"Alright, Brook, that's enough, get up already!" Luffy looked a little helpless as Brook knelt solemnly before him once more. He still wasn't used to anyone treating him so formally.
"Yohohoho! As you command, my Captain!" Brook sprang to his feet at Luffy's words, his pale samurai robe accentuating his tall, slender frame.
His deep-set eye sockets shimmered with admiration as he gazed at Luffy without blinking.
Only Brook truly understood how much his life had changed thanks to Luffy, and it wasn't just the change in appearance or his newfound power.
The Hogyoku, the mysterious black-blue orb, was now something he could clearly sense within himself. He didn't yet know how to wield it, but he was sure of one thing: it held limitless potential. The possibility of rising ever higher.
And the man standing before him, the one who faced every challenge like it was nothing, was the root of it all.
Though Brook wore a relaxed smile, deep in his soul, he had already offered Luffy his unshakable reverence and loyalty.
Luffy gave Brook a once-over, noting the unusual aura surrounding his arms. Suddenly, he asked,
"By the way, Brook, did you awaken any new powers?"
From what Luffy remembered of the world of Soul Reapers, anyone enhanced by the Hogyoku had gained some seriously terrifying abilities, some even broke the laws of nature. The 20th Espada, for instance, wielded power over aging itself.
And Brook had received an entire Hogyoku.
Hearing the question, Brook instantly perked up. He was never one to hide things, especially not from the person he admired.
Besides, all of his powers bore the unmistakable influence of one man. He couldn't wait for Luffy to see.
Yes… The Soul King had officially become a fanboy.
"Luffy-san! Robin-san! You better not blink!" Brook's voice turned solemn as he drew his pale bone-sword from his hip with a rattling flourish.
Whoosh!
The markings on his black skeletal hand briefly glowed, channeling power into the sword. A pale, chilling flame ignited, curling up from the hilt to the tip, exuding a haunting cold.
"Soul-Severing Blade!"
Brook's expression turned serious as he swung forcefully at the sea. The indigo flame transformed into a blazing wave of sword energy, trailing a long arc like a comet before plunging into the ocean.
Strangely, despite its power, the attack didn't create even a single ripple.
Instead, under the despairing chill of the ghostly fire, the ocean instantly froze over, a sheet of frost spread out over a hundred square meters, shrinking the already small harbor even further and filling the air with a spine-chilling pressure.
Even more astonishingly, the ghost flame showed no signs of dying out. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it continued expanding outward. Though the growth was nearly invisible to the naked eye, none of the three on the ship were average by any means, they noticed.
The frost radiated an eerie presence.
Robin and Luffy both stared, stunned by the spectacle. A strange sense of déjà vu tugged at them.
Robin glanced at Luffy and muttered,
"This… isn't this your?"
She was referring to Luffy's 'Zero Point Breakthrough', a move he had just recently learned and used only once, so she didn't yet know the name. But the way flame gave way to ice was uncannily similar to that technique. The scene reminded her of Luffy's fight against Ryuma.
"Luffy really is… amazing…"
"Brook doesn't even compare, wait, why is he looking at Luffy like that? Could it be?"
Robin spiraled once again into a fantasy world centered on Luffy. Perhaps even the heavens couldn't predict how a woman's mind works.
Luffy, too, was briefly stunned, though for different reasons.
Brook's new ability was indeed remarkably similar to Zero Point Breakthrough. But Luffy knew that, even without the Hogyoku, Brook in the future would naturally come to wield the power of the soul and unleash frost-based attacks.
So now the question was, did the Hogyoku simply awaken Brook's latent potential early? Or had it absorbed Luffy's thoughts and merged them with Brook's soul to create this power?
The answer mattered, because it would determine whether Brook could truly master the Hogyoku in time. And Luffy cared about that.
That said, Brook still needed a lot of practice to reach his full strength.
"Alright, Brook. That's enough. Cancel the ability." There was no way that ghost flame could expand endlessly without cost. Even if it didn't consume much energy, it was still a burden.
"Understood, Luffy-san!" Brook twirled his sword and flicked the tip, and the distant flame arced across the sky like a ghostly crescent moon, returning to the blade, then flowing back into the markings on his arm.
Luffy looked thoughtfully at Brook's darkened arm and coated his own right arm in Armament Haki. The coloring was different, but Brook's limb did resemble someone using Haki.
So maybe… the Hogyoku really had just unlocked his hidden potential?
Luffy was starting to see the answer. After all, judging by the special items used by Zoro, Nami, and Robin, none of them gave instant power. They simply raised the ceiling. The rest depended on the user's own growth.
It was time to kick off the training plan in earnest.
Luffy hadn't gone after Moria's head not because he couldn't, but because he saw far greater value in keeping him alive.
The moment Ryuma died, Luffy had made up his mind: Moria was his to protect.
Anyone who tried to take him down would be an enemy, even if that meant fighting them himself.
Of course, that only applied if Moria agreed to follow Luffy's lead.
Because when Ryuma died, the system gave Luffy not just experience points, but coins too.
In other words, Moria's zombies were recognized by the system as legitimate enemies.
If Luffy controlled Moria, it would be like owning an endless leveling field.
That alone showed how valuable Moria was.
Granted, finding corpses like Ryuma's was no easy task, and matching shadows were even harder to come by.
But Luffy already had a new idea.
Moria's plan hadn't been entirely wrong, he just had one fatal weakness: seawater.
None of his crew could dive underwater. Maybe it was by design, or maybe he just never thought of it.
But the endless ocean… was a treasure trove.
The massive Sea Kings were perfect corpse material, and their shadows were incredibly powerful.
And because they lived deep underwater, even after losing their shadows, they'd never be exposed to sunlight. It was the perfect match for Moria's power.
With that in mind, Luffy turned to look at the now-ruined island.
Maybe… it was time to pay Moria a little visit.
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