Wow, so I literally spent six hours in the library waiting out a really bad tornado warning... ha. What you can accomplish when you are terrified. (Besides the point)
Anyways, THANK YOU to EVERYONE that posted a review about Kimi's zombie. I will say that all of your comments gave me the best inspiration and without the help, I'd be lost. I will say the winner is a combination of everyone's thoughts but the three reviews that I really based Zombie-Kimi were : Guest-Red, lillylillyfairfax, and Fanboy316!
I hope to ask for more input in the future (* spoiler* one asking for your OC) so make sure to keep reviewing and posting!
Also, this one is extremely long to make up for how short the last one was. Hope you enjoy!
-yesiamweird
"BEAUTIFUL LADY, SWORDSMAN just brought CHEMICALS and SCIENCE and a ton of MEAT!"
"Beautiful lady?"
"Meat?"
"Swordsman?"
"Chemicals and Science?"
Chopper squealed at the responses after Usopp's brilliant way to awaken the four. "These guys are hopeless!"
Kimiko sat up from her position on the floor and rubbed her aching head. "Ow…Why does my head hurt so bad?" She muttered feeling as if someone had hit her. As she rubbed the sore spot, her fingers graced a large bump protruding from the back of her head.
"Franky tried to wake you guys up!" Chopper ran over to the blue-haired woman cuddling in her lap. "I'm so glad to see you!"
Despite the cute and cuddliness of the reindeer, Kimi's eyebrow twitched from his previous comment. "Franky… did?" She cloned a copy of Franky and proceeded to use his own strength to hit the cyborg across the face.
"Oi, how did we end up back in The Sunny Go?" Luffy questioned holding onto his hat. Indeed the crew was back in the kitchen of the Sunny, but why?
"No… It wasn't a dream…" Zoro stood looking horrified down at his feet. "My shadow is gone! This feels weird…"
Kimi also stood with Chopper in her arms. "Moria… she looked down at her feet. Mine's gone too…"
"I know your family very well! Gish gish, and luckily I have the pleasure of taking my revenge on your sister straight on you!"
His words from before rang through her head as she attempted to make sense of the situation. As usual, Luffy interrupted her concentration with a mindless comment. "Hey, this is bad! There's nothing to eat but cheese!" Sanji attempted to reason with the captain. As usual, it didn't work.
Meanwhile, Zoro on the side of Kimi and Chopper seemed to be having an inner battle with himself, "This is dishonorable. I let down my guard…" he smacked his forehead with his palm while grinding his teeth.
Instead of bickering about her shadow, Kimi seemed to focus on the other facts. For example, the biggest one on her mind was Nami. She wasn't present like the rest of the crew was. "Chopper, Usopp? Where is Nami-san?" she questioned innocently but gained two worried looks from the two crewmembers.
In a forceful rage, Sanji held Usopp's collar, "SHE WAS KIDNAPPED?!" he assumed. "WHY DIDN'T YOU CHASE THEM TO THE END OF THE EARTH?"
"Sorry! But we didn't just let her go, things just worked out that way!" Usopp cried.
"Who and where is he!? I'll go right now and get her back!"
"Just wait and listen to me for a second!" Sanji let the marksmen down while cracking his knuckles, "There are two things that we can't afford not to get back!" Usopp declared.
"Food! Nami! And our shadows! That's three things." Luffy declared.
"Oi, one of those things doesn't belong there…" Usopp sweatdropped from the remark.
"Let's focus on Nami and the shadows for now, Luffy." Kimi nodded while a scared Chopper jumped into her arms. She pet his back protectively while nodding for Usopp to continue.
The marksmen explained that the invisible man that had not only wreaked havoc on their ship had also taken a liking into their navigator. They escaped the castle that they were brought to as guests and then ran into a heard of Zombie's. One in particular resembling Sanji-san, since the small penguin zombie refused to attack Nami on account of being a woman.
After the three escaped the zombie's they crawled into a giant stuffed bear own by the woman Perona-sama and watched in horror as Moria cut Luffy's shadow and placed into a giant zombie, the group was caught along with Nami being taken away from the invisible man as his bride.
"He must be quite brave to want to marry Nami…" Luffy thought aloud. "And I'm a gaint!? They could make such a zombie?"
"So that means we know who has Luffy's and Sanji's shadows, right, Usopp?" Zoro questioned with his arms folded over his chest. He seemed agitated, but then again Kimi could understand why since she was in the same situation: No shadow and no idea which zombie did have their counterpart.
"Oh!" Luffy's head perked up, "So if the zombies don't look like the original then I saw Zoro's zombie!"
Kimi sweatdropped, now shewas the only one who didn't know who had her shadow.
"How was he?" The swordsman kept his head in position while only looking at the captain with his eyes.
"Mmmmmmmmm." The rubber boy scratched his chin trying very hard to find the right words to say. "It kinda felt like you. But because he was wearing wooden shoes I knew it wasn't you!"
Kimi shook her head dumbfounded. Just what in the world did that particularly mean? Zoro had the same response. With a shift of his eyes, he looked back at the rest of the crew. "Well whatever… so if we find that geezer, Luffy's giant, Kimi's zombie and Sanji's Denguin and throw salt into their mouths, our shadows will return right?"
Franky nodded, "Yes, exactly. The one that told us about the weakness and to go get you guys and Twin-san was that skeleton."
Luffy gasped while sitting down by Zoro's side, "Ah! You met up with Brook!?"
"Yea we did and I asked him a pretty rude question," Franky nodded while his sentence caused everyone on board the Sunny to raise an eyebrow. "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… he's…he's a man!"
The crew was questionably silent persuading for Franky to continue. The only noise that could be heard was Kimi and Usopp's grinding of salt rocks so they could make pellets for the zombies to purify.
"I…asked him a question…'why do you insist on living' and he responded by saying he had left a nakama behind 50 years ago… that he needed to sail through the grand line and new world and back to his nakama, Laboon. And therefore, he has-"
Franky was going to continue when the startled look in not only Luffy's face but also Usopp, Sanji, and Zoro strained the rest of his speech.
"Laboon…"
"No way…"
"It's him."
"Can't be."
For the other four members of the crew that didn't have any sort of clue to what the group was saying, Robin, Kimi, Franky and Chopper gave each other a very puzzled look.
"Of course, you guys didn't know of it." Usopp nodded to the scientist on his side.
"We know him…that whale… Laboon."
"You know him?!" Franky questioned to Luffy as he nodded.
"Wow…" Usopp mused out. He placed his hand on his cheek while looking forwards at nothing in particular. "To think, they both kept their promise for over 50 years…"
Zoro spoke next. "And that Skeleton is the only one left…"
Franky broke out into a fit of tears- completely ruining the moment, "I LOVE BONEY AND THAT WHALE!" He exclaimed causing Zoro, Sanji and Usopp to scream at him to 'shut up'.
"I'm all pumped now! He's a musician, a talking skeleton, an afro, the 'YoHoHoHo', and he was Laboon's nakama! Even if I'll end up dragging him, he'll join us on this ship and become our nakama! Any complaints, you guys?"
Robin giggled, "If we did, would you change your mind?"
"I want him to join! For Laboon!" Usopp cheered.
"COMPLETE APPOVAL!" Franky continued to cry while Chopper imitated the robot, "ME TOO, YOU BASTARD! I'M NOT SCARED OF SKELETONS EITHER!"
Kimi stood from her position while dusting her hands off, "Despite his pervy attitude, Brook is one fascinating specimen!"
"Before something that simple…" Sanji muttered, "I HAVE TO STOP NAMI-SAN'S WEDDING!" He burst into flames.
Kimi giggled but then noticed a certain green-haired someone walking pass her and off the ledge of the sunny. "Oh, Zoro…where ya going?" Luffy cried.
"I'm landing already." He smirked looking over his shoulder to the others, "The number of shadows we have to get back just went up by one, right?"
Zoro and Franky pushed aside the doors leading up into the entrance of Moria's castle. Now with Usopp and Sanji on Kimi, Franky and Zoro team, the group had to be strategic now that their original plans had changed. "Ladies f-f-first…" Usopp shoved the blue-haired woman forward through the threshold.
With a glare through her glasses, the scientist pouted and waved the men forwards. "Just be sure to not chatter your teeth so loudly, Usopp-san." She giggled in a whisper as the echo of their footsteps traveled down the long brick hall.
With the only female in the group as the lead, the group made their way through the threshold of the room but stopped dead in their tracks in a stunned gasps at the obscurity of it. "Wha?" Kimi blinked looking at the child-like play room. "What kind of room is this?" She observed the toys and over-the-top princess canopy bed surrounding the room.
"This room must belong to someone quite pompous…" Zoro spoke up while taking position next to the female.
"Hada hada hada hada!"
The strange high-pitched laughter forced the group to look over at the lone woman sitting on a purple couch. Above her floated the 'negative' ghosts they had encountered before.
She sat there, with her legs and arms crossed while staring at the group with an obnoxious smirk. By the looks of her outfit, Zoro was correct of his assumptions of the owner of the room being pompous. Not only did she wear a large royal crown on top of her pink head, but also with her bright red boots, striped tights and matching red cape, Kimi would suspect this woman believed she was some type of evil fairy-tale princess.
"Those ghosts…is she the one who's been manipulating them?" Zoro questioned his thought aloud, but really asked it to the smart woman beside him.
The pink-haired woman jumped to a standing position, "Hada hada hada hada hada! It seems that you're already familiar with the fearsomeness of my ghosts."
The group glared at the woman as a thick white bubble floated from each one of her palms, "With the powers given by the Hollow Hollow Fruit, I've become a spirit woman! These ghosts are my clones and they hollow out a person's spirit!"
Kimiko smirked as soon as the woman mentioned the word, 'clones'. With an adjustment of her glasses, she stood to a confident position resting a hand to her hip, "Clones… you say?" She eyed the woman down. "This should be fun…"
This was a change of attitude from the meek and timid scientist, the men began to blink while wondering what sort of twisted plan she was devising in her calculated mind.
The woman glared at Kimi, "This will be fun! Fun for me! Hada hada hada hada hada! This is the end for all of you!" She raised her hands over her head as the ghosts stopped floating randomly and looked to the group.
"To think that the one pulling the strings on those ghosts was the Cutie-chan!" Sanji gasped causing the scientist to scoff. This wasn't the time to be thinking about a cute woman when they were about to fight- she thought.
"We've got no choice but to run!" Franky cried just before Kimi was about to mention to stay still in order for her plan to work. "RUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" He cried causing Kimi to turn and frown at them.
"NO! Don't move!" She declared.
The four men stopped in their tracks. The look in her deep blue eyes commanded them to listen. "But Kimiko…" Usopp tugged on her arm. "We have to-"
"CLONE CLONE, ALLY!" Kimi smirked while ignoring Usopp's grip while raising her own gloved hands into the air to perform her specific triangle movement to use her Devil Fruit power.
In an instant, four sets of each person surrounded the threshold of the door. "Now," each clone of Kimiko smirked towards the woman, "It's a battle I can fight fairly!"
The real Usopp and his clones jumped in the air, "Whooo! Go Kimi!"
"Nice thinking Twin-san!" Franky and his clones raised a thumbs up.
"Now," Kimi and her doubles nodded, "Disperse!" Like fleeing cockroaches after the lights are turned on, the clones and real Strawhats dispersed.
"What?!" The pink-haired woman cried. "That won't stop me! Negative hollow!" The ghosts dispersed, while attempting to pick a body to float into. Just when one of the clones were about to be hit by a ghost, Kimi used her power to make the clones disappear and then reappear right behind the position the ghost had already floated by.
Her plan was working really well, until the real Usopp collided with the real Kimi and thus causing the two of them to lose focus.
"Usopp! I said run! Not into me-!" Kimi pushed the long nosed man off of her but then stopped her complaint mid-sentence. While she was distracted, she didn't have the opportunity to trick the ghosts with a clone of Franky.
As the ghost collided with the clone Franky, instead of depressing the clone's spirit, the depression went straight to the person controlling the clone: Tomoko Kimiko.
Her knees buckled as she gasped loudly from the disheartening feeling surrounding her figure. Just as she became distracted from Franky's clone, two of Sanji's clones were hit along with another clone of each of the group members.
"Oi! Kimiko-swan!" The real Sanji cried out as the woman crumbled onto the floor with a yelp. "Kimi, I-" The cook was about to make a mad dash to the scientist struggling on the brick floor when suddenly a ghost flew through his own chest. "I-I-I am worth nothing…my existence is lower than that of a dead fish…"
"That's right…" The real Franky fell to his knees, "I should be reborn as a stray dog!"
The swordsman had done well to avoid the ghosts up until he watched the scientist fall abruptly to the ground. She was so distraught from the depression that she didn't even have enough time to catch her body with her hands. "Kimi!" He called out distracted from her fall that he didn't even notice the ghost fly through his own chest. "My apologies that I have been treading upon the same earth as everyone else…I am not worthy of-"
"No! Don't say that!" Zoro screamed in his head. "Don't you dare say that out loud. Don't do it!"
"I am not worthy of your affection…" he grumbled so softly that he wasn't sure if it was a whisper or said softly in his head.
Hearing her name being called by both Sanji and Zoro caused the woman to open her eyes out from her head resting on the brick floor. "I am sorry everyone… I will never be a strong pirate. I am no worthy of being anything but calcium carbonate or dubnium… I am worthless…"
Besides the fact Kimiko was verbally abusing her own self, the memories of being bullied in her hometown were flooding her through memory:
"We all know you're a mom killer!"The voices of the children from her school screamed. "You have those special powers from the devil himself! You are pure evil!"
Then the most terrifying voice shrieked through her skull, forcing her into even more of a depression than the children's voices. It was the voice of her older sister:
"You're such an insignificant worm!"
"The only thing you are good for is making school grade volcano projects!"
"I hate her! Do you hear me, Kimiko!? I HATE you!"
"I don't like you! Can't you get that through your thick skull? You KILLED mom! How dare you think I would ever love YOU?!"
Now the scientist hyperventilated with the words of her sister causing her to remember the pain…the pain…her hands…
"I'm going to teach you a lesson here and now dear sister… a lesson you will never forget…"
"Salt star!" Usopp stood among the lying Strawhat pirates. After the zombies that were instructed to attack and capture the pirates were purified from their bodies, the marksmen glared at the spirit woman. "I won't let you lay a hand on my crew!"
"Damn, wasn't he hit?" The pink-haired woman furiously argued to herself. "I'll make sure to hit you this time." She stretched her hand outwards with a smirk as a ghost floated from out of her palm and through the chest of the man. Instead of falling to the floor like the others, Usopp continued to stand tall. "Why? Why aren't you on your knees?! The ghost hit you!" The woman cried.
"It's no trick." Usopp declared while the men on the ground struggled with themselves to stand. "I'M JUST NEGATIVE ALREADY!"
The woman fell to the floor struggling to accept the fact that Usopp was a negative person and her ghosts wouldn't work on him. With her distraction, the marksmen turned to the others. "Hurry you guys! Snap out of it! We have to hurry and rescue Nami and Brook!"
At the mention of their nakama's names, the group sat up. All except for the one lone woman struggling with inner demons inside her head.
"You will listen to me and do exactly as I say!" Her sister's voice continued. The pain on the tops of her hands burned with every memory of her sister. "You will ALWAYS listen to me, because YOU are the reason why I am so miserable!"
Usopp continued to speak to the men, "You're strong powers won't work against this woman! So go on ahead and I'll take her on!"
"Wha- what is this reliable feeling?" Sanji gasped.
"It didn't affect him?" Zoro gasped as well.
Usopp nodded. His pretend-to-be-pirate Captain attitude in full swing, "Just defeat the surrounding zombies. I cannot defeat those!"
The blonde cook nodded to both Usopp and the other men and then to the female- "Oi! Where's Kimi-swan!?" He questioned looking around the room for the woman.
Franky and Zoro looked as well for their scientist until eventually catching sight of her behind Franky. From the distressed look swarming her pretty face, it seemed that she wasn't going to recover from the ghosts as well as they faired.
"Oi! Twin-san!" Franky stood and ran to her worried beyond belief. Unknowing to the other men, Franky believed that Kimiko was the perfect little sister. More than his Franky Family or Kiwi and Mozu back home on Water 7. Not only did she have the same color hair as he, but the way they bonded over his knowledge of experimenting and building new things brought the two closer together during the past few weeks he had been on board the Sunny Go and it was refreshing to see a woman, like Kimiko, genuinely appreciate him.
As the half-cyborg bent down to pat the suffering woman on the back, he noticed her thick breaths. They were too fast to be normal from running, and too short to be able to stabilize enough oxygen in her lungs.
"Her panic attacks…" Zoro muffled out above the cyborg causing Franky to raise an eyebrow at his statement. "She told me about them a while ago." He shrugged.
"Oi! Kimiko-swan!" Sanji panicked while making sure the zombies surrounding the group didn't get too close to the woman.
"Franky," Zoro pulled out one of his swords while defending a zombie from the two of them. "Pick her up. There's no time."
The cyborg nodded and turned to look down at the woman. With a soft tug on her shoulder, he figured he could at least wake her from the attack gracefully. Unfortunately, his 'nimble' thought-process actually caused the woman to yell in a panicked shock.
"If it wasn't for your brain, I would kill you here and now. Right in front of them! Those Marines mean nothing to me! Do you hear? I didn't get this title because I was an angel of mercy! I am the reason why so many pirates are dead now! I am the genius the World Government praises! Me! ME!"
The voice of her sister continued to shriek.
"I am the law! And I wouldn't hesitate to-"
"Twin-san!"
The unaware hand on her shoulder caused the frightened woman to believe that her terrible sister was striking on her, forcing Franky's hand to pull away as if he had hurt her from his light touch.
"Kimi!"
"Kimiko-swan!"
Those warm blue eyes looked up towards Franky now with a paled tint within. What she was suffering from was more than he could even think, but with the enclosing zombies in the room, he couldn't waste a minute to question her. "I'm sorry Twin-san!" He pulled her hips into his giant hands and then pulled her overtop of his shoulder so that her head faced the front. "Guys, let's go!" Franky nodded to the cook and swordsman while the scientist continued to hyperventilate.
"Oi Franky!" Zoro scoffed as they ran, "You'd better not shake her up as much as she is!"
"Baka!" Franky frowned, "Why do you think I would hurt Twin-san!?"
The swordsman only glared while continuing to slash the zombies out of the way.
When they made their way outside of the castle onto a balcony, Franky proceeded to place the girl against the wall so she could take a moment to recollect herself.
"Oh, Kimi-swan? Do you need your prince to-"
"Shut up!" Zoro yelled at the blonde cook. He knew that the woman needed to fix her situation on her own. There was nothing really they could physically do to help her.
Zoro and Sanji knelt by her side while Franky stood overtop watching out for anything to strike while the group was venerable.
"You're worthless…"
The words wouldn't fade from her memory.
"I hate you!"
"S-stopp…" Kimi moaned placing her head in between her knees as her back rested against the brick wall. "I-I-I…"
"No one will ever love you. You will never find another person in this entire world that won't ridicule at your betrayal!"
"No…I-I-I have…I-"
Concerned by the tone of voice the scientist was mumbling in, Zoro placed a light hand on her forearm. The unsolicited touching caused the woman to flinch once again forcing her to look in the direction of her attacker.
She mumbled incoherent words through her blurry vision. This attack was affecting more than just her breathing; now the rest of her senses where on the edge. "I…I-I…ah…" She winced feeling the lightheaded affect while placing her neck on the cold brick wall behind.
"Remember what you told me?" He nodded looking to both Sanji and Kimi worried. "You're meditation, relax your mind!"
The woman nodded with her eyes closed. "Re-re-relax…" She heaved.
Sanji gave a look to the swordsman that almost read, why-do-you-know-that? But from the gradual slow of the scientist breathing, he wasn't about to complain. "Oi, Kimi-swan. Are you feeling better from what shitty marimo said?"
"What the- oi!" Zoro attempted to pounce on the cook but was stopped by a giant hand on his cheek. He looked up at the smirking face of Franky.
"Twin-san, you're breathing is better." He concluded in an attempt to get her to really concentrate on her breath. In order to move forwards, her lungs needed to be a full capacity.
The woman nodded and the tension swarming her hands melted into a loosened into a comfortable placement in her lap. The voice of her sister in her mind was fading and instead being replaced by her nakama's comical argument taking place right in front of her.
"Oi, curly eyebrow! None of your business!"
"It is too my business! I am the prince rescuing princess Kimi!"
"Yea, the prince of dumbass kingdom!"
"You are the shittiest marimo in the world!"
"And you are dumb, crap cook!"
Kimi's frown switched positions to a slight grin, and then grew into a full on smile. "You guys?" The two stopped arguing and forced their heads to look down at the smiling, warm blue-eyed scientist. "Thanks." She responded in a soft murmur. "I feel a lot better now, thanks to you all."
A wave of relief washed over the men, "Oh beautiful Kimi-swan! I am so happy I could rescue you! It pains me to see a woman so beautiful in so much pain and agony!"
Placing her gloved hands on the ground, Kimi pressed all of her weight onto her back while sliding up the brick wall. "Speaking of rescue-" The scientist stood fully while looking to the cook with a heart in his one visible eye. "Nami-san is still in need of rescuing. And Brook-"
With one mention of Nami, the cook began to spark into a pile of flames. "I will continue on to save Nami-swan now that you are better Kimi-chan!"
She nodded with an amused smile while the cook ran off ahead. Zoro crossed his arms while watching the man leave. "Idiot crap cook." He muttered and turned his head to look back at Kimi. Despite the smile on her lips, there still seemed to be a pain in her face. The warm tint of sky-blue had returned to her eyes, but her pupils were still small as if she was still frightened by whatever forced her into the attack. "Kimi?" He questioned looking deep into her pupils. He wanted to know what exactly caused her to go into that much shock, since it was obviously a more terrifying mental experience than the ghost woman's devil fruit ability. "Are you okay?"
The scientist looked to Zoro with a confused expression. "He cares?" She thought remembering her sister's threats. "Zoro, another human being, actually cares about me…"The woman nodded both to herself and the green-haired man. "There are people that care about me…my sister only told me lies and I shouldn't let that try to ruin my life."
"We need to hurry! We have to save Brook." Franky looked to the two and then turned to look at the bell tower where Brook was fighting. "But we have to cross this forest on the bridge. Why is there a forest on a bridge anyways?"
Zoro rolled his eyes. "Who knows."
"Zoro?" Kimi's voice pulled the two men to look back at her. She had meant for his name to be said mentally and not out loud, so a timid blush spread across her cheeks as both he and Franky looked to her. "Uh, never mind…" She smiled and pushed herself off the wall.
As she did, a sharp pain in her right knee threatened to force the woman back to the floor. Lucky for her, Zoro was quick to react and pulled her safely into his strong arm and by his side.
Zoro wanted to say something to her. He wanted to tell her to watch out. Then he wanted to say that he'd offer to carry her to the tower. And then he wanted to tell her that despite the sweat and dirt on her face, she looked beautiful…"Wait. What the hell am I saying? We have to fight. No time for gushy crap cook comments."Zoro shook while closing his eyes and releasing his grip on her tiny waist.
But his thoughts about the scientist's beauty raced as his coarse calloused hands made contact with the soft skin on her stomach. With Nami always giving the modest scientist complaints of her attire forced Kimi to reveal her torso in the white cropped shirt. As much as he cursed as his hand gracing back onto her waist again, he couldn't help but enjoy the feathery-soft feel on his skilled and worn fingertips.
"Oi, oi! I'm going on ahead." Franky shook his hands while trying not to look at the couple's intimate moment. He knew they weren't a declared 'couple' despite their comfortableness with one another, but from the looks of how cozy the two looked right now made him recognize their fondness for one another. It was weird, he thought, how much they were mysteriously together on the ship. Neither of them would actually speak to one another, Kimi would silently be sitting and watching the swordsman as he worked out as if she was observing him for a particular reason. Then whenever she was working on her experiments with either he or long-nose, Zoro secretively slept close by. Not to mention the appalled expression Zoro had when that Puzzle guy kissed Kimi on the deck last week.
It was almost like the two kept a constant watch on the other while going about their daily ways. Shaking his head, Franky smiled and continued to walk towards the tower without the two.
"I'm sorry." Kimi couldn't hide her blush. The two wouldn't move from one another, and almost instinctively she buried her forehead onto his warm shoulder. The smell of both iron and male-musk swarmed her head while diminishing all thoughts of her evil sister. "Just what I needed." She murmured.
"Wha?" Zoro gasped feeling her arms press on his chest to push her body away from his own.
She looked back up at him through her glasses with a giggle, "Sorry, Zoro-san… I guess I needed to regulate."
"Oi." He glared. "I told you, it's just Zoro."
His comment caused the woman to blink. After realizing her mistake she nodded with a smile. "That's right, Zoro, thank you. We'd better hurry to catch up with Franky-san though…" With a nod the two continued to chase after the cyborg.
"Well finally! I thought you two would-" Franky went to tease the two when suddenly a black object landed by his feet and distracting him from his taunting. "Hm?"
He bent down to reach for the object when a frightened gasp left Kimiko's mouth. "Franky! Don't touch it! It's-"
She was too late. In the middle of her warning the small bomb exploded, throwing the three Strawhats in separate directions. Although it wasn't enough to cause serious damage to the cyborg, the two humans were no exception.
Kimi landed on her right side with her right arm extended fully and supporting her aching head. "Ow…" She groaned as a trickle of blood flooded from a fresh cut on her forehead. Through the settling dust, she could see Zoro sit up from his position on his back while Franky stood up to look out for their attacker.
"You see anything Franky?" Zoro stood while checking across to the struggling woman as she slowly shifted the weight of her body from her side and onto her back. His protective smile over her resting figure diminished as a shadowed figure in the the trees caught his trained eyes.
His right hand gripped the handle of his katana while maintaining complete attention to the creature lurking in the shadows. "Franky, Kimi, let's-" He began to say until the figure shifted from the forest and ran towards the group at an unbelievable speed towards him.
Lucky for Zoro, his reflexes saved his neck from being chopped off of his body. As the sound of slashing metal rang through the bridge, Zoro focused on the zombie attempting to force his katana out of the way.
The zombie-woman smirked with a slight grunt and then used all of her weight to push herself off of the swordsman's katana. Zoro's only thought was to examine this female zombie quickly before she attacked again.
Standing at the same height as Franky and like the other zombies, this one had been pieced together with different sections of body parts. Her overall tone of skin color was an obscured blue/green shade, and along her skin ran cuts of all shapes and sizes. One significant one was stationed across her right cheek leading up to her forehead. Although it wasn't deep enough to be stitched back or to cause death in her past, it certainly looked intimidating. Her hair was a discolored brownish color and it hung from her head messily all the way to her hips.
What was different from this zombie than the ones Zoro and the others had faced earlier today was the feminine features predominate by the source of attire she had on… or rather, what little she had of it.
A roll of bandages attempted to cover her breasts, but the tattered look of the wrapping seemed to almost oxidize with every step she took. Around her waist hung a deep pink skirt that seemed to be ripped in half. It exposed the full of her right leg and barely covered her hip while the left side covered her leg down to the bottom of her knee. Random rips and tears covered the rest of the garment while an overlaying dingy yellow draping hung over her skirt. She wore no shoes and the only items in her possession seemed to be the ones in her hands, two medium sized daggers. The both were covered with blood stains.
And like all of the zombie's the group encountered, a rather large number was imprinted on her exposed right leg: 4444.
"The muriatic acid didn't mix fully…" The large zombie muttered while twirling her dagger in her left hand. "If it did, then you'd all be dead and Master would be pleased with your dead bodies in a heap of organic matter, mmmmhm science!"
"Uh, Kimiko…" Zoro growled while keeping constant eye contact on the enemy. "I think we've encountered you're shadow."
Kimi sat up from her spot on the ground and gasped horrified at the zombie in their presence. "What the- why aren't you wearing any clothes!?" She pointed a finger at the zombie.
The zombie huffed, "I only wish to find a hair-tie and bobby pins… I feel the need to place my hair into a bun… science!"
Franky nodded with a confident face, "Yup. That's twin-san alright."
The scientist rolled her eyes at her zombie's comment and then stood onto her shaky feet. "Be quiet Franky." She shoved the comment out of the air and then pointed to her opposite, "Uhhh, zombie, me! Why are you following Moria and Hogback's orders? You should be smart enough to know his ways of science are frowned upon!"
Zombie-Kimi snarled at her double, "I only wish to please Master Moria. After all, he is a Shichibukai and I always respect the Shichibukai because-"
Kimiko panicked at the thought her shadow would give away her secret to Zoro and Franky. Without another thought, Kimi cloned herself to kick the zombie's back, but Zombie-Kimi was quick to fight back.
With a twist backwards, Zombie-Kimi avoided the attack and struck the clone with a devastating blow. But being quick to think on her toes, Kimi cloned three other copies of herself and forced them to attack Zombie-Kimi as she struck the first clone.
With one swipe of her blades, Zombie-Kimi rid the field of the clones. Straightening herself to a standing position, Zombie-Kimi threatened Kimiko evilly. "I am a warrior of the Amazon Lilly and even though I was killed in The Battle Ring, I will prove myself a worthy scientist and the world will fear the Tomoko name, science!"
Kimi, Franky, and Zoro sweatdropped. It was obvious Zombie-Kimi was mixing up her bodies past with her spirits ambition. "I will be the world's most respected scientist! Even better than Dr. Vegapunk among the Marines and World Government, science!"
Kimi shook her head and looked to Franky and Zoro. "Guys, I'll take care of my shadow…"
Zoro shook his head to her and then carefully made sure not to lose sight of the swift amazon zombie. "No way. She's too fast and-"
"And I can beat her." Kimiko added sternly.
The ambition in her eyes burned with passion as the scientist took a step forwards, meanwhile, Zombie-Kimi snickered, "You think you can defeat me, puny woman?...science!"
Kimiko was about to open her mouth to respond when suddenly Zombie-Kimi disappeared into thin air. "Where-?" Kimi gasped confused by the quickness of her disappearance.
"OI! KIMIKO!" Zoro shouted catching a glance at Zombie-Kimi right behind the real Kimi with her two daggers raised in each hand. In the blink of an eye, Zombie-Kimi slashed through the scientist bare stomach tearing her body into half. "NO!" Zoro dropped his jaw.
She was dead, sliced in half in one instant.
Kimiko was gone without a single evidence of defeat. Zoro ran towards the zombie with his two swords in each hand threating to attack the creature when his collar choked his neck, forcing him backwards. Turning his head over his shoulder caused the swordsman to blink multiple times.
"I told you," Kimiko smirked, "I can take her. Go, now!"
The swordsman nodded, despite his sub-consciousness threatening him to allow the weakened woman to fight. He personally witness her defeat among the CP9 battle and after her panic-attack by those ghosts, she was in no condition to fend for herself.
Then he saw the spark firing from her eyes behind her glasses. With a stern nod, Zoro ran alongside the cyborg towards the castle.
Zombie-Kimi looked away from her counterpart with a glare as the men ran. "You will not run from me, science!" Raising her daggers, she threatened to hurl the objects towards each man, until a brick wall forced Zombie-Kimi backwards.
Kimiko smirked at how perfect her plan functioned. By creating the wall and surrounding the two within it, Zoro and Franky were free to run away to find their newest skeleton crewmember. "Now," She tightened her loosened blue hair in its usual bun. "Let's fight, science on science."
Zombie-Kimi roared. The irritation seemed to swarm in her eyes. "You will not defeat me, science!" She commented and then reached into the bandages containing her breasts.
Another small bomb landed by Kimiko's feet and as it exploded around the woman, Zombie-Kimi was shocked to see the real Kimiko right next to her.
"Nice try. But you're too slow!" The scientist grinned while using another clone to distract the zombie as she watched in the shadows of the wall. Zombie-Kimi and the clone fought, and just as the clone was sliced in half another replaced her.
"You are nothing but a coward! Come and face me like a real woman, Tomoko Kimiko, science!"
Kimi shook her head in the shadows. Not only did she not have the strength or stamina to fight but she did not possess the correct skill to fight this amazon warrior zombie of herself.
Her brain used to be able to compile multiple equations and predictions towards fighting and helping her crewmembers in a fight. But at the current moment, Kimiko's mind was preoccupied with the burning sensation stabbing inside her right lung.
No matter how many times she attempted to get the sufficient amount of oxygen, a clone would be defeated causing another mental stab in her brain and forcing her breathing on hold while she cloned and controlled a new copy. This technique was getting her nowhere, she thought, but at least it was buying Zoro and Franky enough time so Zombie-Kimi wouldn't attack.
"I see you, science!" Zombie-Kimi called from behind Kimiko forcing the woman to roll out of harm's way just before annihilation. She flipped back onto her feet as she skidded against the dirt. Zombie-Kimi only stood from her crouched position from the attack. "You are annoying, science."
"So are you!" Kimi pointed a finger. "Why do you keep saying 'science' after everything you say!?"
Zombie-Kimi grinned evilly, "Because… I am only a woman of science… nothing more, and nothing less… that is why I will keep repeating it, because that is all we are good for…science."
Kimiko widened her eyes. "Just what the hell is she saying?!" She thought while using their pause to understand Moria's control on her shadow. "Why are you only good for science, Zombie-Kimi? We can do so much more…I can do so much more." It almost seemed like the little voice Kimi often ignored in her own head was talking now to her shadowed body.
"No you can't. We are only alive to serve her…sister… without sister; we are worth nothing, science."
This comment took the woman by complete surprise before Kimi could respond, the zombie ran at full force towards her. With a twist and flip to the side she avoided the attack with a huff. Her energy was drained- much more than it should be – she thought to herself.
It was then that the brick wall caught a glance of Kimi's eye. She mistakenly forgot about her control on the unnecessary wall and thus released her control of it while regaining more energy from the liberation.
Zombie-Kimi chuckled as the wall faded from sight, "Now I can move about freely, science." She smirked evilly at the woman.
The two stared one another down for a spilt-second, and in the next instant, Zombie-Kimi hurled herself towards the scientist. With another twist, Kimiko avoided the attack and then cloned a copy of Franky. "Weapons left!" The clone yelled and proceeded in Franky's typical attack.
Zombie-Kimi avoided the attack as well, but with the floor underneath her bare feet causing the zombie off-balance gave the struggling scientist a moment to attack. Cloning herself four times, each of the clones took the opportunity to distract Zombie-Kimi in a rage of attacks.
The zombie fought off each of the clones easily, but that was a part of her plan. Kimiko smiled as Zombie-Kimi was unaware of the clone Sanji impending towards her with his kicking ability at full force.
"Direct hit!" Kimi smirked as the clone fell to the ground. "Now, for a little experiment…"
After the battle of Enis Lobby, Luffy had questioned Kimiko during their period of rest and recuperation. During that time he wondered if Kimi could clone herself to be another person.
She answered reluctantly, 'no' but ever since that day she was working up the courage to try this ability on an enemy. Pushing all of her thoughts away on the clone of Sanji, Kimi raised her arms outwards into their triangle stance. "Clone Clone, disguise!" She called out thinking of the one person whom she wanted to test this ability on the most. It was the person she constantly studied and tested in her notes while watching him workout: Roronoa Zoro.
Zombie-Kimi groaned for a moment and then looked to her counterpart… or rather gasped as she watched the woman take the shape of a man, the same man that just escaped a few minutes ago. "What? Is this even possible, science?!"
Zoro-Kimi smirked, "Of course it is." She held in her hands one of his swords since using all three would be impossible at the moment. Using the quick strength of the swordsman, Zoro-Kimi slashed the cloned white sword of his at Zombie-Kimi.
Of course, the former amazon warrior was quick enough to jump out of the way, but retaliated swinging both of her own daggers at Zoro-Kimi. "I am stronger than you, science!" She screamed as the two made equal contact with their weapons. An echo of "shiiiiiiiinnnng" sounded as the blades met.
"I beg to differ." Kimiko's voice came out of the man's body as Zoro-Kimi pushed out of their equal force and slashed the sword towards the zombie.
Once again, Zombie-Kimi avoided the escape by ducking to the side. With a loud and frustrated growl, the zombie dug her daggers into the dirt and reached once more into her covered chest for another bomb.
"Not so fast!" Zoro-Kimi yelled taking a very closely observed stance. "One-sword style… drawing technique, Lion's song!" Without even realizing what she was doing, the sword in her hand was drawn back into the scabbard. "Heh," She smirked feeling a sense of accomplishment as the sword clicked back into protection.
Zombie-Kimi on the other hand, fell to her knees as her chest and stomach was slashed in one simple strike. Although, it was not enough to kill the zombie, it temporarily stunned the fearless amazon, scientist-shadowed, corpse.
Feeling the burning deep in her lungs sting with every gasp of breath, Kimiko lost the control on her cloning technique of disguise. Before she felt like she was about to pass out, the quick-thinking scientist cloned herself once again right in front of the shocked zombie. "Goodnight." The clone smirked placing a salt pellet into her mouth.
Zombie-Kimi gulped the item and screamed as a black blob wiggled its way from out of her teeth and into the air. As Kimi fell to the dirt on her knees writhing in agony from both her distressed body and weakened mind, a black shadow facing her on the dirt distracted her for the moment.
"M-My- sh-shadow…" Her blood-stained lips formed into a slight and strained smile. "It's good… t-to have y-you back." She waved a hand with her right hand watching as the black figure did the same as her.
But the strength of her shadow returning could not settle the pain writing around the bottom of her lungs. The sensation of vertigo in her brain was allowing her to forget the safety of Zoro and Franky fighting to save Brook.
No, instead, her body heaved in a shaky pitiful motion as she groaned from the excruciation swarming her body. With one convulsed gag, the part of her lungs and stomach seemed to meet forcing Kimiko to hurl what little was inside of her gut onto the ground.
Quickly after the first, she threw up again not even bothering to tell herself to stop. With one last throaty hurl, Kimi pushed herself off of her knees flopping onto her back grimly. "Shit." She muttered the curse while the pungent taste of stomach lining consumed both her mouth and nose. Besides the nasty bodily fluid, she fought with her brain to keep her eyes open. After such an intense battle, she knew better than to allow herself to sleep.
"One breath in through her nose.
Another out from her mouth.
In through the nose.
Out from the mouth."
She forced her body to comply to her racing mind and before long, the unsettling feeling in her lungs diminished to a slight pinch. She would wait here for a little while longer – she thought silently as her breath normed. After all, Zoro and Franky could take care of themselves no problem.
At least, that's what she would tell herself…
Finally feeling well enough to sit, the struggling scientist rolled onto her side while her sore and fragile arms supported the weight of her chest.
BA BOOOOOOOOM!
With a glance towards the castle, Kimiko could only imagine one person with enough fire to slice the top of the tower down to where she was. "Zoro…" She muttered and looked to the pile of building scraps.
Sure enough, the gleam of a blade caught her eye. Kimiko was too tired to deal with his fight and instead of rushing towards the tower so she simply continued to breathe while sitting in a crossed-legged position. "Never… realized… how strong… he really… is." She muttered while untying her very messy hair style.
The bun she forced back into position seemed to be weak but sufficient for the moment. If there was one thing she hated, it was her hair getting in the way. That's why she always wore her thick, long, wavy length hair it in a bun. The untamed hair made a mess when she was in the lab and now during fights as she became accustom to the pirate lifestyle.
Instead of scurrying towards the tower, she continued to take her time to adjust her gloves around her wrists. More or less, she was wasting time to allow her body to recuperate after puking and her fight.
Looking down at the thick leather gloves made Kimiko grimace, but no matter how many times she wanted to take the damn sweaty ornaments off, she couldn't allow the crew know what was behind them.
The pain. The regret… her hands…
Everything from her past was beginning to invade her cranium once again. In a heated moment, Kimiko threw her gloved hands behind her back. She had just gotten those horrible thoughts of her past out of her mind before the fight with Zombie-Kimi and she didn't need those words of discouragement to flood back into her vulnerability.
"Okay, I should go now…" Standing up as quickly as her trembling body would allow was proving to be difficult. The numbness in her legs- the feeling of wiggling jell-o, and the black spots threatening to cloud her vision brought one thought to her mind:
She needed to be stronger.
In order to survive out with Luffy's pirate crew, the feeble scientist would seriously need to adjust her stamina. How? She wasn't quite sure. Come hell or high water, the scientist would figure out a plan but for the moment, she was more concerned with the booming noise and rumble from underneath the forest bridge.
The rumbling noise almost seemed to be reminiscent of footsteps … The scientist turned her head to the edge of the wall and then ran on top of the ledge to get a better look at the source of noise.
There was nothing… at least nothing out of the ordinary on this crazy pirate ship island filled with graveyards. She was about to turn her head back towards the tower to meet back up with the others when a freakishly large red hand punched through the castle wall.
She let out a rather loud scream as the ground rumbled forcing her to balance herself before falling off the ledge. "Is-is that…Luffy's Zombie?!" Her eyes widened remembering the warning Usopp and Chopper gave the crew before they left the ship.
"What is thattttttt~?!" A high pitched squeal came from the top of the tower. Squinting her eyes, Kimi caught the two figures of the tallest members of their crew, Franky and newly-recruited Brook. Only seeing the two made her worry about the safety of the swordsman, until she noticed his figure stand from a ledge lower than the other two.
"Look, there's Twin-san!" Franky pointed from the distance, "And in the rubble, swirly cook just came out."
This comment from Franky prompted the scientist to turn back towards Luffy's colossal zombie while searching to find the blonde hair of the cook. Indeed, Sanji stumbled from out of the debris.
"Lo-Lo-Look on his arm!" The cry of Usopp sounded from slightly below the scientist. He, Robin and Chopper faced the same direction as she on another bridge that separated the crew from one another entirely. "There's no doubt…it's our wanted posters! That means. His aim… h-his aim is our complete elimination!"
The giant zombie took two more pounding steps, then bellowed with his fists raised, "COME OUT, STRAW HAT CREW!"
Kimi struggled to find any sort of confidence in their situation… they were completely screwed by her standards. The one she was most worried about was the cook down by the zombie's large feet.
"Oi!" Zoro's voice called from the tower, "Usopp is that you? Kimi, did you beat your zombie?"
The marksmen hollered back to Zoro but Kimi left her action of standing still to speak for her. She was alive and standing alone, so he would get the hint eventually. Instead, the blue-haired woman took the time to analyze the current situation and how to avoid this fate at all costs.
"Just what the hell do you think you are doing, Luffy?" Sanji spat at the zombie.
The size of the monster was not the only intimidating the crew, but also the way he looked proved to not mess with this monster. Skulls adorned his fat waist, while his ribs poked from out of one side. One portion of his skin was different from the red, and with those massive fangs protruding out from his lips explained the intimidating attitude Moria had towards their crew.
"Luffy?" The zombie growled. "No. He's my enemy… my name is Oz… pleased ta meet ya!"
"Shut up… what do you mean 'pleased to meet you?' Idiot…" Sanji sneered after lighting a cigarette.
Oz snarled at the cook and then glanced to his arm with the wanted posters, "Oh. It's a spitting image of Black Leg Sanji."
"WHERE THE HELL DOES IT LOOK THE SAME?!" The blonde screamed back at Oz. Everyone knew that hand-drawn poster looked nothing like him, but still it infuriated the cook to no end that the world knew him with this awful face.
"'Where?' Everywhere…" Oz mumbled.
"HOW THE HELL-"
"Besides you're one of the pirates…and I'll kick your ass." Oz threw his arms into the air and proceeded to punch the ground in the hopes of attacking Sanji. Luckily, the cook was swift on his feet and avoided every single blow. Except one.
With as much power as his shadow's owner, Oz swiftly attacked the cook with the same speed of their dear captain. Before Sanji had fallen from his attack towards the rubble mess of a floor, Oz caught him in his large hand.
"SANJI!" Kimi yelled from her standing spot on the ledge. Using all of her strength left within the deepest part of her mind, Kimiko held her arms out in front of her body screaming, "Clone Clone, GIANT!"
Oz released his hand containing Sanji, and just before the cook fell to his bitter death a soft cushion captured him. "Oi, what-?" He was about to yell out when his sight caught a glance of the overly grown woman. "OIIIIII KIMIKO-SWANNNNNNN!"
The giant clone of Kimi frowned and then turned her head towards the zombie. "Pick on someone your own size!" She ridiculed while her hand placed Sanji carefully back to the ground.
"Whaaaaa?" Franky gasped looking to the swordsman, "Since when can she become a giant?"
He only shrugged his shoulders, "'Till now, apparently." Looking down at the real Kimiko, Zoro noticed the pain engulfing her face. If she could last long enough to beat Oz, then this fight would be over in an instant.
Shocked from the power of the devil fruit user, Oz's one singular eye twinkled. "That is so cool." His voice mocked that of their Strawhat captain. "But…" He looked to his hand with the posters and then to the smaller Kimiko standing on the ledge of the bridge, "I have to kill you. Multiplying Beauty, Tomoko Kimiko!"
The giant clone of Kimi wasn't as big or monstrous as Oz, but she certainly held her own. Dipping to the side quickly, she punched his side. With Luffy's speed, however, Oz avoided the attack. "Gomu gomu no…"
"He can stretch!?" The real Kimi panicked as well as her giant clone.
"Bazooka!" Oz didn't stretch his arm, but the force of the punch knocked Giant-Clone-Kimi into the broken bits of castle left standing. The force of the punch not only caused the giant to fade, but also strucke the mental capacity of Kimi's brain.
"Gahhhhh, Kimi!"
"Kimiko!"
"Kimi-swan! Are you okay?"
"No! Twin-san!"
The voices of her crew members called as she forced herself to sit up despite almost falling off the ledge of the bridge.
"I've got you now!" Oz smiled catching his one eye towards Kimi. "Gomu Gomu nooooo, pistol!"
"No!" Kimi gasped trying her best to stand on two feet. As soon as she caught her balance, the floor gave away from Oz's punch. "Shit!" Was the only thought Kimiko could process as she fell with the crumbling wall.
It wasn't until her back collided with the gravel below did she loose complete consciousness.