Luffy's Call: My Journey with the Straw Hats

"Zoro, you...!"

"What did you just say?"

Hearing Zoro's bizarre declaration, everyone stared in stunned silence. Even Moonlight, who had just dispatched the invisible foe, couldn't help but pause. In that moment of confusion, the unseen figure vanished completely into the night.

"Hahaha! So the moss-head finally admits it?" Sanji howled with laughter, tears streaming from his eyes. He and Zoro were constantly at each other's throats, neither ever conceding an inch. To hear Zoro say something so self-deprecating was a moment of pure comedic gold for the cook.

"What are you talking about, you damn cook!" Zoro shot back, leaping to his feet and glaring at Sanji.

Sanji was about to retort, but then a strange look came over his face. He suddenly dropped to his knees before Zoro, his head bowed in repentance. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I don't deserve to breathe the same air as you."

"Really? Glad you finally realized it," Zoro smirked. But no sooner had the words left his mouth than he, too, collapsed back to his knees with a sad expression. "I'm sorry," he lamented. "I am a caterpillar!"

The sudden, inexplicable change in the two rivals would have been hilarious, but Robin frowned, sensing something deeply wrong. Just as she was about to speak, she watched in horror as Luffy, Chopper, Franky, and Nami all suddenly fell to their knees with identical expressions of despair.

"I'm sorry, I don't deserve to be a person!" Luffy cried.

"I'm sorry, I'm a maggot!" Chopper wailed.

"I'm sorry, I am scum!" Franky declared.

Robin's breath hitched, but Moonlight swiftly pulled her out of the way just as a ghostly figure shot silently through the space she had just occupied.

"Was that thing the cause of all this?" Robin asked, looking at Moonlight.

"It was," Moonlight nodded. His gaze was fixed sharply on a point in the darkness, where layers of mist concealed a figure only his Observation Haki could clearly see. Perched on a dilapidated mast was a girl with pink pigtails, a crown, and a burgundy umbrella. Dressed like a princess, she waved her umbrella again and again, sending ghostly projectiles flying out to possess Luffy and the others. Her work was clearly the cause of the crew's bizarre behavior.

Sensing Moonlight's gaze, she abruptly departed, moving so fast that she had vanished into the night before he could even make a move.

"Luffy! Zoro! Sanji! Everyone, wake up!" Usopp yelled, frantically trying to snap his friends out of their strange stupor. By now, even he knew something was terribly wrong. Zoro acting strange was one thing, but for everyone to be acting this way was undeniably an attack.

"What is that ability? Did I really say that?" Sanji asked, his face turning a shade of green.

"That bastard!" Zoro gritted his teeth, furious at the thought of having uttered such words.

Luffy, on the other hand, didn't seem to care and thought the whole thing was interesting. Franky, Nami, and Chopper just looked mortified. Usopp, it seemed, had been spared from the attack.

"I don't know, but that person has left," Robin analyzed. "Combined with the invisible man from earlier, that makes two enemies who have attacked us. We've been targeted, just as I feared when we opened that barrel."

At that moment, Moonlight pointed forward. The crew looked up and saw that the current had carried them to a massive, fog-shrouded island. The surrounding waters were a graveyard of dilapidated ships, many of them ancient and draped in thick cobwebs. A mysterious and unsettling aura emanated from the island, making their hearts pound. Thinking back on their recent experiences and Brook's warnings, a collective shiver ran through them.

"The Log Pose is pointing here, and now it's stopped moving," Nami said, her face grim as she looked at the still needle. "We'll have to wait here until it resets." It seemed they were trapped.

"Really? That's great!" Luffy's face lit up with excitement. "Let's go explore the island! This place looks interesting!"

"Hey, hey, Luffy! I think we should just hide here quietly until the log is charged!" Usopp immediately protested.

This time, however, the rest of the crew sided with Luffy.

Zoro sneered, "Of course not. If someone on this island made a fool of me, I'm going to cut them down!"

Sanji lit a cigarette, his expression dark. "Unforgivable."

Franky, Nami, and even Chopper looked aggrieved, all of them eager to find the person responsible for their humiliation and have a showdown. The memory of being so thoroughly fooled was too embarrassing to let slide, especially for Sanji and Zoro.

"It's useless, Usopp," Robin said, shaking her head. "Judging from the two enemies who have already appeared, we've already been discovered. This was no random prank."

"This... this..." Usopp was speechless. Robin was right, but he still held out a sliver of hope. He turned desperately to his last resort. "Moonlight!"

Moonlight sat on the bow of the ship, not even turning around. "I'll stay and guard the ship."

"Moonlight!" Usopp cried out in despair. With Moonlight staying behind, their trip to the island was a certainty.

"Alright, let's go!" Luffy and the others grinned at Moonlight's words. There was nothing more reassuring than knowing Moonlight was watching their backs—and their ship. The group headed towards the island. Usopp gritted his teeth. He wanted to stay behind, where he felt safest, but the thought of facing non-human enemies alone was even more terrifying, so he scrambled after the group.

Watching them leave, Moonlight shook his head gently before taking a seat in the observation deck, his senses spreading out to monitor everything around him.

Not long after the crew departed, the ground on the island began to stir. One by one, figures began to claw their way out of the earth. After getting their bearings, they all started moving in Moonlight's direction. The leader was a man in a white samurai uniform with a cross-shaped bandage on his head, exposing only his eyes. He wore a sword at his waist and wooden clogs on his feet. Behind him followed a shambling horde of bizarre figures.

When the man saw Moonlight, he let out a familiar laugh. "Yohohoho! I heard from Absalom that there was a powerful swordsman who cut him down with a single stroke. Would that be you?" The laughter was unique and eerily familiar. He drew the long sword from his waist and pointed it at Moonlight. The blade had a thick spine and a chaotic, inverted T-shape. The blade itself was black and purple with a red, zigzag pattern.

It was a black blade, one of the rarest swords in the world.

Moonlight's pupils contracted. He recognized it immediately. He had only seen one other black blade of this caliber: Mihawk's Yoru. This one was the legendary Shusui. And the man who owned it could only be Ryoma, the Sword God of Wano Country, the legendary swordsman who once slew a dragon. The identity of the figure before him was obvious.

"State your name," Moonlight said, using Raptor's Air Rend to appear on the island instantly. He stood before the man and the horde of shambling creatures behind him. None of them could be considered human; they were wrapped in bandages, some had mismatched limbs or grotesque wounds. They were a legion of zombies.

"Yohohohoho..."

The only response was that same wretched, unique laugh, identical to Brook's. The next moment, a black light flashed. The man instantly appeared behind Moonlight, sheathing his sword as he slowly announced his attack.

"Three-Verse Humming: Arrow-Tail Slash!"

Moonlight's eyes narrowed. He glanced at his left shoulder, and a split second later, a sharp clang rang out. A faint white mark appeared on his shoulder, as if a blade had struck solid steel.

"The power of a black blade is truly impressive," Moonlight mused, watching the white mark fade from his Haki-coated body. "To be able to cause even that much damage." He had wanted to test the power of the famed black blade against his own Haki. His own Pheasant Sword was gradually turning into a black blade from his constant use of Armament Haki, and this was a perfect test. Not only could a sword be forged into a black blade, but what about flesh? Could it, too, be tempered like steel? The Yonko Big Mom's body was nearly indestructible, likely from years of being infused with Haki, much like a blade. Over time, one wouldn't even need to consciously use Haki to possess an incredibly durable body. His own Armament Haki was level six; the next step was reaching the level of the Four Emperors.

"What?!" The man stared at Moonlight in disbelief. He had struck with all his might, using a legendary black blade, and he couldn't even break his opponent's skin? What kind of body was this?

"He actually blocked Ryoma's slash!"

"More than blocked it! He let him do it, and Ryoma couldn't even cut him!"

"What a powerful body!"

The other zombies, who had been about to pounce, stopped in their tracks, looking at each other in shock. It was the first time they had ever seen Ryoma fail.

"The swordsman Ryoma?" Moonlight shook his head. "No, you're not worthy of that name. If you were truly him, that slash would not have been so weak." Having tested the power of the black blade, Moonlight saw no reason to prolong the fight. He brought the hilt of the Pheasant Sword up and slammed it back into its sheath with a sharp click.

Rending Sword Draw!

A massive torrent of sword energy condensed and then erupted from the blade in a devastating, crescent-shaped wave. The sword qi raged across the land like a dragon, sending every zombie flying. The swordsman Ryoma barely managed to block with Shusui, but he couldn't withstand the terrifying force and was sent skidding back a hundred meters. If it weren't for the incredible durability of his black blade, he would have been torn apart like the other zombies.

"Such a brutal slash," Ryoma exclaimed. "No wonder Perona and Absalom were no match for you."

"Where is this place, and where have my companions gone?" Moonlight asked lightly, standing with his sword at the ready.

"This is the ghost island, Thriller Bark," Ryoma answered without hesitation. "As for your companions, they've been taken to Hogback's castle. They're waiting for Master Moria to cut off their shadows." After speaking, he charged at Moonlight once more.

"BOOM!"

Ryoma was sent flying again, but this time, even with the black blade in his hand, his grip was broken, and Shusui was knocked from his grasp.

"It seems I'm no match for you," Ryoma said with a hint of frustration, not even trying to retrieve his sword. He had already lost. He looked down at the cracking wounds on his own body and slowly fell to the ground. "Though I am unwilling to let this body taste failure for the first time," he said, looking up at Moonlight, "it is no shame to lose to a man like you." With those final words, he collapsed completely.

At that same moment, Zoro was staring blankly at the empty halls of a castle. He was lost again. But just then, a sword suddenly fell from the sky and landed blade-first in the stone floor in front of him.

Zoro's pupils shrank. "This is... the Black Blade, Shusui?"

Meanwhile, Luffy and the others had arrived at Hogback's castle. Chopper was looking around with curiosity and admiration; this was the home of the doctor he respected most in the world. After a meal, they were shown to rooms to rest, but Chopper couldn't contain his excitement and convinced everyone to explore with him. As they walked through the halls, the paintings on the walls moved strangely, though no one seemed to notice.

At the same time, Nami, who was taking a bath, suddenly spotted two footprints appear on the bathroom floor. Though she couldn't see anyone, she remembered what Moonlight had said about the invisible man who had attacked them on the ship. She was about to scream, but a pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped around her, clamping her mouth shut. She struggled desperately, but could not make a sound.

"I have chosen you," a man's beastly voice rang in her ear. "You will be my bride. I will marry you."

"Mmph!" Nami struggled with all her might, but it was useless. The more she fought, the tighter the invisible arms held her. Just as she was about to lose consciousness, a sharp sound cut through the air.

PFFT!

A longsword had pierced the air, and suddenly, the body of Absalom, the invisible man from the ship, materialized. He had been run through. The owner of the sword was a man in black. Moonlight had arrived just in time.

"Moonlight!" Nami gasped, her body going limp as she fell. She hadn't passed out, but the struggle had exhausted all of her energy.

"Get dressed," Moonlight said, turning his back as he slowly pulled the Pheasant Sword from Absalom's chest.

"It's you!" Absalom snarled, glaring at Moonlight before collapsing to the ground, his life fading away.

Moonlight paid him no mind. He waited for Nami to recover and put on her clothes, and then the two of them left the room.

"Moonlight, why are you here?" Nami asked quickly.

Moonlight didn't answer. Instead, he looked up at the roof of the castle. There, silhouetted against the moon, a massive, burly man sat perched on the wall, holding a large book with 'BIBLE' written on the cover in one hand, and a Den Den Mushi in the other, deep in conversation.

"Who is he?" Nami couldn't help but ask.

"One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea," Moonlight stated, his eyes narrowed to slits. "The Tyrant, Bartholomew Kuma."