The zombies surged forward like a tsunami.
The sight of the fearless, moving corpses relentlessly attacking was, indeed, something that could only be described as terrifying.
Robin and Chopper instinctively recoiled at the strange scene, and the zombies swarmed over the fallen Hogback in an instant.
"!? They're attacking Hogback!? Aren't they on the same side!?"
"Something's wrong… they were listening to him just a moment ago, and now they're suddenly rampaging. Could Moria be giving them orders from afar?"
"But why?"
"I don't know. Perhaps he decided that with the giant zombie containing Luffy's shadow, he no longer needed the others…"
Even if that were so, she couldn't understand why he would kill his own ally, Hogback.
Hogback, swarmed by the zombies, was being beaten, kicked, and stabbed with their weapons with unrestrained force, and was already dead.
Robin and Chopper gasped at the slowly spreading pool of blood.
The zombies' gazes turned to the two of them.
It was completely different from when they had been listening to Hogback just a moment before.
"There are living ones here."
"Kill them." "Kill them." "We must kill the living."
"It is an order." "Kill the living." "Moria-sama's order."
"We must kill them all." "Kill them all."
Their muttering was utterly creepy, and the two were slowly cornered as the zombies closed in, leaving no room for escape.
And finally, with nowhere left to run—the zombies attacked all at once.
"Kill them!!" "Kill them!!"
"Kill them all!!!"
"Robin!"
Chopper, with Robin on his back, leaped to avoid the attacking zombies and fled, while Robin, still on his back, sprouted hands from the ground to hold the zombies back. The zombies fell like dominoes, unable to move, but other zombies simply ignored them and continued the chase.
However, the moment they turned toward the door, intending to escape outside, the wall was demolished.
"What is it now!?"
"A giant zombie!!"
The giant zombie with Luffy's shadow—Oars—had appeared, smashing through the wall.
Luffy was supposed to have gone to the freezer to defeat Moria, but he was nowhere in sight.
"Found you."
To Oars, the two were the size of beans, but he had spotted them nonetheless. He, too, had apparently received orders from Moria, and the moment he saw Robin and Chopper, he entered an attack stance. Perhaps due to the influence of Luffy's shadow, even without the memory, he pulled his arm back as if he thought it could stretch.
The other zombies, too, paid no mind to the destroyed footing or walls and pursued Robin and the others.
"Gomu Gomu no~~~~ Bullet!!!"
Oars was over sixty meters tall. The length of his arms was, of course, proportional to his height, so while they didn't stretch like rubber, they had a considerable reach.
Without a care for the destruction of the building, he brought his fist down mercilessly, slamming it into the ground.
Chopper escaped the range of the fist by a hair's breadth, but the zombies that had been chasing them were, as expected, crushed.
"Doesn't he care about his own allies!?"
"It seems his target is to kill all living humans. He doesn't seem to care about anything else."
"But why would Moria do such a thing…?"
"At the very least, it's unexpected. Did we rampage a little too much?"
Chopper's group had only come to retrieve their shadows; they could think of no reason to be resented to this extent.
The pursuing Oars, with no regard for the building, was charging in a straight line, causing the structure to begin to collapse. Bricks from the building materials were falling from all over, and combined with the shaking footing, it was extremely difficult to run… but still, Chopper ran with all his might and made it outside.
There, he saw Usopp, who had already made it outside. Just as he was relieved to see Chopper, his face turned deathly pale at the sight of Oars chasing from behind, and he began to run.
"Chopper! Is that thing chasing you!?"
"I don't know! But the zombies have started targeting everyone living on this island! Luffy's zombie is no exception!!"
"What!? That's bad… hey, isn't that Sanji and Nami!?"
Chopper's group was running across the roof of a building connected to Moria's castle. Looking down, they could see Sanji and Nami, who were also being chased by zombies.
A voice came from the roof of a building in the opposite direction from Sanji's group, and there on the roof were Zoro, Franky, and Brook.
Though the Straw Hats, minus Luffy, had unintentionally gathered, the situation had not improved. The number of pursuing zombies was large, and Oars, with Luffy's shadow, was a formidable foe.
Simply running would not change the situation.
"Damn it! At this rate, we have no choice but to shove salt into every one of their mouths!!"
At Usopp's words, the entire Straw Hat crew sprang into action, preparing to fight Oars.
"If we can just get back Luffy's shadow, he'll take care of the rest!"
"So it's our job to deal with the zombies chasing us here and now! Super leave it to me!!"
"I will protect Nami-san and Robin-chan!!"
"Sanji! Protect us too, Sanji!!"
"The number of zombies chasing us is insane, you know!? Do we have enough salt!?"
"Leave it to me! I'll run around and gather as much as I can!! I'll break as many bones as it takes for that!!"
No one was worried about losing. Even if they didn't know how to defeat this giant monster or what would be effective, they had steeled themselves, knowing that if they didn't act, they would only die. They had been in countless pinches like this before. It was no reason to give up.
…
Meanwhile, Luffy, who had been sent flying by Moria and had fallen into the waterway, was being pulled out by a stranger.
"Bwah!! Hah… hah…!!"
"Are you alright!? You look alright!!"
In the middle of the lush forest, a pair calling themselves the Risky Brothers peered into Luffy's face.
Luffy, remembering being sent flying by Moria and then falling into the waterway and passing out, realized that these two had saved him and sat up.
"Where's Moria!?"
"He's not here! Don't worry!"
"More importantly, are you okay? You're an ability user, right? Are you feeling unwell or anything?"
"Ah… no, I'm fine. Thanks."
Luffy put his straw hat back on and, after confirming that he was drenched but had no serious injuries, he stood up. He had to go after Moria immediately, or he wouldn't be able to get his shadow back.
But the two Risky Brothers tried to calm the rushing Luffy.
"Now, now, wait a minute. You want to defeat Gecko Moria in the mansion, right!?"
"We know the secret to Moria's ability!! We'll give you an incredible 'power'!! So, please, defeat Moria for us!!"
"Power? What are you guys talking about?"
Luffy couldn't quite grasp what the Risky Brothers were talking about so excitedly. The two said there was someone they wanted him to meet first, and called for the captain of their pirate crew.
Her name was Lola. She was a woman with golden hair in two braids, and was about twice Luffy's size.
"Oh, you're lovely! I like you!! Marry me!!!"
"No."
"Rejected—!! My 4444th rejection!!"
"And so, this is the head of our Rolling Pirates, Captain 'Marriage Proposal' Lola."
"I'm in a hurry, though."
"Now, now, don't be in such a rush! Let's skip the details and tell you about Moria's ability!"
Moria's ability was related to shadows. The shadows he ripped from their owners were placed into corpses by his hand, becoming zombies. But if a zombie was purified, the shadow would leave it and return to its owner. However, once a shadow had been released by purifying a zombie, it could be touched by others besides Moria.
"Touch a shadow?"
"That's right. We were desperately searching for our own shadows, so it pissed us off to see some random person's shadow get released! We tried to see if we could do something about it, and that's how it started!"
They had captured a released shadow and, upon putting it into a person, they had discovered that the power of the shadow's original owner was added to their own. A person of average mental strength could probably handle two or three at most, but someone with a bounty of over 100 million might be able to take in the shadows of twenty or thirty people.
With that, Lola prepared all the shadows she had and began to put them into Luffy. In any case, it was a race against time. A person with shadows inside them would become stronger, but that state would only last for about ten minutes. If time ran out, the person would be so exhausted they couldn't even move.
"Moria is probably inside the mansion right now! For some reason, the zombies are rampaging and trying to kill all the living humans! At this rate, we're in danger, and so are your friends! I'm counting on you to defeat Moria as soon as possible!!"
With those words, Lola shoved about a hundred shadows she had collected into Luffy's body.
…
Around the time the zombies began their rampage and the Straw Hats started their fight with Oars, a white-haired girl—Iris—was walking confidently through the mansion without making a sound, carrying the foaming-at-the-mouth, unconscious Perona on her shoulder.
Though there were zombies everywhere, they all seemed to be heading somewhere, as if they hadn't even noticed Iris or Perona.
She had noticed that there were several humans who had had their shadows stolen hiding in the forest. But there were a fair number of them, and she didn't think it was necessary to show herself, so she had left their disposal to the zombies.
With a particularly loud crash, she saw Oars rampaging, as if trying to destroy the mansion along with the enemy. She thought he moved quite nimbly for his size, but Iris knew of a being that was a superior version of Oars, so she was no longer surprised.
"Hmm…"
As she was leaving the mansion and heading toward the docked ships, Perona was awakened by a loud roar. Knowing she was an ability user, a pair of Seastone cuffs had already been placed on her wrists. With her hands cuffed behind her back, the seemingly untrained Perona had no way of overpowering Iris.
"Ugh! I hate cockroaches~~!! Kumae, help me~~!!!"
"…Could you please not scream so suddenly?"
At Iris's chilling voice, which made her frown in displeasure, Perona finally understood her current situation.
She had been knocked out by the psychological shock of Usopp's toy cockroaches and balloons. She had no physical injuries, but she was in a state of great emotional turmoil, and it took some time for her to calm down.
Still slung over Iris's shoulder, Perona looked around frantically. The zombies, who should have been her allies, had all gone into the forest to hunt humans, or were fighting the Straw Hats alongside Oars. At least, as far as Perona could tell, there were none in sight.
With her abilities sealed by the Seastone cuffs, she thrashed her legs about, but a single slap to the cheek silenced her.
"Have you decided to behave a little?"
"…W-Who are you…"
"I'm not sure what to say to that."
"D-Do you think Moria-sama will just let this slide!? Take these cuffs off!!"
"Haa… how troublesome."
With an exasperated expression, Iris lowered the still-slung-over-her-shoulder Perona to the ground. Perona let out a cry of "Gueh!" as she was roughly dropped, but then she noticed something.
The girl in front of her had no shadow at her feet.
"You… did Moria-sama steal your shadow? Horohorohoro! Are you trying to take me hostage to get your shadow back? You're quite desperate!"
Realizing that she wouldn't be killed, Perona put on a show of余裕, thinking that even if she were treated roughly, the worst wouldn't happen.
But Iris simply took out a notebook without replying.
"You, what kind of ability user are you?"
"? I'm a spirit human from the Horo Horo no Mi."
"I see, the Horo Horo no Mi, then…"
"What are you going to do with that information? If you want your shadow back, you're going to negotiate with Moria-sama, right? I'll put in a good word for you, so just do something about this treatment—"
"Could you be quiet? You'll make me miswrite."
Iris, having learned the name and ability of the Devil Fruit, asked a few more questions, each time jotting them down in her notebook. Perona didn't know why, but she judged it would be dangerous to defy her and answered honestly.
When she seemed to have finished her questions, Iris put the notebook back in her pocket and boarded the ship. When she re-emerged a moment later, she was holding a large knife in her hand.
"Y-You… what are you going to do with that!?"
"? What do you mean? I'm going to kill you, of course."
"A-Aren't you going to negotiate with Moria-sama to get your shadow back!? W-Why are you going to kill me!!?"
"Is there a need to tell you? You're about to die."
She had asked for the name of the Devil Fruit to write on the label. She had asked for the details of the ability to be of use to the next ability user. There was no other reason, and there was no point in telling Perona.
"The Suke Suke no Mi and the Horo Horo no Mi. And the Kage Kage no Mi. A great harvest."
She wasn't particularly interested in status, but she could expect a good bonus. Iris raised the large knife in her hand—and just before she brought it down, she sensed a figure appear at close range and took a step back.
He was a man so tall she had to look up. He was slightly shorter than Moria, but his massive, muscular upper body was reminiscent of a bear. Even within the range of her Observation Haki, his strength was astounding.
The man quietly looked down at the two and opened his mouth.
"Are you a subordinate of Moria? —If you were to travel, where would you like to go?"