Chapter 60: ‘Cause this is Thriller! Thriller night!

A few days had passed since Robin and Rick’s talk in the garden. The crew was currently on their way to fish-man island; it was a journey which would last two weeks at least. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper were running around on the deck playing some game while Franky was laying down on a deckchair taking the sun on the side. Zoro was in the crowsnest which, with Franky’s design, was transformed into a training room. Sanji was in the kitchen cooking some snacks for Nami and Robin who were relaxing and talking around a table on the deck. Rick was with them reading a book about fish-man island.
To be honest he was bored, the book was not really interesting, so he got up and went back inside the ship towards the garden. As he was leaving he sprouted an eye and an arm under the table.

‘I wonder how long she can resist…’  he thought.

In the garden he took a look at his experiments. He had sowed identical seeds into different soil. He was testing which island he visited had the most fertile ground. Without any surprise the clouds from Skypiea were the one. Flowers were already ready to bloom at any moment now, while for the others  the seed had barely germinated or didn’t even start to do so. Rick wondered what was in the clouds to have such an effect and decided to ask Franky to make him a microscope to better study their components. As he was writing the results and his observations in a journal the garden’s door opened violently and a dozen of hands grabbed and pulled him towards the floor before restraining him.
‘15 minutes… that’s not good, I need to step up my game.’

A very red faced and angry Robin was standing at the room’s entrance. She quietly and delicately closed the door before slowly walking towards her prisoner.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” she asked in a cold tone.
“I was bored and I love you?”

Robin bloomed another hand and smacked his head hard.

“You get one more try.”
“I wanted to see how long it would take you to come see me. To see how long you could endure before you couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Oh, really?” was said with a bit of venom.
“Do you know how hard it was to not lose it in front of everyone? Especially Nami!”
“.... No?”
“Exactly, you don’t! But you’re about to find out.” she said with an evil smile.
“Come on! Can you really blame me? This dress, those stockings and garters and, let’s not forget, you, are making me crazy!”
“I. Don’t. Care.”

Rick gulped loudly; he knew wasn’t really going to enjoy the next few minutes. Thinking back on it, leaving a hand to caress sensually Robin’s thigh may have not been the best idea. Fortunately, thanks to the heat, he had opened the sliding glass door which allowed them to hear a very loud bang.

“What was that?” asked Robin.
“We need to find out, punishment can wait.”

The archaeologist let him go and they left the room in a hurry to reach the deck. Where they saw everyone in a circle around an opened and decrepit barrel.

“What happened?” Rick asked.
“We found a barrel floating in the water.” began Usopp.
“And there was a sign saying ‘Treasure’ on it.” added Luffy.
“So we picked it up and when we opened it something came out of it and went straight to the sky where he exploded in a loud bang and a red light.” ended Chopper.
‘Oooooooh crap. I completely forgot about that place!’
“That’s not good.” said Rick, shaking his head from right to left.
“Why?” asked Nami
“This was a trap.”
“A trap?” repeated Usopp.
“Yes. I don’t know who put it there but they must be around these parts because the thing that exploded was a flare. It’s normally used as a distress signal for ships in a bad situation.” explained Rick
“But since someone put it there with the purpose of being opened by whoever found it…” started Franky.
“Then we just gave them our position.” finished Sanji.

Nami felt a change in the wind. It was too sudden to be normal or perhaps it was, it was Grand Line after all. Even though no ships were around with this new development she didn’t hesitate to act.

“Everyone to your posts! We’re fleeing South-South-East! A raging storm is coming!”

It was just a stronger wind yet no one doubted her words. When Nami tells them something weather related she’s never wrong. And in less than five minutes, heavy rain started to pour. Thunder growled and lightning fell. As the wind changed direction, now coming from the front, Franky told everyone to take up the sails and the paddle were coming out. He activated the lever of the soldier dock system from number 1 to 0.

The soldier dock system was the cyborg’s creation. It was some kind of spinning wheel divided in parts. Each part was a warehouse containing one of Franky’s new creations. The two Dock 0 were the one holding the paddles. Once in position on each side of the merry the docks’ doors opened and cola ingined paddles came out, making the Sunny move rather fast and forward. Quickly they went through the storm and ended in a calmer part of the sea warped by a fog.

“It shouldn't be night yet… The fog’s so thick, it’s giving an eerily dark feeling.” said Zoro.
“I think… We’ve entered that part of the sea already.” announced Franky.
“We’ve already reached Mermaid island?” asked Usopp.
“Fish-man island.” corrected Rick
“There are mermaids there so I’d rather call it  Mermaid island.” answered Usopp.”
“Whatever you’re calling it, that’s not it. This area we’re in is the infamous Florian Triangle, so don’t relax yet.” explained Franky.

Hearing that name Usopp started to panic. The Florian Triangle was well known as a strange sea where almost everything disappears, shrouded in mystery. Legends said that many evil monsters lived there and were responsible for any disapration occurring. Sanji didn’t miss the opportunity to scare his friend even more by telling stories of ghost ships carrying reanimated corpses. The sniper wasn’t the only one stricken with fear, Chopper had grabbed him tightly. He was pleading for Usopp to make the same things the latter was willing to make to ward off any evil spirits they could meet.

“Guys, I’m just pulling your leg! Ghosts don’t exist.” said Sanji.

The world seemed to want to prove him wrong as suddenly the crew heard some music from afar. It was the sound of a violin punctuated with a merry laugh. Turning around, they saw a huge galleon coming closer to the Sunny. The ship was tumbledowned, with many many holes in the hull and torn apart sails. Chances were high that if you search ‘ghost ship’ in an encyclopedia there would be a drawing similar to what was in front of them.
Everyone panicked at the sight, even Zoro, with the exception of Robin and Rick. No surprises here, Robin was an archaeologist, dealing with corpses so eerie things like that  were common for her as for Rick he knew what this ship was.

‘Oh yeah that’s where we’re recruiting Brook. Ugh… Thriller Bark will not be easy.’

Originally the only thing that Rick remembered of Thriller Bark was Nami’s nude scene, Zoro getting a new sword and…. No, that was it, just Nami’s nude scene and a new sword for Zoro. However, seeing Brook’s huge ship had reminded him of some important things. Mainly the fight with Gecko Moria, one of the Shichibukai, seven corsaires mandated by the World Government. A very restricted club which Crocodile had been a member of before Luffy kicked his ass. The other thing he remembered was the fight against Oars. To date it was the hardest fight the crew had to participate in since everyone was involved against a single enemy.

While everyone was speculating about what will happen to them, Rick saw a silhouette of a man leaning on the galleon’s rail.

“There's someone on that ship.” and pointed with his finger.
“Go and deliver Bink’s brew ~~ Yohohohoho.”

~~~~~~

Once Usopp was reanimated, Luffy took the decision to explore that ship which had passed the Sunny and was on its way. They caught up to it and Rick made his captain, Nami and Sanji float and landed them on its deck. Since everyone still present was focused on the galleon, Rick took the opportunity to take Robin in his arms and gave her a quick kiss before untangling himself and retreating inside the Sunny. He loved to steal short intimate moments like that with their friends around, none the wiser. What he loved even more was that it both flustered and annoyed Robin a lot. She was a very secretive and private person after all. She didn’t like the idea of the crew knowing of her relationship with their Vice-captain.

Rick had separated from the rest to make a plan in peace without anyone bothering him. More and more memories about this arc came back to him. The most important one was Bartholomew Kuma making his appearance. Kuma was also a member of the shichibukai but that was not why he was important. He was the one that sent away every member of the crew to islands fit for training them for two years. Why did it do that?
Because he secretly was a member of the Revolution Army, led by none other than Luffy’s own father, Monkey D. Dragon. He sent Robin, because she was the only one reading the poneglyphs hence was a direct threat to the World Government, to an island where some of his compatriots from the R.A. had a base.
And because Rick was a notorious figure fighting the world nobles, chances were he would be sent there too. He couldn't let that happen. He needed to be sent to Vegapunk in the hope the mad scientist could find a way to fix his body.

Rick thought long and hard and came up with something. It was not a perfect plan, far from it but it was a plan nonetheless.

He went back to the deck where the crew and Brook were there.

“Hey Rick! Look at that talking skeleton! His name is brook!” said Luffy
“Luffy! Now is not the time! We’ve been trapped!”  interjected Nami.
“What?!”
“The young lady is correct. The island you see behind you is the ‘Ghost Island’ that wanders through the sea. Thriller Bark.” said Brook
“A wandering Island? Is that why the Log Pose is not responding?” asked Nami.
“Actually no, That’s because the island came from far away East Blue. Anyway, today was a lucky day! Not only was I able to meet some people but my heart’s desire was fulfilled!” announced the skeleton.

He jumped on Sunny's figurehead and tipped his hat to the crew, thanking them and warning them to not stop on this island. His goodbyes done, he jumped into the sea.

“Don’t do that, you'll sink!” Yelled Luffy.
“Luffy, he's a moving skeleton, I’m pretty sure he can swim.” said Rick.
“He can’t, he ate a devil fruit!” replied his captain.
“Oh! He ate the Yomi Yomi no mi then? What bad luck he has.”

What was expected to happen, didn’t. Instead of sinking, Brook ran on water at a really high speed surprising everyone.

“Wait! How do you know that? You weren’t there when he told us.” asked Usopp.
“Well after eating my second devil fruit, I read the Devil Fruit’s encyclopedia and learned every single one of their effect and look.”
“Why?” asked Sanji.
“So I wouldn’t eat a third one! I mean I was lucky to survive eating a second. I wasn’t ready to test and see if I would survive eating a third and I’m still not. That way I could differentiate between a weird normal looking fruit and a devil one. Anyway, the only devil fruit that could explain why a skeleton is… alive? Is the Yomi Yomi no mi. I guess his soul went back to his body way too late.”
“That's what he said happened.” said Chopper.
“It doesn’t matter! We’re going to this island!” declared Luffy
“Luffy, are you mad?! Brook told us we should not! And he’s right, look at it! That island is dangerous!” exclaimed Usopp.

Too bad for him his captain had already made up his mind. It wasn’t as if they could leave anyway. A fact that Robin was quick to notice.

“You remember that big vibration from before? I think it was that big mouth gate we passed through closing. It’s hard to see with the fog but it seems the wall around the gate is circling the whole island.”
“So we’re trapped.” said Zoro.
“Wait! That means the island is artificially wandering around at sea?!” remarks Nami.
“If the island keeps moving we can’t lower the anchor.” announced Franky.

Chopper and Usopp asked what would Franky want to lower the anchor since they needed to escape and Nami contracted a new disease she called ‘I can’t go on this island.’. They were completely ignored by Luffy who came back with a bug net and a pouch. Apparently his goal was to catch the ghost they saw while Rick was in the garden during dinner time.
Three groups were formed. Luffy, Franky, Robin and Rick made the first one; Nami, Chopper and Usopp the second and the third was just Sanji and Zoro. Franky activated the Soldier Dock System’s lever and selected the channel #2.  Out of it came out a paddle steamer big enough for six people. What was interesting about it was that in the rear was the figurehead of the Merry! Franky had worked on it to make it small enough to fit the small boat. Now no one could sit on it anymore. It still was bigger than the original figurehead that he made from scratch and put in the front.
The crew was delighted to know that Merry was still with them. Luffy saying the ‘Mini Merry II’, as it was called’ wanted to ride it too but was stopped by Sanji.
“Just wait a moment, we’ll ride it soon enough. Just let them have some fun for now.”

While Franky was explaining what was in the other channels, a one person weaver and a submarine. The group on the paddle steamer disappeared in the fog. Robin had dragged way further on the deck Rick to have a few words about his earlier behavior when they heard screams. The voices clearly belonged to Nami, Chopper and Usopp.As they started to discuss what may have happened, the anchor dropped by itself followed by the natch opening. Soon enough other things happened.
Luffy’s cheeks were pulled, deforming his face, then were released before he moved forward and almost fell into the natch, barely catching himself on its sides. Sanji, who didn’t have time for this jump overboard to join Nami and the rest, sadly something caught his legs and he ended up meeting the hull of the merry with his face, before being raised in the air.

“We’re not alone.” announced Rick.
“Yeah, and it seems they don’t want us to  leave the ship.” said Franky.
“HA!”

Everyone looked at Robin; she had bloomed two pairs of hands and was fighting off something.

“Robin what’s happening?” asked Sanji.
“Something’s...grabbing me!!”

If there is something you must not do in Rick’s presence, it’s to touch his Robin. He was more than pissed, and the drool that appeared on her chest didn’t make things better. He pounced where he thought the invisible thing was and punched it with everything he got. His fist connected and he felt something heaving being flown away. Without a second thought Rick went after him.

He arrived on the island and looked around. The fog made it difficult to see the surroundings. He calmed down and landed on the ground.

‘Tracking this bastard and finding the others is going to be a pain in the ass. Ugh If only I had remembered that.’

He was now alone and had to adapt to the situation.