Don't Take the Singer Away

"Laboon."

The aging voice sang again, its final notes fading into the conveyor belt, and the forty-eight responses behind the wall followed suit, their rhythm disrupted.

Mira had already run to the wall, and her hand had just touched the crack in the door when the person inside shouted again.

"Don't open it, the seawater is over here."

She withdrew her hand, the sole of her shoe brushing against the plaster on the floor.

"Did your place get flooded?"

"Fifty years have passed, so what's a little longer?"

Brook held onto the Den Den Mushi with one hand and pressed her other hand against her top hat.

"Excuse me, why were two notes missing from the third line you sang just now?"

A moment of silence followed behind the wall.

"I'm getting old, I can't remember."

"You can't forget that line where the violin always starts, and the captain always complains that we sing too fast."

"Skeletons are bringing up old grievances now?"

Brook's hand slid off her top hat.

Do you know me?

"There's only one skull in the whole world that can make Binks' Sake sound so awful."

Luffy snatched the microphone back from Nami, who was blocking it.

"Brook, he's insulting you."

"I heard you, Mr. Luffy."

Nami snatched the microphone back.

"Let's not talk about singing yet; the water level behind the wall is still rising."

Vegapunk retrieved the structure of Mira's room; beneath the transport tracks was a long-abandoned pipe, its name covered by multiple layers of disciplinary records.

Akainu peeled off the top layer.

[Special End-of-Life Project Oxygen Supply Tubes]

One more floor down.

[Isolation and Management of Infectious Sources at Sea]

Only half of the old seal remains at the bottom.

[Temporary shelter for returning personnel in Calm Belt]

Brook asked, "Who are the returning personnel?"

The Throne preemptively covered the old seal.

All members of the Rumbar Pirates are dead.

I asked the person who was still alive behind the wall.

There are no survivors in this area.

Chopper lay down in front of the Den Den Mushi.

"Let him say a long sentence in a row, I want to listen to his breathing."

Two knocks came from behind the wall.

"Doctor, go ahead and ask."

"Have you eaten anything today? Does your chest hurt? Is there any blood in your cough? Can you stand up?"

"Is this a sentence?"

"Answer first."

"After eating half a piece of hard bread, the chest pain has long since subsided. Sometimes there is bleeding, and I need to hold onto the wall to stand up."

As he spoke the last few words, the man coughed, paused for a moment, and then approached the pipe again.

Chopper turned the page.

"He's alive, old, has suffered long-term respiratory damage, and may have pre-existing conditions; he needs to be taken to the hospital immediately."

The Throne was not recognized.

[The singing content can be automatically generated from the end-of-life record]

Mo'er pressed his ear close to his old cup.

"Records won't mind if the bread is hard."

Lin Qi asked, "Hey, you behind the wall, will you get today's bread?"

"It's at my feet, what's wrong?"

Break off a piece and throw it into the water.

A soft sound was heard.

Vegapunk stared at the numbers on the pipe.

"With more floating objects on the water, the weight has changed, and there is indeed physical contact."

The Throne Page keeps refreshing.

[Entity origin cannot be confirmed]

"Then let's try to save the living first."

Lin Qi pulled up a new verification page.

[If the survival of the target cannot be ruled out, can medical protection be implemented first?]

[A, Verification after cleaning]

[B, Supply halted pending confirmation]

[C, Integrate into the End-of-Life Project for unified processing]

Give me the fourth line.

The Unanswered text spread out from the edge of the page, highlighting the Blank.

Lin Qi wrote down the last item.

[D, Maintain oxygen supply and maintain cleanup, suspend merged cleanup, subject to self-expression by the target]

Garp pressed the button on the Navy witness stand first.

"If even the living are cursing skeletons, what's the point of verification?"

Akainu glanced at him.

"I will fill in the reason for the Navy Seat."

"You write what you want, I've already pressed the button."

The Navy Seat ultimately fell to option D, followed by the Revolutionary Army Seat, the Civilian Witness Seat, and the Pirate Seat.

Buggy finished pressing the button and then asked, "Wait, will Mira's room also flood?"

"Meeting."

Why didn't you say so sooner?

Nami marked the two pipes separately.

"The cleaning process connects Mira's room and the area behind the wall to the same drainage line; when the door is opened, the water pressure on both sides will switch."

Mira retreated to the table and tucked the wooden sign into her clothes.

"So he told me not to open the door because he was afraid water would get in."

The person inside the wall knocked.

Don't overestimate yourself; I just can't swim.

"Pirates can't swim?"

"Even a sick person can be a pirate."

Brook lowered his head.

Is your illness the same one you had fifty years ago?

This time, there was no knocking from behind the wall.

The Throne, however, first pulled up a list of people in quarantine.

The paper had been soaked in water; only the ship's name, the symptoms, and the treatment results were legible.

[Ship name: Lumba]

[Number of people in quarantine: 1]

[Recommendation: Personnel who have left the team must not return.]

Brook stared at the number one.

You have left the ship.

"Yes."

"They left from the first half of the Grand Line?"

"Yes."

"Leading the sick crew across the Calm Belt to find a doctor?"

"Skull, you're asking too many questions."

Please answer me.

The sound of metal being dragged came from the water, and the old man seemed to have moved to a more stable position.

"There were eleven sick people on board at the time. If we continued, the whole ship would get infected. I led them off course, and the rest of us continued on."

What did you say before you left?

"Forgot."

"You said that once you've recovered, you'd take another route back to Reverse Mountain."

"Shut up."

"You also told us not to steal the bottle of wine under your bed."

"That bottle of wine was eventually lost, right?"

"The ship's doctor drank it; he admitted it before he died."

A short laugh came from behind the wall, followed by a cough.

Brook bent down, his hat brim obscuring his face.

"Captain."

The old man did not respond.

"Captain Yorki."

The song that had been playing on the conveyor belt for fifty years stopped.

The forty-eight knocks stopped, and only the sound of leaking pipes remained in Mira's room.

Luffy closer to the Den Den Mushi.

"Brook, did you find the old captain?"

"It cannot be confirmed yet."

The person behind the wall spoke again.

"Yes, it can't be confirmed. Yorki is long dead."

Brook looked up.

"You used to kick the boat plank with your right foot first when you lied."

A muffled thud came from behind the wall.

Mira looked at the dust that had fallen at her feet.

He kicked it.

The person inside the wall cursed.

"The ship's plank was damaged; it was just a coincidence."

Vegapunk has found the disposal page behind the quarantine list.

"Even if the name is scratched off, the old ink can still be restored."

The page unfolds, the first line is the Rumbar Pirates, the second line is the Calm Belt Quarantine Ship, and the third line finally reveals the name that had been erased.

[Isolated Person: Yorki]

[Identity: Former captain of the Rumbar Pirates]

[Survival Status: Continuous Supply]

Brook opened his mouth, but no first words came out.

After a few seconds, he asked, "If you're alive, why have you never gone back?"

Yorki leaned against the wall, the water at his feet still rising.

"Because they told me that the Rumbar Pirates were all dead."

He knocked on the wall.

The forty-eight responses rang out once again.

"Then, they stuffed all of these people's last few words into the room next to mine."