The new objective was to find the so-called Dr. Hogback. But even without the zombies' help, the mansion where he supposedly lived was the most suspicious place on the island, so that they would have ended up there eventually.
As they made their way there, the atmosphere became calmer. Even Vivi and Nami stopped being so frightened. Perhaps it was because the zombies weren't all that terrifying, or because Allen had shown that ghosts weren't a problem for him—or maybe it was a combination of both.
Uta put a finger to her cheek and smiled.
"So, what do we do when we get there? Just ring the doorbell, or kick the door in? I'm leaning toward the second option.~"
Allen shrugged before smiling in amusement.
"Well, the guy's conducting human experiments, so I'm leaning toward the second option too," Allen said.
"Human experiments?!" Mikita exclaimed in surprise. "But how can you be so sure?"
Allen laughed. "Come on, Mikita. Zombies stitched together as if they were made from different bodies, undead creatures that are half human and half animal, even plants, all of them marked with identifying numbers, and on top of that they're surprisingly intelligent... If this isn't the work of a Dr. Frankenstein, I don't know what is."
Vivi blinked curiously.
"Who's Dr. Frankenstein?"
"You want to know?" Allen asked with amusement.
"Y-yes," Vivi nodded, though she had a feeling she was going to regret it.
Allen cleared his throat.
"In a land far, far away, there was a scientist named Victor Frankenstein. He became obsessed with the origins of life and the concept of defying death. That obsession led him to desecrate graves to gather the finest body parts for his 'monster.' Once the body was complete, he needed to give it life, so he built a machine that redirected lightning into his monster to bring it to life."
"Hey, how does that even work?!" Nami exclaimed.
As the user of the Lightning Devil Fruit, she knew better than anyone that lightning was far more likely to take life than give it. At a lower voltage, it might stimulate a heart into beating again, but it certainly couldn't bring a dead organism back to life.
"Nami, it's just a story," Uta said with a laugh.
Allen shook his head with a shrug.
"As you can imagine, the monster he created became an abomination of nature, and things didn't end well for Victor, who was killed by his own creation."
"A fitting ending for someone who desecrates bodies like that," Mikita said mockingly.
"Hogback... Hogback?" Robin frowned as she held her chin. "That story reminded me where I'd heard that name before. Hogback must be that famous doctor."
"You know him, Robin-san?!" Vivi exclaimed.
"Yes. I don't think there's anyone from the West Blue who doesn't know who he is," Robin said.
The girls looked at Allen. By now, they all knew Allen had been born in the West Blue, even if he hadn't stayed there for very long.
"I don't know him," Allen said indifferently.
The girls knew this egotistical pervert wouldn't bother remembering the names of kings or emperors unless they happened to be beautiful women.
"So who exactly is this Hogback, Robin?" Allen asked.
Robin sighed. Hogback's story was well known.
"He was once a genius surgeon, famous for performing operations so difficult that others believed the patients were beyond saving. He saved countless lives and earned enough fame and prestige to be considered one of—if not the greatest—surgeons in the world."
"But one day he disappeared," Robin continued. "No one knew why..."
Mikita's eyes widened.
"Don't tell me that Hogback went crazy, quit being a doctor, and came to the Florian Triangle to perform human experiments?!"
"We're about to find out," Allen said, narrowing his eyes.
The mist ahead finally parted enough to reveal a massive mansion.
Hogback's mansion gave off the same haunted feeling as the rest of the island.
Allen walked toward the entrance without another word. The girls exchanged glances, realizing Allen was acting more seriously than usual. Even so, they followed him without objection.
When they reached the mansion's grand entrance, they noticed several things. The house was built of stone like an ancient manor, with towers resembling those of a castle and numerous ominous gargoyles decorating the grounds.
"..."
Allen stopped just before reaching the entrance and looked at a well beside the front door.
"Stop right there, intruders!" a woman's voice called out.
All the girls looked toward the door, but a moment later they realized the voice had come from the well.
Two spotlights lit up from below as though illuminating a stage, and a figure slowly emerged from the well.
She wore a short black evening dress with a salmon-colored feather stole, along with a necklace and black boots. Her blonde hair reached her neck. Her lifeless eyes reflected her current nature, and the stitched scars across her face and body made it clear that she too was a zombie. Unlike those in the cemetery, whose bodies were rotten and decayed, she was whole, and traces of her former beauty remained.
"All the plates in the world should disappear!" the female zombie declared before hurling a plate at Mikita.
"Why me?!"
Mikita smashed the plate with her umbrella, but the zombie refused to give up and continued throwing more. Mikita shattered every one of them in what became an unintentionally comedic routine.
Nami laughed, Robin chuckled, Uta shrugged while making a sarcastic remark, and Vivi wore a blank expression as she tried to understand why the zombie hated plates so much.
None of them noticed that Allen had remained silent the entire time.
Well... all except one.
[Are you alright?]
'Yeah...'
[You've been awfully quiet. Don't tell me you actually feel sorry for that zombie. Well, people die... Or is it because she used to be beautiful that you think it's such a waste?~]
"Maybe..."
[...Allen?]
"Hold on, Cindry-chan!"
The mansion doors burst open as a man hurried outside.
He was short and chubby, wearing black glasses. His ears were pointed, his fangs visible, and his clothes looked like the costume of someone attempting—and failing—to dress as a vampire.
Even so, no one laughed. Perhaps it was because he was the first living human they had seen since arriving on Thriller Bark.
"And you are?" Vivi asked.
After pleading with Cindry to stop, the man finally turned toward them.
Being seen by so many people, Hogback quickly straightened his posture, cleared his throat, and introduced himself in an elegant yet ominous tone.
"I apologize for my maid's poor manners. I am Dr. Hogback. How may I assist you, travelers?"
Despite his efforts to make a better first impression, it was already too late. The girls looked at him with disdain and barely concealed amusement, all thinking the same thing.
'Stop trying to look cool when we all saw you begging the zombie a second ago.'
Their gazes stung, but Hogback endured them and continued his performance.
"I assume you had some trouble in the forest. This place is filled with terrifying creatures, and I happen to study them. If you'd like, please come inside. I'll gladly welcome you. You can have something to eat and even take a bath if you wish."
"Thanks! I could really use a bath after going through that cemetery!" Mikita said as she stepped forward, but Uta stretched out a hand to stop her.
"What?" Mikita puffed out her cheeks, but Uta said nothing.
Following Uta's gaze, she realized she was looking at Allen. Not only her—even Robin had turned toward him, since he hadn't said a word.
Nami and Vivi also noticed what was happening, and when everyone's attention focused on Allen, even Hogback looked at him. Unlike the others, however, Hogback wore a nervous expression, beads of sweat running down his face.
'Did he figure it out?' Hogback thought. 'No... My act is perfect. I just need to make sure I get a hostage in case poisoning Allen Walker doesn't work.'
Moria needed Allen's shadow. In his opinion, only a five hundred million pirate had the strength necessary to revive Oars.
The plan was simple. Hogback would serve everyone powerful sedatives during dinner to put them to sleep. Even if they didn't work on Allen, at least they would have hostages to control him.
"Is something wrong?" Hogback asked.
Allen raised his head, but he wasn't looking at Hogback.
He was looking at Cindry.
"I'm not the best person in the world. I'm not a saint, a hero, or a vigilante. I don't particularly care about the piles of pirate corpses in the moat or the unfortunate adventurers who came here and whose bodies you used to create those abominations you call zombies. But even I think there's a limit to how low someone can sink..."
"What are you talking about?" Hogback asked, though it was obvious he was growing irritated. Allen wasn't following the script, but he still made one final attempt to deceive them.
"Victoria Cindry..."
"Y-you... How do you know that name?!" Hogback stumbled backward as Cindry trembled.
Allen ignored their reactions and continued walking toward the female zombie, whose empty gaze suggested she'd been stripped of all thought.
"I thought it was strange. These zombies didn't seem like corpses brought back to life, but dead bodies possessed by something else. Now I understand..."
"Allen?" Robin asked.
"Victoria Cindry was a great actress. She showed talent from a very young age, and as she grew older it became impossible to ignore. If I had to compare her to someone, I'd say she was as gifted an actress as Uta is a singer, Nami is a navigator, or Kaya is a doctor..."
The girls' eyes widened.
Only then did they realize that both Allen and Hogback came from the West Blue.
"Unfortunately, life had different plans for Victoria Cindry..."
Allen stopped in front of Cindry and looked at her kindly.
"Ten years ago, a kind girl gave a loaf of bread to a boy in an alleyway. It may have been an ordinary act of kindness for her, but it saved that boy's life... From that day on, she gained herself a fan."
"I... I'm not..." Cindry could only stand there frozen, unable to answer.
"I know. I know you're not Victoria," Allen said as he gently caressed Cindry's cheek, causing tears to begin streaming down her face. "I'm sorry. Back then, I couldn't repay your kindness. Even now, it's too late... A degenerate bastard desecrated your grave and used you in his sick experiments for all these years. I'm truly sorry... But at least..."
"...!"
Hogback froze in shock and instinctively began backing away. He had a terrible feeling.
A crimson electrical discharge—or something very much like one—raced across the floor.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"This is bad!" Nami shouted.
"Damn you!" Hogback yelled as he ran into the mansion.
Allen's expression darkened even further, and he calmly walked after Hogback into the mansion, while the girls stood there unsure of what to do.
"I'm sorry... Don't follow me right now. I don't think I'll be able to control myself properly."
Allen entered the mansion behind Hogback, who sprinted down the stone hallway.
"What are you waiting for?! Kill him!" Hogback screamed.
As if someone had flipped a switch, the walls began to move. The paintings hanging on them and the statues all came to life. Without exception, they were zombies—or rather, abominations created by Hogback in an attempt to defy death, just as Dr. Frankenstein had once done.
The zombies laughed and mocked the young man who had entered their domain. Like Allen, many others had come here before, and the result had always been the same.
Every invader met only one of two fates. Either they died, and their bodies were turned into zombies, or they were spared so Moria could steal their shadows and use them to animate even more corpses.
Every zombie charged at Allen.
He didn't move.
They thought he had frozen in fear.
But the instant they reached him, a shockwave radiating crimson and black lightning exploded in every direction.
The wave swept through not only every zombie in the hallway but every zombie throughout the entire mansion. As though someone had switched them off, they all froze in place.
"Ahh!"
Hogback stumbled as though a hammer had struck him in the head.
"What happened?!"
Watching his creations stand perfectly still, Hogback couldn't process what had happened.
A moment later, shadows began emerging from the mouths of every zombie—the very shadows Gecko Moria had implanted into them.
One after another, the zombies collapsed to the floor, never moving again.
"Impossible!"
Hogback's face turned pale.
Every creation he had made... every one of the hundreds of zombies he had spent ten years creating... had been wiped out in a single instant.
"What are you?!" Hogback screamed.
"Unlike you, I'm a fan of Victoria," Allen said with a chilling expression.
"Then you should understand me!" Hogback staggered backward. "I'm trying to revive Victoria! I'm trying to bring her back to life! I'm trying to return her to the stage where she belongs, where the whole world can admire her!"
"Shut up!" Allen roared, making Hogback fall onto his back. "All I see is a degenerate who stole the body of a young woman who had already passed away and used it for his twisted experiments for ten years!"
The walls began to crack.
Allen rarely became truly angry.
At least, not to this extent.
But he wasn't just angry at Hogback.
He was angry at himself as well, because just as he had once felt powerless when he couldn't stay by Robin's side, he also regretted being unable to repay Cindry's kindness.
"What happened to Victoria was a tragedy, an injustice, a cruel joke of fate. But in the end, no one was truly to blame. What you've done, Hogback... has no justification!"
"To hell with you!"
Hogback scrambled to his feet, pulled out a pistol, pointed it at Allen, and pulled the trigger.
*Bang!*
"Strong guys are always so arrogant! Fosh! Fosh! Fosh!" Believing he had caught Allen by surprise, Hogback laughed mockingly.
"For a genius, you're not very smart," Allen said indifferently.
"...!" Hogback's laughter froze.
He stared at Allen in disbelief. He had no idea how Allen was still alive, but he needed to fire again.
His body wouldn't obey him.
At that moment, a drop of blood fell to the floor.
With great difficulty, Hogback looked down.
There was a massive hole through his chest.
"When... did that happen?... I don't want to... Cindry-chan..."
Those were the last words he spoke before collapsing to the floor, the light slowly fading from his eyes.
Allen silently looked down at the man.
"If I ever lost any of them... I might end up the same way. I might use every means available to bring them back. Because, deep down, every one of those girls is irreplaceable to me."
"But Hogback... just now, you ran away without looking back... You never loved Victoria. You were only obsessed with her."
Allen turned away without giving the man another glance.
"Gecko Moria... so you're the one truly responsible for this place."
During his time on the island, Allen had been listening to the zombies, and Moria's name had come up several times.
His target was now clear.
....
In the haunted forest, three figures raced one after another.
"Wait!" Tashigi shouted.
She was chasing after Absalom, who was doing everything he could to escape. He was terrified. Ever since obtaining the Invisibility Fruit, he had never felt as vulnerable as he did now.
Doll followed behind them with a far more lazy expression. For a Vice Admiral, capturing Absalom would have been as easy as yawning, but she had no intention of doing so.
She had no obligation to help a traitor like Tashigi.
"Hm?"
Doll's eyes widened.
Tashigi suddenly came to a halt and opened her eyes. She immediately drew her katana and blocked an incoming strike, but the force behind it was so overwhelming that she was pushed backward.
"What?!"
Tashigi stared in disbelief at the man who had appeared before her.
Dressed in a white yukata, wielding a black katana, and with empty eye sockets instead of eyes, he was a zombie with the appearance of a Japanese swordsman.
"Pathetic," the zombie said.
"Y-you!" Absalom exclaimed. "Ryuma!"
"Ryuma?!" Tashigi cried out. "That's impossible!"
Among swordsmen, there wasn't a single person who didn't know the name Shimotsuki Ryuma, the legendary Sword God.
"Why are you here?!" Tashigi tightened her grip on her katana. There was no doubt about it when she looked at the blackened blade in the zombie's hands.
It was Shusui, Ryuma's legendary sword.
"Oh? You know me too?" Ryuma mocked before vanishing.
Tashigi's eyes widened. Using her newly learned Observation Haki, she managed to react in time to block the attack.
"Not bad..." Ryuma sneered.
Soon, the two figures became blurs as they continuously exchanged strikes.
====
A/N: Moria is starting to hear the theme song for a Dark Souls boss. 🍷🗿
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