"WOOOAH!! Captain Luffy, you're so cool!!" the crowd erupts in cheers– wait a second, was the whole crowd listening to him?
"Holy shit did you hear hiiiim!" another cries out. Then, in a deep and cool voice– "we're pirates. We're not dealing with saints here. Marry me."
"All of you be quiet!" Luffy yells. He has a feeling he shouldn't tell anyone those lines were stolen.
"Captain Luffyyyy!!" they cheer louder.
"I'm not your captain, GO AWAY!" he yells back.
Luffy grabs his crew back into a corner, angrily finding his little circle of privacy before yelling back at everyone to stay ten feet away from them because this is private, damn it. They stay blissfully a distance away after he hisses at them.
"We're so sorry we lost," Nami admits, sullen. "I– It's a disgrace."
"Ah geez, it's enough already," Zoro says, "you guys did all you could! Be a man and accept the result already."
"I'm a woman."
"You know what I mean!"
"But they're taking one of us away," Gin mutters with a groan. "Geez, it's a three-coin game, so we can't lose again, got it?"
"You say that after being part of the losers?" Wyper mutters.
"Shut the fuck up, it was your bazooka–"
"HEY!" Usopp raises his voice, and the entire group halts abruptly. His eyes are blown wide, fists clenched tight. "I don't care if fighting is normal for you two– but do NOT place the blame on anyone!" then, whirling in Nami's direction. "No taking any blame either– we lost as a collective, not as individuals! We're a crew, understood?!"
Everyone falls silent. It was rare to actually feel the pulsing heat emanate from him– haki roaring forth, fueled with an anger that was evidently fueled personally.
Nami bites her lip. "Sorry."
"Y- Yeah," Gin speaks up. "My bad…"
"But…" Conis speaks up, her voice soft and fearful, "one of us is going to have to go. I… I don't know if I"ll be able to accept that."
"We just have to win the next one and win them back," Sanji says.
"I don't get it," Wyper mutters. "Why do we have to go join their crew just because we lost a shitty race? It makes no sense."
"Unfortunately, that is the clause," Robin says. "You must swear loyalty to the opposing captain once you are chosen. It is a swear we made in the name of Davy Jones."
"Well who fucking care–" Wyper starts, but immediately, Gin shoves a hand over his mouth, grabbing him roughly by the head.
"Do not," he hisses, a glare fiercer than even anything he'd usually give Wyper marring his features in furious intensity. "Don't you dare finish that sentence."
Wyper would usually rebuke it. But this time, he sees the panicked look on Gin's face, and keeps quiet, if only out of confusion than anything else.
"Wyper," Nami calls him out, stern. "You understand the symbolic importance of hailed figures better than any of us. You know better than to sully one."
Wyper scoffs, turning away at that.
"Changing allegiances is simple," Anne speaks up– and she'd been so silent the entire time, it seemed strange to hear her give a genuine opinion. "But if I were to act upon personal feelings, I definitely would not want to join their crew. You promised me, Gin."
Gin looks over at that– and he doesn't turn away.
Her eyes are firm and serious, so Gin reflects that, as best as he can.
"Yes, we promised," Gin says. "As an individual, I promised you that we would be together. But as an individual, you followed Luffy as a captain, and Luffy decided to accept this challenge. That's why– if there's anything to regret, you have to face it as well. As an individual."
There is no 'but' about it. She is her own person now– she can do anything she wants– but in the same way, she cannot always get it.
Wyper listens– and he realizes that this is what it means. He joined this crew– he was no longer the acting leader.
Down here, he was just a violent berserker.
He had no authority down here, and even among the crew, he chose to follow a captain.
This is what it means to work under someone– and this is what it means to be in a coalition you swear your allegiance to. He may not accept being forced into another crew– but he did not regret joining the Strawhats. So he cannot refuse the responsibility of accepting the outcome of this conflict.
"I don't want to accept it!" Chopper cries. "I– I want to keep sailing with Luffy! I don't want anything to tear us away– that's– I only became a pirate because he asked me to, I don't–!!"
"Chopper," this time, it's Zoro that speaks up. "The choice to set sail is your own and no one else's. So whatever happens, wherever you end up, it's your own fault and no one else's. So stop blubbering, it's humiliating! Pirates have no pity for crybabies!"
Conis clutches Suu closer to her chest, biting her bottom lip tight.
It didn't make sense to her– but that was exactly it. This is the pirate life she chose to take up– and though it may be frustrating, she was the one that followed this path into the raw life of an outlaw. She was the one that embarked on this adventure.
It's not all fun, and she knew that. She knew that.
"If you're a man, then act like one and see this through to the end!"
Chopper barely manages to jerk out a shaky, sob-filled nod. And in a similar response, Conis wipes away her tears and lifts her head as well.
"Okay," he says.
"I understand," Conis echoes.
Nami wraps an arm around her shoulder. In the Blue Sea, in the rough waves of the Grand Line– the idea of a 'man' on the sea has long lost its gendered connotations. For one, Zoro had never seen things that way.
Was it man, as in masculinity, or man, as in personhood?
Either way, a pirate had to encapsulate that spirit. To become someone that could capture that genuinity, that strength– and that heart of the strong. Because there was no room for the weak-hearted on the waves. There was no space for people who couldn't stand on their own. Not on this sea, and not on this crew. Not against this world.
Sanji said nothing against Zoro, keeping respectfully silent. Gin sets a hand on Anne's head, and the group huddles, shoulder to shoulder, with Suu between them and Kinoko on their arms.
"Whatever happens… just believe in us!" Luffy promises, and the crew nods, the circle fully turned toward him, with no emotion but trust in their chests. "We'll get you back in the next round!"
They take Chopper. He's kicking and screaming at first, but after some tears and a resolved look from the crew, Chopper bites back his tears and sits, determined.
"I'll wait!" he declares. "Because I'm a man! I see things through!"
He gains the respect of the crowd, and the Strawhats gained a renewed will to go on.
"We'll have a fifteen-minute reprieve to set up the next stage!" Porche announces, and the crowd separates, going back to the carnival, to the communion, and for a large amount of them, to set up the lines and the field for the Groggy Ring.
"I'm relieved, but it's strange," Nami says. "They gave us a sub member for our next round this time."
"I really don't need to participate, though," Usopp says. "I'm sure Zoro and Sanji can deal with this on their own, like last time."
"No no," Nami refutes. "If we have a sub, they have one, too. That means they outnumber us even more than before! We're not letting our guard down again!"
"Now hold on a fucking second!" Zoro snaps at them, and the both of them freeze, ripped out from their conversation to Zoro's furious glare. "You knew this was going to happen and you knew they would pick Chopper first, is that it? And knowing this, you bring us through that bet again for no fucking reason?!"
Nami clenches at Usopp's arm, and Usopp instinctively snags right back, cringing inward toward each other.
Gin winces at the sight. It was incredibly rare for the both of them to actually show fear on their faces. "Hey, Zoro, calm down–!!"
"You stay out of it!" Zoro snaps at Gin, whirling right back. "Look– I said time and again I don't give a shit what you're hiding from us if it's for your own amusement. But if it's got something to do with us and our crew, especially when it's something personal–"
"You're being too heated, Zoro, HEY," Sanji grabs Zoro by the shoulder, barely stopping him from advancing any further. "We get it, we're all pretty fucking mad! Don't let it out on them!"
Zoro's soft spot for Chopper isn't exactly some hard secret. Zoro's tendency to be overprotective of anyone on the crew isn't exactly hard to figure out.
First with Merry, and now with Chopper– it just didn't feel right for Usopp and Nami to take risks like these without even telling the people involved that they were going to be put through those things. They did this to Sherry too, didn't they? That's why Anne looked so conflicted when they spoke. Because she saw it happen.
She saw them decide what to do with that horse's wellbeing.
And it just– it just rubbed Zoro in a horribly wrong way. It made his blood boil, and he had no words to explain it at all. It was just wrong, and this was his emotions speaking, raw and on their own.
Neither of them had the right to dictate who had to suffer what.
"We're not your fucking round two," Zoro grounds out. His hands are on his swords, firm and resolved. "We're not playing pirates here! And you better not be playing a game on your own, either. I'm not on the sea to reroute some predestined design!"
The crew doesn't find the words. Usopp and Nami stay, pale and still– wordless.
Sanji shakily lets go– and Zoro turns away, marching toward the Groggy Ring field. He'd said his piece, and that was all he had.
Gin and Luffy stood, jaws slightly agape. Zoro rarely spoke out so sharply– but they both knew, from experience, that it was the words of those that spoke less that were the truest to listen to.
Conis covers her mouth shakily, fearful as she witnessed the near-ruptured bond– and she couldn't bear to look. Suu whimpers in her arms, and Anne reaches up to take her hand, a weak consolation to the scene before them.
Far from them, Wyper has his hand firmly on the bazooka, and Robin listens in on them, contemplating the words that were exchanged– but still, not privy to the context behind it.
"Pirates are lawless, huh," Wyper says.
Robin simply opens the rulebook– an updated one this time– and continues to read. "The world down here is far more corrupt than any up on the White Sea. You won't find a perfect system anywhere."
Wyper scoffs, an eye set on Luffy, who was watching the scene, looking frazzled as he was unsure of who to speak to first. "Really tests the authority of a leader in times like this."
Robin shrugs. "Most of us are only here by chance," she says. "Who's to say if trust truly exists for pirates? Compared to Foxy's large crew, or the broken crew we came across before this… what's so special about this small, fragmented crew we're in?"
(They don't even trust her enough to properly tell her of that open secret they hold.)
Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp were contending in the Groggy Race.
Their steps into the ring are moody, clouded with an awkward tension, and full of a parted animosity between them. None of them even met each other in the eyes, and there were zero words exchanged.
"Looks like the mood's completely ruined," Anne says.
Who could blame them, really? Nami was similarly sulking, completely silent even as Luffy tried his best to bring the cheer and resolve back to the team.
Suu was by their side, sitting on a stack of about thirty silk pillows, being offered a plateful of inarizushi like some kind of holy offering.
"Oh c'mon!" Luffy says, clutching Kinoko in his arms like a hug toy. "We need to win Chopper back! We can talk about it later!"
"I agree with Zoro, though," Gin says. "We didn't really understand at the time… but the stuff they're keeping from us is getting worse and worse. We can't leave it up to some blind hope of 'it'll all work out somehow' like we've always done. It's just not that kind of playing field we're headed into anymore."
"I don't really see the problem," Anne says. "It's not like Nami and Usopp are causing these things. Why are we blaming them for it?"
"A village is lost without a leader," Wyper says. "A community is hopeless without trust."
"I- I think," Conis speaks up abruptly, trying her best to put herself between the tension that was the gap between Nami and the rest of the crew. "I think they had a reason for it. I'm sure, at the time, their feelings brought them to the decisions they made. It might seem unfair to us, but we shouldn't… we shouldn't be placing all the blame on them. We should hear them out properly first…"
Nami hugs herself tighter, biting down at her lip.
Robin wasn't even looking their way, and Luffy looked more worried about what was happening here, on top of their entire situation with Chopper.
The Davy Back Fight wasn't supposed to have this kind of effect on them. Maybe it's been building up, since a long time ago. These feelings have always been around– but just like Merry's wounds, they have been silently, unnoticeably accumulating. They were just blowing up now, an eventual disaster at the end of the road.
An apology would do nothing for the irreparable damage they have caused.
Even the Foxy Pirates seem to have noticed the tension among the Strawhats, and they were watching from a safe distance away, gossiping among themselves.
Nami clenches her fist.
"I know that you know what you're doing," Luffy says. He grabs Nami's hands, both of them, and clenches them tight. "Because I trust you and I trust Usopp! It doesn't matter if it's mean to any of us– I know you're trying your best and that's all that matters."
Nami's eyes find Luffy's– and she didn't know how close to tears she was until this very moment.
She can feel the eyes on her– the surprised looks from the rest of the crew, at Luffy's startlingly confident declaration. How nice it was, to have this sort of unflinching announcement of faith from your captain whom you've sworn loyalty to.
"I chose you and I chose Usopp!" Luffy says. "You're supposed to lead me to One Piece! I believe you'll find the most amazing road there. I trust you to get me there! That's all I care about, got it?!"
And in one word, he'd staked his claim on her decision.
One can complain about the ethics of it, the morals, the wills and the heart– but Luffy has declared that it doesn't matter. The strife and the tough decisions were part of being a sailor on these seas– and there was nothing wrong in Nami choosing for herself the path she took on this second chance of hers. Because she, too, was a pirate in her own right.
She, too, was liable to her own choices. And she had the power and privilege to control that path– so she had the right to choose them as she saw fit.
Pirates were selfish people to begin with. What was so wrong about it all?
Nami can't hold back.
She buries her palms into her eyes, along with Luffy's hands which were still holding onto her. She doesn't cry.
"Of course," she says, resolved. "Of course, there's nothing else I'd rather do."
She can do this. She can.
"Regardless," Gin relents, to Captain's orders, "if we win this, we get Chopper back. And then you guys can give all your apologies to the poor kid."
Nami manages an awkward chuckle. "I'll beg for forgiveness."
Anne hums. Wyper scoffs, and Robin closes the rulebook, already done sifting through it all at the speed of light. Kinoko finds a spot on Nami's shoulder, and Suu continues to trot around being stalked by Foxy pirates and showered with offerings. Conis watches silently, a little relieved that the crew has decided to move past it, at least for now.
"Alright!" Luffy huffs, satisfied at the new, much lighter energy around his crew. "Now, let's cheer for them, all of you!"
"YEAH!" came the chorus.
Meanwhile, on the field, Sanji and Zoro glare at each other while Usopp slowly meanders by with his walking stick.
"I'll admit you had a point, but yelling at them was just too far," Sanji mutters.
"She doesn't need you to fucking baby her," Zoro says.
"That absolutely isn't what anyone fucking said," Sanji snarls back. "To begin with, you're worse than Gin when it comes to those two in particular. Fuck's your problem?"
"My problem is I'm actually thinking of the fucking crew when I do shit."
"You're implying the rest of us don't?!"
"Oh if that's how you want to interpret it, shit cook, go right ahead."
"Now you're just making this personal!"
"Like you didn't start it?!"
And immediately, the crew in the crowd deflate, palms meeting faces in devastation. Gin groans louder than the others, and Wyper looks on, more amused than anything. Anne sighs, and Nami shrugs when Robin gives her an inquiring look.
"...I have a feeling we all knew this would happen," Robin says.
"We did," came about three different responses.
"When it came to Gin and Wyper, they were too busy racing to fight," Anne says, "but these two are–" she stops short when Zoro and Sanji actually launch into an on-field spar, legs swinging, swords flinging, and bodies flying back and forth in a sharp exchange not many could really follow with eyes. "--yeah, that."
"Oh no, they've started fighting!" Conis says, flustered, "what should we do? They might hurt each other!"
"If they do, then they're fucking stupid!" Wyper mutters.
"Breaking news," came Gin's dry response.
"Usopp!" Nami calls out, "hey, do your job!"
Usopp stood there, walking stick before him as he exasperatedly considered the situation from behind his sunglasses. He continues to stand there as Itomimizu explains the rules and their opponents enter the ring.
"USOPP, STOP THE BUFFOONS FROM TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER!" Nami shouts, much more heated than before. "Get serious already!"
Usopp visibly sighs. "Do I have to…?"
Their opponents were just– well, unfair, really. Zoro and Sanji were objectively tall people, but once you got far enough in the Grand Line… yeah.
"You know, I've been wondering but, maybe East Blue is considered the weakest sea because we apparently only have short-people genes in our entire corner," Nami mutters, a little exasperated as their players were towered over by Hamburg, and then Pickles, and then Big Bun.
"Nah," Gin deems. "Gold Roger exists."
"Maybe Gold Roger stole all the tall genes from our sea and ran off with it. Like, that's how he got his starting bounty?"
"Tell me you're joking and not prophesying, Nami. I can't tell. "
It was rather amusing to see that Zoro and Sanji didn't even come up to the top of Big Bun's boots. And they were staring up at those monsters as the crowd roars around them, with eyes that seemed more like they were sizing them up than being sized up.
Usopp fiddled with his fingers, waiting for the theatrics to be over so he can understand what's going on again.
The rules of the Groggy Ring match goes on, and a helper comes up with a ball-shaped hat. "So, which of you will be the ballman?" he asks, and Usopp and Zoro synchronously point toward Sanji.
Sanji needed a moment to register that before he just exploded, "WAIT!"
"It suits you," Zoro says, dry as dust.
"Yeah, it looks amazing on you!" Usopp echoes, also dry.
"Shut the fuck up, Mosshead! And– seriously, shut the fuck up too, Usopp!" Sanji chucks the hat to the ground in a fit. "No way am I wearing this lame shit."
Zoro groans.
"Ugh. Usopp, you're the only one dorky enough to look good in this. Why don't you wear this stupid ball hat?"
"Sanji-kun, all the offense to my fashion and dignity aside, do you have any idea how tactically disadvantageous it would be to put the blind guy as the ball?"
The group in the crowd have very little hope.
"GOo! Zoro, Sanji, Usopp! Win this!!" Luffy shouts, loudest in the crowd. "You better win this!"
"Do your best, guys!" Conis echoes, doing her best to raise her voice.
"What are our chances of winning this?" Gin turns to Nami.
"Huh? Uh," Nami tilts her head to the side. "I can say with complete confidence that the chances are a hundred percent–" she beams, and everyone sighs in relief. And then she dryly adds, "that is, if Zoro and Sanji have teamwork."
Everyone instantly deflates.
"...So, zero?" Anne asks, dryly.
"This is not happening!" Luffy yells, whirling around rapidly. "HEY ZORO, SANJI! WORK TOGETHER!"
"NO, I HAVE STANDARDS!" they both yell back at once.
"Does the Sharpshooter's presence not alter those odds at all?" Robin questions.
"Apparently not," Wyper mutters, irritated. "Fuck's sake. Say goodbye to your fox, Conis."
Conis sobs into the aforementioned fox. "Noo! Suu!"
Nami, for one, is very amused by the crew's unanimous lack of faith in those two idiots. "Well, don't be too worried," she says, stretching her metal arm out before opening a slot to retrieve her clima tact from inside her forearm. "For one, interference is completely legal."
She grins.
Gin hums, "Ah, I see," and then reaches into Anne's bag to retrieve a thermal flask. Seeing that, Anne digs around her pockets, and then her hat, to find a tea bag to hand it to him.
"I have no idea what they're trying to do, but I'm intimidated," Conis says, very softly.
"Don't think about it, actually don't even look over," Wyper says, but when Conis looks at him he's digging through Usopp's bag, picking out weird objects after another. He's dismantled a frog-shaped pistol for some reason. "The Blue Sea is fucking weird."
"You're not exactly contributing to the comparison factor…"
"What'cha doin, Gin?" Luffy looks over, Suu on his head also looking over curiously.
Gin expertly prepares a cup of tea before grabbing Suu by the scruff. "Offering our enemy some tea for the occasion."Anne follows him, her brush tucked under her arm as she rips open a tube of green paint.
Luffy hums. They're all leaving him out of the fun, that sucks. "Okay then," he pouts, going to sit beside Robin, who pats him absent-mindedly on the head.
Meanwhile, Zoro and Sanji were still arguing over who was going to be the ball boy.Usopp, on the other hand, was trying to argue that his walking stick is a necessity, not a weapon. And yes, the bird on his head is also a necessity, not a weapon. He needs it.
"Absolutely no one is focused on the actual match," Robin deems, "I have not participated in a lot of these, but this is by far the most disorganised one I've ever found myself in."
"Trust me, it's the fault of your crew, not the fault of us," Porche says, sounding absolutely devastated. "I promise, we're incredibly experienced. You guys are just really weird."
They were, thank god, finally able to start the match. Zoro put aside his swords, Usopp compromised on the stick (they let him keep the bird), and Sanji decided that he now likes the hat because Conis said it looks good on him.
Usopp sets a hand on Kinoko, his other hand on Sanji's shoulder. "Big guy is slippery. You have any idea how to kick a ball that big?"
Sanji pauses for a long, confused moment.
"No," Sanji finally answers, "the fuck you want me to do with that huge thing?"
"It's a fishman-giant," Usopp says, "that means it's essentially a fish, You can cook that, right? Seafood is your specialty dish to make?"
"And who the fuck is going to eat that?!"
Meanwhile Zoro carefully observes Big Bun. "I have a feeling it'll go well with some cold beer…"
Sanji doesn't even feel like quarrelling anymore. Just, with all vigor and determination, he grips his fist and declares with so much resolve in his eyes that Zoro actually hesitates. "I'm not cooking it! I am NOT! I cooked a dinosaur, I cooked a giant spider monster, I draw the line at Fishman-Giant hybrid!"
"Mudfish-Fishman Giant, actually," Pickles offers.
Sanji doesn't miss a beat. "Even more so! Do you know that mudfish tastes like mud if I don't prepare it properly?! How much work do you think–"
Big Bun is too far over their heads to hear what they're talking about, but Hamburg is already dying of laughter.
Usopp questions the ethics of discussing cooking someone that's alive, but then again, they've done this with Chopper before, so fair enough. Zoro, meanwhile, is still trying to determine the best drink and condiment to go with his incoming meal.
"Wait, Sanji, don't go without a p–" Usopp stops short when Sanji charges ahead toward Big Bun. "Zoro, listen to me–" But he's off too, countering Pickles and his shield-shouldered barge.
Usopp sighs.
Kinoko swings into the sky as Sanji is countered, swatted right away by Big Bun's fierce swing. Kinoko avoids Sanji as the man goes flying, heading straight for Big Bun, cutting through his eyeline, catching the Fishman-Giant's attention.
Zoro struggles with Pickles, but Hamburg is charging further forward, ready to snatch Sanji in his prone, airborne state.
They're already in trouble.
Usopp ignores them though, and runs forward, toward Big Bun. He cuts forward with Soru, finding himself right by Big Bun's ankle. Setting a hand on the giant's ankle, he focuses, and takes a strong breath.
"Tekkai."
The giant whines, swinging wildly at Kinoko as she swirls around annoyingly at his head. He steps back, pursuing the bird as it gets away from him– but Usopp's grip on his other foot makes him stagger, and he sways, dangerously leaning back.
He's on the far back of his side of the field.
"Did I aim it right?" Usopp asks, when Kinoko lands on his shoulder, Big Bun yells out as he starts falling right back down, all the way.
Kinoko caws out an affirmative.
If he continued to fall in this exact trajectory– Big Bun's head would make it right into the goal ring.
"WOW WOAH WOAH! What a development!" Itomimizu yells, "within seconds, we're in a craze! Hamburg grabs Sanji in mid-air and he's right about to land on the ring– but Big Bun is in the exact same situation! Are we going to get a tie immediately?!?"
"Not so fast!" Sanji shouts, his fingers curling right into Hamburg's arms, clawing in with vigor. Right on cue, Zoro furiously lifts up PIckles by the leg, spinning him around in all the likeness of a windmill– before gyrating him right toward the goal, smashing his face into Hamburg's sending them both effectively out of the field.
And on the other side of the field, Usopp was having a similar competitive upset.
Big Bun yelps, flails, and panics as he falls– then abruptly, magically, and by complete miraculous luck– he drops right into a perfect bridge. His head never touches the ring, even when it's right above it.
He then hops back up straight with an 'oof'.
"NO GOAL FOR BOTH OF THEMMM!!" Itomimizu declares.
Usopp stares, baffled and confused. Kinoko barely remembers to report the sightings to him. "But that's," he's going to cry, "that's not fair. That's bullshit."
"Fuck's sake!" Zoro snaps. "One minute in and you need saving!"
"Who said I needed saving?!" Sanji sneers, managing to land on his feet and come back to the field, "you were daydreaming, huh?"
"Sanji, Zorooo," Usopp whines, trailing back, "did you see that utter bullshit that happened…"
"Usopp, stay out of it for a bit!" they both bark at him at the same time. "To begin with, you–!"
"While all this is going on, Big Bun is making his way back into the ring! " Itomimizu reports. "And what is our– wait, Boss?!?"
Meanwhile, Foxy is drinking tea with Anne on a picnic mat. Gin is behind them, uncharacteristically offering to pour anyone that comes up to him a drink. Suu is seated in the middle of the picnic mat, like the centrepiece of a tea ceremony.
Foxy is smiling in the most stressed-out way possible.
"They've done something to the boss!" Porche cries, on the ground as if she's been defeated in a devastating off-screen battle. "Please– release him from this curse! Release our boss!" she pleads, tears in her eyes.
Anne sips on her tea. And then she continues to sip her tea, staring Porche straight in the eyes.
Gin sets down the thermal flask, "you can just throw water on it and it'll come off," he says, helpfully. But there's an iron tonfa beside him, so no one dared to come close enough to help either way.
"Well, whatever," Itomimizu says, turning back to the match. "Big Bun is now pursuing the Strawhat Team!"
Big Bun is currently chasing a very frantic Zoro and Sanji with blade-lined shoes, but Usopp stands where he started, completely unbothered. Big Bun wasn't even particularly trying to attack him, so he had no reason to run either.
"Y'know, I'm a bit offended," Usopp says. "It's one thing to not notice me, another to just ignore me."
"Hey you stupid referee! What happened to NO WEAPONS ALLOWED?!" Sanji yells.
"Oh, sorry, Sanji-kun," Nami chuckles, and all eyes in the field turned to the referee, who was conked out with three bumps on his head. "It seems like Mister Referee is asleep right now. You probably won't be able to get him to call any fouls right now."
"What?!" Luffy gawks. "You're kidding! Wake him up!"
"Oh dear!" Conis flusters, "he's injured. Let's give him first aid immediately!"
"He's an enemy, don't bother!" Wyper warns her, "better yet, leave him asleep! Forever!"
Instantly realizing, Zoro howls, "NAMI YOU BITCH!"
Sanji gapes, horrified, "NAMI WHY," but he doesn't pursue, he keeps running.
Hamburg and Pickles file right up with spiked shoulder guards and brass knuckles, grinning widely. Noting that, the group hissed at the implications.
"Hey Robin," the entire crowd shrieks when Usopp is suddenly in front of them, in the general vicinity of the girl with the rulebook. "Can you look something up in the rules for me? I wanna make sure we don't get disqualified again."
"...Yes?" Robin has no idea what to expect.
Sanji and Zoro were still very frantically running from the weapon-wielding bastards, cursing at each other the whole way.
"Nami lined us up to die today," Zoro mutters.
"It's okay, I trust her, I trust our Nami Queen," Sanji says.
"You say that and we're fucking running because we're going to fucking die!"
"Trust the process!"
"Is your brain fucking processed too?!"
They cross paths with Usopp.
And in muted horror, they freeze, hurriedly stopping themselves. "Usopp"! Sanji yells, "Look out above, they've got–"Zoro lunges forward– but he won't get there in time. The spiked boot was coming right down on the sharpshooter.
Kinoko rests on Usopp's head, one wing pointed upward.Usopp casually tosses a stone in his hand. The next moment he catches it, it shines a pure black sheen.
"Usopp's going to get stepped on!" Luffy yells, frantic. "USOPP!"
"Calm down! It's Usopp, he's the most careful guy I know! If he puts himself in line of danger, it means he's got a plan!" Nami assures, holding him back, "if you interfere now, we're going to get disqualified!"
(And if they get disqualified again, they're losing another teammate and they won't have enough matches to get them all back.)
"But–!"
"Luffy!" Nami says, stern. "Do you trust Usopp?"
Luffy pauses, lips pursed. Nami nods, looking a little nervous as well.
"Do you know what he's going to do?" Gin asks. "You guys might be strong, but without a weapon, I don't see how he can–"
"I don't know either but," Nami smiles, strained. "It's fine! He'd never do without thinking things through. I know him best– I trust him."
Usopp launches the pebble straight upward, the bullet going right between the blade, through the soles, into flesh and bone– and explodes further upward, into shin, thigh–
–shoulder–
–and then, the eye.
It bursts right through skull, bone and matter crushed through in a straight projectile, a gush of unmistakable red erupting forth as would a firework.
The horror that reverberates through the crowd is palpable, terrified– and silent. No one could tear their eyes away, not even Zoro and Sanji– as Big Bun cries out his last weak throes– and falls back, empty, much too far from the goal– and limp.
Lifeless.
There are tears in some eyes, and a scream stuck in so, so many.
"The Davy Back Fight is not responsible for any injuries, fatal or otherwise, incurred during the ring matches," Usopp says. And unbeknownst to him, Robin's jaw had dropped as well, her hands frozen on the page where she'd been the one to read him that very rule.
She didn't think– she didn't think he'd actually–
"Unless otherwise stated, the opposing team is not accountable for any lives lost in the feud," Usopp says.
The blood rains down, warm and sickening, as a shower of realization.
The screaming and panic took over the entirety of the crowd– and people began to run. People began to cry, to break out into mass chaos.
No one could tear their eyes away from Usopp, who stood as the one calm figure in the entire situation. Hamburg and Pickles drop their weapons, scrambling far– and Zoro and Sanji couldn't– didn't dare– to move.
The scene fills Conis with such overwhelming dread, she screams. Wyper drops the weapon in his hand– and Gin's eyes widen, the sight leaving him stunned. Anne's eyes are blown out in horror, and she drops the tea in her hands.
Foxy is the worst off, tearing right out of the Colours Trap in his overwhelming despair alone. He stands up with a start, the start of something feral burning in his throat.
Luffy stands– and the rock of dread that's been rolling around in his stomach finally sinks.
He looks back toward Nami.
Luffy finds Nami on her knees, her hands coming up to her mouth– and a look of pure, unabated horror is in every bit of her features. She stutters, halfway through a cry, and a choke. She shakes her head in disbelief, backs away– but she doesn't get far.
Her knees fail her.And Luffy only hears one thing from her torn throat– a broken word, shattered and jittered out in denial.
"...Usopp?"