Well, life's been hectic with university, life and medical issues like normal. There's never a boring moment in my life, hahaha. Enjoy the new chapter, sorry it's mostly talking, but I'm trying to get through this part of Thriller Bark without dragging it on for too long because that just gets boring.
"DAMN YOU GHOSTS! NEXT TIME YOU SHOW UP, I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!" Luffy stomped along, raging. "Keeping them is cancelled too!"
"They must have a weak spot!" Franky cracked his knuckles. "I'm going to wipe them out!"
"Wahahahaha!" Sanji laughed from his place atop Cerberus with Robin. "I saw something funny!"
"Shut up!" Zoro snapped, going red in the face.
I let out a chuckling bark and tried to cover it up with a cough.
"You shut up too, Mamori!" the green-haired swordsman snapped, swinging his foot in my direction as I danced back out of his aim. Instead, he kicked dirt straight into my face, leaving me to flinch and sniffle.
'Ahh...ahhh...CHOO!'
POP
Vertigo washed over me as I switched forms, which caused me to stumble and fall onto my behind.
"Ah, shit… Sorry…" Zoro mumbled, scratching the back of his head.
"HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY PRINCESS!" Sanji snapped, jumping off Cerberus to try and kick Zoro, who just blocked the blow with his swords.
I took a few seconds for my mind to process what had happened before I let out a squeak, my hands flying up to cover my breasts. My hands met with… fabric?
"Huh, I'm clothed this time," I said, forgetting that everyone could hear what I said in this form.
"Well, that's super uncool," Fanky complained.
"You shut up, you!" I snapped, jumping up to feet to look at my new clothing. I was in what appeared to be a formal pantsuit of grey and white. Well, at least Ikol was true to his word about clothing me next time I appeared. I just wondered where he got his taste from.
Someone poked my hip, and I looked down to see Luffy with sparkles in his eyes again. "So awesome!"
"For you maybe…" I snorted, slapping his hand away.
'You…'
'You're…'
'A human…' the three heads whispered.
"I can still understand you…" I gaped, my jaw dropping slightly.
'We can still make this work, baby,' the fox head purred, winking.
"NO WAY IN HELL!" I snapped, giving them the one fingered salute before turning around and stomping off.
"Princess?" Sanji called after me as everyone started walking, following me again.
"It's nothing."
"Although one can make generalizations about those patchwork creatures," Robin said as we continued on, "those ghosts were something completely different."
"One of those was on the ship too," Sanji agreed. "Appearing on and off, observing us… Is somebody behind this all?"
"To be perfectly honest, I think we're going to find out one way or another," I said, running my fingers through my messy hair. I think I preferred my fur.
"Woah! A vast graveyard!" Luffy exclaimed as we walked into a foggy field filled with graves. "What an atmosphere! Hey, let's eat our lunch boxes here."
"You idiot!" Sanji snapped. "The food would get bad! Let's hurry up and move."
"Ahhhhhhhh…" a voice moaned, coming from the ground. A hand popped out of the ground, followed by the torso of a rotting zombie. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh..."
I pressed my lips together, before shaking my head and saying, "Nope. Nuh uh. I am NOT getting bitten by a zombie. Not today. The stars are not in the right position for this shit."
"I'll protect you, princess!" Sanji declared, jumping towards me.
"On second thought, I'll take the zombie," I deadpanned as I side stepped him while sticking my foot out, letting our cook eat dirt.
Zoro chuckled at Sanji's expense.
"Shut up you shitty swordsman!"
"What did you call me, idiot cook?!"
"Guuuuuuys, Luffy is doing something weird again," I sighed, pointing to our stupid captain who had, by this point, walked up to the zombie.
The two looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before Luffy put his hands on the zombie's shoulders and pushed him back into the dirt.
A few more seconds of silence echoed before the zombie exploded out of the dirt again, yelling "LIKE HELL I'D GO BACK IN, YOU IDIOT!"
"An old man with a big wound?" Luffy asked us.
"IT'S A ZOMBIE, DON'T YOU SEE!" everyone else snapped.
Suddenly, a whole heap of zombies exploded out of the ground, yielding weapons and yelling, "DON'T UNDERESTIMATE US ZOMBIES!
"Are zombies supposed to be this lively?" Sanji sweat dropped.
"WE'LL SHOW YOU THE DANGERS OF ZOMBIES!" one of them yelled as a hoard of zombies shuffled towards us.
'We're so out of here!' dog head one said.
'Yep, yep, yep!' dog head two agreed.
'See you later, sexy legs! Any time you wanna hook up…' the fox head called as they ran away from the approaching zombies.
"THAT'LL NEVER HAPPEN, YOU COWARDS!" I cupped my hands over my mouth, yelling at their retreating back.
"What did you say?" Luffy cracked his knuckles as the rest of the crew got ready for a fight. "If it's danger you want, we can show you some too."
And then the brawl started. I lined up to a zombie that was jumping towards me, swinging my fist at him as he flinched and covered his face. My fist hit his chest and…nothing happened. He slowly peeked out from behind his hands and looked at me. I looked back.
"That didn't hurt, did it?" I asked him.
"Not really," he replied.
"Oh."
"…HAHAHAHA, HOW EMBARRASSING!" he cackled loudly as the others fought successfully in the background.
"SHUT UP, I'M JUST NOT USED TO THIS BODY YET!" I screamed back, my whole face flushing red. My foot shot out, catching the zombie straight in his crotch. With a moan, the zombie hit the ground. "WHO'S LAUGHING NOW ASSHOLE?!"
"Urgghhhhhh…" he moaned, clutching his crotch and rolling on the ground.
I straddled his waist, pinning him to ground and grabbing the leathery skin on his cheek, stretching and pulling it. "Say you're sorry!" He just moaned. I pinched and pulled harder. "SAY IT!"
"I's sowwwwy!" he cried, tears dripping from his eyes.
I nodded my head in self-satisfaction, and stood up to brush my hands off on my pants. I turned around only to see that all the other zombies had been dealt with and Zoro was raising an eyebrow at me.
"What'cha looking at?"
"You suck at fighting in that body," he said bluntly.
"And whose fault is it that I'm in this body at the moment?!" I snarled, and he quickly shut up and turned away. "Hmph."
"So what are you doing here?" Luffy asked the zombies who were knelt before us.
"Well… doing zombie stuff."
"Being buried."
"Rotting."
"Me too."
"Are you messing around with me?" Luffy asked in a serious voice.
"No! No! We're not! We're being serious!"
"Did a man with a long nose, a woman with orange hair, and a tanuki that looks like a reindeer pass through here?" he asked them.
"Oh, yes, yes, yes!"
"But we won't tell! Our order is to not give out such information to anyone."
"So, you won't tell me anything?" Luffy cracked his knuckles.
"Three people passed through!"
"They're my friends. You didn't do anything to them, did you?" our captain threatened.
"Eh!? I didn't do anything to them!"
"I did nothing to them too!"
"Nothing to them!"
"Tell me the truth," he ordered.
"He did something to them," one of the zombies snapped under the pressure, pointing at his friend.
"Wait; don't sell out your friends! And you're the one who bit one of them!"
"THE HELL DID YOU SAY," I roared, squatting down in front of one of them, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling his face inches from mine. "You did what now?"
Sweat dripped down the zombies face as I stared him down. "We all attacked them!"
"Wait, don't say tha–"
Queue ass kicking.
"Looks like they headed for the mansion," Luffy said as we walked out of the graveyard, heading toward the building in question. "I'm glad they're safe. I don't know about Brook though…"
"That's actually okay, I guess," Sanji sighed.
"Hallooooo! P…please wait a moment, guys!" another zombie holding a lamp called, and walked towards us. "I just watched you. You guys are terribly strong! Would you please listen to me for a second?"
"An old man with a big wound?" Luffy questioned.
"Again, it's a zombie!" the rest of us snapped.
"Actually, I'm an old man with a big wound," he replied.
"So easy to confuse!" the boys yelled.
The old man got down on his knees and begged. "There is a man whom I wish to see defeated. I think you guys really could do it. There are many victims, and if he was beaten, they would be resurrected. If my shadow was returned, I'd be very grateful."
I walked over to the man, grabbing his elbow and helping him to stand up again. "You don't need to kneel."
"Oh, you don't have a shadow, gramps! Just like Brook," Luffy said.
"Who the hell did that?" Zoro asked. "Is he on this island?"
"It's a man called Moria, he's very terrible!"
"Moria?" Franky asked.
"Could it be…Gecko Moria by any chance?" Robin offered.
"Ah, yeah, that's the one!"
"You know him Robin?" I asked, letting go of the old man and floating back to her.
"Only by name…" she confirmed, "he's a man whose former bounty even exceeds yours, Luffy. Gecko Moria is one of the Shichibukai."
"Is that true, Robin?" Luffy questioned.
"He's a man of many mysteries," she said.
"What's a guy like that doing in a place like this?" Franky asked.
"I don't know," the old man said. "But there's a lot more victims like me that got lost in this forest."
"There are others?"
"The fact that you guys were invited here too…I'm positive that Moria has set his eyes on you. We hide in the dark of this remaining forest, afraid of the zombies, too frightened to go to sea and be exposed to the sunlight… In any case, this body doesn't feel like living anymore. I want to walk under the sunlight just one more time before I die."
"That's so…that's so heart rending!" Franky sobbed. Loudly. "Okay! I'll help! Don't worry at all! I'm not crying, idiots!"
"You're too compassionate," Zoro sighed, "don't burden yourself so easily.
I punched him in the shoulder, "and you're just not compassionate enough."
"Hey, but, we're looking for the perpetrator who steals shadows anyway. If he's after us too, he'll get his ass kicked sooner or later. So, while we're at it, we'll save you too gramps," Luffy declared.
"T-thank you for your kinds words! I'm regaining hope once more!"
"We're begging you!"
"Do your best!"
"Kick Moria's ass!"
I spun around, trying to locate all the voices amongst the trees.
"The other victims were listening all along…"
I shook my head, like a dog, to try and get the water out of my hair.
"It started raining pretty hard," Zoro mumbled, referring to the change of weather that had occurred.
"Shall we run to the mansion?" Franky asked.
"Wait a minute," Luffy said, looking at something in the distance. "On the back of that mansion, there's a mark. It's huge! What is that thing? Is that a flag?"
"That's right!" the old man said, suddenly appearing from the darkness.
"You're still here?!"
"This Thriller Bark has one village in the middle of it, and is the largest pirate ship in the world!" he declared. "You can see now that the back of the mansion is the main mast. That's the place where Gecko Moria is."
"Please excuse us," Luffy said as we walked up to the front door of the mansion. "We need to interrupt!"
"Hurry up!" Sanji snapped.
Luffy rattled the door. "It's locked…" With one swift movement, he punched through the door, and it swung open. "It's open now!"
"That goes without saying," Zoro sweat dropped.
"Hey, is anyone here?" Luffy called out as we walked into the building. "Gecko Moria?"
"In such a big mansion, there isn't a single servant?" Zoro observed.
"What's this, it looks like a room after a fray… I hope they didn't hurt Nami!" Sanji panicked.
I bit my lip, kicking a bit of wood on the floor before picking up a broken chair leg to twirl around. "They all better be okay."
"Buhihihi!" something laughed.
"The hell?" I looked around the room, and my eyes landed on a mounted pig head on the wall. It was alive and talking. "Whhhhhhhhyyy?"
"You know the name of our master. You are rather brave to enter this place," it said.
"Huh, there's a pig on the wall," Luffy said.
"LET US WELCOME THE GUESTS!"
Suddenly multiple zombies burst out of paintings on the walls, and a big polar bear rug on the floor came to life.
"Hey, are they zombies too?" Sanji asked.
"It's not strange to find any kind of creature on this island," Zoro remarked.
"LUFFY, THIS IS NOT A TIME TO GET EXCITED!" I shrieked at our captain when I saw the sparkles around him.
"Where did you hide Nami?" Sanji snapped as he kicked one of the zombies hard enough to send it back into its painting.
"Annnnnnd here we go again," I sighed. I swung the broken chair leg at a zombie that tried to bite me, catching him across the temple hard enough to shatter the wood. He slumped to the ground, and I kicked him once to make sure he was down.
"All right, we took care of them all!" Luffy declared, and I turned around to see that what he said was true. They were all beaten, even the rug. Jeez, that was quick.
"Noooooow, that little piggy…" I mumbled, jogging up the stairs so that I could reach around and unhook him from the wall.
"Wait, let's talk about this!" he squealed.
I smirked and let him drop to the floor where the others were waiting, before making my way back down the stairs as someone propped him up against the wall.
"Have you seen a man with a long nose, a woman with orange hair, and a tanuki that looked like a reindeer?" Luffy asked him.
"So what if I did?" he snorted.
I stuck two of my fingers up his nostrils, picking up off the ground. "You really don't want to know what'll happen if you don't tell us." I smiled as pleasantly as I could, tilting my head to the side as he dangled.
"I… I'll speak!"
I dropped him, looking at my snot covered fingers. Not my smartest plan ever. "Blergh." Looking around the room for something to wipe my fingers on, I noticed that Franky's shirt was the closest thing. I eyed him, and he noticed. A few shuffled steps were all I managed before Franky reached out, grasping the top of my head to hold me at arms distances.
"That trio you spoke of, they're fast asleep in the bedroom! They're safe!" the pig alleged.
"Impossible," Franky disagreed, my arms flapping in the air in an attempt to reach him.
"It's the truth! You can go ahead and check! Just go up those stairs."
"You'd better not be lying!" I snapped, giving up on Franky and wiggling out of his grip. I walked back over towards the pig, looking him dead in the eyes as I wiped my booger covered fingers directly on his forehead.
"Hey, wait a minute, where did the curly eyebrow cook go?" Franky questioned.
"Huh? He was with us until a little while ago…" Luffy added.
"He probably ran off to look for Nami," I scoffed.
The zombies started giggling to themselves. "They did something at some point," Zoro observed. "Oh well, we lost a pitiful man."
"Hey…" Franky sweat dropped.
"Well, Sanji will be alright," Luffy declared.
"My concern is, in this zombie mansion, it might be that we're racing against the clock to rescue those three," Robin mused.
"Hey now! If anyone touches them, they're in for a world of hurt," I growled, cracking my knuckles.
"You know, I think you were less scary as a dog, somehow," Franky said, half joking.
"Guess what?" I smiled at him. "Tough titties!"
"Buhibuhi, you guys, don't get so cocky just because you're a little strong. When your nakama start disappearing, you'll start getting scared. You'll get what you deserve!" the pig ranted.
"Anyway, we can only continue with our intuition," Robin continued.
"Hey, you guys!" the pig squealed.
"I don't think those things will tell the truth even if we threaten them," she mused.
"So let's take that pig as a guide," Zoro suggested.
"Huuuuuuh!?"
"Hehehe," the zombies started to laugh again.
"Go, go! It's good for you to learn the dreadfulness of our masters!"
"Our real boss is the Shichibukai, Gecko Moria… Oh! I can't even say that name, my body is freezing up!"
"Hooooo, just putting that word into my mouth, it feels like my body is freezing!"
"It won't end safely for your missing nakama…"
"One after another you'll lose nakama… you shall regret it! The fear that you can't save anyone in front of Shichibukai Gecko…"
"You're noisy with all your mumbling," Luffy huffed. "Go tell that Moron Moria–"
"EEEHHHH!?"
"–if anything happens to one of my nakama, I'll blow you off this island!"
"WHAAA?"
"Even if we leave Sanji for the time being, he won't die." Luffy stuck his finger up his nose. "Let's go."
"Hey, pig! You did something again, didn't you?" Luffy snapped, rubbing his fist into the pig's face as Franky carried him along. "Spit it out!"
"I told you from the start, I don't know anything! Buhihihi!"
"Aren't you laughing now, you shameless fellow?" Robin said.
"Guys, we're missing someone," I pointed out when I noticed my favourite swordsman was no longer walking beside me.
"Huh, Zoro's disappeared too…" Luffy concurred.
"Zorooooo?" I called out, jogging ahead to see if I could find him. "Zorooooooooo?"
"I'm sure that swordsman will be okay, he's tough," Franky tried to reassure the group.
I stopped and waited for the group to catch up, staring ahead. "Where the hell did those guys go?"
I turned around and let out a scream when I saw a suit of armour lurking behind Franky and Robin. "What the hell are you doing at a time like this?!" Franky smacked the back of the armour's head, and Luffy lifted the visor.
"Hey, if armour is just lying around, isn't it a man's romance to wear it? When you got your iron body, did you get an iron heart too?" Luffy demanded.
"Romance… no wonder!" Franky gasped. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to go as far as my heart when turning into iron!"
"Guys," I protested.
Franky seemed to pull a guitar out of nowhere, sitting on the floor and strumming it. "To lose such an important thing… a draft is blowing in my heart. Please listen to this song; Cyborg's Steely Traveler Heart."
"Yay! Play that song!" Luffy danced around clapping his hands.
"Do they actually understand their situation?" the pig sighed.
"No, BecaUSE THEY'RE IDIOTS!" I yelled, stomping my foot.
"We've reached a hall," Robin, who had continued walking, declared.
"Buhi, buhi."
"A hall?" Luffy, Franky, and I jogged to catch up. "Are Usopp and the others there?"
"Not at all…" Robin voiced.
"What is this place?" Luffy asked as we all stared at what looked like a raised circular platform with a few ratty tents around the outside.
"It looks like an arena!" Franky mused.
"Buhihihi, it's not quite as simple as that," the pig laughed.
"What'cha mean?" I questioned, eyeing the pig and wondering if I needed to introduce my fingers to his nostrils again.
The sounds of steel being drawn echoed across the room, and we all looked up to see an armoured knight dropping from the ceiling, sword first, at Franky.
"Woah!" he yelled, jumping out of the way.
"Franky!" Luffy called.
"You okay?" I shouted, running over to his side.
"Who?" Robin demanded.
"WOW! MOVING ARMOUR!" Luffy gushed.
"FOR GODS' SAKE, LUFFY!" I roared, flapping my arms in frustration.
"Surely it's a zombie; it's moving with spears in its body," Robin said.
I looked and saw what she meant; there were two spears protruding from its chest. Ouch.
"This zombie is so heavily armoured…that's to be expected though," Franky admired before raising his arm and blocking a swords blow aimed at him. I took a couple of steps back to give him room as the knight started a volley of blows aimed at our cyborg. Franky stopped him with one punch to the chest, sending him back across the room, "STRONG RIGHT!"
The knight managed to land on its feet, and swiped its sword in a cross, sending a blast of what appeared to be energy at Franky. The cyborg only just managed to doge it, causing it to smash into the wall behind him.
"Hey, watch it!" I covered my head with my arms as I was showered in rubble. Damn this useless two legged body!
"You're worse than a normal swordsman," Franky teased as his wrist opened so he could fire a small missile, "WEAPONS LEFT!"
This time the swordsman didn't land on its feet, but was quick to get back up and lunge at Franky again. Franky took a hit this time, falling to his knees. The knight turned and began walking towards the rest of us.
"Franky!" I cried, reigning in the urge to run to his side again. I'd only be in the way at the moment.
The cyborg stood again, grabbing the knight by its helm. "I won't die just by getting hitting by a corpse like you!" He threw the knight across the room, but yet again he rose.
"He's getting up again!" Luffy commented.
"He's totally different to the zombies we've met up until now," Franky grumbled.
"Having trouble? You could tag out?" I teased him.
"Buhihihihihihi!" the pig laughed. "Now you get what you deserve! That's the fearsomeness of true zombies! Even if they break apart, it doesn't hurt or even tickle. During their lifetimes every single one of these armed general zombies has made a name for themselves by being vigorous warriors! One country's knights group leaders, fiendish felons, a legendary samurai, a pirate, a gunslinger, and now imagine all those guys being immortal! There's no way you guys could possibly win! Buhihihi! Not a single one of your friends is safe! That's what you get! BUHIHIHI!"
"YOU SURE TALK A LOT OF SHIT FOR A WALKING PIECE OF BACON!" I tried to kick him but he ran, away as fast as possible. Laughing all the while.
"YOU!" Luffy shouted after him, shaking his fist.
Just as I was about to run into the hallway after him, a large brick wall almost squashed me as it dropped, causing me to stumble back. "Yo!" it said. Another zombie. Fantastic.
"The way back is blocked!" Luffy said.
"Well, if the way is blocked, there's no going back," Robin said calmly.
"Fuuuuuuck," I groaned as I turned around and saw what was coming for us...a whole group of armoured zombies, waving around weapons. "This is an awful time to be human."
"If I was to speak from experience, I would say it's going to be beyond tough…" Franky warned. "They're all armoured. Contrary to just a single one, an attack won't affect them in any way. If we try taking them all on at the time, we're going to get annihilated."
"Yeah, you're right. And this isn't even the last battle," Luffy agreed.
"If we escape this hall, perhaps if we get to the courtyard…" Robin planned.
"GET 'EM!" the warriors shouted.
"Okay, then let us four meet up there later! I kinda don't want to get another one of us lost," Luffy urged. "LET'S GO!"
The warriors charged us. My toes curled in my shoes. No choice. Might as well give this a shot. So lady like.
Three of the warriors were bearing down on me, two with swords and one with an axe. I stuck my finger up my nose and scratched the inside with enough force to irritate it. They swung.
"Ahhh…Ahhh…CHOO!"
POP
The second I had all four feet on the ground I was off, jumping to the side as all their weapons collided with the floor. I spun on my front paws and launched into a head butt, lining it up so when I hit the first one in his unprotected stomach, he took the man behind him down as well.
I pushed off the body of the axe wielding zombie and threw my weight into the legs on the last standing warrior, throwing him towards the ground before jumping on his back and using my paws to force his head into the hard stone floor with enough force to crack it.
I sprinted for the exit only to have an axe fly over my head in an arc by spinning back into its master's hands. 'No way, they got up so quickly!'
I squared up for round two as they advanced on me again. Four more appeared from goodness knows where to join in the attack on me. 7 against 1. I liked these odds.
I jumped at one, my head connecting with theirs. The next one got his knee caps taken out by my back feet. The third winner received a chomp on his head as he was forced face-first into a hammer that was being swung at me. The hammer swinger got a kiss from the top of my head into his chin.
I landed to line up my next attack when I heard "Ittouruy Sanjyuroku Pound Hou!"
'ZORO!? You're back!'
With a yelp Luffy had to dodge the attack that 'Zoro' sent as it crashed into a wall, shattering it.
"A scar on the back is a shame for a warrior!"
'THAT THING IS NOT ZORO,' I shrieked mentally, wanting to burn that image from my head. It was an ugly looking zombie with a duck head protruding from its own head and some type of floatation donut pantie combo.
"But I'm full of scars!" it continued.
"Eh!? Who are you? You are Zoro, right?" Luffy asked.
"My name is Jigoroh," it replied, but I lost the rest of the conversation as I was forced to pay attention to the attacking zombies.
'JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE!' I grabbed the lightest one by his ankle, picking him up and spinning him around like a weapon to bowl over the zombies as I made my way to the exit. It must have been a sight and a half, a dog spinning circles with a zombie in her mouth, clearing a path. When I saw a clear break, I flung the dead meat and bolted straight out into the daylight, right behind Franky and Robin. We run onto what appeared to be a bridge, leading to another tower, a courtyard below.
"Luffy?" Robin asked.
I skidded to a stop, half expecting him to be right behind me. He wasn't.
"Looks like he didn't make it out yet," Franky panted as they stopped as well, "I can't see him when I look back. Because that klutz had to wear his armour he probably got stuck somewhere!"
"He doesn't seem to be coming, and the zombies are catching up," said Robin.
"Dammit, now he's going to be the one getting lost," Franky grumbled, "STRAW HAT!?
'I'M NOT LEAVING HIM!' I snapped, getting in position to charge back into the zombies. And once I got him, I'd take the armour he was wearing and beat him senseless with it.
"DAMMIT! LET ME OUT!" Luffy's voice yelled, and I looked up to see a coffin flying over our heads, attached to a chain.
"A…coffin?" Franky asked.
"That voice just now…" Robin mused.
"OPEN THE LID AND LET ME OUT!" the voice from the coffin continued to yell.
"LUFFY!? THAT IDIOT IS INSIDE! WHAT AN IDIOT, GOING AND GETTING HIMSELF CAUGHT! WE GOT TO CATCH UP, NICO ROBIN, MAMORI!"
'One step ahead of you,' I growled, dashing past him in pursuit of the flying coffin that contained my captain.
"I won't let you, ahhahha," a voice laughed as a large monkey spider zombie cross landed on the bridge in front of us. Very large. "Monkey! Monkey! Monkey! Ahhahhahha, the publicly rumoured spider monkey, that's me!"
I skidded to a stop in front of him, hackles on end.
"A giant spider," Robin observed as the other two came to stop behind me.
"No!" Franky protested. "This one exceeds the scale of normal insects! It's a monster spider!"
'Yeah, but it's still just a large spider,' I snorted. 'The bigger they are, the less dangerous they generally are. It's an Australian rule.'
"AHH!" Luffy's voice cried as his coffin was dragged into the next building behind the spider monkey.
"Oh, another one," it observed.
"Dammit! That coffin went in!" Franky swore. "What do you asses intend to do with him?"
'Gimme back my captain and other crew mates!'
"Relax," the spider monkey said, "whatever you're up to, you're going to discover it in person too. If anything, you should be worried about yourselves. Before you is me, and behind you are the armoured warriors! And with that, your crew is annihilated."
'Don't count your chickens just yet, mate!' I snarled, snapping my jaws in his direction before slipping behind Franky and Robin to protect their backs from the advancing zombie warriors.
"Don't tell me, those two, just like Straw Hat, were captured and taken behind this wall…" Franky theorised.
"Monkey, monkey, ahhahhahhahha!" it laughed. "It's going to be the same procedure for you now."
"I don't know if you're a dumbass spider, or a dumbass monkey, but that huge spider web that Sunny got trapped in at the entrance of the island, that was you're doing!"
"Ahhahhahha! All of your actions were revealed by the Lady Persona's ghost network!" it claimed.
"And your big ears are probably pretty good for intelligence work too," Robin stated. "You seem to be able to hear well with those ears."
'…That was brutal,' I laughed before eyeing an advancing armoured zombie, who was getting way too close for comfort. I leapt at him, clamping down on his wrist before swinging my head to pull him off his feet and throw him over the side of the bridge we were on.
"Eh? Sorry?" the monkey spider asked, cupping a hand over its ear.
"ARE YOU PRETENDING OR WHAT?!" Franky raged. "This situation is the worst. We're blocked in every direction. We gotta do something quick. Will you leave it to me?"
"With pleasure," Robin answered. "I'll try and conform to it."
'Why don't you just blow this spider away, and we can get in there and save the captain!' I barked, snapped at the rest of the armoured zombies.
"Hehe, now that's promising. Okay then, here we go." Franky got ready for an attack. "Coup De…VENT!"
The bridge exploded under us in a shower of rubble.
"WHAAAT? YOU BROKE THE…" the monkey spider screamed.
"See, that's how it's done," Franky smirked as we all fell.
'WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?! YOU BLEW UP THE FUCKING BRIDGE! AND NOW WE'RE FALLING!' I screamed.
"You're a pretty rough one, huh," Robin observed.
"GYAAAAAH!"
"Cien Fleur Wings!" Two wings made of arms sprouted from Robin's back as she grabbed the back of Franky's shirt. I landed on Franky's shoulder, perching there awkwardly.
"What? You can fly?!" Franky gasped.
"Just for five seconds," Robin confirmed.
"So short! Oh well, that's plenty of time. STRONG RIGHT!" Franky aimed his arm the broken ledge of the bridge and his hand connected, with a chain leading back to Franky's arm. "All right! If we get into that entrance somehow, we can go after Straw Hat!"
"Ugh, I can't anymore," Robin panted as her wings disappeared and we started to fall.
"WOAH! Arm, return!" Franky shouted, pulling us towards the ledge as we swung towards the wall below.
'Almost there!' I chanted as the wall loomed before us.
A lithe as a fox, Robin used Franky as a stepping stone at the last second, jumping up onto the ledge as the two of us smashed into the wall below it. At the last second, I snagged Franky's shoulder and hung over his back so he was the only one to hit the stone.
'Sorry, but you're made of iron! I'm not!' I cried.
"They all fell into the courtyard. Although it probably won't be over, we're safe for now at least. Well done," Robin congratulated.
"Asshole! You used me as a stepping stone to jump up there!" he shouted.
"YOU!" the monkey spider raged below. "I'm a spider! I'll come up there in no time!
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh," a distance voice cried.
"What? From the sky, something…no, someone, is falling!" Franky yelled as we watched a something black and white plummet from the sky straight past us, and smashed into the ground below. I pulled myself back onto Franky's shoulder before jumping up onto the ledge.
'The hell was that!' I cried, peeking over the edge to a skeleton shaped form embedded in the ground. 'It couldn't be!'
"Hey, what was that, it just came falling out of nowhere…" Franky mumbled.
"Could it be…?" Robin mused.
"Well, I guess you could say the shape kind of looks like it…" Franky agreed.
'Watch out!' I barked, pushing Robin out of the way as a thread of spider web smacked into the wall where her head was before. More pieces of spider web exploded around the area, sticking to the walls. Franky was quick to scramble up to the platform as the spider monkey used the webs to pull himself up, and perch on the webbing he'd just created.
"Ahhahhahhahhahha!" it laughed, "Although some weirdo butted in, you can't run from me cause I can make as many webs as necessary! Monkey, monkey!"
"I guess we've gotta take care of this guy first," Franky said he pulled a large pair of nunchakus from a tub on his back. "Buy me some time; I need to make a weapon."
'Got it!' I barked.
"SPIDER NETTORI NET!" the spider monkey yelled, using his palm to fire a large blob of spider web straight at us. I jumped past it, straight onto the head of the spider to keep him distracted so he couldn't fire more of that netting. "Get off, you stupid dog!"
'Make me!' I barked, running around on his back, dodging the tail that tried to grab me. Damn monkeys and their very useful tails.
"So the glands are in his hands," Robin mumbled, before crossing her arms over her chest. "Seis Fleur Slap!"
"Eh?" the spider monkey asked as a volley of hands appeared around his one good eye before slapping him hard enough to make him cry and cover his face. "YOU SLAPPED MY EYEBALL!" He tried to pull his hands back, only to find that the glands on his hands had stuck the webbing onto his own eyes. "The Nettori Net got stuck to my eyes!"
"Alright, the preparations are done!" Franky called as he walked back to us, "Out of the way!"
'Coming!' I vaulted myself off the head of the spider, and back onto the ledge as Franky appeared with modified nunchaku. He had replaced the normal handles for large bits of pillar.
"What's that!?" the spider monkey yelled, still pulling the netting away from his eyes.
"These are the steal nunchaku I brought; only now they're inserted into pillars. Of course I need a big weapon for a big monster," Franky explained before swinging his new weapon so that it slammed into the side of the monkey spider's face. "HEAVY NUNCHAKU!"
The spider went flying into some more of his netting and Franky didn't waste time before jumping into the air and brining his new weapon down on the top of the zombie's head. Landing on the netting, Franky unleashed a volley of attack on the spider's face, slamming him back and forth.
"St…stop it asshole! Spider Nettori Net!" A blast of webbing came out of the spider's hand, taking out Franky's new weapon.
I was so busy watching Franky's fight that I didn't notice there were more zombies around until I found myself wrapped in webbing and pulled off my feet. I tried struggling and trashing, but the webbing only held me tighter.
"Ahh!" Robin was trapped by netting as well, as some small mouse spiders swarmed over us and the netting.
'Come here you little shits!' I snapped, nearly catching one between my jaws, only to have my muzzle bound shut with webbing.
"Nico Robin, Mamori!" Franky called. "What are those?"
"Sorry, I let my guard down," Robin apologised. "There were other spiders…"
'FRANKY, BEHIND YOU!' I yelled as the monkey spider used Franky's momentary distraction to cover him in webbing as well.
"Wah! Shit!" Franky yelled as he was plastered to the ground.
"Ahhahhahhahha! You idiots!" the monkey spider cackled. "Monkey, monkey! Off guard my ass! They're my subordinate spider mice! There are as many as 500 of them on Thriller Bark! Until now, there hasn't been a single time we've not caught our hunted prey. We always catch them by surprise, out of the darkness; out of a blind spot…we catch them without the threads that were remodeled by master Hogback that can't be broken by human power. Your friends were slowly picked off by us, one by one, from above. Now, you are going to be taken to the same place as your friends! Prepare yourselves!"
"Yo-hohoho, Yohohohoo~ Yo-hohoho, Yohohohoo~ Yo-hohoho, Yohohohoo~ Yo-hohoho, Yohohohoo~"
"What?" the spider monkey gasped.
'I know that voice!'
"Going to deliver Binks' Sake~ Following the sea breeze~ Riding on the waves~ Far across the salty depths~ The merry evening sun~ The birds sing as they draw circles in the sky~ Yo-hohoho, Yohohohoo~ Yo-hohoho, Yohohohoo~"
"Who's singing that song!?" the monkey yelled
"Yohohohoho!" the skeleton laughed as he suddenly appeared before us, walking towards Robin and I with a sword that appeared to be pulled from his cane, resting it on his shoulder. "So, you did enter the island after all?"
"Eh, how did you come from down there?" Robin asked.
"I jumped. Because I'm light," he replied, tipping his hat in greeting to us. "It cannot be helped if you unfortunately did come here. I should tell you everything about this island."
"Hey! Who are you! You're not a zombie!" Monkey spider protested, and Brook turned around and walked towards him. "Are you another comrade of the pirates?"
"Hey skeleton!" Franky called.
"Don't mind, don't mind. It's alright, since I'm finishing this. Humming Ten Feet." Brook slid his sword back into the cane. "Yahazu Giri!"
Blood exploded from the Monkey Spider as he fell to his stomach, crying in pain, "Ahhh!"
"It's not over yet!" Franky warned. "He's a zombie, even if you cut him, he'll still get up again."
"Yohohoho, don't worry, I've already dealt with that."
"You!" the monkey spider growled as it tried to stand up again. "Hmm… Wait, I've seen you before!"
"Dealt with it?" Franky asked.
"Zombies have weak points too," Brook announced.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Spider monkey screamed as a large black blob started to leak from his mouth.
"What is that!?" Franky asked.
"That is the 'soul' of a zombie."
"AHHHHHHHH."
"Now return to your master!" Brook ordered as the black mass broke off and flew off into the sky.
The spider monkey hit the ground, lifeless, and the small spider mice panicked. "GYA! COMMANDER! OFFICER TALLAREN!"
"You stopped him completely. What did you do?" Franky asked.
"I purified him."
"Look! It's definitely the humming swordsman…the man who messed up Thriller Bark 5 years ago!" one of the spider mice yelled. "We need to inform master!"
"This spider web is strong against power, but weak against fire," Brook told Franky.
"That's true, it loosens up," Franky said after he had blown fire onto it.
'That's good for you, but could you hurry up and get Robin and me down?'