Luffy held his stomach, laughing so hard that tears streamed down his face. He pointed at the skeleton on the ground.
"So... do you poop?" Luffy asked, still laughing.
When Sanji heard this, he instantly looked as if he'd been struck by lightning, his eyes wide. Then he jumped up abruptly, his head visibly swelling and enlarging, turning him into a big-headed doll. He roared furiously at Luffy,
"There are so many more important questions to ask!!!"
The skeleton lying on its side on the ground, however, was not affected by their argument. Like a mechanical pointer, it instantly rotated clockwise, moving from the 9 o'clock position to the 12 o'clock position, and stood up steadily.
The skeleton seemed completely unfazed by their reaction. It hummed a tune, picked up its cane and coffee again, its voice calm yet with a hint of eeriness.
"I do poop..." the skeleton said softly.
Sanji turned and roared at the skeleton,
"Does it really take that long to answer!!!! It doesn't matter anyway!!
First! You're clearly a skeleton, why are you alive and talking! What exactly are you! Why are you here! What happened on this ship! What will happen in this sea area! Answer all of me!
Orochimaru!! You (￣mouth￣)!!"
Sanji originally turned to ask Orochimaru if he had any questions... only to see Orochimaru excitedly pulling out one instrument after another. The only one Sanji recognized... seemed to be a pulverizer, right? The silent Sanji looked at Orochimaru, who still had pink little flowers floating above his head. Your whole art style has changed, hasn't it?
"Wait... those things, we'll talk about them later," Luffy interrupted, walking between Sanji and Nami.
"Hey... Skeleton! Be my Companion!"
Orochimaru, hearing this, stiffly turned his head... a glass beaker dropped from his hand, rolling clatteringly... to the skeleton's feet.
The skeleton lowered its head, picked up the glass beaker from the ground, and handed it to Luffy. "Mm... okay."
On the sunny, everyone watched the skeleton excitedly waving its hat and greeting them, feeling a sense of gritting their teeth.
"Good evening everyone~ I am Brook, a skeleton with only bones after dying!... Yohohoho."
"What's going on?" Zoro's mouth twitched.
Nami and Sanji, looking down in dejection, sighed.
"That's just how it is."
Zoro then pointed to Orochimaru over there, who was kneeling on the ground, crying (⁍ ̥ ̥ ̥ ᷄ ﹏ ⁍ ̥ ̥ ̥ ᷅). The last time he was like this was because of Eneru, right?
"What's going on with this?"
Nami and Sanji took a deep breath, then sighed.
"It's just as you think... the experimental subject was taken by Luffy, became a Companion, and then became like this..."
Zoro looked at the annoyingly lively skeleton again, covering his forehead.
"What exactly did you two follow Luffy for?! Wasn't it to stop Luffy from doing such crazy things!!! Orochimaru, you guys deal with him yourselves!!!"
The two of them, being lectured by Zoro, for the first time didn't know what to say, and hung their heads in silence.
"Yohohoho... don't be so agitated..." Brook walked to the middle of the group. "Please come inside the ship for dinner."
"Why are you deciding that!!!" The group roared at Brook, while Luffy was still laughing foolishly on the side.
Looking at the group who eventually went to the restaurant, there was nothing to do... Zoro sighed, directly hoisting Orochimaru onto his shoulder. This was so troublesome... this guy was harder to coax than a child. How did Luffy's family raise people like this?
[Dadan's family, Sabo... Ace, Garp, Dragon, Makino, etc. all expressed... the child was so repressed he became abnormal! What's wrong with us indulging him a little!]
In the restaurant, Brook was still excitedly looking at the kitchen.
"Ah... what a luxurious restaurant... and a kitchen... this ship is really great... Yohohoho."
Zoro leaned one hand on the table, the other on the back of a chair, with Orochimaru slumped on his lap. He had to coax him from time to time. Zoro sighed again.
"But... I'm really looking forward to food," Brook's voice was a little lonely.
"I haven't had a proper meal in decades, enduring the pain of my chest sticking to my back every day... living with difficulty."
Brook opened his jacket, revealing his bony chest, and began to tell a skeleton joke again: "Although I am a skeleton, I have neither a front chest nor a back... Yohohoho."
Orochimaru, lying on Zoro's lap, looked up and saw Brook, who indeed only had bones, and his tears flowed even more profusely ( ;´ ༎ ຶ Д ༎ ຶ ` ).
Zoro began to coax him in a flurry... "Don't cry, don't cry... We haven't entered the New World yet, there will definitely be more in the latter half of the Grand Line... This might be a race."
Brook looked at the tearful Orochimaru with some surprise. "Ano... what's wrong with that very beautiful young man?"
The air suddenly went quiet... Usopp and Chopper, holding a cross, were both silent... Usopp instantly felt that this skeleton wasn't so scary after all... He patted Brook's shoulder, wanting to say something but held back. "It's better if you don't know."
Sanji's octopus feast was finally ready. The group enthusiastically ate the octopus rice. Chopper ran to Zoro's side with a plate, eating and feeding Orochimaru, while wiping away Orochimaru's tears.
Chopper indicated, "Mm, good... He can eat, the frequency of tears has decreased, he should recover soon."
Luffy, his mouth full of octopus, grunted and communicated with Brook without hindrance, one speaking and the other exclaiming, their movements perfectly synchronized.
After the meal, Brook recounted his situation. Nami was a little surprised, "Yomi Yomi no Mi??"
"It's the ability to revive someone once after death, right?" Franky summarized Brook's words, looking at the skeleton.
"Yes... I was also a pirate when I was alive. Once... I and my Crewmates, on the ship you just saw, ventured into this demonic sea. But unfortunately, we encountered powerful rivals, and after the battle, our entire crew was wiped out.
I naturally died too. When I was alive, the Yomi Yomi no Mi was just a useless Devil Fruit that turned me into a hammer.
But on the day I died, the Devil Fruit's power finally manifested. My soul returned from the underworld to the living world."
Orochimaru, hearing this, instantly raised his head. Indeed, the underworld truly existed in this world. Although he had suspected it when he discovered that Rashomon could be used, he was now certain.
Brook continued his narrative.
"As long as I returned to my body immediately, I could be resurrected. But as you all can see, this demonic sea is shrouded in thick fog.
...I got lost... and then wandered in this thick fog as a soul for a year... I finally found my body.
But by then, my body had already turned into a pile of white bones."
Franky leaned against the bar.
"So even if you turn into a skeleton, you can still be resurrected? Devil Fruits are truly terrifying."
Sanji had a question. "But the Devil Fruit has already fulfilled its mission, so now you're just a hammer... This can also be considered a curse, right?"
Usopp leaned closer. "So you're not a ghost?"
"Of course, I'm most afraid of ghosts," Brook shivered.
Nami, speechless, held a mirror up to Brook. "Most afraid of ghosts... Have you ever looked in a mirror?"
Brook frantically blocked the mirror. "Please don't point a mirror at me!!"
Usopp looked at the mirror curiously. "What's wrong...?" Then he trembled in shock.
"Hey!! Wait! Wait! You! Why can't I see you in the mirror!!"
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