The Archer

SUMMARY: The father leaves to be a pirate. The mother withers away in bed. The brother is gone from a fall. All there is left is the solemn sister with her bow and arrows. AU where Usopp's twin sister is the Straw Hats sniper instead. Snippets.

Chapter 2: Of something new

They weren't liked. Or, at least, Usopp wasn't.

Usopp spent his days running around the village and telling lies about pirates coming. The adults, once pitying and understanding, were now peeved and agitated. Believing that he would stop after their mother's death, they initially had fallen for Usopp's returning hollers of pirates arriving from the docks. They hadn't been so understanding after discovering that it had been a lie, especially after getting their defenses up and spending the entire day locked indoors.

The children had picked up on the adults' annoyance. At school, they teased Usopp for his daily routine and mocked him for being proud of having a pirate for a father.

"What's so great about having a no-good pirate for a dad?" they would say. "He's just gonna get caught by the Marines before he can even get himself a wanted poster."

Because of Usopp's persistence and his impetuous retaliation, this drove others further away from him. The adults saw him as a troublemaker who was on his way of becoming like his good-for-nothing father, and the children saw him as a weirdo who couldn't stop shouting outlandish lies.

By relation, that meant that Adalina wasn't liked either.

The only person who didn't ostracize them was Dr. Moors. From time to time, he would sigh and shake his head at Usopp's antics, but he wouldn't do anything to discourage him of the habit. He had once said to Adalina about coping mechanisms, but Adalina hadn't comprehended what he had meant by that.

"If it helps him get through his day, then there's no harm in it," Dr. Moors would say. Adalina, however, thought that the real harm would be furthering Usopp's delusions.

Usopp later took up the hobby of slingshotting. Their father, when he had still been here, had taught them how to shoot—from pitching a throw to using a bow to slingshotting. Usopp had ended up favoring the slingshot but hadn't practiced it regularly until recently.

"I gotta practice so that I can be the greatest warrior of the seas," he had told her. "That way, I can properly lead the ten thousand men who'll sail under my flag!"

As more time passed by, the more Usopp seemed to be convinced that he really was going to become a pirate. Whether it would be the greatest warrior or Captain Usopp of the Usopp Pirates, Usopp believed that he would experience an adventure of a lifetime and gain infamy from it. Adalina, like everyone else, had grown fed up with it.

"Usopp, we're almost ten. When are you going to realize that becoming a pirate is just impossible?"

"Well, by the time I'm older, becoming a pirate won't be impossible anymore," Usopp said. "It's gonna be my destiny!"

The siblings were on their way back home from school. Usopp was sporting bruises from his earlier tumble with their classmates. He would have had more, but he had grown to be a rather excellent runner. For someone who made daily proclamations of being a warrior, he was developing quite the cowardly streak.

A sigh gusted out of Adalina. "And how are you going to do that? There aren't ship builders around, so there's no way for you to sail out to sea. And you don't seriously think that you can be a pirate with just a slingshot, do you?"

"You're always on my case about this, Ada," Usopp huffed, irritation tinging his voice, but he then perked up. "But you'll see! Once Dad comes back for us, he'll take us on all sorts of cool adventures and train us to be pirates."

"He's not coming back," Adalina said for the umpteenth time.

"Yeah he will. He's a brave a strong man—Mom said so. That means he's a man of honor, so he'll have to come back!"

"It'd be better if he died out there."

Adalina didn't know why she said that. Their exchanges were routine and followed a similar dialogue: She would scold Usopp, Usopp would brush her off and make his declarations, she would try to reason with him, he would bring up their father, she would say that he wouldn't return, and he would counter her with saying that he would. By that point, they would either go back and forth about it or Adalina would drop the subject.

So hearing herself utter that took her by surprise. Usopp's shocked face matched her own feelings, but Adalina felt her own expression kept its impassivity.

Usopp broke out of his stunned stupor and demanded furiously, "Why… Why would you say that?"

Because, unlike Usopp, Adalina was far from admiring of their father. She had went from troubled by his absence to resentful. Had he been here, he could have taken care of them instead of leaving them on their own. A busy man like Dr. Moors could only help by so much. Had he been here, Usopp wouldn't have the need to go lying to everyone. Usopp and Adalina would actually have friends, not be excluded and bullied.

They would have someone to help them, guide them, and protect them. Yet here they were—two kids who hardly knew how to do anything, were the black sheep of the village, and were barely scraping by. Had he been here, Adalina wouldn't be filled with these ugly bitter emotions that grew bit by bit every day. Had he been here, he could have said goodbye to their mother.

So Adalina took her feelings that she had been bottling up and threw it in her brother's face. Usopp, in turn, became red in anger. He lunged forward and shoved her shoulders, knocking her down into the ground.

"Don't say that!" he shouted. "Don't you remember what Mom said? Dad isn't that kind of person! He's going to come back."

"You're the one who forgot what Mom said. She said that he's not going to!" Adalina snapped back. She picked herself up and returned his glare. "Besides, he could have died out there already, for all we know. And even if he's still alive, it doesn't matter. Face it, Usopp. We mean nothing to him."

Usopp's round eyes watered, but he swiped away the tears before they could fall. "I don't care what you say," he said. "If you don't believe in Dad, then… Then I'll prove it to you!"

With that said, Usopp took off ahead of her. Adalina scowled, renewed frustration welling up inside of her, but she held it in. She held her breath until the surging feeling died down, and she deflated with a weary exhale. She watched as her brother's figure shrink into the horizon until she couldn't see him anymore.

It was an early morning when Adalina didn't find her brother munching breakfast at the dining table like how he usually did. If he wasn't here, then he must be somewhere near the docks. She grabbed a baguette and an apple before heading out. She figured that he must be sulking due to yesterday's quarrel and was likely practicing his shooting to vent.

Instead, she found him climbing up the tallest tree on the cliff.

Adaline gasped, dropped the food, and rushed closer. "Usopp!"

"Hey, Ada!" Usopp called down to her from his high perch.

"What are you doing? Get down! You're going to hurt yourself," she cried out to him.

"Did ya know this tree overlooks all of the Seven Seas? I would know because the Old Sage of the North told me himself that he had planted this tree for that purpose!" Usopp pulled himself up onto another branch. "So I'm gonna climb all the way to the top. That way, I can see where Dad is."

Frightened, Adalina called out to him, "Okay, I believe you! Dad's coming back! Just get down!"

"It's alright, Ada. I've been thinking of what you said yesterday." Usopp continued his ascent to the top, although his exhaustion was apparent. "You just need proof to know that Dad's on his way back to us. Once I get to the top, I'll be able to see him and his ship!"

"Usopp!"

"Don't worry about it! Every night when you fall asleep, I've been secretly training with a mystic mountain monk who decided that I was worthy to become his pupil! Trees are nothing compared to the mountains that I had to climb with one hand tied behind my back—ack!"

He slipped and would have fallen straight down had it not been for the branch that he managed to catch in time.

"Usopp!" Adalina shrieked.

"I-it's okay. I got—I got this," he assured, yet his trembling form and stammering gave away just how startled he was.

"Just get down! You're going to fall!"

"No worries—Captain Usopp is capable of anything! This is just a fluke—" The branch he was clinging onto snapped a bit, sloping downward due to his weight. "Okay, I'm scared. Ada, help!"

Adalina momentarily froze. Her blood gone cold with fear as her eyes were transfixed by her brother precariously dangling at a dangerous height. Her brain then kickstarted into action, and she gasped at the sight. "U-Usopp, hang on!" she cried.

"That's all that I can do!"

The first thing she thought of was getting Dr. Moors. He was an adult, so he would know what to do. She frantically ran down the hill and to the doctor's house. There, she pounded her fist at his door. "Dr. Moors! Please, get up!"

However, there wasn't a response. Sensing that the old man wasn't going to answer her calls anytime soon, she made her way to her house. There wasn't a clear plan in her mind as to what she could do. She just knew that, if Dr. Moors didn't open his door, then no one else would. She was the resident troublemaker's sister, after all. Why would they heed her call?

Adalina burst into her house, and the first thing her eyes settled on was the bow that was propped against the wall by the furnace. The bow remained untouched ever since their father had left, just collecting dust and serving as a reminder of childhood shenanigans. Adalina grabbed it without thinking and tore the place in search for an arrow.

She managed to retrieve a bundle from underneath Usopp's bed, and then wasted no time running back to the cliff. She wouldn't have the time nor energy to run up the slope, so she hurried to go to the other side, which was below the tree. As she neared, she could see Usopp's branch already halfway broken.

"Ada!" Usopp screamed.

Her chest hurt from the exertion. Her lungs heaved heavily, trying to filter in as much air as she had expelled from her race against time. Adalina dropped all but one arrow and fumbled with the bow. "Usopp, hold still," she forced the air out of her to muster up a shout. "I'm—I'm going to try to pin your clothes to the tree."

"Just don't shoot me!"

She positioned the bow and tried to focus on her aim, but her arms shook. The arrow flew onwards fluidly, but embedded itself against the bark next to Usopp's head. Usopp cried out in alarm.

She tried again and again, but every arrow had missed its supposed mark.

She felt her throat swell from a choked sob. Tears that ran created hot trails on her cheeks. Adalina hiccupped as her sweaty palms gripped desperately at the bow's handle. Usopp was also weeping, crying out pleas for help for whoever was out there. He didn't want to die. Adalina didn't want him to die. She didn't want to be alone.

She grabbed one of her last arrows and positioned once again. She fired.

As the arrow soared, the branch completely snapped. Usopp was now in midair, pulled downwards by gravity—but that lasted for only a second until the arrow snagged onto the strap of his overalls and pinned him against the tree.

"A-Ada!" Usopp's face morphed from fear to surprise to undiluted relief and joy. "Ada, you did it!"

Usopp's face matched her own feelings, and her expression, this time, mirrored his. "G-grab onto another branch! The arrow won't hold on for much longer!"

"Got it!" Usopp stretched out an arm for the closest branch, which was above his head. The arrowhead dislodged, however, causing him to fall over the cliff.