The Ocean's True Queen

The Merry Can't be Fixed?

Now, Jasmine was on her way to the Merry to see what Galley La could do, and Hedwig was still being chased around by the top hat's pigeon trying to court her. Behind her was the tophat man, who seemed to have something off about him.

The way he seemed to gaze at anything, move, and such reminded her of a jungle cat. A predatory one.

"Uh, tophat. Do you think you can tell your pigeon that Hedwig's not his type?" Jasmine said.

"Ah, I don't see how, and I'm Lucci by the way."

They arrived at a large building near the center of the first shipyard and Iceburg opened the door for her, and led her to a large office with blueprints lining the walls. And there was a drawing desk with tools all around it in the corner of his office by the windows. While in the center was his normal desk, topped with paperwork that he most likely was supposed to be doing.

He directed her over to two leather chair in the center of the room, across from his desk. He sat next to her, not going to his desk chair. He offered her a drink and she declined, and he got himself some water, and placed more cups out. Most likely for the company that would soon be joining them.

"So, is Nico Robin and Crocodile really a part of your crew?" Iceberg asked first, shocking her for something so off topic. She narrowed her eyes at this, but let it go. He wasn't a bad person.

"Yes, they are. Robin's my archeologist, and Crocodile is one of of our best fighters, I'm happy to have them with us," Jasmine answered truthfully, watching Iceberg's face. He seemed to mull over this in his head and then nodded. He then changed the topic and they were talking about the sea and ships casually.

It was a little later that a knock sounded at the door and Iceberg allowed them all to enter. Kalifa opened the door and stepped in, and following that were Kaku, Lucci, Paulie, and two others. They all took their drinks of water and sat down on the floor or slumped against the walls. Kalifa went to the desk and began to tidy things up. Jasmine turned her attention to Kaku who was looking at her.

"What is your assessment, Kaku?"

"Unfortunately, the damage is severe," Kaku began and then paused. "Most of it could be repaired, but, the ship itself will never be able to fully be repaired. I estimate that the ship will sink before it even reaches the next island."

"What?" Jasmine asked, her voice barely a whisper. Her mind racing with the news, Merry was her dear nakama. "But she was sailing just fine today, just as she always has." She thought of when they first got Merry, she was told that Merry wasn't the newest model, but she was precious.

"It's her keel, its damaged," Kaku said and she saw a lot of winces at this, even Iceberg, the notorious genius, seemed distressed by this.

"The keel is the life of a ship, it supports every other part and makes sure everything doesn't fall apart, once it's damaged it can't be repaired, and will only get worse. It'll happen fast, that's why it can seem like she's fine today," Iceberg explained and took her hands in his, he was looking at her, she knew that, but she was so distressed.

"And there's no way of replacing the keel, or remaking the ship. Without the same keel it would never be the same ship, and so," the bird man explained but she cut him off.

"It would never be the same. It wouldn't be our Merry, it wouldn't be the same home that we all love," Jasmine finished, understand very well what he was getting at. She understood how without the same backbone a home will change, even if it looks the same.

It was like when Sirius died, the mansion was never the same home anymore. It would be a constant reminder of what they had had. What they had lost.