They were cornered, seastone-loaded muskets pointed at them from every angle. Sabo knew the den-den mushi in his hand was worth a lot, but this?
Luffy had stopped just as he had, was looking between the guns and Sabo, questioning.
Sabo had one final trick up his sleeve. He had no idea if Luffy still remembered, or if it would even work, but the slight clicking of guns in shaking hands made him straighten.
"Luffy." He said, and his little brother snapped to attention. "Eat them." He ordered, and everyone froze.
Luffy's chuckle bounced off the walls, his eyes alight with mischief. He turned to face the firing squad as his grin grew larger and larger, cutting through his face in an unnatural way until the corners of his mouth seemed pinned to its ears. It's eyes were less brown and more yellow as it's pupils shrunk to pinpricks and although it hunched it only seemed to grow taller. It's arms were thin, but far too long, nearly dragging across the floor. Tap. Tap. Tap. One foot in front of the other, every step clicking like an old clock, counting down to something. It chuckled but it's face didn't move, just stayed showing more teeth than a human should have, head leaned to the side like it didn't quite belong on its body. The shaking of guns was louder, one brave fool shot and missed.
It's head snapped to the sound, and then one long, long arm snapped up to grip the fool by the head. It's mouth opened.
'Eat Them.', that's what the thief had said, and now it's mouth was wide, too wide. It dragged the fool closer, who scratched uselessly at it's single hand and scrabbled to get his feet under him. It was going to Eat Them.
Another in the firing squad dropped his gun, it misfired and made a noise just startling enough to make all the other guns drop while the squad all pushed over eachother to run.
The echoing laugh followed them, but Luffy stayed where he was.
Sabo hit the single man with a pipe, knocking him out. "I can't believe you remembered that!" He cheered, snickering.
Luffy laughed harder, letting his bones right themselves. "That was awesome! I gotta tell my crew when we get back."
