One Piece: Who still has dreams?

What are you doing here?

Redio put one hand in his pocket and looked up to ask.

"..."

Stussy swayed and fell, landing in Gertz's palm, blood seeping from the bandage on his shoulder. Gertz leaned closer and exclaimed, "You're injured!"

She glanced at Redio, who nodded: "Heal her, she's not a bad person."

A grayish-white reverse Haki surged from Gertz's palm. Although it would have only needed to wrap around Stussy's injured shoulder, the total amount of Haki from the Female Titan was too much for a human, causing an overdose that wrapped around her entire body.

"..."

Steam hissed from under the bandage on his shoulder. Stusi could feel his injury healing rapidly, as if even the missing flesh was regenerating under the stimulation of this special energy.

What shocked her even more was that after being enveloped by this healing energy, the wings she had gained from the Bat Fruit quickly retracted.

Stussy wanted to activate the Zoan-type power, but this transformation, which had almost become instinctive, was completely unusable, as if he had never possessed it before.

Am I a good person?

Stussy sat up, tore off the bandages, revealing her fair, smooth shoulder without a single scar. She gently touched it and smiled, "Then, please let this good person join your pirate crew, okay?"

Redio said, "Oh, okay."

"That's so simple?" Stussy exclaimed in surprise.

Gertz laughed, "How difficult do you want it to be? Since Redio has acknowledged you, then you're our partner. Hello—I'm Gertz! You're so beautiful."

"My name is Stusi..."

After Goltz withdrew his domineering aura, Stussy was shocked to find that he could transform into a bat-man vampire again, but he did not show it on his face. He flapped his wings and flew down, landing lightly in front of Redio.

“I have a question for you, Mr. ‘The Cursed One’.”

"Call the captain."

"You haven't answered my question yet," Redio said.

How did I get here?

Stussy chuckled softly, "It's quite a coincidence, really..."

……

[1 day ago, Ghost Island]

Zoro, lying horizontally in mid-air, broke through the thick fog and flew straight to the huge three-masted sailing ship. He then plummeted diagonally towards the shore, where a huge bear paw print appeared out of thin air. Zoro landed lightly in the paw print pit.

"zzz..."

Zoro was lying in the pit, still fast asleep.

Bat-Man Stussy flew over the thick sea fog and followed from afar. Upon seeing the enormous bear paw print, he remembered someone: the pirate from the South Blue known as the "Tyrant," who was rumored to be a user of the Paw-Paw Fruit.

Did the Cursed Pirates encounter that tyrant and have their members sent flying here?

Stussy hid quietly in the shadows, clutching his wound. Although he had treated it on the ghost ship with the skeleton on it, the wound had indeed reopened after flying so far.

That red-haired god knight, with that face, was indeed incredibly powerful; the wound was throbbing even more in the dark, damp environment of the island…

Why is he still sleeping?

Stussy, observing the scene, was speechless when she saw the Ghost Swordsman still fast asleep in the bear paw print pit. She picked up a pebble, intending to flick it at him, but the moment she felt hostility, the green-haired swordsman in the pit suddenly awoke, drew his sword, and sat up abruptly.

Stussy lowered his hand that was holding the pebble, concealing the hostility that had just crossed his mind.

"We've arrived?"

Zoro, finding no one around, yawned and sheathed his sword. "So hungry..."

Thinking of something, he took out a universal capsule, recalled Redio's previous instructions, pressed the top button, and threw it onto the open ground. With a BOOM, a cloud of smoke appeared, and the large refrigerator appeared out of thin air.

"Haha, this is so convenient." Zoro happily opened the refrigerator door.

What kind of technology is that?

Stussy was astonished. This technology seemed even more advanced than the doctor's. How could that tiny device compress space and preserve such a large refrigerator?

Zoro ate and drank heartily, oblivious to everyone else. After a hearty meal, he found a button on the back of the large refrigerator, pressed it, and the refrigerator exploded into smoke with a BOOM, transforming back into the magic capsule.

It can be recycled and reused... Stussy quietly followed Zoro deeper into the gloomy, fog-shrouded Ghost Island.

`

Zoro didn't know when Redio and the others had arrived. After eating and drinking his fill, he had nothing to do and decided to take a walk to digest his food. But as he walked, he lost his way. It was all because of this island; the fog was so thick... Suddenly, his view opened up ahead. Looking up, he saw a cemetery, and behind it stood a Western-style mansion.

"Clatter, clatter..." The soil in the cemetery loosened, but Zoro walked through it as if he didn't see it, and went straight into the mansion.

"Ah!" "Scared...Huh?"

After the zombies crawled out of the grave, they found the man had already entered the mansion. They looked at each other, exchanging bewildered glances and complaining, "I told you not to be so slow!" "Slow and steady wins the race of zombies!" "Sigh, next time we'll have to be quicker..."

Is anyone home?

Zoro, with his hands in his pockets, wandered aimlessly on the first floor of the mansion. Suddenly, he heard a low humming voice. Following the sound, he turned a corner and saw a zombie dressed as a samurai, wearing wooden clogs.

"Hehehe," the dragon-horse zombie laughed, "young swordsman, you shouldn't be in a place like this."

"Oh? Why is that?" Zoro drew his two swords, Mujo and Shimei.

"because……"

Ryuma the Zombie drew his sword and appeared behind Zoro in an instant, carrying a large, black-bladed sword. He walked slowly, saying, "I can..."

Before the words were finished, a wound burst open on the zombie's chest, spurting out a stream of foul blood.

Clang! Zoro sheathed his twin swords and said to the zombie behind him, "Sorry, the sound of me chopping you was too loud. I couldn't hear what you were trying to say."

Chapter 143: My anger towards myself awakened me.

Moments later, several cuts suddenly appeared on the ceiling of the Western-style mansion, followed by a rumbling sound. The entire ceiling shattered into pieces, and furniture, equipment, stairs, grotesque zombies, and even zombie dragons and Zoro from the upper floors all fell down...

Zombies are immortal, so Zoro's strike obviously didn't actually kill Ryuma.

Clang, clang, clang—as the two plummeted from the building, they used the surrounding rubble for leverage, slashing at each other relentlessly. The sheer muscular power emanating from the samurai zombie sword surprised Zoro and ignited his competitive spirit. He abandoned the practice of hardening his arms and hands with Armament Haki, relying solely on his own explosive muscle power to fight back.

"Three-Sword Style..."

Zoro's eyes narrowed. He bit down on Wado Ichimonji, gripped his two sharp swords, and unleashed his ultimate technique at the samurai zombie. There was no Haki involved; it was pure, ruthless slashing. The three swords clashed with the zombie's black blade, unleashing a tremendous shockwave.

"Heh heh, let this samurai's corpse taste the bitterness of defeat..."

Zombie Ryuma sheathed his sword behind Zoro, gave a bitter laugh and sighed, "It's truly my fault. Yoho, yohohoho..." With a few thuds, blood splattered all over his body as he fell backward into the pile of zombies and rubble.

Zoro landed on the small hill piled with zombies, took the Wado Ichimonji out of his mouth, and said calmly:

"Although I don't know what happened to you, the reason I was able to win is probably just because you're nothing but a corpse, so you can't unleash the 'dominance' you had in life."

"The evidence is the intense 'armor haki' contained within your black sword!"

This was an unfair duel. Even though Zoro won, he didn't take it to heart.

"Hahaha, 'Demon Swordsman,' you've got it all wrong!"

A strange laugh came from above. "That corpse did indeed belong to a powerful samurai from Wano Country named 'Ryuma'! But the one residing in that corpse now isn't Ryuma himself, but rather the shadow of another swordsman that our great master stole using his Shadow-Shadow Fruit ability!"

"Wano Country?"

Zoro caught the key words and looked up. On the edge of the collapsed ceiling, a strange figure, shaped like a giant two-legged goblet, was talking to himself.

"Let me introduce myself. I am Dr. Hogback, and my master is Gecko Moria, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!"

Hogback, the human-shaped goblet, chuckled, "Lord Moria can steal a person's shadow and stuff it into a corpse, creating an immortal zombie. Pretty impressive, huh? You were able to defeat Ryoma's zombie simply because the swordsmanship of the shadow's owner inside was far inferior to Ryoma's own, that's all!"

I already said it's because corpses can't use Haki...

Zoro wondered if this strange man couldn't understand human speech. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and smiled slightly, "Why are you telling me all this in such a kind way?"

"for what?"

Hogback chuckled from upstairs, "Of course it's because, even though you're the member with the lowest bounty in the Cursed Pirates—you still have 3000 million—I wouldn't dare underestimate you!"

"The bounty is so low, I really want to die..."

Suddenly, Zoro felt a surge of pessimism and negativity welling up inside him. He lost all motivation to move forward and sadly knelt on the pile of zombies. He lost his balance and tumbled down.

During this process, he saw a pale ghost pass through his body.

"Hala harala harala..." A gothic princess-style girl with big eyes floated into Zoro's line of sight, hovering in the air and looking down with a laugh, "So weak, really nothing special."

Zoro felt he should be furious, but he didn't feel that way at all. He just felt utterly bored and wanted to lie there until the end of the world.

"You've been tricked, Ghost Swordsman!"

Hogback's maniacal laughter echoed overhead as he addressed the ghostly gothic girl, "This guy defeated Zombie Ryoma so easily, how come his bounty is only 3000 million?! It should be worth at least 1 million! What are those Marines doing? They're just messing around!"

The ghost girl said, "Isn't this perfect? ​​Lord Moria needs a powerful shadow."

`

The power of a Devil Fruit? Damn it, I was careless...

Sauron was injected with several potent anesthetics by Hogback and then bound tightly by a giant spider zombie's sticky webs.

Already weakened by the anesthesia, he was now completely immobilized, allowing several small zombies, such as squirrels and foxes, to carry him out of the Western-style mansion, across the skybridge, to the main mast mansion behind it, and straight to the fourth floor.