Saiyans on the Grandline
~Dr. Hogback's Mansion~
"Nami, you've got Mina and Eri with you. Why do you need Chopper and I to tag along, while the three of you take a bath? Can't you do this thing by yourself?" Ussop questioned with the orange haired navigator holding a candelabra, while he and Chopper walked next to the trio of females.
"Ussop is right. I could be picking Dr. Hogback's super brilliant brain right now." Chopper said, walking along with Eri on his back.
"Yeah, yeah. Just shut up and keep walking." Nami said.
"Listen, I know you two might not like following us, but we'd rather have you sitting outside the bathroom where you're close by, while we clean up, then sitting somewhere you might get murdered, here in the mansion." Mina said.
"Well, when you put it like that, I guess we could stand guard outside." Ussop said as they reached the bathroom.
"Now you two wait out here, and no peeping." Nami said as Mina and Eri went into the bathroom.
"Yeah-yeah, we know. I wouldn't wanna peep anyways. You're bringing a kid in there, and I'm not into children. I prefer a woman around my own age thank you very much." Ussop stated.
~A Bit Later~
"I know I shouldn't, but I wanna take a peek." Chopper said, leaning back against the door, while Nami, Eri, and Mina were cleaning themselves off.
"What? You do? Chopper I'm shocked." Ussop said.
"I'm not talking about Nami or Mina's butts you silly human. The thing I wanna take a look at, is Dr. Hogback's awesome laboratory." Chopper said.
"Speak for yourself, it's probably haunted." Ussop sighed.
"Hey, Chopper, Ussop. As soon as nighttime hits, we're outta here." Nami called to them from within the shower room, scrubbing her hair.
"What?" Ussop and Chopper questioned at the same time.
"At night? But it's scary enough during the day." Ussop said, his head poking into the bathroom, before it was hit with a rinsing bucket, thrown by Mina.
"Watch it Ussop, Eri's not in the tub yet." Mina said.
"I apologize Mina. I wasn't thinking about what I was doing." Ussop said as Chopper put a bandage on his forehead. "We finally found a place where nobody's trying to eat us, but as soon as we step outside, we're the main course, in a Straw Hat Buffet. That sounds painful, so for the time being, I'm staying right where I am. All we gotta do is wait for Luffy to show up, he'll save us."
"He's right Nami. This island's way too creepy for us. I'm not going through that graveyard again." Chopper said.
"I hate to break it to you both, but we're not any safer inside, then out." Mina said.
"You did take a look at this mansion, didn't you?" Nami asked.
"No." Chopper and Ussop said, freezing up. "What do you mean?"
"If my hunch about this is correct, then we're right in the middle of Spook Central." Nami said.
"Not only that. But don't you think it's kinda strange, that there are Zombies all over the island, but they steer clear of the mansion?" Mina inquired.
"That thought never crossed our minds." Chopper said.
"In reality, there are more Zombies in this mansion, then you could shake a stick at." Nami stated.
"AH. Get me out of here, I need my brains." Ussop and Chopper cried.
"The one I'm most worried about though, is Dr. Hogback." Mina said. "He's lying to us, there's no doubt about it, and he definitely knows Brook. That's why we're gonna make our escape, while we still have the chance. When we're all finished here, we make a break for the coast."
"Mina, are you and Nami saying, Dr. Hogback's working with the Zombies?" Chopper asked.
"No Chopper. I'm saying, he's the one creating them." Mina stated, causing the room to go eerily quiet, before there was a growl.
"You, are a very observant pair of women." A new voice said.
"Eri, you stay with Nami." Mina said, springing up from the bath, and stepping out.
"Mina, what's going on? Did Chopper and Ussop say something?" Nami asked.
"It's not them. I couldn't sense their Ki earlier, they were suppressing it to nothing. But he's revealed himself by talking." Mina said, before she felt a hand grip her left forearm. "He's right there."
Mina swung her right arm at whoever was there, but the intruder had grabbed her wrist, and pushed her back, pining her to the wall.
"Mina." Nami called.
"Mama." Eri cried.
"You rat bastard." Mina growled, before slamming her head forward, hitting her captor in the face, making him let her go. Mina paused as she suddenly felt a new Ki signature with them, and smirked when she realized that he wasn't all that skilled in suppressing his energy. Either that or… "Nami, grab Eri and take her out of here, now."
Nami didn't question what Mina was saying, and grabbed Eri, wrapping a towel around both of them, before leaving the bathroom.
"So, did seeing the full scope of my bust make you lose concentration on suppressing your Ki?" Mina questioned.
"You mean my Haki?" The intruder questioned.
"Whatever you call it, I can now tell, exactly where you are." Mina exclaimed, swinging her leg back, and hitting something invisible with a solid kick, with acid on her foot.
"AAAHHH." The intruder cried out.
The sound of running footsteps echoed through the bathroom, as the intruder ran and opened the window, before jumping out of it.
"Mina, are you okay in here?" Ussop questioned as he and Chopper burst in.
"I'm fine. But we've got bigger problems." Mina said, covering herself with a towel. "Whoever was in here, heard everything we were talking about. An' he was strong, but we couldn't see him. An invisible man."
~The Sunny~
"Well this is no good." Franky said. "Thanks to this gigantic spider web, we're dead in the water. Uh, no pun intended."
"Something's not right about this." Zoro said.
"It's not like we'd be leaving anyway." Sanji said. "We still have to find Nami and Mina, and the others too I guess."
"Watch it Sanji, Mina's mine, or did you forget that after I beat the living crap out of you the other night?" Kaen questioned.
"Screw you Monkey Boy. Mina doesn't have a ring, so she's still fair game." Sanji countered with a glare. "Let's head out."
"Hey, Zoro. Get your butt down here already." Luffy called out to the green haired swordsman.
"Even if meeting that skeleton's a fluke, the fact that the Thousand Sunny, and the Mini Merry both got tangled up in this web in the exact same spot is pretty damn fishy." Zoro said. "Somebody went to a helluva lot of trouble to make sure that when we entered this place, it's through the front gate and nowhere else. Geez, if they were gonna make it that obvious, they might as well have laid out a welcome matt for us."
"Zoro, what are you mumbling about up there? You're gonna miss out on all the fun." Luffy called to him.
"Are you seriously about to walk into a trap that's so damn obvious, one even a headless Zombie would have the sense to run away from?" Zoro asked.
"Pretty much, yeah." Luffy said. "It's not like we have anything better to do right now. It'll be fun. If you don't go, then I'm taking your lunchbox."
"Son of a… fine." Zoro said. "If I leave you alone, I'll just have to rescue you later if you get separated from Kaen, so I might as well save myself the trouble and help you now."
"Alright." Luffy cheered as Zoro jumped down from the ship. "Onward."
"Sure took you long enough, moss head." Sanji tsked.
"Oh shut up." Zoro glared.
After walking through the front gate of the island, the crew found themselves, descending into a moat.
"Why's there suddenly a staircase leading down?" Sanji questioned.
"It's the only way in, let's just go with the flow." Luffy said.
"Hold on." Kaen said. "I'm picking up on a dangerous Ki signature, and it's a bit of a ways ahead of us."
"Can you be more specific?" Robin asked.
"I can't." Kaen said. "There's something interfering with my Ki sensing ability."
"Well, would you look at that, Monkey Boy's useless after all." Sanji snickered, before his face went pale, as he was kicked between the legs from bellow, and it wasn't a gentle kick either.
"Damn." Franky said as the leg disappeared in a storm of sakura petals. "Why'd you do that Robin?"
"To keep Kaen from tearing his head off." Robin said, lowering her arms. "Our Saiyan Warrior, needs to blow off some steam soon, otherwise he'll go on a rampage, and Sanji's taunting isn't helping. In fact, all the taunting and flirting with Mina is starting to get to him."
"Fair point. I'm surprised he even made it this long." Franky said, as he saw Kaen unclench his fist, with a Ki blast dying down. "Hey Kaen, can't you try Mina on the Scouter again?" He questioned as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"I could give it a shot, but I'm not sure it'll work." Kaen said, putting his Scouter Sunglasses back on, and activating them. "Nothing. Without the tech in my bracer, the signal's too weak."
"Damn, that means I got to find a way for the signal to travel long distances, don't I?" Franky asked.
"Hold on. That Ki signature is coming closer. It's heading straight for us." Kaen said, stopping the crew in their tracks. "Wait, I'm sensing two Ki signatures now."
From out of the shadows, came Cerberus, all three of its heads growling and snarling, while its chest was still covered in scorch marks.
"Look at that, it's Cerberus." Zoro said.
"Hey hold on, that second Ki signature." Kaen glared, marching past Luffy and to the Cerberus. "It's Eri's. I'm sensing residual scraps of Eri's Ki coming from this three headed mutt."
"What?" Franky asked. "Does that mean this thing ate her?"
"If it did… I'll cut it open and get her out." Zoro glared, barely brandishing part of his katana blade.
"No. Unless this thing ate her whole and alive, I wouldn't be sensing her Ki at all, she'd be dead." Kaen stated, his hand gripping the middle head's throat, making it whimper as the front of its body was raised off the ground. "No, I'm sensing the Ki, coming from right here. These wounds are fresh, and were made with a Ki blast." He said, examining the scorch marks on Cerberus's chest.
"Hold on, does that mean Eri can use Ki like you and Mina?" Robin questioned. "Have you already started her training on Ki Control?"
"No. That part of her martial arts training, shouldn't happen for a few more years. Only Saiyans advance this quickly to Ki Control." Kaen said. "Something's up. An' Eri's hiding something."
Without another word, Kaen threw Cerberus into the wall of the moat, giving the command, sit, while building up a cloud of dust.
"Was that needed bro?" Franky asked.
"It was." Kaen sighed, cracking his neck as Cerberus picked itself up. "Otherwise it would have been disobedient. Luffy, you're steed's ready."
"Awesome." Luffy cheered, hopping on the Cerberus's back.
As they continued to travel through deeper into Thriller Bark, Luffy was giggling like an idiot, as he sat on Cerberus's back, with Kaen leading the way in front of the dog.
"Are you sure you know where you're taking us?" Sanji questioned, as his voice unusually high, and his gait a whole lot different from before. It was more of a waddle now.
"Shut up Penguin. I'm following Mina's Ki trail. Don't know why, but she left one I sensed the moment we came out the other end of that moat." Kaen said. "Seems like they were traveling pretty fast. Either Chopper carried them all, or whoever lives on this island, picked them up in a carriage. How's Cerberus doing?"
"The poor thing's body looks pretty beat up. I'm surprised it can still walk around like that." Robin said, petting its left head.
"I wonder what wise ass put this thing together, because whoever it was, can't tell the difference between a dog head and a fox head." Sanji said.
"If this is the first thing we run into on the island, I can't wait to see what other stuff we'll run into." Luffy smirked.
"Cerberus seems pretty down in the mouths." Robin said.
"Come on Robin, don't pity 'em, it just makes 'em feel worse." Zoro said. "Leave 'em alone already."
"I got a good sense of direction, but I can barely tell my Strong Right, from my Coup De Boo around here." Franky said.
"With so much fog everywhere, for all we know, if it weren't for Kaen following Mina's Ki trail, we might be going in circles." Robin stated.
"Uh guys." Kaen said, stopping in front of the group.
The pirates looked to Kaen, before they froze in shock. Sitting on the path in front of them, was a tree with arms and legs, and the face of an old man, and a blue skinned unicorn, with some of its ribs showing, while the two were sharing a cup of Sake, but they were both covered in bandages and stitches.
"Whoa." Franky said in shock.
"A tree with some geezers face, is totally getting drunk with a beaten up unicorn." Luffy said.
"Luffy, Brook was one thing but…"
"AAAAHHHHH." The tree shouted as Luffy jumped off Cerberus and ran after it.
"Stop running away Mr. Tree." Luffy shouted, holding up his net.
"Just leave me alone already you crazy kid."
"I'm making a wish on you, whether you like it or not." Franky said, running after the unicorn.
"Those two are more alike then I thought." Kaen sighed.
"Look at what I caught." Franky and Luffy said at the same time, as they each held their targets captive.
"Please, just let me go." The tree pleaded. "Oh no. No, please stop shaking me around."
"Hey Luffy, what do you wanna do with these guys?" Zoro questioned.
"You had to ask." Kaen tsked.
"They're so cool. How about you join my pirate crew." Luffy said, with sparkling stars in his eyes.
"Overruled Dumbass." Zoro, Sanji, and Kaen said.
"I expected Zoro and Sanji to say that, but you Kaen?" Robin asked, coming up next to him.
"Brook was one thing, because he's actually a living person." Kaen sighed. "But the tree guy and the unicorn. Their souls aren't there."
"What do you mean?"
"If they had souls, I'd be able to tell they were in front of us, from their Ki. But I ran into them without knowing they were on the path." Kaen said.
"But you were able to tell where Cerberus was."
"Because Cerberus is probably the oldest sewn together creation on the island." Kaen said, petting Cerberus's head. "The soul he has, had a chance to settle and was compatible with him, because it came from three animals of the same species. That's why I was able to sense his location." He explained as Cerberus pushed into his hand and side.
"I see." Robin said. "Despite what happened earlier, Cerberus seems to like you a whole lot."
"He's just paying respect to someone he knows he can't intimidate or defeat."
~Elsewhere~
All was quiet at the back of the mansion, until a growled echoed through the air, and dirt was kicked up with a footprint, landing in the ground.
"That was too close." The voice from before said.
"You're there, right Absalom?" Dr. Hogback questioned. "I can never tell. What was all that ruckus? Were you peeking in on a bathing beauty again?"
"I'm on the hunt for a bride, Hogback." Absalom said, before the silhouette of a man appeared from thin air. "The pinkette. I quite fancy her. I'll make her mine soon enough, I don't care if she already has a kid. She'll grow to love me like a father in due time, and if not… well my bride and I can always make another child."
"So long as you keep away from the redhead, that's fine. We don't want you going after a golden goose." Dr. Hogback said, as a ghost flew in next to him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Absalom questioned.
"We have six guests with bounties on their head this time, but lucky for you, that girl you like isn't one of them. But I'm not sure what her boyfriend will say to you trying to steal her from him." The ghost said. "The redhead's captain, is worth 300,000,000 Berries."
"300,000,000!" Absalom said, with a sultry growl. "You don't seem very worried Perona. If his bounty is really that high, we can only assume, he's one tough customer."
"If you understand that, then that means you'll have to go all out on this one, and that means no chasing skirts when you on the clock." Dr. Hogback said. "Looks like we'll have ourselves a busy night, tonight."
~Inside the Mansion~
"Invisible men, don't exist Mina." Ussop said.
"Yeah they do. In fact I had a classmate back at U.A who had the power of invisibility. Though she was only invisible, because her power involved light refraction." Mina said, now dressed in her hero costume.
Mina had her hero costume changed back before the incident with Athena's device, and she hadn't had a chance to show it off to Kaen yet. Even Eri had a costume she was wearing now.
Mina's new costume, consisted of a pair of black leather pants, combat-heeled boots, a corset over a sleeveless/shoulderless mesh top connected to a choker, double belts on her waist, black sleeves covering her upper arms. On her forearms, she wore a pair of black leather bracers with small pink leather buckled straps around the wrist as well as pink knuckled, black fingerless gloves, complete with her pink furred tail wrapped around her waist, like a belt.
Eri's costume was one designed and developed by one of her Aunt Athena's classmates, Ruby. Eri actually looked nice in her costume, with her bangs being less flat, gaining a bit of a spikier and choppier style, and hiding her right eye. Eri was dressed in a black, white lined lace-up corset, over a sleeveless and open back tank top, as well as a black choker around her neck with a gold framed amethyst pendent. She wore a pair of black tights under a pair of shorts, with the left pant sleeve completely gone from the upper thigh, with a white belt around the waist, and a pouch on her right hip.
On her arms, she had silver bracers with small black buckled straps around the wrists connected to black fingerless gloves. Her normal sneakers had been replaced with black ankle high steel-toed combat heels, with silver soles and heels. On her back, was a round bottomed triangular piece of metal, that was smaller in size for Eri, but very familiar to the metal Kaen had.
"Ms. Toru was kinda weird, but also funny." Eri smiled.
"Fine, but that's only because 80% of the population from your world, have powers, called Quirks. But here on this planet, they don't exist." Ussop stated. "End of discussion."
"Then who accosted Mina back there?" Nami questioned.
"Listen to me, you all just imagined it, okay?" Ussop questioned.
"No we didn't Ussop." Mina said sternly. "I have the bruises on my forearms to prove it."
"I betcha clammy invisible hands are a common delusion." Ussop said.
"We didn't imagine it you ninny." Nami said. "I saw how it was holding Mina off the ground."
"You wanna know what I think? Nothing on this island had been real. It's all been one big illusion. The invisible man was just a draft, the ghosts were weird birds. An' the Zombies were just some… underground tribe in which Mina murdered them all in cold blood."
"Are you insane?" Mina questioned.
"Sure, we ran into a fiddle playing skeleton, who has an aphro, who was brought back to life by a Devil Fruit! But he was the exception." Ussop said. "No two Devil Fruits in the world work the same. If his fruit brought him back to life, then he's the only one."
"So Zombies and Ghosts and all the other horrifying stuff around here is impossible, right Chopper?" Ussop asked, hoping the ship's Doctor, would back him up on this one.
"Huh?"
"Come on back me up. The creatures we saw. There's no natural explanation for 'em, so they can't be real." Ussop said.
"If you're looking at this from a medical point of view, then you're correct Ussop. There should be an explanation for all this stuff." Chopper said. "Then again, if Dr. Hogback thought his work on the island was important enough to leave his whole life behind, maybe the natural order of things, is turned upside down on this island."
"That is not what I wanted to hear." Ussop said.
"To be honest, I'm kinda with Mina on what she said earlier." Nami stated. "It's likely, that Dr. Hogback, is the one responsible for creating the Zombies and other creatures on the island in the first place, and that's why no one is allowed in his lab."
"He doesn't want anyone finding out the truth about his experiments. So he's probably got a secret entrance to his lab as well." Mina said. "Chopper, I've been reserved on saying this, but maybe Dr. Hogback's not the hero you think he is."
"Dr. Hogback is an amazing man, and a medical titan. I think he's incredible." Chopper said. "How come you think the worst of him? We don't know if he's friends with those Zombies, or if he created them. You can't prove anything."
"You want proof? Fine, here's some proof for you." Mina said, walking up to the painting they were in front of. "Watch."
Mina held her hand to the painting, and formed a Ki ball in her hand, pressing it against the person in the painting, leaving it there for a second, before smoke began to rise. Looking at the person in the painting, Mina raised an eyebrow, before the painting grit its teeth, and glared at her.
"Would you quit that? It's quite rude to set someone on fire young lady." The painting shouted, popping out of the frame with a sword in its hand.
"We told you." Eri said, looking at the horrified Chopper. "Now we better run."
"True. Come on." Mina said, leading the way with Chopper, Ussop, and Nami following.
Running as fast as their feet/hooves could carry them, Mina's group made their way back to the dining room, finding it to be completely dark.
"What now smarty pants?" Ussop questioned.
"Let me think." Mina said, calming her nerves. 'Focus, release your Ki in waves of flexible energy, and try to find a solution to the problem. If I were living here, where would I hide the secret entrance to my lab?'
"Mina, you might wanna hurry." Nami said, as the paintings and taxidermy began to come to life, and attack them.
'Focus.' Mina thought, before her eyes opened. "I got something, follow me."
Running for the fireplace, Mina pushed against the back wall, allowing it to open up, and let the others through, before it closed behind them, and she used her Ki to weld the door to the wall, sealing it off, at the turning gears on both the top and bottom parts.
"That won't hold them for long. An' we've got more trouble coming. This way." Mina said, as she lead them down the hall.
"I wish Luffy would hurry up and save us." Ussop cried, as they followed the pink haired girl.
"Mina, how exactly did you do that?" Nami asked.
"Well it's not perfect, but I've been developing a technique to use my Ki like echo location, sort of like a bat or a dolphin." Mina explained taking a sharp right down the hall. "But that doesn't seem to matter, because we're still being chased by Zombies."
"There's gotta be a room in here somewhere." Nami cried.
"Hold on, up ahead, there's a room right down the hall." Mina said. "Let's go."
Bursting through the door, leading into the room, Mina shut the door behind them, before she used some furniture to block it.
"What are you doing? Weld it shut like you did with the trap door." Ussop shouted.
"Think for a second idiot." Mina countered. "We don't know if there are Zombies in this room, and we don't know if there are any other doors, or windows we could escape through. So the only option, would be to block the door, without actually trapping ourselves in here if there are Zombies."
"Good point." Ussop said.
"Long nose is a big scardy cat." Eri laughed.
"Oh I'm happy to see at least one of us is enjoying themselves here." Ussop said angrily.
"Hey guys, look." Nami said, as the lights turned on. "This must be Cindry's room."
"Gotta be." Ussop said.
"Nah, it ain't Cindry's room." Mina said. "This has got to be Dr. Hogback's. His Ki residue is the only one I'm sensing in here. So it's likely, he's got a thing for Cindry, despite what she does."
"She's smiling in all these photo's." Eri said, as Mina picked up a binder full of newspaper articles. "An' she doesn't have any of the stitches she has now."
"You're right Eri." Chopper said. "The Cindry in these photo's look like a totally different person."
"Maybe these are old photo's and she had some sort of accident." Ussop theorized.
"She had an accident alright." Mina said, reading through the article. "Her name is Victoria Cindry. She was a really popular actress."
"She was an actress? But I thought Dr. Hogback said she got into trouble for breaking a bunch of plates?" Ussop said. "So you mean she wasn't a servant after all?"
"I'm not done." Mina stated grimly, closing the book. "She came from an aristocratic family, she had a successful carrier on the stage, all the way from children's beauty pageants when she was five, to adulthood. But ten years she fell from the stage during one of her performances, due to a broken stiletto heel, and upon impact with the ground, broke her neck to where it was set right between her shoulder blades."
"No way. You mean to tell me, her head did a 180?" Ussop questioned. "But then… that can't be true."
"It is." Mina stated. "The last article in here, is from ten years ago, about how her family tomb had been robbed, and the coffin had been found open, with her body not inside it."
"AAAAHHH." Chopper and Ussop cried in shock.
"That can't be right. We saw her ourselves, I mean she is kinda creepy, but she's definitely alive." Ussop said.
"Spooky Mama." Eri shivered.
"He's right… so then if what that article says is true after all, she must have come back from the dead, there's no other answer." Chopper said.
"All those Zombies we saw, weren't some kind of weird monsters." Mina said. "They were people and animals, who died and were brought back to life, and who's eternal rests had been disturbed by Dr. Hogback."
"I don't like this at all. I don't even want to think about it anymore." Ussop said as he began to back up. "Let's just forget we ever came here and run away."
"Ussop, not another step." Mina said.
Ussop froze in fear as Mina said that, and he was too terrified to look behind him.
"Step forward, slowly. There's a treasure chest behind you, but it's a trap. It doesn't have treasure, it has a Zombie inside." Mina stated.
Ussop nodded his head, and carefully stepped towards Mina, as she put the book of news articles down.
"But… it's a treasure chest… how can you be sure there isn't treasure in there, without looking?" Nami asked.
"No." Mina said, chopping Nami on the head. "There is a Zombie in there. My Ki sensing has been almost nothing, since entering the mansion. I'd have to be in the same room as someone, just to sense their Ki at this point, but I'm telling you, there's no treasure in that chest, just a Zombie who wants to kill us."
"But treasure…"
"Is money all you think about?" Mina questioned, grabbing Nami by the back of her shirt. "On my signal, we're gonna burst through that door, and make a run for it."
"Right." Ussop said.
"Roger." Chopper added.
"Steady… NOW." Mina shouted, hitting the door with a Ki blast, destroying it, while making a smokescreen for them to hide in, while passing the Zombies by.
As they ran down the hall, Mina felt the cold tingle of a familiar Ki, she'd only felt once before a few hours ago. It was dark and twisted, but there was no mistaking that Ki signature.
'Brook?' Mina pondered.
~Kaen's Group~
"For the last time Luffy, Brook was enough. We don't need an old tree man, and a decaying unicorn to join the crew as well." Kaen stated. "If they joined, Mina would probably have a heart attack."
"I mean look, we've already got a raccoon-dog and a robot, that's messed up enough." Sanji said.
"Hey, how many times do I gotta tell ya? I'm not a robot, I'm a Cyborg." Franky said.
"Alright, whatever. Either way you're not human." Sanji said.
"In my heart I'm a human, that's what matters." Franky said.
"Oh please, that's the same as calling the useless Monkey leading us, more then just a dumb primate." Sanji said, before jumping back as Cerberus barked and growled at him
"Easy girl, easy." Kaen said, scratching its middle head behind the ears. "She doesn't like you insulting me like that."
"She?" Robin asked. "I thought Cerberus was a boy?"
"Nope. She's a girl, her Ki tells me she's female. Couldn't tell earlier because I was so focused on tracing Mina's Ki signature, but I felt the difference when we convinced Luffy and Franky to let go of the tree guy and unicorn." Kaen explained.
"I see." Robin smiled.
"But there was something odd I noticed about the tree man and unicorn earlier."
"Really? A walking, talking tree, and a beat up unicorn, wasn't odd enough for you?" Zoro asked.
"Hmm? Oh, no that's normal. On my planet we have a hero named, Kamui Woods. He's completely made out of arbor, because his Quirk actually turned him into a walking talking tree man." Kaen said. "An' I'm sure there was a hero in Australia with a unicorn Quirk All Might worked with a couple times, during a hero exchange program. Quirks can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes."
"Fair enough." Zoro shrugged.
"What I'm getting at is, like Cerberus, they were covered in scars and bandages. Whoever put them together, has some sick, and twisted mind." Kaen said. "Basically, I think whoever lives on this island, has a Devil Fruit that can steal people's shadows, and use them to revive the dead."
"If that's true, then it stands to reason, the Zombie that Brook's shadow is inhabiting, is on this island as well." Robin said.
"It's more then likely. An' poor Cerberus here, is probably in constant pain. I wish there was something I could do to help her." Kaen said, before he realized something. "Hold on, I got an idea. Luffy, Franky, mind hopping down for a sec?" He asked.
"Sure." Luffy said.
Hopping down from Cerberus, the three headed dog looked at Kaen quizzically as he pulled something out from the pouch connected to his belt.
"Hey Robin, do you have anything I can use to write with? I wanna take notes if this works or not." Kaen said.
"Sure." Robin said, reaching into her bag and pulling out an empty journal and pencil. "Here."
"Thanks." Kaen smiled, taking the writing tools. "Alright Cerberus, open all three of your mouths. I got a treat for you, that I think will help ease the pain you're in. Then again, you're a zombie, so I don't know if you actually are in pain."
The three headed dog looked at him, but followed instructions, before Kaen threw a Senzu Bean on each tongue, resulting in the three heads chewing on the beans, before swallowing them, as Kaen opened the journal. As he looked at them, Kaen smiled when Cerberus's body began to glow, before it was enveloped in a plumb of smoke, with three dark shadows flying into the air, and vanishing into the ether.
When the smoke cleared, all that remained from the three headed dog, were the bandages, the thread of its stitches, and the spiked collars, all in a pile.
"Hey, what happened to Cerberus?" Robin asked, before noticing something was off about the pile. "Something's moving in the bandages.
"Incredible." Kaen smiled, reaching into the pile and pulling out a small, three headed pup, with a completely different look as to the Cerberus they knew.
All her injuries, had been healed, all her decaying flesh was gone. She looked like a normal healthy Cerberus wolf pup, with snow white fur on its body, and silver fur running down from its forehead to its tails.
"Amazing." Zoro gasped.
"I don't believe it." Kaen gasped.
"You… actually restarted its life. But Cerberus looks completely different now." Robin said.
"More then that." Kaen smiled. "This is a species of Canis Lupus, that has been extinct on earth for six million years. The Dire Wolf."
"What's that mean brother?" Franky questioned.
"It means, when she becomes fully grown, she'll reach up to either my diaphragm or pectorals, in height." Kaen explained.
"How can you tell it's the same species?" Sanji asked.
"For one, it's a hell of a lot bigger then a normal wolf pup." Kaen said, as they continued to walk down the path, while he put the pup in Robins arms. "For two, I can tell by the shape of its form. Fossilized skeletons of Dire Wolves have been found and put in museums on my planet. I even have have a perfectly preserved tooth I found, sitting in my pocket for good luck."
"You're really passionate about animals, aren't you?" Robin asked, as she scratch the Cerberus pup's head.
"I am. I love animals." Kaen smiled, writing down his notes, and thoughts of the situation, in the journal Robin loaned him.
"Not surprising, since you are one." Sanji said.
"I will make your head explode with a Ki blast Sanji." Kaen glared.
"But what I don't understand is, how did it change from two dog heads, and one fox head, to three Dire Wolf heads?" Robin questioned.
"There's a lot that's unknown about Senzu Beans, or the extent of their true power. Even more then that, I don't completely understand their power over a living body. Or in this case, a Zombie's body." Kaen said, doing a quick sketch of the Cerberus pup. "But what I can tell, is that if a Zombie were to eat enough of them, then their lives would start over, and they'd become an actual living person again. Problem is, there's no way to predict what the end result would be if that were to happen."
"True, but I think that this was the end result, because it probably already had a Dire Wolf skeletal system. I mean, think of how big she was before she at the Senzu Beans." Robin said.
"Hmm, you make a good point. Could it be possible, that instead of going extinct on my world through natural means, a deity, or alien race took the Dire Wolves, six million years ago, and brought them here to thrive instead?"
Somewhere out in the universe, a purple cat deity sneezed in his sleep, destroying part of his home.
"Uh Kaen." Zoro said, pulling him out of his conversation with Robin.
"Hmm?"
"You got something trying to phase through you." The green haired swordsman said.
Kaen looked down, and saw it was a small ghost, trying to push through him, but it couldn't.
"Beat it." Kaen said, literally smacking the ghost away.
"Whoa, how did it not go through you?" Luffy asked.
"Hmm? I'm constantly flowing Ki through my veins. Helps to keep my senses sharp." Kaen said, taking the Cerberus pup back into his arms. "Now, what I should name this little princess?"