Chapter 102: The Aftermath

Chapter 106:

The Aftermath

It was a party that now filled what remained of Moria's mansion, music and singing drifting through the air as alcohol of every kind passed between hands without discrimination. Brook had uncovered a piano in the corner, the instrument surviving untouched by some miracle of fate. Only Gin was unable to take part in the festivities, the man still unconscious from his stunt the night before and it was only thanks to his Logia powers that he hadn't bled out from the combined pain and damage of Luffy and Zoro.

"What happened to Gin?" Luffy wondered aloud, taking a break from the party to look over his injured crew. Chopper had assured him that Gin would make a full recovery with time, but Luffy was still worried about what had happened while he was unconscious. His crew had mentioned another Warlord, but none of them were able or willing to offer any more than that.

"We can tell you!" a pair of voices answered the captain, the teen turning to see a couple of pirates. One was skinny with a ginger afro and what seemed to be a black eye while the other was heavy-set with a mask/hat and two buck teeth. "We saw the whole thing!"

"Who are you?"

"We're the Risky Brothers!" Luffy blinked, not sure if he'd heard of them or met their zombies. "You wanna know what happened last night?"

Luffy moved to answer, but his sources of information were quickly dragged away by Sanji and Zoro, much to their distress. Luffy shrugged, turning back to the party and the buffet of meat calling his name.

"Alright," Sanji growled as the quartet reached the center of the destroyed courtyard, releasing the red-haired brother as Zoro pushed the other on his butt. "Spill. What happened?"

"We don't want Luffy to know," Zoro said before either brother could question their motives. "It would kill him to know one of us almost died for his sake."

"W-Well," the smaller brother began, "after the guy with the tonfa knocked you out, he gave this awesome speech about you all. Then Kuma picked up you and Straw Hat and pushed these bubbles out of you. He said that they were your pain, damage, and agony from last night."

"Yeah," the bigger brother agreed. "Just a little bit of that stuff had him screaming like he was being murdered, but he got back up like a badass and demanded to pick the location. We followed them to this clearing where that guy stared at the ball of pain for a while."

"And then, suddenly, he jumped into the ball! We couldn't see the next part; there was a flash of light, a boom of thunder, and then he was just screaming. It was terrible!"

"He wouldn't stop screaming," the larger brother shivered. "At first, lightning was shooting out of him as he screamed, burning everything. We had to retreat because the lightning hit the tree we were hiding behind. Then he ran out of lightning or something and started bleeding! But he wouldn't stop screaming! Not even when he started going crazy, like he turned into a monster or something. His voice got deeper and he stopped flailing around, but he did start smashing stuff with his bare fists with this big grin on his face, even as he kept convulsing! It was scary!"

"Then it was over," the smaller brother finished. "He never fell. Not even when he couldn't scream anymore. Kuma left eventually, saying something about 'D's. Don't know why, though."

"Thanks for the info," Zoro nodded, suddenly holding both brothers at swordpoint. "Don't tell anyone what you saw. Especially Luffy!"

"But-!"

"No buts," Sanji denied, taking a puff from his cigarette. "Gin didn't try to sacrifice himself for recognition. He did it because we all believe in Luffy. So not a word of this, or we'll make sure you never say anything ever again." The Risky Brothers nodded quietly, the action prompting the other duo to head back inside.

"They're so cool!" the brothers gushed behind them.

Unknown to all party's involved, a single ear vanished into a pair of flower peddles as the chef and swordsman walked away.

Sanji and Zoro returned to the image of most of the guys of their crew making fools of themselves, dancing to Brook's music on top of the tables. Usopp was regaling pirates with stories of their adventures, edited to give him a more prominent role of course, while Amy was sitting at a table next to them, correcting him, and Merry laughing at her uncle's fumbling denials. Chopper, Franky, and Coby were dancing a cancan on another table, Grace laughing at them with a box of rice crackers. Robin had taken a position watching over Gin while the others partied, a drink in her hand. Sanji split off from Zoro quickly, returning to the grill to start replenishing the food Luffy had eaten in their absence. The Captain and navigator were over by the piano, talking with Brook as his music floated through the air. Zoro shrugged, walking over to join them just as the Brook's part of the music stopped with a dissonant chord, falling out of sync with the tone dial set before him.

"He..." Brook chocked, trying to continue the music, but only doing so with a slow, inconsistent tempo. "He's still there? Laboon's still waiting for us at Reverse Mountain?"

"Has been for fifty years," Nami confirmed, Luffy's arm around her shoulder. "Crocus thought you all had run away and forgotten about him, but Laboon never gave up on you." Tears leaked from Brook's eye sockets, falling on the ivory keys.

"I... I'm... I'm so glad to be alive!" Brook cried. "I'm so glad I never gave up! I'm so ha-a-a-appy!" His voice fell to a whisper, the skeleton looking over to Luffy. "By any chance, is that offer to join your crew still open?"

Luffy grinned, his teeth shining. "Of course!"

"What?!" Coby, Usopp, Sanji, Grace, Amy, Chopper, and Franky gaped. Zoro, Nami, Robin, and Merry had no such reactions, having expected something like that. "Just like that?!"

Despite their surprise, most of the crew abandoned their positions and rushed Brook, dragging the skeleton from the piano bench and tossing him in the air. Nami, Robin, Grace, and Zoro sat this out, laughing at the fun the rest of their number had.

Brook pulled away rather quickly, flipping back toward the piano. He landed in a crouch, pulling a faded and torn page from his tattered jacket and smacking it to the floor. The pirates could just read WANTED beneath his finger bones.

"My apologies for not introducing myself properly last we met. My name is Brook! Once upon I time, I led a battalion in my homeland's army! After my retirement, I sailed the seas as a musician with the Rumbar Pirates, eventually succeeding Yorki as the acting captain! With a bounty of 33 million Beris on my head, I'm a wanted man known as Humming Brook, and I now pledge both my life and unlife to my Captain Monkey D. Luffy! That is to say, I'll work myself to the bone! Yohohoho!"

The party fell back into rhythm after that, not stopping for a whole two and a half days. Gin awoke on that second day, complaining of a pounding headache and unable to move his limbs. Chopper assured him that he would be fine after some food and rest with the help of his Logia powers, something about his battery running dry that only he, Gin, Usopp, and Merry understood. With some painkillers stuffed into him, Gin then pulled Chopper aside for an examination he seemed private about.

That night, however, was not amusing.

There was no sign of any of the original inhabitants of Thriller Bark anywhere to be found, not even Moria, so Amy had commandeered Perona's room for her and Grace to sleep in rather than hike all the way back to the Sunny, a task Grace refused to take part in. Coby had offered to give her a ride, but Amy had shot that down instantly. Sure, she'd come to terms with the possibility them being... together at some point in the future (she shivered at the thought of her sister growing up), but she wasn't going to make it easy for Pinky.

And so, the sisters shared Perona's giant bed, free from the snoring of all the other pirates downstairs. Luckily, the Grand Line weather had made them light sleepers as the sound of the door creaking open woke them, the light from the torches outside casting a flickering shadow over the floor. They stayed quiet, waiting for the intruder to make themself known. The shadow grew, it's owner approaching the bed with heavy, uneven footsteps. Amy and Grace were certain it must be someone from the TBSA; none of the crew walked that heavily. Because of this, Amy had no qualms with waiting until the person was right next to the bed before punching them with an increased-mass punch. The person flew across the room, their body smashing a drawer to kindling as Grace reached over and flipped on the lights.

"Gin?" Amy blinked, eyeing the man in the pile of broken wood. "What the Hell are you doing here?"

Gin laid in the rubble, his body quivering, but it was not the Gin the sisters had come to call Nakama. The most different thing about him were his eyes, his dark pupils sharp but unfocused. The man's mouth was stretched into a bloodthirsty grin, the ends twitching as he sniffed the air like some sort of bloodhound or hunting dog. Or some beast.

"Cookukuku," Gin chuckled darkly. "Cooookukuku!"

He pushed himself up, his unfocused eyes landing on Amy. With a growl, the man lunged forward at the blonde who grabbed her parasol from beside the bed.

Gin didn't slow down until he impaled himself on the accessory, little sparks dancing away from where the umbrella skewered him. Still, he struggled, reaching for the older woman.

"Stop it, Gin!" Amy begged. "What's wrong with you?"

Gin gnashed his teeth at her.

"Color Trap: Drowsy Dark Blue!"

Navy paint splattered on the out-of-control Logia, his movements slowing for only a moment before redoubling in ferocity. One hand brushed past Amy's cheek, leaving a tiny electrical burn. She growled, kicking him off her parasol and back into the wreckage of the drawer.

"I don't get it!" Grace whisper-yelled. "I was able to get my sleep paint to work on Gin shortly before we entered the Triangle. Why didn't he fall asleep?"

"He's already asleep," a new voice answered, Chopper rushing into the room with Gin's headband in one hoof and most of Usopp's Rubber Bands of Doom in the other. Changing into Heavy Point, Chopper quickly subdued the resisting Gin, leaving him with his arms and legs bound together with rubber and his headband firmly keeping his powers in check.

"What do you mean he's still asleep?" Amy demanded. "He looked pretty damn awake when he attacked us!"

Chopper huffed, taking various readings of Gin's vitals, the man struggling all the while. "I might be breaking patient confidentially with this, but I feel like everyone on the crew will need to know... I think whatever happened with Kuma has given Gin Multiple Personality Disorder."

"W-What do you mean?" Grace questioned, her voice wavering.

"Before this, Gin had something of a berserker state he'd warned me about in case I ever needed to sedate him," Chopper explained. "Since joining the crew, he's only used it three times: Whiskey Peak, his battle with Eneru, and on the Bridge of Hesitation in a much milder sense."

"Ok?" Amy blinked. "And you think that's somehow connected to this?" She gestured at the struggling lightning-man.

"Yes," Chopper nodded. "Like I said before, he'd warned me. He said it was like this tiny voice in the back of his head. He could ignore it easily most of the time, but Gin told me after waking up this morning that the voice was gone completely. He seemed happy about it, but it got me worried. Looks like it was a good thing I decided to check up on him."

"What now?" Grace asked. "We'll have to tell the rest of the crew that this other Gin isn't afraid to attack them. He demonstrated that only a minute ago. And what will we call this alternate Gin?"

"We'll figure that out tomorrow," Chopper answered, smacking Gin over the head with a fist. The man crumpled, falling unconscious completely so the doctor could heft him onto his shoulder. "Please get back to sleep. Luffy said we're leaving tomorrow."

Amy and Grace watched Chopper retreat into the hallway before glancing at each other. Both of them knew going back to sleep would be no easy feat, Grace offering her Drowsy Dark Blue with an uncertain shrug.

End of Chapter 106

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-SwordOfTheGods