I do not own One Piece, it belongs to Eiichiro Oda, the legend. Onwards with the story!
The city of Vivace, on Concerto Island was famous for its buildings that whenever the winds would blow, would play an ever-changing melody. Many people visited this city to hear the sounds of flutes when the wind blew throughout the buildings. And this is where our story begins, as a ship bearing the head of a lion (or was it a sunflower?) entered Vivace's port.
"Dock Sunny at the music island, Nami! It's time to go exploring!" The skeleton on the deck of the Thousand Sunny tilted his skull, ignoring the loud shouts of his captain. "I wonder where that melody is coming from?"
Somewhere on the corner of one of Vivace's many streets, a child played a keyboard.
Brook wandered through the city of Vivace, observing the colourful painted signs and buildings overgrown with greenery when he heard the melody he heard on the ship. following the sounds of a keyboard, the skeleton came to a stop a few feet from the corner of intersecting streets. The corner was away from all foot traffic, and the buildings surrounding the scene in front of him were abandoned.
A little girl playing a battered keyboard, one of the sleeves of her jacket empty. It was a scene sure to melt even the hardest of hearts, a little girl trying to play the music she loved so much without letting her disability handicap her. Something was off, Brook realised.
The song, though elaborate with changing dynamics and ornaments, was empty. Empty of expression, of emotion, of passion.
With a creak of his joints, though he was just all joints and bones now - "Yohohohoho! What a lovely song, Jou-chan! Mind if I accompany you?" The girl looked up in shock to see the skeleton crouching next to her, before the surprise in her eyes was clouded by pride. "No thank you, Skeleton-san. I can play well enough by myself." The girl proceeded to play, though her sole hand fumbled through the flowing notes that were supposed to offset the chords the missing right hand was supposed to play.
"Yohohoho! But Jou-chan," Brook chuckled as he pulled out his violin, "Music is meant to be shared others, is it not?" The violin played the missing chords joining with the sound of the keyboard. The girl looked up in surprise, her fingers pausing before scrambling to keep time with the steady rhythm she couldn't provide.
At the end of the song, the skeleton tipped his hat. "Think about what I said, Jou-chan." As the skeleton left, the girl stared at the wad of Beli that wasn't in her keyboard case before.
She threw it across the street. The remaining Belis glittered, measly and few. Not enough to buy a new hand. Not enough to buy the happiness that comes with performing a perfect piece. Nothing could fix what was broken after all.
"Why are you doing this?" she demanded the moment the skeleton came (again) to her corner of musical solitude. The skeleton had come three times after their first meeting. "Pardon me?" asked the skeleton. "Why do you... do whatever you're doing! Some kind of weird mind game! Are you trying to steal something? Get information? ...Why do you car- come?" The girl could feel her voice catch on the last sentence. "Does it matter, whether I 'share my music' or not? It's not like it's any good anymore," she mumbled.
In the silence after the girl's outburst, a gentle "May I sit?" interrupted. The skeleton slowly sat down. "When I was young-" "skeletons can be young?" the girl interrupted, before quickly closing her mouth, pretending she isn't invested the skeleton's story already. "I suppose so," the skeleton chuckled, "when I was alive, I never had time to play music. I didn't have the money, you see. Besides, the kingdom where I grew up in wanted all men of eligible age to be wielding a sword, not an instrument. But when I first started to play the violin, what didn't bring me joy was performing the piece perfectly, but the expressions of others. My music brought the soldiers in my barracks joy. And so I practised and practised, but not even if I didn't play the piece right, the soldiers didn't care. they were still happy, and I think that's what matters to me. I think those expressions were what convinced me that even if I lost both of my arms or even my life, I would still be a musician."
"I'm home," the girl called. Nobody responded, but the sound of quiet sobbing could be heard somewhere in the apartment. The girl crept towards her mother's bedroom, and peeked through the door cautiously. Her mother was sobbing on the floor, surrounded by bottles of booze. The girl opened her mouth to offer some sort of comfort, but nothing came out. The girl softly closed the door in defeat.
"Stupid," she muttered, "stupid pops, stupid skeleton, stupid hand!" The girl sighed, before her eyes drifted towards the piano, covered by a sheet and dust, and the door to the bedroom.
Somewhere in a ship docked in Vivace, Concerto Island...
Brook smiled as he listened to the sound of a faraway piano. "How beautiful. Oh," the skeleton looked up. "Looks like the wind is picking up." In the City of Vivace, a girl played the piano as the city seemed to accompany her song. The girl stumbled over the notes, but she continued playing, finally at peace. Nobody was judging her piece, the wind was forgiving as she played, and she was happy. A shadow crept into the living room where the girl continued to play the piano. "Thank you, Aria," her mother murmured, her eyes reflecting the tears shining in both hers and her daughter's eyes. But they were happy tears, and that was all that mattered to Aria. "'Welcome, Ma." The girl, Aria, smiled back, taking her hands off the piano to hug her mother.
The sound of feet running across the docks of Vivace staccato-ed through the still morning. The navigator, cook, and sharpshooter hurried onto the deck of the Thousand Sunny, hauling full bags onto the ship.
"Whew!" Nami sighed. "That shopkeeper was really generous to give us all of those supplies for free!" "That doesn't mean you should've cleared out her whole stock!" Usopp snapped, whacking Nami upside the head. "You didn't let me take most of it anyways," Nami whined, "there was still some stuff left in the back room!" "Nami-chan is so economic~" swooned Sanji, swaying from side to side, before whirling around to glare at Usopp. "Don't yell at Nami-chan, Long Nose!"
"What's all the commotion about, yohohohoho?" "Oh, hi Brook," greeted Usopp from where he was lying on the ground, recovering from Sanji's kick.
"EH?! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ARM?!" Brook looked down to see his arm, or lack of one thereof, that his crewmates gaped at. "Oh, this?" "YES THAT!" His three crew mates yelled at him. "Well you see," the skeleton mused, "a girl needed a new arm. So I gave her mine. Yohohohoho! Do you perhaps have any milk? I need to regrow my arm."
"THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS, IDIOT!" The three pirates shrieked. "For what, the arm or the milk?" questioned the skeleton as he rummaged through the gigantic sacks for milk. "BOTH!" yelled the three. "Oh, there it is," the skeleton exclaimed, retrieving a carton of milk from one of the bags before guzzling it down. "There you go, good as new, yohohohoho!" Sanji, Usopp, and Nami stared at Brook's perfectly functional new arm that definitely wasn't there a moment ago. "HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!"
"Ma," Aria said flatly. "Yes, sweetheart," her mother hummed while rearranging the wares on the shelves. "Ma," Aria repeated, "where is all of the products?! There's barely anything left in the shop! And when I checked the cash register, it doesn't look like they paid for any of it!" "Well you see sweetheart," her mother smiled, "some of the pirates from that nice skeleton's crew came to get supplies, so I gave it to them for free. It's the least I can do after that skeleton gave you a new hand!" Aria sighed resignedly, before looking down at her new arm. "Did you make sure to slip in the new violin prototype we got from Semplice for Skeleton-san?"
Author's Note:
This one-shot came to me while I was playing the piano, and I just imagined this Carole and Tuesday/Stonehenge/Water Seven music city with a girl with one hand. I also decided to elaborate on the reason why Brook is a musician (the reasons provided this fanfiction is just a theory) based on his overall backstory. I actually never knew Brook was a leader of battle convoy until I was researching his wiki for this one shot. I'm probably going to edit this fic because my paragraphs dividers aren't working :( Anyways, I hope you enjoy this one shot, and feel free to tell me what you think!