DATE: JUNE 29th, 2019 (29/6/19)

(Guest) [CHP5, JUN 29]

Thanks, mate!

Other than that, not much to say here. next chapter should have something, but this just tides over all the same as the previous ones have. Good day.

"TOM! TOM!" Franky's yell surged through the house, the young man as hyper as can be.

Beside Tom on the adjacent couch, Iceburg covered his ears, groaning. "Jesus christ, Flunky, be a bit louder would you?!" He sarcastically complained. "It's barely eight in the morning! The whole city probably hears you!"

"Sorry, Ice-for-Brains." Franky laughed before turning to the long-horned cowfish. "Tom, listen to this! Listen to this!" He was practically bouncing on his feet the whole time.

Tom laughed to himself. "Somebody seems to be in a good mood!" That was today's most obvious statement. "Now then, what's got you so excited, Franky?"

Franky went to sit down next to Iceburg. "Okay, so I went to sleep on the floor last night, yeah? So-"

"Let me guess: you were in some hollow void in the middle of nowhere, and even there you were still sound asleep." Iceburg interrupted, chuckling to himself.

Franky was on high alert, standing up and pointing an accusing finger at Iceburg. "How did you find that out, Ice-for-Brains?!" He demanded.

Iceburg didn't expect that to actually be the case. "What."

Franky sat back down, smiling again. "So yeah, like he said, I was in the middle of nowhere, still asleep…"

About twenty-seven minutes later, Franky had explained how he'd met the Cyborg that was himself, found another Fish-Man, specifically a whale shark, and a skeleton of all things, and was just now talking about the ship.

"...So it ship has 6 small rooms underneath that can store different vehicles and super weapons. I called it the Soldier Dock System! Hell, there was an ammunition room and a workshop in the same place, too! And there was an energy room right near those, too! AND there was bloody Treasure Adam Wood in storage right near the paddles! It's crazy!"

Tom was intently listening the whole time. To hear that another Fish-Man was aboard in Franky's dream place was interesting in and of itself, let alone the skeleton, but when Franky started talking about the ship itself, he really went into detail, finding things that the other two hadn't even noticed after years of being there, decades for the skeleton. Moreso impressive was how, dream or not, the ship hadn't stopped for almost as long as the skeleton had been alive. That was what, over 50 years? Kind of ridiculous.

Hell, even Iceburg was listening. Now, he was curious of what it looked like. "Oi, Franky." He tried grabbing Franky's attention.

"Yeah?" Hook, line and sinker.

"What does the ship look like? Like, proper design?"

Ice-for-Brains had a point; he hadn't told them that yet. Actually, he could up that ante. "I'll be right back!" Franky quickly ran from the room, leaving the other two behind.

During this, Iceburg turned to his boss/adoptive parent. "What do you think about what the hell he just said?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

Tom's expression barely changed at all. "I believe him." He replied, bush untouched. "It may sound odd, but I wouldn't be surprised if a world in dreams is actually a thing." He then smiled. "Besides, not only does he meet more people, but the design of this ship sounds absolutely splendid!" He chuckled to himself.

Iceburg nodded, a small smile himself. "Fair point." He agreed.

Franky then busted back into the room, pencil on his right ear and a rolled up piece of A3 in his left arm. He held out the paper in his hand. "Here we are."

Iceburg was confused. "Here what is?"

Tom simply smiled. "I take it you drew the ship for reference?" He asked.

Iceburg gave Tom a 'look'. "Look, boss, I get Franky's a fast learner at shipwright stuff, but there's no way in hell he-"

"-drew the whole thing?" Franky offered, unraveling the paper to show that, yes, he had drawn the whole design of the ship in a mere two minutes. A front, back, left side, eagle-eye, and diagonal view, all 5 of them with little notes about each thing displayed. "I was thinking of doing a few drawings based on each floor in detail, but figured that'd waste another minute."

Iceburg gaped at the paper before him, words shoved back where the sun don't shine, never to be seen again. "What in the goddamn fuck." He cursed, flabbergasted.

Tom was also surprised, but after what talent Franky had offered when he first found him (and the Battle Frankies he kept making, he was at what, 4 now?), he wasn't too surprised. Moreso, he was reading the designs Franky had made, the latter already handing him the paper.

"Tahahahaha!" He laughed. "It's a beautiful ship, indeed! I didn't expect a brig sloop to be so creative in design, yet so functionable!" He handed the paper back to Franky. "This ship is truly well made, and I'm glad to have seen it for myself!"

Iceburg got a glimpse when Tom was reading over it (almost as quickly as Franky wrote up the bloody thing), and even he had to admit he was impressed. "Gotta give it to you Flunky, you three have a pretty nice ship."

Franky jumped onto the table and performed his signature pose, with the minor difference being he was holding the paper in both hands rather than having them enclosed. "You're damn right we do!" He bragged.

Iceburg wondered something else. "So what's it called?"

Still in his pose, Franky looked down to the two of them. "Hm?"

Iceburg shrugged. "Well yeah," He continued. "I mean, aren't you the one insisting all ships be named?"

Franky dropped down from the table, hand to his chin. "Good point." He agreed. "I remember Jinbe called it 'Sunny' at one point, and Brook said that was what he was told when he got there," Franky crossed his arms, sighing. "I still think Sunny by itself is a bit of a dull name, though."

Tom gave a hearty laugh. "Tahahaha. Let's give the ship a name then!" He peered down to Iceburg. "Do you have any ideas?"

Iceburg looked back at the design Franky had placed onto the table, using two coasters to stop it from rolling into itself. "Hmmm…" He pondered, hand on his chin. The ship was grand and colourful, but seemed to beg for a simple name. Clean cut, but enough to show what it was. What it could be.

Franky had yet another epiphany. He seemed to be getting a lot of those lately. "Wait. What if we called it a Battle Franky!?"

Iceburg and even Tom pinched their noses. "Oh god no…" Iceburg was sick of those things, and Tom thought the idea was just flat out stupid. Why would they even call it a Battle Franky anway?! Nobody knows who built it!

"Alright, all in favour of naming it 'New Battle Franky, Lion Gang Champion', say Super!" Franky declared.

"OH to the HELL to the NO!" Iceburg roared. A Battle Franky was bad enough, but that name was more of a curse than anything else. Frankly, he'd feel sorry for any ship with such a name. Not that Flunky'd ever listen, though.

Said kid pouted immaturely, mad that they didn't understand his vision. "Oh come on, guys," He muttered. "It's perfect! What else could it be called?!"

Tom was looking back toward the paper in his hands. "On second glance, the figurehead looks like a sunflower." He spoke his mind.

Sharp teeth and white eyes, Franky was appalled and confused. "How in the hell does it look like a bloody sunflower?!" He all but demanded. How did that make sense?! It was a fucking lion, clear as day!

"You know, boss, he had a point." Iceburg countered, looking across at the diagram himself.

"Hm?" Tom hummed. "How so?"

Iceburg looked back to the paper. "It's more so the sun than anything."

Back the the old grind. "YOU'RE JUST AS SUPER LOST, ICE-FOR-BRAINS!"

The response was mutual. "AND YOU'RE A MASSIVE HYPOCRITE, FLUNKY!"

Tom grabbed their heads and slammed them into one another. "BE QUIET, YOU TWO! I'm trying to read this thing!" He yelled before going back to read the diagram again. The other two sat on their respective seats, Iceburg heaving a loud sigh and Franky pouting like a spoiled brat.

Suddenly, Iceburg's eyes widened. "Hold on," He breathed. "Let me see that again." He quickly rushed back next to Tom to look at the front view of the again. He muttered something again. "...thousand seas…"

Franky looked up at the two, having heard that last part. "You say something, Ice?" He inquired.

Iceburg looked back over the paper to Franky. "Franky, the other two on the ship; you said they called it Sunny, right?"

Franky was a bit confused now. "...yeah?"

"And you said that you talked with your future robot self, which means they may have done the same, right?"

Franky nodded. "Probably," He agreed with slight hesitation. "I dunno, I just joined last night."

Iceburg smiled, which was rare from him towards Franky. "So what if this ship's been named before?" He asked as if he broke the Da Vinci code. "What if this ship was made in their time, too? What if Sunny is part of the original name?"

Franky's eyes widened. "Duuuude…" He muttered. He didn't have the thinking capacity for this shit, so it was a good thing Ice-for-Brains was here to fill that part.

Tom was a bit thrown off. "What are you trying to say, Iceburg?

Iceburg cleared his throat. "When you asked what I said, I was looking at that ship and saw something," His head moved up, looking at the ceiling. More specifically, the sky beyond it. "What I saw was a ship with a sunny smile to sail a thousand seas. "He looked back down, shaking his head with a small headache. "I'm too young for this moral stuff…" He muttered. He looked back up to Franky, as well as Tom beside him. "Boss, Franky, I may have found a name for the ship, or at least what it once was."

Tom laughed. "Very well then. Let's hear it!" He had to be honest, he was eager to hear what idea Iceburg had. Of course, looking over at Franky, he didn't even compare.

"Yeah, Ice-for-Brains! Come on, let's hear it!" He was franky bounding on his feet.

"Calm down, Flunky." Was the response. "Okay, so here's my suggestion for a name of the ship; one that looks the part, and shows what it can do. How's about-?"

Jinbe had a hand to his chin. "The Thousand Sunny?" He wondered. After hearing Franky had told two people he knew the whole thing, he and Brook grew concerned. Fortunately, they were two people Franky knew personally. One was a long-horned cowfish Fish-Man named Tom, who was apparently an incredible shipwright, known as one of the best in the world. The other was a fellow older apprentice, Iceburg, who Franky seemed to regularly call Ice-for-Brains with no hesitation nor correction. They almost sounded like brothers, honestly.

Right now, Franky was going through a whole spiel about what he'd told them and what they thought. Jinbe called bullshit on the whole diagram-in-a-minute he'd mentioned, but he managed to replicate both the ship and the diagrams 1:1 in a mere 52 seconds. The kid hat a talent with ships, goddamn.

"Yep!" Franky exclaimed. "Ice-for-Brains suggested it because when I showed him and Tom the Sunny, he said it had a sunny smile that could sail a thousand seas!"

Brook suddenly perked up. "You know, I think that's what our future selves might have named this ship." He wondered, looking up.

Franky had a massive grin again. "That's what Ice said! 'What it once was'." He cheered.

Jinbe looked on at this whole thing, hand on his chin. "We may be onto something here."

Brook was confused. "Onto what, exactly?" He asked.

Jinbe turned to the skeleton. "I mean ourselves that we met before coming here. Like, how did they end up, what did they do, did we all meet then, what caused them to talk to us, how we end up here every night. Those kinds of things."

Brook nodded. "Fair enough." He passively replied. "I don't tend to think about it much; I'm just grateful this place exists at all."

Jinbe sighed. "You're being a bit too passive on this, you know." He muttered.

"And when did you become the conspiracy theorist?"

"When there were bread crumbs to how the hell this is possible. I'm grateful myself, yes, but I can still be curious, can't I?"

"Of course you can, Jinbe. It's just a bit concerning seeing you of all people thinking about this kind of stuff."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Franky watched this exchange go on with a smile abroad. This was where he was going every night now, huh? To talk with a tweenage Fish-Man and a courteous skeleton each night like they were a second family? To have some freedom to do what he wished upon an awesome ship like this one?

He'd be all for it.

Now if only Brook hadn't locked the cola somewhere in the fridge. Where did they hide the straws here?

4 Years later

After he had seen Jinbe train back when he was a child, Brook had decided to retake his own training since. Be it on his own ship in the Florian Triangle, or here on the Thousand Sunny. He was glad the Dream Realm was a thing, as theoretically, one could quite literally train 24/7 and still be able to keep awake and go to sleep, due to how the physical body was still asleep during time in the Dream Realm. Honestly, as Franky put it when he first heard of this advantage, "That sounds busted as hell!". And he had a point; the advantage given was fucking colossal.

He'd actually done this for a good two months after Jinbe had shown up, but felt that he'd get lonely on the Sunny. Of course he'd still be able to meet people back on Fish-Man Island, but being lonely at all is a curse almost nobody deserved. As such, he'd stopped to make time to interact with Jinbe more. It started out as awkwards as scientifically possible, but as they grew closer, even if it simply meant the company of one another, they were able to talk for possibly hours aboard the Sunny, be it tales of old from Brook, or the daily life of Jinbe, or from the latter, history about Fish-Man Island as well as Fish-Men and Merfolk kind in general.

It was honestly incredibly intriguing. Hell, when he found something confusing in the history books in the library, he'd often ask Jinbe what was true and what was altered for the authors to save face. It was a shame how many times he'd have to go to Jinbe; just goes to show how many lies are shown to the public to either make a quick buck or simply save a public image they really shouldn't have any right to possess.

Anyway, he was currently training his swordsmanship as we speak on a few dummies he circled himself in, his trusty cane-sword within his grasp. He'd been training various angles and retreats for the past half hour now, doing hour-long training sessions daily again. It'd been a bit since he did this, but as he said years prior, it'd be a shame if all of his skills just rusted, so he needed to stay on top of it and keep going. After all, there was always the chance someone could finally pull him out of that damned fog.

Jinbe walked down the stairs to the deck where Brook was only to FEEL THE COMFORTABLE GRASS, HOLY HELL THIS NEVER GETS OLD beneath his feet and find Brook training.

"You're still going at it?" He asked the skeleton.

Brook paused for a moment to turn to Jinbe. The former hadn't even broken a sweat, amazingly enough. Then again, skeleton. "Naturally. If I stop for too long, I might waste all the time dedicated to training prior."

Jinbe raised an eyebrow. "You stopped training for a few years until a couple months ago, and yet your skills were damn close to never had been lost at all. I say you're doing fine."

Brook sighed. "A 'few years' is far too long, Jinbe. And as you said, 'damn near'. 'Damn near' is not 'just as'. I lost track, and now I have momentum."

"If you're just maintaining skills, that doesn't mean you need to do this thing daily, you know," Jinbe retorted. "Hell, even twice a week did you fine a couple years after I showed up."

Brook's eye sockets turned weary. "I'm sorry, Jinbe, I just don't want to lose my touch is all. Even if it worked once, I don't want to risk such an outcome as losing my ability to fight."

Jinbe gave a small smile. "And as I said, you'll be fine. If anything, if you're doing this thing an hour a day, you might as well try to improve than maintain. Isn't that the whole point of training to begin with?"

Brook's jaw lowered. He had a point; training was for training, to become better, not to stay the exact same. If that were the case, he may as well do some stretches instead.

He straightened himself out. "I'll be damned, Jinbe." He spoke. "It seems my wise is rubbing off on you after all!"

Jinbe sighed. "Oh, shut up." He replied crankily, though his smile said differently. "If anything, my wit is rubbing off."

Brook raised a finger. "You need wit of your own to give first." He informed.

Before Jinbe could give an actual cranky retort, Franky busted through the front door, running down to the grassy deck. Compared to a few years back, he was now wearing a yellow open hawaiian shirt with green trees and brown stumps (the classic), grey/silver goggles, and black speedos. His hair was now pointing straight up, and he'd started to grow hair on his legs.

"Guys, guys, listen!" Franky shouted, breathing heavily. Unlike other times he said something of the like, where he wanted to tell them a story of his day or something crazy that'd happened, he wasn't looking all too happy. If anything, he seemed distressed.

Jinbe turned to look at the preteen. "What's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

"Okay, so you know who Roger is, right?" Franky asked the two of them.

Brook looked a little confused. "Roger?" He asked. "I remember a Rookie with that name, but-"

Jinbe seemed to get the message. "As is, the pirate who sailed the world?"

Franky nodded frantically. "Yeah, him. The one everyone's calling Pirate King!"

Brook seemed aghast at this information. "'Pirate King'? Roger?" He asked. "Yohohohoho! Goes to show how long I've been out of the game!"

Franky caught that Jinbe somehow knew, assuming that some kinds of newspapers had gotten to Fish-Man Island of all places to spread information. "Okay, so you know how he died recently, right?"

Jinbe growled. "Indeed," He didn't seem happy. "I'd recently visited Fish-Man Island itself, specifically the capital, and there were nonstop pirates, one after another." His eyes narrowed into a glare. "Those words of Roger's has sent a frenzy among pirates!"

Franky lowered his head. "Sorry, dude." He muttered. "But yeah, when he died, they sent out to kill anyone on the crew or who helped the Roger Pirates."

Brook's eye sockets widened. "Without context, that sounds like some kind of genocide."

Franky nodded. He then turned pale. "There's something else," He breathed out. "Normally, shipwrights don't get arrested for building ships for pirates, let alone executing them." He growled.

It was when tears started coming out of Franky's eyes that the two knew this was truly serious. "What's the problem, Franky?" Brook asked, wanting to know how this affected him so deeply.

Franky was now downright sobbing, sniffling in a few times. "I-It…" He whimpered. "It's T...It's T-Tom. He b-built the Oro Jackson!" He cried, breaking down in tears.

Brook and Jinbe's eyes widened, shocked. They remember Franky always talking about Iceburg - the brother he never wanted - And Tom, his and Iceburg's boss, the two being shipwright apprentices. From what they'd heard, Tom was said to be the world's greatest shipwright. Brook had been surprised when he heard Tom was in Water 7 and had never known, let alone asked. Jinbe could've sworn he'd heard the name before, especially since, according to Franky, Tom came from Fish-Man Island, along with a Mermaid with a split tail, Kokoro.

"Oh god…" Brook was distraught. Even if he never knew Tom, he did know that a possible loss of family was heartbreaking, and that nobody deserves to go through such a thing.

Jibber was just as concerned, especially for a fellow Fish-Man, but he seemed to be more straightforward in attitude. Probably aging wiser quicker due to Brook. "So what's going to happen to him?" He asked Franky, hand on the 12-year-old's shoulder. If he wanted to help, they needed to know everything they can.

Franky wiped the tears off of his face with his arm, still shaking slightly. "W-well," He thought back to the events of where some government officials had come to Water 7 earlier today. The original plan was to simply apprehend and execute Tom, but they had seen uses for him, so they changed it to something different. "They s-said that the-ere'd be a t-t-trial for him in a couple days to see if he was guilty. F-for making the O-oro Jackson, I guess."

So they were using the trial as some sort of alternative. Was it for them to get their own way somehow with Tom? Or was there simply not enough physical evidence to just kill him then and there.

Brook walked over to where Franky was, lowering himself onto his right knee. "Franky," he started, tone somber. "I'm afraid there simply isn't anything we can do." He lowered his head in shame, beret and Afro covering his eyes. "All we can do is simply wait and hope that something comes up to help Tom."

Franky has been desperately hoping that Brook or Jinbe had an answer, as they often did. To hear this was heartbreaking for him. "But-"

"Listen, Franky," Jinbe cut Franky off, knowing what he'd cry about. "We can't help Tom, especially from where we are. All we can do is offer you some advice."

Franky had some kind of hope again now. "Like what?" What kind of advice?

"You may not be a witness to the building of the Oro Jackson, but you are a bystander, as well as close to Tom." Brook answered. "As such, you may accidentally say something that could work in their favour."

Jinbe took over. "All we can suggest is you stay calm, and talk as little as possible if not at all," Jinbe was extremely serious right now, especially with somebody's life on the line, let alone somebody close. "Remember, Tom's life is on the line."

Franky slowly nodded, hopefully understanding. "Yeah…" he breathed, barely making a sound nor movement. "Keep quiet, and it'll be better off, right?"

Jinbe nodded. "That's all we can really hope for."

Later, gators.