The bonds of broken music. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did, I would be busy drawing instead of writing Fanfictions

21: A Shattered Companionship 2- Them Bones

Times were good.

For Scratchmen Apoo and Brook, their current trip on the seas was just one continuous party. Brook was elated to see that Apoo was also a music buff (just him eating the Sound-Sound Fruit wasn't evidence enough) and had a plethora of instruments on his ship. Apoo, inversely, was also elated that Brook knew how to play every instrument he had.

"Some of these instruments aren't even well known to the general public," Apoo said amazed. "How come you know how to play them all so well?"

"Yohohohoho! I've had two lifetimes to perfect my musical skill to the level where I can just play any instrument I see. After a while, though, my muscles do get tired out from playing so much."

"I see, well that's—"

"Oh wait, I don't have any muscles! Yohohohohohohoho!"

"Apapapapapa!" Apoo joined in the laughter. Apparently, he found Brook's brand of humor funny (even though most people don't).

Brook had been traveling with the On Air Pirates for two and a half days now. This is not to say that the trip was smooth, cause it simply was not. They were plagued with problems ever since the beginning of the trip, whether it be food and water shortages (which Brook later admitted to taking), mechanical problems with the ship (which Brook later admitted to tinkering with), and several small pirate attacks (which Brook's loud music seemed to have attracted).

The worst was a massive storm the pirates had to weather. Rain beat down in sheets against the sails, slowing the ship down, wind was coming in from the side, and massive waves were striking every angle of the ship. It took all of the On Air Pirate's cunning and Apoo's leadership abilities to lead them through.

At one point in the storm, Brook (who was busy hiding in the corner), was struck by a massive wave and sent flying onto the deck. There, a terrible gust of wind took him and started bringing him to the side of the ship.

"It appears that my hulking physique isn't enough to stop this wind…" he said with a laugh as he continued to be sent flying.

"…Oh wait, I'm only bones! Yohohohohoho—"

He struck the edge of the ship and toppled over it, into the water, ironically, still laughing at his skeleton joke.

"Brook!" Apoo yelled, dashing towards the edge of the ship.

Luckily, Apoo used his long arms to grab Brook just before he was out of reach. With a heave, he pulled him up and told him to stay inside the ship, which he happily did. With a sigh, Apoo went back to commanding the ship, and soon enough, the storm was over.

There were several minor things as well, but they were not worth mention, at least not to Brook anyway.

Regardless of what happened, music is what always kept the On Air Pirates in good spirits. Brook and Apoo's constant playing of instruments always made the crew cheerful and optimistic.

There were also constant challenges as to who can play music better. Neither one willing to back down, put their skill to the test and both played at the same time until one was willing to give up. These would sometimes go on for six hours at a time until both of them collapsed exhausted, and usually with Brook making some kind of skeleton joke.

(Yohohohohohoho!)

All in all, life was good for the two pirates, and their love for music only made their bond stronger.

One day, both Apoo, Brook, and a few scattering crewmen were playing a song together (which is usually what they did to pass the time), with the rest of the crew watching and applauding. After several minutes of this, the song ended, and the entire crew was up in applause. Apoo and Brook gave each other a high-five as a sign of respect.

"You got some nimble fingers man!" Apoo complimented. "Being able to play that instrument so well."

"I account it for all of the milk I drink to keep the bones in my fingers strong…" Brook started.

The entire crew was quiet as they knew what was coming next. "Oh wait, I only have bones! Yohohohohohoho!"

The crew was expecting a skeleton joke, yet somehow, every time Brook says one, it's always funny. Most likely because the jokes aren't good, but because Brook himself says them, and that's what makes the comedy.

"How 'bout another one?" asked Apoo with a laugh.

"Sounds good," Brook said, putting his current instrument down and going over to the piano. "I think I'll play this one now though."

"Suit yourself," Apoo said, going back to his wind instrument.

They played another five minute song, but this one wasn't so upbeat as the others. It was more like a deep moving song. No one knew what brought it on, but later, they would most likely see that song as an omen and a sign.

When they were done, the applause went up, and when it subsided, only one person was still applauding. Everyone looked around, until the person finally spoke up.

"That was a pretty nice song."

Everyone immediately looked behind them to see a woman sitting on the railing, still clapping slowly. "Who the hell are you?!" Apoo asked, a bit off-guard.

The first thing everyone noticed about this mysterious woman was that she was singularly beautiful. She looked around five-nine and appeared to be in her early-to-mid-twenties. Her face looked youthful and vibrant, and no real makeup could be seen, save for very distinct ruby color on her lips. She had straight long brown hair, parted to the side, and it flowed down almost to the end of her back. She dressed very scantily, only wearing a bikini top, showing off her moderately-sized breasts and small stomach, and a small skirt that showed off most of her legs, all the way down to her high-heeled shoes.

She smiled very seductively and said, "The name is Aliyyah, but folks around here seem to call me the Typhoon."

Before anyone could speak, Brook was right in front of her, kneeling down and took her hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you," he said in a very gentlemanly-like tone. "My name is Brook."

"I've never seen a talking skeleton before," she remarked with a giggle. "It's very nice to meet your Brook."

"I was wondering," he said, looking up at her, "if you would be so kind as to show me your panties."

With that, her cheerful face seemed to turn into that of anger. Without another word, she knocked Brook across the side of his head, sending him flying into the side of the ship. The crew didn't seem to react well to this.

"She attacked Brook! Get her!"

She smiled again and simply held out her right arm. Before they knew it, a large amount of swirling water shot out of it, hitting the people running towards her. "Typhoon!" she said with a joy in her voice.

Apoo didn't take anymore of this as he began to transform his body parts into instruments. "Tatakau Music: Scratch Shan Don!"

"Shan!" he yelled, as a sound wave flew out and cut her right arm off at the elbow. She looked at it with a mock-expression of pain on her face. "Don!"

A massive explosion took place with her at the center. She dropped down like a ton of bricks. Apoo then went over to his ailing crewmates and tried to help them. "Now that wasn't very nice," he heard, as he looked up only to get hit by a blast of water, sending him flying against the rail of his ship.

Aliyyah stood there unharmed, and that malicious smile was back on her face. "You!" Apoo yelled. "What devil fruit did you eat?"

Aliyyah then seemed to morph into a liquid and slid towards Apoo and quick speeds. She reconstituted herself right in front of Apoo and answered, "I ate the Soak-Soak Fruit, and it's a logia-type that lets me turn into water."

"That means—" started Apoo.

"That's right!" cut of Aliyyah as she picked Apoo up by the throat. "It means that your attacks can't hurt me at all."

Before Apoo could attack, she turned her free arm into a shape of a sword. "Soak-Soak Sword! You may think water can't hurt you, but when it's packed hard enough, it's just as strong as steel!"

She demonstrated by slashing Apoo across his chest, leaving a large gash and sent him roaring in pain. Before she could do anything else, Brook intervened by slicing off the arm she was holding Apoo with, freeing him.

She looked angrily at Brook as her arm grew back. "That was quite rude."

"Says the woman who's acting very unlady-like!" Brook retorted, as he lunged his sword at her again, this time at her chest.

He found that his sword only went through water, leaving her unharmed. Before Brook could pull it out, she turned her fist into what looked like a mallet and swung it at the side of Brook's head, sending him flying yet again.

"My orders are to capture him; I don't have time to play with someone like you. Get lost!"

Apoo was now back on his feet, turning his arm into another instrument, but before he could play another song, Aliyyah's legs turned into jet streams that propelled her into the air, right above Apoo. Without a word, she shot down and knocked Apoo down, landing on his chest.

He spat out a good amount of blood from that strike, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. He began to transform his arm yet again into another instrument to incapacitate her, but she saw it coming. Before he could fully transform them, she shot two blobs of water down at both hands. Surprisingly, they both kept his arms down, and he wasn't able to move them again.

"Hey, what's this…" he said. "I'm starting to feel…weak…"

Aliyyah giggled yet again as she explained. "The thing that makes me much more powerful than other logia-type devil fruit users is that I have the ability to cancel out other people's devil fruit powers by simply attaching water to them. In short, I am a seastone to other devil fruit users."

Apoo then fainted, struggle still stamped on his face. She got off his chest and picked him up with a grunt. "Despite my power though," she said, "I'd still rank myself as around the fourth strongest of our group."

No one around was able to hear it, but Brook was back up on his feet charging at her again. He leapt into the air and yelled, "Let him go!"

Aliyyah sighed as she pointed her fist towards Brook. "Typhoon!" she yelled, sending a massive amount of water flying towards Brook, sending him back to the ground.

Aliyyah morphed both blobs of water into one behind Apoo's back, forming a makeshift seastone cuff. She looked back at the fallen crewmembers and the struggling Brook and blew a kiss at them.

"Cya, it was fun!"

With that, she leapt off of the ship and landed on a small raft right besides it with an incapacitated prisoner that looked like a marine.

("Well, we had a female intruder enter into the base a while ago, demanding to see Captain Shuu, the commanding officer in this base")

Using her devil fruit powers, she was able to power it so that it would move at incredible speeds; it raced away from the crew and their ship.

Brook was up at this time and ran over to the side of the ship, only to see them speeding away. He slammed his fist down angrily at the side and quickly turned around. "Get up all of you! We need to go get Apoo back right now!"

Just then, Brook heard another voice on the other side of the boat.

"Hello?!"

He vaguely recognized that voice and looked over to see Franky and Taroimo in their ship Clockwork. Brook quickly told them to get aboard, as they attached Clockwork to the side of the ship and quickly got aboard.

Franky was ready to have a great meeting with Brook and explain his harrowing trip on his small boat to eventually end up right by his, but as he saw, that wasn't going to happen. "What's up?" he asked, as Taroimo barked.

"I'll explain later!" he said angrily, kicking at the fallen crewmen. "Come on! Get up! Your Captain gets stolen and all you can do is lie there?!"

Soon enough, the entire crew was up, and they were working their hardest to try and get the ship to catch up. Franky sat Brook down and forced him to explain. Brook did, and at the end, Franky was in tears at the sad story.

After a quick slap to the back of the head, Franky was on his feet and vowed to help them. He then casually pointed out how she was heading in the same direction they were supposed to go.

"She must be going to the New World," Brook said, "which means we can probably catch her in Sabaody if we're fast. Come on! Make this ship go faster!"

Franky was a bit put-off. He had never seen Brook act like this before; he imagined that he and Apoo had some kind of strong bond. The crew spent the rest of the day trying to make up for lost time.

There was no music playing today.

Taroimo barked.

A bittersweet reunion amongst tragedy...

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