~Croquant~
There was only a very tiny fragment of Mom's Will within the delayed Homie she gave him.
If he decided to make something into a homie, he'd just have to crush the ball on top of it, and it'd form.
What he decided to do here was something never done before, and his mastery of Haoshoku was just enough to do it.
"I have a way, that may be able to safe you, Merry, or at least your consciousness."
This earned him some incredulous stares, as well as a hopefilled gasp from Usopp.
"Do you want to continue being part of the crew? Do you want to travel with them, not as ship, but as your own person?"
Desperate hope was what he picked up on from the ship spirit.
'*Can I?...*' She asked like a child, that wasn't quite sure if it was a trick or not.
"I can't guarantee success, but I'm quite sure I can pull it off, what do you say, wanna try?"
This time, the answer is a determined "Yes!"
So he started. "I'll need the figure head to make this work. May I take it?"
He asked the captain of the ship out of courtesy. Luffy turned to Usopp with a questioning gaze.
"Merry already decided, so I won't stand in her way." The emotions, that Croquant picked up with Kenbonshoku showed him how hard of a decision this was for him.
He still answered after only a seconds delay.
'He definitely earned himself some respect from me. That boy has potential, even though he's a coward most of the time. When he's needed, he's there.
He's also always good for some comic relief.'
After sorting out his thoughts, he carefully seperated the figure head from the rest of the ship.
Without him needing to tell her, Merry already transferred her complete consciousness into the figure head with some help of his Haoshoku.
'Now, this is the hard part.
First: Crushing the ball to intiate the transforming process.
I'll also use some of my blood as a catalyst. Second: Seperating mom's intent.
And finally third: Protecting and guiding Merries consciousness to take over the homie.'
With his unshakable will, he worked and used his Haoshoku in ways probably never seen before.
In the end, it was a complete success.
In front of them stood a little girl, maybe 7-8 years old. Her head was covered with fluffy, wool-like hair, from which curved horns extended backwards.
Her eyes had a golden colour with a slight sheen to them, which made you compare them with honey or amber.
She had the Body Type of a human girl with mink ancestry. Her wrists, and probably ankles too, had tufts of wool covering them, which gave her an innocent air.
She was also fully clothed in a strange wooly tunic, that would've looked ridiculous on everyone else, but fit her rather well.
In short: She was the cutest thing that ever existed.
The newly formed hybrid of a ship spirit and a homie looked around curiously until her gaze fell on the crew.
Not able to hold back her tears, Merry had a blinding and wet smile on her face. "May I join your crew, captain?"
The answer wasn't quite what everyone expected. With the hat overshadowing his eyes, Luffy gave a one-word answer. "No."
The shocked crew was just about to lay into him, when he looked Merry into her eyes and told her. "After all, you can't join a crew you already belong to, that just doesn't make any sense."
'if her smile gets any brighter, they'll be able to use her as a lighthouse.'
Nonsensical thoughts aside, he was genuinely proud of himself.
The Going Merry was one of his absolute favourites in his past life.
Oda had the ability, to make a character likeable with a very low amount of screen time, but for him, Merry took the cake.
This adorable ship had less than a single episode of actual conscious screen time, and it still managed to make an uncountable number of people cry with it's death.
Not here, though.
He saved her, gave her a real life with a bit of help from his mom.
'I'll bring her some special sweets as a thank you. Maybe I can convince Sanji to make some with me after telling him, that they are for a woman?'
Suddenly, he was pulled from his thoughts by tiny arms, that wound around just above his left knee. Merry was trying to hug him, but only managed to hug one of his legs.
Her adorable smile, that brightened the room didn't loose any of it's enthusiasm, though.
'Well, that would melt any heart. Look at that adorable little thing.'
As he thought that, he knelt down for her and put her on his shoulder, which elicited a delighted giggle from the endearing... Newborn?
The emotions he felt from her were so overwhelmingly positive, that he even forgot about his complicated feelings for a moment.
He simply basked in the joy, that was radiating from the former Klabautermann. There was some embarrassment building, though, so he looked up at her fidgeting form curiously.
She looked back down at him with a shy smile and started talking.
"What you did for me... I won't ever be able to pay it back. You took me from my dying body and made me a new one. You even gave me your blood to make sure, that everything went well."
Most of the crew had at least wet eyes, with Usopp, Chopper and Luffy bawling their eyes out. Even Zoro had a solemn air around him.
She continued. "It isn't wrong to say, that I was reborn today. And you made it happen, you made me your daughter... Papa."
'This isn't how I imagined to become a father. I mean, I'm still a virgin, for Goda's sake! On a sidenote: I think I heard Usopp's heart shatter.'
The anxious little sheepgirl was just starting to think, that she made a mistake, when she was picked from his shoulder.
He held her in front of his face with a serious but exceedingly gentle expression.
"This isn't in any way how I expected to become a father, but I'd be honored to be considered the papa of such a determined, strongminded and, quite frankly, adorable little girl."
With a soft smile, he gently hugged the positively beaming ball of fluff.
'I don't think my pancreas will continue working for long. I fought tooth and nail to reach as far up the food chain as possible, only to be done in by cuteness induced diabetes. What a way to go.'
He looked into Usopp's direction and mouthed 'fun uncle' to the crestfallen young man. That made him bounce back as he already started planning how to make the second smallest strawhat laugh.