6/7

The second the duck crested the edge and Nami laid eyes on the Thousand Sunny, her face lit up with joy and relief. Jumping off the duck's back, she took off down the mountain, though she slowed her careening run at the explosions that blossomed in the forest to her left. And she stopped completely, just in sight of the Sunny, when a handful of familiar figures came out of the forest, heading for the other side. They abruptly came to a halt as they saw the familiar form of their ship. One of them fell to his knees, his hands raised in triumph—

"HAAAA-LLELUJA! HAAAA-LLELUJA! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLE-E-ELUJA!"

With the loudest of them on his shoulder providing a very loud but undeniably beautiful soundtrack.

"And here I thought that that snail didn't have any good taste at all," Perona muttered.

"I should care more about that, but honestly, I'm a little preoccupied with the fact that they're actually here! LUFFY! CROSS! BOSS!" Nami shouted in joy, waving her arms over her head.

The trio snapped their heads in her direction, and even from so far away, Nami still knew that they were all beaming with just as much exuberance. "Nami!" Cross's voice laughed in relief, the blond collapsing onto his ass as the energy seemed to drain out of him. "Oh maaan, you have no idea how stupidly relieved I am to see you again!"

As if on cue, the omnipresent sounds of roaring animals and snapping foliage suddenly intensified, and before anyone could react three massive, bearded scorpions, with carapaces in blue-black, grey-black, and red-black, shoved aside some trees, claws clacking. Then, not ten feet from that group, a massive, scarred, rotund lion with short stubby legs and sharp, not-stubby-at-all fangs bowled over some more trees, flopping onto its feet and roaring. And on the other side, a massive toad with a grey, pebbly hide that just screamed durable came crashing out of the canopy, accompanied by a loud croak.

By contrast, the oversized komodo dragon that barreled in five seconds later was almost normal. Except there was crazed look in its eyes that it shared with the other five animals, and the drool dripping out of its mouth caused hissing smoke to rise above where it dripped onto the forest floor.

Regardless, all six took one look at the humans in the clearing, intensified their respective noises, and then dipped their heads and charged.

Cross moaned and let his head hang. "…these bastards, not so much."

"Uuuurgh…" Boss groaned, falling onto his flippers. "Normally, I'd show off some more machismo and help you with dusting our lunch… but at this point, we're exhausted and you look fresh, any chance you could fry them for us?"

The smirk Nami adopted would have sent any sane being diving off the edge of the island. Less painful that way. "Oh, you have no idea," she purred, assembling her Clima-Tact as fast as blinking and deploying a mass of iron cloud. That mass of strands quickly bunched up into a ball behind Nami. "You're going to want to get out of the way, because this one's brand new! Divine—!"

"GrrrrRRRRAGH! ENOUGH!"

Nami halted mid-attack at Luffy's incensed bellow. She wasn't the only one, either. The cavalcade of monstrosities, so eager two seconds before, all hit the brakes, some tumbling as their legs locked up and the front runners shoved forward by the beasts behind running into them.

Having known the rubber man for as long as she had, Nami could tell the yell was more out of frustration boiling over than actual anger. Not unexpected, considering what they must have been going through over the last week, but why would he ask her to stop? One blast and they'd have some peace and—

"WE'VE BEEN CHASED ALL OVER THESE ISLANDS FOR DAYS!" Luffy roared, glaring hellfire at the oncoming beasts as he marched towards them with his fist strangling his pipe. "WE'VE FINALLY FOUND OUR FRIENDS, OUR HOME, AND WE BEAT ALL OF YOU! YOU LOST, WE WON! NOW GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS, AND LEAVE!"

Luffy took one more step toward the small horde, causing them to try and frantically backpedal.

"US!"

Another step—no, a stomp, this one shattering the earth beneath the captain's feet.

"ALONE!"

Luffy's roar hit its peak on that final word, and the air rippled. A wave of force slammed clean into Nami, stealing the breath from her lungs and sending her stumbling back. It… It was like the few times Vivi had accidentally snared her while practicing her Sovereign's Will, but at the same time… at the same time it was so much more. If it weren't for her staff, she would have fallen to her knees or even collapsed outright as the hazy image of a gargantuan beast imposed itself—crushed itself—into her mind's eye.

After a minute, the pressure eased enough for her to stand upright and look around. What she saw sent a chill over her body; Perona was nowhere to be seen, the duck had collapsed out cold beside her with foam coming out of his slack beak, Cross was slumped over and barely supporting himself on Boss, Soundbite's shell foaming on his shoulder… and most importantly, the three giant scorpions and their entourage were collapsed on the ground, dead to the world with more foam practically flowing from their mouths.

It took a few seconds, but Nami's mind eventually rebooted, and threw up a seemingly random memory. A memory of everyone sharing their tales of battle from Enies Lobby once they'd returned to Water Seven.

A memory of Cross sharing his knowledge of Kings and Conquerors.

That memory shook the last of the weakness out of her legs, and she sprinted down the slope to regroup with her friends as fast as possible. "Cross!" she gasped out when she arrived, swapping her gaze between the tactician and her captain. "Was that—!?"

"AH!" Luffy yelped, recoiling in shock at the sight of his crewmates' haggard expressions. "What the—!? Did I do that to you guys!? I'm so—!"

"Luffy!" Cross interrupted in a choked voice, visibly fighting to keep his head on straight and his gaze at least somewhat on target. "That feeling, w-whatever you felt just now, the anger, the rage, I-I-I don't know, I don't care, y-you, you need to… you need to remember it. Hold onto it. Th-Th-That feeling. Because what you just did…" Cross's dizzied expression slowly grew into a massive, mad grin. "That was a boot… clean through the door… of the Conqueror's throne room."

"Hail TO THE KING baby…" Soundbite gurgled through his own foam.

"Yeah, that was really cool and awesome and manly, and I really want to see you learn to get it under control…" Boss wheezed, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the fog from his mind. "Just, don't practice it too close to us, until you're a heck of a lot better at controlling your range, would you? Feels like someone reached through my shell to clock my skull."

Luffy flinched, visibly unsure how to respond. Nami was more than a little shaken herself, but she gathered herself together enough to fall back on what never failed to distract Luffy.

"Hey, Luffy? How do you think those things taste?"

The rubber-man's face lit up, and he charged over to the nearest scorpion. Cross shot her a relieved smile, especially now that he could stand on solid legs, which she returned.

"It'll be nice to enjoy a meal without worrying about something charging at us partway through," Boss nodded in agreement, cracking his neck back and forth in an effort to unstiffen his too-worn muscles.

"Food later, rest now," Lassoo suddenly wheezed, shoving himself off of his wielder's back and flopping to the ground in a boneless heap, his tongue lolling out of his maw. "Cross, drop us off on the Sunny before you do anything else, would you? I've got dire urge to whiz on a tree…"

Cross chuckled at the request, and drew his sword and cast it aside. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you feel the same way."

The elephant-sword grew to his full size and then promptly tumbled onto his side, a relieved bray coming from his trunk. "Ohh, you have no idea. First, I'mma drink all the water I can handle. Then, eat as much untainted grass as I can stomach," Funkfreed said in tearful relief.

"Right up that way," Nami jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, up the mountainside. "There's a whole caldera up there filled with fresh water, you can gorge until you burst."

"Halle-frickin'-lujah!" Funkfreed cried, somehow finding the strength to right himself and charge up the mountain far faster than anything his size had the right to move.

"Ah, wait! Soundbite, if you could—?" Nami pointed after the elephant, and was rewarded with a crackle of static. "Funkfreed, on your way back down, grab the knocked-out duck! He's a friend of mine, and if it weren't for him, Shiki'd still have me!"

She got a wordless trumpet and a wave of the pachyderm's trunk for acknowledgement.

Nami nodded gratefully, then began looking around. "Now, where did Perona go?"

A scream like a banshee followed by a familiar astral form shooting from the crow's nest answered that. "YOOOOOU!"

Nami shook her head as she made tracks for the Sunny, her mind filling in the details long before Perona's livid and graffiti-covered form floated down to meet her.

"Is it too much to ask that I might rightfully punish someone for violating my body while I was out of it?" she furiously demanded.

"Hey, you go right ahead and rip their psyche apart for all I care," Nami said placatingly, hands raised in surrender. "Just make sure they're breathing once you're finished."

"No promises," Perona snarled, shooting off in a blind and Hollow-shrouded rage.

Nami stared after her before slowly pinching the bridge of her nose. "Dare I even ask who stayed here and watched over her body?"

"That'd be this blubber-arsed moron right here, ma'am," Boss stated flatly as he Rip Tide'd to her side, holding a slack and soaking Raphey by her tail. "Found her cowering in the fishtank."

"Don't let her get me, I don't wanna be a sea cucumbe-e-er…" Raphey wept.

Boss rolled his eyes. Tiredly, "I am too hungry and too sober for this shit. Tell you what." The dugong stabbed his cigar towards the insensate beasts. "De-meat the two scorpions our captain isn't on in less than half an hour and I won't toss your ass to your rightful comeuppance."

"Yessir, Master Boss sir!" Raphey barked, saluting while still upside-down.

"Get to it," Boss nodded, tossing her away. But before she could Riptide, he snapped his fingers, prompting her to turn her head. "And Raphey."

"S-Sir?"

Boss took a long, slow drag before breathing out a cloud of smoke. "…well done. You did your squad proud. Keep it up."

Raphey immediately beamed. "Yes sir!" And with that she soared away to perform her task.

Nami let the green, brown and pink blur leave her sight before side-eyeing the older amphibian. "…I assume you meant the guard duty and not the graffitti?" Nami deadpanned.

Boss smirked and tilted the brim of his hat down. "Said what I meant, meant what I said. Take it how you will."

For a long while, Nami remained in that deadpan, sidelong expression. And then, out of the blue, she collapsed to her knees and dragged the dugong into a tight hug, burying her face in his skullplate.

"I missed you crazy bastards so damn much…" Nami sobbed into his hat.

Boss, frozen in surprise, let himself relax and returned the hug. "There there. Wasn't much fun without you either, ma'am," he replied, patting her shoulder comfortingly.

-o-

Hearing those words and seeing Nami so relieved felt like getting stabbed in the heart with a knife made out of solid guilt. I couldn't hide the grimace that came over my face; it was just lucky that Soundbite was the only one who noticed it, although the slightly scared look on his face told me all I needed to know about my expression.

"Later, once this mess is over," I said quietly, making every attempt to mask the reminder of what was yet to come with the current situation and the implications thereof: Nami back, and Shiki yet to pay. It helped that it wasn't long before Nami broke the hug with Boss and came over to grab me up instead.

Memories of the same situation on another sky island ending with a tongue shoved down my throat made me twitch involuntarily, but I dismissed the sentiment just as fast and returned the hug with gusto.

"I am going to plant my greave in whatever the Monsters leave intact," I swore quietly.

"And Chopper and I will be right there alongside you backing you up," Nami chuckled back. "Monsters and Demons, I know, I know… but still…" Nami released me and stepped back, her expression deadly serious. "Cross, I have so much that I need to tell you."

I jabbed my thumb over at our future dinner, my good mood suddenly turned somber. "Lemme guess, Indigo is Shiki's quack and this place is his bio-weapons lab?"

Our navigator blinked slowly, and the energy visibly drained out of her. "…not as much to tell you as I thought," she murmured lamely.

"We can compare notes later. For now, you go ahead, grab some new clothes and relax," I said, pointing her to the Sunny. Right as she turned away, though, a thought occurred to me and I graced her with a flat look. "And no baring your midriff; I'm almost positive the bastard ripped a cape off of Little Garden to make this place, and I don't want to have to save your ginger ass a second time from whatever pathogens places like this can cough up."

Nami paused, turned around me, and matched my flat look with one of her own. "I really hope that Tashigi managed to recruit that Cleaner, because your memory clearly needs it. You got sick from Little Garden, Cross, not me."

"Uh-huh." I donned a smirk as I gestured at her stomach. "By the way, nice tick marks. Oh wait!"

Nami raised her finger, opened her mouth to ask what the hell I was talking about… and snapped it shut with an aggravated hiss as the penny dropped. "You win this one, big mouth. You win this one."

"Pfheheheh," I chuckled, folding my arms behind my head. "What can I say, eh? I'm on a hot streak lately!"

"DAMN—Puru puru puru puru!—STRAIGHT! YO!" Soundbite agreed, while also starting in surprise.

"And let's keep that streak rolling!" I chuckled in relief. I popped Soundbite off my shoulder and held him before me. "Freaking finally, I've been waiting for them to call. At least they didn't do it when we were being watched."

"I hear that," Nami nodded sympathetically. "But still, let's hurry this up before Shiki decides to come snooping, right? Because I don't doubt—!"

"No!" I cut in, sticking my raised finger in her face.

"Wha—!? Cross!"

"No," I repeated firmly, jabbing my finger past her at the Sunny. "Clothes. Shower. Bed. Now. And if you don't take the time to rest and relax, so help me."

"Or what?" Nami scoffed incredulously. "You'll send me to bed without dessert?"

"Or else," I repeated back at her with a malevolent grin. "I enlist Robin and Vivi's help and while you're asleep they give you a haircut that would make Bellemere proud."

Nami blinked, then paled and snapped her hands to her scalp. "You wouldn't."

A venomous smile on my face, I leaned in as close as I could. "Try me."

The sight of Nami running with her tail between her legs felt so good, almost as good as seeing the Sunny again after… that week. "Winning. Streak," I repeated.

"…Interesting threat there, Cross."

My smirk twitched harshly. "Aaaand winning streak over. Damn you, snail."

"CUT ME A BREAK! DO YOU REALIZE how annoying that RINGING GETS after the first few seconds?!" Soundbite groused, rolling his eyes. "AND DON'T WORRY, I MADE DOUBLY SURE no feather-rats hauling my peeping cousins were anywhere nearby."

"He's got a point, you know. The ringing does get annoying," Tashigi oh so helpfully pointed out. "Anyway, Cross, to answer what I'm sure is your first question here, it took so long for me to call you because for some reason, the Navy is monitoring all Transponder Snails like they're a lab experiment that might blow up. Some of the officers think the brass are paranoid about how far Shiki's stretched his influence over the years. But hey, who knows, maybe they're just concerned that with all the anarchy you've spread, you have some contacts inside the Navy itself. And they're not wrong, really." That last was said with a slight smile.

It didn't last. "Anyway, I had to wait until we reached Sagittarius to be safe; he's had a White Transponder Snail secretly on hand for years in case of an emergency. So I couldn't contact you safely until now."

I nodded in acceptance of the explanation, and took over the conversation.

"Just as well that you didn't get a chance until now. we've been on the run for the last week, and we only just found where the Sunny landed. Shiki took us to his base, an archipelago held in the sky by his powers, and it's filled with an army of hyper-mutated bioweapon animals that he and his crewmate Dr. Indigo—think Caesar Clown, both in genius and lack of conscience—have created. These things look like they've crawled out of the New World and Soundbite says they're only getting stronger every second, if he lets these things loose, it'll be a bloodbath."

"Yeah, well, whatever you're imagining, reality is going to be a million times worse."

I frowned in confusion. "Know something I don't?"

"Oh-hoh, trust me, you know it as well as I do," Tashigi grimaced. "Think about it, Cross, imagine it: the result of all those animals set loose at once, whipped into a frenzy at the same time, and then set loose on a location, most any location. What would be the result?"

I frowned in thought, turning the pieces over. And then I almost puked as my body tried to react in so many fucking ways at once. "So… what you're telling me is that not only did Shiki personally attack one of our crew, he's personally attacking our sea of origin as well?"

I heard teeth grinding as Tashigi slowly nodded in confirmation. "For what it's worth, while it is personal, Aquarius doesn't think it's personal with you specifically. According to her, Shiki got that wheel he has stuck in his head when he last clashed with Roger, with his entire fleet backing him to take on Roger's lone Oro Jackson. Shiki lost, utterly, and has hated Roger ever since for destroying his dreams of world domination. More specifically, he hated how he was beaten by a man—"

"—from the weakest, most worthless of all the Blues," I finished. "Which also explains why he came after us, the big-shot rookies from the East who are following almost exactly in Roger's footsteps. He wants to both stamp out the source of his hatred at the source and get the victory he thinks was rightfully his twenty years ago. I hate to say it, but it makes sense. Sense through a twisted lens, but sense."

"Yeah? Well that 'sense' is going to justify dropping killer rabbits on the East Blue, and unlike you, most civilians aren't quite so good at running."

"Hey, I wasn't trying to—!" That was as far as I got before what she'd said really hit me, and my eyes widened into an incredulous stare. "Tashigi… how the hell did you know that I almost got my head ripped off by a rabbit this morning?"

Soundbite's expression flattened into a glower. "Zero for two, I thought you would have put the pieces together already, Cross. Shiki is using your transceiver to broadcast what's going on with your crew all over the world; he delivered Visual Transponder Snails to all across the Blues and the Grand Line; as of noon today, everyone is watching."

My jaw dropped in horror. "Sonnuva—that pompous old tyrant got more viewers than me!?"

"…Please tell me someone else is listening to you right now, Cross," Tashigi said with absolutely no emotion. "Because I need to hear someone punching you for getting your priorities out of line. I need to hear you in pain."

"Coping, woman, focus. Also, you saw what I was going through. Imagine that over an entire week, non-fucking-stop," I retorted acridly, massaging the bridge of my nose as I tried to consider the implioh fuck me. "Hold on a second!" I damn near shouted in my panic. "Does that mean that the world knows about Brook?"

"Cross, this is not the—"

"I AM SERIOUS, TASHIGI!" I roared. Soundbite recoiled in shock, but I plowed. "Tell me: does the world know that Brook's a skeleton or not!?"

"That he's a wha—!? Gah, how does this even… um, not quite? He was wearing a weird hat that looked like a jellyfish; we were craning our eyes, but the strips hanging down made it impossible to see who he was. The world knows his name, his voice, and that he's a swordsman, but they didn't get a glimpse of anything underneath."

I sighed in relief. "OK, that's workable… makes things harder, but workable." With the only potential pitfall of our crew being broadcast dealt with, I turned my attention back to the call. "Just let it be known that Brook's connection to us, or at least the fact that he's… 'living-impaired', so to speak, cannot become public knowledge, either now or anytime soon. Moving back to the matter at hand, I assume the Masons are working on this?"

Curiosity and other emotions I couldn't identify warred on Tashigi's face, and eventually she let out a defeated sigh. "I'll save it for after this mess is done. And yes, but there's not much we can do outside of what we're doing already. The Divine is mobilizing against the threat along with the rest of the Navy, and the Damned are out of contact because like I said, communications are under tight watch. The rest of the Masons will be getting White Snails of their own as soon as we can manage it. Actually, if you could contact Monkey once you get the transceiver back, that would make things easier."

"Alright, good enough for now," I growled tiredly, rubbing aching temples. "Alright, we'll stay the course, regroup with our crew. Luckily, Nami managed to break out of Shiki's hold; without her, this entire place is at the mercy of the Grand Line's storms, so that'll delay things. Once we're all back together, we'll do our best to kick Shiki's teeth in, and then you guys can pick up the pieces. And probably make sure these animals don't fall into the wrong hands, too."

"Heh, acting as the Straw Hats' cleanup crew. When have I heard that one before?" Tashigi chuckled, donning an actual grin. "Alright, we'll leave this up to you. And Cross?"

"Mm?"

"…I'm happy you haven't lost your head yet." KA-LICK.

I cocked my eyebrow at Soundbite as he blinked back to his usual self. "Well… call me crazy, but I think I'm growing on her!"

"You've always been crazy," Soundbite retorted. "If you'd prefer, I'LL CALL YOU mad or deranged or insane or unbalanced—"

"Alright, nix on the thesaurus," I waved him off. "And lay off the 'unbalanced', would you? Considering the footing… hits a bit close to home."

"YEAH, FINE," Soundbite nodded in agreement. He then cocked his eyestalks. "AAAAANYWAYS, I'M STARTING TO GET STARVED. LET'S SEE WHEN DINNER'S…whu-oh."

I snapped a nervous look down at my suddenly pale snail. "Whu-oh? What's whu-oh?"

"Well, see… the thing is? Those beasties may not be waking up yet—"

"GRRRR-RAAFF!"

"BUT OTHERS CAN STILL FIND US!"

Another monster stormed into the clearing just as Soundbite snapped back into the dubious safety of his shell, drooling like a waterfall as it looked around at the unconscious beasts, and then us.

"I thought Saint Bernards were supposed to be friendly!" Raphey yelped, darting away from the scorpion she'd been carving up.

"YEAH, AND THEY'RE ALSO SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE MOUNTAINS with a barrel of whiskey AROUND THEIR NECKS, bothering YODELING AUSTRIANS, SO TODAY'S JUST A DAY OF FIRSTS!"

"I've got this one!" Nami called, stepping to the edge of the deck, a fresh jacket on her shoulders. "It'll be easier for me to relax when I've blown off some stress," she added, looking in my direction. I opened my mouth to argue, but didn't get any further before help came from another source.

"Not before me," Perona cut in, swooping in front of Nami in a freshly cleaned astral form. "You'll still get your pound of flesh from Shiki, whereas I seem to have been robbed of mine, so I'm taking this consolation prize… even if it is such a cute doggy." That last degenerated into a crooning tone, and a thoughtful expression blooming on her face. "Actually… on second thought…"

Before any of us could question what she was on about, the ghost-princess flew past us all and came to hover in front of the Serial Bernard, smiling beatifically at the slavering, snarling beast. "Hell-o there, cutie!" she cooed in an endearing and cutesy voice. "You look like a really nice boy, and I'd love-love-love to keep you as a pet, but only if you pwomise to calm down, m'kay?"

"GROWF!" The giant dog wasn't exactly 'm'kay' with that, if the way it growled and tried to nom on her astral form was any indication.

Perona's expression fell pointedly blank and she raised a hand. "Alright, let's try this again. Negative Hollow."

One of said Hollows shot from her hand, zooming through the monstrous dog's head and out the back of its neck before returning to Perona. For a moment, it remained frozen mid-snarl, and then it fell to the ground. And at that moment, I found out the hard way that monstrous or not, you can't look in the eyes of a genuinely miserable, crying dog and not have it hurt on some level unless you're completely lacking a heart.

Apparently, that included Perona, because she just said, "Bad dog," and threw a heartless glare at the poor mutt. "Do you understand what happened there? You attacked me, and now you're sad. If you make me unhappy, then I make you sad again. Understand?" She shook her finger in the dog's face. "Don't attack me again."

The Bernard blinked a couple of times, shaking off the momentary existential despair before getting back on its feet. This time it was cautious and wary, but, inevitably, it raised its hackles and started snarling again—

"Negative Hollow."

And then a second dose of existential despair brought it back to whimpering.

"Don't. Attack. Me. Again," Perona reiterated in a truly dark tone, leaning in close to the dog to give it a scathing glare. "Or else you'll get three at once next time, and I promise you that you'll never feel as bad as that will make you. Choose: Be nice, or be miserable."

This time, the poor beast let out a positive-sounding whine through its whimpering, and when it regained its composure, its comportment shifted. The Bernard didn't entirely back down, but it didn't attack or make any overt moves towards Perona, either.

And apparently, that was exactly what the hollow-girl wanted. Immediately upon receiving the reaction, Perona's demeanor lightened and she smiled beatifically. "Good boy. Here you go!"

Another Hollow shot from Perona's hand and, before it could turn tail and run for the hills, through the dog in less than a second. I briefly considered lambasting her for animal abuse, because even on a monster like that there was a limit, but then I actually got a look at the Hollow itself: Rather than smiling and laughing brainlessly it was… sobbing.

Obviously, that meant something important, but I had no time to connect the dots before something else unprecedented snagged all my attention: the Saint Bernard reacting to the Hollow… with pure and unabated joy. All of a sudden the large dog perked up and started barking eagerly, like it was a completely normal—if ridiculously overgrown—canine. It was panting and letting out happy "WOOF!"s and shaking its tail into a blur, and it was even jumping side to side like it couldn't wait to play!

Perona, meanwhile, took the shift in demeanor in stride and whistled sharply, catching the dog's attention. "That's it, that's a good boy! Come here, boy, come here!"

The Bernard immediately leaped to her and started acting friendly in an attempt to show her its affection, nuzzling and licking at Perona's astral form and whining when the efforts proved futile. Perona smiled at the dog, and I noticed her flicking her hand behind her back. In response, the still-weeping Hollow that had been looping around above passed through the Bernard a few more times, and it ratcheted right back up to rapturous.

"Don't worry, boy, doooon't worry," Perona soothed. "I'll be right back, I promise."

And with that, the ghost princess flew back up to the crow's nest to retrieve her body, and a minute later, she strolled up to the once-rabid beast in her physical form without a care in the world. And the dog actually continued to act happy, nuzzling and snuffling at her like she was its lifelong owner, and she in turn she showered it with petting and affection.

"…What… What just happened?" I asked weakly.

"Perona, what did you do!?" If Nami's tone was anything to go by, she was just as gobsmacked as I was.

The hollow-girl cast a smirk over her shoulder at us. "Oh, so Know-It-All Cross doesn't know all after all? Lo, how the tables have—!"

"So help me, woman," I growled, raising my knuckles.

"Alright, alright," Perona said airily. "Well, seeing as I'm such a benevolent princess, I guess I'll tell you: my powers work just the way that the name says." She spun her arm and a few of her more normal-looking ghosts began spinning around her arm. "The ghosts I make are called Hollows because they're empty shells that are made to be filled."

One of her smiling goons popped up and wagged its tongue at me. "Negative Hollows are devoid of positive emotion, and when they pass through someone, they fill that hollow with the positivity of their prey, thus leaving the targets as utterly helpless wrecks." The smiling buffoon was joined by a sobbing counterpoint that rubbed at its eyes as it wept. "Positive Hollows, meanwhile, are the opposite: No negative emotion, so they drain all the sadness and misery someone has and leave them feeling like they're in heaven."

Perona smiled as she scratched the obliviously happy Bernard behind the ears. "And by combining those two elements at the same time, negativity to bad behavior and positivity to good… well, I think you can see what I'm getting at."

"I GET THAT YOU'RE A BLOODY SOCIOPATH!" Lassoo howled from Sunny's deck, his expression one of purest panic. "USING THAT BASTARD PAVLOV'S METHODS ON ONE OF MY OWN KIND?! I SHOULD BURN YOU ALIVE, YOU CRUEL WITCH!"