One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty Three [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Three-

"Give the order! Return all the shadows now!" she demanded.

"Yeah! Give them back, you bastard!" one of the men shouted.

"What do you think this is? A playground brawl?" Moria mockingly laughed. "A true pirate would never bow to commands like that—not even if his life depended on it!" my eyes wandered over to Luffy who now looked small and childlike...though that didn't hide the look of pure hatred on his face as he seethingly glared at the Warlord. "So you teamed up with those losers from the forest, did you? What a joke!" he scoffed.

"Now I see how Straw Hat got that ridiculous increase of power—how desperate you must be to use my own shadow abilities against me!" he frowned.

"You shut your mouth! Return the shadows at once!" the woman with pink hair snapped.

"Straw Hat Luffy, you got some nerve making a mess of Thriller Bark!" Moria sneered before having to stop and take in another huge gulp of air. "You'll pay for what you've done to my glorious ship!" he snarled.

"You're the one that's going to pay! It's your fault for picking a fight with my crew!" Luffy growled, his voice sounding less threatening and more adorable thanks to his current appearance. "Now, give back those shadows before the sun comes up!" he demanded.

"Why? When from this point on all I have to do is sit around and wait for you all to die!" Moria laughed. "I'm afraid you're not cut out for the New World, kid. I'll admit that you got some good underlings, but that doesn't matter" he scoffed, his eyes slowly widening as if he was remembering something unpleasant. "All will be lost, and do you know why?" he asked.

"Straw Hat, this isn't exactly the time to sit around and chit-chat—take a look at the sky! It's getting brighter!" one of the men in the crowd shouted. "Focus on getting the shadows back! We're almost out of time!" he cried.

"Because unlike me, you've yet to realize the weakness of your crew" Moria continued. "I trusted my underlings just like you do, but despite their talents...you know why I ended up losing them?" he shouted as we fell silent—now intrigued by his words and the ominous meaning behind them. "Because they were mortal! That's what makes things different this time—had they been zombies from the beginning, I would have had nothing to lose!" he boomed as shadows started to shoot out from underneath him. "Zombies are fearless, eternal, relentless warriors that can be replaced even if they fall!

"Now with my army of the undead, there's nothing in the world that will stop me from becoming King of the Pirates!" he laughed as long black shadows squirmed out beneath him and along the ground. "You should be thankful for the chance to serve as my slaves" he grinned as the shadows weaved themselves around us.

"Huh?" I blinked, flinching as black lines suddenly shot out of the ground and wildly started to bounce around, causing the men around Zoro and me to freak out. Eventually, the lines shot past us and disappeared into the nearby woods.

"Heavy shadows? No way..." Nami mumbled in disbelief as bulges soon started to travel their way through the black lines, slinking their way toward the Warlord.

"W-what are they sucking up?" I thickly swallowed.

"He's gathering every shadow on this island and pumping them into his body!" Nami gasped in realization as Moria's body slowly started to pulse from the large intake of shadows he was absorbing at an alarming rate.

"Tell me, Straw Hat Luffy," Moria grinned, "from your strength, I'd say you absorbed about one hundred shadows—right?" he asked, his skin now taking on a sickly green as his body started to double in size. "Then I shall take one hundred...two hundred...three hundred...four hundred...five hundred...six hundred...seven hundred...eight hundred...nine hundred...one thousand!" he grew bigger and bigger with each count, voice deepening and distorting until it was nothing but a small pitch.