Brook

Brook (ブルック, Burukku), alias Dead Bones (デッドボーンズ, Deddo Bōnzu), Humming Brook (鼻唄のブルック, Hanauta no Burukku), Humming Swordsman, and Gentleman Skeleton is the musician of the Straw Hat Pirates. He is a skeleton the Straw Hats found on board a ghost ship after drifting into the Florian Triangle. He is a Devil Fruit user who ate the Revive-Revive Fruit and is an undead being brought back into a pseudo-immortal state because of its powers. He is the ninth member of the Straw Hat crew and the ninth to join Luffy's crew. He is also one of the two swordsmen onboard their current ship with the other being Zoro. He fills the role of the long awaited musician that Luffy wanted for his crew since his journey began. His bounty is 83,000,000 berries.

Appearance

 * Voice Actor: Not Known (English), Yūichi Nagashima (Japanese)

Brook is an extremely tall skeleton with a black afro. He is the tallest member of the Straw Hat crew, in height. He often wears clothing usually associated with gentlemen in varying degrees. His age is 88.

Before his death, Brook was a tall skinny man with a rather distinctive face. On his forehead was a scar that slightly resembles a diagonal omega sign (Ω). He had a slight goatee on his chin and some side burns. He typically wore shades and dressed in formal attire. This consisted of a black coat with yellow-orange inner linings, a small black top hat, and black pants. The ribbon tied in between his coat and around his neck was blue. Accompanying this ensemble, Brook often carried a cane sword whose outer covering was purple. Brook's overall appearance while alive, especially with his face and his style of clothing, overall resembled the type of appearance that would commonly be associated with various music artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, and other musical celebrities with similar features.

After his death, Brook's body completely rotted away, leaving only bones. His clothes became somewhat tattered and he apparently lost his original pair of shades. He retained his distinctive scar as a distinctive crack across his skull however the rest of his face had completely rotted away. Though his body had become completely skeletal, his afro fortunately was retained. This is because as Brook says is because it has very deep roots.

Post-Timeskip
While he kept the style of the clothes of his previous life for the most part, he however changed it to a more colorful and high-end clothes after the two years he was separated from the Straw Hats due to becoming a rock star. To his original attire, he added heart-shaped sunglasses, and a yellow-orange feather boa. He changed his top hat to much a larger brown one with a giant crown on the brim which can be removed. For his coat, he changed to one with light brown inner linings, and for his pants, he changed to one that was red-orange with a pink floral design. Accompanying this new attire, Brook often carried a green shark shaped guitar. His timeskip age 90 and height is 277 cm. (9').

Personality
Brook is an eccentric character with, like the other Straw Hat Pirates, a distinct personality of his own. While he looks like and claims to be a gentleman, he possesses very bad manners such as asking to see ladies' panties (in a mermaids case he asks if they can lend him some money) and waiting impatiently for food (a trait shared by Luffy). Despite these behaviors he remains somewhat polite, usually referring to people using the respectful "-san" honorific. He appreciates the simplest of things from a gesture of kindness, the company of others, and walking in the sunlight after receiving his shadow back.

His reactions to different occurrences can be somewhat extreme, often comically so. For example, when the Straw Hats were alarmed at him for being a living skeleton, he forgets the object of fear is actually himself and also begins to panic. Although he tends to display more extreme emotions at times, Brook has been known to over-relax when he is told to stay calm. He is also very patient, having stayed on his former crew's ship for years, waiting for the day in which he would eventually be reunited with his shadow. However, due to his rudeness, he can also be impatient about things like waiting for dinner to be served. Brook's most notable trait amongst others, however, is that he cracks "skull jokes" about himself being a skeleton complimented with his distinct laughter of "Yohohoho" even if there is no one around to hear him. When Chopper broke one of his jokes by saying what he intended to say beforehand, Brook became temporarily depressed.

Brook is a great lover of music. Whether it be through happy or sad times, music is what generally keeps Brook going. As a result, his love for music often reflects itself in various other aspects of his character such as in his fighting style wherein the names of his attacks are derived from various musical songs and dances. He gave himself a musical theme so noticeable that while he was alive in his first life, he was called "Humming Brook" by the authorities.

In contrast to the other cowardly crew members own fears - Usopp's being out of insecurity, Nami's as a survival instinct, and Chopper's from cautiousness - Brook's fear is more down to Earth; he fears the things that are not normal. An example would be that Brook is easily scared by the ghosts and zombies (despite technically being undead himself). In order to fight the various Thriller Bark Creatures without fear when he encountered them, Brook convinced himself that if he sings while fighting, he wouldn't be afraid of them (though he starts running in fear when he stops singing). This singing while fighting, however, had a side effect of making him seem like a more sinister creature to the zombies - a rather ironic fact due to him being the contrary and the fact the song he sings during battle being one of life and joy than one of ominous threat and evil as perceived by them. Because of this, despite his equal fear he was given the name of "Humming Swordsman" by the zombies and was ironically feared by them in turn. He apparently doesn't like moving fast, evident when he was in the more intense rides at Sabaody Park. Linked to this is moving at high speeds via the Flying Fish Riders flying fish or theme park rides and fighting a Pacifista cyborg there was little chance to win against. Comically, most of these fears are things he himself has the potential to unintentionally cause such as being an almost living skeleton that can run fast, that most people would have little chance to win against.

Before encountering the Straw Hats, Brook was very lonely while floating adrift on his ship and longed for the company of other people. He initially accepted Luffy's offer to join the crew and invited himself over for dinner upon arriving on board the Thousand Sunny just so he could interact with the crew and fill the void that he experienced all those years. Also, while possibly one of the oldest pirates "alive", Brook still retains an air of childishness about him that enables him to behave in a manner similar to Luffy and Chopper, noted by the ease with which he participates in their child-like antics.

His distinct personality and laughter allowed Nami, Usopp, and Chopper question a "guardian" of Hogback's lab, Ryuuma, who had Brook's signature laughter and personality. This was because Ryuuma possessed Brook's shadow until he was defeated by Zoro, upon which Brook's shadow was returned to its rightful place.

Awkwardly, Brook has a tendency to lack common sense in slightly frantic times. For example, when Luffy falls into the water, Brook (and Chopper for that matter) jumps into the water, despite being a Devil Fruit user himself. He also has tendency to accidentally go on rides that go obviously fast and sit out on slower rides.

Also in the film Strong World, he appears to take offense if someone avoids him because he doesn't have any "substance," later commenting he is like that because he is "dieting".

Brook believes in and has quoted the philosophy "Good things come to those who wait", given the years he spent on the ghost ship, and Laboon's eternal patience.

Relationships

 * Rumbar Pirates
 * Laboon
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Roronoa Zoro
 * Nami
 * Usopp
 * Sanji
 * Tony Tony Chopper
 * Nico Robin
 * Franky
 * Silvers Rayleigh
 * Jimbei
 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Edward Newgate
 * Marco
 * Portgas D. Ace
 * Jozu
 * Vista
 * Boa Hancock
 * Emporio Ivankov
 * Trafalgar Law

Neutral

 * Smoker
 * Kuzan
 * Hatchan
 * Perona
 * Bartholomew Kuma
 * Dracule Mihawk
 * Baroque Works
 * Crocodile
 * Bentham
 * Galdino
 * Buggy
 * Monkey D. Garp
 * Borsalino
 * Lapins
 * Eneru

Enemies

 * CP9
 * Rob Lucci
 * Kaku
 * Jabra
 * Bleuno
 * Marines
 * Sakazuki
 * Sentomaru
 * Pacifista
 * Blackbeard Pirates
 * Marshall D. Teach
 * Krieg Pirates
 * Dong Krieg
 * Wapol
 * Gecko Moria
 * Arlong Pirates
 * Arlong
 * Impel Down
 * Magellan
 * Hannyabal
 * Minotaurus

Abilities and Powers
As much as Brook normally goofs around on the ship engaging in acts of silliness with Luffy, he is none-the-less as formidable an opponent as the others if not being one of the strongest, given his previous experiences and skills that he amassed from the days when the King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger was still active making Brook, in all respects, a veteran Pirate. Though these attributes are somewhat downplayed by his overall demeanor, along with the fact that his isolation in the Florian Triangle seemed to have eroded his knowledge of modern society. His value to the crew was already evident during the Thriller Bark arc, where he proved indispensable for the Straw Hats on their encounters with island-vessel's many undead inhabitants. When Brook fights, his battles often have a comical element to them. Examples include making several members of his crew fall asleep while fighting the Flying Fish Riders, playing dead halfway through a battle, or launching at an enemy with erroneous results.

Music
Brook is first and foremost a musician who is able to play any musical instrument. He usually uses a violin to play his music. His musical abilities are so good that Laboon used to sing along to his music when they were together. His devotion to music thus not only helped him to pass the lonely days but also serves as a combat tool. Most of the techniques that he deals out are named after or related to music. One of them even acts as a hypnosis that sends his enemies to sleep, however, this can also affect allies. Due to his musical background, Brook also moves according to the rhythm of music to assist him in battle.

Due to his musical abilities, Brook became a world famous rock star during the past two years, at which point his records in tone dials were sold in millions and his fans on his final world tour in Sabaody Archipelago were either crying or fainting at his presence.

Devil Fruit
While he was still alive, Brook ate the Revive-Revive Fruit. Should the user of this fruit die, it allows them the one time opportunity to return to life. Though his soul wasn't able to find his body in time before it decomposed completely to a skeleton, he gained some advantages that would otherwise be impossible to do without being a skeleton supported by Devil Fruit powers. One advantage is that because he's just comprised of light weighted bones, he can use his speed and light weight to run across water, but, like all Devil Fruit users, he still can drown when submerged. With the aid of the Devil Fruit powers, he is also able to function like a regular human being, and retains all the strength he had when he still had actual muscle mass. He is able to do normal acts such as drink, eat, cry, digest, and even "poop" normally. He has also proven that calcium such as in milk will rapidly heal any damaged bones. Due to his light-weight skeleton body, he can leap great distances, jump very high and run fast, and can also store things in his skull cavity such as a Tone Dial. His skeletal appearance not only gives him immense amounts of agility on par with Zoro and Sanji, the fact that he doesn't have body parts allows him to take less damage in a way of speaking, it also means that he doesn't have the physical limitations of a normal human. His bone regeneration from milk also allows him to heal a lot faster than the rest of the crew, effectively making him one of the most tenacious opponents in battle.

Fighting Style
At one point being the captain of the guards in his home country, Brook is well versed in swordplay. Despite his usual goofy personality in battle, he is extremely capable and can do more than look after himself. In his cane, Brook hides a sword known as a shikomizue which he can use to great extent. His fighting style while using it resembles classical fencing and iaidō. Brook's main advantage is his tremendous speed which is possible because of the light weight of his skeleton body. This allows him to deal extremely accurate blows and quick maneuvers before his opponent can react that are much swifter than he was when he still had flesh and blood back in his mortal days. With these advantages, Brook excels best at fighting and taking down large enemy numbers of average fighters on his own. Despite not retaining any muscle tissue, it seems that Brook can still grow stronger over time, as he said to Ryuuma that he is stronger than five years ago.

Brook's signature attack as of yet is known as 鼻唄三丁:矢筈斬り, "Hanauta Sanchou: Yahazu Giri", loosely translated into "Three-Verse Humming: Arrow-Notch Slice". The attack is the fastest cutting technique of his kingdom's assault squad. It was originally named "Requiem Banderole", but was given the other name by his old nakama. Due to the attack's blinding speed and Brook's distracting humming, enemies often don't notice they have been hit until after Brook has sheathed his sword. When the need arises, Brook can also employ his music to aid him in battle. His technique, "Nemuriuta Flanc" for instance shows this, where he strums his violin with his shikomizue like a violinists bow, creating a soothing tune that makes anyone who hears it immediately fall asleep.

Although an extremely fast swordsman, his skills however are not of the same caliber as Zoro's, the Straw Hats' other swordsman. For instance, while Brook had been unable to defeat Ryuuma no matter how hard he fought despite Ryuuma only using a fraction of his power, he noticed that Zoro was able to defeat him at full power with only two of his swords. Though Ryuuma however did say that Brook's protectiveness of his afro held him back somewhat. While not on par with Zoro, Brook was however able to keep up, visually, with what Zoro was doing while he fought Ryuuma showing that he is still a very skilled swordsman.

After the two years he spent separated from the Straw Hats, Brook was able to hone his fighting style by delving deeper into what his Devil Fruit can actually do. Amongst of what he was able to learn, he discovered he could infuse his sword with tragedies of his own soul to give it freezing ice capabilities. Along with his sword have been sharpened by the Longarm Tribe and renamed Soul Solid, Brook became a better fencer than he was before.