Chapter 84: Mansion of Monsters

Hello again, everybody, to Coby's Choice, the only story where Coby's... choice it the defining change! Here we are in Lovely Thriller Bark after Nami, Chopper, Usopp, and Merry have just had a lovely meal and, to those of you who thought Absalom wasn't a big enough piece of trash to go in when a little girl was bathing... Nope!

In other news, the poll for Ace's fate has closed and you can go view the results on my profile. It was a close race, I think it was a majority of 5 or 6 votes determined the outcome, but I hope that none of you abandon this story just because of that! Aaaaanyway, on to the chapter!

Chapter 88:

The Mansion of Monsters

(WARNING! Vague depictions of nudity, discussion of certain things, and some molestation. You have been warned.)

"Isn't this nice?" Nami asked, her petit hands combing through Merry's white hair. The klabautermann bleated a soft reply as she nuzzled deeper into the older teen's embrace. Warm water rippled around them with each movement and sigh as steam rose lazily through the air. Usopp and Chopper chatted quietly outside, their silhouettes vaguely present through the opaque glass door. "I haven't been able to do something like this since I was little, but hopefully..." She trailed off.

"Hopefully what?" Merry asked, pulling away from the orange-haired navigator to turn around and face her.

"Hopefully, after we find the One Piece and Luffy fulfills his dream to become the Pirate King, I want to have kids."

Merry blinked. "You want kids?" she asked. "I didn't know that. Everyone talked to me when I was a ship and they all told me what they wanted, but you never said anything about kids."

"To be honest," Nami sighed, "you are the reason I want kids."

"Me?"

"Yes, you," the navigator answered, poking the klabautermann in the forehead. "Watching you interact with Usopp made me think about how I wanted that, to have little ones running around my legs, begging me for things with their big, pouty eyes. I want a kid to sit on my lap at meal times and giggle at every little thing someone says and just be so cute that I want to tell everyone they're mine."

"Does Captain Luffy know about that?" Merry asked as Nami turned around so the little girl could rub shampoo through the older teen's hair.

Nami shook her head slowly. "Luffy's so focused on his dream. We all are, really. I'm just afraid that if we had a kid, he'd just drop everything, you know? He puts his all into whatever he's doing, but he's not the the most buoyant ship on the water, if you know what I mean. I don't know if he could handle looking for the One Piece and raising a kid at the same time. And I don't think I could raise a kid with no help."

"But you wouldn't be alone," Merry rebuffed, picking up a bucket to wash the shampoo out of Nami's hair. "I heard Robin once say that it takes a village to raise a child. You all have a ship with a great crew."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that," the teen admitted. "Sure, everyone's got their upsides, but they've got their downsides, too." She shook her head, water droplets flying everywhere as she stood and pulled Merry to her feet. "Anyway, no time to think about that now. Let's-"

A force slammed into Merry, knocking her out of the tub and into a pillar before something grabbed Nami and shoved her into the wall. The thing grabbed her arms, forcing them to either side of the woman's head as a rough, wet something slid up along her chest.

"Delicious," a deep voice purred next to her ear. "You're even more beautiful than the ones on the ship."

"Get off!" Nami yelled, trying to resist whatever was holding her captive, but the invisible thing held firm.

"I can give you what you want," he, the voice was definitely a he, whispered hungrily. "I wouldn't mind having a couple of brats with a pretty thing like you."

"I'm taken!" the woman denied, legs flailing, but not with enough power to faze whatever held her. In the corner of her vision, Nami saw Merry stir at the base of the cracked pillar.

"Don't be that way," the voice pouted, licking the space between her breasts. "Since you landed on this island, your friends will never leave alive, but you can, if you join me. I'm looking for a bride."

"I'm married already!"

"Battering Ram!" Out of nowhere, Merry plowed into the invisible man horns first. With a pained gasp, the man let go, leaving gravity to pull Nami to the floor as the man and the klabautermann sprawled to her left.

"Usopp, Chopper!" Nami shouted. "Get the Hell in here!"

"What is it?!" Usopp cried as the door slammed open, his eyes taking in the vision of a naked Nami. With a blush, he spun around and started muttering to himself. "I'm so dead. I'm so dead. Nami's going to kill me, then Luffy's going to kill me, then Kaya's going to kill me. I'm so dead."

"There's something invisible!" Merry yelled. Reaching toward her clothes, her hammer flew out to land in her open hand. Chopper transformed into his Walk Point and sniffed the air.

"He's headed toward the window!" Chopper announced. Said window flew open, unleashing chilly night air into the warm bath.

"Exploding Star!" Usopp shouted with parental rage at the thought of anyone snooping on his little Merry, even if Nami was their intended target. The window and the surrounding wall was blasted outward, leaving a gagged hole in the stonework.

"We're leaving," Nami stated, wrapping a towel around herself. "Now!"

"That is one big-ass web," Amy muttered, staring up at the spider web that had trapped both Brook's old ship and the Thousand Sunny. Franky stared over the railing at the Ladybug bobbing in the water next to its mother ship, his brow furrowed. Luffy jumped off the ship to the dock with a wide grin, ready to explore a new island. The crew slowly built around their excitable captain until Zoro was the last one aboard. No one knew what had happened to the invisible mystery thing, but whatever it was was long gone for now.

"Come on, Zoro!" Luffy yelled. "If you don't hurry, I'll eat your lunch!" Zoro didn't answer, still lost in thought about the weird island of Thriller Bark. "Zoro! Get down he-!" Luffy stopped and spun toward the center of the island with a frown on his face and his pupils contacting.

"What's wrong, Don Luffy?" Gin questioned.

"Nami's in trouble," Luffy muttered. "I can feel it." Without warning, the rubber-man vanished from sight, a dust trail and vague wisps of steam marking his path in through the gate.

"What's gotten into him?" Zoro asked, jumping down to join the others. Next to him, Coby transformed into his Dino Mode and bent down to allow Grace onto his back. Robin sent the rosette a knowing look before turning to his master.

"Captain said something about Mrs. Navigator being in danger before running off. I do hope she and the others are ok. It simply wouldn't do if our newest member was ripped to shreds on her first official adventure."

"After all this time, your humour still send a shiver down my spine," Amy muttered. "And to think I call myself a sadist."

"So what do we do?" Sanji asked, taking a drag from his cigarette to restrain himself from taking off like the captain had. "Are we going to carve out our own path or just follow Luffy's trail of destruction?"

"I suppose we'll follow for now," Gin shrugged. "There's only one entrance."

Grace yawned. "Wake me up when something happens," she muttered, fluffing Coby's hood like a pillow. Tilting her hat so it covered her eyes, she laid down and went to sleep.

"You two aren't even dating and yet you're still so whipped," Gin laughed.

"Shut up," Coby grumbled, red coloring the green-grey scales under his eyes. "Don't think I don't know about the way you look at Amy when you think no one is watching, Gin!"

"Oh ho!" Amy gasped, pretending to be surprised as Sanji's head whipped around to stare at the gaping lightning-man. "Is one of Hell's finest pining after little old me?"

"Gah, I, uh..." Gin tried to find something to say, his face turning red. His darting eyes landed on a smirking Zoro. "Zoro's got a crush on Robin!" he blurted. He didn't know if there was any truth in his statement, but bringing up both the final female member and Sanji's "rival" was bound to get the cook off his back.

"What?!" Sanji wailed, rounding on the older swordsman from where he had been slowly approaching Gin. The slightest tinge of pink in the darkness over the green-haired man's startled face was all the confirmation the cook needed to attack, his leg shooting out try to kick Zoro in the head. The swordsman ducked under the leg and pulled out Wado Ichimonji, forcing the chef to jump back.

"This is not happening!" Sanji shouted, launching another kick toward Zoro only to be repelled. "You shitheads as not going to steal all of my beautiful mellorines from me!"

"We aren't trying to, you wannabe chef!" Zoro shouted back.

"Everyone shut up!" Grace yelled, sitting up on Coby's back. "I can't get any sleep with all this noise!" She smacked Coby in the side. "You, mush!" With a huff of embarrassment, the dinosaur began trudging forward. Behind him, Gin made a whipping sound while Sanji continued to glare at both him and Zoro. Robin chuckled silently as if none of the announcements were any surprise, yet still amusing.

Luckily for Coby, he only had to deal with the teasing until they reached the bottom of the stairway within the entrance. Lying on the skeleton-covered ground was a patchwork Cerberus moaning in pain, a large, red bump on each of the three heads and a cracked indent in the wall right next to the beast.

"Captain Luffy's been here," Coby thought aloud.

"Would you look at that," Robin muttered with interest. "It's a Cerberus like in the myths, but it appears to be a recreation."

"How can you tell?" Gin questioned, slowly raising his headband.

"One of the heads, that orange one on the left, is a fox head."

The monster didn't seem to like that. Lunging, the three-headed beast jumped with claws bared to slice the archeologist. It only made it halfway before Zoro and Sanji intercepted it, the former slicing the mismatched head and body off at the stitches and the latter using a burning foot to launch the remainder of the monster into the air. The blue part of the body landed with a crunch while the orange flopped uselessly, all three heads whimpering but not dying.

Robin blinked. "A zombie Cerberus. Interesting. Let's see what else is on this island." With a unanimous shrug, the rest of the party followed the woman deeper into the unknown, leaving the moaning, broken, three-headed dog/fox zombie behind.

"Hey, Sanji?" Coby asked. "Why is your leg on fire?"

"No, Chopper," Nami admonished as they walked through a hallway toward the mansion's dinning room. "We cannot go ask Hogback about it."

"But, Nami-!"

"No buts!" the navigator growled. "We are leaving this Goda-forsaken, zombie-infested mansion, getting on the Sunny, and sailing away as fast as possible."

"I agree with Nami," Usopp put in. "We do not need to stay here and get eaten by undead monsters!"

"But, Nami!" Chopper whined. "Hogback!"

"But, Uncle Usopp!" Merry whined. "Zombies!"

"No!" the older pirates denied as the quartet finally reached the dinning room. The room was shrouded in darkness, a cold breeze slowly drifting through the space.

"Having a disagreement, are you?" a voice asked. The pirates' heads whipped around to land on Hildon where he was hanging upside down from the chandelier, the candles bursting into flame. "I'm sure, whatever it is, you can work it out tomorrow morning after a good night's rest. Allow me to show you to your rooms." Taking flight, the vampiric being flew to the top of the stairs and gestured behind him.

"No thank you," Nami denied. "We have to meet up with our friends, so we'll be going now."

"Please, don't!" Hildon begged.

"You've failed!" a woman's voice hissed, causing Hildon to deflate. "They know too much and can't be allowed to leave!"

"I know," Hildon moaned like a scolded child. "You don't need to be so mean about it." To the left, a panting of a woman began to move, the neck of the woman elongating past the frame.

"Welcome to our house of horrors!" the painting hissed, arms coming up from below the frame to reach out toward the pirates. The Straw Hats screamed, backing away as the other paintings began moving. A scowl coming to her face, Merry pulled her hammer from her pocket and dashed forward, smashing the head of the wooden tool into the side of the zombie painting's face.

"Merry Hammer!"

"Gah!" the zombie cried, curving around from the waist to slam into the wall. "You bitch!"

"I'm a ram!" Merry rebuffed. "Or, maybe a sheep? I'm not really sure."

"We'll figure it out later!" Usopp yelled just before a sword, thrown by a live pig's head, stabbed into the bear rug he was standing on. The rug, at that moment, roared, rearing up and undulating like a flag.

"Who threw that sword?!" the bear-rug-zombie demanded, twisting around to lock it's eyes on the sniper, not noticing Nami or Chopper as they tried to make themselves as small as possible. Usopp scrambled up to the chandelier where he gathered up the candles.

"St-Stay back!" Usopp ordered as the other paintings revealed themselves to be zombies. "Let us go or I'll burn this place to the ground!"

"Fire!"

"He's crazy!"

"Put those out!"

"I said stay back!" Panicking, the sniper tossed the first candle, the fire catching the living rug and setting it alight. The bear zombie panicked, trying to put out the fire but only managing to spread it to its paws.

"Hot, hot, hot!"

"Look what you've done!" Hildon yelled. "You'll burn down the mansion!" Usopp headed not the vampire's warning and began to throw the candles every which way. With the zombies focusing on the sniper, Nami and Chopper lunged for the door and try to open it, but the large entryway was locked.

"Help!" Nami shouted, hoping someone was on the other side and would come to their aid. "Help!"

"Help us!" Chopper joined in, pounding on the wood.

"NAAAAAAMIIIII!" Her name was the only thing the navigator registered before the wooden doors all but exploded.

End of Chapter 87

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