One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Gecko Moria, had been quite troubled lately, because two annoying people had broken into his turf.
Back in the day, when Moria's figure wasn't like a round eggplant as it is now, he was a man hailed as a hero of the seas.
Aiming for the Pirate King's throne, he cut a swath into the New World and fought the Beasts' Kaido in Wano.
But the gap in power was simply too great. Moria escaped with his life, but he lost all his crewmates.
After such a blow, Moria holed up in the Florian Triangle, turning from a hero into a shut-in.
Like Crocodile, who was defeated by Whitebeard, Moria began to rely on external means. His crutch was an army of zombies created with his own power.
By cutting shadows from those who passed through the Triangle and sewing them into modified corpses, he could make an army that feared no death.
So Moria wasn't afraid of people trespassing in his domain, because their shadows were all materials for his zombies. He would even set out bait to lure others into the Florian Triangle.
He'd received a report that someone had intruded on Thriller Bark, and he'd happily gone to harvest shadows.
Paradise—that's what the first half of the Grand Line is called for a reason. Pirates here are either rookies or losers who don't have the courage or strength to enter the New World.
So Moria believed no one could threaten him and swaggered out confidently to face Charles and Stella.
Having eaten the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, Moria could freely control shadows. He could even split his body into shadow bats like a Logia user.
Suffice it to say, you don't become a Warlord by being trash.
Charles would've liked to see what the Moria who once crossed blades with Kaido looked like, but unfortunately the current Moria needed his fruit just to move with any agility.
His flames could punch through darkness that devoured light, let alone shadows that relied on light to exist.
First comparing abilities, then close combat, Moria fell behind in both and eventually fled in a panic.
What surprised him was that the two made no move to give chase, but instead kept wandering all over the island like tourists.
Then they went too far—after touring the outer ring, they went straight into the manor he lived in.
Damn it! This is my base, not the haunted house in some theme park!!!
But what could Moria do? He couldn't beat Charles, and if he couldn't bear it, he had no other options.
His Monster Trio were useless too. Absalom of the Clear-Clear Fruit was spotted as soon as he got close and had his legs broken. The surgeon Hogback was strung up pathetically at the front gate.
Perona's Hollow-Hollow Fruit couldn't do anything to Charles either. It was only because Perona was a girl that they showed mercy; even so, Stella smacked her bottom until it swelled.
And having witnessed Charles's flames, Moria was even less likely to send his zombies to die.
So long as Charles didn't do anything that threatened him, Moria would just pretend they didn't exist.
But the two were getting bolder. They flat-out moved into the manor under his nose.
Moving in was one thing; these two were picky on top of it, forcing the zombies to do a massive cleanup and acting like they owned the place.
Moria could only tell himself that a clean place wasn't so bad; after all, he did live there.
In contrast to Moria's troubles, Charles deeply felt he'd miscalculated.
He wasn't Moria; he hated places where not a sliver of sunlight could reach.
His memory wasn't wrong—the Straw Hat Pirates' next stop after leaving Water 7 was indeed Thriller Bark.
But he'd forgotten that after carrying them off Enies Lobby, the Going Merry was completely done for, and the Straw Hats had to wait for Franky to finish building their new ship, the Thousand Sunny, before setting out.
So Charles stayed on Thriller Bark for a long time without seeing the Straw Hats, let alone Kuma.
To pass the time, he started studying the island's zombies.
It had to be said, Moria had real grave-robbing talent. He had 899 zombies now, and the General Zombies numbered 800 to 899 were made from the corpses of powerhouses strong in life.
Among them were Captain John, a great pirate of the previous era, and Ryuma the dragon-slaying swordsman of Wano.
Who knew how Moria dug them up, one by one, or how much effort it took to turn them into zombies.
Even reduced to corpses and processed by Hogback, Charles could still sense their former strength from their remains.
The traces left by training and battle aren't erased by death.
To be honest, even the residual power on the corpses couldn't be fully brought out by the shadows Moria stuffed in them; those zombies' strength was so-so at best. Charles had no idea why Moria pinned his hopes on them.
He even took the black blade Shusui—Wano's national treasure and one of the 21 Great Grade blades—into his hands to study.
While Stella was training her pet cloud fox, Angel, Charles gained more insights into this world's forging techniques and the forging of black blades.
Just as he was getting fed up, the Straw Hat Pirates finally appeared.
Charles also sensed another powerful presence arrive on Thriller Bark at the same time.
A tall, powerfully built man with a Bible in hand stood high above, looking down on the enormous ship.
Kuma had always watched that boy in the straw hat. He had always believed that the Sun God Nika, the warrior of liberation, wasn't just a legend, and the boy with the straw hat was the one he believed would become Nika.
Just as Kuma was about to watch how Luffy would surmount the hurdle named Moria, he realized someone had appeared beside him without his noticing.
Expressionless, Kuma faced Charles and asked, "You who call yourself the mage of Fairy Tail, Charles—why are you here?"
Charles pointed at him. "I'm here for you, of course! You know we work on commission. Someone hired me to find you, so I've been waiting for you here!"
Kuma ignored everything else and asked, "Who hired you, as you say?"
"Who else could it be?" Charles said. "Only that kid in this world would want to see you so badly."
Kuma's expression changed—like a sudden storm clearing to sunlight. It was hard to imagine such a burly man showing such a gentle smile. He clearly guessed who had hired Charles.
But his face returned to calm right after. He shook his head. "Sorry. I can't see her now, so your task will fail. Please convey my apology to Bonney."
"That won't do," Charles smiled. "I won't let a commission taken by Fairy Tail fail. And besides, I'm not asking your opinion!"
The fog between them scattered at once. Though neither bore much hostility, the air of battle had already formed.
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