Aaand here is your omake, as promised!


I opened my eyes slowly. Trying to sit up, I gasped and fell back down at the sudden pain in my side.

"You awake?"

I turned to the voice, which was coming from a young man in a white-and-blue outfit with the word "Marines" on the white hat. He was leaning in from a door that he'd apparently opened, and looking relieved.

"I'll get my superior," he continued. "Hang tight, alright?"

Before I could say anything, he left, shutting the door behind him. I looked around me and realized that I was in some kind of hospital – or maybe a building that had a hospital-like section to it. I was lying on a white bed with a pulled-back curtain. There were identical beds on either side of me, part of a row which was reflected on the opposite wall.

Looking down, I noticed that I wasn't wearing a shirt (but I did, thankfully, have boxers on). My stomach area was bandaged, and the side that had hurt upon sitting up had some spots of blood on it. Reaching up, I felt that my head was lightly wrapped up – though it didn't hurt.

The door opened again and I looked around. A man older than the one that had come in before was coming in and shutting it behind him. He came over to my bed with a glass of water; he brought up a chair, sat down, and set the water on the table next to the bed.

"Hello, sonny," he said gently. "How are you feeling?"

"Well…" I said. "My side hurts a bit, but if I sit up, it hurts a lot more…"

"I suppose that's to be expected," he said. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Lieutenant Robert of the Marines. We found you floating at sea, alone – and without clothes, but that's not important. Now, can you tell me your name?"

"Usopp," I said. "My name's Usopp."

"Nice to meet you, Usopp," he said, smiling and holding out his hand. It was difficult due to my current position, but I awkwardly shook his hand.

"Could you tell me how you happened to end up in the sea?"

I opened my mouth, but with some confusion realized that I didn't know. "I… I'm not sure, sir."

"Do you know what ship you were on before being thrown overboard?"

"I… no."

"Can you tell me what island your village is on?"

I shook my head with a growing sense of dread. "I… I don't remember anything. I don't remember anything!" I looked at him desperately. "Why don't I remember anything!?"

He put a hand on my shoulder and gave me the water. I took a few sips, which brought my attention to my thirst. I handed it back to him and said "Thank you…"

"Usopp, I'm no doctor, but from the looks of it, it seems like you have amnesia. You're sure you can't remember anything except your name?"

I nodded.

"You can't remember your hometown? Your parents?" he pressed. "Any friends?"

At this last question I felt a kind of pang in my abdomen. I frowned and felt the bandaged area, but the feeling was gone in less than three seconds. I shook my head.

"No, sir. No friends that I can recall."

He frowned. "Hm… that's unfortunate. I'm sorry that you can't remember anything, Usopp."

I looked down.

"I'll tell you what," he said suddenly, "how about we get you some food, and we'll discuss things after that? I'll bet you're pretty hungry by now."

My stomach rumbled at his words. "I guess I am…"

"It's no wonder," he laughed. "After all, you've been asleep for two days."

"Two days!?" I exclaimed. He nodded.

"If he slept for two days, he would say that he missed ten meals."

Lt. Robert turned around, having been about to leave. "Sorry?"

"I…" I frowned. "Where did that come from? Who's 'he'?" I looked up. "I'm sorry, I still don't remember… I don't know where that came from…"

He looked at me a bit longer, nodded, and left. I turned my head and looked back up at the ceiling.

About ten or so minutes later, a younger boy came, pushing a cart filled with delicious-looking food. He left it by my bedside, gave me an uncertain salute, and left. I sat up slowly, stopping whenever my side hurt and moving again when it stopped, and managed to raise myself up enough to eat. I leaned against the wall and started eating.

The food was delicious, but it wasn't quite as good as…

Not quite as good as what?

I was just finishing when Lt. Robert returned, flanked by two seemingly lower-ranking Marines. He pushed the cart aside and sat down again, the others standing on either side of him with hands behind their backs.

"You finished, Usopp?" he asked. I nodded.

"Thank you for the meal," I said, remembering my manners (at least I remembered something).

"It was nothing," he said dismissively. "I've been thinking it over, and I was wondering if you'd like to join the Marines."

I stared at him. "Join the Marines?"

"Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to," he said quickly. "But we don't know how long it will take to find your hometown, so in the meantime you can work for us. As a chore boy, of course, and after you're all healed," he added.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant!" said one of the men. "With all due respect, sir, I don't think that recruiting him is a good idea. There have been cases of pirate spies being planted in the Navy. He may be only pretending to have amnesia, and the wound could have been put there on purpose."

The Lieutenant looked up and nodded. "That's very good thinking, soldier. But don't you worry; I've already taken care of that. I've checked all the bounty posters, and he's nowhere on them. And even if he were being used by pirates as a spy, they'd have some way to communicate – he didn't have any Transponder Snail or any kind of communication method at all."

The soldier nodded and stepped back. "Forgive my rudeness, sir!"

"No, that kind of thinking is what we need in the Navy. You'll go far, son."

"Thank you, sir!"

He turned back to me. "So what do you say, Usopp? Will you work for us for now?"

I looked at him. "I… well… yes, I will. I'll do it."

He smiled. "Wonderful! You'll start as soon as you're all healed up!"

I nodded.


Pushing a mop down a hallway, I thought about the past week. Lt. Robert had commented, upon seeing my healed wound after the fourth day, that I was a quick healer. Since then, I'd been pushing mop and broom down the vast halls of the base, and learning how things work.

I'd learned that the Marines were essentially the good guys in the world. They kept citizens safe from the bad guys – the pirates. Pirates were diabolical, with endless tricks up their sleeves and evil minds that never stopped thinking of ways to harm the Marines and citizens. Bounty posters were posted on billboards all around the base, and I looked up at one as I passed it – and paused.

There were nine posters that caught my eye, nine posters of pirates. The first one was a weirdly happy-looking guy with a straw hat and a scar underneath his left eye. According to the poster, his name was Monkey D. Luffy, a.k.a. Strawhat Luffy. He had a bounty of – I gulped – four hundred million berries. I wondered what a carefree-looking guy could have done to earn such a high number.

Looking around at the others, I saw that they were "Pirate Hunter Zoro – 120,000,000"; "Tony Tony Chopper (Pet) – 50" (he didn't look dangerous at all); "Devil's Child Nico Robin – 80,000,000"; "Cat Burglar Nami – 16,000,000"; "Cyborg Franky – 44,000,000"; "Black Leg Sanji – 77,000,000"; "Humming Brook – 33,000,000", and "King of the Snipers Sogeking – 30,000,000".

Sogeking… Sniper King? King of the Snipers… hm. He looked really cool! But I forced myself to remember that despite their appearances, all pirates were evil at heart. It's too bad – Sogeking might make a good sniper for the Marines if he hadn't taken the path of a pirate.

When I glanced at the one for the man named Brook again, I noticed that it looked very old. Checking the date, I saw that the bounty had been placed over 30 years ago! And judging by the photo, the man was at least forty years old, so that would make him at least 70 today! Surely someone had just forgotten to take down the poster… this Brook was probably dead.

I was taking it down when someone next to me said "That bounty is still active. Why are you taking the poster down?"

I turned around and saw someone standing next to me. He was about my height, and wore a green bandana on his head with glasses perched on top of it. His hair was pink, and judging by his coat and sign, was a Captain. I saluted with the poster in my hand. "Sir! Yes, sir, I looked at the date and thought that this pirate was no longer active."

"Good thinking, but that's not necessarily true," he said gently. "First off, many pirates continue on well into their old age, and fight until they die." He took the poster from me and put it back on the board. "Besides, we've recently received word that this pirate is still around. He was last seen at Sabaody Archipelago, giving his final concert under the rock name 'Soul King'. Apparently, he's only a skeleton now, and known to be working with the Strawhat pirates."

"A moving skeleton – sir?" I asked. He nodded.

"Oh," he added, "at ease. You can call me Coby."

I relaxed a bit.

"You see this one?" he continued, pointing at the picture of Strawhat Luffy. I nodded.

"A 400,000,000 bounty seems very high…" I said.

"If anyone deserves it, Luffy-san does," he said cheerfully. "He's my friend! He's the one that pushed me to follow my dream to become a Marine!"

I stared at him. "You're friends… with a pirate?"

He gasped and covered his mouth. "Oh, darn… I did it again!" he looked at me beseechingly. "Please do me a favor and don't tell anyone about it… I mean, if word got out…"

"No, of course I won't, sir – er, Coby," I said quickly. He relaxed.

"Anyway…" he coughed a bit. "He's a really good guy! Just because he's a pirate, it doesn't mean he's a bad person!"

"Pardon," I interjected, "but I was taught that all pirates are despicable, Captain…"

"Not him, that's for sure," he said cheerfully. "And this is a bit unrelated, but the Strawhat pirates – everyone on these posters–" he pointed out the nine that I had been looking at. "—they've been inactive for the past two years, and only Luffy-san's bounty has been updated recently. For example, Zoro's bounty should probably be around 300,000,000 by now."

I whistled. "They sound like a real dangerous bunch…"

"Like I said, just because they're pirates…" he shrugged. "Anyway, I'm leaving this base later today. Oh, sorry – I forgot to ask… what's your name?"

"My name is Usopp," I said. "As you can see, I'm a chore boy."

"It was nice meeting you, Usopp-san," he said, shaking my hand. "I'll see you around, then!"


Later that day, I was carrying my broom down an outdoor hallway when I heard crying. Looking around, I set down the broom and went to find the source.

Just outside the wall separating the base from the town, a boy from the village was sitting near a tree and crying. I opened the gate and hurried over to him.

"Hey, kid," I said gently. "What's wrong?"

He looked up. "W-Who're you?"

I puffed out my chest. "I… am Admiral Usopp of the Marines!"

He giggled. "That's silly! Admirals don't walk around bases and talk to kids!"

I gasped. "You… you saw through my lie…"

"So you were lying?"

"Aah! He found out I was lying!" How could anyone see through my brilliant lies?

He giggled again. "You're funny, Mr. Marine man."

"Okay… so what's wrong?"

He sniffled and pointed up. "I was playing with my ball and it got stuck up in the tree."

I looked up. The ball was high in the tree, caught in a nook. I shook the trunk to no avail.

"Hm…" looking on the ground, I spotted a branch that was shaped like a Y. Picking the branch up, I asked him "Do you have a rubber band?"

"Um… yeah…" he dug one out of his pocket and gave it to me. I tied it around the sticks, found a good-sized rock, and placed it in the center of the band. I aimed the rock at the ball – stretched the band – and released.

The rock smacked the ball, knocking it out of the tree. The boy clapped. "Yay! Thank you, Mr. Marine man!"

"Chore boy!"

This bark from behind me made me jump. I turned around and saluted. "Y-Yes, sir!"

"Come with me!"

"Bye, Mr. Marine man!" the boy waved.

Lt. Robert led me down the hall, indoors, to a place where there were targets filled with bullet holes. He dug around in a box and handed me a flintlock. I stared at it.

"Sir…?"

"Let's see what you can do with a gun, chore boy. Hit the center of that target five times."

I stepped up to the nearest target, aimed the gun, and fired. The bullet went directly through the center. I reloaded and fired again, and again, it hit the center. Three more times I did this, and each got a bulls-eye.

Lt. Robert moved the target away. I fired five more times, and once again got five bulls-eyes. He whistled.

"Usopp… I think you have the makings of a sniper."


My first mission out at sea. My first mission. Oh god, it was terrifying. We'd probably run into some pirates, and they would kill us all, and—

"Usopp, I know you're nervous, but it's your turn to go out on sea patrol with the rest! Now let go of the pole!"

"Never!" I clung to the steel pole while some soldiers pulled on my shirt.

"Hold on," muttered one of them. He stepped up and tickled me in the side. I snorted.

"H-Hey, that's n-not fair—OW!" I fell off of the pole. They picked me up and carried me to the ship.

"Don't worry about it, Usopp," said one. "Most of the Marines almost always make it back alive!"


Underneath deck was the best place for me – I could fire a cannon at any pirate ship that came along, and it was a lot safer, too. I was heading the cannon at the front of the ship, and—

"Pirates sighted!" yelled someone above deck. They came running down and yelled "Someone open fire!"

I set up my cannon, aimed at the ship, and fired. It landed very close… I set it up and fired again. This one looked like it was heading for the deck, but for some reason, there was no explosion.

Soon enough, I heard battle yells from above. It seemed like the pirates had boarded and were attacking us. Hopefully they wouldn't think to come down here…

My comrades at the other cannons had different ideas. They raced up to deck with guns, yelling. One paused and said "Oi, Usopp, you coming up?"

"No, I'll stay here… um, just in case!" I said. He shrugged and ran up.

In just ten minutes, the sounds of battle had faded. I set up my cannon to fire at the retreating pirate ship – what? It wasn't retreating… did we lose?

"Meat! Meat, where are you?"

I turned around and saw – it couldn't have been – Strawhat Luffy…

He saw me and brightened considerably. "Usopp!" he cried happily. "You're alive! I knew it! What're you doing here? Come on; let's go back to the Sunny! Everyone misses you!"

I backed up. "H-How do you know my name? You're one of those filthy pirates, aren't you!?" My legs started shaking. "G-Go away! I-I have 8,000 men under my command, did you know!? I-If you don't want them to attack, you better get out of here real quick!"


That... that turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated...