A/N: Officer, I swear, that hiatus isn't mine. I've never seen it before in my life. *Bows*
Oda's One Piece. Not mine.
"Hm," Luffy said, staring up at the clouds with anticipation. "Hey, I think it's gonna snow again!"
Vivi glanced up at the expanse of clear blue sky. She quickly surmised that the boy captain had no experience nor business making predictions about the weather. None that should be trusted, at least.
An hour and change after departing from Whiskey Peak saw her recomposed after the previous night's events.
She'd decided against circling back for Igaram, albeit with some reservation. Injured or not, Igaram had proven himself resourceful several times, and no less devoted to Alabasta than her. If anything, he'd have an easier time making it home as a dead man, without Baroque Works searching for him.
That was all based on the assumption that Usopp had been right and Igaram did survive, of course. Vivi still had questions about Haki, but after explaining her circumstances to Sanji, everyone had broken away to face the new day. Her curiosity had been shelved in favor of focusing on her mission.
While she still felt bad for involving the crew in her own battles, Nami, at one point, politely demanded that the princess
"Quit worrying so loud. I've got enough to do corralling all these boys."
which helped somewhat.
"Unlikely," Vivi said. "Each island has a distinct climate, and each cycles through the four seasons. The seven magnetic fields interacting with one another near Reverse Mountain is the source of the chaotic weather patterns we saw yesterday. Still, anticipating the unexpected is the first rule of survival out here."
She reminded herself, once again, that she and her escorts were up against not only an extensive criminal organization set on conquest of her country, but also the Grand Line itself. And, excepting herself, they had next to zero experience on the world's most dangerous ocean.
They would need to practice constant vigilance and stay alert.
"Yo," Sanji called, leaping up to the bow from the lower deck, a tray in hand. "Sound off, who wants to try my latest drink?"
All three boys gave a resounding affirmative.
"Quack!" Carue chimed in.
Vivi glared at them, severely irritated by their lax attitude.
"Is this really the time?!" She snapped.
"Why not?" Nami said from beside her, two drinks in hand. She sipped at one as she held another out to Vivi. "They don't wanna die anymore than you do. They'll pull their weight if there's a storm."
Vivi stared at the navigator. Vivi had seen and experienced the crew's first day on the Grand Line. Yet Nami approached a second day on the same sea with a calm, confident outlook. The princess could only wonder what the Straw Hats had been through together to foster that sort of trust. Though, she felt tempted to call it foolishness.
Vivi took the drink, the glass cool and refreshing against her fingers.
"Don't you just feel at ease out here?" Nami asked, smiling around the straw between her teeth.
A warm breeze teased Vivi's hair, and she cast her gaze out as she considered Nami's question. For two years, she'd been dedicated to and thought almost exclusively of her mission. She'd considered everything else- the work she did as an agent, the character of Miss Wednesday she constructed, every island she visited, even the ocean itself- mere obstacles.
For the first time in years, she allowed her perception to broaden a bit, absorbing the present moment. She breathed in, the gentle scent of salt tickling her nose. She drank in the sight of the glorious, deep blue expanse that stretched out all around them, disappearing into the horizon.
"Yes," she said, tucking a stray lock of her hair back. "It is quite relaxing."
Laughter drew her attention back to the boys. Carue gulped down a whole third of his drink in one swallow, and evidently gave himself a bit of brain freeze. His face twisted quite impressively for all that most of it was a less-than-malleable bill. Vivi giggled a bit at the sight of her friend trying to massage his head with one wing.
"Hey," Luffy said, perking. "We should fish!"
"Not a bad idea," Sanji commented. He tapped his cigarette. "We never did stock up back on Whiskey Peak. I've got a few ideas I wanna try."
"Fishing's good." Mr. Bushido agreed, reclined against the guard rail.
"Usopp! We need fishing poles!"
The sniper, who'd been working with a sketchbook since breakfast, gave the boy captain a thumbs up.
"You got it," he said readily, albeit sounding a bit distracted. "Shouldn't take more than a couple hours, tops."
Vivi couldn't help but smile, listening to their banter. She considered joining in herself, not that she had much experience fishing.
"Hey, check it out," Sanji said, pointing. "A dolphin!"
"Aw," Nami cooed. "How cute!"
One problem with traversing the open ocean was accurately judging size. With nothing else in sight, they had nothing to use for drawing a comparison of scale. Only after several beats passed- during which the dolphin clocked impressive air time- did they realize that 'cute' might not have been the most appropriate descriptor.
"Quack!" Carue cried in a panic.
"IT'S HUGE!" Luffy yelled.
A massive shadow approached the Merry, the creature's nose tipped down dangerously close as it fell. A call to action and in a second, all of them dispersed, working in tandem like a well-maintained machine.
Watching them all rise to the occasion, covering for each other, Vivi understood Nami's outlook a little better.
"Hey! Vivi, Sanji! I'mma show you Haki!"
Sanji turned his attention to the lower deck just in time to register slight surprise, bordering on mild concern. Usopp, blindfolded, stood half-facing him, waving at Sanji and the princess while Zoro, a sword in each hand, rushed the sniper's side.
Moments earlier…
("Okay, Zoro! Swords out, attack me!"
"… Attack you?"
"Attack me."
"That's what I thought you said.")
Sanji had been semi-aware of the exchange. He knew he didn't have to worry about a genuine quarrel, at least. Vivi let out a surprised yelp as Zoro closed the distance, sword in motion.
"Right hand, downward cut."
Usopp sidestepped Zoro's first attack. The exact attack the sniper had described the instant before it happened.
"Upward angled cut."
Usopp swayed and backpedaled.
"Stabbing thrust."
He ducked his head.
"Twin crosswise slash."
He hopped backward out of harm's way.
The marimo kept at it for a full minute, each motion a hair faster. Usopp stopped announcing Zoro's every attack, though he didn't miss a beat evading them. The marksman's back bumped against the mast.
"Zoro, stop!" He yelled.
The swordsman came to a screeching halt, one sword just shy of Usopp's nose. The sniper took off his blindfold and heaved a sigh.
"You could've hurt Merry." He said, glancing back at the mast for damage.
Zoro grunted something, sheathing his katana.
"Anyway," Usopp said, tossing the blindfold to Zoro. "That was Observation Haki at work. Any questions?"
'Several.' Sanji thought, though didn't articulate.
The cook took a moment to fix his gaping jaw. He lit a fresh cigarette to replace the one that had fallen out of his mouth.
"My sniper's awesome!" Luffy exclaimed.
While he would've worded it a bit differently, Sanji had to agree. Zoro didn't have much in the way of redeeming qualities, but he did rate as the crew's resident sword otaku, and not without reason. Yet Usopp had anticipated and evaded the swordsman's every move, blind.
"So," Sanji said, taking a drag of his cigarette. He summed things up with the only conclusion that made sense to him. "You're psychic?"
Usopp blinked at him. Twice.
"Oh," Vivi said, walking down from the upper deck. "Is that it?"
"No. No," he said, waving a hand in front of his face. "Haki isn't ESP. It's more like… hrm."
The sniper scratched his head.
"It's a bit tricky to explain."
"It's a mystery power!"
"Thank you, Captain." Usopp said dryly. He sighed. "Okay. Observation Haki is one of two types that I can use, and, in theory, anyone can learn both of them. It's how I knew Igaram survived."
Vivi, who'd been attentive anyway, canted slightly forward as Sanji joined everyone on the lower deck. Nami posted herself against the wall to the storeroom. Luffy, who'd abandoned his attempts at fishing when Usopp's demonstration proved more interesting, sat on the guardrail, completely heedless of his precarious position directly over the ocean, as usual.
"I guess, in simple terms, I heard his 'voice'," Usopp said, with a peculiar emphasis. Sanji figured he wasn't being quite literal. "It's distinct for everyone, though pinpointing specific people through Haki takes some degree of mastery. Initially, at the most basic level," he indicated Zoro with his thumb. "Haki lets you receive an impression of an opponent's next move. Their malicious or harmful intent, you could say."
"Sounds pretty psychic," Sanji said. "Not that complicated after all."
"I'm telling you, it's not," Usopp said again, frowning. "It's not like I can read your thoughts, just predict your actions."
'Semi-psychic, then.' Sanji amended. Privately, though, so as to avoid angering the moody tengu esper.
All kidding aside, Sanji couldn't help imagining the possibilities such an ability would afford him. The practical application in a fight would provide a huge advantage. And what sort of man wouldn't be interested in a skill that could make him a better protector?
"That's amazing," Vivi said. "You could dominate a fight easily with an ability like that."
"It's borderline cheating." Nami said flatly.
"You think?" Luffy asked. "All you gotta do is keep him from dodging. Ooh, or move faster than he can!"
The boy captain laughed, no doubt excited by the idea of such a challenge. Sanji might have been shocked at such an incisive comment coming from, frankly, a moron. Luffy got a free pass on the subject of fighting, though, being something of an idiot savant.
"That explains it, though." Zoro said. At the look Usopp gave him, he added. "Why I've never seen you get injured."
Usopp gave a wry, somewhat self-deprecating smile.
"That'll change in the relatively near future," he said. "Like our captain said, it's not infallible. I definitely wouldn't have been able to keep up with you just now if you hadn't been holding back."
Sanji blinked. Twice. He cast a glance at the marimo, who'd narrowed his eyes at the sniper. Usopp didn't seem to notice. From what Sanji had seen earlier, the only thing resembling restraint from Zoro was the fact that he'd been using the blunt edge of his blades. The marimo's expression only confirmed it- if he had been holding back, it wasn't nearly to the degree that Usopp seemed to think.
"Anyway," Usopp said, clapping his hands to recall everyone's attention. "Now that you've all got a decent grasp on the concept, anybody want in on today's training?"
Usopp jolted awake in his hammock with a horrified, sucking gasp. Sweat beaded down his forehead. His heart, palpitating, refused to settle. Almost instinctively, his hand sought out Luffy's hammock beneath his. The sniper rolled onto his stomach and brushed his fingers against his captain's hair, anchoring himself to reality.
'Alive, safe, asleep, secure…'
Like a mantra, he repeated those words in his mind, made them into an echo that drowned out his nightmare. He withdrew his hand quickly before Luffy snagged it- awake, the boy was very tactile. Asleep, he was a compulsive cuddler. The pulse pounding between Usopp's ears settled bit by bit. After a minute, he could make out Zoro's steady snoring and Sanji's midnight murmurs of
"Mellorine."
"Nami-san, Vivi-chan~."
"Shitty rubber, get outta the fridge!"
Usopp heaved a long, deep sigh. His nightmares had gotten more infrequent as he spent more time with his nakama, back on the sea where he belonged. Still, they haunted him on a consistently inconsistent basis, and each time left him incapable of getting back to sleep. He let out a little burst of Haki, confirming that Nami, Vivi and Carue were all safe.
Usopp quietly slipped from his hammock, starting his ritual of chasing haunting images from his mind with anything positive he could grasp. Reflecting on the day's events also helped ground him in the present, rather than dwelling on his 'first round'. He grabbed his boots and stalked up the stairs onto the lower deck.
The day had been at least somewhat productive. His demonstration had piqued everyone's interest, and renewed Zoro's drive to awaken Haki.
("Don't strain yourself, cook.")
One vaguely challenging remark from Zoro sparked a fire under Sanji's ass.
("Ooh, training's fun! Let's get started right now!")
Luffy, unexpectedly, leapt at the proposal of training. His subsequent disappointment once he realized that they weren't going to spar fell more in line with Usopp's expectations.
("We're not gonna fight?")
Usopp had balked, justifiably terrified.
("I… don't think the ship's big enough for that, Cap'n.")
The monster trio were destructive enough on a typical day. The though of the potential collateral damage involved in an actual brawl gave the sniper hives. Really, though, that was sort of an excuse. Usopp had blindfolded both Sanji and Zoro for Haki training.
Anyone else going up against Luffy would not have remotely resembled a spar. Nearer some form of masochistic, voluntary humiliation.
Usopp had made a half-hearted suggestion that he could set something up later. Unimpressed and pouting, Luffy had gone back to his new fishing pole.
("Sure! It's a fantastic skill!")
Usopp hadn't even bothered feeling shocked by Nami's expressed interest. He skipped ahead several steps straight to suspicion.
("For every time you hit me, I'll fine you. The amount depends on where you hit me.")
He'd been proven correct. He'd left the cartographer to her own devices.
Usopp didn't much mind being in debt- well, he did, but then, the list of things he wouldn't do to ultimately insure his nakama's safety was virtually nonexistent. He expected that Nami would someday find a way to twist things such that he ended up in debt with her regardless of any action or inaction on his part.
Haki couldn't be approached casually, though. Awakening the ability and manifesting mastery came from a singular sort of drive, and Usopp couldn't force that out of Nami. Even if he could, doing so would doubtlessly put him on her and Sanji's shit list. She'd get much better results if she were intrinsically motivated anyway.
Usopp pondered the idea of putting together a workout regimen for Nami. Fighting experience would be more valuable in the long run, but as his own self-imposed training had proven, it helped a hell of a lot.
Vivi had shown genuine interest in the concept, if not the exact method of training, but…
("Hey, duck, you can fly, right?"
"Luffy-san, put him down!"
"QUACK!")
Luffy got into marginally less trouble when someone played with him. He did not bear boredom gracefully.
Overall, not quite stellar results, though still enough to count as a partial win.
Usopp took a steadying breath, feeling closer to normal. Still anxious, borderline paranoid, and hyperaware of exactly how pear-shaped things could get- just not to a crippling degree.
So, again, normal.
Usopp walked to the guardrail, leaning against it. Away from the potentially curious eyes of his shipmates and sufficiently calmer after his nightmare, the sniper had to wonder-
'What the hell was I doing last night?!'
Usopp groaned, reflecting on his approach to the events at Whiskey Peak. The fight had been fine- great, even. He couldn't have asked for a better field test.
He didn't have any excuse for his nearly lackadaisical attitude toward Vivi's safety. Sure, he'd been keeping track of her via Haki the entire time, so he could've sprinted to her side if she were in imminent danger. He should've had a plan, though, instead of relying on a damn smoke screen to delay the two officer agents after her life.
Why hadn't he just jumped into a fight with Mr. 5? He'd've had to bullshit his way through an explanation to his nakama afterward, but Vivi would've been safe!
Then there were the Unluckies…
Usopp told himself that he'd let them fly off because he wanted Crocodile to know who they were when they came busting down his door. That, like many others, the Shichibukai would dismiss Luffy as a non-threat, and that upon having his ass handed to him, he'd realize that he'd seen his own downfall coming. The sniper told himself it appealed to his sense of poetic justice, insofar as pirates believed in that.
It was a lot easier to stomach than admitting to himself that shooting Mr. 13 and Miss Friday out of the sky hadn't occurred to him until five minutes after the fact. That he'd just stared after them like a witless dope.
Usopp drew two conclusions from his failings. First, alcohol clearly made him stupid, and he'd be abstaining indefinitely. Second, he needed to dedicate more time to planning. He'd cut down on rest time. Zoro typically only slept from four to seven- sure, the swordsman napped for a significant portion of the day, but he subjected himself to insane weight training. Usopp could find a way to terminate his involuntary naps.
With that decided, the marksman moved on mentally to the immediate future, and the issue of Little Garden.
He slammed his forehead against the guardrail, coming up against a roadblock.
Individually, the Straw Hats were almost irresponsibly specialized for their respective roles. None of them ever really encroached on each other's fields. None of them dared to correct Nami about how to set their course. No one else cooked in Sanji's kitchen. Nobody worried too much about getting sick- even if they did, they had Chopper.
Such had also been Usopp's mindset during his 'first round'.
As a consequence, he lacked one specific nugget of information he'd prefer to have.
Namely- how the fuck did Nami get sick the first time?!
Like his crew mates, the sniper's only concern had been the fact that Nami was sick, not the how- even if he'd known, the information wouldn't have helped him any. They didn't know how to treat her.
Given his lack of insight on that, his only preventative measure would be keeping Nami off the island entirely. That, for a variety of reasons, simply wasn't happening. There were too many moving parts involved on Little Garden to leave the cartographer alone on the ship. Asking her to stay behind by herself wouldn't be well-received anyway.
A honking snort from somewhere above Usopp's head broke him out of his less-than-productive train of thought. Looking up, he spotted Carue's bill poking out over the crow's nest.
The marksman stealthily crept back down to retrieve a blanket. He ascended to the crow's nest, catching Vivi mid-yawn. The wayward princess obviously hadn't noticed Usopp come up on deck earlier.
"Usopp-san," she said, a bit groggily, in greeting. To her credit, she seemed fairly alert, considering her posture, halfway reclined against Carue. "Is something wrong?"
"Nah," he assured her. "Can't get back to sleep. I'll take over up here."
"No," she murmured, shaking her head. "You're all taking me home. Lookout is the le- aah- least I can do."
"Dunno how effective lookouts can be with their eyelids at half-mast," Usopp said, draping the blanket over Vivi. "Besides, I got to pass out for a bit last night. You haven't slept at all for almost two days, have you?"
Though stubborn, Vivi didn't require much coaxing to relax further against Carue, drifting off with her head in his feathers.
"Can't protect or change much of anything if you're dead on your feet from exhaustion." Usopp whispered. He watched the princess and her steed for a minute, glad beyond words that his carelessness hadn't taken her.
The sniper renewed his resolve. He wouldn't go into their next adventure hoping to improvise his way through things again. Usopp settled in for an all-nighter.
He had a few schemes to plot.