The Pirates in the Forest

Brook stands in the ruins carrying the huge sack of salt that may be the crew's last hope. Someone calls out in surprise, "Brook!! You can still move!?" and another thanks him: "You saved me!! Thanks." Brook explains with wounded dignity, "I certainly was badly wounded!! I dragged myself to the kitchen in search for salt!!" Then he adds the absurd secret of his recovery: "And on the way there, I found some delicious milk that restored me to this state!!!" Chopper screams, "Calcium doesn't have that kind of crazy effect!!!" while Brook insists, "Milk heals broken bones!!!" and someone yells back, "You liar!!!" The comedy lasts only a moment. Sanji brings the focus back: "Well... either way, we managed to get a bunch of salt." He says the route to the kitchen has been sealed off, so "Brook's salt is our last hope!!" Zoro cuts through the noise: "We have no time!! Let's go!!!"

The Straw Hats face Oars under the paling sky and measure the whole fight in one sentence: "Before morning comes..." If they can get the salt into the monster's mouth and beat Moria out of him, they win. The problem is distance. Their goal is not just Oars, but Oars's mouth, looming impossibly high above the shattered courtyard. Someone says, "But the place we have to get it into... is all the way up there...!!" Moria laughs from the cockpit in Oars's belly, "Kishishishishi!!" He has joined the battle not as a passenger but as the monster's pilot, and he warns them, "Kishishishi!! Be thankful that I've decided to join the battle!! And be aware...!!" His grin widens as he declares, "I'm not just a passenger...!!! I'll show you your worst nightmare."

Brook steps forward, still clutching the sack of salt, and begs the crew to let him fight with them. "Please let me fight by your side!!! I will give you my all!!" he says. He knows what is at stake: "I do not believe that retrieving my shadow is a debt that I can easily repay, but I will do my best!!!" His body creaks with a sharp "Kreeek," and someone warns him, "Don't force yourself!" Another tells him, "Keep hold of that salt!!" Franky decides to seize the initiative. "Why don't we give this a shot," he says, lifting his arm and preparing his equipment. "With my anti-monster shell!!!" Usopp immediately joins the plan: "Initiative leads to victory!! Looks like that last one was too small!!" He calls out, "Franky, take care of it!!" and launches "Hissatsu, 'Special Oil Star'!!" Franky answers, "All right, here it comes!" as their combined attack ignites.

Usopp's oil feeds Franky's weapon, and the attack changes shape with a sharp burst. Someone shouts, "Transform!!" as a bird-like mass of flame swells and shoots upward. Franky and Usopp send out a gigantic fire attack, calling it the super-sized "Hi no Tori Boshi"!!! The burning bird barrels across the battlefield and slams into Oars, who reacts with a startled "!" before the flames burst around him. For a moment the monster feels it: "Dowaaa!! Ow, ow, ow!!" The fire engulfs his head and upper body, pushing the giant zombie back and giving the Straw Hats a glimpse of momentum. But the page also makes clear that pain alone will not finish a zombie this large, especially while Moria is inside guiding him.

Moria mocks Oars for reacting to the flames. "How pathetic. Don't flinch, Oz!!" he says from inside the giant. "Feeling pain from the heat is just a lingering reaction from when you were human!" The crew shouts, "That doesn't work on zombies!!!" and someone yells, "Calm down and put out the fire!!!" While Oars is distracted, the plan moves into its next step. Usopp calls, "Now, Zoro!!!" and Zoro answers, "OK!!" He has been launched high above the battlefield and now drops along the tower line, the whole courtyard small beneath him. Sanji kicks the next ally upward with a command, "Go!!" Zoro focuses and begins, "Santou-Ryuu," ready to cut the structure apart and turn the battlefield itself into ammunition.

Zoro lands on the tower wall and uses his three swords to carve it apart with "Daibutsu Giri"!!! His slashes run down the stone like stacked cuts, slicing the building into huge blocky sections. Below, Sanji joins the sequence with a sharp "Step!!" and launches himself into position. "Eat this!!!" he yells as he kicks one of the cut tower blocks with "Jenga Cannon"!!! The stone chunks fire across the ruins like enormous projectiles. The plan is clear: Usopp and Franky lit Oars up, Zoro cut the tower into usable pieces, and Sanji turns those pieces into missiles aimed at the giant. The attack is improvised, ridiculous, and perfectly Straw Hat: they are weaponizing the ruined mansion against the monster that has been tearing it apart.

The tower blocks smash into Oars one after another. He jerks back with "!!" as the first huge slab hits him, then another drives into his body with enough force to make him grunt, "Oof!!!" More chunks tumble and strike around him, the shattered stone raining across the battlefield. For a moment the attack looks like it may pin him down by sheer volume. Oars staggers, surrounded by flying masonry, and the pieces continue to fall with crushing impact. Yet Moria's grin in the final panel says the assault has not broken their enemy. The crew has forced Oars to react and has turned the environment against him, but Moria is still watching from inside, ready to make the giant do something worse.

Oars answers the tower attack by catching and hurling the wreckage back at the crew. He roars, "You bastard!!!" and tears through the falling blocks, turning their own strategy into a new disaster. The crew realizes too late that the tower is now flying toward them. Someone shouts, "The tower's flying towards us!!" while another cries, "Dowaaa!!!" The enormous stone mass barrels through the broken courtyard, forcing the Straw Hats to scatter again. Robin stands near the path of destruction, Usopp and Chopper are thrown into panic, and Franky braces among the rubble. The page reverses the momentum: the plan that had briefly made Oars look vulnerable becomes a weapon in his hands once Moria gives him enough intelligence to use it.

The crew reels from Oars using the tower against them. Sanji shouts, "Crap!! He used it against us!!!" and then, "Hey!! You guys okay!?" Out of the dust, Usopp reveals his newest invention with grave pride: "... My new weapon... 'Kuwagata'...!!!" The note beneath explains it is a stag beetle, and the strange launcher is now aimed toward Oars. Franky and Usopp have already combined their tools again. Usopp calls, "Kree kree...!!" and someone asks, "You ready, Usopp!?" Franky, battered but excited, says, "I'm good, but we just threw this thing together! Who knows what'll happen after we fire it!" Usopp answers, "It's fine, you moron! I'm especially super this week!!" Franky agrees: "All right, let's do it!!!" and Usopp aims for Oars's stomach: "Yeah!! Aim me right at his stomach!!" The shot is named "Tetsujin Suisei"!!! as the new device fires.

Franky launches forward with "Mmmm!! Super momentum!!" and levels his weapon at Oars from midair. "Prepare yourself!! This is used on sea monsters and Sea Kings!" he warns. "My 'mortar' will tear a hole in you!!! Eat this!!!" The shot slams toward Oars's belly, where Moria is hidden, and the crew cries, "Moria!!!" Moria sees the danger with a startled "!" just as Franky's attack hits. The impact detonates against Oars with a violent blast, forcing the giant backward. Oars grunts, "Hyuu!!" as the explosion drives into him and throws his huge body off balance. This is the crew's most direct attempt yet to reach the cockpit in Oars's stomach and knock Moria out of command.

The explosion sends Oars reeling, and Chopper can only shout, "What movement...!!!" while Usopp cries with amazed pride, "I forget sometimes, but that's really Luffy!!" For a moment the crew sees the familiar absurd elasticity of Luffy's shadow expressing itself through Oars's enormous zombie body. But the victory is short. Oars swings back through the dust and slams Franky away. The crew screams, "Guaa!!!" as the giant's blow connects, then, "Franky!!!" and "Franky-!!!" Usopp yells, "Uwaaa!!!" The attack bought them time and proved Oars can be moved, but Franky pays for getting close. The page makes the central horror sharper: the enemy is not just a giant zombie, but a giant zombie animated by Luffy's instincts and directed by Moria's tactical mind.

Moria refuses to let Oars rest. "Don't stop, Oz!! He's still breathing," he orders. "Finish him!!" Oars answers, "Yes," and lumbers forward with a heavy "Gashin!!" Even after the explosion, he can still move, and the crew panics. "Hey!! Are you still going!?" someone shouts. "Stop! He can't move!!!" Oars raises himself over Franky and prepares to crush him. Then the sky above changes. A small dark cloud gathers, and someone notices, "Huh...? That cloud is..." The next command comes from Nami's Clima-Tact: "Thunderbolt". The page pauses on the lightning rod and the charged cloud, turning the battlefield's attention upward just as Oars is about to finish Franky.

Nami completes the attack with "Tempo"!!! A bolt crashes down from the artificial cloud and strikes Oars, lighting his massive body in black silhouette as he howls, "Uwooo!!!" The crew reacts at once. Someone shouts, "Lightning!! That attack...!!" while another cries, "It worked!! It brought him down!!" They recognize the weapon immediately: "It's the Climatact! Nami, are you unharmed?" Others wonder, "Something just flashed!!" and "Lightning!? Now!?" Oars must have brought down the lightning, someone guesses, but the crew sees the truth when Sanji shouts, "There she is!!" and another voice confirms, "It's Nami!!" Nami stands high above the ruins with the Clima-Tact raised, finally back in the main battle after surviving Kuma, Perona, and the chaos around the Sunny.

Nami calls down from above, but her friends immediately panic on her behalf. Someone shouts, "Namiiii!!!" while she snaps, "Don't yell! He's going to notice me!!" Below, Sanji loses all composure and cries, "I'm so glad you're safe, Nami!!! Forgive me!!" Chopper mutters beside him, "Why won't you shut up?" Sanji continues anyway: "I'm so glad you're safe, Nami!!!" Nami glares down and answers, "I told you!!!" The crew recognizes that she is exposed and that Oars can still reach her. Someone says, "There's no way that can reach her, right?" but Chopper warns, "Go move Franky!!! Quick, while we still have time!!" Then the impossible begins: Oars starts, "Gomu Gomu--" and the crew realizes with horror that Moria is about to make the giant use Luffy's stretching power in a way no zombie should be able to.

Oars's arm stretches across the ruins like rubber as he finishes the attack: "Pistol"!!! The fist shoots toward Nami with a long "Hyuun!!" and smashes through the structure where she stood. Everyone freezes. "What!!?" someone cries. Chopper stares in disbelief: "That can't be...!!" and then screams, "Nami--!!?" Someone else shouts, "He stretched!! Why!?" But Nami is not crushed. Robin has already acted, catching her with sprouting arms and pulling her clear. The crew spots them and shouts, "There she is!!" "She's okay!!!" "Thank goodness. Robin saved her!!!" Robin says calmly, "I stretched... it kinda felt familiar." The joke lands only because the danger was real: Moria has made Oars imitate Luffy's rubber technique, and Robin's own extending arms are the only reason Nami survives the surprise.

The crew gathers around Nami after Robin's rescue. Someone says, "That was surprising..." and asks, "Are you all right, Nami!?" Nami, still catching her breath, answers, "Haa... haa... Yeah... somehow...!!" Sanji is shaken for a different reason: "Why did his arm stretch!!? There's only one rubber man in the world!!!" The conclusion forms quickly. Zoro says, "Something very bad just happened...!!!" and another voice realizes, "It was Moria... He did something!!" Moria only laughs, "Kishishishi," as Oars winds up again. The giant says, "Gomu Gomu...!!" and whips his enlarged arm across the battlefield with "Whip"!!! Someone cries, "Now he really is just like monster Luffy!!!" The enemy has crossed a terrifying line: Moria can manipulate Oars's shadow so that Luffy's rubber techniques come out through a giant body.

Far from the main battlefield, Luffy is being grabbed and held back by a group of ragged pirates in the forest. He kicks and shouts, "Who are you guys!?" and "Stop grabbing my legs!!" He is in no mood for explanations: "I'm in a hurry!! What do you want!!?" The strangers answer with nervous urgency. "Tehe!! We know! We know fully well that we need to hurry!!" They introduce themselves as the Rolling Pirates and the Risky Brothers, subordinates under Captain "Proposal" Lola. "Just give us a little time!! You're our only hope!!" they plead. They know his target: "You want to defeat Gecko Moria, who's from this mansion, right?" Then they reveal why they stopped him: "We know the secret of Moria's power!!!" and "We want to give you an incredible 'power'!!! Please!! Go and beat him!!!" Luffy, still impatient but listening, asks, "Secret? Power?" and then, "So what, you guys?"

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