Chapter 10: The Boy Named Sore
Okay, I guess it took a while to make this chapter. I'm sorry.
And so, I still don't own One Piece.
In case you were wondering, Luffy did find that lunchbag in chapter 7.
Lunchtime was almost over, but Nami still had duties to do in the kitchen. She checked every machine to see that they were off and placed all the equipment back were they were before. Now, she had to talk to Usopp before he left. She wanted to tell him about she discovered on Dendes, and she would probably have to console him as well, with that embarassing incident with the overseer. Maybe Usopp also had something to tell her.
"Where do you think you're going?" said a voice behind her.
Nami turned around to see an overseer behind her.
"I want to see someone." said Nami. "It's okay if I do that, right?"
"Not until you're done with your duties." the overseer replied.
"But I am done with my duties!"
"Well, you have cleaning duty now. As in, you have to wash the dishes, so get working" and with that, the overseer pushed Nami towards the sink.
With an upset expression on her face, Nami faced the window where the slaves were placing their uncleaned dishes. Usopp was already walking through the exit.
With a sigh, Nami turned the water on and began washing some plates.
Okay, Usopp thought as he walked back to his warehouse. So basically, I'll start smuggling some tools from the assembly room, like hammers and screwdrivers. Those will make good weapons. At least the hammer, anyway, since I've used one on that merman guy. Usopp thought as he walked back to his warehouse.
Then he found himself at a fork in the road. Where is that warehouse again? He looked up at a building. "Warehouse 7", a sign said. He looked to his left. "Warehouse 6". Usopp worked at warehouse 4, so he had to walk that way.
And I'll take some small materials that the overseers give me, such as nuts, bolts, and screws. All the slaves in my warehouse will do that too, and we'll make some stuff out of those, store them in a safe place, and I'll get the slaves to rebel against the overseers, then onto all of Kraken's other soldiers, so then we'll all be free and my crew can go back out to sea. Come to think of it, to beat all of the soldiers, I need all the slaves in this camp, not just those in my warehouse. Yeah, then that'll work. Perfect!... But I still need a place for storage. I'll have to look around and ask the other slaves.
As Usopp walked into the building, he noticed all the slaves who were just sitting, so he figured that they actually had a break time after lunch before they started working again. This should be a good time to talk to a slave about his idea. Or should he talk about his plan?
As Usopp sat down at his desk, he thought about this. Well, he didn't have to talk about his idea for a slave revolt, he could just mention it to someone and listen to what they had to say. Well, he had nothing to lose. Sitting next to Usopp, there was a blue-haired boy about his size. The boy had his back to him, so Usopp tapped his shoulder and, just to be polite, said, "Excuse me,".
Usopp did a double take when he turned around.
"Hey! You're that guy who talked about the crabfist thingy!"
"Hey! You're that guy who got punched by that overseer!"
For a few seconds, they just pointed at eachother.
"Is there something you want to ask me?" the boy asked.
"Uh, what are you doing here?" Usopp replied.
"I work here. I guess you never noticed me."
"Oh". Usopp abandoned the idea of mentioning his idea of a slave revolt. Not to this person. He seemed crazy from their first encounter.
"So, you must be new here." said the boy casually. "I would have noticed right away, but we slaves have our seats changed each week, so we don't get to know the people next to us. My name's Sore."
"My name's Usopp."
"Usopp, huh? Do you have any friends here?" asked Sore.
"Well," spoke Usopp, "I have four crewmates. One is a girl, and the three other guys, I don't think they're in this slave camp."
"Neat," Sore replied. "I have two cousins here in this warehouse, Kore and Areh."
"Kore and Areh, huh?" said Usopp. "Nice names."
"Kore is one year older than me, while Areh is about four weeks younger than me, and they're both in this warehouse, too."
"Really?" asked Usopp.
"Yeah," Sore pointed to a door. "Kore works in that room as a blacksmith," then he pointed to another door, "and Areh works in that room over there as a technician, which means that he's actually smarter than us."
This conversation is pointless, Usopp thought. Wait, I have an idea!
"So how long have you been here as a slave?" Usopp asked.
"A few months." Sore answered.
"And you know this place pretty well?"
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I was just wondering, do you have any personal hideout, like a secret place where you hang out during your breaks?"
"No. Why would I want one anyway?" then Sore looked up at the clock above the entrance. "Speaking of breaks, we'd better end this conversation for now."
Then one of the overseers blew a whistle and as the other overseers walked around giving slaves their raw materials, Usopp wallowed in disappointment for four more hours.
"We're in hell," said Sanji. "We died in this cellar without knowing it and we're in hell. We thought hell was a place with fire and the devil, but we were wrong. Hell is a dark place where you can't even move."
The only answer was the snoring of two people. Despite his anxiety from the lack of drugs, Sanji felt his eyelids growing heavy. There had been nothing happening in that cellar for so long, and he finally went to sleep.
Author's Note: Sore is pronounced as "So-reh" as Kore is pronounced as "Ko-reh" and Areh (normally spelled as "Are") is pronounced as "A-reh". There is an "h" at the end of Areh to avoid confusion with the word "are". Also, in Japanese, Sore means "this" while Kore means "that" and Are means "that over there".