Holy crap. Thanks for the reviews, folks! This chapter should get me to 250,000 words archived here!
Whiteywolf26 Thank you for all your reviews and words of encouragement!
Squidzi Galaxi Haha, unfortunately, I'm not THAT good at updating, but I did get paranoid that you'd all forget this story if I didn't post enough at the beginning! Also, I have 6 chapters written and crave the instant gratification of reviews :)
Miss Keaton Thank you for your encouragement and such a long, thoughtful review, and especially the advice, much appreciated.
Rosetrang628 Lol, hopefully, you'll see the groundwork for Luffy in this chap. Thanks for the review!
There Nami stood at the wheel, aiming at a dock meant for smaller boats. The ship slowed as the mast was furled and she docked with only the tip within reach of the dock in order to protect to the larger ship. She hoisted her bags of berri onto her shoulder and tucked Sunny under her arm before jumping onto the dock.
She looked at Sunny expectantly, like she was waiting for him to run off when they got to the ground. Sunny, startled by her clear intention, glanced around nervously. She stared for a moment then laughed.
"You're scared, aren't you? Well, that's understandable. You don't know anything about this island, so I'll show you where I live and even cook something up for you." Nami smiled. Sunny smiled dimly in relief and followed her toward a small town. He couldn't shake that something was still wrong, much more so than what Nami had talked about the night before. And she'd masked the haunted look on her face so effectively in just a few seconds, that it had Sunny, who had always been perceptive and in tune with others, reeling.
When they arrived in town, Nami, who was carrying the two large sacks of berri, looked tense again. Sunny stayed at her heel, cautious from his own experiences in towns.
"There should be people walking around. I haven't seen anyone," she said quietly. Her direction changed slightly as she led Sunny toward a plaza in the center of town. As they were coming around the corner, Sunny could already feel the startling vibrations of dozens of footfalls. He looked up and gave her a quiet squeak of warning as they came into hearing distance as well.
Moments later, they appeared. Before them was what must have been the entire village, carrying broken broomsticks and rakes and shovels and torches marching toward the other side of the island.
While Sunny was unsettled by the strange human behavior, Nami was horrified.
"Nojiko!" she shouted. A blue-haired girl around Nami's age in the back of the crowd stopped suddenly as the mob pulled forward. She turned around, eyes wide with what looked like surprise and dread.
"Nami…" Yes, Sunny decided, she looked sad to see her sister.
They stared at each other for a moment as the mob pulled away. Then Nojiko slowly walked up to her.
"What are you guys doing? You don't stand a chance against them!" Nami protested, shaking now.
"Nami, we knew about the money. We knew about your deal with the pirates this whole time. I'm sorry," she said softly, carefully. Sunny looked back and forth between the girls in confusion. She had spoken like she was delivering grave news. Protest died on Nami's lips as a half-formed sound caught in her throat. Nojiko continued. "Arlong…he knew you were close. He told the Marines where it was buried and they took it. I'm sorry, they took all of it." Nojiko wrapped her arms around the unmoving, ramrod straight Nami. "But it's okay. Because we're going to take it back. We've been relying on you for too long, half-hoping you'd leave and never come back, half-hoping you would be our savior. I'm sorry. But now we're going to get rid of the Arlong Pirates."
With that, Nojiko pulled away, fondly stroked Nami's hair, then spun around and took off running. Sunny took a few steps after the girl, fully expecting Nami to give chase. He was surprised when her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, tears tracking past her eyes.
If those pirates were really so dangerous, Sunny knew those townsfolk wouldn't stand a chance. Shouldn't they try to stop them? He whined slightly and pushed his head against Nami's arm, trying to coax her into reacting. When she didn't even blink, he tried again, and a third time.
Finally, her eyes trailed over to him, her expression wild—sad and furious.
"Get away! Why are you still here? I fulfilled the contract, I don't owe anyone anything!" She shouted. Sunny shrunk back, half-curled away, but didn't step back. "Get away, you dumb animal!" Nami picked up a small rock at her side and threw it at Sunny, only a few feet away. It sailed by his face and he charged away ten feet in sheer instinct before stopping and turning around, feeling hurt and confused. "AWAY!" She screamed louder, sobbing, she picked up another rock and chucked it blindly, just missing him again.
Sunny ran this time and didn't turn back.
Sunny ran until he made it out of town and found cover in a patch of shrubs, trying to catch his breath. He wasn't a stranger with having rocks thrown at him. When he was fending for himself, he had to make trips into town constantly in order to scavenge food. He wasn't old or strong enough to catch food for himself—he didn't even know how. Children would often throw rocks or try to hit him using slingshots and chase him until he escaped into dense foliage. But it had never hurt as much as this. His heart felt heavier than his fear when he thought back to her eyes, empty, scared, crying. Was she still trying to stop them? Sunny had those thoughts as he curled into a miserable ball. Eventually, he felt himself drift off into an uneasy rest.
"Oh, do you want a piece?" Nami asked. Sunny shuffled closer and gave the fruit a hesitant sniff. He hadn't seen this one when he'd raided the storage room three days ago. It was an orange fruit, smaller than he'd seen before, and smelled sweeter than a normal orange.
"You're a real glutton, aren't you?" Nami sighed. "You're a tenth of Luffy's size but you so nearly rivaled him in what you could eat when you snuck onboard." Nami peeled away a long piece of peel. "But if you were that hungry, then I guess we I can forgive it this once." The peel came away and she pulled the top apart so the fruit split cleanly like flower petals. He'd never seen an orange or whatever this fruit was opened this way. It was beautiful.
"My island is known for its mikans. This one won't be as good, but I couldn't resist buying a couple as a reminder." She took a piece off and put it in her mouth, smiling. Then took another piece and gave it to Sunny, who nibbled it thoughtfully. It really was delicious.
When he woke up again, it was night time. He pulled himself up. Even if Nami didn't want to see him again, he still needed to know what happened. He had the strongest feeling that this story wasn't supposed to end like it had. Maybe it was a feeling sent by the Legendaries, like his mother had told him about. Certainly, she believed that they would intervene and let their intentions be known through premonition or feelings. Maybe it was Hoopa, who Sunny remembered seeing on that fateful day months ago when the portal in his forest had been opened, sending hundreds of pokemon scattering through this new world.
Sunny retraced his steps back to town. Again, no one was walking around outside, but some lights were on in the houses and when he peeked through a window, he could see people who had just hours ago taken up arms getting ready for bed. But where was Nami?
Sunny never did find out where she lived with her sister or the other woman she talked about. His only clue was the pirate base everyone had been heading to. He took off in that direction.
Eventually, he got close enough to see a tall brick wall of the base. With his speed, was easy enough for him to leap up in two bounds, even if he was quite cautious of heights. He walked along the wall for a few minutes until he found a good spot. He scooted up a few feet up a sturdy plant growing at the wall of the base's side and jumped to the wall where sufficient ivy was growing. With his weight, it started pulling off the wall, so he had to move up the wall quickly. He made it to the top, huffing quietly. It was quite a sight. The base was right on the water, had a pool and a tower-like building. Even at night, there were blue, buff looking people walking around. Sunny squinted his eyes, jumping down the other side and skirting the wall toward the building. He'd have to be careful and quiet. There still wasn't any sign of Nami or her sister, but Nami had told him that she had been forced to work for them, that put an uneasy feeling in his belly.
Sunny patiently waited, lying on the edge of the lower roof until the humanoid being walked directly below. On closer inspection, they couldn't be human. They had sharp teeth and strange features and webbed hands. Sunny darted by again. He found a knotted tree around the back of the building that he didn't have to climb as much as he had to take one or two foot jumps from knot to knot until he reached the roof of the second floor.
There were plenty of windows, so Sunny peered in as many as he could, as stealthy and sure-footed as possible of the roofing. No, no, no. Either empty or only the strange aquatic people. He just had to hope this wasn't a dead-end because he wasn't sure where else she would be.
Sunny jumped from a window sill to the next, up a couple feet of a pipe, a small ledge, up to the third floor. He was very high up now, and he walked as close to the building as he could, trying not to think about getting caught or falling. He wasn't sure which would be worse.
He went from one window to the next, checking each one. Nothing.
Sunny sighed slightly. Maybe she is back in town? But this building had felt so right. He was still moving around the building when he heard something that immediately drew his attention. Crying. Nami. Nami was here and it was coming from above.
Swallowing a dreadful feeling, Sunny found his way up another floor through ledges and thick patches of climbing ivy. He checked the first window sill he saw and sure enough, he saw the orange haired girl seated at a desk cluttered with paper, trying to recollect herself.
Sunny jumped onto the window sill and let out a quiet whistle. Nami jumped slightly and looked around, finally seeing Sunny with shock. After a moment's hesitation, she came over to the window and opened it.
"Sunny?" Her voice belayed her disbelief.
"Quiii," Sunny squeaked. About time I found you.
"How did you get here?" She asked, wiping away her tears in vain. They kept running down her cheeks.
Sunny jumped to the floor and nuzzled against her legs, showing her he wasn't scared of her from their last encounter.
She tensed but after a moment she had a controlled drop to the floor, wiping her eyes with one hand and petting Sunny with the other. A small smile graced her lips. "You came to see me? I can't believe it. You shouldn't be here, it's dangerous. You don't owe me anything—"
I'm not here for that. I just couldn't leave it the way it was, Sunny said, wishing she could understand him.
She took a deep breath and hugged herself, calming down a bit. "You shouldn't be here. But thank you for coming. Look at me, relieved because a little mouse came to see me. I'm a wreck." She looked at her desk. "But that bastard really took everything. I left the money I took from…I took from Luffy at Nojiko's… and I went to stop them. The only thing I could do is to promise to work twice as hard, to work for them forever and never complain and that he'd let the townspeople go back without being hurt anymore. But I know they'll be punished still for d-disobeying. I can't do anything else. I can't leave the island anymore!"
Sunny looked up at her with half opened eyes, a stronger look on his soft face; a look of both determination and melancholy.
Nami started with realization. "You're…Sunny, you're not just an animal. You're intelligent, aware. More than an animal. You really understand, don't you? You understand my feelings." She gave him a look, softer and more honest than he'd seen—something with admiration.
A creature with not just sympathy but empathy! She couldn't help but marvel at the idea.
Then there was a the door unlocked and opened and in a flash, nearly too fast for Sunny to understand, Nami scooped him up and was trying to toss him out the open window.
"What's this?" Even faster than Nami was this blue humanoid, who secured a webbed hand around Nami's wrist. Two predatorial eyes looking down at her past a large, serrated nose. "A little pet for poor Snow White?"
Nami froze, and the man tore me from her grip by the scruff.
Damn you, let go of me! I struggled, letting loose my flame. People have to stop picking me up like that, I'm too big for that!
The man winced, but only tightened his grip. For some reason, my fire wasn't as effective as it should have been. He shook Sunny roughly until the fire flickered out. Nami felt a bulge of panic rising in her throat, but she couldn't bring herself to move from where she was on the floor, except to tighten her fists against the ground. If only I'd been a little faster!
"What's this strange creature?" The man now sounded interested, and called back to another man, standing in the doorway. "See if we still have that cage. Then find out if this is worth anything. If not, we'll add it to the stew tonight." He said, passing the struggling creature to the other man.
As the other man accepted, the fire-type reached out and secured his teeth around the man's pinky finger and bit down as hard as he could.
"Shit!" he said, prying it off, and hitting Sunny in the head. Sunny felt everything go starry, then dark, and he had a moment to wonder when he'd gotten outside before he lost consciousness, a plume of smoke leaving his mouth.
Nami felt tears well up in her eyes again. Sunny had been completely innocent in this and she'd dragged him into it. She dug her nails into her tattoo until it bled. Poison. She was poison to anyone who she let get near her. Poison to the townspeople, poison to the Strawhats, poison to a kind, little shrew creature, too.
1. How old is Sunny? Well, I have this Pokemon aging theory that I use in my other long term pokefic, but basically, a tame pokemon ages a little slower than a dog until it reaches adulthood (around 2) and then ages at the same rate of a human after. So a healthy pokemon could live about 70 years (so they'd die around when their trainer would, I don't need any heartbreak), wild pokemon about 30. So, Sunny is about 6 months old. So think big puppy, not very useful, just trying to figure things out, but on the cusp of being a force to be reckoned with. He'll get strong, he's just not quite there yet.
2. Also, yes, a little lore on how the pokemon got where they are. Is there more to that story? It can only be revealed in time because that's all Sunny knows.
3. I'm using pokemon typing only in regards to Sunny. Fire might be powerful against a fishman normally because it could dry him out, but if Sunny tries it, it's Not Very Effective. Same for it him being in water, or fighting something that is ice, ground, or grass-affiliated. If he's involved, it'll go by poke typing rules.
4. Take it easy on my boy Sunny. He's level 5 in a world of superpowered people. And Nami had to angst.