In the shadow-covered endless night of the Florian Triangle, Thriller Bark silently drifted.
The never ending fog and Darkness crept into the corners of this place, this island corpse from the West Blue that, like most of its residents, had been converted into something new.
A ship.
On this island corpse vessel, in the massive castle, the enormous form of the powerful 'former pirate' with a bounty of 320,000,000 Beri could sometimes be seen… When he wasn't sleeping away life trying to ignore his own nightmares.
A powerful man who had joined the Seven Warlords of the Sea, a pawn of the Marines and a tool of the World Government…
Gecko Moria was like a god here, where Light was forbidden.
For he had consumed the
Kage Kage no Mi, the Shadow Shadow Devil fruit.
He was a shadow man, surrounded by the shades of his foes and twisting them into comrades.
While those who had their own conceptual shadows stolen must hide here or elsewhere from the sun or be consumed by the Light and crushed into dust, the shades themselves were enslaved to his whims.
Bound to dolls and equipment and corpses, consumed by his own powerful and intelligent shadow, and yet all had to follow his many commands… This island of the dead had earned the name of 'Thriller Bark', and the 'Thriller Bark Pirates' ruled the Florian Triangle's sunless waters.
With an immortal army of disposable minions, with powerful shadows being forced into subservience and stuffed into incredibly enhanced dead meat puppets, he could easily crush most foes! No one could stand against him!
Yet he stayed here.
In the shadows.
What… What was the point?
These shades of endless combatants, even with new personalities and unwavering loyalty… They didn't fill his emptiness.
No matter what level of raw power he was able to gather, despite the massive army he accrued, none of it replaced his lost nakama. His family.
The Gecko Pirates were all gone now, except for him. All because of one fight, one poor decision, out in the New World, the most deadly of seas on the Grand Line.
His body was twisted now. Scarred and sewn up.
But… He had also gathered power.
With the help of a mad scientist, Dr. Hogback, with the assistance of his gathered subordinates and carefully collected Devil Fruits that empowered them… He had managed to accomplish grand things.
Wealth. Fame. Respect.
The World Government had to bow to his ability, and acknowledge him as one of the few 'Approved Pirates', or one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea that stood between the most powerful and the rest.
Oh, all the Marines still despised him… But what did he care about outsiders?
They were too weak to fight on their own, and he was strong enough to gain something like their 'approval', even if it was only acknowledgement that no one could stop him without a high cost.
Still, a gentleman's agreement that he wouldn't ravage the seas and a tact acceptance that he would come when called… And he was left alone to these waters. To his domain of power.
And at the core, that was what he felt here, surrounded by thousands of monsters and bodies and living objects and endless shades and numerous minions and subordinates: Alone.
He couldn't bear to accept any new family. New nakama.
So he didn't. Or tried not to. Sometimes a child like his dear adopted daughter Perona would sneak into his heart, despite his efforts to remain cold and unthinking… But such was rare.
Here, in the Darkness, the massive mountain of a man slumbered in his castle.
He was strong enough to not need to eat often, or move. His people were competent and he forced them to do nearly everything… And he was powerful enough to succeed anyway.
After having failed his family, his life view also shifted.
No longer did he believe he could ever be strong enough. Not alone.
Now, despite stealing so many shade slaves from his infuriated foes, he continually gathered numbers.
The ideal of 'relying upon others for one's own objective'! Something must be done? YOU do it! Kishishishi!
Instead, he spent his time here, in his castle, in these seas of power, in his domain. In Shadows.
And he dreamed of lost family.
His subordinates... They were famed, far and wide. Conquerors of the sea.
Why did Moria have to lose them all? His friends were lost precisely because they were still alive!
If they had all been zombies, dead from the start, he would have lost nothing! For zombies powered by shadows are invulnerable! Eternal warriors; even if they are purified by salt, a replacement can be found!
If only he had taken such measures back then.
If only he had been smarter. Stronger.
So today, like every day, like many past days… He dreamed in his castle in the Dark.
But unlike most days… This time, on this haunted island… Something was shifting.
Chains, forged of Shadow and twisted by sorrow and failure, began to loosen.
And on this island, in the Darkest of seas… Some of the eyes of the unliving multitude began to flicker with new color.
Standing on a ledge, looking off into dark waters, the corpse
Shimotuski Ryuma watched the night.
His body, and most of his personality, was built from his history and legend as a Sword God. A powerful samurai from Wano Country, died long ago.
But tonight, as he stared into the dark, perhaps towards that persistent skeleton that endlessly attempted to retrieve his own shadow from Ryuma every few months or so, he felt something new.
A… Merging. Or a relaxation of limitations.
Perhaps memories.
His cold corpse fingers tapped the hilt of his blade. One brought from his own tomb, that had followed him through life… And now through death.
And he couldn't help but softly sing into the night. "Farewell to the harbor… To my old hometown…"
Old thoughts of his people, strange memories of lost strangers that someone had loved, shadows of memory and shades of thoughts. "...As we all set sail to the ends of the sea…"
He was alone, like he often was.
But if one looked closely, in the darkness of his eyes? There might be a flicker of pink Light.
Somehow, he was looking forward to his next battle, the future conflict, with that '
Humming Swordsman' cursed with the Revive-Revive fruit who refused to concede this endless struggle.
Until then, he would wait here on this island like always.
A dead man softly sang to the Darkness. "...Yo-hohoho…"
It wasn't the worst way to pass eternity.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Bell-mère groaned as she fell into her bed that night.
The mini Marinie plan was to undergo review. Or be paused for a few years entirely.
How. Exhausting.
First of all, even with seven adult assistants, a literal army of Heartless Helpers, AND her ability to Twist reality? Pure chaos.
How so small children could extrude such raw madness and energy was unimaginable.
Also, at some point (She wasn't sure when) the group had splintered.
First, a good chunk of the youngins decided they didn't want to be Marines.
They wanted to be Ship Cows.
So the whole trip thing had to be put on pause while she found green and white face paint and helped a few tiny people get properly cowed up for the adventure.
Which was fine.
Then another group, slightly smaller, insisted they wanted to be Bounty Hunters. Because, in their words, 'I can do what I want and get paid for stopping bad people', which… Wasn't actually that accurate or true but the topic was too big to cover and instead she had to make them Bounty Hunter outfits.
Which… Didn't exist.
Bounty Hunters wore nearly anything. Just like pirates.
In the end, she got a bunch of oversized waterproof coats that made each kid look like they were drowning in stiff cloth. A bunch of bandanas for their hair, job done.
A few kids wanted to be Marines, so not ALL her adorable outfits went to waste (Her girls looked SO CUTE!) but then the remaining kids wanted to be pirates.
Which, again, they were kids. So whatever.
But this one boy was CONVINCED that pirates equated to eyepatches.
And he was DOUBLE convinced that the more eyepatches he had, the more piratey he would be.
By the time the ship returned, the poor boy was covered in eyepatches. Dozens on each arm and leg, a few tied up around his torso and waist, and of course a pair over his eyes.
Her attempts to inform him that eyepatches, when not worn for medical purposes, were used to prevent one eye from being exposed to the light when doing a night assault and shifting from inside to outside while still trying to capture your target…
None of that worked.
And sure, she had seen one or two try-hards just wear an eye patch for similar reasons, but at the end of this mess the poor boy had basically been wearing so many tiny patches of cloth on string that it sort of transformed into a ghillie suit or a very unusual dress.
Oh whatever, at least the boy had fun.
This was NOT going to be a daily thing though. Maybe once a month? And the girls had a blast, even if Nami was frustrated at how little distance was covered due to all the backtracking and how filling a ship of ANY size with this many children slowed the process of sailing down significantly and… Whew.
Nap.
She was going to have a quick nap, then do… Anything else.
Half way into her nap, her Shadow gently poked her hand with a Haunted Shop request.
Hmm?
Normally this was handled automatically. Her Heartless Helpers were very competent, after all.
They were directly connected to her subconscious.
…Which meant this one was important.
Forcing herself to wake up, she focused on the message. One that started off very shaky and awkward… And was quickly followed by someone skilled and most likely much older.
Hmm. "Yami yami no: [[
Dark Visions.]]"
Her expression hardened.
Klahadore, the butler for Kaya, the young sick girl that this boy Usopp was trying to find help for.
Also known as 'Kuro of the Thousand Plans', Captain Kuro, commander of the Black Cat pirates from East Blue.
A man who considered all pirates, excluding himself, to be puppets and barbarians… And was easily able to discard them and sacrifice his own crew for any level of benefit.
In his own words: 'Pirates should be faithful pawns of their captain. They live and die by my command.'
This man had used a crewmember with powerful hypnotism abilities to keep them all under his power and command, to the extent where he even forced a comrade to die in his place under his name to escape pursuit and set up his next grand plan…
Said plan? Poisoning a wealthy little girl so he could gather all her wealth officially and legally.
To live a relaxing retirement of peace and leisure, thanks to the corpses of loving people who took him in at his time of need.
That… That was not J̨̦̘̳͕̞̞̖̰̮͈͔̲̰̗̕͘͡͞u̗̲̹̬͖͎̪̯̯͉̹͔͇̰̕͜s̴̛̥͎̠͙̲͎͞t̵̡̜̣͎͍͙͖͖̜̮͠͞ͅį̘͉͔̣̪͚̣͙̯̝̙͢͠c͏̫̫̞͈̰͚̰̗̟̕ͅe̶͟͜͞͏͖͈̘͓̲͎.
Not at all.
A thought had shadow claws scrawling a response.
This would be handled by the time the poor boy got the note.
Meanwhile, she reached out to a place she had never personally visited or seen outside of images from the Darkness, and she Twisted.
Walking down a hallway, a man in an impeccable black suit with very high quality glasses vanished mid stride.
In his bed, unable to move due to the black claws holding him down, the same shocked and confused man now struggled.
Klahadore, the butler for Kaya.
At the side, Bell-mère stood watching.
A Twist had the antidote for the girl's poison in one hand… Taken from this same room. "Good evening."
Still acting 'innocent', or more accurately in character, Klahadore shiverd. "Murph murmur!"
She glanced at the antidote in her hand. Because of course the pirate would use something reversible… Just in case he somehow, impossibly enough, got a dose himself.
Kuro was always one to plan for any eventuality, after all. "I have good news."
"MORPHLE!?"
Bell-mère nodded. "Yes, very good news! You know that young boy that visits your young charge oh so often? Young Usopp?"
Flickers of his true thoughts murdered within those eyes, but Kuro caught himself. It was actually impressive how badly he was trying to continue acting as Klahadore right now… Probably already determined that was his best option at the moment.
She gave him a smile. It wasn't a warm one. "Well, he went searching for help when his childhood friend got so terribly sick. Managed to find someone, make a very long trip…" Right, mental note: Do something nice for that Captain Kidd guy.
Her merchants could use a clever man with a bit of an underworld connection, and the muscled man seemed trustworthy.
No. Focus.
She wiggled the bottle. "I just so happened to have found some medicine for his little friend! Isn't that marvelous? Very lucky, I'd say. Only a single dose, plus maybe some good food, and she will be right as rain! Isn't that lovely?"
And THERE we go, the man was snarling and spewing hate with his eyes as the flimsy facade of his cover personality was tossed aside.
Still couldn't escape or move though. Her helpers had a good grip, and the asshole was lucky none of them were using their claws in a more direct way right now. "Oh, no need to thank me, I've always had a soft spot for children."
She watched his neck clench tightly as his muscles twisted helplessly. "That said, you are going to have to do a lot of work to help young Kaya get better as soon as possible! I'll provide some snacks and food for now, and she can order more from our island when the supply runs low. A young lady needs to eat healthy, right?"
The rage was now tainted with confusion?
She grinned. "I'm sure you have opinions about what I am able to do at the moment." Oh. "Social limits I mean, obviously I have the raw ability to do almost anything I wish right now."
It was obvious what his thought process would be, after those visions. "Something about how you are important to the young mistress of the house, how you have a history of being a reliable and dependable butler, and so on and so forth? Yes?"
She gave a nod. "And you are correct! If anything happened to you, deserved or not, it would hurt the little girl's heart. Your story and years of hard work and trustworthiness have made you a solid anchor of her life, a foundation of reliability. A true member of her family."
A hint of mocking pride edged into his vision. Dick.
That look froze when she used a touch of Ḑ̷̸̸͢a̴҉r͏҉ḱ̸̢̧͜n̸̕ȩ͘͠s͏͜s̀͠͝. "I wouldn't be so kind if you had actually caused the accident that had killed her parents. Consider yourself very lucky, Captain Kuro."
His sudden shock and terror at her knowing his true name was delicious.
Her grin grew sharp. "So I will leave you behind, Mr. Klahadore, Kaya's trusted butler. After all, I wouldn't want to make her other butler, the far more reliable
Merry, to have to pick up your duties as well… Would I?"
She watched his expression flash through ranges of emotions before he gestured with his chin… And she nodded, letting the clawed black hand of shadows allow him to speak. "I… Assume I will have to alter my plans?"
But already she could feel his rage being collected and saved to cause as much damage and revenge as possible at some future date. This was not a man who could be trusted on any level, nor one who could empathize with others or even follow agreements.
Bell-mère shook her head. "No, I feel that would be a very difficult feat for you to do. After all, it must be quite stressful pretending to be someone else all the time already, no?"
Cautiously he stared at her. "It… Hasn't always been pleasant. But I am willing to compromise, in return for my safety."
Her smile was full of grace. "Have no fear, Mr. Klahadore. After all, you are a respectable and reliable member of Kaya's household. A trustworthy man above reproach! Even Usopp himself believes you to be acting in her best interests! I would never take you away from the poor girl."
Suspicion was blatant in his eyes.
Her hand reached for something unseen. "On the other hand, from what I understand… Captain Kuro, the famous leader of the Black Cat pirates and the man with a thousand plans?"
With her thoughts, and a Ţ̧͙̼͍̗̖̳̠̼̘̕͜͠ͅw̸̲̖̹̤͜į҉͓̬͇̞̩̪̩̫͚̀͟s̶̴͔͔͇̜͟͜͞t̴̡͙̟̰̜̭͓̻̝̳̦͙͉̖̝̣͘ͅ…
Darkness shivered…
Something silver was and was not in her grip. "From what I understand, he was executed for his crimes years ago."
Unrestrained on his bed, butler Klahadore blinked confused. "I… Uh. What happened?"
Bell-mère smiled at the man. "Sorry for intruding, but I was told that you are one of the primary family butlers for the household? I was sent on an emergency request from a local young man who informed us that your young miss was very ill."
Her other hand released the memories, personality traits, and chunks of Heart that had once been a very bad man. A past best left forgotten.
A hurt and somehow wounded butler managed to gather himself quickly though. After all, he was a professional. "A young man?"
She nodded. "A boy named Usopp traveled all the way to the Conomi Islands and requested from our Haunted Shops to find a cure for her illness."
He blinked. "That rapscallion? But… That's so far away!" Klahadore somehow managed to stand, still a consummate professional… But then paused, looking around. "Why am I…"
Oh, right, they were in his room now. "I mentioned that I wished to talk in private, and you suggested this room was secured."
The man blinked. "Did I? I must have… Hmm. Wait, did you say 'Haunted Shop?'"
She nodded. "Yes, like I said: I'm from the Conomi Islands." Seeing his blank look, she sighed. "I think they are calling it the 'Haunted Islands of Plenty', if that rings any bells."
His eyes lit up! "Ah! The rumored land where anything can be discovered! I remember that being really important to me for… Some reason… Why had I… Hmm… Why?"
Sigh. This was probably the reason why he had sped up his asshole plans recently.
Thank goodness Usopp had done something so risky, Kaya's life had been at very high risk before now. "Yes, and after you give the girl this medicine we can discuss which foods would best aid in her recovery."
Something seemed to click as he gripped the bottle, easily measuring out a dose into another container without effort and without confusion about WHY he knew this would make his young charge healthy again, or how he knew EXACTLY how much she would need to take to recover.
After all, he no longer remembered who exactly had purchased the original poison or who was the villain poisoning the young lady of the household.
This was just normal medicine from a haunted island's ghost run shop, and he was a simple family butler… Other priorities came first. "I'll introduce you to the kitchen staff, miss…?"
She smiled at the nice man. "Bell-mère, and that would be lovely! A good warm soup would likely do the girl wonders after the icky medicine, and I'm sure she will want to write a message to take back to her little friend. Usopp was so terribly worried."
He harrumphed. "That boy always seems like trouble, but in consideration of the extreme efforts he put forth attempting to help the young miss… Well, I suppose I can occasionally look the other way when he trumps in here covered in mud and so forth."
She snorted. "All children are mud balls with limbs, it's a fact of life."
He straightened his glasses with a gloved hand, lens flaring. "As you say, perhaps. Some children however had more pride in their demeanor… But let's not dally. This way, Miss Bell-mère."
Best get this part done swiftly, little Usopp would be getting the midnight message in a few hours and the girls still needed a good bedtime story. Get a note from the little girl, make sure she is feeling better, drop off some food for the staff to share around, and boom!
THEN she could have that god damned nap!
Sheesh!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Nami grinned at her crowd of friends, all of them covered in green and white splotches! "And if you are a big ship cow, you gotta moo with attitude! Right Momoo!?"
The massive aquatic bovine glanced at the silent Heartless watchers and seemed to sigh. "Moo."
All her people clapped! "I've been practicing, but I can't moo that deep." "I think we need to be bigger or older to moo that good." "Can I be a pirate ship cow?" "Why are you still here?" "Yeah, weren't you going to take a nap?" "I can't find my way out of the room with all the eyepatches." "Are there any rules about group mooing?" "I only moo in the bath."
Nami probably should have listened to the rest of what they were saying, but to be honest she was bored now. "Alright everybody! CLIMB THE COW!"
All the tiny eyes lit up! """"
Woah!?"""" "Momoo, we can climb you!?" "Don't touch the sharp spines, but you can grip pretty good along the fin." "Would that hurt Momoo?" "Nah, granny Nim says Momoo is super strong and stuff." "Yeah, Momoo is super strong!" "WAIT! I want to climb that side first!"
The trick, Nami had found, was to grip the edge of the scales and the odd sort of fur stuff at the same time. And aim for the dryer parts, cause that is less slippery! "I'm getting to the top first!"
Chaos. "Hey! Don't push me!" "Wow, I'm pretty high up now…" "Guys? Am I still walking towards the nap area?" "Take off those eyepatches!" "Someone stop Brandon, he's going to walk into Momoo's swimming area again." "YOU stop him!" "Nuh uh, I'm halfway up!" "Well, I'M going to be queen of the cow!" "Can I be queen too?" "I think guys have to be king?" "Whatever, as long as I get to be on top of the ship cow."
And suddenly they were all on the ground, Brandon was even MORE confused about where he was at the moment, and mom was there. "Girls? Boys?"
They glanced at each other. Oh no. Activate innocence mode! """""Yes mom/Ms. Bell/Marine Lady/ma'am?"""""
She raised an eyebrow. "It is time for everyone to get ready for bed. NOT time for climbing Momoo."
Darn it. """"""
Awww…"""""" "It's already bedtime!?" "Yeah Brandon." "What happened to nap time!?" "I think you were over there, near the crayons and drawing area." "Where?" "He still hasn't taken off the eyepatches!?" "NEVER!" "Sigh, don't bring it up." "I thought his speech was pretty awesome…" "Argh, me maties!"
Mom chuckled. "Go on you sealubbers, off you get!"
When Nami tried to sneak by though… "Nope!"
Oh no! "Ship cow caught! Ship cow caught! Oh moo, what will I do!?"
Mom grinned as she hugged her away towards home. "Too late, you little boat bovine, you're properly caught now! It's off to brushing teeth and story time for you, no escape!"
Ooh, story time! Wait. "Noo! I'm captured!" Oh no!
But… Well, to be honest, being caught by mom wasn't so bad. She shouldn't have been surprised, Momoo was happy to be caught after all.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Usopp blinked at the odd envelope. One that showed up out of nowhere, with no one knowing when. "Is… Is that it?"
Even Captain Kidd was a bit surprised. "Huh. My letter was just a bit of scribble scrabble on parchment." He leaned forward. "Smells like lavender."
Usopp blinked. "But… It's it, right? This is it?"
The cost.
Whatever the price would be to save Kaya. Hopefully one he can, and one he could, pay.
The captain nodded. "I assume so. Despite how odd it looks, it showed up at the right time." Glancing at his pocket watch, he nodded once more. "Down to the minute."
Usopp gulped.
He could do this.
Just… Just open it.
The weight of the moment was heavy on his small shoulders.
He… He could… He could…
The older man gripped his shoulder. "Hey now, don't get too worked up. And don't forget, I'm here! Even if the cost is a bit more than I expect it to be, I can pay it off for ya and you can work for my crew a bit. Get some naval experience, learn what the seas are like for when you are older and are off to be that mighty warrior, and still save the little missus! Buck up, boyo!"
Usopp blinked… And couldn't help but smile.
He'd say 'thank you', but he was a big boy and he didn't want to cry.
He opened the letter.
Ah! "It's from Kaya!? HOW!?" Her writing was always so much better than his, it was embarrassing to practice even when she was trying to help him out. "I… Can you help me read this?"
The man chuckled. "Sure I can, lad. Let me get some more light going though, my eyes ain't as young as the rest of me."
In the rented room, the older captain began to read the tale of a woman somehow crossing the sea in moments with a miracle medicine, leaving a recovering young woman who was oh so grateful and had lots of the most delicious food she had ever eaten before!
About how eager she was to thank Usopp for all the hard work he had done, and how she wanted to share the amazing soup and stuff that had apparently come from this haunted land that the boy had traveled to in desperation!
It was an unbelievably tall tale, an obvious lie no liar would ever believe, and as a young man on the pathway to deception and who one day would become a brave warrior of the sea listened in growing astonishment and joy…
It was the best story ever.
That being said, Captain Kidd was still quite shocked when he got an employment contract included on the fourth page of the message from a completely unrelated source, but that was another issue entirely.
.
