Sanji was pretty pleased with himself, oh sure Zeff sometimes told him that he got smug too soon but right now Sanji was pretty convinced that he was doing well. He'd taught Zoro to make three different dishes now and the man seemed to enjoy the time when Sanji taught him, Sanji didn't know if that was from pleasure at cooking or if it was because they both weirdly enjoyed the insulting back and forth insults and childishness that Sanji's teaching time involved. Yeah, his plan to ah… what was the appropriate term… ah, yes. His plan to rehabilitate Zoro before releasing him into the wild again was going pretty well.

"You know, you've not been badgering me about your case lately." Zoro remarks slowly, sitting outside a café with his headphones in. They're the sort that has a microphone on the wire so Zoro looks like he could be talking to someone hands-free over the phone. He's not of course, he's talking to Sanji who is sitting in the chair to his side invisible to all but Zoro.

"Well, I know you're doing your best. It's not like pestering is going to help is it?" Sanji lies quickly. Zoro slides a suspicious glance at him but quickly goes back to his drink. Sanji relaxes a little, he doesn't want Zoro knowing why he wants to stick around, no doubt the man would consider Sanji's previous following of him to his workplace a violation of his privacy. On top of that the man definitely didn't want anyone's pity, certainly not Sanji's. Still, Zoro needed him, so the longer he could put off Zoro's detective work the better.

He's about to open his mouth to say something snarky to Zoro but when he looks over at the man he's looking around wildly with panic written plainly on his face.

"What?" Sanji asks feeling worried.

"Get out of here, get away from me. Don't talk to me, don't look at me!" Zoro hisses urgently, looking him in the eyes now for the first time in public.

"What the hell? I'm not going to-" Sanji frowns angrily thinking that Zoro's being REALLY goddamn rude but the man cuts him off before he can go any further.

"Do it, please." Zoro begs. Actually begs, the pleading tone can't be construed as anything else. In addition to this Sanji feels a horrible sensation wash over him, sticky and cold playing on his nerves. Zoro snaps back into his chair and stares dead ahead as if he can't even see Sanji at all.

Worried but willing to obey a request given in that tone of voice Sanji flies backwards weightlessly and slips around the nearby alley corner. The disgusting feeling gets stronger. He glances around for the source of it, it's not coming from Zoro, in fact it seems to have gotten stronger since he moved away from him. His eyes scan the street and land on a girl walking down the road, it kind of hurts his eyes to look at her, it's as if she's out of focus or as if Sanji's trying to watch a 3D film without the glasses on. Behind her though is… well, Sanji doesn't know what they are.

There's about four of them and even from where Sanji is standing he can tell that they reek, they smell like rotten meat, they smell far worse than the dumpsters full of discarded unsuitable meat outside some of the places that Sanji used to buy meat from. They look like they should have been people once, they look to be rotting where they walk, they'd be a passable impression of zombies if they weren't clearly intangible and sepia coloured like a faded hideous photograph. They don't seem to have legs anymore, they're just floating torsos and brown mist with rotted looking bodies. Sanji wants to gag just from looking at them, but without a body he doesn't have that reflex any more. He's glad for once that he's dead, otherwise he'd probably be seeing his lunch again. Behind them is a terrified looking guy who looks a little younger than Sanji himself, he's trying to stay away from the… things but he's being dragged along with them behind this girl clearly against his will.

Sanji glances over at Zoro, the man is staring ahead fixedly at nothing, as if he can't see the things. When Sanji looks back at the… monstrosities though they've paused behind the girl and are staring at Zoro with empty eye sockets, they've seen him. The girl herself looks ill and has stopped to paw around in her handbag not too far away from Zoro, leaving the things enough of whatever range they have from he to get to Zoro.

With a groan that's right out of a horror movie the things ooze over to Zoro, Sanji can see from his hiding point that all the blood has drained out of Zoro's face as they come closer. The things groan and writhe, pawing with rotting fingers at Zoro's flesh and sliding sickly through him. A muscle dances tensely in Zoro's jaw as the man stares resolutely ahead as if oblivious to the horrors before him. Sanji can see that the man is even holding his breath, clearly trying not to breathe in their vile stench.

Sanji's protective instincts well up, he wants to fly over there right now and kick those monsters away from his Zoro. He hesitates though, Zoro sent him away for a reason and he's ignoring these things for a reason, might he make things worse if he intervenes? Doing so would surely show that Zoro can see things, after all why else would Sanji defend him? His decision is taken from him though as the girl finds what she's seeking in her bag, pills by Sanji's guess as she chases whatever she found and put in her mouth with a large gulp of water from a bottle. With that she walks slowly off. The horrifying things look from her to Zoro and back to her again and with a rattling groan follow after the girl. Behind them dithering is the younger looking guy that was being dragged with them.

Zoro closes his eyes and heaves a ragged breath in and out. He looks up again his eyes focus, unfortunately on the man that was with the zombie-like things. Sanji can tell from where he is that they make eye contact. From out of no where there's a snapping sound, like a rubber band giving way and Sanji spies a white shimmering cord fly free from the girl with one end still attached to the guy. Instead of disappearing though the white rope rears up like a snake and in a fast motion strikes forward and embeds itself in Zoro's chest. Zoro recoils slightly and gasps, Sanji can see the white cord tightening itself through Zoro's chest – it's hurting him! His temper is stretched too far and Sanji leaps forward towards Zoro intent on pulling Zoro free from whatever the rope-thing embedded in his chest is.

Upon closer inspection the rope looks a little yellowed, it's off white like old rope but it's got no real texture to it. Zoro shudders in his chair, drawing looks from nearby patrons and the end of the rope that's sprouting from Zoro's chest starts to turn a snowy white. The colour starts spreading up the rope towards the other guy who looks panicked and confused about the whole thing. Sanji realises with a shudder of his own that this rope and that guy are leeching some kind of energy off of Zoro! The whiter the rope gets the fainter Zoro starts to look. It's as if this guy has just stuck a straw into Zoro's heart and is sucking his blood out like some kind of goddamned vampire! Desperately Sanji tries to yank the thing free from his friend before it's too late, but his hands just go right through it, even touching Zoro's chest with his new found tangibility doesn't allow him to remove the rope.

"What are you doing to him?" Sanji snarls, turning to the guy who's clearly responsible for this.

"I- I don't… what's happening?" the guy responds in a terrified voice.

Then the whiteness that's spreading up the intangible cord reaches the new guy. He actually lifts off of the floor with the power of it. He glows momentarily and steadily all of the colour starts to flow back into him, like an old faded photograph digitally re-enhanced again.

"Stop it!" Sanji yells helplessly, this guy is going to kill Zoro at this rate.

However before either of them can say anything else the cord vanishes into nothingness and the other guy is dropped to the ground in a startled heap, he looks almost alive again. Zoro though slumps sideways and catches himself on the edge of the outdoor café table with his elbow, he turns and shakily supports himself with both elbows, burying his fingers in his hair. Feeling panic clawing at his rationality Sanji darts back to Zoro's side, the man is white as a sheet and shaking.

"Zoro! Are you okay?" Sanji asks desperately, his hand touching Zoro gingerly on the shoulder.

"I'm… I'm fine." Zoro breathes quietly. With trembling fingers he reaches out to his drink, when his hand lands on it the cup rattles against its saucer and Zoro clumsily raises the half finished hot chocolate to his lips and downs the rest of it in two shaky gulps. Sanji examines Zoro carefully. The man's eyes look unfocused and he's still trembling, a cold sweat has broken out on his skin as well giving him the clammy look of someone who's about to throw up.

"You're not fine, get up. I'm taking you home." Sanji orders in his best no-nonsense voice. Without a word Zoro shakily climbs out of his chair and stumbles off into the street back towards his home, the complete lack of argument, snark or bickering worries Sanji deeply. Zoro's usually so contrary that, unless it's to do with cooking or solving his murder, anything Sanji asks him to do the man will do the opposite just to piss him off. Zoro stumbles off down the road with Sanji hot at his heels. He scowls over his shoulder at the other guy that's responsible for this whole mess.

"Don't even think of following us you bastard!" Sanji yells at the curly haired interloper who is already following them.

"He… he can't help it, he's tethered now." Zoro says breathlessly and staggers to the side. Sanji catches him in time with a tangible enough shove with his shoulder to set Zoro's balance straight. Still, Sanji glares daggers at the newcomer as Zoro shambles home. The whimpering new guy follows the pair of them home. Sanji watches Zoro with concern though, the man is still pale as anything although thankfully he doesn't look like he's going to hurl anymore, he does however look like he's about to pass out.

When they get to Zoro's front door his hands are shaking too much to use his keys properly so Sanji slides through the wooden door and bats at the lock until it clicks open allowing Zoro to just turn the handle and stumble in. He shuts the door after him and leans on it gasping for breath as if he's just run a marathon. The new guy meekly slides through the door around Zoro, careful not to touch him lest he incur Sanji's wrath – a smart move.

"Look, we're in private now. What the hell was that? What did he do to you and what were those awful things following that girl?" Sanji asks urgently.

"I… that was… I need to get to the sofa." Zoro manages and slides along the wall to support himself as he practically drags himself to the main room of his little place. Zoro falls bonelessly face down on the sofa and lays there for a few moments before turning his head to the side so that he can see Sanji and the newcomer. Seeming to have a little more of his breath now he starts to talk.

"Did you see the girl that he was with? Did she seem kind of wrong to you? Like… glowing or out of focus?" Zoro asks tiredly.

"I- yeah. It was like I couldn't see her right." Sanji answers, humouring Zoro for now in the hope that this line of questioning will lead to answers that he wants.

"She's like me, or… sort of. There are other people like me, that can perceive you. It's rare to be like me and to be able to both see and hear you, some people can just see you but not hear you, some are the other way around and some just dream of you. From what I know about her I think she can just hear you." Zoro explains slowly and ever so slightly out of breath.

"The reason that you couldn't focus on her was because she's on drugs, the kind that stop her being able to hear you. Anti-psychotics usually. It pretty much completely blocks out ghosts." Zoro continues.

Sanji's eyebrows raise at this. He supposes though that if you could hear voices like that in your head all the time you might reasonably think that you were nuts and see a professional about it, who would of course prescribe you something like that.

"Why… why aren't you on something like that? Surely it can't be fun seeing dead people all the time, or running around solving mysteries like mine." Sanji asks, feeling guilty for intruding on Zoro's life – even if he is determined to make it better by doing so.

"Because those things are what happen when you do that. Those were people once, ghosts. Ghosts who needed help and didn't get it because she was ignoring them. That's what they become, it must be hell for them, they're not even human anymore. I've tried to help them before but they can't even tell you what it is they need anymore, last time I tried to help one it nearly killed me. I could never do that, I couldn't turn someone into that!" Zoro declares hotly, pushing himself up on his elbows to shoot Sanji a fierce look.

Sanji looks over to the new guy, the one that hurt Zoro. He's got a stupidly long nose, frizzy out of control hair and a shit-scared expression on his face. However, he looks perfectly fine despite being around those… things… ex-people or whatever it is they are now. Ghouls perhaps.

"Well, what about him?" Sanji frowns looking at the other guy.

"He's not been dead long enough to be one of them, still, he wasn't far off starting to change. That's why I'm so… drained. It took up a load of psychic energy just to bring him back to the level he's at now, it just… hit me a little harder than I was expecting." Zoro groans sitting up and rubbing his head weakly.

"So he did do this to you!" Sanji snaps accusatorially at the other guy.

"I didn't do anything! It just happened, I heard this snap and then… I don't know!" The guy squeaks fearfully.

"It's not his fault, I took him from her. Otherwise he'd have ended up like them. I just didn't realise how far gone he was." The green head says defending the little energy-leeching bastard.

"Regardless of whether he meant to or not he hurt you by taking that much energy from you, who knows what that's doing to your health!" Sanji insists, he wonders if half the reason that Zoro is so skinny is because of bastards like this guy stealing the very life force from him.

"Stop fussing, it's just a problem when it's all in one go. It's like money, imagine that you're the kind of person that buys food every day, you never have to pay out much in one go it's just a little bit. But this guy- uh… sorry, what was your name?" Zoro frowns looking at the new guy.

"Uh… Usopp." The new guy squeaks timidly.

"Yeah, so Usopp here instead doesn't do that and instead buys everything he needs in one go. I mean, how long have you been dead Usopp? A month? A month and a half?" Zoro asks gesturing to the guy.

"Two. Two months, roughly anyway." Usopp replies in a worried little voice.

"Geez. So yeah, that's a bit more of a shock to the system. Or the wallet." The idiotic psychic finishes lamely with his stupid metaphor.

Sanji frowns and sits down beside him. Even if this Usopp guy was in trouble Zoro shouldn't have done something like this, it's clearly not good for him.

"It's not right though, having your energy taken from you like that." Sanji pouts unhappily.

"Oh please, it's fine. It doesn't hurt like this when it's a bit at a time, not with just two of you anyway. That girl on the other hand, if she's dragging those things around her they're gonna take any chance they can get if she stops her medication. They're already draining her through it, though it's mostly protecting her at the moment, if she comes off that medication they'll probably eat her alive. I doubt if she'll live to see thirty." Zoro says sadly. Sanji is suddenly reminded of what Robin said about people like Zoro never living to be old.

But still… what Zoro is saying, he can't mean that he's constantly losing his energy can he? It's not like his soul has a leak in it or anything. Unless he means…

"Wait… tell me that I'm not slowly doing this to you too." He asks horrified at the idea.

"Of course you are, how did you think that you're still conscious? When you're alive your spirit is supplied by the energy from your body which you get from food. In case you've not noticed, you don't eat any more. Haven't you ever heard of the laws of thermodynamics? You don't get something for nothing." Zoro says looking at him exasperatedly.

"I'm fairly sure that that's not what they say." Sanji retorts on autopilot because, god, he's doing this to Zoro too? He's noticed that Zoro is a pretty low energy guy, sleeping a lot and napping when he has the chance. But Sanji had put that down to the late working hours, the poor diet and the likely case of depression the guy had. He hadn't considered that he might be having an affect on the guy as well. Another horrible thought slowly occurs to him as well.

"Since… since we're getting your energy then, we're not going to turn into those things now are we? You said that you brought Usopp back to this level but you didn't say that you put him back to normal." Sanji asks wide eyed. Zoro winces at that and Sanji knows him well enough by now to recognise Zoro's reaction to being busted about something he didn't want you to know.

"Well, dead people aren't supposed to be in this world, it makes them decay. The process takes a lot longer when you're with someone like me because I help you, I pay attention to you and you get my energy. It'd take a long time with all of that to decay that far, I mean like easily more than six months. And it's not gonna take that long to help you two out. Promise." Zoro says sleepily, his eyes looking heavy.

"I'm… gonna crash now. Usopp stay here I'll try and help you later I'm just gonna…" Zoro trails off with a yawn and slides sideways through Sanji until he's lying on the sofa again, Sanji slides out of the way and is shocked to see the man is already snoring.

He looks over at Usopp who is still regarding him with a faint hint of terror. Sanji sighs to himself, he supposes that Zoro is going to have to help this guy out as well now. And well, there goes Sanji's plan to stick around with Zoro indefinitely up in smoke. He really doesn't want to become one of those… things.

Still, he considers as he looks over the sleeping idiot, the guy is doing his level best to help him. Maybe he should just be a little more helpful back now, especially if they're on a time limit.