Chapter 8
Thousand Sunny
The party after our return to Water 7 lasted well into the morning of the next day. It was two days after that that we managed to recover from various hangovers and the other chaos from the party. So almost 3 days before anyone got around to getting anything done.
In order to thank us for everything that had happened Iceberg loaned us a house that Galley-La owned to give us a place to stay while the new ship was being constructed. It was early in the morning and we were all sitting around a table having just finished breakfast when I brought up what had been nagging at me for the last few days. I had given something of a promise to Nami that I would reveal what I knew.
"Luffy I know you don't want spoilers on your journey but at the same time there are things that everyone needs to know for the future. Like super important things. I'll be as vague as I can when possible."
Luffy paused in his shoveling food into his mouth, there was a very audible swallow as he gulped the food down. He looked at me for a moment before looking around to the other members of the crew. Zoro didn't seem to care, Nami had her hands together while giving Luffy a begging expression, Sanji raised one eye brow as he smoked.
Luffy's gaze traveled to Usopp next who was fiddling with the clima tact, Robin who gave him a slight nod of her head, Chopper still with the shadow around his neck who gave Luffy a thumbs up, Franky who already knew some of what I was going to say, and finally to Merry who was vibrating in her seat. Finally he let out a sigh realizing that the rest of the crew was at least curious as to what I was going to say.
"Fiiiiine, but only major fights and such not what islands we'll go to or friends we might make."
That was fine really, I couldn't mention Brook but the real important things I could still manage. I cleared my throat to give myself time to order my thoughts before I started to speak.
"First point that I touched on in our first discussion, your history is important and will eventually come up. Most of the problems that are going to be coming because of that at have been solved already."
I gave a pointed glance towards Sanji which wasn't missed by anyone and was about to continue speaking when Merry interrupted me.
"Oh you mean how Sanji's name is actually pronounced San Ji, he's related to Germa 66 and that his last name is Vinsmoke?"
I slapped my hands against my face and groaned. Next to me Robin hid a smile behind one of her hands. Sanji meanwhile had gone completely stiff and his cigarette fell from his mouth. Merry had most of my knowledge of the story combined with Luffy's impulsiveness. The rest of the crew looked slightly confused except for Nami who was suddenly looking at Sanji with berri symbols in her eyes.
"Yes Merry that was what I was hinting at. But since it's not going to be relevant for 2 years I was going to let Sanji do it on his own by letting him mention it at his own pace. That ship has sailed now. "
"So Sanji's like some kind of prince or something. Why's that important?" I resisted the urge to facepalm again as Luffy spoke. Nami was not so restrained however, clocking Luffy on the back of the head. It was impressive how fast the bump on his head formed, she must have hit him really hard.
"Because you idiot it means that the reason Sanji hasn't mentioned it to us is going to come up and we'll somehow get dragged into it and end up fighting someone. Right Tii'chia? Also it probably means lots of treasure!"
I waggled my hand in a so-so gesture in response. There would certainly be lots of fighting but the kind of treasure that we would be going after at that point was not the kind she was thinking of.
"Kind of, I was mostly bringing it up so Sanji could mentally prepare himself for when the time came for it to be important. We can see how well that worked."
I said turning to look at Merry who stuck her tongue out at me in reply I bonked her over the head with one hand. Before things could go further however we stopped as Sanji mechanically moved a new cigarette to his mouth and lit it before speaking.
"How did my family history come up and how did it affect the crew?"
"You got kidnapped so you could be the groom of a wedding. A wedding where you would be marrying a daughter of one of the emperors of the sea, Big Mom. The crew was forced to split up some going to get you back while others continued onto our next destination."
There was a clattering as multiple people slipped out of their chairs, Sanji staring at me wide eyed. Zoro snorted at the noise and opened one eye to peer at all of us before closing it and returning to sleep. There wasn't a point in mentioning everything else that had occurred during that arc yet.
"Surely your joking."
The look Sanji was fixing me with as he spoke was equal parts pleading and desperate. I was again briefly tempted to reveal more but decided that deflecting it with a joke was the better option right now.
"I'm not joking, it also won't be important for at least another 2 years, and don't call me Shirley."
A pair of hands dope slapped the back of my head. One from Merry and the other one from Robin, I shot them a hurt look. Which was greeted by a roll of the eyes from Merry and an amused smirk from Robin. I understood how Merry knew the reference but I wondered how Robin knew about it. Resolving to ask about it later I continued
"Moving along what I was actually going to say involves Luffy's history. The first part about what happened to his third brother. The second part is about Ace."
Luffy was staring at me, his mouth hanging open before he whispered. "S...Sabo?"
"He's alive Luffy, he survived the attack on his ship by the Celestial Dragons. But he lost his memories of you and Ace, he's part of the Revolutionary Army. In fact he's second in command."
Luffy's smile threatened to escape from his face he was grinning so widely. Usopp patted Luffy on the shoulder and Chopper let out a cheer, the shadow on his shoulders throwing its arms up in what I could only assume was joy. It was why I was so regretful in saying the next few words.
"Sabo doesn't regain his memories until he reads about Ace dying in your arms at Marineford. After you've gone through the hell of Impel Down, survived the war that will come between Whitebeard and the Marines all because of who Ace's father is. Gol D. Roger."
"WHAT!?"
There was a crack and the whole house rumbled as the door and half the wall it was attached to was ripped away. Standing there holding the door was Garp his face cherry red in rage. Behind him there was a small contingent of passed out marines, Coby and Helmeppo while conscious were just barely on their feet, along with four very unexpected figures.
One was Smoker in surprisingly a Hawaiian shirt, and shorts. He still had his jutte slung across his back however. Tashigi was behind him also dressed casually, she was swaying in place but still conscious. Kuzan was there looking half way between exasperated and stunned. Why the hell he was here right now was a complete mystery. Finally the last unexpected person who stood next to Kuzan was Hank, who was doubled over with laughter and slapping his leg.
Robin went white. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper took one look before diving under the table. Luffy squeaked out something that sounded like gramps as Zoro jumped up swords half drawn, followed by a surprised Sanji. Merry had shot to her feet and was standing defensively in front of Robin. One could practically taste the chaos in the air at what was about to unfold. I slammed my hands down onto the table as I shot to my feet and shouted.
"Hold it!"
Everyone froze my shout pulling them out of their various reactions which was actually surprising. I hadn't thought that would end up working.
"Now everyone that is still conscious we are going to casually and I can't stress that word enough right now split into two groups before anyone does something rash like start a massive brawl.
Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, Robin, and Sanji will go with Tashigi, Smoker, Coby, Helmeppo and Hank to Franky House. Then the second group consisting of everyone I didn't mention will wait until Garp finishes repairing the wall, then we will also go to the Franky House. Then and only then will we continue this discussion and possible fight."
My eyes roamed across everyone to make sure that they were getting the point. Finally Smoker blew out a sigh as he fixed his eyes on me. Garp was still too stunned to speak and Kuzan really didn't seem to care.
"And why should we follow your orders and not just arrest the lot of you right now?"
I walked over to him slowly and held up three fingers. My tail was agitatedly slapping the ground behind me as I moved closer. I wasn't quite in Smokers face but I was close enough that I could smell the smoke from his cigar.
"Reason one, you all seem to be on vacation at the moment so off duty, reason two, your curious about how I know what's going to happen in the future, finally reason three, Garp and Kuzan are going along with it."
Smoker glanced first at Garp who was still holding the door and wall with a shell shocked expression, then over to Kuzan who appeared to have fallen asleep standing up. Finally he sighed but followed my instructions. Though I thought I heard him mutter that somehow he just knew that the favor from Hank was going to end up with pirates.
As we waited for Garp to fix up the wall and door, Hank walked over to stand beside me.
"From the moment I saw you I knew that something was going on in your head. It wasn't just because of you not knowing things most people should either, you acted like a person that had something to hide."
I glanced over at Hank and studied him for a minute before responding. He wasn't wrong I hadn't been all that subtle in the beginning but coming from a man with what appeared to have connections everywhere it was a bit annoying.
"Says the man that seems to be involved with quite a few prominent figures for being a washed out marine doctor or do all old people really just know each other?"
The only answer I received was him chuckling in response. I wasn't surprised but the answer still irked me. Garp finished the repairs and we all headed down to the Franky House. But not before Garp dismissed the rest of the marines that had been waiting around while he repaired things.
No one was really in a mood to talk so we proceeded down to the Frank House in silence. We found the rest of the crew and the marines sitting at a table, Franky was sitting with Smoker and Tashigi on one side. On his other sat Robin and Sanji, they were chatting peacefully enough. Even if the conversation was a bit strained which was to be expected.
Luffy was chatting excitedly to Coby while Usopp, Chopper, and Helmeppo chimed in with comments. At least until Garp walked in and the pair of marines snapped to attention while Luffy tried to appear as small as possible. After a second though he straightened up and nodded at Garp.
"Good to see you gramps."
There were shouts of surprise from pretty much everyone in the room reacted to that statement. Nami was particularly vocal in her shout.
"What do you mean gramps Luffy?!
Garp ignoring everyone else for the moment fixed his attention on Luffy. Narrowed eyes looked him up and down before Garp finally decided to speak.
"I heard you met your father Luffy."
Before Garp could continue further I had grabbed Merry and covered her mouth with one hand. In response she bit down hard on it and damn did she have some bite strength in those chompers. I gestured to her to remain quiet as the scuffle between us went largely ignored by everyone else.
"What? My Dad? I have a Dad?" Luffy asked looking quite confused by Garp's statement.
"What? He didn't tell you? He said he saw you off at Logue Town."
I paused in the scuffle with Merry as I thought about that statement. Garp had talked to Dragon at some point or at least was in contact with the man. The fact that he still had a job at all was surprising really it might also give us an edge in getting Garp to help us save Ace.
"Who's my dad?"
It was clear that everyone was interested in the answer to Luffy's question.
"Your father's name is Monkey D. Dragon, The Revolutionary." The exclamations of shock rung out from every one that didn't already know, so basically everyone. A lot of soft muttering followed.
"Hey why is everyone acting so weird?" Luffy asked as I finally let go of Merry, with that information out there wasn't much point in continuing to prevent her from speaking.
"You idiot! You don't know who Dragon is?!" Sanji shouted, the cigarette in his mouth falling out.
As Luffy continued to look confused Robin began to explain what she knew of the revolutionary army and its leader. It wasn't much but as she explained Garp rubbed the back of his head.
"I shouldn't have said that. Forget that I ever said that, okay?" The sweat drops hanging from everyone's head made that highly unlikely to happen no matter what Garp might have wanted. Garp then turned his stare onto me and it felt like there was suddenly a vise crushing me.
"Now I think I've waited long enough. What were you saying about Whitebeard and the Marines clashing?"
The image of getting crushed underneath an unstoppable monster filled my vision. If I had stilled needed to breathe I would have been gasping for breath. Instead I gritted my teeth as I stared straight back at Garp, eyes narrowed. Finally the pressure eased off and with a snort Garp walked by me and pulled out a seat. Once everyone else had settled down as much as they looked like they were going to I stepped over to the table.
"While this has nothing to do with what I was saying early I want to ask Kuzan if he remembers me from Ohara?"
My question seemed to startle Kuzan out of his sprawl in the chair and he spent almost a minute staring at me before he responded. "Yes I remember you know, I was certain that when I froze you and saw you drifting away in a block of ice that would be the last I ever saw of you."
"Well I survived and eventually wound up on the shores of Shalast where I met Hank. The reason I'm speaking to you know however is because of the meddling of a being called V. That being infused me with the essence of someone not from this world. A person that read about a story called One Piece and the adventures of a Straw Hat wearing pirate named Luffy.
One can imagine my surprise when I suddenly found myself living the story instead of reading it. A person who has knowledge of what the future will hold without my interference. Let me tell you about the future, the Battle at Marineford, the Paramount War, The War of the Best."
I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts as the Marines looked at me with the same degree of surprise that had been given to the last revelation they had heard. Garp, Kuzan, and Hank seemed the least surprised out of everyone but that was probably because they were used to some level of New World fuckery. Even then they weren't likely to buy the story without more information.
"Sometime soon in the next several days to a week Portgas D. Ace will get involved in a fight with Edward D Teach, also know as Blackbeard. Ace will lose this fight and Teach will hand him over to the Marines and the Elder Stars in their wisdom will make Teach into a Warlord."
There were gasps from the crew that had met Ace, thinking about him being defeated must be hard to comprehend to them. Not that it was just our side that had reacted, Smoker had visibly stiffened in his seat before his face darkened. Garp had his hands clenched together so hard he likely could have produced diamonds from coal.
"The Elder Stars, the World Government, and by extension the Marines will announce that Ace will be executed, not because of what he has done but because of who his father is. Before that Ace will be held in the 6th level of Impel Down, and yes I know about it. He will be held there along with Jimbei of the Warlords who refused to be involved in what amounts to declaring war against the Whitebeard Pirates. Luffy will attempt to break him out with the help of another Warlord, Boa Hancock when she discovers him on the island of Amazon Lily.
Hancock gets into Impel Down by using the Warlords privilege to go there and speak to anyone who is imprisoned within it. This brings us back to Blackbeard who has the Warlord title now. A title that he will use to enter Impel Down and break free some of the worst criminals confined within the prison to join his crew."
"Wait where was the rest of the crew when Luffy broke into Impel Down?"
The question came from Tashigi before I could continue. Interrupting me in the middle of the retelling. It was a valid question but not one that I was going to discuss right here and now.
"That falls under crew only spoilers, I can tell you but you'd have to join the crew."
This statement was greeted by a very firm shake of the head from Tashigi who had turned a little green, and a strident "No" from Zoro. It helped cut the tension in the room in the room slightly.
"Where was I? Ah so Luffy is unable to reach Ace in time before he's moved to Marineford and with the help of Jimbei and other prisoners escapes to follow Ace. The Marines knowing that what they are doing is going to piss off Whitebeard have prepared a trap for him and readied as much of their might as possible. This includes the Pacifista project."
This comment got a raised eyebrow of surprise from both Kuzan and Garp. They shared a look between them before focusing on me again.
"I'm not going to go into the blow by blow of things but both sides suffer casualties and injuries. Luffy arrives with the other prisoners from Impel Down and most help him to try and free Ace. Luffy reaches the execution platform and frees Ace but as they are fleeing Akainu taunts Ace and then tries to attack Luffy.
Ace leaps in front of the blow to save Luffy but...it kills him. Garp the only reason that you don't attack Akainu is because Sengoku knocks you out. Whitebeard goes on a rampage and thrashes Akainu within an inch of his life, until Blackbeard appears with his new crew. He engages with Whitebeard and for a time it seems like the old man will win, until Blackbeards crew gangs up on him. Whitebeard dies and then Teach does something to his body. I don't know what or how but he does the impossible and removes Whitebeards Devil Fruit power and takes it into himself."
Their was a combination of gasps and choking sounds at this statement as everyone that knew about Devil Fruits absorbed the impossible facts behind my words. Whitebeards devil fruit was dangerous enough on its own, added to the powers of another fruit and in the hands of a madman didn't bare thinking about.
"Blackbeard would probably go onto cause more damage and do who knows what else except Shanks shows up with his crew. Rather then fighting Teach retreats and both sides pull back to lick their wounds and mourn. Sengoku retires, basically sick of the whole thing. Garp you basically retire only staying on as a teacher for new marines. Akainu and Kuzan battle for command of the marines. Kuzan loses the fight and ends up losing a leg. He quits the Marines afterwards and goes on to join Blackbeard for some reason. Blackbeard goes onto the New World and becomes an Emperor, much of Whitebeards territory falls into chaos or is gobbled up the other Emperors, and that's the jist story minus the fine details and a few other things."
The room was completely silent as I finished the story, every face was some combination of thoughtful or depressed. Several times someone would open their mouths to say something only to close them and shake their head. It wasn't hard to judge by their expressions that they believed my tale, or at least believed enough of it to matter. Finally someone broke the silence and spoke.
"Well the way I see it there is only one real choice, break Ace out of Impel Down and in the process kill Blackbeard. Ace's freedom will hopefully prevent this war between Whitebeard and the Marines"
The marines all jerked their heads in the direction of who had spoken. Hank met their incredulous expressions with a smirk.
"I might be a former Marine, and I don't really care for most pirates as a whole, but anyone can see that if what Tii'chia here says is going to happen happens then everyone is going to be worse off. Besides I know how people like Magellan and Sengoku would normally act and this whole scheme stinks of the Elder Stars."
"Your talking about violating every principle that the marines stand for Hank!" Garp roared as he shot to his feet hands cracking the table as they were slammed down onto it.
"Ah shut it you old dog! You wouldn't have helped hide Ace in the first place if you didn't think something like this was going to happen. You've seen the rot in the system the same as me, the way that the Marines are forced to bow down to the Nobles. It's time to stop deluding yourself Garp, the system can't be changed from within!"
Garp flopped down into the chair with a grunt, still scowling at Hank. A thoughtful expression on his face Smoker asked a question.
"You've alluded that Ace's father is someone important but no one has yet said who his father actually is. I want to know who?"
I chuckled darkly before responding. "Ace's father is Gol D. Roger."
Once more explanations of shock and surprise rang out from everyone around the table. Idly I wondered if all of these sudden revelations back to back like this might not be good for peoples health. As this new shock was being processed Kuzan spoke up for the first time.
"I understand the reasoning behind what you have said, including why I would challenge Akainu for command of the Marines. However I'm not willing to trust your words just yet, if Ace does end up being captured then I will contact Garp for any plan that has been made. Until then if we meet out on the seas I will consider you as just another group of pirates.
At that Kuzan got up and walked out of the building. Stopping only briefly to look back at everyone around the table before he went outside, eyes lingering on both me and Robin. Garp turned his attention firmly onto me, it wasn't hard to read him at that moment. He was conflicted between doing his duty and doing what was right.
"This whole conversation is insane, and I must be equally insane since I'm still here listening to it. So spit it out what grand plan do you have of solving all this."
I scratched the back of my head as I tried to think. I had an idea of a plan but not the fine details. There were just too many moving parts for me to juggle. I felt a hand on my back and glancing behind me found Merry there.
She rubbed her hand against my back gently and I felt tension leaving my body. It wasn't all on me to decide, I just had to give the best information that I could. It didn't help that I was prone to overthinking and second guessing myself.
"I don't have a complete plan yet but I have some ideas. There are two things we need to do, the first is save Ace, the second is to kill Blackbeard before he can get his hands on Whitebeards fruit.
The best chance for both I believe is in Impel Down, if we could get Magellan on our side then along with Garp, Ace, and Jimbei it should be possible to kill Blackbeard. The hard part is convincing Magellan to our side in the first place."
It took quite some time for a genuine plan to be hashed out and then decided upon. It did involve me bring up more knowledge then I would have liked though. Garp eventually and very reluctantly agreed to the plan. Once he heard that the Supernovas were heading towards Saobody then he would head there himself to pick up all of us.
Garp would hopefully convince or order Kuma to delay splitting the crew up until our return and then we would head towards Impel Down. Assuming that Magellan agreed to help us we'd lie in wait for Blackbeard and jump him when he appeared. Trading Ace and Jimbei's release in return for locking away the rest of Blackbeard's crew.
Failing that it would be Luffy and the whole crew doing what Luffy had done solo in canon while Garp and friends kept Magellan busy and dealt with Blackbeard. If we didn't save Ace before we was taken to Marineford then it would be more of the same in assisting what Luffy had done solo.
"Are their any allies can we depend upon during this? Others to might be swayed over to the cause." Smoker asked as the meeting began to draw to a close.
"That's an interesting question. If I had access to a talking snail and a radio show I know a few for sure but since this isn't that story I can only give you folks that might be convinced to help."
Merry fell off of her chair giggling as everyone else gave me confused looks. I waved a hand idly towards everyone. The fact that I was smirking only adding to the confusion.
"Let's just say multiverse theory for that one because by the time I finished explaining what I'm talking about everything would be done with. As for allies on the Marine side of things we have Black Cage Hina, T-Bone but he'd be really hard to convince, and Jonathan from Navarone. Use your own judgment otherwise. There is at least one person that can not be told about this and that's Vergo. You'll have to trust me when I say that he is not on our side.
Pirate wise for allies I've got nothing certain as of yet so we'll need to see. A lot of it will depend on how things end up going. We should exchange transponder snail numbers to stay in contact in the mean time."
Numbers were exchanged and the meeting was starting to break up. It was as I leaned back in my chair that I remembered one last bit of information. I couldn't be sure that it would happen but better safe then sorry.
"Oh Garp I'm not sure if this will happen or not but if several islands in the East Blue suddenly become barren of all life then Shiki the golden lion is back."
Garp who until this point seemed to be completely resigned to the whole thing stared at me in slack-jawed surprise.
"What the hell do you mean not sure if it's going to happen?!" He roared out as soon as sense returned to him.
"There's different versions of this story out there and in one of those versions Shiki comes back on a floating island and causes a whole mess of problems."
"Great so helpful, a pirate possibly from Roger's era may or may not be showing up and the even the person that basically knows the future otherwise can't help me!"
Garp stormed out at that point followed by a nervous Coby and Helmeppo. Smoker and Tashigi were the next to leave though not without Tashigi shooting a glare at both me and Zoro. Probably more upset that our swords were in the hands of pirates then she was by working with us.
Hank was the last person to leave, he had cheerfully been trading tips to Chopper about his own time as a doctor. The wide-eyed look of worship that the reindeer was giving to him made me think that those tips had been well received.
"Well things are going to be very interesting soon. I suppose that I'll see you at Saobody, good to meet all of you. I'll be eagerly awaiting for your appearance in the paper."
Hank got up and was prepared to leave before fixing his gaze on Luffy. He eyed Luffy carefully for a moment, gaze sweeping up and down. He seemed to be mulling something over in his head before speaking.
"Trust your friends and I'm sure you'll become King."
Luffy broke into a wide smile and rubbed his finger beneath his nose.
"Shihihihihi, thanks old man."
At that point with one last wave of his hand Hank departed. He had to jump aside just before he reached the door however as it was flung open by Franky's men, who was waving a sheath of papers.
Papers that contained the crew's new bounties. Most of them were unchanged from their canon bounties except for one. Choppers bounty picture was of him in his Horn Point with the shadow clinging to his horns as it stretched out its claws towards the camera. The picture must have been taken during the party as I could see Zoro and Usopp in the background, not that I could recall anything like that occurring.
"Shadow Beast, Chopper, 500 thousand berri"
That got Chopper some slaps on the back and made his outrage even funnier when I gave him the result of his canon bounty number. Finally there was my own bounty poster, an up close shot of me snarling towards the camera.
"Defiler of Justice, Tii'chia, 100 million berri."
It was a good picture even if I didn't remember when it was taken. Robin who had been looking over my shoulder spoke up.
"I remember this, Luffy had just challenged you to a meat eating contest and the camera man got in the way of you eating."
"Huh." Not the most intelligent of responses but when you didn't recall the event in question what else was there to say about it.
At first I was surprised by the high bounty but after giving it some more thought it did make sense. Two former members of baroque works plus the guy I landed on, 3 pirates with 80+ million bounties of their own, and Jabra. I had done some impressive feats in the short time that I had been in this world.
"You guys know what this means right!?"
Luffy shouted as he bounced up onto his feet. Before anyone else could say anything Merry had grabbed his arm and with a shout of party the pair zoomed out the door. They had exited so fast that Luffy's straw hat was spinning in place in the air before Luffy's arm stretched out to grab it.
Once the party was over, which only took the rest of the day and well into the night, people set to work about their tasks. Franky with the help of Merry, Iceberg, and Galley-La set about constructing our new ship. No one except those working on the ship were allowed in to see it before it was done so the rest of us were forced to find our own ways to keep busy.
Sanji stocked up on supplies for the voyage including plenty of extra salt at my recommendation. Chopper I didn't see much of but I saw him working with Usopp occasionally, still with the shadow keeping him company. Nami set about selling everything that had been looted from the Marines and driving bargains that let several shop keepers in tears. I also saw her arguing occasionally with Merry about something.
Zoro trained or slept in between the times that he didn't somehow get lost. It really was an impressive thing to watch how easily he got lost at least when I had the time. Out of everyone I was probably the busiest, in the mornings I was learning the ins and outs of being a crew member on a sailing vessel. What to do in when certain things happened, how to tie down lines, the works. Since I had zero previous experience I was forced to learn fast. The best thing about all of the learning is that I could finally tie a decent knot for once in my life.
My evenings were spent training against Zoro to improve my speed and technique. It involved a lot of weight training on my limbs and resistance training. Usually by the time I was done with all of the training I didn't have much energy for anything else. During the nights I spent sorting my thoughts or scribbling in my journal to make sure I didn't forget anything important.
Finally the day for the new ships unveiling came. We were all gathered outside of of the building where it had been being built. Waiting in front of the doors was Franky, Iceberg, and Merry who was bouncing excitedly.
"C'mon Merry, everyone is here now. I wanna see our new ship!"
Luffy cried out, bouncing to same rhythm as Merry. The sheer excited energy he was giving off at the moment would make even even the grumpiest of people smile. Mind we had all arrived at the same time so the waiting had been all of like 5 seconds. Stepping aside Merry gestured to Franky who pushed the door open do we could all rush inside.
Resting in its berth was the Straw Hat Pirates new ship, it looked like with Merry's help that Franky had gone all out on the ship. There were immediate signs of changes from what canon Sunny had looked like.
The most obvious to me was that an extra deck had been added across the length of the ship. I could see numerous rope ladders in place to allow people to get up onto the main deck. As I swept my gaze along the length of the ship another thing jumped out at me. The soldier docking system which was supposed to occupy the middle section of the ship had been moved back towards the stern.
Actually taking a look at the ship itself it seemed to be longer then I thought it would be. As everyone else was scrambling up the lines onto the main deck of the ship I turned towards Merry. She must have read the expression on my face because she spoke up before I could even ask.
"25% longer and the extra deck added about 7 feet to the height. Even with the space expansions helping we needed the extra room to fit everything in."
Rather then continuing to wait on the ground I picked up Merry and spread my wings to fly up and onto the main deck with the rest of the crew. While I was landing something that Merry had said tickled at the back of my mind.
"Space expansions?"
"I may have picked up some nifty little tricks due to how you saved me."
Was Merry's only reply to my question before she had Franky started us on the tour of the ship. The first stop was the kitchen and the massive fridge with a lock on the door. Sanji approached it and spun the combination into place, using his body to hide what the number were from Luffy. When the door was finally pushed open everyone let out gasps of surprise.
The inside of the fridge was a black box shaped void that was clearly bigger then what could have fit into the space that it was supposed to occupy. To prevent people from getting confused the floor had been covered in wood planks and shelves to store food had been pushed up against each wall.
As several members of the crew rushed into the fridge I just stuck my head into the room. I couldn't help but whistle as I looked around.
"Wow Merry this is impressive. I gotta ask though how you managed it."
Before Merry deigned to answer she made sure that everyone was out of the room and paying attention. In Luffy's case as much attention as he normally payed.
"So one of the things I discovered I could do after my rebirth is that I can turn Berri into magical items. At the moment I can only seem to create variants on Bags of Holding, this was the second biggest space that I created but there are lots more about the ship. I'll point them out when we're close."
Throughly intrigued and excited we followed Merry and Franky along the tour. Our next stop was the lounge and the aquarium which looked fantastic and we all spent a minute or two looking at the fish. After that we in quick order visited the library, the baths, and finally the bedrooms. Merry ran over to what appeared to be a wooden footlocker with Usopp's name printed on the side
"And here we have everyone's storage lockers!"
Merry yanked open the wooden footlocker to expose a black void that was larger then the locker was and deeper to boot.
"Each of these lockers functions as a bag of holding type 4 and can fit 1500 pounds or up to 250 cubic feet of stuff and the lockers themselves only weigh 60 pounds. I made one locker for each person for personal stuff and then some bigger ones for other places, like the fridge"
I noted that Franky had a locker and turned towards him as we walked continued the tour.
"So decided that you were just going to come along with us instead of being forced?"
Franky snorted and shook his head. "There's not a chance that I'm going to just let this ship sail off without me after everything that you and Merry told me. Besides there's a lot more to be done on this ship and in the future."
"Plus you didn't want to get your manhood crushed?"
"Plus I didn't want my manhood crushed." He responded with a wince.
Our next stop was the workshop, tucked into the middle of the ship. The room was a mash up of styles, tables, and tools that would make any tinker, mad scientist, or inventor happy. I could tell by the gleam in Usopp's eye that he was already thinking of his next project. A quick examination of the cupboards revealed that they were all slightly larger on the inside and that some had even been filled with Dials that had been grabbed from Skypeia. I knew we had the Reject dial but when I had the time a closer look wouldn't hurt. Continuing the tour brought us into the medical bay which included a pair of beds for patients and even more storage for medical needs in the shape of a locker.
Our next stop was the Soldier Docking System and it was as we were heading for towards it that Nami asked a question.
"Merry what about the lowest deck?"
"Oh that's where the legs are stored, nothing else fits in there so we don't need to go down there."
As Merry continued along everyone had question marks floating over their heads. Legs? The only image that came to mind was that of hundreds of feet and legs walking the Sunny across land. It was a ridiculous thought but that was all I could think that legs could possibly be.
Upon entering the Soldier Docking System I could only blink in surprise. It was far bigger then I remembered and instead of having 6 docks it had 8 though most weren't occupied. There was also something off about the room as a whole even if I couldn't quite put my finger on what.
The two Zero Docks were occupied by a large pair of metal cylinders that completely filled the space. If I tilted my head at a certain angle they looked kind of like they might be arms maybe if I squinted right. Setting the whatever those were aside for later and turned my attention to Dock One which was occupied by Nami's waver, at the moment completely unmodified.
Dock Two held the Mini Merry though it was bigger and looked like it could seat 6 people. At the back of the little ship there was a locker for storage. A closer look showed that someone, probably Merry herself, had payed careful attention to the details on the figurehead.
Dock Three held an inflatable pool along with what appeared to be improved versions of the diving suits. None of them seemed to be fully finished but rather works in progress. Compared to the other docks this one seemed a little bit empty though in time it probably would end up getting filled.
The last dock that was occupied was Dock Six and what it contained had me scratching my head in confusion. It looked like the figurehead of the Going Merry but sized up by quite a bit and made out of metal. While I was trying to guess the purpose of it Robin who had been walking about the edges of the room turned to Merry.
"Merry this room wouldn't happen to have the space expansions you mentioned earlier would it?"
"Good eye Robin, this room is indeed where the space expansion came in. A combination of my powers and Franky's genius this room is bigger on the inside then the outside! Basically its the biggest and most complicated Bag of Holding that I've made so far."
A quick scan around the room confirmed that it indeed was larger then it could have possibly been and still fit inside of the ship. It was a truly impressive bit of magic that had allowed this, now if I could only figure out why we needed this much space.
"Now if everyone can leave the ship we can show you a unique feature of the ship." Merry ducked out of the room as she spoke and curious we followed after her until we were once more standing outside. The walls and the roofing that had formerly concealed the ship had been removed so that the sun was shining down on us. Everyone tromped off the ship except for Franky who had headed off towards the helm.
"Okay Big Bro Franky, we're all clear!"
Merry shouted even as she waved one hand towards Franky who was now standing at the helm of the Sunny.
"Roger that Lil Sis, it's time for the SUPER surprise! Thousand Sunny, transform!"
Franky yanked down a trio of levers and then slammed his hand down onto a a big red button that had been revealed. There was a pause before well I can only describe it as a mecha transformation scene happened.
Sunny rose vertically into the air even as the masts vanished. Metal and wood paneling locked into place across the grassy section of the deck. The front quarter of the ship containing the helm and figurehead clicked backwards so it was horizontal to the rest of the ship. As the transformation continued this section moved slowly upwards, guided by the rails set onto the paneling from earlier. At the same time the Coup De Burst cannon at the stern and the dome ontop of it slide down and back to form a sort of backpack.
The curved back section of the ship that bordered the Soldier Docking System slid outwards into what I realized was shoulders for the metal arms that extended out from the Zero Dock of the system. As the arms lowered themselves into place from within, the dock metal shutters slid down to lock them into place. The front half of the cylinders continued to descend for a moment, revealing the elbow joints for the arms. Mechanical hands spun out from the lowest point of the arms. Each hand was clawed and painted so that they matched the paws that acted as anchors at the front of Sunny.
The lion figurehead of Sunny slotted into place at the center of the ship, more metal shutters sliding down to protect the helm even as it slid backwards into the gap left behind by the cannon moving backwards. As it did so the Going Merry head rose up to form the head section of the robot. The front part of the head lowering down to reveal a stern robotic face that was hidden inside.
The bottom half of Sunny where the figurehead had sat unfolded into a pair of sturdy wood and metal legs that ended in stylized lion paw shaped boots. Finally with the robotic face full exposed it straightened up to it's full height, one of the masts that had disappeared earlier suddenly reappearing slung across the mecha's back like a sword. The fact that the mast also now sported a double edged blade just further drove home the point.
Somewhere from inside the giant robot that Sunny had become Franky's voice boomed out, a clear note of pride in his voice.
"I present the SUPER amazing, Thousand Sunny Victory Mode!"
Luffy, Usopp, Merry, and Chopper were staring at the giant robot with stars in their eyes which was a far cry from the rest of us. I wondered if this was the first time that Merry had actually seen the ship transform.
Zoro and Sanji seemed surprised but rather unbothered by the whole thing. Nami had her trembling hands pressed against her temples and was massaging them slowly. Robin looked torn between being amused or intrigued by the robot.
As for what I was doing, I had grabbed a piece of discarded timber and was repeatedly bonking it against my head. Not very hard but it was enough produced a slight thunk each time. It was just so insane, so stupid, so needlessly pointless, and I freaking loved the thing all the same! Really it was a giant robot and I loved giant robots.
Tossing aside the plank I ran over to where Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Merry were dancing in a circle. Grabbing Merry and Choppers hands I joined the dance. The whole thing was ridiculous but at the same time it was just so very Franky.
Franky undid the transformation a couple of minutes later and the Sunny returned to its ship form. The masts reappearing as suddenly as they had vanished in the first place. The answer was likely something to do with Merry's spacial bending and bag of holding type powers but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to ask. So as we prepared the ship for departure and brought aboard all of our stuff I did.
"Yeah, we couldn't figure out where else to put them during the transformation. Its part of a list that me and Franky drew up to work on when we have the time. The first item on the list is improving the cola engines, at the moment we can only use the transformation for 10 minutes before we run out of cola and need to insert new barrels.
I'm hoping that I might be able to make other magical items in the future to really give us a leg up on everyone else."
We continued to chat about things as Sunny was slipped out of its berth and down into the water. Nami was at the helm calling out instructions as the sails were unfurled and angled to catch the wind. We were finally setting off to continue our adventure. I paused as I considered that I really did think of myself as part of the crew.
It was a peaceful departure from Water 7, no Garp chasing us or a fleet of marine ships. Just the the shipwrights of Galley-La, Iceburg, Kokoro, Yokozuna, and Chimney to wave us off. One could only guess as to where Garp was right now, had he refused to go after us or was he involved in something.
In the distance Water 7 became smaller and smaller until eventually it was completely out of sight. Nami gave us the all clear and everyone relaxed to start doing whatever they wished.
I departed from Merry as she rushed to the helm of the ship and headed to the men's bedrooms. As I pushed open the door and stepped inside I realized that I wasn't alone in the room. Sanji was standing by the wall where all of the other bounty posters hung and was hanging up his own with a slight smile.
"I'm surprised your actually hanging that up after everything that Merry revealed."
"I wasn't going to at first, until I realized that everytime he saw the poster he'd have to be reminded of me. While I couldn't care less about him."
Sanji turned towards me his smile much more pronounced now.
"Besides as Merry said to me, family's something you make yourself."
He clapped me on the shoulder as he walked past and exited the room. Now alone I walked over to my locker and pulled the lid open before dumping what I didn't need for the moment. As I was dumping out all of my stuff I found the book that Hank had given to me.
Deciding that my next stop might as well be the library I exited the bedroom. The corridors of Sunny were quiet except for the creaking of the ships timbers. It didn't take me long to reach where I was going and I found that someone was already there putting books on the shelves.
Robin was sitting on one of the couches reading through a book as multiple arms did the work of putting the books away. She glanced up as I entered and offered a quick wave before returning to her reading.
After placing the book on the shelf I headed back out and onto the deck. The warmth from the sun was nice and I spent a moment to lean against the railing and watch the waves. It was kind of nice to be able to relax for the first time since I had arrived. Merry had been saved and a plan had been decided upon for saving Ace.
It was probably over an hour later that I headed up to the helm to stand next to Merry as she held onto Sunny's wheel. She was humming something that I couldn't quite make out, though it was probably a sea shanty of some sort.
Luffy was sitting ontop of Sunny's head, he must have heard me or something as he turned around to look over his shoulder at me. Surprisingly he had an actual serious expression on his face as if he had been thinking hard about something. After a moment he spoke up.
"Hey Tii'chia, you know that sword you have? The one you used to save Merry? Well why don't you just wish for Ace to be safe!"
My jaw dropped and the only thing I could say in response was.
"Eeeeeehhhhhh?!"