Get 'Em Back Before Dawn!!

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The Straw Hats prepare to move through Thriller Bark with dawn hanging over them like a threat. Zoro admits the obvious danger: "You know, we might have some problems... Finding the zombies that have our shadows." Chopper agrees, especially because Luffy's zombie is not ordinary at all: "Yeah...!! And really, Luffy's zombie is huge!!! It's at least twice the size of normal giants!! I don't even think that you guys can beat it." Luffy cuts through the worry in his own way. He says they do not have to search for their zombies, even though he still wants to see his. When Zoro reminds him that they cannot step into the sun without shadows, Luffy repeats what the zombie told them: if they can beat Gecko Moria, they will all get their shadows back.

The crew realizes Luffy is right. Sanji mutters, "...Touché," and the others remember that the zombie really did say it. When Chopper sees that Moria should be just up the stairs, the goal becomes clear. Luffy declares, "Yeah, so I'm... Gonna go kick Moria's butt!!" Then he splits the mission without hesitation: "And we'll all get our shadows back. Sanji, you go save Nami!" Sanji catches fire at once. His own priority is not Moria, not dawn, and not even his stolen shadow. He screams, "Heck yeah! I'll kick his invisible butt to the other side of this fog!!! You're not getting married today!!!" The plan is now a race in two directions: defeat Moria and rescue Nami before Absalom's wedding can happen.

Usopp finally blurts out the part he had not said yet: "I forgot to say this, but that invisible guy took a long look at Nami while she was taking a shower." Sanji detonates with a horrified "WHAAAAAT!!?" while someone warns, "Don't excite him anymore. He's about to transform into something." Usopp also feels responsible because Nami was taken right before his eyes, so he says he is going with Sanji, adding that he does not want to meet the Shichibukai ever again. Franky chooses a different route: he is worried about Brook, and if Luffy cannot defeat Moria before Oars becomes a bigger problem, someone has to confront Luffy's shadow. Zoro goes with him, because he wants to see the legendary samurai's zombie for himself.

Chopper is still alarmed by how easily everyone speaks about fighting a Shichibukai, and Robin calmly names the immediate problems: Nami and the skeleton have to be saved, and the key to victory is beating Moria. Chopper begs Luffy to take the danger seriously, reminding him again that his zombie is enormous and that Luffy almost died already. Luffy answers, "It's fine. He is basically the same as Crocodile, right?" Chopper can only sigh, "Okay, okay." Then Luffy hands everyone small bags and announces his invention: the "Raise-the-Zombies-up-to-Heaven Salt Ball!!" Robin notices that he had been preparing them earlier and coolly says, "Ah... you were making this earlier. Cool." Usopp, seeing how relaxed everyone is, warns them that they have no sense of danger.

The crew measures the time they have left. Zoro points out that Thriller Bark is surrounded by deep fog, but Chopper answers that there is no guarantee the sun will not shine through. Robin notes that it is safe because it is midnight, and Sanji turns that into the real deadline: "...so think of dawn as our time limit!!" Luffy understands in the most Luffy way possible. "You're right. I hate that I'm not eating anything until dawn!!! Let us go make Gecko Moria regret... ever picking a fight with us!!!" Chopper corrects him: "You mean get our shadows back before dawn!!!" Luffy shouts, "We'll get twice our food back before dawn!!" Sanji cries, "Nami-saaaan!!!" and the crew charges out with cries of "Whatever!!!" "Yeah!!!" and "Let's go!"

Above the castle, Oars roars "WHOOOOOOPAA!!!" and clambers across Thriller Bark as though the island were his own toy. He has climbed high enough to realize something about the place beneath him: "I didn't know this was a ship!!! I can't see anything, though." The gigantic body that carries Luffy's shadow decides that his life is going to be awesome, because he is going to become the Pirate King with this ship. Below him, the Thriller Bark creatures panic and ask, "Where's Oz now?" The danger has changed shape: Oars is not simply a weapon waiting to be ordered, but a giant with Luffy's dream and Luffy's reckless confidence, acting on a scale that can destroy the entire island-ship by accident.

Perona reports to Moria that Oars has climbed up the mast, and the servants panic because they cannot do anything if that daydreaming monster wanders around the island. Moria is not bothered. "It'll be fine. Now that we have Oz, we can get the shadows of even more powerful people. We can make even more special zombies now!! Kishishishi!!" Hogback eagerly accepts the work and laughs, "Fosfosfos." Then Hildon bursts in with an emergency: "Ho... Hogback-sama!!! We have a problem...!!" The masters of Thriller Bark are still talking about future victories, but the Straw Hats are already moving, and the first warning has reached the command room.

Hildon reports that the three men who lost their shadows have awakened and are coming toward them. Hogback is shocked because they should not have woken up so soon, but Moria understands that their friends must have revived them. Hildon adds that they seem to have some connection with the humming skeleton, and Moria realizes Brook has filled them in. Worse, the Straw Hats now know how to purify zombies. The zombies cry out, "WHAT!?" as Moria explains the consequence: they are all afraid of the intruders now. Hildon says the pirates are just running around, but the real problem is bigger than movement. The enemy has learned the rule that holds Thriller Bark together.

Hogback tries to organize a defense. The wild zombies, surprise zombies, and soldier zombies could not handle the pirates even before salt became a weapon, so he orders the general zombies to be sent in. They are strong enough to fight without letting salt be shoved down their throats. Then the chain of command collapses into absurdity. Someone asks what Absalom is doing, and Hildon explains that his wedding is about to start, so most of the general zombies are attending the ceremony. Hogback rages that those idiots have no time to dance, only to learn that Absalom also wants him to perform a belly dance at the party an hour from now. Hogback immediately softens and admits that a wedding should have something amusing.

Moria orders the ridiculous wedding business stopped, but Perona steps forward with a cleaner solution. Laughing "Horo horo horo horo," she says she cannot object to Absalom in her current position and that they do not need to ask him for anything. She will weaken the intruders with her ghosts, and then the soldier zombies can catch them easily. She tells the others not to be agitated just because the pirates know the zombies' weakness, promising, "I'll get them all here." Then she heads for her room with Kumashi. Cindry adds a deadpan cruelty of her own: "You should stew Kumashi's nails and drink it." Hogback accepts even that strange remark as useful, while Kumashi can only tremble.

After the reports settle, Moria remains relaxed and faintly bored. He decides to stay where he is for a while because he wants to play with Oars. Since Absalom seems occupied with his wedding, Moria says he would like two zombies for himself. The page cuts back to the giant outside, where Oars roars "GYAAAA" and continues moving through Thriller Bark with impossible force. Moria still treats the situation like entertainment: enemies are coming, his officers are scattered, and his greatest zombie is already wandering, but to him it is a chance to enjoy the power of Luffy's stolen shadow.

The Straw Hats tear through the castle corridors. Luffy leads with pure appetite and rage, shouting, "Where's Moria!!? Give me back my food!!!" as zombies scream "GYAAAA!!" around him. Sanji is hunting a different target: "Which one of you is the piece of shit... that was peeking at Nami-san!?" A zombie reports that five intruders are coming to the dance hall, and the group storms up the stairs in formation. Someone notes that they may not need salt for now because the attackers are filled to the brim with anger. Whether it is their shadows, their food, Brook, or Nami, each Straw Hat has a reason to keep moving, and the zombies can only scatter before them.

The assault splits into two routes. The map marks Luffy, Sanji, Usopp, Chopper, and Robin heading toward Moria's dance hall, while Zoro and Franky move toward Perona's room. The zombies cry that two more intruders are below the bridge and that neither group can be held. Franky and Zoro carve through the attackers with insulting ease. Franky, pleased with himself, says Zoro can call him "Aniki" because he rescued him if he wants, and Zoro snaps back, "Hell, no!!!" Then Zoro looks at the fallen zombies and burns with shame: "To think I actually got taken by these weaklings. I sicken myself...!!!" The split plan is working, but it also sends each group directly toward a different elite danger.

Perona's ghosts reach the dance-hall group first. Luffy and Sanji collapse instantly, and the others shout, "What happened!!? Hey! Luffy!! Sanji!!" Luffy sinks into despair: "There's no hope. If I'm reincarnated, I want to be a mosquito larva..." Sanji mourns himself just as dramatically: "My eye-brow is too twirly. I should die right now..." The zombies seize them while Chopper and Usopp panic over why it happened. Robin identifies the attack: the ghosts make anyone they touch depressed, and she does not know how to reverse it. Usopp fires "Namari Boshi!!!" and a struck zombie cries "DOA!!" Chopper warns that they will be finished if they are touched, while Robin urges everyone to hurry and carry the two collapsed fighters away.

Oars finally brings disaster down on everyone below. With a simple "AH," the giant tears through the structure of Thriller Bark, smashing towers and walls as though the castle were made of paper. The left side of the scene follows the people caught in the collapse: someone screams "UWAAA AAA!!!" and another shouts, "WE'RE GONNA FALL!!!" Voices cry for "USOPP!!!" and "SANJI!!!" as the floors break and bodies tumble with the rubble. On the right, Oars lands amid the wreckage with a massive crash, his stitched body towering over the shattered architecture. He is not fighting the Straw Hats directly yet, but the damage from his movement alone turns the castle into a falling battlefield.

The collapse scatters the Straw Hats and exposes the scale of Oars's body. Luffy lies stunned and gasping, "HAA," as he tries to understand what just happened. Below, people stare at the ruins and ask, "What's going on?" Someone realizes, "The stairs are totally gone!!!" and another says, "Was that... No, it can't be!!" while the rescued and fallen figures are separated by broken stone. Zoro and Franky find themselves at a dead end and discover that what looked like a barrier is not stone at all. Franky says, "We're at a dead end," while Zoro asks, "What is this wall...!!?" Then the truth rises in front of them: "That thing... is Luffy's zombie!!!" Zoro and Franky can only shout "WHAAAAT!!?" as Oars looms over them.

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