After his brief rest, Sniper King was prepared to continue on his quest to stop the Dark Schemester. The masked hero stood up and reached into his pouch. After searching through the satchel briefly, he pulls out a map.
"Shells Town... is here" mumbles the hero as he find his target on the map. "Now just to get a ride there." Sniper King then stands up and heads out to find a boat to the next island.
Back on Sniper Island, Kurodore is conversing with a shadowy group.
"Jango, it's not time yet… I planned this out perfectly, three years ago the plan was sent into action. I cannot afford any mistakes now."
"Yes sir. The Dark Schemester will make his triumphant return soon though right?" replies a man wearing pink heart-shaped sunglasses.
"Fool!" Kurodore backhands the man in the sunglasses knocking him to the ground, and glares at him. "I'm Kurodore now, don't call The Dark Schemester." As the man pulls himself back to his feet, the two of them continue to discuss the scheme.
On Goat Island, Sniper King continues to search for a boat to get to Shells Town. To search town without getting caught, Sniper King has changed into his secret identity, Usopp. Usopp looks very similar to Sniper King, without the mask or cape. His most notable feature is his long nose, that formerly poked through a in the Sniper King mask.
While Usopp wanders the village, a newspaper is blown into his face. Startled by the paper, Usopp falls over, then realizing what it is, pulls it off. The newspaper mentions the upcoming execution of Bounty Hunter Zoro, who apparently ticked off Navy Captain Axe-Hand Morgan.
"Bounty Hunter Zoro, never heard of him doing anything illegal…" ponders Usopp. Upon further reading of the newspaper, Usopp finds out that the Lady Mary, cruise ship of Goat Island will be heading towards Shells Town. "The perfect opportunity!" thinks Usopp, "Using the Lady Mary I will be able to get to Shells Town." after a brief pause in his thoughts, Usopp continues to read, looking for a way onto Lady Mary. "The price is way too much…. Wait, what's this? Perfect!" Usopp drops the paper, stands up and rushes out toward the docks.
"Wonder what he's so excited about…" says one of the onlookers, as they walk over to the newspaper and pick it up. "Help Wanted! Cabin boys for the Lady Mary needed!" reads the onlooker. "That can't be what inspired him…"
After an hour of bargaining and convincing our hero was able to get himself aboard the Lady Mary as a cabin boy. The Lady Mary is a huge ship filled with ordinary sailors, yet Sniper King will have to stay as Usopp throughout the ride, otherwise the Navy soldiers throughout the ship as guards will capture him.
Our hero is directed toward the storage near the kitchen. Inside the room, is a short boy with pinkish purple hair and round glasses.
"Hi I'm Coby!" says the boy. "You must be the new cabin boy."
"Uh… yeah, I'm Usopp" responds the hero still going by his secret identity, "How long you've been here?"
"Truthfully I'm just as new as you, I was a… you know what never mind." Coby suddenly cuts off as if hiding something.
"... Don't worry about, I don't really care, I just need the ride to Shells Town."
"You don't care!?" Coby says and his eyes light up, "You already knew I was a maid of sorts for The Iron Fist? You still don't care about that? Maybe I can join the Navy still!"
"Uh… that's not entirely what I meant…"
"As a Navy soldier I'm gonna capture no good villains like Iron Fist. Maybe I'll even get to meet Sniper King who was the one who took her out! But I'll have to capture him also…" Coby continues to ramble.
"I… see…" mumbles the hero, confused on how Coby interpreted his earlier statements.
"Hey to celebrate why don't we use that barrel of beer over there." Coby announces.
"That's one big barrel" mentions Usopp, then he corrects himself "but I'm sure we're not allowed to do that, we're the cabin boys on this ship remember."
"You're right, and besides this barrel is super heavy." Coby decides as he stops pushing the barrel.
"For a barrel that size, full of beer would be heavy, don't think too much of it."
Elsewhere on the Lady Mary is a girl with orange hair, she is hiding herself and a large sack she's carrying with her inside a second storage room.
"I can't believe that was the price to get on, how can they expect to not have stowaways when they charge that much." she thinks and opens the sack and looks inside "criminals are so dumb, leaving all the berries they have under such little guards like asking for it to be taken away." she then shuts the sack. "just a few more hauls like this and Saw-Tooth will have to let us go."
After a few days of cleaning rooms throughout the ship and delivering the supplies from storage to the kitchen upon request, the Lady Mary has come to dock in Shells Town. Upon exiting the ship Usopp and Coby see the only notable landmark, the overly large Navy base on the opposite end of the island. As they walk the streets in the direction of the tower Coby begins to speak.
"I want to become a Navy soldier so I can take down bad guys. But I heard Captain Morgan here is really strict." as Coby mentions the Navy captain's name, the townsfolk around them back away from the group in fear. Both Usopp and Coby stop and look around. "That's weird, they seem to be scared of the name of the Navy captain." Coby continues.
"I think the town's on edge I read earlier that the Bounty Hunter Zoro is going to be executed here soon." Usopp remarks, and at the mention of the name Zoro the crowd again backs away in fear. "See they do it for him too, that's gotta be it." The duo continues toward the Navy base. "You said you want to be Navy, so when we get there go ask them to join, I got other important stuff to do."
"What!? I can't do that. What if they find out? I'm not ready for this yet."
"Dude, seriously? You said it was your dream, it's not that hard just do it."
"Do you know how intimidating it would be to be reviewed by Axe-Hand Morgan? He's got an axe for a hand!"
"I think that's just a title, I doubt he really does."
"You sure? Anyway what kind of important stuff?" Usopp stops walking and sets down the bag he's carrying, and shortly afterward so does Coby.
"I can't tell you. It's uh… personal."
"If you gotta go to the bathroom that restaurant over there probably has a one."
"That's not it!" Usopp screams. "It's a personal business matter." then he runs off.
"Wait!" shouts Coby, "You forgot your bag!" Coby looks at the bag, "Maybe it's not that important to him." he opens the bag revealing a golden sun mask on top of a large red cloak. Coby stares for a few seconds, then quickly shuts the bag. "...Oh…"
Somewhere in Shells Town Usopp is running through an alleyway, guaranteeing to himself that Coby isn't following him. Just before exiting the alley onto the main road a man in a purple suit and goofy yellow hair struts into Usopp's view. The two collide tumbling to the ground. Usopp looks around seeing three Navy soldiers staring at him. Usopp stands up swiftly.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't see you till it was too late." apologizes Usopp. The man in the suit rolls over to look at Usopp.
"You hit me!" the man shouts in disbelief.
"Well yeah, but on accident…" Usopp replies.
"How dare you!" the man turns to the Navy guards, "Arrest this man, I want him executed before Zoro!"
"But sir… he hasn't..." the soldiers respond.
"What!? I haven't…" Usopp asks at the same time.
"I'm Helmeppo, son of Navy Captain Axe-Hand Morgan, you don't want to deal with him do you?" the man questions the soldiers, ignoring Usopp.
"Well no sir, but… he still…" the soldiers, continue.
"Then do as I tell you!" insists Helmeppo as he finally stands himself up.
"...Yes sir…" one of the soldiers agrees and quickly grabs Usopp who was just starting to run away. "I'm sorry about this." the soldier whispers in Usopp's ear.
Disclaimer:
This is a Fanfiction based on the characters of One Piece, a manga by Eiichiro Oda. I do not own any of the characters.
The world of Sniper Warrior, Sniper King, is an alternate dimension where Usopp's stories of his fake identity Sniper King is reality, and Usopp's cowardice is Sniper King's inner fears instead of Sniper King being Usopp's inner bravery.
Side Note:
I didn't put this in the first chapter, but I felt it worth noting. My fandom is specifically from the Funimation Dub of the Anime, sure I watch the subs of the newer episodes, and I'll probably read the manga to continue the story when I run out of those, but for this first part of the story, most of my information is from the Funimation English Dub of the anime. But it does take inspiration from the manga and Japanese Original version, as Iron Mace (Iron Club is the English title for Alvida) was fought on an Island, like the Manga version. The Lady Mary (the ship they used to travel to Shells Town) is the ship Luffy fights Alvida on in the show. So watch out for references like those also.
Another side note is I'm not an expert author, as a matter of fact, writing is something I'm not good at. I'm good at storytelling but not writing it, so there will be errors of that sort. I also picture this as a comic or show, so some things are going to sound bad as I can't find the words to describe a scene that would happen in a comic or show easily.