and yet there didn't seem like there was anything magical about this. Maybe it was the cups? That seemed likely, but it still didn't seem like the result of this test depended on both cups. So, if it wasn't the cups or the fact that he was the chosen on what had it been?
"Luffy crossed through this place?" I suddenly heard Marco ask.
"Yes" Brook replied. "I wonder how he managed to do that" He then added as he 'looked' at the abyss.
I then continued looking at the abyss, until I suddenly had an idea of how Luffy could have reached the other end. What if there was some kind of path above the abyss that we couldn't see? I took a step forwards and arrived at the border of the abyss, right in front of the corridor at the other end.
"Ace, what are you thinking about?" I heard Marco ask me.
"You'll see" I answered. I then turned around and looked at Brook. "Luffy walked straight through here, didn't he?" I then asked the skeleton. .
"Y-yes he did" Brook immediately answered.
"Okay" I then said as I turned around again to face the abyss in front of me. I took deep breaths in and out. This had to better work or else. I looked down and at the fall in front of me. I couldn't see it's end, it became dark before it could be seen, so it would probably mean death if I fell down, but it had to be this. There clearly wasn't any other way to cross the abyss, and since Luffy had apparently walked straight ahead that meant that...
I could feel the eyes of my friends on me and I turned around to look at the other two men and at the other strange vampire, all of which were looking at me. I turned around again, hoping that I was right, and I then took a step forwards into the abyss. I closed my eyes, and prayed again to all the gods that I had ever heard of that this worked. I took a breath in, and I suddenly found myself stepping on some kind of surface.
I opened my eyes and looked down, extremely surprised by what was happening. I was no longer standing on the edge of the abyss, but right on top of it, and yet I wasn't falling down. My theory was correct; there was an invisible path on top of the abyss.
"I can't believe it" I heard Marco said with a surprised face.
"I see" Jimbei just said as he stared at first at me, and then at the corridor that was in front of me. He then took a step forwards and soon we were all walking through the abyss towards the corridor that would surely take us to the last room.
Several minutes passed, and soon the four of us had reached the other side. It was then when a very loud sound that came from the corridor in front of us was heard, followed by the loud and sickening sound of bones cracking. A scream, a loud thump and then a terrifying laugh that I knew very well.
"Luffy!" I shouted then, recognising the scream that I had heard very few times in my life, as I started running forwards.
We continued running through the corridors, and soon I managed to see a figure in the distance. It seemed to be a female figure, and it didn't seem to be too friendly by the position that she was in. I didn't stop running when I saw her and realised that she would most probably attack us, and neither did the other three people that were running behind me. It was bare seconds after seeing the female that Jimbei realised who she was.
"It's the vampire empress!" he said, with a cautious tone of voice.
I was shocked at this. That figure was the sichibukai Boa Hancock? The so called 'vampire empress'? This couldn't be good. If she was guarding the last room, who knows why, we would have problems. She was known to be quite strong and powerful after all. Soon enough we were bare metres away from her.
"You won't take a step further!" I heard her shout once we were a few metres away from her. She was still in an aggressive position, and she seemed ready to attack. She wasn't surprised to see us here, did she already know?
"How did you know that we were coming here?" Marco then asked as soon as he had realised the same thing that I had just realised.
"Blackbeard told the government about the two chosen ones coming to the ruins" The vampire empress then said with a cocky tone of voice "But you won't manage to reach your destiny" She then added, obviously ready to attack us at any moment now.
I was shocked by this. I hadn't thought of the possibility of them knowing that we would come here. Did this mean that they already knew that Luffy had gone into this place? Had the vampire empress done anything to him? "What have you done to Luffy?" I then shouted her, suddenly worried by Luffy's well being.
The vampire empress didn't look too weak or as if she had just fought for too long, even less been defeated. Luffy had been apparently quite weak after the second test, as I had seen by the amount of blood that had been there and as Brook had mentioned, and to this Luffy was also quite weak when he entered this place because of the high possibility of him not having any blood on his to this last temple, so he would have been at a serious disadvantage if he had had to fight anyone that was strong before getting to Blackbeard.
"All men are my enemies, but I will not harm him" She suddenly replied, which surprised us all.
"Why didn't you?" I then asked her with evident curiosity in my voice. However she ignored me and she soon attacked me, making a fight start.
The fight with her lasted a few seconds, until Marco managed tos top her by attacking her for a bit.
"Let us go through!" He said.
"No, you are men!" She then shouted back right before launching herself at me, prepared to attack me. This time she was stopped by Jimbei.
"Ace, you have to go forwards to reach Luffy. Don't worry about us. We well deal with the vampire empress now" He said.
"But-!" I started saying.
"He is right Ace, you just have to reach the room to help Luffy and then everything will be alright. Don't worry about us Ace, we will reach you soon" I heard Marco then add.
I hesitated, but then decided to trust them and go forwards. "I'm counting on you!" I shouted at them right before I passed Boa Hancock, who didn't seem too happy about this and tried to attack and stop me, but was stopped by Jimbei and Marco. Soon enough I had left them behind and I was getting closer and closer to the last room.
The air was getting increasingly cooler, and I could hear the faint sound of clashing weapons. It was then when I heard it: A clash that was louder, the sound of someone falling onto the guard and then silence, a silence that was broken a minute later by the sound of a loud supernatural buzz.
"Luffy!" I shouted.