The soft hum of Brook's violin strings resonated across the empty field as he closed his eyes, lost in the melody. The soothing rhythm should have brought him comfort, but instead, there was an undeniable weight in the air. His usual ease was replaced with a nagging, suffocating anxiety. Every note sounded hollow. He suddenly stopped mid-play, a cold chill running down his spine.
"...Wait..." Brook mumbled, his voice trembling slightly as the realization slowly set in. "Where... where am I?"
His skeletal hand lowered the violin, the strings slipping from his grip as his heart began to race—if a heart could race in a body that was nothing but bone. His body felt strange, unfamiliar. Everything—the world around him—felt wrong. His gaze darted around the unfamiliar landscape, the sky, the smell of the air. The waves of confusion crashed over him like an overwhelming tide.
"...Is this some kind of joke?" Brook muttered under his breath, thinking perhaps the crew was playing one of their usual pranks on him. He half-expected Luffy to burst out laughing from behind a tree, or for Nami to scold him for slacking off with his violin. He even imagined Chopper's worried voice asking if he was okay.
He straightened up, attempting to shake the feeling of unease. "Yahaha! You can stop hiding now, I know you're all out there." Brook called out with a forced chuckle, his eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of his beloved Straw Hat crew. But the silence that met him was thick, suffocating. His heartbeat echoed in his skull.
But then, as he turned his gaze to the ship behind him, his breath caught.
The ship wasn't the Thousand Sunny—it was a much older vessel, worn down by the passage of time. The sails were tattered, the wood cracked and decayed. "No..." he whispered, his eyes widening as realization slowly clawed its way to the surface. "This... this is my ship."
His fingers trembled as they gripped the edges of the violin. The rumbling memories came rushing back—memories of a crew he had once loved, a family he had lost. The Rumbar Pirates.
This ship—this was their ship.
He looked around, his skeletal form stiffening. The deck was eerily familiar, the worn planks beneath his feet almost comforting. But the crew—the crew he had known and lost—their absence was a suffocating weight on his chest.
"No..." Brook whispered, his voice shaking as the cold truth set in. "This can't be real... I'm back. I'm back here… but why?"
The sudden grief came crashing down on him like a tidal wave. "I... I lost them once. Is this it again? Have I lost everyone… again?" His breath caught, and for a moment, his vision blurred. His body—his fragile, bony body—collapsed, sinking to his knees, overwhelmed by the weight of it all. The ache in his chest was sharp and unrelenting. He reached up with trembling fingers to wipe away his tears, but of course, nothing came. His hollow eye sockets were dry, and yet the sorrow… the sorrow felt so real.
His heart, if it still beat, would have shattered into pieces. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his jaw, fighting against the flood of emotions that threatened to tear him apart. The memories of the Rumbar Pirates—his first family—were flooding back, memories of their laughter, their music, their final moments together. The weight of their absence, the terrible emptiness, was a pain he had thought he'd buried long ago.
But it wasn't the Rumbar Pirates he thought of now. His thoughts—his heart—immediately shifted to the ones he had come to call family. His mind flashed to the Straw Hat crew, the people who had taken him in, who had shared their journey with him. "Where are they?"
Brook clutched the violin tighter, as if it might somehow pull him out of this painful spiral. "Where are you all?" he whispered hoarsely. "Luffy… Nami… Sanji… Zoro… Chopper… Robin... Franky... Jinbe… Usopp..."
But the realization slammed into him: if he was back in time, then... then this meant they hadn't crossed his path yet. His beloved Straw Hats—his new family—weren't here. Not yet.
His mind screamed at him. It wasn't the first time he'd felt this sorrow, this emptiness. But this—this was different. The ache in his chest felt like it would crush him, because it wasn't just the Rumbar Pirates he had lost—it was the Straw Hats, too. And in this moment, it felt as though he might lose them all over again.
"No, not again." His voice cracked, breaking as the emotions bubbled up from deep inside. For a long moment, he simply sat there on the deck, alone with his thoughts, letting the silence wash over him. But as the storm of grief and confusion raged in his heart, something inside him flickered—a spark, faint but undeniable.
He wiped his eye sockets with his bony hand, forcing himself to steady his breath, though his body shook. And then, he let out a hollow laugh. "Yahaha… Why am I crying now?" He chuckled softly, the sound bitter and pained, as he forced a smile across his skull. "But... it's alright… I'm just remembering, that's all. I'll play through this… just like I did before…"
But the unease refused to leave him. He stood slowly, the realization that he was once again facing the past settling like lead in his stomach. His hands tightened around the violin, his eyes narrowing as something gnawed at him. The shadow of something long lost hovered at the edge of his mind.
"Thriller Bark…" he murmured under his breath. "If this is truly the past, then that's where it all began... That's where my shadow is."
Brook's hand trembled as he steadied himself, taking one more glance around at the ship—the ship of his old crew. The sudden urgency took hold of him. If his shadow was still in Moria's hands, then this was more than just a twist of fate. It was a chance. A chance to not just recover his shadow, but maybe—just maybe—to find his crew again.
His determination started to take root, mixing with a quiet hope he hadn't felt in a long time. "I have to find them again. I won't lose them."
With his usual resolve, Brook pulled at the rim of his top hat, his eerie laugh breaking through the tension in the air. "Yahaha! It seems I've forgotten something important… but as long as I have music, I'll stay strong!"
Even beneath the bravado, the seed of hope took root. There was no guarantee. There were no promises. But Brook wasn't about to let go. Not now.
He turned the ship toward the horizon, toward Thriller Bark. And as he did, the sounds of his violin rose once more—a haunting, powerful melody carrying the weight of his promise, the echoes of the Rumbar Pirates, and the hope of the Straw Hats, still out there waiting to be found.