Jigoro of the Wind

Inside the strange hall, the empty armor that should have contained Zoro and Sanji moves by itself, clanking forward with a heavy, unnatural presence. Franky stares at it and mutters, "Where did they disappear to..." then, as the armor looms, "What on earth are they...?!" Brook's zombie body, still carrying Franky's personality, snaps at the absent swordsman and cook: "Damn Zoro and Sanji. What are you doing at such a time?!" Nico Robin watches in silence as Franky complains that there was already armor standing there, "and it's a man's romance to wear one!!" Brook answers dryly, "You got your hands on a body of steel... Did you lose your heart at the same time?" Franky wavers, "Romance?! ...Well, maybe," and even apologizes: "Please forgive me!! I didn't plan to change my heart into a heart of steel, too!!"

Franky's stolen voice tries to turn the situation into a performance. Strumming Brook's guitar, he announces, "--The melody that blows through my heart when I lose something important... Please listen. 'The Cyborg Steel Mood'." Brook, horrified by the absurd timing, asks, "Don't they understand the situation?" while the little pig-faced zombie mutters, "We got into the hall..." and Franky calls, "Alright!! Sing!!" The mood shifts when Robin studies the space and says, "..." Brook's face, marked 298, gives a nervous "Buhihi." Franky asks, "Are Usopp and the others there?" Robin answers, "I don't know." Then she realizes the architecture is wrong: "It seems like we're outside, even though we're in the middle of the hall." Before them, the chamber opens into an enormous enclosed stage. Brook cries, "What is that?!" and Franky concludes, "It's like an arena...!!"

The answer drops from above. A shadowed armored warrior descends along the wall, and Brook can only stare, "!?" The pig-faced zombie giggles, "Buhihihi, it's not that simple, buhi." The armored figure crashes down between them and Franky is startled into shouting, "Whoa!!!" Brook recognizes the body before the others do and yells, "Franky!!!" Robin asks, "...!! Who is it?!?!" while the fallen armor gives only "..." The page turns the confusion into danger: the thing that looks like Franky in armor is moving with intent, and the real Franky, trapped inside Brook's zombie body, is forced to face a corpse carrying his own shadow.

The armored corpse stands upright with swords and spears still stabbed through its body. Franky cries, "Wooo!! It's a moving armor!!" Brook immediately sees the truth: "...It's definitely a zombie...!! He's moving even though his body is stabbed with spears..." The zombie has good armor, Franky admits: "That zombie has some nice armor...!!" But he refuses to be intimidated. When the armored corpse lunges, Franky shouts, "Don't surprise me!!!" and fires his signature attack from Brook's body: "Strong Right"!!! His extended fist smashes forward, but the armored zombie takes the blow and remains a threat, forcing Franky to fight against a body that does not react like a living opponent.

The armored zombie answers Franky's punch with swordsmanship. Its blade flashes with a sharp "girara!" and Franky gasps, "Haa?!" as the weapon is drawn and swung in a blur. The exchange becomes pure speed: Franky yells "Whoa!!!" while the corpse's sword cuts through the arena with enough force that the wall itself splits apart. Franky is knocked back and realizes, "...!! The wall was...!!!" He catches the zombie's form in his sights and admits, "His sword skills are pretty good...!!" The fight is now clearly more than brute strength. Whoever's shadow is inside that dead body knows how to use a blade, and Franky has to read attacks coming from a heavily armored corpse that should not be able to move at all.

Franky changes weapons without hesitation. From Brook's body he unleashes "Weapons Left"!!! and blasts the armored zombie point-blank. The explosion catches the target, and the others stare at the impact: "!!!" But the zombie endures, smoke rising around the armor. When Franky rushes in again, the corpse counters with its sword, and the two clash at close range. Franky is thrown across the hall, but he forces himself back into the fight with a shocked "!!?" The body he is using is weaker and stranger than his own, and every exchange reminds him that his usual cyborg confidence does not translate cleanly into Brook's stolen zombie body.

The armored zombie drives its blade into Franky with brutal precision. Franky cries, "Ugh!!!" while Brook and Robin see the terrible mismatch: "Whaa!! Franky is--!!!" Even wounded, Franky refuses to fall: "... I won't be beaten...!!" He grabs on and tries to hold his ground, but the corpse shakes him loose with a violent "Bun!!" and sends him flying. Brook, terrified by the sight of Franky's personality being battered inside his own dead body, shouts, "By such a corpse!" The fight has become humiliating as well as dangerous: the zombie is not merely resisting attacks, it is overpowering the Straw Hats with the borrowed strength of their missing friends' shadows.

Franky crashes down amid broken stone, yet he is still standing. Luffy, trapped in the armor body, reacts with a sharp "!" as Brook says, "... He's still standing...!!!" and Franky groans, "Giko..." Brook understands why this enemy is different: "It's still unsettled...!!! He's totally different from the zombies we've faced so far." The pig-faced zombie, finally delighted that the Straw Hats are catching on, cackles, "Buhihihihi!! You should have realized it by now!! That's the terror of a real zombie, even if he has his faults!!" He explains that armored general zombies feel no pain and were once named warriors while alive. Some were leaders, criminals, legendary samurai, pirates, or martial artists. Then he warns, "Think about those guys becoming immortal!!! There is no way for you to win!! Buhihihi!!! None of your nakama are safe. You're gonna regret this!!"

The hall itself turns against them. A wall zombie seals the path behind the Straw Hats, and the crew shouts, "You bastard!!" "Wall zombie!!" and "Ah!!" Luffy, still in armor, confirms, "The hallway was sealed!!" Franky is not surprised: "... It's not just the way behind us that was sealed. ... Speaking from experience..." From every side the arena fills with armored figures. Brook stares at the line of enemies and says, "That is definitely..." while Franky finishes the thought: "Too strong...!! They're covered in armor!!!" General zombies surround the Straw Hats: knights, massive beasts, warriors with shields, and strange dead bodies, all clad in protection that makes them harder to break and harder to stop.

Robin calmly reads the battlefield. "If we face them one by one, we won't be able to withstand even one attack. They are all opponents that will only exhaust us!!" Franky agrees, "...I see, that's right, too. This isn't the final match." Robin points toward the opening: "If we escape this hall... we can get to the courtyard." Franky accepts the plan at once: "Alright! So the three of us will meet there. Make sure no one disappears!!" Brook answers, "Fufu... that's right." Then Franky gives the order: "Take this!!!" and the three Straw Hats launch their breakout. With Franky, Brook, and Robin each taking a direction, the page ends on their united charge: "Here we go!!!"

The escape begins as a three-person assault. Franky roars "Oraaa!!!" and smashes into the armored crowd, while Robin opens a path with blooming arms. A huge armored zombie swings in, and Franky barks, "Move aside!!!" Luffy's body, still carrying Zoro's fighting instinct, cuts through with a familiar technique: "Ittoryu...!! '36-Pound Cannon'!!" Brook and the others are stunned; someone cries "!?" and another shouts, "Wah!!" The recognition lands immediately: "That technique!! ...Zoro?!?!" It is the clearest proof yet that the zombies are fighting with stolen shadows. The body is not Zoro, but the sword style is unmistakably his.

The swordsman zombie declares his own pride instead of answering to Zoro's name. With a wild face, bandaged head, and twin blades, he snarls, "A wound on one's back is a warrior's shame!!!" and then, "A warrior's shame!!!" Across his chest the words read "YOUR GONE," and the caption reveals him: "General Zombie Jigoro of the wind. A legendary stubborn old man. A master fencer who killed 7,000 pirates to protect his family (Died at the age of 59)." Brook and the others recoil. "Huh?! Who are you?!?! Aren't you Zoro?!" The zombie answers, "Despite that, I'm covered in wounds!! My name is Jigoro." As chaos continues nearby, someone protests, "Damnit, let go of me," another cries, "Wai!!" and the hall erupts with "Whaaaaaa."

Robin steps directly into the battle. Her heel clicks forward, and she uses "Onze Fleur"!!, blooming arms around the armored enemies and slamming them down with "Slam"!! The zombies cry "Gua!!!" as she crushes their charge. Franky prepares another anti-zombie tactic and yells, "This for zombies!!" with a blasting "Fressshhh," followed by "Fire!!!" The flames roar across the general zombies, and someone calls, "Get the buckets ready!!" Yet the victory lasts only a moment. The scorched armored dead continue moving, dripping and smoking, and the Straw Hats stare in disbelief: "What?!?!" Even fire and Robin's locks cannot easily stop corpses that feel no pain.

The Straw Hats break out into the open air, panting: "Waaa!!!" "Haa!! ...Haa" and "...!!" Robin immediately asks the most important question: "What about Luffy...?!" Franky looks back and says, "It seems like he's not out yet. Even if you go back, you won't find him because that moron is also wearing an armor." Robin warns, "...!! But we also can't stand here and wait... The zombies will catch up to us soon." From the sealed hall comes Luffy's distant cry: "Uooooaah" and then, louder, "Heeeeeeeeey!!! Strawhaaat!!!" Franky fears the worst: "Damn... Don't tell me that even he disappeared." Luffy is not with them, and the crew's escape has split from their captain at the worst possible moment.

A coffin swings out from the wall on a chain with a heavy "gakon," and Luffy's voice screams from inside, "Gyaaaaaaaa." Franky hears it and stops: "Hmm?" The coffin dangles above the courtyard while the trapped captain yells, "Damn, let me out!!" Robin recognizes him at once: "...!! That voice just now...!!" Franky asks, "What's that...? A coffin...?" Luffy pounds at the lid: "Open the lid!! Let me out!!" and Robin realizes, "Luffy?!" Franky shouts up, "Huh?! Are you telling me Strawhat is in there?!" Behind them, the general zombies close in. Franky yells, "What is he doing? Hey!! That moron was caught?!" and, as the chase starts again, "We're chasing after him, Nico Robin!!" The pursuer laughs, "I won't let you go back... Hahahaha..."

The trap reveals another general zombie. A gigantic spider-monkey drops into view and sings mockingly, "Hey, hey!! Monkey monkey monkey♪" The caption names it: "General Zombie Spider Monkey Talleran." It laughs, "Hahaha hahaha!! The rumored spider monkey is me!!!" Franky and Robin stare up as the monster blocks their way, and Franky shouts, "A huge spider...!!! It's beyond the level of a bug!! It's a monster spider!!" Behind them more coffins clatter down with "gakon," and someone gasps, "... Oh, another one..." Franky curses, "Damn, the coffin...!!! What are you planning to do with him?!" Talleran boasts that whatever happens to Luffy, the others will experience it as well, because from the front, behind, and above, armored warriors have surrounded them. Robin and Franky realize the awful conclusion together: "--With this, your crew is finished."

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