(1)
Heading to Loguetown.
Nami scratched out a number and redid the math.
“Okay,” she said. “We should be fine once we reach the next island.”
“Of course we shall, Nami-swan,” Sanji said. “With your budgeting and my cooking skills, we can weather any storm!”
Sanji started packing things away, putting food back in the cabinets and crates. He and Nami had already gone through the storage room, counting up their supplies and calculating how much food and drink they’d need to stock up on at the next island. They’d ended their inventory in the kitchen, where they discovered a discomfiting number of bare shelves.
Nami massaged her temples, trying to ease the tension gathered there. Luffy went through food at a terrifying pace. Sanji was a resourceful cook, and Nami was a master at budgeting, but Luffy made inventory days more stressful than they had any right to be. They never knew what crucial materials they might find missing.
She needed a drink. Preferably one of those delicious fruit smoothies made with the good alcohol Sanji kept hidden away from Zoro’s undiscerning palate.
Afternoon snack time had already passed, but luckily, Nami had an in with the chef.
“Oh Sanji~” she crooned.
Sitting opposite her at the kitchen table, Usopp looked up from his sketchbook, suspicious at her sudden sickly sweet tone.
“All this budgeting has made me thirsty. You wouldn’t happen to have any more of those smoothies from the other day, would you?”
“I can make you some fresh!” Sanji said, perking up like an eager puppy.
“That’d be so sweet of you!”
Usopp made a face at her. Suck up, he mouthed.
Bite me, she mouthed back, shooting him a triumphant look when Sanji promised to set up her deck chair and rub her feet as soon as her smoothie was ready.
“Can I have one too?” Usopp asked.
“No,” Sanji said shortly, the hearts disappearing from his eyes as he turned to start pulling a cutting board out of a cabinet.
“But Sanji,” Usopp whined. “You’re already making one, what’s one more?”
“No. Wait until dinner.”
Usopp pouted for a second. Only a second, before something devious entered his eyes. “Weren’t you guys just talking about how we’re low on food?” Usopp asked. “Should you really be wasting our supplies on a snack when a glass of water will do just fine?”
Nami kicked Usopp beneath the table. Or at least she tried to. He yanked his legs up just in time to dodge her heel. Nami gave him the stink eye. Normally, she was content to watch their squabbles. Usopp and Sanji got into hilarious arguments whenever Usopp took umbrage with Sanji’s special treatment for women. It wasn’t so amusing this time though, not with her drink on the line. Just because Usopp couldn’t have one didn’t mean he could prevent Nami from getting hers.
Sanji scoffed. “We’re not that low. I keep secret stashes where I know Luffy won't go snooping. Any sea cook worth his salt knows how to protect the emergency rations, or,” he flashed a quick smile at Nami, “treats for a lovely lady.” The scowl returned. “You’re not getting any, Longnose.”
“Fine,” Usopp grumbled, giving up on both smoothie and shit stirring. For all that he could dig in his heels when the chips were down, the rest of the time it seemed he was good at recognizing when he was beat.
“If Sanji couldn’t hide food, our stupid captain would eat us out of ship and harbor,” Nami said.
“We’d be better off if we get a lock for the refrigerator,” Sanji said. “I’ve spent the last week camped in front of the fridge every night just to keep Luffy out.”
Usopp, who had slumped against the table after admitting defeat, sat up. There was a new light in his eyes, one that was becoming very familiar to Nami. Usopp had a story to tell.
“You think Luffy has a big appetite?” Usopp said. “I once met a woman who could eat a hundred times as much food as he could. She was constantly hungry, and sent her minions out all over the world to gather the finest delicacies.”
“Ah, a woman after my own heart,” Sanji said. He was clearly only half listening as he chopped fruits.
“Not so fast,” Usopp said. “I know you adore women, Sanji, but this is no ordinary woman.”
“No women are ordinary,” Sanji said. “They are goddesses, come to bless us with their beauty and kindness.”
Nami rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything. As long as her beauty and kindness kept the special treats coming then she had nothing to complain about.
“I feel I should warn you. This woman isn’t kind; she’s a monster, and she destroys anyone or anything that gets in the way of her taking what she wants. She was in the East Blue a few years ago, looking for the treats her minions told her of. People were terrified. They offered up their best foods in the hopes of appeasing her as she made her way from island to island. One day she came to my home island. ”
Nami closed her eyes, and leaned back in her seat. No one aboard the Going Merry enjoyed Usopp’s stories quite as much as Luffy did, but Nami still liked to listen. Usopp’s voice rose and fell, perfectly pitched to set the scene. He talked of a forest rich with the sweetest sap in the world; a cargo ship caught on a reef off of the coast, full of eggs, flour, and butter; a monstrous woman impatiently awaiting her next meal. He managed to make the mundane sound fantastic, and turned the silliest ideas into a grand adventure.
“She said, if you don’t give me food, I’ll devour all of the East Blue. She’d already swallowed up a neighboring island, so we knew she was serious. There was nothing left but a big hole in the ocean where she’d taken a chomp! My people were scared, but I reassured them: Captain Usopp will handle it!”
While Sanji grabbed ice from the freezer, Usopp threw his whole body into the story, miming swimming, diving, fighting, throwing together ingredients, and stirring. By the time he sat back down, sweaty and triumphant, Nami almost felt that he’d earned his own smoothie. Judging by the second, smaller cup Sanji set out next to Nami’s usual glass, Sanji felt the same.
“I made her the best cake she’d ever tasted. She was so happy and full, she went into a food coma. I ordered her minions to cart her back to where she came from, and, in fear of my prowess, they left without a single argument.”
Usopp hung his head. “My one regret is that I was too honorable to kill a sleeping enemy. My cake could only subdue her for so long. She still roams the seas, searching for her next meal, and I pity the fool who faces her hunger next. Sanji, there’s only one thing you can do if she finds you.”
“How should I please her?” Sanji asked.
Sanji looked amused, absently playing along with Usopp’s tall tale. Nami almost giggled, but she caught sight of Usopp’s expression and the laughter stuck in her throat. A strange intensity had come over Usopp’s face. He was frowning seriously, eyebrows drawn together. When he spoke, his voice held none of its previous levity.
“Make a better cake.”
(2)
At Drum Island.
Vivi stepped away from Dalton. The doctors had done what they could to patch him up, but he was bound and determined to fight Wapol again no matter what condition he was in. All around her on the gondola, the villagers were buzzing with anticipation. She tuned in on different conversations, gauging the mood with practiced ease. Some were eager for the fight, most were nervous, but all seemed determined to protect their homeland.
One conversation caught her attention. A pair of men sat beside the railing a little past the middle of the ferry. They were looking towards the back of the boat, sniggering.
“Stupid kid and his big mouth,” one said.
“He said he’d carry Dalton the whole way,” the other villager chuckled. “Barely made it three steps before the big guy had to help him.”
Vivi realized they were talking about Usopp. She kept silent, even though the derisive words made her bite her lip with frustration.
Usopp had surprised her earlier.
She had been moved by Dalton’s desire to protect his country. Of course she had; it hit very close to home, for obvious reasons, even more so as every day they spent here in Drum was another day closer to civil war erupting in Alabasta. So she had empathized with him, but was still startled when Usopp knelt down in the snow and offered to carry Dalton up the mountain.
It was a ridiculous offer. Dalton was three times Usopp’s size. He could barely lift him, and struggled to even carry him a few yards before Zoro intervened.
Vivi had found herself believing Usopp’s words anyway. Usopp was foolish and said many things that were untrue, but when he offered to carry Dalton, she saw nothing but sincerity. He meant what he said. Perhaps Usopp was deluding himself a little, saying he could carry him the whole way, but somehow Vivi knew that if no one else had stepped up, he would have found some way to do it.
It reminded her a bit of how he’d behaved on Little Garden. Terrified and outmatched, but coming through for his crew and saving them all in the end anyway. Was Usopp always like that? Scared and clumsy in the face of the Grand Line’s many surprises and horrors, but if his back was put against the wall, if he was made to believe that he was the only one left to care about or defend someone, would he always dig in his heels? Fight like a cornered animal, refusing to give up no matter the odds?
It was admirable, if so.
Even if it wasn’t so, what right did these people have to laugh at him behind his back? They made no move to assist Dalton and protect their homeland, not until Usopp stepped in. The part of her she kept tightly under wraps, the part that reacted emotionally, carelessly, unbefitting a person of her station, wanted to snap back.
It’s more than you did.
You wanted Dalton to fight for your country, when you would not fight yourself.
You stood by, silent, until a stranger offered to help him. What right do you have to criticize?
Vivi kept her silence. Putting the villager in his place would only feel good for a few seconds at most, while the consequences would be longer reaching.
Instead Vivi walked past them, joining Usopp at the rear end of the gondola. She stayed well away from the opening at the back, where the poor Drum citizen they’d tapped to operate the cycle sat, pedaling madly from his seat suspended in the open air. The ground was far away now. They floated in a sea of clouds as they made their way up the mountain. Should the rope line holding the gondola break, there was nothing but air to catch them. It was a long, long drop.
Usopp stood heedlessly at the edge, leaning out over the railing to yell encouragement at the poor pedaler. He smiled when he noticed her.
“You okay, Vivi?” He asked. “You’re looking a little green.”
“How can you stand so close to the edge?” Why wasn’t he scared of heights, when he was scared of so many other things? She felt queasy just watching him. There were no mountains like this in Alabasta. The most ancient sand dunes reached a thousand feet, but she had never had cause to climb them.
“I’m not afraid,” Usopp said with a proud grin. “When I was just three, I climbed the tallest tree in the world. It was so big it made giants look like ants.”
Vivi shook her head. There was the foolish nonsense she was accustomed to from Usopp. “Not all of us have your climbing experience,” she said diplomatically.
Usopp squinted at Vivi. His eyes darted from her, to the pedaler, and back again. He snickered.
“What?” Vivi asked, feeling a prickle of defensiveness.
“It’s nice to know you’re afraid of something normal,” he said. “You joined a top secret assassin organization. You worked your way up to one of the highest ranks, found out their scariest secrets, and now you’re planning to defeat a warlord, all to save your people. You’ve survived assassination attempts, joined a group of strange pirates, and hopped off the boat at Little Garden without a second thought. You have to be one of the bravest people I know.”
“Not the bravest?”
“No,” he said. “You’re traveling with the crew of the future pirate king. There’s some stiff competition.” He gestured grandly to himself, puffing out his chest. “After all, they don’t call me Captain Usopp, brave warrior of the sea, for nothing!”
He clearly meant to assure her, or perhaps distract her, but instead all the worries that had been plaguing her since Whiskey Peak reared up again. “I'm afraid most of the time,” Vivi admitted. “I’m afraid that we won’t make it in time, that it will all be for nothing and my people will suffer.”
“Hey! It’s okay to be afraid, but we’re here to help. You couldn’t have picked a better crew to do this with. Better than traveling with someone like Wapol, right?”
Vivi nodded. Obviously.
“We have the greatest navigator in the world. Once she’s better, Nami will get you there. I guarantee it!”
Zoro wasn’t around to tell her whether or not Usopp was lying just to reassure her again. After everything she’d seen this crew do though, Vivi decided that these words, at least, could be taken at face value. She gave him a wan smile, the best she could muster at the moment.
Usopp took in her expression, clearly reading the doubt and worry that remained there.
“Want to know a secret?” He looked around for eavesdroppers in a comedically suspicious way, before leaning toward her conspiratorially.
She leaned in as well, unable to help the way her slight smile grew.
He whispered in her ear. “Don’t tell anyone this, but the thing is… sometimes, once in a while, just on occasion… I’m afraid too.”
Vivi couldn’t hold back the peal of laughter.
(3)
Approaching Jaya.
Of all the many pirate ships Robin had lived on, the Going Merry was by far the most peaceful.
It was a strange thing to think about the ship of a group that had thrown itself into the middle of a foreign nation’s civil war, and stranger still considering they recently toppled a warlord. Yet, in her short time on board, one surprising fact had become clear: the Strawhats were not constantly causing chaos.
The captain did not throw his weight around unnecessarily. They were not constantly picking fights with other ships or terrorizing villages, nor were crew members at each other’s throats for anything more than playful squabbles. Robin kept several ears out, but so far no one was planning to turn her in. In fact, it seemed as if no one on this crew even knew she had a bounty. In between adventures (as the Captain called their island exploits) they were a lively but amicable bunch. On a bright afternoon, approaching a summer island with little more to do than wait while the wind carried them to their destination, the ship could almost be called tranquil.
Almost, but not quite. This crew enjoyed their carefree relaxation, but they were never by any means quiet.
The Captain, always full of energy and with a nose for trouble, currently clung to the Cook’s leg, begging for his share of the midafternoon snack. The Cook flitted about, handing out small plates and drinks to each of the crew and ignoring the limpet attached to his ankle with astonishing grace until everyone else had their share. The Navigator was trimming her trees, having recently chased the Swordsman out from where he had been napping in their shade. The Swordsman lay propped against the mast, grumbling as he settled into his new resting place. Their chatter blended, rising and falling with the waves.
The loudest person on the ship at this moment was Longnose.
“It would be a war for the ages. All the pirate greats were gathering, and of course yours truly was expected.”
The young Doctor, sitting at his feet, exclaimed with awe.
It was no surprise to find them together, or to see the Doctor so wrapped up in Longnose’s tale. Robin had a handle on most of the dynamics on the ship by her third day. Longnose often took the young Doctor under his wing. They could frequently be found fishing together, or playing games with the Captain. Longnose had built the reindeer Doctor his own “factory”, a miniature version of the platform he used for tinkering, and they worked side by side on sunny days. He teased the Doctor, joked with him, and encouraged him with compliments and excessive declarations of faith in his abilities.
“My eight thousand followers were scattered across the sea, too busy protecting other islands to answer my call right away. I could have gone alone — I’m more than powerful enough to hold my own — but I decided to bring some allies. So I broke into the most dangerous prison in the world!”
He also told stories. Stories about epic adventures, ghost stories, love stories; he had a fantastic tale for every occasion. He easily distracted their Doctor from the more frightening aspects of their journey with his tall tales, turning strong winds into the experiments of weather wizards living on clouds high above, or reimagining a lurking pod of sea monkeys as the perilous but heroic quest of a creature searching the world for his doppelgänger who had framed him as a crook.
Longnose told a lot of stories.
“I thought I was clever sneaking in through the underwater entrance, but the warden was wily. He had four great beasts waiting to gobble me up!”
“No!” The Doctor gasped.
The stories were silly. A waste of time, she thought in her more cynical moments, when there were so many more important things to worry about; their content trifling in comparison to ancient knowledge too dangerous to share. Robin knew they were ridiculous, but found herself enjoying them anyway. Though fanciful, and nothing like collecting the voices of the past, they were entertaining. Sometimes she even felt the urge to join in. On scary story nights, she often thought about how she could tell this crew things to really make their hair rise. She always held back. But the thought was there.
“I thought I was done for. Even the Great Captain Usopp has off days, you know. But that wasn’t the end, because though I didn’t know it, even in that dark, terrible place… I had a friend.”
Robin remained reclined in her seat, relaxing in the sun with her book. Looking, for all intents and purposes, like she was deeply absorbed in the book’s contents.
No one commented on the fact that she hadn’t turned a single page since Longnose started talking.
(4)
Outside the Florian Triangle.
“Once we get the gears fixed up, we can work on the sonar system. I wanna give this baby more range before we hit Fishman Island.”
Franky sat on the lip of the shark submersible’s entrance, tightening the bolts for the lock on the submarine’s lid. He and Usopp had started bright and early this morning, fixing up and improving the shark sub in anticipation of finding Fishman Island. Her maiden voyage had revealed lots of room for improvement, and besides, Franky had already come up with a million ideas for additions since he first put her together.
“How do you feel about adding torpedoes?” He called down the ladder to where Usopp sat in the cockpit. “You can never go wrong with more guns. I figure we can put ‘em under the fins, or ooh! Hide them in the fins and then if any fishmen or pirates give us a hard time down there, schwoop! Surprise torpedoes drop down and boom.”
That would be super. He could get Usopp to paint angry shark faces on the torpedoes and everything.
“Hand me that socket wrench, wouldja?”
Franky held out an expectant hand.
The tool he requested didn’t appear. There was no answer at all from inside the shark submarine, and for the first time since they started this morning, Franky felt a sliver of concern.
Usopp had been quiet all morning. Much more quiet than he usually was when Franky started tossing around ideas. Still, Franky hadn’t worried. The rest of the crew might have seen Usopp’s silence as a red flag, but for Franky it wasn’t totally unusual. The others seemed to think Usopp was rarely quiet. Franky could understand why; the kid could talk up a storm. He was constantly spinning yarns, joining in on jokes, boasting about himself or his crewmates. He had a big mouth.
But Franky knew Usopp could be quiet. When he watched eagerly as Franky showed him how to put the bilge pump back together, how to fix the railing, how to recognize wood that’s been rotted away by sea water. Splicing wires, welding, measuring to find that perfect fit. Franky had never had a more attentive student. Usopp asked questions, sure, but he also observed without interruption, soaking up information like a sponge.
He could be quiet other times too. Those times were kinda concerning. Franky had learned to recognize the onset of Usopp’s more pensive moods. Few and far between, they were nothing like his usual fearful screaming or derisive sass. Melancholy, angry, doubtful. Those times, he seemed less like the loudmouthed, outgoing pirate he was around the crew and more like the sad but devoted boy Franky had met in the secret dock on Water Seven. Those moods were often followed by times where Usopp couldn’t be found. Not in his factory, the galley, the garden, or any of his usual haunts. He’d reappear eventually from wherever he’d hidden himself away, ready to jump back into the action, mouth running a mile a minute.
Franky tried to be there for him as best he could when those moods struck. A man needed his space, sure, and Franky was happy to give it, but sometimes a friend needed a listening ear, and Franky always tried to let Usopp know he was there for him.
(He was fully aware of the irony of coming to care so much for a boy he’d treated so badly when they first met.)
They’d had a lot of talks down here in the workshop. Usopp hadn’t shown any of the usual signs of his worse moods today, but this silence couldn’t be good. Franky wiped his hands on the oil rag, and prepared himself to play the wise older brother.
“Yo. You good in there?”
The silence stretched, and Franky mentally prepared himself for a storm. Then a faint snore echoed from inside the submersible.
Asleep! Here Franky was worrying, and the little bastard was asleep!
“Hey! You better not be drooling in my submarine, you little punk!”
Franky dropped down the ladder shute, landing with a thud that shook the whole sub.
Usopp was slumped over the console, cheek smushed against the switch for the headlights.
Franky had to resist the urge to coo. Sleeping was the only time Usopp looked truly relaxed. He leaned over and gently shook his shoulder.
“Mmf?”
“Bro, wake up.”
“Hm? Franky?” Usopp’s eyes fluttered open.
“You conked out on me.”
“That wasn’t very super of me, huh?” Usopp said, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.
“Everything alright?” Franky asked, starting back up the ladder to give Usopp room to stand.
“I had the late watch shift,” Usopp yawned, following.
Well shit. The kid had to be dead tired (the words skull joke echoed in Franky’s mind, and he made a mental note to throw a wrench at that stupid skeleton later). Franky knew for fact Usopp didn’t go to bed until late, because they’d been down here working last night too. Franky hadn’t thought to check the watch schedule before grabbing Usopp this morning. He must have caught him right after he’d come off watch. Usopp was a trooper though. Hadn’t complained once. He never did when it came to work.
Usopp wobbled when he climbed out of the sub. He slid down the side and landed safely despite the lethargy clinging to every limb.
“Shit, you’re dead on your feet.”
“No worries,” Usopp said, yawning again. “I can help you finish.”
“Nah bro, we’re almost done anyway. I got it from here,” Franky told him. He pointed with his thumb at the hammock he kept stashed in the corner for late nights in the workshop. “String that up and catch a few Zs.”
They could work on the fun stuff later. Franky preferred for his creative partner to be running on a full tank when they tossed ideas back and forth. A nap would do the trick.
Usopp was too tired to argue his case. Within a minute he had the hammock set up and was snoring. Franky got back to work.
Time passed. Franky wasn’t watching the clock, too caught up in his work to pay attention. He kept working until the factory door flew open.
“USOOOPPP!”
Luffy came running in.
“Usopp, you gotta come up! Zoro agreed to play tag! Hurry up before he changes his mind!”
Franky chucked a screwdriver at him. It bounced off Luffy’s head, distracting him enough to quit yelling.
“Shush! Can’t ya see he’s sleeping?”
“Wha!?” Luffy whined. “He needs to get up!”
“You got three players. Go have fun, he’s resting.”
“But we need Usopp there.” Luffy’s tone was still whiny, but there was a serious look in his eyes. “I have to tell him.”
Ah. Franky knew what this was. A game of tag, just like yesterday’s demand for hide and seek, the day before that fishing side by side off the back of Sunny, and the day before that cuddling on the lawn while Usopp told story after story to the insatiable audience that was Luffy. It seemed every day Luffy found some reason to hold Usopp’s attention, to pull him into some activity where he was the center of Luffy’s focus and affection. When Franky had asked, Robin told him this had not been an everyday occurrence aboard the Going Merry. It was new, and Franky knew why.
Usopp couldn’t see the way his captain chased after him. Demanding his time and attention, elbowing his way into his space, trying in all the ways he knew how to anchor him to this crew.
Franky couldn’t blame Usopp for not seeing it. Luffy had had his chance, and whiffed it.
This wasn’t the time for any of that though.
“You ought to know better than anyone that you don’t disturb a man while he’s resting,” Franky said, trying to shoo Luffy out of the room.
“But Franky—!”
Usopp abruptly sat up.
Franky and Luffy froze.
Usopp stared through them, unseeing. His hair had escaped its bandana, his usual tossing and turning leaving the coils a tangled mass. His eyes were half mast. It took Franky a beat to realize Usopp was still asleep.
“Don’t pick on samurai in a rowboat,” Usopp murmured. He flopped backwards, arms and legs spread like a starfish, and resumed snoring.
Sleep talking. Usopp was sleep talking.
Franky was not surprised in the slightest.
“Shishishi,” Luffy started to laugh. Franky slapped a hand over his mouth, grabbed him by the collar, and frogmarched him out of the room.
“Samurai,” Luffy chortled as soon as Franky took his hand away, “in a, in a rowboat! Shishishishi!”
“Yeah, yeah, hilarious,” Franky said. “Now get outta here. He’ll be up to play with you in a few hours.” A good game of tag ought to keep him entertained for that long. Once Usopp was up, he could tell Luffy some new story about whatever he was dreaming about.
(5)
Traversing Punk Hazard
Something felt off.
It itched at Zoro. Buzzing in his ear like a fly. Distracting him. Stealing from his enjoyment of the chance to use the strength he’d spent the last two years building.
It wasn’t the fiery island they were on. Half melted and almost too hot to breathe, the dangerous landscape and mystery of Punk Hazard was merely a challenge to relish. Considering it came equipped with monstrous beasts like that dragon, the looming threat of an encounter with government agents, and a weird, talking pair of legs with no top half, it was shaping up to be an interesting test of his skills.
And yet, he couldn’t fully focus on it. It irritated him, not knowing why. He was supposed to be strong, concentrated: honed and ready for anything. He was their swordsman, and a swordsman should not be distracted.
Luffy skipped past, waving a skewer of dragon meat while his new rear end dragged its feet futilely.
“I hope there are more dragons over in the snowy place!” He said. “I want to see if ice and fire dragons taste different.”
Usopp, lagging behind them all due to the heap of dragon meat he was dragging, dropped the rope to throw a rock at him. “No more dragons!” He shouted. “This is a government island, should we really be antagonizing… well I guess we already did, um.” He petered off, losing steam when he once again realized no logic would sway Luffy.
Teasing Usopp would get his mind off of whatever felt off. It was fun, with the added bonus of getting Usopp to stop his bellyaching.
Zoro waited for Usopp to catch up, watching him tug sulkily at the heavy burden. He was muttering to himself, words becoming more discernible as he got closer. Zoro wasn’t surprised to hear the same grumbling tune he’d been singing since they arrived.
From the second he had drawn the short straw, Usopp had wanted out. All through getting into the Mini Merry, traveling along the milky road Nami made, pulling up to the gates of Punk Hazard, and walking into the inferno, he’d spent every second trying to convince them to turn around and get the hell out of there.
Luffy and Robin had ignored him with aplomb. Zoro had tuned out most of it, only responding to rile Usopp up further. Usopp had only stopped for a few minutes after Zoro cut the dragon’s head off, then the talking legs had sent him right back into his spiral. Had Usopp always complained this much? Zoro didn’t think so. This island shouldn’t be so scary, with Zoro, Luffy, and Robin here to protect him, plus all the training Usopp had been telling them about. Where was that tough guy act he had at Fishman Island?
“Stupid dragon,” Usopp muttered. “Why’d this place have to have a dragon, too? Isn’t it scary enough?”
Zoro saw his opening. “Aren’t you a big tough warrior now?” He said. “You telling me you’re afraid of a little dragon?”
Usopp glared at him. “That thing was not little,” he snapped.
There was a beat of silence. Zoro waiting for more, Usopp having nothing more to say.
It finally clicked. What had been wrong this whole trip, since they left the ship, hell, since Fishman Island, now that he thought about it.
For all the whining and bellyaching, there hadn’t been any real lies mixed in. Only one reference to his can’t-go-on-this-island disease, which at this point was more of a running joke than a lie. Usopp wanted them to leave the island, but hadn’t used any of his grand boasts to get Luffy’s attention, or pass off his fear as anything other than what it was.
Zoro should be happy about that. Two years ago, he would have been, unquestioningly.
But as the silence stretched, Zoro finally put a name to the feelings that had been nagging at him all through Punk Hazard.
Disappointment. Unfamiliarity. Loss, which was ridiculous, because no one had lost anything.
They were useless emotions. He should be glad. Proud, even, for Usopp abandoning something Zoro had thought so trivial.
He shouldn’t miss it.
Zoro turned and sped up, easily outpacing Usopp and his burden to put some distance between them. It was stupid. He probably felt off because they were still in an adjustment period after reuniting. Coming back together had been better than Zoro could have imagined. Everyone was the same, everyone was different. They were all still sorting out the pieces, figuring out how they slotted together after two years apart.
Zoro needed to hurry up and get used to it. They were in the New World, they couldn’t afford any uncertainty anymore.
Behind him, the snail started ringing. They all (minus Luffy) stopped so Usopp could answer.
“Hey Brook! How’s it going on the nice, safe ship?” Usopp’s cheery voice had a razor edge.
Zoro started to tune out again, but his attention was drawn back in a second when Usopp’s tone changed.
Their crew was missing.
All those left on the ship except Brook had been knocked out and taken. Zoro listened to the explanation as he watched Luffy greet a centaur. They needed to find whoever took their crewmates and rescue them, preferably with as much property damage as possible. The Punk Hazard scouting party had turned into the cavalry.
When they gathered to discuss their options, it was like a flip had been switched in Usopp.
His shaky knees were gone. The groans and complaints were replaced with a laser focus. He sniffed out clues about their enemy from the centaur Luffy thrashed, and determined their new direction without hesitation.
Try as he might to ignore it, Zoro was reminded of other times he’d seen this transformation. It wasn’t the second time, or even the third that he’d seen Usopp do this. One instance stood out above the rest.
Zoro’s last few minutes on Sabaody were a haze of pain and fear, but some parts stood out in sharp relief in his memory.
Blinding blasts of laser fire. Kuma bearing down.
Light glancing off Brook’s blade.
Luffy ordering them all to run. Ordering Usopp to run.
Usopp refusing to.
Right now you’re more useless than I am.
He remembered feeling guilty. For being so weak that Usopp had to carry and defend him, defying their captain and his own shaking knees to stay and protect Zoro. For, only a few short weeks before, attempting to stamp out that instinct in Usopp.
Sabaody and the years that followed had been eye-opening for Zoro. He still refused to call the feeling in his chest at the sight of Usopp’s familiar determined face relief.
Zoro pushed away the memories. The present was more important than the past, and he shouldn’t be wasting time comparing them when they had a job to do.
“We’re going to rescue our crew in the land of ice!” Usopp declared.
“How are you going to do that if you’re afraid of one little dragon?” Zoro knew he was being mean. He didn’t need Robin and Luffy’s sharp looks to know that. But he was still irritated with himself and feeling off, possibly because their crew was in danger, but also possibly because of a guilt he could never admit to, and because Usopp might not be the person he remembered, even though it was in ways Zoro shouldn’t have had a problem with in the first place.
Usopp looked him dead in the eye, a flash of defiance illuminating his face.
“I’m not afraid,” Usopp said, voice strong and steady. “I had a friend who could turn into a dragon. He just wasn’t that size or color, so it took me by surprise, okay?”
It was small, not his usual grandiose retelling of events, but the lie settled something in Zoro.
Two long years had passed. They had grown, and learned, and changed, for better and worse.
Usopp still told lies. Usopp still strove to protect his friends regardless of any fear or authority telling him not to, no matter how the world had tried to break him of it. How Zoro had tried to break him of it.
Some things didn’t change.
Zoro could admit — grudgingly, only in the privacy of his own mind — that he was glad for it.
(+1)
Approaching Egghead
“For I am the Great Captain Usopp!”
The Strawhats who were gathered on the Sunny’s lawn watched fondly as Usopp ran off toward his factory, shouting his own praises.
“He talks big, doesn’t he?” Jimbei said, amused. He was still getting acclimated with his new crewmates, but already found Usopp to be rather endearing. He could be just as silly as Luffy on occasion, but he was kind and whipcrack smart. The constant lies were unusual, but that wasn’t saying much considering the rest of the crew’s odd proclivities.
“You have no idea,” Franky said, putting the final touches on Robin’s new lounge chair and umbrella combo. “Usopp tells a lot of whoppers, but that captain schtick has been around for ages.”
“Considering how many times he’s told that lie, it’s bound to come true one of these days,” Sanji said.
“Indeed. He is also more than halfway there with the eight thousand followers,” Robin agreed.
“Yoho, what do you mean by that?” Brook drifted over.
Franky gave him a sharp look. “You mean ya don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Our dear sharpshooter tells lies,” Robin said, “and those lies come true.”
“Uso-bro’s been tellin’ the future!” Franky struck a pose.
Brook and Jimbei looked gobsmacked. At least, Jimbei did. It was hard to tell sometimes with Brook.
Zoro also looked surprised. He’d woken from his nap to glare at them, at any rate, which was as close as he got to appearing startled these days.
“Is this a joke?” Jimbei asked. He’d been the victim of many pranks since they set off from Wano; the price of joining such a close knit crew so late in their journey.
“Not at all,” Robin said. A trail of arms bloomed from the deck, leading to the women’s quarters. In a matter of moments, a journal appeared, passed along the trail from one hand to the next. Hand by hand, she carried the book to where she sat in her new lounge chair.
“I began keeping a list when we were in Skypeia,” Robin said. “I recorded lies whenever he told them, and Nami, Sanji, and Chopper supplied many of his stories from before I joined.”
“There’s a list!” Brook took the journal, holding it so he and Jimbei could both read through Robin’s neatly written notes.
“I also made note of which lies resembled events that came to pass.”
“Incredible…” Jimbei breathed. “Marineford, Fishman Island, Dressrosa, Whole Cake, Wano… he’s mapped out your whole journey.”
“Such knowledge makes my jaw drop!” Brook’s lower jaw detached from his face, dropping neatly into his hand. “‘Eee?”
“Stop that,” Nami snapped.
“Why didn’t I know?” Zoro grumbled.
“You didn’t care, remember? You said it was all just coincidence,” Nami answered, glaring until Brook reattached his jaw bone.
“It could be coincidence. He’s told thousands of stories,” Zoro said. “Just because a few things happened to line up doesn’t mean he was telling the future.”
“There were more than a few,” Nami said.
“The level of detail involved in many of his predictions cannot be solely attributed to chance,” Robin added.
Zoro grunted and rolled his eye.
“Ignore him, ladies,” Sanji said. “Mosshead is just too stubborn to admit he’s wrong.”
“I see, I see though I have no eyes,” Brook said, flipping through Robin’s notes. “Though I wish I had been informed sooner!”
“Does it matter?” Zoro grunted.
“Yes. If those in the know had told me about it, I could have informed you that you missed one!”
Brook dropped the notebook in Jimbei’s hands and spun into a funny pose. “He said Nami will let me see her pan—!”
Nami slammed a fist into Brook’s skull and he went flying across the deck. Chopper transformed into his heavy point form and snatched him out of the air before he could go over the railing.
Jimbei wondered when Nami would realize she unconsciously used armament haki when she was angry. Speaking of haki…
“Perhaps it’s a form of observation haki?” Jimbei suggested. “Although I’ve never heard of any human seeing so far into the future. Even the greatest known users can only see a few seconds at most.”
Not even Shanks could see that far.
“It’s possible,” Robin said. “Many applications of haki may yet be undiscovered.”
“If anyone could discover a new form of haki, my money’s on Uso-bro,” Franky said proudly. He’d seen what Usopp was capable of with no training at all, and how quickly he had learned under Franky and that Heracles guy’s tutelage. Creativity and determination had carried him far, and he was always striving to improve. If Usopp had someone to actually sit down and teach him haki, Franky had no doubt that his first thought would be how to use it in some way no one had ever tried before.
“He’s kinda like that shark lady with the crystal ball from Fishman Island,” Chopper said.
“Are you referring to Madam Sharley?” Jimbei asked. “She is a seer.”
“A seer?” Chopper said. “Does that mean she uses observation haki?”
“I’ve never heard her abilities referred to as such, though I see why you might think that. Although it is a rare ability, we have had many seers in the long history of Fishman Island. They are mermaids born with the power to foresee events with clarity and accuracy. Madam Sharley has told fortunes since she was a child. She predicted the birth of the mermaid princess when she was only three.”
“We need to send a letter to Kaya,” Nami mused, “to see when Usopp first started telling stories, and what she can add to our list.”
“I don’t see any indication of a timeframe on most of these,” Jimbei said, leafing through the notebook. “Madam Sharley could often tell when something would occur, be it in three weeks or ten years.”
Her last vision during the Strawhats’ visit to Fishman Island had been an outlier in that regard.
“Usopp is accurate, but his lies aren’t exactly timely,” Sanji said. “Nine times out of ten we have no idea when something will happen until it does.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Luffy appeared. He’d been perched on Sunny’s head, out of hearing range of the discussion happening on Sunny’s lawn.
“Usopp’s lies telling the future,” Zoro answered. “If it’s true.”
“It’s true alright,” Sanji said, foot tapping with warning.
“Is it not astounding, Captain?” Brook asked. “Bone chilling, even?”
“It is very unusual,” Jimbei agreed. “Not at all what I expected of him.”
“I don’t know why you guys are so surprised,” Luffy said. All eyes immediately flew to him.
“What, are you saying you knew?” Zoro asked. It would be even more embarrassing if Luffy knew before he did.
Luffy shrugged.
Luffy acknowledging Usopp’s ability made Nami a little nervous. She had figured out something was going on with Usopp’s stories years ago, but she rarely talked about it openly with the whole crew, like the way they were now. She knew many of the others had cottoned on; she saw it in the way they reacted to another story coming true, the way their eyes met hers, full of wonder or disbelief or whatever other emotions comprised Are you seeing this? She’d joked about it a few times with Sanji and Franky, hugged Chopper when he went into an ecstatic dance, and had a few discussions with Robin.
Whenever she thought about bringing it up with Luffy in particular though, she hesitated. She didn’t know what to expect from him. Would he be excited? Indifferent? Or would he react the way he did at Shakky’s bar? What would their captain, who reacted so furiously to the mere idea of spoiling the adventure, think of the ability to look so far into the future?
“Luffy?” Nami asked. “What do you mean?”
“They’re his dreams,” Luffy said with an easy smile. “Of course he made them come true.”
“Luffy, that’s not…” Nami started, then sighed. That wasn’t how it worked, at all really, but in typical Luffy fashion, he was partially right in his own perceptive way.
Usopp didn’t just tell the future with his lies. That was never what they were meant to do. They weren’t just entertainment either, though they more than served that purpose.
Usopp’s lies were his dreams.
They were his way of looking to the future, when the scars of the past and the insurmountable odds of the present kept him bogged down, telling him what he could not be. They were the means to defy his own negative nature to create hope for himself and others.
He’d always wanted a grand adventure.
I’ve traveled all the seas!
I’m an intrepid adventurer, about to set foot on an unexplored land.
To face danger unflinchingly and perform daring deeds.
I must admit, our great escape from the calm belt had me shaking… with delight!
They call me Usopp the Demon King! And kings tremble at that name!
Camaraderie and acceptance.
If we really tried, we could beat that thing.
Without me, this ship wouldn’t sail.
To not be afraid anymore.
Me? Scared? Ha! That’s a laugh. Outnumbered or not, I’ll be fine.
I’ll never falter no matter what happens!
To keep his friends safe and happy.
He asked me to lend you a hand in these circumstances, so here I am!
The others were all in tears and had given up, but I said “Never fear, I’ll get us there!”
To make his mark. To be unforgettable.
I am Captain Usopp, brave warrior of the sea!
They weren’t always that deep. Nami had lost count of how many times Usopp had lied to try to get out of doing something scary. Sometimes Usopp just wanted to tell a good story, or snap out a zinger (and who knew how much seeing the future, via observation haki or otherwise, influenced what came out of his mouth). But Nami knew Luffy was right. Usopp’s lies were his dreams. Usopp setting out on this adventure with them had just been the start of making them all come true.