A/N: And here it is! The last installment of the Defying Gravity arc! I hope it was good. When I first got to this part in the story, I seriously considered leaving what happened to the Defying Gravity bounty hunters open to interpretation, but decided against it because of future plot points. A bit of a warning: this chapter does get a tad bit gruesome.


Chapter 18: Defying Gravity Finale: Sinister Song of the Siren

**Countdown: Two Months, 19 days left**

The group stared in the direction of the voice, and a cold chill ran down Leyla's spine once again. There was a strange-looking girl of at least 16 or 17 years of age, standing on the shore of the island. Other than the fact that she was stark naked, her overall appearance was unnatural: her thick hair was permed and blonde, with shimmering colors of green and blue highlights, and was long enough that it covered her bared breasts; her face was unnaturally round, with large, too-big-for-her-face childish eyes that were a shade of blue which seemed to reflect the colors of the ocean itself, with thick eyelashes. She had patches of bluish-gold scales along her shoulders, arms, and hips, a small patch of scales conveniently covered her lower front, although her rear end was bared for all to see. She had fins along her forearms, and calves, with long flowing fins that acted almost as a skirt, except they were see-through in a strange, bluish-green color that also shimmered in a golden tint if the light hit them just right. Her skin was a strange, grayish-peach color, and a sickly-sweet fishy smell permeated from her person. She smiled a smile that seemed too big for her face. Her arms and legs were too long for her too-thin body. She waved at the crowd before her, revealing that she had four-fingered hands with webbing between the fingers.

Something about her was unsettling. She just did not look natural. No Fishwoman any of them had ever seen looked anything like her. Hell, even the strangest looking Fish or Merperson that any of them had ever seen looked more natural than she did.

"Hello, hello," she said in a voice that seemed as if she were singing her words.

"Hi…" Dorin spoke up in a voice like that of a transfixed whisper.

"As I've said," the girl continued in her unnatural lilting voice, "the Straw Hats and their friends belong to mmmeee!"

She stamped her foot like that of a child having a tantrum, and pouted.

"Well, we were only discussing what we were going to do next!" Stot called out.

The girl made a face at Stot's drooling and snotty features. "You're quite, quite ugly, you know? Not cute at all, no, no."

"Ah! I don't meet your standards!" Stot said, looking and sounding ashamed.

"Stot, why are you telling her our plans?!" Leyla demanded angrily.

"Well… she's so beautiful…" Stot said, not taking his eyes off of the girl.

"Oh, I am, I am!"

"I suggest you leave!" Leyla started, but she stopped when the girl stood a few feet away from her. Leyla was ignored. The girl stood before Dorin, who looked up at her with a dumb, awestruck expression on his face. "You're quite ugly too," she informed him, but his reaction was simply, "Augh! I don't measure up! You're quite right; I'm not good enough for your beauty!"

Leyla, Ona, and the Ripple-girl each exchanged curious expressions, along with the other women who were in the group. Just what was going on?

It was then a terrifying thing happened, the girl reached out to Dorin, sort of like she was going to kiss him, and that was when a dark shadow passed over her face. Her eyes glowed an eerie light blue, her face stretched out to reveal sharp fangs, and something seemed to be sucked out of Dorin, and he collapsed to the ground in a heap, his skin a pale, sickly gray and numerous oceanic growths appeared all over his skin, and a wide grin was spread across his face.

"Oh my…" Ona started. "He's dead… he's just dead!"

Leyla looked over all of the men. All of them, every single one of them, including Krux, stared at the girl with the same, dumb, awestruck expression. The women began to panic, but the girl laughed, and sang, "Boys, boys, please restrain these women! They are more beautiful than me, and I don't, don't like that! No, no, not at all!"

The men complied without question, and Anmut tied the women up very quickly. The Ripple-girl managed to dodge and used her abilities to cut through the tangles that were shot towards her. She ran. Right now, everything on her mind was self-preservation.

"She's running away, away!" the girl pouted. "She's much too much ugly for me anyway, anyway. Someone stop her."

Without any hesitation, and with exact precision, Jack pulled out a pistol fired two bullets which struck his fellow subordinate in the back of the head and two bullets in her back. The women watched in horror as her body was torn apart and fell into a limp heap, surrounded by her own blood.

"Rika…" Ona stared, her eyes wide with fright.

"Anmut… why are you doing this?" Leyla questioned, hurt and anger were in her voice.

"She's so beautiful…" Anmut responded as if he were in a trance.

"She's killing us!" Leyla screamed at him, as one of the women was killed using the same method as Dorin.

"But she's so beautiful."

"What do you look like under that mask?" the girl asked of Jack. He willingly revealed her face to her. He never willingly revealed his face to anyone! Who or what was this girl? "Oh, dear, oh, dear… you do look much, much better with it on! Put it back. I like you, so I'll make an exception!"

Leyla noticed as she literally sucked the life out of the women, little things about her appearance changed, such as the shape of her nose, the colors in her eyes, and so on. When she reached Ona, the young woman did her best to escape. She ignored the bonds cutting into her sides, but Anmut grabbed her and forced her to sit still, while the girl sucked the life out of her.

"Anmut, why… why are you doing this?!" Leyla asked again, tears were now falling from her eyes. "I gave you everything Anmut!"

"But, she's so beautiful."

"That's all you're going to say! I gave you every part of me and this is how you repay me?!"

The girl grabbed Leyla's face, and forced her to look into her eyes. "I don't like it when women are more beautiful than I am."

Leyla managed to rip herself out of the girl's grip, getting bloody scratches on her face as a result. She fell on her side, and looked up at Anmut. "I hope you rot in Hell, you bastard! You son of a bitch!"

The girl climbed on top of Leyla, an eerie smile gracing her features. "I can't, can't have it when women are more beautiful than me."

She then sucked the life out of Leyla, and smiled as faint streaks of a deep, crimson red appeared in her own hair. The girl continued to sing, and picked and chose the best of the best looking men out of the bounty hunters and slave traders to be part of her collection.

Stot was too ugly, at which he responded, "You are quite right! I'm just not good enough!"

Anmut got rid of the mask, and his handsomeness allowed him to join Kapri's collection.

Jack looked better with the mask, honestly. But Kapri admittedly liked how he looked, and decided that he could stay as well.

Abol also found favor in terms of his appearance, and was swiftly added to Kapri's collection as well.

Nemo was not so fortunate, as she sucked the life out of him and the pattern that had been on his skin faded out and showed up on the Siren's flesh in a very faint pattern along her arms and legs.

Krux eyed her with an odd fascination. She smiled at him! She was coming over to him… what was he going to do? How should he act? Quite certainly he was still dirty from his encounter with Black Leg… damn him! This was such a big deal and here he was dirty in front of the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. She stood before him, a smile on her lips.

"You're quite ugly, you know?" she questioned, as she rubbed her hand on his chest.

"I don't meet your standards?" Krux asked, and with a loud wail he called out, "I'm not good enough! I must sincerely apologize! Whatever can I do?"

"Kiss me" and the Siren kissed him on the lips and sucked the life from him. As for the others, she simply kissed and sucked the life from them as well, ensuring that she would live for a few more Human World centuries. When she was done, and had chosen the best of the best looking men from the bounty hunters and slave traders, they all stood in a line as she looked them up and down.

"Oh, how do I look?" Kapri asked, striking a pose, showing off her new, somewhat altered look.

"You look beautiful!" the men called out in unison.

"Thank you, thank you!" she waved at them, and Kapri smiled as she was quite pleased with herself. She left the bodies of the fallen behind, and continued on her way to capture the pirate men, all of whom she was sure would make for decent additions to her collection.

Nearly a year would pass before anyone would discover the Defying Gravity bounty hunters' grisly fate. A small group of Marines happened upon the island and had only stopped at it in the hopes of securing some supplies. They found that the island was still quite wrecked, with very tall tree tops having been damaged at some point, along with trees that were cut in half, but the top halves were still quite alive and well. The land had been torn up in numerous places, almost like an earth quake had shattered the land, with numerous large slabs and pillars that looked man-made. A portion of the land looked as if it had been set on fire at some point, and there were even burn marks on various trees, almost as if someone was marking their way as they walked through the trees.

As for how the people died, no one could say for sure. Only one (the body being that of a young girl) had been shot in the head and in the back. All they could tell was that she had been running from someone, or something. The others, had wash-out gray skin, with strange growths much like what one would find in the ocean growing on their bodies. A look of terror was still evident on the faces of the women, but the men had eerie looks of joy upon their faces. Their appearance was made all the more unnerving as the humidity had gotten to the bodies long before the Marines did, and with no animals or insects to work on the bodies, it made the appearance and the stench all the more unpleasant.

No one could ever say for sure what had happened on Flatland Island, but the stories and rumors spread nonetheless. The place became known as an island of death, and no one wanted to visit it or stay at it for very long, for they believed that it was cursed. As many who talked of the island would say, "only the foolish go there when they want to find their death."

And of course everyone said that they had a friend of a friend who knew someone who had visited the island and had suffered the same fate as the bounty hunters. But one thing that consistently carried over in everyone's stories was this: the island sounded as if it was screaming, especially around midday. Many voices which sounded like women screaming in sadness and anger would sound throughout the forest.

Everyone simply said the island was one of the many fearsome and dangerous mysteries of the New World, and a few years later, the Government ended up banning anyone from ever entering the island again.


Well, I hope you enjoyed this arc, and thanks for reading! Soon, the pirates will meet Kapri, and chaos will most assuredly ensue.

Next time: if you are injured, in pain, and need an operation, you don't necessarily need any anesthetics, do you?