A Cook, A Doctor, and A Ghost + A Swordsman

The Legend Of Hanekichi

Brook find himself stuck in a tight situation. He felt like its too narrow for him, a tall skeleton. Where is he? He wonders. What happened to others? Something is in his eye socket and it felt uncomfortable and itchy. He tries to move around but to no avail, something is holding him around and it felt heavy.

He can hear the sound of thunder and lightning struck somewhere. As he focuses his hearing, he can hear water droplets falling down. Is it raining outside? He thought. It struck Brook as he understand where his situation.  I'm buried in the ground!

He tries to calm himself down as going panic mode will only deplete his oxygen faster. He struggles going up, how he end up in a coffin? As he going up, he mutters and curses a lot. He did get a little bit offended. I may be dead but that doesn't mean I get a privilege of staying in here!

His best bet is that he's in graveyard. But he feels like something is very odd, and that's because of the rain. See, Ringo is a place of snowstorm and white out where everything's freezing. When did Ringo ever rain? As he climb out from the grave, he gasps for air as he show that he's tired. If he's late even for a minute, he might be suffocated. Ah, but he's dead so he didn't have lungs, yohohoho.

He looks around, this is not Ringo. This place doesn't snow at all, it's foggy as hell. He's annoyed at the fog obstructing his vision but at least he's glad that the rain had stopped. He can't afford his clothes to be sopping wet. 

Fortunately, luck is smiling upon him as he notices an old abandoned shack not too far from him. He gets to shack as fast as he could as this place started to creeps him out. Out of all places, why a grave? 

The skeleton open the door that starts to crumbles down. How long has this shack has been here? The door literally crumbles to wooden dust as soon as he open it. Spider webs everywhere 'decorating' this place. Brook has started to remember about certain pink bird, he wonders how's he doing in the Impel Down.

The place is not too shabby as it is. Not bad for an old shack that has been abandoned for years. The floor is hard and cold, he opens the closet only to be greeted by dust. The dust is making is nose itch really bad, but he's dead so he don't have a nose Yohohoho!

The back of the shack was filled in to the brim with old kitchen appliances such as pots and wok. The foundation of the roof looks like it will collapse at any minute. There's also water dripping down from it. Brook sighed, this place is even worse than Ringo.

He collects some firewood  to warm himself up by slashing some trees to pieces with his trusty Soul Solid in his hand. In a blink of an eye, he got himself too many firewood that could last for days. Maybe he overdid it a bit. Thus, he started the fire and put his hands near the fire to warm up. 

Campfire, check. A place to rest, check. Food, not quite. He makes a to-do list inside his head. Checking for basic needs to survive. He's hungry and thirsty, he wants a bottle of milk right now if he can. He's currently sitting down, munching on mixed nuts that he brought. On the way to the mountain he brought some as snacks because he felt like it.

Trying to kill time, he put down his violin casket and tried to play his violin. Every time he played his violin, he gets flashback of his old crew, his ship, Laboon. He really hoped that he could see them one more time, he smiled thinking of them. He reached for his violin's bow and stopped. Someone is here, there is three people or more. He detected them as they enter Brook's range of observation haki.

"Oh well, there's an uninvited guests. Might as well greet them Yohoho!" Brook starts laughing. He grinned, this will be fun. He headed towards them humming his signature song. In this thick fog, it's best to hide and prey from afar. Those men are equipped with shovels and rags while wearing a mask. They digging the graves for loot, grave robbing are a job that paid well with a lots of risk of getting caught. But to certain people they didn't care. High risk, high rewards.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  "Hey, hurry up. If you don't hurry up I just bury all of you in a coffin.." A fat man ordered his henchmen. He's the leader apparently.

"Can't you see how hard it is? It's locked tight as hell. It's gonna take a lot of time to open this up." A man in a black yukata explained. He's a bit mad that he fat man just watch from the side.

"Don't just stand there, help us!" a man with fox mask had enough of the fat man's bullshit. They're teammates, they need to help each other.

"I know that you're the leader, but that doesn't mean that you can just relax." A third man complained. He wears a yellow yukata and a komuso. He clearly stole the komuso.

Grave robbers, Brook cursed in his heart. Out of all people that he hates, grave robbers are on top of the list. They are selfish bastards that'll do anything for money including robbing the dead. They have no respect for the dead and willing to trample on their coffins for a fat dough.

The robbers started to finally succeed on opening the coffin. They started to get excited and imagining what they would be spending after this. This would last for months not years!

"Look at this, It's such a waste to let it rust within the graveyard." The komuso guy cheers, taking an old sword.

"Who cares about a shitty old sword? Look at this jewels! This is more valuable than those." The fat man joined in.

Brook's is boiling with anger, he can't contain it no more. But he needs to stick to his plan. Stay within the shadows. Launch a psychological warfare against them. He shall unleash the true terror from the land of the dead.

*Klak,klak,klak*

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" The fox mask asked them. The sound of a wooden slippers, in the middle of a night at the graveyard? That doesn't sounds well.

"Its probably the wind or some animals passing through. Stop being a coward." The man in black mocks him.

"Its probably your imagination, don't think too much of it." The man in the komuso added.

As they ignored the sound. It's getting closer and closer each time. The man in the komuso heard it this time. He alerted the others.

"Guys! Someone is here! prepare yourselves for a fight!" He interrupted their loot hoarding.

They dropped their bags and ready their weapons instead. The fat man grabbed an axe while man in black used a knife. Komuso guy use the sword that he stole earlier and the fox mask use a short sword. As they stand in a formation, instead of a footprint sound they hear someone humming.

~Yo-ho-ho-ho-yo-ho-ho-ho~

Sweats dripping down their face. They're scared. After all of the robbing they've done, they've never met a ghost before. They assume is not real. But tonight's going to change their perspective.