A/N: Let us begin the second arc. First, an introduction, as is proper, and an implicit promise of things to come. *Bows*
I do not own One Piece, nor the mind of Oda.
Usopp knew he'd changed since he last saw his nakama. An inevitable consequence, and indeed the whole point, of his extensive training and preparation.
Still, he hadn't expected such a strong sense of displacement after just one day at sea with them again. One, he realized, owed to the fact that they were a little more than two years removed from how he last remembered them.
Nami had, in his view, regressed, actively avoiding any and all participation in a fight that she could, not yet inspired to the sort of loyalty being a Straw Hat engendered. Her expressions still held lingering suspicion behind them, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Some small, cynical part of her still expected that the men aboard would reveal themselves as no better than the pirates she despised.
Zoro's scowl hadn't yet become omnipresent, and he possessed a certain degree of playfulness in his personality that Usopp had honestly forgotten. His ferocity, while still present and ready to call upon (always ready, always there, always Zoro) didn't reside just below the surface like a shark the way the sniper remembered. There was a greater degree of separation between the dormant predator and the wakened hunter.
And Luffy, his captain, was still a mostly happy-go-lucky kid with ridiculous natural strength and a dream. His determination was wild and untamed, not tempered by the painful process of piecing himself back together after a having a fundamental fixture of his world violently ripped away. (Usopp wouldn't let that happen twice, if he could help it, but he was getting ahead of himself.)
He likened the feeling to buying a pair of gloves that were gradually tailored to fit his hands, until they were practically a second skin. Coming back for a second round, those gloves had been destroyed, and Usopp had to return to the 'factory setting', the standard he'd started with.
The sniper was too fucking happy to be bothered by the singular dissonance, though. His nakama were alive, and he was with them. He still had the same niche to fill, and so falling back into place proved reassuringly easy. His nakama would settle into their roles soon.
Nami had already begun, at odd moments, expressing the joy she felt with the crew, still a taskmaster even if she didn't plan to stay. Zoro would soon begin his growth into the man constantly sharpening his every edge, motivation stoked by an unfettered perspective of just how enormous the world was. As for Luffy…
"How do I put this." Usopp murmured, staring at the abomination his captain made out of paint and black fabric, claiming that the atrocity he'd made would be their skull and crossbones.
… Luffy could only ever be Luffy.
"Your painting skills suck, Captain."
Zoro agreed that the bastardization passed muster on the grounds of being scary, if only in all the wrong ways. Somehow, Nami proposed, without any hint of sarcasm that Usopp could detect, that Luffy had deliberately made it abstract.
'N- No.' Went a deadpan voice in his head.
Usopp flexed his fingers and stepped up to take the brush.
"Let me show you how it's done."
Minutes later, the Straw Hat Jolly Roger was reborn- a bit less rounded, a little more defined, and a bit more daunting than the original. An steadfast reminder and a ward against complacency, though only Usopp would ever appreciate that aspect.
Luffy and the others loved it immediately.
"Put it up on the sails and flags, too!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n."
Another hour and a bit found Usopp slumped against the guard railing on deck with paint spatter across his overalls and face. Nami lay spread eagle on the deck, and Zoro mirrored Usopp's posture against the main mast.
Well deserved tranquility.
BOOM!
For all of about thirty seconds.
'He's only gonna get worse, too.' Usopp glumly remembered.
Kami, he'd missed Luffy so damn much.
"What the hell was that, Luffy?!" Name shouted. One hand pressed over her chest, probably to confirm she still had a pulse.
"Cannon practice," Luffy said flatly. He pointed out to sea with a frown. "I'm trying to hit that rock, but this thing doesn't shoot right."
Something tickled the back of Usopp's mind, pertaining to 'that rock'. He squinted, trying to place, or rather, jar loose, whatever had been buried.
'Some reason we… shouldn't shoot the cannon?'
Ding!
'Aha!'
Usopp pounded his fist in his palm.
"Speaking as someone who helped install those cannons," Usopp said, standing up and walking up to stand by Luffy. "I guarantee that it's working just fine, but there's no need to use munitions if you want to break a boulder."
Acting on a stroke of inspiration, Usopp pulled out his slingshot, sweeping his hand out theatrically and raising his voice. He'd been stewing over how to push his crew mates along in their development since they left his island. He didn't have to sell himself to Luffy, he knew that, but a demonstration would fare far better than words with his captain and Zoro.
"Observe, if you will."
Zoro cracked an eye open, and Nami, with the look of one who decided she had nothing better to do, pulled herself up to her feet. Luffy, of course, had never looked away. With their attention, Usopp pulled the band taut, loaded with a ball bearing.
Though no one knew, a black sheen coated his ammo at the last second before he released.
Enhancement: Lead Star!
His shot sailed for the dead center of the boulder.
And, on impact, said boulder shattered into no fewer than fifteen fragments.
Three jaws hit the deck at the same time that four pairs of eyes popped out wide. Usopp hadn't actually expected quite such a spectacular result.
Armament Haki had been the one facet of strength he hadn't actively trained, partially because he had little idea how to go about it, and mostly due to his own paranoia. His Armament manifested for the first time shortly before he was captured during his 'first round', and after that he didn't have much reason for experimenting with it, imprisoned and all.
Usopp didn't use it against Kuro or his crew, since it would have been overkill to the nth degree. The second and more relevant reason was that Armament Haki stood out like a sunbathing Sea King even in Paradise.
In East Blue?
The sniper may as well have attached a wailing siren to his head.
While he streaked through a Marine base.
With all of his bodily hair on fire.
Taking time to press his bare ass against every window pane he came across.
East Blue locals thought Devil Fruits were a myth. Introducing Haki liberally to such people would leave him with a bounty bigger than Luffy's first before they even reached the Grand Line.
Usopp knew he couldn't hide it indefinitely, and he understood that he'd get a price on his head again. His nakama simply weren't ready for Vice-Admirals and more that would come after them if word of his Haki got out. Not yet.
Turned out to be a prudent decision, not practicing on his island, or else the woods would have been significantly less populated with trees.
'Wow.' He thought, appraising the results.
His crew mates' reactions were a bit more pronounced.
"How the hell'd you do that?" -Zoro
"So damn cool!" -Luffy
"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK?!" -Understandably, the only one on board without monstrous strength or Haki mastery.
Usopp spun on his heel, capitalizing on the interest he'd gained. A calculated risk, and it paid off. He addressed each of his nakama in turn.
"Haki, thank you Captain, and, well, Haki."
Nami rubbed at her eyes, incredulous even after staring at the decimated rock. Zoro had opened both his eyes, regarding Usopp with his fullest attention. Luffy still had a blinding grin that told all present he was ecstatic over his new marksman's abilities.
"Haki?" Zoro parroted the word after a beat.
"So," Nami said, warily skeptical. "It's not just an explosive round?"
"Well, that was one of three basic types, at least," Usopp said. He held up another lead pellet, the same ammo he just fired, applying Haki to it again. "This is what I used," he said in answer to Nami. "Normally, a shot with this would hurt about as much as you'd expect. It stings, hurts like a bastard in the eye like anything else, but it's a ball bearing."
The sniper pointed out toward the stump of rock still protruding above the surface with his thumb. (Something kept bugging him about it.)
"When I apply Armament Haki to my ammunition, the difference is… well." He waved a hand in gesture, indicating what he'd just accomplished.
'Though I didn't expect it to work quite that well.'
"And it's not a Devil Fruit?" Nami asked, still trying to wrap her head around it all.
Zoro inclined his head in the cartographer's direction, then Usopp's, seconding the question.
"Nope. In theory, anyone can learn to use at least two types."
Zoro turned back to the sea, thoughts clearly churning in his head.
"The other type that I can use is Observation Haki, which"
Usopp paused with his mouth open. On a hunch, he reached out with his Haki. He got a ping on a pretty puny but nonetheless angry 'voice' approaching the Merry.
"Which can, among other things, tell me that we're about to have a ticked off guest in about ten seconds."
Only after Johnny clambered aboard, soaked and fuming, did Usopp actually remember the small time pair of bounty hunters. The preemptive guilt he'd felt for shooting that rock suddenly made sense.
'Ah… whoops.'