Asteria Nightmare

Part nine of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma

Note: Holy shit guys...CuriousVortex made me fanart!

h t t p : / / akimichiko . deviantart . com / art / Asteria-Nightmare-Harvester-262426050

h t t p : / / akimichiko . deviantart . com / art / Asteria-Nightmare-Next-Level-262427270

I'm tickled pink, I've never gotten fanart before...this totally made my day, to know my words and ideas can inspire visuals X3

Disclaimer: I do not own, or pretend to own, One Piece or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs solely to Eiichiro Oda. The only thing that belongs to me here is the concept for the story.

"I don't really know how to say it, but, um—uh, what's it like to be a character in a dream? 'Cause, uh, I'm not awake right now."
~Wake Walking Dream—Eskimo (Dance)

For almost a full minute, the five pirates stood or sat in stunned silence, minds whirling furiously as they struggled to come to grips with what Nami had unexpectedly deduced.

Usopp was the first to shatter that quiet, just like he had before. "No way, Nami. That's just...no way. That can't happen. Those things have to have just stolen his memories, not...not his dream..." But he looked sick at the prospect all the same.

"No," Sanji-kun said, very slowly. He was frowning at Zoro now, a confused, frustrated expression, like he wanted to hit the swordsman but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. "It can't be memory loss. He called me lo—uh, that is, he recognized me." He winced a little at the end, and if the situation hadn't been so serious Nami would have laughed at the cook almost acknowledging one of Zoro's insulting names for himself.

"But...but stealing a person's goals? How is that even possible?" Usopp asked, almost timidly, like he didn't really want to know the answer.

"Like you just said yourself," Nami said, voice weak, "anything is possible in this world, especially on the Grand Line. If minerals can be taken from people...why can't they also be goals, instead of night visions?"

"You want to all quit yappin' and explain why you're staring at me like I've got three heads?" Zoro said, his voice grating with both irritation and barely suppressed pain. "I'm right here you know..."

"Shut up, marimo," Sanji-kun said, but it sounded almost absentminded, like his heart wasn't really in it.

"There is a simple way to test whether or not the loss is that of memory, or dreams," Robin said slowly. "By means of a few quick questions, no less. If I may?" Nobody dissented, and Sanji-kun encouraged her with enthusiasm, so the archeologist crouched down carefully in front of Zoro to meet the sitting, curled over swordsman at eye level.

"Good morning, Zoro-san," she offered, and Nami blinked in surprise at the absence of her usual title for the swordsman. "Might I ask you a few questions?"

"Don't see why not," Zoro said shortly, regarding the historian with a flat look. "Long as you quit starin' at me funny like the others, that's getting annoying."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Robin answered crisply. "Now then. You're a bounty hunter, aren't you, Zoro-san?"

Zoro blinked at her, and the dark lines under his eyes, alongside his disbelieving stare, made him look rather owlish and surprised. "What kind of stupid question is that? Are you feelin' sick or something?"

"Please just humor me, Zoro-san."

Zoro sighed. "Fine. No, I'm not a bounty hunter. I used to be a bounty hunter, until Luffy recruited me."

Robin nodded. "I see. And why did Luffy recruit you?"

Zoro shrugged, winced slightly when it pulled at his bitten arm. "No particular reason. He was building a pirate crew and he said he wanted some strong people on it."

"Strong how, Zoro-san?"

"Just strong!" Zoro hissed in exasperation. He looked agitated now, like he had something important on the tip of his tongue, at the back of his mind, but couldn't quite reach it. "He wants to be the Pirate King, for hell's sake. Of course he needs strong crew members to back him up."

"Of course, Zoro-san," Robin placated agreeably. "You are absolutely correct." Almost immediately, the agitation seemed to melt out of the swordsman, and he curled over tiredly against the wall again.

"Do you remember what I do on the ship?" Robin questioned next. Nami, Usopp, and Sanji-kun exchanged confused looks at the question, but were smart enough to keep silent. Robin seemed to have some sort of plan in mind, and it'd be best if they didn't interrupt it.

Zoro shrugged absently. "You're an archaeologist, right?"

"That is correct. And why am I traveling with your crew?"

The swordsman seemed to be rapidly loosing interest at the questioning, and gave a tired yawn that turned partway into a rasping breath. "You're one of us." And when Robin continued to watch him patiently, waiting, he added, "Looking for those poneglyphs, right? For the True History, or something like that."

"That is correct, Zoro-san. And what about her?" Robin said next, pointing with a spontaneously grown third hand in Nami's direction. Nami flinched slightly as Zoro's gaze shifted to her—he really did look terrible—but there wasn't any flicker of confusion in his eyes, and he obviously recognized her.

"You're asking a lot of weird questions," Zoro said, sounding a little irritated now. "That's Nami. She's our navigator. Wants to make a map of the world when we finally see everything."

"Correct," Robin answered, and promptly questioned the swordsman in turn about each and every other crew members' names, occupations on the ship, and personal goals. Zoro, with traces of irritation, disinterest, and mounting fatigue, answered all the questions accurately and precisely. He definitely hadn't lost his memories, Nami had to admit grimly, after several more minutes of Robin's vague questioning. But something definitely was wrong with him.

"You seem very knowledgeable about all of us, Zoro-san," Robin finally commented, many minutes later.

"I'm supposed to be," Zoro said, almost absently.

Robin raised an eyebrow delicately. "Why is that, Zoro-san?"

The swordsman blinked in confusion. "Why is what?" he asked, clearly puzzled. Nami's eyes widened a little in surprise. It was like he hadn't even noticed that he'd said anything at all. Like when one saw movement out of the corner of their eye, but when they focused on it directly, there was nothing really there; or like how one might hear voices or sounds while not really paying attention, but when that focus was sharpened, there was really nothing but silence. The comment seemed to slip out without the swordsman even hearing it, or realizing it.

"Why are you supposed to be so knowledgeable about us," Robin clarified very carefully.

Zoro frowned, and for a fraction of an instant he seemed to go rigid. "I...Luffy...promise...protect...p-protect the c-crew," he rasped suddenly, and it was like the words came from far away, and he was dragging them a million miles off through thick mud and treacherous seas to make them be heard at all. He was staring, but he didn't seem to see them, either; and his breath had increased noticeably. After a few moments he tried to force more words out. "Promised...because...because..." his brows knit in confusion, and his lips twisted into a grimace as he tried hard to find an answer. "Because..."

"That you made a promise to Luffy is enough," Robin interjected smoothly, and though her voice was as calm as always, Nami could see a hint of a frown on her face. Almost immediately, the strained signs in Zoro vanished; his breathing righted itself, his eyes snapped back into focus, and he stopped muttering.

"Yeah," he answered simply, and it was as if the momentary lapse hadn't happened at all. "Of course. Luffy's like that."

"Indeed," Robin agreed. She hesitated, seemed to be fighting with herself over wether or not to continue questioning the swordsman, but after a moment she spoke once more. "Zoro-san," she said slowly, "You've explained why everybody else is on the crew, what they do, and what their goals are. Can you remind me why you are here?"

Zoro rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I thought you were supposed to remember everything," he said, sounding annoyed. "Fine. I decided to join Luffy because I'm—"

Unexpectedly, Zoro seemed to snap.

One moment, he was talking just as he always had, bored, laid back, with that permanent frown on his face that Nami had come to accept as his default expression. And if his skin looked a little gray, or if he looked a little tired, well, it was Zoro after all...he almost always looked completely beat up at some point during their more adventurous moments. But as he began to explain why he joined Luffy, what his job on the ship was, what his dream was, he changed with such alarming speed that Nami could almost have sworn she heard the glass shattering as his mind panicked, came to sudden terms with the fact that something that should have been there wasn't.

Zoro's eyes flew open, his teeth snapped together in a pained grimace, his lips peeled back as an unnatural, twisted whine seemed to escape his throat. His head whipped back, nearly smashing into the stone wall behind him in the process, and both his hands flew to his skull, clenching wildly into his short green hair as though desperate to claw at the recesses of his own head, his own mind, and find whatever had been hidden there...or taken from it. Before they could react he'd curled forward again, crouching and resting his cradled head and hands precariously on elbows that dug into his knees, and he looked for all the world like he was about to be violently sick.

"D-damn it," he stammered, breathing heavily, and his voice came out as a pained rasp. "Don't...don't know...can't...I...can't...rem-member...can't...lost...can't...s-stolen...stolen...stolen..."

The remaining Straw Hats were alarmed, and even Robin looked taken aback by the reaction. It was like Zoro had completely lost it; like something so vital had been ripped from his person that he couldn't function properly without it. And Nami realized, with a stunned sort of horror, that that was exactly the case.

"S-stop that, Zoro," Usopp practically whimpered. "You're freaking me out...that's the same chanting as last night..."

"Shut the hell up right now, marimo, or I swear I'll make you!" Sanji-kun added in agreement, although his combined threat and order sounded more frightened than angry, and Nami had a feeling that the cook wouldn't actually go through with it.

But Zoro ignored them both, and continued to curl forward on himself, falling dangerously quickly into the same chanting pattern he'd been in last night, while unconscious. "Lost...d-don't know...c-can't remember...stolen...stolen...stolen..."

"Zoro!" Nami called in a panic, mind whirling frantically as she tried to come up with some solution. Lie through your teeth her instincts told her, and she did so. "Geez, what are you freaking out over, Zoro? We were just playing games with you. Luffy obviously hired you on as a little extra muscle is all, there's no need to make such a fuss over it."

Almost instantly the chanting seemed to cease, and Zoro's ragged breathing slowed. "Muscle?" he rasped slowly, and his voice sounded incredibly hoarse, like he'd spent the past six hours screaming.

"Y-yeah," Usopp jumped in, thankfully picking up on Nami's strategy. "You said you wanted to be the strongest guy in the world, and Luffy liked the sound of that, so you joined the Straw Hat pirate crew!"

"The strongest..." Zoro frowned suddenly, and he looked confused, but thankfully it wasn't that wild, panicked, cracked confusion that they'd seen in him just seconds ago. "Wait. Wouldn't that interfere with Luffy's dream? The Pirate King is the strongest, isn't he?"

"You wouldn't be interfering with that," Nami edited hastily, and her mind whirled as she tried to pare down Zoro's swordsman dream into something acceptable enough to keep his mind from breaking again at the loss it couldn't seem to comprehend. "Luffy's goal involves finding One Piece, right? He's got to be strong, but he's got to be a strong pirate. You just...y'know—"

"Prove that you can beat anybody with your bare hands," Sanji-kun interjected suddenly, "And you never back down once you get in a fight, 'cause you swore once that you'd never lose again after you got the crap kicked out of you by...by a really strong Shichibukai."

Nami shot Sanji-kun a grateful look, glad that the cook was picking up on the strategy as well. Sanji-kun responded with a quick nod, and she could see in his eye that he'd been just as shaken by Zoro's unexpected reaction.

"Right," Zoro said slowly. "Sounds right...yeah..." and to Nami's surprise, he was already starting to recover from the ordeal, sitting back up slowly against the stone wall and dropping his hands into his lap. The episode hadn't been without cost—Zoro was clearly exhausted even further from the panic attack—but at least he was returning to his usual ways of acting. And Nami was a little stunned at how fast his mind seemed to accept the piecemeal explanation she, Usopp and Sanji-kun had woven together about his very reason for being with them in the first place.

"Thank you, Zoro-san," Robin said with a nod, coming to her feet. "I appreciate you answering my questions, even if they were a bit silly. Please rest a bit, as you are injured and we will be moving out soon." Zoro snorted but almost gratefully obliged, tilting his head back against the stone wall and closing his eyes.

Once assured that he was sleeping, the four remaining pirates shifted to the other side of the little cellar and held a brief meeting. "That was weird," Nami began slowly. "Every time we even got close to his identity as a swordsman, or his dream, it's like he started having a panic attack or something."

Robin nodded grimly in agreement. "His memories of everything else remain intact, but when anything about his dream is approached, he responds in the same way. He seems to have forgotten all of it...not just his goal, and his role on the crew, but also associated memories."

"He forgot how to use his swords too," Usopp added grimly. "Remember? Right after the Harvester stole his...his Dreamshard...he stood up again, but he wasn't holding his swords right at all. Even I could tell that. Like he didn't know how to use them and was just holding them."

"Then it is true," Sanji-kun said slowly, gritting his teeth. "In which case..."

"Luffy," Nami said, voicing what was on their minds. "Oh, dammit...Luffy's dream..."

Usopp looked horrified. "Luffy couldn't live without his dream," he said slowly. "Luffy's whole existence is to be the Pirate King. If that was taken away from him..."

"Then he'd be a catatonic mess," Sanji-kun finished, and Robin nodded in quiet agreement. "Just like he is now."

They were silent for several moments, glancing over unconsciously at the slumbering Zoro as they thought about exactly what this new discovery meant. Luffy's dream, stolen. Luffy, unable to be the Pirate King, because he was a pale-skinned, unconscious ghost of his former self. Luffy, unable to even remember that he wanted to be the Pirate King, because that dream had been viciously torn from him in a way that no other trauma, dangerous situation, or series of impossible odds had ever been able to manage before.

And Zoro, too. Zoro, who for as long as Nami could remember—and she'd been around far longer than most of the other crew members—had always claimed, over and over, that he'd be the worlds greatest swordsman. Was willing to risk impossible battles and dangerous odds, lose his own limbs, lose his own life, for the sake of achieving that goal. It was almost as much a part of his very existence as Luffy's dream was to the captain. Both of those dreams were so ingrained in such a core part of their very beings that without them, Luffy and Zoro wouldn't be...well...Luffy and Zoro.

It wasn't fair to let those things be stolen from them. It wasn't fair, not when Luffy and Zoro both had done so much to defend the rest of the crew's dreams. Not when Luffy had freed both her and Robin from the shackles of their pasts, allowed them to live freely; Not when Zoro never patronized Usopp for his desire to be a strong fighter, or always reassured the timid Chopper that the doctor's treatments were working just fine, every time. Not when the both of them never doubted for an instant that every single crew member's dreams were worthwhile, were possible, and defended both the dreams and the people they belonged to without a shred of hesitation. It just wasn't fair, after all that, for the two of them to have their own dreams ripped away from them.

It wasn't fair, and they had to do something about it. "We need to get their dreams back," Nami said, slowly at first, but with mounting strength. "We need to get their Dreamshards back. I don't care how long it takes, but we can't leave them empty like this." As one, they glanced at Zoro, and Nami knew almost instinctively they were all thinking for their ashen, slumbering captain back in the infirmary of the Thousand Sunny as well.

"I agree," Sanji-kun said almost immediately, and while Nami had expected him to agree with her—he always did—there was a sense of approval and genuine belief in his tone as well.

"I as well," Robin said.

"And me," Usopp agreed, putting on what he probably assumed was a fierce face. His knees were still shaking a little, but he, just like Sanji-kun, seemed to genuinely accept without a trace of hesitation that their nakama's dreams couldn't be simply abandoned, not now. "But how do we do it?"

"Do not forget the stories," Robin said quietly. "Although legends of old, they have been quite accurate so far. And in those stories, the Nightmare servants always bring the dreams they catch to the Queen of the Night for her to feed upon them. If such a creature exists, logic would dictate that she lives at the heart of the nest, in the city."

Nami paled at the thought of her friends' dreams being consumed by some nightmarish creature, and shuddered at the thought of entering the city, but Robin was right: it was the best place to look. "Agreed," she said shortly, "But we should return to the ship first, before we try tackling that. That city is going to be deadly no matter how we look at it, and we'll need to be fully prepared, with the full crew. And..." She hesitated, glanced at Zoro, and then back to the group. "And we should probably drop him off back at the ship, too. In his state he probably can't fight, and even if he does know how to fistfight—" she had seen him punch out a sky shark after all, and he won the Groggy Ring second round without swords too— "he's probably too weak to be of much help. He looks pretty terrible."

"Yeah," Sanji-kun agreed, "he'd only get in the way." He scowled over at Zoro, although Nami had the distinct impression he was more pissed about what had happened to their currently-not-a-swordsman to put him in that state than he was about Zoro being unable to fight.

"Okay," Usopp summarized, "So we head back to the ship today, come up with a new attack plan, and then head to the city to find this...this Queen of the Night. Whatever she is." He did not look happy at the thought of approaching what they were sure would be a nest of the horrific creatures on the island, but he understood as well as the others that it would be the only way to win back those dreams that had been so wrongfully stolen. So even if his knees were still shaking, his voice had some measure of strength to it.

It was as good a plan as any for now, so they once again collected together their packs and prepared to move out. Sanji-kun was still their strongest fighter with Zoro incapacitated, so he volunteered—or more like insisted upon—going first to protect Nami and Robin (and the others too, Nami knew, although he'd probably never actively admit to it). Nami kept her Clima-Tact at the ready, prepared to use high-voltage shocks to keep anything to attack them at bay, and Robin was also prepared to try and stall any Nightmares they might come across on the way back.

That left Usopp with the job of helping Zoro. It took the sniper five minutes of frustrated shaking to actually wake their not-quite-swordsman, and when Zoro finally did awaken it seemed the brief catnap hadn't done him any good at all; the dark lines were still under his eyes, and his skin was still pale and touched with gray. He staggered to his feet with Usopp's help when the sniper pulled him up, and almost immediately tripped and fell again, forcing Usopp to catch him frantically and then sling one of the not-swordsman's arms around his shoulders to hold him up.

They left as quickly as they could, which was depressingly slowly in Nami's opinion. Sanji-kun went ahead to scout the surrounding streets, and reported back that there were no creatures as far as he could tell, but that was the only positive aspect of their initial escape. Getting Zoro up the cellar steps was a veritable nightmare in and of itself, as he seemed oddly uncoordinated now, and was only managed with the combined efforts of Usopp and Robin's many hands. Once outside on the streets they were able to move a little faster, but were still slowed by their not-quite-swordsman, who, even with Usopp's help, didn't appear to be able to move very fast; he acted especially exhausted, like he hadn't slept in days, and looked like he was ready to pass out at any moment. In fact, several times Nami thought that he even had passed out for a few moments, when his head hung limply and his body sagged and Usopp panted as he more dragged than held up the pirate.

The falling didn't help, either. Nami hadn't expected it at first, but barely a minute into their escape she heard Usopp's sudden yelp of surprise from behind, mingled with Zoro's muffled curse, a heavy thud and the clatter of sword sheathes as the two of them hit the ground. For a moment Nami thought they were being attacked, and spun around frantically, the tip of her Clima-Tact already sparking with electricity. But when the only sight that met her eyes was Zoro and Usopp, sprawled in an untidy mess on the broken cobblestones of the street, she tentatively lowered the weapon.

"You okay?" she asked, as a dozen arms sprouted from the ground and pulled the sniper and not-swordsman to their feet. "What happened?"

"Fine," Usopp gasped faintly. "Thanks, Robin."

"Tripped," Zoro offered curtly, panting slightly.

"Tripped on what, marimo?" Sanji-kun hissed, after turning back to find out why the little column he was leading had stopped moving. "The street here is flat, you lumbering idiot, there's nothing to trip over other than your own damn feet!"

"Shut the hell up, curly-brow," Zoro snarled back.

"Oh?" Sanji-kun retorted. "And are you going to make me—"

"Sanji-kun," Nami interrupted sharply. "Enough." Sanji-kun bit off his words immediately with a clipped apology, and Nami couldn't really blame him. There was a lot riding on his shoulders right now, as the main fighter and the only real protector left in their little group, and he was clearly anxious that Zoro's inability to move very fast was holding them all up. The longer they stayed out in the open, and especially in Remia, the more chances there were for them to be attacked, and Nami resolutely did not want to give those things any more chances than were absolutely necessary.

Sanji-kun took the lead again, and another two minutes passed in near-silence, other than the shuffle of their feet on cobblestones. But once again, a startled yelp and another curse came from behind as Zoro and Usopp tripped—and another after that, and another after that. Robin picked them up effortlessly each time without a word, and although Sanji-kun was gritting his teeth so hard Nami could hear the grinding even from several paces behind him, he remained silent as ordered.

It was Zoro, in the end, who broke the quiet—for an entirely unexpected reason. "Damn it!" he swore in frustration, as he and Usopp hit the streets for a fifth time in as many minutes. "Why the hell do I even have these stupid things anyway if I'm a frikkin' fist-fighter!"

Nami looked back, and was surprised to see Zoro glaring furiously at the three katana on his hip. He awkwardly tried to reach at them with the arm not looped around Usopp's neck, but his hand and fingers held no coordination for the blades whatsoever, and he only managed to scrape at them clumsily.

She blinked in surprise. "Zoro, you can't be tripping on your swords, can you?" she asked, sounding as bewildered as she felt.

As before, his mind seemed to conveniently overlook that Nami had mentioned the swords belonged to him. "Of course I am," he said in exasperation. "Look at how long these stupid things are...it's ridiculous. And why are there three of them? Who the hell uses three swords? I've never seen anything like that in my life."

"It's possible," Sanji-kun said wryly from beside Nami. "There's this jackass who uses this 'Santoryuu' style, that's three swords."

Nami elbowed him in the ribs. He grunted and whined a lovesick apology, but she ignored it, instead addressing Zoro, who was wincing slightly from the mention of his own unrecognized sword style. "You just, y'know, carry them around for us, remember? Since you're the strongest guy on the crew, you do a lot of the heavy lifting."

"One of them is pretty heavy," the not-swordsman observed absently, giving the swords on his hip another baleful look. "Why the hell would we need swords out here, though? Brook's the only swordsman—"

"To cut through things!" Usopp interrupted hastily. "Because there's so many trees, we figured we might have to cut through the underbrush, you know? And we figured we'd bring three, just to be safe, never know how many you'll need—"

"Whatever," Zoro said in exasperation, and Nami noted with disappointment that once again, the absence of his dream was causing his mind to immediately and automatically accept any substitute explanations to fill the void in his head. "They're annoying, and I keep tripping over them 'cause they're so long."

In retrospect, Nami realized, this was probably why Zoro almost always walked with one hand on the swords, to keep the sheathes tilted upwards so they didn't get underfoot. And he did sort of have an unusual gait too, now that she thought about it, which was probably also attributed to carrying three swords on his hip at all times. Of course, without his dream, all that basic training and understanding would have been lost...

"We'll move them," Nami decided. If Zoro remembered any of this later, once they got his dream back, he'd probably try to kill the lot of them for handling his precious swords. But for now the most important thing was staying alive—and if they could prevent the constant tripping episodes and speed up their progress a little, staying alive would be a tiny bit easier. "Just hand them over and we can tie them across your back or something."

Robin hauled the two of them to their feet once again, and Zoro did immediately as bid while Usopp dug through his bag one-handed for a bit of spare rope or cloth to bind the weapons. He pulled the red and black sheathed swords from the haramaki and sword-belt beneath with some difficulty, and Nami was sure it had nothing to do with currently being one handed. Zoro had always been ambidextrous enough to draw his weapons with either hand at a moment's notice; this new awkwardness was entirely due to unfamiliarity, wrong as it looked. But soon the two swords had been dropped in Nami's outstretched, waiting hands, and he moved to hand her the third one, the white one that had always remained most precious to their currently not-a-swordsman.

As soon as his hand touched the sword sheath, he immediately bit back a curse and released it. "Damn," he hissed, "what the hell, is this sword different from the others? It burns."

Nami frowned at him. "You're imagining things," she said immediately. "It's just a sword." She thought, anyway. She didn't really know much about Zoro's swords, other than that one was particularly special to him. "And it's been in the cool cellar all night, there's no way it could've been heated up by accident or anything."

"Uh-huh," he scowled at her. "Then explain this." And he held out his palm, which had the faint red traces of an early burn.

Usopp gaped in surprise, and Nami could hear a sharp intake of breath from behind her, likely from Robin. Nami herself could only stare, unsure what to make of it. The sword had never exhibited any fire-related powers as far as she could tell, and Zoro had never had a problem using it before. She was fairly certain he'd never use a weapon that burned so fiercely in his mouth otherwise—well, that was as lie, as considering it was Zoro she really couldn't be certain. But she was fairly sure she would have at least noticed if he was talking funny after battles from a badly burned tongue, or something.

Though, then again, the white sword had exhibited a few other unusual qualities recently...like being the only weapon in their arsenal that was able to wound the Nightmares at all. Something in her gut told her there was a connection between that and what was happening now...and maybe that Zoro had lost his dream, as well.

She kept her thoughts to herself for the present moment, however. Explaining it to the others would also require mentioning Zoro's dream, and she didn't want him to have another brain-breaking moment in the middle of the streets. So instead she said, "Never mind, I'll just get it," and with many long years of practice as a thief snapped the sword from the belt it was connected to before Zoro could do so much as utter a word. She bound the three swords together with a length of rope that Usopp handed her and then, after a moment's consideration, slung them across her own back with her pack as well. Zoro clearly wouldn't get burned if clothing was in between him and the white sword, or he probably would have complained earlier, but if he or Usopp carried them he stood the chance of touching it again. Probably best to keep him away from his swords for now.

Damn...when Zoro got his dream back and remembered all this, he was going to kill every last one of them.

Still, shifting the swords did seem to help, and when they moved on a few moments later it was at a notably slightly faster pace. Zoro still looked exhausted, and Usopp was still supporting at least half of the not-swordsman's weight—more when Zoro's strange passing-out fits hit—but without the swords to tangle them up there was at least no more tripping and no more wild stumbles. They made it to the outskirts of Remia in record time, and began making their long way down the road as fast as they could.

One hour passed, then another. They were making worse time than they'd originally made while traveling to Remia, and Zoro started passing out for a few minutes at a time more often the longer they moved without stopping. It was frustrating, but even so, they were still making progress. Usopp traded off with Robin for bit after the first hour, allowing her to throw Zoro's arm over her shoulders to support his weight, aided by her many limbs, while Usopp walked for a while with his slingshot out and a gunpowder pellet loaded. They switched again after another forty-five minutes, taking back their original positions, just so that they could keep half-walking, half-dragging their not-swordsman along for as long as possible without taking a rest break.

Through it all Sanji-kun remained at the front, ever alert, constantly looking back and forth at the beautiful red, gold, orange, and yellow-crested trees, peering into there depths to try and spot any potential threats. Nami kept her own eyes open for the creatures as well, her grip on the Clima-Tact white-knuckled as she listened, watched, and waited.

It was too much to hope that they would be able to exit the forest without sight of the creatures, and Nami knew it. Even so, with all their careful attempts at keeping watch, at being ready, they had barely seconds' worth of warning when the actual attack came. A soft rustle to her left could easily have been mistaken for wind, except that she could feel quite clearly that there was no wind at the moment, and the shuffling of grounded leaves might have been animals, if she wasn't reasonably sure by now that there were no normal animals on this island.

"Look out!" Sanji-kun called warningly over his shoulder, at the same time that Nami hefted her Clima-Tact, the end sparking once more. And then, like a pair of converging waves, the creatures suddenly swarmed out of the trees on both sides, more of them than Nami had ever seen before, and she felt her heart sinking at the realization that this fight was going to be impossible to win.

Fun Fact: My sense of direction is nearly as bad as Zoro's is. And I really wish I could say I was just making that up. (The only reason it is 'almost' as opposed to 'the same as' is because I recognize that my sense of direction is terrible). Man do I have stories. They're funny and depressing.

~VelkynKarma