Just as Robin's group managed to reach a clearing, half a mile from where Zoro and Kenshin are fighting, they start to hear the sound of someone running.
Sanji was the first to react by running in between them and the new arrival, and colliding his leg with a stop sign!
Nami, Usopp, and Chopper all scream in fright from the sight of a raging bartender trying to maim them with a weird looking sign, and huddled together while Robin keeps her arms crossed.
As soon as the chef pushes the stranger's weapon off, with a dent in the metal rod as a mark of where his leg was, Robin sprouted eight arms off the ground. Each of the challenger's limbs, receives two arms, to the bartender's shock, but the reaction gets turned to Robin when she tries to put him in a clutch, but her arms can't pull him.
No matter how hard Robin tries to put him in a clutch, even with doubling the arms, it's as if she's trying to break a steel statue! The bartender proves to be more than alive when he gets over the freaky hands, and uses his monstrous strength to get out of her grip as if it belonged to a mere child!
He looks back at the freaky arms, but he barely freaks out at the sight of them. "What the hell? More Dullahan magic?"
Robin grows curious by the question, but Sanji could care less as he keeps his spot in between his friends and the fellow blond. "What the hell's your problem asshole?! Who the hell are you?!"
The bartender glares at the well-dressed man, from behind his blue sunglasses, and grips onto his stop sign. "You want to know my problem? It's you shit head! I heard what you're planning with that bastard Izaya, and it stops here!"
With a mighty roar, he takes a swing at the chef, but this time he dodges with a swift jump!
"I don't know what you're talking about! And who are you?!" Sanji asks again as he spins in midair for a kick, but the challenger easily takes his leg!
"My name is Shizuo Heiwajima, and your lies won't work on me! YOU'RE DEAD!" Shizuo yells out as he throws Sanji in the woods as if he's a stick!
Chopper, Nami, and Usopp are completely terrified when they watch Sanji break through three trees, from his crazy strength.
Nami can't explain why, but she starts getting worried about the blond man when she watches him fly, and is tempted to go see if he's alive as soon as he lands. That worry is shot down though when she sees him stumble back up.
Sanji may feel an ache in his sides, but he doesn't give a shit. All he does care about right now is giving this bastard his own payback for the monstrous throw. "Alright, that's it!"
In a flash, Sanji ran at him faster than anyone could expect, and gave Shizuo a roundhouse kick to the side hard enough to give him his own flight!
As Sanji runs after him, Shizuo lands on his back half a mile from him, but he's quick to get up while he grabs a thin, long tree with his other hand! Even though he just got sent flying a demonic smirk crawls onto his face as he breaks off the tree like it's just a twig! "So, Izaya thinks he can kill a monster with another monster huh? Alright, let's see how you handle this!"
He throws it with precision towards Sanji, who stops running in his tracks when he sees the flying tree. "What the hell?!"
He jumps to the side to avoid the flying timber, and looks back to see it crash into another tree with enough strength to knock it down with it!
The others notice the crazy strength as well, with Usopp voicing the rest of the weakling trio's thoughts. "H-he threw that tree like it was nothing! How can we face that?!"
"We can't, but Chef-san can." Robin answers when she sees Sanji.
He knows what Robin meant by the comment and agrees with it by speaking out. "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up!"
Robin nods in agreement, but the ignored bartender grows pissed by the cold shoulder so he grabs another large tree, pulls it out of the ground, and runs towards the group. "You think I'll just let you leave, when I know you're working with him?!"
Nami, Chopper, and Usopp scream in terror as they run off in the direction they were originally following, while Robin crosses her arm. Before she can get her powers to do anything though, Sanji jumped in between the two, landed on his hands while he bent his legs, and straightened them out to kick Shizuo's chest!
While Shizuo's sent flying back, he still manages to swing the tree at Sanji to send him flying to the left.
As soon as Robin sees Sanji landing on his side but quickly getting up, but looks to see that she lost sight of the others. "Oh dear, I'd better go before another illusion finds them and tears them to shreds."
Even though she said something morbid, she doesn't sound worried at all as she goes off to search for the others.
When Shizuo crashes into another tree, he barely cares about the other pirates that got away. All he cares about in the moment is beating the crap out of Izaya's lacky!
When he sees Sanji charging towards him again, he grabs his abandoned stop sign from the ground, and goes to meet his opponent halfway!
As soon as the sign made contact with Sanji's kick, a melee between the well-dressed men began! It was one block after the other from the swing of the sign, to the swing of the leg. While Sanji might not remember it, his fights with Zoro have made his legs durable and swift enough to make it easy to keep up with his attacks.
After the tenth swing, Sanji manages to make a roundhouse kick strong enough to break the stop sign in half, and leaving Shizuo with nothing but a small metal pole in his hands!
Sanji goes for a tornado kick to the head, but Shizuo block it with his arm, grabs the chef by his suit jacket, then throws him over his shoulder!
The pirate crashes through another tree, hits the ground hard, then quickly rolls to the side to avoid the falling tree from crushing him. He barely had time to react though because as soon as he turned, he started hearing more trees being uplifted, and sits up to see two fifteen foot trees flying towards him. "Give me a break!"
He jumps up and keeps running to his right to avoid the flying timber, but Shizuo won't stop. One tree after another gets rooted and thrown at his opponent in hopes of it crushing him.
After Sanji dodges the fifth tree, he's had enough so he jumps in the air just when the next tree flies at him, and spins his body to give his kick enough momentum to push the gigantic tree back to the person who threw it!
Shizuo is surprised by the throwback, and runs to the side to get away from the debris. This gives Sanji just enough of an opening when he lands on his and charge at his opponent.
The illusion didn't get enough time to grab another weapon, so he turns to his hands as his weapons for their last brawl. With punches being thrown from the bartender and kicks from the chef, this close combat fight turns into a brutal fight with their monstrous strength.
As they're exchanging their blows, they didn't notice an audience has grown when Rose and Luffy land at a distance, but can see the fight as clear as day.
"Holy... Fucking... Shit..." Rose slowly speaks out with a shell-shocked look on her face when she recognizes the character that's fighting Sanji.
Luffy looks over at the fight to see that they're going toe to toe, and just speaks his mind. "This guy must be really tough to fight Sanji like this."
"That's a fucking understatement!" Rose answers, with an excited fangirl smile, when she gets her hand free from his, gets her camera from her bag, and captures a few pictures of Sanji kicking Shizuo in the side of his head, and then the bartender giving it back by punching him in the face!
Neither blond notices the picture taking, because of how focused they are, with Sanji going for another tornado kick, but Shizuo catches the leg, grabs his suit jacket, but before he could give the finishing throw, Sanji grabs onto Shizuo's black vest!
"Not this time!" Sanji calls out before he pulls the vest towards him, to give his forehead the hardest headbutt that he can muster!
Shizuo accidentally drops his opponent, when he reels back from the blow while groaning.
It took Shizuo a few seconds to regain his senses, but those seconds cost him the fight, because as soon as Sanji was released from the hold, he didn't hesitate to strike! He landed on his hands, and span his legs, at top speed, to unleash a powerful kick to his side, then to his head!
The force of the kicks was so powerful that he broke through three trees until a puff of smoke surrounds him!
Sanji widens his eyes at the smoke as he lands on his feet, with a raging headache hitting from the big bruise on his forehead from the headbutt, and gets in a stance to ready himself for the bartender. As soon as the smoke cleared though, there's not a single sign of Shizuo or his stop sign.
"What the fuck?" Sanji asks he walks up to the broken trees, but he can't find his opponent anywhere.
"Don't worry, the same thing happened to our opponents. It means you won." Rose calls out from behind, which gets the chef to flinch before he turns around to see both her and Luffy approaching him.
He looks back at where his opponent used to be, and furrows his eyebrows when he remembers Robin's theory about their new opponents. "So, they really are illusions, but I don't get it. Whose memories could help the kid create psychos like him and Greed?"
"Beats me." Luffy says, but Rose only answers with a shrug.
She knows that she can't take any chances by telling them that these memories are hers, so she looks around, and changes the topic by giving Sanji a questioning look. "Did you see any of the other pirates around here?"
Sanji widens his eyes, when he remembers that they left, and points to the direction they went to. "Yea, I told them to go ahead when I was in my fight. They couldn't have gotten too far."
"Then let's go!" Luffy yells as he runs ahead while Rose and Sanji stare at him.
Sanji tiredly watches him run, as if he didn't just face a tough opponent, and looks to the wind girl. "Where the hell does he get all that energy?"
She just shrugs at the question with a neutral look on her face. "The fuck if I know, but I can tell he won't stop until he finds the others, so we should catch up. Can you still walk after that fight? I can create a gust of wind for you to ride on, if you want?"
He's surprised by the sweet offer, but he doesn't want to look weak, so he gives her a gentle smile. "Thank you, but I can manage. Let's go."
She nods in agreement as they rush off after Luffy, and ready to fight anything else the kid has ready for them.
**********************************************
The weakling trio doesn't know where they're going, but they could care less. All they want to do is find a way out of this forest.
Nami is tempted to use the waver, and go on her own, but she doesn't want to risk running into Luffy or one of the monsters that have been challenging them. As soon as she gets out of this forest though, she's high tailing it away from these freaks, and finding some other way to getting her answers.
Usopp is starting to think the same because of all the chaos that came on. It's one thing for someone else to claim that he's the captain of a crew, but to suddenly get challenged by a bunch of monsters is too much. The sooner he can get to safety, the better.
As for Chopper, he doesn't know what to think. All of this, being in a crew, having friends, and being a full-fledged doctor is a hard pill to swallow overnight. Still, the way Luffy talked about his friends last night was so genuine, that he wants to believe in him.
The reindeer looks over to the pirates beside him, and can tell that they're just as scared as he is. If they get attacked again, he needs to make sure they're safe, just as how Luffy did the same for them. He's ready to attack anything that threatens them, but luckily, there's not an illusion in sight.
Instead, they're quick to find themselves at the edge of a large riverbank.
"Thank god, I could use a drink." Usopp comments as he walks off the grassy terrain to the rocky coast, then takes a canteen out of his bag to fill it up.
Chopper gets closer to the coast to get a closer look at the pillars that are scattered around the pillar. "What are these?"
Nami approaches one of the pillars, and hesitantly touches it to find that it's the same material as the buildings in the town. "What the, this is coral? Maybe we're close to that town."
She looks around for a new path to get them out of the woods, but she's quick to stop with a look of horror when she sees another fight nearby. "You gotta be kidding me..."
Usopp and Chopper follow their gaze and drop their jaws when they see Zoro still having an all-out sword fight with Kenshin.
Both sides feel and look like they've been fighting for days instead of an hour, but neither side refuses to give up.
At some point in the fight, Zoro had taken out his third sword and puts in his mouth, for him to go all out with his three sword style.
And while it worked to give some damage to the illusion, the samurai's skill truly shines for he can block all three of his swords and still manage to deal a few blows to Zoro.
Lucky for the pirate, the samurai uses a reverse blade sword, so any hits that were made weren't fatal.
Still, both swordsmen know that has gone on long enough. Without any words spoken, both sides charge at each other with the full extent of finishing this!
Kenshin jumps in the air half way, to give him a downwards strike with all his strength! Zoro anticipated that though, because as soon as Kenshin started swinging down, he stepped to the side in a flash, and swung all three swords at once form the side. The sword in his mouth managed to block Kenshin's attack, while the swords in his hands slash at his stomach!
Even though Zoro also used blunt sides of the swords, the force in the swings was powerful enough to make the samurai flying in the trio's direction!
They scream in terror as they jump out of the way, and let the flying samurai crash into the coral structure behind them! As soon as Kenshin crashed into the coral, a cloud of smoke surrounded both him and the three pirates.
Nami, Usopp, and Chopper couldn't get away from the smoke, but the non-smelling white cloud was quick to fade into the air. As soon as the air was clear, no one could find a sign of Kenshin's existence except the dent in the rock that he imprinted on it from the attack.
"What the hell?!" Nami asks, but the other two were just as dumbfounded as she was as to how the samurai disappeared.
Zoro couldn't make any sense of it either, but he could care less when he takes a seat on the ground to rest from the fight. This samurai was one of the strongest fighters he's ever faced, and he was close to losing. If he wants to have a chance against the world's greatest swordsman, then he needs to get stronger than this.
As the swordsman is catching his breath from the tough battle, the three pirates have no idea what to do here. Zoro still hasn't bothered to acknowledge that they were here, but they're all hesitant in approaching the frightening man.
Nami can barely take this anymore and can see that the other two are just as scared as she is, so she speaks to them in a volume that only they could hear. "Listen you guys, it's only a matter of time before we get confronted by some psycho too! If you guys come with me, we can take the ship and I'll bring you anywhere you want to go! Are you with me?!"
"Yes!" Usopp speaks up because he can barely take this madness anymore.
Chopper though, backs away and looks to the swordsman. "I can't."
"What do you mean? Another one of these crazy people will attack us any minute!" Usopp asks, but the doctor just gives him a brave face as he grabs onto the straps of his backpack.
"I don't know if I'm really a pirate, but I know I'm a doctor. I can't turn my back on people who could be injured. Especially if we're crewmates." With that being said, he walks towards the swordsman with a newfound confidence, to treat Zoro's injuries.
Usopp is tempted to go after him, but Nami stops him by grabbing his shoulder. "If he's with that swordsman he'll be fine, but we can't survive like this. If you want a way out, it's now or never."
The sniper is hesitant by the offer, but before when he goes to open his mouth to answer, a child's laughter fills the air instead.
They, along with Zoro and Chopper, look to the source on top of the coral boulder that Kenshin crashed against to see the brat that caused all the trouble standing in all his glory.
The kid holds a smirk from seeing all of their surprised faces as he holds the seahorse proudly in his hands. "So you four remained together, huh? Well, no matter. I can take care of you all on my own."
Without a moment's hesitation, he raises the seahorse up in front of him, so that all can see him.
As soon as he's in view, the seahorse's eyes shine as red as rubies as he begins to play its ominous tune. The moment his voice began to rang though, four hands began to sprout onto the four pirates' shoulders to cover both their eyes and ears!
The weakling trio freak out from the creepy power, but Zoro stays motionless and calm as if nothing is impairing his senses.
The child is shocked by the sudden moves, and knows that Robin is behind it, but no matter where he looks, he can't find her.
Robin though, can see him clear as day in the shadows of the forest. Even though she's hidden behind a tree, she can see him through the eye she planted on the rock next to him.
With him still confused, she takes this chance, by using her devil fruit powers to grow two arms on four sides of the boulder, near the top of the coral. Two arms grab a hold of the child's legs to keep him pinned, while the remaining pair grow another arm out of their hands to reach him, grab the sea horse out of his hands, and throw it to Robin's direction!
The sea horse tries to keep itself still to keep up the role of an instrument, but as soon as he lands in the archaeologist's hands, he finds it completely impossible.
That's because as soon as her icy blue eyes landed on the creature, with a sadistic grin on her face, he shivered in fright because it feels as if she can see right through him.
Robin can feel him tremble in her hands, and finds her guess of him being alive to correct. "So, you're the real culprit. Judging by how Captain-san got his memories back, let's see it this works."
She drops the sea horse onto the ground, and when he sees her raising her foot to stomp on him, he tries to hop away! He wasn't fast enough to get away though, because in a matter of seconds, a hand grows on the ground right next to him, and pins his head to the ground. With him secured, Robin releases her crew mates from her powers, then begins to stomp his stomach repeatedly and without mercy.
With each stomp, a puff of blue smoke began to fly, with it approaching each pirate.
Nami, Usopp and Chopper try to run from the strange cloud, but they weren't fast enough. As soon as it made contact with them, they stopped in their tracks because their stolen memories practically flashed before their eyes.
When the smoke clears for them, they look around as if it's they just got here, and immediately recognize the archaeologist. "ROBIN!"
Robin keeps her foot on the sea horse to keep him from getting away, and sees the others running to her with a large smile.
She giggles at their enthusiasm just when they approach her. "You remember me?"
Nami eagerly nods, before she looks down at the animal under her foot. "This is what took our memories?"
"That's right, it appears that hitting him will release them back to their owners." She answers just before the sea horse starts angrily squeaking.
Chopper widens his eyes at what he's saying before he starts translating for the others. "He says 'You fools! Even if you hit me and drain all the memories from me, I'll recollect them all again in time! If you stop now, I'll give the rest of the crew their memories back."
Nami grows angry by the deal, but her face barely shows it. Instead, it shows a look of pure sadism as she begins to smirk. "Robin, mind if I take the next few hits?"
"Not at all Navigator-san. Don't be afraid a break a few bones on him." She calmly tells her, as she starts lifting her foot off her prisoner.
The sea creature hopes that she's joking, but one look at the red head destroys that last shred of hope. He tries to drag himself away from these monsters, but Nami is quick to act and takes over the role of releasing the memories.
While Robin just watches with an indifferent smile, both Usopp and Chopper shiver at the frightening smirk Nami is wearing.
"She's even angrier than usual..." Chopper speaks up as he starts stepping back with Usopp.
The sniper can only shiver at the stomping before he looks to the sea horse. "I almost feel sorry for the sea horse..."
As all of this happens, Zoro just watches them with a stone cold look on his face. From hearing what Robin said, he knows that he lost in the hunting game for the memories, especially when he sees a cloud of memories coming for him. He doesn't do anything to stop it, but instead allows it to swallow him and give him back his memories.
As for the child, not only is he now free from the animal's control thanks to Robin, but he regained his lost memories, that don't include the time he was kept prisoner. He looks around at the strange place, along with the pirates, and grows more scared by the minute.
When he sees the hands holding his ankle, he screams in terror before they turn into flowers!
His shriek catches everyone, but Nami's, attention and they watch him jump off the rock to get back to his village.
Zoro starts going after him, but Robin walks in his way to stop him. "There's no need. It looks like it was just the sea horse that harmed us."
He clicks his tongue at the comment, but he doesn't try anything because he has a feeling that she's right. When they rejoin the group though, he won't let his guard down. He doesn't care how much a pummeling the sea horse's getting from Nami, if he tries anything else, he'll slice him up himself. With that intention in mind, he keeps his swords out as he watches the memory stealing creature receive his punishment, and release sky blue clouds of stolen memories from his body.
In a few moments though, he suddenly shrieks in a high pitch, causing the pirates to flinch, just before he coughs out a dark silver cloud into the air.
The pirates watch the cloud grow in the air to the size of one of the boulders, and half of them flinch when they saw white lighting crackle out of it, unlike the yellow sparks that flew from their memories. The way that it's so different brings an ominous feeling to them, but to their relief it doesn't go in their direction. Instead, it flies into the forest in search of its owner.
Usopp keeps his frightened eyes on the memories until, they're safely out of view. "What kind of memories made that?"
"I have no idea..." Chopper answers with his eyes in the direction of the cloud.
The sea horse, who's still under Nami's foot goes to voice his complaints, but freezes when he sees Zoro's steel cold gaze on him.
Zoro knows exactly who those memories belong to, and to help his friend keep her secret, he lets his sword be in the sea horse's view to show that he's ready to decapitate him if he says a word about it for Chopper to translate.
The thief can tell what he's thinking since he remembers the memories he took about Rose and Zoro's friendship, and wisely keeps his mouth shut when Nami takes another step at his stomach.
When she sees a normal blue cloud puff out of him again, she acts like she didn't see it and continues her stomping streak.
******************************************
Just as Luffy is halfway to the river, he looks back to where Sanji and Rose are trailing him. He doesn't like how they didn't catch up to them, but he doesn't stop when he calls out to him. "Hurry up! We gotta get there quick!"
Sanji grows irritated from the complaint, because he just got out of a tough fight and argues with him. "How about you quit complaining, and- and..."
He stops running, along with Rose, and they both drop their jaws at something approaching from behind Luffy.
Luffy hums in confusion, then follows their gaze to see that a swarm of blue clouds are flying in their direction. When one of them flows over them, he follows them with his eyes until they disappear into the town. "What the hell?"
Rose takes a few photos of the beautiful clouds, with no fear of them because she remembers the one that hit Luffy last night, then looks to her captain. "Aren't these the same kind of clouds that gave you your memories back?"
"Yea, these are just like it!" Luffy answers when one of the clouds starts descending towards them.
This blue cloud aims straight at Sanji, and before he can do anything, it swallows him whole. While Luffy watches Sanji regain his memories, Rose flies up in the air to search for her own memory cloud.
When she approaches the herd though, the blue clouds make it their mission to avoid her. Whenever she tries to approach one, it avoids her touch as if she's blowing it away. She starts feeling as if her memories are still with the kid, until she sees the silver cloud that scared the others. She takes one more picture to record the cloud's image before the dark cloud approaches her. Unlike the others, it doesn't avoid her touch, instead, it swallows her whole.
When Rose breathes it in, she can see every lost memory flash before her eyes! Pictures flash one after the other, from good memories with Timothy and Naomi to the torment of her foster family.
When her memories began to flash to her time in this world, she felt every emotion she had from the start of her journey. She felt the pain of losing her fight with Aokiji and Eneru all over again, along with the sadness of when Nami, Usopp, and Sanji voiced their thoughts of her research, and the fear of what would happen if they know who she is.
Soon after though, she felt the strongest happiness she ever had from her time as a Straw Hat Pirate. She remembered every joy of eating Sanji's meals and playing tag with Usopp, Chopper and Luffy. All the laughs she had when teasing Nami of her crush on Sanji, and reading with Robin. Along with the fun she had training with Zoro, and the relief she felt when he found out her secret, then accepted her.
Best of all though, is she felt the joy of falling in love with Luffy all over again. Every development in their relationship played in her mind like a movie, from the recruitment in Alabasta to when she confessed after the Davy Back Fight. With every loving moment, her heart is filled with both happiness, and fear. Fear of what's to come for when Water Seven arrives and she tells him that she knew about Merry's upcoming demise, along with his and the others' pasts. Even so, she knows that she won't regret falling in love with her captain, so she'll let herself enjoy the moment with him, no matter how short it may be.
Tears begin to pool in her purple eyes just as the cloud fades away, after it finishes its job. She wipes them away, and looks around as if she just woke up from a bad dream, but she knows that it's all too real. And right now, she wants nothing more than to kick the memory thief's ass for putting them all through this.
"Rose, what are you doing?!" She snaps out of it from Luffy's call and looks down to see him waiting for her while Sanji runs off on his own.
All she can do is smile when she recognizes him, not only from her world but from her time with the crew. She doesn't say anything when flies right up to him. Instead, she keeps herself floating a few inches in the air, so that they're the same height, then pulls Luffy into a warm hug! Before Luffy can ask anything, she closes the distance between them in a loving kiss on the lips.
The rubber man widens his eyes at the surprise kiss, but he didn't have time to react when she pulls back with a cheeky smirk. "Did I miss this time?"
He blinks at the question, before he remembers his complaints when she'd only kiss his cheek, then breaks out into a large grin. "You remember?!"
She nods with a light giggle before she lands on her feet, then looks at the direction Sanji went. "Sanji remembers too?"
"Yea, he went off to find Nami, come on!" He takes her hand and rushes off after the chef.
Sanji was way ahead of them though, because he's already at the river, and just spotted his favorite red head stomping on the sea horse. "NAMI-SWAAN!"
Just when the sea horse stopped creating memory clouds from Nami's hits, and was about the stop, she sees Sanji spinning towards her.
Unlike yesterday, she fully remembers who Sanji is, and accepts it when he pulls her into a hug then pulls away to look her over. "Are you alright?! Do you remember me?!"
Nami is surprised by the concern, and that he's only asking her this while Robin is with them, but that doesn't stop her from answering with a small grin. "Yes Sanji-kun, I remember everything."
He smiles in relief before he pulls away and looks at the beaten up sea horse. "This is the thing that's been causing all this trouble?!"
"Yea." Chopper asks when he doesn't see anyone else with him. "Did you see Luffy or Rose after your-?!"
"LUFFY, NO!"
The crew is shocked by Rose's yelling but they barely have time to see what's going on when Luffy is rocketing towards them with his right arm wrapped around Rose's waist!
Robin, Usopp and Chopper were able to avoid the flight, but the other three pirates weren't so lucky when Luffy crashed into them, and sent them all flying to the other side of the river! Roses uses her wind to keep them from crashing to the rocks, but doesn't have enough time to keep them from falling into a dog pile on the ground!
The sea horse staggers up and starts murmuring, but Chopper doesn't translate because he's too busy hopping onto the rocks in the river to get to the other side.
The thief can see this as the perfect opportunity for his trump card, so he staggers away to hide behind one of the coral reefs, and stays quiet while the pirates are interacting with one another.
"You guys ok?!" Chopper asks when Luffy sits up in the pile.
"I'm good, shishishi!" He laughs at the crazy ride, but it's cut short with Nami punches Luffy on the head. "What the fuck Luffy?! You could've killed us!"
"Yea, you moron!" Sanji adds on by kicking Luffy's face with Zoro finishing it by punching him in the head.
Rose just crawls out of the pile with a fit of giggles from the crazy ride before she sits in front of Chopper. "We're ok Doc, thanks for asking."
Usopp widens his eyes at the nickname before he looks to Rose. "Do you remember who he is?!"
She nods as she stands up and acts like last night didn't happen. "Yup, it looks like you guys got it back from the kid then?"
"Not exactly, the sea horse the child was holding had the real power." Robin answers before the rest of the pirates that went flying get up with Luffy being the last.
"The sea horse did it?" Luffy asks with Nami answering.
"Yea, he was using the kid as a puppet, and made all those illusions we were fighting. It was probably from those memories that weird cloud had."
While Rose stays as indifferent as possible, Luffy is really curious about this. "Weird cloud?"
"Yea, it was crackling lightning and looked all freaky looking! Whoever had them must've been a real monster!" Usopp answered, with Luffy growing more excited by the thought of seeing a monster.
"It was just a bunch of memories, let it go." Zoro answers to try to keep him from talking about it though.
While Rose is grateful for it, she still feels bad by the comment, and looks away from them, but then starts to realize that something's missing. "Hey guys, what did you do with the sea horse?"
The others look around to see that it left when they were talking. Rose tries to see if she can find it in the air, and flies up, into the air.
When she sees him hiding behind the coral, the memory of what he did with her memories last night comes back and pisses her off. "I found the son of a bitch!"
She furrows her eyebrows in rage as she creates a gust of hot air for him. The sea horse flinches when he sees her glare, and tries to get away, but there was no escaping her wind. He can feel the burn from her raging winds as they take him to the crew, but he's not afraid.
In fact, he's determined to play his final card while Rose lands behind the crew, while bringing the thief towards them, and closes her eyes to keep them from seeing her glare. "What should we do with him?"
"I say we slice it into sashimi!" Sanji suggests, but before anyone can argue, the sea horse speaks up just when he reaches the crew!
"I'm not going down without a fight! Time to play my trump card!" Chopper translates, just before a purple mist spews out of the thief's mouth!
Everyone flinches when the mist hits them, and Rose accidentally lets go of the sea horse from the surprise attack!
She tries to create a gust to get rid of the mist, but it keeps coming back as if it never left. The sea horse doesn't stop spewing it to the point where the forces gets him flying until he lands on a boulder. Just as he lands on the rock, his eyes begin to glow yellow and works on magic on making the crew vulnerable by using their loved ones!
Each crew member begins to see a loved one from their past. It didn't matter if they're currently dead because Nami and Chopper were able to see Bellemere and Dr. Hiruluk clear as day. Each being tearful of seeing them again.
Zoro had no words when he sees his childhood rival that he hasn't seen since her death so many years ago.
Sanji and Usopp though can see both the living and the dead from their past.
Sanji's visible eye fills with tears, and he allows the cigarette to fall out of his mouth from seeing both his dead mom and Zeff grinning at him.
As for the sniper, he can't stop crying from seeing both his mom, Kaya, and the Usopp Pirates from his home island all together.
"Whoa!" Luffy is the only one showing an eager smile when he sees not only Shanks, but also Ace, and even a ten year old Sabo.
Robin however, could see through this because she can't see any of her lost loved ones. Most likely because she was never under the sea horse's spell, but even so, she can see what the others are seeing.
As for the wind girl, her bangs cover her tear filled eyes when she saw not only Timothy, Bobby, and Naomi, but also her parents that have been gone for seven years. Every instinct tells her to go embrace them, but she refuses. No matter how much she wants this to be real, she knows that it's all from the sea horse's curse.
All this does for Rose is infuriate her, and when she looks up and sees where the sea horse is, she gets ready to attack, but pauses when the illusions begin to change! They went from being the people they loved, to the people they most despised. What's worse, is that they show more as ghosts by having the ability to fly around them as if it's a cyclone of nightmares.
The past enemies seemed to be everyone from their past adventures with Arlong, Wapol, Kuro, Crocodile, and Eneru.
"You want to fight?! I'll kick your asses again!" Luffy calls out to them, but they don't respond.
Usopp, Nami, and Chopper are horrified, and huddled together, while the others are getting ready to fight their past enemies. Robin goes to attack one, but she stops when she sees some different faces. "Have you faced them before?!"
To the confusion of the others, and the horror of Rose, there are enemies from the future flying with them.
Spandam is flying around just like the other ghosts, with Kuma, Hody Jones, Dr. Hogback, Blackbeard, and Akainu are not too far behind.
There's even a man that only the chef can recognize due to the long flowing blond hair that matches his own. Sanji denies his very existence, but he can hear his biological father's words being echoed to him.
"You're just as much of a pathetic failure now as you were back then..."
He cringes at the comment but only he could hear these words, so when the others see him shaking, they start getting concerned.
They didn't have time to check on him though; because they're beginning to hear comments from the illusions as well.
Nami, Usopp, amd Chopper are surrounded by Kuro, Hody Jones, and Dr. Hogback, who are flying around them.
Despite Dr. Hogback being Chopper's hero, the words that are being said to him drown out the excitement.
"Fuzfuzfuz, what's this? A reindeer? I'd love to use you for my next zombie experiment!"
Chopper screams at that and tries to hide deeper in the huddle.
Nami had her own problems though, when Hody smirks at her.
"So you're the little slave from Arlong's crew? I'd be more than happy to add you to my collection in Fishman Island!"
Nami pulls out of the huddle, takes out her staff, and tries to hit him, but he only phases through. All she can hear is Hody laughing as he continues to fly around her.
Usopp tries to help by aiming his slingshot, at him, but he's blocked by Kuro's illusion.
He flinches back, with Chopper still in his arms, which causes Kuro to smirk.
"You're just as weak now as you were back at your island. I'm surprised you haven't gotten anyone killed by your uselessness yet!"
Usopp freezes at the comment, because he feels that to be entirely true. Before he could do anything, Luffy punches him in the head, only for the fist to go through him.
Even though his fists have no effect, Luffy keeps on trying on as many ghosts as he reaches, but to no avail.
Blackbeard couldn't help but let his laugh ring in Luffy's mind, but it's a lot darker than what Luffy remembered in Mock Town.
"Zehahaha, I'm the only one who will be King of the Pirates! If I have to kill you and Ace to do it, then so be it!"
Luffy doesn't know why he's saying it, but it pisses him off enough to throw his punches at Blackbeard, regardless of the effect!
Zoro tries to slash Kuma's ghost, when he gets close, but to no avail when he gives his comment to Zoro.
"It's no use Roronoa, you're not strong enough to protect your friends now. Just as how you can't protect them in the future."
Zoro widens his eyes at the comment, and tries to slash him harder! "That's what you think!"
Robin has no idea why he said that, but when she tries to speak up, she stops when she hears Spandam's voice.
"Hahaha, you think fools like these pirates can protect you Nico Robin! They'll go down with a Buster Call just as your precious island did!"
Robin cringes at the call and can feel the trauma of her home island's start to come back to her. She hugs her arms and begins to tremble when she keeps hearing Spandam's taunts in her mind.
Rose can see that she's getting scared, and goes to comfort her, but stops when Akainu's voice rings in her head.
"Pathetic outsider scum like you don't belong in this world! I'll make sure you burn in hell along with the Pirate King's bastard!"
She widens her eyes in horror of the threat, but when she looks around, she can tell she's the only one who can hear it. She starts to understand what the sea horse is playing at, so when she sees him about to take a breath for the next move, fury overwhelms her!
She transforms into a gust of wind flies just above the sea horse in a flash, then axe kicks his head to the rock! As soon as her foot made contact, the mist begins to fade, along with the nightmarish visions.
The other pirates feel relieved that they're gone, but also grow pissed when they realize that the sea horse was behind this again. When they look around for him, they find Rose picking it up with both hands, and a frightening look in her eyes.
The sea horse grows terrified by his situation, but when he tries to use his powers, nothing works. He tries again but nothing happens again. He starts breaking into a cold sweat when he realizes that the trump card used the last of his energy. All he could do is steal memories now, but he knows that this demon would just beat him up if he did it too, so he's stuck!
Rose can tell that it's over too, and starts floating to the others so they could decide what to do with it. As soon as Rose's feet are in the air, the sea horse is struggling in her grasp while screaming out.
Chopper's ears twitch to his calls and begins to translate for the others. "He says: 'you rotten pirates ruined everything! I was so close to achieving my dream of becoming a dragon with your memories!'"
"A dragon?" Robin asks, with the sea horse screaming out more.
"'I need powerful memories like the ones from the outsider to be strong enough to transform!'" Chopper translates just before the sea horse's face looks at Rose darkly. He doesn't say anything about his plans, because he knows that Chopper will translate.
It's his last chance, so he takes a breath, but to his surprise, Rose throws him high up into the air. She's had more than enough of this sea horse's bull shit, so she creates a large rasengan in her right hand, and flies after him.
"If you want memories that bad, then get your own, you piece of shit!" She angrily calls out before she pulls her hand up, with her palm facing up, uses the rasengan to hit him from below and send him flying into the sky!
Everyone watches the flying animal with their eyes, but in a matter of moments, he's so far away into the sky that he can no longer be seen.
It's safe to say that he's not coming back to this island, so everyone begins to relax when they watch Rose land back on her feet.
She acts like she didn't just send anyone flying, by putting on a relaxed grin. "You guys good?"
A few of them nod, while some that had heard the nightmares speak, were still a bit worried. However, with the sea horse gone, they know that they can't get an answer about it, so they keep it in the back of their minds as they head back to the ship.
***************************************************
Hours after the crew had set sail from that crazy island, they're all together having a hearty dinner. Compared to yesterday, the crew is livelier than ever. They're cracking all sorts of jokes, dealing with Nami and Sanji's scolding for Luffy's food picking until the captain and Rose get into another food picking battle, while Zoro's drinking up a storm. With how everyone is acting, it's almost as if they're making up for the lost time, even if it was just for a day. However, nobody cared, because each pirate was just happy to be together again.
When the meal finally ended, it was already the middle of the night. As the pirates start heading to bed, Rose goes to her room, and grabs her guitar case, along with her backpack, for night watch.
Before she can leave though, Robin is blocking her way to the closed doorway. "Mind if we talk?"
Rose does her best not to flinch at the request, but doesn't feel like she has a choice, so she takes a seat on her bed as a sign of good faith. "What's on your mind?"
"I just want to make sure you're alright."
She blinks at the comment before she chuckles. "If it's about the memory loss, I'm fine. I'm pretty sure no memories were missed."
"I'm not talking about that."
Rose loses her smile at the comment and patiently waits as she continues. "Last night, when you almost caught the child, he made an illusion for you like what happened with those ghosts didn't he?"
She widens her eyes when she remembers the bad man that she was forced to see again. Even though she knows that he was an illusion now, she hates how she was so rattled from seeing her parents' killer. In all honesty, she doesn't even know what to say about it, since she never planned on talking about this...
Robin can tell that she's having a hard time deciding how to say it, so she speaks up. "You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to. I just want you to know, I'm here for you, the same way you were there for me with Aokiji."
The wind girl honestly didn't expect for her to say that, but maybe their talk about their pasts a few days ago had more effect on her than she thought. Even though she's glad about the reassurance, she knows that she needs to say something to help deepen Robin's trust in her.
She takes a short breath before she pulls her necklace up to get the gem into full view. "Do you remember when I spoke to you about this stone in Skypiea?"
Robin nods which allows her to continue her explanation. "Hours after my mom gave this to me, three burglars broke into our home. When I heard my dad fighting them, I was going to back him up by grabbing my bat, but my mom got me out of the window before they saw me, and told me to protect this necklace no matter what. She locked me out, but I went to another window, and saw both my parents fighting them, until their bastard of a leader shot them down..."
When memories of that horrible night come back to her, she tightly grips onto her necklace to the point where the gem is digging into her hand, but she refuses to loosen her grip, because she feels like this stone's her lifeline to her sanity.
The brunette takes a moment to relax, and sees Robin giving her a look of sympathy, that she always hates receiving, so she looks away from her, and finishes the explanation. "The sea horse showed me an illusion of the murderer. Every detail, from his blue hair to the cut on the back of his left hand, was set so perfectly, that I actually thought my parents' killer magically arrived in front of me."
She grows of ashamed of herself for falling for such a ridiculous trick, and covers her face with her free hand so no one could see. "I'm sorry, if I hadn't choked, I could've saved everyone a day of trouble..."
Robin widens her eyes at the apology before she approaches the wind girl, sits down next to her, and to the teenager's surprise, gives her a sideways hug. "You have nothing to apologize for. Any one of us would've been frozen from that. You saved us from that illusion trap too, so there's nothing to feel bad about."
Her kind words barely help with Rose's guilt though, because she knows that they would've survived this without her. When they got back to the ship, she remembered that this was an anime filler that she hasn't seen in months, and completely forgot about it. When she remembered how the old version of the filler went, she realized that her existence with them caused more chaos than they would've dealt with.
However, the wind girl keeps her mouth shut about this fact, to avoid more confrontation. Instead, she acts like she recovered, by returning Robin's hug for a moment, then pulls away with a small, warm grin. "Thank you Robin, I appreciate it. I should get going to my night watch before Nami gets mad."
"Good idea. Have fun with your guitar Wind-chan." Robin answers with a mirrored grin as she watches her leave the room with her bags.
Robin can tell that she's still bothered by the whole adventure, but at the very least, she's glad to see that she's trusting her more too. After all, they're going to need each other to survive the World Government.
With that threat still haunting the archaeologist she takes a small breath to calm herself down, goes over to her own bed and gives herself a good night sleep.
As for Rose, as soon as she's up in the crow's nest she takes a seat, she looks down at the deck and sees that nobody is around. Thanks to that, she knows that she can let her emotions out with her guitar, just like she did back home.
This experience may have been annoying, but it opened her eyes to how careless she's been. Not only did she almost give herself away by talking about Nami's past, but her knowledge of other worlds caused more trouble than helping them.
If the World Government had the same kind of power that this sea horse did, and somehow got hold of this knowledge, it could be catastrophic. She shudders at the frightening thought as she sits cross-legged, with the guitar in her lap.
She knows that she can't be as relaxed, as she has been in the past few days anymore. It's time for her to focus on her plans for Water Seven, and getting strong enough to make sure she can protect both Robin and herself.
As a show of resolve, she gets her fingers on the strings, and begins to sing "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran.
Oh, misty eye of the mountain below~
Keep careful watch of my brothers' souls~
And should the sky be filled with fire and smoke~
Keep watching over Durin's sons~
She begins to strum up the chords, as she starts to think of all the enemies that are waiting in the next island. She may know things about CP9, but they know about her too. Because of that, anything can happen, and that's what she needs to be ready for.
If this is to end in fire, then we should all burn together~
Watch the flames climb high into the night, calling out father oh~
Stand by and we will~
Watch the flames burn auburn on~
The mountain side~
And if we should die tonight~
Then we should all die together, raise a glass of wine for the last time~
Calling out father oh~
Prepare as we will~
Watch the flames burn auburn on~
The mountain side~
Desolation comes upon the sky~
Now I see fire, inside the mountain~
I see fire, burning the trees~
And I see fire, hollowing souls~
I see fire, blood in the breeze~
And I hope that you remember me~
As she finishes strumming up the chorus, she keeps her goal in mind for the next arc. No matter how scared she might get, she has to keep Robin, Luffy, and everyone else in the crew safe above herself. Whatever changes are made thanks to her existence, she'll face them head on, so that no one else gets hurt.
That's the least she can do for all that this crew's done for her, and lets the passion of her goal be shown in the song!
Oh, should my people fall, then surely I'll do the same~
Confined in mountain halls, we got too close to the flame~
Calling out father oh~
Hold fast and we will~
Watch the flames burn auburn on~
The mountain side~
Desolation comes upon the sky~
Now I see fire, inside the mountain~
I see fire, burning the trees~
I see fire, hollowing souls~
I see fire, blood in the breeze~
And I hope that you remember me~
And if the night is burning, I will cover my eyes~
For if the dark returns, then my brothers will die~
And as the sky is falling down, it crashed into this lonely town~
And with that shadow upon the ground, I hear my people screaming out!~
Now I see fire, inside the mountains~
I see fire, burning the trees~
I see fire, hollowing souls~
I see fire, blood in the breeze~
I see fire~
Oh you know I saw a city burning out~
And I see fire~
Feel the heat upon my skin, yeah~
And I see fire~
Uh-uh-uh-uh~
And I see fire burn auburn on the mountain side~
As the final chord is played, a soft smile graces her lips, because of how uplifting she feels. She feels a bit better about what's to come, and starts to relax a little more.
"You take requests?"
She yelps at the masculine voice beside her, and fidgets in her seat before she looks to her right to see Zoro climbing over the crow's nest railing. She doesn't know how long he's been there, but she can tell that he was waiting for her to finish the song.
The musician is a bit suspicious of the visit, especially since she sees two bottles of liquor in his hands, but she plays along. "Depends on the tip."
Zoro places one of the bottles in front of her before he sits across from her, with his own bottle in hand. "That enough for you?"
She slowly nods and pulls the offering to her side. "Didn't take you for a music lover."
"I'm not, we need to talk." Zoro answers with a steely gaze, but it doesn't make her flinch.
The wind girl instead complies by setting the guitar to the side, grabs the drink, and takes a swig of the liquid courage. "Alright, go ahead."
He slowly nods at the acceptance, and begins the conversation. "You once told me that Luffy's dream is to be the freest man on the sea. Luffy never once mentioned that part of his dream to us though."
If she was nervous, she didn't show it, and instead looked him in the eyes. "You sure you didn't hear him say it? He could've said it when you were sleeping."
He chuckles at the evasive answers, but he doesn't back down. "Believe me, I would've remembered him saying something like that. At first, I thought nothing of it, then when that sea horse set that illusion trap of our enemies at us, one of them, that I couldn't recognize told me something."
Rose can only nod at the analysis and listen intently. "What did he say?"
"The weird bear looking one said that 'I can't protect anyone now and in the future.' Weird how he knew my future skill, don't you think?"
Rose can feel her heartbeat pick up from the question, but her face still doesn't show signs of her growing anxiety. "Who knows? He was probably just trying to faze you. One of them said I should burn in hell. What are you getting at here?"
He furrows his eyebrows at the answers and gets to the point. "I've had a hunch about why you won't tell the others your secret, but I've done my damndest to leave it alone. After what happened with our memories though, I need to know if it's true. Your knowledge of this world has something to do with this crew's future, doesn't it?"
TO BE CONTINUED
********************************************************
A/N: Hey guys,
I hope you're surviving this Coronavirus chaos too. I know this year hasn't been the best, but I hope things are going well for you guys.
I want to give a shout out to my friend Zweig. He not only gave me the idea for the crossover fight, but the idea for the nightmare cyclone! If you guys have ideas for the story as well, I'm welcome to them.
Stay safe everyone!