Moonlight Moria

The moonlight over the sea sometimes turned a drunken, flushed red.

It shone across a stretch of deep, dark water, as if an entire shipload of red wine had suddenly been poured over it.

Eerie, yet strangely alluring.

Of course, it might also have been blood.

Splash!

On a crimson date-colored pirate ship,

a tall man wearing a pirate captain's hat tossed a nobleman dressed in luxurious silk into the sea like a sack.

Bright red blood kept seeping from the nobleman's body.

Like a red moth orchid suddenly blooming across that intoxicating sea.

The pirate captain's gaze was a little hazy, but he couldn't help taking another swig from the tequila bottle in his hand, its surface decorated with exquisite carvings.

It was the nobleman's private stash, and their spoils of war.

Compared to this strong liquor, everything he'd drunk before could only be called wheat juice.

And that wasn't all.

A few corpses that no longer looked human lay scattered across the grimy deck.

Men and women alike.

They were all spoils from this raid.

The foul-smelling pirates indulged in food and drink, rewarding themselves for killing a few more unarmed civilians and burning a village full of people who had done nothing but beg for mercy.

The booze, the meat, and their comrades' cheers could drown out every needless emotion.

All that remained was pleasure.

Someone asked impatiently, "Captain, when are we heading to the next village?"

"You son of a bitch, we haven't even been at sea that long, and you're already thinking about the next village?!"

The captain licked the bottle's rim, then casually tossed it away.

The ornate bottle struck the deck and shattered at once.

"Just wait!"

"I'd rather take a few extra days to go around than risk that Foggy Sea Area."

"So are we heading to Sabaody Archipelago? I heard things are pretty chaotic there right now."

"Like hell we are!" the pirate captain said, snatching another bottle of liquor from one of his men as he staggered along.

"I went to sea for money and women. Why would I want to fight those monsters for anything?"

"You think I'm some lunatic like Joker?"

"Right! Women and money!"

"And booze and meat!"

"Hahahaha!"

The crew chimed in one after another.

Their wild laughter instantly enlivened the mood aboard the ship.

The pirate captain took another swig. It didn't compare to that bottle of tequila.

But he enjoyed the feeling of being half drunk and half sober.

He gazed at the churning sea, veiled by a thin layer of white mist beneath the crimson moonlight.

"Compared to those monsters, I'd rather run into a Ghost Ship. Heh heh heh."

The pirate captain couldn't help laughing at his own idea.

His laughter hadn't even faded

when a raging wave surged through the cover of the white mist and slammed into the ship.

The violent rocking and thickening fog instantly sobered the pirate crew, who had been roaming the Paradise Section.

"...What was that?!"

"Something's moving underwater!"

"Quit talking nonsense!"

The pirate captain flung away his bottle, drew the sword at his waist, and pointed it at the white mist.

"I'm a pirate—"

The captain's words abruptly caught in his throat.

He saw

a terrifying gecko head, as huge as a Sea King, suddenly emerge from the white mist.

Another raging current crashed toward them.

The gecko dragged its frog-like hands as it swam over with a splash.

The pirate captain got a clearer look.

But the sight

instantly extinguished the courage the liquor had stirred in him!

It was a Giant Gecko, long dead, yet still roaming the sea.

Half its head was rotten and decayed.

The flesh on the other half of its face was hideously swollen, as if it had been soaking in water for years.

Even its skin was a deathly white.

Its lone eyeball, rolling occasionally in its socket, made their blood run cold.

"There's a sail! A sail!"

The crew pointed at the night sky, trembling.

A completely black Skull Sail emerged from the white mist. Beside the white skull, a ring of Dark Flame flickered.

Beneath the black sail stood an island atop the back of the dead gecko.

The pirate captain seemed to recall something. Staring at the black sail, he murmured,

"Gecko Moria..."

A former Shichibukai.

After more than a decade of silence, people had forgotten that this former Shichibukai's terrifying Ghost Ship sailed only at night—and had once given rise to countless horrifying legends across the Great Sea.

The gecko's fearsome head drifted slowly past their ship.

Its single remaining, milky-white eye seemed not to notice them.

The gecko moved so gently that they wouldn't have spotted it so soon if not for the ceaseless, violent currents beneath the fog.

It was letting them go!

The pirate captain nearly burst into tears. The heart lodged in his throat finally dropped back into his chest.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. We're just some insignificant little pirates.

He turned his back. His face, flushed from drink just moments ago, had already gone deathly pale.

"Get us out of here—"

The captain hadn't finished speaking before a chill rose from his tailbone to the top of his head.

The gecko quietly turned its head.

It opened its mouth, and its long, rotting tongue wrapped around the entire pirate ship.

With a crack,

it swallowed the whole ship.

Buggy, standing on the black sail, had seen everything.

He'd been wondering what powered Moria's ship.

Now the answer was obvious.

A dead gecko—or, more accurately, a long-dead Sea King shaped like a gecko.

Its skin was as pale as Moria's, and a slick membrane seemed to coat it.

Perhaps this was how Moria avoided the weakness of his shadow control failing in seawater.

As for why the gecko could float on the sea, even while bearing the weight of an island,

Buggy remembered the stench that had poured from the gecko's intestines when it opened its mouth.

It was much like the way dead bodies floated.

The Giant Gecko's insides had long since rotted, producing all kinds of gases that kept its massive body afloat.

Moria controlled it with his shadow.

What Buggy wasn't sure about was whether Moria had found the gecko's corpse first and then built an island on its back, or whether the gecko had already been carrying the island.

After all, building an island was far more difficult than building a pirate ship.

"Heh heh heh!"

"Move out, Thriller Bark! I'll make sure the World Government knows how terrifying the great Moria is!"

Not far away,

Moria had, for once, picked up his long sword again. He pointed it at the empty night sky and shouted defiantly.

Perhaps because he'd let too much blood, Moria had shrunk by two whole sizes. Even so, the long sword he'd wielded in his youth still looked a little small in his hands.

He looked like a man burning with passion.

Looks like I left a little too much black in him.

Buggy rubbed his chin and bit his lip.

Then he thought of an even more interesting question.

Could this gecko climb the Red Line?

After all, it had made it to the Grand Line, which meant it had successfully crossed Reverse Mountain...