Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Thousand Sunny was proud to be the ship of the Straw Hat Pirates. Ever since his creation, he had ferried them across the Grand Line smoothly and without error. He knew he carried the will of his predecessor, the Going Merry, and sought to live up to its hallowed name every day, giving back a fraction of the love his crew gave to him every day. All in all, Sunny couldn’t ask for a better lot in life as a pirate ship. 

Even so, Sunny had never gotten to meet a ship quite like himself. All the others he saw on the seas or in harbor were merely inert wood, cloth, and metal, and even then they rarely stuck around. It did get lonely at times, when the crew was ashore on an island and he was left at the dock by himself. 

However, one day while docked in a port in Wano country, Sunny found that there were two more ships docked at his sides: the Polar Tang and the Victoria Punk, the ships of Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid respectively. Even though they were quiet, Sunny could sense their spirits—their Klau-somethings, whatever Franky called them. He tried to call out to them:

“Hey! I’m Sunny! The Thousand Sunny! What’re your names?”

No response from either one. Sunny tried again: “You guys wanna talk? I feel like since our crews were friends, we should get to know each other! Have you ever—”

“We’re not ‘friends,’ idiot,” the Polar Tang growled. Sunny could now see the outline of Tang’s spirit sitting sullenly on its hull. “We’re allies, nothing more. As soon as we sail away from this island, we’ll be adversaries again. So don’t bother getting chummy.”

Sunny was confused by this. “Uh, your captain sailed with me for a couple weeks, you know. And he was palling around with my captain the whole time!”

“It was all part of the plan, nothing more. I thought you would know that since you’ve been a pirate ship for this long.”

A pause. Sunny decided to change the subject: “You look kinda funny for a ship. Why’s your deck so small? And what’s with those wings underwater?”

Tang scoffed. “That’s because I’m not a normal ship, I’m a submarine. I was meant to dive underwater whenever the captain needs to be stealthy.”

“Woah, that’s so cool! ” I’ve only ever been underwater a couple times, so I haven’t gotten a good look around. What’s it like down there?”

“Dark, mostly. Very empty. You don’t see many fish, surprisingly.”

“Really? What kind of fish have you seen?”

Tang suddenly grew very smug. “Well…one time, we were chased down by a sea king.”

Sunny gasped. “No way.”

“Indeed. It was thanks to my expert maneuverability that we were able to get away. Managed to poke out one of its eyes with my torpedoes, too.”

“That’s awesome! One time, when we went down to Fishman Island, we ran into a real live kraken!”

“No way. I’ve never seen a kraken before.”

“It’s true! It was scary, but my crew was able to beat it up real good!”

“Hmph. I guess that’s impressive.”

Sunny turned his attention to the Victoria Punk. “What about you? Have you ever seen a sea king before?”

“Don’t talk to me, loser!” Punk shouted in return. Her spirit was standing on the bow, ‘arms’ crossed in defiance. “We’re enemies, y’know? So I’m not gonna reveal any of my secrets to ya!”

“I don’t see why we have to be enemies,” Sunny inquired, “We’re all pirate ships who love our crews, aren’t we? Can’t we get along because of that?”

“That just goes to show how naive you are! On these seas, it’s every pirate for themselves—so any ship could be an enemy! Gotta be on guard for anything!”

“Well, that seems rough. Don’t you want anyone else to hang out with?”

“Don’t need ‘em! My crew and captain’s the best there is! Kid’s going to be the Pirate King one day, y’know!”

“Hey, Luffy’s gonna be the king of the Pirates, he’s always saying so! But that’s okay, we can still be friends! I think your captain is really cool with his metal powers or whatever.”

“It’s magnetism, actually,” Tang chimed in, “And I would say, Punk, that your captain hardly makes the best use of his devil fruit—unlike my captain.”

“What! Who said that?” Punk roared, “I can’t see ya with this Sunny bastard in the way, but I’d ram into you if I could!” 

“I’d like to see you try. I could outspeed both of you any day.”

“Grr, don’t get cocky, idiot!”

Looks like they’re starting to get along, Sunny thought happily. They reminded him of Zoro and Sanj, and how they would have spirited sparring sessions on his deck while jeering each other on. 

“Say, what do you say we have a race to the bottom of the waterfall when we depart?” Sunny suggested, “I bet I’d win!” 

Tang scoffed. “As if—that all depends on what our Captains want to do. Captain Law wouldn’t stoop to something so juvenile.”

“Heh, I don’t know about that…Law traveled with me for a while, and he has a wild streak that you might not know about! Trust me, he’ll do it.”

“Then it’s on!” Punk declared, “We’ll race to the bottom of the waterfall once we depart.”

Tang sighed, “Hmph. I suppose I’ll indulge in this competition as well, if my captain wishes it.”

The three went back and forth for some time, debating who had the speed and sturdiness to win such a race down the waterfall. Sunny was happy to hear the others’ tones slowly change from adversarial to amicable. It was something Sunny had always admired about his captain, his ability to make people who were once enemies into friends, and he was proud of himself for being able to do the same. 

“Say, here’s a question,” Sunny said, changing the subject, “What’s your favorite island that you’ve been to?”

“Hmm, that’s tough,” Tang mused, “I rarely spend much time on the surface, and most islands look the same from underwater.”

“I can answer that one, easy!” Punk declared, “My favorite island was Sabaody Archipelago! That’s where I got covered in a big soap bubble that made me able to swim underwater! It felt really good, and I got to see a lot of cool stuff in the ocean.”

Sunny suddenly felt uncomfortable. “Actually…I don’t really like Sabaody that much.”

“Why not? Pretty sure all of us were docked there at the same time a couple of years ago. Didn’t you do all the same stuff we did?”

“Well, the truth is…I had to stay there alone for a couple years. I never got the story, but apparently the crew got separated somehow and they couldn’t get back before then. There were other people who looked after me, but it wasn’t really the same without Luffy and the others…I got really lonely and sad, to be honest.”

Punk laughed out loud. “Hah! Your crew forgot about you for two whole years?”

“They didn’t forget me!” Sunny protested, “They were just busy with something else…”

“You really sure about that? Even if they didn’t, that’s a pretty wimpy crew to take a vacation right before the New World! Pirates ought to be gutsy, and never look back—hardly something a ship sitting in port for two years can do!”

There was a tense silence for several moments. Sunny wanted to speak up and defend himself, but these were things that he had thought about and feared were true, and Punk had brought them back bubbling back to the surface once more. He ruminated on this miserably, unable to find the right words.

It was Tang who eventually spoke up. “You know, Sunny,” it said tentatively, “I actually had your captain aboard me as well…”

“R…really?”

“Yeah, it was during the big battle at Marineford. He was badly wounded, and my captain took care of him. I didn’t see much of the battle, but from what I heard…your captain is a very honorable and brave man. My captain particularly spoke highly of him.”

Tang sighed and  continued, “My point is, I don’t think your captain or your crew forgot about you. I’m positive they all care very much, and you shouldn’t worry about disappointing them. I can see how well they take care of you.”

“Aww, thank you! That really means a lot, Tang.”

“As for you, Punk,” Tang said with more edge in its voice, “You should apologize for what you said to Sunny. It was unnecessarily mean.”

Punk grumbled indistinctly, but quickly relented. “Fine, I’m sorry about what I said about your crew. To be honest, your crew does take good care of you—I wish mine did, anyways. My rudder’s been squeaky for months, and I’ve got barnacles all over my hull!”

“Hey, I’m sure they’ll clean you up soon!” Sunny said, cheerful once again, “You know, that reminds me of this one time Franky forgot to clean out the fishtank…”

After that, the three ships fell into a much friendlier rapport, swapping stories about their crews and adventures for the rest of the day. Once they left the country of Wano, their captains did end up having that race down the waterfall (Sunny won, and he was very proud). The three ships said a silent good-bye to each other as they sailed away, and Sunny knew he would never forget his new friends, hoping they would meet again someday.

Weeks later, The Thousand Sunny is sailing away from a harrowing battle on Egghead Island, escorted by a Giant ship to the land of Elbaf. The crew is split between the two ships; currently, Luffy, Nami, and Franky are relaxing on the deck of the Sunny while Jinbei steers. Nami reads a recently-delivered News Coo newspaper, wanting to catch up on world events after having been isolated on Egghead. The headline on the front page gives her pause when she reads it.

“Hey, Luffy,” she says, “It looks like Law and Kid have been taken out.”

“Huh?” Luffy shoots up from where he was lying down. “But Jaggy and Torao are really strong! How’d they get beaten already?”

Nami reads ahead in the article, “Well, coincidentally, Kid was taken out near Elbaf—by Red-Haired Shanks! Gosh…”

“Oh, shishishi !” Luffy laughs smugly, “Jaggy shoulda been more careful here he was going! Shanks is super strong, and he doesn’t like it when people mess with his crew!” 

“Indeed,” Jinbei adds, “from what I’ve heard, Red-Hair is a stern man who doesn’t take threats to his territory lightly. It wasn’t very wise of Kid to challenge him alone.”

“As for Law,” Nami continues, “It looks like Blackbeard intercepted him at Winner Island. Probably looking to get his hands on Law’s devil fruit, if I had to guess.”

“What?! No Way!” Luffy’s mood turns to fury on a dime. “That asshole! I’m gonna kick his ass extra hard when I meet him!”

Franky exhales forlornly. “Man, this is totally not Super,” he laments, “I really liked those guys!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty grisly,” Nami says, cringing as she reads through the rest of the article, “Right now, it’s not confirmed whether they’re dead or alive. What’s more, their ships were completely destroyed! I wonder if they’re okay…”

At that moment, the Sunny abruptly lists off to the portside, throwing the entire crew off balance. Jinbei jerks the wheel hard to right the ship, but in the process, a loud groaning sound reverberates through the hull, lingering for several seconds after things stabilize.

“Hey, Jinbei!” Luffy calls out, “What was that about? I almost fell overboard!”

“My apologies, captain,” Jinbei replies, “we must’ve gotten caught in the wake of the Giants’ ship. Didn’t think it would cause a problem like this, though.”

“More importantly,” Jinbei continues, now addressing Franky, “What was that sound that came from the hull? It sounds like there might be an issue with the Sunny’s machinery.”

“I really don’t know,” Franky says, pulling himself to his feet, “I double-checked the Sunny this morning, and everything seemed ship-shape to me. I can’t imagine what could’ve broken to make that sound.”

“Are you sure?” Nami adds, “It sounded really bad to me…”

“Well, I’ll take another look below deck just to make sure. Still, that didn’t sound like any ordinary damage to me. Why, if I didn’t know any better…”

Franky pauses and runs his hand across the guardrail, an unexpectedly solemn look on his face.

“...I’d say it sounded like the Sunny was crying.”