Towering Memories and Treasured Dreams (Updated Version)

Floor 21: Straw Hats vs. Oars

Oars was still looking down from the building he was perched on, laughing at the sight of the six memory Straw Hats there.

"You tiny pirates are tougher than I thought you'd be," Oars declared.

"No duh!" present-day Franky said as if it was obvious. "Too bad that he didn't remember that he's got our captain's shadow in him. Otherwise he would have known all that."

"It is sad how the shadow will lose their memories of their previous life," Brook nodded thoughtfully. "But there will always be traces left behind. I wonder if, deep down, he does know that."

Well, if that was true and those feelings were in there somehwere, they sure seemed to be buried deep. With a great leap, Oars jumped up and landed with a crash right in front of them; but they didn't even move even as the ground shook beneath them. Not even memory Usopp budged an inch as he stood tall and memory Franky just grabbed a couple broken pillars and fashioned himself another pair of giant nunchucks.

Memory Zoro smirked as he looked up at him. "I'm tired of being thrown around so much," he said to the rest of the crew, "Why don't you say we turn the tables and throw him around for a change?"

"I wish we were as strong here as we are today," present-day Sanji sighed. "We really could have done it then."

"Yeah, but then it would be boring," present-day Zoro offered.

"Boring? I'd take that over being half killed!" Nami snapped at him. Fighting battles where they were sure to win? She liked those fights because it didn't mean that one of them would end up with life-threatening injuries.

"Huh?" memory Usopp asked, taken aback by such a suggestion, "Hey, come on Zoro!"

"I can get behind that," memory Sanji said, unexpectedly backing up Zoro's idea, as he puffed on a cigarette. "We let him run around and have his fun for long enough."

"True," present-day Robin nodded. "Besides, he's under orders from Moria as well, don't forget. I don't think that he would let us go so long as he was still commanded to deal with all of us."

"I almost feel bad for him now," Brook said, feeling pity because Oars was just like a young child who didn't know any better. In fact, a lot of Moria's zombies were like that... the minds of children who were just ordered to obey. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for them... even Ryuma... who had only done what he did because he had no choice.

"Hey, whoa! Wait a moment! How are we supposed to throw him?" memory Usopp demanded. "In case you haven't noticed, he's a giant!"

"Really?" present-day Sanji asked with a roll of his eyes, "No, I hadn't noticed! What makes you think that?"

"We noticed," memory Zoro snapped back at Usopp. "And don't forget he's got Luffy's speed and fighting style as well."

"Man, this whole thing is stupid," Luffy pouted, hating seeing his own moves being used against his crew like this. He had no problem fighting against them for fun, but this was anything but fun. He was glad that he was able to kick Moria's ass for all of this.

"You know, I think he would make a terrible pirate king," memory Robin offered and everyone nodded in firm agreement at those words. Even if he did have Luffy's shadow, there was no way that anyone could let a giant zombie become the king of all pirates.

"So how do you wanna approach this?" memory Franky asked thoughtfully, reminding them that they were up against an opponent who could step on them and not realize it, "I got a ton of plans, one of 'em's gotta work?"

"Too bad we didn't have time to try them all," present-day Usopp whispered as he looked up to the sky again in worry. Was he imagining it, or was it already starting to look lighter?