Restructer Revolution
VII: The Shallow Grave
Previously:
Yusei had barged through the elaborate double doors, in time to see a bound Luffy slumped on the tiled floor and a grinning rotund man of over ten feet with a giant pair of black scissors in hand, grinning and laughing as a black mass in his other hand waved.
That black mass... it looked like...
Yusei saw red.
"LUFFY SAN!"
"Kishishishi!" Gecko Moria laughed. "I got it! A three hundred million fighting power! With this, the ultimate Special Zombie will be born! Now Straw Hat Luffy is mine!"
"Luffy San!" Yusei ran forward.
"I've got it, finally, my strongest warrior!" Moria continued to monologue.
"Who the hell are you?" the pink-haired girl dressed as a princess in Gothic clothing yelled. Yusei guessed that this was the mysterious Perona mentioned by the zombies.
"Ah!" Hogback exclaimed, bandages where his nose and mouth were. "He's with the Straw Hats! He threw that explosive at me, the bastard!"
"Yusei!" a small voice went about.
"Junk Warrior!"
The blue-armoured warrior blocked a punch thrown by Absalom.
"This... what power..." the man muttered as he stumbled back, clutching his arm. "There were monsters like this amongst the Straw Hats?"
"Luffy San!" Yusei fished the unconscious youth to the side, away from the laughing Moria. "You... who are you? What are you planning with Luffy San's shadow?"
"You've never heard of me?" Moria laughed. "I... am one of the Royal Shichibukai, Gecko Moria! With his shadow, I'm one step closer to becoming the Pirate King! Hogback!"
The Doctor laughed. "Since our meeting ten years ago, I've awaited this day when number nine hundred will be made! When the shadow is inserted and he becomes history's strongest zombie, we will have a massive amount of power!"
"Which brings us closer to when we rule over all the graveyards of the world!" Absalom added.
"The day when all cute creatures are made into zombies obedient to me... it's before my eyes!" Perona exclaimed.
"That's right!" Moria chuckled. "No matter what kind of cheeky bastard comes, his shadow will be obedient! And the world will be made of obedient zombies! If I had a subordinate of his level, even that bastard Kaido in the New World wouldn't have beaten me, would he? Now, let's open his eyes, shall we? Open the door to the special freezer!"
"No one gets stronger by stealing power!" Yusei shouted back. "You, who would ruin the lives of others for your ridiculous ambition... I cannot forgive! Junk Warrior!"
"I won't let you!"
Absalom blocked the warrior's advance.
'I have a report!" a spider mouse dropped from the ceiling. "Just now, the Spider Monkey, Captain Tararam was defeated! His shadow was extracted! Also, half of the five-hundred strong colony of Spider Mice were defeated!"
"What!" Hogback began to panic. "There's only one man who can do that...!"
"The Humming Swordsman!" Absalom growled. "It seems Hildon's report wasn't wrong..."
"It was the Humming Swordsman!" the messenger yelled in panic. "Also, there is another man on this ship... a man with hair in three colours and eyes like blood... and the shadows obey his command! Before we knew it, the number of victims are huge! This is becoming the nightmare from five years ago!"
"What? Master..."
"I'll leave it to you, you idiot!" Moria yelled, turning away. "Now, let's go to resurrect the Special Zombie!"
"I can't let you take Luffy San's shadow!" Yusei declared. "Junk Warrior, attack! Scrap Fist!"
"Argh!" Absalom staggered back from the punch the warrior landed. "What power... Perona!"
"As I thought..." Perona grimaced, producing more ghosts. "Only I can do this... Negative Hollow!"
The Junk Warrior reached out a fist, grabbing the flying ghost to throw it in a fast-ball at Absalom.
"What the–! When I get reborn, I want to be a clam..." the lion-muzzle man sighed as he curled up on the ground in a fetal position.
Voices echoed behind. "Eh! He touched the Negative Hollow!"
"He's not depressed at all!"
"What an amazing man!"
Yusei winced as the migraine grew to new heights, grabbing the unconscious captain in a fireman's carry. "Right now, I'm outnumbered, and I can't afford to get caught... find the others, secure Luffy San first then!"
He ran out of the place, Junk Warrior flying behind him.
"Give chase!" the Duellist heard the order.
As expected, the hallways sprang alive with armoured zombies raging for his blood.
"I can't do this alone..." Yusei gritted his teeth. "Luffy San, wake up! Please!"
The captain remained unconscious.
"Damn!" Yusei muttered, drawing another few more cards to turn back to the zombies. "Idiots, come get me!"
"Stupid!" the zombies chorused as they made running leaps for him.
Yusei smirked, revealing the card. "Mirror Force!"
The resulting shield impacted, destroying all the undead in the hallway and causing shadows to spin into being and fly away like an out-pour.
"That'll be some time," Yusei observed as he ran on, Junk Warrior following faithfully.
"Where did he go?" Yami hissed to himself as the horse trotted down the hallway, the zombies in the paintings remaining still and shivering in fear occasionally.
"Oi, where is this place?" he growled to a random painting.
"EEEE! We're in the ground floor! Please don't destroy me!" the zombie screeched.
"Good," Yami slid off the horse, which vanished into the thin air. "Gaia! Make a path through!"
"Yes, milord!" the armed knight charged forth... at the painting.
The resulting crash and boom tore through half the tower, all the way to outside.
"Good," Yami growled. As he came through on the back of the same charger. "Now, Gaia, let's find him."
"Now, where is a safe place..."
He turned a corner to be greeted by a familiar sight. "Franky San? Robin San?"
"Yusei?" Franky registered, surprised, as he took about a horde of zombies. "What are you... where's the rest of them? Is that Luffy?"
"Yes," Yusei nodded. "I just rescued him from someone named Gecko Moria. I don't know where the rest are, we separated. I need to find a place to put Luffy San before I recover his shadow."
"What's that behind you?" Franky lifted his glasses. "An aeronaut?"
"He's mine," Yusei replied tersely. "Have you seen the others?"
"Zoro and the Curly-Cook disappeared," Franky tersely answered. "We met Brook, and he told us the zombies' weakness and the story behind Thriller Bark. The man behind all this is..."
"Gecko Moria, I know," Yusei hurriedly answered. "He's planning the steal our shadows and plant them into zombies created by Hogback."
Franky's sunglasses slid down. "How–"
"Evil villain monologue," Yusei replied with a straight face.
"Oh, wonderful!" Franky clapped. "Say, Nii Chan..."
The resulting cry echoed around Thriller Bark and caused small tremors. "MMMMMEEEEAAAAATTTTTT!"
Franky slowly blinked as the echo died away. "That was..."
"SOOOOOO HHHHUUUUUNGRYYYYYYYYY!" Bats flew out at that.
"A beast, I suppose," Robin guessed.
"Eh?" Yusei blinked. "Anyway, how did you...?"
"We can recover the shadows by throwing salt into the zombies' mouths." Robin explained.
"Ah?" Yusei was surprised. "How odd..."
"We won't forgive you!" More zombies showed up.
"Junk Warrior, battle!" Yusei commanded. "Scrap Fist!"
"Oi, that won't–" the Straw Hat shipwright stopped abruptly as the Junk Warrior's punches landed true and shadows appeared like so many souls.
"EEEEHHHHH? WHY THE HELL CAN THAT BEAT ZOMBIES WHEN WE CAN'T?"
"Ah, it seems like it works too," Yusei observed. "But, Moria has Hogback working for him, as well as two others, a man named Absalom and a girl called Perona. I only managed to escape due to Junk Warrior."
"That thing has a power?" Franky studied it.
"Ah," Yusei nodded. "Er... Junk Warrior came from this game, Duel Monsters."
"Wow!" Franky had stars in his eyes upon seeing the white card in Yusei's fingers. "Cool power! Er... this... What's this 'When this card is Synchro Summoned, it gains attack power equal to the total attack power of all two-star monsters you control'?"
"It's Junk Warrior's special ability," Yusei answered. "The power of all surrounding weak ones becomes concentrated into Junk Warrior as the power of fellows."
"How beautiful!" Franky wept.
"...Anyway, we should continue to find the others," Yusei added as Franky took up the unconscious Luffy. "Let's go."
They rescued a crying Usopp and Chopper from a horde of zombies a while later, the pair crying about the missing navigator and weddings and something else he could not figure out.
"What a nightmare..." the zombies mourned. "Aside from the Hummer, for someone else who knows our weakness to show up!"
"That's bad! 'We won't die' is our catch-phrase, but it won't do any good if we're terrified of getting destroyed!"
"I heard that they use these long staircases to transport those whose shadows were stolen," Robin commented as they ran.
"So this is where they'd transport Luffy!" Usopp commented. "We tried to follow them but Nami... Still, for Yusei to face down a Shichibukai to rescue Luffy... he's really reliable..."
"Please stop that."
"Will Nami be alright?" Chopper mourned.
"That guy isn't after her life," Usopp defended. "We'll definitely save her!"
"For that reason too, we need to hurry to Sunny!" Franky growled. "To wake up Straw Hat and the rest and get back their shadows!"
"But, the island is full of zombies..." Chopper pointed out. "It won't be easy..."
"Oh, yeah, about those zombies." Usopp asked. "How did you defeat them?"
"Except for Nii Chan there, I don't know what the hell he did but it works with those monsters, that's something the skeleton told us about," Franky answered, producing a cloth bag. "It's this! Salt!"
"So the zombies have a weakness!"Chopper exclaimed.
"If salt gets into their mouths, they'll be purified, right?" Usopp asked.
"Just like what you saw earlier!" Franky confirmed.
"Anyway, just now we heard a voice similar to a beast's roar earlier, what was that?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, we heard that and took off," Franky drawled.
Usopp looked away. "That was Luffy's voice."
"What did you say?" Franky was surprised.
"We'll tell you everything we saw." Usopp replied. "Somehow, things became unbelievable!"
Yusei had remained silent the entire time.
"Is there a problem, Yusei San?" Robin asked.
"Eh, wondering if I could fly," Yusei rubbed his forehead. "The migraine is receding, but I don't know if we could get to Sunny quickly... especially since I;ve just dismissed Junk Warrior..."
"It never hurts to try," Robin pointed out.
Yusei nodded. "Okay then. I summon Shield Wing!"
"EEEE!" Usopp and Chopper yelled as the green dinosaur-like bird monster appeared. "A monster came out!"
Yusei grabbed onto the bird's hind legs as it flew, the monster easily lifting it up to view the entire island and... the giant silhouette of something walking.
"I can see Sunny!" Yusei called as Shield Wing dropped low enough for him to yell.
"Bigger than a giant? Is it a monster?" Franky was saying.
"Yeah," Usopp answered. "The huge noise and what sounded like a scream proved that... I bet Luffy's zombie is on a rampage..."
"Is it twenty feet tall, with tusks like a bull elephant and red skin?" Yusei asked.
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Usopp asked.
"It's on the way here," Yusei replied.
"..."
"..."
"EEEHHHHH? Let's hurry!" Usopp screamed.
They ran up the stairs, Yusei dropping to hang on one arm while the other looped around Usopp to fly up to the end of the stairs.
"I see," Franky observed, looking at the parked Sunny. "So they leave it here, and then, without any warning, you're in the boss's room."
"It's pretty messed up!" Usopp yelled, being the first to board the Sunny.
"It's the zombies' work," Robin observed. "Their footprints are all over."
"Then, are they still here?" Chopper asked in a hushed tone.
"They sure were rough..." Usopp sighed, looking at the messed-up state of the Sunny.
"They sure did it in... Even though there's nothing to take..." Franky observed.
Chopper sniffed the air. "Are there any zombies here?"
"First, where's our main crew...?" Usopp muttered.
"Not around here," Franky retorted, placing the sleeping Luffy on the ground.
"They're probably in one of the rooms," Robin answered.
"Eh, why?" Chopper asked.
"We were told that if those guys were to die, the zombies' lives would be forfeit too," Robin answered.
"Oh?" Yusei said. "Then, we'll have to split up and search. The zombies may still be around."
On the deck balcony, the Shield Wing chirped.
"Thank you," Yusei nodded to the monster, who nodded before chirping some more.
"It says it'll stay around a bit more to watch," Chopper relayed to Yusei.
"Ah, thank you, Chopper San, and thank you, Shield Wing." Yusei smiled wearily.
"Found them, I found them!" Usopp screeched a few moments of searching the ship later. "All three are in the dining room!"
"What...?" Chopper gasped as he walked in.
"This is... what...?" Franky stuttered.
Robin and Yusei just looked disturbed.
"They were perfectly decorated by the zombies..."
"For free..." Robin echoed.
"Let's bring Luffy San in so that we can wake them up." Yusei suggested.
"Leave it to me," Usopp took a deep breath before yelling. Throughout his life, Yusei will never hear a more ridiculous wake-up call than:
"A BEAUTIFUL LADY, SWORDSMAN just brought some MEAT!"
Shivers went through their bodies as the three got up.
"Beautiful lady?"
"Meat?"
"Swordsman?"
"These guys are hopeless!" Chopper yelled.
"Ah?" Luffy quickly leapt into action. "BASTARRRRDDDD..."
Franky's whole hand covered Luffy's head. "Calm down! Moria isn't here!"
There was a pecking sound as the Shield Wing poked its head in, chirping.
"It says that there's a bat-shaped thing circling the ship and it wants to eat it," Chopper told Yusei.
"Might be Hildon," Yusei observed. "He does fly like a bat... Bring it here, please."
The Wing nodded.
"Ah! A giant chicken!" Luffy yelled.
"He's my nakama," Yusei replied. "Welcome back to the Sunny, by the way."
"Sunny?" all three echoed.
"Why are we back here?" Zoro asked, looking down at his feet. "No... but... it wasn't a dream... my shadow is gone! This feels weird..."
"Hey, this is bad!" Luffy barged out of the pantry, mouth full and a large cheese and a up in hand. "An emergency! There's nothing to eat!"
"Damn..." Franky sighed.
"Not all the food was taken." Sanji answered. "They left all the preserved food."
"There's no crackers for the cheese too!" Luffy yelled. "Meat!"
Yusei was fiddling with his drying pants pockets, fishing out tools. He looked up.
"But..." Zoro face-palmed. "This is dishonourable! I let down my guard...!"
"We lost our Kaizoku Bento too..." Luffy looked close to tears. "It's not right... just cheese...!"
"By the way..." Sanji walked around the kitchen. "Nami San doesn't seem to be here..."
"That... you know..." Usopp nervously stuttered as he and Chopper exchanged nervous looks.
Sanji's reaction was an immediate thing.
"SHE WAS KIDNAPPED?" Sanji yelled. "WHY DIDN'T YOU CHASE THEM TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH?"
"Sorry!" Usopp stuttered. "But we didn't just let her go, things just worked out that way...!"
"Who is he and where...?" the cook growled fiercely. "I'll go right now and get her back!"
"Ah, wait!" Usopp almost yelled. "At least listen to the whole story!"
Sanji finally let him go.
"Okay, let's do this...!" Usopp began. "There are two things that we can't afford not to get back!"
"Food! Nami! And our shadows! That's three things!" Luffy retorted.
"One of those things don't belong there..." Usopp muttered. "Let's focus on Nami and the shadows for now."
"Nami San was kidnapped by a perverted beast," Yusei answered, straight-faced as ever. "The beast was talking about Nami San being his bride of some sort..."
"MARRIAGE?" Sanji was screaming to the heavens at about the same time Shield Wing attacked a bedraggled zombie in the skies. Flames danced around the chef as he poured his grievances out at decibels enough to rival a jumbo jet in hot rage enough to equal the fiery depths of hell. "ARE YOU JOKING? UNFORGIVABLE!"
"He must be quite brave to want to marry Nami..." Luffy commented. "And I'm a giant? They could make such a zombie?"
"So, that means we know who has Luffy's and Sanji's shadows, right, Usopp?" Zoro drawled.
"T- That was one of the Shichibukai..." Usopp began sobbing.
Chopper teared up. "All of a sudden I'm really scared...!"
"You didn't know, you guys?" Franky commented in surprise.
"Of course we didn't know!" they retorted.
'Oh, I mustn't forget..." Usopp panicked as he ran off.
"I'm sorry, but... what are the Shichibukai?" Yusei asked.
"You're even more extreme!" Franky yelled. "Anyway, the Shichibukai are seven famously strong pirates who ally with the World Government. They are pardoned of all crimes and allowed leeway with the law in exchange for fighting for the World Government. All together, they make up one of the Three Great Powers of the world, right up next to the Marines and the Yonkou."
"Ah, I see," Luffy commented. "So if the zombies don't look like the original then... I saw Zoro's zombie."
"How was he?"
Luffy scratched his chin thoughtfully. "It kinda felt like you... but because it was wearing wooden shoes I knew it wasn't you!"
"Well, whatever..." Zoro scoffed. "Then, if we find that geezer, Luffy's giant and Sanji's Denguin, and throw salt in their mouths, our shadows will return, right?"
"Or get my monsters to attack them," Yusei commented, stooping down to relieve the bird of its prey a Usopp dragged a large heavy something over.
"But to find such a weakness, nice job," Zoro commented.
"The one that told us about the weakness and to go get you guys first was the skeleton," Franky answered.
"Wha? You met Brook?" Luffy grinned.
"Yeah, met him," Franky snorted. "And when we did, we asked him a pretty rude question..."
"Eh?"
Franky sighed. "You know, from the moment you wanted to make him our nakama... I didn't want to acknowledge him at all, but... even though he's just a skeleton... I talked to him, and he has bones. Not just his skeleton."
The silence and Usopp's tinkering was almost deafening as they waited for Franky to continue.
"He's... he's... He's a man!" Franky acknowledged. "I... asked him a question..."
"To got that far... to live like that... what was the promise you made with your nakama?"
"You don't seem to care about timing at all... it's quite simple... long ago, my pirate crew left one of our nakama behind in a certain place. We all found it to be a painful and difficult decision, but... we made the promise that we would 'definitely return'. We set off and were annihilated n this sea. And to not break the promise with him...! The result was that I've lived alone on that ship for a long time because I have that promise to fulfil! Since the day we died... I suppose it's been more than fifty years..."
"Fifty years? It was that old a story? I wasn't even born yet! Sorry, but there's no way he's still waiting–!"
"Why do I! I know very well that he may not still be there... he had all the right to leave... But if by some chance, he's been waiting for us ever since, then... how lonely must he be now? He may think that we've betrayed him, but if he's waiting even now... how miserable must he be..."
"You..."
"The name of the nakama we swore to meet again is... Laboon! We couldn't take a young whale on a dangerous cruise like ours..."
"Whale?"
"...Yes. He must have grown really big by now..."
"You nakama is... a whale?"
"Exactly. I can't help but think that he's believed in us all this time... and think that we'd come back and play our cheerful music with him. I don't think he'll forgive us for dying so irresponsibly, and would yell into the skies if his voice could, because of our selfish promise, that death isn't an apology! Because... a man once said... that they would definitely come back!"
"... and therefore, he has..."
"Laboon..." Luffy echoed.
"Do you mean it?" Usopp stuttered.
"It's him..." Sanji's expression was hidden by his blond bangs.
The rest of the Straw Hats looked confused.
"Ah. Of course, you didn't know of it, Chopper." Usopp realised.
You... my special seat... WHAT THE HELL DID YOU BREAK IT FOR!
"We know him..." Luffy said. "That... whale."
"You... know him?" Franky asked. "Why? What do you mean?"
"It was at the entrance to the Grand Line, at the two capes," Sanji narrated. "The damn huge whale was there..." The smoke from the cancer stick seemed to form the shape of a whale leaping through the air as he spoke.
Nami San! I see a mountain up ahead!
A mountain? That can't be!
But I see it right there!
Who cares? Let's GO!... aaaahHHHHH!
It's not a mountain!
It's a black wall!
You're wrong! It's-
Then what is it?
IT'S A WHALE! W- W- W- What should we do?
Fight it?
IDIOT! We can't fight something like that!
The current is taking us right at it! What are we going to do?
Ah! Right! I just got a great idea!
Luffy?What are you doing?
Daaaamn...!
Too late.
BOOM!
THE CANNON?
Alright! Did we stop?
Oh crap... I nearly died...
MY SPECIAL SEAT!
RUN FOR IT! WHILE WE CAN!
You... my special seat... WHAT THE HELL DID YOU BREAK IT FOR!
YOU IDIOT!
"... because of Luffy's idiocy, he ate us." Sanji continued.
"B- By the whale?" Chopper piped up.
"And that's Laboon, yes?" Robin asked.
"Yep, and inside his stomach lived the lighthouse-keeping geezer."
"Whaa?"
Luffy laughed. "Flower Ossan!"
"He lived inside Laboon and treated him," Sanji continued.
"The lighthouse-keeper... treated him?"
"He said he'd once been a pirate crew's doctor," Usopp added, doing something with a mortar and pestle.
"Wow, but why was he being treated? Was he ill?" Chopper asked.
"At the wall that separates the world, he was bashing his head against the Red Line," Sanji answered. "Waiting fifty years for the crew, believing they would meet up again when they finished sailing around the world."
But for fifty years... they've kept him waiting for a while, those pirates...
Idiot, this is the Grand Line, you know. They're dead. No use waiting for them anymore.
That's for sure, since it's already fifty years... I guess that shows how terrible and chaotic this unexplored ocean is going to be...
…Even if by some chance they are alive, they would never return to this place. The seasons, weather, currents and winds all go around in unpredictable patterns. Logic is worthless in this ocean...
…I did tell him. All of it, but he refused to listen. That night Laboon faced Reverse Mountain for the first time and bellowed, and bean battering his head against the Red Line. He still believes that they'll return from the other side of this wall... he just won't listen to the truth...
…If there was no reason to wait, he would have listened to me. More than anything, he is afraid of losing his reason to wait. His home is in the West Blue, and there's no way home for him now. All he wished for was to continue being nakama with the men he followed here...
...What is that idiot doing?
GOMU GOMU NO... IKEBANA!
That the mast, isn't it?
Yep. Right off our ship.
It's our main mast. QUIT BREAKING THE SHIP!
WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?...
...It's a draw!
Our match isn't over yet! So we're going to have to fight again someday. Your nakama might be dead, but from now on I'm your rival! We'll fight again someday to decide which one of us is the strongest! Once we've finished sailing the Grand Line, we'll come back for you! Then we'll finish our fight!
"Somehow, Luffy convinced it to stop acting suicidal and trying to break through the wall..." Sanji huffed. "He's still alive... at that cape, waiting for his nakama..."
"It's an unbelievable story..." Usopp was smiling. "They kept their promise for more than fifty years!"
"To think that the nakama that Laboon was waiting for was... that skeleton..." Zoro finished.
Franky burst into tears and loud sobbing then. "I love Boney and the whale, dammit!"
"SHUT IT!" Almost all except for Luffy, Yusei, Chopper and Robin yelled at him.
"Yosh! I'm all pumped up!" Luffy declared. "He's a musician! A talking skeleton! Has an afro! The 'Yohoho'! And he was Laboon's nakama! Even if I end up dragging him, he'll join us on this ship. And become our nakama! Any complaints, you guys?"
Robin smiled. "If we did, would you change your mind?"
"I want him to join! With Laboon!" Usopp smiled.
"COMPLETE APPROVAL!" Franky was still crying.
"ME TOO, YOU BASTARD!" Chopper was also crying. "I'M NOT SCARED OF SKELETONS EITHER!"
"Before something that simple... I HAVE TO STOP NAMI SAN'S WEDDING!" Flames danced around Sanji once more in his rage.
Zoro and Yusei had already gotten off the ship, Yusei dragging along a black bundle.
"Hey, Zoro, Yusei!" Luffy yelled. "Where are you guys going?"
"I'm landing already," Zoro drawled. "The number of shadows we have to get back just went up by one, right?"
"I'm leading Zoro San there," Yusei shrugged, holding up the bedraggled Hildon in one hand, smiling. "Sanji San, this guy knows who's responsible for the wedding."
"ALRIGHT!" Luffy declared as more flames of rage lit the night. "Men, prepare for the counter-attack! We're going to blow down Thriller Bark!"
"YEAH!"
Please review! I mean it this time! See you for the next chapter!