One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Four

-Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Four-

"Tell us that thing isn't real!" Usopp begged, roughly shaking the skeleton back and forth as tears streamed down his face. "Tell us it's like your ship!" he pleaded, hoping that this was just a situation similar to the one back then when we had first met our musician.

"Nothing would make me happier, but take a look at their sail!" Brook pointed, straightening his back and causing the sharpshooter to dangle off of him while keeping a tight hold on the front of his shirt. "That's the legendary Flying Dutchman!" he exclaimed.

"It's eerily beautiful to look at..." I mumbled as I examined the decaying ship once more in awe.

"It shouldn't be here! I-It shouldn't exist!" Brook stuttered as he pushed his glasses up. "As the legend goes, it sailed the seas hundreds of years ago," he eerily began, "one dark and stormy night, the captain of the ship suddenly lost his mind and—consumed with madness—he threw his own crewmates into the sea, one after another. Then he turned his gaze to the heavens and cursed the very Gods" he dreadfully recounted. "The captain's name was none other than Vander Decken, and the ship was the Flying Dutchman—the Gods condemned him for his actions and he was cursed for all eternity!

"Sailing the seas aimlessly there on that very vessel!" I enjoyed the erratic movements he threw in as he relayed the legend of the Flying Dutchman to us—a legend that I'm sure many of us were already aware of due to how famous it was. "Even if you're a skeleton who has sailed on a ghost ship of your own, the sight of the Flying Dutchman will put chills down your spine!" he shivered.

"Such a lovely story" I grinned as Chopper and Usopp ran around the deck in circles—screaming their heads off with fear.

"Stop screaming!" Franky snapped. "You thought Brook's ship was scary when we saw it, but look how that turned out" he pointed out. "There was a logical explanation—I'm sure some of Brook's jokes are so bad you could scream, but that's the worst of it."

"You're so cold!" Brook gasped. "Almost like you're made of metal, get it?!" his voice was strained as he did his best to hold in his laughter upon hearing his own silly little joke as he hit his forehead against the cyborg's chest—forming an angle with his body.

"Franky's right—the ship may look spooky, but that doesn't mean the scary story is real" Nami nervously smiled.

"Nice drawing" I complimented the moment I peered down at the sketchbook in Robin's hands.

"Perhaps" she smiled as she began to put the finishing touches on her drawing of the rundown ship in front of us. "The Kraken is a legend as well and it just attacked our ship" she reminded us. "This is all uncharted territory for us—I mean, who's to say what's real and what's not?" I chuckled at the fearful and disheartened expressions Nami, Chopper, and Usopp gave the older woman.

"If Robin says it's real..." Nami whimpered.

"Then it's got to be—we're doomed" Usopp shivered.

"Someone, hold me!" Chopper cried.

"Aw, come on now, there's no need to cry" I cooed, scooping up the reindeer who quickly buried his face into my shirt as he clung to me. "There, there...," I softly murmured as I patted his back, "there's nothing to be scared of."

"Robin, don't torment the crew just so you can have a laugh—we're in real trouble here" Franky scolded the woman as Brook fell over in shock.

"Luffy! Please—come back!" Usopp wailed, he and Chopper soon clinging to one another after I had set the reindeer back down as tears flowed from their eyes like waterfalls.