A.n I own nothing. Thanks to everyone who has continued to read this story, I honestly did not expect to get this far so thanks everyone and i hope you will too continue to read and review.
Usopp helped Kaya climb down from the tree, when she saw how bad Connor was she ran over to him and used parts of her night gown as a substitute bandage, Kaya revealed that before her parents died she was studying to become a doctor and insisted that everyone recover at her Mansion this surprised everyone.
Zoro looked Connor over, the two new bullet wounds did not go unnoticed, he was very impressed that the boy was able to fight in such a state, he picked up the boy gently and agreed to follow Kaya and the three boys back to her mansion, Usopp volunteered to go back to the coast and tell Luffy where Zoro was going.
When Usopp arrived Luffy was complaining about being hungry and Nami was sitting next to her two bags of treasure and cradling a third, in the distance was the Black Cats ship sailing away. Nami told Usopp that Luffy had beaten Kuro and the remaining pirates had taken their captain and fled but not before Nami had stolen their treasure. Usopp informed them that Zoro had taken Kaya and Connor back to her mansion.
"Oh yeah is Connor okay Kuro hurt him pretty bad?," Nami said.
"WHAT?! CONNOR'S HURT?!" Luffy asked.
"I don't know he was unconscious when I left and those bullet wounds looked pretty bad," Usopp said.
"He was shot?!" Nami asked in surprise.
"Yes, I don't know what happened but let's go to Kaya's place," Usopp suggested.
Luffy and Nami were up in a second and Usopp led them back through town to Kaya's Mansion. When they arrived they found Zoro waiting for them, he was with Usopp's friends and being treated by Kaya.
"Hey Luffy," Zoro greeted, when he noticed them.
"Captain!" the boys cried out in relief.
"Zoro where's Connor?" Luffy asked.
"In a guest room with my servant Merry. Don't worry Merry's had medical training," Kaya said.
"Usopp said that Connor was shot, what happened?" Nami asked.
Kaya told them everything that happened in the forest and how Jango had shot Connor twice before he fought back. Nami was shocked, Zoro was impressed at Connor's bravery and Luffy was angry, if Kuro hadn't already left the island he would have beaten him up again.
Merry emerged ten minutes later and told them that he had done all he could.
Merry was a tall, formally dressed butler, with a white fleece collar, his hair was white and curly like a lamb's fleece and had two ram horns sticking out of the top.
He then treated everyone else's wounds which thankfully weren't as bad as Connor's. Usopp asked if he could see Connor but Merry advised against it claiming that the boy would need a lot of rest and suggested that the rest of the crew do the same. After eating breakfast Luffy and his friends they were shown to some spare rooms and they all slept for the rest of the day.
Two days passed and Connor had not woken up, which was strange because his wounds were healing at an incredible rate; the crew were starting to get very worried. Usopp and his friends visited every day and continued to tell stories to Kaya much to Nami's annoyance, Luffy listened in and believed them, Zoro had taken to patrolling the grounds and by patrolling he was usually found sleeping under a tree in the yard, Kaya had offered to call in a doctor from a neighbouring town to help treat Connor and Merry was seriously considering it.
"We'll give it one more day if there's no change by tomorrow we'll call for help," Merry said.
The rest of the day passed and still no change.
The next morning when Merry came to change Connor's bandages he found the boy missing Merry ran to alert their guests and found his missing patient with them, apparently Connor had woken up just after dawn and wandered into Luffy, who was looking for a before breakfast snack. Luffy had been very happy that Connor was better he had dragged the boy back to his room. Luffy had woken up both Zoro and Nami; while they were angry at Luffy for the wakeup call their anger was replaced with relief that Connor was awake.
Merry gave Connor a check-up and was surprised to find that the only evidence of him being injured were three nearly faded scares on his back, the bullet wounds were completely gone.
"How is this possible? Those injuries should have taken months to heal," Merry exclaimed.
"I don't want to talk about it," Connor said in a sad voice.
Merry recognised that it was a sore subject so he dropped it and told everyone that Connor's completely healthy but recommended one more day of rest just to be on the safe side; Merry also provided a new shirt and jacket for Connor as his last one had been ruined by Kuro's attack. Luffy told Usopp the good news when he came round that day.
Usopp was glad that Connor was better and thanked him for saving Kaya by telling him about the time he slayed the legendary giant Goldfish that haunted these waters. Despite the fact that Connor knew it was a lie he enjoyed the story none the less. Kaya and Merry left early afternoon to run an important errand. Usopp also left early claiming he had something to do as well; when he left Zoro gave Connor another lesson in sword fighting.
Luffy and his crew were eating dinner in the restaurant in town. Kaya and Merry had not come back from their errand so they decided to eat out and Luffy had almost choked on a fish bone.
"Luffy normal people don't try to eat the bones of the fish," Nami said.
Zoro suggested that they'd leave the island tomorrow now that Connor had recovered. Luffy agreed and could not wait to get back out to sea. Just as they were about to rise from their seats, the door opened and Kaya came over and greeted them.
"You're here," she said.
"Are you fine walking around like this?" Nami inquired.
"I'm fine. My illness was caused by the loss of my parents," Kaya told her.
"Yo, Kaya, we were just about to head back to your place. What are you doing here?" Luffy asked.
"You originally came here looking for a ship, right?" She asked.
All of the four pirates' faces brightened up. "You'll give us a ship?"
A ship they were promised and a ship they got. It was a caravel with a sheep's head with curled horns that resembled its creator, Merry's hair and a cannon sticking out of the front of the ship. It was, as presented by Merry, known as Going Merry and was designed by him.
"It's fully stocked up on everything you'll need for your trip," Merry said.
"Really? Thanks," Luffy said.
"Yes though Miss Nami's treasure is not on board yet," replied Merry.
"That's okay, how does the steering work?" Nami asked.
Merry explained the steering and how the ship's helm worked while Luffy, Zoro, and Connor explored their new ship.
The next morning Kaya went to see the straw hats off she was joined by Carrot, Onion and Pepper but strangely Usopp was nowhere to be found. Connor and Nami were already on board and they were just waiting on Luffy who was thanking Kaya once again for the ship.
He was just finishing when a distant rumbling and a familiar voice screaming came to their ears. The cause of this noise was Usopp coming rolling down the slope with a way too big backpack. Before he crashed into their new ship, Zoro and Luffy stopped him with one foot each on his face.
"T-Thanks..." Usopp managed to say.
"You're welcome", they replied and boarded the ship.
Turned out that Usopp was leaving too to become a pirate; he had a farewell chat with Kaya about it. Once he was done, he turned to the crew who had practically saved his life the other day.
"I wish you guys luck and I hope we meet again someday." Usopp said sincerely.
"Why?" Luffy raised his head from the railing he was leaning on.
"Why? We are both pirates, so we might meet again at sea someday," Usopp explained.
"Just shut up and just get on the ship already", Zoro snapped, pointing down at the deck.
"We're Nakama, right?" Luffy pointed out.
Usopp took a moment to comprehend this statement; he could not believe his luck and jumped into the air with joy.
"Yes I'm the captain!"
"Don't be stupid! I'm the captain!" Luffy shot back.
The sails were unfolded and the Going Merry set sail, on the deck the crew were celebrating not only a new ship but a new crew member as well.
