Chapter 16 — Four Years of Chaos, Love, and Crunching Space
Sunny's POV
Four years. Four whole years since Belle-mère banned me from "reckless adventuring." And by reckless, she meant punching the sea so hard our boat literally flew through the sky like a seagull on steroids. To be fair, she had a point. But still—what kind of childhood would I have if I didn't bend the laws of physics at least once a week?
But fine. I behaved… kind of.
Nami's Mischief Arc
The first year after our "boat stunt," Nami revealed her true calling: stealing. Not coins from Belle-mère's purse, no. She went bigger. Pirates. Actual pirates.
She strutted back one day, jingling a bag of stolen treasure like it was her new fashion accessory. "Look, Sunny! Gold, maps, jewelry! Pirates are idiots."
Belle-mère's face turned red, then purple, then exploded like a cannonball.
"NAMIIII! You're twelve!"
"So what? I'm investing in my future!" Nami shot back, smug as a cat.
That lecture made my three-hour "don't punch the sea" lecture look like a lullaby. Belle-mère chased Nami around the house with a slipper in hand while Nojiko tried (and failed) to play mediator. I just sat on the porch, sipping juice, and thought, this is better than live theater.
But as much as she pretended otherwise, Nami grew softer toward me. Maybe it was the way I always bailed her out when Belle-mère's slipper hand got too close. Or maybe she just liked that I could stash her loot in my inventory space without anyone noticing. Either way, she'd started clinging.
At first, it was subtle. Sitting closer during dinner. "Accidentally" brushing her hand against mine. Then one night, while I was stargazing, she plopped down beside me, cheeks red.
"…Sunny?"
"Yeah?"
"You're not allowed to die before me, got it?"
I blinked. "That's oddly specific."
She punched my arm. "Just promise, idiot!"
"…Fine. I promise."
She smiled like she'd just stolen the moon.
Nojiko the Responsible
Unlike Nami, Nojiko took the "good daughter" path. Gardening, cooking, helping Belle-mère with chores. She even learned to swing an axe properly, chopping firewood like a pro.
She also developed the terrifying ability to mom-glare just like Belle-mère. One time, Aqua tried sneaking cookies before dinner, and Nojiko's glare alone froze her mid-bite. I swear I saw Aqua's soul leave her body for a second.
Aqua's Training Arc
Aqua… was Aqua. Loud, dramatic, and ninety percent useless in domestic life. But when it came to training with me, she was unstoppable.
We'd spar on the beaches, waves crashing dramatically behind us like some overproduced anime. Aqua would swing her staff, I'd block with my haki-coated fists, and then she'd slip, face-plant in the sand, and blame me for distracting her with my "annoying handsome face."
"Handsome? You admit it."
"I said ANNOYING handsome, idiot! There's a difference!"
Still, she grew stronger. Her magic circles became sharper, her water spells more precise. And when she wasn't training, she argued with [system] about what counted as "fair game."
[System] and {Ego}
Speaking of those two—living with voices in your head for four years doesn't get easier.
[system] was like a nagging teacher.
[System]: "Reminder: you have not yet completed today's stat optimization cycle."
"Shut up, I'm eating!"
{ego}, on the other hand, was pure chaos.
{ego}: "Punch the moon, Sunny. Punch it. Let's see what happens."
"No! Do you know how tides work?"
{ego}: "Do I look like I care about tides?"
They argued with each other constantly. Sometimes, I wondered if Belle-mère noticed me laughing at nothing in the corner. If she did, she probably just chalked it up to "Sunny being Sunny."
Belle-mère's Wrinkles of Worry
Belle-mère… poor Belle-mère. Raising three kids was bad enough. Adding Aqua and me into the mix? She aged ten years in four.
Every time Nami came home with stolen loot, every time Aqua broke a wall practicing spells, every time I "accidentally" warped space while training, Belle-mère's sighs got heavier.
One evening, she muttered to herself while peeling potatoes. "Why couldn't I have adopted normal kids? Quiet kids? Maybe a cat?"
We hugged her anyway. She complained, but she never pushed us away. Deep down, she loved this chaos.
Sunny's Training Notes — Breaking Into Space Crunch
The manual called it "Void Manipulation." I called it "grabbing nothing with bare hands."
At first, I just tried to feel the void between objects with Observation Haki. That nearly made my brain leak out of my ears. It was like staring into something so empty it looped back into being heavy.
The first success came when I warped space between two sticks in Belle-mère's garden. They looked a meter apart—but no matter how many steps I took, I couldn't touch both at once. Nami accused me of cheating at tag. Aqua accused me of cheating at life.
Then came gravity pockets.
I was supposed to create small zones of heavy or light pull. I succeeded by accident, pinning Aqua flat to the ground mid-nap. She woke up screaming:
"Sunny! Why does my goddess body feel like it weighs a thousand pounds!?"
"Science!"
She didn't forgive me for a week.
Other times, I flipped it. Nami floated like a balloon until she panicked, screaming at me to "Put me down, you jerk!" I couldn't stop laughing.
But the most terrifying accident was when I tried to fold space. The distance between me and a tree collapsed. One second it was meters away. The next, my fist was buried in its trunk—without moving an inch. The tree screamed and crumpled like paper.
I realized then: Space Crunch wasn't just a trick. It was rewriting how the world worked.
And I wasn't done yet.
Four Years Later
So here we are. I'm fifteen now. Nami's still stealing, Nojiko's still responsible, Aqua's still dramatic, and Belle-mère still lectures us every night.
And me? I'm still Sunny. Stronger, crazier, maybe a little more handsome (not that I'd brag). But one thing hasn't changed—this family.
Even if half of them want to kill me most days.