Summary: Dealing with unexpected passengers...

  Warning! Chapters 57-61 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you didn't miss any!

  Chapter 61: Guests and Stowaways

  The Storm had been a wild one, even for the Grand Line. Not at all helped by the building whirlpool, caused by the sinking of the isnd-sized Thriller Bark, that they'd needed to escape. If not for Nami, and if not for the incredible power of the Discovery's newly enhanced engines, they wouldn't have made it. Between the two, they'd pulled through, bedraggled and battered but with no serious injuries as they escaped the Florian Triangle entirely.

  It was only then that they discovered that they had more than just Yamato aboard.

  Well, no. Luffy and Kaya at least had been fully aware of the additional presences. But they'd both been a bit busy helping keep the ship afloat, and disinclined to throw non-hostile people overboard into a raging storm. Besides, the reaction of Chopper as he finally processed the living skeleton that had handed him a Sanji-crafted hot cocoa was priceless.

  "Aaaahhhh, skeleton! Zombie! Ghost! Kaya, the Grim Reaper has come for my soul and I'm not ready to go yet!"

  Sanji passed a blinking Hina a cigarette, the pinkette taking it and the light that followed absent-mindedly as she too stared in confusion at the test weirdness that the Grand Line had dumped on this oddest of crews. Said weirdness being a Skeleton with an Afro who was currently grandly bowing to Luffy.

  "Ah! Captain! My apologies for coming aboard unannounced. It was really quite rude of me! But the young dy had showed me her panties, even if not on purpose, and I couldn't just let her drown after that kindness!"

  The 'young dy' in question was, unmistakably to Luffy, a bedraggled, battered and bruised Perona. Her clothing was in tatters, her panties peeking out through the shredded remains of her skirt. There were numerous cuts littering her body, though none that looked particurly lethal. It looked more like shrapnel had gotten her, as colteral to a rger fight, than someone having taken her out directly. Part of the reason Chopper was running around screaming like an idiot was because Kaya, normally the one to snap him out of it, was already at work with glowing hands, working on the young woman's injuries. Luffy, shifting his attention away from that bit of bypy, focused on who he knew to be Brook.

  "I will entirely excuse you, if you both introduce yourself and expin just what happened back there. I believe that was Thriller Bark, Gecko Moria's infamous ship. But given the ck of shadows defending it, I suspect something major happened before we…dropped in."

  Brook stood, expression shifting to an open-skull smile.

  "Yo ho ho ho! Of course, Captain! I'd be delighted to tell the tale! Yo ho ho ho! I'm the Skeleton-man Brook! Formerly of the Rumbar Pirates!"

  Luffy nodded, as if that made perfect sense, even as his crew all looked on in various levels of disbelief at the walking, talking, skeleton. Honestly wanting to get onto the part of all this that he didn't understand, aka Yamato, Luffy decided to shorten Brook's no doubt long-winded tale.

  "Well, Brook. I'm Captain Monkey D. Luffy of the Strawhat Pirates and you're aboard the Discovery, an exploration ship intending to map the entire world. While I'd be delighted to hear your story in full ter, we seem to have several events to look into. Cutting to the heart of the matter, I assume your unusual body is either the result of a Devil Fruit or Moria's experimentation?"

  Brook somehow looked a bit surprised. By the decration of one of their goals or by Luffy guessing part of his story, Luffy wasn't sure. He ughed that frankly sort of annoying, over-the-top-ugh again and bowed grandly once more.

  "Quite right, Captain Luffy! I became a Skeleton-man after I died the first time! I had previously eaten the Revive Revive Fruit, and it brought me back! Though, to my misfortune, the mists of the Florian Triangle caused my soul to take too long to find my body, and I ended up a skeleton!"

  Several of his crew made 'ah-ha' noises, though even those noises seemed a bit confused. Kaya, done healing Perona's retively superficial wounds, looked at Brook with a curious and extremely interested expression.

  "You're incredibly bright to spiritual senses, Mr. Brook. I rather suspect that the fruit you took somehow converted you into pure Spiritual Energy that is then merely possessing its former body. How odd. Not to mention interesting. I suspect you could learn to do quite a few of the same things I can with that energy, though we would need to be careful to make sure you properly regenerate Spiritual Energy the same way everyone else does…"

  Luffy blinked. He'd noticed Brook's brightness in the flow of spiritual energy of the world, but hadn't taken the thought that far. Now, reluctantly interested, he took a closer 'look' and realized Kaya was right. Brook appeared to be made of Spirit Energy, bound to the bone of his body and doing…quite a lot of odd things he'd never seen before. Probably duplicating and repcing all his physical needs, giving him the ability to do things like move and eat. Even a quick glimpse was enough to realize that just studying Brook would likely push both his and Kaya's understanding of Spirit Energy forward quite a lot. Pleased, but also annoyed, since he really wanted to get to why Yamato was here, Luffy forced himself to do this thing properly.

  "Well, Brook. You seem to be without a crew. Well, mostly. I do remember that name as being associated with Laboon, who is still alive and waiting for your return. Aside from him I…"

  Luffy paused as Brook shot ramrod straight, body full of tension.

  "Laboon…is still waiting for me?"

  Internally, Luffy sighed, but he couldn't deny the wildly surging emotions coming from Brook. Fine, he wasn't a monster, he'd deal with this first, even if his curiosity was attempting to murder him.

  "Yes. Actually, Vivi?"

  Vivi jerked at her name, her attention snapping to him from where she'd been staring at Brook along with everyone else. She snapped out an admirably sharp 'Yes, Captain' that made his lips quirk just a bit. She was arguably the most deferential to him of the entire crew, which was a little amusing given she was royalty.

  "You've been to the Twin Cape Lighthouse before, haven't you? Do you remember it well enough to open an Air Door?"

  Vivi blinked, then considered the question for a moment, before slowly shaking her head.

  "No. I don't think so. Crocus always did a good job of keeping us away from the lighthouse itself, since he knew the local isnders all wanted Laboon as a resource. I could easily open one to Whiskey Peak, though. It's pretty easy to lock onto the Red Line there and it's not hard to make the trip in a sloop, despite the rough weather in that zone. When we have a free day or two, it would be easy enough to take Brook to see Laboon."

  Luffy nodded, smiling as he saw Brook stagger a bit in shock.

  "Well, there you have it, Brook. Want to sign on as a Strawhat Pirate? We'll help you see Laboon, either way, but you seem like you have an interesting story!"

  Not to mention that he and Kaya would most certainly like to study the Skeleton-man. Luffy had been indifferent to having Brook aboard before, but it was looking like there might be advantages. Ones that went both ways if he and Kaya could help Brook figure out how to use his Spirit Energy. His skill as a swordsman likely wasn't up to snuff by Luffy, Kuina, and Zoro's standards. But if he could learn to manipute the energy that made him up as well as Luffy suspected he might be able to, he could become quite a monster of a different sort…

  "I…Captain…I…yes. Yes, I would like that, I think? Can I wait to give you a final answer until I see Laboon, though?"

  Luffy nodded firmly.

  "Of course. You're welcome as a guest for now, so long as you help out when asked. Now…not to press you too much when you've clearly got a lot to think about, but could you tell us the basics of what happened on Thriller Bark, at least?"

  The skeleton man shook himself, causing an oddly disturbing rattling of his bones, but nodded firmly.

  "Yes. Yes, of course, Captain. My own story for how I got there…I'll leave the telling of that for another time, to do the epic tale proper justice! But what happened today went like this…"

  Even distracted, Brook was a fantastic storyteller, bringing to life the sequence of events in a way that his audience could almost see it happening. How a one-armed man calling himself Bckbeard had arrived with a weird looking raft-galleon and only two other crewmen. A sniper and an incredibly pale man carrying a cane. There had been a brief altercation where Bckbeard utterly decimated many of Moria's zombies and other subordinates, drawing the Warlord himself out to confront him. Brook could only guess at what had been said, not having been close enough to hear and mostly having been hiding in amongst the other 'undead' for his own reasons.

  Whatever it was Bckbeard had said seemed to have interested Moria, as the Warlord has shifted from confrontational to almost welcoming. After which, they'd gone back to Moria's castle on Thriller Bark for a time. What happened there, Brook didn't know, as he admitted he'd had his own business with one of the zombies. Given he seemed to be in possession of Shusui, a Meito bde that none of the swordsmen had missed noticing the presence of, Luffy had to assume he'd either defeated the zombie Ryoma during that time…or simply taken advantage of Moria's death to liberate the bde. Of his original cane sword, Luffy saw no evidence.

  Whatever he'd been doing, Brook hadn't missed the arrival of two additional Warlords. Donquixote Dofmingo and Kuma. That little revetion in the story began piecing the bits together for Luffy, though he remained quiet as Brook continued to spin out the tale. A tale of two additional ships, a small one trailing fme that Luffy recognized from description as the Striker II, accompanied by a schooner rig bearing the Whitebeard Fg. Brook had done his dead level best (pun entirely intended and groaned at by all) to keep out of sight during the ensuing battle. Bckbeard had died to a blow from Marco, leaving Luffy filled with a sense of satisfaction…along with a bit of concern about just where his Fruit had ended up. He was going to have to check his System ter. He had some points built up, and might want to acquire that monstrous thing just as a precaution against someone else getting it.

  Almost equally welcome was the news of Gecko Moria's death, but far less welcome was the revetion that both Ace and Marco had been struck by Kuma at various points and sent flying to locations unknown. Not quite as bad for Luffy personally, though likely worse for the world as a whole, Brook had witnessed the final senior member of the Whitebeard Pirates, 3rd division commander 'Diamond' Jozu, battered down and captured.

  On the one hand, the fact that Ace hadn't been directly captured in what was btantly an ambush aimed at the Whitebeard pirates was probably a good sign. It meant Kuma might not have simply unched him straight to Marineford. On the other hand, Luffy didn't know that, and the World Government had gained at least one senior member of the Whitebeard pirates to use as bait regardless. The ambush was btant enough to have confirmed for Luffy something he'd suspected all along.

  Specifically, that the execution pn for Ace hadn't been a spur of the moment decision, an opportunistic plot. Instead, it had been a prepnned event, with the only missing component being a Whitebeard pirate of sufficient rank to act as bait. Ace had, originally, simply been the one unlucky enough to be caught for that purpose. But any sufficiently high-ranking member of Whitebeard's crew would do from the World Government's point of view.

  That…complicated matters, as it brought into question if it was any business of Luffy's at all to get involved. If Ace turned out to have been sent somewhere that he was captured in turn, the question would have an obvious answer of 'fuck yes.' If it was merely a conflict between Whitebeard and the WG, then the only horse in that race Luffy had was that his brother would certainly participate. Which wasn't enough to draw him into the fight directly.

  Ace was his own man, with his own crew, and it wasn't Luffy's business to hold his hand and protect him. He had a Yonko's crew to do that, just as Sabo had the revolutionary army. Which didn't mean Luffy would do nothing. But it did mean that some of his other long-term pns might well serve better than butting in on a fight that he didn't have a horse in. Unless, of course, Ace asked for help. Which wasn't very likely, since they weren't an allied crew, but it wasn't completely impossible.

  "…and that's when, after Kuma left and with Dofmingo looking through the wreckage of Thriller Bark for something, I came across her."

  Brook pointed at Perona, who Luffy was very much aware was now only faking sleep from where she'd been covered by Kaya with a bnket. None of those who had realized she was awake were saying anything, though, given the quiet tears running down her cheeks and feelings of despair radiating from her. Apparently, she genuinely had cared for Moria in some fashion. Luffy had to admit he didn't know much about her, so couldn't say just how or why, but there was no faking the sort of anguish she was radiating. She'd lost someone important to her and it was only decent to give her a bit of time to come to terms with that fact.

  "She was a member of Moria's crew. One of the few living ones, and the only one he seemed legitimately somewhat fond of. In truth, the few times I witnessed them interact were the only time I saw Moria act remotely human. Whatever her story is, she was actually managing to contribute to the fight a fair bit with some sort of ghosts. Which I suspect were Devil Fruit generated. But she colpsed when Moria was killed, then got clipped by shrapnel and knocked out while she was unresponsive. After the fighting stopped, I checked on her and realized she was still alive. While she might have been nominally an enemy, she wasn't one I'd ever fought myself. So I wasn't going to just leave her to drown…"

  Virtually the entire crew nodded at that. The vast majority of them, all of them most likely, would have done the same. Minus any information of her being some sort of monster, simply leaving her to drown wasn't something even Robin or Zoro, their two most practically-minded members, would have been comfortable with.

  "Understandable. We'll find out more from her when she is up for talking. For now, she can be considered a guest as well, so long as she doesn't cause problems."

  Luffy directed that comment mostly her way, knowing she was awake, and noted her untensing just slightly. Good enough for now. He really didn't have any idea what to do with her. Brook he had at least a moderate knowledge of, Perona he did not. He could see her Devil Fruit having several uses for the crew, but had no idea if she'd be a good fit for them or not. More to the point, at the moment, he finally had an excuse to move onto the point his curiosity had been killing him over.

  "Thank you for the useful information, Brook. It sounds like you were witness to a pre-pnned ambush of the Whitebeard pirates, which is concerning but not immediately important. Now…"

  Luffy turned his gaze to where Yamato had been taking in Brook and his story with stars in her eyes.

  "…what is your story? Yamato, I think Dofmingo called you? You said you were looking for me, and you seemed to have some personal business with Dofmingo. But, beyond that, I'm a bit confused what your story is?"

  Yamato straightened, then grinned happily at him.

  "Yes! I'm Yamato! Your brother freed me two years ago! I was imprisoned on an isnd called Onigashima, where he was rampaging, trying to draw out and fight my father. We fought and ended up becoming friends! He freed me from the handcuff bombs which my father had used to keep me trapped there, using an advanced form of Haki I hadn't heard of at the time. A trick called Internal Destruction that he taught me ter. I went to sea with him…but wasn't willing to join the Whitebeard Pirates when he decided to. I wanted to keep traveling! To see everything and everywhere in the world! He'd told me all about you, and how you wanted to explore the whole world, even Laugh Tale, much like my idol Kozuki Oden did!"

  Yamato was almost literally glowing with excitement, even as Luffy was scrambling to put the pieces of the Kung Fu Butterfly together. Ace might have met her before, in the original timeline, but wasn't good enough with Haki to pull off the trick of ripping explosive colrs or cuffs off someone. It was something Luffy had known was possible and specifically taught himself, given how deeply he hated svery and how likely it was he'd need to do something like it at some point.

  Ace hadn't quite been at the level needed to pull that trick off when he'd left on his journey, but he must have picked it up at some point. Possibly even from Silvers Rayleigh if the old man had recognized his old Captain's son and given him some pointers. The ability to remove Yamato's cuffs meant she'd been able to leave with him, escaping Kaidou and…Wano, he though the name of that isnd was? Onigashima was a name he didn't know. Possibly a nearby or connected isnd that Kaidou used as a personal base for the Beasts Pirates? Whatever the case, Ace's freeing her had clearly changed the sequence of events. But how, exactly?

  "Huh. Well, I'm gd to meet you Yamato! Any friend of my brother is a friend of mine. Possibly even a crewmate if you're still looking to explore? I admit I'm curious about something, though, if you don't mind me asking. That Devil Fruit, I st saw it in the possession of the Red Hair pirates over a decade ago. How did you…?"

  Yamato had, if anything, gotten even happier looking as he mentioned her traveling with him.

  "Yes! Yes, I want to be on your crew! More than ever now, since you told Brook you're going to see all the seas! I want to see it all! Oh, and I ate the Devil Fruit on accident! I visited the Red Hair pirates with Ace, he wanted to visit them to thank them for looking out for you when you were younger! I was hungry and found it in a storeroom, everything but the Fruit was all dusty, so I thought no one would mind! They were nice, just ughed it off and said it must be fate, since no one had wanted to eat it in so long."

  Luffy…boggled a bit at that. Admittedly, he knew that Shanks had very few Devil Fruit users on his crew, and none of his officers had one. His whole crew had possessed a bit of a weird disregard for them, by pirate standards. Shanks had never actually stated such, nor had any of the crew, but they seemed to just…not care about them, for the most part. Even the few, like Shank's daughter, that had them at all had each gotten them entirely by accident, rather than eating them on purpose or in a pursuit of power. It was still a bit difficult to process that Shanks had just let a Devil Fruit sit in storage for the better part of a decade. Hell, it sounded like they might have even forgotten they had it…

  …

  …

  Actually, that did sound like something Shanks would do, come to think of it.

  …

  …

  Well, whatever. One mystery solved. A few more at rge. Not to mention he was pretty sure his future knowledge was now completely toast. Aside from information he shouldn't have about things or people from the past, anything left he might have known about the future was pretty much totally fucked sideways at this point. Too much had changed. Though a lot of that change was positive, as far as he could tell, so he didn't exactly regret it. Particurly as he'd been getting closer and closer to the end of what knowledge he did have anyway. He'd only known bits and pieces about the New World, stuff he'd picked up by osmosis from other fans rather than having watched the show that far himself. The only thing he could do now was the same thing everyone else did…make himself and his crew strong enough to take on all comers. Which he felt he was well on his way to accomplishing.

  "Last question for now, then, given that it's about time for dinner and we could all use it after the day we've had. You clearly had some sort of previous conflict with Dofmingo…what was that all about?"

  Yamato's grin turned a bit menacing at the reminder of the now-dead Warlord.

  "Oh, that? The bastard was providing a type of artificial Devil Fruit to my father called a SMILE. I wanted him dead so that he'd stop making my father's forces stronger. I still need to kill him and save Wano after all, and weakening his forces is a must! The SMILE factory still exists, though. It will need to be destroyed. Without Dofmingo around, it will be much easier, and his organization might well fracture without him anyway!"

  Luffy blinked. Artificial Devil Fruits? Well, that sounded like a fucking nightmare. One he was going to have to ask Yamato for more details about ter for certain. For now, though, he shook it off.

  "Well, he's dead at least, and few will miss him I think. Better yet, the World Government has no idea who did it, most likely. At least not yet. For now…Sanji, food!"

  Sanji straightened, snapping a very sloppy salute.

  "At once, Captain! Oy. Usopp, you set the table, since you were completely useless today!"

  Usopp protested that, even as he followed Sanji to obey. Nami nodded and snapped a few orders at Zoro and Nojiko, even as Kaya quietly got moving on getting the 'sleeping' Perona to a cabin. Luffy himself moved off to inspect the ship as a whole, including communing with its still-developing spirit. As much as he wanted to question their guests some more, and feel out Yamato farther as a new apparent crewmember, the Discovery had taken some heavy hits today. Making sure the ship was okay took priority…

  ... ... ... ... ... ...

  A/N 1: Brook and Perona! So, Brook isn't my favorite character, but I don't dislike him either. I'm sort of indifferent to him, like Luffy in this fic is. He'll be sticking around, but events will shift with him a bit. As for Perona...that was going to be subject to a poll. You can see, now, how I would have included her for the pairing if she'd gotten a following. But without that angle I wasn't originally sure if I should keep her around or not. I'm starting to hit the saturation point where there are too many characters to give full screen time to. As it happens, however, in the most recent Early Access chapters, she sort of wrote herself onto the crew with me half-surprised it happened. As for future additions, the only other character I'm still really intending them to pick up is Jinbe. There's ONE other from a New World arc I'd consider, but I'll leave that for now until I see how hard it is to juggle the current load.

  A/N 2: Yeah, we all know it's totally believable that Shanks would just ft forget he had the Gomu Gomu no Mi in storage...

  A/N 3: Luffy is correct that the massive spiraling changes have officially rendered most of his remaining knowledge obsolete. He has a few bits and pieces tucked away that are still useful. But for the most part he's now flying just as blind as everyone else. Even Yamato he knows very little about, since as Alex he dropped the series before Wano. He basically only knows stuff about her he picked up from other fans and her frequent presence in Rule 34 art communities...

  A/N 4: Once per release, I remind people that...I have a Patreon Page! Nothing I write, fanfiction wise, is ever permanently paywalled. That said, I do have Early Access chapters. There is currently roughly another 16,600 words of One Piece - Halfway Broken in Early Access (Chapters 62-65). Also, of course, you also get access to my other Early Access chapters for my other stories. There is typically around 45-65k words of various works in early access at any one time. I always appreciate any support, since it helps me free up more writing time...but most of all I hope you just enjoy the stories!