Ghost Buster

A map of Thriller Bark's mast mansion shows the broken routes: Luffy, Chopper, and Robin continue toward Moria's dance hall, while Zoro, Franky, Sanji, and Usopp have been separated near the bridge and the lower routes. Robin carries Chopper forward as Luffy runs ahead, and Chopper worries, "Usopp and Sanji fell!! Do we keep going!?" Luffy answers, "Yeah!! They'll be fine!!" He is focused on Moria: "I need to find Moria before he leaves. And beat the heck out of him!!!" The group reaches the entrance to the dance hall, the place where Luffy lost his shadow, and beyond it lies the freezer where they last saw Moria. With the stairway gone behind them, the only way is forward.

Luffy agrees with a sharp "Okay!!" and the three burst into the dance hall, only to find Doctor Hogback waiting beside Cindry and a strange, duck-faced zombie. Hogback is startled: "Whoa!! You...!!! Perona didn't get you?!" Chopper immediately recognizes him and growls, "Hogback...!!!" Robin calmly identifies the enemy: "So that's Dr. Hogback...!!" The zombie stares at Chopper and asks, "What's with this reindeer?!" The confrontation becomes personal for Chopper before the fight even starts. He is no longer looking at a famous doctor he admired; he is facing the man who created the suffering corpses of Thriller Bark.

Luffy points at Hogback and asks whether he is the man who was with Moria, wondering, "Do I kick his ass too?!" Chopper stops him at once: "Hold on, Luffy!!!" Luffy protests, "Wa... wa-wa-wait!!" but Chopper has already decided. He tells Luffy, "I want you to leave him to me." Hogback tries to redirect them toward the freezer, saying, "You see that door?! That's the freezer!! Go there first!!!" Luffy accepts with a grin: "You got it!!" and runs on. Hogback orders, "Cindry-chan!! Get them!!" and Cindry answers, "Yes," raising her plates as Hogback complains, "How rude... to demand to see Moria-sama!!"

Cindry attacks with plates instead of obedience to common sense. She starts counting, "One plate!! Two plates!!" while hurling dishes with enough force to make Luffy cry, "Whoa!! Dishes!!" As the plates fly, Cindry also mutters nonsense counts like "Three plate..." and the thrown plates strike the floor and walls with sharp cracks. Robin intervenes, allowing Luffy to keep moving, and Luffy calls, "Thanks, Robin!!" Robin tells him, "Go right ahead, Luffy." Hogback is shocked by Cindry's failure and yells, "Nuu?! What's wrong, Cindry-chan?!" Then, while Luffy disappears toward the freezer, Hogback calls after him, "Wait a minute, Strawhat Luffy!!!" but the distance between them has already opened.

Chopper stands before Hogback and finally says what his disappointment has become: "I'm disappointed!! I won't regard you as a doctor!!!" Hogback laughs, "Oh... Fosfos... I didn't recognize you, Dr. Chopper. So you're a Zoan-type, I see... I thought you were just a weird creature..." He admits he does not know how Chopper escaped but says that now that Chopper is here, he will not let him go. Then he offers the ugliest possible invitation: "Or how about... You become a Mario right now...? After they kill you..." The doctor Chopper once admired is not interested in healing, only in turning more bodies into puppets.

Far from the dance hall, Luffy runs down a long corridor, breathing hard and realizing, "This road is longer than I thought!!" Behind another barrier, Oars has wandered into the same general area and looks around in confusion, asking, "What is this place?!!" Luffy stumbles into a new chamber and is startled by a hulking figure ahead. The creature greets him with a low "...Hey, there..." and Luffy shouts, "Ah, you!!!" The figure answers, "It's you..." The route to Moria is no longer clear. Between Luffy and the freezer now stands a massive zombie guard, another obstacle set inside Thriller Bark's absurd maze.

At the bridge to Perona's room, Oars's size becomes impossible to ignore. His body fills the gap beneath the bridge as onlookers shout, "Isn't that just too big?!!" and "Is he some kind of a devil? I've never seen a giant that big!!!" Usopp panics, "That is a zombie?!" Zoro recognizes the danger in the shape and presence, saying, "That..." while Sanji can only gasp, "Luffy?!!" Franky screams that they are done for because Oars has come to kill them. The horror is not merely that Oars is huge; it is that the giant moves with Luffy's shadow inside him, making the familiar feel monstrous.

Oars swings his enormous arm across the bridge area, and the pirates and zombies below can only stare as his hand comes down. Someone cries "GYAAAAAAA!!!" while stone and debris explode under the impact. Franky screams, "UWAAAA!! What's he gonna...?" but Oars is not even looking at them as enemies. He simply notices the architecture and murmurs, "Oh... This is perfect." In his mind, with a pirate captain's hat appearing in the image of his dream, he has found exactly what he wants. The giant who carries Luffy's ambition is reshaping the battlefield to suit his idea of a pirate ship, and everyone beneath him is treated like scenery.

Oars cheerfully declares, "Okay!! I think I'm ready to go now!! I'm gonna be the Pirate King even if I rot!!" He walks off after breaking what he needed, and the others realize the frightening truth: "The building breaking was kinda scary though..." and "...What... he didn't even notice us..." Zoro understands the strategic problem: Oars is saying things Luffy would say, and he has both that giant body and Luffy's fighting skills. "It's gonna be hard..." Franky briefly suggests, "Let's just give up on your shadows..." only for Sanji and Zoro to roar, "Hell, no!!!" Sanji adds the real urgency: they are still going to rescue Nami, so they have to get moving together, but the bridge is broken and Usopp and Sanji fell with the crumbling stairs.

Before the separated group can despair, a bizarre solution appears: Oars has accidentally made a bridge. Someone shouts, "He made a bridge!!" as the giant finishes hammering a broken stretch into a usable crossing, grumbling, "Wait 30 more seconds. I'm not happy with this ornament..." Sanji, Zoro, and Franky rush across it while marveling at the result. Franky says there is plenty of material around and admits, "I never do half-assed jobs!!!" Sanji answers, "Well, we're really grateful!! Let's go!!" They enter a flashy room, and Zoro asks, "...What's with this room?" Franky calls it "a really flashy room..." The accident has given them a shortcut straight toward Perona's territory.

Inside the ornate room, Perona waits in a luxurious chair, surrounded by ghostly shapes and strange toys. She laughs, "Horo horo horo..." and says she had planned to give the intruders all to the zombies, but because Oars did not fall she will not be interrupted again. Zoro immediately identifies the danger: "Those ghosts!! She controls them." Sanji asks, "What are they!?" and Perona explains with theatrical confidence that they already know the ghosts' abilities. The room is no longer just a shortcut; it is the heart of Perona's advantage. Her ghosts float around her like extensions of her body, ready to hollow out the will of anyone who comes near.

Perona explains her power with a grin: "I ate the Horo Horo Fruit. I can create ghosts at will. The ghosts are part of myself and they can empty anyone's heart!!" Then she releases them, laughing, "Horo horo horo, you're all done for!!" Sanji is briefly distracted by the fact that she is the boss of the cute ghosts, but Zoro snaps the group back to survival: "Now's not the time to be talking about that!! We'll be finished if those things touch us!!" Franky shouts, "We have to run!" and Zoro says, "It's the only way to get away...!!!" Perona answers with "Negative Hollow!!!" and the ghosts surge forward, cutting off the escape.

The Negative Hollows sweep through the room and instantly break the proud fighters. Zoro collapses with his forehead to the ground, muttering, "I'm less than a mackerel...! I want to die..." Sanji says, "Yes!! I want to be stepped on by a wild dog!!" and Franky apologizes, "I'm sorry for walking on the same earth as everyone..." Perona smiles, "Everything is finished..." and sends the zombies upstairs. But then a "Salt Star!!!" bursts through the chaos and purifies a zombie, making it scream "GYAAAA" as smoke rises. Perona turns in alarm: "Who did that!?" One attacker remains standing somewhere in the room, untouched by the despair that flattened the others.

Usopp steps forward with his slingshot and declares, "I won't let you touch any of my crew!!!" Perona realizes he is the one who threw the salt and sends another "Negative Hollow!!!" straight through him. Nothing happens. She stares in disbelief: "Damn... he was only pretending to be negative!!" The ghosts pass through Usopp again, but he does not fall. Instead, he names himself: "...My name is... Captain Usopp!!" Perona panics, "Why!!? Why aren't you falling!!? The ghost touched you!! How did you do it!!?" Usopp answers with his terrifying advantage: "I didn't do anything!!!" The power that destroys the confident cannot defeat a man whose heart is already trained in pessimism.

The truth hits Perona and Usopp at the same time. Usopp screams, "I'm always negative!!" while Perona recoils with a gigantic "WHAAT!!?" Her perfect weapon has met the one Straw Hat it cannot break. The panel turns Usopp's weakness into a ridiculous strength: his natural gloom is so deep that the Negative Hollows cannot push him any lower. Perona's shock is not just comic humiliation; it changes the entire fight. Zoro, Sanji, and Franky have been neutralized, the zombies are still moving, and now the only person standing between Perona and the fallen crew is the crew's most frightened and most negative sniper.

Perona insists, "It can't be...!!! There is nobody in this world who can withstand the Negative Hollows!!!" but the zombies themselves understand the impossible result: "Negative ghosts don't work on him!!" and "That's something!!!" Some even start cheering, "Hang in there!!!" Usopp snaps back, "Don't cheer me on!!!" He kneels beside the collapsed fighters and shouts, "Wake up, guys!" but they remain crushed by despair. He orders them anyway: "Go rescue Nami and Brook! You can't...!! You're no match against her powers!!!" For once, Usopp is not trying to hide behind stronger crewmates. He understands that this enemy is his responsibility precisely because everyone stronger is helpless.

Usopp chooses the fight himself and cries, "Leave everything to me!!!" Perona curses, "Damn...!!!" while Zoro, Sanji, and Franky can only lie nearby, still drained. Sanji mutters that he does not get a feeling of reliance because the power did not work on Usopp, but the situation leaves no better answer. The fallen men shout conflicting support: "But go after you get rid of the zombies!!!" and "We leave everything here to you!!" while Usopp screams, "I'll die!!! I can't beat them!!!" and then, despite himself, answers, "Yes!! I do!!" The scene cuts to Thriller Bark's church, where Absalom's wedding ceremony begins with the vows: "Absalom, do you swear to love Nami forever? For better or for worse?" The crowd roars while the rescue clock keeps ticking.

At the church, the ceremony reaches its ugliest moment. The officiant asks Nami, "And Nami, do you swear to love Absalom, for better or for worse?" but Nami stands motionless, eyes closed, still trapped in the forced wedding. The crowd howls as Absalom answers for himself with delight: "Yes, I do. I love you, Ab-sama!!!" Then the officiant says, "You may kiss the bride." Absalom leans forward, panting "Doku doku," and presses his animal-like face toward Nami's lips. Nami remains silent and still as the kiss closes in. The chapter leaves the rescue mission at its most urgent point: Usopp must face Perona, and someone must reach Nami before Absalom completes the forced marriage.

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