"Aah!" Usopp screamed shooting up knocking off the covers and damp towel that was on his forehead. "Where… am I!" he asked seeing two people sitting at a dinning table and that he was in a cottage instead of the demolished town of Gosa. It was the purple haired women and the young boy, Chabo, who sat there staring at him.
"Awake? You're in my house." She told him.
"You're… Who are you!" Usopp questioned her, "What about the fish-man!"
"The fish-man? I ditched them." She answered and added, "I'm Noliko. I grow tangerines."
"Hey, you hit me!" Usopp recalled, "Why'd you protect the fish-man! And when I was trying to protect YOU!"
"I saved your life! You outsiders don't understand." She told Usopp calmly then turned to Chabo. "You're from Gosa village, right? If you laid one finger on a fish-man, they'd kill you. You should know that… only too well."
"I know but…" he started speaking slowly then looked down at his hands on his lap hanging on to his knees, "Those fish heads killed my father! I gotta get 'em back, even if it kills me!" then he bit his bottom lip recalling what had happened. "They sicced these huge monsters on us and stole everything and destroyed our village! They killed a lot of people! I gotta make 'em pay!"
Usopp sat up straight listening closely and asked hesitantly, "Monsters! Then those strange grooves in the ground…"
"The monsters made 'em. They're gigantic!" Chabo told Usopp.
"There are monsters here, too!" Usopp freaked.
But Chabo just ignored him and continued, "I went to Arlong Park! But one of Arlong's crew, a lady, got in my way! She was like a witch." He continued but began to cry softly, "I wanna kill her, too! I hate them!"
Usopp pulled out one of the chairs at the table and sat down grabbing a cup of ice tea that was already on the table while Nojiko sat quiet for the moment leaning her chin in the palm on her left hand, her elbow and right arm resting on the table leaning forward a little. "Fine, get yourself killed." Nojiko said breaking the silence between the 3 of them.
Ploosh! Usopp spit his drink like a fountain in to the air at her comment in disbelief.
"Have your revenge, get killed, and find some peace. If you don't care if you die, than neither do I!" she told Chabo. "But remember this… I… and the 'witch' at Arlong Park both stopped you. You've had your life saved twice! So drink your tea and shove off! I can't stand ungrateful brats!" she finished and got up from the table and turned away from the boys at the other end of the table. Chabo's head had risen now and had stopped crying.
Usopp who was previously leaning back in his chair and his arms folded had shot from his chair in anger at Nojiko's words to Chabo and started shouting at her, "Hey! Aren't you being kinda hard on the kid!"
"Kid or not, anyone so determined to die like a dog should have his way! He doesn't have the will to live, anyway! Nojiko snapped back whipping around her hands resting on her hips at the base of her sleeveless V-necked T-shirt.
"What's that mean!" Usopp barked back.
"I once knew a child who faced a life worse than death…" hanging her head and closing her eyes as she spoke, "…and chose to live anyway!" Then became in raged and shot her head up to look at Usopp with pure hate on her face and roared, "So when I see a kid like this… who's to cowardly to live, it makes ms sick!"
But just as Usopp was bout to reply Chabo began to weep. "What…" Chabo managed to say in between tears, "What should I do?" Both Nojiko and Usopp turned to face him and he continued to talk his head hung and eyes shut tight but the water still ran from them, "I'll… endure my pain!"
"Got a mother?" Nojiko asked calmly her voice steady.
"Yeah." Chabo softy whimpered.
"She must be worried." Nojiko smiled softy, "Go home to her."
Chabo nodded and got up gathering his sword and left without another word but a good-bye and started for home, while Usopp began to smile silently and walked back to his chair, sat down and leaned back placing his hands behind his head. Nojiko too went and sat back down and picked her drink off the table and started to sip it.
"You're not bad…" Usopp told her observing her for the first time looking at the tattoos that ran across her upper chest and down to her elbow on her right arm, "…despite the tattoos." He finished.
Why should I care what you think? I don't even know you." Nojiko replied placing her tea on the table and turned to face Usopp and she put her cheek in the palm of her right resting her arm and elbow on the table once again like before leaning forward.
"Oh, yeah. I'm Captain Usopp." He told her realizing that he had forgotten to introduce himself, "I'm looking for a woman named Nami."
Moments later you could hear Usopp a mile away. "What! Nami is with Arlong's crew!"
"That's right. She's famous in these parts." Nojiko confirmed again, "Remember what the boy said about the woman who was like a witch? Well, this is the house where that witch grew up! Nami is my step-sister."
"What!" Usopp shouted in disbelief. "This is… Nami's house!
"Yes. Nami and I were orphans. We grew up together in this house. But the one who raised us is dead now. Long ago, the three of us lived here happily in Coco village." She explained.
Usopp leaning forward hands on the table and chin almost there too, standing at the table in front of his fallen chair, stumbled through the words thinking out loud, "In this village? Then why would Nami join Arlong's crew? They tyrannize these parts! She betrayed her own people!"
"That's about right." Nojiko answered. "A real witch, huh?"
Still thinking Usopp picked up his chair and sat back down resting his arms on the table also.
"So, what's your business with her…" Nojiko asked, "… Captain Usopp?"
"What you just told me changes everything!" Usopp said lifting his left hand off the table gesturing, "She was fooling us the whole time! She was only after our treasure! When I think of it…" he continued and banged his fist on the table, "…it makes my blood boil! She fought to protect my village… and she was so friendly on the ship, too! But all the while she was planning to ditch us!"
"Really? She was friendly?" Nojiko interjected, "The witch?"
"Boy, that makes me mad!" Usopp grunted getting even more steamed, "Someone that low, that mercenary, isn't worth finding!"
"Then you won't attack Arlong and his pirates?" Nojiko asked politely.
"All I care about now is getting our ship back. I'll find the Merry-Go and go merrily away from here." He said standing up again spreading his arms.
"Well, that's probably a good idea. If you run afoul of the fish-men…You'll probably end up dead." She advised. "By the way, the ship you're looking for…" she began and pointed with her left thumb towards a widow that looked out across her tangerine grove to the bay, "Is it that one?"
"Hey! The Merry-Go! In a place like that!" Usopp gaped following Noijko's point looking out the window. "Hmm… That means… I'm beginning to understand the geography around here." Usopp said recalling Johnny's map, "Then the center of Coco village must be just west of here. That's where the fish-men came after us."
"What?" asked Nojiko trying to follow what he was yammering on bout, when it hit him.
"One of our mates…" he remembered sitting back down in the chair, "…got captured by the fish-men! I'd almost forgotten! He was already half dead. I only hope he didn't provoke them into making him all dead…"
