Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a storm around her and the Going Merry had no idea how she was able to know that.

Usually, her awareness was at her peak only when she was out at sea, but, at most, she could only catch impressions of her passengers and the effects the weather had on her wood, like heat, dampness or frost. 

At that very moment, she was moored at the mansion port, yet she was feeling.

Rain was pelting on her furled sails, decks and figurehead, while waves splashed her hull and sides.
 Wind pushed against her flank, making her bob thankfully harmlessly against the bumpers of the pier.
 The tip of her mast tickled with static electricity, as Saint Elmo's Fire lit the darkness created by the thick night clouds. 

All those sensations, unknown until that very second, made her shudder then do a double take, since she realized that she was able to do so in the first place.

How was it even possible?

Tales as old as the first aquatic vessel ever created and passed down through the hands of their carpenters whispered to Merry that she should be too young and not damaged enough to develop a Klabautermann.
 That lately her owner’s family and their staff hadn't been visiting as much to make any significant bond with the caravel and so her soul couldn’t have developed further than just “existing”.

Still, here she was, awake, aware and confused.

Something had had to wake her up, there was no other explanation.

Suddenly a pulse of energy, maybe the very same thing she had been looking for, the culprit, thrummed through the water, making Marry metaphorically perk up.
 Was it a Sea King?
 An underwater volcano?
 An experimental buoy made by her mistress’ friend?

Something freezing, but squishy, bobbed and bounced against her flank at the next wave as it pinged another pulse, or better, a sharp spike of energy.
 Now that she thought about it, the pulses had felt like that time a sailor had fallen overboard from a cruise ship and he had shot a flare in the air when they had come to the rescue.

These were part of a distress call.
 A call that only a sheep ship could have heard, apparently, because the only sounds that Merry could perceive were her creaky wood boards, the rain and the thunders.

Even if she hadn’t been an empathetic being, the Going Merry would have helped the source, if only to understand what it was.
 But how could she even do that? She was only a ship!

The next pulse held even more power, more urgency, that the caravel shuddered from rudder to figurehead and a rope unfurled from the mast and dropped into the sea near the source.

Of course! This I can do! Merry told herself, as she snaked that extension of her around the source –it was a body!– and pulleyed it on her main deck.

The thump made shudder both her and the rescued, who started coughing up saltwater, then curled in a ball onto their right side, allowing Merry to witness the huge lighting mark spanning from the left cheek and descending towards the neck.

They had been injured!

The following weak and pitiful whine would have been almost lost among the pelting rain if it hadn’t been accompanied by another pulse, which energy input had been enough to jumpstart a see-through manifestation of Merry’s Klabautermann, who startled at the suddenness of it.

How…??

Curiously, the spirit pitapatted to the rescued and crouched before their head to take a better look.
 They had hair as white as seafoam and (where it wasn't burned) sun-kissed skin; they wore a black one-piece jumpsuit with white accents, boots and gloves. The face was still scrunched up in pain, but it looked young, much younger than Merry’s mistress.

At the next distressed whine, a ring of light washed over the being, leaving behind a black-haired pale-skinned human teenager, who curled up even more when a particularly strong lighting flashed over them.

Right. They had probably been hit by a lighting and they were still recovering after being lost at the sea.
 And being a Devil Fruit user probably hadn’t helped at all.

With a little bit of cajoling and trying to figure out the limits of her Klabautermann-body, Merry managed to lift the human and carry them to the main cabin inside, where she put them on the bed.
 Sure, it would wet the covers since the human was still waterlogged, but at least they were safer than outside. But maybe she could speed up the drying process?

Merry came back a few minutes later with a whole set of towels and carefully began ruffling the hair after wrapping the stripped down boy (or, at least, they appeared to sport a male anatomy through the boxers, which she had left on) with the majority of them.
 The lighting scar ran from his left cheek, down the neck and torso crossing through the heart then descending on the outside of the right leg to the meat of the foot.
 Such an extensive injury was bound to be extra delicate and prone to infections, so Merry left it alone, hoping that (once the storm had passed) the carpenters would come to check the caravel for damage and thus find him and help him with actual medical knowledge.

During her ministrations, the boy had fallen asleep (probably unconscious, though), but at least the distress signals had ceased.

Devil Fruit, uh? Merry kept stroking the (now fluffy) raven hair, reveling into the ability to do so. The East Blue was no Grand Line, but it had birthed the King of the Pirates long time ago (as she had heard from passing merchant ships).
 It was no wonder that weird things could happen here, too.

🐑⛵ ☠

It had been three days but still no one had come.

The boy had been delirious and twitchy at first, but Merry had managed to make him drink water and eat some dried fruit and meat from the pantry, so he had settled into a deep feverish sleep.

The caravel had thought that after depleting the initial energy surge, she would have been left unable to manifest again, but the more she held the boy through his tremors and pained whines, the less she felt the need to rest her Klabautermann form.
 Was he giving off passive energy by default or was he trying subconsciously to “feed” her corporeal form with his powers to keep her around?

If it was the latter, he needed to stop.
 Because, yes, she was helping him, but by fueling her, he would also exert his already depleted reserves, worsening his conditions.

They needed help and soon because there wasn’t much left in the pantry.

As if a higher being had answered her request, Merry the butler appeared before noon, along with several men and crates of supplies.

The caravel could have cried in happiness: at last, they were going to get help!

As the carpenters were checking the ship for damages and the workers were replenishing the pantry, it became apparent to the Going Merry that her namesake couldn’t notice her trying to call him or anyone else.

It was as if she was invisible and intangible to everyone.

Did the boy’s Devil Fruit allow spirits to interact only with him?
 If so, she could carry him out!

When the Klabautermann rushed to the “captain” room, she found the bed empty but still unmade…
 Where was the boy?

A quiet rattle of one of the closets gave the spirit a possible lead and lo-and-behold the teen was curled inside, one of the towels wrapped around him like a cape, back practically glued to the corner and looking around with half-lidded wild eyes.
 Had his delirium made him think that the workers were a threat?

Given how he immediately disappeared from the visible spectrum when footsteps approached the room, that must have been the case.

If these bouts of random powers hadn’t happened already during the three-days-wait, the Going Merry would have been surprised, but now she was just annoyed: this was their chance to get help and he was messing it up!

She tried to coax him to turn off invisibility for a long while, but nothing seemed to work.

«Okay, fine! Be like that, then!» The spirit huffed, leaving the devil fruit user hidden in the closet, and she returned to the deck to at least infer what was happening.
 If the mistress was going on a cruise on this ship, then the Going Merry had more time to make someone notice the stowaway.
 Plus, given the poor health of the mistress, a medic was bound to follow her in the journey, wasn’t it?

What met her instead was a trio of starry-eyed strangers, teenagers not much older than her mistress really, who made her immediately feel a surge of something deep inside her, much like she had had previously with the boy, but different.
 Another devil fruit user, then?

Or maybe…
 Kinship?

The inhabitants of the manor hadn’t been much more than employers and while her creator adored her, Merry the butler was more devoted to the mistress than a sheep ship (as he should be, after all).

But these three… their emotions were so rich and intense, with the straw hat-wearing boy’s ones a whole mast above everyone else’s.

«Wow…» the Going Merry whispered, mesmerized. A tiny squished part of her realized that she had never had empathy before saving the stowaway, but the largest part was too awed to care.

The teen, who emotionally felt like sun incarnate, perked up with no apparent reason whatsoever and looked around in puppy-like confusion, as if searching for something.

Going Merry snorted at her inner comparison, deciding to mock him like she had with the workers after she had realized that no one could see her. «What’cha doin’ there, landlubber? Are ya’ searching for the One Piece?»

“Yes! That's how I'm gonna be the Pirate King!” The teen said with so much gusto that for a brief moment she was taken aback and so didn't notice immediately that he had answered her. “And I'm not a landlubber, I'm a pirate!”

As his redhead companion started to berate the strawhat kid, the Klabautermann gasped, finally rebooting. He had heard her! She could finally ask for help!

«Then, future Pirate King, I need your help!» Going Merry exclaimed, cutting off the whine that the raven haired had been emitting. 

“Ohhh, what do you need, Mystery Voice?” He asked, still completely unbothered by the unknown.

“Luffy, quit it!” The girl punched the straw-hatted head, making it smash on the deck and literally bounce back. So, Devil Fruit confirmed. “Kaya-chan is gifting us the ship, show a little more respect!”

“But Namiiiiii! A Mystery Voice is asking for help, it sounds like an adventure!”

“You're gonna get your adventure later! If we don't know how to operate the ship now, we're not gonna go anywhere!” The newly dubbed Nami snapped like a hangry bananagator in reach of their meal.

Both Merry and Luffy recoiled and cowed back, both wisely deciding not to further irritate her.
Sure, the Klabautermann had been intangible and invisible for everyone sans the injured boy, but that much spite and anger compressed in that hothead body could probably bend reality enough to let Nami land a hit on the ship’s spiritual body, since she had been already able to harm a rubberman before.

…Maybe she could try to discretely guide Luffy to the cabin? Her boy really needed help.

However, before she could even utter a word, a shout and sound of something heavy rolling down the slope caught everyone’s attention and Marry gaped at the sight of her mistress’ friend bowling down latched on a gigantic backpack.
Both the green haired swordsman and Luffy jumped down from the caravel and with ridiculous ease stopped the “projectile” from hitting her wooden side, coincidentally stepping with their feet on the long-nose’s face.

As Merry’s mistress and the butler fretted on the tale-teller’s injuries, the Klabautermann fidgeted on the side. It was now or never!
«Kid, I really need your help now.» The spirit whispered in the teen’s ear, making him giggle at the ticklish sensation.

Nami glared in their direction, but didn’t say anything (since the butler was busy and couldn’t teach anyone how to steer the ship), so they considered it a pass and Luffy tried to bounce away from her line of sight, coincidentally entering the main indoor space of the caravel, which was a step closer to Merry’s goal.
“Yosh! What do you need, mystery voice? What’s the adventure?” Strawhat looked around, eager.

«I rescued someone the other day, but when the manor workers came by before, they couldn’t see or hear neither me nor him. But you can! Hear me, at least, that is.» Merry rambled, starting to walk toward the cabin. «I stashed him in the captain’s quarters to recover. He’s hurt and feverish.» She phased through the wood and Luffy followed her by (thankfully) opening the door.

“But there’s no one here.” He scratched his head under the strawhat, making it fall to his back where it held on only by a string around his throat.

«He’s confused by the fever, so he got scared when people walked in and hid himself in the closet. Can you check if you can see him?» Merry explained, biting her lip. Great Blues, I hope he can. Please, let be seen, boy!

Luffy didn’t seem convinced, looking around confused, but after spotting the closet door he made a pensive sound and reached for it, opening it as if without care.
The bundle of towels was still there, apparently hanging on air by themselves, but they flinched when the door opened and the light filtered inside. The pirate stared at it, starting to frown as the towels began to tremble under such laser-focus attention.

Suddenly the older teen squatted before the invisible kid, who flinched again, then Luffy dropped a hand exactly where the still-unseen head was and beamed at the transparent glazed-over eyes that were transfixed on him. “So you’re the mystery stowaway! You don’t need to hide!”

Be it the shock or feeling the sincerity of the words, the boy dropped immediately the invisibility and kept staring at Luffy, mouth slightly parted to pant, due to still being flushed with fever. 

The pirate smiled even brighter, making the kid and the spirit squint at him (it felt like looking at the Sun!). However, that seemed to be what the boy needed to shake himself out of the daze and react.

“Who are you?” He blurted, then blinked as if surprised of his own bluntness.

“I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm gonna be the Pirate King!” 

“Pirates? But we're in Illinois??” The boy looked even more bewildered than before. “We're nowhere near Pittsburgh!”

«Is that where you're from? Because I've never heard those names.» Merry hummed and the kid's eyes focused on hers. (He could really see her!)
«Welcome to the East Blue, precisely at Shirop Village on Gekko Island. I found you drifting among the waves and hoisted you up.»

The kid inhaled sharply, as his eyes widened in terror. How far from home was he? 

“Are you a ghost?” He whispered in a strained voice, before anyone else could ask anything.

«Technically no, since I'm not dead. But if you mean a spirit, then yes: I'm a Klabautermann, the manifestation of the soul of the caravel Going Merry, the ship you're currently on.» Merry explained, both on the behalf of the kid and the young man who she was going to be a crewmate with.

“Soooo cool!” Luffy had stars in his eyes as he looked in her general direction, making her blush at the positive attention. “Is that why I can’t see you?? You’re gonna haunt my ship?” He vibrated in excitement, removing the hand from the top of the kid’s head, who leaned forward a bit, unnoticed, as if chasing the rubber hand.

«Considering that I am the ship…» Merry trailed off, snickering at the pirate’s even more hyped expression. «I’ll be in your care⁓!»

“S-so you’re not going to drag e-everyone to the seafloor and drown them the first chance you g-get?» The kid shuddered and swayed, prompting Luffy to hold him up by the shoulder. He leaned heavily on the support, seemingly deflating a bit from the tension that was running through him.
(Was he touch-starved? But she had cuddled him plenty during those three days of recovering!)

Merry frowned at his words: they sounded rehearsed, as if he had been parroting someone. «Why do you think so, kid?» She crouched beside Luffy, to be on the same eye-level of the boy. «From what older passing-by ships told me, sailors have revered their ships’ Klabautermann for centuries. There shouldn’t be any malicious rumors or legends about us.»

“My parents… They’re ghost hunters…” The kid mumbled, tucking himself tighter inside the towel nest. “They have so many books on supernatural beings that… they could probably fill the Library of Congress in Washington DC.” He huffed, frustrated. “Not that they would believe a single good thing about them… they only focus on the bad legends, so they can justify their… obsessive work.” His left hand emerged from the cocoon and went to bury itself into his untamed raven mane, but he brushed against his healing cheek, making him hiss in pain and flinch it away.

«Easy, you’ve got a huge Lichtenberg scar! Other than having risked drowning, your fever was caused by the lighting that must have hit you.» Merry gently cradled the kid’s face to assess if he had accidentally disrupted the scab. Uh, it looks better than when I checked him less than an hour ago… the spirit observed, intrigued. What changed? His healing was struggling so much during the past three days…

“S-scar?” The boy asked, leaning back from her touch to fumble at the towel-cocoon and look down at his half-naked body. A trembling hand brushed feather-like on the segment of the scar where his heart should be and he shuddered, yanking away his hand as if he had been shocked by the contact. “T-there’s something else inside here! I-I can feel it humming beside my heartbeat! What is it?! It wasn't there before!”

«Hey hey hey, maybe it’s because of the Devil Fruit that you ate?» Merry suggested, placatingly.

“Devil what??” The kid was near hysteric, they needed to do something to make him calm down otherwise he would pass out.

“Fruit! I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi and now I’m a rubber human, see?” Luffy cheerfully interjected, stretching his cheek out at an impossible length. The kid gaped and the pirate let go before continuing to speak. “They look super weird with swirls on the peel and taste yucky, that’s how you recognize them! What did you eat? Was it a cool one??” He sparkled in enthusiasm, effectively killing the stowaway’s panic.

“No, I didn't eat anything before checking my parents’ Portal.” The kid answered, befuddled. Then he frowned and looked down at his huge scar, gently brushing it again with the pads of his fingers.

«Portal?» The Klabautermann prodded. That seemed pretty important.

“Yeah, my parents are scientists and inventors that always wanted to create an artificial passage to the afterlife, to study ectoplasm and ghosts.” The kid quietly explained, deep into his thoughts. “They finished it, but it didn’t turn on… So, after school I checked it out… To cheer them up, you know. They’re geniuses, but scatterbrained sometimes, so they could have missed something…” He trailed off after the lie (what had he lied about) and his hands started to tremble. The spirit gently caught them to steady him and that seemed enough to give him the strength to continue his tale.
 “They did miss something, you know?” He chuckled, bitter, as his eyes started to get watery. “There was another ON button, but on the inside of the Portal. Th-this burn isn’t because of lighting, but because I tripped and accidentally activated the Portal with me inside.” He shuddered full body, swaying so much with its force that both Merry and Luffy had to hold him tighter. “It hurt so much! So much that… I d-don’t think I survived it!”

Aaand cue the return of hysterics. Not that Merry could blame him, if he was actually right. He had been in a bad shape when she found him, so maybe he did die, but his heart got restarted somehow?

Once again, Luffy demonstrated to be (unknowingly) the best de-escalator in existence, because (despite the unorthodox method) he managed to make the kid stop… By giving him a (light) punch on the top of the head.
The kid sputtered, Merry gasped in appall, but he just grinned cheekily. “You’re breathing and your heart beats, so you can’t be dead!”

«But that’s not how you should have said it to him!» Merry tried to punch him with all her might by freeing the closest hand and she recoiled when it actually made contact, smashing him on the wood of the closet (fortunately not breaking it).

This, however, caused a chain reaction: Luffy let go of the kid, who whined, as if wounded by the loss, and fell forward, landing on Merry’s raincoat-covered lap, where he curled in agony.

The Klabautermann gasped at the suddenness of the events and hoisted in a more comfortable position the stowaway, who weakly reached out and grabbed a rubbery limb, deflating instantly in relief. “Sorry.” He mumbled, muffled by the raincoat. “I felt weak and starving when I let go.”

“Oh! Did the Portal make you a vampire then?” Nonplussed Luffy chirped, sitting up and taking the kid's hand in his, as if the latter hadn’t implied that he was absorbing something from the former. “I don’t feel any different and I’m not drying up.” He hummed, looking at his own body curiously.

The kid shook his head, lifting it up a bit to peer at the pirate. “Some legends say that ghosts feed on the emotions of living beings. Since I know I died, it would make sense.” He huffed, a bit annoyed. “But I can't feel whatever-it-is working as well as him with you,” he looked up at Merry, “probably because you're a spirit, but given that he's here and the rest of the place feels material, we're not in the Ghost Zone.” At the dual confused blink, he clarified. “That's how my parents call the afterlife, which they think is a separate dimension from ours.”

“Oh, so a mystery place!” Luffy bounced, thrilled.

“Yeah, given that we know nothing about it apart from speculations, it is a mystery.” The boy acknowledged absent-mindedly, looking lost and dejected.

«Hey, while you're looking better than before, what do you think about getting checked by an actual doctor?» Merry suggested, nudging her charge.

“Yeah,” he breathed, looking down and finally registering that he was wearing only a pair of boxers. He immediately squeaked and became invisible out of sheer embarrassment, which turned into fright soon after at the display of power. “What the fuck?!”

«You remember how we thought that you had eaten one of those Devil Fruits? Well, it's because you have powers now…» She said sheepishly, scratching her nape with her free hand.

“Which powers??” He clung to her and Luffy like lifelines.

«Invisibility, intangibility, flight and I think telekinesis once?» The spirit counted and the kid returned to the visible spectrum out of sheer shock.

“Those are the standard ghost powers that my parents observed! Does it mean that I'm still dead??” He shrieked, then turned to Merry, “Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!”

«One mental breakdown at a time, kid! You're still recovering from your injuries, I didn't want to overwhelm you!» She snapped back, then blinked at the unfamiliar familiarity of that behavior. Her temper wasn't usually that short, what did that mean? 

“Wow, you sounded like Nami, how did you do that?” Luffy observed in wonder.

“Who's that?” Apparently, the boy had decided that the change of topic was enough to distract himself from the impending freak out and Merry could get behind that, above all if it could get her some answers.

“She's my nakama and navigator! And then there's Zoro, who's my First Mate and uses three katanas! And if he accepts, there's also Usopp! He's gonna be the sniper and the liar of the crew! Oh! The Going Merry from now on is also gonna be our home among the waves, ‘cause she's our ship!” Luffy overshared, but this seemed to bring clarity on the stowaway’s face.

“I think I read a legend about it once…” The kid's blue eyes stared in the distance, lost in thoughts. “The ship and its spirit developed similarities with the crew that lived on and cherished it…¹*” his gaze refocused on the Klabautermann, observing her curiously, “but if they just got you and the legend is true, this was really quick.”

«Hey, it's not my fault!» She felt suddenly defensive. «Until I rescued you, I was barely conscious of the world around me! You probably unconsciously made me speedrun the Klabautermann’s achievements to get saved!» At the crestfallen expression of the kid, Merry hastily added «Not that it's a bad thing! I'm grateful for it! But it is a thing that happened, so I just wanted to make you aware of this.»

“Oh.” It took the kid a minute to be responsive again, but by then the emotional exhaustion was evident. “Better get this done.” His voice sounded rough and empty. “I need some clothes if I have to get checked.” 

“Yosh!” As if the stowaway wasn't on the edge of a breakdown, Luffy cheerfully jumped up, grabbed him by the waist and hoisted him up (still bundled up in towels) under his own armpit, like some misbehaving puppy in air-jail-time. (The kid didn't even protest by how emotionally drained he was.)

The trio got out of the closet and beelined towards a nightstand with a bag on, which was grabbed and dropped on the bed along with the kid. It took a bit of cajoling to dress him up while keeping contact with Luffy, but they managed to get him into a green vest with teal shorts. 

«Can you walk?» Merry asked, a bit worried for his unresponsiveness.

“Lemme try,” he mumbled, sliding down from the bed and stabilizing himself by holding onto the pirate. After the first wobbly steps, the kid gained a stable gait, so the spirit deemed him walkable.
The trio then made their way to the deck, with Luffy vibrating excitedly all the while, as if restraining himself from running forward. 

They could hear chatter from the other side of the main room door and the kid seemed to brace for whatever he was going to face. 

This is going to be an experience, I can tell already… Merry thought as Luffy reached for the handle.

👻⭐☠️

Danny really needed this to just be a dream.
A very vivid, realistic and surreal dream.

However, as soon as Monkey (what kind of horrible parent named their kid like that??) opened the door to the outside, all that hope was shattered by the onslaught of what he was starting to realize were other people's emotions, along with the morning sun and the fresh smell of sea.
(How had the accident changed him?)

Danny squinted, trying to adjust at the light while the steady (ghostly) hands of Merry lead him forward, way more reliable than the older teen's hand clasping his. But the other's credit, he could tell that Monkey was barely restraining himself from pulling him along without a care and that made him wonder where such a hyped guy could have learned this kind of self-control (because he didn't seem the type)²*.

“Hey, Sheep Guy! Do you know a doctor?” Monkey hollered from the railing to the shore, where a man with wool-like hair and (prosthetic?) horns was apparently patching up a teen around 17-18 with a freakishly long nose. Beside them, a blonde girl was hovering, worried, but observing the ministrations with attention, as if she was trying to learn.

Everyone (including two persons on the deck that Danny noticed only because they moved) looked up at them and seemed (and felt) shocked, making Danny get self-conscious and start to fidget, looking down at his bare feet.
Oh, the scar went all the way to his right calf.
(Which, reasonable, since he remembered the blast from the Portal coming directly at his face. The bolt must have discharged on the ground through his foot, burning through the sole of his hazmat suit…
He had to ask Merry where it was, maybe its forearm-computer was still functional since Danny had insulated it so much…)

“Luffy! Where did you get that kid??” The redhead on the deck shrieked in a similar tone to what Merry had done moments before, so Danny assumed this was the “Nami” the older teen had mentioned. 

(Danny buried with extreme prejudice the reminder of another redhead that popped up in his mind at the sight of her. She was not her.)

“He got hurt in a mystery portal and the Going Merry rescued him!” He cheerfully explained. “That's why he needs a doctor!”

“That makes no sense!” Nami shot back, disbelieving.

“Ah, Nami-san, let's inquire about the explanation later. Merry, let's check him first.” The blonde looked at the Sheep Guy, who nodded and boarded the caravel along with her and the Longnose Guy, who seemed intrigued by the events.

Everyone relocated inside in the main room, where Danny was made to sit on a green couch. 

“Do you remember how this happened?” Sheep Guy (was he called Merry like the Klabautermann?) asked after making him discard the vest to see the extension of the Lichtenberg scar better.

“Got in an accident and got blasted with electricity.” He mumbled, as the man carefully examined and prodded at the mark.
The guy then frowned and checked his pulse, timing it with his wristwatch. “Next thing I know I was waking up in the closet of the ship where Monkey found me.”
Better not mention the dead-thing, the ship’s spirit and his powers yet. It would just complicate things and adults generally disregarded whatever he said due to his family's reputation.

The Pirate (how could he be near Pittsburgh with a guy who had weird powers was still beyond him -denial is such a drug-) whined and shook lightly their joined hands. “My name's Luffy! Why are you using my last name?”

Danny blinked up at him. “But you introduced yourself as Monkey D. Luffy, usually the name is put before the last one.” 

“Yours is a naming convention from the North Blue, I think.” The blonde hummed, pensive. “Here in the East Blue, we use surname-middle name-name. Ah, I'm Torreya³* Kaya, nice to meet you.”

“I'm Danny Fenton, or, well, Fenton Danny in your convention.” He introduced himself, then wondered inwardly: Like Japanese? Am I in Japan? But they speak perfect English?? 

“North Blue? That's beyond the Red Line, how did you get here?” Nami asked curiously, previous annoyance at Luffy forgotten.

“I've never heard any of these names. …Do you have a map? M-Luffy said that you're a navigator?” He asked, feeling his insides knot in worry.
Sure, he wasn't in the Ghost Zone due to the lack of ectoplasm around (which he knew what it felt and looked like due to his parents’ experiments and samples) and his denial was still clinging to the fact that being in the material world meant that he was still on Earth, just misplaced, but the numerous pieces of evidence were piling up and suggesting otherwise.

“Sorry, the world is still pretty uncharted, but I have the closest thing you can get.” Nami fumbled with her bag, producing a rolled-up parchment that she opened on the couch beside him.
“See this?” She pointed to the tassel of earth that run vertically on the left side of the map. “This is the Red Line. It's the only continent and it forms a ring around the planet, which separates it in two hemispheres. Then there's the Grand Line, which is a sea, an ocean really, that divides everything in quarters, due to the Calm Belts that flank it, since it's perpendicular to the Red Line.”
She got another sheet of paper, blank this time, and sketched everything to give him a visual aid. “Each quarter is called a Blue. You're currently in the East one, while the North we mentioned is here.” She pointed to each one respectively, both on the sketch and on the actual map.

Oh. This was bad. 

This wasn't a prank. She was so passionate about this that her very being was resonating with it, so it couldn't be a lie.
And even if she was delusional, everyone else was nodding along, like it was common knowledge, so Danny was the one out of place.

The Portal that his parents had built led indeed to another dimension.

Just not the afterlife’s one.⁴*

He had risked his life died for nothing.
He had studied so much supernatural lore, engineering and physics, letting his grades tank and his relationship with his parents degrade even more than the meager thing that was before for this!

Bitter laughter cascaded from his lips, along with big fat tears from his eyes.
It seemed like the breakdown he had taken at bay until now was finally onto him and crushing him under its weight.

“Danny?” He felt being called, but he was too deep in his grief to acknowledge the voices.

It was all the Portal’s fault.

If his parents hadn’t sprung on him the cleaning up of the tools for it in the lab last minute, despite programming a month in advance a lunch at the Nasty Burger with his sister, Sam and Tuck to celebrate the end of the school year (when he could have done that chore at their return), Danny wouldn’t have been left behind.
He wouldn’t have survived the explosion of the sauce boiler along with the only persons he loved in the whole world.
He wouldn’t have witnessed his parents swear to finish the Portal in order to check if their daughter had become a ghost and put an end to her misery if that had been the case.
He wouldn’t have heard his father mutter under his breath while he thought he was alone that he would have preferred that Danny had taken Jazz’s place because she had been his favorite.

He wouldn’t have died (or whatever it was) trying to race his parents and get into the Ghost Zone to save the soul of his Persons.
To see them again at least one last time.

It was the Portal’s fault, because even if he got it to work, it didn’t even work right.
It had killed him and then spit him into a whole different dimension, without even the decency of letting him take a peek at the afterlife.

Suddenly something rubbery and long wrapped around him like a boa constrictor (but without the same predatory intention). It took a beat and a choked sob, but when Danny realized that he had been burrito-ed by Luffy’s stretchy arms, by then he had already sagged into the embrace and buried his face into the other’s torso (almost literally).

It felt nice.

(It was almost like what Jazz had used to do to calm him down from his night terrors, but with way less weird powers involved.)

Whatever was in his chest beside his heart slowly, but surely, began to hum, getting louder and louder, as the tears dried up, to sound like a purr.

He owed some answers to the others (if they would ever believe him, that is), but for now Danny would keep basking in the sunny comforting presence that was Monkey D. Luffy.

Chapter Text

“Is he… purring?” Nami whispered a bit after the kid had finally stopped crying.

The outburst had started so suddenly that had left the girl discombobulated, uncertain of what she had done wrong to elicit such a visceral reaction.

It was only geography!
But why had it felt like watching herself imprisoned in the cartography room, grieving like she had lost Bellmére all over again?  

Everyone in the room looked shaken (even Zoro, but he was masking it a bit better than the others) while Luffy’s expression was just solemn.
The Captain hummed back at her question. “Vibrates like he is, too.” He added, nodding to himself.

“How did you know that this” Usopp gestured to the octopus hug with a hand, while he dried his own sympathy-tears, “would work?”

“I did the same with my big brothers when they had nightmares when we were little!” Luffy beamed, proud of himself. “Works every time!” 

Oh, so Luffy was a younger sibling like her.
…He did have that kind of chaotic energy, now that Nami thought about it.

“Devil Fruit?” Zoro asked with a voice a little rougher than usual, but no one commented on it.

“Me and Merry thought that too, but Danny said that's because he died.” Luffy murmured, adjusting the hold in a way that made the kid purr even louder.

“I didn't say that?” The butler blinked in confusion, getting a light frown in response.

“No, you're the Sheep Guy, I was talking about Merry.” The pirate tilted his head, as if he was listening to something before he continued. “She's a Klabater-thingy, the name's too difficult.” He flinched and whined pitifully, turning his head to the side he had leaned toward before, pouting. ““Hey, it's not fair!”

“What just happened?” Kaya looked at the scene, confused.

“The word is Klabautermann.” The butler explained, awed. “It's the manifestation of the spirit of a ship. You can hear her?”

“Yeah, but Danny can see her too! She's the one who saved him from drowning.” 

“Wait wait wait, back up a bit.” Usopp interjected. “What did you mean that he died? Is he… a zombie??” He whisper-yelled, pale as a ghost.

“I sincerely doubt it, he has a pulse and is breathing, even if both slower than normal for a kid of his size. Most likely his heart stopped for a while and then it got restarted.” Merry the butler intervened. “Unfortunately, I can't diagnose anything more than this and we can't ask anyone else because the Manor's healer is out of town. I'm sorry.”

“We can ask in the next one then!” Luffy declared cheerfully, taking back everyone.
Even the kid seemed to register the words in his daze, because the purr stopped abruptly 

and his head popped up from the cocoon, blinking blearily and befuddled.

“What the heck do you mean?” Despite the wording, there was no bite in the kid's words.

Luffy looked down at Danny like the younger was the moron. “You're lost.” He said bluntly, stating the obvious. “So you and Usopp are coming with us!”
Aaaand now he lost everyone, making the sniper splutter as well.

“When was this decided??” Usopp demanded, still in shock.

“We fought together, so you're one of us now, right Zoro?” The Captain asked his First Mate, who snorted, but nodded.

“Sounds about right. Why the kid, though?” He crossed his arms, leaning back on the wall of the cabin, seemingly relaxed.

Luffy opened his mouth to answer, but both him and Danny looked to the side, where the freaking spirit of their ship was standing.
(What was wrong with this world?? Rubber and chopped humans first and now weird traumatized resurrected kids that could see ghosts??)
Danny mulled about whatever she had said while the older boy unwrapped him from the arms-cocoon. 

“She's right!” Strawhat peered down at Danny's torso, sounding elated. What…?

The burnt mark had healed already and the Lichtenberg scar was on its way to fading. How?? He had been octopus-hugged for less than half an hour, that shouldn't have been long enough to recover this much! 

When Usopp voiced the same question, Danny hesitated but had enough foresight and reflexes to stop Luffy from blurting nonsense by slapping a hand on his mouth.

“He’s helping me! Merry thinks that Luffy’s Devil Fruit is resonating with my messed-up biology and boosting my healing factor!” The kid said, rushed and (evident to Nami) lying, if the flush on his cheeks, the avoidance of looking at anyone and scratching his head as a nervous tic were any indication.

Nami wanted to call him out, because for what reason would he have to hide?
However, she refrained herself when she noticed his subtle terrified and wary glances at the only (older) adult in the room.

“If that’s the case, then maybe it would be wise for him to stay with you, at least until he recovers and you find an actual doctor to examine you.” The butler (either oblivious or faking ignorance) agreed, stepping beside Kaya, as it was proper.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, we’ll do it!” Danny nodded with way too much enthusiasm, clearly wanting the talk to finish already.

(Once they would be sailing away from Gekko Island, Nami would try to corner him and make him spill what he was hiding.
She wouldn’t risk her goal with such a tricky incognita.) “So? What are we waiting for? Let's set sail!” Luffy cheered, mouth free from the boy's hand, pumping a fist up, while he held the “guest” under his other arm.

“Wait, I still haven't learned everything about steering the Going Merry!” Nami halted the enthusiasm before it could be set in motion, but at least it seemed to be interesting enough to make Usopp perk up.

“I want to learn too!” He volunteered, eager.

Merry the butler elegantly snorted but acquiesced their request and began once again the instructions, now that there were new ears listening.

Ship now, interrogation later.

👽⭐🏴‍☠️

Danny could taste the impending sense of doom coming from Nami and shivered in anticipation. There was no escape from the clutches of a girl like that, he had had firsthand experience with two like that.

He felt a spike of pain at the reminder, but at the same time Merry jolted and frowned at him, which made Danny frown in return.
What did she want from him?

«Luffy, do something! He's starting to mope again!» She snitched, making the boy gasp in dramatic outrage.

“How can you even know that!” Danny demanded, leaning forward but staying still tucked under Strawhat’s arm. 

(Merry the butler mustn't ever know about the supposed “emotional vampirism” of Danny. Adults didn't react well to things like this, in his experience.
Occultism should stay hidden like its name implied. It was already too much that he knew that Danny had died and come back somehow changed.
No, there had been only one reliable adult in his life and Danny had lost him by being stranded in another dimension with no way home.
He wondered if Mr. Lancer would miss him and question what had happened to him.)

«You gave me empathy, duh.» 

Before Danny could parrot her, Luffy interjected obliviously. “What's empady? Can you eat it? I want some too!”

“I had them once, they had meat inside the bread. They weren't bad.” The green haired swordsman commented casually, making Danny look at him in disbelief (and notice that he had three katanas on his hip.
Uh, this be Zoro then.)

“Merry said empathy, not empanadas!” He corrected, then continued, as he felt Luffy open his mouth. “And no, you can't eat it, either!” It's more likely that that's how I can eat, in fact. Danny added in thought. But that was an entire can of worms to open later, because now he decided to focus on the spirit in the room.
“‘I gave you that’ because of the boost or it's a Klabautermann thing?” He subtly gestured between her and Nami to refer to the spirit's previously shown ‘inherited outburst tendency’.

At that Merry opened her mouth to reply, but then paused, uncertain. «Honestly, I have no idea. Could be either or both.» She shrugged, still confused.

“We'll come back at it later?” Danny proposed, getting a nod from the spirit.
He turned to the older teens: time to get to know them better since they would spend some traveling time together in the near future.
“Luffy said that your name is Zoro?” He got another affirmative response, so he continued, “How do you even use three katanas? Is one spare or…?”

The swordsman huffed, seemingly hiding a snort (because under the annoyed façade, he was amused), and raised an eyebrow. “I use all of them at the same time. Care to guess how?”

Danny blinked in bewilderment, before leaning back a little to take a look at him from top to bottom.
While most of the focus had been on the upper musculature, the boy could tell that Zoro hadn't lacked any training of the lower half of his body, so much that Danny could bet that the swordsman could lift with no issue his dad Jack Fenton.

But that didn't tell him anything about how he could wield three swords.
Maybe he could use two in one hand like a pinwheel? Or maybe…
Zoro had a very striking presence to him, almost as strong as Luffy, yet at the same time different.
Did it mean that he had a Devil Fruit as well?

“Can you sprout another limb?” He decided to ask, making Luffy explode in laughter and the other look and feel miffed. “What? It wouldn't be that weird, you said that these Fruits can give you powers and he feels similar to you!” Danny protested, elbowing the other raven haired in the side.

Annoyance turned into confusion and curiosity, as Zoro eyed the ex-stowaway. “‘Feels’?” 

“Yeah!” He immediately responded, eager to clear the apparent misunderstanding. “You two have this sort of ‘presence’ that feels different from everybody. It's commanding but not imposing, like a teacher during free time at school who lets you do whatever you want, but could scold and punish you if you do something that they don't like.”

Luffy tilted his head to Danny's opposite side, face blank, while Zoro's eyes lit in understanding. “Ah, like my dojo sensei, then. It's not a Devil Fruit, it's exactly like you said: the presence of someone strong willed. I usually use it through my Killer Intent to intimidate my targets.”

“Oh, like Grandpa and Makino! I've never gone to school.”
Ah, so that's why he hadn't got it at the first explanation.

“So if you don't have powers, how do you do it?” He looked around, feeling around to check if he had missed something else. “For the matter, does anyone else have powers?”

“Nope, just me!” Luffy cheerfully made the two of them sway left and right, as if they were companions sharing something. “And now you, I guess.” He stopped when Danny started feeling dizzy.

“I hold the Wado in my mouth, by the way.” Zoro answered like the interruption hadn't happened, lifting slightly the katana with the white sheath. 

Danny blinked as he processed the new info, then gaped. “Duuude, how much does your dentist charge you for that? Your teeth must be a mess!” He eyed the length of the sword, quickly doing some math for its weight, then added the strain for an eventual combat scenario.
How could Zoro still have a whole smile??

“Nothing, my teeth are just strong like that.” He shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal.

Danny had so many questions for him, like how didn't he get a sliced arm while fighting or how could he hit people with the mouth-sword? 

However, before he could ask anything, the sailing lesson on the other side of the room seemed to come to an end and the other crew members walked back to the trio along with Merry the butler and Kaya.

“Here, we're all set.” Nami announced, making Luffy whoop in delight and stand up, manhandling Danny so fast around that he didn't even understand how he ended up on the older boy's back in a backpack carry.

Like, okay, in order not to feel sick and starving he had to stay in contact with the rubber teen, but this was undignified!
Still, Danny didn't protest at the end because he understood that Luffy needed both hands free to set sail, but that didn't stop him from grumbling under his breath, as he clung on like a koala.

Nami and Usopp snickered at the scene, making Danny pout further but not comment, as he curled tighter on the older’s back.
It was not his fault he was so small and thin lean! Ecto-contaminated food didn't give much nutrients, since ectoplasm degraded them!
(Or at least that was what Sam and Jazz had thought.)

Trying to squish away that last thought, Danny buried his face into Luffy's hair and decided to start strategizing instead: what could he do now?

It was clear that he was stranded with no obvious way to go back home.
(Was it really home now that his Persons weren't there anymore?)

The Portal was probably a one way street, since, from what he was starting to remember, he had felt a strong pull in one direction after he died got into the accident.
So, even if Jack and Maddie found the Portal still working, they would probably end up in this world as well.

That last thought gave Danny a pause.
Did he have to wait for them?
(Did he really want to see them again?)

Shrieks and laugher made the boy look up and partially uncurl to see what was happening: Nami was ordering around with a demonic glint in her eyes, unknowingly holding a gleeful Merry on her shoulders, while Luffy was just laughing and pulling a rope that along with Zoro’s one unfurled the main white sail. On the rear of the ship, Usopp was doing the same with the white-and-red triangular one alone, since it was smaller.

These five strangers, who Danny had met not longer than an hour before, had been more worried and had cared for his well being more than his parents had ever done for him in the last five years (if ever).

(The decision was really a no-brainer, wasn’t it?)

The five cheerfully waved at the duo on the shore, as the ship finally departed from the pier (with Danny shyly tagalonging).
It took five minutes or so for them to be out of sight and in the meanwhile Nami started to steer the ship toward the next nearest island, still on the idea of searching for a doctor for Danny.

Once on the right route, Zoro broke out a barrel of booze to celebrate, at which Danny declined on the basis that he was still a minor (and ignoring the fact that technically so was everyone else, but he was the boss of no-one).
(Plus, if he ever tried alcohol before 21, he was sure Jazz’s ghost would come back and haunt him…
Uhm, on second thought…
No, that’s the devil talking. He shuddered.)

Luffy and Usopp tried to cajole him a couple of times, but eventually they gave up, while Zoro was more along the lines of “more for me, then”. Nami just handed Danny a glass of orange juice, claiming that he needed the Vitamin C anyway.

After toasting and finishing their drink, the girl’s emotions finally spiked in determination and Danny knew that his time was up.
He had to come clean.

💰🏴‍☠️🍊

“Now.” Nami turned to the youngest onboard, expression serious and determined. “What didn’t you say or did lie on before with Merry, Danny?”

The boy fidgeted, still sitting on Luffy’s back, scratching his nape nervously.
He looked up a little later, shocked, as if it was a response to someone else saying something, but since he looked above her head, she wasn’t so sure…

“I have a WHAT??” He shouted, making everyone, sans Luffy, do a double-take.

“Ooooh, a Mystery Form!” The Captain said gleefully instead, looking back at the kid. “Transform, transform, transform!” He chanted.

Danny seemed overwhelmed and probably having a crisis, but then he jerked and followed with his eyes something from her to his own side, where Luffy had made him sit in the meanwhile, still keeping contact with him.
(Nami still didn’t get why they were doing that.
The “messed up biology” lie he had fed Merry the Butler still hadn't convinced her.)

“What's Merry saying?” Usopp whispered “subtly” at Luffy, trying not to distract Danny, who seemed to listen to the supposed spirit of the ship.

“When she found him, Danny was in a mystery form that he changed into this from. She's trying to explain how it felt like? So he could try again.” The captain vibrated in excitement and anticipation.

As he explained, the ex-stowaway had closed his eyes in concentration and, a minute after, a white ring of light flashed on his waist, separated in two which washed up and down on him, winking away as soon as Danny's appearance had changed.

Gone were the raven hair, now it was as white as fresh snow, while his complexion was tanner than before. The clothes had changed as well, since now they were a one piece hazard-suit in black with white highlights and with something glowing on his left forearm.

The idiot-duo let out an excited gasp, making Danny snap his eyes open in reaction and, oh, his eyes were now more green than pure emeralds, instead of the previous aquamarine-like ones.
They looked down at himself and he stopped breathing, probably too stunned by his change of appearance.
Then finally, the kid took a shaking inhale and rested a trembling white-gloved hand on the side of his neck, letting out a heartfelt “thank fuck” few moments later, deflating.

Why did he need to check his pulse?

He then nodded at nothing and leaned away from Luffy, resting on something invisible… for about three seconds, before a translucent yellow silhouette became clearer and clearer, as he was touching it. Still see-through, but visible.

The apparition ruffled his white hair, eliciting a purr louder than the first time, which startled Danny into a stop as he looked down at his chest in bafflement.
The spirit snapped their fingers before the kid's face, making him look up at them as they said something garbled and indistinguishable, like a DenDenMushi with bad reception.

“Yeah, like Merry said!” Luffy enthusiastically exclaimed, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Wait! M-Merry?” Usopp had paled so much that he resembled Danny's original complexion, as he pointed at the specter.

At that point, Luffy blinked at the silhouette, as if taking notice of it for the first time (not counting that he had been talking to them), while Danny just blinked, confused as he looked around at the crew.
 “...Yeah, why?” The kid suddenly straightened, very alert. “Wait, are you seeing her, too??”

And that's when hell broke loose.

👻🏴‍☠️⭐

While the minute before Nami and Usopp had been gaping, as soon as Danny had asked that question, now they screeched in fright, leaping back and holding onto each other, baffling him further.
Why are they doing that? It's just Merry! She was already here and she’s not scary!

(And Luffy… Well.
He had gone all starry eyed and started bombarding the spirit with silly questions, like if she could poop…
Where’s the brain bleach when you need it??)

As he walked towards them, Zoro had a hand resting casually on the hilt of one of his swords, feeling both wary and curious. “How are you doing that? We couldn't see her before.” He leaned down, staring into the shadowed hood of the Klabautermann.

«I have two theories for that.» Merry interjected, putting on hold her conversation with the Captain and making the swordsman frown in concentration (what was he hearing?).
«Like a sun, Danny’s giving off energy passively and that feeds me when we touch,» she raised an index, «or to keep me around to help him survive, he subconsciously passes me his energy to make me corporeal enough to interact with the material world.» She ticked up a second finger.
«But now that he has completely activated his powers by transforming, he upped his outage, whichever case it was, so I was able to manifest in the human-visible spectrum.» She gestured to all herself.

“...Makes sense, yeah.” Danny mumbled, numbly.
Ectoplasm was a radioactive substance, after all, so it was entirely possible that (since he had been irradiated by a supercharged-by-electricity version of it) it would make him give off enough spiritual juice to “feed” a Klabautermann.

“What does?” Zoro tilted his head, questioningly.
At Danny’s confused ‘uhm?’, he elaborated. “I still can’t understand her, I only hear static and jumbled noises.”

“Oh. Oh! Okay!” So his ectoplasmic output hadn’t been enough to make Merry completely enter into this plane of existence and so be able to make air vibrate in the right frequency for a human ear to understand! 

However, before he could launch into an explanation, the swordsman turned to his still screaming crewmates and yelled at them. “Quit it! I can’t hear what he’s saying! And even if she’s a ghost, Merry is our nakáma!” That seemed to shut immediately up the duo, who even looked a bit mortified by the scolding.
“Please continue, kid.”

“I’m not that much younger than you, yanno…” Danny mumbled, pouting and crossing his arms, but he started to relay what Merry had theorized anyway, then adding his two cents from what he knew.

“I think both could be possible at the same time, to be honest.” He concluded. “But to be able to tell for sure, I’d have to measure and calculate the actual output both while I’m healthy and while I’m actively giving off energy.”
He put a hand on his chin in thought, adjusting his coils better to feel more comfortable.
“I’ll have to check if my forearm-computer is still working and if it is, with just some metal junk I could build a radar to attach to it to be able to get a reading…”
His mumble was cut short by a hand ruffling his hair and when he looked up, Merry was grinning at him in a D-like fashion.

«That sounds like a lot of work to me.» She hummed. «Does it mean you’ll stick around on me longer than just the next island?»

That question left Danny floundering, but Luffy started to vibrate in excitement (again), so the younger teen looked at the older warily.
What could he possibly want from Danny?
I don’t even know what I want to do! The boy screamed in his head, starting to get worked up.

“Danny! Join my crew!” 

…What?

“Luffy! You can’t ask a random kid to join your crew, he’s too young to go to the sea!” Nami objected vehemently, but at least that statement was enough to shake up Danny from his stupor.
(She was feeling a weird emotion that he couldn’t identify. Maaan, empathy was hard.)

“Hey! I’m almost fifteen! How old are all of you anyway and when did you start sailing?” He pointed his gloved hand at them (it was still so weird that it looked like an inverted color version of his hazmat suit), accusingly.

“Seventeen and it was… less than a week ago?” Luffy immediately responded, tilting his head to think.

“Nineteen, it was a few years ago, but you’re a damn pipsqueak in comparison, brat.” Zoro smirked, looking at him up and down, making Danny bristle indignantly.

“Seventeen, too, but the great Captain Usopp had been sailing since he was in his diapers!” The longnose boasted, but that lie was so painfully obvious that no one commented on that.
(Oh, so that’s how lies feel like.)

“Eighteen and it’s been a while, but Zoro’s right for once,” (“Oy!”) “you don’t look fit enough to travel any sea, let alone coming to the Grand Line, the most dangerous one existing!” Nami loomed over him, expression severe.

If there was a thing Danny Fenton was, it was being stubborn and not doing what the others told him to do.
(Plus the pull at his Core at the thought of being anywhere else other than here with them felt too painful to consider an alternative.)
“You know what? Before you said that, I didn’t know if I wanted to accept, but now, guess what?” He snapped at her indignantly, puffing up, before turning towards Luffy, determined. “Yes, I’ll join your crew.”

“Yooooohooo! I’ve got a ghost in the crew!” The Strawhat cheered, hoisting a yelping Danny up over his shoulder and jumping around in celebration.

Said “ghost” had to cling with all himself on the older teen since he was bouncing around worse than a rubber ball (which, given his powers… he kinda was), both ignoring the redhead’s protests.

“The Witch has one point, though.” (“How did you call me?!”) Zoro called, stopping Luffy on his tracks.
The Strawhat teen looked at him questioningly, so he elaborated. “The kid can’t be a ghost, he has a pulse.” He said, referring to one of the protests Nami had said while they had been bouncing.

“That’s your only objection?!” The girl shook the swordsman, enraged. “We know nothing about him, and that’s the only thing you say?? He could kill all of us, either intentionally or by sheer incompetence! He’s not anything enough!”

(Remember how Danny doesn’t like being told what to do?
Well, spite is also his favorite juice.
And being told that he wasn’t enough was the story of his life, one that he had been forced to leave behind. He didn't want history to repeat itself.)

“Oh, so you just want to know my ‘tragic backstory’ to prove myself and my abilities? Fine, I’ll tell you, then!” He flew into her face, phasing off Luffy’s hold, and making her step away from Zoro.
(Danny was so tired and overstimulated, he wanted to be done with this.)

“Since before my birth I’ve always been the Accident. My parents already had my sister and she was enough for them, but ops! Danny popped up unnecessary, like he would always do for the rest of his life!” His tail lashed around, agitated.
“But they weren’t fit to be parents to begin with, because their work as scientists always came before their spawn, so me and Jazz had to raise ourselves until six months or so ago, I lost track of the time because, really, when instead of dying with her and my friends, the only people who cared about me, I was held behind by my parents for some unnecessary shit!” He began laughing hysterically here, all bitter and in pain.
(This outburst had a long way coming.)

“And, the most messed up shit? Since my parents already wanted to create a portal to the afterlife, they didn’t even come to the funeral to continue building it and so find my sister’s ghost to tear it apart molecule by molecule to ‘put an end to her misery’!” Nami was starting to look green at the gills.
“I had to race my parents into finishing it before them, wasting away my already on the brink health in order to go and save them, but you know what happened instead? You know??” She shook her head, biting her lip. “The finished Portal killed me.” He stated, unemotional, this time.
Numbness was taking over, he was starting to disassociate.

“I don't know why I still have a heartbeat and breathe, but these” he gestured to his floating body, a wispy tail instead of legs and his whole existence in general, “are the powers of a ghost. That's the only thing I'm sure of. And since the Portal didn't even take me to the Afterlife and spit me here in this completely new dimension, since this isn't my planet’s geography and since even if I manage to find my way home, my parents will definitely hunt me down to terminate me, the son who they would have rather died than their daughter, I think I will take the chances with an ocean that only could kill me than the alternative.” He concluded, panting, the world blurring at the edges.

“Is that enough about me for you?” 

Nani nodded minutely, emotions in turmoil, but Danny had already given all his fucks for today, so he didn't look further into them.
Already feeling disconnected, he didn't look around but just flew up to the crow's nest and coiled up around the top of the mast protruding from its floor.

He buried his face in the ethereal softness of his coils (that were another whole can of worms she didn't want to open at the moment), holding them with his left arm, while the right rested on his hair, keeping his head down.

He had just wanted his family back. Had that really been too much to ask? 

⚔️🗡️🏴‍☠️🍶

Zoro had to admit that the kid might have the right spunk for sailing this ship, after all.
Older and more experienced people would have given up already if they had the same experiences of this brat. Besides, having powers might also give him the edge he needed to survive these (world’s?) waters.

Whatever, there were weirder things than jumping worlds by accident. 

Like, how could the unintelligible scolding of the spirit of the ship be able to cower the normally unflippable witch. 

…Maybe the kid's rant had her feel guilty to begin with?

The scene came to an end only when the surplus energy the kid had given Merry had run out, since the Klabautermann faded out of sight, leaving the sound of the wind as the only noise.

The redhead remained tense for a few seconds then deflated, looking up to the crow's nest for a second, then she turned and practically fled into the pantry. 

“Well, that happened.” Zoro stated neutrally, eyeing the other two teens. “Now what?”

Luffy crossed his arms, thinking so hard this face heated in the process.
An eureka moment came up then, as he popped a fist into his palm. “When Ace and Sabo fought that one time, they just needed to calm down to speak again. We could do that!” 

Not much a plan to begin with, but since Zoro wasn't much of a people person, this was better than nothing.

“What about Merry? Where did she go?” Usopp looked around, conflicted.
For all his fear of the paranormal, he seemed already fond of the spirit of the ship. 

“Dunno. She's been quiet since she realized that no one can see her anymore.” Strawhat looked around. “Oy, Merry!” He called. When no answer came, Luffy shouted her name louder and louder, until a rattle shook the deck and the younger teen whirled towards its (invisible) source.

And Zoro, unbidden, wondered if they would ever be able to hear her without needing a translator in the future.

She was a nakáma, she deserved to be heard.

🐏🏴‍☠️⛵

«Of all the moronic things you could say to push him like this, you skank¹*! I get that you're worried for him and want to spare him a fate similar to yours, but we're the best thing that could happen to him after all the shit he went through, how can't you get it?!» Merry raged against Nami even after she had deflated and run away.
Then she huffed, hands on her hips: she had disappeared from the visible spectrum, hadn't she?

Well, time to go and check on who could still see and hear her.

Teleporting from one side to another of herself felt as natural as sailing (so this must have been a Klabautermann thing), then she peeked over the edge of the crow's nest, finding the boy literally curled around the lower half of the mast tip, emotions a mess, but the predominant one being overwhelmed.

Uh, that explains so much. Merry thought, crossing her arms on the edge and resting her head on it, pondering what to do with her charge and companion.
On one hand he still needed energy to completely recover, on the other he also had to recharge his social battery and that required being away from the bundle of sunshine that was Luffy.
It was quite the conundrum.

Better to ask, then.

«Hey Danny, how do you feel?» Merry just received a muffled grumble from where he was still buried in his coils. «Yes yes, that was a mess indeed. But I was talking about your levels of energy. Do you feel fine enough to be left recovering from that up here?»

At this point there was a pause to assess the answer, then he turned his head enough to look at the spirit with a half-lidded eye. “I have enough to decompress, I think.” Danny looked down and scratched his head. “If it gets bad, I promise I'll go to Luffy, if that's fine with you.” He looked up at her again, unintentionally making a puppy dog look that struck at her heartstrings.

«Yeah, that's good. Knock on my wood if you feel too tired to move or just want to get my attention, okay?»

“Okay. Thanks Merry.” The small smile he gifted her was too precious and pure for this world, so the sheep ship felt justified in gently ruffling his hair (getting another purr, oh Mother Sea²*) before ducking out of the crow's nest.

Yeah, no matter what the others said, this kid was hers, now.

As Merry focused back on the deck, she noticed that her captain was calling for her, so, being the gremlin that she partly became, she leapt from the rigging and landed epically (not that they could see anyway, though) beside the boys, who turned towards the sound.
Oh, so that they could hear.

“Merry! We missed you!” Luffy exclaimed, smiling.

«I was gone just few minutes.» She answered, befuddled.

“Still too long, we want to know you better!” He countered, nonplussed.

«Even scaredy-cat over there?» She pointed at Usopp (even if she knew they couldn’t see it), but the message still came across.

“Of course Usopp wants to know you too! Na, Usopp?” The captain tilted his head towards the sniper, who jolted at the attention.

“Of course, the great captain Usopp has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge!” The teen boasted, making Merry snort in response.

«Okay, shoot then.» The spirit grinned D-shapedly.
She loved this crew so much.