One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty One [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-One-

"N-no way!" Nami shakily sputtered.

"Ahh! What is happening?!" Brook screamed.

"Now that's nuts..." Sanji muttered as his mouth fell open in shock, causing the cigarette dangle between his lips to fall.

"That looks painful" I cringed, nose scrunching up into a wince as I drew back a little the longer I watched the way the zombie's body unnaturally curled up into a perfect spherical shape. It did not help that we could hear every bone in his body practically break in order to achieve such a shape.

"Oars Ball! Dodge this—roll!" Moria ordered as the giant's now round body started to come barreling towards us.

"Um...okay...?" Sanji questioned.

"Uh...run?!" we shouted as we now tried to put distance between ourselves and the rolling corpse, only to soon come to a screeching halt when we noticed that he himself had stopped and was no longer chasing us.

"Come on, Master! What's the big idea here, huh?" Oars frowned in annoyance. "This is my fight! I should get to drive!" he childishly argued.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interfere—I'll just focus on assisting from here on—and now, crush each one of them however you see fit!" Moria ordered, speaking to the giant like a how manipulative parent would.

"Hey, this just occurred to me, but where's Luffy?" Nami asked.

"He ran off after Moria and got tricked somehow—I'm sure he's going to be back soon though" Usopp answered, attempting to stay positive.

"Seriously? Does he have to do something stupid every time?" Nami frowned. "Okay, I know I'm a little late to the party, but let me get this straight—are you saying we have to defeat Luffy's zombie and Moria if we want to get everyone's shadows back? Is that the gist of it?" she asked as she became distressed..

"Yeah, that's about it" Usopp nodded.

"You're kidding! The sun is almost up!" Nami snapped.

"The enemy is forcing our hand here! It's not like we have much of a choice!" Usopp snapped right back.

"Why don't you both quit bickering so we can try and finish this fight quickly?!" I snapped at the two.

"Excuse me" Brook suddenly piped up, catching our attention as he bowed.

"The skeleton?" Nami questioned. "I didn't know you were here too."

"His name's Brook, Nami" I softly corrected.

"I beg of you, please allow me to help—I have an idea that just might work" Brook begged as we slowly nodded before lending him an ear and listening carefully to this supposed plan of his.

"Get back here, Zoro! Don't be reckless!" Chopper suddenly shouted, causing me to turn my head. My eye twitched in annoyance as I watched the moss-haired man recklessly rush towards Moria without a second thought.

"Hey! Get back here—we can't afford you rushing into things!" I shouted before heaving a tired sigh when it seemed he only ignored me.

"My friends, I appreciate your trust in me" Brook bowed once again.

"I don't think it should be too tough to pull off" Robin said after mulling the skeleton's plan over in her head.

"Are you sure about this, Brook? I'm not trying to talk you out of it or anything, but you saw what happened to Franky, right?" Usopp asked as he and I now started to pull the skeleton back on the sharpshooter's slingshot while Robin sprouted multiple arms around him in preparation for the first phase of his plan.