š If you enjoy my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! I'm offering advanced chapters there as a thank-you to readers.
--------------------
Check out advanced chapters on : patreon.com/Veni_V
---------------
Steve's perspective
"We wasted all this time chasing that shadow!" I yelled. "How are we so stupid?!"
"You're the one who said to follow it!" Luffy yelled back.
"It looked real! Whatever, we have to hurry and get back. The sun will be rising soon."
"Hey, you two!" A group of people who had been living in the shadows of the forest came out to talk to us.
"What do you want? Hurry up, we have to go!" Luffy yelled.
The two at the front explained who they were and told us they could help us beat Moriah. "We can give you the ultimate power," they said. A woman came out and asked Luffy to marry her.
"No," he said without hesitation.
"What about you?" she asked, turning to me.
"I'm in a committed relationship," I told her firmly.
The men introduced this woman as Lola and explained that Moriah was inside the zombie with Luffy's shadow.
"We have to go," I said, dragging Luffy away.
"Wait! This will only take a second," they said, throwing something into Luffy.
"What the hell did you do to him?!" I yelled.
"How do you feel?" they asked him.
"Fine," he said.
"Can you use a sword?" they asked, throwing him a blade.
"No, he can't," I told them.
"Ha!" Luffy said, effortlessly cutting a tree into perfect discs.
"What the heck!" I gasped.
"That shadow's skills have become yours," they explained. They told us that the shadow's power would only last for ten minutes and that they could give us as many as we wanted. We decided to just shove them all into Luffy and hope for the best. I'll spare you the gory details of them cramming dozens of shadows into him.
"I'm supposed to be the tall one," I grumbled, taking a seat on Luffy's shoulder. "Whatever, just get moving."
"Yeah," Luffy said, starting to walk.
"Wrong way, stupid! What are you, Zoro?!"
"Sorry," the deep voice apologized.
A little while later, we found ourselves facing the monster, Oars.
"Stomp them both out!" Moriah commanded from inside the zombie's cockpit.
"What was that?" I asked, my voice low. "Just who do you think you're going to step on?"
"Those two aren't over there," Luffy told him. Luffy set Nami and Usopp down gently. I looked at the ground and saw that the others had gotten the crap kicked out of them, even Robin and Lil. Dammitā¦ I should have been here.
"Be careful, that thing has Luffy's shadow," Nami said.
Oars pulled back his arm and spooled it up like a spring. "It's a rifle," I warned.
"Got it." Luffy put out one hand and blocked the entire punch. "There's only one Luffy!" he roared. Luffy jumped up and punched Oars away like it was nothing.
"Tempest Kick!" I followed him and kicked the zombie in the face. The attack sent the zombie flying back. "Let's go, Luffy!" I said, dashing forward.
"Right!"
"Whip Crush!" I slammed my weapons into Oars and bounced him off the ground.
"Gum-Gum Whip!" Luffy kicked the monster again.
Luffy grabbed Oars by the hair and slammed him back and forth before throwing him and smashing the entire mansion. "You midgets!" the zombie roared. Oars went to punch us, but I was ready.
"Tempest Kick: Splitter!" I sent out a long vertical wave that cut the zombie up the middle.
"Gum-Gum Pistol!" Luffy punched into the cockpit and nailed Moriah in the face.
Oars went to stomp us right away. "Again, Luffy!" I said, dashing into the air. "Shave Tempest: Never-ending Storm!" I kicked, sending out a hail of destructive waves to batter the zombie.
"Gum-Gum Storm!" Luffy's flurry of punches joined my attack and knocked the zombie over. Once we landed, the shadows started spilling out of Luffy.
"I guess your time's up," I said, catching my breath. "I hope we did enough damage." Luffy slumped over and fell onto my shoulder.
"Are you alright?!" Nami asked, running up.
"I'm fine. I don't know about Luffy, though."
"So how do we get the shadows back?" Usopp asked. "Six of us got ours taken. Two got them back, but four are still missing."
"Who's still missing?" I asked.
"Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Robin."
"He took her shadow," I said with a pissed-off look. "How dare he touch her."
"Calm down there, lover boy," Nami said. "We need to get the shadows back."
"Well, we screwed that up. Moriah has to order the shadows back, and to do that, he needs to be awake."
"So this is your fault!" Nami yelled.
"Sorry, I was more focused on saving your lives!" I shot back.
There was a loud rumbling, and I turned around to see that damn zombie standing back up. "Shitā¦" I hissed.
"That didn't even hurt," Oars said.
"What did Luffy do nowā¦ whatever it was more than enough?" our swordsman said, getting up.
"Zoroā¦" I mumbled. "Nice sword."
"Soā¦ that wasn't enoughā¦ Crapā¦" Luffy said, standing up. "I'm almost beat, but we can take it."
"ROBIN! LIL!" I yelled. "We need a lift!"
"Leave it to us," Robin said.
"How can I help?" Brook asked.
"Still in one piece, good," I said. "We'll need your help, too."
"You're in our way, move!" Rose told the crowd. "Franky, Wyper, and Usopp are working on something."
"GO!"
"Pierna Fleur!" Robin sprouted hands. "Flying Fish!" Lil's fish came out of nowhere. Brook came back and picked up Luffy. "Up we go," he said. Lil's fish snatched me, and we went towards the top of the tower.
"Rain Tempo!" Nami covered the giant in rain.
"Coup De Vent!" Franky yelled. "Wide Burst!" A wall exploded to reveal the three men and a giant tube. The gust of wind that came out froze the bottom half of Oars as Sanji kicked a chain for the sails around the monster's mid-section.
"Throw me!" Luffy yelled.
"Are you sure?" Brook asked.
"Do it!" I yelled, breaking free of Lil's fish. "Zoro, Rose, the mid-section!"
"Three Thousand Worlds!" "Sunset Shower!" The two of them cut through the center of the zombie.
"Third Gear: Bone Balloon!" Luffy inflated his arm. I spun in midair. "Go, Luffy!"
"Gum-Gum Giant Bazooka!"
"Shave Tempest: Piercing Comet!"
Luffy crushed Oars's back, and I drove through the center. "HAAA!" I came to a stop in a crater on the ground.
"Stay down this time," Zoro said.
"You have to get the shadows back!" Usopp yelled. "We're running out of time!"
"Get Moriah up so we can do it!" I yelled.
"No need," the man in question said, standing up.
"Give the shadows back, before I tear you in two," I told him.
"A true pirate fears not even death," Moriah said calmly. "Just give up. Even if I had allowed you to just stroll past us, you'd stand no chance in the New World; you'd be dead within hours."
"This isn't time for talk, Luffy," I said. "The sun's coming up. We have to move."
"With my army of the dead, I will once again aim to become the Pirate King! I won't lose! You should feel honored to have your shadows serving me! Shadow's Asgard!" Every shadow on Thriller Bark was pulled out of the zombies and towards Moriah.
"You absorbed about a hundred shadows, right, Straw Hat? Well, I just absorbed one thousand!" Moriah was massive. A hulking goliath almost the size of Oars.
"He's got all those shadowsā¦" I said, stunned. With one punch, Moriah split the whole island in two. It broke up the buildings and split the sky, causing the sunlight to start bleeding in and burning parts of people away.
"Alright, Luffy, we don't have much time," I said.
"Then let's go wild," he said. "No holding back. You all stand back. Second Gear!"
I threw my whips back and tied them around Luffy. "Gum-Gumā¦" I said. "Whipā¦"
"Cross Bow!" I threw Luffy into Moriah, and some of the shadows were able to escape.
"Jet Bazooka!" More escaped.
"Whip Lash!" Even more.
"Brick Bats!" We were surrounded by those dark creations. "Black Box!" We got locked in an empty cage.
"I can't see anything," I said. "It's so dark."
The box got smashed around, and Luffy broke the top off. "Third Gear! Giant Bullet!" Moriah stumbled back, and I got under him. "Tempest Kick: Tower Breakout!" Two vertical lines cut into Moriah and knocked his neck back.
Moriah was covering his mouth and trying to keep the shadows in. When the people called for the shadows to come back, the souls started fighting him, trying to escape Moriah's thrall. When Luffy landed one last punch on the tower, it collapsed onto Moriah, and the shadows were freed.
"Mama!" I looked back, and from the chest up, Robin's body was just goneā¦ same with Luffy and the others. No wayā¦ we were too slowā¦ But once their shadows attacked, their bodies were restored.
"I got all worried for nothing," I said, walking up to Robin. "I can't kiss half a body."
Robin just laughed and kissed my cheek. "You made it just in time." I took a seat on the ground. "My legs are killing me."
"It's that fighting style," Robin said. "You're not trained in the Six Powers; you need to take it easy."
"AH!" Nami yelled. "I forgot!"
"What now?" Wyper whined.
"There's another," Nami said.
"Another what?" Zoro spat.
"Another Warlord!"
There was a collective gasp, and I ran my hand through my hair. "Luffy's out coldā¦ and I can't fight one of them alone, even if I could stand."
"Up there!" someone yelled. There was a huge man up on a bridge nearby. He had a top-heavy body and soulless eyes.
"Bartholomew Kumaā¦" Lola said. "The Tyrant."
You could just barely hear the voice of the snail Kuma was talking to. "ā¦Obliterateā¦"
I tried to stand up, but my legs were so sore I just fell to my knees. "I won't go out like thisā¦"
"I saw him make someone disappear just by touching them," Nami warned.
In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of us. "Holy shitā¦" I gasped. Even with Shave, I couldn't move that fast. Without even touching people, he could send them flying.
"Let's get started. 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro," Kuma said slowly.
It happened so fast. Zoro tried to fight him but was just slammed into the rubble. Attacks were getting repelled. "That is the power of the Paw-Paw Fruit," Kuma said.
Repulsionā¦
Kuma threw Zoro around like it was nothing. He got behind Zoro and was ready to end him.
"Concasse!" Sanji managed to kick the guy in the face and buy Zoro a few seconds.
"AHHH!" Sanji fell to the ground and grabbed his leg. "Is he made of steel?!"
Kuma compressed the air around him into one small bomb. "I only need 'Straw Hat' Luffy. If you give him to me, the rest of you may go."
"You're asking me to give you my best friend," I spat. "Screw you."
"What a shame. Ursa Shock." The ball he made burst open, and the huge, concussive blast it generated blew us all back. I slammed into a pillar and was knocked out instantly.