OPTC Chapter 188. What Did Shark Chili Say?
Facing the little ghost flying at her, Rui Meng Meng instinctively raised a defensive stance, then ended up crouching next to Zhang Da Ye.
"I can't even learn one percent of Teacher Tom's skills… I'm just useless…"
Artoria swung her sword on reflex to block, but the ghost had no physical body and slipped right through her chest.
And then… nothing happened.
Artoria looked curiously at the ghost, then at Tom and Brook crying on the floor, and Zhang Da Ye and Rui Meng Meng squatting in the corner drawing circles. She had a rough guess of the ghost's power, but it seemed like it had no effect on her.
The little ghost scratched its bare skull in confusion, almost human-like, and prepared to attack again.
"Could it be because of my anti-magic?" Artoria wondered, but she wasn't going to test it twice. Golden light flared along her sword, and she swung straight at the ghost's head.
Clang!! At that moment, a loud gong echoed inside the cabin.
All the floating ghosts shivered like they were on vibration mode, then dropped stiffly to the floor. Their colors faded until they vanished completely.
"So fragile? I only meant to pin them down." Ye Yan stood holding a soul-suppressing gong in one hand and a hammer in the other. He had struck it the moment he saw the ghost approaching.
Artoria's sword stroke faltered slightly at the sound, cutting straight through the trembling ghost. Now she wasn't sure if she had really hit it herself, or if Ye Yan's gong had done the work.
When the gong rang, Zhang Da Ye felt his mind go blank, and the wave of despair that had hit him faded away. But the aftershock was strong—he staggered up, grumbling,
"Ye Yan, does that thing not distinguish friend or foe? My head's still ringing!"
Rui Meng Meng rubbed her ears. "Same, it's like someone's banging drums inside my skull."
Tom, who had been bawling a moment ago, jumped straight up. He patted his head and looked around wildly for the noise's source.
When he saw Ye Yan holding the gong, Tom planted his paws on his hips and glared. What's the big idea banging it so loud? You almost scared me to death!
Ye Yan scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Haha, well… the gong only works in a general range. I can't precisely control it. At least there were no serious consequences this time."
This wasn't his first case of friendly fire. Once he had used the gong to try and hold down an enemy for Huang Xiaoyan, but ended up catching her in it too, breaking her spell and injuring her.
"Serious consequences? Does this count?" Artoria pointed at Brook.
Everyone looked. Brook was sprawled on the ground, legs bent, butt up in the air, jaw hanging open. A green spirit was floating out of his mouth, with a dazed expression on its face.
"Is that… his soul leaving his body?" Rui Meng Meng asked Ye Yan. "Did you knock his soul out?"
"I don't recall the gong having an out-of-body function," Ye Yan denied.
"Maybe he's just been shaken stupid?" Zhang Da Ye waved a hand in front of Brook's ghostly eyes, but got no reaction.
After a long pause, Brook's soul finally spoke.
"Ah! That scared me half to death! Thought I was going to go deaf! Though… I don't even have ears, yohohoho~"
Alright, he seemed fine.
"Brook, can you return to your body?" Zhang Da Ye pointed at the skeleton on the floor in its ridiculous pose.
"Ahhh! A skeleton! So scary!" Brook's soul shrieked—then blinked. "Oh… that's my body. Huh? If that's me… then who am I?"
He had floated around as a soul before, but that was decades ago. It took him a moment to adjust before he tried drifting back into his bones.
The skeleton lurched upright, but its movements were jerky, like a laggy fighter in a high-ping game.
"So strange… my body feels hard to control."
"Side effect of leaving your body?" Zhang Da Ye asked. "How did your soul even pop out?"
Brook thought for a moment, staring at the ceiling.
"My mood suddenly plummeted earlier. Then when I heard the gong, I panicked, like something terrible would happen if it kept sounding. I tried to run, and… my soul fled my body, yohohoho~"
So his soul was stronger than those little ghosts, but if Ye Yan banged the gong a few more times, even he might get scattered. Everyone had the same thought.
"By the way, what exactly were those little ghosts? Another devil fruit power?" Ye Yan asked. After all, he'd learned that in this world, strange phenomena usually tied back to devil fruits.
"Yes. They were 'negative ghosts.' If they pass through you, you become consumed with despair. The known counters are either having strong haki, or already being such a hopelessly negative person that it has no effect." Zhang Da Ye answered. He hadn't thought of Perona at first—by his memory she should still be a little girl, but apparently she had already joined Moria.
The methods Zhang mentioned were what this world usually recognized. In their group, no one could use haki, but Artoria and Ye Yan had their own ways of handling it.
"Is everyone alright?" Shark Chili came running in.
"We're fine," Zhang Da Ye said. "Did you find enemies outside?"
"I ran into a ghost. When it passed through me, I…" Shark Chili hesitated, embarrassed that no one had seen his reaction. "I just became really depressed. But then I heard the gong from here, and the ghost vanished."
"So the negative ghosts even work on robots?" Zhang Da Ye mused. But Shark Chili wasn't exactly a normal robot, so it wasn't too surprising.
Still, Zhang Da Ye couldn't help but wonder—just what did Shark Chili say in his depressed state?
…
In a room inside the central castle of Thriller Bark—
"Kyaaahhh!" A little girl with pink twin-tails, striped black-and-white stockings, and a small princess crown screamed as she jumped out of bed in fright.
A stuffed bear walked up beside her. It wore a round hat, bandages wrapped around its lower half, stitches all over its upper body, and a mask covering its mouth.
"Lady Perona, are you—"
"No talking, Kumashi! Talking makes you less cute!" Perona scolded.
Kumashi flailed nervously, unsure what to do. He had only wanted to check on her.
"That's better." Perona hugged Kumashi's big round belly, rubbing her face against it until the fear ebbed away. Then she released him. "I just ran into something terrifying. We need to tell Lord Moria right away!"
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