“This feeling… it feels like that island, God Valley.”
Kuma was not entirely sure whether the feeling was accurate. He merely sensed an inexplicable similarity. However, when Ginny heard the name Kuma mentioned, she froze.
That place was still fresh in her memory. A place that had nearly taken her life was naturally difficult to forget.
“God Valley? How could it be here? That island disappeared a long time ago, didn’t it?”
“I remember that too, but this place… really does feel similar.”
“There’s no need to overthink it. We’ll know the answer soon enough. That island… or rather, that ship, is moving toward us.”
Since it seemed to be connected to God Valley, Ginny and Kuma decided they should investigate the island and find out what was going on.
The outline of the island-ship ahead grew increasingly clear. It was Moria’s current vessel, Thriller Bark.
After being defeated by Kaido in Wano Country years ago, Moria lost everything. Other than Shusui and Ryuma’s corpse, he had been unable to bring anything back with him.
His former companions, his former ship—everything had vanished like smoke.
The barely surviving Moria returned to West Blue, where he happened to come across fragments of God Valley that had been scattered apart. He transformed them into this enormous island-ship, a vessel as massive as an island.
Afterward, he hid within the Florian Triangle, using the dense fog as cover while developing his zombie army.
Of the seven routes through the Grand Line, the Florian Triangle was the one the fewest pirates managed to pass through safely. After all, two monsters lurked within its dense fog.
One was Harald, who was practically a dimensional reduction attack. Pirates who encountered him never met a good end. [TN: *It describes a crushing defeat or competitive advantage where one party uses overwhelmingly superior power, technology, or dimensions of competition to obliterate a weaker, unprepared opponent.]
Although Moria had become dispirited, he was still more than capable of dealing with rookies.
At this moment, Moria was hiding inside a gloomy castle, paying little attention to whoever had entered his territory.
It was not until some zombies discovered the “intruders” that Moria was informed.
“Lord Moria, new intruders have appeared! They’ve already reached the graveyard!”
“They’re very strong! Ordinary zombies are no match for them!”
As the zombies reported the details, Moria remained as lazy as ever. It was only when he heard that the intruders were fairly strong that he showed a little interest.
“Kishishishi! Is that so? That’s wonderful! With the help of those powerful shadows… I’ll be another step closer to my goal! Deploy the special zombies. I’ll be there shortly.”
At present, Thriller Bark did not have a particularly large number of zombies, nor were there any bizarrely shaped zombies.
The zombie army had also yet to be assigned the comprehensive numbering system it possessed in the original timeline.
Hogback, the man known as a Genius Surgeon, had not yet joined Moria. Without that doctor’s assistance, Moria’s progress in modifying corpses was slow, and he could only use bodies that were nearly intact.
Meanwhile, in the island’s graveyard, zombies with bodies that had almost completely dried out would occasionally crawl out from beneath the gravestones.
These zombies had mediocre combat strength and were nearly incapable of causing any real harm to Kuma and the others, but they were extremely troublesome.
After all, they were corpses to begin with and had no concept of death. Conventional fighting methods were difficult to use effectively against them.
Even after having their heads cut off, some zombies could still get back up and reattach their own heads.
Their current methods of dealing with them were either to blast the zombies apart completely, rendering them incapable of moving, or to leave them to Kuma.
Smack.
A crisp sound rang out. The zombie in front of Kuma immediately collapsed to the ground as an unidentified black mass flew out of its mouth. Once the black shadow disappeared into the distance, the zombie before Kuma reverted into a true corpse.
“This place… really is haunted?!”
Boom!
Ginny aimed at a zombie attempting to ambush her from the side. Accompanied by the roar of artillery, the zombie’s body was blasted directly into powder.
Those zombies could ignore ordinary bullets, but against armor-piercing weapons of sufficient caliber, they were nothing more than targets.
Boom!
“Be careful! Don’t let those things bite you. What if it’s contagious?”
After blasting apart another zombie, Ginny warned the companions beside her. She still had no idea what was going on with these reanimated corpses.
However, after being transformed into a vampire, Ginny had studied many legends concerning vampires, and some of them occasionally mentioned zombies.
According to the stories in those books, anyone bitten by a zombie might become infected and turn into a new zombie.
Crackle!
A burst of lightning flashed as Luna tore a zombie apart with her bare hands, then shook the filth off her hands.
“It’s fine. These zombies aren’t much different from ordinary people. They can’t bite through our skin at all. But how exactly were these things created?”
While they were still wondering about the source of these zombies, the nearby zombies suddenly retreated as though they had received an order.
Then, from the forest ahead, a number of differently dressed zombies emerged one after another. Compared to the zombies that had previously crawled out of the graves, these ones appeared considerably stronger.
Looking somewhat irritated, Ginny replaced her magazine with a fresh one, then adjusted the firing mode, seemingly preparing to blanket the area with gunfire.
However, upon seeing the newly arrived zombies, Luna instead became tense.
“Stay alert! These guys are different!”
“Hm?”
“I know those zombies… The one holding the alcohol bottle is ‘Captain John,’ the one in armor behind him is ‘Pirate Smuggler’ Ganzui, and the one with four arms is Gill Bastar…”
Luna was not face-blind. Even after becoming zombies, these corpses retained the appearances they had possessed in life, so she could recognize them.
However, the names she mentioned left Inuarashi and Nekomamushi somewhat confused.
“Who are they?”
“Are they strong?”
“…”
It was not that Inuarashi and Nekomamushi paid no attention to events at sea. Rather, they focused on the present and naturally knew little about zombies who had already become “historical figures.”
“These guys… were from the same era as Captain Nereus. They were all said to have spent time on Fullalead… Back then, every one of them was a troublesome character…”
Luna knew the identities of these zombies simply because she paid close attention to Nereus’s earlier activities, and as a result, she also knew a little about the other members of the Rocks Pirates.
Luna was certain that, if she had not mistaken their identities, the battle ahead would likely be a difficult one.
“Ginny!”
“Understood. The Air Door is ready. We can retreat at any time.”
Although the Door-Door Fruit was not as swift as the Warp-Warp Fruit for movement, it was actually more convenient and consumed less energy when transporting a large group.
At the same time Ginny prepared their escape route, Kuma fired a Pad Cannon toward the enemies ahead.
He then discovered that the seemingly powerful zombies were actually utterly helpless. In the face of the Pad Cannon’s impact, not a single one of them managed to remain standing.
“Threat eliminated… Did you mistake them for someone else?”
“That shouldn’t be possible. That hairstyle and weapon… It really is Captain John…”
Luna felt there was nothing wrong with her memory, yet these zombies gave off none of the presence of New World powerhouses. They were hardly any different from ordinary fodder.
“Kishishishi! You really are a group with both strength and knowledge! You didn’t mistake him. That is Captain John’s corpse. If I placed your shadow inside his body, he might even be able to display the strength he possessed while alive!”
Accompanied by a strange laugh, a figure with extremely bizarre proportions, resembling a gigantic moving onion, appeared nearby.
Moria was waving his enormous scissors in one hand, his expression filled with excitement. After all these years, he had finally encountered people who appeared to possess some real strength!
The zombies made by Moria were already hardly able to bring out the full strength they had in life; how a corpse fought depended entirely on what kind of shadow Moria had stuffed into it.
If he could place the shadow of a swordsman inside the corpse of another swordsman, it could indeed display considerable strength. But thus far, Moria lacked shadows and corpses that matched each other so well.
John and the others had not been weak while alive, but much of their strength had also been tied to their Devil Fruits and Haki.
Although Moria had obtained their corpses after their deaths, they had lost their Devil Fruit abilities, could no longer use Haki, and the owners of the shadows placed inside them only had mediocre strength. Naturally, they could not display much combat power.
Compared to ordinary zombies, their greatest distinguishing feature was merely that their bodies were sturdier.
“These zombies… were made by you?”
“Kishishishi, that’s right! Soon, all of you will become part of them as well! Hand over your shadows, and I can promise not to hold you responsible for destroying my zombie army. You’ll be able to spend the rest of your lives living healthily in the shadows!”
If the owner of a shadow died, the shadow would also disappear. Therefore, Moria needed to ensure that the owners of these shadows remained alive. In that respect, he was not lying.
However, his words greatly displeased Kuma.
Kuma was naturally very mild-tempered. Even if someone threw rocks at him, he could simply laugh it off and leave without holding it against them.
However, Kuma cared deeply about his companions. Not only Ginny, after sailing together for so long, Kuma had long since formed bonds with everyone aboard the ship. As a result, Moria’s shrill voice sounded especially grating to him.
“Can you answer one question for me? Why did this island become your ship?”
Kuma’s tone remained calm, with almost no trace of joy or anger, but those familiar with him knew that he was not in a good mood.
“Once you become one of my zombies, I’ll be more than happy to explain all of that to you.”
Click!
The enormous scissors in Moria’s hands split into two blades, which he casually swung about. Kuma said nothing more and merely tapped himself lightly on the chest.
Whoosh!
Kuma, who had been standing opposite Moria just a moment ago, appeared beside him at a speed close to teleportation. Moria had not even managed to see how he had moved.
“Ursa Shock!”
Boom!!
Seven years ago, Moria would not have found it difficult to block this attack, but the now obese and reclusive Moria was incapable of doing so.
With a violent explosion, Moria’s body was directly slapped into the ground by Kuma. Beneath a paw-shaped imprint, Moria was embedded in the ground like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
Although his decline had a cause similar to Crocodile’s, the nature of their situations was completely different.
Crocodile had simply spent too long fighting weak opponents and had nearly been dragged down to their level. After taking one strike from the Awakening Club, he had come back to his senses.
Moria, however, had become thoroughly dispirited. After all his companions died, he began doubting everything and had long since lost the reflexes he once possessed.
“He… he was defeated?!”
“That’s great! Moria has been beaten!!”
“What about our shadows? Why haven’t our shadows come back yet?!”
Many people were hiding in the nearby shadows, watching the battle. They were all victims whose shadows had been stolen by Moria. Upon seeing Kuma win, they began cheering one after another.
Some even approached of their own accord and explained the situation here to Luna, Ginny, and the others.
“This corpse-defiling b*stard who enslaves people is a Shichibukai?”
“Are the Shichibukai really this weak?”
What a weak Shichibukai.
That was Ginny and the others’ first thought. Kuma was indeed powerful now, possessing Buccaneer bloodline, proficient in Dual-Colored Haki, and a top-tier Devil Fruit.
Even so, for a Shichibukai to be knocked down in a single strike was far too weak no matter how they looked at it.
“Careful! He hasn’t been defeated yet!”
Kuma suddenly noticed that Moria, whom he had slapped into the ground, had transformed into a black shadow.
“Doppelman!”
The foundation Moria had built in the past still remained, so he had not completely lost his combat ability. After exchanging places with his shadow, he had already moved to a safer position.
The shadow then gave Kuma a strange smile before transforming into a sharp blade and stabbing toward Ginny and Luna, who were watching from the side.
“Spiky Shadow Lizard!”
Bang!
Moving with equally astonishing speed, Kuma placed himself in front of Ginny without hesitation and slapped away the shadow Moria had sent stabbing toward them.
“Kuma, you’re being way too cautious. I’m not that weak anymore!”
“Mm, I know. Luna, please move farther away. What comes next… is personal grudge.”
“Come on, let’s go. Your little boyfriend wants to show off. Have some faith in him.”
Luna smiled, then dragged Ginny, who was still trying to explain herself, toward a safer location, leaving Kuma with a sufficiently wide-open space.
Moria did not choose to pursue them when he saw this, but his face was filled with mockery.
“The bonds between companions really are wonderful, aren’t they? Are you trying to show off your strength?
You do have some ability, but do you really think… you can protect everything?!”
Moria could feel the trust and affection shared between Kuma and the others, and that was precisely something he could not accept.
It reminded Moria of that great battle on the snowy plains—the battle that had destroyed everything he possessed.
The marks Kuma had left on Moria’s face were still there, yet at this moment, he wore a terrifying expression that scarcely seemed human.
“They’re alive! As long as they’re alive, you’ll lose them! Do you understand?!
“If they had been unable to die like zombies from the very beginning, then I never would have lost them!”
He seemed to be speaking to Kuma, yet his words were mixed with muttering to himself and even carried a hint of madness.
Moria could not accept that those who had intruded here possessed something he no longer had.
The surrounding zombies began panicking because of Moria. In the next instant, the shadows within their bodies seemed to boil, leaving the corpses one after another and converging toward Moria…
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