Play That Song
"Hey, ossan, can you play Binks's Sake?" Luffy asked the old man at the piano in the bar.
"Nahahaha! I can, kid, but I can't do it justice," the old man replied, tipping his cowboy hat at the young captain. The kid had been here for the better part of three hours, attentive to the music and happy to chat with the elderly musician. He was an honest kid too, not hiding that he was a pirate (the old man always had a soft spot for light hearted pirates) or that his whole crew was scattered around the town and port.
"Liar! You've been saying that for years and I've yet to hear anyone play is better," the bartender threw in his two cents.
"I'm tellin' ya, I've heard it played better," the old pianist returned with a grin.
"And I've told you since I was a wee lad that it's not possible, even if you don't remember much of anything before you drifted into the waters around here. If there's someone out there who plays it better than you, they've got to have a divine hand at the piano."
"Shishishi, come on, ossan. Play!" Luffy laughed.
"Nahahaha, you got it, kid!" And so the old man played.
"So kid, was that the best version you've ever heard of that song or what?" the bartender asked once the old man finished, sure of the answer.
"Shishishi, nope!" Luffy said with a grin, laughing more as the bartender's jaw dropped, causing the old man to join him in laughing. "My musician is the best in the world! He's a skeleton! But you play pretty good too, Cowboy-ossan." No one played as good as Brook, but that didn't mean Luffy couldn't enjoy someone else playing.
"Nahahaha! Is that so? You might want to try pestering him to come out here then. I wouldn't mind hearing someone play better than me. We could even play a duet!"
"That's a great idea, Cowboy-ossan! I'll go get Brook!" Luffy said, running out of the bar to fetch his musician. Brook would have so much fun playing with the awesome Cowboy-ossan!
The old man just laughed some more at the boy's enthusiasm and scratched his head at the name of this other musician, then got back to playing for the other day patrons.
It wasn't long before he heard the excitable kid's voice come bouncing back, a deeper, more melodic voice answering the kid. The old man smiled to himself, Let's see if this guy's really that good. Scooting sideways on the piano bench as he ended his current song, he started a basic single piano duet from when he had just started learning after arriving on this island. His grin stretched wider when he heard the hurried tap of boots as the other musician quickly came in and settled on piano bench, easily diving into the melody of the song. They finished that one and he let the kid's musician pick the next song and they just kept going and going and going. There was no eye contact, no looking for signals from the other. They just played, complimenting and working around each other. The old man had to admit, the kid's musician was indeed better than him, but that just made it a pleasure to play with a true maestro.
And then the old man let the kid's musician take over the piano, somehow knowing that the other was going to play that song.
It was just like he remembered. The song that was meant for any and every occasion, that was the heart and soul of life itself. And it was played in that way he had always tried to replicate ever since he remembered his love of music and decided to learn to play himself.
More than that, looking at the tall, afroed figure playing at the piano seemed to stir a sense of nostalgia he hadn't felt so strongly since he first heard the song on this island.
Too soon, the song ended and the old man was sure that the only one out doing him in their applause was the kid.
"Looks like I owe you an apology," the bartender said, looking a mite embarrassed. "Guess there is someone out there who can play it better."
"Nahahaha!" the old man laughed, only to startle to a stop when the kid's musician whipped around with ridiculous speed. They simple stared at each other. Well, the old man assumed the kid's musician was staring, since the guy didn't have eyes, being a skeleton and all.
The skeleton got up and stiffly came over. His hand hovered uncertainly before he set a bony finger against the other's face and traced the tattoo under his eye and then the one on his chin.
"Y-Yorki-san?" the skeleton asked, sounding shell shocked.
"That's my name, though I don't think we were introduced," Yorki said, tilting his head at the towering musician. "I can't shake the feeling I know you from somewhere, though you would think I would remember a living skeleton, of all things… Must've been before I ended up here. Can't remember much from before nearly 55 years ago. Just a love for music and the sea, and a promise to return to child who's probably grown up and more than done with waiting for me to show up."
The skeleton's response was part hysterical laugh, part heart-wrenching sob. "I-I might have a f-fix for that, if y-you'd care to l-listen?"
The skeleton, no, Brook played the piano and told the story of a man from a lifetime ago in the West Blue known as Calico Yorki, captain of the Rumbar Pirates. As the musician played, the old man remembered things he hadn't in over fifty years. There was shame in forgetting the specifics of his promise to Laboon, in forgetting his wonderful best friend who was alive (though not exactly in the flesh) before him, but there was joy and wonder in those memories too for the life he had lived. In exchange, he told his former first mate (Yorki knew Brook belonged to the kid now more than him, not to mention that Yorki was out of the pirate game anyway while Brook was clearly still in it) of his life after his memories began. Of waking up in the doctor's house on this island in the South Blue, no solid memories of his past, of deciding to learn to play the piano when no musician he met could match his memory of that song, watching the town grow into a city, the rise and fall of the first Pirate King (what a surprise he was in the presence of the second), and getting old (his friend had not only cheated death, but all the trouble of a body getting old and worn out, the lucky bastard).
It was a happy afternoon and as evening came, the rest of the kid's (and Brook's) crew gathered, telling stories of their own adventures.
As it turned to night, Yorki called out once more, "Hey, Brook! Let's play that song!"
Author's Note
So Black' Victor Cachat asked back at chapter 39 about maybe having Luffy and Yorki meet up, so here it is, since I finally got inspired.
I have a thing for making these canon compliant/plausible, so to keep that, the story here is that Yorki made it through the Calm Belt, but ended up in a life boat with no pirate markers in the South Blue (it had to be that or the East). Being in one of the four Blues, I don't think people there pay much attention to news in other Blues and only the world changing stuff from the Grand Line (what with crossing into other seas being difficult because of the Calm Belt and Red Line), so Captain Calico Yorki wouldn't be a known figure to normal folk who are likely to never meet him. And while the sickness that Yorki was dying from was cured, it messed him up bad and he couldn't remember his past clearly (kind of like Sabo, but with more memories) because if he did survive and remember, I feel there's no way Yorki wouldn't have gone to Laboon, even if it was just to say he was out of the trip around the world but others were still going. Also, Yorki was never shown playing an instrument, so I ad libbed that he didn't play before, just enjoyed listening, but learned to play after he returned to the Blues.
As for how the Straw Hats end up in the South Blue, cutting across the Calm Belt seems like a good way to lose the Marines and Nami's world map could use a stop in the Blues, even if they are already mapped out by others.
