I own nothing but my own characters.
"It'd be reckless to go into Grandline now." Nami stated as she looked at the two boats.
Luffy looked back from his spot on the bow of the boat, finishing off his apple. "Yeah, we should get some meat first. Eating nothing but fruit everyday is no good."
"Yeah, I'm getting pretty sick of eat fruit all day, we really need to get something else."
"And some sake!" Zoro chimed in, only to get an apple thrown in his face. Which Luffy then stretched his arm to grab.
"What're you talking about?!" Nami lectured as she picked up another apple. "That's not what I mean! Grandline is the most dangerous place in the world. And to top that off, it's crawling with strong pirates after One Piece. And they're all on powerful ships, of course."
"We need more people, too!" Luffy piped with his mouth full of apple.
"The number of crew members, the lack of equipment...there's no way we could survive like this!" Nami sighed as she put her hands on her hips.
"Yeah. We need a cook. And a musician." Luffy chimed in.
"A musician?!" Zoro asked in disbelief, before he started laughing.
"You're so stupid..."Nami deflated as she looked at the boys.
"That's just how he is." Jade piped up as she looked at Luffy. She was kind of amazed at how well balanced he was on the stern of the boat. It'd be bad if he fell, though.
Nami sighed again before looking at the map. "A little to the south of here is an island with people living on it. It'd be best if we can get ahold of a real ship..."
"Alright! Time to eat some meat!" Luffy cheered.
Zoro smirked and added his two cents. "Don't forget the booze!"
"You guys!" Nami screeched at the two before sitting back down with a sigh. "So annoying."
"Pfft. You should've seen Luffy when he was younger, he was much more...temperamental." Jade scoffed.
"You were the one who hit me all the time!" Luffy whined, though he didn't turn around.
"You were always getting us in trouble." She stuck her tongue out at his back. "Anchor~!"
Luffy turned back to Jade and stuck his tongue back out at her. "Guppy~!" They laughed at the nicknames the crew had given them, before turning their backs to each other again.
"You and Luffy...were childhood friends?" Nami asked.
"Yup. I worked as an apprentice to the bar maid who took us in. We had rooms just across the halls from each other. I spent two years with Luffy before Shanks came then another year after that. But because of an accident, I was moved to a different island. Ten years later, Luffy found me, and here we are!"
Nami blinked in shock. "You guys were separated for ten years?"
"Yeah. But the day before I left, Luffy promised me he'd find me and we'd sail Grandline toghther, as pirates." Jade laughed as she recalled the night of the promise.
"And I keep my promises!" Luffy still had his back to them, but Jade could hear his smile.
"Yeah, but now we have to get to Grandline! So we'll need a ship and a crew!"
"And a musician!"
Luffy's statement sent Zoro into another round of laughing.
Nami sweatdropped. "You all can't stay serious for one minute?"
"I'm sure they try." Hansuke sighed as he looked over the group.
"Yeah, but sti-" Everybody looked to Nami when she cut her self off. Slowly she turned to look at Hansuke. "Eh?"
Hansuke blinked at her before tilting his head. "What?"
"IT TALKS!" Nami screeched pointing at the cat.
"I'M A HE, NOT AN IT!"
Jade gave a nervous chuckle as she looked to the orange haired girl "We haven't told you that?"
"NO!"
.
.
.
"Oopies?"
"AAAAAH!" Zoro yawned, stretching. "Finally on dry land again!"
Luffy was looking around the small slope in amazement. "There's a village past here?"
"Yeah. It looks like a small one, though." Nami nodded, looking at her map.
"Oh! In that case, meat, meat! Meat, meat, meat! There's a place to eat in the village right?!" Luffy ran up to Nami, drooling at the thought of something else besides fruit.
Nami glared at him with a tense smile. "Forget about meat for a second, will you?!"
Jade laughed at the two. "Give Nami some space, or she might hit you again."
"Careful." Zoro called, breaking the (somewhat) peaceful moment, his hand already on his sword. "I sense people!"
"Ah!" Luffy started looking around the cove, almost like an excited puppy. "Where?! Where?! Where?!"
"Look out!" Zoro called, just as things were fired at Luffys feet.
Luffy began dodging whatever was being shot at his feet, while Nami dragged Jade to the side of the boat for cover.
Suddenly, flags started popping up all around the cove, indicating that a lot of people were behind the bushes.
"Eh!" Luffy began waving his fists around as he gaped in amazement. "AWESOME!"
Nami gaped at Luffy. "Now really isn't the time to be impressed."
Jade narrowed her eyes at the flags. If there were that many people, where was all the noise? It was to quite.
"Hahahahaah!" Suddenly, a boy stepped out from around a tree, planting a flag, similar to the ones around the cove, into the ground, and crossing his arms. "I am Usopp, leader of the great pirates who reign over this village! People praise me, and the praise me some more, as 'Captain Usopp'!"
Luffy suddenly stop gaping in amazement.
Jade stepped forward to stand next to Luffy. "Usopp?" Her eyes widened as she looked at the guy.
Usopp pointed to himself with a confident smile. "If you're thinking of attacking this village, then forget it! My 80 million subordinates won't sit by quietly!"
But now Jade was sure of it. Usopp was lying. There was no loud roar of people to indicate that they were there for their captain, as most crews would do. And the fact that they were all in bushes indicated that it was just flag posts.
"AWESOME!" Luffy shouted, totally believing the lie. Zoro looked back in disbelief at Luffy, while Jade looked to Nami, who just sighed and shrugged.
Nami smirked as she looked up to the long-nosed boy. "You're lying, aren't you?"
Usopp then gave it away by panicking. "Yikes! She saw right through it!"
"See, you admitted it."
Usopp lost his cool as his plan unraveled. "I admitted it to her!"
"What?!" Luffy turned to look at Nami. "He was lying?!"
Jade face palmed. He really was to gullible.
Usopp seemed to have gathered himself some what and tried to fix his mistake. "Curse you, crafty tactician! 80 million may have been an exaggeration, but I do have great men under my command!" And some of the flags started to move. It would have been much more believable if they had been more spaced out.
"What? Maybe like three people?" Nami guessed.
And suddenly, three kids popped out of the bushes, dropped their flags, and high tailed it out of there.
Usopp gaped as his back up ran away. "H-hey, you guys! Don't run away!"
Nami bent down and picked up a marble that had been shot at Luffys feet. "I've never heard of pirates using slingshots before."
Luffy laughed at the long nosed man. "You're neat!"
Usopp stomped his feet at Luffy. "Don't insult me! I'm a very proud man!" Usopp pulled out his slingshot, aiming it at Luffy. "Because of my great pride, people call me 'Proud Usopp'! You saw it yourself just now! My slingshot skills are far greater than your average pistol!"
Luffy let his hat shade his eyes, as Jades smile dropped.
"Then you've put you life on the line." Jade glared at the teen, who looked towards her in shock.
"Wha-?"
"Now that you've drawn your pistol," Luffys voice was no longer happy, though he gave a smirk at the sharpshooter. "You've put your life on the line."
"Huh?!" Usopp was having trouble keeping up his confidence.
"I'm saying those aren't for threatening people." Luffy continued.
Zoro seemed to have caught on quickly and slightly pulled out his sword. "What you're looking at now are real pirates!"
All three looked up at Usopp, waiting for him to make a move. They stood there for about a full minute, until Usopp drop his ammo.
Usopp dropped to his knees. "R-real pirates definitely have more punch behind their words. Awesome..."
Luffy smile returned and all the shadows on his face seemed to disappear. All three pirates turned to look at each other with smiles, before they started laughing.
Luffy looked up at Usopp. "We stole those lines!"
Usopp leaned forward a bit. "Eh?"
"Yeah, we got those from Shanks." Jade chimed in.
"A pirate we respect!" Luffy finished.
Usopp balked in surprise. "S-shanks?! You know Red-haired Shanks, the great pirate?!"
"Yeah. Your dad's Yasopp, right?"
"Eh?...EH?" Usopp leaned so far over the edge he actually fell off. He sat up, rubbing his head. "Yeah, Yasopp is my old man..." He looked at them with confused eyes. "but how do you know that?"
"Finally," Jade cheered as she finished off her plate. "Real food."
Luffy bit into his own meat, chewing happily.
"Good, huh?! So, how did you know my dad?"
"We met him when we were kids." Luffy smiled, even with his mouth full.
"So my old man's on Shanks' ship?"
"Yep! You guys look the same, so when I first saw you, I wondered."
"Really?!" Usopp smiled. "My old man's on such an awesome ship?!"
Luffy shrugged. "I donno about now, but I'm sure he's still with him." Luffy grabbed an apple from the basket. "After all your dad was a good sharpshooter!"
"And quite the story teller." Jade chimed in.
Usopp looked at her. "Really?"
"Yeah, though he loved to talk about you the most." Jade rolled her eyes, remembering when Luffy got his head stuck in a glass one time, from protesting about hearing the same story of another boy.
"We heard enough about you to make our ears sore. Yasopp was a great pirate." Luffy chuckled a bit.
"Really?! I'm proud of him, for leaping onto the possibly endless seas to live with his life on the line!"
Nami smiled. "Then that makes this easier!" Usopp looked to the navigator. "Do you have any friends who know how to sail and anyone who can supply a big ship?"
Usopp sighed. "As you can see, it's just a tiny village. Sorry, but we can't live up to your hopes."
Zoro looked out the window. "On the top of the hill...there's a huge mansion."
Nami looked to Usopp with hope. "Ne, do you know them Usopp? Think you could ask them to help pay for one?"
"You can't go there!" Usopp yelled drawing everyone's attention. He suddenly gasped. "I-I just remembered something I hafta do! I have lots of influence here! Eat and drink as much as you want! Alright! Later!" With that, Usopp picked up his things and ran out the door.
"Why was he in such a rush?" Nami questioned.
Jade shrugged before eating some rice off her plate.
A few minutes later, the front doors bursted open. "The Usopp Pirates have arrived!" And three tiny children stood in the door way, holding wooden swords.
"What...?" Nami looked around from behind the booth.
They ran up to the table. "Oi, P-pirates! What'd you do with Captain Usopp?!"
"What'd you do with him?!" The other two repeated.
Luffy let out a sigh of content as he patted his stomach. "That meat was yummy!"
The other three boys flinched and huddled together. 'Meat?!...Don't tell me the captain..."
Jade tilted her head in confusion, as she looked at the three. 'What's their problem?' She shrugged it off and turned back to her meal. She heard Nami giggle a bit.
The three where shaking now. "W-what?! What did you do?!"
"If you're looking for your captain..."Zoro gave them an evil smirk. "We ate him."
Jade almost spit out her food. She coughed a bit as she looked to the three with wide eyes 'Is that what they think we did?!'
All three of them turned to look at Nami in terror. "AAAAAAAH! ONIBABA!"
"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?!"
The three actually fell over in fear. Nami slammed her hand onto the tabled and turned her glare to Zoro. "Why'd you tell them something so stupid?!"
Jade laughed along with Zoro and Luffy. "They actually thought we ate him!"
"So, it was just a joke?" The green haired kid, Pepper, sighed in relief, as they walked up to the mansions gate.
Luffy looked at the mansion in amazement. "Waaaaah!Huge!"
"If our Captain ran off at this hour, he'd be here." The one with glassed,Onion, explained.
"Oh?" Luffy looked down at the boy. "What's he doing here?"
"To lie!" The one with the hat,Carrot, replied.
"That's a bad thing!" Nami scolded.
"He's not bad!" Pepper insisted."He's great! Right?!"
"Yeah, he's awesome!" Onion smiled.
Zoro arched an eyebrow. "How does that work?"
"The girl who lives here, Kaya is weak and has had depression ever since her parents died from an illness a year ago." The boys lost their smiles as they gazed at the building.
"Even though she has lots of money, shes so sad."
"So our captain tells his special made-up stories to make her laugh!"
"Cause our captains the best at telling lies!"
Luffy made a sound of understanding. "So he is great."
The three nodded before listing off what they liked the most about him.
"I like his meddling side!"
"I like his bossiness!"
"I like his over exaggerations!"
"So..." Nami looked at the three. "That's helped her feel a little better?"
"Yeah. " Pepper smiled. "A lot better!"
"Alright! Then we can ask for a ship!" Luffy his fists up.
"I guess so..." Jade mumbled, before something caught her eye. "Huh?"
"Alright lets go!" Luffy cheered as he climbed onto the fence. He leaned back, letting his arms stretched. "Pardon..."
"Wait a second Luffy!" Nami called as everyone rushed to hold Luffy down. Well everyone except Jade, who had gone over to look at the hedge.
"The intrusion!" Luffy shouted as he and everyone holding onto him flew over the fence.
Jade smiled as she looked through the hedge. "Hey guys! Look, there's a hole in...the...hedge...where'd everyone go?" She looked to Hansuke to see if he knew, but he was just staring into the sky, with his jaw dropped.
He slowly turned to look at her with a tense smile. "Y-you...really need to pay attention more..."
Jade finally caught up with everybody, just as Luffy asked for a ship.
"You there!" A man called out to them. "What are you doing there?!"
"Ugh, the butler..." Usopp winced, from his spot on the branch. He sat perched on a tree branch, just across the window from which a blonde haired girl stood. Jade assumed that it was Kaya.
"Please get out!" The butler firmly looked at the pirates. "or is there something you'd like to say?"
Luffy smiled at the butler. "I want a ship!"
"No way." The response was immediate and caused the rubber captain to hang his head in disappointment.
"We can always look at the next island." Jade tried consoling him as Zoro patted his back.
"Usopp-kun!" The butler called out. "I've heard all about you. You're well known in the village."
Usopp looked down at the butler with a smirk. "Really?"
"I hear you've been on may adventures. Quite impressive for someone so young."
Usopp leaned on the trunk of the tree as he gave his confident smile. "You can call me Captain Usopp! Since you admire me so much!"
"Captain, huh?" The butler murmured, looking down. He gave a chuckle as he pushed up his glasses with the palm of his hand. "I've heard all about your father, as well."
That caused Usopp to stop smiling and tense up. "What?!"
Kaya looked down to the butler, worry etched into her face. "Klahadore! Stop!"
"You're nothing but the son of a filthy pirate! Nothing you do will surprise me, but I ask that you stay away from the lady of this house!" Klahadore commanded as he glared at the long-nosed teen.
Luffy titled up his head to glare at the butler, as one of Jade's fist clenched.
"F-filthy?!" Usopps own rage was boiling up in him.
"You and the lady are from completely different worlds! Is it money you're after? Name your price!"
"That's enough, Klahadore! Apologize to Usopp-san!" Kaya yelled, leaning out of her window.
"Hey now," Usopp looked to see Kaya leaning out of her window. "Be careful, Kaya!"
Klahadore pushed up his glasses again. "What reason is there to apologize to this savage man, my lady? I merely stated the truth. I feel for you. You must truly hate your great idiot of a father for abandoning his family and village because of his lust for treasure!" Klahadore spit at Usopp.
Kaya gasped, appalled by her butler. "Klahadore!"
"Don't you dare insult my father any more!" Usopp growled at the butler, who still held an air of indifference. Usopp jumped down from the tree, despite Kayas cries. He put a hook onto the branch and safely dropped down to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground, the hook retracted back into his bag. Usopp had clenched his fists in rage as he stared at the butler.
Klahadore laughed at the frustrated teen. "What are you getting unnecessarily riled up for? Why not simply tell another of your special lies at a time like this? About how your father is a traveling salesman, or how you're not really blood related."
Finally Usopp had had enough. He ran straight at the butler and punched him in the face. It ended up knocking the older man onto his back. "Shut up!"
Jade stayed calm on the outside, but on the inside she was laughing a bit evilly.
"Captain!"The three children seemed surprised at their 'captains' violence.
"S-see! You immediately resort to violence! Like father like son!" Klahadore stuttered as he fixed his glasses.
Jade practically had a dark aura surrounding her as she glared at the man. 'I kill the bastard.'
"Shut up!" Usopp shouted again, stepping towards the butler, who flinched back. "I'm proud that my father is a pirate! I'm proud that he's a brave warrior of the sea! You're right, I am an exaggerator! But I'll never lie about my pride to be related by blood to a pirate! I'm the son of a pirate!" Usopp yelled out, clearly not ashamed of who he was, or who his father is.
Klahadore chucked again as he picked himself up. "A pirate, a brave warrior of the sea? That's quite a twisted way of putting things."
'He just doesn't know when to shut up does he?' Jade was having trouble keeping up her mask of indifference.
Klahadore patted away at any dust that might have been on his suit. "But you're the undeniable proof of his savage blood! You run around, spouting lies, and act violent whenever you're angry! And to top it off, you cozy up to the lady of this house so you can get her fortune!"
"What?" Usopp stepped back at the actuation. "I only-"
Klahadore had lost his own cool now, and was shouting. "The fact that your father is a pirate, is more than enough proof that you'd hatch such a scheme!"
Usopp grabbed the front of Klahadores shirt, pulling back his fist. "Damn it, you still wont let up?!"
"Stop it, Usopp!" Kaya yelled, stopping the lone nosed sharpshooter. "Please, no more violence! Klahadore isn't a bad person! He's just...he's just trying too hard to do whats best for me!"
Usopp slightly let go of the butlers shirt, and his hand was slapped away.
Klahadore looked to them, his face of indifference back. "Leave this place! Never come near this mansion again!"
"Yeah...I get it. I don't need you to tell me!" Usopp dropped his fist and stiffly walked away, but as soon as he past the butler, he ran. "I'll never come back here again!"
The three kids ran up to the butler in their own rage. "You stupid head! Our captains not that kind of guy!"
"Yeah, you stupid head!"
"Stupid head!"
"Stupid head!" Luffy and Jade joined in, causing them to get whacked on the head by Zoro.
"Why are you two saying it too?!" Zoro yelled, before he grabbed onto them, holding them back from racing up to the butler.
Klahadore turned his gaze onto the tiny Usopp pirates, causing them to run and hide behind Namis legs.
"What's your problem?!" Luffy yelled as he struggled against Zoro.
"You stupid jerk! You're so lucky there are children here!" Jade glared at the butler.
"Hey! Stop that!" Zoro grumbled.
"Let go! You stupid butler! Come fight me, if you can!" Luffy continued his struggles.
Klahadore fixed his glasses once more. "You will leave at once, too!"
"Ne." Nami looked around from her seat on the fence. "Where'd Luffy go?"
"Who knows? Probably ran after that 'Captain." Zoro shrugged as he leaned back on fence post. "Oi, Jade, are you done pouting yet?"
"SHUT UP!" Jade yelled at the swordsman from her spot next to Nami, before folding her arms again. "I don't pout!...I sulk..."
"Our captain would be at his spot." Pepper looked to Carrot, who nodded.
"Yeah, the shore! He always goes there when something happens!"
Pepper looked to the Swordsman. "Wanna cheek it out?"
"Huh?" He looked to them before turning back an closing his eyes. "Nah, that's okay."
Nami turned back to the kids. "Never mind that, isn't one of you missing?"
"Yeah, Onion!" They nodded, before Pepper continued. "He always just ups and disappears! Then shows up again, freaking out about something!"
As if on cue, the blonde haired boy came running up, screaming and crying,drawing Jade out of her bad mood. "Bad news!"
"See?"
"A backwards guy!" Onion screamed. "A weird guy is backwards-walking this way!"
"Liar!" The other two kids called out.
Onion stomped his feet. "It's the truth! Just look!" He pointed to the path where he just came from.
And true enough, there was a guy, walking backwards along the path.
"Is he..." Jade tilted her head. "Moon-walking?"
He turned around, showing off his heart shaped glasses and strange bread. "Hey. Who's calling me weird? I am not weird."
"Seems pretty weird to me." Nami put bluntly.
The man shifted his foot. "Don't be stupid! I'm just an ordinary, passing by hypnotist."
"Extra weird." Jade nodded as she looked at the man.
"Shut up, stupid." The man frowned.
"H-hypnotist?! Awesome!" Onion looked up at the man in amazement.
Pepper joined in. "Show us something!"
"Yeah." Carrot smiled. "Do something!"
The man turned his gaze to the children. "What?! Don't be dumb! Why should I reveal my techniques to a bunch of strangers?!" He suddenly pulled out a ring, that hung on a string. "Alright. Watch this ring closely."
"You're gonna do it?" Zoro balked at the stranger.
"You'll feel sleepy at the count of 'One, two, Jango.' Alright, here we go!" He began swinging the ring side to side. "One, two Jango!" With that, the three kids, and the hypnotist fell over in sleep.
"Geez, whats with this guy?!" Zoro yelled, glaring at the strange man.
"And he calls me stupid." Jades eye twitched slightly before she jumped off the fence, 'accidentally' stepping on the 'hypnotists' hand.
Hansuke deadpanned at her from his spot on the ground. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"Yep." Jade said she picked up the boys and moved them to rest on the fence again.
Hansuke choked on his next words as he gawked at her. "Y-you admitted to it?"
"Yeeeup." Jade drawled out as she walked away.
"Jade? Where are you going?" Nami asked as she watched the retreating girl, a white cat hot on her heels.
"Find a place to relax. Maybe find our captain. I'll be back soon enough." Jade waved over her shoulder.
Jade ended up walking on the out skirts of the village. Sighing Jade found herself tense as ever."This isn't working! Dammit!"
"Why don't you try the shore?" Hansuke asked. "You are a siren."
"Oh. Right." Jade laughed, before walking to the shore where Luffy and Usopp where supposedly at.
But when she got there, she only found Zoro, Nami, and the kids, gathered around something. "What are you all doing?"
They all jumped away, reviling what looked like the bottom half of Luffy. "What happened to him?" Jade asked, titling her head slightly.
"He fell from the top of the cliff!" Pepper shouted, pointing to a high ridge.
"What?" Jade turned to look at the rubber man.
"Quite!" Zoro suddenly interrupted them all. They sat in silence for a minute or two. That's when Jade heard it. A soft snore.
She looked down at the rubber teen with a raised eyebrow. "So that's what you're doing."
"This guy." Zoro scoffed with a smile as he poked Luffy with a sword.
"Uhm?" Luffy twitch slightly.
Nami and the kids all jumped back in fear, causing Jade to look at them, confused.
"What? Oh, come on, he's made of rubber. A little fall wont kill him."
Luffy yawned as he sat up, scratching at his head. "Good morning."
Jade looked at hims with a slight smile. "Have a nice nap Captain?"
He yawned again, nodding, before he stopped. "Ah. I just remembered."
"Remembered what?" Nami asked.
"Eh?! They're going to kill Kaya?!" The three boy screamed in disbelief. "Are they really going to attack the village?!"
Luffy put his hat back onto his head. "Yeah, that's what they said. No question about it."
"I knew I should've killed the bastard when I had the chance." Jade seethed, clenching her trembling fist.
Hansuke sweatdropped at her. "Hey now..."
"So what were you sleeping down here for?" Zoro questioned, looking down at the rubber captain.
Luffy smiled at the swordsman. "That's the thing! I was up on the cliff, but I don't know how I got down here!"
"So thats why our captain ran into town with such an intense look!" Onion realized.
"That's great then! Now they'll know, and can run away beforehand!" Nami smiled at the tiny kids. "Talk about stupid bad guys."
"That's right! We've got to run away too! Lets pack all our things and run!" With that, the three ran off to pack whatever.
"Na...that doesn't make any sense..." Jade furrowed her eyebrows, putting a hand on her chin. "Why would they risk that?"
"Like I said." Nami smiled and put her hands on her hips. "Stupid."
"I suppose so..." Jade sighed again.
"Oh no!" Luffy suddenly looked distressed.
"What is it?" Zoro raised an eyebrow at the straw hat boy.
"We need to stock up on food before the meat shop guy runs away!" Luffy was hit up side the head with Zoros sword.
"Thats not the problem here."
"Jeez..." Jade sighed as she face palmed. "Is meat all you think about?"
Walking back the way they came, the group of pirates eventually caught up to the kids, who were waving at Usopp.
Usopp did a double take when he caught sight of Luffy. "Y-you're alive?!"
Luffy looked confused for a second, but smiled none the less. "Alive? Yeah, I just woke up."
"That's not what he meant, dummy." Jade mumbled.
"This guy was asleep the whole time." Pepper explained.
"Anyways Captain!" Carrot brought the attention to him. "We heard everything!"
Onion stepped in front of the others. "Let's hurry and tell everyone about the pirates!"
"Tell...everyone?" Usopp whispered. He looked down and after a minute his shoulders began to shake. He picked his head back up and began to laugh. After he'd calmed down somewhat, he looked back to the three. "I was lying like usual, obviously! That damn butler pissed me off, so I decided to claim he was a pirate!" The kids began to laugh with him, while the teens stared at him, confused.
'There's no way Luffy was lying when he said he'd heard Klahadore say those things.' Jade looked at the sharpshooter, confused. 'Luffy can't lie to save his life.'
The kids walked past Usopp, who turned to look at them.
"Oi, whats wrong?" Usopp chuckled.
"I think less of you now." Carrot didn't even turn to look at him. "We all do."
"Even if that butler is a jerk, I never thought you'd lie to hurt someone!" Onion looked at Usopp, frowning.
"We really respected you,too!" Pepper scoffed. "I was wrong about him!"
"Same here!"
"Lets go home."
"Yeah, it's supper time!"
"Wonder what we're having?"
When the kids were out of sight Jade stepped forward and grabbed onto arm that Usopp had been hiding.
"Hey! Wha-what are you."
"You weren't lying..." Jade stared up at him as she pulled off his arm band, to reveal the bloody scratch.
"I...I" Usopp seemed to be out of words for once.
"Come on. Let's get this cleaned up." She sighed as she began to drag him back to the cove.
"Ow, ow ow!" Usopp cried as Jade patted his cut with the cotton ball.
"Sorry..." Jade didn't seem to sorry as she dabbed away. "Oi, Nami hand me some bandages."
Nami ripped some of the cloth with her teeth and handed it to Jade. "How did you get so good with bandages and first-aid?"
"I lived at a marine base that had a tyrant in control. He'd hurt a lot of people when they did something he didn't like, and nobody else could help them, or they'd get the same punishment. I ended up dragging a lot of people to the sides, when he wasn't looking, and fixing their wounds. " Jade sighed. "I'm thankful that Zoro and Luffy kicked his ass."
Jade stood once she had finished wrapping the wounds. "Alright, all done. You can stop flinching now."
Luffy looked to the lone nosed teen. "Why did you tell them that?"
Usopp looked down at his bandage, which already had blood seeping through. "Because I'm a liar. They were never going to believe me from the start. I was too optimistic."
Zoro stepped forward. "Still, the truth is the truth."
Nami titled her head slightly. "Pirates really are coming, aren't they?"
"Yeah." Usopp didn't have a hint of doubt in his voice. "They're definitely gonna show up. But everyone thinks it's a lie. They think tomorrow'll be just another normal, peaceful day..." Usopp clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. "That's why I'm going to stop the pirates at the beach tomorrow, and make sure this stays a lie! Its the only logical thing for a liar like me to do!"
He clutched his bandages, looking down as he laughed. "Even if I get shot in the arm, even if I'm driven off with brooms, this is my village! I love this village! I...want to protect everyone!" His laughter soon turned into tears.
"You're one hell of nice guy, pushing your henchmen away and going into battle alone!" Zoro smirked as he put his hands on his swords, a clear sign he was willing to fight.
"Just so you know, I have dibs on all the pirates' treasure!" Nami explained as she gave him her signature 'ok' sign, signalling she was in.
Jade smiled at Usopp, Hansuke sitting proudly on her shoulder. "I still need to punch that butler."
Luffy flexed out his arms. "Alright! We'll help you out!"
Usopp put a hand to his face as the tears rushed out. "You guys...are going to help me?! Why?"
"It's not like we can just sit back and watch. We're a part of this now." Jade explained, looking at the sharpshooter.
"There's a whole bunch of bad guys, right?" Luffy asked.
"'Scared' is written all over your face." Zoro chimed in.
"M-me, scared?!" Usopp tried to put on a brave face. "I'm perfectly fine with lots of bad guys or whatever! Cause I'm Captain Usopp, brave warrior of the sea!" His knees shook harder with every word. He pounded on them to try and make them stop. But he lost his cool."Dammit! Dammit! This isn't a show! These are Klahadore's pirates we're dealing with! Of course I'm scared! Whats wrong with that?! I don't want your sympathy! You guys can leave! Leave!"
"We aint laughing!" Zoro glared at the shaking teen. "We're helping cause we thin you're honorable!"
"As if we'd risk our lives because of sympathy!" Luffy scoffed.
Usopp stared at them as the tears began flowing again. "You...You guys..."
Jade smiled a bit as she turned to face the moon. It seemed almost other worldly, compared to the moon in her own universe. Closing her eyes, she began singing softly. "Where ever we will...we'll roam."(1)
Next time: Clash with the Black Cat Pirates!
I still want to punch that butler. Well, I guess he's a pirate now...Still want to punch him. I didn't even get to go for a swim, dammit!
Whats with this guys weird ring thingy?
Huh?! No Luffy, don't look at that!
1: This is the song that plays in Jades music box. The box originally belonged to Jades mother, so yes Jades mom meet Shanks and was his friend. (Shanks was given the box when Jades mother 'disappeared') Also, the song is from pirates of the Caribbean, but it fits so well here.
Thank you my reviewers and those who follow/fav the story!
Till next time~!
