A/N: I just realised that I need to give the crew members that joined later some love, since my chapters only centre around the east blue group. So here ya go, a chapter related to our second newest member, brook and it's his pov! But he's already too old to be considered new, Yohohoho!
J is for Jokes and Jolly shanties.
"Laughter is the best medicine", so goes the saying that is very well known. And that is not to say that it may not be the case, but when you're a pirate sailing a sea that shifts weathers at the drop of a hat, you're usually going to need more than laughter.
But that doesn't mean you need to be a stiff rock all the time, why, what's a pirate crew without a lot of singing and dancing and general rambunctiousness?
And the rumbar pirates prided themselves on their music. Music that can sway a person's soul, evoke a flurry of emotions, make one truly understand the spirit of the tune.
And laughter and songs are the spirit of a pirate after all.
Yohohoho, yo ho ho ho,
Yohohoho, yo ho ho ho.
However while the grand line is the sea of dreams, it has also crushed the hopes of many. And every crew hopes not to end up at the bottom of the sea. But things don't always end up like one wishes it to, does it?
Binksu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo,
The sea is cruel and fair at the same time. No matter how strong you may be, the sea eventually claims you. Such is the life of a pirate. Diseases, injuries, being fugitives, it's all a pirate's life.
Umikaze, kimakase, namimakase,
Shio No Mukou De, Yuuhi wo sawagu,
Sora nya, wa wo kaku Tori no uta.
And everyone just grabs on to the inkling of hope that it won't be them on the bottom of the sea floor. That maybe, just maybe, they might be one of the few that overcome the odds.
Just maybe, they'll still be together to the end.
Just maybe, it won't be them.
Just maybe, they'll live to tell the tale of them conquering the grand line, get back to their close ones, and fulfill promises.
Just maybe they'll reach the familiar welcoming harbour of their own village.
Just maybe the sea will let them live.
Sayonara minato, tsumugi no Sato yo
Don to icchou utao funade no uta,
Kinpa ginpa mo, shibuki ni kakete,
Oretachya yuku zo umi ni kagiri.
But the sea is relentless, and is just in it's judgement. No matter who you are, the sea will drag you down just the same.
Even if you're near death after a long battle, even if you have no hope to live, the sea will not pity you, and drag you down just the same.
But they are pirates, and pirates know to accept when their lives are offered to the sea. They know when they're not going to see another sunrise, they know when they're never going to laugh again, they know that they're not going to be spared.
But in those times, all you have to do is laugh. Cause pirates are stubborn, and will not go down upset, but cheering and singing, waiting for the sea to swallow them up.
Binksu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo,
Warera kaizoku, umi watteku,
Nami wa Makura ni, negara wa fune yo
Ho ni hata ni ketateru wa dokura
Arashi wa Kita zo, senri no Sora ni,
Nami ga odoru drama narase,
Okubyoukaze ni, fukakerya saigo,
Asu ga asahi ga nai ja nashi,
Dancing and singing till you die, a song filled with sorrow and grief, but a musician doesn't let it affect his performance, and plays the merry tune, even as the singing and cheering slowly, but surely reduces, one by one. Even if your orchestra is slowly but surely reducing, until it is a quartet, you play. A trio, you still continue, a duo, and finally a solo.
You still play and laugh. Because that is the life of a pirate.
Even if you roam about the Florian triangle for 50 years as a soul, you continue to be cheery, even if you are a skeleton, you crack jokes and play. For you are a pirate.
For what is a pirate without laughter and melodies?
Even if you will not see them again. Even if you never are able to fulfill your promise. You will push through, for you are still alive. Well, undead, but it has the same sentiment.
And you will play that jolly tune, hidden in the shadows of the Florian triangle, hoping to recover the lost shards of a family.
And if a ray of light shines through, giving you some inkling of hope, a small, tiny, but so significant light, would you take it? Would you try to reform what you had once before?
Knowing that you may lose it all again?
Binksu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo,
Kyou wa asu ka to yoi no yume,
Te wo furu Kage ni,
mo aenai yo,
Nani wo kyokuyou, asu mo tsukuyo,
But what is a pirate's life without risks?
And as you look at the grinning boy hanging over your piano, reaching out an arm, an offer to give you back what you once lost, you know that all the suffering and loneliness of the past 50 years can all be erased if you just take his hand.
And everything you felt was impossible has now been renewed, blinding, bright, and unrelenting, just like the spirit of the man who you are willing to calm your captain.
And maybe, holding on to that small wish of conquering the sea isn't that bad after all.
Binksu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo,
Don to icchou utao unaba no uta,
Douse dare demo, itsuka wa hone yo,
Hatenashi, atenashi, waraebanashi.
And you can finally be alive. Ah, but you're already dead, Yohohoho!
And this crew, small as it is, will one day conquer the sea.
And you are proud to call yourself their nakama.
"Ah! My tears can't stop flowing, but it's not like I have any eyes! Because I'm just bones! Yohohoho!"
Because what make you alive is not bodily organs or muscles, but your soul.
Wowza, I procrastinated a lot and made a bad chapter by essentially dissecting binksu no sake. But here ya go, brook pov.I tried something new and this is how it turned out. So please critique and suggest so I can improve.