Towering Memories and Treasured Dreams

Floor 19: Cindry's Wish

"WOW! YOU MEAN THERE WERE TWO OF HER?!" Luffy gasped out with his eyes wide.

"Not quite," Zoro said, knowing full well what was going on. He clapped their Usopp on the shoulder as he said, "Good work figuring it out. Now that you know her weakness, you can take her out."

"Wait, I'm confused," Nami blinked, looking from the girl on the bed to the girl who was floating in the air.

"It looks like this Perona is just another ghost form that the real one is controlling," Robin pointed out. "That explains why Usopp can't hurt her. Because she's not really there."

"Don't worry, I figured it mostly out on my own," present-day Usopp declared proudly. "Just wait for it."

Perona stared with horror at what she was seeing as memory Usopp panted for air, still down on his knees.

"I can see you plain as day," he gasped out as he began to explain. "But you can fly, walk straight through walls and people, and to top it off, you can change your size at will. I'm no paranormal expert but that sure sounds like you're a ghost to me!"

"Yeah, but how did you know that she had her real body hidden?" Brook couldn't help but ask, trying to figure out Usopp's reasoning. But that was when memory Usopp added, "So the question is, why would a ghost run away from me like you did?"

"Of course," Robin smiled as she realized that he was right. "You were able to figure out her weakness just by remembering that she had run from you before. Nicely done, Usopp."

The present-day Usopp grinned at that as he laughed. "Of course! All in a day's work for the great Usopp! Brave Warrior of the Sea!"

"You're amazing, Usopp!" Chopper cried out with his eyes shining brightly at that.

"Ok, that's enough," Sanji said, though he was also impressed by this, "Keep kissing his ass and he'll become even more cocky than he usually is."

"Hey! Can't I have my moment once in awhile?!" present-day Usopp demanded.

"The only thing that makes sense is that you had a physical body when I was chasing you!" memory Usopp declared as she continued staring down at him.

There was silence as the two looked at each other.

"What's your point?" Perona asked, though no matter how hard she tried to sound cool, she couldn't hide the slight shake in her voice.

"POINT?" memory Usopp barked, his loud voice causing her to flinch. "Is that you're a ghost duplicate! You slipped outta your body as soon as I lost sight of you!" He then pointed his slingshot over at her body, still unmoving on the bed as he finished, "That! Right there! That is your real body! I'm done falling for your tricks!"

"Now all you have to do is attack her while you have this chance!" Nami said eagerly.

"I don't know," Zoro said with a tilt of his head. "A bit low to attack someone who can't defend themselves. Grow a spine or something, Nami."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Nami demanded angrily. She was never going to understand how the minds of men worked. You attack someone when you have an advantage, didn't you? What difference was there if they couldn't move or not at the moment? Ghost-girl was trying to kill Usopp as second ago!

Perona was actually shaking as she stared at memory, completely taken aback that he had figured her out. The two stared at the other for several minutes, Perona out of shock, and Usopp to see just what she would do now that he had pulled the sheet off her ghost.

"And here I thought you were just some pessimistic idiot," she said at last before giving him a mocking smile and asked with a baby-voice, "Did your little super hero mask make you feel better?"