Enjoy this next chapter!


On the ground I lay

Motionless in pain

I can see my life flashing before my eyes

Dead, I fall asleep

Is this all a dream?

Wake me up!

I'm living in a nightmare…

I will not die (I will not die…)

I will survive!

)I will not die; I'll wait here for you!

I feel alive, when you're beside me!

I will not die; I'll wait here for you!

In my time of dying!(

On this bed I lay

Losing everything

I can see my life passing me by…

Was it all too much?

Or just not enough?

Wake me up!

I'm living a nightmare…

I will not die (I will not die…)

I will survive!

)( (3 times) – 3 Days Grace


Chapter 46: Mystery Mansion p.1

When Zoro woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was being pounded by rain. He got up and looked around the area, which was thick forest and there wasn't a path where he thought he was running on. "When… When did I get here? I know I wasn't very deep in the forest before that creepy… whatever that was appeared out of nowhere…" He didn't sense the said presence and turned to see nothing there, but a path that wasn't there before, but upon closer examination, there was moss and dead leaves covering the said path. His eyes followed the trail to see the person with the white, plain, emotionless mask from before. "You!?" He said aloud as the said presence seemed to be waiting for him to follow, which he did without a second thought as he cautiously went towards where the other was as it turned and disappeared. 'A ghost huh…' He thought, not at all bothered by that fact. 'Knew something was off…' He went to where he last saw the ghost before it reappeared a few feet away, pointing to something in the path.

He didn't openly question as he went up to the ghost, who didn't disappear and looked to see where and what the other was pointing. He saw a row of the old red, traditional Shinto gates down a almost clear pebble pathway. "You want me to walk up there?" He asked as he looked to see that the other was gone and looked back on the path, and only took a couple of steps when a sudden pressure was on him, pausing him from moving further. He saw a group of people going up to the path he was going, only one seemed to not want to be there with a blindfold over the person's eyes, ropes tied around the wrists and there was some kind of charmed necklace of some sort around the person's neck. He would think of the person as a female, but the features were concealed in what looked like shrine keeper's clothing, making hard to identify the true person in custody. But one thing was certain, the person looked familiar to him. "Luffy?" He said when everything went back to normal. "What the hell was that?" He said as he continued his way up the path until he saw a huge, old manor. "Seriously, where the hell am I?" He said to himself when he saw the masked ghost again at the center of the bridge that connected the path to the next path to the manor.

"Okay!" He called as he went up towards the bridge. "I understand that you're a ghost and all, but how the hell do I know I could trust you!?" He stopped when he was one step away from the bridge. "I won't take another step unless I know!" He saw the ghost point to him, more like what's behind him, making him look, only to feel the pressure again as he saw the group of people once more, but this time the group changed from what people would look and dress a thousand or so years until the present era. "Luffy!" He called out when he saw the change from the unidentified person turn into Luffy, Lucci, Crocodile, Kaku, and others he didn't recognize, but they soon disappeared and everything went back to normal. "He's here? Is that what you're telling me?" He looked back to see that the ghost didn't move. "Just who, or what, are you anyway?"

The ghost placed a hand over the chest, signifying that the identity is female. "…Yin…" She said in a light, but hushed voice that seemed to echo lightly through the pounding rain.

"Okay, Yin, you're telling me my best friend is in that big ass mansion thing, right?" His response was a nod. "And you're helping me find him?" Again with the nod. "Why? What's in it for you?" The pressure came again, this time someone ran right through him, which the man stopped and turned, seeing himself, only the hair seemed to be black with a blue hue to them and eyes a creepy metallic silver, and was carrying one, long and huge sword. "The… hell…" He managed to say when his double ran towards the manor, where a group of men with spears and through him, shouting demon and something about not disturbing the leader or some high rank person before everything became normal. "This happened before?" He asked, not really liking the idea of the repeating history or picking up someone else's mistakes.

"Dawn…"

He looked at the female ghost. "What?"

"Dawn… death… rebirth…"

He looked at the mansion and took a step foreword. "Let's get one thing straight, I could care less what happened in whatever time you were in, but if Luffy's in there, then damnit! I'll go to the pits of hell and crawl out if I have to!" He stopped in front of the ghost, Yin. "Got a problem with that?"

She shook her masked head before disappearing.

He looked up at the manor once more before he runs towards it, crossing the invisible border between two dimensions.


Meanwhile, with the others, they had just made it up to the edge of the cliff.

"When… I see that… green haired bastard…" Said Sanji. "I'm gonna kill him!"

"We did go through the trouble to get here, didn't we?" Shanks said calmly.

Mihawk, however, for once looked a little uneasy.

"What's up Mihawk-san?" Nami asked.

"Do you not feel a different, atmosphere unlike normal here?"

Everyone stayed silent as they focused, but none felt it.

"I don't feel anything, Bro." Franky said as he adjusted Robin's sleeping capsule.

"W-Why did you ask?" Usopp asked when rustling was heard from the bushes. "AAHH! Monster!"

"WAAHH!" Chopper reacted as well when a woman appeared.

"Huh, I thought I heard something."

"Nojiko!?" Nami called when the woman appeared fully in the setting light.

The woman had short, wavy, light blue hair with a black headband, tan skin with a tattoo on her chest and right arm. "Nami!?" Nojiko said as both women embraced.

"Oh I missed you!" Nami said.

"I missed you too!"

"Sisters?" Usopp asked.

"You can't tell?" Sanji said. "And what a beautiful sister you have!"

"Hey Nojiko-chan!" Shanks said. "How's the group?"

"Not doing too hot…"

"What's been going on?" Ben asked.

"Let's get back to the hide out, looks like you guys had a rough time."

"We have a green haired bastard to thank for that."

"Speaking of which…" Ben said as he looked at Nojiko. "You wouldn't happen to see a young man carrying three katanas and has green hair, almost like a moss color, only lighter, but not too light."

She shook her head. "No, I haven't seen anyone like that around here."

Chopper sniffed the ground and looked alert. "Zoro went this way!" He called and went ahead. Everyone followed as he kept sniffing until he couldn't get the scent anymore. "It just stops here!"

"In the middle of this path?" Kaya asked, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

"Looks like your friend has attracted attention to the spirits from the other side." Nojiko said.

"Spirits from the other side?" Mihawk asked.

"Yes, there had been reports of people just 'vanish' around these parts, mostly it's very random. And few weeks later their corpses would be found."

"C-Corpses!?" Usopp and Chopper said in unison.

"Do you have records about these events?" Franky asked.

"Yes, when two members of the group went missing, I paid a bit more attention to the rumors in these mountains and found out very little."

"We'll see, Robin is really good at this sort of thing, she may have known a little of this as well from her studies." Franky said.

"Good idea." Shanks said. "But let's rest first and we'll figure out what to do from there. By the way, do you have any trouble getting your hands on any Nighthunters up here?"

"Actually, I know where they're hiding out."

"Really!?" Said the group.

"But…"

"No, no 'buts'…" Ace said, a little dramatic.

"I'll show you, it's not far from here actually." With that, the group followed the young woman along the path, pass where Zoro last stood.


In the mean time, Zoro just entered the manor and immediately felt a hostile aura, which was proved when the door slammed itself behind him. He tried opening it, only to see that it won't open and a talisman appeared. "Okay…" He said, not at all fazed by it. "So… This isn't your normal haunted house…" He looked to see the masked ghost again, this time pointing to a door. He sighed as he went up to the door and tried to open it, only for it to be locked. He looked a bit annoyed at the ghost, which she was still pointing. "Bitch, are you fucking blind? I can't open it!" He said as she disappeared, only to reappear again, pointing to the lock. He looked at the lock, which had some pictograph of some geometric design of a circle and a triangle. "I have to find the key with this symbol, in order to open this door?" He looked to see the ghost disappeared, leaving him alone. "I'll take that as a 'yes'." He sighed as he walked around the room, which had another locked door, drawers, and a couple pots, but no key.

"Damn…" He said as he looked at the door again. "How the hell am I suppose to open this damn door!?" That's when he sensed someone behind him, grabbed the handle of Sandai Kitetsu, and turned to see a zombie-like-ghost of a man with a knife. He moved out of the way, focused his aura to his katana, and slashed at the man, who groaned in pain as he tried to go again, only to be sliced again and disappeared. "Okay…" He said when he heard something hit the ground and looked to see a key. He picked it up, recognized the design, and unlocked the door. He looked to see another room where the masked ghost was waiting.

"Thanks a fucking lot for the heads up!" He said, pretty annoyed. "Now what?" He looked to see the ghost pointing to a closet and sighed. "There better not be another ghost ready to have my head in there, or I'll be haunting you!" He went over to the closet and slid the door open, only to see a very familiar straw hat. "That's Luffy's!" He went to grab it, only to have some kind of flashback that wasn't his.

'Luffy was thrown into the closet when the first ghost sighting appeared. His hands were bound with sacred rope, but he was flexible enough to have his feet grab his hat and set it down, only to move it behind him and waited. That's when he met face to face with the pale masked female ghost before the door opened and forced him out, leaving the hat behind.'

The memory ended, but as he lifted the hat up from the shelf, he heard a groan in front of him and looked up to see the ghost man again and backed up before the ghost's hands were around his throat. He grabbed Shuushi and slashed, which did some damage to the ghost, as well as have a quick burst of some form of memory of a room. Before sheathing Shuushi and grabbed Wado, slashed at the ghost, which seemed to have a greater effect, as the ghost shrilled and a bright light surrounded the said ghost before becoming an orb and went into the female ghost. "What the hell is going on!?"

"… Weapon… Reveal… Purify…"

"Huh? What are you babbling about now?" He asked as she pointed to his katanas.

"Ability to fight… along with aura… limited however…"

He sighed. "I get it." He looked at the straw hat on the ground and picked it up, dusted it off respectfully, and let it hang off behind his head. "It's official, this place is really messed up. I hope Luffy is okay, I know some of the others would have a heart attack from this place." He looked at the masked ghost. "And what was the orb thing entering your body for?"

"Safe… Until peace comes…"

"Oh…" He sighed. "Well, it seems you've seen Luffy, and you know this place better than I do, obviously. I guess I trust you with my life while I'm here. Anything you want to say to me?"

"… Thank… you…"

"Back at ya. So! Where to from here?"

She pointed to the sliding door that was next to the closet and he moved to open it.


Meanwhile…

The group stood in shock at the site from the edge of the bridge.

"It's…" Shanks started to say as they saw nothing but a ruin of what was once a huge manor. "Nothing…"

"Yeah… But we saw the Nighthunters and some of the Ware-types head here, but when we went to investigate, this is what we saw and their scent simply didn't exist. It's like they went into some other dimension…"

"G-Guys!" Usopp said as he pointed to the ruined place.

Everyone looked to where the long nosed teen was pointing at and saw Zoro's form walking across the bridge before disappearing. They were shocked into silence that it was almost defining.

"Tell me you guys saw that… right?" Usopp said as he looked at the others who stared at the specific location with shocked, almost scared eyes. "Yep, you saw him."


It's building in me I feel it surfacing (surfacing…)

Am I becoming my impurities?

You turned to see

And look at me

I'm turning into what you see

)I'm changing inside

I'm changing inside

I wish I could take this away from me

I'm changing inside

I'm changing inside

The broken is finally surfacing(

I can feel it slowly changing me

I'm just a shell of who I used to be

You turned to see and look at me

I'm turning into what you see

)(

Surfacing…

Lay me down forever

Finally surfacing…

Lay me down forever

Finally surfacing! – Trust Company


Hoped you liked this little suspense!

Robin: It's more of a huge suspense, Cupid-san.

I know, I'll probably have readers doing the 'WTF did you do that for' reviews.

Robin: (giggles) You sure do know what to expect.

Not all the time.