Summary:
After the Straw Hat Pirates get into a ruse involving hunting octopuses, they discover a barrel in the middle of the ocean. When they open it, a massive red flare is launched into the sky. The Thousand Sunny is then thrown into the misty Florian Triangle where it encounters a destroyed ship. Luffy, Sanji, and Nami go aboard the ship to investigate. There they meet a living skeleton, which Luffy immediately asks to join the crew.
Zoro is in the Thousand Sunny’s observation room. Looking out the window, he sees something floating on the ocean and alerts the crew. When the others look around, they see that it’s a barrel and Usopp notes that it has a ‘treasure’ sign written on it. They blow it out of the water. Nami steps out and says it’s probably just alcohol and food. He notes that the entire message on the barrel says “A Gift to the God of the Sea” and that it’s a tradition for people to place these kinds of items in a barrel to pray for safe passage. After some disappointment and discussion, they decide to open it anyway and drink booze.
When they open the barrel, it shoots out a large red light and explodes in the sky. The crew is a bit shocked. He wonders what it means that there was a flare in the barrel, and Robin wonders if it’s just a prank or something more serious. Usopp worries that it was a trap and Robin comments that they could be someone’s target.
Just then, Nami notices a change in the atmosphere and senses a storm coming. He urges everyone to get in position to fight as they only have five minutes. After some trouble due to the power of the storm, Franky uses Channel Zero of the Soldier Dock system and gets them out of the storm.
Zoro notices how dark it is, even though it’s not night, and Luffy mentions that they’re in the “sea of ghosts”, the Florian Triangle that Kokoro told them about. Just then, they begin to hear a haunting song in the distance as a massive black ship with torn sails slowly approaches them. The crew are stunned and terrified to see the “ghost ship” once they spot it. As the ship passes by the Thousand Sunny, they see a skeleton in a suit and afro and drinking a cup of tea, singing softly and watching them. Luffy is excited and wants to rush over and see the legend’s living skeleton up close. Sanji stops him and says he can’t go alone or he’ll find a way to act rashly and get them into trouble. The crew pull straws and Nami and Sanji go with their captain.
Once on the ship, Sanji and Luffy stare at the skeleton in amazement. The skeleton calmly apologizes for not greeting them properly, but explains that he was so surprised to see real people: all he’d seen for years were scary ghost ships. He suggests they go inside and talk. He notices Nami and comments seductively on how pretty she is. He cleans up and asks matter-of-factly if Nami can show him her panties, but the girl fools him. To Sanji’s irritation, Luffy wants to know if the skeleton can poop, but Sanji insists there are more important questions: who it is and how it’s alive and able to talk. Luffy interrupts as he has a more important question. Luffy offers the skeleton to join his crew and he accepts.