14 Brook

Zoro noticed a barrel floating on the sea and pulled it up, the rest of the crew gathered around him. Luffy said "Maybe there's meat inside!" as he opened the barrel, a red flare shot into the air and Nami noticed a storm was heading their way. Franky showed off the Sunny gate system and paddle wheels came out of the sides of the ship and pushed the Sunny out of the way of the storm, entering a foggy area.

The crew looked around and heard a voice singing Bink's Sake, they turned and saw a ship with a skeleton singing on it. Luffy was amazed and boarded the skeleton's ship, Nami and Sanji followed after him while the rest waiting for him on the deck.

A while later

Luffy came back with the skeleton and the other two, saying "I found our musician! And he poops!" the rest were stunned and the skeleton said "Hello my name is Brook! Nice to finally see living people! Oh wait, I can't because I don't have any eyes! Yohohohohoho!" Luffy burst out laughing and Thirteen smiled as the group went inside the galley.

Brook started explaining how he became a skeleton as the crew listened, Usopp suddenly said "You don't have a shadow!" Brook sighed and said "My shadow was stolen from me. To be quite honest with you, I shouldn't have said I would join your crew. If I leave the florian triangle I will disintegrate from the sun." Luffy said "Who stole your shadow?" Brook shook his head and said "I cannot tell you. This is my problem, I don't want you all getting hurt."

Suddenly

The ship shook and was slowly being pulled towards a giant mouth shaped gate, Brook said "Leave the triangle. If were fated we shall meet again, i'm glad I got to meet you all! Yohohohoho" he jumped off the edge of the ship and ran on water towards the giant mouth, the crew watched as he disappeared.

Luffy said "Let's go exploring!" Nami, Chopper, and Usopp said "I think I have Can't-get-on-this-island-or-i'll-die disease" Robin giggled and said "We're trapped anyway. There are walls that are surrounding the entire island." the three deflated and Franky said "I can reveal the second gate!" he pressed a bunch of buttons and the '0' on the side of the Sunny spun and revealed a '2'. It opened and a small Merry theme rowboat popped out.

The three immediately jumped on the Mini Merry and sailed towards the island, Franky smiled and said "You like it?" The rest of the crew nodded and smiled, Thirteen disappeared and thrusted his twinkling arm right next to Robin's shoulder, a man with a lion snout stitched onto his face appeared.

Thirteen's arm was sticking out of the man's back, grabbing onto his heart. Thirteen ripped his arm back and crushed his heart before kicking him off the ship as he said "Are you okay?" Robin nodded and said "He licked my face though." Thirteen used his shirt and wiped her face before kissing both her cheeks and saying "Better?" Robin nodded cutely and Thirteen smiled.

Sanji said "Who was that?" Thirteen said "I don't know but he was invisible and tried to feel Robin up." Sanji flared up and said "Invisible?! Feeling Robin up?!" Luffy said "Whatever! Let's go explore!" the ship anchored on the island and saw the mini Merry stuck in a spider web. They hopped on to the island and started exploring.

Thirteen watched as they came across Zombies, Ghosts, and a three headed dog. Thirteen was frustrated as he ripped a zombie in half and no blood came out. The group came across a giant mansion and walked inside, only to be ambushed by more zombies, Thirteen's eyes flashed red for a moment as he snapped "Fucking zombies!" and burned the zombies to ashes.

The rest of the group looked at him and Sanji said "You alright?" Thirteen took a deep breath and said "Frustrated." Robin said "Why?" Thirteen looked at her and sighed "Nightmare is affecting me." he looked around and said "Zoro's missing." the rest turned around and noticed that Zoro was indeed missing, Sanji waved and said "That damn mosshead will be fine. Let's hope he doesn't get lost and end up on a different island." the rest of the group chuckled and kept going through the mansion.

Robin walked next to Thirteen and held his arm as she said "Are you okay?" Thirteen said "The lack of blood is making me agitated." Robin rubbed his arm and said "It's alright you don't need to see blood all the time. I'm here." Thirteen smiled and said "I know." as he squeezed her hand.

The group walked into another room and fought another horde of zombies, Thirteen sighed and turned the ones he was fighting to ashes, he wondered if there were people on this island, maybe he would be able to kill them. He frowned, he shouldn't be thinking like that, he was not Nightmare, he wasn't a psychopathic killer, he killed the rest of the zombies and noticed he was alone.

He looked around and walked down a hallway, he bumped into a big man holding a bible. Thirteen looked up and said "Sorry about that." The man looked down and said "'God of Slaughter' Thirteen?" Thirteen sighed and nodded before walking around him and saying "Nice to meet you." the man watched him go and said "What are you struggling against?"

Thirteen stopped and said "Why." the man said "Perhaps I may be able to help. I feel we may be in the same sort of situation. I'm Kuma." Thirteen said "Why would you help me? A stranger or rather a supposed psychopathic killer like in the papers." Kuma said "I like to think I'm smart enough not to believe everything I read in the newspaper." Thirteen was silent before saying "I have a hard time controlling myself, I lost control before and I have felt different since." Kuma said "How so?" Thirteen looked at his hands and said "More aggressive, irritable, and angry."

Kuma said "Perhaps you need a vacation. Where would you go?" Thirteen said "I would like to go to see more of my kind. I don't even know where that is though." Kuma said "Zou?" Thirteen nodded and said "Yeah." Kuma had an unreadable expression as he said "Maybe you will go there one day. The power to control yourself lies within you, find something to believe in and push yourself towards that. I can hear the other you."

Thirteen turned around and Kuma looked at him in the eyes and said "You both are two parts of the same whole. Without one, the other cannot exist. In other words you are inseparable. There will come a time where you will have to face yourself, whether you stay as 'Thirteen' or become the 'God of Slaughter' will all depend on yourself." He tapped on his bible and added "God says that there are two opposites to every individual, and the individual chooses whether to walk the fine line in between or stray to either side. Perhaps you will have to walk on the opposite side to truly see."

Kuma flipped a coin towards Thirteen and said "We may not be in the same situations but we both have choices that we have to make. Believe that your choices are the right one and you will always succeed. Good bye." before turning around and walking away as Thirteen watched him go.

Thirteen held the coin in his hand and looked at it, one side was a cross and the other was a leviathan cross. He thought about what Kuma said, maybe he was right, maybe he and Nightmare were two parts of the same whole, he thought about it, Nightmare had everything he didn't but had no self control and was a psychopath. Nightmare's voice rang out in his mind "We told you. We are one! We will be in control! GIVE IN TO ME!" Thirteen said "No, I'm the one in control not you. Maybe Kuma was right, maybe we are two sides of the same coin but we are not the same." as he walked away, flipping the coin in his fingers.

Nightmare cackled and said "One day you will set me free, whether it's by your choice or forced." Thirteen was silent before saying "You won't be in control." Nightmare growled "We shall see. Enjoy the time you have left. You can't be in control forever and when you slip.." his voice turned bloodthirsty and excited as he finished "I will be there. Heheheheheheh" Thirteen was silent and disappeared in the halls.

Thirteen came across Usopp and said "What's up." Usopp said "This place sucks." Thirteen nodded and said "I agree. Where's everyone else?" Usopp shrugged and said "I don't know we all got separated." Thirteen sighed and said "Wonderful. Let's go." as he walked away, Usopp followed after him and said "Where we going?" Thirteen said "I don't know. Hopefully we get lucky and run into someone else." Suddenly Sanji smashed through the wall, Usopp was shocked and said "It was that easy?!"

Thirteen said "I guess so." Sanji said "What are you guys doing here?" Thirteen said "Looking for the rest." Sanji nodded and said "Me too." Thirteen nodded and continued walking in a random direction with both of them following him.

Thirteen stopped and saw a zombie, the other two stopped and looked forward, Sanji said "Are you serious." Usopp sighed "Please don't keep it." Thirteen grabbed the zombie and said "Rabbit." before dragging it along with him. The rabbit zombie said "Where are you taking me?" Sanji said "I don't know, but you're safe for now." Usopp said "Who makes rabbit zombies?!" Thirteen was waving his tail and walked away with the zombie in tow.

A while later

They made it to the Sunny and grouped up with the rest of the crew, they looked over and saw Thirteen dragging a rabbit zombie. Robin felt her eye twitch as she said "Thirteen, what is that?" Thirteen said seriously "Rabbit." Nami snapped "THAT'S A ZOMBIE YOU STUPID-" Zoro held her back as her arms flailed in the air comically, Robin walked over and said "Can I see?" Thirteen held the rabbit zombie in front of her, It was a small rabbit with stitches all over it.

Robin held it and put some salt in it's mouth, purifying it. Thirteen froze and sighed as she threw the zombie off the ship into the water and said "No zombies." he sulked and nodded, Robin felt a bit bad and hugged him before whispering in his ear "I'll wear the bunny costume when we leave, how's that?" Thirteen perked up and waved his tail excitedly as he nodded. Robin giggled and brought him over to the rest.

Franky explained that salt purifies the zombies and that Brook said something about a giant whale he left behind. Luffy and the rest figured out it was actually Laboon and vowed to help Brook and make him join their crew no matter what. They figured out a strategy and separated into groups again, Thirteen decided to go by himself and explore as the crew left.

Thirteen was walking through a building and saw a giant Zombie, he jumped into the air and flew up to the giant's head. He had been practicing moonwalk and was currently fusing it with Broken Shadow to make a new movement technique. He decided to call it Star walk, he also tried to change Soru to not be so linear but was unsuccessful, he didn't have enough practice with it yet.

The giant zombie ran around screaming that he would be the pirate king and Thirteen assumed Luffy's shadow was inside it, he had heard from Franky that Moria, the warlord could remove peoples shadows and put them into zombies. Thirteen jumped down to the giant Zombie's mouth and threw the giant bag of salt he brought with him, into the giants mouth. The giant froze and a shadow flew out of it's mouth and shot towards wherever Luffy was, as the giant collapsed to the floor and disintegrated into dust.

Thirteen stood in the ashes and wondered what to do next, he played with the coin he got as he walked around aimlessly. He knew the rest would be handled by the crew, they might not be as strong as him and Luffy but they were plenty strong, especially Sanji and Zoro, they trained every day with his cuffs on, not only that but they were also learning the 6 skills, he had made a copy of the book for everyone so that they could all train in it.

It seemed like Sanji had a better grip on a few of the skills as he could somewhat use moonwalk and soru, Thirteen wondered how strong Sanji would be if he mastered them. As for the rest, they also attempted to train in some of the skills as well, Usopp especially liked kami-e, as it made him able to dodge attacks and not get hit.

Thirteen thought that the crew was really strong, even the weaker members were coming along, maybe they couldn't defeat the top four or a warlord by themselves but they were by no means useless. He wondered if it had something to do with him, he noticed that after Alabasta the crew started thinking of ways to get stronger, he remembered that was when he used his Sulong form.

The crew also started training even harder after Enies Lobby, even Nami, who usually just sunbathed on the deck, started training, albeit very little training, but trained nonetheless. He wondered what they were training so hard for, was it to protect themselves from him? Maybe that was it, he was basically a ticking time bomb and they were scared he would snap and attack them, he didn't like that but he knew that was the truth and couldn't blame them. Thirteen tried to think what he would do in their position, probably the same, he sighed to himself, at least they were getting stronger and would be safer, not only from him but also from enemies.

Thirteen continued walking around the island, he bumped into a cute pink haired girl and he caught her before she fell to the ground as he said "Sorry I wasn't paying attention. Are you okay?" he thought about himself and tried to make a friendly smile. The pink haired girl looked up and saw Thirteen and recognized him from his bounty and articles in the newspaper and paled as she said "Please don't kill me!" Thirteen sighed and brought her back to her feet, he lost his smile and passed by her whispering to himself "At least she didn't call me a slave..."

The pink haired girl was shocked and turned around, watching him leave, maybe she over-reacted a bit, she felt bad, he did just catch her from falling to the ground, she said "Uh thanks for catching me." Thirteen waved his hand and disappeared, the pink haired girl sighed and kept running away.

Thirteen walked by himself and silently thought about everything, did he deserve to have all this fake news poured on him? Maybe not most of it but he did kill all those marines, he tried his hardest to think about what someone else would do, maybe instead of killing they would just critically injure? He frowned, why would he do that? They enemy would just come back again, it was definitely better to kill them, his eyes flashed red as he thought 'besides they didn't deserve to live anyway' he stopped and looked at the coin in his hands, it was on the leviathan cross side, he stared at it silently and mumbled "I'm not Nightmare." as he flipped the coin over to the cross side and kept walking, forcing Nightmare back down.

A while later

Thirteen arrived at a clearing and saw a ton of people there along with the rest of the crew and an unconscious Moria. He walked over and said "Finished already?" everybody turned and Zoro chuckled and said "Yeah" Thirteen nodded and played with the coin, flipping it through his fingers almost obsessively as he sat down near the group. He stared at the coin as it flashed between the two opposite crosses, wondering to himself what would happen if he lost the battle, maybe he would be killed by the crew and forgotten about, while he was lost in his own thoughts, Kuma showed up.

Kuma said "You defeated Moria, I'm surprised. Though now you all have to die." Thirteen ears twitched as he slowly looked over and locked eyes with Kuma, he flipped the coin in air and vanished, he appeared in front of Kuma sent a spinning star kick right at his stomach, sending him flying into rubble before reappearing in his spot and catching the coin. He looked at the coin and saw the leviathan cross and put it in his pocket saying "So you're an enemy?" as he tilted his head dodging the palm strike from Kuma, who suddenly appeared in front of him.

Kuma said "There are two sides to everyone." as he attacked Thirteen, who unraveled his chains and fought Kuma in close quarters, he wrapped his chains around Kuma's legs and pulled them out from under him before flipping and hitting him in the head with his heel, smashing Kuma into the ground.

Thirteen landed on the ground and looked at Kuma, who slowly stood up. Thirteen said "What side are you showing right now?" Kuma flashed in front of Thirteen and slapped his palm on his stomach as he said "The bad one." Thirteen had a palm print on his stomach as he was blasted through the air and smashed into Moria's castle, he spit out some blood and Kuma made an explosion, blasting the crew away from a unconscious Luffy.

Thirteen flashed in front of Luffy and frowned, Luffy shouldn't have had any problems with Moria after he got his shadow back. Thirteen said "You want Luffy?" Kuma said "It is my mission." Thirteen said "You didn't come for me? Surprising." Kuma said "The orders were to kill the Straw Hat crew, due to the recent Newspapers. You were deemed a threat and under a kill order, not necessary to capture if impossible." Thirteen nodded and said "Is that so.. So you HAVE to take Luffy?" Kuma said "That is the least I can do."

Thirteen said "How about you take me and claim that I was the strongest." Kuma was silent before saying "You would go back to captivity for them?" Thirteen nodded and said "Yes. It was only a matter of time before I lost control and became a danger to everyone around me. I may not speak much but i'm not an idiot. They have been constantly training so that they could be safe from me.." he paused a moment and added "They've saved my life more times than they think. It's a debt I can never truly repay. It's been nice being free but I won't let you touch one of them without dying myself first. So I you could honor my wishes and take me instead, that would be much appreciated."

Kuma was silent for a moment before saying "Very well." he reached out to grab Thirteen, when Zoro flashed behind Thirteen and hit him in the back of the head with his hilt, knocking him out before kicking him away and saying "Idiot. Take me instead, I won't let him selfishly sacrifice his freedom so we can live. I don't like having my life saved by someone else."

A while later

Thirteen woke up in a pile of rubble, he slowly stood up and rubbed the back of his neck as he looked around, he expected to wake up in a cell, not still on Thriller bark. He walked around and saw the rest of the crew still unconscious, but he didn't see Zoro. He frowned and heard a dripping sound from the forest, he looked in the direction of the sound and walked towards it, he really hoped nobody died for his sake, he didn't feel it was worth it.

He arrived to see Zoro covered in blood with blood all over the place, Zoro was standing straight with his arms crossed. Thirteen said "Are you okay?" Zoro nodded and said "Never felt better actually." as he collapsed to the ground, Thirteen flashed and caught him as he said "Passed out from excitement eh?" he put Zoro on his shoulder and walked back towards the crew.

He returned to the crew and saw that half of them were awake, he put Zoro down and sat next to him as played with the coin, thinking to himself, he was going to have a nice chat with Zoro when he woke up. Robin sat down next to Thirteen and said "What happened?" Thirteen said "I found him covered in blood so I brought him here."

Robin stared at him for a moment before saying "Is that all?" Thirteen nodded and said "I don't know what happened to him, but I know he's alive." as he laid on his back with one hand behind his head and the other flipping the coin through his fingers, he liked doing it, it distracted him from himself and allowed him to relax, even if only slightly.

A while later

The rest of the crew woke up and Chopper treated Zoro as the crew was preparing to leave Thriller Bark. Nami was talking to a woman named Lola, whom she had made friends with. Lola handed Nami a vivre card and said "This is my mama's. It will help you in the New World." Luffy said "I have one too!" as he showed what was left of Ace's vivre card. Lola said "Is that someone important to you?" Luffy said "Yeah, my brother!" Lola said "When the vivre card burns like that it means that the person's life is in danger!"

Luffy froze a bit and said "It'll be fine Ace is super strong! Plus he doesn't like when I butt into his life." Lola said "Alright.." the crew bid farewell to Lola and sailed away from Thriller Bark with Brook. Luffy clapped and said "Let's party for Brook!" the crew cheered and Brook said "You guys are the best! My eyes are about to burst with tears! Oh wait I don't have any! Yohohhohhohoh!" the crew chuckled and celebrated Brook's arrival as the Sunny slowly made it's way out of the florian Triangle.

(Author's Note)

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed it! Uhh that's all really.. OH YEAH and Join the discord please!

DISCORD LINK: https://discord.gg/QXBKSjR (IT NEVER EXPIRES)