Far from the nearest settlement, the wilderness became a terribly dark place to be at night.
Even with the waning moon up above providing a bit of light, it was near impossible to see anything beneath the boughs of ancient trees.
The only sounds the trio could hear were the chirping of crickets, the occasional croak of toads, and the distant howl of a beast that wasn't a wolf despite sounding like one.
"Can you tell me why we agreed to do this again?" Nami whispered, her eyes darting around frantically and uselessly. She wasn't sure if she actually wanted to see through the deep shadows or not.
"Because Cherry's smile after we said no the first time was even scarier," Usopp answered, teeth involuntarily clattering together when he didn't keep his jaw clenched or open wide enough.
"Right," Nami shuddered. Cherry was a great friend, but she was damned scary when she wanted to be, and sometimes when she wasn't even trying to be.
"Did you hear that?" Chopper asked, making them both pause and listen. Chopper had much better hearing and night vision than the both of them, so they took his words very seriously.
They stood there in the darkness, listening to the silence for a full minute.
When they didn't hear anything, Usopp whispered, "It must have been nothing-"
*snap*
A twig somewhere in the trees nearby snapped, as if stepped on.
Nami's hands clamped over Usopp's mouth as well as her own, not trusting either of themselves not to scream. Chopper bit down on both his lips to stop himself from doing the same, even as he hesitantly scanned the area the sound came from.
He saw movement… a deer poked its head out from behind a tree, spotted them, then turned tail and ran the other way.
Chopper let out a long sigh. "It's just a deer, guys."
He turned around and gave his three companions a self deprecating smile.
'Wait…' Chopper counted again. 'One, two… three…?'
Why were the third person's feet not touching the ground?
Chopper hurriedly fumbled for the one source of light they had been allowed to have. He struck a single match; it did not produce much light, but it was enough to see the third figure in full from this close.
"Why did you like a match, Chopper?!" Usopp hissed. "Cherry can probably see light in this darkness from a bajillion kilometers away!"
Nami was about to agree when she saw that Chopper wasn't even looking at the two of them. Slowly she turned to see what his dinner plate wide eyes beheld, and soon she was much the same. She tapped on Usopp's shoulder, not able to find the words.
"What?" Usopp questioned, but soon realized, too, that something was wrong.
He saw it and he too was struck silent in horror. A deathly pale woman, bone thin, wearing a tattered white dress stained with dirt. Her long black hair covered her face entirely, but failed to conceal the old rope tied around her neck and suspending her above the ground.
Nami, Usopp, and Chopper slowly backed away from the figure.
"Hey, Cherry, quit messing around! You caught us, you win!" Usopp let out a nervous laugh. "We're totally scared! You got us good!"
Just as the flame of the match began to flicker out, the woman began to glide towards them, her filthy bare feet neither moving nor touching the ground. The trio quickly realized that the rope that stretched above her wasn't attached to anything to hold her up.
Cherry could jump off the air, but she couldn't fly while being so still.
"""AAAAAHHHHH!!!""" They screamed liles banshees and fled for their lives.
…
Cherry snickered as she lowered her helper by the black wire attached to the top of the rope. A second later, she jumped down from her perch in the high branches of the tree above.
Uta parted the mess of hair from her wig so she could see, spitting as some of it that stuck to her mouth. Then she giggled, "It was so hard not to laugh! I haven't had this much fun in ages!"
"The harness wasn't too tight? I made it in a bit of a hurry," Cherry said.
"A little, but it's comfortable enough," Uta rolled her shoulders. "What's next?"
"We've divided them, now it's time to conquer them," Cherry smirked.
'That's right. Scatter to the winds, you fools. You'll be easier to pick off for it,' Cherry thought.
…
"I- I think we lost her, guys!" Usopp took big heaping breaths between his words. "Uh, guys?"
He was alone.
Alone in a dark forest haunted by whatever horrible specter that was back there. There might even be more than one!
"Oh no…" Usopp muttered.
"Oh no, indeed."
Usopp whirled around in a panic, which quickly subsided into relief. "Cherry!"
"You know, this is supposed to be training for me as well," Cherry raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. "I heard you screaming from almost three kilometers from here, in spite of all the trees muffling you."
"Huh? Wait… but…! That means…" Usopp's face contorted through several emotions in quick succession. "This forest is haunted! We have to save Nami and Chopper!"
Cherry snorted. "Sure it is, Usopp. Listen, I know it's spooky out here at night, that's why I chose it, but you really need to get a hold of yourself."
"But…! But I really saw a ghost!" Usopp argued helplessly.
"I know you saw a ghost, Usopp, I was there!" Nami's voice called out behind him.
Usopp turned and found the red headed navigator in quite the state of disarray, and looked none too pleased about it. "Nami, you're okay!"
"Barely. My clothes kept catching on shrubs, ugh…" Nami tugged on the bottom of her shirt, highlighting an assortment of tiny tears. "I really liked this shirt…"
"Nevermind your shirt, Nami, we still have to find Chopper! Now that Cherry is here, it should be easy!" Usopp said.
"Cherry? What are you on about?" Nami frowned at him.
"Huh?" Usopp turned around to find no one standing where Cherry had been. "But she was just here!"
He turned back to Nami, only to find her right next to him.
Her skin was deathly pale, her eyes cloudy white, and a rope dug into her throat as it suspended her just above the ground. A hoarse whisper escaped her unmoving lips. "Why didn't you save us, Usopp?"
Usopp took the deepest breath he'd ever taken in his life. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH?!?!?!?!"
…
Nami felt so silly.
It was obvious in hindsight that there weren't any ghosts here, but somehow she had fallen for Cherry's little trick and embarrassed herself because of the assumption.
She heard Usopp screaming again somewhere in the distance.
"At least I'm not the first," Nami took some small comfort in that.
Whilst Usopp was dying of a heart attack, she decided to make good use of her time. Cherry had already located them, that part of the exercise had been basically inevitable from the start, so there was no point in running now.
"That should do it," Nami nodded to herself.
There would be no sneaking up on her with all these twigs lying around in strategic locations. Moreover, she would be well hidden in this spot she found. All she had to do was hunker down and wait til morning.
She felt a breath on her neck.
"EEEEEEEEK?!" Nami decked Chopper in the face.
"...why…?" Chopper dizzily thumped onto the side of his deer form.
"Chopper?! Why did you sneak up on me? How did you sneak up on me?" Nami couldn't decide whether to be sorry or angry.
"I wasn't trying to…" Chopper said. "And… hooves…"
Nami looked at his hooves. Yeah, they were small enough to step between her twigs.
"Sorry, I got spooked," Nami apologized. "Since you're here, though, we should stick together. I think Cherry has already taken Usopp out."
Chopper nodded hesitantly. Truthfully, he hadn't thought this was all just Cherry until Nami said it just now, but it made sense now that his mind was a bit less clouded by fear. If Usopp were in real danger, he would want to go rescue him, of course; but Cherry was a different matter. Every reindeer for themselves.