Reasons

"Oh! Such a wonderful dining room! And the kitchen too! This is an incredible ship, Yohohoho!!!" Brook laughed cheerfully. The Straw Hats were all sitting around the dining table waiting for Sanji to finish cooking dinner.

They were pretty reluctant to have a skeleton join their crew, but if their captain wanted him to, there must be a pretty good reason why.

"That's right. SUPER Franky made this ship! You have good eyes indeed. Mr Brook! " Franky grinned at him.

" Thank you for the compliment, even though I don't have eyes because I'm a skeleton! Yohohoho!!! " Brook made another skull joke. Luffy laughed at it while the others chuckled or sighed at it.

"And since I'm a gentleman, I will wait for the meal. I love how unconcerned that sounds...." Brook hummed. Suddenly, he grabbed a fork wnd knife with Luffy doing the same.

" Dinner! Dinner! Dinner! Dinner!! " The two started chanting while slamming their fists on the table. Sanji growled at them.

" Oi! Wait quietly! I'm making it! Please drink milk in the meantime!!" Sanji shouted as he served Brook and Luffy a glass of milk each.

"By the way, Mr Straw Hat. I don't know your name yet even though you know mine. " Brook reminded Luffy who was chugging down the glass of milk to god knows what digestion organ he has.

"Ah, I'm Monkey D. Luffy! And I'm gonna be the Pirate King!!" Luffy declared with a confident grin on his face. Sanji smiled as he served dinner to everyone.

"Hey Brook! Eat as much as you want! Sanji's food is the best in the world" Luffy invited as he scooped some of the meat on the big plate in the center of the dining table and gave them all to Brook.

"Instead of my stomach, my heart is full...." Brook whispered happily. Brook looked at Robin. He had asked for a look at her panties a while ago but thankfully she didn't attack him. Instead, Nami was the one who did it.

"Oh, young lady. Your plate seems to be a little bigger than mine. Would you like to trade? " Brook asked her, making Robin laugh a little. Luffy sighed.

" Brook, there's meat for everyone. You don't need to trade. Just grab as much as your stomach can handle, if your skeleton even has one that is. "

" Luffy-san, I would like to request for you to not perform any skull jokes again. That's kind of my thing. "

" Ah, apologies. "

" No problem. "

.

.

"Yomi Yomi no Mi? You ate a Devil Fruit?" Zoro asked Brook who was cleaning his pearl white teeth with a toothpick.

"That's right, the truth is I already died years ago. Can you tell? In short, it gave me another chance at life after dying once before and thereby a literal second chance at living. How wonderful that ability seemed! " Brook explained. He started explaining how he got here.

Though he was once part of a living crew, he and all of his crew mates were annihilated and the fruit's power, which originally merely made him unable to swim, let his soul come back after his death.

But because of the fog, his body had decayed when he finally returned, leaving him to live as a skeleton, but still with his afro hairstyle due to his 'strong roots'.

"Hmm...." Kaya decided to try something, she held a mirror in front of Brook.

"Ahh!!! Take away that mirror!!" Brook suddenly shouted. That gathered everyone's attention as they looked at the mirror.

"Holy shit! You're not reflected in the mirror! You're a vampire!!" Chopper shouted.

" Wait! You don't even have a shadow too!! What are you?! " Usopp asked while pointing at the ground. Sure enough, Brook doesn't have a shadow unlike everyone else in the room.

They all had a pretty good idea who did that. Brook just calmly slurped his cup of tea. He sighed.

"Some years ago, a man snatched away my shadow using his Devil Fruit ability. A shadow being stolen, it means that I cannot exist in a world with light. If my body is exposed to direct sunlight, I will be turned into ashes. I saw it before, it sent chills down my body!" Brook explained. He stood up.

" I also cannot be seen in a mirror or in a photograph! In short, mine is an existence rejected by light! My nakama are all annihilated! I'm 'Dead Bones' Brook, nice to meet you all!! " Brook shouted cheerfully.

" Dude, your life sucks more than mine. How can you be so cheerful? " Sanji asked him.

" And even then, I'm still alive and kicking! As a skeleton though! Yohohoho!!!" Brook started laughing while clapping his hands. Everyone looked at him curiously.

" Today is a wonderful day! I was able to find somebody!! I've been really lonely! Lonely and afraid!! So much that I wanted to die!!! I've lived for a long time!! People are a delight!! For me, you're my delight! Yohohoho!!! If I had tears, I could cry with happiness!!" Brook declared happily, making everyone smile.

"You invited me to be your nakama. I'm really glad, thank you very much. But the truth is, I should decline. " Brook muttered, shocking them all.

" Huh?! Why?! Is it because you don't have your shadow?! Don't worry Brook! We have a good idea who stole it! We'll find him, beat him up and return your shadow back to you!" Luffy declared, his crew nodded in agreement to his plan.

Brook was shocked, these strangers who just met him a couple of minutes ago were willing to fight for him, just so that he could join their Captain's crew.

Brook shook his head. "Well, enough about the sob stories! Let's sing a song in honor of the good encounter we had today! I'm very proud of my abilities. I used to be the musician of my ship." Brook revealed while taking out a violin set from nowhere.

"Ahh!!! Ghost!!" Brook was scared witless while staring at a ghost phasing through the wall. It had black eyes and large red lips.

Soon the Sunny is shaken, making everyone confused. Everyone exited the room they were all in.

"Ah, so this must be Gecko Moria's ship then. The ghost island that wanders through the seas, Thriller Bark." Kaya muttered.

" Today was a lucky day! Not only was I able to meet some people, my heart's desire was fulfilled! Yohohoho!!!" Brook then hopped on top of the ship.

" His body is so light. " Nojiko commented. Brook tipped his hat at them.

" Yohohoho!! That's right! As light as dead bones!! Please try to break through the back of the gate and escape!! Do not even think about lowering your anchor at this island!! I'm so glad I met you all today and could eat your delicious food!! I'll never forget you!!" Brook then waved at them.

" If it is fated, we'll meet again on some other sea!! " Brook gave his final farewells before jumping onto the sea water. Everyone watched in shock zooming off on top of the water due to his light frame.

"Yohohohohoho!!!!!" Brook laughed cheerfully as he ran away from the Thousand Sunny. Everyone then gathered around Luffy while they all observed Thriller Bark.

The island is surrounded by a huge outer wall that goes around the ship, with a gate resembling a giant mouth that opens and closes.

There are four separate chains that connect from the wall to the mast above the mansion. The island has an old broken inner stone wall encircling it with towers and a moat.

There is a mansion in the middle of the island, surrounded by an apparently dead forest.

The entire ship somewhat resembles the stereotypical scenery in vampire or horror movies, such as Dracula or Frankenstein.

"Alright so we're trapped. That's fine, we wanted to come here to help Brook anyways. And maybe I wanna take down another warlord." Luffy grinned sheepishly at them.

" Sanji, please go prepare a bento for everyone." Luffy requested. Sanji gave him the okay sign and walked back to the kitchen.

Robin was smiling excitedly. Luffy noticed her excitement and approached her. "You're pretty excited aren't you?" Luffy asked her. Robin nodded and smiled back.

"I am. With this adventure, I can create more ghost stories for you to listen to." Robin explained, making Luffy laugh and continue to talk to her.

Sanji finished making the bento for them. They decided to take a small boat there. Franky then introduced them to the Soldier Dock System Channel 2.

Nami, Usopp and Chopper ran off to somewhere. After a while, something exited the compartment. It was a boat.

"Set sail! Shopping boat!!" Nami shouted excitedly as she was piloting the small boat.

"Introducing Mini Merry II!!!!" Usopp introduced happily.

" Merry!!!!! You reincarnated as a boat!!!!" Luffy shouted happily.

" I never thought you would be hiding such a present! Thank you, Franky!! " Nami thanked the cyborg happily who gave Nami a big thumbs up and a broad grin as a response.

The Mini Merry II is a small four-person shopping boat based on the Going Merry. It is a small boat with a steam engine and paddle wheels.

Its figurehead design is based on the original Going Merry's sheep figurehead. Its main design purpose is for shopping and it can hold up to four people.

"Nami! Have fun and come back in a few minutes! We still need to discuss the game plan!! " Luffy shouted.

" Okay, Luffy!!! "

After the trio had their fun, they returned back to the lawn deck of the Sunny and gathered around Luffy.

*Foosh!!!*

Everyone looked at the anchor that suddenly dropped into the sea. "What?! The anchor dropped on its own!" Usopp shouted as he quickly went and raised it back up.

Suddenly, the hatch opened on its own. Everyone narrowed their eyes. Those with Observation Haki widened their eyes. Luffy sensed someone on his ship.

The person was invisible, probably due to having a Devil Fruit. Zoro widened his eyes in horror as he looked at Robin. Someone was approaching her with their tongue protruding. The person was about to lick Robin's breasts.

"Luffy! There!! He's about to lick her breasts!!" Zoro shouted while pointing at nothing in front of Robin. Luffy widened his eyes and gritted his teeth in anger.

"Usopp!! Hammer time!!" Luffy shouted while holding out his right hand. Usopp opened his pouch.

"1 ton Usopp hammer coming right up, captain!!" Usopp shouted while throwing a hammer that actually weighed 1 ton at Luffy. Luffy grabbed it and spun it around like a pencil. It felt extremely light in his arms.

Luffy used Soru and appeared in front of Robin who gasped in surprise as she saw him having an enraged facial expression.

"Don't you dare touch my Robin!!" Luffy shouted angrily while raising the hammer.

"USOPP..... HAMMER!!!!!"

*BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!*

*BOOOM!!!*

Someone crashed and tumbled onto the ground. Luffy stood over the unconscious person and looked over him. He narrowed his eyes.

"Tie him up, Nojiko. He's got some explaining to do when he wakes up!"

" On it already, captain!"

To be continued.....