Part Three:
Greet Fellow Ghosts Amicably
"I learned a few things while working here," Law said, standing at the nurse's station of the Maternity ward. There was only one nurse visible, her head bent over some files in front of her. He reached over and pushed a filing sorter over the desk, the nurse reacting with a shout as papers and the metal sorter tumbled to the floor. As the nurse crouched down to clean up, Law reached down and snatched her pen from the desk to tuck it into his pocket. When she set the pile atop of the desk, her head whipped around, patting her pockets, looking on the floor, then shuffling through the papers on the desk to search for her lost pen.
"That's why I lost so many of my pencils," Zoro commented, stunned.
"You have to remember the feeling of doing those actions," Law said flatly. Sanji settled himself by a stack of pamphlets on the desk, the nurse opening a drawer to retrieve another pen before sitting down on her chair.
"This is why it's important to remember our names," Sanji said, reaching out to the pamphlets. Zoro watched him make a frustrated frown as his hand passed right through. He reached out to do it again, his face strained.
"Hah," Zoro taunted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Weak sauce."
Sanji snarled at him.
"It's pointless overthinking it," Law told him as Sanji missed the stack once more. "Set back, remember the action, then do it."
"Who taught you to remember this if you don't even remember your name?" Zoro asked Law curiously as Sanji reset himself with a hard exhale before trying again.
Law shrugged. "It's just always been there. But counting on the mix of things I'm learning now, I had to learn from someone. Having a routine buries all those memories."
"I would've rode my motorcycle all around the world, then," Zoro said, mystified as Sanji tried again.
"He's not from this country," Sanji told Law.
"How in the fuck do you get so lost as a ghost that you misplace your entire country?" Law asked Zoro with a startled expression.
"I don't know! Stop bringing it up!" Zoro snapped at Sanji, swatting the back of his head. He then effortlessly performed the same action on the pamphlets Sanji was working on and sent them scattering. The nurse shouted out as the paper brochures rained over her. She popped out of her chair and shouted out a name with frustration, leaning over the desk to look over it.
"Good work," Law told Zoro. "Most times, the living can't hear us – I can sit there and talk myself hoarse to a patient – "
"Do you ever? Because we don't see you saying anything," Sanji said snidely, turning his attention to the stack of files the nurse had piled up earlier as she cleaned up the brochures with a huff.
Law rolled his eyes, leaning against the desk. "So talking to them normally isn't going to catch their attention, but like I said before, there are a rare few that can. I once ran into a man that heard me cursing him out for shitting all over me when I'd been very clear about him removing the lightbulb himself."
"I…don't want to hear details of that story," Zoro decided as Sanji frustrated himself with his efforts on moving the stack.
"Anyway, once I realized only a certain few could hear me, I made a note to pay more attention to these fuckers, but I seemed to not have retained that information," Law said, patting his notepad. "So it's up to you to find one of these people on your own."
Once the nurse set the stacked brochures aside, she reset in her chair. Unable to complete his task, Sanji sighed heavily, rolling his shoulders. He then made to hit the stack with frustration when he ended up knocking them slightly to the left with the gesture, the nurse looking over quickly from the side of her eye. Sanji lit up. He reached out and pushed the stack aside, the nurse reacting with a light gasp before standing.
Law reached out and knocked Sanji's head with the palm of his hand. "You can't do that while they're looking."
"STOP HITTING ME!" Sanji shouted out with frustration, rubbing his head as the nurse rose up from her chair with a light squeal, running away from the station. "WHY CAN'T I?"
"If you were living, what would you think if you saw that?" Law asked him flatly.
"That it was a ghost!"
Law moved his hand, indicating for him to go on. "And this isn't good because…?"
Puzzled, Sanji stopped rubbing his head to frown. Seeing that he wasn't getting it, Law pointed behind them to the monitor standing close to the wall, watching them. Sanji jumped and hastily put distance between them while Law straightened away from the counter.
"Every wrong thing you'll do those things show up, and catching the attention of the living like this happens to be one of them," Law explained, walking off to another row of doors, Sanji looking nervously behind him as Zoro followed along. "Scaring the living isn't on my to-do list, so it's not something I'll do intentionally. But because you guys have some mission you want to do, consider that part of it."
"Then how do we find people that can hear us?" Sanji asked with frustration. "Do we go back out onto the streets and just – find them?"
"It's not my intention, so you do you," Law said, marching over to the bedside of a heavy woman, her breathing exercises being noisily exerted. He examined the white board over her head, then looked at the clock on the wall. The charts around her told the trio that she was expecting twins. Law grabbed both shoulders, yanking her from the bed. Once the machines sounded out as he let go of her with one hand, reaching for a door with the other. Her presence of mind had her scrambling back to bed, intending on realigning herself with her still form, but he grabbed her with both hands, and kicked her through the open door, slamming it shut. Even as he walked away from it, the sound of frantic pounding emerged above the air of emergency through the professionals that flooded the room. Since it didn't seem like he was going to target the babies left behind, the pair followed after Law with shell-shocked expressions.
"Why do you decide who gets to die?" Sanji asked angrily, noticing that the monitors lingered behind as they moved onto a different corridor. He saw that they weren't following. As they turned the corner, he paused to see them sinking into the shadows without any sound or motion to make.
Did his wrongs get righted after making a choice like that? he wondered.
"I don't know," Law said with a bewildered look. "I never stopped to think about it."
"Well, do so! Law!"
Law looked back at Sanji with a frown, then looked at Zoro. "Why is he like this?" he asked him touchily.
Zoro shrugged. "I just met him, I don't know..."
"You two just met?" Law asked with a puzzled tone. "And you're banding together to find out the name of one boy you also just met?"
"I'm lost, so…I kinda don't care where I end up. I don't think I can find my way back again," Zoro answered honestly. "This is my afterlife, now. In Hell for whatever I did to piss somebody off…"
"I hope in your future you get so lost you won't have to hear this nagging for the duration of your dead period," Law told him with some sympathy.
Sanji mimicked him, turning to look at the trio clustered inside of a room where a woman held onto the railings with both hands, panting tightly. He walked up to the three, bending to say "hello" to all of them. Their conversation continued while Law looked the woman over. He reached in to pull the baby out, Zoro grimacing as he looked away. Law only unwrapped the cord around the baby's neck, the small being exhaling noisily before he repositioned the baby back inside of the woman. He opened the door leading up from the floor, and the pair followed after a glance back at the woman that continued panting.
On the fifth floor, Law veered into a room, glancing at the young man sitting at the edge of the bed. He was holding onto his head with both hands and talking to two others that were seated in there as well. All of them were wearing logo shirts, backpacks, and had dust on their clothes. Law looked away from the younger man with a lift of his eyebrows. He pointed at them grandly.
"You're in luck," he said. "Ghost hunters."
"Keen!" Sanji cried, then lowered his voice as Zoro looked at the trio with surprise. Rushing up to them, Sanji said, "Listen, we have a problem – "
"They can't hear you," Law pointed out, Sanji pausing in mid-speech once he realized this was so. "Follow them out."
"Will you come with us?" Zoro asked him, Law looking at him with a frown.
"Of course not! I'm busy here. But if you do find my name, that would be appreciated," he said, strangely sweet.
"After how you treated me, hell no," Sanji told him as Law chuckled, turned to the younger man, and swatted his forehead with a palm. The man blinked owlishly, then lowered his hands. The bruise remained, but he exclaimed that he didn't feel any more pain.
"You sure you're not an angel?" Zoro asked Law curiously.
Nearly an hour later, the pair followed closely after the trio leaving the hospital. Instead of marching through the mob as they had earlier, they followed them along the main path of the garage tower, and loaded up in their vehicle with them.
"What do ghost hunters actually do?" Sanji then asked Zoro curiously.
"I think they do what their names say," Zoro answered seriously, looking behind him. There was equipment in the back; camera cases, laptops, a backpack with more logos on them. His eyes lifted once he realized that there was another person sitting there, arms spread out over the seat and legs crossed daintily. His vision traveled up from those legs to the face that looked back at him with a wide smile – at least he thought it was a smile. It was hard to tell of a skeleton. He shrieked noisily, jerking forward, Sanji choking on his spit as he reacted.
"Yo ho ho ho ho!" the skeleton laughed, Sanji whirling around with surprise. He shrieked as well. "Ghosts? In the eye of the storm? What's with this generation?"
"What is that?" Sanji cried, pushing Zoro in front of him, the pair of them tumbling over one of the men and landing atop of the middle console. "That skeleton is talking!"
"It is?" the skeleton reacted fearfully, looking behind him with a startled jerk. He then leapt forward to escape whatever it was they were looking at, both men pushing at him while the occupants of the car continued on with their conversation, unaware of what was happening. By the time the two had managed to kick the skeleton back to its seat, all of them were panting hard. Sanji scrambled to the front passenger seat while Zoro pressed himself against driver's seat, winded.
"Don't scare me like that, I've seen some things," the skeleton told them wearily, wiping imaginary sweat from its forehead.
"You're a talking skeleton! What the hell was worse than that?" Sanji sputtered.
"I am?" Brook asked, horror heavy in his tone as he touched himself.
"Look into a mirror!"
Zoro shook his head furiously. "No way, Duran Duran. This guy is too far gone, we're not looking for his name!"
"I already know my name, good day to you, sir," the skeleton told Zoro peevishly. "It's Brook. And you are…?"
"Zoro."
"Good day, Zoro! You?"
Sanji answered him, crawling back onto the middle console. "Oh, so…oh! You know all this stuff already!"
"I do," Brook said, crossing his legs once more. "Unfortunately, I met these guys somewhere far away from here, and I took such a liking to them that I can't pull away. I really have no desire to return home."
"So…that's what ghost hunters do?" Sanji questioned curiously. "They find ghosts and take their kill home with them?"
"Were we set up?" Zoro wondered with stiff dismay.
"No, ghost hunters do not hunt ghosts for taking," Brook explained patiently. "They hunt ghosts for answers. They are interested in the afterlife – is there one? Why are they there? Are they able to communicate?"
"This is so much to absorb," Sanji told Zoro. "I went from having a routine to learning all sorts of things in what feels like a space of time."
Zoro nodded gravely. "All for a name."
"Names are important," Brook agreed. "If you don't remember your name, you can't remember who you were. Living your afterlife in that sense will lead you nowhere, and you'll become a residual haunting! Having a name allows you a tie to who you were as a living being, and gives you a sense of recognizance to understanding your new world. It sounds like you're both on that right track – you've truly stumbled onto a group of good people! I'm sure they could be the ones to help you."
Gesturing at the trio, Brook said, "Meet Luffy, Sabo and Franky. Good group of guys! There's also Nami, Ussop and cute little Carrot as a volunteer! They've traveled all around the country investigating pretty intense places, looking for communication! I'm sure if you hang around, it will be Ussop that will hear you – he can hear us."
"Why?" Sanji asked curiously. "Why extend a search all around the country – hey, maybe they can help this guy get home!"
"Stop talking about it!" Zoro snarled at him as he snickered.
"Are you lost, little one?" Brook asked with concern. "That looks like a bad fall you've taken."
"Motorcycle," Zoro said gruffly.
"A doctor helped us find you guys, and our problem is simple – we're looking for the name of a boy," Sanji said. "He left the hospital – "
"Why would he do that?" Brook cried. "The hospital is one of the few places where you are assisted into the light!"
"'Assisted' is a nice word compared to what we saw," Zoro mumbled, Sanji wincing. "That doctor truly is something else…"
"He's a scary one," Brook said with a titter. "I've had the displeasure of meeting him twice. Luffy is always in there for some reason for another. I now stay in the car for safety reasons."
"Why don't you just…go?" Sanji asked curiously. "If he's the door keeper – "
"He keeps opening the bottom door," Brook whispered.
After seeing what they had, Sanji and Zoro looked at each other fitfully. Finally seating himself correctly in his seat, Zoro asked, "Where do those doors lead?"
"Hell if I know! I'm not going to see for myself, ho ho ho ho!" Brook laughed, relaxing back into his seat. "I'm having too much fun here."
The apartment complex was riddled with people – as they unloaded themselves, the trio still talking amongst each other, Brook reached out and caught Sanji and Zoro, holding onto them both by the collars of their shirts. Perplexed as to why they were being treated this way, they had to follow Brook from the car after the trio, noting that their surroundings were so much brighter and lighter than the hospital area.
"I don't want to let you go," Brook said. "You'll find yourself wandering off to complete your routine. You have a mission, don't you? To locate a name?"
"Yes," Sanji said. "I actually haven't felt the need to return to my routine since we met him. We walked right off to the hospital without each of us actually going there."
"Extraordinary! I don't meet very many ghosts that can wander free on their own. Do you think that boy is still there?" Brook asked.
"I told him to wait there."
"Ghosts have very short memories," Brook warned him. "He could have wandered away by now."
"But," Zoro interrupted, giving them a clueless frown, "the kid doesn't know his name, yet he wandered out from the hospital on his own like we did."
"Oh," Sanji said slowly, understanding filling his face. He understood what Zoro was saying. When he was nameless, he'd wandered his routine without venturing into any thought to things outside of it. Zoro had been following his – so it would make sense that a sick boy who had died in the hospital would remain in the hospital to follow his routine until interrupted.
"But after my accident, I wandered from my school, the store and home," Sanji said. "And you wandered, too. Maybe the store was a part of his routine."
"With how long I've lived," Brook said, "the routine a ghost follows is the one set to him the day of his death. Perhaps he was allowed from the hospital to the store the day he passed. I suppose we won't truly know until he learns his name…"
The apartment Brook led them to was located on the third floor of the building, and voices seemed to assault them immediately.
"That is residual energy," Brook explained patiently, seeing their discomfort. "Because this is an apartment building, all the energy built and left behind by the living is trapped here within these walls, going no where but building up pressure. It's noticeable by the living, but very uncomfortable for us dead. It's not harmful. It doesn't mean it's haunted – it only means that the energy left behind repeats itself over and over until it simmers out. They've yet to find a solution to that particular problem. Ghost hunters are so very fascinating!"
Walking through the closing door, they were treated to the sight of a very messy apartment. Yet two television screens filled one wall with various wiring coming out of it, a wall shelf full of various electronic knickknacks lying around it. The kitchen was a mess, with one person standing inside of with takeout boxes, and the image of them wavered in place. Zoro and Sanji gave the images a puzzled look as Brook paused just inside of the entry way. He then slumped to the ground, Sanji and Zoro following suit moments later as their energy abruptly left them.
Brook managed to point up at the wall, gurgling. There were three paper signs attached to the wall there, along with a mirror. Neither man had any idea what the symbols met, but it glowed with a sharp yellow intensity, fizzling noisily.
"These…are…bad…for ghosts," he managed to eke out. "They…block us…for…their…protection…"
"I…wanna nap…" Sanji whined, looking to Zoro and finding him already sleeping in an uncomfortable position. He reached out and hit him impatiently before rolling onto his stomach, squinting as he viewed the moving bodies ahead of them. "Which…is…Ussop?"
Brook pointed in the direction. "I…hear…uhg…him…"
Gathering his breath, Sanji heaved out the name – it left him in a sputter, his energy allowing his torso to collapse to the floor. Cupping hands around his mouth, Sanji hollered for Ussop once more. Brook crawled away from the apartment, inhaling deeply once he was a safe distance from the doorway.
"There might be too much noise for them to hear you," Brook said, scratching his hair. "Destiny 2 just came out. They like to play video games. I love those things. You can wander as you please all around the place and they'd never notice!"
"You can anyway, right?" Sanji asked him skeptically, pulling Zoro behind him as he made his way to Brook. "Because we're ghosts."
"Not exactly," Brook confessed. "Now that the living is more attuned to the afterlife, they can actually spot us faster."
Sanji kicked Zoro impatiently as Brook echoed Ussop's name with his own voice. "Wake up! This is no time to sleep!"
"I forgot how good these feel," Zoro mumbled against his arm. "Lemme alone."
"Ghosts don't get tired! We don't feel good, either!" Sanji exclaimed. "We don't feel nothing!"
"Ah, ah, ah," Brook corrected. "The longer we're aware of ourselves as ghosts, we can remember old feelings as we would when we are dead."
Sanji looked at him with a frown, tapping his lips. With a start he reached into his left pocket, withdrawing a case of cigarettes and a book of matches. He shouted out with glee, startling Zoro from his lethargy as he lit one. He inhaled deeply and blew out, shooting smoke upward with a gusty exhale.
"Nasty," Zoro complained, covering his nose. "I didn't miss that smell!"
"God, I feel like I can breathe again," Sanji moaned, taking another inhale of a cigarette. Brook hollered out for Ussop once more before turning his sightless eyes on them.
"If only I had a nose to remember smoke," he said wistfully. He then looked up, squinting his eyes to see someone venturing near them. He patted Zoro atop of the head quickly. "It's him! Ussop!"
"USSOP!" Sanji shouted, rising to his feet and peering into the blurry mass ahead of him. "Can you hear me?"
"I hear you," they heard a man said nervously, hushing those behind him. "Brook?"
"I'm here!" Brook said joyously. "And I found friends!"
"Take down this shitty sign so we can talk to you!" Sanji demanded, using his cigarette to point with.
"Brook!" someone snapped out sharply. "You were supposed to move on!"
Brook laughed merrily.
Before Sanji could explain himself any further, a monitor pulled out from the entry way. Brook gasped, jumping to his feet and climbing onto Sanji's back while Zoro shot to his. The unmoving face watched them as its body slid away from the wall, stretching its arms out to form a barrier. A monitor appeared suddenly behind them, wrapping its lengthening arms around them with a hot squeeze. They didn't have time to cry out - the apartment disappeared, and the three found themselves outside the complex, stumbling slightly in the grass. Once they were able to determine their surroundings, the sense of wrongness began to drift over them. The instinct to return to their routines had them picturing familiar places until Brook touched their shoulders with his bony hands. The gesture only seemed to root them in place, forcing those feelings away.
"Ussop," Zoro said slowly. "That's the guy's name."
"The boy's name," Sanji whispered to himself, fists clenched. "No, the boy has his name. Find the doctor's name. Find Ussop. Ussop can hear us."
"We were kicked out again," Brook sighed, drumming his fingers atop of their shoulders. "It happens. We aren't supposed to contact the living so freely."
"That's what the monitors do?" Zoro asked curiously.
"Sends us to a place where we'll forget why we were even there in the first place." Brook then perked up. "But never fear! I remember!"
"The doctor never experienced this."
"It doesn't seem like he's ever interacted with those outside of patient care," Brook said. "If he had, then he would've been lost like the horde."
"Now what?" Sanji cried impatiently. "How dare that guy kick us out before we get a chance to talk to him?"
"Now, calm down," Zoro advised him, hands out. "There's another way about this."