Towering Memories and Treasured Dreams

Floor 14: The Freaks Come Out At Night

Things were looking pretty serious from where they were standing. The memory versions of Nami, Usopp and Chopper were all confronting Hogback about his 'work' on the island just as the clock on the wall struck midnight. They had hogback and Cindry in front of them with no other way out of the lab, and a freaky mummy samurai behind them passed the now destroyed doorway.

Memory Nami slammed her hand down on the ground as she demanded, "What was that nonsense about studying zombies, Hogback? There's no hiding it now! We know you're the one making all the creatures on this island, so out with the truth already!"

"Guess you guys decided not to beat around the bush anymore?" Zoro asked them.

"Well, it's not like we could have lied our way out of this," present-day Nami sighed before she cast a glare over at their Usopp, who turned red and looked away as he mumbled an apology for how pathetically he had tried to lie their way out of this problem.

"Whoa! Easy there, Nami!" memory Usopp warned as memory Chopper continued to stare at Hogback with shock in his eyes, "Don't piss him off!"

"Your accusations are meaningless whether they're true or not," Hogback cackled back. "But out of curiosity, what's your proof?"

"Proof? How about the fact that he's working on a zombie?!" Franky demanded, looking over the guy's shoulder to see the large zombie that lay their immobile. "This place is filled to the brim with freaky zombies! I don't know what other proof you need!"

"He'd just deny anything that you would say, but there's no point," Robin offered. "No one else is here, and as far as he can tell, a small crew of pirates isn't a threat if he has a Warlord protecting him. And under normal circumstances, he'd probably be right."

"But that was before they decided to mess with this crew," Sanji smirked as he let out a breath of smoke. "Serves him right."

Memory Nami glared at the mad doctor before she pointed to Cindry and declared, "We read your assistant's obituary! Victoria Cindry! She died 10 years ago!"

Cindry didn't react at all, but Hogback quickly grew angry—even his smile couldn't hide the anger that was clearly boiling under his skin.

"You cretains! How the hell did you know that?!" Hogback demanded. "Answer me!"

The three didn't dare answer, realizing that they were just adding more fuel to the fire. But Hogback seemed to have figured it all out on his own as he snarled out, "So, not only did you three sneak into my secret lab, but that room as well." He then stood tall as he shouted out, "My dear Cindry! Samurai Ryuma! Throw them into the world of darkness! Never to return!"

Cindry held up a stack of sharp-looking plates, while it didn't look very threatening, memory Usopp was clearly remembering the last time she had plates and it left a painful impression on him.

"Wait! Let's talk this over!" memory Chopper pleaded in one last attempt to prevent this from breaking out in violence.

"I'm sorry, doctor, but I'm afraid it's too late for that now," Hogback said. "The night hunt has already begun you see."

That was when they heard the sounds of the wooden shoes once again and looked behind them to see the shadowy figure approaching them from the dark hallway.

"Done with your little tour of the lab?" asked an eerily familiar voice. "Do you need me to show you out?

The figure that had attacked the three Straw Hats finally stepped into the low light of the lab and they were able to get a good look at him. He was more of a mummy than a zombie, and very tall... with there looking like there wasn't a difference in height to him and Brook. He has several bandages wrapped around his face, he didn't have either eyes or nose as his skin was stretched so tightly over his bones that he may have well have been a skeleton. He wore a tattered kimono with blue intricate designs, as well as a worn, blue scarf that covered his neck and mouth, and the white hair he had was tied up into a traditional samurai topknot.