"Usopp!" Chopper yelped above him, at the top of the pit.
"Chopper!" Usopp called back, scrambling to get his feet back under him in the sick mud. "Is that really you, or another trick?"
"I should be asking you that! Let me find something to help you back up!" Chopper pranced away, just in time for Usopp to catch a glimpse of him through the mud caked around his eyes.
There was a big crunch and Chopper came back with a big branch from one of the nearby trees. He shoved the branch down into the pitfall to give Usopp something to climb up besides the slick walls of the hole.
"Thanks," Usopp spoke tentatively. For all he knew, he was about to get spooked again and flop back into the mud, but it was better than doing nothing.
It took a bit of effort, but Usopp managed to drag himself most of the way back out of the pit and close enough for Chopper to grab him in his Heavy Point.
"Thanks a lot, Chopper. It would have been a pain to get out of that without you," Usopp said more genuinely this time.
"Oh, stop it, you bastard!" Chopper squirmed, though it wasn't as cute in the large muscular form as it was in Brain Point.
"Well, I can't imagine a ghost would do that, fake or real," Usopp surmised.
He spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. There, behind a tree, was Nami peeking out at him.
"Is that really you, Usopp?" Nami asked.
"Yeah, it's me," Usopp answered.
Nami rushed him and, despite how wet and muddy he was, she embraced him like she hadn't seen him in years. She pulled back and shouted, "Next time you run off, don't leave me all alone you asshole!"
Usopp laughed. "You're right, sorry."
"Hey, you can't touch ghosts, right?" Chopper said.
Usopp and Nami both looked at him, then at each other, then back at him. ""Chopper, you little genius!""
Chopper preened again.
"That's right! Of course, Cherry isn't actually a ghost either, but it would give the game away if we can touch her. Do you think that's the goal?" Nami wondered aloud.
"It must be. I tried to hit her when she had snuck up behind me earlier, but she dodged out of the way before I knew it," Usopp concurred.
"Come little children~ I'll take thee away~ Into a land of enchantment~"
The voice carried through the forest, demanding their attention. The song was without source, clear as a bell and soft as a whisper. It was both a warning of grave danger and a siren's call, beckoning them into the jaws of death.
"We have to get out of here!" Nami hissed.
Chopper took on his reindeer form. "Hop on!"
Usopp and Nami did as they were bade and Chopper took off at a sprint, but no matter how fast and far they ran, the song was just as clear as it was when it first began.
Then Chopper skidded to an abrupt stop at just about the same time the creepy song came to an end.
"Why'd you stop?" Nami asked.
"The pit…" Chopper muttered.
Usopp and Nami squinted their eyes at the ground in front of Chopper. Sure enough, the mud pit that Usopp had fallen into was right there.
"How'd we get turned around?" Usopp worried.
"I don't know! I made sure to keep my lefts and rights equal so that this wouldn't happen!" Chopper said.
"This is just like the Seducing Woods on Whole Cake Island all over again," Nami huffed. "How did Cherry even pull this off?"
The pitter patter of quick footsteps silenced them. Titters and giggles echoed in the darkness from all around them. Dark shapes flitted between the trees, never allowing anyone to catch a good glimpse at them.
"I'm pretty sure that Cherry can't be in more than one place at a time…" Chopper mumbled as his head darted back and forth.
"You're right, I can't," Cherry said.
The three scaredy cats squealed.
"""Cherry?!"""
"Shouldn't you be hunting us down while pretending to be a ghost?!" Nami accused.
"That was the plan. Plans never survive first contact with the enemy, however," Cherry said.
"W-what do you mean?" Usopp asked.
"I've only just started learning music, remember?" Cherry asked in turn.
After a moment, the three of them felt their hearts sink into their stomachs.
"You weren't the one singing…" Nami whispered in increasing horror.
Cherry nodded solemnly. Of course, she didn't mention that she had brought Uta along, or that Uta was the one that sang that little song. Nor did any of them know what Uta's singing was capable of.
Cherry lit a lantern and handed it off to Usopp. "Since the training has been interrupted, you can have a proper light."
Usopp accepted it gladly. "Oh, thanks-"
A creature that looked like a feral beast in human skin leapt out of the trees. Its skin was grey and desiccated, the muscles beneath without any fat and shriveled near to the bone. It stretched its mouth open far wider than any human mouth should, and clamped its razor sharp fangs down on Cherry's throat…. to no effect.
Cherry promptly pulled the thing off of herself and crushed it into the ground without mercy. Despite the force of her attack being enough to kill or at least cripple lesser men, the creature sprang back up immediately and darted back into the woods.
"On your guard," Cherry warned them, and just in time too because the creatures swarmed out of the forest like a wave of biting mouths and gripping hands.
The following fight was less of a battle and more of a frantic dance. The creatures were quick and wild, impossible to predict in their mindless bloodthirst. The only saving grace was that they weren't all that strong individually, nor did they seem to have any concept of teamwork. An advantage that the four Straw Hats utilized to its fullest.
"What are these things?!" Usopp shouted.
"They aren't alive, whatever they are. They're more like Moria's zombies than any living creature," Cherry answered as she skewered and chucked one of the creatures with her spear as it tried to drop down on top of them.
"So this is another devil fruit user?" Nami asked, wishing she had brought her Clima-Tact and Zeus, but was forced to beat back the horde with a simple quarterstaff.
"Perhaps, but I don't sense anyone nearby," Cherry spoke truthfully. She suppressed a smile over the technicality, knowing that her life sense didn't work in Uta's world.
"We can't fight like this forever!" Usopp shouted as he could feel himself starting to flag.
"I can-" "I know! You don't count!" Usopp cut Cherry off. "And it hardly matters if you can if the three of us die while you're doing it!"
"Jump in the mud pit," Cherry said.
"Huh?" Usopp grunted in confusion.
Chopper didn't give him or Nami a chance to question Cherry further, however, as he grabbed both of them and jumped straight into the mud pit.
There was a flash of blinding light which only grew brighter as the second ticked by. Soon they could feel an enormous heat from above that was almost to the point of being unbearable.
As soon as it started, it ended. They were left in the now much drier pit, and the chaotic sounds from outside had stopped entirely.