Towering Memories and Treasured Dreams

Floor 12: Cold Prison Bars

"You really think that, Sanji-san?" Brook asked as he sniffled miserably. "You think that someone is watching us and is manipulating all this?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense," Sanji said as he was puffing on his second cigarette in the last five minutes to try and calm his nerves. "Luffy ran on ahead of us and went through that damn door before it shut behind him. I'm guessing that he saw what happened to... to Ace all over again and that caused him to have some kind of panic attack."

"More like a relapse," Chopper sighed. "There's no way that Luffy could ever fully recover from something that traumatic."

"Is he alright?" Usopp asked as Chopper finished examining their sleeping captain.

"Yeah, he's fine," Chopper reassured him. He had been worried about seeing Luffy crying in his sleep, but then again, with their captain's sharp senses, he probably had an idea of what they had just seen. He hoped that he wasn't having nightmares about all that again, he didn't deserve that. "But... after all that happened at the last island. I felt that he was really starting to heal from what happened at Marineford."

"He was," Nami said as she wiped a stray tear away. She wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees. "He was able to see Ace again and got to say everything that he needed to say. He was able to move on from Ace's death. It was just too early to force him to relive through all that?"

"It was all too perfectly planned," Sanji said angrily. "We couldn't unlock that door and so they separated us from Luffy on purpose."

"But if that's true, why did the door open up as soon as you tried to attack it?" Robin asked.

"Ah... well..." Sanji said slowly, unable to think of a good answer to that.

Robin glanced grimly down at their Luffy before looking around at the room again. "Whatever the reason, I do think that someone's behind this."

"So this is someone's idea of a joke?" Usopp demanded in outrage. Whoever was doing this had a sick sense of humor.

"No, more like someone's funhouse that we just walked in and now they're having fun when they noticed that they had guests," Zoro said darkly as he glared about. "From the moment that we set foot in this place, I couldn't help but feel like someone was watching us."

"We're being watched?!" Chopper gasped out.

"The only problem is that I don't sense anyone else in this tower other than the nine of us," Zoro finished as if he hadn't heard a word that Chopper just said.

Sanji let out a puff of smoke before adding, "Though it kills me to say this, I agree with Moss Head for once. There's something not right about this place. It's like... there's some kind of presence in the air and it's breathing down my neck. I don't know how else I can explain it. But... ok, just imagine that you're standing in a mist or a fog and there's someone right behind you. You keep turning around and calling out to it, but they don't answer. And it's so thick that you can't see them but you know they're there."

"That does sound creepy," Franky admitted. "So... what about these memories? How are we seeing them? You think that it's... a Devil Fruit power?"

"And... why can't we get out of here?" Brook added as he went to the door and opened it again only to see the brick wall blocking their way.

"I wanna know how I ended up running around in a circle in that last memory if I was just running forward the whole time," Usopp added in frustration. "Why can't we get out?" He then looked to the ceiling and yelled up, "H EY! WHOEVER'S UP THERE WATCHING US?! YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT WE'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR GAMES! SO LET US OUT! LOOK YOU CAN KEEP YOUR TREASURE IF YOU WANT! JUST LET US OUT!"