The Thousand Sunny soon approached what appeared to be land. The fog was thick, but visibility wasn't completely gone. They could see a lot of things, though the entire area was shrouded in a gloomy, oppressive darkness.
"Yohohohoho! This is it!" Brook exclaimed, jumping onto the shore. "The man who can steal other people's shadows lives here. He took my shadow and put it into a corpse, which then came back to life and became very powerful."
A living corpse? The Straw Hats were confused. During the Paramount War, they had been at the front lines and didn't know anything about Moria's zombie army, so it made sense that they wouldn't understand.
Law, however, was familiar with it. "Gekko Moria is a user of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit. He can cut off people's shadows and give them to corpses, creating zombie soldiers who only obey his orders."
"Ohhh, I get it now!" everyone said in unison.
Usopp and Chopper immediately felt less scared. It wasn't an evil spirit, just a Devil Fruit ability. There was no reason to be cowardly about it.
"Alright, we're..." Luffy started to say, then froze.
Luffy wasn't the only one. The others with Observation Haki were also surprised. They had a feeling someone was around, but they couldn't see anyone.
Sanji remembered what Ikki had told him about the Transparent-Transparent Fruit. Anger surged through him.
"You scumbag! Don't think you can get away!" he roared. Sanji shot off the ship like a flash of lightning, grabbing a person not far from the Sunny and slamming his head into the ground.
His confused crewmates watched as a man suddenly became visible where there had been nothing a moment before. He was a man with a leopard head.
"You're the bastard who ate the Transparent-Transparent Fruit, aren't you?!" Sanji screamed. "You ate the fruit of my dreams, which means I can't sneak into the women's bathhouse or into Nami-san's room! It's all your fault!" He then began grinding the leopard-headed man's face into the dirt with his foot.
Everyone on the crew rolled their eyes. Nami and Tashigi were furious. Nami was particularly incensed. She jumped off the ship and punched Sanji, knocking him to the ground. This perverted cook was way too bold, and his reason for wanting the fruit was completely impure. The fact that he was yelling it for everyone to hear made it even worse!
Sanji quickly got up and went back to stepping on the leopard-headed man.
The man, Absalom, wanted to cry. He had heard from the zombies that new guests had arrived, with beautiful women on board, so he had rushed over in excitement.
He found three beautiful women, but he didn't expect them to be the Straw Hat Pirates! No matter how brave he was, he wouldn't dare provoke a member of the Five Emperors, so he had tried to run away. He didn't expect to be found, and now he had no way out. All he could do was lie there and take it.
The rest of the crew disembarked as well, leaving Momoo to guard the Sunny. Normally, nothing would go wrong with him around.
They all walked over to look at Absalom, but nobody knew who he was. However, Nami, Tashigi, Robin, and Marie were disgusted with the leopard-headed man. He had just used his Devil Fruit power to peep at them. He'd made a terrible first impression. If a woman without Observation Haki had been there, she would have been in real trouble.
"Marie!" Nami, Tashigi, and Robin said in unison.
"Got it," Marie replied, taking a bite of her biscuit. She then pulled out her palette and painted her friend's signature yellow and green colors onto him. It wasn't for friendship, but to make him easier to interrogate.
Absalom wasn't strong to begin with, and he was already shaking under the pressure of the Straw Hats. He couldn't resist the paint's effect at all and began to spill everything he knew.
This place was Thriller Bark, a massive island ship. Gekko Moria was in charge, and zombie soldiers were lurking everywhere. There were also other people on board, like the genius surgeon Hogback and the Ghost Princess Perona. As for the people who had their shadows stolen, they were hidden somewhere and left to rot by Moria.
"Ugh, this is so boring," Luffy said, losing interest.
Luffy loved to explore, and he hadn't even started yet, but he already knew everything there was to know. It had killed his excitement. The others, however, breathed a sigh of relief. If this was all there was to it, Moria would be easy to handle.
After the interrogation was over, Sanji kicked Absalom, knocking him unconscious. He then put a sea-stone cuff on the guy so he couldn't run away. After stashing him in the warehouse, the crew decided to split up.
With their current strength, they didn't need to stick together. Besides, the island ship was so big that splitting up was a good idea.
Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Sanji formed the treasure hunting team.
Zoro, Tashigi, Little 3, Jango, Franky, and Brook formed the zombie hunting team.
Ikki, Robin, Marie, and Likely formed the relaxing group.
The rest of the Hearts Pirates went off on their own as well.
The four groups headed in different directions.
Ikki walked with his hands behind his head, looking completely at ease. Robin and Marie were by his side. Marie was riding on Likely, looking very comfortable.
"This place is definitely big enough," Ikki said with a yawn, "but it's so spooky I'd never want to live here."
"Hehe," Robin said, covering her mouth with her hand. "I think it's nice. No one would bother you if you wanted to read."
"Sister Robin, you're so gloomy," Marie said, her eyes filled with longing. "A bright, sunny lawn is the best. You just need to spread out a mat to have tea and biscuits. That's the most wonderful retirement life."
"Marie, are you secretly an old woman?"
"There's nothing wrong with being an old woman! I'm better than a black-hearted woman like you, Sister Robin!"
As the two sisters bickered, Ikki and Likely wisely stayed silent.
Ikki looked around and had to admit that the island ship was massive. If the atmosphere wasn't so terrible, he would have wanted to steal it. After all, Moria was a pirate too, and it's only natural for pirates to steal from other pirates. He decided against it.
Even though Robin might like the place, as long as you moved away from the dark fog, Thriller Bark actually had sunshine. The true gloomy part was the Florian Triangle itself.
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