【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 372 Brooke

The air was filled with joy after the battle. Even the darkness and fog that had shrouded the Terror Ship for years seemed to have dissipated a lot because of this joy. Every member of the Victims' Alliance had pure happiness on their faces. They gathered together with the Straw Hat Pirates to start a grand celebration banquet.

The long dining table was filled with all kinds of mouth-watering delicacies. Sanji placed the last dish on the long table in an exaggerated manner, flicked off the small dust on his sleeve, and then looked at Nami and Robin who were talking with eyes full of endless love, and approached with brisk steps.

"My beautiful ladies!" Sanji clasped his hands over his chest dramatically and spoke to them lovingly, "Without your divine guidance, we would not be able to hold such a grand banquet!" He then turned to look at the gluttonous crowd, raised his voice, and delivered his speech, "It is necessary to let people know that the great treasure that appeared on the ship is not those jewels and gold, but these two radiant goddesses!"

"He started it again?" Nami muttered to herself, raising her eyebrows.

"Let him be, he's immersed in his own world." Robin smiled softly.

"Boring speech," Qi complained.

"What an idiot." Zoro said with disgust after taking a sip of wine.

"Fool." Luffy said with a smile while stuffing meat into his mouth.

"What did you say?" Sanji walked towards them with a threatening smile. "You'd better say it again."

Qi and Zoro turned around and continued to eat meat and drink as if nothing had happened, while Luffy, who was standing by, looked at Sanji's dangerous smile, quickly swallowed the food in his mouth, pouted his lips and whistled to the side, indicating that he didn't say anything. "No...I didn't say Sanji was a fool."

Sanji laughed angrily and pulled Luffy's puffed cheek in dissatisfaction. Then he sat beside him and lit a cigarette. "What happened after the battle?"

Luffy followed Sanji and looked at Qi in confusion. The other Straw Hat members also gathered around, including Brook, and everyone's eyes were fixed on Qi.

Qi frowned and took a sip of his drink, looking up at the crew and then back at Luffy "He just asked some questions about Luffy's brother and then left."

Luffy looked at Qi in confusion "What did he ask?"

Qi told everyone what Xiong had asked, and then added, "As for those battles, I could sense that he wasn't using his full strength. It was more like he was testing us than actually fighting."

"What do you mean?" Usopp asked nervously.

"Temptation? Is he testing us?" Zoro asked doubtfully. He had not noticed this from those battles.

"Yes, he didn't hurt anyone." Qi continued, "With his teleportation ability, he could have quickly defeated us several times the moment he teleported behind us, but he didn't. He didn't go all out on us, and I'm not sure if I could have defeated him if he had continued."

"What does he want to test?" Luffy asked in confusion.

Qi lowered his eyes and looked at the wooden barrel cup in his hand without saying a word. It was obvious that he was testing whether they would betray Luffy, or measuring whether they were worthy of Luffy.

Sanji took a puff of cigarette in silence, Nami held the cup tightly in her hand, Usopp looked at Luffy with a pale face, Chopper opened his eyes wide, a little scared, Franky and Robin were silent, and Brook sat beside them and watched quietly.

"Luffy, do you know that Shichibukai?" Zoro asked in confusion. He understood what Qi meant, but he didn't understand why that Shichibukai did this.

"Hmm?" Luffy thought hard and said, "No, I don't know him."

"Why would that Shichibukai do this?" Nami questioned, confused by Qi's conclusion.

"Yeah, that doesn't make sense," Sanji muttered, trying to act nonchalant and not think about what would have happened to them if he'd been serious. "But it's a good thing he didn't insist."

"We are still too weak." Jobra took off his hat and muttered. He felt a little guilty that he could not help much in the battle.

"No, just now." Luffy stood up and grinned, looking at his crew with a determined look "We won't be soon."

"That's right, it won't be long." Qi also said, looking up at everyone and smiling.

"Now let's enjoy the party!!" Luffy cheered, not caring about the low mood of everyone who hadn't completely left yet. "Brook, I want to listen to Binx's wine!!"

"Okay, Mr. Luffy, it's my honor to play for you, yohoho!" Blue said happily, and then walked towards the piano in the room.

Brook placed his hands on the piano, looked at Luffy who was lying on the piano, looking at him expectantly, and said softly, "Thank you, Mr. Luffy."

"Nihihihi! We are partners!" Luffy said with a bright smile on his face "I like you, you are what I wanted from the beginning, the best musician!" His smile became even brighter "You also know Lab, you are a skeleton, and you can say Yohoho!"

"Thank you, Mr. Luffy," Brook said, not sure what he was thanking him for, maybe everything, but looking at his captain, Brook's face showed a hint of unconcealed joy "Please wait a moment."

As Brooke spoke, he opened his skull and took out his treasure.

"Is there such a structure!?" Sanji and Usopp looked at Brook in disbelief as he opened his skull.

Luffy's eyes were practically sparkling as he looked at Brook.

"This is something I bought from a merchant ship a while ago. It's called a sound shell. This magical shell can store sounds and play them back later." Brooke said as he placed the shell on the piano. "The songs inside are the songs of our deceased companions when they were alive... They wanted to tell Lab that we have ended our journey happily..."

"Can I play it now?" Brook looked up at Luffy and asked.

"Oh, I want to hear it! Lab will definitely be very happy!" Luffy said excitedly.

"Well..." Brooke gently pressed the play button, and a familiar song came out. The scene of that day seemed to appear before his eyes again.

Lab, we will definitely come back. Wait for us. Since you've waited 50 years... can you wait another year or two? I want to meet you face to face as promised!

"This is the Rumba Pirates' final chorus, the one we sang with our companions, pouring our last remaining strength into.

Brook picked up the song after it finished playing and recalled the fifty years he had lived alone in the damp fog. "I have listened to this song countless times in the fifty years I have been drifting alone on the dark and foggy sea. Only when I listened to this song on the empty ship did I feel that I was not alone."