"Well? Aren't you going to do something?" Nami called out. Gan Fall was circling her overhead, Pierre making sure to fly at a safe distance outside of Nami's range.
"I'm doing all I need to" Gan Fall shrugged, unflappable.
"He's planning on delaying me until the rest of his crew can come help him out" Nami thought to herself, gritting her teeth. None of Nami's attacks were fast and long-reaching enough to reliably hit Gan Fall, while Gan Fall wanted to avoid putting himself in harm's way by going on the offensive. "I'm not really worried about the goons, the others will be able to handle them. But I was warned about…"
She caught a glimpse of something up above, and looked straight up to see several transparent ghosts with big tongues fly down towards her.
"That…" Nami groaned, biting her lip.
The ghosts swooped down, trying to collide with Nami, forcing the orange-haired captain to leap out of the way. From what she had been told, the danger of these ghosts was not to be underestimated. They were created by Perona's Hollow Hollow Fruit, and being hit by one would leave her a sitting duck. But by focusing on avoiding them...
"You're open!"
Gan Fall swooped down on Pierre, thrusting his lance into Nami's side and knocking her away. She rolled across the ground before skidding into a crouch, ready to leap back into action. But before she could one of the ghosts flew into and through her. Where the ghost had passed through, Nami felt an indescribable emptiness. A void that grew to encompass her entire body, sapping her energy and will. Pride and determination gave way to insecurity and doubt. Nami sank to her knees and fell forwards onto her hands. Her head hung low, and all around her was an indescribable emotional darkness…
Nami was only shaken out of it by the shock of Gan Fall's lance hitting her once more. She was knocked backwards, doing a backflip in the air before landing on the ground again.
"Do you see now? With our captain's power, no foe can stand against us!" Gan Fall declared, Pierre flying in place flanked by the multiple ghosts Perona had created. "When the heart falters, the body is sure to follow."
Nami didn't reply, calmly wiping some blood from the corner of her mouth as she glared at Gan Fall.
Elsewhere, the battles weren't going much better for the rest of the Chopper rescue squad. Franky fell to his knees, only for Pekoms' own knee to bury itself in Franky's face. The blue-haired gunner fell backwards and landed on his back. He slowly opened his eyes into a squint, and saw Pekoms leap into the air to do a falling strike on the downed pirate. Franky only barely managed to roll out of the way, leaving Pekoms to punch the ground and leave a small crater.
"This guy isn't giving me any chance to catch my breath or get some distance…" Franky thought to himself as he scurried to his feet. He began trying to dash backwards, but was quickly shoulder-tackled by Pekoms.
"Stop trying to run away, gao" the lion Mink roared, as Franky stumbled backwards. Pekoms was about to continue rushing him down, when Franky suddenly drew his grenade launcher. His bazooka had been knocked away from him earlier, leaving him with only the launcher. "...you're not gonna fire. I'm so close that you'll be hit by the blast too, gao!
"Well… better I take us both out than let you keep wailing on me, isn't it?" Franky grinned, as his finger began squeezing the trigger… only to feel a pit in his stomach. A thick-lipped ghost emerged from his chest, sticking its tongue out at Franky. All will to finish pressing the trigger vanished from Franky, and soon his vision was engulfed by the sole of Pekom's shoe.
Perona's astral projection was floating over the courtyard, smugly watching as her ghosts weakened the enemy forces. Spotting Luffy battling Minokoala, she flew closer to taunt him.
"Hey, you're that cocky kid who said he was gonna 'kick my ass' last time, aren't you?" Perona grinned.
"That's right! And as soon as I'm done with this guy… I'm coming for you!" Luffy yelled back, while leaning back to avoid a punch from Minokoala. Minokoala's spiked knuckles meant that even a single hit could do debilitating damage.
"Oh really? How are you gonna do that when you can't even handle my cuddly koala bear?" Perona giggled mockingly.
"Just watch me, I'll-" Luffy began, only to suddenly feel cold. A ghost passing through him from behind, completely extinguishing his will to fight. Only when Minokoala's spiked knuckles smashed into him did his mind return to him.
"I'm watching. Not really impressed though. Horo-horo-horo-horo-horo~"
Luffy flew backwards into a wall, partially shattering it. A few seconds later, Franky was launched into the same wall. The two remained there motionless for a bit, amidst a pile of rubble.
"Those ghosts… sure are a pain" Franky grumbled, still not moving. "How did you deal with them last time?"
"We didn't. We just beat up the goons for a while until Chopper managed to escape" Luffy replied.
"Right. Don't think there's any chance of that happening a second time" Franky sighed.
"Nah. I think all we can do is just fight harder. Or hope someone else finds a way to stop Perona" Luffy shrugged.
"Guess so. Well, back into the meat grinder" Franky grinned, as the two stood up to face the approaching Pekoms and Minokoala once more.
"Do you have any sort of strategy except running and dodging?!"
Kaku rushed after Usopp, who was practically rolling down the stairs avoiding the giraffe man's attacks. Kaku had three ways of attacking; his two swords, and his surprisingly powerful nose and neck. Usopp was used to deflecting sword swings with his hammer, but nose thrusts were new. Usopp was going purely on the defensive, not even making counterattacks when Kaku's head was close from a failed nose thrust.
"Don't rush me! I have a phobia of giraffes!" Usopp yelled back, backflipping out of the way as Kaku's impervious sniffer shattered the stone steps beneath him.
"Who has a phobia of giraffes? Giraffes are the most elegant, dangerous, powerful beasts in the animal kingdom!" Kaku roared, clearly offended.
"Well, the dangerous and powerful part probably has something to do with it" Usopp pointed out.
"I concede that you have a point!" Kaku declared, while Usopp blocked both of Kaku's swords with his hammer.
Suddenly, Usopp noticed something behind Kaku. Several ghosts came flying out of the walls and soared towards them. Naturally, Usopp reacted by screaming, his eyes bulging, jaw dropping and his mouth expanding into an exaggerated expression of shock.
"G-ghosts! This tower is haunted!" he yelped, while Kaku only grinned.
"Captain's giving me a hand… well then, this little game of giraffe and lion will be over in a second."
"Which side is which in this game?!"
Chopper gulped. He was now alone in the room with Perona, who was sitting on her knees and projecting ghosts all over the battlefield. He had the chance to flee… but this time, the others were much deeper into enemy territory and fleeing now would abandon them to their fate.
"I… I can't just sit around and wait to be saved… I'm not some cute little teddy bear. I… I'm a pirate! A Straw Hat Pirate! They're risking their lives to save me… I have to return the favor."
He gripped the pig costume he had been put in and began tearing it off his body as he rushed towards Perona's bed. He climbed up, as he felt his Electro building up. Concentrating it into his horns, he created a powerful arc of electricity between the tips of his horns. He stopped in front of Perona, who was still obliviously astrally projecting herself elsewhere, and took a deep breath. Then he leaned forwards, putting Perona's body inside the electric current between his horns.
The attention of everyone in the courtyard battlefield was drawn to Perona's astral projection, which suddenly began screaming and spasming for a few seconds before fading away into nothing. The other ghosts disappeared as well, and the courtyard was silent for a beat.
"D-did something happen to Captain Perona?!" one Kawaii pirate asked panickedly, only to get punched by Burgess.
"The ghosts are gone… time to turn the tide" he grinned, as he, Mozu, Kiwi and Porche each faced their respective monstrous Zoans.
"Gah, what happened to Captain Perona?! Kaku's supposed to be guarding her, what's that lazy bum doing?!" Pekoms freaked out, waving his arms.
"Hey, do you really have enough time to be worrying about her?" Franky grinned. While Pekoms panicked, Franky ran away to get some more distance between them. Now he was at a safe distance to use his grenade launcher, and he immediately took advantage of that safety. A grenade flew out of the launcher's barreling, spinning in the air as it made its way towards Pekoms.
KABOOM
Pekoms was fully enveloped in a fiery explosion, blowing back Franky's hair in dramatic fashion. The Straw Hat grinned as the smoke began settling where Pekoms had once been… but his smile dropped as he saw a big turtle shell lie there unharmed. Pekoms' head and limbs emerged with a pop, and the lion stood there looking only mildly annoyed.
"Nothing you throw at me can get through my shell, gao" he declared, then suddenly leaped forwards. He front flipped and landed in front of Franky, standing up fully and staring at him. "Got it?"
Franky sighed, and lowered his grenade launcher.
"Listen, how about we have a real chat… man to man?" Franky asked, dramatically pulling off his sunglasses.
"Only chatting we'll be doing will be about your terms of surrender, gao" Pekoms replied, doing the same dramatic removal of his sunglasses.
"Shame" Franky shrugged, putting his sunglasses back on and holding up a flashbang that promptly detonated. A blinding flash of light and a deafening noise hit them both, but since Franky had his sunglasses on the flash's effect was greatly reduced on him.
"ARGH! MY EYES! MY EARS!"" Pekoms roared, dropping his sunglasses. He staggered backwards, covering his ears while he shut his eyes.
"Can't… see. Can't… hear" Pekoms thought to himself, robbed of his senses. "He's gonna shoot again… gotta get safe!"
Predicting another shot from Franky's grenade launcher, Pekoms hid inside his shell again. He planned on waiting it out until the flashbang's effect wore off… when he suddenly noticed something small, round and hard being dropped into his shell through the opening for the head.
"Is that a… oh no."
Franky calmly walked away from Pekoms' shell, which soon ejected blasts from all openings from the grenade that had been put inside. With Pekoms defeated, only one thought went through Franky's head:
"Aagh, my ears are still ringing…"
"Huh? The ghosts are gone…" Luffy mused, looking around. Minokoala noticed this as well, glancing around in confusion. Their fight had moved into a large stone hall in the castle itself, having gone through the hole the Mino-beasts had made when they arrived. "Good, those things were annoying. Now there's not gonna be anything getting in the way."
Luffy crouched a bit before lunging forwards at high speed, performing a spear move against Minokoala's torso. The huge furred fighter grunted and swung at Luffy, but the smaller wrestler pushed off Minokoala to leap away. Before Luffy even landed, Minokoala was already upon him, recklessly punching in Luffy's general direction.
"Wow, you kinda suc-" Luffy began, only to get silenced by a vicious uppercut from Minokoala. Only luck kept Luffy's head from being pierced by the spikes, and instead Luffy was launched high into the air. He went limp, and soon gravity began taking its hold.
Luffy's limp body fell towards Minokoala. The yellow-furred beast-man clenched his fists and unleashed a ferocious barrage of punches aimed straight up, enveloping Luffy in a blurry hurricane of blows. Luffy couldn't even be fully seen at this point, with those around only seeing a red and blue blur violently jerking about while a flurry of yellow fists collided against him.
"There it is! Minokoala's deadly Apocalyptus Leaves!" a nearby Kawaii pirate shouted, clenching a fist in awe and wonder of Minokoala's special attack. One final punch sent Luffy hurtling back into the air, his body twisting and spinning around wildly. Several seconds later, he landed back on the hard stone floor about twenty meters behind Minokoala, creating a cloud of dust that covered his body.
"Yeah, what do you think about that?" another Kawaii pirate cheered. "That's what happens when you mess with one of the Mino-Beasts!"
As the dust slowly settled, a silhouette could be seen where Luffy had landed. It was soon revealed to be Luffy himself, standing proud and not looking nearly as beat up as he should.
"What? How is he still standing after-"
A drop of blood echoed through the hall like thunder. Followed by several more. Luffy's fists were dripping with a deep red. Yet Minokoala didn't seem to be the source of the blood. Instead, the yellow-furred fighter roared as he held up his clenched fists, showing off his spiked gauntlets. Or rather, his gauntlets with three flat metal bits on them.
"DID HE PUNCH THE SPIKES FLAT?!" several Kawaii pirates yelled in shock, leaping several meters backwards. Luffy grinned, raising his bloodied fist and staring at Minokoala.
"There… now we're even."
Minokoala roared once more as the two began charging at each other. Luffy suddenly leaped into the air, evading a punch from Minokoala, and grabbed onto the fur around Minokoala's neck. He started swinging around the massive beast-man's neck, moving around by grabbing the fur, gradually making Minokoala lose balance through centrifugal force. After Luffy had gone around Minokoala's neck a few times, the Kawaii pirate ended up falling forwards. And Luffy was in front, both of his hands digging into the thick yellow fur of his opponent with his arms around his neck, in a Bulldog-like wrestling move with Minokoala's jaw resting on Luffy's shoulder.
"Quebrador De Fauces!" Luffy yelled as his feet hit the ground. Minokoala's jaw smashed against Luffy's shoulder, and the giant Zoan user was let go at the time of the impact so he could bounce back up on his feet. He was missing a few teeth, swaying from side to side until he finally fell backwards. The rumble from Minokoala's fall caused three pebbles to fall down and hit some metal, creating a ding-ding-ding sound akin to a wrestling bell.
"Knockout" Luffy grinned as he looked over his shoulder at the defeated Minokoala.
"The ghosts…" Kaku muttered as he saw his spectral backup fade away. "Something must have happened to the captain! Damn it!"
He whirled around, nearly smacking his head into the wall due to his long giraffe neck, and began rushing back the way he came.
"W-wait" Usopp called out. His strategy had involved getting Kaku far away from Perona, and his progress was rapidly unravelling. He had to think fast. "That's right! RUN! Run like the giraffe you are! Giraffes are nature's clowns, anyway."
Kaku skid to a halt, and turned his head to look at Usopp. His eyes were quite literally ablaze.
"Oh dear" Usopp gulped, before he took off down the hallway at top speed with Kaku hot on his trail.
For a brief moment, Gan Fall's attention was elsewhere as he saw Perona's ghosts disappear. When he then felt a strong, metal fist clamp around his upper arm, he knew he was in trouble. He slowly gazed down to his arm, to the metal hand that had closed around, and down the rope connecting the hand to Nami. Nami had her human hand on her robot arm, ready to pull on a small handle. They stared at each other in silence for a brief moment.
"Pierre… I need you to fly faster than you ever have before" Gan Fall instructed his bizarre-looking mount.
The silence was broken when all three combatants made their moves at the same time. Nami pulled the handle, activating the winch engine inside her arm. Gan Fall moved his lance around to wrap the rope around it. Pierre began flying towards the nearest wall at top speed. As Nami began flying up towards Gan Fall, Pierre did a sharp u-turn right in front of the fall, and Gan Fall swung his lance to whip Nami into the wall with the rope. She hit it so hard that she was entirely engulfed in a cloud of dust and stone.
Gan Fall looked backwards as Pierre flew away from the wall, seeing only the dust cloud for a moment. But when the rope around his lance went taut, he sighed and internally admitted his defeat. Nami broke through the cloud, the winch in her arm whirring as it sent her flying towards Gan Fall. The older man tried to jab Nami with the lance as she approached, but she evaded right before colliding with him. Pierre screeched as the impact made him flip over, sending both Gan Fall and Nami falling off.
There was another cloud of dust and stone when the two smashed into the ground. Pierre managed to correct himself and circled down to check on his rider. But as the dust cleared, he only saw Nami stand triumphant over a defeated Gan Fall.
"You…" Nami spoke softly, slowly raising a hand to point at Pierre (who promptly freaked out). "You're going to do me a little favor."
"Insult giraffes, will you? I'll slice you to ribbons!" Kaku yelled angrily as he chased Usopp.
"You'll have to use swords, yeah, because that stupid nose and neck aren't gonna do anything" Usopp provoked the Zoan user, still running.
"Oh yeah? Is THIS nothing?!" Kaku growled before thrusting his nose forward using his long neck. Usopp leaped to avoid it, then turned around in midair and threw his hammer at a nearby winch. The winch was smashed, releasing the chain that it held… and causing a portcullis to slam down over Kaku's neck. "GUAH! Wha-y-you sneaky little… grrrgh… just wait until I get out of… this…"
Kaku slowly looked up to see Usopp standing over him. It quickly dawned on the giraffe man that his body was on one side of the portcullis, and his head was on the other with Usopp. And he couldn't make the portcullis budge.
"No one is better than me at attacking an opponent who can't fight back!" Usopp declared as he raised his hammer.
"That's not something to be proud o-" Kaku began before getting interrupted by a hammer strike to the noggin. Followed by another. And an uncountable number more.
Pierre let out a whine as he flew up towards the top of the tower. Nami was mounted on his back, gripping onto the strange polka-dotted horse-bird.
"Geez, how did that old guy stay so stable on you?" she groaned, squinting from the effort of not falling. Pierre in turn made another whine, sounding quite offended. "Pipe down, I'll let you go after we reach the top."
The giant window leading into Perona's bedroom grew ever closer with each beat of Pierre's wings. Soon enough Nami could see straight in, seeing large piles of plushies surrounding a big bed. On the bed was Perona herself, looking frazzled and charred as if she had been recently electrocuted. Her fists were clenched and teeth grit, glaring down at a shape on the floor by her bed. It took a few seconds for Nami to recognize the shape as Chopper, who was covered in bruises and damage.
Perona raised an eyebrow as she heard glass shattering, then raised both in shock as she saw an orange-haired cyborg rush towards her. Nami had kicked off Pierre to launch herself through the window, shards of glass raining down on either side of her as she charged through the bedroom.
"EEEK!" Perona shrieked, stumbling backwards while thrusting her hands forward. "Mini Hollows!"
A group of small ghosts the size of her palm shot out of Perona's hands, flying towards Nami. The Straw Hat captain easily evaded them by leaping to the side, but then…
"Ghost Rap!"
Perona snapped her fingers, causing the ghosts to explode. The blast partially engulfed Nami and knocked her to the side, and before she had the chance to recover another ghost flew into her.
"No…" Nami grimaced in the brief moment before the hollowness overwhelmed her, causing her to collapse to her hands and knees by the foot of Perona's bed.
"Na… mi…" Chopper groaned, slowly turning his head to look at her.
Perona stared at Nami for a short bit before letting out a sigh of relief.
"Horo-horo-horo~" she laughed mockingly, holding her hand up in front of her face in a typical ojou-sama way. "So this is the strong captain you were so sure was going to save you? Choppy, you're such a cute little idiot."
With a wave of her hand, Perona summoned a massive round ghost. The ghost floated over to Nami and gently picked her up in its mouth, before flying out through the hole in the window Nami had made.
"I don't want to break anything in my room, but this distance should be fine" Perona said as the ghost hovered in place outside the tower. "Say bye bye to your friend, Choppy~"
"No… wait…" Chopper weakly groaned, trying to force himself to stand up. Then he heard the sound of fingers snapping.
The remains of the window shattered as the ghost carrying Nami went out in a colossal blast, shaking the entire tower. Perona opened her mouth to laugh… when suddenly she felt something clamp around her neck. She looked down, seeing a metal hand attached to a rope going into the cloud of smoke left by the explosion. The rope went taut, and Perona had to grab onto her bed to avoid being dragged away by it. Nami flew out of the smoke cloud, charred and pissed, pulling herself directly towards Perona.
The ghost princess sent forth some more ghosts to depress Nami, who made no efforts to avoid them. As soon as the ghost passed through she went fully limp… but retained her momentum, and the winch was still pulling her to Perona.
Everything went black. Perona's body ached. She felt that she was on her back, on something soft… her bed? Was she sleeping? Was it all a dream… no, the pain is real. The clamp on her neck is gone. Where did that orange-haired pest go? Slowly, Perona forced herself to open one eye, seeing the stone roof of her room above her. She also saw a silhouette quickly grow larger, before her vision was fully engulfed by a metal fist.
Usopp yelped as he heard a loud crash from an adjacent room. He looked in through the door and saw that the roof was collapsing. And the cause was a huge, broken, curtained bed falling through it. On the bed was a girl whose face was being forced into the bed by Nami's fist. Nami herself had her feet in the air and fist straight down, pushing down the bed with enough force to smash it through the floor.
Usopp only got a brief look at this before the bed crashed through the next floor as well, disappearing from sight. Looking to each side, he could see cracks and trembles spreading to the rest of the castle. Perona Castle was crumbling.
Suddenly, from the hole Nami had fallen through moments earlier, her metal hand shot up into the air. She was then pulled back up to the top floor, once more disappearing from Usopp's view in less than a second.
Usopp stared blankly at the hole in the roof for a bit before sidestepping a bit of roof that fell down beside him.
"Run away!" "The castle is falling apart!"
Everybody who could move were running away and/or helping someone else run away from Perona Castle, which was quickly crumbling to pieces.
"Wait, is Chopper still in there?" Porche gulped, staring at the collapsing building with a concerned expression.
Suddenly, Usopp came flying out of a window, doing an overly stylish triple frontflip before landing on his feet.
"Usopp, what the hell is happening? Did you guys blow it up without me?" Franky yelled, more incensed about not being invited to the demolition.
"I think Nami punched Perona through most of the castle. Looks like she's got everything under control" Usopp explained, right before the castle fully collapsed. A huge cloud of dust and debris flew out, engulfing the scattered forces and driving them into a coughing frenzy. As the dust slowly cleared, Usopp looked towards the pile of rubble that minutes ago had been a castle. "I hope…"
The Straw Hat pirates, Baratie cooks, Mozu and Kiwi all hurried towards the remains, searching for the missing Nami and Chopper. Luffy leaped onto a piece of a fallen pillar, and suddenly spotted a hunched over figure near the middle of the rubble.
Nami trembled slightly. She was hunched over, curled around Chopper to use her own body as a shield. Most of her body was covered in bruises and cuts, and her metal arm was barely holding itself together.
"Hey… you ok?" she asked with a slightly shaky voice.
"Y-yes" Chopper nodded softly, weakly raising his arms to hug Nami with tears in his eyes.
"Awesome" Nami smirked before collapsing.
