Several days after departing from Water 7.
The Straw Hat Pirates, whose voyage had been smooth sailing, were now passing through a sea shrouded in mist.
"Ugh… let's get out of this dark and creepy place already."
"That would be nice, if we could."
According to what Kokoro had told them in Water 7, this sea was a place called the Florian Triangle. It was a demonic sea where numerous ships had vanished without a trace over the years.
Usopp was already covered head to toe in exorcism gear, and a terrified Chopper was similarly clad. Nami shrugged, unsure if it would do any good, but for the two of them, it was a necessary measure for their peace of mind. After all, just before entering this sea, they had picked up a barrel labeled "A Gift from the Sea God," and upon opening it in search of liquor and preserved food, a flare had shot into the sky. It might have been some kind of signal, and with the surrounding mist, it was a situation where they couldn't be too careful. It was no wonder they felt the urge to cling to the occult.
It was in that moment.
"Yohohoho~…"
From somewhere, an eerie song could be heard.
The mist was thick, and despite it being daytime, the area was shrouded in gloom. And in the midst of it, they heard someone singing.
"Who's there?" they wondered, carefully scanning their surroundings. Through the mist, a single ship came into view, adrift on the current. Its sails were tattered, its hull was riddled with holes, and it looked for all the world like a ghost ship.
"G-G-GHOST SHIP~~~!!!"
As the Straw Hats were struck with astonishment, they strained their eyes.
What they saw there was—an afro-topped skeleton, clad in a tattered suit.
***
"YES! Greetings to you all!! I am the one who will be imposing on your ship, the name is Brook, as in 'dead and just bones'!!!"
"""ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! WHAT IS THIS GUY!!?"""
Luffy, having dragged along Nami and Sanji who had lost at rock-paper-scissors, had boarded the dilapidated, presumed-ghost ship and returned with the skeleton, whose first words made everyone shout in unison.
In contrast to the cheerfully laughing skeleton—Brook—Usopp and Chopper held the crucifixes hanging from their necks and chanted, "Spirits, be gone!" while Zoro lectured Nami and Sanji for failing to stop Luffy's reckless behavior. He chided them for their incompetence, knowing full well that Luffy would go wild over any unusual being. The two could only offer profuse apologies, feeling thoroughly inept.
"Oh, and a beautiful young lady over here as well. May I see your panties?"
"Cut it out, you perverted skeleton!!"
"Are we really sure it's okay to bring this guy along?"
"Yohohohoho!! Don't get so heated!! Please, come inside, let us have dinner!!"
"You don't get to decide that!!"
While being tossed about by the free-spirited Brook, the Straw Hat Pirates decided to go inside and have dinner.
As they ate, they listened to Brook's life story, learning why he was a skeleton with an afro and why he was drifting on this sea.
He was originally a pirate who had been defeated by a terrifyingly strong peer. Thanks to the Yomi Yomi no Mi he had eaten in the past, he had returned from the world of the dead, but he had wandered the misty sea for a year. By the time he finally found his own body, Brook explained, it had already been reduced to a skeleton.
Franky shivered at the thought of a Devil Fruit that could revive someone even in that state. It was like a curse of some kind, something that couldn't be measured by common sense.
When Usopp persistently asked if he was sure he wasn't a ghost, Brook replied, "I'm afraid of ghosts," which earned him an exasperated look from Nami. She couldn't imagine him being able to even look at his own skeletal form.
When she impulsively held up a hand mirror, Brook recoiled.
Nami tilted her head at his unusually strong reaction, but Usopp's face changed as he looked at the mirror.
"Eh!? Wait a minute, you… why aren't you reflected in the mirror!?"
"A-A vampire!?"
Everyone except Zoro and Robin jumped to their feet, ready for a fight. Looking closely, they saw that the shadow that should have been at his feet was also missing, only adding to the mystery.
Zoro and Robin narrowed their eyes, trying to discern his true nature, and decided to watch quietly for the time being. Meanwhile, Brook, the subject of the commotion, remained perfectly calm, an attitude that only served to provoke Sanji and the others.
"We're making a fuss about you!! Is this any time to be calm!?"
"To tell the whole story at once would take too long, for the time I have spent is great… The matter of my becoming a skeleton and the matter of my missing shadow are two entirely different stories."
"Even so."
"…My shadow was stolen several years ago, by a certain man."
"Your shadow was stolen?"
If there were cases of people being revived even after becoming skeletons, then it was certainly possible for a shadow to be stolen by some Devil Fruit ability. Robin listened to Brook's story, lost in thought.
"To not have a 'shadow' means I cannot live in a world of light. If I am exposed to 'direct sunlight,' my shadowless body will disintegrate. I once witnessed someone who suffered the same fate. It was a truly hair-raising sight. And I'm a skeleton."
Because he had no shadow to be cast on the ground when exposed to light, Brook explained that his body also did not appear in mirrors or photographs. Therefore, he could not adventure with Luffy and the others. Protected by the mist of this demonic sea, Brook would be burned by the sun if he were to carelessly venture into the outside waters.
Though he was happy about Luffy's invitation, he could not become his crewmate. There was no guarantee he would ever meet the man who had stolen his shadow again.
"Yohohoho, as thanks for this enjoyable time, allow me to play a song! I was originally a musician, you see!!"
"Ehh!? Then you have to join our crew!!!"
Luffy, desperate for a musician, did not stop trying to recruit Brook. Though happy, Brook intended to return to his own ship after performing this song—but then he was scared stiff by a translucent being that appeared, passing through the wall.
"A g-ghost…!!?"
It was a being Brook recognized.
Immediately after, the ship shook violently, and realizing what it meant, Brook rushed outside.
"What is the meaning of this… was this ship already under surveillance!?"
In front of the ship was a gate like a closed mouth.
The part they could see was the back of the gate. Looking behind them, they saw a massive island.
Targeting ships marked by the drifting barrels, this island continued to roam. The name of this island that drifted through the demonic misty sea was Thriller Bark—a giant ship that held an entire island, come from the distant West Blue.
***
"My long-cherished wish will be fulfilled," Brook said, and with a word of thanks, he leaped off the ship and ran across the surface of the sea toward the island. Apparently, due to his skeletal body, he was light enough to run without sinking.
Usopp, Chopper, and Nami persistently suggested they destroy the gate and leave the island, but Luffy was fully prepared to land, so the rest of the crew gave up.
While Usopp's group was test-driving the four-person steam-powered paddle ship that Franky had built, the Mini Merry II, Sanji began preparing lunch boxes, and Luffy waited excitedly for the three to return.
But they did not return. After a loud noise and a scream, there was no response.
Worried, they tried to move the ship closer, but then strange things began to happen: the anchor dropped on its own, they heard the roar of a wild beast. Soon, they were rocked by an unnatural wave, and as they raised the anchor and let themselves drift, the ship was caught in something like a spider's web near a pier and what looked like an entrance to the island.
The Mini Merry II was there, but Usopp and the others were nowhere to be seen.
"…Drifted here unnaturally, the ship is caught in a giant spider's web, and there's an island entrance right in front of us… should we see this as an invitation?"
It clearly looked like a trap, but just standing here wouldn't solve anything. Besides, there was one thing that bothered them.
"There's another ship besides the Mini Merry II and the Sunny. A small one."
It was a small ship, suitable for a few people, a little too flimsy for traversing the Grand Line. A search of its interior revealed nothing particularly unusual. From the clothes left behind, they could only surmise that a woman had been on board. Judging that the owner of this ship had also been brought to this island against their will, they decided to leave it for now and enter the island.
Descending the stairs from the entrance, they found a three-headed dog covered in stitches—though one of the heads was a fox—lying collapsed, its head crushed and left there.
"What is this? Did someone do this?"
"Probably the owner of that ship from earlier. They must be pretty strong."
Robin examined the body, but could only tell that it was an unnatural creature with stitches all over it. She didn't think it could have survived with injuries of this degree, and for its head to be crushed, there was surprisingly little blood. It was as if a corpse had simply been further damaged.
"…Let's go on ahead."
They had to find Usopp and the others. Robin judged it better to gather information than to stand here thinking.
Unaware of the shadow watching them from above the moat, they walked on.