sulongmirko: Thank you! So much different shit happens later omg. Impel Down and Marineford especially. Though Punk Hazard and Dressrosa get a bit butchered as well lol.

Wishfull-star: Happy late new years! Let us all hope 2022 is better than 2021.

Question! If I have any readers here that write in google docs, and get past page 500 or so, does the search for specific words in the story lag? I get sometimes multiple pop ups telling me the page isn't responding and I should wait. Kind of annoying but weird it only happens around the 500-600 page range. Hmm...

They walked along, following the others' scents, though they were mixed with many others by now. But he knew his nakama's scents as well as he knew Ace's. They were easy to distinguish from the many others. But hopefully the many others hadn't hurt them!

Robin mused, "The patchwork creatures were completely different from the ghosts. Maybe someone is behind the ghosts." Sanji asked if it was a devil fruit. "Possibly." They soon came across a graveyard with a ton of awkwardly placed headstones. It was quite the creepy atmosphere, and Luffy suggested they eat their lunch boxes there.

"The food would go bad here," Sanji said. "Let's hurry up out of here."

"Scared of a graveyard, dart brow?" Zoro mocked. Sanji said, "At least I think I shoulda' been born."

"Fuck off! Don't you mention that!" Zoro snapped. Sanji sneered, and mocked him some more, getting swings from Zoro's swords. They got in a tiff until Robin pulled them apart with her arms. Now wasn't the time to turn on one another.

"They're never one one another's side," Franky said, waving his hand at the useless comment. Robin admitted that was true. Luffy looked at one grave when he heard laughing from inside it. He walked over, and stood over it when a hand came out. He stared at it when the old man came out. His close proximity started the injured man. "Heh, an old man with a big wound?" Luffy asked.

"It's a zombie!" the other guys shouted loudly.

Robin said, "Well, he does look old and hurt," reasonably. Then other zombies suddenly started making noises and came out of the ground. Was Luffy's hearing getting worse? He hadn't heard them before they moved. And he had had trouble hearing what Nami and the others were saying when they were away.

It didn't take long to quell the excited zombies, all of the pirates beating the crap out of the mob of them, all having burst through the dirt. Luffy didn't focus on his worry about his hearing, not finding any good use to worry about it. He should just keep an eye on it. If it did decrease, he would worry. But he'd try not to. They had to find Nami and the others.

Once the zombies were down, Luffy listened, and heard all the voices of the island. So many. He did hear Nami's voice, but she didn't sound upset. It was coming from the middle of the island. From that huge building. But they had come through here. Maybe he'd trust the sense of smell for now.

The zombies all gave up easily, and Luffy sat on the tallest grave stone, and asked what they were doing there. They half-heartedly said they were doing zombie things, rotting, but Luffy shouted at them to not mess around, scaring them into silence again. Scared silence of the fearless and strong people in front of them.

"Did a man with a long nose, a woman with orange hair and a tanuki that looked like a reindeer come through here?" he asked seriously, giving them all dark stares, but not giving them his terrifying aura that made even his own crew have goosebumps. Zoro had told him it was attractive to him in a weird way.

There were mixed responses. Some confirmed it while others refused to say, though that was useless when half of the group were saying they had seen the three of them. "Did you do something to them?" Luffy asked in a low voice. "Those are my friends. Did you… lay a hand on them?" they all said they didn't, but Luffy could tell all of them were lying just from their expressions. "I think you're all lying. Tell me the truth. Now." Luffy was trying to act scary, but was also angry that they laid a hand on his nakama.

Again, mixed responses, but it was clear the majority of them had done something, had tried to hurt them. Soon, they were all back in the ground, but forced back down face first, and not by their own volition.

"Their scents and voices are coming from the mansion there," Luffy said, pointing to the gate on the far end of the mock cemetery. It was for show, nobody was actually dead there. What was the point? Just to look scary? Did they really have that many people that got trapped here? So where were they, then?

Hundreds of ships missing every year. Surely there had to be a lot of people there if they went missing due to Thriller Bark. Zoro asked if he smelled Brook. "No, he went somewhere else. Or a different way. I didn't smell him in the passageway either."

"Did he even have a scent other than mold? Surely this junkyard of a place has to reek of mold," Sanji said, taking a drag of his cigarette. Luffy said it did. It was hard to pick out Brook. Especially since he'd met him for not too long. Not long enough for him to have a distinct smell. "I'm more likely to find him from his voice, but there's two of them."

"Still?"

They were nearly out of the graveyard when a real man came out behind them. Luffy scowled when he didn't hear him. He clenched his fists. It seemed he could only hear far if he focused. That was a problem.

"Hello! Please, guys… wait just a moment!" the wrinkled and bandaged old man holding a lantern called, limping over. He was really injured. Or a zombie. "I've watched you! You're all terribly strong! Would you please listen to me for a second?!" he asked frantically.

"An old man with a big wound?" Luffy asked a second time. And again, his nakama told him it was a zombie.

"Actually, I am an old man with a big wound." It was so easy to confuse them! Luffy agreed with his friends when they said that loudly. The man continued, saying, "There's someone here, who I wish to see defeated! I think you can all do it! There are many victims… if he was beaten, they would all be rescued! If my shadow was returned to me, I'd be forever grateful!"

Hearing about the shadow caught Luffy's attention. At first, he didn't really care. He wasn't out to save random people. "Really? You don't have a shadow either! Like Brook!"

Zoro asked who the hell had done that. "Is he on this island?" the swordsman wondered.

"He's on this island! His name is Moria… he's terrible," the old man with a big wound said, shaking. Robin recognized this name. Gecko Moria, another warlord, apparently. His bounty exceeded Luffy's current one. A warlord… stronger than Crocodile. Luffy was stronger than he had been when he fought Crocodile. And he was confident in his strength, even if it was without seastone, which would be for the best.

If he was beaten, would Brook have his shadow again? And was that guy responsible for the shadow theft? If he ran this place, then that would make sense. What kind of devil fruit was that? It had to be a devil fruit, stealing shadows. Luffy asked the old man why someone like Moria would be there.

"Well, I dunno, but there are a lot more victims like me that got lost in this forest."

"It's not a very big forest, right?" Zoro asked.

Sanji said, "You don't get to patronize others about getting lost, moss head." Zoro scowled but didn't bite.

"Well, the fact that you're here means Moria has set his eyes on you all. I'm positive. We hide in the dark of this forest, afraid of the zombies. But frightened to leave and go into the sunlight! In any case, this body doesn't feel like living anymore. Just one more time, before I die, I want to walk into the sunlight!" The old man was crying by now. He really looked very injured. Chopper would no doubt fret over his health and try to help him. Franky was crying at the story as well. For a big cyborg, he did cry a lot. Sometimes it was funny. He immediately said they would help him.

"Don't burden yourself so easily! You're too emotional!" Zoro scolded.

"Well, we're looking for the shadow thief anyways! If he's looking for us, too, that makes things easier! We'll kick his butt and get your shadows back. So, we'll end up helping you guys as well! You'll get your shadows back, and walk under the sun again!" Luffy said cheerfully. Other voices were around them, begging them for their help.

Luffy frowned again. How had he neither heard or smelled them? Wait… maybe it was the mist! That was making his senses foggier. Hopefully that was it, and nothing more! He wouldn't know what to do without his advanced senses. It would be terribly uncomfortable. They had gotten better on their journeys, and losing them would make life much harder for him.

It started to rain heavily, suddenly. "It's raining really hard, huh? Should we run to the mansion?" Luffy asked, the rain pouring down on them. It had come suddenly. Or maybe they couldn't tell the thick mist from storm clouds. He worried about Chopper and the others. He wanted to get inside where they were. Hopefully it really was only difficult because of the fog.

He looked up higher and squinted his eyes. There was something behind the mansion. "Hey, what's that? A mark, behind the mansion," Luffy said, his four friends turned and looked, too, trying to see through the rain and clearly fog. Not clear enough to not have it still visible, but they could see a bit further more, luckily. "Is… that a flag? A huge flag?!"

"Its… it's a sail!" Sanji said in shock. "It's massive! What's a sail doing there?" The old man still there but silent spoke again, explaining that Thriller Bark wasn't a floating island, but a huge ship, the biggest ship in the world. It had a forest and mansion, along with a small village in the middle where the mansion was.

A ship?! It was massive! Thousands of times bigger than that galleon that fell from the sky, the biggest ship they'd ever seen in person. It was the largest pirate ship in the world. The back of the mansion was the main mast, and that was where Gecko Moria was. Their new target and new enemy. To get Brook's shadow back and find their crew members as fast as possible. Well, now they knew where to go.

"We'll defeat Moria and get your shadows back. The group soon stood before the mansion entrance. Luffy set his hat back on, and asked if they were ready to enter the ghost mansion. Nobody was very afraid, with Luffy excited. As long as he wasn't possessed again. How weird. But maybe that was better than saying he wished he was a water flea or something stupid and embarrassing like that.

Luffy busted the lock and threw the door open. "Pardon us!" he said as he entered the place. It stunk like old carpet and mold, as well. Why did so much smell like mold? At least the mansion didn't smell like crap or rotting bodies like outside. And he could smell his nakama much clearer. And he also could hear better! It had been the fog! Thank goodness.

"Gecko Moria?" Luffy called.

"Such a big mansion, and not a single servant?" Robin said curiously. "We should be careful for the invisible person from before. He could be anywhere," she reminded them. The place looked kind of trashed. Like there was some fight before then. Chairs and decorations were flung around the entrance hall. It had tons of shaggy carpet and creepy paintings on the wall.

It was an unsettling place. "Why would anyone want to live in a creepy ass place like this?" Franky asked.

"They probably like it because it's creepy," Sanji said, looking at one of the paintings with a look of distaste. "I hope they didn't hurt Nami-san."

"And Chopper and Usopp!" Franky said in outright annoyance.

Zoro said, "Dart brow only cares about the girls. Don't expect him to worry over the guys on the crew."

"Hey, I'm not that heartless! I just care about Nami-san and Robin-chan more than you hooligans."

"Gee, that makes me feel so much better," Franky said sarcastically.

"Don't worry Franky, we like you!" Luffy said.

"I wasn't saying I thought you didn't. It's just annoying that he only cares about the women." Sanji said nothing. Luffy heard something start to move above, and saw something that had been still and not alive moments ago. A stuffed pig head on a plank on the wall.

It laughed, and said they were brave for saying Moria's name. Well, he called him the master. "You're courageous to enter this place!" the stuffed pig head said. How was it alive? But then the paintings and carpets came alive. The four were largely unimpressed, while Lufy was the only one openly amazed.

"Let us welcome the guests!" they all shouted and went after the unafraid pirates. They were easily defeated by the pirates, who were unafraid or unimpressed. They were all weak, and seemed to only have the scare factor on their side, though it wasn't with them. Luffy knew his nakama who came here before had to have been terrified. Without the strongest of them, they must have been really scared, even if the zombies and inanimate objects were fairly weak.

By the end of the massacre, the mess was even worse, only with the paintings injured and hanging out of their frames. Broken furniture was there now, not just thrown around. Curtains had been ripped off the walls, and it just looked like a real fight had happened. He wondered how things came to life here.

It was cool, whatever it was. What if they could make the Thousand Sunny alive! Neehee, that would be so cool! "Neh, Zoro, we should go exploring after we kick Moria's butt." Zoro said it would be fun to pick this place apart. Maybe they had some nice swords he could replace his rusted one.

"Stop thinking about going on a date," Sanji said.

Luffy pulled the pig on the wall down. It was nervous, all of its allies were out for the count or maybe dead. It was hard to tell when they were paintings or rugs and didn't exactly breathe. "Where are my three nakama?" Luffy asked, crouching in front of the sweating pig. How did he sweat? So cool.

"Ah! Those three, they came through here! They're fast asleep in that bedroom over there!" Franky asked Luffy if it was lying. It looked like it was lying, but it could just be nervous about this. Luffy said it didn't have a heart. He couldn't tell well, but suspected it was lying regardless.

"I guess that makes sense. Well, we should just take him with us. If he's lying, he'll be right there to pay for it, won't he?" the cyborg said. Luffy heard a gasp from Sanji and jerked around. He was just there! Luffy saw a hole in the ceiling with the sounds of dragging going on inside. He shot an arm into it and grabbed a foot.

"Sanji!" he shouted. He was already at the wall before anyone else noticed. His arm was stretched more and eventually was shaken off. "Sanji!" his arm snapped back in place. He couldn't fit himself inside well enough to be able to move.

Zoro asked what the hell was wrong, where was the cook. "Sanji got taken through that hole!" Luffy said. They heard the pig snicker, and Zoro had a sword to its nose, pressing against the snout. He demanded to know where he was taken. The pig wouldn't answer.

Luffy frowned. "Well, Sanji should be okay. He'd want us to keep searching for Nami and the others. Though he's definitely lying about where they are." Zoro picked the pig up to use as a guide.

"We should hurry. In the zombie mansion, we might be racing against time to rescue the three," Robin said, voice light but face set in slight worry. The pig started to taunt them. "Once your friends started disappearing, you'll be scared then!" Zoro took it in both hands and turned it so it faced downwards. Then he brought his knee up and slammed it into the pig's nose.

"Let's go."

As they were walking away, the other picture zombies started to laugh at them. That they would be terrified of the warlord Gecko Moria. They threatened Luffy's nakama, to both hurt them and make them disappear. The captain looked at them all, and said, "You're noisy with all your mumbling. Listen, you tell that Moria moron, if anything happens to any of my nakama, I'll blow you off this island! Even if we leave Sanji for the time being, he won't die." The picture zombies were shocked. "Let's go," Luffy said, and they climbed the stairs to the next story.

They were walking through the hall, and Luffy heard it before anyone else, and before anything happened. A string was shot at Zoro, and Luffy caught it in midair. His fist was right near Zoro's neck. Everyone jerked around, and the zombie pig was shocked that Luffy had gotten a hold of it, or heard it.

"I won't let my nakama disappear!" Luffy said, and yanked. He pulled the string out, dragging whatever it was until it released the rope. He pulled it out, and they saw it was the same sticky spider web from where the Sunny got stuck. At least his senses were back to normal. That was a relief.

He was hearing a lot of voices echoing around the mansion. He didn't know where any of it was coming from, as it was coming from all over the place. But he didn't hear any of his nakama's voices. It was worrying. "So, someone or something is trying to take us, one by one," Franky said, looking around.

Robin said, "Look out for any weird holes in the walls or ceilings." They nodded, and kept a watch out for them. Luffy had one arm around Zoro's. Zoro was bothered that he hadn't noticed until it was almost too late.

"I won't let anything happen to Zoro," he said firmly. Zoro gave a soft smile and apologized for the trouble. "We already lost four others, no more." They were walking back down the hall, the pig head very uncomfortable. Luffy could hear everything around. There were so many things in this place.

Luffy got distracted in one hall and found a whole knight's armor. He stood in front of it, aching to wear it. "Now's not really the time."

"But it's there. It's asking me to!" Luffy said. Zoro dragged him away. Luffy wanted to wear it! "No! I'll never see an armor like that again!"

"Yow, I can make you a suit of armor some time! It'll be a lot cooler than that one is!" Franky said. Luffy asked if he meant it. "Of course! I'm not just good at building ships and weapons."

Luffy cheered, and finally forgot about the armor. He and Zoro ran back to Franky and Robin, who were looking in a room more like an arena. Luffy looked up, hearing a clinking noise. "Neh, there's a living armor above us!" Luffy said, pointing at it. "I want it~!" He got distracted again. He should have dressed in the other one while he had the chance!

It attacked Franky, and he fought back, but it seemed there was no way to kill it. After every hit, no matter how hard, it got back up. Well, it wasn't living. Maybe it couldn't feel pain or fear. It kept attacking them.

"He's totally different from the zombies before!" Franky complained. "I went hard against the bastard."

"Hmmm, different from the other zombies?" Luffy mused, and then turned to the armor and gave it the gaze that meant death to anything nearby. The one that frightened even strong humans. A living armor couldn't be tougher than that. Even CP9 was uncomfortable about it. He took a step forward, and the armor zombie quaked before it fell on its back, and a black thing came out of it.

Luffy hurried over and poked it with his foot. "Hah! I'm so scary!" he said proudly, and more armored zombies came. He went to scare them all, but there was that slithering noise, and the white shot around his eyes, hiding the seemingly scariest part of that fear manipulating look. He grabbed at it, but then both wrists were caught. He jerked his arm, but tripped when the string was tied around his ankles.

Behind him, the armored zombies were keeping his nakama from helping him. "Ah, you're so annoying!" Luffy shouted, his fingers stuck together now. With his legs bound, he couldn't dodge based on sound and scent. He was finally kicked in the back of the head, shocking him even though it did no damage, and he was wrapped completely and dragged away, even his mouth covered.

He heard Zoro screaming his name in horror, and he couldn't even call back that he'd be okay.

Next thing he knew, he was in an open room, but completely helpless, his head wrapped in the webbing. Only his nose was uncovered. Which was a mistake on their part. He smelled deeply. There were four people there. One of them was the invisible guy, and the other smelled like the ghosts faintly had. So they were a devil fruit! That was disappointing.

There was another guy that had his three nakama's scents on him, and then one guy that he didn't recognize the smell. "Hey, let me outta here!" Luffy tried to say, but it was all muffled. He felt and was helpless. And extremely annoyed. Was this what happened to Sanji, too? He thrashed around, able to get some of the webbing over one ear just barely moved so he could hear.

"So, this is Straw Hat Luffy?" a squeaky voice said. It was a man's voice, but it was shrill.

"It's said he frightened a shadow out of a general zombie," a deeper male voice said. The others were shocked. Another guy, whose voice was also high but not as shrill as the original man, said the marines were interested in him for a reason.

"But they'd never think I'd get ahold of him!" Luffy started chewing through the webbing over his mouth, to free his mouth. He turned and ripped apart the webbing all around his body, freeing his hands only to be shot with more spiderweb and have his face glued to the cage he found himself in. His entire body was plastered to the side and bottom of the cage.

"Damn it! Let me out! Are you Moria?! I'm gonna kick your ass!" Luffy shouted, thrashing around. If only he had that ultra strong punch thing right now! But he didn't, and he couldn't bring it out willingly. Who knows when it would happen again. "Gah, this is so annoying!"

"So are you!" and his mouth was glued shut by more spider webbing. Luffy's eyes were uncovered, and he gave the scary glare to everyone there. There were two zombies. One was a big stuffed animal whose black thing he managed to scare away, and the other was a woman with blonde hair and patchwork skin. Also a zombie. Her black thing disappeared, too, and both bodies dropped to the floor.

"Kumacy!" the younger girl shouted.

"Cindry-chan!" the one with the terrible voice called. Luffy glared at them hatefully, but was also pleased with this. "Why you!" But the big man laughed, a fat round guy who was very large in comparison to him.

"We wanted his shadow for a reason, after all! I just hope he'll cooperate! Kishishishi!"

"Hey, that's too close to my laugh!" Luffy shouted angrily. "Don't steal it and make it annoying!" The guy with the horrible voice who was upset over the blonde zombie's death brought out a knife and held it to Luffy's throat. He lost his lunch box and bug catching equipment, so he had no source of blood except the people here.

And also his nakama that he heard in that bear costume! What were they doing here?! But he didn't bring any attention to them. The cage was broken apart and his eyes were covered again. He felt himself being suspended up and heard someone say, "Hit the lights!"

"You'll regret this, lemme go you assholes! What are you planning on doing?!"

"Perona, make him shut up!"

One of those negative ghosts possessed him again, and he didn't fall into despair, he started to sing "negative" again, like he had before. The people around were puzzled with him, with Moria laughing about how strong of a zombie his shadow would make. So that was it! The shadows of the people made up the zombies. That's why he heard two Brooks! Well, at least he learned of that mystery.

But he had no idea what was happening now. The ghosts kept coming into him, keeping him busy and unable to speak or do anything other than chant that stupid word. Luffy tried to fight back, and he felt his feet raise off the ground without being touched. Then there was the sound of a scissors cutting, and Luffy was out.

The shadow that was stolen from Luffy was in Moria's hand, and was thrashing around, clawing and kicking, trying to get away, but unable to. It was much weaker than the real Luffy, who was helpless and unconscious. He hoped his nakama got out okay.

"With this, we'll have the strongest special zombie in history will be born! This is the power of 300 million berries!" Luffy heard nothing more after that, swallowed by blackness completely. He couldn't move anymore.