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It has been... a week? Or three? Or ten, possibly.
Years. Decades. Forever and a day, less than a single hour.
Tattered clothes. Broken rudder. Aimless drifting through constant fog.
Songs come and go, old and new and- has he written them yet? Will he ever, at this point? Has he lost his mind a second time, or was it never recovered in the first place-
Water splashes high. Something heavy hits wood.
A familiar voice calls out, “Brook?”
Several of us have gotten away from Mama, and not just those who remembered the future right away. She’s distracted trying to keep control over who’s left, paranoid that they might leave her too, which helps. We’ll manage on this side of the Red Line for now, don’t worry about dropping everything to come.
But don’t make me wait too long!
All my love,
-Praline
Aladine keeps the letter tucked inside his vest, only to be pulled out and re-read when his crewmates aren’t close enough to start gushing about his wife again. He’s running his fingers over the carefully inked flower at the bottom of the page when the water stirs; by the time Jinbei leaps aboard with a skeleton in his arms, Aladine has folded and slid the paper away.
One Straw Hat Pirate retrieved, eight to go.
“The East Blue?!”
Perona winces. “Yes?”
For a long moment Moria simply stares at her, jaw hanging slack. “...why?”
She shifts her weight, lifting one foot to scrape the toe of her boot against the ground, hands clasped behind her back and lip pouting as cutely as possible. “I need to, Moria, it’s important, I promise.”
“WHAT is important?!”
“Um.”
Her captain makes an aggravated, high-pitched noise, sudden enough to make several of the bats overhead squeak and swoop out of the room. “Perona, you can’t just make that face and expect me to go along with- with- the East Blue? What the HELL is in the EAST for you to be this worried about?”
“Well...”
She can’t just tell him the truth, of course, Moria would pitch a fit and lock her in her rooms for a month at least. But it IS important, and she’ll come right back home and then get back to her training and-
“Master Moriaaaaa! There’s a ship full of fishmen outside!”
Encountering Thriller Bark had not been intentional, but then, Jinbei muses as he smacks away a rather diminutive zombie, at least they were lucky enough not to cross paths with the massive ship until after locating his castaway crewmate.
“Yohohohoho! Fighting these creatures is much easier than I recall!”
“Perhaps you are simply much stronger,” Jinbei replies, mouth pulling into a grin.
“Ah, yes! Except I have no muscles with which to show it, yohoho!” Brook’s sword flickers left and right, taking apart a set of foes as neatly as Sanji cutting up Sea King steaks. His glee continues to lift something within Jinbei as they fend off the interlopers aboard the Snapper Head, a reminder that the inner peace he’s found by joining Luffy’s crew has not been completely undone by this Maelstrom event.
“Jinbei!” Aladine calls, surging up from the waves and knocking back a larger zombie before it can reach the top of the gunwales. “The damage is repaired, we can leave at any time.”
His grin grows wider. “Then give the order, captain!”
The merman rolls his eyes at the reminder, but does indeed take charge of the situation, shouting orders to the rest of the crew for them to retreat.
“Hah,” Brook sighs once they’re clear, cutting cleanly through the waves as fog creeps in to fill the space between their stern and Thriller Bark's outer wall. “That was good. Though I do admit, I am very glad to be leaving that dreadful place behind me.”
“Indeed,” Jinbei agrees, coming to stand beside him. Helmsman and musician, rather than captain and castaway. With luck, finding and retrieving the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates will happen just as smoothly.
...or at least without too much explosive fanfare.
Moria,
Sorry for leaving like this. I’ll explain things when I get back. Being part of your crew is more fun than anything else, so I will be back, but-
It’s important. I have to give something to a friend.
-Perona
She already has the stupid sword Zoro got from that samurai zombie. A bag full of clothes and treasure, her beloved Kumaby, the note left with her crown on her bed, and Perona is off to track down that green-haired idiot and make sure he’s okay.
“Uhh... Captain? Or, uh, Jinbei?”
“Mm?”
“We, um, we seem to have a stowaway...”
After a great deal of terrified yelling and irritated screeching and Hollows laughing all over the place, Brook takes it upon himself to stride into the Snapper Head’s main hold, brace both hands against his hipbones, and loudly declare, “Young lady, that is quite enough.” Seated high atop a stack of supply crates, Ghost Princess Perona glares at him, hugging a stuffed bear that has seen better days to her chest. And not a toy bear, either; Brook feels fairly certain that used to be some poor animal before dying and becoming filled with so much fluff. “Are you going to cause more trouble than you already have?”
“I’m not here to fight,” the child insists, well, childishly. “But I’m not going to let anyone grab me, either!”
Jinbei rumbles at that, a few paces behind Brook in the doorway. “Then why are you here?”
The girl fidgets. And as she does so, Brook spots a long, thin shape tucked against the side of her makeshift throne. “Is that... the blade Shusui?”
“...maybe.”
“I see. Or, well, I would if I still had eyes, yohohoho!” To Brook’s surprise, the Ghost Princess giggles along with him. “How about a cup of tea, before we talk about you ‘maybe’ having that sword, and what you ‘maybe’ plan to do with it?”
“Mm. I guess that’s alright. But it better be good tea!”
“Some of the best on this side of the Grand Line,” Jinbei says, remarkably dry for a fishman, yohohoho. “Ask Hatchan to show you, Brook.”
The octopus fishman does indeed prove helpful, and before too long Brook is humming to himself as he ventures back down into the ship’s hold. Some instinct causes him to fall quiet, though, and to pause outside the correct door.
“...but as I understand it, the choices that caused each of them to leave were sacrificial in nature, and Luffy knew that. He went after his nakama to bring them back into the fold so they could be selfish, and chase their dreams with his help and support, not sacrifice themselves to protect others.”
“Moria won’t look at it that way. If he comes to get me, he’ll be mad more than anything else - and that’s fine! He doesn’t know I’m friends with Zoro now, he was so badly hurt after we left Hachinosu I haven’t told him anything about Kuraigana or Zoro or Mihawk... He just wants to find Hogback and start building up the army faster again, find a different shadow for Oars and head for the New World in ten years before the Straw Hats can show up to ruin everything.”
“I see. And I understand your loyalty insists you help him, Perona. That is what set me on the path to becoming a Sun Pirate, several years ago. And to take over as captain, after Fisher Tiger passed. But, with that said-” A pause, and Brook can almost see it, the image of Jinbei leaning forward to emphasize his point. “Loyalty does not mean you cannot also put your needs first, when necessary. If this is something you truly need to do, yourself, then we will help, regardless of Gecko Moria’s opinions on the matter.”
The best helmsman ever, Luffy loves to call Jinbei, and not for the first time Brook thinks that steady guiding hand applies to more than the wheel of a ship.
Feeling courteous, he backs up to the end of the hall, then lets his whistling and louder than usual footsteps announce his approach. Perona is wiping at her face as he enters, but otherwise looks composed, and even thanks Brook for the mug he offers.
“To Water Seven?” He asks, brandishing his own drink high.
“To Water Seven,” Jinbei grins, clinking their mugs together.
And after a moment’s pause, Perona does the same.