Part Five:

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

As Sanji searched inside the grocery store for the boy, Zoro and Brook sat out on the curb in front. Ussop stood nearby with his hands in his pockets, unsettled by the task he was taking on. While he knew the ghosts were around, it was not being able to see them that made him feel awkward. Between traffic and the normal sounds of the living, ghost voices were nearly lost within the static. He strained his ears, struggling to stay attuned to their voices.

Brook rose from the pavement, brushing off his trousers and jacket that glimmered gold at the lapels. He stood over Ussop like a streetlamp, leaning down to say, "He has yet to return."

Ussop jumped at the voice directly over his head, automatically looking up. Shivering violently, he took a step to the side, his eyes wide as dinner plates.

"It appears that the boy is missing," Brook said with concern.

"I didn't think he'd stay put for that long," Zoro muttered as he ran a hand through his floppy green hair. "If he's on his routine, waiting here for him to come back might take a long time. What if he went back to the hospital?"

"It's too bad ghosts don't have smartphones of our own," Brook said with a forlorn tone.

"What's that?" Zoro asked curiously. "How could a phone be smart?"

"Were you not around when they inserted all the powers of the internet into a phone?"

Zoro scrunched what was left of his brow. "Dial up on a phone? I don't know, that sounds kind of cool…I guess…"

Sanji walked out from the sliding doors with a frown. "He's not there, either."

Zoro looked back at him. "Did you look in all aisles? Did you look in the can?"

Standing at Zoro's side, Sanji reached down and patted his head. "Let the grown-ups handle this, Chia Pet."

Zoro slapped his hand away. "Don't call me that!"

Sanji removed the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it aside. He looked back at the hospital with consideration, then looked to Brook. "We can wait here until he comes back."

"We'll be here for weeks!" Zoro exclaimed, rising to stand. "I waited two weeks for you to come back that last time!"

"How do you know it was two weeks?" Sanji asked curiously. He looked at his watch, knowing that it didn't work.

"This one kid," Zoro said, holding up a broken finger, "dressed in the same jacket and hat had come to the cafeteria every day, minus two. I counted five times two times when you finally wandered up."

Confused, Sanji asked, "You mean you counted five two times?"

Zoro thought about it, then nodded grimly. "Yeah…yeah, that's what I said."

"Then why not just say ten times?"

"Because he came in five times in a row – twice!"

"Then just say that!"

"I know what I meant, and it was two weeks!"

Hearing only Sanji's end of the argument, Ussop shook his head incredulously. It seemed like this foreigner had the same mindset as Luffy did.

"Back to the subject," Brook interrupted grandly. "Oh, you'll have to speak up, Sanji, because it's difficult for Ussop to hear our voices in a setting like this one."

"Time doesn't matter, right? And Brook knows the way back to the apartment so we can take him there when we find him," Sanji finished with a shout to Ussop, hands cupping his mouth. Ussop shouted and drew away, hand clamped over that ear. Sanji snickered at his response.

"This is fun," he said to Zoro as Ussop struggled to reclaim his equilibrium.

"You're just a bully, Sanji!" Ussop snapped, flustered as a couple looked over at him as they passed by. It was frustrating that these ghosts could be so close, rattling his ears with their voices and having no proof of it. "Look, if that's what you want to do, then I'll tell those guys to take down the protection signs from the entryway. But please please please don't drop by my room at night and do weird things! I beg of you!"

"A growing boy needs his sleep," Brook told Zoro and Sanji seriously.

"Unless we just want to make another trip to the hospital to see if the boy went back there?" Sanji suggested.

Brook and Ussop shook their heads quickly.

"Besides, the doc didn't even know where the records level was located, so us finding it is unrealistic," Zoro said. "I'm assuming he lost his sense of direction the longer he followed his routine while the hospital expanded. He took doors that didn't fit the decor but walked through walls in the newer levels. He's following an older building's blueprints."

"Wow, you can think independently of other numbskulls?" Sanji gasped, looking at him. "Have you gone rogue against your own grass colony?"

"Oh, eat my shorts…"

"Then how does he know that it's in another tower if he hadn't strayed from his route since the building expanded?" Brook asked curiously, rubbing his chin. Zoro and Sanji stared up at him for several moments, then looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

"He's not very receptive to questions and conversations," Zoro said slowly. Sanji nodded grimly in agreement. "He's kind of an asshole."

"Not all ghosts are the same," Brook continued on. "We all have our different quirks! With that being said, I'm still not going there."

Ussop furrowed his brow, listening intently to this. He was starting to understand that a ghost followed some sort of routine in the afterlife – it made sense when it came to residual hauntings, when ghosts would pass through a favored path despite the newest obstacles around it.

"Oh, these guys found us," Ussop interrupted, gesturing off to the side. Luffy and Franky were climbing out of Franky's Tundra, both of them loaded with a camera, headset and a backpack each. Ussop gave a whine and a stomp of his foot. "Oh, god, I told them not to bring the equipment! Look guys, this is how it goes – they're going to run these little things called 'recorders'. It picks up your voice so they can play it back to listen to later. They can't hear you like I can – in their position, your voices only emerge as EVPs. Electronic Voice Phenomenon."

Zoro sounded it out clumsily while Sanji scrunched his brow, unsure of what those words even meant.

"Your voices can be heard within static, and the electronics pick up on it," Ussop further explained. "Now, if they had brought the spirit box, that allows your voice to emerge in real time without pause but relies on radio frequencies that are sorted from random stations. They can carry an actual conversation with you then."

Zoro and Sanji looked at him blankly. Ussop could sense this, giving a frustrated frown. "Brook, do they understand what I'm saying?"

"Not a thing," Brook assured him.

"That sounds so sci-fi and yet irritating because they're not going to contribute to the conversation if they can't hear what we're saying right now," Zoro mumbled, rubbing his chin with thought. Ussop had no idea what the ghost was saying – he hoped he wasn't being threatened in some way, his expression turning nervous.

Sanji touched his throat and cleared it a few times. "Oh, I don't know, I hate the sound of my voice," he said self-consciously. "I hated hearing it on my answering machine."

"Then stop talking," Zoro suggested snidely.

"Then we'd get nowhere! We'd probably wind up in Transylvania or something, far from Kansas."

"We're not in Kansas," Brook pointed out as Luffy greeted Ussop cheerfully, waving his recorder around.

Looking around with a bright smile, Luffy said, "Hi, Brook! You rascal, you came back!"

"I did, I did!" Brook answered merrily, speaking into the recorder. He had to move his torso around to do so, keeping up with Luffy's sporadic reaches into various directions.

"What are they saying so far?" Franky asked Ussop, taking a few pictures of the parking lot, focusing especially on Ussop. Both men were wearing their logo tees again, Zoro squinting at the block printing as he slowly read aloud, 'Paranormal Kings'.

"I do not like the look of this guy," Sanji said with a sneer, facing off with Franky. With his hands on his hips, Zoro thought that Sanji looked extra dopey facing off with the taller man. "He looks mighty suspicious."

"And you look like a goddamn clown trying to size up with him! What can you do, slice him to death with that feathered hair? Idiot."

Ussop said to his friends, "The boy's not here. They're going to wait here until he comes back. They're not familiar with the kid, but the loudest one keeps insisting that they take him back to the hospital."

"My name is Sanji, and I'm not that loud," the blond muttered.

"Say that to his busted eardrums," Zoro said. "On a whisper, tho."

Luffy rewound and replayed his recorder while Franky processed what was being said.

"So, they're helping a little ghost boy return to the hospital at no relation to them," Franky repeated simply, glancing at his phone. "But his name is important because it gives him a chance to remember who he was."

"That's correct, sir, and when did it become cool to change yourself to fit into Rainbow Brite's world?" Sanji asked, reaching out to touch Franky's bright blue hair, then looked at Zoro with a revolted frown. "Ugh, that's hideous. Both of you are hideous."

"FYI, I don't care about your opinion," Zoro said as Luffy perked up, bouncing in place as he gestured at Franky to listen. Before Sanji could respond, he heard his voice sound out as a tinny whisper on the recorder that Luffy was playing back. Both of them paused as Franky and Luffy looked at each other excitedly. 'My name is Sanji, and I'm not that loud' was extremely hard to hear on the small device.

Fretting, Sanji clutched his own throat with both hands. "That's my voice?"

"Here, let me help you shut you up," Zoro offered while Brook leaned over the pair re-listening to the recorder. Ussop looked pained as he heard everything else clearly – he started to understand that Sanji and Zoro were quite violent with each other.

"It's so strong out here!" Franky exclaimed, his face lighting up. "We never pick up voices like this! Are they near us?"

"Two of them are trying to re-kill each other, and Brook's probably standing right up against us," Ussop muttered as Luffy started recording once more. "They're so noisy – I just don't think I can handle this for very long."

Franky looked excited. "I can enter their names in the city's registry to see who they were!"

"You won't find Zoro's name here," Ussop warned him. "Sanji's, yes, probably close to the eighties. Zoro…he's…from Japan."

"Ghosts get lost?" Luffy repeated skeptically as Zoro straightened from Sanji to look at him with embarrassment. "Like…how?"

"I haven't heard that part. Sanji says he comes from Japan – something about a motorcycle. They understand each other just fine," Ussop added. "There's no concept of languages in the afterlife."

"I had no idea I was dead!" Zoro exclaimed, protesting towards the men. "I don't even – I never even touched down on America, so why did I end up here? Someone moved me!"

"Leave it to you to blame continents while you were driving," Sanji laughed, sitting down on the sidewalk. "We're not some sort of Pangea, here."

Zoro kicked him as Luffy rewound his recorder once more. Once he replayed it and heard 'I had no idea I was dead…' the voice faded out as the sounds of traffic swallowed it. He gave a frustrated sound as he replayed it.

"I don't know what this guy is saying, but he sounds like a very angry person," Luffy decided, Sanji bursting out with a guffaw as Zoro looked offended. After replaying it, Luffy nodded. "Yep. I bet he was gruesomely murdered and left for dead and someone – maybe he was trafficked and left for dead here in America?"

"That sounds like a very scary voice," Franky confirmed, shivering. "Very angry. Is he malevolent?"

"I'm angry because this asshole keeps teasing me!" Zoro exclaimed, red faced. Sanji laughed merrily, enjoying the misunderstanding. "I'm a nice guy! I've – Brook! Tell them!"

"It's true," Brook said as he re-examined Zoro with a sort of worried air. "I don't know who you are – you could be a very angry person. Your face speaks volumes – what's left of it that is…"

"Ghosts like you give other ghosts bad names," Sanji snickered, leaning back on his elbows as Zoro glared up at Brook.

Ussop looked at Franky and Luffy. "Brook and Sanji are giving him shit, so I don't think he's that at all. He just has a strong voice – he's probably nicer than they are."

Sanji climbed to his feet. "Ussop, tell them – "

"Sanji is blasting my ear right now, record this," Ussop interrupted with a pained expression, Luffy shoving the recorder up against his shoulder. To those passing around them, the scene looked very unusual – two men crowded up against another that looked extremely uncomfortable, unmoving on the sidewalk with expensive equipment. It did cause some pause in those walking up to the doors, wondering what was happening. Ussop's face flamed with embarrassment at feeling like a sideshow.

Sanji hesitated to speak once he saw the recorder pressed up in his direction, so he cleared his throat and leaned in to speak to it clumsily. "Hello," he said politely, Zoro snorting.

Ussop shook his head with exasperation, gesturing with a finger for Luffy to rewind and listen. Sanji's voice emerged as a slightly distorted whisper, Luffy and Franky then cheering noisily as they realized that they were being addressed by the ghost.

Tapping his fingers together timidly, Sanji said, "It's different when you can actually hear your voice. I get real shy."

Zoro snorted, thumb and pointer finger against his forehead, causing Sanji to scowl at him, not knowing what that meant. Zoro then burst into loud laughter, Ussop freezing at the sound, uncomfortable with hearing it. Shoving him aside, Sanji said to Ussop, "Forget all that. Have them look for the name of a boy about…I don't know, nine or twelve – he didn't have hair, he mentioned being taken off a machine, and he liked Britney…Spears?"

Ussop relayed this to Franky, who wrote hastily on his phone as Luffy propped the recorder up once more. "He died in the nineties because he didn't know she had married some backup dancer," Sanji finished clumsily. "Oh, and he had a grandfather that lived around this store."

After relaying this, Ussop told Luffy to keep recording then said, "That's a lot to narrow down, it's going to take some time."

"We're just going to wait here – Brook can take us to your place if something changes," Sanji then assured him.

After hearing what Ussop had to say, Luffy asked, "How long's that going to take?"

"We should go back to the hospital eventually," Zoro said with reluctance. "We could be sitting here for eons waiting for that kid to come back."

Sanji lit up. "Maybe it'll be easier if they gave us a ride."

"They want a ride back to the hospital to check just in case," Ussop said. "But I'm not going there."

"Why do they need a ride?" Franky asked with a puzzled expression. "It's just right there – "

"There's a horde of spirits walking around the place that make it difficult for us to get close," Sanji said quickly, Ussop paling at the thought. Once Franky realized he was listening to something, he trailed off. "If we can go the same route these guys took from the parking garage, it'll be easier for us. We just have to get to the ER, that's where we first found the doc."

"Just take them to the ER," Ussop said to Luffy and Franky. "They can find someone there that can verify that they hadn't seen the kid."

"All this effort for a ghost kid neither's related to?" Franky asked skeptically.

Ussop shrugged. "All I know is what I'm telling you – these guys are dead set on getting that kid named and returned to the hospital."

"And they found us expressively to do this?" Luffy questioned with a bewildered look, rewinding his recorder. "How'd they know about us in the first place? Ussop, are you famous and you didn't tell us?"

"They found you guys the hospital!" Ussop snapped at him. "They followed you home and met Brook!"

"The doc knows who you guys are," Zoro said. "He sent us to you."

"The doc found them for us!" Sanji said. "We were following him around on his rounds when he suggested we go with them. So we're getting somewhere!"

"Take your recorders with you, they keep talking about this doctor," Ussop said wearily, hand to his head. "I have a huge headache."

"Who's this 'doc' they keep talking about?" Franky asked, bewildered.

"The scary thing is, it knows who you guys are to direct these guys to you!" Ussop pointed out, causing Luffy's mouth to drop open with realization. Ussop pointed at him. "It's because you're always getting hurt that ghosts recognize you!"

"I'm famous," Luffy whispered to himself, delighted at the concept.

"I was in the car when they met me," Brook corrected, Ussop looking his direction automatically before he remembered he couldn't see the ghost.

"How long were you back there?" Ussop exclaimed. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"My mouth was tired," Brook complained.

"Brook's been in the car all this time with a tired mouth," Ussop muttered with irritation, Luffy lighting up. "But – "

"Then let's go," Zoro decided, walking out into the street as a car passed through him. "Let's get this done because he's probably not coming back here."

"We should stay here, Ussop," Brook said. "I can keep an eye out for the boy."

"I don't want to stay here all night!"

"It won't take that long if we're just dropping them off at the ER," Franky said as Luffy put the recorder away.

"We're not on the same timeline as you guys," Sanji said hastily. "I actually don't know how long it'll take to return back here.."

"If I stay here, how are these guys supposed to know what you're doing?" Ussop then asked crankily, rummaging through Luffy's backpack for a bottle of pills. "They can record and listen but it'll cause a delay in conversation and time. Look, I'll just…I'll just go with them to the hospital…"

"You will?" Luffy asked him incredulously. "I know you hate it, but…Ussop, they're ghosts. This thing they want to do doesn't make any sense.."

"Yeah, I mean…it's cool and all getting these voices, but to be pushed into doing something we don't even understand?" Franky questioned skeptically. "This should be something they should figure out on their own without putting you into anymore distress. Any trip to the hospital is a pain, and…I kinda gotta go back home, anyway. We can do this another day."

"You do that you My Little Pony reject, and I will personally make it difficult for you to fix your ugly hair in the morning!" Sanji threatened him, much to Ussop's amusement. "He-Man wannabe, GI Joe loving reject from the fifties!"

"It does, it does, but you don't understand! This guy won't shut up," Ussop gestured in the opposite direction Sanji was standing, the blond giving him an outraged look.

"LET'S GO!" Zoro bellowed from the truck, reaching through one of the seats to honk on the horn. Franky whirled around, looking at his vehicle with surprise. But with how active the parking lot was, it was difficult to be sure if it had been his truck.

"Just…drop them off and we'll wait in the waiting room. They said there's rarely any ghosts inside, it's the outside that's troublesome," Ussop said with a heavy sigh, turning towards the truck.

"We did it, good job," Sanji told Zoro, sliding into the back seat with him as Zoro grumbled, pulling his limbs close so they wouldn't have to touch. "We can just leave them in the waiting room and I'll run in, how about that? I remember where we went with him so I can go look for him. If I sent you ahead with that task, we'd get nowhere."

"You're so annoying," Zoro grumbled as Brook slid in to sit against him while Ussop opened the door to climb into the seat closest to the window. The ghostly trio squished in tightly together as they made room for Ussop.

"I just don't think we have to do this," Franky said as he climbed into the driver's seat. "We're just normal guys, we record voices and get an occasional picture of ghosts. Like, we might not even be helping them. We could be interrupting them crossing over."

"We're not going anywhere," Sanji assured him, Ussop relaying this message as he pulled on his seatbelt. "None of us has seen this fabled bright white light that everyone else does."

Luffy look back at Ussop with a troubled frown after Ussop relayed this to the others. He saw the way Ussop was sitting, his hands tucked between his knees and his shoulders scrunched.

"Why are you sitting like that?" he asked curiously.

"The other guys are taking up all the room, I can feel it," Ussop muttered, hoping he wasn't accidentally touching any of them.

"They're sitting like people?" Luffy asked with a laugh, recorder still out. As Franky pulled out from his parking spot, he said, "So, guys, tell me – how'd you guys die?"

"This kid is very rude," Zoro muttered bitterly.

"Might as well as ask me how long I am," Sanji said with a frown.

"Sex with a beautiful lady!" Brook called out joyfully.

"None of them answered," Ussop said firmly, shivering. "I don't want to know how they did, they just did."

As Franky pulled up to the stop sign, Sanji craning his neck to look down the visible sidewalks, Zoro suddenly perked. He pointed ahead of them, shouting out, "There he is!"

"STOP!" Ussop cried out, Franky hitting the brakes, Luffy falling back against the dash with a bewildered noise. The recorder fell out of his hand as Sanji opened his door and fell out with Zoro clambering over him, Brook catching himself hastily.

"Did that door just open on its own?" Franky exclaimed, seeing the back passenger door slowly swing back into place. A car horn behind him blasted, and he impatiently waved them by as Ussop unbuckled himself quickly, reaching over the bench seat to shut the door.

"They ran out all of a sudden," he reported with a bewildered tone. "The foreigner said something, and they – that's when the door opened."

"We better learn his language, then," Luffy said, rummaging on the floor for his recorder. "Because I bet the things he says is real important. What if he were a dictator ghost with minions? Like, they're bad guys from the past trying to run from the cops, or something?"

"That is a nice imagination," Franky told him as he put on his flashers and wore a confused look. "So - ! What…what are…we just…"

"We're back!" Brook announced, climbing back into the truck.

"They're back," Ussop said, looking over at the door, waiting for it to open again.

"Hi!" he heard a boy say cheerfully. "Hi, I'm here!"

"They found him!" Ussop reported with a surprised expression. "There's a boy."

"Are we still going to the hospital?" Franky asked as he pulled forward, Luffy holding out the recorder.

"NO HOSPITAL!" the boy yowled. "I don't want to go back there! I don't want to! I found my own way out, I don't want to go back!"

"Why not?" Sanji asked him, automatically reaching for his seatbelt. Ussop saw it jiggle out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry! Habit!"

The boy sat on Zoro's lap, making a face as Brook squished up against Zoro to give Ussop room. The three ghosts were once again tightly clustered against each other, Sanji holding onto the door's armrest, sure he was going to be pushed out.

"Home?" Ussop asked Franky with hesitation.

"I swear, I will run away again if you try to take me back," the boy threatened the ghostly trio.

"I hope I don't frighten you," Brook said gently. "I'm just a ghostly skeleton just wanting to make friends."

The boy reached out to touch Brook's face with examination, then sat back with a firm nod. "You're not that scary, I've seen way worse."

"You've seen 'worse' than me?" Brook cried out with fright.

"Yeah. The hospital had a lot of creepy things, but you look a lot nicer. I'm not going back there, though," the boy said with determination.

"Why not?" Zoro demanded over the sound of Ussop's voice relaying the conversation to the others.

The boy licked his dry, cracked lips before he said in a small voice, "Because of the big spider."

Sanji froze with horror as Ussop did. Luffy noticed his friend's reaction, holding the recorder out to the backseat as Franky strained to hear what was happening.

"It's not a doctor," the boy continued with a wince. "I've seen those. This is…different. It followed me outside. It knows I was waiting for you guys. It might be following us, now."

"Stop the car," Ussop demanded of Franky. His features filled with panic as Franky looked frazzled, unable to pull over safely. "Stop the damn car and you guys get out!"

"What- ? Why?" Luffy and Zoro whined at the same time.

"Because there is some sort of spider chasing after this boy, and I'm not doing that again!" Ussop howled, slapping the seat.

"Is that what he's saying?" Luffy asked. Together, he and Sanji demanded, "What spider?"

The boy looked puzzled at the ghost hunters' presence, Sanji forcing him to return his attention to them.

"What spider?" he repeated.

"It's a big one, with human heads on its legs and a big scary body," the boy said timidly. "And it crawls real fast and laughs and it even bothers the living because I seen him do it."

"GET OUT!" Ussop demanded as he opened his door suddenly, Luffy and Franky crying out with alarm as the truck was still in motion. Over their frantic shouts, he yelled, "All of you guys, get out! This has gone too far! You guys better tuck and roll, because we're not stopping!"

"I don't wanna!" the boy cried as Brook gasped in outrage. "I'm going to die if we do that!"

"We're already dead," Zoro reminded him patiently.

"…Oh yeah…"

"Ussop, close the door!" Franky shouted.

"What are they saying?" Luffy demanded, giving up on the recorder as his friend's face spoke volumes. Ussop managed to close the door as the truck finally pulled up to a stop light. So he opened it again, waving at the four to get out.

"Either here or there it doesn't matter!" Ussop snapped at the ghosts. "But that thing you're describing, kid, sounds considerably terrifying and if I can hear you guys just fine, I do not want to hear that thing! This is your problem, go fix it on your own!"

"Then take us to the hospital," Sanji demanded, snatching the boy in his arms and holding onto him tightly as he struggled. "Take us there to the front, and we'll find our own way."

"I DON'T WANNA GO! I DON'T! HELP ME, ZORO!"

Luffy lunged over his seat to pull Ussop's door shut, reaching for the door. He and Ussop struggled against each other with the door, Franky yelling at both of them while Zoro crinkled his brow to look at the boy. He held his face between his hands to get his attention, asking gently, "How do you know my name? I did not give it to you."

The boy looked guilty, pursing his lips. Overhearing this, Sanji leaned in.

"You know your name, don't you?" he asked the boy with an accusing tone.

Above the shouts of the living, Brook leaned over to hear the boy's answer. He heaved a sigh, giving a scowling nod.

"It's Tony. My name is Tony," he muttered. "I knew my name before I met you guys. And I know yours, too, because the spider told me. He knows everyone's name. That's Ussop, that's Luffy, that's Franky – that's Brook and you're Sanji."

Ussop froze once he heard this. "He knows my name…this ghost kid knows my name…! The kid knows all of our names!"

"This spider," Sanji said, palm horizontal in a gesture, "how? What? Answer quickly."

"He was trying to eat me," Tony muttered. "He talks funny. He lives in the hospital on the bottom floor. He grabs the ones that try to go outside and eats them, and then he gets bigger. He followed me outside. He keeps telling me to 'give it back', but I don't know what he wants, and I don't have anything of his."

Sanji looked moments from fainting, thinking about how they'd barged right into the building without much fear.

Zoro scrunched his brow with thoughtful action. "Well…maybe he just wants you to go where you're supposed to. Look, we'll get out here," he then said, finger to his lips to those that were looking at him. The boy opened his mouth to protest but Zoro clamped a hand over his mouth with his other hand as Zoro said loudly, "We'll get out here and leave these guys out of it. So, let's go."

"No one understands you, moron – " Sanji started to say snidely when he realized Zoro's ultimate goal. He said loudly, for Ussop's benefit, "Oh, okay, Zoro, we shall get out here and go. Yes. Excellent idea. We're leaving the living guys alone…"

After giving Sanji a furious look for such obvious fakery, Zoro kept a finger against his mouth to indicate for Tony to remain silent while Brook covered his own mouth with both hands.

Listening hard for several seconds, Ussop relaxed with a heavy breath. "They're gone. The foreigner said something, they're gone. Whatever it was, the others listened. But they're gone, they're all gone."

"What were they talking about?" Luffy asked, fiddling with his recorder to rewind it. "Some kinda spider?"

"The boy, Tony, said that a spider had chased him from the hospital and knew everyone's name. Even ours, and he – pointed and named us off, from what it sounds it. He also said it was scary," Ussop added with a shudder.

"Man," Franky whistled, pulling forward with the rest of the traffic as the light turned. "That was intense. They're really on a mission, aren't they? This isn't common of what we usually catch."

"For them to make this type of fuss…!" Ussop trailed off, thinking back to the things that they'd said. But because of his own shouts with Luffy and Franky, he wasn't able to catch all of it. He knew there were monsters out there, they'd encountered their share of malevolent spirits and potential demons, but to know that ghosts feared those things as well…it caused his heart to palpitate with fear.

He wiped his sweaty face with one trembling hand, leaning back in his seat. "God, I'm exhausted. It sucks being able to hear this type of thing."

"Good job, Ussop!" Luffy said, replaying the recorder. "You did good, today! You were able to help someone, and that's what counts!"

"Did I?" Ussop asked skeptically. "Because it mostly feels like we tripped into something that never should've had our hands in the first place."

"Well, ghosts can't help it," Franky said. "If they remain behind, they've got unfinished business to attend to. It's still a case."

"Right, but I wash my hands of it now," Ussop said. "Because this wasn't a normal type of haunting. These guys were…different. No involvement with each other, yet coming to me with all this talk about ghouls, monitors and spiders? Uh-uh. Done."

Luffy was disappointed. He didn't capture anything of the events that had just happened, not even a whisper. He re-listened to their shouts of activity earlier. At one point he thought he heard far off chuckling, but he wasn't sure.