Chapter 86: Doctor Hogback

Chapter 86: Doctor Hogback



"He just left us here, and in a graveyard!" Usopp exclaimed.

"We shouldn't stay here or we might get attacked again." Nami said.

They got out of the carriage one by one. When they were all outside they heard the sound of dirt being disturbed. Looking over they saw a multitude of hands and arms belonging to zombies pulling themselves out of the graves.

One tried to grab onto Serene from behind, but she spun around and used cramping attacks on his limbs, causing him to topple over unable to move.

"Huh? Why can't I move?" The zombie was confused, but did not seem to feel any pain from his cramping muscles.

They were quickly being surrounded by the zombies, however. They fought them off the best they could, but even being decapitated didn't seem to faze them. Only Serene's massage arts was able to immobilize them.

"There's too many of them for us to fight, we need to get out of here!" Serene said.

"Let me try something!" Usopp said, firing a flaming projectile that engulfed one of the zombies.

Although it seemed somewhat effective at first, it only seemed to enrage them.

"Okay let's run away!" Usopp said, turning around to find the others already sprinting without him. "Damn it, don't leave me~ AHHHH!"

They ran quite the distance before the surprisingly fast zombies ran out of stamina and got away from them.

"I don't think we'll make it all the way to the shore. We're better off trying to reach Doctor Hogback's mansion. The lights from it are visible in some windows up ahead, do you see?" Nami suggested.

Serene looked as if she bit into a maggot infested rotten apple at the thought, but could not offer any alternatives and so she hesitantly accepted it silently.

Fortunately, they didn't run into any more monsters or zombies on the way to the mansion. They called out, but received no reply. So they went through the unlocked gate and into the tunnel through the ground floor of the mansion.

"Look, there's a light shining on that old well." Usopp pointed out.

They approached the old well and something jumped out of it, startling Nami, Usopp, and Chopper.

"Welcome." The woman said. She had a blonde bob haircut, eerie eyes, and a stitched face. Serene thought the woman looked familiar, but couldn't quite remember where should could have seen her. She thought such a "unique" looking individual would be quite memorable.

The woman started throwing the plates in her hands at Usopp, who started to shout in protest.

"Why are you throwing plates at me?! And why ONLY me?!" Usopp complained as he desperately dodged.

"You weren't invited tot he mansion. You four can come in though." She said, continuing to throw plates.

"Hold on, Cindry~! We can make an exception just this once." A man's voice was heard from the door into the mansion as it opened.

Serene frowned with annoyance, but when she heard the plate woman's name that expression twisted with realization and disgust.

pieces.

"We need to know what it takes to kill these things. Turns out that answer is a heck of a lot!" Cherry smirked.

The other zombies that had tried to stop the group were quivering in fear. Even if they didn't feel pain, they didn't want THAT to happen to them. Orders were orders, though, so they had

to press forward and capture them.

"Now let's try something else..." Cherry said, appearing in front of another zombie.

She pressed her hand onto its chest and activated her devil fruit. Her goal was to separate the zombie from the devil fruit power she assumed was puppeteering it.

She had to put some "oomph" into it, but she managed to expel the energy. It was easier to do such a thing when she wasn't concerned about being careful not to harm the subject.

The zombie collapsed lifelessly to the ground and she watched a shadow escape from it. Unfortunately it wasn't escaping towards one of the devil fruit users she had picked up with her Life Sense, but somewhere else on the island.

"She's a demon!" A tree zombie screamed.

"She exorcised him!" A four armed zombie cried.

"She didn't even use salt!" A stupid zombie blurted.

"Oh, you can be exorcised with salt?" Cherry smiled at the buffoons who let their own

weakness slip.

"""You idiot!!!"""The zombies shouted at the idiot.

"We've got plenty of salt back on the ship. I'll go get some."Sanji said, casually walking away.

The zombies were desperate to stop them now, but they were no match for the powerhouses

before them.

"Can't we keep some of them?" Luffy said, with puppy dog eyes.

"Absolutely not! They're clearly enemies!" Zoro rejected.

"They aren't even actual people, Luffy. Just puppets of some devil fruit." Cherry said, which

seemed to assuage him somewhat.

"When Cherry 'exorcised' one of them, a shadow escaped from it. Perhaps our new boney friend Brook had his shadow taken to make one of these zombies?" Robin hypothesized.

"No, you're wrong. That isn't correct at all, no ma'am." The idiot zombie said as he squirmed

on the ground with all his limbs cut off. "We'll find out for sure soon enough, I expect." Cherry smiled.