One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Nine-
"Sure, thanks for the help, Monster Granny" Luffy nodded. "You're the best and thank you, Merry, we never would have made it if you weren't there" he brightly smiled as I happily leaned back against Zoro.
"Indeed, we would have been toast if it wasn't for her" I hummed in agreement.
"I was pretty surprised when you showed up, but when I think about it, you've always been there to protect us" Luffy said. "We've always counted on you, anyway, I'm just happy that you've been a part of the team, Merry—you're a good friend to have" he blissfully sighed as he closed his eyes and rested his cheek against the top of the ram's head.
"I don't mean to spoil your mood" Franky spoke up. "But damn, you guys did some crazy stuff back there—I don't think the government's going to let you off that easy after you burned down their flag" he pointed out.
"Eh, let them be mad" I shrugged.
"Well, whatever, it doesn't feel like a big deal to me" Luffy said which caused me to softly laugh. "The only reason I did any of that was because they took our friend and I wanted her back, we couldn't have done what we did without your help, so thanks a lot" he thanked, causing Robin to widely smile.
"Well, like you said, it wasn't really that big of a deal—I just did what I had to do" Franky blushed as he bashfully scratched the back of his head.
"The point is, we're all together, we're coming back in one piece and this fight was our victory" Luffy grinned which caused all of us to cheer. "Hey, Usopp, are you there?" he asked after a while of peaceful sailing, now curiously wanting to know where the long-nosed pirate had disappeared off to when he couldn't find him.
"Where did you run off to? Come back!" Chopper worriedly called out.
"Hey, Usopp!" Luffy loudly shouted for the man as both he and Chopper now started to search the whole ship for him. "I thought he'd be up here for sure" he muttered while checking the crow's nest before moving down to the rooms below. "Where are you hiding? You in there? Seriously, I just saw him!" he huffed upon checking the kitchen and still not finding who he was looking for.
"Are...are they being serious right now?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as I watched them rush past the sharpshooter who had put his mask back on and picked back up that silly Sniper King persona of his.
"Hey, they're calling you" Sanji said.
"No, I can't, it's too soon" Sniper King nervously whispered back.
"Stop playing hide and seek!" Luffy snapped. "Get out here or I'll kick your ass!" he threatened, already starting to grow annoyed with the sharpshooter's "disappearance."
"Kick your ass!" Chopper echoed.
"Yeah, like that'll convince him to come out of hiding" I sweat dropped.
"Hey, do you know where Usopp's at, Sniper King?" Luffy asked. "You're his friend, right?" he asked, not questioning where Sniper King came from at all despite him not having been on the ship previously.
"Oh! Uh...no need to fear, he took a different boat and went on ahead himself!" Sniper King proclaimed before being kicked by Sanji.
"But why?" Chopper innocently asked, not understanding why the sharpshooter would do such a thing.
"That doesn't make sense, the Merry's his ship, right?" Luffy tilted his head as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"That was a terrible lie and you two should have been able to see right through it..." I grumbled.
"You got to be kidding me" Zoro raised an eyebrow. "If they haven't figured it out yet, what's it going to take?" he frowned.
"A giant sign over his head saying, "I'm Usopp," at least that's what it seems" I sighed.
"Even then, I doubt those two would get it right away" Sanji grumbled as Zoro and I nodded.
"I checked everywhere, looks like we're the only ones on the ship" Nami told us as she returned to the deck.
"That's pretty strange" Sanji hummed.
"The Merry didn't sail itself here, did it?" Nami asked.
"That'd be pretty spooky if it did" I said.
"Of course not, someone was calling us" Zoro said while resting his chin on my shoulder. "The whole crew heard it" he reminded us.
"And you don't know who it was?" Kokoro asked.
"No, just a voice beckoning us to the sea" Robin shook her head.
"Come on, you guys, the answer here is obvious—I'm telling you that was Merry's voice we heard" Luffy huffed.
"Huh? You think so?" Chopper asked.
"Merry, come on, say something else" Luffy said as he looked to the figurehead of the ship.
"I think we'd know by now if the ship could talk" Zoro said.
"You know, as ridiculous as it may sound, I was thinking the same thing" Nami smiled. "But, there's no way, right? That's impossible" she said, quick to dismiss such a belief as a talking ship.
"Who knows? We've seen weirder things since entering the Grand Line, would a talking ship really be all that weird?" I asked, watching as she shrugged in response.
"Hey, look, there's a ship coming!" Luffy suddenly pointed out the moment he spotted another ship sailing our way.
"A what? Who is it?" Sniper King asked.
"It's the Galley-La's Company ship" Sanji realized once he spotted the name written on the side of the ship. I smiled when I spotted the cheering shipwrights that stood aboard the ship, all of them waving towards us as they seemed relieved to know that we were still alive.
"Ahoy! What's up, Icepop?!" Luffy waved his arms the minute he spotted Iceburg.
"Ice for brains, huh?" Franky smiled.
"Nico Robin survived?" Iceburg questioned, looking quite impressed to see that we had succeeded in our mission. "They pulled it off after all, they took on the World Government and won—they lost it all and then they brought it all back" he smiled as we all waved at him and his men...though the happy reunion was cut short the minute Merry split in two, throwing us all off balance. But despite this, she still continued to stay afloat.
"Merry!" Sniper King cried out in horror.
"Their ship, it's breaking!" one of the shipwright's exclaimed.
"Hey, why is it falling apart all of a sudden?" Zoro asked, holding onto me as I tried to keep my feet from sliding down the slanted floorboards.
"There's nothing sudden about it, we all knew this was inevitable" Sanji sighed. "They told us, right? Before we left, they said Merry wasn't fit to sail" he frowned.
"Yeah, but…" Luffy sadly trailed off.
"She's been on her last leg for a while now, she must have pushed herself too far by coming to get us" I worriedly frowned.
"What happened to you, Merry?" Nami sadly asked as she looked at the damage that had been done to the ship.
"Icepop, help, Merry's in trouble! Can't you do something?!" Luffy desperately asked. "You got here just in time, you're all shipwrights, aren't you?! I'm begging you, don't let her die now! Merry's more than just a ship, she's a member of our crew—if it wasn't for her, we all would have died back there!" he exclaimed. "So, come on, do something!" he pleaded.
"She's fought hard for you, but it's time to let her rest" Iceburg told us which caused a lump to form in my throat at the implications of his words. "Besides, I've already done everything that I can, this is a miracle—there's no other word for it, the miracle for a ship that's gone beyond its limits just to see you one last time" he said. "As you know, I've been a shipwright for many years, but I've never seen a ship as incredible as this one. It's lived a wonderful life."
"I understand" Luffy nodded and quietly did we all move off of Merry, climbing aboard the small boat that the Galley-La had given us so we could safely move off her. Luffy stood on one of his own, closest to the broken-down ship. "Well, you guys ready?" he asked after he had finished discussing with us how he wished to put the ship to rest.
"Yeah" Sanji nodded as no one else seemed to speak up or object to the blonde's words. There wasn't much we could say, we all knew this was going to happen whether we wanted it to or not.
"Merry, I know the floor of the sea is a dark and lonely place, but don't worry—we're here to see you off" Luffy gently smiled down at the ship as he lit her up in flames. "And I'm sure you wished he was here, but it's probably best that Usopp isn't around, I don't know if he could take this" he admitted as the flames slowly started to spread and eat away at her.
"Well, is that true?" Zoro asked, looking towards the masked man.
"Of course, it isn't, we must all say our farewells someday—every man knows that" Sniper King said. "We must hold back our tears, Luffy knows what has to be done."
"Such wise words, you've grown a lot since the last time the topic of Merry's fate was brought up" I softly smiled.
"Thank you for carrying us for so long and so far, Merry" Luffy thanked as my gaze slowly wandered upwards the minute I spotted the first snowflake that fell, tears now pricking the corners of my eyes as I watched the snow gently start to fall.
"Snow?" Nami questioned as she held her hand out, surprised by the sudden appearance of the small white flakes that lazily drifted from the sky. My lip quivered as I looked back at the ship, watching how the flames started to eat away at her woodwork and cause her body to cave in on itself. So many memories seemed to flood my mind, we've been through so much with her that it just hurt to watch her finally go.
"I'm sorry" that same soft and delicate voice from before apologized, taking us all aback. "I wanted to carry everyone just a little bit further, I had so much fun—I wish our adventures would never end" I couldn't help but break at this, choking out a sob as I cried alongside Nami, Chopper, and Sniper King.
"Merry!" Chopper sobbed as I found my body shaking with sobs as I reached for Zoro's hand and grasped it, tightly clutching it as if my life depended on it as thick globs of tears raced down my cheeks and shaky gasps left my lips after every sob. I could already hear Nami dropping to her knees as she cried into her hands, unable to keep herself composed as she broke down.
"But, I'm sorry, I can't" Merry apologized.
"No, Merry—if anyone should apologize, it's us! Not you!" Luffy seemed to break upon hearing her apology. "I'm no good at steering, I ran you into icebergs and all kinds of stuff, I took bad care of you and ripped your sails!" he cried. "Zoro and Sanji are idiots too, they were breaking your stuff all the time! Usopp tried to fix you but wasn't any good at it, we all know that!
"If anyone's sorry, it's…it's us!" he cried harder, my sobs growing louder as I tighten my hold on Zoro's hand the minute I heard Luffy's broken sobs as well mingling with mine and the other threes—barely did I register the way Zoro squeeze my hand in return, his thumb gently beginning to rub circles against the back of it in such a comforting manner.
"I don't mind, I was happy" Merry assured us. "I know you always treated me with love, thank you—even if the time we spent together was short, I'm glad that I could spend it with you" I looked at the others, watching how a waterfall of tears seeped out from underneath Sniper King's mask. Out of all of us, he was the one suffering the most.
"Merry!" Luffy sobbed.
-Time Skip-
I watched in amusement as Luffy shoveled food down his throat faster than Sanji could bring it to the table. But the blond did deliver as he continued to cook more food anytime he noticed that Luffy's plate was almost empty—always making sure to replace it before the rubber man even had the chance to eat the very last bite and make sounds of complaint. Boredly did my hands play with the sunglasses resting on top of my head, pushing them up and down as I watched the room grow dark and light with each movement of the glasses. They went along nicely with the red tank top that had blue stripes running horizontally across it and the blue jean shorts I was wearing today. Pulled everything together and fit perfectly with the weather as Nami said when she shoved the clothes into my arms this morning.
"Hope everyone's decent" Kokoro said as she entered the room.
"Oh, hey, Kokoro" Sanji greeted the woman.
"Nice to see you" I chirped, finally leaving the glasses alone on top of my head.
"Yo, we're coming through" Chimney said as I chuckled, now watching in amusement as Yokozuna tried to fit through the door even though he was too big.
"Sure, good to see you" Sanji said before everyone sweat dropped as they watched how the frog proceeded to get himself stuck in the doorway.
"I think you better wait outside" Kokoro suggested towards the large amphibian.
"It's always fascinating seeing how much you can eat" I whistled, now going back to watching Luffy devour his food without receiving any form of a response—not that I expected him to respond in the first place.
"Skylar, you want anything before he eats it all?" Sanji asked as I shook my head.
"Nah, I'm good" was my only response as I watched the blond once again replace Luffy's empty plate with more food.
"You guys have been sleeping for days, you must have been awfully pooped—not that I blame you after all that fighting" Kokoro said. "Well, Mr. Pirate King is back on his feet too" she remarked.
"Uh...actually, not so much" Sanji corrected her.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" the old woman asked.
"Even though he couldn't move after the last fight, he didn't want to miss dinner because he was sleeping" Sanji explained as I chuckled, now almost tempted to poke the sleeping pirate's face, but didn't out of fear that he might bite my finger clean off if I got too close to those snapping jaws of his. "So, he developed a sleep-eating technique you see here" the blond said as he motioned towards the sleeping rubber man.
"He's still asleep?" Kokoro owlishly blinked.
"Yep, has been this whole time" I nodded.
"Whoa! That's so cool!" Chimney awed.
"That's what you call multitalented!" Kokoro laughed. "By the way, your Log Pose should be set after another two or three days here" she told us before taking note of a depressed Nami who had been silent this entire time, sadly peering down at the table. "Goodness, what happened?" the old woman worriedly asked.
"Even if the Log Pose is set, it's not like we can go anywhere without a ship..." Nami sadly mumbled.
"Don't remind me" I muttered, quickly growing depressed myself as well as I pushed my sunglasses down over my eyes and felt my head and shoulders droop at the reminder of our loss ship.
"All the money we saved up to buy a new ship is gone forever—our clothes, furniture, even Bellmere's precious tangerine trees were lost..." Nami mumbled. "Aqua Laguna carried it all away, I'm so depressed I can't even move" she was indeed right, the storm had washed everything away. Fortunately, the clothes provided to us were generously given by the Galley-La Company as both thanks for helping them and as an apology for accusing us of the attempt assassination of their mayor. Their emblem was easy to find somewhere on the center or breast of the shits. While Nami was torn up over the general loss of her trees, I found myself more torn up over the discovery that my letters and the picture of my brothers had been swept away by the storm.
It had taken Zoro hours to calm me down for my sobbing, with claims that more letters will come and that, despite the picture being gone, I would at least still have the memories of that day the picture was taken with me forever. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the memory of that day was more bittersweet then comforting—that I preferred the picture because seeing my brothers' faces were more comforting than thinking back on that day.
"Sorry I said anything" Kokoro sweat dropped as she looked between Nami and me.
"We left some of our stuff in the backstreet hotels" Sanji explained.
"Oh, so that's what your guests are here about" Kokoro said.
"Our guests?" the blond questioned.
"Um...so, funny story" a man said as other men dragged multiple bags through the door.
"My trees! Oh my gosh, I thought I'd never see them again—I'm so happy!" Nami happily gasped in excitement as she hugged the tangerine trees that were brought it while I desperately dug through the bags before squealing in delight the minute I found the picture and folded-up letters that I occasionally get in return from my brothers stuffed inside its frame. The glass was broken, but that didn't bother me as long as the picture and letters themselves were alright. Eagerly did I pull one of the letters out and unfolded it, chuckling at the alias Sora had chosen for me to retaliate the ones I chose for him and Cloud—it was the only way we could ensure that our letters could easily slip by the prying eyes of anyone that happened to snoop through the mail, no one would pay attention to a letter addressed in such a ridiculous manner, brushing it off as a letter that a child may be sending to a distant relative or pen pal.
'To our Sassy Little Bean'
That's who the letters were addressed to normally with the Going Merry as the address written underneath. Thanks to one of Sora's letters, I learned that they can only really send me them whenever they catch one of the gulls that normally delivered the newspapers. Amazing how that government-owned bird was quick to learn facial recognition with just the words "Sassy Little Bean" said while being shown my photo and given the promise of treats if they succeeded in delivering the letter correctly—at the end of the day, it was still nothing more than an animal, a smart animal at that that would always swoop down and give me my letter anytime it even caught a glimpse of me. It was a strange way for them to succeed in responding, but it was still a sweet gesture. I love how determined those two can be.
"Yeah, sorry about kicking you out, but we thought you tried to assassinate Iceburg" the man apologized. "We treated your belongings like pirate loot, so we confiscated everything, hope you're not mad" he nervously explained, scared that we would be upset with him and the others for how they handled our belongings.
"Of course, I'm not mad! Thank you so much!" Nami happily exclaimed, pleased to know that the men had unintentionally saved our belongings from being swept away by the storm.
"Well, there you go!" Kokoro laughed.
"Hi, Doctor Chopper reporting in!" Chopper exclaimed as he and Robin entered the room.
"How are you?" Robin asked.
"I'm great, now that you're here!" Sanji swooned as he spun around with hearts floating everywhere the minute he saw the older woman. "Such a heavy bag, please allow me" he offered as he took the bag that Robin was carrying from her hands.
"If you must" the raven-haired woman smiled.
A/N: Enjoy
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