Second Wind

56

"She's not a stowaway," Zoro sighed. "We would have sensed her earlier if she was."

Nami raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying she just teleported on board? Some kind of Devil Fruit maybe?"

"Why don't we ask her?" Robin said, kneeling down to the girl's level. "Hello, there. How exactly did you get on our ship, Miss?"

The girl smiled widely. "Hi, Robin! I just woke up, realized I was back, and then manifested myself like before. It was easy!"

That threw the crew for a loop. Suddenly, Usopp gasped.

"Merry," he breathed, causing everyone to turn to him in surprise. "You're...Merry, aren't you?"

The girl snickered again. "Nope! Take another guess!"

"This makes no sense," Zoro grumbled. "Her aura feels like a combination of all of ours. I've never sensed anything like it."

"Sunny." The voice came from Luffy, who until now, had yet to speak. His face was pale.

The girl pointed at Luffy triumphantly. "He got it! Captain got it!"

"What!?" Franky shouted. "You're...You're the Sunny's Klabautermann?" There was panic in his voice. "But that's impossible. She's in perfect shape!" The Straw Hats collectively stiffened upon hearing this, remembering the incident in Skypiea vividly.

"No, no, don't worry!" Sunny smiled reassuringly. "I'm fine!"

Franky faltered. "But...the legends say..."

"That a ship's spirit manifests once it's damaged beyond repair. That was true, in my case. But now I'm fine, see?"

Nami gave a strained smile. "Um, sorry, but you're not making that much sense, Sunny." God, it was kind of weird talking to their ship. But she'd done stranger things before.

The girl huffed in response, before Luffy suddenly shouted in realization.

"The parts we used!" he shouted, a smile stretching wide across his face.

Nami frowned. "What?"

Slowly, realization dawned. First with Franky, followed by Usopp and Robin.

"I suppose that could explain it," the archaeologist said in awe. The shipwright and sniper both had tears in their eyes.

"We used parts from the Merry to build this ship!" Luffy said gleefully. "That means you're...!"

"Yep! I'm Merry's reincarnation! I knew you'd get it!"

Nami's jaw dropped.

Sanji's cigarette fell from his mouth.

Chopper dropped the book he was carrying.

Zoro just stared.

Franky started crying outright now. "That's so beautiful! The spirit of their little ship lives on through my creation! That's so damn poetic!"

"OK, we get it, you can stop crying now," Sanji muttered, though no one could deny that every single person in the room was moved by the revelation.

"Idiot! I'm not crying, idiot! Don't look at me, idiot! DON'T LOOK AT ME!"

"That's so cool!" Luffy shouted. "So, does this mean you can manifest whenever now, Sunny?"

The girl nodded. "Mhm! Once a ship spirit manifests once, the ship is sentient. It's just that none have ever had the strength to do it continuously after coming so close to death." She smirked. "But now that I'm back to full strength, I can appear whenever. We cheated the system! And it's all because you guys cared for me so much!"