A/N: Hey all! Thanks for the reviews! :) I'm interested to hear what works, and what doesn't. It can be hard to accurately translate anime into fanfiction while keeping the original "vibe," which is why I haven't really written much in the past. Please let me know if the characters feel authentic, even as I take them to places they haven't gone before.

Chapter 3

Oh, Usopp had noticed. How does one even go about saying, "sorry I squished your boob?" You don't, especially after a series of events that start to look pretty suspicious in sequential order; so far tonight he had seen her naked, been kissed by her, landed on top of her and put his hands all over the place.

Circumstances aside, he was pretty sure Sanji would demand his eyes, lips, and hands in penance if he ever found out.

Of course he had noticed that Nami was hot- even if he had been blind, he probably would have been able to sense the extreme amount of self-confidence and the coyness with which she used other's perception to her advantage. She was hot, and she damn well knew it.

But to him, that particular characteristic kind of fell low on the list of Nami's traits he'd recite if pressed. First, she was scary as hell, and not someone you wanted to piss off. Next, she was thrifty, and not someone to lend money to or work for without a down payment. Then, he would say she was loyal, and even if she said she cared about money most of all she would forgive her friends in an instant if they, say, were lying bleeding in the street after being robbed.

Not that he would know anything about that.

She was calculating, and weighed risks and rewards with extreme shrewdness, as long as it didn't conflict with her loyalty. Smart enough to navigate anywhere and draw the map to prove it. Determined, even when she knew she wasn't very strong.

Then, maybe, he would get to "sexy."

But it wasn't at the forefront of his mind, until those rare moments when it was driven there.

Driven there, crashed, and burned behind his retinas.

He adjusted his cape around himself quite securely, and prayed she didn't recognize just how much he was thinking about that characteristic, currently. Didn't matter that they were in a deadly situation, surrounded on all sides by enemies, and currently stuffed in a living corpse… he was still a teenage boy, and being pressed up against her moments ago had affected certain parts of his anatomy that he suspected would get kicked by Nami's sharp boots if she found out.

Consider the fact that Luffy was in danger.

Consider that Sanji and Zoro were shadowless and probably also unconscious.

Consider that Chopper was still missing.

Consider that the narcissistic stalker who wanted to kidnap Nami was within a few feet of their hiding spot.

Consider that, at any minute, he could be pulled from this refuge and have his own shadow ripped from him.

He gulped. Overall, these terrifying thoughts were great for solving one of his, er, problems, but exacerbating another: his general cowardice.

Additionally, as they continued to be carried to god-knows-where, the sudden drop in temperature was certainly a very direct way of chilling his unwelcome libido.

They both started shivering as the temperature continued to drop at a rapid rate, even with the cotton lining of their hiding spot and the warmth of the girl next to him.

"They s- said something about a f-freezer," Nami illuminated, just as their breath became visible in front of them.

"Hopefully this is a s-short trip, and they're not preserving the bear or anything."

That would be just their luck- death by freezer.

"What!? No… we're s-still moving. And I still hear voices. This is something else. M-maybe it's for storing that zombie they mentioned, number 900?" Her teeth were starting to chatter towards the end of her sentence, and she clamped her mouth shut.

Made sense. Corpses tend to decompose pretty quickly if not frozen, so they must have storage systems on the island. But how would the zombie be brought back to life? Usopp had a feeling a lot of questions were about to be answered, and as soon as the bear stopped he stood and went for the oversized zipper once again.

"...the only berserker to go down in history as a "devil." Oars!"

Ah, so the very evil-sounding introduction to whatever "900" was was complete. A devil? He had to see this. He leaned out, balancing with one foot in and one foot out of the bear. Nami followed suit, pressed close in the frozen space. She leaned out as far as she could, grabbing his shoulder for balance and peeking out under his arm. They couldn't completely leave the bear- chances were good he would try to ditch them.

The thing they were looking at… the thing… it was… not a thing that could have walked the planet. It was to giants what giants were to humans. Huge, horned, and hollow-eyed, it took a moment for Usopp's mind to even make complete sense of what he was looking at. It was just… so big.

"Be still, Luffy's shadow!" the bottom-heavy master of Thriller Bark said to the wriggling Luffy-shaped splotch in his fist. "I am your new master."

The shadow seemed suddenly subdued, listening to every word of the man. The vague reminiscence of Luffy made the calm obedience too weird- Usopp could count on one hand the number of times he had seen Luffy calm and still… and those were mainly when he was asleep.

The shadow even nodded when told he would forget his past, and be given a zombie body.

"Arise from 500 years of slumber!" the man shouted, shoving Luffy's shadow into- yes, into- the massive chest, where it was promptly absorbed.

"What… is happening?" Nami whispered, looking on with wide eyes. Usopp wished he knew… how could they get the shadow back, if it was inside that beast? And more importantly… if that thing was going to become a zombie…

How the hell would they stand any chance, even with the monsters on their crew!?

Something was happening, now… the freezer they were in was naturally cavernous, more like a factory in size than any storage unit. Ice coated every surface, the raised grating on the floor barely enough to protect one from slipping. The ice on the walls had fine hairline cracks running through them, bits of frost and ice flaking off and tinkling to the ground. The freezer… was shaking.

It started out very slight, hardly noticeable, but quickly grew in intensity.

Chunks of ice were falling off the monster, and Usopp knew they didn't have to worry about anyone turning towards them and noticing they had intruders. How could anyone look at anything else but the shaking gigantic creature? Because surely, that was the only logical origin for this indoor earthquake.

Just as quick as the shaking began, it stopped. Silence pervaded the vast room, every living being holding their breath in silent anticipation. Waiting. Staring. Hearts beating in their throats.

Usopp's focus went to the gaping, hollow eye of the impressive corpse. The thing showed no signs of life, as if it, too, were waiting for something. So completely still… the suspense was building up to a point where he couldn't stand it! Maybe it was all for nothing? Maybe the zombie was a dud?

With shocking speed, the eyeball rolled into place, turning sharply to look at the living souls gazing up at it.

Nami lost it in that moment, a sharp scream bursting from her mouth before she could cut it off abruptly. In her panic she fell, the hand on his shoulder pulling him down to the frozen metal grating with her.

Well, damn.

Immediately, every eye in the room was turned on them.

"I screamed…" Nami managed to say, in complete disbelief.

"Ah, well, they found us now!" Usopp agreed from his spot on the ground, looking up at the weird group of enemies.

"Kumacy! How long have you been harboring enemy pirates?" Perona chided, the poor bear trying to indicate his innocence with frantic gestures.

The pair jumped to their feet, backing away slowly as the lion-man took a concerning number of steps forward. "My bride," he said, eyes locked on Nami, "what are you doing here?"

Before anyone could act to apprehend them, however, the shaking began again in full force, the chank of chains moving around the room's grotesque centerpiece hard to ignore. Metal snapped, an arm reached, and a building-sized zombie began to rise. Chunks of ice and chain fell as the being stood, and Usopp found himself falling back to his knees along with Nami.

There was no hope.

"MEEEEEAT!"

One word, uttered with such a familiar ferocity, burst forth from the being's mouth with enough force to knock back everything in the room. Usopp leaned over Nami, holding tight onto her so the burst of stale air had a lesser chance of blowing them over. This proved ineffectual, and the blast pulled their feet right up and over them, sending them tumbling back down the hall. Everything was spinning in a mad daze- flashes of color against the cool grey backdrop let Usopp know that Nami was still with him, just before his own cape wrapped itself around his face. He banged against the ground several times before taking flight, his body suspended in air for a number of seconds as the wind blew them straight forward.

They tumbled as they hit the wall at the end of the long freezer walkway, but neither let that stop them for a minute.

"Let's go!" Usopp said, already on his feet and running down the next hall. Nami, without missing a beat, added her agreement and matched him step-for-step.

"Luffy's shadow," panted Nami as she ran alongside him, "brought that zombie to life. That's how he does it…"

"Yeah… gotta be a devil fruit power."

"So… think about it. We ran into the penguin that was just like Sanji, and that other guy… the samurai…"

"Brook's shadow…" Usopp thought about it. "Then… those guys must be fine, too, since they didn't kill Luffy. But what are we supposed to do now?"

At that exact moment, something ran under Usopp's feet, hitting him right at the knee and sending him, once again, sprawling to the floor.

"Chopper!" Nami cried, picking up the dazed reindeer and continuing to run. Usopp, trying not to feel too resentful at being left behind, rushed back to his feet and struggled to catch up.

Sure enough, Chopper had managed to run right into them from a side hall, and it wasn't really too hard to figure out why the little reindeer had not been focused on what was in front of him: what was behind Chopper was, really, the bigger concern.

The zombie horde of Perona's menagerie was close at their heels, now, and surely beyond them were some of the leaders that had to be chasing Usopp and Nami. Absalom, most likely. They had found their crewmate, but now their problems were compounded.

If there was one thing they were really, really good at it, though, it was running away. It wasn't long before they had managed to pull ahead of the mob, losing them through a series of sharp turns and hiding behind one particularly thick tapestry.

They needed to get out of the castle. Reaching a tall staircase, the trio began running down, Chopper switching to his running form as he leapt from Nami's arms.

"We have to get to the ship!" Nami was saying, and Usopp was pretty sure she was trying to fill their small friend in on the situation. "They're taking shadows and putting them in… into corpses. But I think they need the shadow's owner alive."

Chopper gave Nami an intense look- quite a feat from his primarily deer-like form. "They're making zombies… using shadows…"

Usopp nodded, still running down the long staircase. "Yeah, they took Luffy-"

Fwoosh!

An explosion of fire- everything was ablaze, everything was burning. The force of the explosion sent him flying down the stairs much faster than his feet could have carried him, and he landed at the base of the stairs- hard. The fire had been extinguished by the fall, but embers still burned along his cape and hat. His body was smoking, as if his skin still didn't quite understand that the fire had, indeed, gone out before causing any serious burns.

Nami screamed.

He pushed at the ground, angry that his body didn't seem to be following his commands just yet. From the corner of his eye he saw Chopper in much the same condition. He managed to look up… and see Absalom midway down the stairs, his arm wrapped around Nami's shoulders in a grip that seemed half-choking. In fact, her feet were dangling, her entire body being held off the stairs by the tall lion-man.

Usopp struggled to his feet, grabbing his Kabuto and assembling it with a "click." He was still smoking slightly… did this guy have some kind of fire ability?

"Now's a good time to say your farewells," the kidnapper said, leering at Nami in a way that made Usopp's stomach drop, "this woman is going to marry me today." Could he actually do anything to stop this monster? He could try.

Usopp pulled back the strings of his weapon, aiming carefully. "If I can't even protect one woman," he boldly declared, trying to sound confident despite the smell and smoldering of burnt fabric around him, "then what good was being born a man!?"

True to form, the man was beginning to vanish… his ability must have stemmed from a devil fruit, and to the horror of the whole weakling trio he seemed able to extend that to Nami as well.

"I'm… vanishing…. Why!?" Nami managed, staring down at her translucent legs.

Usopp sent three mildly explosive rounds at Absalom, not wanting to hurt Nami but knowing she wouldn't mind getting thrown around a bit if it got her away from her "groom." Too little, too late. They were both completely gone, and the rounds hit marble.

Dammit.

"Nami!" Chopper called, and she answered.

"Usopp, Chopper, help-"

Concerningly, her voice was cut off, as if something had happened to shut her up. "Nami! Where are you!?"

No response.

Chopper sniffed at the air, his blue nose twitching. "There's something masking her scent… I can't find her!"

"You two should be much more concerned about yourselves…" A voice, seeming to echo from everywhere at once in the spacious hall. Ansalom was threatening them...and in a moment they saw why.

The zombies they had managed to lose had caught up with them, somehow appearing from the halls on either side of the staircase. There was no way to avoid them, the jumble of bodies slamming into Usopp. He couldn't even see the staircase anymore- there were grasping dead hands everywhere, pulling him down off his feet. Rotting teeth in grimacing mouths, tightened paper-thin skin stretched over skulls, eyes lolling about like ping-pong balls in sockets, their continued ability to see a total mystery. Everywhere he looked, he was met with the gruesome sight of the creatures attempting to hold him down and capture him.

"Save me!" Chopper mumbled through the hands poking at his face.

The zombie suddenly paused in their invasive attack, still grasping the fabric of his clothes and pinning him in place.

"There's someone else here…" one of them said. "They're… purifying us!"

"Get your hands," a familiar rolling male voice called out, "off my sworn little brothers!"

The zombies, to Usopp's shock, followed orders, dropping him immediately and backing away. They seemed… scared. Cautious.

What did they mean by, "purified?" Had Franky found a way to fight the undead?

"Usopp, Chopper, are you alright?" Robin asked, calm and collected as ever.

All the reindeer and sniper could do was cry, looking up gratefully at their saviors.

….

"Salt?"

"Yeah, Bone-bro clued us in. It's the way to purify those taxidermy puppets."

The group was running, now. Usopp had done his best to fill Robin and Franky in on his discoveries, and it seemed to align very closely with what the two had found on their own.

He had also told them about Nami.

As he ran, he couldn't help but think about his friend… Luffy and the others were fine. Shadowless, but alive. The only one currently in danger was Nami. Of course, she wasn't in danger of being killed, currently. Obviously, the main priority was to regroup, and get the monster Straw Hats to deal with the situation.

Her pupils had been pinpricks of fear as the general had grabbed her.

Sanji would save her. In fact, the moment they got to him Usopp planned on explaining what happened. He would even go with Sanji, to try and make it up to her! It would be fine.

But...

He had promised her he would protect her. To her face. His word as a man.

And he had run away.

Usopp dragged his feet for several steps before stopping entirely. It took the group a few moments to realize he had actually stopped, and they turned back to look at him.

Nami knew to take his promises with a grain of salt, but that really wasn't an excuse. There were times when Usopp felt no shame for backing down from a fight, no shame for failing. When it made tactical sense, and he knew it was the right decision. But sometimes, even when he could lie and pretend to have fought bravely, it just wasn't enough. There was the matter of his own pride, of being able to face the others as an equal amongst them. Like when he fought that fishman, so long ago, for instance.

He had staked his pride on being able to protect Nami from being taken. On top of that, he had made a promise to her. There was just too much weight dragging him down, his pride screaming at him to be a worthy nakama.

"Dammit," he muttered, and it didn't take much more than that one word for the others to catch onto what he was thinking.

"You think one of us should go find Nami," Robin said, matter-of-factly.

"We have to get the others," Chopper reminded him.

"And we need more salt, long-nose bro," Franky added, pulling out a small pouch. "But… here." He threw the bag to Usopp, who stared at it, dumbfounded.

He opened the bag. The salt was clumped… could make good pellets. Better, if he could form them properly, but he'd need his tools. Oh, well. "I'll go try and find her… make sure Sanji knows right away." So he can save me. "So he can come help." And save me. Or I'll probably die. "Of course, one of you could come back me up…"

He looked up at Robin and Franky hopefully, shocked to find they were already several yards away, waving back at him.

"Suuuper brave, long-nose bro!"

"We'll be sure to tell the others about your sacrifice."

"Hey, Robin, that's scary…" Chopper whined.

Usopp didn't feel particularly comforted by these parting words, either, but he tried to pick his jaw up off the ground and make the most of it. At the very least, he'd come across as heroic before getting his ass handed to him by a devil-fruit-wielding general. If he could even find the guy...