You knew, we didn't know

The Straw Hats talked while they were on the journey. Since the ship had a huge aquarium, Luffy and Ussop had ended up creating an independent ecosystem here. That would fuel their normal food, at least, if not the food of the huge sea beasts. Sometimes Ken wondered if the rate at which they kill sea beasts for food must be bad for the ocean.

While they did enjoy their sails, they also practiced. Zoro was very close to finishing his character. The three-character thing did have its downsides for Zoro, and it took too long for him to finish his character.

After days of travel, they finally came near the Florian Triangle. The place that was called as the grave of pirate ships. As they came near, a small barrel came floating by.

"See! A floating barrel."

"Let me pull this in." Ussop said as he threw a rod to catch the barrel and pull it up on the ship. Seeing the barrel, Ken just shook his head. He knew where this was leading, but he didn't want to stop them. Since the barrel still found its way to the ship, it was better to just roll on with it.

As expected, even after a warning from Robin, Ussop and Luffy still opened it, and at the end, it sent a flare high in the air.

"If it was a joke, then it's fine, but if it's not, then it might mean we are being targeted by another pirate group." Robin said. Soon the weather started changing, and in a matter of a few minutes it became cloudy and dark. Nami got the cue and asked Franky to pay more attention.

Though the ship was invisible from a long distance, that didn't mean that it could remain the same at a very close distance. Her charm needed to cover a very large part of the ship, and it worked something like Hogwarts. Though it was invisible from a long distance, once a muggle came close, he wouldn't be blind to the castle or anything.

The flare had already exposed their position, so it was better to act accordingly. They soon entered the gloomy and depressed part of the sea, where everything was covered in darkness. At the end, Franky had to switch on the floodlights.

It got darker with every passing minute, and of course Luffy got ideas and started pranking about ghosts and ghost ships. But as fate would have it, soon a song started slowly reverberating in the ears of everyone present.

And following that was a medium-sized ship. The song being sung was the famous Binks sake song.

"Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho

Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho

Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho

Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho

Binkusu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo.

Umikaze kimakase namimakase..."

Everyone except Ken had their eyes wide open. They couldn't believe their eyes. Since Merry was taller, they were able to see the man who was singing. It was a skeleton with an afro and proper clothes.

"GHOST...." Ussop, Chopper, and Nami freaked out and started shouting, while the others were just speechless. None of them ever believed in ghosts, so it was hard for them to explain why a skeleton was alive, walking, and talking.

Merry stopped because it was too much for the Straw Hats to take, and in the end, they decided to go to the ship and see what was going on. Everyone participated in the lottery, and as expected, Sanji, Luffy, and Nami were chosen in the lottery.

"Nami, why are you so scared? Didn't the school have so many ghosts?" Ken asked, as he didn't understand the fear of Nami and others.

Chopper and Ussop actually dealt with things in their characters that were borderline ghosts. Chopper had ghost Pokemon, and Ussop actually had Shinigami and was himself a Hollow; then how the hell was he scared of something his own character was loosely based on?

It was really weird.

But anyway, as the story should have gone, they went aboard the ship, and Brook, the future crew member, was brought on. Luffy actually introduced him as the new member he had invited. This made everyone just shake their heads.

"We told you to keep Luffy in check. What the hell did you do?" Zoro shouted.

"We are sorry," said Nami and Sanji together.

"Haahaha.. You guys are funny. Let's have dinner together."

"Don't make decisions for us." Franky shouted. But at the end, dinner was still being made and served. As usual, it was a superb dinner made by Sanji, and everyone loved it.

"You have a very beautiful ship. I have never seen such a good ship in my life." Brook said as he looked around.

"Right! Franky made us an awesome ship." Luffy said while pointing to Franky. Franky, of course, felt proud and smiled. It was finally revealed that Brook wasn't a ghost and was just the effect of his Devil Fruit, which allowed him to live another life.

This made all the Straw hats relieved, but then Ussop pointed out that Brook didn't have a shadow.

"That's a very long story." Before Brrok could utter another word, their ship trembled. Everyone came running out, only to see a huge island had hit their ship. Brook shouted.

"Did you open a barrel in the sea when coming here?"

"Uh.. Yes.."

"Shit. You are in grave danger." Brook said.

"Danger? Why? Are there ghosts?" Ussop still had trembling legs.

"This is not an island. This is a moving ship called Thriller Bark. It is the ship of..." Before Brook could finish his words, Ken said

"Gecko Moria.. We know," Ken said.

"Huh!"

"Eh!"

"What do you mean, we? Only you know. We don't know." Vivi shouted.

"Then it's your fault for not paying attention to the news of the world." Ken replied. This made everyone shut up.

"Who is he?"

"One of the Shichibukai," Ken said.

"Shichibukai? Hmm.. I do feel some people are on this ship." Luffy said as he chewed one huge piece of meat.

---

Read 56 more chapters on my p@treon.com/thelightedghost