One Piece: Hell Pirates

Chapter 1: Fusion Brook, Escape from Hell

The Underworld. Hell. The road to the afterlife.

Buluko opened his eyes, dazed. There was no light—only an endless expanse of gray. His head felt dizzy and light, an unsettling discomfort settling over him.

Why is it so dark? Did I forget to turn on the lights? Where are the neon signs of the city? Or did the power go out?

He prayed there wasn't a blackout. After years of wandering, the only company he had in his rented apartment was a delicate tank of goldfish. If the power failed, stopping the water flow and oxygen supply, some of them would surely die overnight. Those fragile creatures were his only comfort in loneliness. He had fed them himself, grain by grain.

Buluko blinked, then shook his head. A strange stillness surrounded him. And then, it hit him—he couldn't feel his hands or feet.

Silence loomed over him, an eerie quiet that sent chills down his soul. A pale bone-littered road stretched into the distance, leading toward a murky yellow river. The dim, endless abyss made his very spirit tremble.

Where am I?

A wave of confusion struck him. Is this a dream?

Am I dead? Is this... the road to Hell?

Then, without warning, a flood of memories surged into his mind, fusing forcefully with his soul.

Brook. He was Brook now.

Brook, the musician of the Rumbar Pirates—a crew that had sailed from the West Blue into the Grand Line. A man with a bounty of 33 million berries. Once the captain of the guard in the Kingdom of Dumoria.

In the year 1470 of the Sea Circle Calendar, the Rumbar Pirates parted ways with Laboon, the island whale, at Twin Cape. Soon after, their captain, Yorki, fell ill with a deadly plague and left the crew. Brook took over as acting captain, but months later, they were ambushed in the Florian Triangle by enemies wielding poison gas. The entire crew was wiped out.

Buluko's soul trembled. I actually got isekai'd into One Piece? And I'm Brook? The pervy skeleton who loves panties?!

This was ridiculous! If he had to be reincarnated into an undead, couldn't he at least be someone cool, like the Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown? Even Zhang Chulan from The Outcast would've been better! But no—fate had stuck him in Brook's bony body instead!

In his past life, Buluko had been a lonely video editor. He specialized in dark, underground topics—black market kidnappings, crime injustice, human trafficking in Southeast Asia, fraud rings in Myanmar... It had left him jaded, angry at reality, and even more distant from women. But what man didn't dream of wealth and companionship?

As Brook's memories settled in, Buluko grasped his situation. He had just died and entered the Underworld. Yet, thanks to the power of the Yomi Yomi no Mi (Revive-Revive Fruit), his soul had retained its consciousness. Instead of being erased or dragged into Hell, Brook's original soul had been swallowed up by his own. He was a cuckoo taking over another's nest—completely fused with Brook.

In the original story, Brook's soul had wandered the Underworld for years before he found a way back. By the time he returned, his body had already decayed into bones. But Buluko knew better. Corpses didn't become skeletons in a single year—under dry conditions, that could take up to a decade.

Given that Brook had wandered the Florian's Triangle for over 30 years before meeting Gecko Moria, Buluko speculated that Brook's soul had been lost in the Underworld for at least ten years before returning to his body. The energy of the afterlife had preserved him.