20 Thriller Bark

Now I've seen everything… How the hell are you still functioning?" Daz wondered aloud while prodding the moving skeleton with the massive afro they had come across, once they had boarded the huge galley, who had introduced himself as Brook, formerly of the Rumba Pirates.

"Yohohoho, I've mused about that mystery myself for quite some time. However, I've come to the conclusion, that devil fruits never really make much sense when you think about it and thus decided to just not think about it anymore. Yohohohohoho!"

Brook the skeleton answered while fluffing his afro a couple of times into position properly, after which he bowed slightly towards lil' red and cough once into his right hand softly before continuing to talk.

"Considering my current state of being, you may have realised that I have been on this ship for a very long time and without company no less! And so I cannot stop myself from asking: would you kindly show me your panties miss?"

While lil' red seemed quite a bit speechless for a couple of seconds, upon which, Daz knew by now, would follow her usual volcano like explosion, Daz himself decided that he liked the fellow. The man knew what he wanted and he could appreciate that.

Throwing his right arm over Brooks shoulders Daz leaned a little upon the tall skeleton and levelled his grey eyes onto lil' red, wiggling his eyebrows provocatively with a grin upon his lips.

"Come now, lil' red. Don't be such a wussy! The man hasn't seen proper underwear in decades! Surely that could warm your cold heart just a little bit, no?" Daz continued while lil' red seemed about ready to explode.

'Is she actually vibrating in place? Damn. That's one spitfire if I've ever seen one…' His thoughts went while Brook seemed to appreciate the support, as he began to laugh once more in that curious way of his. How he was actually doing that was still an absolute mystery to Daz.

"You, you, y-you PERVERT!" lil' red finally exploded, probably after Daz had kept on poking her on the forehead for a little to cause exactly such a reaction to occur and it was immensely satisfying to see the results of his labour come to fruition.

"Now, now, no need to get personal. How about we make it an even trade. You show me yours and I'll show you mine, hmm?" Daz continued while both lil' red and Brook seemed to choke on air for a second upon hearing his words. Seemed like a good deal in Daz's opinion though. He was fucking ripped after all!

"I… you…wha-…" lil' red tried, but it seemed her words failed her for some reason and no real sentences wanted to sprout into being, no matter how many times she tried.

In the end she did the only thing she had always done when she didn't know what to do and thusly lashed out with a kick, which may not have been the best idea, considering she was wearing a skirt of all things.

While Brook was promptly sent spiralling over the railing and right upon the thousand sunny, Daz instead had crouched down and gotten a nice view of lil' reds privates for but a second, which he considered to be a success all things considered.

"White? Really? Never would've taken you for such a bore… On the other hand, considering the fellows you're travelling with, my surprise isn't all that big…" Daz said, while he mused with his left hand scratching at his chin in contemplation before he took of after Brook in a silent soru, leaving the raging monster that lil' red had become behind, who was venting on Luffy once again in anger and frustration, like a school girl at her pinata at her birthday party.

Appearing before the rather stunned looking Brook down on the thousand sunny, Daz looked him up and down before sitting himself down next to the man.

"You alright there, buddy? Seemed to me as if lil' red got you pretty good there. And considering you are literally only bones I'm rather unsure how much you can take before you'll default back into your natural state of being. You know, being a skeleton and all that jazz." At his words the rest of the crew gathered and looked on in curiosity as Brook cracked himself out of the railing with a groan, before his eyes fell upon Robin, completely ignoring Daz's words and instead tried to get into the woman's pants as well. Not that Daz couldn't blame the guy.

Sadly, Brook seemed to fail at his attempt and was, once again, smashed straight back into the railing. By a flying Luffy of all things… probably due to Nami's finisher. The girl had one mean left after all.

This time it took even longer for them to get out of the wooden railing. Daz meanwhile decided to grab himself a beer instead of waiting. Life was good sometimes.

"So, let me get this straight. Someone stole your shadow and you cannot leave this fog because you'll evaporate once you come into contact with the sun without your shadow protecting you?" the pinoccio summarised what Brook had told them for the last couple minutes over a nice dinner in the kitchen area of the thousand sunny.

"Probably a devil fruit user. Any idea about the name of the guy that took your shadow?" Zoro continued in Pinoccio's stead, calmly sipping at his beer and rocking back and forth on legs of his chair.

"Yohohoho, the man who took my shadow is rather well known I'm afraid. You may have heard of him actually. His name is Gecko Moria, owner of the Thriller Bark and member of the Shchibukai." Brook finished upon which utter silence descended onto the table they were all sitting around.

"A S-Shichibukai!?" lil' red cried, nearly fainting at Brook's words while the rest of the crew seemed to have different thoughts on the matter.

Sanji didn't show much of a reaction, Zoro grinned in anticipation, same as Luffy who cackled about adventure's calling or something along those lines, while Robin looked straight at Daz. Wait what?

Lifting up one of his eyebrows in askance, Daz silently asked her what was up with her, to which she only smile in response, giving Daz a semi-migraine as consequence.

Before they could continue the conversation however, the whole ship rocketed once, as if it had rammed something like a mountain all of a sudden.

As such, it came as no surprise when Franky's voice echoed out over the whole ship via the communication system, informing them that something had swallowed them.

At once the whole crew rushed outside, prepared for the worst no doubt.

But once they saw what had 'swallowed' them though, the formerly clear state of emergency was replaced by a sense of nervousness amongst most of the crew. After all, they had only minutes ago been told about the ship that housed the Shichibukai Gecko Moria, which was exactly where they had arrived as it seemed. Namely, the Thriller Bark. And by the looks of the slowly closing gates behind them, it was rather clear that they weren't going to leave any time soon at that. But Daz didn't care about any of that. All he could think about at that moment was but one thing. Excitement was in the air, and he could smell it miles away. Hence, the gigantic megawatt grin that grew upon his face. He was sure he would soon get to kill something once again, and he honestly had missed that part of his life.