A/N: Please enjoy this, the final chapter of my story's introduction. *Bows*

I shall have details regarding updates on my profile before the end of the day.

If I did own One Piece, I'd give Toei a stern talking to. Alas, I do not.

Kaya couldn't sleep. She lay in bed, listening through her open window to the night sounds of the island.

She heard Kuro leave some time earlier. She didn't know if hours or minutes had passed since then. When she heard the telltale crunch of footfalls on the grounds again, she threw off her blankets and retrieved her thickest, heaviest textbook.

She crept out of her room, down the hall to the stairs in the foyer. She tiptoed on bare feet, toward the entrance and flattened her back to the wall. Chest palpitating, she raised her textbook over her head. She waited, straining to hear approaching footsteps.

She bit her lip to keep from screaming at the sound of something dragging along the dirt path.

The door swung inward and open. She tensed, poised to jump and strike, or-

"Kaya?"

She dropped the textbook to the floor, pages spilling open loudly as the hardback fell with a thud. She yanked the door open fully. Usopp held an unconscious and bound Kuro over one shoulder. The pirate's face was bloody and burnt, his slick hair unruly.

By contrast, Usopp looked untouched.

Kaya almost cried out in relief.

"You're okay," she breathed, smiling faintly. She stepped back to let him inside. "I couldn't sleep after I heard him leave the house."

Kaya looked at Kuro again, at a loss of what to say. The initial shock from Usopp's revelation had mostly worn off, but the image before her- her friend carrying a pirate of deadly repute with a tired, vaguely triumphant look- she found difficult to reconcile with what she believed she knew about him.

"What in the world is going on?!"

Merry's exclamation distracted her. The butler, missing his suit jacket and the belt for his trousers, shirt tails untucked, had clearly come from his room in a hurry. Kaya was distantly aware of Merry stammering, floundering for where to begin asking questions.

Usopp glanced at her, and he smiled, just a bit.

"There's a lot to go over- do you mind if we move to the dining room?" Usopp jostled Kuro on his shoulder. "He's kind of heavy and I wouldn't mind sitting down."

Usopp yawned. He'd more or less relayed the whole mess to Merry, and filled in Kaya on what pieces she hadn't known about Kuro's plans.

("We had a long chat before we fought.")

The sniper kept one hand in his satchel, gripping his hammer. He'd be ready to knock Kuro out again if the bastard came around and tried anything. Usopp suspected he'd probably try to twist everything around so he came out the bad guy.

He gave about even odds that Kuro woke up still in a violent mood. Obviously, he took away his cat claws after he bound him. The former captain lay on the floor, face up, ostensibly so he didn't get blood on the carpet. Usopp's idea, not Merry's.

The butler, overwhelmed, sat at the table across from him. He stared at the same bounty poster Kaya had already seen.

Usopp cast a concerned eye toward the heiress sitting beside him. She listened intently the whole time, but seemed kind of distant otherwise. She hadn't let go of the hand he punched Kuro with since she found out he'd been injured.

("Yeah, I must have split my knuckle when I slugged him. I'm not really a fist fighter."

"You're okay, though, right?"

"Oh yeah. Could have been much worse- bastard tried to stab me."

"He tried to stab you?"

"Eh, I'm fine."

"Stab you."

"Hm, I forgot that kitchen knife he stole. I'll bring it back later."

"Stab you?"

"… Are you okay, Kaya?")

She walked away to get bandages without giving him an answer. She'd barely spoken six words since.

"This is a lot to take in," Merry said, calling Usopp's attention back to him. "It's quite lucky that you found him out before he had a chance to do any harm.

The butler gestured to the vial of poison Usopp found in Kuro's jacket pocket. The sniper scratched his nose, a little sheepish.

"I guess," he said. "I kept an eye on him when I could once I realized who he was. I did get lucky that I saw him meet with his acting captain a couple days ago."

Usopp knew luck had very little to do with it. He'd tracked Kuro's movements day in and day out with Haki. He almost jumped out and attacked when he finally caught him meeting with Jango, he was so ecstatic that it had all paid off. The whole situation came packaged with an entirely different breed of stress than Usopp was used to- as a pirate, adventures began and ended essentially as soon as he left a given island behind. With the journey moving consistently at a much more breakneck pace, he'd learned to compartmentalize pretty efficiently every couple of weeks.

Usopp would not miss tiptoeing around the chronic stressor of 'will he or won't he murder everyone I care about today' once life came back around to the chaos he knew.

Merry looked up, mildly alarmed.

"Do we need to be concerned about that?" He asked, eyes darting to Kuro. "His crew?"

Usopp shrugged.

"I overheard orders for them to come back in a couple years. I plan to be around at least that much longer, so it should be fine."

Usopp had casually mentioned his plans to become a pirate during his story, and Merry, like Kaya, didn't bat an eye.

The butler reclined in his seat, exhaling a loud sigh.

"What should we do now, then?" He asked.

Usopp rubbed at his eyes.

"Call the marines." He said simply.

Kaya shifted in her seat.

"I thought you said they wouldn't help."

Usopp smiled at her.

"They won't believe us if we tell them it's Kuro, but they're obligated to send someone if we say there's a generic pirate problem."

Kaya blinked and narrowed her eyes a little. She closed her fingers a bit tighter around his bandaged hand.

"And we didn't do that from the beginning because why?" She asked.

Usopp's smile faltered somewhat under her scrutiny, but he pointed out Kuro's cat claws.

"Proof," he said. "They might still deny he's Kuro even after they see him, but they'll have to take him either way."

Merry immediately left the dining room to arrange communications. Kaya hummed thoughtfully. Usopp tried not to think about the fact that his friend looked like she didn't quite buy his reasoning.

"I trust we can rely on your discretion?"

Usopp regarded the marine officer with a half-lidded, quite unimpressed gaze. They'd already carted Kuro off to their ship, though Usopp had half a mind to check for himself that the bastard was secured properly. The collective attitude of the men sent to help only soured his already lackluster view of the marines. None of them said anything, but they'd all been giving Usopp passive-aggressive, condescending looks since they landed. It only got worse with their commander, who none-too-subtly muttered about 'opportunities to move up in the world' after he recognized Kuro.

Not that their resentment for a fifteen-year-old kid who'd done their jobs for them meant a damn thing to Usopp. The whole squad would have been slaughtered by Kuro.

The sniper couldn't figure out why they all seemed to be glaring at him, though. He wasn't being (overtly) disrespectful. Hell, after a few seconds of taking vague offense at their dismissal of him, the marksman couldn't even be bothered with more than blatant indifference.

He hadn't shoved his pinky up his nose or anything.

He was rooting around in his ear instead.

He only kept up the pretense of tact for Merry and Kaya's sake- they were both standing on either side of him on the shore. Having assumed, correctly, that the marines would just leave unless they had something as obvious as a pirate flag or screaming villagers to go on, Usopp met them on the beach.

"Discretion?" Merry repeated, indignant and incredulous. He stepped forward, almost raised his voice.

"Sure." Usopp agreed.

Merry frowned, wearing the look of a man that clearly had more to say, but Usopp waved a hand at him. Like the first time, he didn't see any reason to panic the village or disrupt their boring, peaceful lives. He didn't need recognition for his efforts, and he wasn't going to kick up a fuss.

That would come much later, when it mattered on a larger scale.

"Oh," Usopp said, pulling his pinky out of his ear as a thought occurred to him. "Do I have a claim on any of his bounty?"

Okay, so, he wasn't practicing a lot of tact. Just enough to avoid an altercation.

"Care to repeat that?"

… Probably.

The marine officer, whose voice had been grossly familiar like a salesperson, grew terse and short. Usopp shrugged one shoulder, ready to let go of the whole thing.

"No, I think you heard him just fine." Kaya said calmly, speaking for the first time.

Usopp glanced over his shoulder at her and almost laughed. She wore a sweet, pretty smile which belied some serious authority. If the sniper didn't know better, he'd think she might have been exercising a type of Haki. As it stood, even the marine officer's posture went straight and stiff as a board.

Usopp halfway smiled at her in thanks before he turned back.

"I just figured some spending money would be nice," he said with a straight face. "Since I'm handing him off to you guys and all."

The officer held his gaze for fifteen awkward seconds. Then, he flashed a creepy smile, reached into his coat and held out a bill for ten thousand beri.

"Here's a little something," he said. "A nice supplement for your allowance, my young friend."

Usopp haltingly took the money. He stared at it, eyes moving back and forth between the bill and the officer.

'Are you serious right now?'

He cast a glance at Merry and Kaya behind him. The butler's mouth had fallen open, jaw working as though to form words he couldn't decide on, and Usopp could almost imagine the man swearing. Kaya, familiarly, wrinkled her nose and frowned. As he contemplated what kind of marine carried rolls of beri around in his pockets, the officer and his men took their leave.

Once they were out of earshot, Usopp pocketed the money and sighed, smiling ruefully.

"That went about as well as I could expect."

Usopp had dedicated his waking life in his second round to preparation- for marines, the ocean, opponents powerful and proportionally insane, and all manner of other things.

He failed entirely, however, to anticipate the sheer weight of relief once Kuro had been bagged.

The marksman slept for the better part of a week once he got home.

Bleary-eyed and groggy as he came out of his hibernation, one of his first coherent thoughts was

'Kaya hasn't been by. Weird.'

Previously, after her health took a marked turn for the better, Kaya had never shown any qualms about bodily removing Usopp from his house for any number of reasons- fresh air, relief from her own boredom, sunlight, freshly cooked food. He suspected she'd find a way inside even if he didn't habitually leave his door unlocked.

He made a mental note to visit later in the day and sat at his table, taking up a new train of thought.

The marksman had no intention of slacking just because he trounced Kuro. If anything, he'd intensify his work on all fronts, bolstered by the knowledge that it did make a difference. It also helped that, at fifteen and close enough to fully grown, he could do away with a lot of discretion. No more worrying about grown-ups getting silly ideas like griping at him about-

"You clearly can't be trusted to take care of yourself, sane people don't set off bombs in their homes and call it a test run, why in Kami's holy name did you leave the mold in your pans unchecked I think it winked at me."

Usopp blinked.

'Mental note: Look into weaponizing sentient mold.'

No, the adults would leave him alone. His local 'crew' might- scratch that, definitely would- be curious, but so long as none of them went around trying to lift trees for free weights, what right did the villagers have to complain?

"First thing's first," he murmured, clearing the sleepy rasp from his throat. "New workout regimen."

He set about clearing the table- aforementioned pans, pots containing something either chemical or edible, papers in loose piles, that one stack of beri and accompanying note with…

'Pause,' he thought. 'Back up.'

He took a second look, mind a little more awake at the sight. He'd been setting aside some funds for materials he'd need for later projects, stuff that wasn't available locally. The bills neatly arranged and crisp like brand new, which he estimated to be around half a million beri? Only one family on the island had that kind of cash.

That in mind, Kaya's familiar scrawl on the note next to the money didn't surprise him too much.

The money's a gift from my father. They're taking me off the island for a while. See you when I get back.

-Kaya

Usopp stared at the note. Re-read it several times, slowly, quickly, one word at a time, out loud- he tried force some sense out of it.

Terse, brief, almost detached in tone, and very much not-Kaya.

He frowned, whispering.

"What the fuck."

Merry knew Usopp would stop by the manor. However, given how oddly distant Kaya seemed, and the all-too-plain fatigue radiating off the young man when he left, the butler thought a little time and space prudent.

When Usopp stormed up to the front door, and, upon admittance, shoved a handwritten note at him, Merry found himself questioning his decision.

After reading the brief missive, he felt slightly disappointed in his charge. He looked up to find a considerable sum of beri being flapped in his face.

"What is this?" Usopp demanded. "A gift, or a payoff?"

Merry sighed. A less patient man than he would have snatched the bills from his hand and swatted him with them. Even if his agitation and mild bitterness were warranted.

"Even if the master and mistress intended it as such," Merry said. "And I assure you, they did not, I'm certain Miss Kaya would disabuse them of such a notion's feasibility."

He smiled, recalling her rarely roused yet fierce temper.

"Swiftly and with extreme prejudice."

At the natural, if tense, lull in conversation, Merry invited Usopp inside.

"I'm good thanks," he replied in a clipped tone. "How long are they gone?"

Merry recognized, then, exactly how affected Usopp had been by Kaya's sudden departure. He obliged him and instead stepped outside.

"Conservatively, I'd say about a month," he said. "You must understand, finding out about Kuro, even secondhand, was quite a shock for the master and mistress."

An understatement if ever there was one. The mistress had been rendered mute for a full five minutes, while the master had emitted a noise not dissimilar to a whistling tea kettle. (Merry still hadn't determined how the master made such a sound.)

Their strong reactions may have been partially his own fault.

("Anything to report in our absence, Merry?"

"Ah, well, it turns out Khaladore's a pirate and a murderer after your fortunes. He's better known as Kuro.")

Merry should have opened with

"He's been apprehended and dealt with."

Hindsight, and all that.

"Sure." Usopp said, still terse, posture expectant.

"I believe they simply need time to digest the news," Merry said. "And, for peace of mind, keep Kaya close by."

After a beat, Usopp sighed, less rankled and more resigned. An improvement, though only a marginal one. Merry remembered, even after several years, how prone the young man was to overwork and isolation. He worried over what state he might reduce himself to in a month. Much as he cared, Merry was not the sort to remove an almost grown man from his own home.

"Say," he said, struck by an idea. "Could I enlist your help with a personal project of mine?"

Usopp looked at him, faintly curious.

"With the house to myself, I've had more time to focus on my side business," Merry elaborated. "An extra set of hands and a sounding board would be most appreciated. I can pay you for your time, of course."

Merry added the last part sternly. Usopp was helpful by nature, but the pay was a matter of principle.

"What kind of project?" Usopp asked.

Merry smiled and extended another invitation into the manor.

"I've been thinking about a caravel."

Kaya slipped out the front entrance, gently easing the door back into place as quietly as possible. She knelt to slip on her shoes, paused, then thought better of it. She skirted her toes over the tended lawn, immediately wishing for the natural grass beyond the grounds. By moonlight, she made her way to the hole in the fence, still large enough to fit through. She didn't trust the hinges on the gate.

She needed to speak with Usopp.

She loved her parents, but their constant hovering, tracking her every move, making her recite their own itinerary got old quickly. Six weeks of assuring them

("No, mother, I'm certain I don't need a bodyguard.")

came to a head when they floated the truly ridiculous idea of relocating permanently. She respectfully, but firmly, told them to bring her home.

Kaya sighed as blades of faintly moist grass tickled the soles of her feet. She curled her toes a few times, and began walking the familiar route.

Five days home, and the heiress hadn't seen her closest friend once. To her great shame, it didn't occur to her that he might be angry until Merry tactfully pointed out how abrupt her departure had been.

She was horrified when she heard that Usopp even considered that her father had been trying to buy him out of her life.

All her efforts thus far to catch him, in the village or at his home, had come up short. Angry or not, he clearly knew how to avoid her. Hence, her plan to wait him out.

Just as she came to a point when his house was visible on the horizon, she heard singing, a voice cutting softly across the night.

"… gold and silver seas, a salty spray puts us at ease,

Day and night, to our delight, the voyage never ends!"

She looked around for the source, and noticed a shadow strutting out of the woods, heading for the same place as her. She quickened her pace a little, yet couldn't bring herself to call out and interrupt the song.

"Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew.

Pirates, we eternally are challenging the sea!

With the waves to rest our heads, ship beneath us as our beds,

Hoisted high, upon the mast, our Jolly Roger flies!"

Kaya came up on Usopp's house after he did. She could make out his unique nose, and a pile of lumber beside his doorstep. Her friend had a sturdy wooden staff hanging over one shoulder, one made odd by what looked like two rings of logs tied to one end.

She wondered about its purpose right up until she realized the song had ended.

"It's pretty late to be out alone." Usopp said.

He didn't look her way. He just walked past, settled his weighted staff against the house, and circled around to the eastern side.

…

Or, to the gaping hole in what used to be the east wall of his home.

"What happened here?" She asked, distracted from her original goal despite herself.

"The usual." He muttered.

Kaya waited expectantly for several seconds before she chose to let it go.

"No injuries?" She asked, out of concern if nothing else.

He shrugged one shoulder, stooping next to a pile of lumber.

"The usual."

Kaya sighed. She tamped down on the impulse to swat him and deliver some sort of barb for snubbing her.

"I'm sorry."

Usopp paused, and finally looked at her.

"I shouldn't have disappeared the way I did. Even if I didn't have a choice about leaving, I should have explained things to you. I didn't, and I'm sorry."

She bit her lip, unusually nervous about his reaction. She really didn't want him to continue being upset with her, and she wasn't sure how well she'd cope with dismissal.

He glanced away.

"Why didn't you?"

"Honestly?" She said quietly. "I was kind of intimidated by you."

The silence on his end, previously tense, sharpened into something more like a prompt than judgement. He looked at her incredulously.

"I knew- I know, you want to be a pirate," she said, building up momentum. "And, in the abstract, I understood what that meant, or I thought I did. You'd leave one day, go on a bunch of real adventures, face a ton of dangerous obstacles and make a name for yourself. But then," she paused, too frustrated to consider more precise language. "Then all of a sudden it's real and happening right in my face- people like Kuro are out there actively planning to kill people, to kill you, and then it turns out the government's talk about justice doesn't even mean half of what it should, and"

She took a steadying breath.

"And you just seemed unfazed by it all. Like you already knew how screwed up it all is, and you're going for it anyway. Then you actually went out and fought a murderer and won, and you're just so certain about everything and I'm… not."

Kaya's voice, rising into a crescendoed pitch, dropped off to a whisper at the end of her deluge. She hung her head, catching her breath.

"Oh, is that all?"

Kaya snapped her head up, ready to chew him out because how dare he respond with such a blasé attitude after she left herself vulnerable.

She drew up short at his teasing grin.

"You ass." She muttered, swatting his arm.

He chuckled.

"Hard to believe you'd ever be intimidated by me."

"It's more likely than you think," she murmured. She wiped at her eyes. "I wasn't sure how to talk to you, and it took me a while to realize you hadn't actually changed."

"Hey," Usopp said gently. "I forgive you. You don't need to explain yourself."

"Okay." She said, smiling softly. She took a second look at the hole that his wall once occupied. "Do you want a hand with that?"

"Um," he said, glancing at the lumber pile, then at the moon. "You sure? It really is pretty late, and this could take a while."

"So?" She challenged. She tucked her hair behind her ear and knelt down by his satchel. "My parents aren't home, I don't have tutoring tomorrow, and even if Merry does get worried," she found and held out his hammer. "Where else would I be?"

Kaya watched Usopp's already meager resistance fall away. He took the hammer from her and hoisted a board.

"It might get boring." He warned.

"I doubt it," she said, taking the other end of the plank and holding it level. "I was planning to get you to sing again."

Usopp stared, longing, out toward the sea. Without the looming threat of Kuro occupying his mind, the past two years had almost felt like a vacation.

He came dangerously closer to resenting the tranquility with each passing day.

Oh, he kept busy. He adjusted his training regimen every few months. His kids came to him every so often for entertainment, and he made sure they grew up rambunctious so they could spice up life in the village after he left. Kaya was welcome company, and after she rediscovered her interest in medicine, she began practicing on his more-than-occasional injuries. He consulted with Merry about the Going Merry (he almost wept just from looking at the blueprints) and he pitched a few ideas for strengthening the ships structure.

All of it felt like little more than a distraction, though. His dreams (and nightmares) kept his nakama at the forefront of his thoughts. He'd even briefly considered leaving the island to gather materials for Nami's Climatact, but decided against it.

"Hey, I just met you twenty minutes ago, to solidify our friendship, here's a staff built with your specific build and knowledge of weather patterns in mind."

Not plausible, and a little bit creepy.

Though he did ask Merry about ordering some of the materials.

Aside from that, Kuro's crew remained at large, and could show up early if they heard about his capture.

Usopp sent out another pulse of his Haki. Again, he found nothing.

'Soon,' he thought, slumping to the ground. 'Pirates are coming.'

If asked, Kaya wouldn't have been able to say why she followed Usopp on the day she did. Since his seventeenth birthday, he'd been even more prone to spacing out and distraction than usual. That, and he couldn't sit still for any length of time. He always seemed to be tapping his feet, or drumming his fingers, or otherwise fidgeting. Like with the rest of his quirks, he didn't give a straight answer when she asked about it.

He'd been taking time to, from what she could tell, stare out at the sea for at least an hour each day. She'd accompanied him a couple times, but he was outright unresponsive to her until he arbitrarily decided he'd had enough.

So, why did she trail after him? The heiress could only cite her own curiosity.

She shadowed him as quietly as she knew to the northern bluffs. She watched his back from the tree line. He stood, arms folded, just staring out at the ocean, posture tense and expectant.

Kaya almost caved and approached when something changed- it took a moment to notice, but Usopp began trembling, just slightly. Minutes later, she heard voices.

"All right! We made it to…"

A loud, boisterous voice petered off. Kaya crept closer to the edge of the cliffs, peering down onto the beach.

A boy in a red vest and blue shorts, wearing a very familiar straw hat, cast a quizzical gaze at his surroundings. He turned back to a young woman with fiery orange hair. In her heels, she stood maybe an inch taller than the boy.

"Where are we again, Nami?"

Nami sighed and stood, expression equally exasperated and irritated. She had the sort of pretty face that featured in romance novels, yet seemed the farthest thing from demure.

"One of the Gecko Islands, Luffy," she said. She pulled a map out of her blouse and glanced over it. Kaya assumed she was comparing the map against the shore. "Could you at least try to remember why we're here?"

Luffy, apparently oblivious to Nami's annoyance, laughed.

"New ship! New nakama! Shishishi!"

A deep yawn and a series of grunts called Kaya's attention to the last of the trio, a man with green hair and a forest green haramaki on his waist. A black bandana adorned his bicep and three sheathed swords sat on his left hip. Out of the three, he was by far the most physically imposing.

In contrast to Luffy's wide-eyed face, trying to absorb everything with infectious eagerness, the swordsman had a more methodical, almost predatory gaze, punctuated by the lazy way he stretched like he'd just woken up.

They all struck a chord in Kaya's memory. They fit her mental image of Usopp's crew mates in her mind, the characters featured in his stories.

She couldn't bring herself to pass it off as coincidental.

Before the heiress could explore that particular train of thought any further, the swordsman spoke.

"So," he drawled, voice shaking off the husk of sleep. "What do you think his deal is?"

"Huh? Who? Where?"

Usopp almost lost it. He wanted nothing more than to bawl his eyes out and crush his nakama in a hug because

'Alive. They're alive.'

It took all his mental fortitude to keep his knees from buckling.

"Pirates," he said, posing with hands on his hips. "Turn back now or face my crew of eight thousand men!"

He knew his claims were stupid, but he couldn't manage anything else without weeping.

"That is," Nami said flatly. "So clearly false."

"Ah!" Usopp exclaimed. He threw his head back theatrically and slapped his hands to his face, covering up the fact that he was preemptively wiping away tears. "You saw through it!"

"And you just outed yourself."

Usopp collected something resembling composure and shrugged.

"You'd be surprised how often that works," he said. "A lot of pirates are pretty dumb."

Nami blinked.

"Fair point." She said, with a glance at Luffy and Zoro that Usopp didn't miss.

"Regardless," Usopp said, tone sharp. "I'm not gonna let Buggy muscle in on my island."

"Who'd do anything for that stupid big-nose?" Luffy shouted. "We just used one of his boats!"

Usopp slid down the embankment to the sand. Nami cast a glance behind her. The sniper inwardly cackled, realizing he was making her nervous.

"Pirates and thieves, then." He said, scrutinizing them.

Nami opened her mouth, doubtless ready with a denial.

"She is, at least."

She glowered and clocked Zoro instead.

Usopp crossed his arms.

"You here to make trouble?"

Nami shook her head and waved her hands.

"No, not at all! We're just on the market for a real ship!"

"And a new crew member!" Luffy added.

Usopp hummed. He let Nami sweat for a few seconds.

"Great!" He said, clapping his hands with a grin. "I think I can help!"

Nami face faulted.

"That's a major tonal shift." Zoro muttered.

"Really?" Luffy said. "Hey, thanks!"

"Don't mention it," Usopp said. "My Dad's a pirate, after all!"

Recognition lit up Luffy's eyes.

"I knew you looked familiar," he said, pointing. His grin grew impossibly wider. "You're Yasopp's kid, right? Usopp!"

"Yeah, that's right! You've met my Dad?"

"Back when I was a kid, you were all he talked about," Luffy said, laughing. "He never missed a shot he made."

Skff.

The sound of another small craft interrupted Usopp's reunion. As one, he and his imminent crew mates looked to find a man wearing a trench coat and matching hat, heart-shaped glasses and-

Jango. They watched Jango step onto the shore.

Usopp blinked.

'That's… convenient.'

"Hey! What're you staring at?" Jango asked. "I'm just a simple traveling hypnotist. Nothing to see here."

He then started moonwalking up the shore.

"He drew attention to himself." Nami muttered, bemused.

"Excuse me, sir," Usopp called after him. "May I ask what brings you to my humble home? Weariness? An errand? Perhaps an order from your former captain?"

Jango went stock still. Usopp heard Nami advising Luffy to leave things alone, but the rubber captain didn't budge.

"I don't know what you mean." Jango insisted.

"And this captain," Usopp continued, ignoring him. "Would he happen to be a tall, pasty sort, slicked back hair, glasses and a habit of dicing things with swords-as-cat-claws?"

Jango sweated a little.

"Are you looking for Kuro, mister acting captain Jango of the Black Cat Pirates?"

Usopp felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced back to find a disappointed looking Zoro with his face in his other hand.

"Could you repeat that," he asked slowly. "About swords used as cat claws?"

"It's about as silly looking as you think," Usopp said. "He did all right with them, I guess."

"You've run into him?" Nami asked. Zoro lamented the lack of East Blue swordsmen on the sidelines.

"Yeah, he was out to hurt a good friend of mine," Usopp replied. He spoke loud enough for Jango to overhear. "I clobbered him and handed him off to a few sketchy marines."

Nami hummed, looking impressed.

"Hey," Luffy said, pointing. "What's he doing now?"

"On the count of 'Jango', you'll all forget about Captain Kuro and his plans!"

Usopp mulled that over. He vaguely recalled Jango's tendency to hypnotize himself.

'Where's the fun in that?'

"One, two"

Twang!

"OW!"

"Excuse me a second." Usopp said. He pulled a boomerang out of his bag and brained Jango into unconsciousness.

"Not bad." Zoro commented.

"Cool!" Luffy yelled, marveling at Usopp's new weapon.

"He's not a very hard hitter," Usopp said dismissively, struggling not to preen under Luffy's praise. "Now, what to do. His crew's probably anchored their ship nearby, waiting for a call to attack."

The sniper pretended to think while Luffy poked at his boomerang.

"Guess I'll have to ask them to leave," he said. He turned to the others. "You guys want in on this? Could be a little dangerous, but any treasure on their ship is all yours."

Two key phrases ensured cooperation.

Zoro: 'Dangerous' implied challenge. Interest acquired.

Nami: Treasure. Yours. Done and done.

As for Luffy-

"Sounds fun!"

The boy captain was constitutionally incapable of saying 'no' to any adventure.

Usopp grinned and snatched Jango's hat.

"I'll pretend to be the weirdo, you guys pretend to be captives until we get to the ship," he said, adding quickly. "You won't be tied up or anything. If they see us they might shoot their cannons."

Zoro shrugged and plopped into Jango's boat. He assumed his familiar napping posture.

Usopp stripped Jango of his trench coat and called back to the tree line.

"We'll be back in a couple hours! Expect extra guests- hungry ones- for lunch today!"

With Kaya forewarned, they shoved off.

Take fifty debatably B-grade pirates, put them all on a ship with home field advantage, and pit them against two thirds of the Monster Trio and a New World-class sniper.

'Definitely overstated the dangerous part.' Usopp thought.

The so-called battle didn't warrant mention. Usopp and Luffy came away without taking a single hit, and Zoro only got a few scratches courtesy of the Nyaban Brothers. Nami cleaned them out entirely and Luffy made sure those few still conscious knew he'd become Pirate King. With the fear of Kami in them (or in their words, fear of a rubber demon), they were all too happy to run away, even leaving Jango behind.

Usopp kicked the hypnotist's boat back out to sea, the acting captain tied to it.

"Hey, hey, Usopp," Luffy chirped, slinging an arm over his shoulder. "Join my crew!"

Caught flatfooted, Usopp cursed himself for almost crying again. He took two seconds to make sure his voice wouldn't break.

"If you can handle a world class marksman," he said with a shining smile. "Count me in, King of the Pirates."

Luffy whooped loud enough for the whole village to hear.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of activity. Merry set to putting a few finishing touches on the ship, Usopp said goodbye to his local crew, his nakama were fed (far and away the most daunting task.)

The only thing Usopp didn't do was pack. He'd been ready for weeks.

Too excited to sleep, he sat up in Kaya's library, thumb tracing the well worn weave of his straw hat.

Soft footfalls startled him, and he hastily hid it behind the couch as Kaya walked in.

"Figures you'd be awake," she said with a small smile. She sat next to him. "Ready to start your career in piracy?"

Usopp chuckled.

"More than you know."

Kaya sighed, pulling her knees to her chest.

"I wish you could take me with you," she said, shaking her head. "I know I'm not ready. Not yet. Maybe after I see a little more, get a sense of what's beyond the domestic setting," she put a certain lilt on those words, wrinkling her nose. "You can take me on your second voyage."

"Maybe." He said. He wouldn't concede to anything more than that.

Kaya huffed and made a show of pouting.

Several beats passed in silence before the heiress leaned back, looking behind the couch.

Usopp froze, staring as she gingerly plucked his captain's straw hat into her hands. She pinched the brim between her fingers.

"They're more than stories, aren't they?"

Usopp knew she couldn't know how. Yet her question wasn't really a question, just a prompt for confirmation. He could lie, but if he did, she'd watch him leave thinking he didn't trust her.

"They're memories," he murmured. He swallowed thickly. "Of another life I lived."

Kaya looked at him and nodded. Mercifully, she lay her head on his shoulder and didn't ask anything else.

Given a whole lifetime, Usopp knew he couldn't express his gratitude for that.

Kaya laughed as Luffy bounced around his new ship, shouting with joy at everything he saw. Zoro climbed aboard more quietly, but his grin was broad. Nami ate up all the finer details Merry had for her about the caravel.

Whump!

Usopp heaved a huge backpack up and tossed it to the swordsman. Her friend looked at the figurehead wistfully.

"I expect even more exciting stories when you come back." She said.

"I'll have seen stuff you won't believe." Usopp answered matter-of-factly.

Kaya bit her lip and lowered her voice.

"And you'll tell me everything?" She asked with a certain emphasis.

Usopp's grin shrank, yet lost none of its sincerity.

"Everything." He promised.

All too soon, they sailed away. Kaya waved until she couldn't make out his shape on the stern anymore.

"He'll be a pirate when he returns," Merry said, mildly teasing. "Your parents may not want you associating with him."

Kaya shot him a mock glare. She broke into a cunning smile.

"Then he'll just have to kidnap me."

Merry choked on nothing, then laughed.

On the Going Merry, a celebration ten years due took place. Usopp cheered and drank, finally reunited and on the sea with his nakama.

'This time,' he vowed again. 'We'll make it!'