"…That's an insane theory, but it would explain a lot," Brief finally admitted. "In my early days, I tried sniping down his crew, but even headshots didn't faze them! But… they seemed confused more than anything. It's possible that they don't even know about it, even if the Baron does. And now that I think about it, I've been on this island for about ten years now, and the Baron's comrades don't seem to have aged even a day."
"Wh-What fresh hell did this monster crawl out of?!"
Absalom turned a bemused look on his horrified colleague. "What are you getting so worked up about? You make zombies for a living—"
"THAT'S PRECISELY THE POINT, ABSALOM!" Hogback shrieked, sounding a few millimetres away from a heart attack. "I am an expert at the practice of necromancy! I am intimately familiar with the complexities involved in returning an individual from the great beyond! Body chemistry, stability of tissue and psyche! It takes me days to complete even a single marionette, and even after that, they require constant upkeep in order to keep their rotting flesh viable!"
Thriller Bark's mad doctor slowly turned his horrified gaze back to the snail in the room. "To be able to create and somehow control what I count as at minimum over a hundred individuals that so perfectly mimic life that none have any suspicions whatsoever, with the sole drawback being nutrition!?" He shook his head slowly. "There are no possible words that could express just how utterly terrifying that monster is on a scientific level."
"AND NOW I GET WHY I feel so off, too! If that thing is huge and controlling THE WHOLE ISLAND, ITS roots must be sucking up SEAWATER! THE AIR IT'S PUMPING OUT IS FULL of salt!" Soundbite grimaced.
"And that explains the smell, too…" Su gulped.
"The whole reason we left the resort and went out to explore more of the island was that the staff reeked of plants. And not just 'farmer or botanist' reek either, that we can handle, that's normal. I mean, they innately smelled like rotting plants. Just… disturbing," Lassoo whined.
"Recreated without even knowing that they died… not even aware that they're not even alive," Moria growled, steadily crushing the armrests of his chair beneath his grip. Such horrors, such… monstrosity… The Master of Thriller Bark had committed innumerable acts of evil over his tenure as Warlord, but not even he could fathom the depths to which the man calling himself 'Omatsuri' had fallen, or the levels of madness and despair it would have taken to push him so far.
Suddenly, all attention in the room was diverted by the sound of the door slowly creaking open, admitting the corporeal body of the fourth of the Mysterious Four.
"Perona?" Absalom remarked in surprise. "Huh, I thought it was too quiet. What are you—?" Whatever snide remark the beast-man had up his sleeve died when he noticed the dead look in his comrade's eyes and the desperate way she was squeezing the undead life out of an oddly compliant Bearsy. "Perona? What's wrong?"
"He invited us…" the goth-lolita breathed numbly. "That kappa kid… he invited everyone for a feast…"
Before any of the Four could ask what she meant, Brief hummed thoughtfully over the connection. "If the Baron's purpose is to keep them all alive, that would explain everything. Everyone he keeps inviting to the island is just more food for his crew's reincarnation."
"CROSS AND THE OTHERS ARE GONNA BE EATEN?!" Soundbite bellowed.
"That's not going to happen!" Luffy snapped. "Thanks for your help, Brief, but I've got a bastard's ass to kick."
"Straw Hat, you can't face him alone!" Brief shouted, panic colouring his voice.
"Which is why he won't be alone!" Lassoo barked.
"YEAH, we're with him all the way!" Soundbite snarled in agreement.
"Heh, see? I'm not alone, I've got my—!" Luffy's voice suddenly cut off, and his transmitted facial expression went slack.
"Eh?" Su blinked in confusion. "Luffy? You alright, rubber—"
"I'm going," Luffy cut in with grim finality. "You guys wait here."
"Wha—Straw Hat, what did I just—?"
There was the sound of something heavy being moved.
"Behind the bookcase. WHAT A CLICHÉ," Soundbite muttered.
"It was getting drafty in here, sue me! And Straw Hat waiiiaaaaand he's gone."
"Yeah, he does that," Lassoo sighed.
"And so are we, for that matter!"
"MUSH, dog-breath, mush!"
"Wha—!? GET BACK HERE!"
Absalom took advantage of the lull in the broadcast to give Perona a confused look. "Yeah, that bit was disturbing, but what does that have to do with—?"
"It wasn't the kappa-kid who said it…" Perona whispered, slowly tightening her grip on the very still Bearsy. "I-I-It was that thing… i-it's intelligent… a-and it's words…"
The male members of the Four started to look at one another…
"It said…"
When they were halted by Bearsy's gravelly voice, which Perona said nothing about.
"That flower invited the world to come to its world and take part in a great feast…" the zombie bear whispered.
The men took a few moments to process that statement, and then they reacted appropriately: Hogback started babbling incoherently and sweating like a pig, Absalom retreated to a corner of the room before he began emptying his guts out, and Moria's bone-white complexion flushed in horrified outrage.
"Just what kind of a monster are we dealing with…?" the Warlord breathed.
-o-
[SQUAD SEVEN, REPORT!]
[NO LUCK, SIR! WE INTERROGATED A BAND OF FISHMEN WE FOUND, BUT THEY ' VE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF OMATSURI ISLAND. THEY'VE BEEN SUBMERGED SINCE THE BROADCAST STARTED!]
[DAMN IT!] Captain-nee-Chief Dugong snarled as he slammed his balled flippers onto the railing of his ship, causing the semi-rotten wood to crack as a result. [THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WAITING UP HERE, HUH?! OUR MEN AND ALLIES ARE IN DANGER, DAMMIT, GET BACK DOWN THERE AND DON'T COME UP UNTIL YOU HAVE SOMETHING CORAL, GOT IT!?]
[SIR, YES, SIR!] The dugongs in the water barked before diving back under.
Captain Dugong snorted as he watched bubbles trail up from where the squad had dived before turning around and starting to pace back and forth across the deck. [Come on, come on…]
[Easy, Captain, easy…] a... relatively calm voice prompted.
The Captain huffed in annoyance and glanced to the side. [First Mate Dugong.]
The new second-in-command of the Dugong tribe ignored his captain's frigid tone, instead choosing to continue giving his leader a firm and steady look. [I know you're worried about Boss and his boys, Captain, we all are, but you need to remember why you let them go after they volunteered in the first place,] he chided. [Those five are the strongest in the whole tribe, ranking right below you and me, and I know that I sure never looked forward to sparring with Boss on account of how he was always just a few blows away from beating my ass into the ground. Soundbite might've lost track of them earlier, but he lost track of 'em after they went in the water. You know, where we're strongest?] He allowed himself a smile that he knew looked more confident than he actually felt. [There's no reason to worry. They're completely fine. I… I am as close to guaranteeing it as I can.]
Captain was silent for the longest time as he contemplated the reassurance. Eventually, he started to turn his head towards his second—
[SOMETHING'S HAPPENING!]
[CONNECT THAT THING TO A SPEAKER, NOW!] Captain Dugong roared, snapping his flipper at the Dugong standing watch over the Transponder Snail they'd set up on a dried part of the deck.
After a brief scramble, the unmistakable sound of a skull knocking against metal sounded out for all the listening Dugongs to hear. "Damn! Bastard! Makes! These! Things! Solid! Where's! The! Damn! LATCH!?"
"No clue, JUST KEEP HAMMERING!"
"There you are, you persistent—!" Brief's voice suddenly sounded out before cutting out in an exasperated snort. "Ergh, enough! If you three are so eager on dying, so be it! Just don't haunt me once you reach the other side." There was a click of a mechanism releasing, followed by the smash of a trap door swinging open. "STRAW HAT!" Brief yelled as he opened the trapdoor.
"LUFFY!" a trio of voices concurred.
"WAGH! WHO ARE YOU?" came another older man's voice.
"WHAT THE—WHO ARE YOU?"
"THE SNAIL IS TALKING?!" said the older man, along with a young woman and a boy.
"There are other real people HERE?"
"Oh, it's these guys again," Lassoo noted in mild surprise. "The Teacup Pirates, right?"
"Tearoom Pirates, Howlitzer," Su corrected. "Rose, Rick, Daisy, and Papa. We ran into them earlier with Chopper; slimeball stopped translating for us about halfway through, but we heard enough while we were there. They're hardly pirates at all, in my opinion—ACK!" Su's words were suddenly cut off in a yelp of terror.
"What the hell is that!?" Lassoo snarled in equal parts rebellious defiance and terror.
"…Brief was right… THE THING'S A GIANT FLOWER STALK," Soundbite mumbled in an utterly terrified voice.
"But… where's its head?" Su whimpered.
"Old man."
But those two calm, quiet words froze all who were listening. Luffy's voice continued in the same apparently calm tone.
"I have two things to tell you. First, the Dugongs, Su, Lassoo, Soundbite, and Chopper aren't my pets; they're my friends. And second…" The look in the Transponder Snail's eye suddenly became downright murderous. "I'll never let you hurt my friends."
There was a tense pause in which it became clear who Luffy was talking to. And then the recipient's voice came across.
"…You'll never let me hurt them?" the Baron sneered after a tense pause. "If you count your pets as your friends, you have nineteen in your crew, correct?"
Luffy's eyes narrowed menacingly. "What about it?"
Soundbite suddenly tensed in horror. "Oh, no…"
"In the time it took you to arrive…" A vile, sickening grin extended across the Baron's face. "That number has been reduced to fourteen."
The words hit Captain Dugong like a physical blow, causing him to stagger back in dull shock.
[C-Captain!?] one of his subordinates yelped.
[Five…] Captain whispered in a horrified tone of voice. [Fourteen is five less than nineteen...]
First Mate Dugong was shaking his head in desperate denial. [I-It's not possible, it's not possible!]
Going by Luffy's suddenly poleaxed expression, the dugong's sentiment was a shared one. "Wha… What did you say?" he breathed in a tone of voice that straddled the borderline of paralyzing horror and apoplectic rage.
"That band of amphibious animals you had with you when you first arrived," the Baron explained in a tone that could have been conversational, if not for the sheer amount of pleasure he was taking from Luffy's reactions. "Lily ensnared them in her roots when they decided to explore the bay. Their shells made it difficult for her to digest them at first…" The madman's grin somehow widened even further, all teeth and no mirth. "But she managed it shortly before you arrived. And now… the rest of your crew will soon join them."
First Mate Dugong barely managed to catch himself from toppling forward, staring down at the deck in numb shock. [H-He… that bastard actually… th-they're—!]
[RAAAAAAGH!]
SMASH! KEE-RASH!"
All attention on the galleon snapped over to the now-collapsed mizen-mast, where Captain Dugong's fist was embedded in the shattered remains of the wooden pillar.
[SOMEONE FIND ME THAT GODS-BE-DAMNED ISLAND RIGHT THE HELL NOW!] he howled, both at his crew and the heavens themselves. [FIND ME IT SO THAT I CAN RIP THAT FUCKING BASTARD'S SKULL OUT THE BACK OF HIS HEAD AND CRUSH IT WITH MY OWN BARE FLIPPERS!]
[SIR, YES, SIR!] The rest of the crew roared back with nigh-religious fervour.
-o-
"You… You BASTARD!" Luffy roared at the top of his lungs, his voice sounding more like an animal's than a human's.
"Yeah, get him, Straw Hat!" Kureha cheered as she pumped her fist with far more enthusiasm than anyone her age had the right to possess.
"You said you won't let me harm them, didn't you?" the Baron chuckled, as though he were observing the greatest show in the world. "You'll never let me hurt them…" He chuckled again and then burst out laughing. He kept on laughing even as Luffy reacted.
"You… YOU'RE DEAD!" Luffy roared. "GUM-GUM—!"
A whistling sound interrupted his attack, and the sound of rubber striking something hard and a grunt of pain rang out.
"One arrow," the Baron gloated.
"LUFFY! That bastard nailed his hand TO A ROCK WITH AN ARROW!"
"Damn, that's not good…" Dalton winced as he rubbed the spots on his shoulders where his ex-comrade had perforated him a few months prior.
"Tsk. This complicates matters…" Kureha growled to herself as she stroked her chin. "Assuming that he's in a bad enough position, he might not have the leverage needed to break the rock, and even then, if it's really a through-and-through, extraction's gonna be a real pain in the—!"
"What happened to that determined spirit, hm?" Omatsuri sneered viciously. "Ah, and by the way? While you struggle in vain, another one of your friends is disappearing. Another of your pets, the one you called a doctor, I believe?"
"S-STOP IT! CHOPPER!"
Kureha promptly froze mid-sentence, her mind just... just stalling as it tried to parse the words it had just heard. The witch doctor slowly blinked as she stared at the snail, her brain attempting to reboot.
"…eh?"
-o-
"Now then, I wonder… Who will be next?"
"YOU'LL BE NEXT, YOU WANNA-BE NECROMANCER! Suck it: GASTRO-PHO—YIPE! GRRGH!"
"Whoa!" Kamakiri reeled back in shock when the Transponder Snail suddenly locked its jaws so that they were only slightly open. "What the heck!?"
"What do you think you're doing!?" Su's incredulous voice managed through the snail's teeth. "Spit that arrow out and get that bastard puking!"
"It appears that Soundbite only narrowly missed becoming a kebab…" Laki shuddered fearfully, her hand continuing to stroke Aisa's hair. Ever since the broadcast had emerged from its underground location, the young oracle had been on her knees, clutching her head in agony as she moaned about 'screaming voices'.
Laki was also taking the time to watch over Pagaya's own insensate form. The Straw Hat gunner's father had come over several hours ago in order to join the Shandians in listening to his daughter's adventure on the SBS… but soon after matters had started devolving, Wiper had laid him out on the ground with a well-placed fist to his skull. The Berserker had stated that he'd done it so that he would be spared the old man's whining… but all present agreed that Pagaya's current state was favourable to listening to the ongoing hell the world was being treated to.
"But why hasn't he spit it out yet as the fox suggested?" Wiper said, narrowing his eyes.
"I can't!" Soundbite mumbled out through his clenched teeth. "This thing… IT'S STILL PUSHING! I 'ET GO, I DIE!"
"I took great pride in my archery skills back in the day, and Lily has only aided me since," the Baron smugly informed them. "Now, where were we… Ah, yes. It would seem Lily has chosen the angel next."
"CONIS!" Luffy yelled. "GUM-GUM—!"
Another whistling sound. Another thudding of rubber against stone.
"Two arrows."
"NOOOO!" Su screamed desperately.
Laki's nails broke the skin on her palms as Aisa redoubled the pressure she was putting on her ears, shaking her head in desperate denial. Beside her, Kamakiri was shaking in barely suppressed rage. And Wiper…
"You defeated a god, Straw Hat," Wiper growled, glaring daggers at the snail. "Don't lose to a mere demon."
-o-
"YOU MONSTER!" Su roared. "I'LL RIP YOU TO SHREDS!"
There was a scrabbling of claws on stone and soil and then a whistling sound that heralded yet another arrow. A whistling that actually continued for a bit. "HA! NOT SO GOOD AT HITTING MOVING TARGETS, ARE YOU?" THUNK! "AAAARGHHH!"
Su's shriek of agony wailed out of the snail and was swiftly followed by the crack of an arrow entering stone.
"As I said, I take great pride in my archery," the Baron drawled before glancing back to Luffy.
The dinner rush had long since stopped eating, the patrons paying rapt attention to the snail and its horrific broadcast.
"Damn, damn, damn!" Carne swore, his teeth wearing his nails down to nubs. "The suspense is fucking killing me! Who's gonna bite it next!?"
"Tsk, calm down, pintsize!" Patty waved a hand with a careless grin. "Come on, I know it looks bleak now, but this ain't the end! All they have to do is keep fighting, and they'll pull through, so there's absolutely no reason to—!"
"It would appear that your cook is the next one destined to disappear."
"SANJI!"
"NO!" Patty slammed his palms on either side of the Transponder Snail, glaring at it with all the heat he could muster. "DAMN IT, SANJI, FIGHT! DON'T GIVE UP, DON'T GIVE IN! SHOW THE WORLD THE PRIDE OF THE BARATIE!"
Zeff, meanwhile, stole away into the kitchen, striving with all his might not to sink to his knees or let his tears fall into his cooking.
-o-
"Ah, it appears that the dark-haired woman is the next to go. Perhaps she'll be happy being a part of Lily, if she likes flowers so much."
"ROBIN!" Luffy cried desperately.
"LET HER GO!" Lassoo howled, snarling as he opened his jaws wide. "CANI—!"
The Marines listening winced as a thunk followed by an agonized yet muffled howl sounded over the line.
"Heel," the Baron sneered.
"H-HE NAILED HIM RIGH' THROUGH the jaws!" Soundbite winced.
Several of the Marines, listening subconsciously raised their hands to their own jaws, while in the back of the room, Aokiji paused as he realized that Soundbite had failed to blur a name. He considered making a note of it, but ultimately, the most he could bring himself to do was bow his head in shame.
-o-
"And there goes the loud-mouth," the Baron purred, clearly relishing the screams of agony that resulted from all of those present.
"CROSS!" Soundbite howled in misery, drowning out Luffy's own cry.
Pinky and the Brain shook with ill-repressed terror as they relayed the broadcast. The broadcast itself was scary enough, sure, but it wasn't the primary source of their fear. After all, compared to the vessel they were on…
If anyone doubted that ships could love their crews, the sight of the Going Merry trembling with agony, screams breathing out of every timber, would silence those doubts forever. Her sails and lines flapped in an unseen breeze, her hull creaked and groaned—and in the dining room where the snails were set up, the translucent form of a young girl in a rain poncho clenched her fists, tears streaming from her eyes.
"No!" Merry yelled, her voice trembling from the raw emotion. "It can't end like this! It can't! You—You promised that we'd sail the seas together!" Against her own volition, her mind flashed back to a stone altar, a man with a lance of fire riding a bird… and just the wrong lurch, and the sickening crack that followed. Merry shuddered as a bolt of agony tore through her back as she clutched the sides of her head in despair. "Fucking shit! I'm your ship! I'm supposed to protect you all! And I can't… I can't…"
She took a deep breath, threw her head back and roared. "LUFFY! KICK ITS ASS! SAVE THEM FOR ME!"
-o-
"If you don't hurry, there won't be anyone left."
"STOP IT! GUM-GUM—!"
Once again, an arrow pinned his limb to a rock. And this time, there was the sound of knees hitting the ground.
"Since you can't see, I'll tell you: the man with the phallic nose has just died."
"USOPP!"
Merry sorely wished he'd had the foresight to spike his tea with sleeping pills as soon as he received the accurate inkling that this broadcast was going to be a complete nightmare, back when that kappa… or rather, the demon behind the kappa had put on its terrifying display.
As it was, his mistress and the three heirs to Usopp's task of rousing the village were staring at the snail in abject horror, tears and mucus streaming down their faces. Not that he was any better. All he could do at that moment was hope beyond all hope that Luffy would be able to pull off another miracle.
Because if he couldn't, he wasn't sure his mistress would recover this time.
-o-
"What will you do? Will you fight me with just your left leg?"
"GUM-GUM—!"
A fourth arrow. All of his limbs were pinned now.
"The other two women and the bird have just disappeared."
"VIVI! CARUE! NAMI!" Luffy cried.
In two different parts of the world, two fathers, one surrogate but both genuine, suffered heart attacks in response to the broadcast.
-o-
"You can no longer move in that state," the Baron taunted over the sounds of Luffy struggling on the ground. "The very last of your friends is starting to fade away."
"ZORO!" Luffy screamed. A sound of tearing fabric came across the connection amidst Luffy's cries. Then—
"LUFFY! IF THOSE ARROWS HIT HIS NECK, HE'S—"
From what little the listeners could tell, the Baron, for the first time since the broadcast started, seemed taken aback. But judging from the whistling sounds that followed, it didn't last long before he pulled himself together and started to fire more arrows at Luffy. A few distinct sounds made it clear that they scraped past their mark, but this time, the Baron was definitely taken aback as Luffy continued yelling and stretching forward.
"ZOOOOROOOOOOOO!"
The expression that the snail was wearing was horrible beyond words: gaping, but out of pure horror and despair rather than righteous anger. It lasted for a few seconds, tears flying out of his eyes, before the sound of Luffy's elongated neck retracting and slamming into the stone imprisoning him rang out.
The sound of stone breaking then came from two different directions. The snail was expected. But on the recipients' end of the broadcast, all eyes snapped to a certain grave marker, which had suddenly gained a ragged crack.
-o-
"Turn up the volume."
Squardo and Whitey exchanged nervous glances from the safety of a hill several hundred meters away. As bad as the broadcast was, the potent combination of Haki and fire rolling off of Ace was worse. Not only were they sweating like a couple of stuck pigs, they had to constantly fight the urge to either flee or faint, with both options all but guaranteeing their deaths by way of barbeque. How their Transponder Snail was still conscious was a mystery of the universe, though the flecks of foam coming from the corners of its mouth hinted that it actually wasn't.
"I-It's as high as it goes, Ace!" Squardo called out.
"Turn. Up. The volume," Ace snarled, the temperature ratcheting up another few hundred degrees, the soil around his feet beginning to melt. "Because that broadcast is the only thing keeping me from stealing one of your ships and going to BURN THAT FUCKING ISLAND TO ASH."
"Ace, please, be reasonable!" Whitey pleaded.
"Yeah!" Squardo nodded furiously in agreement. "I know that the outlook is bleak, but—!"
"Straw Hat."
The subordinate captains paled in terror as the Baron started speaking again, only this time dripping with liquid hate.
"Your swordsman is dead. Your pets will soon join him. You have no friends left. You are utterly alone on the vast Grand Line."
"…Alone?"
Whitey and Squardo both flinched, their hearts breaking at the sheer despair in Luffy's voice. It was all the opening needed.
"THAT'S IT! HE DIES NOW!"
Their bowels, meanwhile, nearly voided themselves due to the literally apoplectic fury in Ace's face.
The fireman prepared to shoot into the air, only for the two other captains to fall on him with all the speed of New World veterans, Whitey gritting her teeth at the sound of sizzling flesh in spite of her pumping as much Haki into her clothes as she could. Acting fast, she snapped a cuff of sea prism stone on the commander's arm.
"LET ME GO!" Ace roared as he flailed beneath his friends, almost managing to buck them off through sheer muscle power alone. "THAT THING WANTS A FEAST?! I'LL GIVE IT A BARBECUE FIT FOR THE OARS JR. PIRATES!"
"Damn it, Ace, stop!" Squardo pleaded. "You won't make it in time! And what if that thing snares you, too?"
"I OFFICIALLY DO NOT CARE!"
Squardo shivered as he felt himself come that close to passing out before steeling his will and redoubling his grip on the Commander. "For the love of god, Ace, stop and think for a second! What happened to your faith in your brother?!"
To his credit, the swordsman only flinched when Ace turned his gaze on him. Despite the suppression of his fire, he swore that Ace almost incinerated him anyway. "What?"
"Luffy's still there, still fighting!" Whitey hastily cut in as she caught on to Squardo's line of thinking. "If he falls, then you can go burn that thing to ashes! We'll help, hell, Pops will probably help! But until then, have faith, the same faith that let you two both go out to sea in the first place to find your own paths! Because if you save Luffy right now…" Whitey's voice fell into a desperate whisper. "Then he might not ever forgive you."
There was an audible sound of grinding teeth, and then Ace sat back down onto the ground, his face grim. "Fine," he ground out. "Now, take off this stupid bracelet!"
"Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. We'd rather not get melted," Squardo drawled, holding up a sweating, red-faced and foam-coughing Transponder Snail.
Ace at least had the good grace to blush at that.
-o-
"Ow, ow ow, ow—ARGH! DAMN IT, SISTER, I'M HURTING JUST AS MUCH AS YOU ARE, BUT WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING!"
"Will you please be quiet, Sonia?" Marigold groused irritably. "In case you've forgotten, we're much louder in our hybrid forms!"
"QUIET!?" Sandersonia snapped a disbelieving stare at her sister before gesturing at her seething and squirming coils. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to restrain one of the Warlords of the fucking Sea here! A Warlord, I might add, who kicks like a Sea King and is hitting a burn I got on our last outing!" She directed the last bit at her elder sister. "I'm going to be sporting bruises for weeks on end once this is done!"
"And you think that this is easy!?" Marigold scoffed as she gestured at the half-conscious Transponder Snail she was holding in her palm. "You only need to worry about keeping yourself conscious, whereas if I slip up even once, our Transponder Snail will go under and then we'll really be in trouble!"
"Yeah, well—!" Sandersonia started to snap back before pausing as a new sound started coming across the connection.
It had been silent following the Baron's declaration to Luffy, aside from Soundbite, Su, and Lassoo, all whimpering quietly. But the new sound… it sounded joyful, celebratory… like a party. Like the one that had drawn the Straw Hats to the island in the first place.
"They're alive again… and they have no idea that anything happened…" Marigold whispered in horror.
At that moment, the only thing worse than their older sister blowing her top happened: her struggles and Haki both cut out instantly. The two serpent-sisters exchanged confused looks before Sandersonia slowly uncoiled her tail enough to reveal their sister's face.
And the look in her eyes promptly caused Sandersonia to snap back to her human form and grab Hancock's shoulders before she could collapse lifelessly to the ground. "She's gone back, she's gone back, why has she gone back!?" the largest of the siblings babbled desperately.
"I-I don't…" Marigold started to shake her head in denial, but then froze and started to slowly look down at the snail, sickening comprehension dawning in her mind. "Oh… oh no… th-the sound of cheering… at someone else's pain—!"
Sandersonia's eyes widened in comprehension. They then started widening even further as mortal terror steadily crept into them. "I-I-I think… I think I'm hearing it too…" she mumbled in horror, sinking to her knees.
Marigold's affinity for Armament Haki ensured that she had more composure in regards to the hellish memories of their past. But that did little to help calm her two sisters, or to change the fact that those memories were described as hellish for a damn good reason. So, before she herself could break down, Marigold fell back on the fail-safe they had long since devised for just such a situation, snapping her fingers to her lips and blowing out a harsh whistle.
In a blur of red and white, Salome dove down from where she'd been perched in the rafters and struck swiftly and decisively, sinking her fangs first into Marigold's shoulders, then Sandersonia's. Mari grit her teeth while Sonia cried out in pain. She snapped upright, snarling briefly before exhaling sharply and nodding her thanks to the giant serpent, who then moved towards her mistress. It wasn't so simple for Hancock; a harsh reminder of reality was enough for the snake Zoans, but considering the abuse that the Love-Love Fruit had invited… if anything, all that that treatment would do was aggravate the situation, rather than alleviate.
And so it was that the three serpents embraced Hancock, doing their best to reassure her that she wasn't alone...
"M-My friends… give them—!"
Even as miles away, one Straw Hat Luffy continued suffering through his own nightmare.
-o-
A sound that the viewers easily identified as stomping on someone's head came across the connection. All of the executives winced. Hardened pirates and criminals they might have all been, and atrocities aplenty they might have committed, but even for them, this level of cold, hard, concentrated brutality was hard to listen to. Mostly because they weren't the ones inflicting it, for once.
"Fuffuffuffu… I like this Baron Omatsuri's style," Doflamingo chuckled. "I don't know what Straw Hat is seeing, but it has to be horrific. And losing all his crewmates like that in front of him, one by one, and powerless to stop it…" His grin widened malevolently. "Always a classic."
"Does it hurt to be without friends?"
"HE'S NOT WITHOUT FRIENDS YET!" Su snarled, the sound of grunting and muffled howling indicating that Lassoo was backing her up.
"Cut the LIES!" Soundbite roared, as much as he could with his teeth occupied.
Things were silent for a few seconds until the snap of fingers sounded out. Then… Then the screaming started anew.
"YEARGH!" Su shrieked in terror. "WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE—!? GET-GET OFF, LET GO OF ME!"
"RAT-FUCKING-BASTARD!" Soundbite raged with unholy fury.
Lassoo's muffled whimpers and yelps became increasingly frantic alongside the protests.
"It seems that your pets represent your captain's hopes as much as his crewmates do. In that case, what I must do is crush each and every one of them. Now, watch and suffer as you lose these mediocre excuses for crewmates."
"SOUNDBITE! LASSOO! SU! NO, LET THEM GO! LET THEM GO!"
"I won't," the Baron coldly informed him. "I will take them like I have taken the rest of your crew, and there is nothing you can do to stop me."
"YOU FUCKING—MMPH!?" Soundbite's vitriol-fueled words were suddenly cut off without warning, thus silencing Su and what little coherence Lassoo had in the process.
"This is the reality of your situation, child: you have lost. Totally and utterly."
"THAT'S—!" Luffy started to curse before breaking off into harried panting. "That's… That's not true…"
"You have lost all of your friends," Baron Omatsuri drawled in a tone of voice that belied years of experience. "No matter how much you struggle or deny it, that reality will never change. What are you going to do now? If you decide to go on, a life of suffering, despair, and loneliness is all that awaits you. Or… will you decide to follow your friends?"
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me…" Doflamingo mused. "The fact that I can't see this at all… Fuffuffuffu, the imagination runs wild, doesn't it? It must be torture for the rest of the audience." Doflamingo's grin somehow became even more evil as he digested that idea. "Well, a good idea is worth stealing, after all. I would be remiss as the world's prince of darkness if I didn't take the opportunity to add to my… repertoire, wouldn't I? Fuffuffuffuffu."
Doflamingo either didn't notice or didn't care that, judging from the fact that he was the only one in the throne room, his executives lacked his ability to appreciate the sheer magnificence of the torture. And even if he had, his only reaction would have been to pity them for being so close-minded.
-o-
The following sound indicated that Luffy's head fell to the earth. He struggled briefly to get back up, but the sound of rubber being roughly squeezed indicated that the Baron had picked him up.
"Let me paint you a picture. Almost every captain has chosen death over living in solitude. That is a wise decision. One man cannot be a pirate alone. Now, I will ask you again: what will you choose? Life or death?"
The only response… was silence. Silence that was louder than words could ever hope to be. Finally, Luffy let out a soft grunt of pain before he fell to the ground. Footfalls indicated that the Baron was stepping back.
"As I thought, being alone is too painful for you to endure."
"BWOOOOOH! BWOOOOOH! BWOOOOOOH!"
Crocus flinched and glanced out the door of his lighthouse as ear-splitting howls of agony started crashing down over the Twin Capes. In any other situation, he'd have told Laboon to quiet down so that he could keep listening properly, but now… now he wasn't so sure that he wanted to hear anything further.
"Damn it, Omatsuri…" he breathed grimly. "Is this really what you think your friends would have wanted!?"
As if in answer, the sound of a bowstring being drawn taut filled the air like a death knell.
"Then die."
Crocus grit his teeth, almost angry enough to try tracking down that island where the snail was… broadcasting… wait a minute, Soundbite had been snared by that monster, why was the broadcast still going?
That question was answered by the sound of the earth suddenly collapsing and the Baron gasping in shock.
"What on earth—!?"
"BARON!"
Crocus sighed in relief when Laboon's cries were silenced, courtesy of Brief's voice hollering defiance.
"YOU!" the Baron snarled in frustration.
"I won't let you hurt this man!" Brief roared. "And thanks to this device you foolishly missed!" There was a clanking sound that signalled that Brief was holding up something metallic. "You'll never harm another person in the world again!"
The Transponder Snail flashed an expression of fury for a moment before falling back into cold indifference. "I might not know how that device functions, or how it is capable of bypassing my beloved Lily's interference…" A flash of evil passed over the vile man's face, and the sickening twang of a bowstring sounded out again. "But I do know that it won't function without a snail to broadcast."
Crocus shot upright in shock. "Soundbite!"
"DON'T YOU DARE, YOU—!" Brief started to shout—
KABOOM!
"WAGH!"
When he was suddenly cut off by an air-shattering explosion slamming through the connection.
"PWAH!" Soundbite gasped in relief. "WHAT THE heck—!? AGH! LASSOO! SU! NOOOO!"
"Tsk, so the mutt managed to wrench its jaws open and blast you free, hm?" The Baron clicked his tongue sourly. "Well, no matter. He and the fox are being consumed as we speak, and soon so will—!"
"THIRD PANEL FROM the left, the gray octagon!"
"What—?"
BWAAAAAAAAAH!
"GYARGH!"
"SONNUVA BITCH NOT AGAIN!" Crocus roared as he clamped his hands over his ears, Laboon keening in agreement.
"HEEHEEHEEHOOHOOHOO, I think I could come to LOVE THAT THING," Soundbite said in a tone that was equal parts fervent and dizzy.
"WE KNOW!" Crocus and Laboon bellowed back with equal fervour. At the same time, though, Crocus was grateful for that Laboon-worthy noisemaker, considering that, if the scramble of feet through a tunnel was anything to go by, it had apparently provided the necessary distraction for Brief to abscond with the transceiver and Soundbite.
"Damn cocky snail…" Crocus grumbled as he tentatively poked at his eardrums for a second. He then allowed himself a kindly smile. "Still. As much as I hate him, I am glad to hear that he's not hurt."
"BWOOOOOH!" Laboon bayed anew, only this time he was communicating an entirely different emotion.
-o-
The sound of Brief and Soundbite rushing through the tunnels continued for a few moments before they slid into another room. "How is he?" Brief asked.
"He's hurt pretty bad—HEY!" began an older voice, the captain of the Tearoom Pirates, up until the sound of shaking someone's body came across the connection
"Wake up, Straw Hat—"
"ALLOW ME," Soundbite snarled. "Here's hoping a generalization works… LUFFY! WAKE UP RIGHT NOW UNLESS YOU WANT A FIST OF LOVE!" the snail belted out in a gruff old man's voice.
"AH! I'M UP, GRAMPS, I'M U—huwha?"
In a dilapidated shack on the slopes of Mt. Corvo, a certain mountain bandit chief cocked an eyebrow curiously. "Well, now I'm a bit conflicted…" Dadan mused to herself. "On the one hand, it's good that they were able to use Luffy's trauma to snap him out of it, but on the other hand, that pretty much just spilled the beans on who Luffy's grandfather is to anyone who's familiar with Garp."
"I think we can worry about that after he's out of that hellhole of an island," Dogra grit out. "And that's if he can bounce back after losing his whole crew…"
"SNAP OUT OF IT, LUFFY!"
Magra allowed himself a hopeful grin. "Somehow, I don't think that that's going to be much of an issue."
"Eh? Soundbite! Y-You're alright! But… But everyone else…" Luffy trailed off, his voice cracking.
"NO!" Soundbite belted out desperately. "Y-YOU CAN'T GIVE UP HOPE, LUFFY, YOU CAN'T! I-IF YOU GIVE UP…" The snail's eyes started to tear up in despair.
"Damn it all, Straw Hat!" Brief belted impudently. "Where's your determination, eh, where's your will to fight!? You need to stand up! You need to fight for your crew!"
"What crew?" Soundbite spat, the venom in his voice thoroughly diluted with depressed sorrow. "THEY GOT eaten. THEY'RE GONE…"
"So you say, but she says different!" Brief countered.
"Yes, they're still alive! I can hear them!" came a girl's voice out of the blue.
"Huh?" Luffy blinked in confusion. "Who are you? And what're you talking about—"
"She—SHE'S RIGHT!" Soundbite said in equal parts shock and euphoria. "I-I CAN hear their VOICES!"
"Eh!?" the leaders of the Mt. Corvo Bandits yelped, leaning backward in shock.
"Is this for real?!" Dadan breathed, her cigarette getting steadily worn down to a nub.
"B-but I thought he said the salt was messing with his head!" Magra questioned.
"Eh? What about the salt?" Rose of the Tearoom Pirates asked that very same question.
"AH… ah, different kind of HEARING. MY NORMAL SKILLS ARE STILL BORKED, BUT THIS…" Soundbite shook his head solemnly. "There's no blocking this."
"Can't you hear them? Listen!" the girl insisted. "Mister Reindeer and Mister Doggy and Miss Fox are calling for you! 'Luffy, Luffy!', over and over again! And lots of other voices too! Though one of them is saying a lot more than that…"
"HAHAHA!" Soundbite cackled ecstatically. "EVEN ON THE BRINK of the void, Cross is slingin' shit LIKE A DAMN CHAMP!"
"Please don't swear around my children!" Papa Tearoom protested.
"BUT HOW ARE THEY STILL—OH, OF COURSE! The damn weed's TRACT MUST BE SLOW-ACTING SO IT CAN SUSTAIN the illusion during gaps between crews!" Soundbite reasoned, ignoring the man.
"Ergh! 'Go to the Grand Line, they said, 'It'll be a fantastic family bonding experience!' Last time I take family bonding advice from a girl offering therapy for five flipping berries!" the patriarch of the 'pirate' family grumbled before lowering his voice. "And, ah, Daisy, was your hearing always this good?"
"Is now really—EH? What the—! OhfuckINCOMING!"
A series of distant explosions and close-up tremors came across the connection, and then Brief spoke again. "Looks like I've outstayed my welcome. Tsk, fine by me, I don't intend to die on this island! Alright, listen, Straw Hat: you can't just recklessly charge at the Baron's arrows. Use the underground routes I dug, I'll back you up. Just do as I told you and rush towards that strange flower!"
"You…" Luffy began.
"You forgot this," Brief interrupted, the sound of scrunching straw indicating he'd given Luffy back his hat. "Don't let the Baron's lies affect you, you're not alone yet! You still have a chance to save your friends, understand? And… I'm here with you, too."
"THAT'D mean a lot more if you weren't HOLDING YOUR FINGER UNDER YOUR NOSE LIKE THAT," Soundbite deadpanned.
"The snail's right. You're talking about life and death with your finger across your nose?" said Papa.
"That's just weird," said a younger male who had to be Rick.
"SHUT UP! This is the Toothbrush Mustache Pirates' sacred traditional greeting!"
"Heheh, I think I'm starting to like this old man!" Dadan snickered to herself.
"Though really, who ever heard of a salute as stupid as that, eh?" Magra asked.
"You mean aside from that stupid handshake you tried to make us all do a few years ago?" Dogra muttered sarcastically.
"I WAS DRUNK OFF MY ASS, DAMN IT!"
"IT WAS THREE HOURS LONG, THERE'S NOT ENOUGH BOOZE ON THE ISLAND TO JUSTIFY THAT!"
"YOU DAMN LITTLE—!"
SLAM! SLAM!
"WILL YOU MORONS KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!?" Dadan bellowed. "IN CASE YOU HADN'T NOTICED, OUR BOY IS FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE OUT THERE!"
-o-
"Alright, I'll get going," Luffy announced with grim determination. "Old man, you look after Soundbite, alright?"
"Of course," Brief nodded firmly before adopting an annoyed expression. "And for the record, I'm 42! You try living on this island for years on end and not let the stress get to you!"
The only response he received was that of Luffy running off.
There was a brief silence before Soundbite swivelled his eyestalks to the side in a flat look. "We're going AFTER HIM, RIGHT?"
"Smart snail," the… relatively old pirate laughed as he started running himself.
"Looks like Straw Hat's going to get out of this after all!"
"Of course he is! It's nothing now but a straight-up fight, and he won't give those monsters an inch this time! He's going to win!"
"Anyone wanna put any money on him winning?"
"Not a chance!"
For the first time since the goldfish-catching game, the patrons of Takoyaki 8 were thoroughly enjoying the broadcast. Luffy had his confidence back and friends backing him as he tried to save his crew from a man-eating plant and put an end to that monster of a man. And this time, the support in the game was unanimous.
Soundbite's broadcasting faltered slightly here and there, Luffy popping in and out of the holes in the ground, along with Brief and his goat distracting them. Then came the moment where Brief used a dummy of straw that Soundbite had been funnelling Luffy's voice into, successfully tricking and then distracting the Baron and making him attempt to play whack-a-mustache with his arrows. Tension began mounting as the sounds of the trapdoors opening became closer and closer to the arrows' impact.
Until, finally—
BOOM!
"Agh!"
"GAH, MOTHER—THAT STINGS!"
One of the explosions was accompanied by Brief and Soundbite's cries of pain.
"Now, stay in that hole!"
There was a sound of movement amidst the settling dust. "Baron," Brief growled, weak but firm. "Don't mess with me. If you think you can take friends away from anyone you please, you're dead wrong! As of now… I'M ONE OF HIS FRIENDS!"
"I'LL DAMN WELL ENDORSE THAT claim!" Soundbite roared in agreement.
The Baron chuckled cruelly. "Friend? How delightful! Straw Hat!" Omatsuri's expression swapped over to a more vicious tone as he glanced away. "Listen well! This man, who claims to be your friend, was once the captain of a pirate crew that I annihilated! A man who pleaded for mercy! A man who wretchedly shook in fear at the thought of being alone! Why would you let such a pathetic insect be your friend?"
"HEY! I AND TRANSPONDER SNAILS EVERYWHERE RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!"
Omatsuri's snarl deepened. "That snail again… you should learn when to respect your betters!"
There was that strange organic sound that had accompanied every instance of the bow arrow being nocked before, and then the snail's eyes snapped open in terror as the same noise multiplied itself almost two dozen times over.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" Soundbite demanded incredulously. "JUST HOW fucking bullshit is that damn flower?!"
"Why don't you observe for yourself, hm?" And with that, there was the twang of a bowstring and a chorus of shrieking whistling.
Within moments, the arrows made impact… but not on flesh. The only sound heard was metal sinking into stone.
"DENIED! NICE SAVE, LUFFY!"
"Wha… Straw Hat?" Brief asked. There was a sound of stone cracking, likely from being used as a shield. Then…
"RaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!" Luffy screamed. A moment later, there was the sound of a fist making impact, and the Baron let out a cry of pain before being sent tumbling away.
"Nyu, nice one, Luffy!" Hachi pumped his fists triumphantly. "Now do it a thousand times more!"
"Come on, guys!" Keimi cheered as she waved around a pair of fans she'd dug out of somewhere. "Like the dugongs! GO, STRAW HAT, GO! GO, STRAW HAT, GO!"
"GO, STRAW HAT, GO!" the patrons of Takoyaki 8 cheered in agreement. "GO, STRAW HAT, GO! GO, STRAW HAT, GO!"
-o-
"Straw Hat certainly seems to have every ounce of will that we thought he did," Hina remarked as she chewed on the butt of her cigarette.
"And thank the heavens that he does," T-Bone stated as he bowed his head solemnly. "For should even the will of one such as Monkey D. Luffy be capable of breaking, then what hope do we have of finding any measure of success in our endeavour?"
Hina scowled grimly, unable to find anything with which to counter the question.
"I told you before…" Luffy huffed grimly. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT MY FRIENDS!"
"F-Friend?" Brief asked timidly.
"Mustache!" Luffy promptly grinned, the cheer in his voice making it obvious that he had his finger up in a salute.
"…Mustache!" Brief echoed joyfully.
"Mustache!" Rose, Rick, and Daisy contributed.
"GET BACK DOWN HERE, YOU THREE!" Papa protested.
"YEEEAAAAH, I have no arms and some measure of DIGNITY, SOOO…"
"…You are an unlikeable little gremlin."
"THAT'S MY SCHTICK, AND I STRIVE TO WEAR it out!"
"The sooner, the better, I say," T-Bone muttered.
"Mm… Hina begs to differ," the female captain disagreed with a slight smirk. "Annoying as he can be… It's at least comforting to find some measure of familiarity in all this madness, no?"
As gaunt as his face was, T-Bone just couldn't hide the smile he too was sporting.
-o-
"Should have seen that one coming. Anyway… Straw Hat!" Brief barked authoritatively. "Go give that demon-weed hell!"
"You BASTARDS! I'll feed you to Lily in PIECES!"
"HE'S UP! GOGOGO!"
"RIGHT! EVERYONE! I'M COMING! HANG ON!" Luffy roared at the top of his lungs. His voice swiftly became far off, but it remained clear as crystal nonetheless. He bellowed at the top of his lungs, a bestial noise of pure rage more than anything.
"Ha! Go, Straw Hat boy!" Queen Ivankov cheered from his stage in his makeshift kingdom, leading his 'citizens' in encouraging the rookie pirate, however far away he was. "Pluck that weed's petals, free your crew! HAHA!"
Soon enough, there was the sound of stretching, unannounced, as a name wasn't needed. This wasn't an attack, just a strike of pure, righteous vengeance. A second later, there was a sound like a titanic slab of meat being pounded, and then a second, even stronger than the first.
And then…
"GIVE ME BACK MY CREW!"
An earth-shattering crash came across the snail. And then came the sound of something like wood breaking apart.
"Ivankov! The monitors!"
At Inazuma's shout, the entirety of Newkama Land turned to face the screens, which were displaying all the same image: a massive, stem-like structure that was beginning to break in the middle, and a human figure that they could barely discern as Straw Hat Luffy beside it.
"…I guess Soundbite-boy learned a new trick. That or his emotions are peaking enough that he—"
"Wait!"
The image turned back towards a small group of people clad in red headgear with a mushroom-like Jolly Roger on each, alongside a man with a toothbrush mustache who could only be Brief.
"The voices are coming from somewhere else now," said the youngest girl, to the surprise of everyone listening. Soundbite's gaze snapped back at the stem… and let out, though on the volume of a whisper, what could only be described as a scream. And not a single person watching could blame him.
For looking closely, where the stem broke, with the full moon shining as red as blood in the background, everyone could see what composed the massive structure: thousands upon thousands of arrows, hovering and quivering in midair, what little light there was glinting off the sharp heads.
"Where are Zoro and all the others? Where are they?!" Luffy yelled. Then, slowly, Soundbite's gaze turned in another direction, tortured, rambling whimpers coming from him as his eyes fell upon the soulless form of Baron Omatsuri, standing with a dark smile on his face and blank white eyes as black spots appeared on the face of the flower on his shoulder, reminding many present of some very unpleasant diseases.
"Right here."
Those two words sent chills down every spine on the floor. And then Omatsuri tossed his bow aside, and the flower on his shoulder began to grow and contort.
Emporio Ivankov had the power of the Horm-Horm Fruit. He was no stranger to gore. He was no stranger to mutations. He was intimately familiar with any number of strange contortions within the human body, and was an expert at causing and healing them himself. He had as much tolerance for the worst that biology, and meat in general, could dish out as the most experienced surgeons in the world did.
And when he saw the Lily Carnation's true form, he could do nothing but retch.
---
"…What the fucking hell."
Nobody in the Blackbeard Pirates so much as batted an eye at their leader's swearing. How could they, with the vile biological symphony that had met their ears? Even after sailing so long with Doc Q, that had been a unique and, as the stain on Burgess's shirt demonstrated, nauseating experience.
"…It was the flower. The flower was wrong. I-I-I didn't believe it, I knew that Cross said it was powerful, but it was so small and innocent, and I thought it was wrong, but I was wrong, it's wrong, that thing, i-it's wrong wrong WRONG! IT'S DIGESTING THEM!"
The disgustingly organic gurgles and squishes, accompanied by the occasional crack of snapping bone coming over the connection, had pretty thoroughly backed up Soundbite's latest scream. And with that, only Blackbeard managed to keep his lunch down, and he glared at the snail murderously.
"Straw Hat… slaughter that monster," he snarled.