Chapter 10 — Eight Months of Peace,Sunny dark smile
Day 1 — A Morning Too Bold
The first night at Belle-mère's home had been warm, safe, and almost too comfortable. But the real shock came at sunrise.
Sunny woke groggily to Nami's scream. He blinked, sat up… and realized why.
Aqua was sprawled across his chest, both arms wrapped around him, her cheek smushed into his collarbone like a smug kitten. One leg had somehow ended up draped over his waist. She wasn't even pretending to be embarrassed.
Nami's face was redder than a ripe tomato. Nojiko looked like she'd just discovered a scandalous adult novel. Belle-mère, leaning on the doorway with a cigarette, arched an eyebrow.
Belle-mère: "Hooo? Kids these days… Are you bold, or am I just old?"
Sunny: "…this isn't what it looks like."
Aqua (still half-asleep, murmuring): "Mmm… my Sunny pillow…"
{Ego}: Correction: goddess = parasite lifeform.
[System]: Master, permission to administer an electric shock to detach the leech?
Sunny buried his face in his hands.
This was how his new life in Cocoyasi began.
Day 3 — Training, Interrupted
Sunny trained by the shore, fists wrapped in invisible threads of Armament Haki. Each punch cracked the air like a whip. Nami and Nojiko sat nearby, eating oranges while watching in awe.
Aqua, of course, was not impressed. She lounged on a rock, sipping juice she had stolen from Nami's stash.
Nami: "You'll collapse before noon at this rate!"
Aqua: "Pfft. Unlike you, Orange-chan, Sunny can go all night."
Sunny froze mid-punch. Nami choked so hard she spat orange juice everywhere. Nojiko dropped her bucket in shock.
Belle-mère shouted from the field:
"HEY! Keep it PG-13! You're all underage, damn it!"
Sunny decided death by training was preferable to living with Aqua's mouth.
Day 10 — The Great Money Fight
Sunny hauled a freshly caught Sea King into the port and sold it for a whopping 7.5 million berries for this time.
Nami's jaw hit the ground. Her pupils turned into berry signs. She didn't even try to hide it—she leaned over and drooled on Sunny's stomach.
Nami: "You… you're my hero!"
Sunny: "…get off me."
Aqua's eyes narrowed to slits.
Aqua: "Back away, orange goblin. That's my Sunny."
Nami: "Pfft! I'm just appreciating his wallet!"
Aqua: "Liar! That's lust, pure and shameless!"
Nami: "Says the one who hugs him in her sleep!"
Belle-mère had to drag both girls away by their ears. Sunny sighed and wondered if dying to a Sea King might've been easier.
Day 26 — A Smile Too Sharp
That night, Sunny meditated by the sea. His Observation Haki expanded, brushing against distant shapes. For a fleeting instant, he felt something—massive, cruel, reptilian. A ripple of danger.
Then it was gone.
And Sunny smiled.
Not his usual calm smile. A darker one. A sharp grin that even {Ego} went silent at.
{Ego}: Host… that was unsettling.
[System]: Warning: master's emotional output trending unstable. Probability of corruption: 12%.
Sunny whispered into the waves:
"Don't worry. I'll keep it under control."
But the smile didn't fade.
Day 50 — Aqua vs. the Kitchen
Aqua announced she would "bless" the household with her divine cooking. What followed was an abomination Belle-mère later described as "culinary terrorism."
The stew hissed. Then bubbled. Then exploded.
Belle-mère: "You're banned from my kitchen!"
Nami: "Forever banned!"
Nojiko: "I don't wanna die at nine years old!"
Sunny, forced to taste the dish, fainted instantly.
Aqua puffed her cheeks.
"Hmph! Mortals just can't handle goddess flavoring."
Day 100 — Future Thief, Foiled
By now, Sunny's Observation Haki had become frighteningly sharp. He could predict Nami's pranks before she even thought them.
Nami: "How do you know?!"
Sunny: "Because your left eyebrow twitches before you try to steal my wallet."
Aqua: "See? Even your future belongs to Sunny's eyes!"
Nami hurled an orange at Aqua's face.
Aqua retaliated with Sunny's sandal.
Sunny wondered if haki could block stupidity.
Day 150 — A Found Family
Life settled. Sunny treated Nami and Nojiko like siblings. Aqua grumbled but allowed it, clinging to him at every opportunity like a koala.
Belle-mère watched them from afar, her cigarette glowing faintly in the dusk. She smiled softly.
"They're good kids. Maybe fate finally gave my girls some real friends."
Yet sometimes, she noticed Sunny staring at the horizon, his grin just a little too sharp. It left a strange weight in her chest.
Day 200 — Rumors of Teeth
Whispers swept the village. Pirates near the Conomi Islands. Fishermen missing.
Aqua laughed them off in daylight, but at night she crept closer to Sunny's side, clutching his sleeve as though she weren't scared.
Sunny said nothing. His eyes glittered under the moon, smile widening each time the rumors grew darker.
Day 240 — The Smile of a Hunter
Sunny's Observation Haki screamed awake one midnight. He felt them.
A presence. Several. Heavy, cruel, reeking of blood and salt. Arlong's crew.
Something inside Sunny shifted.
A grin curled across his face—wide, sharp, unhinged. A grin that had no warmth, no comedy, no sunshine.
His eyes gleamed, not with resolve, but with something darker.
Even [System] faltered.
[System]: …M-master Sunny? This aura… it's terrifying.
{Ego}: Correction: Host's smile exceeds acceptable human thresholds. Probability of mercy = 0%.
The air around him thickened. The ocean seemed to recoil.
Sunny whispered to himself, voice low and chilling:
"Finally… something worth breaking."
And in that moment, he looked more terrifying than Arlong himself.
The boy who had laughed, trained, blushed, and lived like family in Cocoyasi for eight months—
—now smiled like a monster.