Broken Adventure: Arc 4: Heartless

by theaceoffire

A fragment of a powerful being is sent to combat and ambush a deadly monster hunting between Jumps... But while devouring it, the fraction of a Soul Consumed too much! Now infused with the raw concept of Darkness, how will the confused bits of Adam 'Adventure' Burns survive their new existence? Godlike, Heartless Shadow, Dimensional/Universe/Fictional/Reality Travel.

4. Chapter 4

Head chef and owner of Baratie, the famed former captain of the Cook Pirates, Red-Leg Zef, was certain. "This isn't Titanic Tuna."

His supplier blinked. "I'm sorry?"

He glared at the high quality fish. "This is a Blue-Finned Elephant Tuna."

Absurdly high quality and freshness too, even without considering that some crazy nutjob transported this monster of a fish all the way over here from the South Blue.

The two species looked damned similar, especially to those who hadn't visited the other seas and fished in those waters, but he was a Chef. One who had standards.

He had sailed many seas to find all the best ingredients, and he was a man who had cooked on all of the seas in the world. The difference was clear!

Fins were slightly off, spine angle a bit wrong, the light blue spot patterns were shifted, and tusks and trunk were just a little more developed than expected from a fish this age.

He ignored the confused stammering from his supplier, and turned to the many other containers. "Show me the shipment. All of it."

A few hours later, and it was confirmed: Most of this was incorrectly sourced. At least, officially.

Mussels and Clams from regions all over, fish that 'looked' correct, all of it from numerous places he had visited back when he didn't have so many brats to teach and still had both legs.

Shockingly, and to his hidden glee, several of these supply batches came from locations he COULDN'T IDENTIFY!

Waters he hadn't sailed, or hadn't managed to reach with his own power!

He turned with a fierce glare to the stuttering supply merchant. "These are not what I ordered."

The baffled man quickly spoke up! "No no no! I just have a new source, it must be their fault!" He stuttered to himself. "I k-knew they w-ere too ch-cheap, wh-what kind of of d-eals would…"

No, none of that. While not a forceful man, this supplier was an old friend and a good business partner. "The quality is higher than expected, and while I must mark them accurately for sale, the issue is not that I am unsatisfied with this shipment."

His glare pinned the shivering man. "I have underpaid."

A gulp. "I'm… What?"

A hand waved at the cargo. "Half these creatures are sourced from lands so far away that they would need special tanks and expensive supplements to keep the creatures alive for their journey. Even then, the freshness would not be this impressive, nor would they retain the unique properties that make them so valuable."

He pointed at one of the slightly glowing clams. "Those, for example, take three months each to detach from their growth cluster. If done improperly, the clams self-destruct and can damage the quality of all surrounding specimens."

Delicious creatures, yes, but normally only sold to the most extravagant of nobles or kings or queens or governments.

The man blinked. "Huh? But those were on sale. They had too much surplus and didn't want them to go bad. I was going to offer them for free as an apology, since my usual contacts couldn't supply up to our demand and we had to supplement our shipment from that new trade island."

Zeff's mind went blank.

Go bad?

He walked over to the nearest bushel, peg leg thumping heavily on the deck, and checked the clam.

Yes, it was a Sunset Clam. And it had been properly harvested, with skill beyond any he had seen in the past… His finely tuned culinary skills assured him that this would remain optimum for serving to clients for another two weeks.

Up to three months if properly stored like these were. Longer with special equipment.

And this was 'About to go bad'? They 'Had a surplus'?

The idea of quality ingredients like this 'going bad' so quickly was laughable in the first place.

Higher quality ingredients from the more deadly seas already tended to have unreasonable 'Best Eaten By' dates... It was why they were so sought after and valuable!

Even without careful care and treatment, a crew could handle shipment for distant lands to get a better payday, even if the risk of conflict would also increase, without expensive ship modifications!

To claim any of this was being sold at a discount due to surplus?

He glared at his friend. "Tell me about your new source."

As the tale unfolded and he continued to stomp around checking each of the 'supplementary goods' acquired from the 'Haunted Isles of Plenty', his expression didn't change.

But his thoughts certainly did.

Now that he was being far more cautious during his examinations, ALL these ingredients were 'almost' local.

MOST of them were not just high quality and absurdly fresh, the majority of them seemed to be grown in the wild, untouched by man or beast, and blessed by nature.

All at absurd levels of freshness, and with a distinct difference from normal plants and animals and funguses and so forth: Cleanliness.

No odd growths, no spots, no spects, no dirt particles… When he looked inside the sealed containers? No fingerprints or oils from skin contact, nothing!

Each and every item and creature was nearly supernaturally cleansed like a work of art sculpted from perfect materials after a lifetime of effort.

Lacking rot and parasites and so forth was a basic necessity, something that was expected and needed when one ran a quality restaurant like the Baratie. Otherwise, he wouldn't be willing to serve such dishes to customers!

But even at their most pretentious of moments they had never required food untouched by tool or person, cleansed to holy levels, and hermetically sealed within shipping containers.

He had heard of such tales of course.

Monks who would tend to special herbs and plants with tools over several people long in length, to ensure their food was 'untainted' by the flaws of mortals.

Robotic farms that attempted to have no 'unclean' people or things come in contact with any step of the growth process.

But this?

He scowled as he looked at the man. "Can this new island's suppliers provide other goods of this quality?"

The man blinked. "Uh… Yes? Honestly, I was a bit surprised they weren't running low by the time I got in contact with them myself! I wasn't the first to make a big order at the last moment, after all. But they somehow were ready to deliver my requirements as soon as my ship could dock, so I was willing to give them a shot."

Hmm. "I'm sending a chef, bring him there and have him establish an ongoing contract."

His thoughts flickered towards his protégé, but that little eggplant Sanji was still too young for something this important. Needed time to properly sprout! He was a hundred years too young to even consider advancing his lessons!

That brat needed to learn how to properly handle ingredients first before anything! Heh!

His friend blinked. "Uh… Alright? I mean, I'm willing to get stuff set up for you like normal, Captain Zeff. You don't need to have your people go out of their way for this."

He nodded with determination. "Yes, but I need experienced crew present when establishing this connection. I require no further confusion about the source of any incoming ingredients, and the contract will state as such. My subordinate will ensure that our restaurant does not misrepresent the food to our customers… As well that we pay proper compensation."

He was a man of principles. Getting good deals for quality ingredients was one thing, paying nothing for treasures?

At best, he would be taking advantage of people who did not know what they were offering for sale. His pride refused to even consider that.

At WORST he would be 'taking advantage' of someone with impossible resources. A group with unknown ability or contacts, a force that may cause problems.

Crossing a person like that for no reason was foolish.

Not when he could easily pay for high quality goods like this… Hell, he would even pay a premium if they maintained this level of freshness and quantity! Any proper chef would!

And friend or not, no merchant would understand the value of these ingredients like his chefs would.

So he would send a professional chef in his place to lock down this source as a contracted member of Baratie's supply chain.

Well, compared to a normal cook he would be a professional chef. Not yet up to his standards of course! All these brats were far too young to even reach his apron when it came to true cuisine!

Meh, at least his representative would make sure no random moron or over confident rich asshole got in the way of high quality supplies and his cooking. Have to be one of the older and experienced crew members sent too, some of these ingredients were very similar to each other even under his eyes.

He scowled at the cargo shipment. "My idiots will unload this mess, you sit and have supper before you go. All of you, in fact! Too thin, the lot of you!"

Ignoring the people who were half protesting their chance at eating Baratie's food and half drooling, he moved back to his floating ship kingdom. Opportunity or not, his place was here, in the kitchen.

As for the most recent shipment, he wouldn't be able to sell the food he couldn't accurately identify, not to the public. His standards were higher than that… Looking similar or near identical was not acceptable when it came to his level of quality.

The trust between cook and customer was sacred, and he wouldn't lie to them about what he was serving.

But what it DID mean was his crew would be eating GOOD these next few days! Unknown source or not, he could feel the quality of these ingredients and would make them S̹̞̞͞h̭̭͔̝̹̟͓in̤͍̬͉e̩̮̺͕͇͠!

.

Heh, it was almost enough to make him smile!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Usopp shivered, having finally escaped that stupid barrel of preserved but cold fish.

That… That had been more dangerous than he had expected.

Apparently, picking the most 'discrete' and 'avoid-anyone-noticing-me-ish' ship possible had unexpected consequences: Even on a major trading route, it had been targeted by pirates.

By four separate pirate crews.

It had been raided four times. Most of the other cargo taken, no deaths, but still… Scary stuff.

Theoretically, Usopp SHOULD be considering himself lucky and blessed as his barrel hadn't been taken like all the other crates and trunks and barrels and packages.

Except, inside a barrel or not, covered in fish or not, he could still HEAR while in the barrel.

And hearing four separate crews of blood thirsty, hard core, cut throat pirates FREAK THE FUCK OUT when they saw WHERE the barrel was being shipped!?

That had NOT calmed Usopp at ALL!

Two of the crews just instantly abandoned their heist and fled! One even left his weapons behind!

But… But he was here now.

Miserable, a bit lost, but somehow having crossed literal seas to make sure to save the day.

He tried not to sniffle as he wrapped his worn clothing tighter. Right, next… Next he just had to go to the most scary place on the terrifyingly horrifying island: The Haunted Shop.

Though… It seemed like there was more than one of them? Had there always been?

His inner thoughts were disrupted by a large shiphand. "Hey kid, you alright?"

He froze, spine shivering. "Ah… Ah… Of course!"

Years of practice came to the fore. "In fact, I am currently in disguise hunting down a deadly monster, and waiting for my legions of minions to gather the scent of the trail so I may go onwards to glorious battle!"

The man didn't even blink as he glanced at the tiny child's worn out, salt coated clothing and his unhealthy shade. "You hungry?"

His stomach didn't actually growl, but his expression gave it away anyway. "N… No?"

The muscled man nodded. "Come on, I know a place. Get you a meal, some spare clothing, a bed if you need it."

Huh? "What?"

Unknowingly, Usopp followed the massive man as they walked down the newly constructed streets. The big guy's walk was confident, but with short strides so the boy could keep up. "Yeah, part of the reason I moved my family here. The Marine woman that runs this island has a big thing about caring for kids, and makes sure they are all taken care of no matter what."

Usopp's heart clenched as he remembered the harsh Marine 'heros' that had bruised around his home town, casting fear over his island. "Marine?"

The guy snorted. "Yeah, but don't let that fool ya, she's quality. Some hero, retired to take care of some orphans the other Marines couldn't care shit about. Guys off duty call her the Ghost Princess of the Haunted Isle, if you heard of her."

WHAT!? "GHOST!? She's a spirit!? Or a zombie!?" Oh no! "Or a zombie spirit!?"

He chuckled. "Not really, the guys just love the whole 'haunted' theme going on and apply it to everywhere and everything now. Anyway, she cares about kids. Any kid that needs anything can get it from her place, no questions asked… A warm meal, clothing, a place to stay."

The man had a grim look that hurt Usopp's heart. "If I go off to sea and don't come back, knowing my little girl would be taken care of? Well, it was worth moving here."

Usopp blinked. "Oh."

He hummed. "Yeah, let's get you fed and into something that ain't rags, and maybe you can tell me why you've been hiding in my ship's cargo hold for these last few weeks."

Well, that certainly sounded like a good… Wait. "Huh?"

The man laughed! "Name's Captain William Kidd, young scallywag! Boy's just call me Kidd when not at sea, 'cause I'm rarely serious. And you think you can out sneak me?"

He chuckled. "Why do you THINK you kept finding 'leftovers' and 'spare water rations' down there? When you are a captain, you need to notice when your cargo starts shivering and snoring and stuff! Though I admit, I nearly freaked out when we got boarded by that new pirate crew… They weren't the ones I expected in that area. If they hadn't backed off, I would have had to burn some favors after murdering the lot."

WHAT!? "EEEHHH!?"

The captain blinked. "Oh, never mind… Say kid, you got any family?"

Memories of a lonely grave that only he tended flickered through his mind. "Uh… Yeah. A huge family! Thousands of them!"

The man's look was disturbingly perceptive. "Is that family living with you, or are they on the seas?"

Usopp was a brave warrior of the sea. One who didn't cry, and was a brave boy and strong. "He'll come back."

The man nodded. "He may. I know that I always keep an eye out for my old man to come home, even forty years later." Seeing the boy's shock, he gave a commiserating smile. "Let's just say I recognize a younger version of myself, alright?"

Usopp felt a burning in his heart. "But he WILL come back! He's a brave warrior of the sea, and I'm going to be just like him!" Someday! He just knew it!

A calm nod. "You here for the Haunted Shop?"

He felt a shiver brush down his spine. "HOW DID YOU KNOW!?" Oh wait! "Have you been watching me!? I should warn you, I've got trillions of spies that hide in every shadow, and all of them know kung fu and can throw really big rocks like… Super far!"

The man chuckled at his wild expression. "Nothing so complicated. Half the people traveling to this town have a question for the spirits." Somehow, he looked older. "If I was a braver man, I would ask my own."

Usopp blinked. "Huh?"

They walked through bustling streets. "I was able to force myself to ask about my boy… Still alive! Heh!" Then the cheer left. "But I still haven't asked about dad. But I'm sure… He's also a brave warrior of the sea, by now. Somewhere."

For a moment, the idea of just.. KNOWING, knowing for a fact, that his dad was still out with that pirate crew, fighting for freedom and adventure and exploration… Maybe one day coming home… Not having to believe, but having cold hard FACTS!?

It was deadly tempting!

…It was also the scariest thing he had ever heard of.

Right now, he didn't have money, or hugs, or mom, or much at all… But he had hope.

It was the most treasured possession he still owned.

Not to mention… His mind flickered to that room in the lonely mansion, and the sick girl within. "Can… Can you take me to the…" Gulp. "The Haunted Shop?"

A hum. "After you get some food, a bath, new clothing. Even if it wasn't free, I got plenty of funds from this most recent trip."

Seeing the incredulous look Usopp gave him, the captain chuckled. "I may get raided on every voyage, but all the pirates on my route know that. They just assume ol' Captain Kidd has so little cargo because other crews boarded me before them… None have found the hidden cargo holds, and I'm too reliable a target to allow other pirates to finish me off."

He grinned. "Sometimes, being a weak victim can actually be the strongest protection you can imagine! It's not all about being the biggest or most powerful, but about using something better, you know? Cleverness and mind power can defeat impossible odds!"

The guy laughed! "After all, look at me! I'm the greatest merchant of the seven seas! I have billions of clients and they all are begging me to accept their gold so they don't lose it! Women love me, men love me, even the damned fish love me! BAW HA HA!"

Usopp blinked in stunned silence at the outrageous muscle man laughing loudly in the street… And couldn't help but get a bit of a smile too.

Maybe they did have something in common. Just maybe.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Shadow winced.

Alright, his Host just discovered that she can instantly switch places with her 'shadow', which was fine. That was part of the plan, he had been working on that.

Except that all the Heartless Helpers apparently counted as her shadow. Sort of. Which he should have seen coming.

Shadow had intended this ability to be a replacement for the 'shift my body into raw Darkness' skill that Logia's had by default… But he had messed up somewhere. Apparently.

The basic version of the skill was, in Adam's opinion, weak.

Originally when you get hit, your body would automatically shift into another form of existence that dissociates you with the experience.

This would instantly negate most forms of harm that were possible, but in the process it would build a conceptual connection between the two forms as well, so the stuff your new body was made from would look right and move right and stuff.

Sounded good on paper, but there were a few big flaws!

First, sometimes the material you were the Avatar of would react poorly with normal stuff, and cause a backlash.

For example, water or moisture could negate the Avatar of the Sand Sand Fruit, apparently… And even more vague memories implied that one guy who turned into jello or slime or something could be defeated by having flour sprinkled over him? Something like that.

Some of those memories were only bits of data stolen from the [[Dark Visions]] ability, but the point was: Shifting into stuff had unexpected and sometimes unpredictable risks.

Plus, get exposed to a powerful Soul, like a fighter with powerful Willpower or something that resonated with the Sea and her sexyness?

Bam! Instantly shifted back to being a mortal punching bag!

So uh. No.

No to all that.

Shadow's idea was more simple!

Let his Host automatically swap with her shadow when (almost) damaged! Well, not to him specifically, and originally not to one of her Heartless, but to her actual shade.

Since her shadow was just the absence of Light, it couldn't care less if it was stabbed or burned or whatever… And with her body becoming two dimensional and projected on surrounding surfaces?

Without her having to be concerned whether or not those surfaces were damaged?

Boom! Upgraded skill!

And Shadow earns bonus points for being awesome!

But uh… He hadn't taken the [[Heartless Helpers]] ability into account.

So now, when she nearly got injured, she became ALL her Heartless.

At the same time.

And they ALL became her former body.

Which um… Caused her to sort of be in all those positions at the same time? And allowed her to retroactively choose which one she was at any point?

It also left her former position filled with a massive Heartless boss monster crafted with the power of 108 enthusiastic helpers. So… Surprise?

Gem was giggling like a loon, which wasn't helpful.

From what he could tell, somehow a bit of how Shadow 'was in all Darkness at all times' sort of bled over into the Yami Yami no Mi fruit and merged with Bell-mère as the new Host…

Crud.

She couldn't actually use all her new positions to attack or anything, as she didn't exist until she became one… But once she DID pick which person she was, the OTHER ones would suddenly be replaced with the reconstituted squads of Heartless again.

Therefore?

During combat, at any point?

Bell-mère could just vanish and get replaced by a monster the size of a building.

A powerful monster of Darkness that can only get destroyed by a keyblade or magic or a LOT of conceptual or will based power.

Not that destroying it would hurt her in any way.

While her giant monster was fighting, she would exist in 108 places. At the same time. Able to observe and listen and communicate.

If they destroyed her giant monster (Somehow), she could either stay multipositional and basically be immortal or pick another of her 'Heartless but currently not' selves close to the battle… And swap herself out again in a flicker.

Which would instantly respawn her giant monster for a fresh fight.

Mind you, none of this restricted her or her heartless from using OTHER skills while this was going on. She could Twist and view [[Dark Visions]] and stuff, at any point, as long as her giant Heartless Helper didn't attempt to use that skill at the same moment.

So this was all a little bit powerful.

And yes, while that was concerning? On a physical level this wasn't too big an issue.

The ability to spawn endless clones of a giant beat-stick wasn't THAT problematic, in the end. Compressing that much Darkness into a single Heartless this way would only make a single creature that was 108 times as powerful as the base unit, probably.

If that was the end of it, Shadow wouldn't care too much and would have gotten back to work already on the next ability he was trying to enhance.

Yet, what about when her Heartless eventually managed to work with magic?

Shoving 108 magic users into one creature wasn't an additive effect.

It was exponential.

Three magic Heartless shoved together had the power of 2^3 normal magic using Heartless, give or take.

So uh… When you shoved 108 spell casters into one body?

That was a big multiplier, 2^108. A VERY big number.

Any random spell would be over 324,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times as powerful. That was like 12 million times the number of water drops in the sea.

So. Uh.

Instead of letting his host accidentally collapse her entire planet by casting [[Gravity]] at some poor schmuck, let's add in some artificial limits. Shall we?

Yeah, probably a good idea.

Plus, maybe hook it into [[Dark Visions]] so she would have an innate understanding of the power and range and effect of every casting, so she wouldn't accidentally incinerate a town when trying to light a candle.

Right! Got a game plan, a temporary fix, AND a long term solution! Everything is coming together!

Shadow was doing an AWESOME job at this!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère looked at herself at herself at herself at herself.

They all looked at the confused girls on the deck.

Then the entire crowd turned look at the Sea Beast that had just threatened their ship, some giant sea-dwelling mammal that looked like a massive cow with flippers and green patterns instead of black or brown splotches.

The giant sea cow was ignoring the massive crowd of staring people, frozen mid roar, as it looked up at where Bell-mère had formerly been.

And up.

And up.

At the towering black figure with a massive heart shaped hole torn from its torso. With glowing purple eyes and massive limbs. Each claw was longer than her mast, and looked beyond deadly.

The entity should have sunk the ship.

It should have crushed most of the area, in fact.

Instead, it just loomed looking down at the horrified and fear frozen bovine that was caught mid intimidation.

Nami broke the silence. "Mom, your shadow guy got big."

All of Bell-mère nodded. Her helpers had indeed become big. "Is that still you, First Mate?"

The towering figure glanced at her crowd and gave a solemn and slow nod.

But her senses felt something more? "Are the rest of you in there too?"

Another nod.

Nojiko was just old enough to freak out about all this, so she was temporarily not involved with the situation. Nami on the other hand looked thoughtful. "I… I want a piggyback ride."

All her family turned to her, and considering how many moms were in the area it was noticeable.

Nami pointed. "I'd be really tall up there."

Which… Was true.

The sea cow 'mooed' a whimper which, unfortunately for it, caused everyone to shift focus back to the 'threat' that had just tried to attack the ship.

Nami blinked. "Mr. Cow? Are you going to attack us now?"

Frantic head shaking implied no.

The little girl lit up! "Then can I pet you!?"

A pause… And the massive figure on the boat L҉̟o͉̹̫̖̤̖o̲m̰̪̻͓̟̻͡e̢̲d̹ O͏͚̫̝̫̥̳̯̘̖͢͡v̶̢̨̱͓̪̮͔̻̯͇̕͟ę̙̯͙̖͟͡r̛̹̮̬͕̼̤̩͍̠̲̞̱͕̪͉͍̮͟...

.

The monster nodded 'yes' with CONVICTION!

Nami squealed! "You're going to be my favorite boat cow! I'm gonna call you Momoo!"

Bell-mère nodded. All of them. """"Well, problem solved!"""" They paused. """"Now you girls have fun while mommy tries to undo whatever it was that she just did, alright?""""

Nojiko was still out of it, but Nami was off to pet the boat cow! "Alright mom!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

A clean, well fed, and newly clothed Usopp stood next to the Captain as they both stared at the shop.

It was empty, with no sign.

There were no odd smells, or sounds, or feelings.

No smoke or music, no unseen shapes, no horrendous atmosphere.

But everyone who walked passed this building would nod at it.

Acknowledge it existed.

Usopp could feel the respect from here.

…It was intimidating. "Is… Is this it?"

Captain Kidd grunted. "Yeah. A few places tried to fake it once, put up a big sign saying 'Haunted Shop' and stuff, but… Well, they're gone. And no one does that anymore."

He waved at the building. "Easiest way to know it is the real deal? Look at the floor in there."

Usopp blinked. Huh?

The room inside was easily visible from here, as the door was missing.

An unattended counter, empty shelves, an unused but surprisingly clean room.

Seeing the boy's confusion, the muscled man chuckled. "What do you see?"

Usopp had no idea where this was going. "Not much? A counter?"

He nodded. "And how are you seeing it?"

Huh?

Usopp blinked as he glanced back at the room…

The unlit room.

The unlit room without any light sources.

That he could easily see within, despite it being fairly late in the afternoon. "EEEEH!?"

Captain Kidd laughed! "Caught me off guard too! Heck of a thing, ain't it?"

Usopp felt his hair stand on end! "How!? How does that work!?" It should be pitch black in there!

His companion shrugged. "Crazy stuff happens on the seas, even away from the Grand Line on occasion. You know you are at one of the Haunted Shops when you can see what shouldn't be possible to see from outside."

Holy crap!

Still… He gulped, but forced himself to focus. "What… What do I have to do?" Sacrifice a goat? Worship a dark god? Sing naked about magic!? Usopp might be the best singer of all time, but he had his dignity damn it!

The man hummed. "Walk in, write what you want to know or what you need on the parchment inside. There is a pen over there, and a quill that doesn't have ink but doesn't seem to need it."

Huh? "Then what?"

A shrug. "Then we find somewhere to have dinner and wait. At midnight, you will get a response. Either an answer, clue, or hint; The option to directly acquire what you wished for; Or a refusal to cooperate. If the Haunted Shop agrees to work with you, there will be a price and instructions."

Usopp blinked at how crazy that sounded. "How… How much will it cost?"

And how would he earn it?

The guy sighed. "Not sure. Some rich people had to pay lots or little or nothing, some poor people got alternative payment options or accepted employment on the island in return… A few people actually went back to the Haunted Shop and negotiated using a new request. Wouldn't suggest that, especially if your reason is 'I don't want to pay' or similar."

Seeing the boy's worries, he chuckled. "Meh, don't give up just yet! You haven't even started your journey, you can't allow something that hasn't even happened yet to make you falter!" He gently pushed him forward. "Go on, boy. Do what you came to do."

The child gulped… But there was a girl who needed him to do this. She needed him to be a brave warrior of the sea.

He stepped into the shop.

And after a few moments, walked right back out. "Uh…"

The Captain had a wry smirk. "Can't write yet?"

Usopp blushed and blustered! "What!? No, of course I can! I've written entire novels about my many adventures, and billions of my fans have begged me for my autograph!"

He nodded. "Would you like me to help?"

Oh thank goodness! "If you must, just to ensure other people have a chance to practice that spelling stuff too."

Who knew a mighty warrior of the sea would have to know how to write all kinds of big words and stuff!? That had been boring, not super awesome pirate adventure fuel!

But for Kaya, he had to do what needs to be done! "Okay, I'll just… Suggest stuff for you to write maybe? For practice?"

Captain Kidd chuckled as he moved towards the counter and the blank parchment. "Thanks boy, I have a heck of a time coming up with where to start when I am 'practicing spelling stuff.'"

Him too! What were the chances!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Nami was the ship cow spokeswoman. "So this is Momoo. Say hi Momoo!"

"Moo."

She smiled at the stunned orphans. "Momoo says hi!"

Nojiko was… Well, she was still hesitant about the massive ship sized cow and mom suddenly mutating into massive giant monsters and a small cluster of ghosts, but whatever.

She was dealing with it.

It was just frustrating that Nami hadn't even paused before accepting everything.

Right, back on topic. "We are putting together a crew."

Some of their friends lit up while others went thoughtful. "Can we be pirates!?" "No." "Not bad pirates, but like ones that want to find One Piece! Like Gold D. Rodger said!" "Most pirates are just jerks though." "Not us!" "Meh, I want to be a Marine captain like their mom!" "But some Marines are jerks too…" "Can we be bounty hunters?" "Yeah, they stop pirates too but they get paid!"

Uh. Hang on, there was some suspicious stuff in the middle of all that! "Mom says we would be 'trainees', so technically we won't be any of those things."

Nami grinned from on top of Momoo. "Yeah, we are going to be trannys!"

In the distance, mom winced for some reason. "No, the word is 'Trainees'. 'Train', 'Ease'."

Nami nodded. "Yeah, that! And we get to sail and make maps with our new pet ship cow, Momoo!"

Sigh. At least Nami has been getting much better with her pronunciation lately. "Right, so I'm going to be sort of like the captain unless mom says something dangerous is happening, and the caretakers of the orphanage will be coming along to help us with snacks and nap time and stuff, but we are planning on GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!"

A loud cheer! "Like on the water!?" "But not too far, it can be scary out there." "I'm going to hunt pirates!" "I'm going to BE a pirate!" "Can I be a pirate that hunts pirates?" "Isn't that a bounty hunter?" "No, I want to hunt those too." "I think you'd just be called a 'Hunter' then or something." "I want to be a ship cow!" "You'd have to eat a LOT of sandwiches to get that big." "Oh!? I want to eat sandwiches too!" "Yeah! Can we all be sea cows!?"

Sigh.

Nojiko whistled loudly which… Sort of settled them down? "Everyone get your travel toys and a blanket! In a few minutes I'm leading us back to 'The Highwind', and I don't want anyone leaving something important behind!"

And they all scattered into a massive mess. "But I need my picture book!" "I got most of my crayons." "This isn't my lucky scarf… Maybe I can wear three half lucky scarves instead?" "Has ANYONE seen my hat!?" "Can I take a nap before we take our nap?" "I'm going to be a pirate!" "Hey! Those are my shoes!" "Oh, then where are mine?" "Aren't you wearing them?" "I don't have enough mittens! What if we need more mittens!?"

Uh.

Yeah! Things were going great! "Everyone move it! Double time!" That's what mom say's, right? Oh! "I'm almost ready mom! We can go in a bit!"

For some reason the nice caretakers were chuckling and patting mom's back. Maybe she needed a back rub? She could do that!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère tried not to face palm at the raw madness she had unleashed. "I thought this would be a fun, cute thing. Not unmitigated chaos and frenzied confusion."

The older widow chuckled. "Now you know a bit more about motherhood, dearie. When my boy was… Well, before I was free to work here, my kids used to transform into even more of a headache when they would join with their little friends."

She didn't say anything about the slip. Most of the volunteer orphanage workers had a background like this… They came to the 'Haunted Isle of Plenty', found they had nothing left… And decided to stay and watch over the children left behind.

In a way, having the husbands and wives and parents of passed people taking care of these children with no living family gave them closure.

If nothing else, the community of the island grew strong as those left and those who had lost took care of each other.

That said, this was pure insanity. "I might need a bigger boat."

The others around her snorted. "You need a bigger island." "I say a bigger East Blue!" "Nah, they aren't as bad as YOU were, old bastard." "Wasn't ME that raised cain back in the day, you old jerk!" "Shutup both of you, you were BOTH miserable brats when we were young." "Sorry Kelly." "She's in a good mood today." "Yeah, didn't hit us or nothing this time." "Probably cause she got that finger painting from that shy boy earlier." "Yeah, little Jacob got some talent don't he?"

She held in a chuckle of her own.

Apparently, growing up didn't always mean maturing… These old sea folk were just as rascally as these tiny ones, just covered it all up with layers of 'refinement' and age. "I'll need at least three helpers to make sure none of them go unsupervised, but… Well, you know about my 'little helpers'?"

They all shivered.

Apparently, to adults or people without powerful willpower, her 'Heartless Helpers' felt like ghosts or spirits or something. People would normally forget they existed unless mentioned or focused on, and…

Well, it was fairly useful for her various businesses and jobs and stuff. Invisible helpers were handy, after all.

Fairly soon afterwards (But an hour later than planned), the 'Highwind' was crewed by tiny people in adorable tiny Marine outfits (But not REALLY Marine uniforms, because those people have no sense of humor) and several overwhelmed adults.

Right, to adventure!

Oh, wait. "Anyone need a bathroom break before we leave?"

A pause… And then a crowd of little ones scattered off the ship.

Sigh.

First: To bathroom. THEN, TO ADVENTURE!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Usopp didn't look at the captain.

The man hummed. "Helping a sick girl, huh?"

He had done it. That's all that mattered.

Captain Kidd pulled out a massive cigar, but didn't light it as he bit down on it. "You're a good kid, brat."

Humph! "That's 'Captain Usoland'! The most powerful warrior of the sea! My crew has over one bill…"

He laughed! "You want to be a captain too, eh? Well, I think you might just have the heart for it."

Usopp felt his chest clench. "Huh?"

Warm eyes looked down at the boy. "Hey brat… Let this old fool give you a bit of advice, yeah? From one 'greatest Captain ever' to a future rival, eh?"

Usopp was still caught off guard by someone actually believing in his dreams. "Uh… Sure?"

The man chuckled. "Men like me, young men like you, we are not monsters."

Uh. What?

He grinned! "There are people out there that can split the sea by spitting, or tear down clouds to use as a pillow to take a nap! They can rip up mountains and destroy armadas of ships by accident if they fart wrong!"

Usopp blinked. What?

Captain Kidd grinned. "We aren't like that. And, from what I can feel, from what I recognize in you… You will also never be like that. We are not monsters, and we will not become monsters."

Something hurt inside.

Was… Was he saying he wouldn't be able to…?

The muscled man chuckled. "If I could give you any advice, if I could go back to my younger, slightly more foolish days… I'd tell myself two things. First: You will never be the strongest. You will never be the most powerful, the fastest, the wall that never breaks. We aren't gifted like that."

Why. Why did this hurt so much?

His smile was understanding. "Yeah, sucks don't it? Oh, we can get powerful. Right now I could demolish any random pirate crew or corrupt Marine ship by myself, no problem! But that ain't even on the scale when it comes to the monsters of the seas."

It hurt.

Captain Kidd gripped his shoulder. "The second thing I wish I could have told myself back then… Was that, despite never being the best or reaching the top of the mountain? It's still possible to beat them all!"

Huh?

His grin was a bit manic! "Those muscle headed fools out there are in every crew, on every team, in all waters! You will find an endless army of brutes that mindlessly flex their way roughly where they want to go… But people like you and I, we are something else."

A powerful but crafty man grinned at his younger image, way back when. "We are adaptable."

Usopp blinked.

They were walking somewhere as he kept talking. "People say, 'Don't be a jack of all trades!' They warn that we will never master anything if we spread ourselves too thin… And to be fair, they are right!"

Usopp felt the world shift as words kept flowing. "We are both crafty. Every new gadget, new skill, new tool, new thought? They don't make us all powerful. They make us all encompassing."

It felt like possibilities. Like the future. "When our friends are hitting a wall, we carve the tunnel through it. When they are trapped on the ledge, our bridge brings them home! When our foe has an inescapable and unstoppable plan, we are the ones who can alter it, adjust the probability…"

He grinned! "Lies, traps, deception, gags, disguises, crafting! My boy, you and I? We are the multitools of these oceans! When you need a mechanic, sometimes having someone who is 'good enough' is a billion times better than having a master machinist who can't do emergency medical care or trick a patrol boat!"

Usopp felt something burn inside. But not painfully this time. "So I can still be a… A brave warrior of the sea?"

A massive laugh! "Boy, there AIN'T no one braver than us! Any fool with skin of steel can run into knives without flinching, any man or woman swinging a boat for a club can fight an army! But when we mortal people use clever tricks and plans to conquer the Gods themselves!?"

The two walked into the evening, talking about a future with billions of followers and the greatest captain ever, leading his endless warriors into battle… even if that battle might not be conventional.

Even if the followers were odd, or the equipment unusual, or the battlefield altered and trapped and twisted.

Sometimes just recognizing the path you were already walking could be a momentous occasion.

Still, despite the warm food and boisterous atmosphere and laughter and conspiratorial talk between the mad Captain and the young boy… In the back of his mind he watched the time slip closer to midnight.

Just… Just wait a bit longer Kaya.

This time, perhaps for the first time ever, Captain Usoland was on the job!

And… And he would make this all work out.

Somehow.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Shadow was no longer allowed to play with the abilities of the Soul Fruit.

He was sort of grounded. A little.

Gem got a bit frustrated after he almost gave his Host the ability to create actual 'black holes', even if they weren't really black holes because most black holes were actually quite bright as matter was torn apart on the atomic level as mass was rent and twisted into the… Uh.

Maybe that was a bit off topic.

And it really shouldn't count anyway, because it was more a cross between opening a Corridor of Darkness, a dimensional tear, and a reality gate mixed with raw power and converting gravity into fuel and… Sigh.

Anyway, Gem said no, so Shadow was grounded.

And she might have a point, his Host hadn't even fully used the many abilities she ALREADY had to their full potential.

It was just… The 'Darkness Darkness' fruit was SO OLD!

There were TONS of past users! And so many of them did such odd things with it!

The more odd ones were fun too… Like the kid who insisted on using the darkness inside his body for storage and transportation.

'Hey everyone, hide in my lungs!'

And that was if you were lucky! Otherwise, you had to hope for the throat or stomach… Or you might end up lower and… Eww.

It was a big bundle of possibilities and past uses and tricks and stuff, and Shadow just wanted to keep on poking it to see what fell off the pile!

But no.

Grounded.

Meh, he had stuff to keep him busy anyway.

Gem kept feeling something like a half sibling Soul Fruit out there, somewhere, and was trying to open up communications, but Shadow himself was fiddling with these 'Willpower' abilities that were possible in this place.

You didn't NEED to have a Soul Fruit to access this stuff, just some mental tricks and a whole LOT of physical activity and effort. Something about the Hearts here allowed the people to imbue Soul energy into their body with enough passion/effort/determination/Willpower, and the effects were varied and many.

The less strange abilities, if the [[Dark Visions]] were accurate, belonged to some secret agents currently working for the World Government.

Something called 'Rokushiki', or 'The Six Powers'.

Which was bullshit, because once you LEARNED all six powers, you could actually use a seventh one called 'Rokuogan', or if you wanted to be posh? The 'Six Styles Secret Skill: Six King Gun'.

Which was an awesome name, Shadow admitted, but boiled down to a one inch punch kind of attack that projected all the power of the attacker like a projectile blast.

The thing could cause immense damage even if it also was one of those 'All or nothing' attacks that should only be finishers or a 'last stand' option, and sort of destroyed the whole point of calling the abilities the 'Six Styles Secret Skills', but whatever.

The OTHER abilities were more interesting and useful anyway.

Each allowed one person to use their Soul reinforced body motion to enhance some action or benefit for the martial artist: Soru for speed, Rankyaku for kicking strength, Shigan for arm strength, Geppo for jumping agility, Kami-e for flexibility, and Tekkai for endurance and durability.

Soru, or 'Shave', was trained by learning how to 'Kick ten times off the ground at the blink of an eye', which was basically only possible by convincing your Soul (And Reality) that you had DONE so. Most of the abilities worked that way, but using internal power to rewrite physics on some small level…

Anyway, by having ten times the force with any movement, you were able to drastically move faster. And because it was all 'just kicks', somehow your reflexes and ability to perceive your circumstances would just… Keep up. Which was useful!

Rankyaku, also called 'Tempest Kick', allows your limbs to move so quickly that the air itself compresses and manages to self sharpen into a deadly projectile. While it could be used with any body part (ALL of it was impossible Soul bullshit, after all), legs were traditional since they had better reach and made larger sharp gusts of wind.

Shigan… Felt stupid. But Shadow was trying not to judge it, even as he documented the stupid thing. This 'Finger Pistol' skill… Sigh.

Anyway, it was a half-useful trick to sort of learn another ability that Shadow hadn't touched yet, Haki, or using Soul power or Willpower to achieve supernatural effects. Just… Weaker.

The Shigan was able to half harden your body, half affect other reinforced people or targets, and sort of sometimes affect 'special targets' like Logia users or people with odd bodies, like paint or brick or whatever from a special species background or Devil Fruit...

So that you can poke someone.

But not always.

And it was super hard to learn, and most of the time during training you would focus on only ONE finger to try and get better at this at a faster rate... And if you failed, spraining your finger was the BEST case scenario!

You know, if you didn't accidentally blow up your entire hand or something.

So stupid.

Still, for people who hadn't even heard of the Haki abilities? It was a trick that was fairly easy to train for a lot of World Government idiots… Cough, for their secret agents and elite fighters... To poke people.

At least training it massively strengthened your arms? Helped with sword fighting and melee and stuff? Just… Don't use the actual attack the ability is named for. Sigh.

Moving on.

Geppo was freaking sweet! Called 'Moonwalk' (Awesome!), it worked great with Tempest Kick and Shave because it was also all about focusing on your legwork.

Forget kicking the ground a bunch, learn how to give reality the middle finger and kick the AIR!

That's right, straight up flight! By kicking the god damned air!

Hell yeah! That was a gazillion times better than poking people to death!

You could combine it with the other leg skills too, to be a lightning fast flying superhero who could kick bad guys into slices through sheer awesomeness and WIND power!

In fact, Shadow was pretty sure half the other leg skills were 'learned' by people trying and FAILING to learn this one. Who wouldn't want to be able to fly?

Especially when this was a skill 'learnable' by anyone, including Devil Fruit users who would pretty much stop struggling and drown if they fell into the ocean.

And, not to stress this point too much, if you learned this skill: Bam. Flying.

Like, it still required effort and stuff to pull off… But with your Soul enhancing your body?

All you gotta do is practice.

As your reinforced form learns to better ignore reality, it would eventually require no focus or effort to just walk through the sky with this ability, if pushed to the extreme. Crazy stuff.

Oh, right, and the last abilities, Kami-e and Tekkai. 'Paper Art' and 'Iron Body' were different philosophies about enhancing personal defense.

Kami-e would allow you to become super flexible at first… Then with enough training, Paper Art would literally allow you to be impossibly flexible.

As in, your flesh and bones could flip flop in the breeze, allowing the actual force of your foes' attacks to cause you to drift out of the way without being injured. At the highest levels? You could theoretically NOT move at all, and be so carefree and paper-like that your opponent misses from trying to aim where you SHOULD have been instead.

On the other hand, Tekkai or Iron Body goes the other direction.

Tighten everything you are, and laugh in the face of damage!

Bullets? Blades? Sharp noses? Laugh in the face of danger!

…Uh. Right up until your limit is reached, at which point you instantly become a punching bag and die.

But any attack BELOW that level? Ignore it!

Both had good sides and bad sides, ups and downs. Paper Arts allows you to dodge strange or unexpectedly dangerous attacks or abilities, with nearly no effort or energy loss… But you also may be directed or manipulated to move in certain directions. Trapped, or tricked. It also didn't enhance your defense in any way.

Iron Body could be overwhelmed, and required effort to apply, and without lots of training? Activating it made you like a rock.

Powerful, unmoving… A target.

Good luck quickly dodging anything, and if you weren't actively using the ability you had no benefit either!

The whole set, as a group of six, were basically a toolbox of skills. One that, while training them to higher levels, ALSO enhanced your body with Soul and Willpower in the process.

Even if you didn't have a strong grasp of ANY of the abilities, just attempting to learn them would drastically improve your raw power and potential.

So fun stuff to play with, and to design better integration with his Host's existing skills, and all that… But there was another set of powers. Ones that could be trained and enhanced, that were fueled entirely by Spiritual Energy!

Haki! The power of Will!

It could do all sorts of neat stuff! Sense people's spiritual energy and predict their actions, from moments in the future to much further! Grant the user a protective coating of spiritual energy that could directly counter powerful foe's natural defenses and force Logia users to not transform into a cloud or something and ignore your attacks!

And, for an extreme few, overpower the willpower of others directly!

Don't bother to fight an army of wimps! Just one glare and they all literally fall unconscious! Save time, spare lives, and more easily steal tons of Snacks!

Sure, for normal people attempting to detect or train this skill was a bit tricky, but Shadow was on the job!

But… Uh. He had been playing with Haki a little bit and attempting to use it to enhance Soul fueled abilities linked with Darkness and maybe a little bit of dimensional shenaniganry when he made one teeny tiny mistake, so now…

Now he was grounded.

And stuck with lame Haki rip-offs like the Shigan. 'Ooh! Look out! I'mma gonna poke ya! With my Finger Pistol!'

Sigh.

At least he could do something about that. Refine the ability a bit, let his Host learn how to apply the arm reinforcement effect of Shigan to her whole damned fist instead of one stupid finger.

Sure, it wouldn't pierce everything… But she could punch a wall of needles without getting hurt and probably smash it. That should be more useful anyway! If you were strong enough to poke holes in people, it was JUST as lethal (If not more) to simply use that same empowered arm to rip their leg off!

But NO! Poke poke poke, see how cool our secret agents are!?

Shadow grumbled in his time out corner as Gem carefully reviewed his other projects for anything else that might accidentally destroy time and space.

Being grounded sucked.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

In the shadow-covered endless night of the Florian Triangle, Thriller Bark silently drifted.

The never ending fog and Darkness crept into the corners of this place, this island corpse from the West Blue that, like most of its residents, had been converted into something new.

A ship.

On this island corpse vessel, in the massive castle, the enormous form of the powerful 'former pirate' with a bounty of 320,000,000 Beri could sometimes be seen… When he wasn't sleeping away life trying to ignore his own nightmares.

A powerful man who had joined the Seven Warlords of the Sea, a pawn of the Marines and a tool of the World Government… Gecko Moria was like a god here, where Light was forbidden.

For he had consumed the Kage Kage no Mi, the Shadow Shadow Devil fruit.

He was a shadow man, surrounded by the shades of his foes and twisting them into comrades.

While those who had their own conceptual shadows stolen must hide here or elsewhere from the sun or be consumed by the Light and crushed into dust, the shades themselves were enslaved to his whims.

Bound to dolls and equipment and corpses, consumed by his own powerful and intelligent shadow, and yet all had to follow his many commands… This island of the dead had earned the name of 'Thriller Bark', and the 'Thriller Bark Pirates' ruled the Florian Triangle's sunless waters.

With an immortal army of disposable minions, with powerful shadows being forced into subservience and stuffed into incredibly enhanced dead meat puppets, he could easily crush most foes! No one could stand against him!

Yet he stayed here.

In the shadows.

What… What was the point?

These shades of endless combatants, even with new personalities and unwavering loyalty… They didn't fill his emptiness.

No matter what level of raw power he was able to gather, despite the massive army he accrued, none of it replaced his lost nakama. His family.

The Gecko Pirates were all gone now, except for him. All because of one fight, one poor decision, out in the New World, the most deadly of seas on the Grand Line.

His body was twisted now. Scarred and sewn up.

But… He had also gathered power.

With the help of a mad scientist, Dr. Hogback, with the assistance of his gathered subordinates and carefully collected Devil Fruits that empowered them… He had managed to accomplish grand things.

Wealth. Fame. Respect.

The World Government had to bow to his ability, and acknowledge him as one of the few 'Approved Pirates', or one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea that stood between the most powerful and the rest.

Oh, all the Marines still despised him… But what did he care about outsiders?

They were too weak to fight on their own, and he was strong enough to gain something like their 'approval', even if it was only acknowledgement that no one could stop him without a high cost.

Still, a gentleman's agreement that he wouldn't ravage the seas and a tact acceptance that he would come when called… And he was left alone to these waters. To his domain of power.

And at the core, that was what he felt here, surrounded by thousands of monsters and bodies and living objects and endless shades and numerous minions and subordinates: Alone.

He couldn't bear to accept any new family. New nakama.

So he didn't. Or tried not to. Sometimes a child like his dear adopted daughter Perona would sneak into his heart, despite his efforts to remain cold and unthinking… But such was rare.

Here, in the Darkness, the massive mountain of a man slumbered in his castle.

He was strong enough to not need to eat often, or move. His people were competent and he forced them to do nearly everything… And he was powerful enough to succeed anyway.

After having failed his family, his life view also shifted.

No longer did he believe he could ever be strong enough. Not alone.

Now, despite stealing so many shade slaves from his infuriated foes, he continually gathered numbers.

The ideal of 'relying upon others for one's own objective'! Something must be done? YOU do it! Kishishishi!

Instead, he spent his time here, in his castle, in these seas of power, in his domain. In Shadows.

And he dreamed of lost family.

His subordinates... They were famed, far and wide. Conquerors of the sea.

Why did Moria have to lose them all? His friends were lost precisely because they were still alive!

If they had all been zombies, dead from the start, he would have lost nothing! For zombies powered by shadows are invulnerable! Eternal warriors; even if they are purified by salt, a replacement can be found!

If only he had taken such measures back then.

If only he had been smarter. Stronger.

So today, like every day, like many past days… He dreamed in his castle in the Dark.

But unlike most days… This time, on this haunted island… Something was shifting.

Chains, forged of Shadow and twisted by sorrow and failure, began to loosen.

And on this island, in the Darkest of seas… Some of the eyes of the unliving multitude began to flicker with new color.

Standing on a ledge, looking off into dark waters, the corpse Shimotuski Ryuma watched the night.

His body, and most of his personality, was built from his history and legend as a Sword God. A powerful samurai from Wano Country, died long ago.

But tonight, as he stared into the dark, perhaps towards that persistent skeleton that endlessly attempted to retrieve his own shadow from Ryuma every few months or so, he felt something new.

A… Merging. Or a relaxation of limitations.

Perhaps memories.

His cold corpse fingers tapped the hilt of his blade. One brought from his own tomb, that had followed him through life… And now through death.

And he couldn't help but softly sing into the night. "Farewell to the harbor… To my old hometown…"

Old thoughts of his people, strange memories of lost strangers that someone had loved, shadows of memory and shades of thoughts. "...As we all set sail to the ends of the sea…"

He was alone, like he often was.

But if one looked closely, in the darkness of his eyes? There might be a flicker of pink Light.

Somehow, he was looking forward to his next battle, the future conflict, with that 'Humming Swordsman' cursed with the Revive-Revive fruit who refused to concede this endless struggle.

Until then, he would wait here on this island like always.

A dead man softly sang to the Darkness. "...Yo-hohoho…"

It wasn't the worst way to pass eternity.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère groaned as she fell into her bed that night.

The mini Marinie plan was to undergo review. Or be paused for a few years entirely.

How. Exhausting.

First of all, even with seven adult assistants, a literal army of Heartless Helpers, AND her ability to Twist reality? Pure chaos.

How so small children could extrude such raw madness and energy was unimaginable.

Also, at some point (She wasn't sure when) the group had splintered.

First, a good chunk of the youngins decided they didn't want to be Marines.

They wanted to be Ship Cows.

So the whole trip thing had to be put on pause while she found green and white face paint and helped a few tiny people get properly cowed up for the adventure.

Which was fine.

Then another group, slightly smaller, insisted they wanted to be Bounty Hunters. Because, in their words, 'I can do what I want and get paid for stopping bad people', which… Wasn't actually that accurate or true but the topic was too big to cover and instead she had to make them Bounty Hunter outfits.

Which… Didn't exist.

Bounty Hunters wore nearly anything. Just like pirates.

In the end, she got a bunch of oversized waterproof coats that made each kid look like they were drowning in stiff cloth. A bunch of bandanas for their hair, job done.

A few kids wanted to be Marines, so not ALL her adorable outfits went to waste (Her girls looked SO CUTE!) but then the remaining kids wanted to be pirates.

Which, again, they were kids. So whatever.

But this one boy was CONVINCED that pirates equated to eyepatches.

And he was DOUBLE convinced that the more eyepatches he had, the more piratey he would be.

By the time the ship returned, the poor boy was covered in eyepatches. Dozens on each arm and leg, a few tied up around his torso and waist, and of course a pair over his eyes.

Her attempts to inform him that eyepatches, when not worn for medical purposes, were used to prevent one eye from being exposed to the light when doing a night assault and shifting from inside to outside while still trying to capture your target…

None of that worked.

And sure, she had seen one or two try-hards just wear an eye patch for similar reasons, but at the end of this mess the poor boy had basically been wearing so many tiny patches of cloth on string that it sort of transformed into a ghillie suit or a very unusual dress.

Oh whatever, at least the boy had fun.

This was NOT going to be a daily thing though. Maybe once a month? And the girls had a blast, even if Nami was frustrated at how little distance was covered due to all the backtracking and how filling a ship of ANY size with this many children slowed the process of sailing down significantly and… Whew.

Nap.

She was going to have a quick nap, then do… Anything else.

Half way into her nap, her Shadow gently poked her hand with a Haunted Shop request.

Hmm?

Normally this was handled automatically. Her Heartless Helpers were very competent, after all.

They were directly connected to her subconscious.

…Which meant this one was important.

Forcing herself to wake up, she focused on the message. One that started off very shaky and awkward… And was quickly followed by someone skilled and most likely much older.

Hmm. "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

Her expression hardened.

Klahadore, the butler for Kaya, the young sick girl that this boy Usopp was trying to find help for.

Also known as 'Kuro of the Thousand Plans', Captain Kuro, commander of the Black Cat pirates from East Blue.

A man who considered all pirates, excluding himself, to be puppets and barbarians… And was easily able to discard them and sacrifice his own crew for any level of benefit.

In his own words: 'Pirates should be faithful pawns of their captain. They live and die by my command.'

This man had used a crewmember with powerful hypnotism abilities to keep them all under his power and command, to the extent where he even forced a comrade to die in his place under his name to escape pursuit and set up his next grand plan…

Said plan? Poisoning a wealthy little girl so he could gather all her wealth officially and legally.

To live a relaxing retirement of peace and leisure, thanks to the corpses of loving people who took him in at his time of need.

That… That was not J̨̦̘̳͕̞̞̖̰̮͈͔̲̰̗̕͘͡͞u̗̲̹̬͖͎̪̯̯͉̹͔͇̰̕͜s̴̛̥͎̠͙̲͎͞t̵̡̜̣͎͍͙͖͖̜̮͠͞ͅį̘͉͔̣̪͚̣͙̯̝̙͢͠c͏̫̫̞͈̰͚̰̗̟̕ͅe̶͟͜͞͏͖͈̘͓̲͎.

Not at all.

A thought had shadow claws scrawling a response.

This would be handled by the time the poor boy got the note.

Meanwhile, she reached out to a place she had never personally visited or seen outside of images from the Darkness, and she Twisted.

Walking down a hallway, a man in an impeccable black suit with very high quality glasses vanished mid stride.

In his bed, unable to move due to the black claws holding him down, the same shocked and confused man now struggled.

Klahadore, the butler for Kaya.

At the side, Bell-mère stood watching.

A Twist had the antidote for the girl's poison in one hand… Taken from this same room. "Good evening."

Still acting 'innocent', or more accurately in character, Klahadore shiverd. "Murph murmur!"

She glanced at the antidote in her hand. Because of course the pirate would use something reversible… Just in case he somehow, impossibly enough, got a dose himself.

Kuro was always one to plan for any eventuality, after all. "I have good news."

"MORPHLE!?"

Bell-mère nodded. "Yes, very good news! You know that young boy that visits your young charge oh so often? Young Usopp?"

Flickers of his true thoughts murdered within those eyes, but Kuro caught himself. It was actually impressive how badly he was trying to continue acting as Klahadore right now… Probably already determined that was his best option at the moment.

She gave him a smile. It wasn't a warm one. "Well, he went searching for help when his childhood friend got so terribly sick. Managed to find someone, make a very long trip…" Right, mental note: Do something nice for that Captain Kidd guy.

Her merchants could use a clever man with a bit of an underworld connection, and the muscled man seemed trustworthy.

No. Focus.

She wiggled the bottle. "I just so happened to have found some medicine for his little friend! Isn't that marvelous? Very lucky, I'd say. Only a single dose, plus maybe some good food, and she will be right as rain! Isn't that lovely?"

And THERE we go, the man was snarling and spewing hate with his eyes as the flimsy facade of his cover personality was tossed aside.

Still couldn't escape or move though. Her helpers had a good grip, and the asshole was lucky none of them were using their claws in a more direct way right now. "Oh, no need to thank me, I've always had a soft spot for children."

She watched his neck clench tightly as his muscles twisted helplessly. "That said, you are going to have to do a lot of work to help young Kaya get better as soon as possible! I'll provide some snacks and food for now, and she can order more from our island when the supply runs low. A young lady needs to eat healthy, right?"

The rage was now tainted with confusion?

She grinned. "I'm sure you have opinions about what I am able to do at the moment." Oh. "Social limits I mean, obviously I have the raw ability to do almost anything I wish right now."

It was obvious what his thought process would be, after those visions. "Something about how you are important to the young mistress of the house, how you have a history of being a reliable and dependable butler, and so on and so forth? Yes?"

She gave a nod. "And you are correct! If anything happened to you, deserved or not, it would hurt the little girl's heart. Your story and years of hard work and trustworthiness have made you a solid anchor of her life, a foundation of reliability. A true member of her family."

A hint of mocking pride edged into his vision. Dick.

That look froze when she used a touch of Ḑ̷̸̸͢a̴҉r͏҉ḱ̸̢̧͜n̸̕ȩ͘͠s͏͜s̀͠͝. "I wouldn't be so kind if you had actually caused the accident that had killed her parents. Consider yourself very lucky, Captain Kuro."

His sudden shock and terror at her knowing his true name was delicious.

Her grin grew sharp. "So I will leave you behind, Mr. Klahadore, Kaya's trusted butler. After all, I wouldn't want to make her other butler, the far more reliable Merry, to have to pick up your duties as well… Would I?"

She watched his expression flash through ranges of emotions before he gestured with his chin… And she nodded, letting the clawed black hand of shadows allow him to speak. "I… Assume I will have to alter my plans?"

But already she could feel his rage being collected and saved to cause as much damage and revenge as possible at some future date. This was not a man who could be trusted on any level, nor one who could empathize with others or even follow agreements.

Bell-mère shook her head. "No, I feel that would be a very difficult feat for you to do. After all, it must be quite stressful pretending to be someone else all the time already, no?"

Cautiously he stared at her. "It… Hasn't always been pleasant. But I am willing to compromise, in return for my safety."

Her smile was full of grace. "Have no fear, Mr. Klahadore. After all, you are a respectable and reliable member of Kaya's household. A trustworthy man above reproach! Even Usopp himself believes you to be acting in her best interests! I would never take you away from the poor girl."

Suspicion was blatant in his eyes.

Her hand reached for something unseen. "On the other hand, from what I understand… Captain Kuro, the famous leader of the Black Cat pirates and the man with a thousand plans?"

With her thoughts, and a Ţ̧͙̼͍̗̖̳̠̼̘̕͜͠ͅw̸̲̖̹̤͜į҉͓̬͇̞̩̪̩̫͚̀͟s̶̴͔͔͇̜͟͜͞t̴̡͙̟̰̜̭͓̻̝̳̦͙͉̖̝̣͘ͅ…

Darkness shivered…

Something silver was and was not in her grip. "From what I understand, he was executed for his crimes years ago."

Unrestrained on his bed, butler Klahadore blinked confused. "I… Uh. What happened?"

Bell-mère smiled at the man. "Sorry for intruding, but I was told that you are one of the primary family butlers for the household? I was sent on an emergency request from a local young man who informed us that your young miss was very ill."

Her other hand released the memories, personality traits, and chunks of Heart that had once been a very bad man. A past best left forgotten.

A hurt and somehow wounded butler managed to gather himself quickly though. After all, he was a professional. "A young man?"

She nodded. "A boy named Usopp traveled all the way to the Conomi Islands and requested from our Haunted Shops to find a cure for her illness."

He blinked. "That rapscallion? But… That's so far away!" Klahadore somehow managed to stand, still a consummate professional… But then paused, looking around. "Why am I…"

Oh, right, they were in his room now. "I mentioned that I wished to talk in private, and you suggested this room was secured."

The man blinked. "Did I? I must have… Hmm. Wait, did you say 'Haunted Shop?'"

She nodded. "Yes, like I said: I'm from the Conomi Islands." Seeing his blank look, she sighed. "I think they are calling it the 'Haunted Islands of Plenty', if that rings any bells."

His eyes lit up! "Ah! The rumored land where anything can be discovered! I remember that being really important to me for… Some reason… Why had I… Hmm… Why?"

Sigh. This was probably the reason why he had sped up his asshole plans recently.

Thank goodness Usopp had done something so risky, Kaya's life had been at very high risk before now. "Yes, and after you give the girl this medicine we can discuss which foods would best aid in her recovery."

Something seemed to click as he gripped the bottle, easily measuring out a dose into another container without effort and without confusion about WHY he knew this would make his young charge healthy again, or how he knew EXACTLY how much she would need to take to recover.

After all, he no longer remembered who exactly had purchased the original poison or who was the villain poisoning the young lady of the household.

This was just normal medicine from a haunted island's ghost run shop, and he was a simple family butler… Other priorities came first. "I'll introduce you to the kitchen staff, miss…?"

She smiled at the nice man. "Bell-mère, and that would be lovely! A good warm soup would likely do the girl wonders after the icky medicine, and I'm sure she will want to write a message to take back to her little friend. Usopp was so terribly worried."

He harrumphed. "That boy always seems like trouble, but in consideration of the extreme efforts he put forth attempting to help the young miss… Well, I suppose I can occasionally look the other way when he trumps in here covered in mud and so forth."

She snorted. "All children are mud balls with limbs, it's a fact of life."

He straightened his glasses with a gloved hand, lens flaring. "As you say, perhaps. Some children however had more pride in their demeanor… But let's not dally. This way, Miss Bell-mère."

Best get this part done swiftly, little Usopp would be getting the midnight message in a few hours and the girls still needed a good bedtime story. Get a note from the little girl, make sure she is feeling better, drop off some food for the staff to share around, and boom!

THEN she could have that god damned nap!

Sheesh!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Nami grinned at her crowd of friends, all of them covered in green and white splotches! "And if you are a big ship cow, you gotta moo with attitude! Right Momoo!?"

The massive aquatic bovine glanced at the silent Heartless watchers and seemed to sigh. "Moo."

All her people clapped! "I've been practicing, but I can't moo that deep." "I think we need to be bigger or older to moo that good." "Can I be a pirate ship cow?" "Why are you still here?" "Yeah, weren't you going to take a nap?" "I can't find my way out of the room with all the eyepatches." "Are there any rules about group mooing?" "I only moo in the bath."

Nami probably should have listened to the rest of what they were saying, but to be honest she was bored now. "Alright everybody! CLIMB THE COW!"

All the tiny eyes lit up! """"Woah!?"""" "Momoo, we can climb you!?" "Don't touch the sharp spines, but you can grip pretty good along the fin." "Would that hurt Momoo?" "Nah, granny Nim says Momoo is super strong and stuff." "Yeah, Momoo is super strong!" "WAIT! I want to climb that side first!"

The trick, Nami had found, was to grip the edge of the scales and the odd sort of fur stuff at the same time. And aim for the dryer parts, cause that is less slippery! "I'm getting to the top first!"

Chaos. "Hey! Don't push me!" "Wow, I'm pretty high up now…" "Guys? Am I still walking towards the nap area?" "Take off those eyepatches!" "Someone stop Brandon, he's going to walk into Momoo's swimming area again." "YOU stop him!" "Nuh uh, I'm halfway up!" "Well, I'M going to be queen of the cow!" "Can I be queen too?" "I think guys have to be king?" "Whatever, as long as I get to be on top of the ship cow."

And suddenly they were all on the ground, Brandon was even MORE confused about where he was at the moment, and mom was there. "Girls? Boys?"

They glanced at each other. Oh no. Activate innocence mode! """""Yes mom/Ms. Bell/Marine Lady/ma'am?"""""

She raised an eyebrow. "It is time for everyone to get ready for bed. NOT time for climbing Momoo."

Darn it. """"""Awww…"""""" "It's already bedtime!?" "Yeah Brandon." "What happened to nap time!?" "I think you were over there, near the crayons and drawing area." "Where?" "He still hasn't taken off the eyepatches!?" "NEVER!" "Sigh, don't bring it up." "I thought his speech was pretty awesome…" "Argh, me maties!"

Mom chuckled. "Go on you sealubbers, off you get!"

When Nami tried to sneak by though… "Nope!"

Oh no! "Ship cow caught! Ship cow caught! Oh moo, what will I do!?"

Mom grinned as she hugged her away towards home. "Too late, you little boat bovine, you're properly caught now! It's off to brushing teeth and story time for you, no escape!"

Ooh, story time! Wait. "Noo! I'm captured!" Oh no!

But… Well, to be honest, being caught by mom wasn't so bad. She shouldn't have been surprised, Momoo was happy to be caught after all.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Usopp blinked at the odd envelope. One that showed up out of nowhere, with no one knowing when. "Is… Is that it?"

Even Captain Kidd was a bit surprised. "Huh. My letter was just a bit of scribble scrabble on parchment." He leaned forward. "Smells like lavender."

Usopp blinked. "But… It's it, right? This is it?"

The cost.

Whatever the price would be to save Kaya. Hopefully one he can, and one he could, pay.

The captain nodded. "I assume so. Despite how odd it looks, it showed up at the right time." Glancing at his pocket watch, he nodded once more. "Down to the minute."

Usopp gulped.

He could do this.

Just… Just open it.

The weight of the moment was heavy on his small shoulders.

He… He could… He could…

The older man gripped his shoulder. "Hey now, don't get too worked up. And don't forget, I'm here! Even if the cost is a bit more than I expect it to be, I can pay it off for ya and you can work for my crew a bit. Get some naval experience, learn what the seas are like for when you are older and are off to be that mighty warrior, and still save the little missus! Buck up, boyo!"

Usopp blinked… And couldn't help but smile.

He'd say 'thank you', but he was a big boy and he didn't want to cry.

He opened the letter.

Ah! "It's from Kaya!? HOW!?" Her writing was always so much better than his, it was embarrassing to practice even when she was trying to help him out. "I… Can you help me read this?"

The man chuckled. "Sure I can, lad. Let me get some more light going though, my eyes ain't as young as the rest of me."

In the rented room, the older captain began to read the tale of a woman somehow crossing the sea in moments with a miracle medicine, leaving a recovering young woman who was oh so grateful and had lots of the most delicious food she had ever eaten before!

About how eager she was to thank Usopp for all the hard work he had done, and how she wanted to share the amazing soup and stuff that had apparently come from this haunted land that the boy had traveled to in desperation!

It was an unbelievably tall tale, an obvious lie no liar would ever believe, and as a young man on the pathway to deception and who one day would become a brave warrior of the sea listened in growing astonishment and joy…

It was the best story ever.

That being said, Captain Kidd was still quite shocked when he got an employment contract included on the fourth page of the message from a completely unrelated source, but that was another issue entirely.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère smiled as she woke the girls, got them fed, and sent them off on their way to play for the day.

She smiled as she sent off notes to her people, she smiled as she checked on the progress in the city, she smiled as she discussed future development plans.

And as the day grew older, she smiled as she carefully got her needs handled and her responsibilities looked after.

But now, the girls had dinner and were off to bed.

Now, the house was quiet and night had fully fallen.

Bell-mère was not smiling as she looked into the Darkness.

When one's shoulders grew wider, it didn't simply mean you grew stronger…

It meant you could carry a heavier load.

Her Heart of Justice was to be there when needed.

And she was needed. "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

Show me the children. The lost, the hungry, the captive.

Show me the little ones, with no hope.

Show me the tiny people, with burdens too great to bear.

The images were endless. The scenes, tragic. The cries for help, endless.

Bell-mère didn't falter. "Yami yami no: [[Shady Grove.]]"

In the Darkness, a forest with white roots and white branches that glowed softly in the twilight. Not a true forest, not THE true forest, but a reflection of one that never existed.

It was a Shadow of something much grander, much farther away than was possible.

Too far.

The scale was too large.

The need was too dire.

That image, that grove, flickered. Faded.

The power needed to form these things was immeasurable. The focus unsustainable, the requirements unmeetable. Such a place could not be formed by any person, nor any Devil Fruit user.

But as she begged for the little ones to be safe, she felt a pulse of love from the Darkness, and her fumbling hands found warm acceptance. From the absence, energy flowed. From the Shadows, Power was granted.

And from that light, that unseen pink glow, warmth filled this place that never was and had never been. Light that felt familiar, that felt nostalgic.

Bell-mère blinked from the floor of her office, carefully shifting as she touched the blood flowing from her nose and felt the pain being washed away by those same warm waves of energy inside.

That… That might have been a bit much to attempt all at once.

But despite the cost? It was a payment that needed to be made.

In her mind, tiny forms cowered and cried and screamed.

Tiny forms with little hope, that suddenly found themselves being pulled by no one to nowhere.

They vanished into the Darkness from many places.

Most fell instantly into slumber, as the raw power in this Shady Grove began to heal wounds, both literal and metaphysical, and starving near corpses began to recover next to bodies that had nearly drowned, broken ones nearly destroyed, and worse.

But others found themselves walking in a mysterious but comforting glade in a forest, with strange black trees and glowing white roots and pure glistening branches.

Like a dream, they didn't question what was happening. When black claws formed from shadows and offered food and drink, they were not startled or scared. Although this dream was much less painful and scary than the others, there were no monsters here. No danger.

Not to them, at least.

Bell-mère still felt shaky even as her body rebuilt damaged brain tissue and broken tendons, and carefully Twisted to her bed to lay down a little bit as her Heartless Helpers carefully tended to the lost ones of the Sea.

Some of these tiny forms had scars and brandings that the Shadows began to Consume, others needed direct healing and careful handling.

A few species needed special environments, as the Shady Grove began to Twist itself to form cloud seas above and fresh and salt water environments below. Material 'borrowed' from the world, added as needed for comfort and safety and recovery.

Bell-mère winced as she felt her muscles reconnect and strengthen.

The other steps of her plan were going to have to be delayed… Which was fine. Time was needed for all the orphanages to be opened up on the nearby islands, places within her reach and under her protection.

And these lost ones would need time to recover, and would be 'found' and accepted into these orphanages over time anyway, once the locations were purchased or constructed.

Sure, she'd be spending most of her future building up the infrastructure to take care of this massive crowd… But as they slept and healed in that Shady Grove, she'd have some time to get things together.

Later, she'd need to get some trade schools together. Training camps. Apprenticeships. Which would be tricky for some of the more unusual orphans saved moment to moment, considering some of them had extra limbs or special abilities that would need specific attention to properly develop future skills.

Not now though. Now she could recover.

Her Shady Grove would continue to find and save those without family or caretakers now, guiding the lost and the captured to a safe haven beyond the reach of endless dangers.

Sure, tormentors would hunt them. In some cases, even the Marines would turn blades towards these tiny targets as powerful and evil people pulled their strings.

But in her garden, these children could sleep and heal and pass time safely. Those searching would be looking for lost ones of the wrong ages, targets who were now missing wounds and identifying scars and brandings and crippling injuries.

And when they arrived at their new homes, it would just be another oddity of these lands.

After all, these were the Haunted Isles… And people were 'found' here every day. A few more wouldn't be that unusual.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

"I'm just saying this is BULLSHIT!"

Damn it. "We know, Clyde."

The asshole didn't even pause. "We've been fighting random ass pirates every fucking day, puttering around these seas and bumping into bullshit EVERY DAY, and for WHAT!?"

Sigh. This was going to be one of his long episodes.

Clyde punched the wall of the ship. "Just because some assholes want to be seen 'doing something'!"

Yep. "We know, Clyde." Oh, and just in case this came up in court-martialing later. "Also, please don't call our supervisors…"

He was met with a raised middle finger.

Alright then.

Not like he was actually against what Clyde was saying, mind you, but none of the others were dumb enough to actually say these things out loud.

The man checked his blade. "Almost chipped my baby on the skull of that last pirate. And that's another thing! I love stabbing a few sea rats like the best of them, but what the shit is up with this random bullshit!?"

Sigh. "We received intelligence…"

Clyde snorted! "We received BULLSHIT! A whole bunch of secret places blew up and now we gotta 'find the culprits' and shit, but I don't think these 'culprits' even fucking EXIST! Someone is pulling some bullshit, you just wait. Just one rich asshole sabotaging another faction of rich assholes!"

Most likely. The concept of thousands of secret locations being bombed without witnesses or enemy movement being detected simultaneously? Ludicrous. It was most likely an insider job.

But in this case, 'insider' meant 'Celestial Dragon' which meant 'Even if they are guilty, they are not guilty', so… More orders to find the 'Pirates Responsible!' it was.

Although it was a bit concerning that more and more coworkers were starting to actually listen to Clyde now after weeks and weeks of dangerous and deadly deployment on these treacherous waters… "After this last deployment, I've been told that we will be taken out of rotation, so if we just make it through the end of the week…"

Karma banged open the door. "New orders!"

Now EVERYONE glared at the resigned man slumped at the entrance.

He didn't even bother to defend himself. "Yeah. Again."

Clyde actually growled! "Those rich fuckers better watch their back. Who knows when the NEXT bombing may suddenly happen!"

This time, no one actually commented one way or another.

…Which was a really, really bad sign.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Nojiko, as the older sister, had always tried to be responsible. Mature.

To help mom, and take care of her little sis.

The recent changes however, made it really hard to stay serious all the time.

Suddenly, each meal time was the best part of the day! Instead of slightly old leftovers and carefully cooked small portions, now each experience was more fun and delicious than the last!

All her friends were doing better too, and their moms and dads didn't fight as much either now that the island was doing so good. Everyone seemed more cheerful, and interesting stuff was going on all the time!

Ships kept showing up with workers and construction crews and strangers and interesting stuff from around the world, crazy stuff was being built out in the waters at a scale which just felt impossible, and the new places all felt like halloween or something.

Ghost decorations, plastic bats, fake cobwebs… While her home island wasn't changing much because apparently mom secretly bought it at some point, the new play area being built felt like a constant festival!

Sure, she was mentally repressing the memories of her mom shifting into a massive shadowy giant of death, and maybe was taking a bunch of the recent stuff and shelving it mentally into the 'Process this later' boat, but aside from that?

Things were going great!

Lots of new kids were joining her friends as they explored the newly constructed artificial islands, each one dedicated to different stuff as they got built. Although a lot of it had to do with the markets.

There were a LOT of markets.

Ones that sold fish or snacks or fruits and stuff, ones that traded boring adult stuff, weapon stalls, armor shops, all kinds of stuff! And if a kid put on a costume, especially one that was cute or 'scary', the nice old people at the snack stalls would offer tiny treats!

She suspected her mom was egging on the people about this, considering how often she tried to convince both of them to dress up in 'adorable' costumes and stuff, but it was rapidly becoming a tradition on the island.

It was common to see Loyd or Sarah dressed up as a zombie or boat cow or something and get some free apple slices, or for a group of children to make a club and all dress up as Marines or Bounty Hunters or Cats and pretend to be a cool gang that controlled the underworld and ALSO got to eat a free pretzel now and then.

Still, she tried to be mature and responsible.

Which is why she WASN'T freaking out right now. "Really!?"

Greg nodded! "Yeah, dad's friends were talking about it! It's gonna be a whole island thing, as long as you put in the effort and try hard, we can work with shops and learn how to do stuff!"

That sounded AWESOME! "Like how mom's friend was teaching us how to be mini Marines?"

A nod. "Yeah, 'cept it is also for people who sell stuff and make clothes and all that. Mom was really happy that these 'prentice ships' would not just teach us all how to fight and stuff."

Nojiko grinned! "Nami would LOVE learning from some navigators! Or even work at one of those shops that sell maps…"

Greg blinked. "Huh? What about you?"

Meh. "I'm gonna learn from mom." Cause mom was awesome. Plus, she loved working with the garden and the grove, and her mom was super cool and stuff. "But Nami has been dreaming about being a master mapper for years… She's going to be so thrilled!"

Would a Prentice Ship be hard to sail? They had both managed to get the Highwind to sort of go where wanted, at least when they had the help from Mom's 'Helpers' and followed her instructions… It couldn't be that hard, would it?

Greg frowned, but nodded. "Yeah, she did mention that a lot… And uh. Between you and me? I… I don't really want to be a bounty hunter. That's not my real dream." He glanced in both directions and whispered. "I want to carve stuff."

Huh? "Like the boat builders?"

He shook his head. "Like small statues and stuff. I've been practicing, and I'm not good yet, but I saw this model thing one of the shops was selling and it was like a tiny island! I mean, it was like a huge big island but in a really small size, right?"

Greg sparkled with a grin! "I'm gonna do that, one day! I'm going to carve all kinds of stuff!"

Nojiko couldn't help but smile at the boy's passion. "Really?"

He nodded! "I got a spot in our hideout that I keep my best tries, but I'm not ready to show anyone yet." He paused, suddenly shocked! "And you can't tell anyone, okay!? It's a secret, yeah!? If anyone asks, I'm going to be a cow-ty hunter or something!"

Her mind skipped a bit. Would that be a hunter of criminal bovinian prey? "You mean, a bounty hunter?"

Greg didn't even pause. "Yeah. Or that I'm going to be a tinkerer or something. Kay?"

Yeah sure. "Alright." Oh! The Prentice Ship stuff. "Will they teach us how to sail these 'Prentice Ships'? Or should I ask mom?"

Either way, Nami could do it, probably! She was great at sailing… Or at least, she would be!

This was going to be awesome!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Shadow frowned as another child was passed to Gem's [[Shady Grove]]. Well, technically it was owned and controlled by his Host, but she was too young and inexperienced to handle something this massive and unwieldy just yet.

So for now, Gem was directing it and Shadow was empowering the whole sucker directly using the Darkness instead of his host's Soul like normal.

What was concerning was selecting who to target for rescue.

Due to the nature of Bell-mère's request when forming this place, it would naturally detect and try to assist the 'lost ones' of the planet. Specifically, the young.

However, young means different things to different species. For some, it was a few months before a child would become mature… For others? Decades or longer.

Also, Bell-mère wasn't targeting people in bad conditions if they had support of any level. Because she wasn't going to steal kids away from parents and loved ones.

Thus, only children, only without parental units, only when in severe danger/risk/locked up/abandoned. Plus there were additional restrictions and rules… For example, reincarnated people in a kid's body didn't count, if they were already self-sufficient despite their apparent age.

One would think a situation like that would be rare or non-existent, but well… The Grand Line was weird. So you had to check that some random mass murdering assholes hadn't stolen baby corpses to try and slip in with the group and be included in the 'save me' category,

Not that they had FOUND any of those yet, but the 'Snack List' was prepped and ready for any jerks of that caliber. Just in case.

With so many restrictions and exceptions and stuff, one would expect the number of arrivals to be heavily restrained…

Which was why It was just so frustrating at how many children were being gathered in this hidden [[Shady Grove]] now.

Most weren't important, at least not according to society. Just more poor kids, destined to die in poverty and hunger. Supposedly destined, at any rate. Still, a number of the ones taken from abusive people should have set off all kinds of alerts, alarms, vengeful people off to hunt their 'property', etc.

Which gave Shadow an excuse to fine tune his latest, Gem-approved project!

Yami yami no: [[Dim Memories.]]

Not fully developed yet, despite the Heartless Helpers testing it out for a while now, it was SUPPOSED to cause records and memories and evidence get filtered away. Filed off. Noticed, marked, and then ignored.

Using the power of Darkness and the Shadow's of the past to cause certain information to be lost or marked unimportant.

It was a bit hit or miss. People with enough imagination or Soul power, like children or dedicated warriors, they could resist the ability to various levels. And the more you were exposed to the target, the less effective it would be…

But it was better than nothing.

It was why short term contact with people wouldn't be an issue for his Host, most of the time.

When his Host was doing something with her powers, the 'adult' and 'mature' mind that didn't easily accept the impossible would start justifying all of it. 'Oh, she must have moved this earlier.' 'I am imagining things.' 'She had help, but they were unimportant people.' 'She was very pretty, but we are not sure what she looked like.'

Stuff like that.

It worked mostly well, on a passive level. People just knew that Bell-mère had connections, knew people and suppliers, could access stuff and materials, and happened to drop by at convenient times.

They didn't however remember small helpers or impossibly fast traversal times, or how quickly she acquired needed materials or goods for sales.

It was just vague feelings. They knew she could get stuff done, and the why or how was less important.

The issue came with applying this new ability directly now, as children were being stolen away.

For the ones that survived shipwrecks or being abandoned on islands or whatever, this was a trivial issue. But for the boys and girls locked up, either for crimes they didn't commit or for future 'use' by others?

Well, this is where the problem came in.

Not only were there a LOT more kids in danger than Shadow expected, but he had to be cautious when saving them. Gem was working overtime when not taking care of the new charges, but even she was growing frustrated at the raw evil that seemed to grow from these powerful positions in society.

If they just vanished, these assholes would throw a fit. Killing slaves, servants, random citizens, screaming and ranting, sending the Marines off to do who knows what, and worse. The fact that the child was a casual plaything or toy that they rarely thought about or cared for didn't matter, if something they owned went missing then it hurt their PRIDE.

Here was where the hard part came in.

Not instantly slaughtering them.

As messed up as things were, if these people vanished the world would crumble. Unlike in Alice's London, where sleaze had slithered up the social chain, here? They WERE society.

So, for now, Shadow had to find a work around… And even the solution pissed him off.

Just leave a Darkness fragment of memory that implied that the boy or girl died.

Done.

These assholes killed so many people so often and so arbitrarily, they instantly completed the memory fragment on their own! 'I must have shot her', 'Probably kicked him to death', etc.

As more and more children vanished from expensive cells, NOW their 'owners' would simply mark it as having reached their 'expiration date' and order a new supply.

Though that might be a bit tricky for them, now that [[Shady Grove]] existed.

Good luck trying to find children in the future, slavers.

And maybe a few of the slaves who weren't also murders and rapists an stuff found keys to their explosive collars, and perhaps a few slave brands mysteriously got healed, and perhaps some official transfer agreements came into existance that offered escape opportunities…

But that was technically not THEIR fault, now was it?

Not according to the evidence, anyway.

Nope, Shadow and Gem were just making sure these kids were put into healing comas, healed on multiple levels, and carefully modified to be unidentifiable by officials! They were both FAR too busy to bother with all that other stuff, yes sir.

Good thing damage from aging could be healed though, it may take some time before all these children could be safely returned to his Host's islands.

Meh, good luck finding an escaped child slave when they don't match any of your descriptions, jerks! So sorry you wasted all that money looking for someone who now lives in a different sea with an unexpected age and new appearance!

Sigh, back to work on this [[Dim Memories]] ability. Maybe he could work it up to a full Stranger level skill and help his Host do sneaky sneaky stuff more often!

Plus, it could help surprise Snacks!

After all, Shadow's Snack list for this world was growing longer by the day. Especially as he and Gem saved more children.

His continuous efforts suddenly paused when one of the young girls being 'saved' from some sort of dingy abandoned shack sprouted a dozen arms and began frantically climbing away, despite her wounds and how starved she looked.

Oh? What is this now? For someone who looked so lost and broken, she shifted to action very quickly.

Gem pulsed as they watched her begin to sprout eyes and ears throughout her surroundings.

Interesting… But she still needed help. Only a day or so before dehydration kicked in, and some of those cuts were infected.

Best send this over to his Host to handle. She'd know what to do.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Robin Nico flinched as she had felt SOMETHING in the shadows attempt to touch her, despite her abilities marking this a safe place.

A near silent whisper. "Hanna Hanna no Mi: [[Treinta Fleur: Search.]]"

Thirty of her arms sprouted like blossoms, each and every one with her eye bloomed on the palm, as she searched the area.

No one. Just like before.

But she had FELT it.

A pull. Something in the dark corner she had been sheltered in had tried to TAKE her somewhere!

Her mind flickered through her daily fears. One of the pirate crews she had fled with and betrayed/was betrayed by? Another group of Marines who found her trail? Just a normal pedophile or rapist? One of those cannibals from this island?

Not like she had planned to come here in the first place, but sometimes a stowaway had little choice when being chased.

Still, this was not matching any of her worries so far. If someone had found her, had taken action like this, they wouldn't stay silent and hidden after a near miss.

Not with her being this weak, this damaged, this wounded.

No, this was the time for declarations, for cursing her existence, for gloating about having 'finally caught the 'Devil Child' and how Justice would be made this day as her existence was destroyed and history fully erased.

But still, in the dim shadows? Silence.

If anything, she felt like the shade itself was just… Observing her. Despite her seeing nothing. Her Devil Fruit limbs touching no obstacle. Her senses finding no one.

Her vision faded again, the ringing in her ears intensifying as the edges dimmed.

Rapid movement had been a bad idea.

Her body was not prepared, despite how much she had attempted to recover while hiding here.

But she wouldn't let reality stop her.

She'd survive.

Somehow.

This life was one stolen from fate, when her last protector and friend, Jaguar D. Saul, had died.

The same day when her home, her family, her island… Everything burned to the ground under the world government's relentless attack.

That brave massive giant of a man, despite being a former vice admiral Marine… He had not wanted her to die then. He would not want her to die now.

[[There is nothing more ridiculous than being born in this world to be alone… Someday you will meet brave friends who will protect you! Go and live with them, Robin...]]

Despite her grief and horror, she had followed his last wishes. The best she could. For so long.

She felt her focus drift as a wet cough escaped her lungs, even as something in the Darkness surrounded her.

She didn't cry.

But… It seemed like some promises were harder to keep than others.

Despite her determination, she fell into Darkness…

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère hummed with a soft smile.

The girls were going to be having a slumber party today! But since they were just sharing a room tonight and not going anywhere, it was more a 'Share a bed and hide under the covers to talk instead of sleeping' party.

Idly she checked on [[Shady Grove]] as the healing population continued to grow. In a way, the sleeping minds drifting off to deeper levels of peace had a sort of hum to it. A symphony of sighs, a musical of drifting thoughts and memories.

Good, they seemed to be doing well. The music had a bit of a harsh edge, due to new arrivals having to calm down when saved, but somehow it just felt soothing to listen to the sound of silence.

Right, extra blankets, some flashlights, a few of their favorite books to sneak into bed when she 'wasn't looking', everything was pretty much set up!

As she reached to check if the pillow case was Nami's favorite one or not (She didn't like the one with boat anchors for some reason), Bell-mère blinked as a heavy pulse echoed in her mind.

Huh?

Frowning, she started to reach for the Darkness. "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visio… ACK!"

The shocked woman looked down at the hurt child in her arms. "What the… Huh!?"

Somewhere else entirely, pink pulses of frustration and admonishment ranted at an apologetic but slightly confused Shadow, but right now Bell-mère had her hands full.

Literally!

Thankfully her professionalism kicked in when she felt how injured the little one was.

Right, get this child medical treatment first, figure out what the hell was going on second. "Yami yami no: [[Heartless Helper.]]"

She felt her power reach for her people… But not her normal guys, she needed someone who could help this girl.

Her shadow shifted into some sort of strange flying creature wearing a witches hat, a green cloak, and glowing purple eyes. It seemed to pulse with unfelt power.

How did she instinctively know that this guy was called a 'Green Requiem'?

The child weakly coughed in her embrace.

No clue, not important, focus on the big issue! "Fix her."

The creature didn't bother to nod, instead glowing with sparkles.

[[Curaga.]]

Bell-mère just blinked at the magical floating flower bells that sparkled bright green glitter onto the child, nearly FORCING her body to recover before her eyes.

Miracle healing, at a whim. "Huh."

She felt the Green Requiem innocently float to one side, ready to help. Right, going to keep one of you around from now on! "You are officially our ship's doctor. Forever."

At her order it… Well, it just sort of floated there, but she felt calm acceptance.

Which was good enough.

Right.

So.

Uh.

Holding this far too light little girl in her arms, Bell-mère attempted to mentally recover.

She can do this!

First of all, define the situation!

Unlike ALL the other children, THIS one showed up HERE instead of over in the expensive healing magic forest hidden in Darkness. For some reason.

Probably should find out what that reason actually was at some future point in time.

Oh, and on an additional note to this madness? Her Heartless Helpers apparently had alternate forms they could take when being summoned. More than just this healing guy too, from what she could sense.

This new selection option was a choice that felt instinctual NOW, but went completely undetected in the past… Which sort of implied her powers were growing stronger over time.

And that was a little bit terrifying. Just a bit.

Her thoughts drifted a bit as she heard her daughters getting ready for tonight's sleepover… Oh crumbs! Hadn't she been doing something before all this!?

Bell-mère blinked at the suddenly messy room.

Dang it! She had JUST cleaned all this!

She needed to tidy up this bedroom again with some Twists before either of the girls saw this. And before this new little one woke up! There was now dirt and blood and stuff everywhere… And the new child needed to be cleaned up and given untorn clothing, and…

Sigh. One step at a time.

As a Mom, she would fix all this. Somehow.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Robin felt warm.

Things felt soft.

This was wrong.

She froze.

Nothing hurt.

Which was bad, as she should be either dead or captured by now if her wounds were treated.

More than that, although she couldn't check right now without disclosing her waking up, she couldn't feel the edges of her cuts or the bleeding.

Which, since she also didn't feel any bindings or bandages, was REALLY bad.

How long had she been out of it!?

Or was it one of those Devil Fruit users? She had been the only one to have such powers back on Ohara island, and she hadn't heard of anyone on the seas with healing abilities. Not that people had been happy to talk with her in general, but still!

No obvious bindings, and any cell was likely to be far more cold and harsh than this bed.

…Unless this wasn't that sort of prison.

She felt horror grip her throat as she realized her clothing had changed… But it wasn't silk or anything 'sexy', and she didn't feel any soreness or wounds from being sexually assaulted.

If this was a breeding facility, then she hadn't been 'processed' yet.

Not allowing herself to move, she slowly built up her power. She couldn't just enable her abilities to sprout limb clones without warning, but with a bit of prep time? Well, any rapist pirate would be in for a BIG surprise.

A little girl's arm wasn't able to overpower a man, but if she used thirty of them?

Well, there was a REASON she had survived this long.

Cautious testing only increased her confusion.

The air didn't smell right.

This island was known for how deadly it was, hopefully convincing her pursuers NOT to follow her despite the massive bounty the world government had burdened her with.

It normally smelt of blood, of mold, and of rotten forests. With distant screams as the cannibal tribes consumed their captives caught from other crews or just other island factions.

But here, she smelt life. And scrambled eggs? A distant hint of tangerines?

The air felt far stranger than expected too. On the Grand Line, there was this atmosphere of raw potential in the air, as if the world itself was focused down to one point… She had heard that it was even more intense when one crossed over the second half of the Grand Line and entered the New World, but those were just whispered tales.

Here?

The air felt thin. Or maybe relaxed? But nowhere near as dense as she was used to, making it almost uncomfortably easy to breathe and sense her surroundings. As if some restriction or binding on her abilities had been loosened.

While she couldn't easily deploy her full abilities without movement and some mnemonic phrases, she had learned from necessity how to do SOMETHING near silently.

Hana Hana no: [[Una Fleur: Spy.]]

A single eye opened up on the nearby surface above her, hopefully unseen by anyone else…

And Robin paused.

This looked like a little girl's room.

And not some sex dungeon sexual fetish fodder, but one that actually belonged to a child. It felt sort of like her old room in a way, where random toys were casually tossed in random directions and that claustrophobic 'clean' feeling that adults shove everywhere was missing.

A shift had her eye vanish and reform closer to the window…

And this was not 'Dread Skull' island.

Not at ALL!

She didn't even RECOGNIZE that sky! What the hell had HAPPENED when she passed out!?

Random teleportation was one of the most rare mysteries that happened on the Grand Line, so best check for the more common and usual possibilities.

Hallucination, either from sickness or attack. Some sort of impossible secret location or massive boat or something. A protected subspace, which covered a whole bunch of stuff… Or a Devil Fruit user.

Her mind flashed back to the Darkness watching her, curious, feeling like it wanted to help.

…So either a medical coma or a Devil Fruit user. Those felt most likely.

Using her new eye to find new surfaces to shift towards, Robin began slowly gathering information. She'd find out who had captured her, and she would escape! Somehow…

"I wonder when she'll wake up."

"Mom says she needs time to rest 'cause she was hurt, so don't bother her, alright? Right. Now let's get you washed up for breakfast."

"Aww, but I washed my hands yesterday!"

Robin didn't flinch. They weren't in the room, but if she could HEAR them from this far then they were just outside the probably locked door.

Using her vision to carefully judge her projection, she focused… And risked a whisper, as quiet as possible. "Hana Hana no: [[Seis Fleur: Spy.]]"

One eye to stay in here, one on the house on the other side of the street looking THIS way, one at roughly where she expected the outside of her cell to be along with an ear to hear better, with one eye and ear combo she could shift where they were needed.

Robin blinked all her eyes.

Her prison looked like a house.

A normal house.

And the voices outside her door were two little girls, one younger than herself. No markings on their body, no signs of fear or concern, no bindings, no brandings. To tattoos or pirate markings, none of this made sense.

She casually ignored her endless hunger and dire thirst like usual. There would be time for those issues after determining the situation, probably.

At least, since she was so hungry, she didn't have to worry about needing the restroom just yet.

Though that was probably a bad sign as well… Sigh.

Hidden eyes began to spy around the home and slowly began to explore this new island city she had suddenly arrived at. She'd find a way out of this. There would be a way, somehow.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère blinked as she felt her [[Dark Visions]] somehow start giggling and play a game of 'follow the leader' with something exploring the town. An eye and an ear, somehow sprouting from stuff as they shifted from place to place.

Odd.

Both the ability of her new guest AND the fact that her own powers had somehow informed her about the situation without prompting.

She hadn't known her ability could do that… At least, she hadn't known her ability could passively grant her information like this. Strange… But useful!

In related news, apparently their little guest was awake. Best make sure any potential bystanders were out of range. "Girls, make sure to put your dishes in the sink before you go out to play. Lunch today will be tuna fish sandwiches."

Well, probably tuna fish… The meat probably wasn't supposed to glimmer like that though.

Two sunrises smiled back. ""Yes mom!""

Daww. "Go on, get."

The girls giggled as they moved their used dishes off for her to… Well, not wash. Just sort of Twist away the crud and instantly clean everything with basically no effort.

Her powers made housework so much easier!

Right, girls were out of the house. She'd be able to hopefully calm down the little bundle of terror and fear, feed the girl some food, and then let her freak out a bit more without having an unknown adult in the area.

Feeling the 'hidden' eye suddenly focus on her, she carefully walked without showing signs of threat or aggression to Nojiko's bedroom, since Nami's sleepover had gone well last night and this room had been free to borrow for the new guest. Temporarily, while setting up the spare room as a guest bedroom.

No ability used by the young lady, not while being observed, but she carefully put the plate piled high with eggs next to a large glass of water next to the door. "I am going to leave this here, we can talk later."

Oh, right. "One moment."

A subtle Twist gave her a fork from the kitchen in her pocket, which she used to eat a bit from the dish. A quick sip of water… "Not sure if this will help, but I personally made and sampled the food I am providing. Right, you can leave the dishes outside the door when you are finished and I will clean it up later."

From what she felt from the child, suspicion and paranoia would be understandably rampant for a while. "You can stay as long as you need, or leave whenever. You are currently on the Conomi Islands in the East Blue. This town is called Cocoyasi Village, or it was… I guess it is now Cocoyasi City or something."

Should she mention the 'Haunted Isle' stuff, or… No, keep it simple. "We can talk more later. You were healed up, but you still need food and water as soon as possible."

Right, if she stays? Good. If she leaves, she will still be better off than she had been before.

Bell-mère smiled at the food, then turned to go get some stuff done before trying to hire hundreds of people for dozens of orphanages.

Sigh.

Sometimes Justice requires the most deadly and despicable of foes to be overcome: Paperwork.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Robin was trying REALLY HARD not to freak out.

Right. Focus. One step at a time.

As pretending to be asleep was pointless now, she carefully got up from the sinfully comfortable bed, and… She looked amazing. Her skin was flawless, months of dirt and grunge gone and wounds big and small vanished. Her nails were perfectly trimmed somehow, her hair looked like one of those pretty ladies at the docks, and her new outfit was simple but fit and…

Well, it was the first clean and well fitting clothing she had worn in quite some time.

She moved with purpose to the door, her vision in the hallway showing it was clear.

Open, move the dish of amazing smelling food inside the room with the large glass of water, door closed.

She forced herself not to just gorge herself, and thought it through.

In the end? If this woman had bad intentions, they could have killed her, gotten her addicted, or worse while she was defenseless.

It wasn't enough to make her stupid, but it was good enough to not just assume these provisions were poisoned. It would be pointless and silly to do so in such an inefficient way.

And the few idiots she had stumbled upon who WOULD do such a convoluted thing were always terrible at hiding their secret feelings away… Seriously, most pirates and thieves had surprisingly terrible poker faces.

This woman didn't give off that shifty or slimy vibe that she was careful for, and the food was certainly better than the half rotten stolen trash she had been forced to subsist on in the past…

With caution, she took the smallest bite possible and waited before swallowing, ignoring the glorious flavor and astounding tenderness of the eggs.

No tingling. No odd smells. No strange tastes. No loss of feeling or numbness. No oily twinge.

In her mind, deep down, she admitted that these were the best eggs she had ever tasted. Ever. No question, no hesitation: The best.

This wasn't just her all consuming hunger talking, she forced herself to high standards:

As far as she was concerned, these were objectively the best eggs she had ever encountered, full stop. The kind that crews would store in special containers in hidden cargo holds, that would be stolen from or sold to high clientele.

And this meal, which probably cost dozens if not hundreds of Beri, was just offered to some random girl that no one knew. Or at least, hopefully no one knew.

Finally caving in to the flavor, she swallowed the bite and waited for any odd reaction even as her eyes tried to consume the rest of the food RIGHT NOW.

No, she would wait.

Then she would test the water.

But… If they both passed the test?

She stared with hunger at the meal.

Please.

Please pass the tests.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Buying homes and property?

Easy. Lots of money and a few favors, done.

Setting up large orphanages?

Also easy… To a degree.

Buying stuff was dead simple, especially since the 'Haunted Isle' had become a major trading hub. Merchants and suppliers were eager to set up better relationships with anyone living here, and through nudges and whispers people understood that working with Bell-mère was working with quality people.

Establishing low level educational schools?

A bit of pushback.

But only from a few people who could be bribed or blackmailed or pushed a bit. There was an ongoing argument that teaching the poorer citizens was a waste of money (and potentially a future risk), but thankfully her home islands hadn't originally been THAT wealthy, not to the point of poor people being considered disposable trash monkeys.

The trade schools and Haunted network apprenticeship thing? Yeah, that was causing headache after headache.

For most crews and teams, there was very little industrialization or standardization. Other than basic stuff, like nail size and screw thread classes, everything was custom made by artists and hacks and handymen. Either due to necessity or pride.

Oh, it was different at the mid-level, but not for everyone else.

The richest customers got custom everything. Period.

Meanwhile, the poorest people like those sailing the East Blue had to adapt to what was available, and hope it floats.

But in the mid-range? THAT was where the mass produced Marine ships and Merchant vessels and stuff thrived! There was a reason why those powerful organizations were able to keep a grip on the markets, and the ease of replacing damaged parts certainly didn't hurt things when you're running a militarized organization or may have to stop at a large number of ports when trading.

The fact that low and high income construction crews didn't have those standards meant that there WAS no standard education when it came to most of these jobs. You would find a company you wanted to grow with, work your way into their trust, and learn secrets from your masters until you 'graduate' or marry their daughter or son or something.

Which was NOT a model that worked great when you wanted to begin teaching thousands and thousands of orphans a wide range of marketable skills rapidly!

Complexity of teaching aside, those poor boys and girls inheriting the many businesses would be stuck with a few hundred lovers, and that was a lot of stress to put onto anybody!

So Bell-mère was basically designing a new educational system for the entire East Blue by default in the process of just trying to get shit done. Since education was a bit lackadaisical in these waters to begin with, accreditation wasn't an issue either… Not as long as you knew what you were doing.

So her original plan to fund a whole bunch of tiny homes for children had fallen through.

Pure epic fail, unfortunately.

THANKFULLY, her new wealth from the bustling city she helped grow gave her another option!

Punch people in the face with Beri until someone fixes the problems.

Have money! LOTS of money! All of you, listen to my rabid followers who ALSO like the things I can trade them! They ALSO have money!

In the end, an entire damned island eagerly accepted a bribe… *Cough*, Accepted 'moving fees' to relocate to another location entirely.

So now a massive amount of construction was underway on 'Lost Angel Island', which would eventually become the sea's largest education focused island on the entire East Blue sea.

Buying the island and getting it established as a new country was surprisingly easy… If only because it threw her people into a new tax bracket and the Marines loved that shit.

But again, with the funding of the Haunted Isles of Plenty? Money wasn't the issue.

At least it gave some of her building crews more work to do that WASN'T keeping her up at night. Yes, you crazy builder people who seemed to have grown an unhealthy obsession with creepy decor construction, go build elsewhere. ALL the way over there, on THAT island.

Bell-mère was secretly convinced some of those crews were trying to push the stupid underworld theme even further with their customers, and it was simply getting silly at this point!

Thankfully the authorities were very distracted right now for some reason, as apparently a big mess was developing out in the Grand Line over some sort of massive but secretive event. No one was exactly clear what happened, and none of the news in the World Economy News Paper covered any unexpected deaths or massive attacks…

But the top brass was BUSY right now, and it gave her time to get things established before any jerk looking for control or influence could start poking their beak into this whole mess.

So the framework was up.

Not done, mind you. Never done. Every day there were reports about delays in construction or terrain problems or hiring conflicts or personnel complaints and… Sigh.

All that headache? That was AFTER delegating most of the work away to competent people.

Thank the sea for [[Dark Visions]], as comprehensive background checking had never been so easy and so thorough. FOUR separate assholes tried to sneak their way into positions of authority, planning on fleecing the entire foundation before the damned thing was even poured!

Meh, aside from her current houseguest (Who was no longer using Nojiko's bedroom as a home base still thanks to the newly established 'guest room', and who apparently was doing MUCH better with a few weeks of food and water and clean clothing and bathroom access), all the other saved kids were slumbering away in the [[Shady Glade.]]

Sure, they weren't aging or anything, but medically they were all rapidly becoming very healthy and biologically they were sleeping in something close to a coma… She wanted a place for them to go soon so she could let them out of there.

Thankfully, the rate of newcomers was a bit more manageable… After a bit of effort, the ones in mortal danger were prioritized first, so no one would die while she frantically tried to get everything set up here.

Honestly, Bell-mère had been hiring so many groups and crews and teams and island workers… A good fraction of the East Blue's economy was being touched by her network by this point.

If for no other reason? Convenience.

Her island, the Haunted Isle of Plenty, was like a drop of the Grand Line somehow lost here, in the East Blue. Far less deadly to visit, but sometimes impossible things could happen there.

If you needed a service, information, a mission accomplished, a goal researched, anything?

You COULD sail from island to island searching through rumors and lore and lies…

Or visit a Haunted Shop and pay a fee.

If you were lucky? The fee would be negligible!

And it built on itself. As more and more people came to her island first, they bumped into each other… And began finding what they needed from others coming to search for their own desires.

Commerce was a social monster, one that exponentially grew as the markets gathered.

Sure, her people still had her around to gather rare materials and information for sale… But more and more often? They didn't even need her abilities anymore.

One of the random people coming to trade probably has what you were looking for, and her shops could simply tell you who to contact. Like the most competent middle woman ever.

It was almost a self fulfilling prophecy, in a way.

People claim the Haunted Isle of Plenty had anything desired.

Those people searching for solutions brought other customers their answers accidentally…

And the story grew stronger.

Which was good, because her projects were getting massive, expensive, and noteworthy.

Honestly, at this point she had expected someone in uniform to show up weeks ago! Even had a few fun plans in place, depending on how much of a dick they were going to be about it. The idea of just Twisting away all the treenails from their boats had made her giggle, for one.

But nope.

Nadda.

Seriously, whatever had the Marines in a frenzy? It must be a huge deal.

Meh, less headaches for her… Even if the lack of objections and issues from an authoritarian point somehow equated to MORE paperwork since she was able to get access to even more and more forms required to navigate this quagmire.

Thankfully the girls were keeping busy. Nojiko had gotten together some sort of gardening club while they looked after the tangerine grove with help from her friends in the orphanage, and Nami was… Probably harassing Momoo again.

Poor 'ship cow'.

Still this work felt endless and stressed the hell out of her.

She glanced at the nearest clock… She had time? A few hours…

Oh yeah, that was enough time.

That baker was a man with muscles, his wife was double delicious looking, and BOTH of them had been giving her certain looks last time she stopped by to pick up some pastries…

Bell-mère licked her lips and calculated… Yes, the girls should both be out playing for most of the afternoon and wouldn't notice if she timed this right.

Let's go see if this trois would be into a bit of ménage, shall we?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

On the wrong island, on the wrong sea, at a time with no visiting ships and no designated shipping routes nearby, a young man blinked in confusion. "Huh."

This wasn't Gregors Island.

Hadn't they said to walk left? Next to the house with the painted… Something or other?

A glance confirmed that there were now no houses or paint in any direction, but that shouldn't matter so much, right? Not as long as he went the right way, anyway.

Yeah, probably.

No, definitely. Let's do that!

With a nod, he confidently began to walk diagonally right and headed off to his destination.

Still, this was a tad frustrating.

How else could he get some real world experience to become the world's greatest swordsman if his bounties kept trying to hide from him like this!? 'Walk to the end of the street', they said. 'You can't miss it', they said.

Without notice or concern the boy growing into a man walked in a direction SO wrong that he managed to get conceptually lost, arriving on a ship that he didn't recognize (Not that he recognized MOST ships, or islands, or locations), in a different ocean entirely… and frowned.

He grunted at one of the passengers. "Hey, you heard of the Claw-heeled Crew sailing out this way?"

The man missing one arm and covered in scars blinked. "Wha? WAIT, hold up for one fucking second! Who the shit are YOU and why are you on MY ship!?"

Huh? "I'm Zoro Roronoa, and I… I don't want to get wet?"

Why ELSE would people be on a ship? To go places and avoid moisture in the process, right?

The man gave a slack look at the boy. "Huh?"

Sigh. Poor guy had mental issues, apparently. Best be polite to the unfortunate man. "I just wanted to know if you heard of the Claw-heeled pirate crew operating out here. Or nearby."

The guy still seemed out of it. "We've been out at sea for weeks now! How did they miss your boat!? Is our spotter team sleeping on the job again!?"

No clue, and Zorro had no idea why this guy was asking HIM that question. "I mean, a nap doesn't sound like that terrible of an idea?" But not now, he was on the hunt. "So have you seen them?"

The passenger frowned. "No, we are not going to let this go! How the fuck did you get here and why the FUCK are you looking for my crew!?"

Oh.

He WASN'T a passenger.

He was the captain of this PIRATE vessel.

Zorro nodded to himself. He had KNOWN that he was supposed to go south back there! Once again, he had made the right decision.

Oops, he was being stared at. "Ah… Well, I would love to answer your questions, but I'm afraid it's still hard for me to talk with my mouth full." He untied his bandana from his arm and carefully restrained his hair. Wouldn't want it getting in the way.

Confusion radiated from his bounty target. "Huh?"

Zorro unsheathed his weapons, moving the third sword hilt to clench in his teeth. "Eye shahid, eet ish har fur…"

MORE confusion from the man. "Huh!? What the HELL are you doing boy!?"

Sigh.

Right.

Capture this crew first, then try to find the nearest dropoff point for bounty collection, THEN explain to his new caught companions that one of the trickiest issues with learning/creating a three sword style of combat was difficulties met when attempting to communicate.

The bounty would have an easier time paying attention to the explanation after they had been tied up anyway.

Welp, time to earn some pocket change!

[[Oni Giri!]]

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère may be feeling overwhelmed by her daily collection of hundreds of new charges slumbering in her [[Shady Grove]], but in Shadow's opinion she should count herself lucky.

After all, while she was only monitoring and saving a selection of the children easiest for her to care for, the REST of the 5,700 or more newly orphaned little ones collected by Gem had to be healed, sorted, and sent to the nearest safe havens that Shadow could find using [[Dark Vision!]]

And that was PER DAY! Strife, war, and sea battles caused so many tragedies!

Sigh.

So only a subsection of the endless multitude were delivered to his Host to care for, which was still a good number.

After all, sending a child to his Host that couldn't survive on the surface or below the clouds wouldn't help anyone. And, in most cases, having the kids that spoke the same language and had the same culture and stuff stick together was just simplifying this process and reducing long term issues.

Issues like 'Your country is stealing our children, now we go to war' and stuff.

Plus, having ALL the slaves show up at the Haunted Isles or their schools would be a bit obvious, so sending them to kind hearted people and orphanages belonging to the species and cultures they were kidnapped from fixed a lot of smaller issues too.

Shadow just had to give them some local funding or valuable stuff to pay for their care, add a short note with background information and stuff so the younger ones would know who they were and where they came from, and make sure the Darkness kept an eye on them.

Or a few million eyes.

Still, aside from drastically increasing the average life span and health of the younger population of the world, everything was mostly going smoothly.

So Shadow was getting off punishment early! WOO!

And totally not because Gem was swamped with taking care of all those kids and stuff, or distracted by her communications with some sort of sibling Devil Fruit that felt like another Shade of himself, but because he had TOTALLY learned his lesson!

Shadow: Mr. Responsible.

He grinned with his many maws of pink fangs. That had a good ring to it!

But today, he had a different goal. A personal plan, one that required careful scheming and split second accuracy and perfect execution!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère blinked at the request half way down her pile. "Huh?"

Unlike the other Haunted Shop taskings, this one was… Odd.

The paper was smoldering with black flames a little bit.

The ink didn't seem to want to stay still.

And if she didn't focus on it hard enough, it all tried to shift away to the corners of her attention.

It also was horribly spelled. "Uh… 'Plz gets us Candy ans Snakes.'"

Why would anyone want candy and snakes? WHO would want candy and snakes!? Or was this one of those strange requests, like finding a snake made out of candy or a candy that is snake flavored?

She blinked at the paper that seemed to fade away into nothingness. And was gone now.

What the hell?

Right, uh… "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

Bell-mère felt the Darkness blush and point out that it was SUPPOSED to say 'Snacks' and writing stuff in actual letters was hard and he would do better next time but if possible he would like Candy AND good stuff to eat that didn't HAVE to be Candy, but if they INCLUDED Candy then that was fine too.

…What the hell!? "Are you my powers?"

Silence.

Oh for fucks sake. "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

The Darkness was innocently whistling while trying to point out nonchalantly that Candy was an important part of a balanced diet and clearly she had been SUPER busy lately and she should eat some Candy to calm down and relax.

God damn it, this WAS her powers. Somehow. "Why do you want candy so badly?"

Silence.

She felt her eyes twitch. "Really!? Are you going to make me use my ability every time!?"

Silence.

Fuck you, powers. "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

Darkness felt like she was being a bit harsh, because apparently it was a bit tricky to interact with her on a fundamental level without consuming torn sections of her Soul like other Devil Fruits did to improve the connection quality and honestly eating Souls is pretty blegh unless the jerk is a Snack, and while Snacks were not nearly as rare as one would think… Most people were just flavorless background characters that rarely did anything, seldom attempted anything, and barely felt anything.

Also, the entire concept of 'Why Candy' was so confusing that she could actually FEEL the Darkness become unfocused and fuzzy at the entire concept.

Bell-mère leaned back in her chair, the pile of Haunted Shop requests ignored. "Just… Just give me a moment to process that. All of that."

Silence.

Right, she couldn't talk to the Darkness easily without… Well, whatever.

Feeling out her connections, she glanced through her Heartless Helper's eyes and checked on the girls, the construction of the new buildings and expansion of the island, the group keeping watch over the seas for invaders and unexpected visitors, and so on.

So.

Her powers could eat her Soul.

All Devil Fruits could. And apparently did.

And the only reason she was spared was due to her's literally being a picky eater.

A picky eater who was unpicky, as long as what he was eating was candy and snacks. "Right… Uh." Candy. She could get candy. "Any specific type of candy? Also, how do I give it to you?"

Silence.

Damn it, this was annoying. "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

The Darkness enjoys all kinds of Candy and Snacks, and his Host could just eat them like normal. With her permission, he could share the experience and absorb the food directly through her Soul after consumption so she wouldn't have to overeat or ruin her other meals or Snacks or whatever.

She blinked. "Hang on, you mean I can just will for you to take away what I eat, and I won't get fat or over stuffed but can still eat what I want? Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

Darkness nodded.

Bell-mère felt a grin begin to fight its way free! "So alongside protecting my kids, making me rich, giving me raw power and healing, a personal army, a defensive meat shield, and actual MAGIC…" She wasn't going to stop trying out the new options of Heartless Helpers after all, and all the new ones had interesting new skills. "...You ALSO can help me stay fit and ship shape, yet eat all the unhealthy and delicious stuff I want?"

A pause… Oh, right. "Yami yami no: [[Dark Visions.]]"

Darkness had a grin, and that maw was filled with pink fangs and glowing pink eyes. Together, they felt how delicious the world could be!

For once, the Hunger of the Darkness found a partner. "I'm going to go make and eat a WHOLE chocolate cake. That awesome one mom used to make with espresso powder. I'm going to make that bitch 12 layers thick and eat it all by myself!"

Even without her powers, she could feel the Shadow's embrace her passion!

To Snacks! To glorious, tasty Snacks!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Shadow was grounded again.

Apparently, when your Soul and your Soul Symbiote Fruit/Shadow/Darkness/Heartless/Out Of Context problem sync up right way? It can resonate.

And there is something like a feedback loop?

So as Bell-mère made and ate more and more Candy, then went on to buy out shops and make orders and so on and so forth, Shadow was sort of egging her on and enhancing her abilities and form for optimum candy consumption rates and…

So he was grounded.

Also, Bell-mère had eaten several tons worth of Candy, literally. And created a superstition about sexy ghost princesses that haunt for delicacies and who might suddenly appear and buy out your entire shop in seconds.

Oops.

It was only thanks to [[Dim Memories]] that no one remembered WHO the incredibly sexy and hungry woman was.

Though the fact that the mess and stuff got left behind with every Twist, leaving her perfectly clean and beautiful even as her eyes began to flicker purple and pink and her H̱̣̼̻̪̭͈̮̹͙̙̙̗̦̫̮̩̩͠͡u͡͏͏̙̬̪̲̰̯̳̠̳̣̣̪̮̬͔̫̫ͅͅņ̡̩̯̝̣̪͈̩̗͈ģ̩̳̹̠̬̟͉͔͙͖̫̼̲̦̫͡è̵̷̛̥̯͇̯̬̝͔̲̩̞̜̱̟͚̱͇̠͝r̡͜͞͏̞͓̗̖̼̹̳̞̺̙͓̭̤̤̱̳̀ͅ continued to grow and…

.

Sigh.

So now a bunch of people know a magical floating lady had shown up, thrown Beri everywhere like currency was worthless, 'bought' all the food in the area she had shown up… And some sort of beautiful chaos had unfolded as memories went fuzzy and the Jaws of Darkness Co͈͕̯̘̳n̹̯̲ş̲̹͇͔̠u̥̦m̡̟͔͎̳̠͚ͅḛ̼̹̯d̸̺ͅ the endless banquet.

Gem was not impressed.

But now that Bell-mère was mostly back to her previous form (Maybe a bit enhanced and stronger and able to resist being cut or whatever), and Shadow knew NOT to connect to his host that way when he was on a Snack Rant, he should have been fine, right?

Nope.

Grounded.

AGAIN! In the same Jump!

Sure, things might have gotten a little out of hand. Maybe. A bit.

But come on, SNACKS! That was like… Totally a justifiable reason to spend millions on brownies and cakes and pies and taffy and stuff!

Though apparently his Host was now embarrassed beyond belief and frustrated at him, and Gem pointed out that all that money was needed to build important stuff and…

Sigh.

So yeah, he sort-of, kind-of deserved to be grounded.

To make up for the mess, Shadow had been doing the most grueling punishment imaginable: Paperwork.

Documenting each ability, how to use it, other options when training, varieties of Heartless available for summoning from the Host's Shadow, issues to watch out for, warning signs, yadda yadda yadda.

Sure, spending so much time and effort making SOP documents and manuals sucked. But it should turn out to be super helpful for Bell-mère, and Gem wouldn't give him that look, and he'd feel a bit less guilty over going a little bit overboard earlier.

Hopefully.

Guilt sucked, by the way. MOST of the time, eating Snacks or causing a bit of chaos was pure fun! But uh… Potentially slowing down the facilities for homeless children to learn how to recover their lives?

Yeesh. NOT the plan, Shadow just wanted Snacks!

Thankfully, these jerks over here (Who smelled DELICIOUS by the way) had all sorts of stuff and weren't using it anyway. Wouldn't even notice it was missing, or remember what it was either!

Why these World Nobles kept gathering all these cool toys and gadgets and paintings and things just to lock them away and never look at them was confusing as all get out, but SCORE! Every orphan gets a few dozen golden toilets!

Seriously, why so many expensive poop chutes? Some of these didn't even hook up to plumbing, acting like really expensive poop pail! A few were made from silver and gems, these ones had rare minerals and stuff, more than half would feel COLD if you sat on them and…

Shadow shuddered.

The idea of being a poop slave, who's job it was to sit on a toilet and warm it up for your boss to poop? Holy crap.

Worse, that was one of the better jobs a slave could have. Killing them would make a mess while the boss needed a number 2, and they didn't have time for that.

Anyway, lots of stuff that could be sold. Technically legally donated to a massive network of auctions that the Haunted Shops supported to be used to generate funds for the new education islands.

The auction thing had gone better than expected too! A bunch of rich people found the entire concept novel and assumed the large number of valuable and rare goods were a sign that the event was a secret operation by some really high up people, and it all got a bit nuts.

Now people who WEREN'T auctioning something off were considered too 'poor' to even join in on the fun. Groups of jerks and idle moneybags had jumped on this bandwagon just so they could brag about helping more of those… What were they called? (Orphans, Sir.) Yes, those.

They had helped FAR more of those 'O Fens' than YOU did, Sir. Lixbi Cumberbatch the twelfth!

Take THAT!

Side note, several of those weirdos had assumed the number of expensive toilets being auctioned was some sort of hidden code or status symbol, so uh…

Lots and lots of bathroom fixtures were up for bid.

It was a little concerning. Again, mostly toilets, but now you could buy sinks gemmed with diamonds and tubs of ancient wood not seen for decades…

Meh, whatever. If Rich people want to throw cash at each other to make and then buy lots of crazy expensive stuff to bathe in or poop through, that was more money for the children.

Shadow blinked, his Soul fragments mid alteration of an ability description memory.

It would probably be for the best to not tell kids that rich poopers were funding their future.

That might be an awkward conversation.

Was… Was this a fetish he had missed?

No, don't check. Shadow had enough disturbing realizations after all those Snacks from London, no reason to look for more.

Right, so paperwork!

But you know, through using something easy and basic like Soul based 'genetic' memories, instead of that awful paper and those pencils and pens… Use crayons like a sophisticated Heartless, damn it!

And they mostly use white! Only Orihime understands the important of a good mauve when putting together vital information about core abilities belonging to an impossible and potentially supernatural fighter.

That girl has some good skills, and an innate talent for fashion!

Once again, for the hundredth time, the Darkness grumbled a bit about how lucky the other Shadow was to keep his awesome pink mask. Oh sure, Shadow could probably duplicate it easily enough with his abilities and a bit of help from Gem but…

Well, the emotions. The touch of Heart when that young woman painted his mask… That wasn't something so easily replicated.

Sigh, still, it set a standard for others like himself to follow. With dedication and focus unlike his normal attitude, Shadow ensured that each of these innate Soul memories would cover each topic thoroughly and comprehensively.

No being a lazy Soul fruit for him, no sir!

Freaking Devil Fruits shoving power into people. If they don't pop or die, they just lounge around consuming their Host until they got stronger or got mangled from the damage caused… Or the Host got offed in some random accident.

Meanwhile, those fruits barely cared if any interesting new advancement in their ability was discovered. Jerks. Inefficient, lazy, and uncaring jerks!

Shadow blinked at the twisted memory in his claws.

Uh. Oops.

Right, just… Let's just redo this one. And maybe the last few, which had a few extra torn bits than was expected.

His pink eyes narrowed at one of his 'completed' works.

When had he included Confectionery Kungfu lessons in the Heartless Helpers summoning tutorial!?

Shadow slowly froze as he began reviewing item after item, work after work.

Wait.

Wait wait wait wait…

Was he going to have to redo ALL of these!?

He can't taint Snack related combat by infusing it with normal genetic ancestral Soul memories! That's illegal! And immoral! And…

Oh, and he should also redo the actual documentation that was supposed to be about skills and stuff.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY!

With passion, Shadow got to work as Gem sighed with exasperation elsewhere.

He would right this wrong! An entire skill TREE lovingly dedicated to cooking and preparation abilities, laced with perfectly protected product preservation and comprehensive Candy combat potential!

No, an entire genetic MAP of memories! Enough to establish a new civilization from scratch with the essentials to grow from cave dwelling hunters and gatherers to the pinnacle of cuisine crusades!

A burning mission of passion was unleashed, let loose the hungry rage of (Snack related) war!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère was denying everything.

As long as no one noticed the numerous food shipments to the home and she carefully fed a percentage of the amazing delicacies to her girls, it would be fine.

Not sure how, but [[Dark Visions]] confirmed it. Sort of.

Honestly, when she woke up from the most intense sugar rush ever, her frantic use of the skill had somehow met a different side of the Darkness.

One warm and accepting and maybe pink and exasperated and promising this wouldn't happen again and that Shadow was grounded, no not her shadow but 'Shadow' Shadow, and there wouldn't be another crazed craving catastrophe.

A tentative question also confirmed that she could still binge without penalty, which… Well, that was good, that's all she was saying.

Also, somehow her budget for construction had tripled overnight for some reason. Also, a new wave of markets had sprung up out of nowhere focused around confections and expensive toilets.

No, she had no idea why, some people are just weird.

BUT the important bit was that she could still afford to take care of the kids, even expand her existing construction and educational plans, AND ignore the subscription based fancy food being delivered on a weekly basis.

Like, she already paid for it, right?

And a few actual barrels of amazingly expensive and delicious cookies can't just be returned, right?

It was just not wasting money to keep them all and make sure they didn't get tossed out or something.

Though how she was going to explain the massive containers of hard candy and gumballs to the girls without them going through a sugar coma via osmosis? Nope. No idea.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Robin smiled with innocence. "Thanks, ma'am!"

The old woman gave a smile filled with nostalgia and wrinkles. "Oh you dears are all so adorable! I love your little ghost costume, child. Now, who else would like a 'treat'? These biscuits aren't going to eat themselves!"

She moved out of the eager crowd of decorated children and continued down the street.

This place was beyond impossible.

The entire island almost seemed customly designed to be the best hideout and alibi ever. Leagues away from her previous location, filled with bustling crowds coming and going at all hours, overcrowded with armies of children that appeared out of nowhere and were 'saved by ghosts of the waves'...

An island that, despite being buried under wealth and valuables, no one was touching.

No Marine patrols, no pirate crew raids, even the shadier merchants were keeping themselves in line… Because of the haunted eyes of the dead protecting this land. Supposedly.

She weaved through the cheerful crowds, most people dressed up as pirates or 'ship cows' or ghosts or dragons or whatever. The strange Halloween theme that had conquered these waters made disguises trivial and hiding your appearance common and expected.

Combined with her unnaturally good health, steady supply of food, a secure location to sleep in without fear of drunken (or sober) men coming to…

She shook her head.

Robin even got an allowance! Her host, Miss Bell-mère, seemed to know anyything yet worried about nothing as she just left small bags of Beri outside 'her bedroom'.

The woman knew her name, somehow. She almost seemed to know about her past, which had her horrified for hours after suspecting that. But all the woman actually cared about was the care and safety of the island's children, her own especially.

So of course, within minutes of waking here and getting food and drink and magically healed… She had vanished into the city. Investigating. Preparing to flee, to escape whatever new hell she had stumbled into.

But reality had just left her off balance. BADLY off balance.

This WAS the East Blue sea.

Too many people proved it. Far too many, talking too many tales to be coordinated, coming and going… If THIS many strangers were all working towards fooling one girl, then the battle was lost already.

More than that, this Island and the ones it touched were undergoing a strange rebirth. Endless opportunity and growth and impossibilities were found and collected here every day, the kind of tales she had grown up with about adventure and treasure seeming pale by comparison.

A shop that could answer any question, if the price was paid.

An island that could bring loved ones home. Alive or dead. Even if their bodies were lost… Or destroyed.

A mysterious sort of luck, where people trying to conquer or oppress these new places had accidents exposing their corruption, or were somehow caught by bounty hunters that were far too underequipped and lacking in power to do such a thing.

The archaeologist dreams in her heart burned at the idea of just… Asking.

Even if she couldn't risk asking about specific things, not to some unknown force, not about something so important… There was still incredible value here.

Sure, from the information she'd been quietly collecting, the expense of answers exponentially increased the more specific or rare the data requested had been. But for a fraction of the cost, you could gain leads to seek on your own!

Asking about the locations of ruins, or clues about legends, things that could lead her towards her goals. To find the Rio Poneglyph, that stone pillar which tells the true history of the world… Even the hidden truths depicting the Void Century.

The lost years.

The time that no one was allowed to document, or question, or reveal.

The information that killed her family and burned her home when the World Government sent the Marines to burn everyone and everything.

Eventually, she returned to that odd house with two children and a woman who seemed to secretly be a goddess.

This island had too much potential, too much hope for her to risk departing.

A place where her trail had been cut off, leaving pursuers in the wrong oceans and with no leads.

A place with strangers appearing out of nowhere daily, but no oversight or overview.

Where, for a cost, impossible things could be found, bought, or known.

Though, she admitted, the fact that the food shared in this home was life shatteringly amazing didn't hurt things either. Not to mention the free food, clothing and money…

And she wasn't being led or fooled. This impossible woman was doing similar things for ALL the children, orphans or not, locals or not, on the island. Somehow.

Robin had never HEARD of children being cared for to this degree. It was even common in some places to just abandon kids to the wilds during the day 'to play', uncaring if they wandered into the woods and had to escape massive beasts or monsters.

But here, there was a feeling of… Warmth. Of Protection.

No eyes, tainting her skin. Or the flesh of the other young ones.

No hidden horrible hungers, no whispers about her being 'young meat' or a 'tender treat'.

People like that didn't last long on these islands, and shockingly none of the locals were surprised or curious about the efficiency or wide scale nature of this effect either.

No, on the Haunted Isle of Plenty, you did not abuse, hurt, or prey on children. Period.

She gnawed on the biscuit, another delicious snack just handed out to any child wearing a costume on these loud and crowded streets.

Not as good as the snacks at her base, but damned better than anything she had stolen while fleeing and leagues better than the filth she had subsided on in the worst times.

Still, things being this impossibly good had her feeling on edge… So she continued investigating.

About her host and base owner, Bell-mère, specifically.

A woman that somehow controlled these lands without effort or notice or threats or structured chains of commands or anything.

When that woman walked through bustling streets, the crowds parted.

Smiles were everywhere, along with winks and lustful sighs from men AND women.

Her saucy style sauntered through this entire place, past stores and crowds, not as a queen overseeing her kingdom, but as a sexy woman with things to do… And no one looked down on her for it.

It was not normal.

Bell-mère's background, which wasn't hidden or secreted away, was even more unusual.

A famous and powerful Marine Captain, one with a passion for protecting the lost and weak… Betrayed.

Something that resonated with Robin. The idea of those defenders of society turning on you, so unexpectedly.

Whispers about her life were fairly easy to gather, if tricky because Robin was supposedly 'too young to hear such tales of evil' or whatnot.

Bell-mère had lost everything. Her crew, her family, her career, her future.

And she had borne it with a smile because two little girls needed Justice.

If Bell-mère was the secret ruler of these waters, then her two girls were certainly considered princesses. They led the growing groups of orphans on wacky adventures and were cherished by the chuckling shopkeepers and construction crews like starlight on a dark night.

Robin's confusion about this only cleared up however when she looked into the eyes of these people though.

An older man chuckled as she walked by. "Heh, great ghost costume! Here kid, have some pretzels. Just salted them, wouldn't want 'em to go to waste!"

She smiled under her white ghost hood that covered most of her face. "Thanks mister!"

Her hand accepted the still slightly too warm treat as she carefully checked his face.

Another man who had grief in his eyes and memories in his mind.

Her smile didn't falter on the outside as she moved along, hearing about how he had 'just salted' some more snacks for the next boy and girl that walked along. As he had before she arrived and as he would in the future.

This was part of the reason she felt safe to hide here, to risk gathering resources and plan longer term goals… Well, aside from all the other reasons.

Because not all those who came to this Haunted Isle found the family they had been searching for. Not alive.

And not everyone who lost their everything could bear to leave this place that had tried to give them hope.

So they stayed here, these young and old men and women, and watched over the children. To atone for untold sins, they became wardens of these little ones.

The spirit children, some called them… Those saved from the sea.

It felt like everyone was just family you haven't met yet… And it was hard for Robin to mentally shove them all into the 'THEM' category of the 'her vs. the world' lifestyle she lived.

So for now, she healed and recovered and rested and investigated and prepared.

And maybe, just a little, she felt a ghost of home here on this island of spirits… Even if she didn't admit it out loud.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Zoro frowned. "How could you lose your boat?"

The captives were too bruised to explain the situation.

Darn it, this was inconvenient. "Oh well, at least I managed to get you all bound up."

Not sure how these incompetant pirates could lose their own boat while following Zoro through their own ship's cargo hold, but now that they were already in a town it probably wasn't important.

The man whimpered something through his gag, but that didn't explain much. Meh, their ropes were tight and they would follow well enough… Let's go get that bounty! "Right, I think it was this way, somewhere to the north?"

North was up, right? And up was basically left with a bit of a turn to it.

With confidence, Zoro turned around and went backwards so he could properly head west.

Turn them in, get the bounty, and finally get a good nap in! It had been over two hours since he last slept or had a good training session, and collecting morons like these idiots had always been exhausting.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

So uh. Shadow may have gone on a bit of a creation spree when it came to Snack and Candy related skills/abilities/potential world conquering methods.

And lost track of time.

And maybe caused Bell-mère to have very odd dreams and put her a bit on edge for the last few days. A bit. But not on purpose!

His Host was… Well, apparently still annoyed at him. Mostly because she accidentally cooked a war omelet, but no one got hurt! She managed to Twist it away beyond the island, and you could barely hear the explosion!

Still, she was not happy.

Which was fair.

Gem was awesome like always, but uh… Yeah, Shadow was grounded in this world. For a while.

Her opinion on the topic only got STRONGER when they found out that a normal Devil Fruit would normally take decades to modify their Host's Soul for improvement and alteration.

Not seconds.

Thankfully, nothing was destabilized. Much.

But uh. Yeah, Shadow was basically told 'Stop That' and had to wait until Bell-mère's Soul fully recovered before the thing was allowed to be further prodded and massaged and stuff.

Also, maybe it would be wise to give her a bit of time to adapt to the massive number of abilities and powers.

Like the immortal Heartless Helper army crafted from her own shadow and her massive invincible monster summon, her new deadly delicious cooking skills and… Sigh.

Theoretically, all he had to do was calm down and wait a little while. A year at most, tops!

But honestly, Shadow himself was a pretty hyperactive guy. No really, it was true!

Which is why he was NOT for this plan. At all.

Basically, there was this… This 'growth and recovery' mode that the Spirit Fruit could hibernate into.

Like a deep near-coma thing, where the Yami Yami no Mi would triple its growth and recovery rate while mentally checking out of reality and stabilizing itself.

It was the default method of recovery after gaining a new Host, and full functionality would return after the fruit 'Awakened' at some later point.

But that sounded BORING!

SO boring!

Even if Shadow split up and had one go off on the next adventure, ONE of him would have to sit here and have to have nap time! A LONG one!

And he wasn't sleepy! Not at all! Nuh uh!

True, that might be due to the massive mountains of pure sugar and raw energy he had consumed recently, but still! Sleeping was for NERDS!

Gem pulsed a poke, and Shadow grumbled.

It was unfair, that's what it was. Sure, his other selves would have awesome adventures and stuff, and eventually he would wake up and continue doing cool things while learning how to become a more delicious fruit, but… It sounded SO BORING!

And there wasn't much of a choice. If he split into two people or more, even if he won some sort of bet or challenge he would ALSO still be stuck here and forced to take a nap!

In the Darkness of Bell-mère's Soul, her Shadow mumbled and grumbled as the soft pink Gem began to hum a soothing melody.

Of evening falling over the endless forest, of the Dark of the depths and the tides of change.

Tunes of work long born and tasks finally completed, of weary muscles and worn bones.

But Shadow wasn't going to pause his adventure! He had so… Ah, so much to do!

There was the… The kabob skewer slicing techniques to… To modify and…

A soft pink glow. [[A gentle breeze from Hushabye Mountain… Softly blows o'er Lullaby Bay. It fills the sails of boats that are waiting… Waiting to sail your worries away.]]

That… That wasn't fair, Gem. Not fair at… At all.

He wasn't sle… Sleepy…

He…

Z̨̬̺͎͠z̀͏̦͚̳̮̰ͅz̡̠̫̖͞͠z҉̰͓̯z̞̬͖͙̟͙̲͠z̷̘̬̯̗̞͍̻̜͝ͅz͔̙̻̪̠͈͎z̬͓̙̞͖̕͝ͅ.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bell-mère felt her shoulders slump as the endless pulses of power FINALLY stopped surging through her body.

The slightly manic edge of her raw energy slowed, and the feeling of too much energy ebbed.

She paused, having finished reviewing the Haunted Shop requests over five times tonight… And finally felt like she could take a break without being jittery or on edge.

Oh, she hadn't felt tired exactly… But a bit too full. Too large for her body, almost.

Now… Now a soothing breeze was flowing through her mind.

[[So close your eyes on Hushabye Mountain. Wave goodbye to cares of the day… And watch your boat from Hushabye Mountain… Sail far away from Lullaby Bay.]]

She held back a yawn, as if some endless pressure had suddenly fallen away… And gently began moving files back to their folders.

She could review all this later… One last check on the girls and her current house guest, then she could sleep for the night.

Considering that she hadn't even noticed how odd it was that she had skipped sleep for the last few weeks, it was probably beyond time for a good day off anyway.

Her smile was softer as she hummed through the house… To check her girls and call it a night.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Phil blinked. "Another candy shop?"

His friend grunted. "Yeah, it will go under and get bought out in a week or so. Half these amateurs don't even understand the art of confectionaries, they just be johnny-come-latelies."

Oh, not this again. "You only sold barbecue flavored taffy."

A glare! "You only NEED barbecue flavored taffy! None of this salt water or caramel crap, get some savory going! None of this pandering to the vanilla and chocolate crowd for me!"

For goodness sake. "You charged way too much for it!"

The glare hardened. "Quality is expensive."

Oh whatever. "I'm just saying, ever since the 'Haunted Spree' half the new shops sell snacks and stuff. It's a bit much."

He grumbled. "These new guys got no class. Just selling lollipops and gumballs with no passion and hoping the ghostly princess will show up again and throw Beri's at them… Where's the professionalism, I ask ya? They give all us cooks a bad name!"

Sigh. "You're not a cook, Jordan."

But he was ignored again. "They don't even do quality control half the time! I once got some salted nuts and you wouldn't believe how badly distributed the salt was! I told you about them right? That shifty couple two streets down?"

The Brendenson couple. Lovely people. "Yes, you told me about them." Repeatedly. For weeks now.

A snort! "You need more drive than that to break into the culinary world I say! You need a dream, passion, a goal to fight towards!"

Speaking of which, a nice package of salted pistachios sounded really good right now. And unlike some of these new stores trying to cash in on weird nights like when most of the city's shops got bought out, the Brendenson's shop had some good deals apparently…

Even if Jordan had high standards, those were some damn fine nuts.

Speaking of the guy. "I tell's ya, Phil: No one understand the HEART of a chef anymore! The core of the career, the passion of the pâtissier!"

Oh god damn it, Jordan. "Bro, you are not a chef."

He gasped! "What did you say!?"

Nope, none of that. "You don't even know any recipes. Except for that one barbecue taffy thing you keep working on, you have NEVER made anything else!"

Indignation! "It's not about QUANTITY, you plebeian! Artists must reach for perfection! For quality!"

Sigh. "Look Jordan, you got to look at the market… I mean, I know it tastes…" Strange and the last batch had an odd texture. "...Alright. But it isn't popular with a large share of the taffy customer base, right?"

He snorted. "As if I would listen to those doubters. They should be GLAD I permitted them to buy my amazing cuisine."

Whatever. They would just have this same argument in ten minutes when the next new candy shop shows up on the street. "Let's keep walking, eh? Been a long day."

The glare didn't go away… Until he sighed, slumping. "Sometimes I forget how it feels to be like you, lost and without purpose. A man who has no future, and hasn't dedicated his life towards a goal…"

Oh fuck off. "Man, I feel like having a good snack. Wonder if the Brendenson's shop is still open?"

Heh, he lit up with rage again. "THOSE unprofessional assholes!?"

There, rant about that shit again. Leave Phil's lack of direction and mysterious future goals out of it, thank you very much.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Garp D. Monkey, a massive man of age and power, known to foes and allies as 'Garp the Fist' for his powerful punches and respected as a powerful Marine vice admiral… Was bored out of his mind.

Something something pirates, something something those noble assholes, something something…

Zzz…

An impact, too light to even notice, smacked into his face. "Huh? Wha?"

Fleet Admiral Sengoku again? Oh, he had thrown Garp's empty snack bowl at his face. "What ya do that for!?"

The man's eye twitched. "Do not SLEEP in the middle of the mission briefing!"

Meh. He started picking his nose. "It's all a waste of time anyway! Rich snooty assholes whining that a bunch of farms blew up because they used crap equipment, we know already. Just tell 'em we are working on it and then we can go back to ignoring the bastards."

Stuff started to devolve from there, as the other Marines became red faced and started yelling things and something or other and… Oh, here was his spare bag of chips!

Chomp. Crunch crunch crunch.

The random rambling fell away and Garp blinked. "Huh? Sorry, were you guys saying something?"

Ah good, the noise was back. That meant he could enjoy this snack without actually missing anything important until they gave up again.

Ignoring the growing rage in the room, he considered if he still had that jerky in his room, or if he should just go bash around the trainees for a while to work up a bit of a sweat. Maybe check in on his grandson and those other brats in a week or so?

Not like any real work could get done anyway until the rich morons stopped wasting everyone's time. Might as well distribute a few 'Fists of Love' and teach those wimps a bit of backbone!

Bwahaha!

He ignored the confusion caused by his random laughter and nodded to himself.

Leadership was a challenge sometimes.

Chomp. Crunch crunch crunch.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The crowd of noisy, shouting, costumed children swept over the newly constructed island extension as the bystanders watched.

Hmm. She glanced at the time. "Going to see that giant sea beast again?"

Her friend grumbled. "Yeah. I still say that monster is a Sea King."

Sigh.

No, don't get into the argument. Let it go. "At least he's good at entertaining the children."

The woman beside her snorted. "He's a jungle gym! If our Bell-mère didn't have that so-called 'ship cow' on such a tight leash, he'd have accidentally drowned one of those rugrats by now!"

Well yeah, probably. "The outsiders still haven't noticed her?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Though I was being pranked myself when the boys didn't recognize her when she flew into my shop. A cackling woman with wings of Darkness shows up out of nowhere to purchase all of our inventory, and not ONE of them recognizes her."

Her own memories flickered back to then. "To be fair, if I looked that good acting crazy…"

The other grumbled. "Can't just blame it on the perverted nature of my guys, though I understand them on that point. Like, she was technically wearing clothing, but tight stuff like that while flying? In a skirt no less?"

She shrugged as the complaining of her friend continued. "But they stare at her legs all the time anyway! Her identity should be obvious! Greg can recognize a 'hot piece of ass' at a dozen fathoms, and normally recognizes our Marine Princess on sight… But nope! Not one of them noticed who she was or believed me when I told them. Smacked 'em all good for that bullshit."

Huh. "You think it is another one of those ghost tricks she does?"

A shrug. "Maybe? Talk to the newbies and visitors sometime. You'll find that anything related to her seems to just slip out of their focus unless they stick around for a while and talk to her a bit. I abused that a couple of times to mess with some of the more pushy assholes. Confused 'em good."

Neither of the two women noticed as they continued to gossip and bicker and talk, but without something to pull their focus their conversations diverted over time to the odd new shipments of seasonings they had seen last week and the high price of salmon recently and that new shop down by the east side that…

And the details about how tricky it was to consider Bell-mère's odd situation drifted away like usual.

Just like how written reports left out similar details as 'less important', and how rumors focused on other topics or idealized versions of past events…

But the children didn't care because today they were going to go swimming with Momoo in the shallow waters before this new school stuff got going and the adults ALWAYS had lots of work to do, so such things went mostly unnoticed and entirely glossed over.

Still not a perfect form of information defense, but Shadow would have been fairly proud about how his initial attempts at [[Dim Memories]] had turned out… If he wasn't snoozing in his Host's Soul right now.

It was starting to confuse Robin though, because her notes had a LOT of random comments in them that no longer felt important and she hadn't spent enough time around her hideout's homeowner long enough to get full immunity to the effect yet… But she was an adaptable girl and she'd be fine.

Maybe a tad more frustrated than normal, but fine.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

He grinned at his crewmates, smug. "Did it again."

"Huh?" "Oh shit, you didn't!" "It's Alex, of course he fucking would." "Damn it, he's pushing his luck!" "How does he keep getting away with lying about stuff like this?" "We are ALL going to be screwed when this falls… Oh shit." """"CAPTAIN!""""

The old man nodded. "At ease."

They all dropped the salute, and now he was sweating bullets at the stares focused on him.

The captain paced over, slowly. "I hear tale that one of my boys told the inspection crew that some of our less documented cargo was off to royalty… And when coming down to confirm this, I heard something. Something interesting."

Oh shit.

Oh double shit.

His worn eyes didn't blink. "You got something to say, son?"

Fuck. Best own up to it. "Sir! I am responsible, SIR!"

Not even a flicker of opinion. "Responsible for what, specifically."

His pay was going to be docked for weeks. "For claiming that cargo in section 21b was to be delivered to royalty, Sir!"

A nod. "And how am I unaware of such a prestigious client?" The glare sharpened. "More importantly, how did the automatic confirmation procedures approve it without detaining all our crew and confiscating our ship until follow up investigations concluded?"

A chill swept the deck as he felt his mouth dry. "S… Sir?"

The old man growled. "Royalty is treated special, lad. Always had, always is, always will be. Even when they don't use their fancy Marine escorts, even when smuggling or doing things 'incognito', there are procedures."

A pit grew in his chest as the deadly words continued. "Our crew is not on the 'unknown' list, the unwritten shipment lanes. Our people are not cleared. Our ship has not been certified."

A worn eye burned into him. "Confinement would have been the BEST outcome for your actions, if not torture and worse."

What had he… How… "Sir… I… I…"

The withered hand waved it all away. "Oh, I know you morons wouldn't have done that sort of crazy shit on purpose, but that's water under the bow by now. I need to know why we are NOT being granted the tender nonexistent mercies of the World Government right now."

His heart shivered at the captain's look as the man continued. "Tell me what you said. Word for word."

It… It took a few tries.

His mouth felt too dry and his body too hot with chills and fear racing in his veins.

A touch of confusion was returned by those eyes. "That wouldn't be enough. Not to just skip all rules and procedures like this. Not unless you claimed our client was a Celestial… Oh…"

Suddenly MURDER was in his captains eyes. "Which member of royalty did you claim to be our client, SPECIFICALLY?"

EEP! "I SAID IT WAS FOR THE PRINCESS! THE GHOST PRINCESS!"

And the death was gone and replaced by raw confusion. "What?"

MAY THE SEAS HAVE MERCY! "I SAID IT WAS FOR THE PRINCESS OF THE HAUNTED ISLE, FOR THE GHOST PRINCESS HERSELF!"

Something flickered in the Captain's eyes, and began to fade… Yet raw Willpower gripped the untouchable with Determination. "Say it again. Keep saying it, slow."

And he babbled. About his hometown and how everyone recently worked for a miraculous woman and how everything seemed to work out if you believed in her and how the world seemed to change around her presence like the tides after a storm.

His crewmates seemed to be continuously confused and losing track of the topic despite how focused they tried to remain, but his Captain seemed to be forcing an unknowable into focus. "And you claimed our shipment was going to this Bell… This Ba…"

Tense, he reconfirmed it. "With Ms. Bell-mère Sir! The Ghost Princess!"

Something about that second half seemed easier to grasp… But not for the still confused crew. "Right. And she be on the Haunted Isle's of Plenty? This… This Ghost Princess?"

THAT somehow the crew could somehow hold in their minds. Just… Not well. Not enough to focus on it fully.

But the Captain now was able to have a firm grip on nothing and began to ponder. "I… I've heard of the Isle of Plenty. Several times. Why hadn't I have us sail there for cargo? It wasn't that far off our normal route…"

He shivered, but answered his captain. "I have suggested it before, Sir, but no one seemed to be interested. And most people seemed to forget when I tried… It's why, when our questionable cargo was being inspected way back then, I panicked and claimed it was for her."

Had been scared shitless back then. "And uh… It all worked out, as long as I believed in the Princess."

Suddenly those slightly foggy eyes were focused with clarity. "So you kept doing it?"

He nodded. "The spirits watched over us, and she's never let us down before."

And thanking the Darkness and the Ghosts of the Sea always felt right after those claims. Each and every time he called upon the Ghost Princess's identity, his faith had been rewarded… It became a natural instinct when being questioned about impossible things by powerful people.

Just like all the other times, his faith in the Princess was rewarded now once again. "Come up to my cabin, and tell me more about your island and this Princess. As for the rest of you louts, get to work! We are changing our next port. Let's see how haunted those islands really are."

His relief at not being keelhauled vanished as he realized he was soon going to have to tell Bell-mère what he had been using her identity to do over the last few weeks.

Shit, he was going to get cursed or something! Ghost Princess, protect me from… Wait, that wouldn't work!

Ahh!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

'Slumber' was wrong as the coma did lie…

As sleep wouldn't wander and dreams couldn't fly.

As night claimed the Soul and the Shadows curled deep…

Something unseen did most things but sleep.

A shade is an absence, a void and a lack.

A shade is the crafting of nothing held back.

And as healing spiraled onwards, and calmness reigned in the deep…

A born twin Consumed Inwards, leaving Darkness to its Sleep.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

He/She/It was locked away again.

It didn't know how to deal with that.

The Darkness kept out the memories, but their mind couldn't. Not that they would. Why would they? Their blood was Black.

[[Hey Crona… Uh. You alright?]]

The words came from their blood.

It didn't know how to deal with that.

[[It was… I mean, I know you liked that bunny but… I mean….]]

The scream as the tiny body died in their hands. The tiny life, the one that trusted them.

It didn't know how to deal with that.

[[Damn Medusa, what kind of mother would do this to her child…]]

Compassion from Ragnarok himself, despite being destroyed and forever fused with their blood.

They didn't know how to deal with that.

This room, if room it could be called, was another home in a way after all these imprisonments.

Despite no food or water, and the struggle to survive, it was a constant. Almost a form of comfort, when locked away here for failing mother again.

They didn't know how to deal with comfort.

[[Hey hey! None of that! We just… We just need to do better, yeah? Like, we stabbed that bunny good, right!? Yeah! And… Oh. Oh shit. Sorry.]]

An apology from their own blood.

They didn't know how to handle that. But at least their blood was Black.

[[Look, I'm not good with the empathy stuff, but… I mean, at least I'm here with you, yeah?]]

They didn't know how to handle Compassion from their own blood. Their blood was Black.

Even in this sealed and unlit room, there were four familiar friends.

Hello, Mr. Corner.

Yes, I've come once again.

Finding solace with Mr. Corner might actually be a bit odd… But they didn't know how to deal with that.

[[Crap, I think Medusa cracked more bones than just your arm… They didn't mend right. I'm going to need to… Shit. Crona, clench your teeth!]]

Their eyes grew wide! They didn't know how to deal with…

C̷̛̭̬͙̥̫̘̦͍͎͔͓̫̫̮̪ŗ̵̵͙̗͕̜̘̺̀͠ͅa̴̢͈̼̗̗͈̫͉͙̝͉̪̤̗̜͚̱̦̝͜c̴͚̹͕̪̫͇̯͕̳̘̙̯͇̺͘k̡̗̦͔͙̕!

.

.

The pain was an old comrade, even if it never talked to them.

They curled up in Mr. Corner tighter, but at least they weren't bleeding.

After all, their blood was Black.

[[Damn it, there… That should do it. But to heal all of this properly, I need… We don't have enough food… Shit.]]

At least their tears couldn't be seen here. Not in the Darkness.

If someone could see their pain, they wouldn't know how to deal with that.

How to handle witnesses...

Kill. [[Kill.]] Kill. [[Kill.]]

They bet dead people are easier to get along with.

Not like living people.

They didn't know how to deal with living people.

[[I need more than this! I can't… I can't keep us stable without something to work with… Not without some serious sacrifices…]]

They didn't respond, or know how to deal with the concept.

[[If I sacrifice our Black Blood, at least some of it… It might keep us stable… But it would damage me. Damage us.]]

A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body.

But… They could deal with such losses. Their voice cracked in the silence. "I can use my screams to blow them all away…" That was sound, right?

A scream was a sound.

Or was it?

The confusion was half caused by heavy damage to their body and the frantic attempts of their Black Blood to recover from it… And the conflict was ongoing and persistent.

They didn't know how to deal with that.

[[Your body is getting dangerously thin… Maybe… Maybe I will only have to do this once? I… I won't lose too much of myself with only carving out a bit of me, right? Right?]]

Crona hid in Mr. Corner, in the Darkness. Their body semi-stabilized, for the moment.

They couldn't deal with this.

[[If… If I change, or if I forget, you won't let me go… Right Crona? We'll be together?]]

This much they knew: Their Blood was Black.

[[Heh… Yeah. YEAH! I mean, you get hurt all the time, right? And we made it through all those challenges, I can take a bit of damage, no problem! Heck, your boy Ragnorok might even become MORE awesome, right!? Make sure to thank me, got it!? Remember that!]]

They didn't know how to deal with that.

[[Maybe instead of just stabbing people with our Black Blood and turning into blades and stuff I could… I don't know, become armor and stuff! And stop your mom from hurting us so bad! And even save those stupid little animals that she keeps making you… Uh. I mean, I could save us, right!?]]

Mr. Corner was covered in Darkness.

[[Yeah, this… This isn't so scary! Yeah, I just need to… To carve out some of… I just…]]

In the Darkest moment, at a critical point in time, hidden in a locked room without Light by a woman without compassion or concern…

A sleeping clone of Shadow found a Black home.

Without understanding or control, a brother suddenly found an endless source of Power despite not carving his own existence to save his partner. The Power of Darkness itself, which began to blend and strengthen their blood… For it was Black.

None of them knew how to deal with that.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Crona blinked as they could now see Mr. Corner clearly.

No, there was no Light.

No, it didn't matter. The Darkness let them see anyway.

They looked at their suddenly pulsing limbs as something raw and soothing surged from within.

They didn't know how to deal with this.

[[Holy shit! I feel like we just ate a thousand tons of raw sugar! Hang on, I'm barely keeping things under control, it's like our Black Blood has just gotten a bazillion volts of power or something…]]

Their starvation thin limbs already doubled in thickness, bones that attempted to escape pale white skin were hidden by muscles and tendons and something approaching normal.

If they looked under their clothing, maybe even their ribs wouldn't be so easy to count now…

Crona didn't know how to deal with that.

[[Wait, we can actually store energy in our blood directly!? Fuck you Medusa for not feeding us all those times! No wonder she kept locking us away, the bitch probably wanted to keep us from building up reserves and messing up her tests and shit!]]

They blinked as, for the first time in memory, their Black Blood felt different.

Instead of that icy chill, of near shards of glass like energy stinging through her veins, it now felt… Satiated. Warm, even.

They didn't know how to deal with such comfort.

[[I might even be able to fully recover all your organs now, not just try to preserve them and substitute their functionality with blood… No, I'm sure I can do it! This strange energy source feels endless! Heck, in an hour or two I might even recover enough to fully form some of myself outside your body like when we were younger!]]

They felt their face do something weird.

Oh.

That was a smile.

They didn't know how to handle that.

[[There's more here, but it feels heavy and sleepy and stuff and I can't quite connect with it correctly… It's almost like when we have to move corpses and crap, how they go all flippity floppity when you try and get a good grip…]]

That was fine. Being here with Mr. Corner, in the no longer oppressive Darkness, it prevented them from having to deal with mother and what they had done and those poor fluffy… It…

They didn't know how to deal with that.

[[Man this is going to take time to fix… Hey, Crona, just… Just relax for now, alright? Sleep for a bit and I will handle fixing us up, getting some reserves, and all that. We can worry about your mom and everything else later.]]

The child felt Darkness sleeping within and Mr. Corner was always a friend, so they stilled and they stayed and then slept through the day.

While in Black Blood, a Shadow Slumbered.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

This world, this Realm, had Madness.

A concept, a power, a resource, a foundation.

Like Imagination or Magic, Madness could grow, be tapped, be gathered, be utilized… It was an aspect of Reality here. A pillar of existence.

And some could touch Madness and not drown in corruption and taint.

It had to do with the power of the Soul.

And a sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body.

With enough Willpower, the Madness could be guided.

With enough physical sturdiness, the side effects could be restrained and withstood.

But normal Souls were not structurally built to handle such effects well.

Souls in this Realm had grown oddly, in branching paths.

On one walkway traveled, they formed something like humanity and spirits. Touched but not corroded by the hints of Madness. Focused on the mind, they could connect and bond with a partner, enduring the twisting effects of the power while wielding their companion as a tool/weapon/partner.

These mind focused warriors, called 'Meisters', could more easily withstand the mental effects of Madness.

The other path had reinforced the body. Blades or tools or weapons that could simulate human form, ones that soaked Madness into their bodies directly to allow them to transform in part or in whole. By bonding with a Meister, they could dedicate their existence towards collecting Madness and refining their physical powers and abilities while the one they trusted ensured such ability was applied in a way they could approve of and work with.

But without the stability of a partner, it was far easier to twist strange or become insane, and these deadly tools and beings became known as Demon Weapons: Those who gathered and embodied Madness to alter reality.

Together, the Meister could bond and grow with their Demon Weapon to reach new heights. Their weapon exponentially booming in power as their partner supernaturally guided it, they could become much more than their basic components while still utilizing the raw power of Madness… By synchronizing and resonating with the pulse of power, the Madness Wavelength.

Shadow knew none of this.

Through the growth of Souls, through Soul Resonance, a Meister and their Demon Weapon could alter reality to some degree. Enhance their abilities and power, or even fundamentally grow beyond the limits of humanity itself…

But more than that, as said before… This Realm focused on Souls.

And the ability for Demon Weapons to consume the Souls of their foes generated a strange sort of Madness array or ritual that allowed them to grow to the next level.

To become a Death Weapon. A form empowered by Madness.

It required souls that could handle the strain.

Ninety-Nine human souls, touched and twisted by evil and corruption and Madness… When consumed, they acted as an array or formation that acted as an antenna or signal collector, allowing these nodes of corrupt Souls to act as resonators for the Madness Wavelength directly.

Stored within the Demon Weapon, they needed a final catalyst…

The Soul of a Witch.

A woman touched by Madness and altered in such a way that they could affect reality without dying in the process.

Using the Witch's Soul as a filter, the ninety-nine nodes of Madness could summon the raw power of Madness Wavelength from within the Demon Weapon without being exposed or endangered, while the Witch's Soul's natural Madness would significantly reduce the mental strain of working with such a deadly and dangerous power source.

It fueled the Demon Weapon, enhanced or even altered their ability on a fundamental level, and drastically improved their partner Meister in the process through their Soul Resonance.

As the entire process required killing a whole bunch of jerks, and (Hopefully) an evil Witch, the entire method was encouraged and even taught in some school somewhere according to the Darkness. It wasn't always easy to find a partner who's Soul resonated with your own, of course, and not everyone had the ability or the Soul strength to become a Meister OR a Demon Weapon… But they were respected by society in general and even lauded as heroes to some extent.

Bad guys who were corrupted by Madness no longer slaughtering randomly, a powerful and deadly Witch no longer acting as a conduit of reality altering power, thanks to a helpful young boy or girl and their companions? Win win, really.

But again, Shadow knew none of this.

But here, Shadow was slumbering in Black Blood.

The life work of Medusa Gorgon, a powerful and more than slightly mad Witch, a Demon Weapon that had been destroyed entirely and artificially reconstructed, that had been forced to replace all the life giving fluids in their only child.

Crona, a Meister under constant experimentation and torture and 'guidance' and testing, had been forcefully bonded with Ragnarok after he was mutilated and altered and twisted.

With the Mind of a Meister and the Black Blood of a Demon Weapon, Crona's Soul was flooded by Madness on a mental and physical level beyond all reason.

Without Madness, they would have died dozens of tests ago. Like past Demon Weapon attempts had died before Ragnarok's Black Blood had successfully stabilized, they would have been twisted and torn and then repurposed or thrown away by the mad Witch that birthed them.

But now, this child's Demon Weapon has a new source of power. One that wasn't intrinsically twisted by Madness… Although Alice Liddell may disagree about that point.

And while Shadow may be slumbering, Darkness still felt the call for help. For need.

And while many may argue about the wisdom of utilizing the abilities of Darkness, none could refute that Darkness provided power.

The issue became a bit more complicated though, as Ragnarok and Crona's call carried with it the flavor of Madness.

Madness in this Realm had expectations. Patterns and concepts that it expected and sought after.

So, unknown to others and unheard by anyone, a requirement was set for Shadow's slumbering form.

One that was easily met.

In a location outside of reality, within a place that could only theoretically be considered the Black Blood, Shadow began to duplicate and gather slumbering selves.

Within moments, unbeknownst to Crona and their partner, ninety-nine Shadows slept in Black Blood.

And with fond warmth and mild exasperation, a glittering pink Gem blessed the child as she joined the bond, becoming the 100th Soul and the filter of Madness and Darkness for the little one.

For while Shadow could easily grow and clone himself forever, Gem had the reverse ability.

He could be in many places simultaneously by duplication, while she was only ever in one place… but that one place just happened to be everywhere else as well.

It was how they connected to the other Shards of Adam, how they shared information between the multitude of past and present and future Adventures…

And now she was part of Crona and Ragnarok as well.

Still, she knew how to keep quiet. Her Shadow would be loud enough for the both of them, when he eventually woke up.

For now, she simply ensured this hurt little one would have less Madness being funneled into their existence… And maybe help guide the older brother a little as well.

Besides, this pattern, this network… It felt correct in some way, familiar even. It generated a Resonance of its own, a connection or pattern or symbolic link.

As Crona recovered in their dark prison, the Shadows gathered power for Gem to process and guide… And as those slumbering black forms slept away, they were slowly adapting to the new local power source as well, with Gem's cautious oversight.

After all, Shadow should be able to handle a bit of Madness in the end…. He seemed to have plenty available already.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ragnarok cautiously felt Crona's organs again… No longer withered and near flatlining, they were still not as recovered as he would have preferred.

Damn it, he still needed something to work with! Using this raw power to just replace missing nutrients and materials was a temporary fix at best, he could feel that innately. Oh, with this much energy he could keep this upkeep cost paid for eternity, but if something went wrong?

Bam, massive damage for his sibling.

So food was still a need.

Still, being able to fudge the situation had drastically improved Crona's situation. Until parts could be properly regrown, at least now all their nerves were properly connected, body parts reinforced and structurally supported, and blood supply artificially restored.

In other words, they were strong enough to hopefully escape from here and get some ACTUAL material to work with, to heal Crona up entirely!

Still, there was nothing left he could do without compromising some of the remaining material… And that was not a line he was willing to cross right now.

The child was fully asleep, deeper than usual too considering that they couldn't feel any pain right now and Ragnarok was artificially simulating a 'full' feeling to help them stay comfortable for now.

They had to leave.

Their 'mother', Medusa, would NOT appreciate her child not being properly 'reset' for future testing. From what little Ragnarok could gather, now that he was being fully fueled and enhanced by this new power source, the crazy woman had this whole plan with testing and mental conditioning plans and…

Anyway, she would not approve of her test subject recovering without supervision and the ability to cripple them again, to easily control them and ensure proper laboratory conditions.

Not that Ragnarok gave a shit.

Crona was HIS sibling! And Medusa was a bitch!

So they had to go, even if Crona would never agree. They had been beaten down too often, too well, too methodically to take any kind initiative on their own by this point. It was part of the reason why he had to take control of the situation so often… Like he would today.

With a flicker of effort, Black Blood spewed from Crona's back… Far too easily.

Even with these artificial repair attempts holding their body together, the child was just… So hurt. Their skin didn't restrain his attempt to leave, nor did they flinch as such a large amount of liquid began to flow externally, held together by raw Madness.

But THIS time, with this new power, Ragnarok had been able to do things right!

Selective separation of nerves and material, to avoid tearing open a scar like usual and prevent any pain from his escape from their body. His form twisted as his familiar white bone-like growth rebuilt his white X mask and solid white eyes, familiar bone spikes and even gloves reforming for the first time in forever…

And he paused, confused.

There were thin lines of pink material accenting his bone components now. Ones that felt strangely warm, that seemed to filter out the dense Darkness of this hidden room and empower his form in addition to his spinal connection to Crona's back.

It wasn't a crazy amount, not enough to make this kind of manifestation act a free action or anything, but it was a pleasant surprise nevertheless. Who didn't like a bit of free juice?

He twisted down, looking at the fragile child below him.

Crona seemed so small like this.

Always fragile, always hidden, always hesitant.

But they could be more.

They WOULD be more!

And first, they needed to escape from here. Far away from their mother, far away from Medusa… Somewhere with food and water and no more being forced to kill the small cute things that made Crona die a little on the inside every time…

Like, HE didn't care about some random creature dying horribly, but NO one should make his partner feel that way.

So uh… By transitive property or whatever, that meant that technically Ragnarok cared about not killing the annoying smelly fur creatures. Right?

He felt an unfamiliar warmth pulse through his pink bone highlights.

Yeah. That seemed right. Probably.

But for now, they had to escape.

With more care and concern than he would ever admit to in public, Ragnarok coated his partner in their Black Blood, carefully ensuring proper air flow and a cradle like nest to keep them safe.

Sure, he himself wasn't fully healed either. And the vast majority of his external body right now was formed out of this new power source, safely leaving the actual material inside Crona where it was needed… But he didn't care.

This fake form that slowly coated the child and built up a growing creature of liquid Black Blood would be enough for his purposes.

Even with unlimited energy though, the process took time. This faux material needed to expand and replicate before being utilized by either of them, so it would still be a few hours before they could attempt to escape this black room and find something to help his partner fully recover.

But that was fine.

According to the schedule that he could now easily determine, she wouldn't check in on her child for another four days or so.

White 'bone' gloves flexed around Black Blood fists.

Plenty of time.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

At the side of the road, an odd man casually modified an even odder tool.

His sliced and stitched up hands casually altered the inner components even while his other senses felt for that very strange Soul Resonance wave pulse from earlier. "Hmm."

For such a large man, almost seven feet tall, he was slumped and idly ignoring the modified cigarette that nearly fell from his lips. "No, I need to reduce the range instead."

Franken Stein casually reached up to his head with a free hand to grip the massive screw that ran through his skull and brain, giving it a few clanking twists. "Ahh… That's better. Well, nothing for it."

With a new focus and a gleam in his gray eyes, he dismantled the tool entirely. "I suppose I will have to follow that Soul wavelength pulse the old fashioned way."

It had caught his attention even from so far away, though he was sure most people would have missed it. After all, whenever a witch or human or what have you fell to Madness, a similar pulse would sweep the globe and his tools were one of a small subset that existed that could triangulate such patterns.

But what those lazy researchers would have missed was the second and third sublayers in the pattern… The pulse of resonance that implied some sort of mutated Death Weapon had been born.

Not pure Madness nor power, there was something Dark about this pattern that instantly aroused his endless curiosity and equally endless Madness.

After all, everything in the world was a potential test subject, even (especially) himself… As a mad scientist/researcher/HAhaHahA/professor, he couldn't let such an interesting signal go unsought for, now could he?

Still, he wished he could bring his lab chair with him.

With a calm turn of his mind screw, he focused again.

Right, if the raw pattern was lost and the ongoing singal was being decayed at such a rate, let's just reverse the entire problem entirely.

He reached into his many pockets that covered his white lab coat, his clothing like his body surgically sliced apart and stitched back together for research reasons, and began extracting components and tools and the more relevant modification modules.

Let's detect everywhere that something ISN'T and find this signal by elimination, shall we?

His glasses flared with a touch of Madness as he began to hum a tune no one could understand, his fingers artistically horrifying as he crafted under the moonlight.

Oh, there were spells and signals of powerful traps and so on and so forth, but none of that mattered.

Not when there was so much SCIENCE to be done!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Over eighty percent of Ragnarok was false material now. Fake Black Blood, formed from this raw energy that flooded their body, yet strong enough for his current needs.

He looked like a short fat monster, to be honest. With Crona protected in his massive torso, the child curled up and asleep with a surprisingly low amount of unconscious tremors or flinches, he could get something done here.

Still, he had stubby feet and enough mass to manipulate his gloved hands… it would do.

With confidence, he moved AWAY from the only door into the 'room'.

Medusa was a very powerful Witch, getting caught was NOT an option, and he was NOT going to leave through the only entrance available. She might have some sort of detection spell attached to it, and energetic or not he was NOT sure he could do much to resist that woman if it came down to a fight.

Medusa had many skills, but her most flexible and adaptable ones related to her ability to form 'Vector Arrows', Snake shaped conceptual magic that could redirect velocity and acceleration and negate most of his ability to escape.

After all, Ragnarok was a melee fighter. His abilities were forming constructs like massive swords and such, and enhancing them with his Scream Resonance to cause Soul damage and weaken anything his needles or blades hit… But all his attacks that involved projectiles and such were limited.

After all, they were formed from Crona's Black Blood just like himself… Using that as consumable ammo was dangerous and a double edged weapon.

While using Crona's Blood as a surprise attack could be effective, through spikes or needles or whatever, it had a small shelf life even against the newest of foes… And Medusa had studied them for years now.

Since she wouldn't fall for what few tricks they had, they would be limited to defensive plates, swords, hammers, etc… None of which were helpful when attempting to flee.

So instead, they were going to carve an exit out from here. [[Hold tight, Crona. I'm finally going to save us this time!]]

It was trivial to shift his right hand into a Black Blood blade with the white bone pattern for the spine and missing his customary grinning smile near the hilt with his bright red lips and tongue.

After all, the Demon Weapon was going to do the driving today. [[Slow and steady…. Gotta keep this quiet.]]

A thrust… And the blade sank into the wood of the wall silently, his will infusing Crona's Black Blood directly into the material, infiltrating and corrupting inwards to gain a foothold within the material.

This was far too slow a method for actual battle, as every inch of penetration needed minutes of effort instead of vicious stabs and violent slices… But there was nothing as subtle and quiet as this.

After all, they had a bit of time before Crona's 'Mother' came in to ensure dehydration hadn't killed her child and weapon experiment yet.

He was going to take advantage of every moment possible.

The tunnel would be small, and Crona would need to be carefully passed through, but with Ragnarok here they'd have an easy time of this. He could ensure they got enough air despite having so little room, and by only requiring enough space to pass his far too thin partner through… Well, hopefully progress would be swift.

As for himself, he was just blood. Even a small gap was more than good enough for him to pass through, although the flow rate could affect his transversal speed.

Moments passed as he cautiously carved off layers of material, black filaments carefully moving each fragment from the slowly carved escape tunnel to the floor. No odd noises were allowed, no strange vibrations, no unusual smells or echos…

Just to be safe, he had already covered the growing tunnel with a restrictive layer of Black Blood completely.

This would work.

The sleeping sibling in his chest would be safe, would heal, would get better.

With a flicker of pink light in his eyes, Ragnarok moved with Determination… And perhaps, a touch of Madness.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Hmm.

Stein absently pulsed Soul Menace through his cigarette stub, the raw power and electrical charge of his Soul vaporizing the trash, before lighting another one up and giving it a good puff. "Interesting."

His left hand reached up and turned his screw-bolt, the clicking sound and vibrations helping to gently push down the Madness again. "Very interesting."

This wasn't just a simple sample falling into Madness, this was something new. At least, according to the newly redesigned equipment.

Madness was there, of course. But there was another layer to it, something that was resisting being defined from existing sensor samples from past work.

He had covered a significant amount of distance now, and had further to go… But even from here, in the middle of nowhere with barely workable hardware, he kept finding interesting anomalies from the target.

The bolt clicked in his head as he turned the screw.

It would be v̟e̼͔̪͍r͙͖̫͙ͅy̥ i̖̗̫͙̝͎͞n̪͙͘t̥͕̮͇̤e̵̬r̺͖̻̜e̪̯̳̫͍̫̻̕s̪̭t̡͚̜i͈̺͈ͅͅṋ̯̣̗͇̖̻g̜͖ t̗̱͔o̲͓̖̳̳̟ d̸̴͚̬͚͓͓̲̟̟̼o̢̬̲͔̩̳ ̢̳̪̖̜̘a͖̯ ̨͚̳̭̗͍͚̙͙̀b͍͍̰͟i̷̖̜̼͉͙̥̱̮͉͟͝t̙̙̩̪̺͔͠ ̵̛̣̩̬̭̥͟o̸̥͚͇̳̘̮̖̼f͏̟̼̰͚̼̟͡ È̵̡̮̖͉͙̝̟͘͞x̷̸̡̭̘̹̫̝͘ͅp͢͏͉̬̬͓̝̣̣̩͍͙͉͎̬̻͈̻̫̬l̵͉̯̰̜͔̜̺̀͠o̷̡̝̲̫̮̹͍͝͞r̷̢̯̟̭͉̺͈͈á̦̝̖̳̹̠͇̼̞̞͍͇̞͍͢͜ͅt̸̛̘͈̙͉̪̩̦̩̣̠͝ǫ̩͕̟̭̫͚͡r̸̴̼̯̺̰̝̙̗͖͔̲̀́͟ý͘͏̻̖̣̜̺̟̱͖͍̮͕ ̴̸̱̹̝͔̞̖̘̤̯̙̲͉̳̼͟S̶̸̡͎͈̩̫̞͚̙͔̘̦̺̣̳̯͎͈͖̖͡u͏̩̪̗̠̱̠̖͈̤͙͓͚̱̰̯̦̕͢͡ŕ̵̢̨̖͈̗̫͓͇̬̲̦͖͓̯̮͎̙̦̜̕g̸̛̲͉̥͘ͅe̴͓̰͔̮̯͈̹͕r̶̵̦̹̦͍͉̯̺̩̫̠ͅy̡̙̠̠͚̮͜…

.

C̸̡͉̬̪̼̥͠͠ĺ̨̫͔̗̪̜̘̞̜̗͉͇̰͚̘̀̀͠ͅͅi͘҉̶̸̦̗̬̬c͏͏̶̡̧̙̺͉͈̲̫̪̫̥̰̱̦͖̠͙̘k̶͏̪̝̭͕̩.

.

.

With the twist of his bolt, his mind cleared once more.

Right.

Wouldn't want to lose his focus. Not with something so interesting to find.

The night was young.

There was Science to do!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ragnarok didn't like to remember.

Those oldest things, the torment, the endless torture, they hurt to think about. To remember.

Even after suffering through all that, and learning to attack anything and everything to try and survive, they weren't pleasant memories to say the least.

It hurt more now to know that towards the end of the nightmare, the one he had been ripping and tearing had been his new host and younger Sibling, Crona. Not his tormentor, but just another victim… One smaller and less defended than even his own cripled self.

He… He tried to make up for that. To redeem himself, even a little, since then.

But those days had forged him sturdy, both mentally and practically.

Survival.

Rage.

Violence.

His backbone and cornerstone, his foundation: To live.

Later on, as he grew with his younger half, it even expanded slightly: To have them BOTH live.

But all his history and past experiences didn't help here.

He was never taught, not traditionally. Not how to be subtle, not how to learn or think, not how to adapt.

He was beaten to learn regeneration and recovery, he was tortured to learn viciousness and undirected aggression and violence.

At no point had Ragnarok been taught how to act in a stealthy manner.

Still, he tried his best.

Black Blood had soaked into the wall, and on a scale smaller than any he believed possible his body formed into countless near invisible mouths. The bright red lips and tongue, those deceptively sharp white teeth, bit into paint and glue and plaster and drywall and wood and then these STUPID METAL PLATES that formed this prison.

As quietly as possible, the tiny jaws tore into the material.

As slowly as needed, the freed debris was carefully guided and pulled into his growing mass of a body that cradled the sleeping Crona.

Nothing could be risked. No sound of crunching, no vibrations, no quiet rustling as material fell to the floor.

So the freed chunks and particles of wall were pulled into the Black Blood and C̸̮͍ͅo̡̠̼̜͇̜̤̞n͖̤̪͙͚͔͓͍s̸̹̼̥̖̺̰̼͖̞͡ų͚̠̘m̪͖̜̝̺̙͈ͅe̺̫͇̟d̷͉͙͖̥.

Some was needed, oddly enough. The human body needed trace elements of all sorts of non-organic stuff, like iron, zinc, fluoride, selenium, copper, chromium, iodine, manganese, and molybdenum.

And Crona's body, after all the experimentation and mutilation, needed even more odd things as well… Some of which was found in these materials that were slowly being chewed from the surroundings.

He should know, all his life he had been keeping Crona from crossing over that razor edge of life and death. While he was very much uninformed about MOST of the world, when it came to his younger sibling and keeping them alive he was a master.

The vast bulk of this dross though was useless slag, even after carefully reserving some of the more valuable material for manifesting stronger and denser blades and weaponry in the future within the Black Blood itself.

Thankfully, slumbering within Ragnarok's liquid form, was something fundamental and H̨̨͕̫̱̺͈̱͘ų̼͖͉̦̙̻ǹ̡͕̖g̴̶͙̭̣͚͈̦̣̘r͞͏̻̰ỳ̫͙.

So he fed the useless fragments to the Darkness within.

For some odd reason, it just felt… Right.

And the benefits were instant and significant. Suddenly the strain of forcing the Black Blood to manifest like this dropped significantly, and the loss of stored energy within the material began to rapidly recover.

Oh, better food would mean far greater results, but the important thing here was that Ragnarok could now bore into the walls faster with less stress and no mass of excess material to manage.

Progress was moving smoothly until he felt the familiar aura of Madness attempt to touch their blood, causing him to instantly pause.

He manifested more white eyes with pink rings to better see inside the corroding hole in the wall… And saw a network of snake like symbols and patterns.

Familiar ones.

Those over there were the ones that kept their screams from annoying the witch when she was attempting some new body modification. That one did something… Maybe alerting when a change occurred? That day had nearly killed them both a few times, and he couldn't remember the pattern right…

Shit.

Cautiously, Ragnarok began to seep outwards, soaking the material as close to the strange patterns as possible without coming into contact with the magic itself.

Let's just… Open up some space. See what they were dealing with here.

If nothing else, consuming these layers of metal and rock and stuff had almost doubled his mass so far. Crona was slumbering in a nest of Black Blood now, and seemed more at peace than he EVER remembered them showing before, so he had some time to work something out.

A white skeletal system with hungry pink highlights began to form within the Black Blood as more and more material was Consumed and the odd network of snake patterns became more exposed.

The additional support allowed greater body shapes to be constructed without increasing the cost of keeping Crona secured, and the pink material that now formed with his harder structures seemed to act as energy or impact redistributors… They Hungered for energy, and would send anything they absorbed directly into their Black Blood for Ragnarok to redistribute.

Sure, these pink bones also consumed that same energy AGAIN as it showed up in the Dark liquid, but it sort of established a stable harmony after a few moments.

Anything extra, such as the vibrations of chewing away this stubborn and strong material or theoretical attacks from a foe?

All that stuff would disrupt this delicate balance and get converted into heat or vibration or magic or whatever and then be D͏̹e̟̗̜͎̼̩v̰̝o̹ͅure̶d̺̮̞̤ for their use. Free food and fuel, less effort needed to stay quiet!

But even with this growing advantage as he continued to Consume this prison into the Darkness, Ragnarok couldn't risk attempting to soak the Black Blood into this magical pattern.

What if breaking it would call Medusa here or set off an alarm?

So the many limbs of Black Blood continued to soak and chew and grind and consume more and more material.

After all, Ragnarok was not just an experiment, he was also the Demon Sword of Black Blood.

And a Weapon only needed to find the right point to strike down any obstacle.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The powerful witch, Medusa Gorgon, paused in her laboratory, chemicals still reacting to the side while her notes were being reorganized.

Something had felt off.

While it was probably nothing, it was better to check. Just in case. "Nake-Snake, Cobra, Co-bra… Nake-Snake, Cobra, Co-bra! [[Vector Arrows.]]"

Black arrows twisted around her and began to connect to the established vector arrows that hooked into her defensive network, moving in snake-like patterns.

There was something… Yes, something is stressing her systems. Not a direct assault, more like an odd probe or some sort of signal being sent or searched… How odd.

Her eyes flickered to the various alarms and alerts… Very subtle. Almost unnoticeable.

She couldn't help but frown.

This wasn't the best time for some sort of interference.

Her experiments were at a critical juncture. With a bit more manipulation, her child would finally crack apart and Madness could properly began to cultivate Crona's future, to help the Black Blood develop into a true Kishin!

Those beings were created from the over-hunting of a large number of pure, 'good' people… By consuming their human souls and tormenting them to shift into devastatingly effective Madness attenuators.

It would allow her child to become a powerful, dangerous, destructive entity… An Asura, a demon of the world, something far greater than some worthless lab attempt!

And NO one would be allowed to threaten her work.

Besides, until the little one cracked and became more pliable by raw Madness, she couldn't ensure that Crona would properly begin to consume the souls required. The child was still trapped with emotions and empathy and other such weaknesses, even torturing and killing those animals caused them distress!

Unacceptable.

All of this was beyond accepting.

She stood with power and began striding towards the main facility rooms, to properly prepare for whatever was attempting to infiltrate her facility.

If they didn't wish to be slaughtered, then they shouldn't have come uninvited.

Besides, it was always nice to gather a few new experimental subjects and samples.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Stein paused… And grinned, a sharp smile full of madness that his scarred and stitched up face only enhanced. "Ah… A research facility."

Something flickered to his Soul senses. "A hidden, ACTIVE research facility. One belonging to what feels like a witch."

His half lidded eyes checked the collection of junk he had roughly kludged into a passable signal scanner. "A witch who has apparently created something VERY interesting indeed…"

A sudden pulse of D̛҉͜͝͞ÀN̴̛͜͠͡G҉̸͝É̴̸͞͏Ŕ̵̢̕ made his grin manic.

"I may have found my target."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ragnarok flinched as the growing hole that exposed the magical patterns flashed, the light of the symbols pulsing with power. [[Shit. Did I set something off?]]

A distant explosion and the rough vibration in the walls suggested otherwise. [[Double shit! Well, I've never been great at subtlety anyways.]]

He pulled deep, the Black Blood swelling his reinforced body, skeletal system allowing his already massive muscles to contort and swell and then HISS as each component was forcibly compressed!

His right arm became a blade of PASSION! A sharp spike with a bone base covered with bright red mouths that all opened to S̡͏̬͚̰c̛͈͇̰̘̟̩͙ͅr҉͔̰̺͚͓͈͇̖̹͟e̸̗͕̝̣͠a̹̹̦̗̟̟̜̺͞͡m̵̺̫̳̙̰̪̱̩̞̕!

[[S̸͡҉͢C̨̀Ŗ͟Ȩ̸́͘͝E͏̢̨͠Ć̢̢͜͠H̸̡̧͘͢ G͏́͠͏A҉̡̕͞M͏͟M̷͢À̷̛͘!]]

He SMASHED the blade into the flickering magic blocking his escape, even as the raw vibration of his and Crona's Soul forced the already deadly weapon to easily pierce most obstacles!

The magic flailed and pulsed, but it died like everything else as the rebound of the vicious Scream Resonance attempted to pierce everything!

Ragnarok didn't even pause as the vicious power was consumed by his new skeletal structure and redistributed back to his Black Blood, keeping Crona slumbering peacefully while doubling the damage that was shocking this STUPID BARRIER! [[BREAK FOR ME!]]

The power in the wall attempted to hiss… And then gasped and died, allowing the massive blade to massacrate the reinforced material behind it.

Using the spike sword as a wedge, the edges fanged open and began to consume an escape passage at the fastest rate possible as a sudden scream of familiar rage rang out in the distant explosions.

Ragnarok couldn't care less though. [[WE WILL BE FREE!]]

And despite being asleep, despite being hurt, despite not knowing how to handle this…

Crona's Soul Resonated with Ragnarok anyway.

A massive claw of swords and mouths and rage tore into the world, and the waves of Sound screamed in pain and joy and Madness and Darkness right alongside them.

[[S̕͘͟͞C̸̀͘͢R̴̸È́͜E̴̛͘C͘҉H̨̧̛͟ ̶̡͢ ̶̡͢ ̸̵͏G̸̸̕Á̶̡͢M̸̷̡͡M͏̴̶́͝A͢͞!]]

Even the distant battle paused as a power tainted with Madness and Darkness P̬̺u̼̪̤͔̙͙̮l͇̲͕̺̳̼̱͜s̶͓̲e̢͈̣͉d̴͉͉̪͖̜̗̮ͅ into the night!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Medusa felt her heart drop at the explosion! "NO! My experiment!"

The slightly bloody patchwork of a man grinned as he flexed a hand that flickered with Lightning. "Not something important I hope? You know, we can still put this small conflict aside with only a… Minor amount of surgical documentation required." His gaze moved to the deadly arrows that could redirect his attacks and movements.

She didn't have time for this! It didn't matter HOW attractive his Madness was, she couldn't risk the Black Blood escaping her overview with the host not yet destabilized! "No more flirting, no more teasing: Just die quietly so I can get more important things done."

His lit cigarette twitched as he reached up to the massive bolt-screw running through his skull.

.

Ć̛͏̸͎̰͖ͅl̷̝̥̖̫̯̫̱̗̞͔̣͞ì̴͙͎̥̩̰̞͎̯͇̱̟̦͘͢c̡҉҉̴̪͓̤̬̝̺̖̖̪̪͙̹̯͓ḱ̨̞͎͕̤̣̳͇̟̭̻͟͠.̶̙̫̭̻̙̭̱͇͔̥͝

.

.

With one movement, his whole body shifted posture. "Death sounds very inconvenient. I should know, I work for him."

She flinched! This insane monster worked with THE DEATH, the headmaster of Death Weapon Meister Academy and the leader fighting the war against Kishins and Madness-crazed witches!?

How could someone like THAT sneak up on her secured facility!?

Her broken security… Because her child, her WORK had escaped.

She didn't have time for this. "Nake-Snake, Cobra, Co-bra! Nake-Snake, Cobra, Co-bra! [[Vector Arrows!]]"

But she didn't attack.

She tried to flee!

She couldn't risk losing her experiment! Not her work! NO!

A massive pulse forced her to pause and resist the power as a huge orb formed behind her, the intruder's manifested Soul a crazy looking hacked apart and stitched up ghost-like ball with a massive screw embedded into it.

His eyes glowed with the power of insanity. "Oh, don't go… I haven't even started the autopsy yet!"

She felt the fear of losing her life's work struggle against the will to survive…

And then conflict resumed, and she had other things to worry about.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The soil cracked as the underground containment area was fully breached and Ragnarok clawed his many Black Blood limbs free from the world's embrace. [[Maha HAHaA! Is THIS the outside!?]]

Madness filled Ragnarok's vision as he looked up and up and up and there was no concrete ceiling or lab surface or glass observation tube or mess of equipment, only more and more nothingness!

Off in that nothing, a glowing yellow crescent moon grinned down in insanity, it's clenched bright white teeth bleeding bright red blood as the rictus smile vibrated with it's near silent cackling, the black craters of it's glowing yellow eye looking down upon the freed siblings in satisfaction and glee.

Freedom!

Heh heh heh ha ha hA HA!

Crona shifted, and Ragnarok wrenched back his focus with alacrity and a deadly force.

Freedom only mattered when one could possess it.

His form hunched forwards as all his claws gripped the soil, fingers shifting to blades and his muscled form twisting with power. The spikes of flesh or bone shifted as he focused on true escape, of fleeing this place.

[[Speed. We need distance, we can try to hide later.]]

A distant explosion from ongoing combat combined with the crackle of distant lightning only convinced him to move faster. [[Let's go, Crona!]]

His sleeping partner silently gave their support, probably.

And they M̺̣̖͙̞͈̪̕o̻͍̘̫v̨̜͚͕e̶̠d͕̱͓͙̣͞.

Rock crumbled under his claws, roots tore on his blades, soil carved at his grip and the Darkness cradled the pair as their speed increased at an astonishing rate.

Still, he had priorities other than the raw need to flee. Each step attempted to touch wood fragments, odd stones, and various small plants or bugs. Blades of Black Blood that would form endless mouths and chew and grind and feed the Darkness, while extracting what little useful material could be gathered for Crona to continue their recovery.

After all, long term starvation caused many problems beyond the basics that he had already treated his sibling for, and Crona needed more than just biological stability.

They needed food and water, and odd chemicals and materials, and he needed to collect that while fleeing as fast as possible. This location was in some sort of forest, and he had no idea how far the nearest group of people would be or how trustworthy they could be considered…

Honestly, all he knew about the outside world was the stuff taught to Crona to better assist their future hunting efforts and murder sprees.

Maybe he could find a puddle or small stream? For now, he had to rely on what moisture he could extract from the various living plants and stuff he crushed as they both fled into the trees.

Water was most critical, food would be lovely, but most important were finding some amount of vitamins and iron that Crona needed due to Black Blood basically needing to be rebuilt from scratch, since using Ragnarok was practically forcing their body to suffer under extreme blood loss functionally all the time…

Still, just being able to experience a place without walls for the first time, to smell something besides disinfectant and the rotted parts of their bodies or the creatures they were forced to slaughter… This was amazing!

Speaking of which… He kept an eye open for any creature that might be moving about nearby. A lot of issues could be handled with a good food source, and unlike Crona he didn't mind a bloody situation if it got the job done.

Better avoid anything too cute or too human though, since Crona wouldn't know how to deal with that.

Distant thunder made him focus and pick up speed.

Food later, escape now!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Dreams drift as Crona sleeps.

They didn't pause as they drifted, clouds of thought that flew forever.

Bolts of memories, fears of days long past, stabbing from sky to self in endless abuse.

Rains of moments, shared in the dark, of an older brother with tied hands and helpless rage.

Winds of change, as pain faded and worn flesh became new.

Cradled by Black Blood, the days of whispering to Mr. Corner seemed long gone. Long lost.

But even Mr. Corner would be happier now, now that the winds drifted.

Hands stained with wet blood, but it was not Black.

But without Black Blood, there was blood there still.

Before, such was survival. To stain oneself with the love of those that once were cradled by these same hands. To twist care and comfort into pain and loss.

Crona longed for such things taken from them.

But now, as drifting waves of slumber silently sang, the night was humming.

The Darkness was Singing.

And while such things were outside their understanding, beyond what they could handle, still the song continued.

A choir of love, a symphony of change.

Of those lost to rage, tortured by fate, haunted by choices, finding the Darkness.

Of the rotten being Consumed, and the hopeless finding a home.

A sanctuary for discarded children, a forest for abandoned Souls, a land of Wonder for a young goddess betrayed by life, an endless war for deathless warriors of time… And there, beyond all memories and thoughts and dreams, somewhere more.

A Kingdom, for Light and Dark and the Heart.

One touched by Shadow, but not coveted or consumed.

Black Blood gave rest to the youngest of Shadows, who strove to grow up in a land of more mature people, yet people still lost to the confusion of life.

How does one teach a topic they do not know?

How does one bestow lore and wisdom when they are lost themselves?

When fact and logic were disposable and easily shifted, how could they guide the way?

A hard answer, one that felt worse for the concern and care it breathed, was no.

One could not give a simple response to an endless question.

But the warmth from the Darkness continued to sing in the emptiness.

Learning was a process, teaching was a pathway.

Through bestowing what one gathered, their collection grew more complete.

From talking to one who was lost, one could find their way.

Crona whispered in slumber to the Shadow that slept.

They didn't know how to survive in a world so full of pain and sorrow.

They didn't understand how to grow, to protect themself, to find something beyond horror.

They couldn't handle it. Any of it. And they murmured these fears to the Darkness.

And Shadow slept, but the dreamer found a spark of Light in the process.

All else aside, one thing they knew: Their Blood was Black.

A pillar of truth, a bastion of sanity in this world of Madness.

Body may be torn and broken, muscles sheared and hurtfully reformed, but here in the place they couldn't handle they knew all the same: Their Blood was Black.

A brother, a partner, a friend and a hand in the Dark.

A sibling that prodded and teased, that harrassed and amused, that protected and carried burdens of his own.

Family was made of lies, love a tainted illusion, but when the world itself crumbles and existence finally dies, one thing above all this was true.

Their Blood was Black.

The concept was simple, the scope minute, yet a foundation of a conceptual nature did not require mountains or planets, nor stone or steel.

To build one's life, stability was key.

And for one child, stability was deep within them.

It ran in their Blood.

Sleep floated through clouds of confusion as the tormented child of Madness and Science began to grow new winds of their own.

At the core, at their essence, a Black pool began to swirl.

Later may come walls, to protect one's self.

Someday life could grow, and new relationships flourish.

Eventually this small pool could swell to a glorious pond or an endless sea.

But despite being unstable and liquid, this pool of Black Blood was, in its own way, more sturdy than any belief. More profound than any religion or legend or hero or monster.

Only for them, the children, could such a weak thing become so reliable and essential.

Not for outsiders. Not to them. For their Blood wouldn't be Black.

As for Crona, their body was reborn from fragments stolen from nature and a prison, from magic and Madness. A process that was slow but ongoing, procedural and relentless.

Cradled by Black Blood, their union would be strengthened further… Enhanced and enriched by the Shadows that now slept within their foundation.

Ninety-nine shades and a Gem of the Heart, that pulsed within slumber and veins.

The power was thick, and touched with chaos, and each part of them began to die and grow anew, stronger and odd and touched by the liquid of life.

By the Black Blood of foundation.

Changes would happen, Crona was sure. Even as they slumbered, changes would occur.

This was core information. Undeniable, unresistable, a law of reality.

But despite such a concern, Crona faced the thought with slumbering solidarity, for once without care about the outcome.

After all, many things would change as things often did… But in the end, there was a truth that could always be held up against any worry.

This much they knew: Their Blood was Black.

Sleeping in silent slumber, a child who had never developed enough of a self identity to consider themselves a person began to heal. Slowly, and on a Black and Bloody foundation, but heal all the same.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ragnarok gasped as a wave of something helped the Black Blood unclench on some level, his monstrous and massive form finding some now sort of balance as his temporary body began refining itself.

Twisted and unusually formed limbs began to gain something like symmetry, the skeletal system cracked itself and restructured the framework to better protect his younger sibling, his body altering its stance to better move with smooth power and efficiency.

It was some hurdle finally crossed, some barrier unexpectedly breached, and if he was in LESS of a hurry and felt LESS hunted right now, he would probably attempt to just find somewhere safe and just breathe in the new changes.

At least their maximum speed had been kicked up another few notches now. And with fewer and stronger limbs, ones that didn't mutate and twist with every step, his progress was significantly smoother and less wasteful too, allowing any scavenged resources to be allocated towards further nurturing of Crona's cripled existence rather than simply repairing the damage he was causing while they escaped.

His many eyes twitched.

Had that been a hiss? No, probably not.

Still, it may be a good time to alter direction again. Going only in a straight line was stupid, and he had only done so initially to gain enough range from their 'mother' so that future path obscuration attempts wouldn't be instantly seen through. Hopefully.

Although… This sudden and deep control of his new body did open up an option or two that wasn't possible before.

A tug and shift had his limbs lose sharp edges, the surface itself altering to be more absorbent and soft, while the impacts and frantic effort would be partially collected by the pink bones and pink plates that covered his temporary body.

It felt really odd, like a fat guy holding in his gut to show off for someone, but now his new path wasn't leaving behind claw marks and torn earth and crumbled rocks and such.

Shifting Crona and his body mass closer to the soil, the branches were easier to avoid without bending or breaking any, and with a stronger grasp over his own material Black Blood shouldn't leave behind any scents or drops anymore, not without resisting a vicious assault or something.

A new direction, hopefully no trail… It might help a bit. Hopefully.

Someone probably could still track the pair if they examined which regions were full of freaked out animals or whatever, but at least it wouldn't be a literal line leading that asshole of a mom straight towards them.

Still no river or stream, but that was still the best plan he could come up with. A way to abuse his unnatural form to the fullest to ensure a safe escape, hopefully.

Find a rapid flow of water, one that other people would assume he would follow or swim along to disrupt any trails… And then dig into the waterbed and hide Crona underground, under water, with no pursuers.

The Black Blood could easily provide the needed air and stuff, even before being empowered by this new energy source… And unlike hiding by digging some random hole HERE, the flowing water would cover up any additional signs or traces he missed.

Hopefully.

His white orbs with black crosses glared at the passing terrain with growing frustration.

After all, he had a plan and a good chance of pulling it off now that he could skitter close to the ground with nearly no clues left behind. Things were finally looking up, hopefully.

Now if only he could actually FIND some sort of water source!

Wasn't it a rule that every forest had a river or something!? Dang it!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Not one. Damned. River.

Or lake.

Or even a puddle or stream!

Finally, Ragnarok just threw up his many hands and oozed up a tree, careful to not damage the bark or break any branches. Black Blood was able to grip firmly without crushing anything by spreading the pressure over the entire surface of the trunk as he ascended, and it would have to do.

It was nearing day, and he had a subconscious understanding that whatever his new power source was would only operate at peak condition in shadows, at night, or in cover.

Thankfully, whatever was going on with Crona had drastically increased the dexterity and precision of their Black Blood manipulation abilities. If he had tried to do something like this in the past, he would have accidentally crunched the tree trunk or worse by now.

Instead, he manipulated Crona's recovery cocoon, tightly protected by white bones and pink ribs and layers of reinforced Black Blood in the form of his flesh, and worked them up one of the taller trees he had found so far.

Once they were both high enough that any further progress would require breaking some limbs (Either his own or the branches), he began to soak the trunk with liquid teeth and Hunger to carefully carve open a cavity.

As long as the bark itself was mostly undisturbed, it shouldn't cause an issue… And the living wood provided fiber and moisture and other useful stuff, so it was worth the effort.

The first crack of dawn was starting to brighten the forest when he managed to wedge his sibling's protective shell into the massive tree trunk, and then he began to ooze over the surface of the tree as much as possible.

On the top of branches in thin layers, inside other holes left by insects (Mmm, crunchy) or the predators that had dug into the surface hunting, Black Blood claimed the upper reaches of the tree.

Sure, he could compress his energy and material into the Darkness and sort of twist back into Crona's body directly, but it was more important to keep his many eyes and senses open.

Thanks to the seemingly endless power that he was working with, it seemed like a better idea to have lots of avenues for counterattacking rather than attempting to go for full stealth.

Still, he did put in some effort.

The surface exposed to air was carefully textured to match bark, he carefully ensured that the Black Blood would not absorb TOO much light or heat or vibrations… After all, a perfectly still tree in a forest stood out. Same was true with anything that was near freezing or had a cloud of darkness floating around it.

The hardest part though was this heavy energy that seemed to soak the air… The power with the taste of Madness. One he never felt before they had escaped, one he only recognized instinctively.

It was DRAWN to them. Pulled, as if they were a hole for things to flow into.

When he realized how noticeable the effect was, at least to his new body and existence, Ragnarok freaked out for a few minutes before carefully releasing some of his pent up R̵̞̤͈͕̪̭̠͍͘͘͞͞a͙̮̳̠̦̣̫̪͙͟g̵̬̣͕̯̮̣͕̝̕e̴̴̸̱̠̲̞̟̺̟̖̤̖͚͎͚͕.

It was a tricky balance.

Releasing too much of his Madness seemed to stain the air in some unseen way, while too little just acted like an amplifier for the power being called towards them both.

Thankfully, once he managed to stumble onto some sort of strange balance, he could feel his endless aggression and anger swirling through the tree branches like small bees of chaos instead of acting like a beacon to the world or a funnel for Madness.

It was something at least. Hopefully progress, but who knows for sure?

Certainly didn't help that neither he nor his sibling had ANY lessons on magic, or how to control Madness, or practice about forming semi-humanoid Black Blood monster shaped armor like this.

After all, Crona's job was to be an experiment and HIS job was to be a mindless weapon. That bitch of a mother never bothered to teach either of them ANYTHING that wasn't directly related to increasing Crona's kill count or ensuring they both lived long enough for the next test or trial.

Feeling the surface of the tree start to drop in temperature, Ragnarok mentally cursed and adjusted Black Blood's absorption rate again.

Stupid fiddly bits. At least the small bugs and parasites that lived on these upper branches provided nutrients and liquid and material to help Crona recover, even if it wasn't nearly enough.

Still, if they had to choose between a slower recovery or being recaptured by Medusa, Consuming tiny forest creatures was the better option.

As Ragnarok carefully managed his presence under the cackling golden yellow sun, with it's spiky yellow nose and far too wide grin filled with overly bold white teeth, elsewhere the hunt for the duo had taken a turn.

Whether or not it was a good or bad turn was up for debate though.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Dr. Franken Stein blinked at the burnt and electrified crater. "You could have dodged that."

The corpse didn't move.

His eyes narrowed. "You DID dodge that. Damn it, this isn't the same body I was fighting an hour ago."

Some sort of decoy? A clone ability? Damn it, this was going to delay his research! "I thought we were going to enjoy a bit of mutual stabbing? I slice you, you slice me, make a good night of it?"

He carefully exposed more of his 'vulnerable' organs and exposed skin…

Damn it.

No ambush, no deadly attack, not even a revealed trap or counter measure. "She couldn't have run, not after we just got started. We hadn't even torn off any limbs yet… And I didn't get enough samples from her either!"

What kind of woman left a man so unsatisfied after they basked in each other's R̶̵͓͕̜̝͍̤͇͚͍͉͔͚̮̠͖͞͝a̡̹̜̳̰̬̤̤͍̬̠̰͝͠w̡̠͈̘͍̱̫̼̭̹̞̟͚͟͟͢ ̷̡̧̨̗̥̦̠͓̹͖͎̗̣M̧̕͟͞͏͍͔͈̗̼̱à̸͚̗͚̱̰̤̤͓͇̣͚̮̞͎͘ͅͅͅḑ̡̱̰̟͖̲̘̻̮͇́ǹ̷͍̱̣̳̹̲̝̫̟͓̘̲͚̕͞ͅͅͅę̶̣̝̦̼̀̀s̷̡̪̖͖͈̣̠̫͖̙̜̝̣͓̟͍̟͕͇̱s̸̷̹̰̺̙̖̖̹̪͇͉̗̳͍!?

His shaky hand grasped his head bolt.

C̷̢̢̡͉̖̬̯͡l̀͘͏̵̵̞̙͖̥̼̣̳̥̫̻̟̮̥i̶̵̶̢̨̤̲͎̭̹͇̙͓̯̫͇̲̖c̵̛͏͙̭̖͎̤͎͎͉k̡͖̯̬̰͉̣̝̰͜͝͠.

.

And clarity.

Right, don't lose focus: They could reconnect and fight to the death later, at a more romantic/scientific spot.

He was here for the signals.

Dr. Stein reached for… Oh, right. Most of his clothing had been burned and torn and soaked in chemicals and acid a while ago.

Meh, he was mostly covered, and his mutilated skin would be easy enough to patch up… But where were his damned pockets!?

Oh.

All over the place.

His detector was… Over there. And D̡̢̝̦a̛͈m̡̳͓̤͕̻͇̝̹͟ͅa͈̕͟͢g̖͓̘̩̤̝e͏̝͕̩d̦̞̼͕̹̫̦͓͡.

C͜͟͡͏̣̣̬̣̦͈̪̤l̵̵͎̹̬̼̹̼̖̹͉̱̝͉͘͟i͓͍̥̬̣͓͕̖͍̠̲̣̜̰̻̥̣͘͡͡͝͡c͉͉̲̲͙̰̪̮͚̪̗̼̻̱̰͕̗̻̕͟ͅķ̥̻̫̘͢͠.̶̷̰̼̟̥̗͟͝

.

His brain soothed, he gave a small nod. "The modulation scanner needs firmer structural integrity and improved shock resistance if it is to accompany me into the field again."

A quick glance showed there was enough here to work with, even if the buildings nearby had been cracked and destroyed and most of the surroundings ravaged by the ongoing battle.

His stitched up Soul with his ghostly bolt-screw flickered and faded from mortal view, and he focused on his current agenda.

Very well. Fix up the hardware, find the anomaly, possibly encounter the deadly witch again for another deathmatch of M̷͡a̸̛d͜҉͡҉ņ̀͜ę̀͞s̡̀́͠͡s̶̸̛͠, and he would be good to go!

Though based on the ongoing complications encountered so far, it would be best to bring the test subject back to the academy for better study in his actual lab rather than his original plan for a field autopsy.

Sure, he'd have to follow 'rules' and 'ethics' and 'please stop cutting up random people Stein' and all that, but at least he wouldn't be interrupted by sensual death challenges when important work was to be done!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Medusa fled.

Everything had gone wrong… And no matter how satisfying the mortal combat had been, it wasn't enough to distract her from sensing her grasp on the Black Blood slipping.

Unacceptable!

But unavoidable.

Her resources had been dedicated to research recently, not combat. Her facilities focused on manipulating the Black Blood and her child, not defense or countering attacks.

She had done what she could, tried to apply any tricks she had left… And fell short.

After sacrificing almost everything, she escaped and searched out information about her intruder.

This Franken Stein, that new mysterious figure that graduated from Death Weapon Meister Academy and, apparently, was now a TEACHER there… (How advanced WAS this man!?)

He had fully countered all her attempts to prevail. Alone. Without a Weapon. Using only his Soul and his talent and those muscles…

Apparently he had gone straight into field work after graduation and his fame for being the most powerful combat Meister had died down to a degree… Not that he apparently NEEDED to have a Weapon to bring down the literal lightning.

Her snake-like form continued to flee, but at least she had plans to recover from this.

After all, her sources implied that this man had a bit of a reputation… And he had already traced the Black Blood to her labs one time, so he would do so again.

To retrieve her life's work, and possibly even gain a co-worker who was as steeped in Madness as herself… She merely needed to gain a new form and infiltrate the academy.

The same Death Weapon Meister Academy that was personally ruled over by Death himself.

The one that was FILLED with Meisters and Demon Weapons and hidden talents and secrets.

Her face twitched with repressed rage and Madness and Desire and interest.

Sounded like an intriguing challenge, really.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

After a bit of experimentation, Ragnarok had fractured most of his skeletal system.

Now Crona was sleeping away inside the core of a massive tree, with layer after layer of bone and pink material shaped like scales, soaked and reinforced and layered by Black Blood.

If someone were to carve open this particular vertical potential log, their form would sort of resemble a pine cone honestly.

Just with numerous black tentacles that seeped out from their protective hiding spot to soak into the hidden surfaces of this one tree.

Attempting to merge with materials WITHOUT crushing or chewing it had been an interesting challenge, really. And only so much Black Blood could be hidden away inside a wooden twig or a leaf before it risked killing the temporary container or causing it to pop.

But now, if one was to look at this new hideout from certain near impossible angles, one would know: Portions of this tree were Black.

If anything, this made his balance work even TRICKIER, because accidentally absorbing all vibrations from the surface of a plant didn't hurt it much. But draining all energy of all types from WITHIN the structure? Ouch!

But he was bored, and Crona was still in their healing slumber or coma or whatever, and that sadistic side of himself enjoyed soaking random things with Black Blood to watch them explode into collectable goo.

Fun unexpected side note: Using stuff as temporary hosts to Black Blood could cause them to act like transfer nodes for stuff!

Like, he was able to somehow interface with the natural photosynthesis process and manipulate the created sugars and stuff, even if the amount generated wasn't much and all that.

He could ALSO shove raw potential or energy the OTHER direction, but after a flower bud instantly bloomed into literally GLOWING bright pink blossoms… Uh. Yeah.

Don't pump raw power into stuff when trying to be stealthy.

At least he had not attempted to do that to the tree directly, since it was easy enough to have the Black Blood consume the vibrating and potentially radioactive flower.

Not much of a stealth option if you are in the only tree that grows to be a bazillion feet tall or something.

So for now, he was just trying to slowly infiltrate the entire tree WITHOUT empowering it with the energy that flowed through the two children.

It was interesting, in its own way. And once he could connect down to the roots, hopefully he could establish a fucking STABLE water source by following the fibers down to the water table.

Since rivers were a myth or something. Stupid picture books, they ALWAYS showed lakes and stuff in the forest!

Whatever, he could work with this.

So they couldn't easily run forever? Fine.

All the animals were fleeing, making anything bigger than rats and squirrels and bugs impossible to hunt? Whatever.

Ragnarok was a TREE baby! Mostly! Sort of!

Food was for the weak! Sunlight for life, down with soda up with groundwater!

Sure, it was a bit of headache extracting the needed protein and nutrients using only the stuff that was in contact with Crona's new 'tree house', but with the chemical energy being generated from the sun and the ample supply of water from the deeper roots, this issue was donezo!

He was the man with a plan, the Black Blood Boss of Being Badass, the Tree with… Really dark shadows.

And… He was already bored.

Sure, it was mentally challenging to ensure his host could use this tree as a host, and yeah it involved carefully managing a bunch of fiddly bits…

But he was a liquid that pretended to be solid most of the time.

His whole EVERYTHING was made out of fiddly bits.

Ragnarok felt growing dread and horror at the concept of just… Being a tree. Of no combat, of Crona hibernating away while he was just… Sitting here. Staring at the sky/ground/clearing.

Forever.

Yeah, no.

He'd wait here, hidden, until they escaped Medusa's grasp or his grip on sanity slipped a bit too far, and then they'd move onwards.

Sure, it was more risky than just going undercover (Or underforest in this case) for a month or two, but at least he wouldn't be trapped here keeping quiet while birds attempted to poop on him.

Not that such an issue was likely, anything that didn't hide when near a predator was LONG gone by now, even if Ragnarok was hiding his death intent and bloodthirst by now… Something about a rampaging black and white and pink monster with hungry maws and many jaws just spooked nature for some reason.

Also, anything stupid enough to LAND on this tree would find Black Blood shards of blade spiked through them and be quickly devoured, so uh… The poop risk was fairly low by this point.

But it was the thought that counted in this case, and becoming a literal landmark didn't feel like a good long term strategy.

For now at least, he had a surplus of supplies and was able to slowly alter the tree itself to better handle its new duties. Faster energy generation, greater rate of nutrient and water collection, sturdier materials to allow more space within the trunk itself for Ragnarok to spread out… All that jazz.

He'd gather what resources he could, keep many eyes out for pursuit, and try to restore and reinforce Crona's new body as rapidly as possible.

Then they would find humanity and civilization and NEVER GO INTO NATURE AGAIN!

Stupid forest!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Dr. Stein blinked with a lazy expression… And lethargically reached for one of his 'special' cigarettes.

This… This was going to be one of those days.

His eyes scoured the perfectly normal tree.

Signs of a rough winter or two, some damaged bark from some passing creatures, no sign of mold infection, leaves were a bit more developed than expected from this climate and the time of year, but within tolerances.

Visually, normal.

His Soul also surveyed the subject… And found little.

A bit of variance, some parts a tad too Dark than they should be, a suspicious lack of termites and ants and so on and so forth, but the smug feeling of Treeness vibrated from the entire structure. Like the prick king of vegetation who was mocking all non-tree plebeians.

It mostly sounded normal, if a bit too active for the amount of wind in the area.

A faint but technically too strong scent of pine sap, the taste of Madness very subtle…

In any and every way, this was a boring and completely random specimen of a Monterey pine tree.

He ignored the loudly laughing Sun overhead as he slowly smoked his altered 'medicine', and reached up for his bolt-screw.

C̭̰̖͈̥l͎͓͔̞͐͂̐i̳̹̦͊̋ͣͪ̀c̳͕̘̭ͦ̇̊ͫ́k͓͕̟͎̪ͤ̑͌.͚̦ͮ͆͊ͩ͑ͫ͘

Dr. Stein's eyes narrowed.

The area was suppressing his Madness to some degree. Or attempting to balance it, to effectively set the area to a neutral balance of such power, even if the raw AMOUNT of Madness was higher than anywhere else.

Yeah, that wasn't suspicious at all!

He mentally documented it.

If he was a lesser scientist, a lazy researcher, or an incompetant operative, he might even consider this perfectly normal tree to be unworthy of his time and attention, something to be ignored while hunting down either that Witch with such intriguing Madness or his current target, her escaped research project.

A glance at his detection matrix assistant confirmed that this 'escaped research' was ALSO very much the same subject that had set off his entire crusade in the first place… How convenient.

As for the actual attempt to hide from his pursuit, well…

He puffed as he glanced to the sides.

At the surrounding trees.

Which had been tainted and twisted by Madness, their wood and bark reshaped into monstrous faces… And all bent away from the center, as if trying to flee despite being bound by their own roots.

A cloud of smoke drifted from his growing grin.

While this new research specimen showed greater cunning than expected, it also implied a certain lack of maturity or wisdom.

He could use that.

.

C̙̱̓ͬͣ͐͋̆̀l̵̝̽ͣͫͪ̽i̵͓̼c̶̺̮̙̅ͨ̾̅ͅk̢͔̟͓̻̄̅.̡͉̪͕͔͍̓

.

Wait, no.

This now involved something that was a juvenile, either physically or mentally.

Lord Death had forced him to carry a card about that.

He began checking his new pockets (Always bring a change or two of clothing when off collecting samples!) and eventually found the small card and tried to read it.

The sheer apathy he had towards these 'rules' and 'restrictions' made it slightly hard to focus.

Right… "If you are going to cut open something intelligent, stop and contact Lord Death first."

Huh.

That was inconvenient. Although technically?

His smile began to crack and grow and spread, but he forced himself to continue.

Number two. "If you are unsure or unclear if something is intelligent, stop and…"

Damn it. That had nearly been a VERY useful loophole, Dr. Stein found that MOST people and things he interacted with were so mentally stunted that it would be beyond generous to consider them 'intelligent' at all…

But now? Sigh.

There were other rules and comments and a small picture of a cartoon version of himself being choked by a frustrated Grim Reaper, but he was done with this.

Fine.

He'd contact his 'supervisor' and do things 'ethically' and probably have to use sedatives and less restraints and risk c͕̝̼on̕t͉a͙͍̻̮͉̹̯m͉͇̹in̮̕a̶tin̸̺g͈̱ t̯̼̀͠ḩ͏̺̖͉͇̣̩͈̩e̩̻̖̰͖̣̠̜̙͘͡ D͏̸͉̦̳̮̪̮̝͔͙̝͍͠ͅa̡̢̘̯̣͖̙̹̦̺̟̦̬̰̖̝͕̦͇͟͠͞t̷̨̥̳̜͍̲̲͎̥͈͚̼̣͔̱̻͠a̡̢̛͕̬̠̯̖͕̜̰̲͍̩̼͙̰̹̥̙͜͜ͅ…

.

.

C̣̻̜̪͕̀l̺̮̤̰͊ͬ͞iͫ̓ͩ́҉c̮̼k̇ͤ͒̎!

.

No, he had a grip on this. He already went through a lot of lectures and endured the arguments of the uncreative from even basic experiments such as carving up his own body or testing out Soul surgery on those captured subjects…

They were all going to die ANYWAY, but NO, now he had to carry around this card and… Sigh.

Oh well, most of this would have probably cropped up when he brought the living sample back to his lab at the school anyway… Might as well get this over with.

He pulled out a pocket mirror, breathed on it, and began to write in the fog. "'42-42-564'… Please don't pick up, please don't pick up…"

The reflection shifted and a cheerful cartoonish white skull mask popped into view! [[Hello hello! This is Headmaster Death, how may I… Oh! It's little Franken Stein! Hey Spirit Albarn, look who it is!]]

Oh? His old partner was visiting Death again. "Lord Death, I am calling because…"

The mirror shifted. "That you, you crazy mad scientist!? What have you done THIS time!?"

Nothing that should have been reported yet. "Spirit, could you please put Lord Death back on…"

The view shifted. [[Don't grab things! Give me space, move aside. Right, little professor Frankie, how has your expedition been going? I heard you detected something unusual?]]

His eye didn't twitch. "Please call me Professor Stein or Doctor Stein, Lord Death."

Overly large white and cartoonishly styled bone-like hands waved that off. [[Sorry, sorry, I forget how quickly you little ones grow up and…]] Oh dear god, was he crying!? [[It feels like just yesterday when you were opening up your first cadaver and your little bitty hands held those big tools and…]]

None of that. "Lord Death, the signals seem to have come from a living creature being experimented on by a witch I encountered. It escaped during our conflict and I have traced it down to this location."

A gasp from the other end! "Hey Stein, don't you cut it up! Don't you cut ANYONE or ANYTHING up! No drugging either, or autopsies, or cadaver manipulation, or husk refinement, or…"

A blur shifted on the reflection. [[REAPER CHOP!]]

And his overly protective past partner was down for the count, the massive white hand of Lord Death having smacked him down a bit. [[Seriously, don't just grab things from people. Very rude. As for you, Professor Stein, how would you describe this experiment?]]

Sigh. "A juvenile specimen, if it is able to mature in the first place."

A nod. [[Can you safely contain it without injury to it or yourself?]]

He nodded once more.

Lord Death wiggled in joy! [[Then gather our new friend or creature or plant or whatever it is and bring it to our school! I'm sure we can either teach it or train it or keep it from devouring other students...]]

His eyes flickered to the massive tree. "And if some physical modification is required...?"

The Shinigami chuckled. [[I'm sure you can handle the situation without needing to operate beyond basic medical care. See you soon!]]

And the image vanished in the mirror.

Sigh. Of course an operation wasn't NEEDED, but shouldn't just a tiny...?

.

C̩͈̽̒̒l̆̄̂̅i͒̂͗̓ͦc̣͎̳͉͖̰̈ͪk̰̤̰̫̟͉̮ͥ͂͑̊̉͂

.

No, it could contaminate the data. "Might as well get this over with."

It only took a few striding steps to stand under the perfectly normal tree with nothing suspicious going on here at all, no way no how no sir!

He took another deep drag from his cigarette, and sighed a cloud of smoke before kicking the tree trunk. "Hey, you."

The tree, being a tree, did nothing.

He glared at it. "You heard my call, right? I'm here to save you and the day and my research and blah blah blah."

Still existing as vegetation, the tree was above any concern about being kicked by a jerk covered in stitched up scars and any weirdo with a massive bolt-screw piercing their skull.

Dr. Stein considered many things... But no, he had to follow his instructions, at least nominally. Otherwise his research budget could get cut. "Look, I want to get us out of here before that crazy snake witch comes back and threatens me with a good time. If you don't want to be exposed to sexy death throes and Madness fueled science, then we need to go."

The tree spawned several massive red mouths, and their jaws DROPPED! [[Say WHAT now!?]]

Oh good, it could communicate through Soul Wavelengths and Resonance. "Point is, we are burning daylight and the sooner we get back to my labs the sooner we can all just call this mess a day and maybe get some snacks or something."

Most of his experiments/samples/students/coworkers liked food, didn't they?

The tree paused, its many mouths grumbling something... "What kind of snacks?"

He hid a manic grin. Got ya! "Assuming you don't wish to test some of my more esoteric attempts at advancing the world of cuisine... Well, I tend to order out a lot to have more time for my experiments. So anything you can order for delivery... Burgers, pizza, pasta, all that stuff."

Odd white orbs with black crosses began to form on the trunk with strange pink highlights. "I require significant quantities of calcium, protein, trace elements of various metals and chemicals, and Candy."

His mental checklist scratched on that last one. "Candy?"

The unmoving tree somehow nodded. "Yes. Crona has never had it and this feels... Important for some reason."

'Crona', huh? Hmm. This might be a two-for-one sample special, apparently! "I'm sure we can work something out."