As contrary to the time when Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and others got depressed due to the Hollow ghosts, thanks to Perona's Devil fruit, this time though when the hollow ghosts came to go through their bodies, Luffy came forward and caught one of them with his bare hands.

"Aleee.. This looks cool. Oye.. Do you want to join the crew?"

"Just stop it already." Ussop, Sanji and Zoro shouted together seeing their Captain who was getting ridiculous with every passing minute.

The Hollow ghost which always had a smiling face was horrified. It never expected that someone would be able to catch it with bare hands. They always had the freedom to pass through someone and this would make the person very depressed, but today not only the Hollow ghost failed to pass through a man, it even got caught.

Ken seeing the Hollow ghosts knew that Perona must have sent her since their ship was caught. If she knew what was good for her, maybe she would be more smart about it. Their bounties have reached way too high and even in New World, their bounties had it's respect.

Seeing Luffy catching the Hollow ghost, Sanji and Zoro too caught them with their hands to see what the fuss was about. But not everybody had Armament Haki, and when one hollow ghost passed through the bodies of Nami and Franky, they understood that these Hollow ghosts were not easy to be trifled with.

Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy all started to beat up any Hollow ghost that came near them. Perona didn't show up in her ghost form. Maybe she got too scared seeing her main weapon get badly beaten up. Brook, who had seen the Hollow ghosts before, was dumbfounded. There were many people living here, and he had seen how these Hollow ghosts worked.

But this was the first time he saw somebody actually able to beat the Hollow ghosts. That made him realize that these people might be idiots like him, but definitely not as weak and cowardly as him.

"Maybe I should go and confront my destiny." Brook mumbled.

They went forward, and Sanji, out of nowhere, kicked in the open air with fire in his feet. There was a sudden cry of pain following that.

"I have been waiting for you. You asshole." Sanji shouted. Apart from those who knew Observation Haki, the others didn't understand what just happened. But after the cry of pain, the person who got hurt began to materialize.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

It was Absalom.

The man with a lion's head Well, not exactly a lion's head. His lion mouth was sewed in by Dr. Hogback sometime in the past, and now he looked like that. He was exactly the same kind of pervert as Sanji, and this infuriated Sanji.

It was because he had eaten the fruit that made him invisible. And this infuriated him.

"How could you see me?" Absalom was just creeping on his prey like Nami, Vivi, and Robin, only to get a fiery foot's mark on his chest.

"A pervert like you can never escape my eyes." Sanji acted cool while lighting up a cis cigarette.

"Look who is talking." Zoro rolled his eyes, but let Sanji take care of this Absalom. Of course, he too didn't like that someone had creeped up on them. Absalom didn't believe him, and even in pain, he made himself invisible and ran towards Nami in order to abduct her.

But Sanji, seeing the man's intentions, didn't have none of it and hit him again after flying in the air and coming down with a strong attack with his foot. Absalom flew back this time.

"I told you, a pervert like you can't escape my eyes." Sanji shouted and then proceeded to barrage this man with every move possible. At the end of his anger, Sanji's fire even turned blue. This was a testament to how much hatred he had for Absalom.

But Nami, Vivi, and even Robin were thankful that a pervert with such devilish fruit was taken care of in the beginning itself. Ken just shook his head. He didn't want to spend too much time here, as it was useless and the only good thing that could happen here was meeting with Kuma.

Absalom was half dead when Sanji and others went forward. Unlike Lucci, Kaku, and Spandam, who were tied and kept on the ship as prisoners, they didn't even bother to look for Absalom. Ken was deliberating if he should kill him or not, as a devil's fruit like his shouldn't land in the hands of Shiryu.

But then again, he could be taken care of by Impel Down itself. Impel Down was always on Ken's agenda, and he needed to visit there since he had read the news recently. Buggy had been caught and thus probably sent to Impel Down.

He might have taken his advice.

The crew moved forward while Brook gave a general overview of the place. By this time, Moria had come to realize that something was wrong since he had sent shadow bats to spy around. He sent Dr. Hogback and the zombie Ryuma.

The main castle was finally a little more visible thanks to small street lamps. As they came forward, they had to stop. It was because a huge zombie army was standing in front of them, and leading them were two people.

Dr. Hogback and Ryuma.

Oh, such a grand welcome." Franky said.

"I am very close to finishing my character. Maybe this will help me finish it." Zoro said.

"Oh, it will be fun." Nami said as she brought out her staff. She hated zombies, and thus she needed to get rid of them. Vivi and others had the same thought.

"You guys can have fun. I will just sit and watch. If the zombies aren't dying, put salt in their mouths. That will do the job. That is their weakness." Ken said.

"Salt? What a weird weakness." Ussop said. Ken had already told them to brig salt before, and now they understood. Salt was their weakness.