The House on the Hill

Someone's Missing... Right?

Sanji pushed open the door to the room with the metal door and allowed Zoro and the others in before locking it behind them. Law and Usopp were nowhere in sight, so Sanji called out, "Oi, Shit-heads! I found the others." When no one answered his call, he kicked at the metal door in the upper left corner of the room, leaving a foot-shaped hole in the exterior. "I found them, get your asses out here!"

"Why do you have to be so obnoxious?" Usopp called groggily from behind the door. Sanji could hear Law talking to Usopp softly, but urgently, and the other's whining response. He sighed, the sniper sounded absolutely wrecked.

Usopp had been searching the room in a panic when Sanji had woken, terrified at Nami's sudden disappearance. The cook wasn't certain how much sleep Usopp has gotten. The boy didn't sleep much when anxious, and while he seemed oddly, chill, other than the incident in the morning, Sanji suspected that Usopp's anxiety was merely bubbling under the surface, much worse than usual.

Everything was a bit off since entering the mansion though, himself included. Sanji was alarmed when he woke to see that he had slept past noon, with no recollection of anyone trying to wake him to change shifts. He normally did not sleep more than 5 hours at a time so sleeping more than 12 threw him for a loop. It wasn't something he had done since he was 10, and he had been extremely ill at the time.

The group had to wait a few more minutes before the door finally opened to reveal Law with Usopp clinging to his arm. The sniper looked ready to drop where he stood, with heavy and black bags lined underneath each eye. "Did you get everything you needed?" Sanji asked, moving his eyes to the large bag on Law's other shoulder.

"Yes," Law replied shortly. "We should go."

Law and Usopp led the group through the corridor to the room with the fireplace. While Nami had gone missing there, it was still one of the more secure places they knew about where the entire group could comfortably converse.

Once they were all situated and the door was shut firmly behind them, Law began to look at the cuts on Zoro and the others, adding antiseptic and bandages when needed. When he was done with that he knelt in front of Zoro and held the swordsman's face in his hand, shining a light into his right eye. "You said that you went temporarily blind? How is your sight now?"

Zoro grunted, "back to normal." He leaned back to disengage Law's hand from his face and get the blinding light out of his eye.

"Do you know what caused it?" Law leaned down to put his light away and stood, brushing his pants off.

Zoro merely shrugged, "it was the magic that thing was emitting."

Law hummed in response. He remembered that back on Seer Island, Zoro was extremely sensitive to magic, and often got ill from exposure, but he couldn't remember an instance where the man had been blinded.

That tidbit of information was both interesting and worrying. Would there be a point where there would be so much magic that Zoro would go blind permanently? And along that vein, why was he going blind? He would have to discuss it later with Chopper, and perhaps Robin and Usopp when he had a chance. Maybe they had some insight he didn't.

Absentmindedly, he walked over to Usopp's bag and pulled out the box they had found on the fourth floor. "We're burning this."

Sanji looked up from his spot beside Zoro, "shouldn't we check what is inside it first?"

"Usopp doesn't think it is a good idea."

Sanji held his tongue. Usopp never thinks anything is a good idea, it was practically the sniper's MO. Zoro shifted beside him and cleared his throat. "If Usopp thinks we should burn it without opening it, we should."

Sanji looked at him with wide eyes, "seriously?" Zoro seldom went with Usopp's whims.

Zoro shrugged, "he is a seer. Maybe he could tell that nothing good would come of opening it."

Sanji glanced over to Usopp where he sat by the fireplace, his knees pulled up to his chest. He had been in that position since they entered the room. If they could calm him down enough to speak, they could ask- but that was unlikely.

Sanji frowned as Usopp dug his face into his knees and lightly pulled at his hair. He could hear the other mumbling under his breath, but for the life of him couldn't understand what the younger boy was saying. Law carelessly threw the box into the fire and went to sit by Usopp. He leaned his forehead against the side of Usopp's head and began to whisper something to him.

"Whatever," he said finally with a wave of his hand. The cook turned his gaze to the others in the room. "What happened to you guys when you got here?"

Robin hummed, "that's a good idea. We can tell our stories and create a timeline. It will make things much easier to follow." She pulled out a notebook from her bag and a pen, ready to take notes. "I can start. We arrived about an hour ago. Luffy and Chopper went to the back room downstairs, I went to the Library and Zoro and Franky came up to the second floor."

Zoro nodded, "Franky stayed on the second floor and I went to check out the third and fourth floors." He tapped his fingers on the table as he thought. "When I got to the fourth floor I heard Luffy attack something and came back down. I couldn't find Franky so I went downstairs assuming he was with you." He leaned down and picked up Sanji's bloodied clothes from the fireplace. He turned to Sanji, his eyes burning. "I found these in the fireplace over here. Why the hell were your clothes in the fireplace and why are they covered in blood?" He whispered the last part angrily to the cook, unable to keep his voice steady.

Sanji stared down at the clothes for a moment, studying the red-stained items. "That's paint." He said finally.

"What?" He quickly glanced down at the clothes in his hand before looking back up at Sanji. "How the fuck did you, of all people, get paint on you?" Zoro asked incredulously. Sanji was nothing if not a perfectionist about keeping his clothes clean. The guy wouldn't step foot in Usopp's factory because the kid had paint everywhere.

Law looked up from whispering at Usopp, "Usopp had a bit of a meltdown this morning- we all got into an argument about what to do since Nami went missing, and threw his paint at me and Sanji." Law turned a bit and sure enough, there was red paint marring the right side of his sweater and pants.

Sanji snorted, "the smell of the paint made me nauseated so I took the extra clothes Usopp had in his bag and changed. I remember putting them on the chair before I left the room." He stared at them quietly, "I'm not sure how they got in the fireplace."

He shrugged nonchalantly. It was true that a fight had broken out earlier that day, and that things were thrown. He remembered using his ruined clothes to clean the furniture and floors after changing, but, now that Sanji had a closer look, there was blood on the fabric. He had no idea where the fresh blood would have come from or how his clothes had wound up in the fireplace.

"... arrived yesterday morning." Sanji pulled himself out of his thoughts and tried to pay attention to the conversation. Law had switched places with Luffy and was sitting at the table while Luffy tried to get through to Usopp. The captain had placed his chin on Usopp's bicep and was rubbing his back, talking urgently but quietly.

"I came with Usopp, Sanji and Nami after you guys failed to return the night before. When we arrived we got separated for a bit, found each other and then came in here for the evening." Law nodded to the door. "It's one of the only places in the house that had enough room and locked properly."

"The night?" Luffy asked from his spot by Usopp. He was leaning his head against Usopp's his eyes echoing the confusion on all their faces. "How?"

Sanji shrugged, "who the fuck knows. We got here around 8:30 in the morning yesterday, spent 12 hours looking for you guys and getting attacked, then we went to bed when it was pitch dark out and woke up sometime after Noon today."

"That's when we realised Nami was gone and you guys showed up."

"She couldn't have disappeared into thin air, where is she?" Robin asked.

"We don't know." Sanji roughly ran his hands through his hair and growled. He hated feeling so useless, especially when Nami-swan was in trouble. Fuck, he needed a cigarette.

He kneeled and started to run his hands over Zoro's body. He pressed firmly against the naked skin of Zoro's chest and slid his hands inside the coat, running them down his body. Not an inch of skin was spared his attention until Zoro coughed, "er." He was bright red and was doing everything he could to avoid looking at the cook. "We aren't alone."

Sanji scoffed, "Fuck you. I want my cigarettes, Shitty-Swordsman." Zoro rolled his eyes and shoved Sanji's hands off him before reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out a half-pack of cigarettes.

Sanji grabbed them and pressed the pack to his face, breathing in the nicotine deeply. "Oh, sweet sweet poison."

Robin wrote down a note and looked up, "so we have two people missing." She said, tapping her pen against the paper. "Nami and Franky."

"Looks like it," Zoro said, tapping his fingers against the wood as he looked around the room.

"Sanji, how many times have you run into the monster?"

Sanji thought for a moment, "twice."

"Three," Usopp said from the fireplace. He was laying his cheek on his knees, but the group could see his face.

Sanji nodded, "right Downstairs would be the third time." He threw his pack of cigarettes on the table. "Did it look familiar to any of you? I feel like I've seen it before."

Everyone shook their heads, including Usopp. Sanji frowned at that. He swore that he saw something that looked very similar to the monster in one of the boy's sketchbooks.

Usopp stood up from his spot and began to poke at the box in the fire with the fireplace poker. The lid broke off the box and fell to the bottom of the fire. "It looks like something is in the box," Usopp said, leaning a bit closer to see what was inside.

Sanji could have told him that, "what is it?"

"Hmm," Usopp poked at the box a bit more, tipping it over and causing it to fall onto the marble step in front of the fire. "Shit!" he jumped back a bit to avoid being burned. He poked at the box again before using the poker to lip up the heated object. A key was revealed beneath. "Another key- ground floor from the looks of it."

"The room behind the stairs?" Chopper asked, "there is a locked room there."

Usopp shrugged, "possibly, there is one other door in the kitchen that is locked. I can't imagine that leads to another hallway." he muttered more to himself than them.

"Many of the doors here lock behind you. Nami-swan and Franky may be stuck in one of th- shit, shit, shit!"

The rattling of the doorknob interrupted Sanji and they all stood, eyeing the door wearily. Soon after, slamming began, as if something heavy was being thrown against the door. The air suddenly felt dry and the room's temperature plunged to freezing.

Sanji jumped to his feet, barely dodging Zoro as the swordsman whipped out his swords. "It's here," Sanji stated. "Luffy and I will distract it while you guys get out of here and see where that key leads to." He fired up his leg, "we will meet you downstairs when this is over."

"I need Robin to check out something on the third floor with me. Usopp, Chopper and Law can go ahead to the ground floor." Zoro said Robin nodded in agreement, as she placed her books in her bag.

Law held his sword in one hand and Usopp's bag in the other as the boy reached down and took the key from the front of the fireplace, Chopper made himself comfortable on Usopp's shoulder. Sanji counted, stopping short suddenly, "where the fuck is Luffy!?" Sanji growled, quickly scanning the room for the captain but not seeing him.

"What are you talking about, Pervert-Cook? Luffy was never here," Zoro said, staring at Sanji oddly.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Shit-for-Brains!?" Sanji threw up his head, "whatever, we need to get going." he growled as the door began to crack. "We will meet upstairs when we are all done. No point in letting Moss-head get lost."

The door splintered, and Sanji turned, leg raised to attack just as the monster smashed through the door and charged inside. He jumped to the side and kicked it across the chest, flames blazing. The creature went flying into the window which allowed Law, Usopp, Chopper and Robin time to slip out the door. Law took Usopp and Chopper down the corridor while Robin stayed back by the wall. She had her spellbook out and was looking through the pages, her lips pursed.

The monster straightened itself from the tangle of curtains and eyed them carefully. It kept its distance, studying the two men before it. Sanji glared it down, ignoring the shiver of fear that ran through his body. What was it thinking? How much sentient thought did it have? What did it want?

"What's the plan?"

"We corner it," Sanji said before rushing the creature. He jumped over the monster's head, kicking it hard in the back and shoving it into the table. The table splintered under the monster's weight, breaking in two. The creature sprang to its feet and slashed at Zoro, missing. It then turned on Sanji instead, so sickeningly fast that the cook didn't have the time to respond.

Sanji was thrown through the wall by the door and into the corridor, just barely missing Robin as he skidded across the floor. "Sanji!" Robin leaned down to look him over, muttering to herself. He felt a heat run through his body and tingling in some areas. "Stay still for a moment, the healing magic will work quicker that way." Sanji groaned, unable to answer as he forced air into his lungs. He pushed himself up and looked through the hole to where Zoro and the monster were continuing the fight.

Zoro cleanly blocked the next blow with the sword in right his hand, his feet skidding against the floor through broken wood and sheetrock.

Sanji stumbled to his feet and rocketed forward, he relit the flames on his leg and got the monster directly in the chest, getting him to back off Zoro. Zoro made a slash at the monster, the blade barely cutting into the monster's shoulder before it let out an agonizing scream and vanished from the room.

Sanji backed himself to the bed dust and sheetrock covered bed and plopped down. He leaned his elbows in his knees, dropped his head into his hands and took a deep breath. "Shit," he muttered to himself. He sat up and looked at the wall, feeling a small satisfaction that the hole in the wall was still there.

Zoro plopped down beside him and threw himself back to lay on the bed. He closed his eyes while Robin healed him, allowing the warm magic to flow through his body. "Don't use too much, you know how it drains you." He muttered to Robin before nudging Sanji with his foot. "Did we beat it, or did it run away?"

Sanji threw himself down beside Zoro and leaned on his arm so that he hovered over him, "dunno. It just vanishes like that. It doesn't come back very quickly and it's never attacked in the same place twice. So, we are probably safe… for now."

"Hmm."

"You seem fine," Robin commented. She stood and walked over to the other side of the bed. Leaning over Sanji she took his face in her hands to study him better. After a moment she nodded and let go of his face, ignoring the light stream of blood running down his nose.

Zoro rolled his eyes at Sanji and threw himself onto his feet, slowly stalking around the room as if he were looking for something.

"You both should be good now." She bent down and pulled Sanji's soiled clothes from under the bed, "although, if you think we will mistake blood for paint, you are sorely mistaken, Cook-san."

Before Sanji could retort, the sound of shattering glass filled their ears. Sanji jumped to his feet and looked over Robin's shoulder. Zoro was glaring down at his foot, something made of metal and glass smashed on the floor under Zoro's foot. They both raised an eyebrow at the swordsman, and he blushed scarlet. "The ticking was driving me insane!" he said defensively, kicking what looked to be the broken remains of a clock away from him.

Sanji rubbed his head, he felt like the room was suddenly a bit easier to breathe in, but he had a pounding headache. Seeing that under Zoro's foot did remind him though… "Does anyone have a watch? Mine has been stuck at 8:43 since we entered here yesterday morning."

Robin checked her watch, "it's 13:57."

Sanji nodded and looked down at his own watch sadly before his eyes widened. "Now my watch is reading the correct time. It wasn't a little while ago." he frowned, saying the last part more to himself than her.

"Maybe it is because Swordsman-san broke the clock?" Robin offered, she began to quickly flip through her book. "I remember there being something in here about time magic."

Sanji shrugged, "we don't have much evidence to go on. Maybe all the fighting knocked the battery back into place?" He paused for a moment, to stare down at the watch on his wrist for a moment longer. "In any case, we should get going."

"Great, I need Robin to confirm something for me," Zoro said.

Robin nodded, "yes. There is also another room on this floor that I believe has a clock. We can try out our little theory before we go upstairs to meet the others as -."

Puru-puru-puru-puru-puru, Robin patted her coat pocket and pulled out a ringing baby den den mushi. Puru-puru-puru-gacha! "Hello?" There was silence on the other end before a piano note was played and then the den den mushi closed its eyes indicating that the call was over. The three of them stared at the den den mushi for a moment in awe.

"What the fuck?"

"A piano note?" Robin muttered to herself, putting the den den mushi back into her pocket. "I wonder what that was about?"

Zoro ran a hand through his hair, "I actually was going to take you to a piano room. That's what I want to show you on the third floor. I think it's the epicentre for the magic in the house."

"We should get going before anything else weird happens," Sanji sighed, nodding to them and leading the way out of the door to the piano room.

o0o

Law's long fingers were wrapped tightly around Usopp's wrist as he pulled him forward through the corridor. He ignored Usopp's boisterous complaints, his concentration fully on their surroundings as he tried to sense any signs of trouble. Chopper sat atop Usopp's shoulder, his hooves tightly wound into Usopp's locks as he tried to not be bounced off the sniper's shoulders from the force of Law's pulls. It was only when the three of them almost tumbled down the stairs that Law finally slowed down.

Usopp shook out of Law's grip and breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the first landing, visibly relaxing as they crossed the threshold. As they crossed through the annexe he rotated his wrist while Chopper took a moment to sniff around. He could smell nothing but the same scent of old blood and death that he has been smelling since they arrived.

Usopp patted Chopper's hat and followed Law down the corridor. He stepped around Law and unlocked the door in the back corridor that led to another room. Law gently pushed him aside and went into the room first to look for any signs of trouble. Not sensing any, Law motioned for him to enter. Usopp checked the door for an automated lock and walked into the middle of the room.

It was another bedroom, decorated in emerald green and gold. Chopper jumped off Usopp's shoulder and began sniffing around the room, while Law and Usopp looked through the draws. A slight movement from the walk-in closet on the far left of the room caught Usopp's eye. He swallowed, fingering his Kabuto and toying with the ammo in his pocket while he shakily walked towards the door.

Law, noticing his distress cut him off and reached towards the door to the walk-in when it slammed open and the grey-skinned monster jumped out, lunging at them.

Usopp turned on his heels and pulled Law with him. He dragged him through the door and out into the corridors. When they hit the fork between the two corridors, he took the right one. Law followed closely behind him, making sure to keep an ear out for where that thing was. They reached the door at the end of the corridor and Usopp hurried inside, pulling Law behind him and slamming the door shut. He fumbled with the lock before cursing and moving out of the way so that Law could lock it properly.

"We should be good," Usopp said, as he took Chopper off his shoulders and placed him on the ground. "It won't be able to get us here."

Chopper dropped the lid to the toilet so that he could sit. Something jabbed him in the back and he squeaked and jumped up onto Law's shoulder, tears in his eyes. Law drew out his sword and pointed it at the toilet, dropping it when he saw the small leggy creature in what looked to be a face towel standing where Chopper had been sitting. It had a scowl on it's pointed face and it's hands planted firmly on its hips.

"If you wish to sit, you must pay me! This is a place of business, not a restroom!"

Chopper peered over Law's shoulder, eyes wide, "place of business?"

Usopp grinned, "looks like it's offering to sell you something, Chopper."

"What do you have?" the reindeer asked.

The small creature disappeared and reappeared with a pop. It deposited a bottle of grog and a sealed package of sushi on the tank of the toilet. "Both for 1000 beri!"

"Do you guys want anything?" Usopp asked.

Chopper and Law shook their heads. Neither could think of a time they would be hungry enough to drink toilet sushi. "No thank you," Usopp said after a moment,

The tiny vender scoffed, "fine, fine, just get out then!"

Law pulled on Usopp's sleeve to get his attention. "We should get going, that thing should be gone by now."

"True," Usopp said, collecting Chopper from Law's shoulder and putting him on his own.

As they began walking the corridor, Law couldn't help but voice a question. "How did you know that it would be safe?"

Usopp merely smiled and tapped his temple. "Intuition," he said vaguely. The curt way he said it let Law know that he wouldn't be getting any more information on the matter.

"Did you notice that it keeps growing?" Chopper asked suddenly.

"Yeah, at this rate it won't be able to fit through doors soon!" Usopp said.

"That could work for or against us," Law muttered. He rubbed his hand through his hair and studied Usopp. Something about his responses didn't quite fit, but honestly, nothing Usopp had said in the last 48 hours felt sincere from the boy.

They fell into silence as Usopp led them back to the annexe and through to the other corridor, opposite the one the monster chased them out of.

"Where are we going?" Chopper asked.

"I want to look over here first before we go, give it some time to leave if it hasn't already." He pulled on Law's sweater. "C'mon, we can check out the kitchen."

Law sighed but followed the sniper into the kitchen. In the upper right corner of the room was a locked door. Usopp was able to get it open using a lockpick kit in his bag and a pantry was revealed. Empty boxes lined the shelves, as did serval other items but he ignored them. Instead, he reached up and removed the items on the top shelf. He made a triumphant noise when a small safe was exposed.

"Wow, Usopp! How did you know that there would be a safe up there!"

Usopp laughed, it was forced, but Law didn't think Chopper caught on. "Houses like this usually have a safe hidden in a place like this. They think it's subtle, but it's about as subtle as hiding one behind a painting."

"Can you open it?" Law asked.

Usopp scoffed and didn't dignify that question with a response except to say, "I'll need Robin's book of curses to make sure there isn't anything that could harm us. I don't sense anything right now, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything that could hurt us in there. Many curses lay dormant until something is tripped."

Law nodded, "we should go back to that room and see what is in that closet."

Usopp nodded and allowed Law to push him and Chopper out of the kitchen and back towards the room where they were attacked. The door where the monster had burst from remained wide open. After telling Usopp and Chopper to stay back he carefully approached it, sword in hand. He peeked inside but it was empty save for a lone piece of paper on the floor. He handed over the paper to Usopp before checking the top of the closet and the sides for any false walls or ceilings.

"What do you think it is?"

Usopp frowned at the paper, "maybe a graphic organizer of some sort?" He turned it 90 degrees, then 180 degrees before shrugging. "It looks like one of those worksheets I used to fill out at school all the time."

Chopper merely shrugged his shoulders, it looked like just some random doodling to him.

Law took the paperback and looked it over. There were two rectangles drawn in two different colours. It looked like something he had seen before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where. Sanji perhaps? He wasn't sure. "I feel like I've seen this before- but something is different about it."

Usopp shrugged, "we can show it to the others when they meet up, maybe they know."

Chopper hopped off of Usopp to go search a desk on the other side of the room, he rustled through various papers, pens and markers.

Law sighed and shoved the paper in his pants pocket before pulling Usopp against him. Usopp leaned his forehead against Law's clavicle and wrapped his arms tightly around his waist. Law closed his eyes and pressed his face into Usopp's hair. Other than Chopper's rustling, silence permeated the room, until Usopp's den den Mushi went off.

Puru-puru-puru-puru-puru, "what the fuck!" Usopp exclaimed, throwing himself away from Law and frantically looking for his baby den den mushi.

Puru-puru-puru-puru-puru. He frantically checked the pockets him his bag before triumphantly pulling it out from under a spare sweater.Puru-puru-gacha!-, silence was all that met him. Just as Usopp was about to hang up a single piano note played, before the line went dead.

"What was that?" Chopper asked, jumping onto Law's shoulder to study the den den mushi in Usopp's hand.

"It sounded like a piano key," Usopp muttered, pocketing it in his pants. "I thought maybe it was from the ship, but it didn't change its form so I can't say for sure. When I tried to get a call out to the ship today, I wasn't able to. The magic here is messing with the psychic lines."

Chopper sighed, deflating onto Law's shoulder, "I hate this place. It's scary, smelly and makes no sense." He held up his hoof, a frown on his face. "First, we escape the monster upstairs, but somehow it was able to get down here and into the closet, before we did, this entire place smells like it is covered in old blood and magic but you can't see the remains of it anywhere, and now someone is leaving us clues!"

Usopp leaned into Law before sighing, "they're taking a really long time. We should go upstairs and check on them, they might need us." Law nodded and led them out of the room, they needed to get to the bottom of what was happening and soon.

o0o

With Robin and Sanji leading the way, it was a short walk to the room with the piano on the third floor. Zoro followed behind the group and kept one of his swords out in case they were attacked from behind. Sanji took up the front.

"There is a Library and the Piano room on this floor," Zoro said, he turned towards the Library, stopping just outside the open door. "It's the other room," he said, pointing the other way, a blush on his face.

Robin entered the room first, a grimace on her face, followed by Sanji who wasn't bothered. Zoro stood outside in the corridor, arms crossed over his chest. He would be more useful to them outside the room than inside at this point.

Sanji walked to the piano in the middle of the room, he recognized it as the room he fell into when Nami pulled the lever, the one entirely covered in white. From what little he knew of what housed magic, he could tell that the room was perfect for it. Why he hadn't thought of it before, he didn't know, but he guessed it had something to do with him not being able to sense it very well. He could brew a mean potion though.

Sanji ran his fingers over the keys of the piano absentmindedly, stopping when a splash of colour caught his eye. He leaned down and studied them curiously. The colours were smeared across an octave. Four of the keys had black marks on them, but they were much too worn to make out, and others were coloured in blue, red, green and yellow.

He hadn't seen anything so far that would require letters or numbers. Both were usually used for codes of some sort for safes, vaults and the like. He ran his fingers over the keys again and pressed down on a few of them.

"Knock that the fuck off!" Zoro growled, hand gripping his forehead. His hand was shaking, and he was panting.

Sanji raised his eyebrow, "what's wrong?"

Zoro shook his head, "it's…"

The room suddenly felt so humid it was difficult to breathe.

"Sanji look out!" Robin pulled him from the piano just as a grey fist came out of nowhere.

The monster stood by the piano looking around the room. Sanji froze and looked up at the monster with wide eyes, but it looked as if it couldn't see him. His eyes met Robin's and she shook her head, placing a finger to her lips.

Sanji held his breath as the monster walked over to the piano and brushed its hand over the keys. It walked around the piano and passed within a foot of where Sanji was sat on the floor. It stared at the bookshelves where Robin was standing before it walked towards the door.

It moved very gracefully, more so than one would assume based on it's build. They could hear it's thudding footsteps, but not one breath left its mouth- did it not need to breathe?

It was close to Sanji again so he made sure to stay as still as possible. For some reason, it couldn't see him, or sense him for that matter.

The monster stood in front of him, facing the piano. He could attack it if he wanted to, could probably snap its neck, but, all things pointed to that not being enough. Hell, it looked like it hadn't been hit at all even though they have faced it quite a few times already. It was almost as if it couldn't die.

And because it couldn't die, not in any way known to them, Sanji stayed quiet and watched with bated breath as it finally left the room. Sanji and Robin exhaled, feeling the room clear from the humid stale feeling the monster had brought into the room.

Robin kneeled beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder, she too was breathing a bit heavy and seemed to be pulling in as much air as possible.

"Oi, shit-cook, Robin, what's going on?"

"Zoro, did you see it?" Robin called.

"See what, I can't see anything in here." Sanji looked up to see Zoro leaning against the door. He was looking into the room, and in their general direction, but not directly at him. His eyesight was gone again.

"That monster was in here," Robin said, standing and helping Sanji to his feet. "But it didn't attack us, it was almost as if it couldn't see us in here once we stopped making noise." She pursed her lips, "it had been able to sense where I and Sanji had been just moments before and where he had touched the piano, but not where we had physically been in the room while he was in it."

"Makes sense," Zoro grunted. "Are you sure it's gone?"

"Positive," Robin said. She fell silent for a moment as she closed her eyes and focused her energy, trying to get a sense of the room. "I think I figured out the purpose of this room and why it bothers you, Swordsman-san."

"Yeah, I have too. But have you figured out why my eyesight keeps leaving whenever that thing shows up?" Zoro asked.

"No, I am afraid I am not sure why that happens," Robin said apologetically.

"Hey, Zoro!" Chopper said, jumping on his shoulder suddenly.

"Chopper," Zoro reached up and rubbed between Chopper's antlers.

"Are you guys okay?" Usopp asked uncertainty as he slipped through the door with Law, watching with wide eyes as Zoro slid down the wall and sat on the floor with Chopper hanging off his chest.

"I'll be fine once we get out of this room," Zoro muttered, rubbing his hands over his face. "What did you guys find?"

Usopp sat in front of Zoro on the floor, "not much. We were ambushed by the monster when Law opened the closet in here."

"There was a safe in the kitchen," Chopper said, as he jumped down to Zoro's lap. He took the swordsman's face into his hooves and studied his eyes, moving the man's head back and forth until Zoro got annoyed and pushed him off.

"I'm fine, Chopper," he growled.

"T-There was another door in there, but we don't have the key for it yet." Usopp grabbed Chopper and shook his head to quiet the Doctor before he began to yell at Zoro.

Chopper shoved his hooves into his pockets and muttered to himself. His hoove met a piece of paper and he pulled it out. "Oh, yeah. I found this paper in the room down the hall. I don't think it means anything though."

Chopper held out the paper and Robin kneeled beside Usopp and took it from him. Law and Sanji moved towards the group and looked over her shoulder. "It looks like the other half of the paper I found earlier on the fourth floor," Sanji muttered. "Maybe it's some kind of code?"

"Let's hold on to that for a minute," Law suggested. "Was there anything you guys found out?"

"We know where the magic is housed," Robin offered.

"It is more like the magic station," Zoro disagreed.

"What do you mean?" Sanji asked, feeling lost.

"This room is where all the magic in the house is passing through and crossing over, but it's not where it is coming from," Zoro said.

"So what you are saying is, it's not the source- there is no use trying to break it in here then," Robin said.

Usopp hummed, "that means if we try to dismantle it here, one of two things will happen. Either the house will implode with us in it, or the spells will just go back to working as normal."

"So it would be a waste to try," Chopper said with a frown. "What can we do then?"

"Have you guys done anything, and have something happen?" Robin asked, "When we were all downstairs, Zoro broke a clock. It seemed to put Sanji's watch back to the correct time."

Sanji nodded in agreement, "before that happened my watch read '8:47' which was the time we entered the mansion yesterday. It hadn't changed until that happened."

"We were going to go around the second floor and destroy any others we found-"

"But then, Zoro went temporarily blind and thought it best to just settle here for you. I also got a call on my den den mushi." Robin added, "all we heard was one musical note."

"I got one earlier as well," Usopp offered, "it played the sound 'La'."

"The note on mine was 'SOL'".

"Hm," Zoro's eyebrows raised when his den den mushi began to ring. Puru-puru-pu-gacha!A single note played before the den den mushi went back to sleep. "What note was that?"

"Re, or D" Usopp offered. "M-maybe we should take a look at those papers. It might give us a clue on how to find Luffy and Franky."

Sanji pulled the paper out of his pocket and placed it on the floor. Chopper placed the other one beside it. The crew sat on the floor gathered around it.

"Can you see all right, Zoro?" Chopper asked.

Zoro grunted and shook his head, leaning his arms on his knees to try and see the papers. "No, it's blurry. All I see are shadows." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed."Why are we looking for Franky, by the way, only Luffy is missing."

"That's a mean trick, Zoro!" Chopper cried.

"Franky didn't come with us, it's not a trick!" Zoro snapped.

"Ok, who do we think is missing," Robin asked diplomatically.

"Nami, Franky and Luffy," Law said.

Sanji hummed, "Law, do you remember who came here with you?"

Law gave Sanji an odd look, "You, Nami and Usopp." He looked around, "Luffy came with Franky, Zoro, Robin and Chopper."

"Luffy's here?" Usopp asked, shaking a bit. "I thought he was on his way."

"No, he was definitely here," Law said, with a frown. "Is everyone getting affected by this sudden loss of memory?"

Sanji hummed and stood suddenly. He walked to the corner of the room where the dressers were and began rifling through them. He stopped and pulled out a small pocket watch. The hands-on the watch were racing around, the hour hand moving as if it were the second hand, and the other ones moving much quicker. He raised his hand and threw it down hard, smashing it.

Suddenly, the room around him faded and he could see Luffy running through the door with a screaming Chopper, yes he remembered that. Suddenly, that memory faded to Nami standing beside him, arms crossed under her chest, "this is where they said they were going, right?"

"That's what Usopp said," Sanji murmured beside her. Yes, that memory made sense. He came to the mansion with Nami to check if Law and Usopp were alright. They had been gone an entire day.

Except, he remembered Franky and Chopper joking about setting up a prank on Luffy when he caught up with them.

But that wasn't right, he couldn't have come with them.

Was it with the larger group them? With Nami, Robin, Franky and Chopper- trying to find Luffy, Usopp, Law and Zoro? Franky had run up the porch, but Nami had tried to hold him back.

No, he didn't come with them.

"Are you sure this is the place Luffy and the others went?"

"That's what the villagers said," Usopp insisted. "Although, it looks much nicer than I thought it would be based on the descriptions."

Nami crossed her arms, "I know! I almost regret not coming with them last night. There is probably loads of treasure in there to steal!"

Sanji placed his hands in his pockets and gave an exasperated sigh. "They probably got bored and wandered off. There doesn't seem to be much to keep Luffy's attention here." Law hummed in agreement before he tensed, his hand moving to his sword.

Yes, he remembers now.

Sanji took a deep breath and blinked the memory away.

"Why the fuck would you do that without any warning?" Zoro growled, gripping his head.

"Zoro, are you okay!?" Usopp asked, leaning over to press a hand to Zoro's shoulder.

"I'm blind, I don't need to fucking hallucinate too!" He growled.

"I think I might have an idea, but I need help with the piano," Chopper said suddenly, looking down at the papers on the floor.

Usopp nodded and went to sit at the piano, "what were you thinking?"

Chopper placed the papers on the book stand and sat beside Usopp on the bench. "The colours on the paper match the ones on the piano. Each colour has a different number."

Sanji placed a hand on Usopp's shoulder and peered over at the papers, "maybe this is the code to the safe you guys found."

"If that's the case, we still need one more note," Law said.

"In any case, figuring out one number is better than figuring out four," Robin said.

However, they wouldn't need to for, at that moment, Law's den den mushi began to ring. Puru-puru-puru-puru-puru-gacha! Law handed it over to Usopp, who listened intently. "Si, which is B," He looked down at the piano, "La, Sol, Re, Si." He took the pieces of paper and wrote their corresponding notes and numbers on each colour. "So, in order, the numbers are 8476."

Usopp pushed himself away from the piano and motioned towards the door, "we should go check this out. It's the only lead we have."

Law nodded, "Let's go." Law left and the other's followed, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji taking up the end of the group as Zoro refused to let Sanji lead him around.

"I'm not a dog!" The swordsman growled.

"Whatever, Marimo," Sanji muttered, placing his hand against Zoro's lower back and pushing him forward. "Coming Usopp?"

"I-I'll be there in a minute," Sanji nodded and left with the others, leaving Usopp alone in the room.

Usopp sighed, and ran his fingers over the keys, smudging the marker and dirtying his fingers with the mixture of colours. "Should I wipe them off now or later?" he muttered to himself. The next time they need to go into the safe, the pin will change.

He pulled his fingers from the keys and sighed, hurrying after the others as their voices began to lose themselves in the stairwell. He better hurry, he didn't want them to get suspicious.

He wasn't, lying, not really. Just omitting some information, but it was important to do so. He knows Sanji was likely catching on, but he needed to make sure they did everything in the right order at the right time. If they did anything wrong, someone would die, and he couldn't let that happen, not again.

To be continued…

Warnings:

Mention of Alcoholic Beverages

No other warnings.

So, erm… this is embarrassing. I've actually had this written since like 20 Aug, but I got caught up in Midnight Sun and life and… some awesome Hetalia games. I am trying for updates once a month (I don't have a beta for this story so it takes me a while to go through everything myself).