Chương 84: Sea of Darkness
Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp were fishing as they often do.
Cherry was laying on a massage table set up on the lawn deck as Serene seemed to be putting all her strength into her elbow on Cherry's back.
"You use a little more pressure, Serene. You won't hurt me." Cherry said.
Serene redoubled her efforts. If an outside observer didn't know better, they'd think she was TRYING to hurt Cherry.
Robin looked up from her book and set it down on the coffee table next to her. She walked over and had Serene step aside, then pressed her knuckles into the same spot.
"Atatatata! That's hurts!" Cherry squirmed.
Robin walked away with a satisfied smile. She and Serene had been getting along better since she started learning massage arts from her. So it had started to annoy her when Cherry would bully Serene.
In fact pretty much everyone had at least somewhat warmed up to Serene, except for Cherry who insisted she still owed "community service".
Lately Serene has been worming her way passed even her defenses, though. Cherry thought it must be the atmosphere of the crew that was changing her tune.
Still, Cherry wouldn't trust her no matter what. Trusting her meant removing the seal on her devil fruit, and that wasn't going to happen.
"Hey, what's that!" Luffy pointed out.
"Looks like a barrel." Usopp spied with his keen eyes. "It says 'Offering for the Gods'?"
They brought the barrel on board. It seemed to have remained intact.
"Some sailors use these to pray for safe passage. They usually contain alcohol." Robin explained. "It's customary to place a new offering inside if you take from it."
"What if it's cursed?!" Usopp exclaimed.
"""Let's drink it!""" Cheered the drunkards.
Cherry activated her Life Sense on a hunch, but didn't pick up anything. Still her instincts told her something was up with the barrel.
*ZIP*
A sound similar to a kazoo was created as something small flew up and out of the barrel. It exploded high in the air in an extremely bright red flash that persisted for several moments.
"What happened, the alcohol disappeared?!" Chopper said, surprised.
"Perhaps it was cursed? Hahaha!" Zoro joked.
"That was a flare, perhaps it has alerted someone to our position?" Robin wondered aloud.
Suddenly Nami sensed a changed in the atmospheric pressure. She ordered the crew to change course at full speed, a storm was brewing.
Cherry couldn't shake that feeling she had before, only now it wasn't coming from the barrel, but from the ship itself.
The storm overtook them quickly. They raised the sails and brought out the paddles Franky had installed to navigate instead.
Several minutes of fighting the weather passed before they finally escaped the storm. Only now they found themselves in a dark place. A dense fog surrounded them and the only light they could see came from their own ship.
"No doubt about it, we're inside the Florian Triangle." Franky observed.
"I can feel... something. Like a subtle urging to go somewhere..." Cabernet said.
"Baaah!" Merry agreed.
Nobody else could feel what they were talking about, not even Cherry.
"Perhaps there's something in here that draws ships to their doom?" Robin hypothesized darkly. "That might explain how so many ships never come back out. The ships are pulled somewhere, unbeknownst to the crews aboard them."
Cabernet and Merry shivered at the idea.
"D-don't worry, guys! I made all sorts of preparation against all manner of evil spirit!" Usopp said, coming back up from below deck, covered in many different kinds of talismans and superstitious junk.
"Evil spirit, huh? Maybe that's what's hiding on the ship?" Cherry spoke nonchalantly, rubbing her chin in thought.
"""Whaaaat?!""" Nami, Usopp, and Chopper shouted.
"Yeah, I felt like there was something inside that barrel we picked up, but I couldn't sense anything from it. Now I have the same feeling about the ship." Cherry explained calmly.
"Shishishi! Let's find the ghost!" Luffy was excited. He raced below decks.
The crew searched every nook and cranny of the ship for about an hour, but turned up nothing.
"There's no ghost..." Luffy said sadly.
"That's a good thing!" Nami yelled at him.
"Well, if you really want to find a ghost, we could follow Cabernet and Merry's guidance to where ever that leads to. If there's ghosts anywhere, it in the place all those missing ships are, right?" Cherry said. "Also there's probably tons of treasure there..."
Nami had been silently motioning for Cherry to shut up right up until she mentioned the possibility of treasure, when she started to day dream about all the lost riches that must have accumulated there.
She quickly shook herself out of it, though. "No! Absolutely not! We're not going to sail straight into some unknown death trap!"
An eerie voiced echoed across the pitch black sea. "Yohohoho~"
"D-did you hear that?" Usopp asked.
"Yo-hoho-ho~" The mysterious voice sang.
The creaking of a large ship could be heard coming up behind the Thousand Sunny. Upon shining their lights in the direction they caught sight of it.
The ship was old and battered. Like it was in a battle half a century ago and set adrift in this dark stretch of sea.
As it passed they shone the light upwards at the edge of the deck and illuminated the place where the singing was coming from. There they beheld the pale face of a skeleton. Not an unusual sight on a ghost ship to be fair, except that the skeleton lifted a tea cup to its teeth before passing outside their range of sight.
"It's time to ship out Binks's brew~" It sang softly.
The crew had fear etched onto their faces. Except for Cherry and Serene; the former had an amused smile, whilst the latter looked like she had just seen the most adorable kitten she'd ever laid eyes upon.
There was a moment of stunned silence as the ship left their sight.
"Shishishi! After it!" Luffy ordered.
The crew moved and brought the ship into motion to chase after the ship. They caught up easily as the large ship was only drifting along.
They made a boarding party consisting of Luffy, Nami, Sanji, Cherry, and Serene (who was even more enthusiastic than Luffy).
They took a dinghy to board the ship and climbed up the side via some fallen rigging.
The skeleton they saw previously peeked over the edge at them, earning a squeal of fear from Nami, and a squeal of delight from Serene.
When they climbed to the top, they were met with surprisingly warm greetings.
"How do you do? Yohoho!" He said. "Apologies, it's been some time since I last laid eyes upon another living soul. Though, I don't have eyes, Yohohoho!"
"He talks..." Nami muttered, not taking her eyes off of him.
""He talks!"" Luffy and Serene shouted in excitement.
"You can call me Brook. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." Brook introduced himself.
"By the way miss?" He leaned over slightly in Serene's direction. "May I see your panties?"
"Huh? W-well, if you show me your bones, maybe..." She looked genuinely conflicted.
Nami answered the question for her, though, with a strong right hook into Brook's skull.
"Don't ask a lady something so perverted! And Serene, don't actually consider it!" She scolded them both.
"Do you poop?" Luffy asked childishly.
"There's better questions to ask before that, idiot!" Sanji shouted.
"Indeed, I do." Brook answered.
"Don't answer it!" Sanji shouted.
Before Sanji could start his own line of questioning, Cherry spoke up. "Sanji, it's obviously a devil fruit. That answers most of your questions, right?"
"Well... yes..." Sanji awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Can you play your ribs like a xylophone?" Serene asked, staring intently at his ribs.
"Oh! I've never tried that before!" Brook said, enlightened.
"Before that, will you join my crew?" Luffy asked with a big smile.
"Okay." Brook said simply, without hesitation.
""What?!"" Nami and Sanji exclaimed. They didn't have an opportunity to stop him.
Serene clapped her hands and bounced on the balls of her feet with barely contained happiness.
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