Platinum Pirate

by Your Teammate

"Looks like we're going to be partners from now on. Together, we'll see all this world has to offer." When Incumbent Champion Lucas was called in to investigate a mysterious buildup of psychic energy in the Solaceon Ruins, he didn't expect for his wish from so long ago to come true, in potentially the worst (or best) way possible.

31. Chapter 27

This is not a prank.

Chapter 27: Last Respects

When Franky had planned out the Fish Out of Water's structure, one of the things that I'd insisted on was a proper meeting room. I'd hoped to not need it for a while, but circumstances being what they were, I was now seated in it with Zephyr, his two lieutenants, and a few of their higher-ranking officers for a conference with the 'subordinate' crew that had just given me a major headache from Arceus-knows-how-far away.

"Alright, let's see if I've got the timeline straight," I said, staring blankly at the Den-Den Mushi on the table. "So you all entered the Florian Triangle and encountered an actual, living skeleton possessed by his own ghost, who had his shadow stolen by Moria."

That was already a sentence I hadn't ever expected to say, and we hadn't even gotten to where the Straw Hats made it to Moria's island.

"That's the first thing, yeah," Nami confirmed. "He gave us a heads-up on some of what Moria was doing before we got to Thriller Bark. While Luffy took off as soon as we got there, Zoro and Brook went to get his shadow back from the samurai zombie who had it."

The snail's features shifted, now showing the trademark scowl of Luffy's first mate. "That zombie was Shimotsuki Ryuma, one of the greatest samurai in Wano's history," Zoro explained. "He put up a good fight after the skeleton's shadow stopped holding him back."

-o-

If there were any spectators within close proximity of the duel, they would have long since been sliced into several pieces. Even Brook had been forced to run a good distance away from the shockwaves and razor-sharp flying slashes that were lashing through the air.

The duel itself, meanwhile, was a work of art. Zoro was a whirling dervish of steel, nine blades flashing through the air as he spun and slashed with the fluid ease gained by countless hours of training. Ryuma, meanwhile, was matching him blow for blow, one blade against nine. Through what could only have been years of experience, his katana was always in just the right spot to turn every attack aside, and every so often slipped through the nine blades like a snake in an attempt to gut his opponent.

Zoro grimaced as he barely avoided another such attempt, opening up a shallow scar on his abdomen as he leapt away. But within a second, he was dashing back in, swinging his blades so fast that they blurred. "Asura: Nine Lightning Flashes!"

Ryuma reacted at once, swirling his katana around in rapid, circular motions. "Dragon Slaying Style: Stellar Dispersal!" The zombie's sword struck all nine of Zoro's with expert precision, redirecting each slash in a different direction and completely diffusing his attack. Before the Straw Hats' swordsman could react, Ryuma spun Shusui again, this time collecting all nine swords into one location and twisting his own sword around to lock them in place. "Dragon Slaying Style: Arc of the Sun!" Using the locked blades as leverage, Ryuma planted his feet and heaved, swinging the surprised Zoro over his head and slamming him into the ground with what was essentially a bastardized judo technique, but with a sword.

To his credit, though, Zoro didn't stay down, quickly spinning to his feet and lashing out with all nine swords in an omnidirectional attack, forcing Ryuma away with the force of the tornado he'd kicked up. "Asura: Three Dragons' Hurricane!"

Ryuma deflected the winds that flew in his direction with several swipes of his own sword, but Zoro's eyes narrowed as he saw the brief, near-infinitesimal moments of struggle in each clash.

"Thought so," he muttered. Ryuma's head inclined ever so slightly, his stance falling slack.

"As expected of you to notice," the zombie said. "The modifications of Master Moria and his servants were insufficient. Regardless of what vigor this shadow has given me, this body of mine has been dead for many years. And I'm afraid that no amount of work can perfectly undo all of the ravages of time."

Ryuma didn't indicate anything in particular, but several of the stitches on his body, most notably across his torso, were starting to pull apart. Zoro frowned, almost disappointed at the revelation. At their current rate of fighting, Ryuma's body soon would fall apart on its own. A battle of attrition would end in Zoro's favor, it was a foregone conclusion. However…

"A victory like that… It's no victory at all."

With that declaration, Zoro gave his opponent a look of challenge. "I won't let our duel end in such a way. Come at me with all your strength, Shimotsuki Ryuma," he declared, brandishing his swords and settling into a ready stance. "Let's end this here and now!"

Ryuma's mouth stretched into a parody of a smile, and he sunk into an iaijutsu stance. "Very well, Roronoa Zoro. One last clash before this body falls apart."

For a single, ephemeral moment, all was still, and then Ryuma exploded into motion, Shusui singing as it was drawn from its sheath in one brutal motion. "Dragon Slaying Style: Empty Moon's Beheading!"

A razor-sharp wave of pure black energy fired forth from the blade, one which Zoro met head-on with all nine of his swords.

"Asura: One Mist Silver!"

A shockwave blasted out across the clearing as the two attacks clashed until, with one final herculean roar, Zoro tore Ryuma's attack apart. Asura dispelling under the strain, the swordsman charged through the fading remains of the attack, ducking under one final, reactive swing before plunging all three of his swords into the zombie's body with a cry of "Three Sword Style: Bull Demon's Courageous Talons!"

"I see…" Ryuma did not cough up any blood despite the blades embedded in him, but that was only because he had no blood to lose. "It seems… That I have been bested." The zombie's arms fell to his sides, Shusui held limply in nerveless fingers. "Roronoa Zoro…" he rasped, "You seek to become the world's greatest swordsman, do you not?"

Zoro nodded, withdrawing his swords from Ryuma's body and sheathing them with a flourish. "I will become the best," he said, pulling Wado Ichimonji from his mouth and holding it in his hands.

Ryuma grinned, standing tall despite his loss. "Good. I will accept nothing less." With one swift movement, Shusui was stabbed into the ground, quivering from the force as the samurai placed his hands on it one last time. "Two requests, I believe. My blade, Shusui. Wield it if you so desire, and if not, return it to Wano, that it may instead be wielded honorably by my descendants."

"I'll see what I can do," Zoro grunted. "And the second?"

Ryuma straightened, staring into Zoro's eyes with his own empty sockets. "Rise to the top, Roronoa Zoro," he commanded solemnly. "And when you one day pass on to the next world, we will duel again." With those last words, a shadow exhaled from his mouth, and Shimotsuki Ryuma's lifeless body collapsed for a final time.

Zoro watched the shadow silently as it flew back to Brook, flattening to the ground and anchoring itself at the skeleton's feet, before pulling Shusui free and sheathing it with a respectful nod. "I'll look forward to it."

And despite his euphoria at having his shadow returned at last, Brook doffed his top hat and inclined his head at the twice-fallen samurai.

"To the servile revenant that used my shadow as fuel, good riddance," he intoned. "But to the great warrior that through my shadow was able to defy death and fight once more? Godspeed; it was an honor."

The moment hung there for several solid seconds. Then Brook began waving his arms and dancing about purely to watch his shadow move with him, and Zoro rolled his eyes and walked off to hunt more zombies.

-o-

I smiled appreciatively as Zoro finished his recounting of the duel. "Congrats on the win, Zoro. Wish I could've seen it."

The swordsman scoffed, though I could see the appreciation in the snail's replica of his eyes. "Next time we run into each other, I'll give you a firsthand demonstration," he said with a vicious grin. "I still owe Lucario for some of the bruises he left me, and I bet Gardevoir still doesn't know how to wield a sword properly."

Perhaps Dracule Mihawk will have some advice I can take into account, Gardevoir said calmly, well aware that Zoro couldn't hear her.

"Do you want me to repeat that for him?" I asked dryly.

I would say yes if we didn't have more pressing things to deal with.

"True. Back to the story?"

Zoro's unsatisfied expression morphed into Sanji's grimacing one. "Besides all the zombies, Moria had three crewmates. Nami-swan and I had to deal with Absalom, a perverted freak of nature who ate the Clear-Clear Fruit, after the bastard tried to kidnap her out from under our noses."

"The power of invisibility?" Zephyr asked, drawing several curious glances. He rolled his eyes behind his shades. "I've met too many perverts who wanted that fruit just to spy on women."

I scowled, as did Ain. Several soldiers in the room shifted uncomfortably as the atmosphere grew heavier.

"Sanji being one of them," Nami cut in waspishly. "Still, the fact that he knew about the fruit already gave us an advantage."

-o-

Nami struggled and shouted as best she could with how she was being manhandled, but whatever it was that was carrying her had a tight grip on her arms and her mouth as it rushed through the mansion. She could hear more than see that Sanji was in hot pursuit based on the smashing sounds coming from behind them, along with the angry yelling and the sensation of heat. In fact, she could hear more than she could see, period, because when she looked down, she couldn't see herself at all, let alone what was holding her.

That meant she had to do something fast. Whoever or whatever had grabbed her knew the mansion's layout better than Sanji did, and if it moved intelligently, there would be no way for the chef to track them down. With that knowledge in mind, Nami started thrashing about even harder, reaching for the Thunder Dial incorporated into her Clima-Tact and sparking it up. Without an accurate way of directing it, the electricity wasn't as potent as it should have been, but the omnidirectional blast of lightning was still enough to cause her captor's body to seize up. And when she felt the limbs around her slacken, Nami took full advantage, wiggling free of its grip and letting herself tumble to the ground in a heap.

"Nami-swan!" Sanji skidded to a stop next to her, leaving a literal trail of flames behind him as he helped her to her feet.

"I'm alright, Sanji," she coughed, shaking off the minor bit of dizziness that came from getting dropped while moving at high speeds. A quick check of the area confirmed they were outside of a church-like area, and that her captor was nowhere to be seen. "More importantly, I think whatever grabbed me was invisible. And it made me invisible, too."

Sanji blinked. "Invisible? Wait…" After a moment, his face lit up in realization, before darkening into a thunderous scowl. "I see. Nami-swan, this vile fiend ate the Clear-Clear Fruit. And when he becomes brave enough to reveal himself, I plan on thoroughly punishing him for it."

A Devil Fruit. Of course. But confirming that it was just an invisibility-granting power made things a lot easier.

"Why wait for the bastard to get the balls, Sanji?" Nami asked rhetorically as she set her Clima-Tact to work, summoning a massive, rapidly darkening cloud above their heads.

"Rain Tempo!" she snapped, and the stormcloud let loose with a torrential downpour. Sanji yelped in protest at the sudden sensation of cold and wet, quickly dousing his flames, but more importantly, revealing a second silhouette in the rain.

The figure reacted with some sort of panic, trying to run away, but Sanji was quick to intercept it, ramming a non-blazing foot into its gut before raising his leg high and slamming it into the ground as it doubled over.

"Nami-swan, stay back. He's not normal," Sanji uttered.

"DUH!" the navigator snapped back. "What kind of normal person can turn invis—uh, never mind," she trailed off, blushing a bit as she started manipulating the temperature.

"I meant that he's tougher than even the other zombies we've been fighting," Sanji replied, seemingly unaffected by the sudden drop in air temperature. "A kick like that would've put a hole through the other ones."

The opponent in question had by this time got to his feet, clearly taken aback at being somewhat visible in the rain. That surprise turned back to panic as the rain around them turned to sleet, then snow, and Nami grinned viciously, insulated by a bubble of warm air as a small snowstorm whirled around her. "Well, it's not like he can hide anymore. The weather's snowy, you bastard! Blizzard Tempo!"

The snow quickly set in, creating a thin blanket over the ground and covering Sanji and their opponent in a thin dusting. The invisible man reacted quickly, doing his best to brush off the snow as it fell, but he didn't have the chance to do more than shake off his arms before Sanji struck again.

And both Nami and the invisible man were shocked when a pair of bazookas appeared and went flying into the nearby walls.

"Only natural," Sanji muttered, steam seeping from his form. "You have the power to make whatever you touch invisible, so of course you'd strap yourself with weapons you could hide at will. But you can't hide in the snow."

The figure let out a very feline-sounding growl as his transparency faded, and the two Straw Hats blinked as they saw that the man had the snout and jaw of a lion, the stitch marks lining his face making it clear that a master surgeon was responsible.

"And I guess that explains why your body's so tough," Nami grimaced, preparing for an electrical attack. "You had Hogback replace your face, and give you some extra muscle."

"Clever girl," the man rumbled. "That's exactly right: six hundred pounds of bear and gorilla muscle, along with elephant skin and a lion's jaw. My body is a savage patchwork quilt of ferocity, a masterpiece! Just because you can see me doesn't mean you're any closer to winning against me."

He crouched down. "I am Absalom, King of Graveyards and Master Moria's most seasoned crewmate! You'll pay for defiling our mansion with your shadow or your life! And as for you…"

Absalom licked his lips, leering at Nami with an unsettling grin. As such, he nearly bit off his tongue when Sanji sent him flying with another, much more vicious kick.

"Nami-swan, please allow me to defend your honor from this disgusting predator."

Nami had seen Sanji mad before, especially when she or Robin had gotten hurt in his presence, but this was something else entirely. His fire was making quick work of the snow around him, turning it to steam before it could even finish melting. Nami spared a concerned frown before taking advantage of the conflicting temperatures to conjure a mirage.

"I'll stay out of your way and give him a good jolt when I see an opening," she confirmed as she faded. "I want to get my own shot in on him after something like that."

Absalom had by this point gotten to his feet, scrambling over to where one of his cannons had fallen and hefting it like it weighed almost nothing, and regarding Sanji with a growl. "Cute," he rumbled, before letting out a piercing whistle. Several zombies stormed into the room, the armor and weapons indicating they were likely a step above the ones the Straw Hats had already taken down in droves. "But you're no match for the Graveyard King, blondie. And I'll make sure you suffer for challenging me."

-o-

"…Though he was a lot tougher than I think either of us gave him credit for," Nami finished. "We only got rid of him after the other members of the 'Mysterious Three' were taken care of."

"Makes sense," I muttered, thinking about how much of a damage sponge those surgeries would have made him. "And the other ones?"

The next person to speak was Robin. "Usopp and I faced off against a young woman named Perona," she said tersely. "She could fly and turn intangible, as well as create ghost minions with various on-contact effects." Her eyes closed, and from the way she was frowning, getting hit by those ghosts must not have been a pleasant experience. "If not for a weakness in her most powerful ability, she would have easily slain us both."

-o-

Despite the ghost-woman's initial proclamation, she'd ended up content to watch from a distance as Robin and Usopp fended off yet another horde of zombies. It was a job they were doing relatively well. Robin's Devil Fruit abilities were just as effective as they were in the mansion, and while Usopp didn't have Nami's capacity for area-of-effect damage, he made up for it with a myriad of salt-laced water attacks that could still carve out large swathes of the zombies.

Eventually, though, their spectator decided to intervene directly.

"Well, this was fun to watch," Perona said, smiling insincerely as several smiling ghosts manifested at her sides. "But I think you've worn out your welcome. Die in despair for me! Negative Hollows!"

The ghosts shot forward, and the Straw Hats, long accustomed to the idea of dodging projectiles after the training Lucas had provided, reacted accordingly. Robin leaped backward, using several newly sprouted arms to catch and redirect her trajectory as the ghosts chased after her. Usopp, meanwhile, sprinted off to the side, ducking behind some of the remaining zombies as the ghosts started to catch up. Unfortunately, his idea was scuppered as the ghosts passed through his undead shields without stopping, leaving them to fall to the ground. The sniper himself only had enough time to fire a single shot at the ghost before it passed through him as well.

From her position several feet in the air after a particularly desperate throw, Robin saw Usopp curl up on the ground, his slingshot falling from his hands as he slumped over despondently. "I'm worthless," she heard him mutter. "What good is a coward who can only lie and run away? I'm no good to this crew… I should just let myself die and be reborn as a slug…"

"Usopp!" she yelled, using several limbs to scoop him up and run his body away from the zombies that were advancing on him. In her distraction, though, she didn't realize that several more of those ghosts were waiting at her landing point, and before she could react, one of them passed through her as well.

Perona cackled as she watched Robin stumble and fall to the ground, Usopp also dropping to the ground as the limbs supporting him dissolved. "Horohorohorohorohoro! No matter how strong you think you are, there's no surviving once my Hollows get a hold of you! Physical strength is meaningless against the power of your emotions turned against you!" Gloating complete, she gestured daintily, urging the remaining zombies forward. "Dispose of them."

The undead roared in triumph as they charged the two depressed pirates—

"Cien Fleur, Underbrush."

Only to fall flat on their faces as arms sprouted from all around them, tripping them up and grappling them to the ground.

Perona's gaze snapped, wide-eyed, to the woman that she'd hit with a Negative Hollow. The one who, against all expectations, had staggered to her feet, head down and arms crossed over her chest. The ghost-woman could only gape as Robin clenched her hands into fists.

"Clutch."

The subsequent chorus of snapping bones and screams of pain from the field of zombies was a telltale sign of what exactly she had done.

"You… How are you standing?" Perona demanded, staring at Robin like she was the real ghost. "No one can resist the power of my Negative Hollows; not even Master Moria could throw their effects off like that! What kind of trick are you trying to pull!?"

Robin raised her head, and Perona flinched despite herself at the intensity of her glare.

"It's an impressive power, make no mistake," she gritted out through clenched teeth. "That much negativity all at once could easily cripple anyone. But…"

A single tear trailed down her cheek, one she brushed away without looking.

"I've. Felt. Worse."

The color drained from Perona's face, and as Usopp too got to his feet, there was a touch of darkness in his eyes.

"You know something, ghost girl?" he asked, his tone sending cold sweat down her back. "If we'd met a few months ago, I think I could have shrugged that off too. I've had a pretty negative self-image ever since I was 8, but I've started feeling real pride in myself lately. That wave of negativity was something I'd almost forgotten. So I guess I should thank you for reminding me how far I've come from the coward I used to be."

He slammed his slingshot staff on the ground, his glare matching Robin's.

"And now that I've had a refresher, I think I can power through like Robin did. Which means…you're doomed."

The pressure from the twin glares, along with the shock of her trump card being overcome twice in quick succession, was too much. Perona fled with a shriek of fear, diving straight into a wall and vanishing from view. The remaining zombies, either paralyzed due to broken bones or completely unconscious, were left helpless to resist as Usopp hit them with another wave of saltwater. Soon enough, the two Straw Hats were the only ones left in the courtyard.

"…Were you bluffing just now, Usopp?" Robin asked quietly, finally letting herself slump over as the mental and emotional exertion of the past seconds took its toll.

"Honestly, I don't know. But I'll take not finding out the hard way," he replied as he readied several more Salt Stars. "I don't have any Seastone Stars, so we wouldn't have been able to hurt her anyway if she stayed."

Robin straightened up, actually giggling a bit as a thought occurred. "I recall Lucas saying that Dark-type attacks rely heavily on underhanded tricks and nasty thoughts," she explained as Usopp gave her a questioning look. "I would say that bluffing and intimidating that ghost girl into fleeing like she did applies perfectly, wouldn't you?"

"Ha, you're right!" Usopp laughed, quickly making sure there were no other zombies nearby before striking a pose. "This will be an excellent tale to tell, of how the Great Captain Usopp was able to scare a ghost into fleeing with just his words and a glare!" A quick glance at Robin's indulgent smile prompted him to add, "Alongside the devil herself, of course!"

"Devil's Child, Usopp," Robin corrected, and for the first time in a long time, there was no heat or revulsion in her voice as she spoke her Government-given epithet. "Even a tall tale needs to have some basis of truth in it."

-o-

"I see."

What a terrifying ability. Robin was able to overcome it through sheer willpower and experience—and wasn't that a depressing line of thought—but the average opponent would be helpless for at least a few seconds. And in a fight, that might as well be an eternity. Add in her apparent intangibility, and this Perona would be a near-insurmountable opponent for anyone without the proper preparations. Unless maybe Haki could—

I shook my head. Not the time to get stuck theory-crafting.

"So, an invisible chimera and a depression-inducing ghost. What kind of power did Hogback have?"

"He wasn't much of a fighter," Franky answered, frowning. "The problem was that he knew his way around the mansion, so we kept running into zombie ambushes when we chased him."

"And we made sure every one of them was purified," Chopper said firmly. "It took a while to catch up, but he couldn't outrun my nose. And when we did catch him, well…" The mini-Stantler's face twisted into an ugly snarl. "We made sure he wished that we didn't."

The Marines didn't respond for a long moment, but I nodded with a sharp grin. "Good riddance."

"Weren't you going on about rehabilitation not ten minutes ago?" Binz asked dryly.

I shrugged. "The guy just had his idol, someone he'd looked up to all his life, shatter the pedestal he'd been put on and spit on everything he'd held dear without a second thought." In some ways, it wasn't quite as bad as the whole Galactic situation. In other ways, it was worse. With how much more… permanent, things tended to be in this world, it was a mark in Chopper's favor that Hogback was left breathing at all.

"Besides," I continued, "I can acknowledge if someone is too far gone. For someone like that to only care about money? To have not even a drop of empathy after being a miracle for so many people? I'll be surprised if there's anything left to salvage without forcing the emotion into his head."

That settled among them for a few seconds.

"Um…you can do that?" Nami asked nervously.

"Probably," I said, Gardevoir nodding grimly. "Not something we'd try casually, but someone like Hogback would make a good lab Rattata to try it out on."

Empathetic links could go both ways, after all. Destiny Bond would probably do the trick, but it was horrendously complicated; even with Dad's help, Gardevoir and Houndoom had never quite gotten the hang of it. Maybe Endeavor, its 'lesser' variation, would be more appropriate…Togekiss could probably pull it off, but she'd have to actually learn it first, and the Pokédex was a poor substitute for an actual tutor. Pain Split, maybe? About as uncommon as Destiny Bond, but—

"Just when we're starting to forget how scary you guys are," Franky said ruefully, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Moving on," Ain said. "If Hogback was a noncombatant, I take it he didn't cause any more trouble. What of the Devil Fruit users? You mentioned they returned to Moria's side later."

"Yeah, well, that ties into something else we found there," Zoro said. "Turns out some of Moria's victims were camping in the forest, the Thriller Bark Victims' Club or something. Found them when I was trying to get back to the mansion…"

-o-

"Oi! You there! Green guy with the swords!"

Zoro turned his head, staring at the speaker out of the corner of his eye as he finished dismembering one last zombie before dropping a salt pellet in its mouth. He'd refused to have any sort of salt coating for his swords—not that such a thing would have survived the duel against Ryuma—but some of the shit-cook's salt pellets were easy enough to fit in his pockets.

Two disheveled-looking men stood there, a skinny one in a striped shirt with wild auburn hair holding a torch and a shorter, broader one with a skullcap and a sword over his back.

"You more of Moria's lackeys?" Zoro growled, already preparing to strike.

"No, no, no!" they protested, waving their hands before them. "We're more of his victims!"

Zoro's eyes darted to their feet, and he relaxed his stance as the firelight showed they had no shadows.

"So, what do you want? If it's getting your shadows back, the rest of my crew is on that already, and I'll be helping when I get back to the mansion."

"We know, we've figured that much from all the chaos going on," the taller one said as a crowd of disheveled individuals drew closer. "We're here to help with that."

"More of you? Who are you all?"

"The two of us are the Risky Brothers," the shorter one said. "And this is our crew, the Rolling Pirates. Our Captain is 'Marriage Proposal' Lola. And we're here to boost your chances against Moria."

"Your crew is tearing the Mysterious Three apart already, but Moria is a whole different monster. You're gonna want to max out your chances against him."

Zoro sheathed his swords and folded his arms. "So, what are you offering? You figured something out about his powers that Brook doesn't know?"

"Something big," answered a pink-haired woman, stepping into view. Zoro raised a brow at seeing the twin swords on her back. "My, aren't you handsome? Will you marry me?"

Zoro blinked slowly.

"Hell no."

"Rejection number 4,444! Better luck next time!" The Risky Brothers cheered, leaving Zoro shaking his head again.

"Can you get to the point already? We've been outfoxed by two Warlords already, we're not making it three."

"I just need to make sure of one thing first. You're subordinates to another Warlord, right? Why are you fighting against Moria?" Lola asked, frowning.

"To get fired," Zoro said bluntly. "Lucas is our friend, but we never planned to be under anyone else's flag. We got forced into it, so now we're looking for an excuse for him to cut us loose. Plus, our new musician had his shadow stolen."

That reasoning made those present exchange looks.

"These guys have some major cojones," one of the brothers muttered.

"We knew that already," the other replied with a shrug.

"All right, then," Lola said. "It'll be faster to show you. Riskies, bring out the shadow!"

The two fled into the distance, and Zoro's eyes widened as they came with a disembodied shadow in their hands. As he made to ask, however, he sensed movement behind him and drew his swords again.

"I don't like sneak attacks," he warned as the Rolling Pirates backed off, the Riskies freezing in place. "Either explain yourselves or admit this was all a trick."

"It's no trick," Lola said firmly. "Fine, we'll explain it…"

-o-

"They'd been purifying zombies on and off for the last three years trying to find their own shadows, and they figured out that they could grab the shadows before they flew away. And if you cram that shadow into a living person instead of a corpse, it gives them a power boost, drawing off the skills and experience of the shadow's owner. It only lasts ten minutes before the shadow comes back out and flies away, and they're usually too slippery to catch twice," Zoro summarized.

"Well, this is the first time I've heard something about his powers that could have a good use," I muttered. "If someone was willing to lend their shadow, it could be used to give their friend an edge."

"Compiling multiple fighters' skills into one body does sound impressive," Binz admitted grudgingly. "But is the time limit the only drawback?"

"Only if you've got a strong enough will," Zoro answered. "According to them, trying to take on even one shadow could knock you out. Most of the Rolling Pirates could only handle up to three at a time; Lola was strong enough to manage ten. They had a hundred of them and planned to spread them out."

"Planned to?" I pressed.

"Yeah. Then Luffy happened."

"Moria wasn't taking me seriously at first," Luffy growled. "He wasn't angry for long before he just sat back and used his own shadow to keep me from doing anything. But I learned how to counter that thanks to Gardevoir."

Oh, dear, she sighed, sounding a bit…queasy?

-o-

"Kishishishishi!" Moria laughed, lounging on the ground as Luffy was knocked back into a nearby pillar. "Where's all that brass now, rookie? You might've impressed that brat and his pets, but compared to a real pirate, you're pathetic!"

Luffy pulled himself free of the rubble with a scowl, rushing forwards with Gear Second-enhanced speed, only for Moria's shadow to flow up from the ground and intercept him once more. Luffy fired off several punches out of habit more than anything else before stomping onto the ground, stretching his leg to try and bounce over the Doppelman. Neither attempt was successful. The living shadow let the fists pass through it without even reacting, but it stretched out surprisingly quickly to block Luffy from landing any aerial attacks on its master.

Luffy landed a ways away, glaring at the shadow and its master. He blinked a couple of times as he sized them up, then nodded and started lacing his fingers together. Before Moria could comment on the bizarre action, Luffy blurred forwards. The Doppelman surged out again, placing itself between him and its master, but Luffy skidded to a halt, stopping just short of the shadow's form and burying his fingers into the ground.

"Gear Third!" he growled, biting into his exposed thumb and blowing hard. Moria's cackling suddenly ceased as Luffy's hands swelled dramatically, destabilizing the ground beneath him. "Gum-Guuuuuum…" Planting his feet, the younger pirate heaved upwards, sending a large portion of the ground flipping up into the sky, carrying a large, vehemently protesting Warlord along with it. "Giant Shovel!"

Caught almost completely off-guard by the move, Moria screeched in surprise, flailing helplessly as he tumbled through the air. By the time he regained some sort of equilibrium and reoriented himself, he was already a good distance off the ground, and Luffy had already leapt up after him with his laced hands already swinging. "Gum-Gum Giant Flyswatter!"

Moria's Doppelman quickly intercepted the attack, preventing it from hitting its master, but it could do nothing about the abrupt change of momentum the blow itself caused. Moria smashed hard into the ground, leaving the Warlord rattled as he tried to free himself from the newly created crater.

"Gum-Gum Giant Axe!"

And before he could, Luffy fell onto him like a metaphorical hammer of God, having inflated his foot to land a devastating stomp. Again, the Doppelman did its best to mitigate the attack, but with the full, gravity-assisted force behind it, still cratered the ground even more, transferring even more force through it into Moria's body. And while the Warlord was still struggling to his feet, Luffy's other foot had already inflated and drawn back for a large kick. "Gum-Gum Giant Pendulum!"

Moria was, in simple terms, punted into the nearest wall, which consequently collapsed, burying him and his shadow in a rain of debris.

For most, this would be a golden opportunity. For Luffy, however, he hadn't mastered keeping Gear Third active for that long; like an unknotted balloon, he blasted in the air, and to his chagrin, the flight was angled just enough that he flew through one of the holes he'd punched in the room earlier.

-o-

"Still haven't figured that part out?"

"It's hard holding my breath for so long!" Luffy complained. "And it all bursts out at once when my bones can't hold it in anymore!"

I shook my head in bemusement. Unfortunately, Luffy's Gear Third abilities were very much unique to his nature as a rubber-man. Breathing exercises that I could look up for moves like Flamethrower and Uproar weren't much use when the thing holding the air wasn't the user's lungs. Zephyr had (reluctantly) offered some advice on the matter, but the potential solution he'd floated, Armament Haki, wasn't something he was willing to teach to a pirate, and not something that could be learned in mere weeks regardless.

"At least you've been able to minimize the rest of the backlash." While the child-sized Luffy form was hilarious, it was a very severe drawback to an otherwise potent technique. It only lasted for a few seconds maximum now, an improvement to how it used to be, but even five seconds could be an eternity in high-level combat.

"Before he goes on, I think that was about the time we took out Absalom. Nami dear?"

"Based on how much damage was going on? Probably," Nami confirmed. "We knocked out a few of Moria's General Zombies, too. And based on what Zoro said, either that Ryuma guy was one of the best they had, or they're just that bad at dodging salt under pressure…"

-o-

"Hail Tempo!" Nami shouted, spinning her Perfect Clima-Tact and unleashing a deluge of rock-hard ice on the zombies around her. While it didn't kill any of them, it did harm and debilitate, denting armor and punching holes into unarmored flesh. The zombies with shields were forced to hold them overhead, making their attacks more awkward, and Nami was able to back away from them even more, keeping her distance from the brigade of zombies.

"Sanji!" She called out, and the chef complied, even though he was busy trying to beat Absalom to a pulp.

"Right away, Nami-swan!" Sanji quickly lashed out with his burning leg before spinning onto his hands to create a fiery whirlwind and force Absalom back. "Party Table Flambé Course!" While it didn't damage the heavily modified pirate, it did force him back, giving Sanji enough time to send a wave of fire slicing out towards the General Zombies' feet. "Glasear Shot!"

Most of the zombies were able to jump over the attack, and others simply had legs armored enough to tank it, but the main purpose of the move was to melt the snow that had accumulated over the ground. Nami immediately took advantage, sending out a wave of cold air across the ground and snap-freezing a thin layer of ice into existence. "Cool Charge: Sleet Wave!"

The zombies that had jumped over Sanji's attack found themselves landing on that ice, to predictable results. While a couple of them, dressed in furs and other cold-weather clothing, were able to keep their balance, the rest of them fell over in a crash of metal and cursing. The ones who were armored enough to stay on the ground fared even worse, because the armored boots were even less suited to walking on ice than normal bare or booted feet, and all of those were left slipping when they tried to advance.

They would regain their footing quickly enough, probably, but Nami was still able to salt a few of the prone zombies before having to run away again and deploy another of her tricks. "Thundersnow Tempo!"

It turned out that the clouds above her head were just as good at making lightning as they were at making snow. Who would've guessed? Not Moria's zombies, apparently, because all that metal they were wearing and wielding made the lightning bolts hit even harder. They all fell over, incapacitated and extra crispy, and Nami quickly salted them all before they could recover.

Sanji, meanwhile, was busy making Absalom regret even more of his life's choices. The thin layer of snow constantly falling from overhead meant that he couldn't take advantage of his invisibility like he normally would, and even if he shook it off (or had it shaken off of him thanks to one of Sanji's kicks), it would reapply itself relatively quickly. Though the chef had largely let his Diable Jambe fade out to conserve his strength, his righteous fury was plenty enough to compensate for the reduced power of his attacks.

One such kick slammed into the general area of Absalom's jaw, sending the patchwork pirate stumbling backward. Sanji flew forward to pursue, but Absalom's silhouette hunched over, and he was forced to cover his eyes when a large clump of snow got hurled at his face. The chef's vision cleared moments later, but it was to find that Absalom had managed to grab hold of one of his cannons.

"Hand of the Dead!" he roared, and Sanji was knocked away by an invisible cannonball slamming into his chest. More stunned than harmed, the chef flipped in midair and landed on his feet, but Absalom had already grabbed his second gun and aimed both of them skywards. "I've had enough of this snow," he growled. "Applause of the Dead!"

The resulting blasts caused several explosions in the sky above them, blowing the clouds away with the force of the cannonballs colliding, and Absalom quickly spun in place, shaking all of the snow off of him and vanishing from view using his Fruit. Another barrage of cannon fire blew away the snow lying on the ground, clearing out a large area while also forcing Sanji and Nami to back away.

"Damn it," Sanji growled in annoyance, eyes flickering around as he tried and failed to find their opponent. He then dove blindly to the side as his instincts screamed, and the sudden explosion where he'd been standing told him exactly what he'd just dodged. He didn't have the time to catch his breath, either, because another invisible cannonball exploded right at his feet, sending him flying back with some new scorch marks on his body.

By now, Nami had run even further back, glancing around her to try and catch any tracks or tells that Absalom could be leaving behind. Thankfully, he seemed to be content with trying to get some payback against Sanji, giving her a bit of breathing room. Still, she was running out of options, even including the ones that would put her or her crewmate in more danger.

Her lips turned downward as she thought about her more recent training, and started thinking less for physical combat and more for mental. And almost immediately, she seized on a startling connection. She smirked softly, only sparing enough time to spin a mirage to hide behind before letting out a taunting voice.

"Wow, Absalom, you're pathetic."

Sanji straightened as a quiet snarl came from nearby, lashing out and catching only air.

"See, I've had to live by my wits for a long time. Thanks to that, I've gotten good at sneaking and dishing out cheap shots where I need to. I never tried to be a fighter. But I still grew pretty strong."

An image of Nami materialized, almost certainly not the real her, and Sanji had to cover his nose as she began sensually running her hands along her arms.

"All of those hefty bags of treasure I had to haul, all alone, for miles," she said, each word dripping like honey. "The calluses from learning to use my staff."

She crouched down, still posing seductively as she traced her hands over her legs.

"Outrunning the pirates who were trying to get back what I had rightfully stolen. Having to parkour over the rooftops. Finding the fastest way down. And all of those acrobatic poses to squeeze past trouble…"

She arched her back like a cat, stretching and showing off her toned midriff. By now, Sanji had collapsed to one knee, and Absalom's heart-eyed silhouette was fading into view not far off.

"I may not be able to outmuscle everyone around me. But I can outwit, outplay, and outrun them, because as you can see, I've had a lot of practice."

The mirage rose into an alluring pose as she turned to look at the now-visible Absalom, smirking mockingly. "I can't usually match someone in a straight-up fight, so I lean on my environment, using invisibility to my advantage and compensating for a lack of muscle with lightning. So what does it say about you, o King of Graveyards, that you're using the same tricks?"

Both men snapped out of their lovesickness, and Sanji gave a wry smirk as he slowly began moving.

"You cheated your way to power," Nami said flippantly. "You've got all that transplanted muscle, a couple of bazookas, and a Devil Fruit to make you look like this big, bad boogeyman. But based on how you've been fighting, you have all the skill of a swordsman who just picked up their first bamboo stick."

She grinned in a way that would make it clear to almost anyone that it was an illusion: a perfect crescent moon like the Cheshire Cat. Absalom, however, wasn't in his right mind, having fully dropped his invisibility out of sheer rage.

"You're just another weakling," she taunted. And that was Absalom's breaking point; letting out a roar, he lunged toward the mirage with a flying tackle, hitting nothing but air.

And Sanji was perfectly positioned to respond properly.

-o-

Elsewhere on the island, the Thriller Bark Victim's Association had a collective heart attack as they saw the remains of a fiery pillar off in the distance.

"Tch," Zoro scoffed. "Wonder who made the cook mad this time."

"That's one of your crew?!" Lola demanded.

"Unfortunately," Zoro confirmed, not saying a word as he continued walking—

"THIS WAY!"

—in the wrong direction.

-o-

I whistled, impressed by Sanji's improvement. "You've definitely gotten better with your fire." By the time we'd parted ways at Water 7, the chef still hadn't quite figured out how to increase the intensity of his fire-leg technique past what I'd consider an average Fire-type to be capable of, but the pillar that the Straw Hats had described was closer to what an experienced Gym Leader like Byron or Volkner could get out of their team. For him to be able to pull that off without being out of his mind with rage was no small feet—er, feat.

"Well," Sanji grinned through the snail, "I've had to get stronger in some way or another to keep getting one over the mosshead, and keeping Luffy away from our fridge has gotten less boring now that he's been improving too."

I then heard Zoro scoff in the background at the same time as Luffy's almost deliberately comical whining about how Sanji was too mean to let him snack whenever and however he wished. "Sounds like two full-time jobs right there," I said, before frowning as something else occurred to me. "Wait, if you beat Absalom with that move, how'd he manage to meet up with Moria later on?"

The minor squabble on the other side of the line cut off as Sanji coughed awkwardly. "I, uh… may have misjudged how far my kick would launch him. By the time Nami-swan and I found his landing point, he'd already turned invisible and ran off."

"And by that point," Zephyr finished, "He decided to cut his losses and link up with his captain." At my questioning look, he just shrugged. "I've dealt with his type before."

"Right," I said. "Anyways, he went to find Moria, who Luffy had caught back up with?"

"Yep!" my 'subordinate' captain grinned. "He was trying to do some sort of mystery trap stuff with the shadows in his house, but I made sure he couldn't!"

"And how'd you do that?"

"How do you think?" the rest of the crew deadpanned.

-o-

"Gum-Gum Whip!" Luffy called out, stretching his leg out for an incredibly wide spinning kick and carving a large trench in the nearby wall. This last bit of destruction turned out to be the last straw for that particular part of Moria's mansion, which collapsed in on itself with a loud crash.

"STOP BREAKING MY MANSION!" Moria roared from somewhere inside.

"NO!" Luffy yelled back. "COME OUT HERE AND MAKE ME! I'M NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO RUN IN THERE AFTER YOU!" The younger pirate paused for a second, visibly reconsidering, before shaking his head. "I MEAN, I AM, BUT I DON'T WANT TO, SO THERE!"

"INSOLENT BRAT!" The shadows stretched out nearby, coalescing into Moria's Doppelman for a moment before breaking down into a flying swarm of bats, which proceeded to charge at Luffy. "Brick Bats!"

"Gum-Gum Gatling!" Luffy met the projectiles with a flurry of punches. The sheer number of them meant that even his rapid-fire technique couldn't strike them all, yet even the ones he did manage to strike were just as unyielding as Doppelman had been. "Stupid shadows, get off of me!"

Having no luck with the smaller forms, Luffy resumed attacking the area around him instead, grinning as he threw his weight onto his hands and twisted his legs together.

"Gum-Gum Top!" he called, allowing his legs to whirlwind around him in a mimicry of Sanji's trademark Party Table Kick Course. The stone around him caved as easily as twigs, leaving the bats scattering as they attempted to avoid being buried.

Luffy watched from a short ways away under the cover of dust, but scowled as he saw the ones that failed to avoid the rubble simply sliding back out from under them. They were still just shadows, after all; you couldn't crush something that was already flat.

Some of Lucas's elemental talk came across his mind again, and he remembered how beating Crocodile was only possible with water. And it was an easy conclusion that the only thing a shadow would be weak to, was light. And he had no way of making light right now. What could he do, then…

~o~

It was one of the many meetings Lucas had had with the Straw Hats on Water 7 while waiting for the Fish Out of Water to finish construction. This one had started talking about the rematch with Giratina.

"All things considered, Gardevoir seems like your best choice. Between the type advantage and the attunement, only she and Houndoom can acutely strike its weaknesses, and Gardevoir has greater mobility with her teleportation."

Lucas nodded, sighing as a silent conversation concluded between him and the rest of his team, and he stowed away the notebook he'd been writing in.

"Hopefully, this 'Twilight Blitz' maneuver won't be necessary," Lucas murmured.

"Hey, Lucas," Usopp spoke up, as much to distract him from his pensiveness as to get advice that he wanted. "Do you have any good defaults besides 'run away' if you're up against an enemy that you—well, to put it your way, that you've got a type disadvantage against?"

"Type advantage is always important," Lucas answered, slipping into a well-practiced lecture. "But it's not the only thing you need to keep in mind, and it's not a sure thing, either. Houndoom can tell you that much with how much water she's had to deal with since we got here."

The black hellhound let out a snarl of agreement, while Vaporeon simply let out a far-too-innocent hum while pacing by her.

"Behave, you rascal," Lucas warned, though his tone was more amused than anything. "Anyway, Houndoom's covered her weaknesses by learning other moves. Thunder Fang for Water-Types, Iron Tail for Rock and Ground-Types, and Solar Beam covers all three."

"And what'd you do back when you didn't have those attacks?" Sanji asked.

"That's what having a team is for," Lucas explained. "Granted, that wasn't an option during one-on-one matches like in Gym or League battles, and it led to several losses. But in a real fight, Houndoom would have Torterra, Luxray, and Lucario around to reinforce her weak points and emphasize her strong ones. And when we advanced to the point where that sort of general coverage was more necessary, the three of them helped with teaching her the moves I mentioned earlier. It'll always be their specialties, but it's good to be prepared."

Lucas shrugged. "But, if you're not, and you're doing all you can? That's the time to fall back, figure out what went wrong, and prepare for next time. And you'd be surprised how little time it takes."

"So, you're saying you have no reason to worry about your upcoming rematch."

Lucas's face fell into a bereaved glare at Zoro, while the rest of the crew snickered.

~o~

Luffy really, really didn't like that. But he had to admit that he'd already used the only method he had come up with that could break an unbreakable defense, and while it had done some respectable damage, Moria wasn't even close to falling. And he couldn't keep that up. He needed another way.

"All right," Luffy muttered, pumping up Gear Second again, this time for a speedy retreat. "I'll head back to the Sunny and get some of those Flash Dials. Or if I meet Usopp or Nami, they can help."

By the time the dust had faded, Moria's bats were left bewildered as the rubber pirate was nowhere to be seen.

"…Did he crush himself beneath the rubble?" Moria wondered in bewilderment, shaking his head. "Tch. It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. But this particular group may be a problem."

He skulked off, looking to see what became of the rest of the upstart's crew.

-o-

"I'm still surprised Luffy decided to run from a fight," Nami commented drily, in the tone of someone revisiting an old argument.

"Hey!" And right on cue, Luffy spoke up in indignation. "I told you already I know what I can't do! That's what I've got my nakama for!"

"Okay, so Luffy managed to track you guys down and you were able to group up, right?" I cut in quickly.

The snail shook its head, this time bearing the skeletal features of Brook. "Not quite in that order," he said. "Luffy ran into Zoro's group first, shortly after he parted ways with them to meet up with the rest of us."

"Those shadows gave me the boost I needed to kick Moria's ass," Luffy explained. "He tried pumping himself with even more shadows to beat me, and it almost worked. But then…"

The snail turned to face Zephyr and grinned triumphantly. "What you told me the day before we left. I got it."

Zephyr's eye twitched. He seemed to be fighting the urge to say something, but it was a losing battle.

"IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A WEEK!"

Everyone stared at the outburst, but Luffy's answering grin was more subdued than usual.

"I think all those shadows made it easier, 'cause I haven't been able to do it again. It was like this…"

-o-

"MORIA!" Brook yelled, straining his nonexistent vocal cords to make sure the Warlord could hear him from wherever he was lurking. "COME OUT AND FACE US!"

He'd been yelling variations of that phrase for the past minute or so from one of the larger courtyards of the mansion. Most of the Straw Hats had found their way over to him, while whatever zombies were sufficiently stupid to stand against the singing skeleton were swiftly stripped of their souls.

"Geez, Brook, give it a rest," came Zoro's voice, the last of the Straw Hats besides Luffy to reunite with the rest of the crew. "Came looking for you when I heard, and the reinforcements I was coming with got lost."

"Oh, yes, I'm certain they were the lost ones," Brook muttered, to amusement from the others. "I can't hear Luffy and Moria fighting each other anymore, and I'd rather not give the bastard a chance to cook up some new sort of trick for our captain to deal with."

"Oh? You think you rats could stop me?" The shadows on one side of the courtyard lengthened, distorted… And then were replaced by Moria himself. "You little rookies, scurrying around like vermin in my halls," he said, a ghastly grin on his face. "You'd have to overcome my Mysterious Three to even have a chance at—"

"Captain!"

"Master!"

"Master Moria!"

Moria's eyes widened as he took in the state of each of his Mysterious Three, all of whom were in various states of disrepair as they burst into the courtyard.

"They broke through all of the zombies," the heavily bandaged Hogback wheezed.

"They were breaking through my invisibility and my reinforced muscles," the shirtless and singed Absalom growled.

"And they broke through my Negative Hollows," the paler-than-usual Perona whimpered. "They've had so much negativity in their lives that I can't even faze them!"

Moria snarled as he returned his attention fully to the crew before him.

"Perhaps I underestimated you after all. It has been a very long time since I've been forced to get my own hands dirty," Moria said. "But so be it. If you wish to wage war against me, I will dispatch you myself."

Zoro snorted derisively. "Like Luffy hadn't been punting you up and down your own mansion less than twenty minutes ago."

Moria's crewmates bristled, but the Warlord himself simply laughed. "Kishishishi! Your captain's a cut above some of those other snot-nosed brats running around the Line, I will admit! But you're still not ready for the real world of piracy, and I'm going to give you a taste of exactly what that means!"

"No, you won't! Gum-Gum Pistol!" Moria had barely a moment to realize it was Luffy's voice calling out before a massive blue fist plowed into his cheek, sending him hurtling back into the wall of the courtyard, which promptly collapsed onto his head. As the fist retracted, its owner came into view. And everyone was shocked.

It was unmistakably Luffy who stood before them now. But he had changed drastically: his eerie blue-skinned body was now even taller than Moria, his legs alone twice as tall as he'd been before. His upper body was swollen with muscles that made Absalom's form look puny, and he carried a sword on his back that suited his new height. His face was set in a permanent scowl, shadows under his eyes and his hair sticking up wildly.

He looked like a man possessed, which of course, he was.

The Mysterious Three were pale as ghosts, while the rest of the Straw Hats stared in shock at their captain. Zoro put the pieces together first.

"Gonna take a wild guess, Captain: you took all one hundred of those things, didn't you?"

The blue-skinned pirate grunted and nodded.

"What things, Zoro?" Robin asked.

"Shadows," came a voice from behind them, and most of the crew turned to see Lola and her crew approaching. "We were skeptical at first, but he was able to take every last one we stole from Moria. This power boost will last him ten minutes, hopefully more than enough time to bring Moria down."

By that point, Moria had re-emerged from the rubble, looking angrier than ever. "It's not enough that a rookie like you is looking down on me, you dare to use my powers to do it?"

Luffy didn't respond, only winding back his arm for another punch. Moria glowered at him, remaining where he was until Luffy's fist flew—and struck his Doppelman.

The living shadow lunged at Luffy, who caught it in his bare hands and threw it into the air.

"Nami. Usopp. Give me light," he rumbled. His crewmates blinked, but reacted almost immediately after, pulling out their respective tools and firing off their attacks.

"Sunrise Tempo!" Nami declared, casting a haze that magnified the fiery glow her staff produced a hundredfold, and she ensured it only grew from there.

"Flash Dance!" Usopp contributed, moving about as he repeatedly triggered his Flash Dials to become a human strobe light.

Their efforts dazzled everyone around, but the most impressive reaction was that of the Doppelman, which was all but blown away by the light. Even Moria was left dazed for a fraction of a second, and that was something Luffy, who'd preemptively closed his eyes and thus had full access to his vision, took full advantage of.

"Gum-Gum Gatling!" In mere seconds, Moria was pummeled by dozens of blows, before one final punch sent him tumbling along the ground, plowing a trench in the stone beneath him as he skidded to a stop in the middle of the courtyard.

Luffy took advantage of the moment of peace to turn back to his crew, looking at Usopp in particular. Understanding immediately, Usopp tossed him one of his shells. Nodding in thanks, Luffy turned back to the fallen Warlord, who was busy struggling back to his feet.

"Get up. I know that wasn't enough to finish you off," he challenged.

"Ohhh, for once we agree, Straw Hat! YOU'RE MESSING WITH THE WRONG PIRATE!"

At that, the shadow-controller straightened, lifting his arms out and yelling, "SHADOWS, TO ME!"

For a moment, nothing happened, and then several of the Straw Hats yelped in surprise as a veritable flood of shadows raced past them, drawn in from all over the island. "You may have destroyed a lot of my zombies, rookies," Moria gloated, "But not even Sengoku himself could have found them all before now!"

The shadows congregated into a large mass in front of him, and Moria's Doppelman picked it up almost effortlessly despite it being almost half again its size. And then, to the Straw Hats' surprise, the Doppelman's mouth stretched open wide, jaw unhinging to an almost comical degree, and it swallowed the writhing mass of shadows in a single gulp.

"KISHISHISHISHI!" Moria cackled as his shadow writhed and grew, and the Straw Hats could only watch in shock as his own body started distorting to match it. "It's only natural for shadows to grant such power, you know!" he shouted gleefully. "They're with us from birth to after death! Our experiences, our power, the shadows have it all! And it's all mine, under my control by right as the Lord of Shadows! Your transformation may be borrowing some of that power, but this is what the true Master of Darkness is capable of!"

In a matter of seconds, Moria's already towering form had swelled huger, his body swollen and bloated in a way that would have been almost comical if not for the sheer power radiating from him. He had an extra head or two of height against the rookie pirate, and he leaned forward in a three-point stance with an ear-splitting grin.

"Behold!" Moria proclaimed, reveling in his empowered state as his living crewmates scrambled for cover. "This is the ultimate power of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit! This is my Shadow's Asgard! If you believe 100 shadows are powerful, witness the might of 200!"

"Gum-Gum Pistol!"

Luffy answered this boast with a straight punch, but in a flash, far faster than before, Moria vanished, replaced by the Doppelman, which neatly caught the punch. Despite a hard yank, Luffy found he couldn't free the limb, either.

"Kishishishishi! How unsporting, Straw Hat!" Shadows oozed out, pitching Moria's twin scissor blades into his hands. "You wanted a straight fight, fair and square? I'm more than happy to oblige!"

With that, Moria rushed in, a blur the watchers could only barely follow. Luffy, eyes wide, drew his loaned blade and caught the scissors on it. The resulting impact threw up dust, grass, and a mighty wind, the two straining to overpower the other.

Neither one budged.

"Kishishishishi! It seems we're evenly ma—HOGEBUH!"

Spittle flew from Moria's mouth from Luffy's sandal planted firmly into his belly. With his opponent thoroughly stunned, Luffy sucked in a breath, twisted his body, and then let go. He rocketed up into the air, fist and sword hand flying.

"GUM-GUM METEOR SHOWER!"

The shout jolted Moria out of his stunned state, and he retaliated, scissor blades and Doppelman's fists meeting their counterparts. A thousand blows were exchanged in the span of thirty seconds, neither fighter giving ground.

This time, it was Moria who landed the surprise attack. A lance of solidified shadow lashed out in between punches and stabs, skewering Luffy on his upper hip. With a grunt, he began to fall. Once again, his eyes widened, this time with actual worry, for behind Moria Doppelman had split apart into a swarm of bats.

"Happy travels, Straw Hat! Brick Bat!" Moria crowed, at which point the bats all dove for Luffy.

Unfortunately for Moria, this third use of the technique was one too many. In his off hand, Luffy held out his palm, and the flash dial balanced precariously on it lit up the sky.

Moria screeched in agony, his defenses stripped and the light striking straight into his eyes. The bats, meanwhile, became… gooey, for lack of a better term, seeming to soften and melt in mid-air. Unfortunately, still in mid-air himself, Luffy was hit by several of the bats. Fortunately, in their half-melted state they simply splattered over him rather than do any damage. So it was that he hit the ground no problem, and gave the melted bats a disgusted look.

"Gross."

"Shadow Bind."

Abruptly, the shadows solidified again, wrapping around Luffy's arms and strapping them to his back. A mere second later, a furious Moria landed in front of him.

"I see even a monkey can learn, when it's given enough chances," he growled, lifting his scissor blades. "A mistake I shan't repeat. Why don't I just cut off your head and—"

Moria blinked, and Luffy's head was stretched back a hundred meters, neck taut like a bowstring. The Warlord reacted just in time, aborting his attack and throwing himself out of the way of a ballistic headbutt. "GUM-GUM BELL!"

Scrambling to his feet, Moria tried once again to attack Luffy with his swords, but it was too late. The blue of Luffy's skin had turned purple, and steam wafted off of it. His knees were bent, muscles in his legs bulging.

"GUM-GUM JET SHELL!"

It was too fast. There was no way for Moria to react in time. Luffy's head made contact with Moria's solar plexus, then the rubber man's shoulders, and then the rest of him. The laws of physics then asserted themselves, sending Moria flying away on a low trajectory that saw him plow through trees, rocks, small hills, and then finally the walls of Thriller Bark's mansion.

As the attack finished, Luffy slumped to the ground, gasping for breath. He took in one particularly deep breath, and bellowed, "MEAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"

In flawless unison, Franky, Chopper, and Sanji withdrew perfectly preserved chunks of skillfully seasoned steaks, drawing bewildered glances from the rest of the crew. Themselves included.

But with a silent and unanimous decision, they put that aside for the time being, tossing the food to their hulking blue captain. He all but inhaled the steaks, bouncing back to his feet and baring his teeth in a scowl.

A scowl that Moria matched tooth for tooth as he clawed his way back out of the mansion, tendrils of shadows stretching out into the distance.

"You…" Moria growled, his bloated, distorted form causing tremors as he stomped upright. "You're nobody. A wide-eyed, naïve, dime-a-dozen rookie not even worth 100 million in his first year on the Grand Line!"

One giant hand slammed down, trying to crush Luffy flat, only to miss entirely as the Gear Second-boosted rubber man darted away.

"You are an insect, the charity case of another Warlord! YOU SHOULD NOT BE SO STRONG!"

Luffy only growled in response, fighting off another stab of pain as the shadows he'd absorbed convulsed inside of him. By his count, he had maybe half his time left.

"I'LL CRUSH YOU! SHADOWS ASGARD, FIVE HUNDRED STRONG!"

Unlike the spectacle of Doppelman before, the tendrils swelled like bloodsucking probosces, pumping the stolen shadows directly into Moria's body. He swelled even huger, no longer able to support himself without all four limbs, his clothing tearing in places as he took on a depraved lizard-like form. He now towered over the impassive Luffy, to the point where he could probably swallow the younger pirate whole if he so desired.

"KISHISHISHISHISHI! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF OVERPOWERING ME NOW!" he roared with the distorted voice of a demonic legion. Even his own crew was trembling in terror, and most of the Straw Hats were either tense or had backed away. Yet none drew their weapons; Zoro's hand gripped at Wado Ichimonji's hilt, but to draw it too soon was to admit a lack of faith in his captain.

Ironically, it was Luffy who drew a sword first. Evading Moria's giant hand like it was molasses, the rubber man darted to Moria's rear, drew his loaned sword, and leapt onto Moria's back. He proceeded to spin up the warlord's back, sword carving a swathe of destruction in the shadow-empowered flesh.

Screeching in pain, Moriah responded by rolling, trees shattering under his bulk. A Gum-Gum Jet Battleaxe to the gut swiftly persuaded him to finish the roll, at which point Luffy landed and, in a blur, carved a gash in his side.

"STAND STILL!" Moria bellowed as he kept trying, futilely, to squash the bug running around his feet.

"TALK WITH YOUR HANDS, NOT WITH YOUR MOUTH, MORIA!" Sanji bellowed from the sidelines.

With an inarticulate sound of intense rage, Moria scuttled after where the Straw Hats were watching. Zoro didn't even have time to admonish the cook for the error before Luffy blurred up over Moria's head, kicking him face-first into the dirt. When Moria didn't move for precious seconds, Luffy darted under the Warlord, heaved him up, and shouted—

"GUM-GUM JET GATLING!"

Punches slammed into Moria's already-abused front torso. Punch after punch after punch, like so many drops of rain. Moria's body convulsed under the abuse, tendons tearing and bones snapping. Blood began to replace the spit coming out of his mouth.

Somehow, he still found the wherewithal to grab Luffy and hold him up in the air.

"Kishishishishi!" Moria croaked, his voice wet and strained. "Bon appétit!"

And then he dropped Luffy down his gullet.

This immediately proved a mistake. His throat bulged from repeated blows. A purple fist lashed out of his mouth, leaving a shattered tooth in its wake. Desperate, Moria reared up and spat Luffy out into the air.

And then, Moria did something curious: his shadows started flowing out of him. But he hadn't lost his control over them; no, the streams formed into arms, hands reaching for the sky, for Luffy. And Luffy, falling through the air, was afflicted at this crucial time by another attempt by the shadows within him to escape.

Barely more than a minute remaining. But he was already pushed to his limits. He needed to break through them but how—?!

In that instant, he sensed something within himself. It was painfully dim, like a candle's flame in the last instant before it ran out of fuel to sustain itself.

But it was also matched by one hundred similarly small flames, making it plain as a star on a cloudless night.

~o~

"Why on earth would I give a pirate any advice on Haki?"

Zephyr seemed as immovable as a Poneglyph in this instance, where Luffy, near the end of their stay on Water 7, had come to the man personally to ask about what Lucas had told them when they asked how he was outlawed. The young Warlord had spoken carelessly of Haki being a mainstay in the New World, and Luffy had made the connection that it was how his grandpa kept hurting him.

Luffy's reasoning, however, had nothing to do with his sadistic grandfather.

"Because you know what it's like to lose what you care about most."

Zephyr's expression turned murderous, and Luffy spoke again before he could order him to leave.

"You're giving Lucas all you've got, and he's our friend. If you don't want to call us friends, fine. But we're not enemies. We don't have to be even after we get fired."

Zephyr's anger simmered down to scornful disbelief. "You're a pirate and I'm a Marine. That makes us enemies by default."

"Smokey and me were enemies in Loguetown. Then we weren't in Alabasta, because we had something more important to protect. And it still wasn't enough to beat Crocodile. We got him in the end, but only after he destroyed Merry…and made Robin share something she never should have been forced to share."

Zephyr's frown stretched across his face, his fists clenched.

"I've grown stronger thanks to Lucas. But he and his nakama are still in another league compared to us. I need to get even stronger to protect my nakama. But I need to know how."

Luffy removed his hat and bowed. Not prostrating himself, but showing his earnestness nevertheless.

"Please tell me how to use Haki."

For all that he was a pirate, Zephyr could see in the bright-eyed, grinning rubber man the reflection of his own younger self, desiring nothing but to protect. And he knew that Straw Hat Luffy was a far cry from as selfless and altruistic as he was and had been. But the earnestness was real.

The silence stretched on, and Zephyr huffed as he turned away. Then, grudgingly, he spoke.

"There's no point asking how to use it until you've unlocked it. And the only key is peril. When you're an inch from death, when your life is flashing before your eyes, when it's all you can do to breathe? Find the last spark of willpower that's keeping you going. And fan it until the fire swallows you from the inside out."

A tense pause fell.

"If you can pull that off and survive, I'll consider giving more advice."

Luffy nodded, not daring to grin until he left Zephyr's presence.

~o~

Moria grinned around a mouthful of bloody foam. He had the Straw Hat brat. His use of shadows was finally catching up to him, and had left him paralyzed at the worst possible moment. He could even see the strands of darkness wisping off his body, fighting to escape his control. All he had to do was reach up and—!

Was… Straw Hat turning black? No. No, it was impossible, no, no no—!

Luffy's eyes gleamed with a burning fire as he descended, shadows wrenched back into his body through sheer force of will. The hands didn't matter now. His newly empowered fists tore through them like rice paper. With those obstacles out of the way, Luffy threw his arms back as he descended those last hundred feet.

"GUM-GUM JET BAZOOKA!"

The debris from the resulting impact flew as high as Thriller Bark's mastheads.

Those watching, for a long, agonizing minute, could only see shadows fly away from the dust cloud. But, eventually, the perpetual mist won out, clearing out the dust by dragging it to the ground.

The pirates' breath caught, seeing Luffy crumpled in an exhausted heap. But aside from various scrapes and one admittedly serious gushing stab wound, he was okay.

The same could not be said for Moria. He lay sprawled on his back, eyes rolled into the back of his head and his breath coming in wet, pained rasps. Bruises were already forming all over his exposed skin.

"You," he gasped, rolling over onto his stomach and coughing out a disturbingly large amount of blood, "You… How did you… Impossible…"

"You and your powers pushed me that far," Luffy said, huffing with effort as he pushed himself back to his feet. "But I'm not letting anyone get in my way. I'm going to be King of the Pirates!"

The rest of the Straw Hats drew nearer to their captain as Moria too hauled himself to his feet, and the Mysterious Three darted to their master.

"I can buy us a minute," Perona said to her crew mates, mustering her giggling Hollows despite her visible fear.

"Get us to safety and I'll make sure we're not found," Absalom growled, already reaching out a fading hand to Moria. Hogback didn't say anything, but the panic in his eyes as he reached for his medical tools was, surprisingly, not purely selfish.

"Stop."

But it was Moria's voice that froze them in place. The Warlord finished getting to his feet, staring down the crew of ten that had ravaged years' worth of work in a single night.

Then, with a guttural roar, he raised his arms and shouted loudly enough to be heard across the island:

"I COMMAND ALL SHADOWS TO RETURN TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS!"

Everyone stared as what remained of Moria's army dropped like marionettes with their strings cut, their souls flying out of their bodies and flying through the fog. A single black mass briefly formed overhead before the shadows dispersed, some raining onto the island while most disappeared into the Triangle.

None were more shocked than the Mysterious Three as Moria lowered his arms, regarding the Straw Hats with a toothy frown.

"I lost all of my crew, my precious nakama I'd loved more than life itself, when I fought Kaido, one of the Four Emperors of the New World. An army of invincible zombies was the only way I could see that I would be able to defeat him again. Yet to have my crew and my army decimated by rookies like you! You should not be this strong. But I know why you are."

Even through his surprise, Luffy bristled at the insinuation. "Lucas may have trained us, but we got this far on our own efforts," he snapped.

"You truly have no idea what awaits you in the New World," Moria said, his frown twisting even further, and speaking the next words as if they caused him physical pain. "But I do. A true nightmare, the likes of which I thought I'd never hear of on this side of the Grand Line."

Moria's fists clenched tightly, his teeth threatening to crack against each other, and his entire form radiating rage. Then…

"Until I heard about another nearly invincible dragon with god-like power."

All at once, his stance slackened, his frown no less deep but not as tight, his eyes closing.

"If I'm having this much trouble against a crew of reluctant lackeys to someone capable of rivaling that power, then I have no chance against Kaido as I am. I swore that I would do whatever I needed to do, to reach the point where I could. And if this is the only way left to me, then so be it. For the sake of my own dream…"

And with that, to the astonishment of everyone watching, Gecko Moria lowered himself to his knees and bowed.

"I hereby relinquish my title as Warlord of the Sea and pledge myself to the service of 'Pokémon Champion' Lucas."

The Straw Hats' jaws and weapons dropped in shock, and the Mysterious Three were left with no choice but to mirror their master's prostration.

-o-

"And that's more or less how it happened," Nami finished. "We didn't stick around Thriller Bark any longer than we needed to. The Rolling Pirates had what was left of their ship, and after Franky fixed it up, they took the rest of the Victim's Association on a beeline towards, in Lola's words, 'anywhere but here.'"

"And Moria?" Zephyr's scowl had deepened even further throughout the debriefing, though he did try to restrain his glower when he questioned Nami.

"He's got a snail, and we can pass along the number he gave us," she answered.

"Then we'll get to that in a minute," I said, shaking my head as I got my head together. "First of all, we need to address the fact that you guys engaged a Warlord against my wishes—"

"I have to stop you there, Lucas."

To everyone's surprise, Zephyr cut in.

"The result of what they did is that you wound up with more powerful subordinates and overthrew a Warlord who was violating his contract to persecute both civilians and Marines. They wound up on his island by accident and, in all instances they reported, acted firstly in self-defense."

The snail's expression was falling with every word he spoke.

"Any violation of orders was something out of their control. By all accounts, this seems like something meriting a reward, not a punishment."

You could have heard a sleeping Whismur in the silence that followed.

"So, just to make sure I've got this right," Zoro growled. "We challenged a Warlord so we could get fired. And because we won, we're practically being promoted instead."

"…You know, when you put it that way, it actually makes sense," I chuckled, valiantly suppressing the urge to laugh out loud.

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Luffy roared.

"Well, I see the irony in it," Robin giggled.

As the arguing continued, I shook my head.

"I think that's the end of the important stuff, then. Binz, can you get Moria's number out of them and get something set up?"

"I'll take care of it," the plant manipulator nodded, picking up the snail and making his way out of the room.

As the door closed, I turned to Zephyr.

"Why?" I deadpanned.

"The logic I gave was sound. We don't need any rumors of you abusing your position for any reason. Besides, we still have one less pirate crew out there as long as they're under your flag."

The truth is that he found it amusing to torment the Straw Hats, Gardevoir informed us, sounding amused.

Flat looks were abundant. Unfortunately, a veteran like him was too good at keeping a poker face for a smile to break through.

"That was just mean," I protested.

At that, he actually smirked. "Maybe. But it was funny."

I tried to stay annoyed, but I couldn't help laughing. All too soon, though, the humor died as Zephyr brought our focus back to the problem at hand:

"So, what are you going to do with Moria and his crew?"

I didn't respond immediately. Aside from the obvious issues with his stealing shadows from civilians and condemning them to death or worse, Dad had always been adamant that the dead were meant to be respected, and the idea of a zombie army trampled over everything that he had taught me to believe in. All of which was to say that my knee-jerk reaction to Moria's offer was, of course, immediate denial. But that left the problem of what he would do next in that case.

Ghost-type Pokémon were always a mixed bag. Despite the rumors that certain of them used to be human, most were just a bunch of thoughts and emotions that found a vessel to take on a life of their own. Cynthia had explained it once as the emotions leaving their own impressions in the Aura around a location or object, which if strong enough could manifest as a ghost. Negative emotions were more likely to stick around than positive ones, especially the negative emotions manifested on death, which was the reason those rumors existed in the first place.

The net result was that ghosts were usually predisposed to mischief and malice, especially when wronged. And there was very little a Ghost-type would consider worse than harming those they had forged close connections with. Given the little that Moria had given regarding his past, I'd say that maxim held true in this world as well.

His motivations weren't the question: The man was dedicated to vengeance against the Emperor who took his first crew from him. It was his methods, and his willingness to completely abandon them when necessary, that gave me the most concerns.

But straight-up rejecting him would cause its own problems. Moria was clearly unrepentant and only chose to capitulate because he thought I would be willing to help him get stronger. If I said no, well… If he did actually just destroy his own "manpower" for the sake of an olive branch, he wouldn't be able to do as much damage, but someone who had been to and survived the "New World" portion of the Grand Line could still cause a lot of harm if he went on a rampage. Though between Zephyr and myself, we could probably contain him then and there, and the World Government could probably spin it as more corruption among the Warlords…

The whole situation, though, called up memories of old reports from the League. High-level trainers, even Masters, who'd lost team members through various means. Natural disasters, battle accidents gone wrong, run-ins with criminals, or, in one particular case, trying to blow the whistle on Malva in Kalos and suffering for it. Each time, the trainer in question had reacted differently. Some retired, some forged through the loss and came out stronger, and some, including the would-be whistleblower, snapped, and went on self-destructive, near-suicidal rampages before being stopped, in some cases permanently.

And just like back then, hearing Moria's story now raised some questions I really didn't want to think about.

What would I do, if I'd suffered such a devastating loss? How far would I go? How far would my team go, if it were me who died? Moria's methods were repulsive and damning, that wasn't within question. But his motive, his dream of vengeance for a slaughtered family?

Then again… Robin and Sabo were also prime examples of people who had lost everything, and neither of them had fallen to the same lows that Moria had. Zephyr, too, based on what little I knew about his past. Ugh…

"We'll meet them ourselves before I decide," I sighed. "I don't condone what he's done, at all, even with his motivations. But if he's going this far, I'll see if he and his have enough potential to be worth another chance."

"And you're not just trying to prove your point from earlier?" Ain asked neutrally.

"I promise, that is the last thing on my mind," I answered darkly. "Besides, we have another problem now: Whatever happens with Moria next, we're back down to six Warlords. Can't exactly force him to take the position back up and have that end in anything but problems, even if all of us could probably contain him before he did too much damage. But it'll probably help Sengoku out if we can find a replacement fast."

"A tall order," Zephyr deadpanned. "The Straw Hats are tame compared to most opinions on the Warlords; you won't find many pirates willing to be 'Government Dogs.'"

"Based on my experience so far, it tends to be out of either self-preservation or broken spirits that anyone accepts," I said, grimacing a bit at the thought. "Or some combination of the two. What we need is a common interest, someone who can be persuaded into the role as long as their goals align."

"Going by what just happened, you could probably manage that yourself," Ain said blandly. "Pirates are attracted to power, after all."

I frowned at that. I couldn't really argue; it was how I'd earned Giratina's respect. And from there, loyalty wasn't hard. So…

"Who's the biggest new name on the Grand Line?"

Zephyr and Ain turned to one of their soldiers, Nearmin, who quickly moved to one side of the room where bounty posters were hanging.

"With the recent arrest of the Kid Pirates," Nearmin said, taking down Eustass Kid's poster, "the most infamous rookie crew is the Heart Pirates from the North Blue, led by 'Surgeon of Death' Trafalgar Law. His body count is low, but he has caused considerable damage everywhere he has gone. And his crew travels by submarine, making them far more difficult to track."

Potentially not ideal, but better than someone like Kid. "Sounds like a challenge," I said. "Find their last known heading and chart a course to intercept. Between that and Kuraigana, we'll head for whatever's closer. But first," I let out a sigh, knowing that the headache was only going to get worse later on, "We've got a newly resigned Warlord to meet."

---

Patient AN: The best thing about posting on April Fool's Day is making one's readers second-guess everything~

On my end, god I frickin' hate writing Thriller Bark why did I set it up so we'd get even more of it. Anyways, life, uh, finds a way to make writing incredibly inconvenient. Especially in the past few months. Stay safe out there.

Also, thanks to CV12Hornet for helping out with the final Moria fight, because that had us stuck for way too long.