One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty Five [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Five-

"Much to my soul's dismay, by the time it found my body, there was nothing left but a miserable pile of bones" Brook revealed. "I was so shocked that my eyes were as wide as dinner plates—not that I have any eyes to begin with! Yohohoho!" he laughed.

"You got lost, huh? So you're stupid just like Zoro!" Luffy laughed, causing me to choke as I burst into laughter alongside him.

"Hey now!" Zoro snapped at the two of us.

"But is he wrong?" I teasingly asked, giggling at the sharp glare he gave me.

"And so, a walking, talking skeleton was born" Franky said, ignoring the three of us. "Man, those Devil Fruit powers can be pretty scary sometimes—even though you're just bones, it still brought you back to life" he remarked in amazement.

"Yeah, but it only does it once" Sanji pointed out. "Despite the fact he still can't swim and he's stuck like this, seems like a crappy deal if you ask me" he frowned, not seeing anything positive about the skeleton's Devil Fruit.

"Have to agree with Sanji on this one, feels pretty useless in my opinion" I hummed in agreement. "Seems all it's good for is cheating death and nothing else."

"Skeletons aren't supposed to have hair, are they? Especially not so much of it—is that afro a wig or something?" Zoro curiously asked.

"No, my roots are just very strong" Brook answered.

"I'll...I'll take your word for it" Zoro said, not in the mood to argue over how illogical that sounded.

"Then that just means you're not a ghost, after all, you're just a normal human like us" Usopp sighed. "Well, normal at a stretch I suppose" he quickly added after taking another look at the skeleton. "But the important thing is, you're definitely not a ghost" he said.

"Oh, heavens no, I hate ghost" Brook shivered, causing his bones to rattle. "If I saw one I'd scream my lungs out if I had any."

"You're a skeleton and you're afraid of ghosts? Have you tried looking in the mirror lately?" Nami asked, producing a mirror from somewhere and holding it out to the skeleton.

"No mirrors! Stop!" Brook cried before he started to scream.

"What's wrong?" Usopp jumped. "Hey—hold up! What's going on here?!" he frantically asked.

"No! Why...why...?!" Chopper shakily whimpered.

"Why can't we see you?!" the two screamed in fright when they saw that the skeleton had no reflection. "Why don't you show up in the mirror?!" they wailed.

"Are you for real?! That's awesome!" Luffy and I eagerly shouted, eyes sparkling as the others quickly jumped to their feet and pulled back from the skeleton.

"Look at his feet! He doesn't have a shadow!" Usopp pointed.

"Ahh! You're right—what kind of creature are you?!" Chopper cried.

"Don't take a tea break!" Sanji snapped as the skeleton calmly sat back down and started to drink some tea.

"Uh...you better explain yourself right away, mister!" Usopp nervously frowned.

"I suppose I should tell you the rest of the story" Brook sighed as he continued to sip at his tea. "About what happened while I was drifting in this evil sea and the second tragedy I was forced to face" he sadly said. "What I told you about becoming a skeleton is true, but the reason I don't have a shadow is a different matter entirely...to be continued" he cheerily smiled, chuckling at his own joke like it was the height of comedy.