Thank You, Merry! Snow Falls over the Parting Sea!

Pulling away from the smoking ruins of Enies Lobby, Luffy keeps searching for whoever steered the ship to their rescue, still taken in by the Sogeking getup that Usopp will not abandon. Franky thinks back to the figure once seen patching the Merry in Water 7 and names it a Klabautermann, the spirit a treasured ship can take on. A huge Galley-La vessel under Iceburg meets them, but the Merry abruptly splits down her middle as Kaku's earlier diagnosis comes true and her keel finally snaps.

Iceburg admits nothing can save her, revealing that he patched the grounded wreck on Scrap Island after hearing her wish to sail one last time, then trailed her out to sea. Coming to terms with the loss, Luffy ignites the hull, granting their vessel a Viking send-off so that she need not lie lonely on the seabed. As snow drifts down and the crew weeps through their memories, the Merry's spirit speaks once more, apologizing for carrying them no further and thanking them for cherishing her, then fades into the flames as Luffy screams her name.

This ends the Enies Lobby Arc and closes the Merry's run of 296 anime episodes, leaving the crew shipless until the Thousand Sunny is unveiled eight episodes later. Playing over the funeral is Dear Friends, which served as the 16th closing song. Within the flashback, Apis, who originated in the anime-only Warship Island Arc, is folded into the canon Calm Belt adventure.