Chapter 26: Trick-or-Treat

Zephyr watched with poorly veiled amusement as the three Snake Princesses tested themselves against the male half of Lucas's team. Boa Marigold was dueling Lucario at the latter's request, as he'd wished to test himself against the fiery (literally, in this case) Zoan. The cynical part of the ex-Admiral took note of the apparent elemental weakness the Pokémon had let slip, but the rest of him was too busy being amused at the match between Boa Sandersonia and Vaporeon.

"Stop that!" he heard the snake-woman yelp for the third or fourth time today as Vaporeon froze the ground beneath her. While the reptile Zoan held up admirably against the sudden drop in temperature, her serpentine form still couldn't find proper traction on the ice, and when she tried to avoid Vaporeon's follow-up water blasts, that led to quick, precise evasive maneuvers turning into an undignified sprawl.

Boa Hancock herself, meanwhile, was apparently testing herself against Torterra and Crobat simultaneously. From what Zephyr knew of the two Pokémon's preferred combat styles, along with the data he'd gathered from observing the female Warlord's capabilities, this matchup was hilariously skewed in Boa Hancock's favor. Torterra's bulk and lack of mobility made him a sitting duck, and while he was durable enough to weather most normal attacks, the Warlord's petrification beams rendered that a moot point. And Crobat may have been incredibly fast and maneuverable, but again Hancock's powers made a single misstep deadly, and his preferred closer-range flybys became incredibly risky. Granted, the Pirate Empress wasn't actually using her petrification attacks, either out of respect or caution for the damage it could cause. Instead, she had a set of small, heart-shaped pieces of wood that she threw out at him, and both she and Crobat were treating them like her actual attacks.

"What are your thoughts, sensei?" Ain asked quietly.

"I had never bothered to give the Warlords much thought before. They've always been a necessary evil that I'd rather not focus on," Zephyr rumbled, taking a puff of his inhaler before adding, "Still, if all it took to get Boa Hancock to open up a bit more was a clash with some powerful women, maybe we should've sent Tsuru years ago."

Binz snorted quietly. "I think the whole 'nearly killing a World Noble' thing might have tipped the scales a bit there, sensei. Someone like her probably respects that kind of blatant disregard for Government authority."

Zephyr nodded silently, idly taking note of how the lack of access to vast amounts of earth was hindering Torterra even further. The Straw Hats' shipwright was somehow able to include no small amount of sand, loose dirt, and smaller stones in the main arena on the ship's deck, but not enough to make the Island Tortoise the threat that Marine Intelligence had implied him to be. The Pokémon also seemed to struggle with the more particulate forms of ground, using them in large bursts or compressing it into boulders, something else that he made a note of.

It was, after all, one of Sengoku's orders to more accurately determine the capabilities of Lucas and his team. And more importantly, their limitations. And while he'd compiled a decent list of those after both sparring with and observing the training of the Pokémon over the course of the past weeks, there was one factor in particular that he found to be the most important. While the young man's companions were powerful, experienced, and incredibly competent when met with conventional or elemental force, it was the more esoteric abilities, like Hancock's Love-Love and Ain's Return-Return Fruits that gave them the most pause.

With that in mind, while Zephyr was sure that Garp and Sengoku could effectively meet and potentially best the boy's team in direct battle, Tsuru of all people might be the Marines' most effective counter among the upper ranks.

A sudden bone-rattling impact pulled him from his thoughts, and he glanced back over to the spar to see that Hancock had managed to hit Crobat with one of her makeshift projectiles, after which she managed to weave around Torterra's attacks to land a punishing kick to his side. If she were using her Devil Fruit powers, those attacks would have petrified and potentially crippled both Pokémon, something that they seemed to acknowledge since they both stopped and dipped their heads to concede. The other two spars also came to a halt as Lucas himself walked forward, applauding the self-proclaimed Pirate Queen with an impressed smile on his face. As he came directly in front of her, Torterra lowered his armored head, allowing Lucas to stand atop it and lifting him up until he was level with Hancock.

And the two of them shook hands.

Zephyr, Ain, and Binz looked with raised brows and wide eyes while all the other watching Marines were busy gaping.

"Well. I guess that worked," Zephyr murmured, watching warily as the Warlords exchanged words. Officially, he was supposed to be reporting back to the higher-ups on how Lucas and the other Warlords interacted, as a sort of advance notice for any potential… shenanigans. And while his lip-reading wasn't as good as it used to be, he could see them saying something to each other, out of earshot of the onlookers. This had all the hallmarks of one such thing.

-That Night-

Thriller Bark wasn't just a ship. From a more empirical standpoint, that was obvious, because the average ship didn't have massive overhanging forests, winding paved roads, and imposing brick buildings covering it. Off of sheer size alone, the vessel could be considered an island in its own right. In fact, it was probably bigger than some of the more unremarkable islands in the Grand Line.

But it wasn't just size and contents that made Thriller Bark stand out. It was the sheer aura of malice and despair oozing off of it, an aura which was only minorly influenced by the unnatural atmosphere of the Florian Triangle.

Thriller Bark loomed.

It was an oppressive presence breaking through the Triangle's constant fog. It was a monument to Warlord Gecko Moria's might and status and a chilling representation of the purpose he had turned those strengths to.

Not that one Monkey D. Luffy cared about any of that, at the moment. In the short term, all that mattered to him was that Gecko Moria was on this island, and that he, Luffy, was going to kick the Warlord's ass into next week. As such, he was almost literally bouncing with pent-up energy the whole time the island drew closer, and it was barely five minutes after the crew as a whole disembarked from the Thousand Sunny until he all-but-sprinted towards the big building he could see in the distance.

"OOOOIIIII!" he yelled out, "I'm here to fight Gecko Moria! C'mon out so I can beat you up for taking our musician's shadow!"

Thankfully, it looked like someone was taking notice of his presence, because there was some sort of shaking coming from the graveyard nearby, and… Were those people coming out of the ground? Dead bodies were supposed to stay buried; even he knew that! Luffy ran over to the rising bodies and started stuffing them back into their graves, ignoring their flailing limbs and muffled protests.

"Hey!" someone yelled from off to the side, and Luffy glanced over to see one of those dead guys dressed in a bat suit. "What do you think you are doing?" he demanded, swooping down from a treetop using his costume's wings.

"Me?" Luffy asked, looking back at the graves where the dead guys were still trying to claw themselves out. "I'm putting these guys back, duh."

If the guy wasn't dead, there probably would have been a vein pulsing on his forehead. "Not that, you ignoramus! What are you doing here, on this island!" He spread his arms wide, and several more of the dead people appeared around him. "This is the territory of the Warlord Gecko Moria, pirate! Unless you wish to enter our lord's service, you should go back to where you came from! Though, come to think of it…" his eyes narrowed. "You seem to be quite strong. My lord will be pleased to have your powers in his army."

He clicked his fingers, and Luffy turned around to find even more dead guys coming out of the surrounding woods, these ones bearing swords, guns, and other weapons. Oh, and the big house too! A bunch of them were coming from that direction!

Luffy grinned, punching his fists together. "That means if I kick your guys' asses, the Gecko guy will show up, right?" He didn't wait for the bat-suit-dead-guy to respond, launching himself straight towards the undead warriors with his fists at the ready. "Then you'd better get him out quick, so I can kick his ass for stealing our musician's shadow!"

-The Following Morning-

"You're joking." I could almost feel a vein pulsing as I scowled over the day's edition of the news. "I didn't see anyone around, Gardevoir didn't sense anyone, and I'm pretty damn sure Boa Hancock herself would have seen a camera if it were anywhere nearby. So how in Arceus's name did they pull this off?"

'This' being, of course, the picture splashed across the front page, which showed myself and Boa Hancock shaking hands in the aftermath of one of our battles.

"What I'm surprised by," Binz commented in a half-teasing tone of voice, "Is that they caught all this but left out you standing on Torterra's head so that the two of you were the same height."

I dragged a hand down my face, giving the Marines a deadpan stare.

"How are you so unconcerned about this? We were in the middle of the Calm Belt with nobody else but the Sea Kings around for miles! And this 'Attachan' isn't a woman, so he couldn't have been on the island!"

"We've long since accepted his skills at infiltrating just about anywhere," Ain said with a shrug. "He likes being coy about it whenever he's asked, and the Navy doesn't really care as long as he keeps putting out results."

"Except for the betting pool they have going," Binz snickered.

I couldn't do anything more than grumble at that, idly flicking through the paper to see if there was any more news, before noticing a familiar name in one of the articles. "Oh? Looks like Smoker's been busy. Says here he caught one of those Super Rookie crews while they were attacking another island."

Ain and Binz took another look at the paper, skimming through the article in question. "Well, good on him," Binz commented. "Those Kid Pirates were making a name for themselves mainly off of brutality. I remember the after-action reports for some of their raids, and they weren't pretty."

"Urgh." Ain grimaced. "I remember those, too. Good riddance. I hope the wardens throw him into the deepest pits of Impel Down."

"That's the supposedly inescapable prison, right?" I asked, just to confirm. Both Smoker and Sabo had mentioned Impel Down before, but neither had much more to say about it other than how escapes were nearly unheard of and (from Sabo) that I was supposed to stay far away for as long as possible, even as a Warlord. Apparently, none of the wardens would actively violate the protections the Government and the Marines grant their Warlords, but they were very, very far from fond of them, and I shouldn't be poking the Beedrill's nest if I didn't have to.

"Closer to completely inescapable," Ain confirmed. "It's a tower built in the middle of the Calm Belt that reaches all the way down to the sea floor. The only way in or out is through the Gates of Justice, which if you remember, are the size of small islands in their own right."

I nodded, remembering the set of Gates at Enies Lobby.

"Not to mention the wardens," Binz added. "The Blugori, a race of ape-beasts from the North Blue, keep most of the weaker prisoners in check, and the guards in charge are no pushovers themselves. The chief guards are all at or above your average captains in strength, and the Chief Warden could probably give a Vice-Admiral a run for their money if he were so inclined."

"Add in the use of Seastone for the stronger or Devil Fruit-empowered prisoners, and it's no wonder that Impel Down has its reputation," Ain finished. "The only known escapee in the prison's history is Shiki the Golden Lion, and not only was he a rival to the Pirate King, but he had to cut off his legs to pull it off. That was twenty years ago, and he hasn't been heard from since."

I processed that for a minute, but even with everything impossible I'd seen so far, I drew a blank at one question.

"He cut off his legs…to escape?" I repeated. "His powers must be impressive."

"They are," Zephyr grunted. "The Float-Float Fruit allowed him to levitate himself and anything he touched. Once he was free of his shackles, all he had to do was fly away. It was the last time the prison was ever so careless with a Devil Fruit user."

Touch-activated levitation didn't sound like much on its own, but I'd had the same thoughts about being made of rubber not too long ago. "I don't really have a good measuring point for how far Devil Fruit powers can go. But does that mean it's possible that he could have levitated a whole island, and that's why nobody's found him yet?"

"The thought has crossed my mind," Zephyr uttered. "But the world is too big of a place to be able to look everywhere, and until you came along, the Navy and the Government didn't have any vessels that could search the skies. Besides, it's just as possible that he went to the White-White Sea, which is even less feasible to search."

"Fair enough," I sighed. "Guess we'll just have to leave it to luck, then."

"And for the time being," Ain cut in, readjusting our heading. "Our next stop will be Kuraigana Island to meet with Dracule Mihawk."

"He's the swordmaster, right?"

"World's Greatest Swordsman, yes."

"… Do you think he'd be—?"

"Yes," all three Marines responded.

~Back to the Previous Night~

While Luffy had immediately taken off into the woods of Thriller Bark (followed closely behind by Usopp, Robin, Franky, Chopper, Sanji, and an actively cursing Nami), Zoro and Brook had veered off in a different direction. And this time, it wasn't just because of Zoro's deficiency in that department. Brook was the one leading the charge, his skeleton-light form darting between trees almost faster than Zoro could follow. Several of Moria's animated corpses tried to stop them, of course, but between Brook's surprisingly nimble swordsmanship and Zoro's own bladework, they didn't have the time to regret their decision before falling to the ground in several pieces.

A welcome change, however, was that with all the focus Zoro had on keeping Brook in his sights, the island was shifting beneath him a lot less. In fact, he only had to stop to reorient himself once before arriving in the clearing the skeleton had led him to. Granted, he did enter the clearing from the opposite side he'd intended, and he'd had to follow the zombies' cries of "Help!" "It's the Humming Swordsman!" and "Get Ryuma, quick!", but it was an improvement!

He found Brook facing off against another zombie, this one wearing the garb of a samurai and bearing a single sheathed katana.

"Yohohoho…" the zombie sighed, reaching down with one thumb to flick his sword ever-so-slightly out of its sheath. "You really wish to try this again? We both know how this is going to end, my friend."

Even without lips, Brook's sneer was easily visible. "While I would be glad to win my shadow back myself," he said, "I am aware of my own limitations. I have grown stronger since last time, but I know you have as well. Alone, I stand no chance against you. But I am no longer alone."

"Oh?" The zombie turned, giving Zoro a measuring gaze, before nodding. "I see. And your name, swordsman?"

Zoro grinned viciously, tying his bandanna on his head before setting Wado Ichimonji between his teeth. "Roronoa Zoro, of the Straw Hat Pirates," he declared, brandishing all three of his swords in the zombie's direction. "And I'm going to take our musician's shadow back."

"Yohohoho… Such determination," the zombie chuckled, before drawing his sword, a pitch-black katana, in one smooth motion and holding it in front of him in a fencer's salute. "I can only respond in kind." He raised his head, and Zoro swore that he saw a flash of something in those empty eye sockets. "I am Ryuma of Wano. Let us begin."

For a single moment, neither swordsman moved. Then, at some unspoken signal, they launched themselves towards each other, and their blades clashed in an explosion of wind and steel.

-o-

"That no-good, reckless, rubber-brained idiot!" Nami's tirade had turned down a couple of notches in severity now that several minutes had gone by, but she was still far from happy with her captain. "He didn't even take any of our salt with him!"

That Brook knew the weakness of Moria's zombies was another stroke of good luck to add to the pile. Granted, Sanji had initially been incredibly reluctant to use their stash of salt for any non-meal-related purposes, but Usopp, of all people, had quickly buried that:

"You sure about that, Sanji? I wonder how many of Moria's victims are beautiful women who'd be extremely grateful to whoever let them get back into the sunlight."

The saltillery had subsequently been prepared in record time, and Nami added another reason to redouble her studies in psychological warfare. Though she still wasn't sure about asking Robin for advice; that was a little too likely to be hands-on, pun intended.

Either way, though, Luffy had gone and taken off without any of it, and of course she was gonna take the rest of the crew after him! Sure, Luffy could probably take on whatever zombies he found anyways. He was a moron, but he was strong enough to punch through it most of the time. It was the stuff he couldn't punch through that caused problems, and a shadow-based Devil Fruit reminded her far too much of Giratina's intangibility.

And we're not any closer to unlocking Haki or whatever it's called, and none of us have Ghost powers—wait. Brook might…

Not that that was helpful now, though, because Brook and Zoro had taken off to get the skeleton's shadow back. Instead, it was just her, Usopp, Sanji, Robin, Franky, and Chopper making their way down an all-too-convenient path towards the mansion in the hopes that when Luffy did run into someone, they'd be able to follow the sounds of explosions to catch up with him.

And to be fair, there were explosions and crashing sounds further down the path, so it wasn't a completely false hope. "Wanna bet that our idiot captain ended up here?" Sanji asked dryly as the remaining (relatively) sane Straw Hats finally made it to what was probably the manor's front courtyard.

"Pfft," Nami snorted. "If you were serious, I'd have actually felt bad about taking your money." This was the first structure they'd seen on the island so far, and therefore the closest. It was also massive. Larger than any building they'd seen at Enies Lobby bar the Tower of Justice, and a more than fitting size for the ego of a Warlord like Gekko Moria. Luffy may be an idiot, but even he could figure out that someone important had a base of operations here. And based on the many, many bodies strewn about, put the pieces together he had.

"He didn't even do us the courtesy of busting the door down," Sanji complained as he proceeded to do just that, before turning to bow to Nami and Robin. "After you, ladies," he crooned.

"Oh my, how gallant of you," Robin giggled, stepping daintily into the mansion like she was entering a high-class party. Nami followed behind her, shaking her head in amusement, and Sanji slipped in after them, closing the door behind him.

Usopp, Chopper, and Franky, meanwhile, chose to walk through the giant, almost Luffy-shaped hole in the wall which was right next to the doorway.

"I'm not really surprised at this point, but why did he run off into the woods instead of taking the entrance that was right there by the web?" Chopper muttered.

"Maybe he's just gotten smart enough to not charge through the front door?" Usopp shrugged.

"Then what do you call this?" Franky asked dryly, jerking his thumb at the hole.

"Why don't you try explaining Luffy's logic, then?" Usopp countered.

Robin giggled again. "I believe our captain would say he in fact did not charge through the door, he went through the wall next to it."

"Ha!" Franky barked. "She's got you there, long-nose!"

…

"Usopp?"

No response. Everyone turned, glancing around, but the sniper was nowhere to be seen. Almost instantly, the almost-lighthearted air around the Straw Hats was replaced by alert wariness. Robin activated her powers, spawning eyes and ears around and on herself and her crewmates, Sanji and Franky tensed, ready to spring into action at the slightest provocation, and Nami strained her senses to the limit, searching the surrounding air currents for even the smallest hint of something…

There!

"Above!" she yelled, diving to the side as a bulbous creature shot down, missing her by mere inches before shooting back up. Robin, who'd seen them coming around the same time, was yanked backwards by an arm that grew out of the nearby wall. Sanji's own natural flexibility was enough to dodge the strands that were shot in his direction and Chopper was able to avoid them by shrinking down to Brain Point, but Franky wasn't so lucky. In two seconds flat, before he could even shout in surprise, something had shot down, enveloped him in a net, and dragged him through a hole in the ceiling and out of sight.

"Franky!" Chopper screamed in panic. Sanji almost looked ready to charge up through the ceiling himself, but an arm grabbing him by the back of his shirt stopped him.

"Wait," Robin said tersely. Another arm sprouted from the floor, reaching out to grab one of the ropes that was still hanging down, and she nodded. "Spider silk, like I thought," she said. "Just like the web outside. Clearly, our esteemed host did not restrict himself to humanoid minions."

Sanji grimaced. "And those bastards probably got Usopp, too. Great."

"Actually, it might be." To her own surprise, Nami couldn't find it in herself to be too concerned. After all, she'd (reluctantly) sat through several of Franky's presentations of what his cyborg body was capable of. "Great, that is. I don't think we'll need to worry about those spider-things keeping either Franky or Usopp tied up for long."

-o-

"This is so not Super," Franky snarled. Wrapped up as he was, though, the words came out significantly less comprehensible.

There was very little he could do with his senses blocked and his limbs bound, and if his iron muscles weren't strong enough to break free, what was?

Coup de Vent won't work in this pose, Coup de Boo is too risky, he reflected. And a quick wiggling of his wrists confirmed that Strong Right and Weapons Left were both locked shut. What else—hmm. Could work, but could be risky. Try a small burst first.

Breathing in through his nose, he exhaled a small trickle of fire. Immediately, his bindings loosed, and he grinned.

"Now, THAT is Super," he said, repeating the attack to loosen his head and upper body.

Soon enough, the sound of scrabbling reached his ears, and he was able to turn his head enough to see a group of spiders with rat heads running around the giant web he was bound to.

"These intruders are too quick!" he heard one of them complain. "They caught onto our game before we could get them all!"

"Ah, you worry too much!" another one said. "The Surprises will get them, and then we'll have enough meat to last a month!"

"Yeah, if they share it at all!" That was a third one, from Franky's other side. Carefully glancing over, he saw a cocoon on the web not too far away, one with a familiar nose sticking out of it. He grimaced. He took a second to make certain his left arm was freed and another to take in all the zombies he could see. Then he breathed in as deep as he could.

"FRESH FIRE!"

All the spider-mice looked over to him, and yelped as they saw a massive portion of their web melt away. The rest of it didn't catch, but the damage was done.

"GAG HIM!" one of the mice screeched, the four nearest him grouping into a line to evade the hole he'd burned into the web. He pointed his left arm toward them, and the fist lowered to reveal four holes.

"BEANS LEFT!" he shouted, rapid-firing at them and forcing them to back off as he destroyed that section of the web as well.

One more quick breath of fire and he was tumbling onto the ground. Or rather, the rafters. The mice glared at him, but he just grinned back.

"You're not so tough when I know how to get rid of your webs," Franky taunted, breathing in deeply. "FRANKY FIREBALL!"

The condensed burst of flame shot towards the web, straight at Usopp. The sniper's bonds melted at once, and he flailed as he started falling.

"LONG-NOSE, TAKE 'EM OUT!" Franky bellowed.

"ME? HOW—oh, right!" Usopp grinned, flipping around in midair and loading his slingshot as the spider-mice charged him.

Two seconds later, he crashed gracelessly to the wood below. Four seconds later, the de-animated corpses of the spider-mice crashed around them, amorphous black shapes billowing from their mouths and vanishing into the walls.

"SUPER shooting, Long-Nose!" Franky cheered, flashing the prone sniper a thumbs-up.

Usopp raised his own shaky thumbs-up in response. "Yay," he groaned, painstakingly picking himself out of the body-shaped dent in the floor. "I wasn't the only one who heard that thing about surprises, right?"

"Well, this Gecko guy's supposed to be all cunning and stuff," Franky said as he leapt down to land next to the sniper. "Not surprised he'd have all sorts of tricks and traps set up."

The two mechanically inclined Straw Hats exchanged looks, then their eyes turned to the surprisingly spacious area that had been built between the mansion's walls and ceilings. It was clearly something that had been made with the intention of letting who-knows-how-many zombies and other unpleasant undead creatures travel through the building without any potential visitors being the wiser.

Before the events of both Long Ring Long Land and Water 7, Usopp would have blustered something about fearlessly braving the darkness ahead, and even gone in headfirst in an attempt to hide how scared he was. Now, though, that he'd become much more comfortable in his role as a long-ranged fighter, he was much more willing to voice his displeasure at their surroundings. "I don't know about you, Franky, but I want nothing to do with whatever's in there."

Franky snorted. "Bold of you to assume, Long-Nose, that anyone other than Moria's lackeys likes this place." The cyborg's left hand clicked open again, and he let a curl of flame pass from his mouth. "I think we'd be better off giving the place a nice little destructive makeover, don't you?"

Usopp's responding grin was as eager as it was malicious, and he quickly pulled a specific, highly flammable set of ammunition from his belt.

-o-

Despite her own reassurances and the knowledge of her kidnapped crewmates' capabilities, Nami still couldn't help but be on edge as she, Robin, Chopper, and Sanji advanced through the halls of the mansion. The morbid decorations, including various paintings, sculptures, and suits of armor, weren't helping at all, and neither was the constant prickling feeling that someone (or something) was watching them.

The feeling wasn't unique to her, either. Chopper was glancing around, cataloging their surroundings nervously, Sanji was eyeing nearby decorations with a casualness that was almost certainly forced, and Robin had an eye or two in discrete positions on her body constantly checking their blindspots.

The explosions from somewhere further in the house, at least, implied they were still heading in the right direction. And then another batch of them started up from a different direction, somewhere above their heads.

"Well, at least those two are enjoying themselves," Sanji sighed, hiding his relief by lighting up a cigarette.

Nami nodded. "As long as they don't bring the ceiling down over us, at least," she replied, sending a suspicious look at the general direction of where Usopp and Franky were at work and incidentally straying closer to the edge of the statue-lined chamber.

That, of course, was when the nearby statue came to life and tried to grab her.

With how on-edge the mansion, island, and Triangle as a whole had been making her, this surprise was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Nami reverted to her base instincts. Instincts forged by the many, many life-threatening instances she'd gone through, and further honed by the tools and training she'd gained as a Straw Hat.

That is to say, she shrieked like a little girl and proceeded to light the offending statue up like a Christmas tree.

The statue shrieked in turn, seizing up as electricity coursed through it, until it was promptly put through a nearby wall by a kick from Sanji.

"Well, that was a shock," a voice said, and everyone's heads slowly turned to see a… portrait on the wall, whose mouth was now hanging open and whose eyes were now staring directly at them.

"Really?" barked…several more voices around the room. For a couple of seconds more everyone was silent.

Then everything moved.

-o-

Ryuma darted forwards with unnatural speed, weaving around several flying slashes before thrusting forwards with his blade to fire off a blast of compressed air. "Aubade Coup Droit!"

His opponent, undaunted, spun in place, creating his own blast of air to cancel out the attack. "108 Caliber Phoenix!" Zoro grunted, before rushing forwards through the dissipating winds to meet the zombie's blade with his own. Despite having only one blade to Zoro's three, Ryuma wove an expert defense, gaining only minor cuts to his clothes when anything got through at all. After the first few clashes, Zoro noticed that the samurai was actually deflecting his swords such that one blade would get in the way of the next, staggering his rhythm just enough that the zombie could more easily anticipate his next strike. But there was still something… off about it.

Zoro's suspicions were confirmed seconds later when Ryuma broke the next blade lock and leapt into the air, before jumping off of nothing (something that was not as surprising as it should have been after Enies Lobby) to thrust at him again. "Swallow Bond en Avant!" Zoro deflected the thrust with Yubashiri and Wado Ichimonji, lashing out with Kitetsu in a decapitation strike the zombie barely avoided by leaping back to gain some distance.

"Polka Remise!" Ryuma's next attack was a flurry of thrusts, firing off several compressed air bullets that Zoro dodged or deflected with little issue. And that attack was enough to confirm his theory.

"You're not taking this seriously," he accused.

Ryuma… Well, he couldn't blink, but with the way he hesitated he might as well have. "I'm… Sorry?"

Zoro scowled around Wado Ichimonji's hilt. "Don't bullshit me," he said. "I can tell what you're doing. Those aren't your techniques, and that's not your swordsmanship. It's Brook's, isn't it? Meant for his sword and his body." He sheathed Yubashiri and Kitetsu with a flourish before taking Wado Ichimonji out of his mouth. "I came here to fight a samurai of Wano," he snarled.

"Then you are a fool," Ryuma answered. "Master Moria chose my body due to its raw power, and my personality is an echo of my soul. I may have his name, his body, and his sword, but the true Ryuma departed this life long ago. Do you believe you can defy death itself?"

"Yes," Zoro said, taking Wado in both hands and closing his eyes. "A true swordsman can cut through anything. If you were ever one, show me that you're still worth my time. One-Sword Style…Lion's Song!"

Zoro's strike was faster than the eye could see, as fast as Brook's strongest techniques. Ryuma, clearly acting on pure reflex, swung Shusui with just as much force, the two facing away as they sheathed their blades.

The moment the hilts clicked into place, a shallow cut tore open on Zoro's chest. He turned back to his opponent, who was completely unscathed, and smirked.

"It seems I underestimated you…no. I underestimated myself," the samurai stated, his tone trembling with delight. "I felt something stir in me from that blow. I feel…awake."

As the walking corpse turned about to face Zoro, his stance was no longer a mirror of Brook's. Zoro grinned, returning Wado to his mouth as he drew his other blades once more.

"If you permit me, I will introduce myself once more," the samurai said, an invisible fire blazing in eyeless sockets. "I am Shimotsuki Ryuma of Wano, wielder of the black blade Shusui, and he who was once known as the Sword God and the Dragonslayer. Now, Roronoa Zoro, our duel truly begins."

-o-

Ever since joining the Straw Hats, every single crew member could comfortably say that they'd gotten stronger. Even Franky, who'd only joined a few weeks previous, could say he'd grown in strength. It was even more obvious for the crewmates who'd joined up in the East Blue, with Nami in particular having had the largest relative jump in combat capabilities.

And even with all of that growth, they had nearly been overwhelmed in the first few minutes of the undead assault.

"Cyclone Tempo! Thunder Charge: Swing Arm!" Nami cried out, sending out whirling winds in one direction and an electrified staff in the other. The zombies struck by the former were sent hurtling back, crashing into walls and each other, while the ones struck by the latter fell to the ground, seizing as electricity coursed through their decayed nervous systems. Chopper leapt over her shoulder in his Brain Point immediately after, switching to Heavy Point in midair to slam down between her and the next wave of attackers.

"Heavy Blockade!" he shouted, ramming forwards shoulder-first and knocking several of the zombies flat. He quickly threw salt pellets into several of the downed zombies' mouths, and Nami could see the bodies slacken as something drifted out from their bodies. She took advantage of the brief lull in the action to glance behind her, where another horde of zombies was attacking. Sanji was holding the line with his usual efficiency. based on the gouts of flame and screams of panic from the zombies in that direction, but her main focus was on Robin, who was currently standing almost completely still directly behind her, eyes closed and arms crossed.

If it wasn't for Robin, the four Straw Hats would have absolutely gone down by now just from the sheer amount of bodies being thrown at them. But Robin's well-honed paranoia had let her react in time, spawning a dome out of her Grande Mano technique around them which had shoved the initial attacks away and let the rest of them process what had happened. Not without cost, as the bruises and cuts all over the archaeologist's actual hands showed, but after dispelling the dome she had been using her abilities to trip, shove, and otherwise hinder the horde attacking them. Even now, though, the furniture-clad zombies were starting to adapt to Robin's techniques, and Nami winced as she saw two more bruises form on her crewmate's real arms.

If there was any bright side, though, Sanji was heating up more and more with every injury the archaeologist gained.

"I'LL TEACH YOU SOME RESPECT!" he roared, searing the fur off of a bearskin rug and tossing the embers about the picture frames as well. While nothing openly burst into flames from his actions, there were several scorch marks lining the walls and ceiling, and the temperature was already noticeably hotter. From the smoke Nami could see seeping through some of the walls, something elsewhere had probably caught alight thanks to his flames.

It didn't take a genius to know that they'd need to get out of this room; the fire was under control for now, but at this rate, it wouldn't be for long. And she didn't have the chance to deploy her Rain Tempo, too busy setting up a final thunderbolt that still wasn't ready—!

A part of the ceiling caved in all of a sudden, crushing the zombies rushing in front of her and kicking up a large cloud of dust. An indignant screeching rang out from within the cloud, and Nami and Chopper quickly took the chance to make themselves scarce, running back to Robin's position and regrouping with her and Sanji.

"HOW DARE YOU!" something roared, and a large set of black-and-yellow-striped legs shot out from the dust cloud, which parted to reveal the legs attached to a giant, bizarre mixture of spider and monkey staring hatefully at the hole he'd made in the ceiling. "Not only have you ruined my beautiful webs, but the damage you've done to Master Moria's mansion is unforgivable! I will eat you alive for this insult!"

"As if!" That was Franky's voice coming down from above, shortly followed by the cyborg himself leaping down from the hole made in the roof. "The only thing you'll be eating today is a heaping helping of salt!"

The hybrid zombie snarled, rage visible beneath what Nami could now recognize as a mask of silk over his mouth, before jerking a hand up to cover his face as Franky spat out a burst of fire in his direction. He leapt over the fireball with surprising agility, scurrying along the ceiling on six legs and pointing his free hand in the cyborg's direction. "Spider's Sticky Net!" he cried out, voice slightly muffled behind his other hand, and a large net of webbing shot out of a hole in his palm, one which Franky countered with a sustained stream of fire.

Nami tried to discreetly charge the thundercloud above her head to help him, but another wave of furniture-wearing zombies swarmed towards them at that moment, bursting out from paintings and holes in the wall. She was forced to abandon her efforts to help Chopper instead, sending the new wave of zombies flying into their fellows.

Thankfully, it seemed that Franky had things well in hand. Almost literally, too, because his right hand had detached and swung out on a chain to wrap around the spider-monkey's neck. With a mighty yank, he pulled the zombie off-balance, making him stumble and nearly faceplant onto the ground. An instant later, Usopp of all people dropped from the ceiling with a large mallet in hand, driving it into the zombie's head with a cry of "Impact Hammer!" and splattering it like an overripe melon.

Usopp held that pose for a few moments as the now headless zombie slumped over, before leaping back with a disgusted yelp. "Ew, ew, ew! It's all over my shoes!"

Franky grimaced, absently flicking a salt pellet into the ruined remains of the zombie's neck as he reeled his hand back into place. "Yeesh, Long-Nose, did you have to hit him that hard?" A statue then leapt onto his back, and the cyborg quickly reached behind him to haul it over his shoulders and smash it into the floor headfirst.

"Oh, sue me!" Usopp shouted, hammer already stowed as he ran back to the relative safety of the rest of the crew. His arms blurred, firing pellet after pellet of salt at the approaching zombies. "Don't blame me for having to block that thing's fists with my Impact Dial! I'm not a metalhead like you!"

"A SUPER metalhead, dumbass!" Franky shot back, breathing out another stream of fire to deter the horde (and, incidentally, set even more random bits of the room alight). "I keep telling you to get it right!"

"Can we save this until after we get out of the place we're setting on fire!?" Nami yelled, punctuating the request by finally releasing the thunderstorm she'd been building up, frying the remaining zombies in front of them into immobility and leaving them wide open for Usopp and Franky to salt them all. "Clear on this end!" she called out, turning back to see Sanji fussing over Robin, who had several more small injuries on her arms. Chopper quickly joined him, pulling out disinfectant and cleaning and bandaging up the lacerations.

"Not that I don't appreciate the help," Robin said lightly, wincing slightly at the sting of the antiseptic, "but I believe we should move, before we join our foes as charred corpses inside of a burnt-out husk of a mansion."

On that rather macabre statement, the Straw Hats quickly left the room, fleeing further into the building as the ceiling behind them finally caved in with a fiery crash. Sanji winced. "In hindsight," he admitted slowly, "I might have been too reckless with my abilities. My sincerest apologies, my ladies."

"Eh, it wasn't just you," Franky commented, eyeing the walls, which were now suspiciously empty of decorations. "Long-nose and I set a bunch of those spiderwebs on fire in that cellar of theirs, and that was before we ran into that one big guy."

"Well," Nami sighed, caught between resignation and despair. "At least we won't have to worry about the damage Luffy's going to do to Moria's mansion. We're doing that part ourse—"

"YOU!" The scream was so loud and abrupt that Nami couldn't help but be startled, whipping around to see a rotund, spindly limbed man pointing at them in indignant fury. A woman—or rather, another zombie stood behind him, dressed in a revealing black dress and feather boa and carrying a stack of plates.

"What do you think you're doing to my beautiful mansion?!" the portly man shrieked.

"Your mansion?" Franky asked skeptically. "I heard Gecko Moria was a lot taller."

The man stared at them, a mixture of shock and anger coloring his gaze. "You assault this building, knowing full well that it belongs to Master Moria?" he said incredulously, very clearly looking them up and down. "You all must be a special breed of simpletons, even among pirates!"

"You work for Moria, then," Sanji observed, otherwise ignoring the man's words. "I don't suppose you've seen an idiot in a straw hat running around, have you?" He gestured behind him at the ruined, still-burning remains of the room they'd just been in. "He'd be doing something like this to your house too, just with a bit less fire."

That sent the other man sputtering. "You—You're the Straw Hats? What in the Hells are you doing here!? You may have impressed that young upstart, but he will not save you from the wrath of another Warlord!"

"Funny thing about that," Franky said, cracking his neck. "Straw Hat doesn't really care about the fine details. All that matters is that if you hurt one of our crew, you're in trouble."

"And I'm afraid our latest recruit lost his shadow here," Robin continued, smiling in an unnervingly calm manner. "So you see, we have no choice but to purify every single zombie on this island. Just to be thorough, you understand."

The man turned an interesting shade of red. "You… You worthless, disrespectful upstarts!" His spindly arms swung out widely, and several larger zombies appeared through hidden panels in the nearby walls. "You may have bested the Surprises and Tararan, but you will not find the rest of my creations to be such easy prey!"

"You're the famous Dr. Hogback."

The rest of the Straw Hats didn't make a move; none had ever heard that tone from Chopper before. Their doctor was staring at the ground with blank, empty eyes, his entire body language screaming shock and betrayal.

"Every doctor in the world knows your name. You have a reputation for performing miracles, for saving more lives than there are stars in the sky," the reindeer continued dully. "A hero in the medical community who had wealth, fame, honor, and everything else a doctor could hope for. Your name has become a legend since you disappeared."

Chopper raised his head, looking at Hogback beseechingly.

"And you've been working with Gecko Moria ever since. Why?"

Hogback seemed to… not necessarily calm, but simmer down to a low boil as Chopper listed his accomplishments. "Fosfosfosfosfos…why?" he chuckled. "Because he helped me provide the breakthrough I was after! The resurrection of the dead!"

He gestured pridefully to the soldiers around him. "Master Moria provided me the means, the shadows with which to provide animus to the once-living, but it was my work that brought them into use! My expertise that stitched together flesh and bone, muscle and tendon, my genius which enabled that which was dead to live once more!"

The demented doctor spread his arms wide, cackling maniacally with his next words. "I, Doctor Horatio Hogback, have done what so many lesser minds have considered impossible! I have cured death itself!"

For a long moment, the doctor's proclamation was met with silence, before Chopper shuddered. "Not like this," he said, the words filling the entire room despite the near-whisper they were spoken in. "This is no cure. And you, Hogback." Chopper's gaze sharpened as he glared daggers at the surgeon. "You make a mockery of everything a doctor stands for."

Hogback, unperturbed thanks to the boost from his own ego, outright cackled at Chopper's accusation. "FOSFOSFOSFOSFOS! I make a mockery of what a doctor stands for?!" He slapped his fishnet-clad torso. "I'm a genius who deserves the best! And money was the driving force behind using my skills! But at the cost of carrying the burden of the incompetent doctors that couldn't help all of those needy little whiners?! 'Save my father!' 'Please save my child!' 'Save my—!'"

BOOM!

The sunglasses on the portly surgeon shattered as he crashed into the wall, barreling down several zombies as he flew. Franky, meanwhile, reeled in his Strong Right.

"Sorry if you wanted to do that, Chopper," the cyborg growled. "But I got my fill of listening to self-absorbed scumbags ramble on like that after dealing with Spanda."

"DOCTOR HOGBACK!" several of the zombies yelped before turning their attention to the Straw Hats. "How dare you?!"

"Here we go again," Robin murmured, the crew readying their salt pellets as Hogback, showing a surprising resilience for a man who had never physically fought someone before, clambered out of the hole he'd made in the far wall.

"Impudent scum," the demented doctor said, fixing them with a deranged glare. "If you wish to add yourselves to Master Moria's army, then so be it! We Mysterious Three will gladly accept this generous donation! Kill them!"

A slight shifting of the nearby air currents was all the warning Nami had before some sort of impact knocked her off her feet, carrying her into a nearby secret passage as she shouted in protest. Sanji immediately took off in hot pursuit, trailing flames behind him as he barrelled through the zombies that tried to stop him.

Chopper launched himself directly towards Hogback with a roar, crunching down on a Rumble Ball and crashing into the zombie woman at his side in a head-on contest of strength. The other zombies around him surged forwards, only for several of them to trip and fall when Robin's conjured arms grabbed hold of their ankles. Franky charged at them right after, firing salt pellets from his left hand and bashing the standing zombies aside with his right.

"Horohorohorohorohoro…"

The eerie, ethereal laughter drew the remaining Straw Hats' attention to where a collection of minuscule grinning ghosts were slipping through the walls. Only Robin picked up on how their laughter was the slightest bit forced.

But she had little time to capitalize on that before the ghosts exploded with great force, sending her and Usopp flying away from Chopper and Franky. Several more of those ghosts came darting out of the walls, forcing the two of them to flee into a nearby courtyard, where a young woman with a parasol was waiting for them.

"If you're so dead set on defying the will of Master Moria," the pinkette said, levitating above the two Straw Hats and summoning two more of those grinning ghosts to orbit around her, "Then we'll make sure that you end up dead for it!"

-o-

"Gum-Gum Bazooka!" Luffy yelled, lashing out with a double palm strike. His opponent, a large, armorclad zombie, tried to block with his equally massive shield, but that only led to him getting crunched between his shield and a wall when the difference in strength proved too much. Another armorclad zombie tried to thrust into his unprotected back, only for Luffy's torso to twist unnaturally and contort around his rapier. The zombie's eyes barely had enough time to widen under his helmet before Luffy's grinning head slammed down, crumpling the protective armor like tinfoil and burying him into the ground. "Gum-Gum Bell!"

Several more zombies charged in, but Luffy's torso was already unwinding, spinning him around like a demented top and sending the rubber man's arms flailing around like fleshy whips to force them all back.

"Whoo, that one leaves me dizzy," Luffy laughed as he came out of the spin. "How's Gum-Gum Tornado sound to you guys?" A chorus of unconscious groans and indignant shouts was the only response he got as a few of the zombies were already getting back to their feet.

"Eh, you're right," Luffy shrugged, as if he wasn't being glared at by several undead. "It's spinny enough, but a real tornado would move around and stuff. I'll work on it, though, after I finish getting Brook's shadow back, and—"

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?"

That voice came from a rather large guy who stomped into the courtyard from a nearby doorway along with three smaller zombies. He was smaller than the Z-guy Lucas had with him, but not by much, and he was much more weirdly-shaped. If Luffy had ever seen one before, he'd have compared the man's body to a gourd, a rotund lower body and torso connected to a tall, thin neck-head combination that bore a sharp-toothed scowl. But more importantly, he was alive, and the dead guys were following him like he was their leader. That made Luffy's next question obvious.

"You're the Gecko guy, aren't you?"

The giant's scowl deepened, staring at Luffy like he was some sort of strange creature. "I am Gecko Moria, yes. And you are Straw Hat Luffy, are you not?"

"That's me!" Luffy confirmed. "I'm here to take back my musician's shadow!" He punched one hand into the other eagerly. "So give it back already!"

Moria's initial response was an incomprehensibly strangled mixture of sounds, before he finally put his feelings into words. "You," he said incredulously, "Enter my territory, destroy my minions, assault my precious crew, set fire to my house, and you think I will just return one of my shadows because you say so?"

"I mean, kinda?" Luffy said nonchalantly, unfazed by the enraged Warlord in front of him. "I'll kick your ass if you don't, and then you'll have to do it anyway. It'll be faster if you just did it now."

"Arrogant brat," Moria scoffed, his shadow coming to life and swirling around his feet. "Just because you were lucky enough to impress that other Warlord, you think I'll roll over that easily?"

Luffy only grinned widely. "Nah," he said cheerfully, before stretching his arms out to sink his fingers into the nearby walls. "I just wanted to say it, so I have an excuse for kicking your ass." Piece said, he leapt off the ground, letting his arms snap back and launch his body at the Warlord. "Gum-Gum Rocket!"

-Present-

By now, the Fish out of Water had taken off, leaving Amazon Lily and the questionable hospitality of the Snake Princess far behind. Zephyr was striding down one of the hallways, having just finished a report on the event to send to Sengoku, when he heard Lucas chuckling nearby as the boy spoke to someone on the Den-Den Mushi.

"Yes, they're a bit odd in that respect," he said. "But they will need to be watered frequently, especially if you're using those mulch—er, fertilizer recipes I gave you. And don't forget that they use your own body's energy to work, so make sure you change your diet to compensate. Fixing yourself up does you no good if you're cannibalizing your body to do it."

The snail, which actually had a very familiar serpentine face now that Zephyr thought about it, nodded curtly. "We need no reminders on that subject," it said in Boa Sandersonia's voice before disconnecting.

Lucas gave the snail a slightly confused look before shrugging and turning to face him. "Zephyr, did you need something?"

Zephyr's response was short but carried all of his barely suppressed derision. "You chose to part with your miracle medicine for the first time, and it was to an isolated nation of pirates."

Lucas frowned. "Their isolation in and of itself will keep the Berries contained. Besides, this is what they're made for: healing those who frequently get hurt."

Zephyr scoffed. How could someone with so much actual and political power be so naïve? "One of these days, if you keep reaching out your hand this easily, something will bite it off."

The movement around them slowed to a stop as tensions increased, the young boy locking eyes with the old man.

"I'm not going to pretend that I've faced anywhere near as many criminals as you have, Zephyr," Lucas began coolly. "But I've clashed with enough to recognize real, irredeemable evil that doesn't care about anything but itself. I'm also perfectly aware that even a monster like that can have followers that love and would die for them."

Lucas folded his arms.

"Maybe I'm naïve when it comes to how this world works. But if being reckless, short-tempered, and eager for a fight made someone evil, we'd have to villainize half the Pokémon back home. It's not a question of what they've done; it's why they did it. And the answer is almost always trauma or immaturity."

"...Trauma?" Zephyr found himself asking, curious despite himself. Lucas had gone into detail about some of the Pokémon back home, but with over a thousand of them having been discovered, a majority of which Lucas himself had never seen before outside of books or photos, any chance to learn more was one Zephyr would grasp without a second thought.

The tense mood darkened, and Lucas looked down. Then, slowly, he rifled through his bag for something Zephyr recalled him preparing the day before.

"Since I became Champion, I've had to see more reports of abused Pokémon than I ever wanted to. All the rehabilitation involved for trainers and Pokémon alike. Every single time, there's been a reason for it, and it usually falls into one of these categories." Lucas handed over the cards, and Zephyr took in the illustrations one by one.

Cubone: The Lonely Pokémon. When it thinks of its dead mother, it cries. Its crying makes the skull it wears rattle hollowly.

Parasect: The Mushroom Pokémon. A mushroom grown larger than the host's body controls Parasect. It scatters poisonous spores.

Tyrogue: The Scuffle Pokémon. It is always bursting with energy. To make itself stronger, it keeps on fighting even if it loses.

Then there were two other, larger cards. One divided into two parts, and one into three.

Magikarp: The Fish Pokémon. It is virtually worthless in terms of both power and speed. It is the most weak and pathetic Pokémon in the world.

Gyarados: The Atrocious Pokémon. The evolved form of Magikarp. Once it begins to rampage, a Gyarados will burn everything down, even in a harsh storm.

Deino: The Irate Pokémon. They cannot see, so they tackle and bite to learn about their surroundings. Their bodies are covered in wounds.

Zweilous: The Hostile Pokémon. The evolved form of Deino. The two heads do not get along. Whichever head eats more than the other gets to be the leader.

Hydreigon: The Brutal Pokémon. The final form of Deino. The heads on their arms do not have brains. They use all three heads to consume and destroy everything.

Zephyr looked up, blinking slowly, as Lucas explained. "Magikarp may be the most common Pokémon in the world, and you still get stories all the time of trainers not knowing how to treat one well and then having to contend with an unruly Gyarados. It takes a lot of pain and experience for any Pokémon to evolve. But Magikarp has it among the hardest. So when it suddenly gets that much more power, it becomes an instinct to destroy everything it touches. A close bond of trust mitigates that."

"And what about the black dragon?" Zephyr asked quietly.

"Deino and Zweilous are blind, and Zweilous's minds merge when it evolves. Hydreigon might have three heads, but compared to what a Zweilous head can do, those other two might as well just be hands with teeth. Couple the disorientation of seeing for the first time in your life with suddenly being alone after getting used to having someone nearby, even if it was someone you didn't get along with, and, well… Hydreigon is one of the strongest non-Legendary Pokémon in the world, but it's one of the hardest to raise for a reason."

Lucas gestured at the cards in general. "My point stands: circumstances beyond your control can hurt you and make you want to lash out at the rest of the world as soon as you have the power to do it. That's the first thing I think of when I'm looking at what people in this world would call a monster. I know that there can come a point where someone is too far gone. But if you can figure out why they were hurt, you can try to fix it. And Pokémon like these are living roadmaps of what you can do. All it takes is someone who's willing to be the support they need to get back on their feet."

Zephyr and the rest of the Marines that had stopped to watch the exchange just stared at him.

"Is it really that alien of a concept?" Lucas sighed.

Without another word, he walked off, and the Marines were left to ponder exactly what in Boa Hancock's past Lucas's team uncovered that had earned her respect in less than a day.

Zephyr, for his part, shook his head slightly. Of course rehabilitation wasn't unheard of, but that was for small-time criminals, the kind that wouldn't be thrown in Impel Down without a second thought. Criminals like that were too dangerous to consider anything else.

"Dangerous," he murmured as he ran that thought through his mind again. And as he did, he remembered Smoker mentioning Lucas's perspective on the word, the same one that had been shared now.

His gaze slid over to his arm, and his frown deepened. Criminals needed to be arrested for the safety of the rest of the world, that much would always hold true. But afterward…

He frowned as he looked after Lucas again, already certain that he was the only one in the world who would have considered rehabilitating anyone who deserved Impel Down. He'd have to bear that in mind in case he actually presented such an idea—

"WHAT?!"

His pondering ceased abruptly as the young Warlord shouted somewhere nearby. Another minute later, Lucas was rushing back into the hall with an active Den-Den Mushi in hand, and an utterly flat expression on his face.

"Commander," Lucas began in an exhausted tone of voice, "You remember how the Straw Hats were sailing into the Florian with absolutely no intention whatsoever of engaging Warlord Gecko Moria in combat, under threat of dismissal as my subordinates?"

Zephyr knew that tone. It was the exact same tone that Sengoku used when ranting to him about whatever nonsense Garp had recently gotten up to. And all of a sudden, he was starting to feel his own age. "I believe I do."

"Well." Lucas plonked the snail on the table in front of him, and Zephyr realized that it had the features of the Straw Hats' orange-haired navigator. "It seems that our original plan will require some adjustments."

Patient AN: …so. This has taken quite some time, hasn't it? At least it's coming out for Halloween? My apologies to Teammate for my significant part in dragging my feet here.

(He says like I didn't have my own long bit of not-writing going on too. The past months were quite interesting at work, including two complete schedule changes and a new position that isn't as much a promotion as a side-motion, but seems to have much more work involved).

Either way, Happy Halloween, everyone!