Chapter 8 - Unveiling
~Croquant~
A short while later, with the excitement and anticipation reaching new heights, Franky stepped in front of the still cloaked ship.
'He's a showman alright, waiting for the hype to reach the peak.' He thought with an amused little smile on his face, as he looked around.
The port was filled with people.
A lot of them were Galley-La workers, who wanted to see the finished product.
Quite a lot marines and locals had gathered too. Curiosity about the reveal of a ship, that had some of the world's best shipwrights working on was the driving force behind the gathering. He kept part of his attention on them, just in case.
Idiots existed everywhere and they had the habit of living the Creed of Idiocy.
He didn't quite understand why Franky decided to unveil the ship in public, but if he'd have to guess, the main reasons were likely was likely fame and recognition.
Not for himself, mind you, but for the ship.
He wanted it to be a hot topic before it even went on it's maiden voyage.
The selfmade cyborg waited for the clamoring to die down a bit, before he started his speech.
"A Suuuuper good morning to you all, who came to see the unveiling of the best ship I'll ever build, my Magnum Opus if you will.
A big part of the honour should also go to Galley-La, especially to Iceburg and Yokozuna, since they not only helped me build this ship, but they also let me work on it in their own workshop and shipyard."
Uncharacteristically for him, he gave a short bow in their direction before he continued.
"Without keeping you all on tenterhooks anymore, here is my suuuuper masterpiece!"
With those words, some members of the Franky Family pulled off the ginormous tarpaulin and revealed a brigantine-type ship, that could very well be called a pinnacle of craftmanship.
With a length of 39 metres, the ship was thrice as long as Merry's former body.
Two impressive masts with massive sails, that topped off at an imposing height of 56 metres would be carrying the ship through the dangerous waters of the grand line.
The colour scheme fit it's future name with the majority of visible colouration being a warm brown, a sunny yellow and a bright red.
Patches and lines of white, black and green, the latter of which was achieved with some trees, dominated the rest of the aesthetic.
On it's front was a figure head, that was probably meant to be imposing, but seemed more cute than anything.
It's form was a hybrid of a lion and a sunflower, which was a strange choice, but to everyone their own and it did kinda fit with the design.
While admiring the ship, Croquant noticed Merry walking up to the ship.
She placed a hand gently on it's hull and started talking silently.
Whatever it was, that she said, it seemed to have an effect, as everyone, who was proficient with Kenbonshoku could perceive the ship 'waking' slightly.
When she came back, he asked her curiously.
"What did you say to it?"
She beamed at him in her typical manner and answered enthusiastically.
"I just told my little brother, that as his big sis, I would teach him everything I know and that we count on him to carry us to the horizon and beyond!"
She nearly vibrated with energy when she told him this and, like she did so many times, looked extremely cute.
Robin seemed to be of the same mind, as she simply glomped the confused but enthusiastic girl, who reciprocated the hug with equal fervour.
~Sanji~
*Some minutes earlier, when she stepped into his embrace*
'... *Sigh*. At least she looks happy.'
He took a drag from his cigarette and turned his thoughts to the monster on her side.
'I couldn't even see them move. Their fight was in a realm, that I wasn't even aware existed.'
His eyes burned with determination.
'I'll reach them. Then Nami-swan will fall for me!'
He didn't even notice the strange looks he got from the people around him when his aura circled from heartbroken to depressed, resigned, determined and finally love-sick in rapid succession.
His focus was pulled to their new ship when it was revealed.
'It's beautiful. I hope, the kitchen is well equipped.'
He then curiously observed their newest member, Merry, approaching the ship and starting to talk with it.
'Right, she was a ship too, it's kinda hard to keep that in mind when seeing the cute little munchkin. Oh? Something about the ship's atmosphere changed.'
He was confused. Did this mean that the new ship had a Klabautermann too?
Before meeting Merry, he thought they were a myth.
He had heard about them, of course.
Seafaring men from all the occupations knew the stories about ships fixing themselves up.
About strange little people suddenly appearing and disappearing on well-kept ships.
Now, that he met and talked with a shipspirit, he knew, that ships, made by a craftsman, who put all his soul into his work, have a chance to awaken their will.
Croquant further explained, that everything on this planet has a will, or haki, as he called it.
Those races with sapience are able to awaken this ability from it's dormant state, which allows for mythical powers on par with the strongest devil fruits when trained to a high degree.
Sometimes, even animals without sapience develop this ability as they awaken it by means of instinct.
This oftentimes grants them spiritual wisdom, which is their form of sapience.
People with exceptionally high willpower are able to stimulate those dormant abilities into an active state.
This can happen with another person, an animal and even a usually inanimate object.
Ships were a bit special in that regard, as they took in the whole crews goodwill and outright love for their ship, which was able to stimulate the vehicle's will into consciousness on rare occassions.
'That's everything he told us about it, before giving us rough guidelines for training.
He was correct in calling every single one of us willful and not likely to follow a standardised training manual.
We are pirates after all, rules aren't really for us.'
He smirked at that thought and followed along with his crew as they boarded the ship for the first time.
Even Usopp, who left the crew, only to profusely apologise to Luffy for challenging his authority some days ago.
He meant it, too. You could feel the sincerity from his words, which was a strange experience, since they usually oozed falsehood and deception. Or hilarity.
"What's got you thinking so hard, swirly brow?"
Asked the sword idiot.
With a tick mark on his temple, he grumbled.
"Shut up, moss head. Just thought back to Usopp's apology."
In a rare case of accordance, the sword gorilla nodded.
"Yeah, that was weird. But necessary.
If it was any less than that, and Luffy would've taken him back onto the crew, I'd have left."
This caused the seafaring chef to give him a surprised look.
"It wasn't just an empty threat, huh?
Well, I would've definitely lost some respect for Luffy in that case, but I know, that beneath his goofy attitude, he's a great captain.
I had faith in him, and in the end, it all worked out."
He turned to get a read on the moss head's facial expression, only to see, that the guy wasn't there anymore.
He looked around incredulously without finding even a trace of the greenheaded bastard.
"How does this even happen?!"
Nami turned around curiously at Sanji's shout.
"What's the problem?" She asked while swirling a part of her Clima-Tact over her fingers.
"The mosshead's the problem. He was right beside me and a couple of seconds later, he's gone without a trace.
Are we sure he hasn't eaten a devil fruit and just forgot, that he can't swim anymore?"
Nami giggled, which caused Sanji to swoon, as she answered.
"Just let it go. He'll somehow make his way to the ship, he always does."
With those words, she turned around again and started walking up the boarding plank, which made her hips sway tantalisingly.
Sanji didn't know if it was intentional or not, but he liked to think it was.
So he felt obliged to honour the gesture with an appreciative glance.
Of course, he didn't see the knowing smirk on the navigator's face. The very slight pink, that appeared on her cheeks went unnoticed by both of them.