"Would you like to know your future?" the soothsayer says in an odd, hushed whisper, beckoning at Luffy with a long finger. Usopp is half-expecting him to jump at the offer, but his captain laughs instead.
"I already know my future!"
Perhaps having encountered the same type of claims before, from the brave or the conceited, the old woman asks archly, "How can you be so sure? The future is as inconsistent as the weather. With each decision you make, each life you touch- all the people you encounter- everything changes. But I can give you a glimpse of what destiny has in store."
Luffy smiles wide. "You're right about how things change- my friends changed my whole world. But I don't have time to worry about all that other stuff, and I think destiny's made up."
She looks at him, raising her head and lifting her hood. Her face is gnarled and twisted with age, one eye milky white and blind, the other a startling blue. She stares at Luffy, and something in her expression changes.
"That hat has seen many things," she murmurs. "For one who doesn't believe in destiny, it's quite a road you've been walking. You were meant to stand here before me today. I'm meant to show you." She reaches out toward him again. "Please, allow me to tell you what lies ahead, so that you may be prepared. I'll charge you nothing."
But Luffy shakes his head, takes a step back. "I'm telling you, I already know. I'll either be king, or I'll be dead." He giggles, like it's the grandest thing in the world, and her hands fall like stones.
When he's gone, taking off at a run in the direction the others had gone, the old woman cuts a quick glance at Usopp, and the sniper shakes his head before she can get a word out, holding up his hands.
"You heard him," he says plainly. "We already know where we're heading."
She just looks at him, weary and wondering. "You think so, too? Are you so certain your fate and his are the same?"
"It is. All of ours is." Usopp grins at her, folding his arms. "I know, I know, you've probably seen a hundred people who say the same thing about their friends or their lovers, that they're destined to always be together, but it's not like that, it's really different." She raises an eyebrow at him, obviously having heard that before too, and he hurries to explain, "We've been separated tons of times, but we always find him again, and we'll always find him again. Like- like how a river connects to an ocean, that's him. We're all creeks and brooks and rivers, and he's the spot where we all end up."
After a thoughtful moment, her expression smooths out and she chuckles almost fondly. "Pirates. You aren't even curious to know what lies ahead? To see how your story will end?"
There's a scatter of laughter at the end of the street, and even through all the noise of the market crowd Usopp can pick out his friends' voices as clear as if they were standing right next to him. He glances up, shading his eyes against the sun, and sees them all lingering on the corner; waiting by the road to the harbor, waiting for him, on the brink of their next adventure.
He smiles at the soothsayer and touches the brim of his hat, already drawing away toward his nakama and the sea.
"King or dead," he reminds her with a wink. "Details will ruin all the fun."
And my story will end with his.