Brook

Brook is a skeleton who was found by the Straw Hats onboard a ghost ship after they opened a mysterious barrel adrift on the open ocean and escaped from a mysterious storm. He is a muscian who ate the Yomi Yomi no Mi and is apparently one of the main focuses of the current arc.

Appearance
Brook is a tall skinny skeleton dressed in formal attire complete with top hat and cane. Despite being completely fleshless, his head still has an afro which he says is because his hair has deep roots.

Personality
Brook is an eccentric character with a distinct personality of his own. While he looks like, and claims to be, a gentleman, he possesses very bad manners such asking to see ladies' panties and waiting impatiently for food. He also seems to overreact at times like when the Straw Hats were alarmed at him for being a living skeleton or having no shadow he was the one making more fuss than they were.

Despite being a skeleton, Brook says that he is scared by ghosts and zombies. In order to fight the various Thriller Bark Creatures without fear, Brook has convinced himself that if he sings while fighting, he wouldn't be afraid of them. This singing of his while fighting, has given him the name of "Humming Swordsman" by the zombies. Brook also often cracks "dead jokes" about himself complimented with his distict laughter of "Yoho hoho".

Before encountering the Straw Hats, Brook stated that he was very lonely while floating adrift on his ship and adored the company of the Straw Hats. He invited himself in for diner upon arriving onboard the Thousand Sunny. While most of the crew seem content with him, for now Zoro and Sanji seem unhappy about him being around (at one point Sanji told Franky not to get friendly with him).

Because of the mess he made back five years ago in Thriller Bark, three of the Mysterious Four know how troblesome he was. Only Perona doesn't know of his doings well because she was asleep back then.

A "guardian" of Hogback's lab, Ryuuma, has Brook's signature laughter and personality. This has been noted by several characters. This is because Ryuuma posesses Brook's shadow.

Brook cares alot for his afro. Being the only the thing of him that didn't rot away after he died, it means alot to him. It is the only thing he believes that Laboon would still recognize after fifty years. Since it won't ever grow back again should it be cut, Brook is ever more protective of it.

Because of the promise Brook and the rest of his crew made to Laboon, Brook feels obligated to meet up with Laboon in order fufill that promise.

Abilities and Powers
While he was still alive, Brook ate the Yomi Yomi no Mi. The fruit allows the user to come back to life for a second time. Though his soul wasn't able to find his body in time before it decomposed completely to a skeleton, he has some advantages. One that has been seen so far is that because he just light weighted bones, he is able to run on water, despite being a hammer.

Brook is also muscian. The extent of his musical talent has yet to be revealed.

In his cane Brook hides a sword known as a shikomizue, which he can use to great extent.

Brook also knows how to purify the various Thriller Bark Creatures with sea-salt.

Past Story
Fifty years ago, Brook used to be part of Yoki's pirate crew. His job was being a musician who plays the violin. He and the rest of the crew used to sing songs with Laboon. Upon entering the Florian Triangle, he and his crewmates were attacked by pirates. He was killed in the battle however since he ate the Yomi Yomi no Mi, his soul was able to return to his body. Unfortunately for him, though, he lost his body because of the fog in the area and searched for it for one year. When he returned to it, it was just a pile of bones. Only his afro remained in tact because it was firmly rooted.

After some time, Brook's ship drifted to Thriller Bark five years ago. Wanting to fix the rudder, he disembarked and explored the island. All he found however was the various creatures that inhabited there. He was then captured and saw how Moria was able to create zombies. His shadow was then stolen. After being set adrift on his ship, Brook retraced his path and went back to the island. There he learned of the zombies' weakness while spying on some. He then interrogated Hogback for where his zombie counterpart was. After dispatching some zombies, Brook found his zombie counterpart, Ryuuma. However during the battle, Ryuuma proved too strong for Brook. After receiving some severe blows to his skull, Brook asked for mercy from Ryuuma and quietly ran away from Thriller Bark. The battle left Brook with a crack in his skull, which healed for some reason, and a broken pride. For the next five years since then, Brook had been training himself in order to beat Ryuuma the next time they would meet.

Present Story
After the Straw Hats escaped from the mysterious storm, the pirates encountered Brook's ship floating aimlessy with Brook apparently chanting. Wanting to discover what was onboard Luffy, Nami, and Sanji boarded his ship. There they met the skeleton apparently drinking tea. After being punched by Nami for indencency, Luffy asked him to join his crew. Brook accepted much to everyone's surprise.

After boarding the Thousand Sunny and joining the Straw Hats for dinner, Brook explained his past. It was later revealed that Brook had no reflection or shadow. Brook explained that his shadow was stolen by Gecko Moria. Because of this, he couldn't go out into the sunlight else he would disentegrate like a similar person who also lost his shadow. With this, Brook humbly declined to join the Straw Hats since he felt he would be a burden to them. Luffy however promised Brook that he would get Brook's shadow back.

Happy to see living people after being alone for so long and overjoyed at the welcome the Straw Hats had given him he decided to preform for them. Suddenly, just as Brook was about to perform before the Straw Hats, a ghost appeared out of the wall. Brook, followed by the Straw Hats, then rushed out of the kitchen and found out that the Thousand Sunny was drifting apparently beside an island from West Blue, Thiller Bark. Upon seeing this, Brook said his farewell and jumped off board the ship and ran across the water to the island.

Current Events (Spoilers)
Brook is later seen again by Franky and Robin falling from the sky and onto the rubble that was once a bridge connecting Hogback's mansion to the main mast of Thriller bark. After getting up, he beat Tallaran (the spider monkey) with a single attack using a sword hidden in his cane. His attack was eeriely similar to one that Ryuuma used on Usopp, Nami, and Chopper earlier. Absalom seemed to be scared when he was brought up in a conversation with Perona, referring to him as a 'humming swordsman'. After the enemies are taken care of and a small argument with Brook explanes the shadow taken process. When Gecko Moria takes one shadow he then shoves it into a zombie's body where the zombie will be brought to life, one interesting fact is that the shadows hold part of the person personality and the zombie that now has the shadow will also have some of the person's habits and attacks.

After explaining things to Franky and Robin, Brook rushed off. He then found Ryuuma sitting down in Hogback's lab and drinking tea. He then challenges him. The battle with Ryuuma, is currently a fierce one as Ryuuma is able to match Brook's swordsmanship. As Brook fights and receives bone cracking blows, the thought of meeting up with Laboon no matter what runs through his mind.