Chapter 2:
It was the next morning when Usopp gets woken up by Ulti thrashing his bed to get him up. "Get up! Aren't you the one who wants to get stronger?"
That sparked a jolt in Usopp's memory, and he remembers the night before and both his and Ulti's promise. "HAKI!" he yells as he gets up and falls out of his bed.
"Oh so now you're up? I swear, you are just like my Pay-Pay!" Ulti huffs, "Well, we might as well start with the basics. So get up, get dressed, and get ready for one hell of a workout!" She cheers. It is then that Usopp notices that he is completely naked, and obviously tries to cover himself as Ulti walks off. "And you're making breakfast!" She says as she was getting ready for training Usopp. She decided not to tell him she saw everything, even if it was nice.
Thirty minutes later, Usopp stood facing Ulti in a desert. There was a boulder to the left of Ulti, a pile of bones off to the side, and a cactus grove nearby. "Let's start with what haki is." Ulti starts, "Haki is willpower." She says in a matter-of-fact voice.
Usopp waited for her to elaborate, until he realized she wasn't going to, "Wait that's it?"
"Well duh. That's honestly all haki really is. It's just your willpower." Ulti bluntly states before continuing, "The colors of haki are how you use your willpower. So, Color of the Supreme King is the ability to enforce your will onto others, Color of Observation is the ability to see other people's wills, and Color of Armament is when you turn your will into a reality."
Usopp took all that in, 'so I have to make my will a reality? Wait, isn't that like-' he cuts himself off from thinking when Ulti starts to talk about Armament haki with the behavior of a teacher.
"Armament can do a lot of things. One, it's basically armor for your weapon. Seriously, strong enough Armament can make even a paper bag feel like a rock. Two, Armament gets weaker when you don't feel like fighting. If you don't feel like fighting, your armament is going to be weaker. Three, you are going to need to concentrate when first using Armament haki. It's going to feel funny at first, but you'll get used to it over time. Four, the more you spread out your Armament haki, the more you have to concentrate. That does not mean it gets weaker." Ulti says. Usopp then notices something.
"So Armament can harden anything?" he says with a bit of hope, "Even air?"
Ulti thinks about what he just said for a minute before deciding, "I mean, I guess you could. But the amount of concentration you need to even get a peep of it to harden isn't worth it." Usopp then lowers his head while Ulti still thinks over what he said, 'Air is definitely a no go, but what about water? Water is easier to see and way easier to feel. What happens if you use armament on water?'
Ulti shakes her head, deciding to look into that later. She then gets her priorities straight. Specifically, teaching Usopp Armament haki. "So, time to awaken your Armament!" She cheers. Her tone then shifts into that of a teacher, "the best way to awaken Armament is in the heat of battle. Remember, Armament is bringing your will into reality. So, the best way of awakening Armament is to fight like hell!" She cheers as her tone once again shifts into a happy mood. Then, her tone shifts into that of a super-villain. "Just be prepared for hell." She says before cackling like a super villain in a spy movie.
'I feel like this was a mistake' Usopp quickly thought as Ulti kept laughing.
And so, Ulti started fighting Usopp. It's been 2 hours now, and there's still no luck. Ulti turned into her hybrid form so she could fight to the best of her ability. Still she is careful not to use anything that she knows would kill him. She only uses moves that she knows he can dodge with his Observation haki, like swiping her claws at him for a quick attack. Speaking of, "How can you dodge my attacks? Is your Observation haki really that good?" she asks as she swipes another claw at him, and he effortlessly dodges it.
"I guess it is? It's only been about two weeks since I've unlocked my Observation haki, and all the training I've been doing is Observation based." He explains as he dodges more swipes and shoots a few pellets at Ulti, "You know, reaching out my observation, meditating, deep breathing, all the things Luffy told me to do when he found out I learned Observation haki."
"Really?" Ulti says, shocked Usopp unlocked his observation just two weeks ago. "Well, that wasn't the advice that Kaido-sama gave me. He just sent me and Pay-Pay into a dungeon full of traps." She says with a smile under her mask, "'Learn their patterns, and you'll unlock your Observation haki.'" She says while doing her best Kaido impersonation. Usopp then laughs at that, and realizes too late that he let his guard down.
"Got you!" Ulti yells as she grabs both of Usopp's arms. "Ultiiii" She starts as she reels her head back, "Wins!" she says as her head stops right in front of Usoopp's. She then lets go of him and he falls on the floor.
Usopp groans, "Still no luck. Dammit," He snarls, "Why isn't this working? I keep blocking and fighting, but it still isn't working."
"Don't be so hard on yourself Usopp," Ulti says as she helps him up, "We literally just started a few hours ago, and we have four weeks until you leave. That's plenty of time." She says in her usual upbeat attitude.
"Yeah I guess you're right." Usopp says as he looks around the jungle they are currently in. They were by the cave where they first met, since it has both cover for rain and is a nice place for sleeping. But while Usopp was looking over the scenery, he didn't notice Ulti sneaking up on him and giving him a surprise attack.
"Ultiii-" She began to say as Usopp tried and failed to dodge her incoming attack, "Missile!" And then Ulti headbutted Usopp in the stomach, her horns pointing into him.
"OW!" He yelled as he felt the surprisingly light attack from her, but those horns are really sharp! "What the hell?"
Ulti giggles, "Surprise attack!" then she raises her hand out to him, half expecting him to brush it off.
But he doesn't. He fully takes her hand, not at all expecting another surprise attack. Ulti is now very confused. 'Is he really that gullible?' she thought as she and Usopp got ready for another spar, 'Or does he just not care?' Then something dawned on Ulti, 'Does he trust me just because I offered him haki?' she thought as she and Usopp yet again began fighting.
She looked over Usopp's now shirtless body after that last attack. Ulti had to admit, she was impressed. Usopp's body was built better than most Beast pirates. Sure, the Waiters were normally either fat or kinda muscular and the Pleasures were completely depressed with their new life, but the gifters and above were really buff. It was mainly because of people building themselves around their devil fruits. For example, if you get a logia you are going to want to focus your fighting style around that power. You'll want to focus on mid-range attacks and want to learn to find the difference between haki users and regular people.
"Hey Ulti?" Usopp asked as he shot a Devil at her.
"Yes Tengu-san?"
"You uh," he said as he was obviously tired, "you wanna take a break?" He said as he dodged a swipe from her claws a little too well, which had him falling on his back. Ulti failed to contain her laugh.
"Sure Tengu-san. Here," she said as she reached her hand out towards him, "No tricks this time. Promise!"
He takes her hand, and they both walk towards their camp. It was a fairly normal camp, with two tents, a campfire, you know, the usual stuff. What impressed Usopp was that Ulti knew how to make a camp in the first place. Apparently, Kaido taught her and Page One to live off the land. That also included how to make tents, apparently. 'Like I'm not outclassed enough' he thought.
As they got to the camp and prepared to eat the food Usopp had, he realized something. 'It took me a couple hours to learn Observation haki. Why can't I learn Armament?' He thought depressingly as he plopped down the seeds.
Ulti, like she could sense him, curiously asked him "What's wrong Tengu-san?"
Usopp was caught off guard by this. 'Should I tell her the truth? Will she think I'm acting like a spoiled brat? Why should I care what she thinks? She'll probably just forget about me a week later. Should I even blame her though? I mean look at me! I'm a sniper and I can't even hit her. Hell, anyone could've taken down that crocodile monster. Ulti probably didn't even need my help. Luffy could have easily killed him, hell even Chopper would've killed him if the crocodile attacked him. I knew it, I'm just lucky. I became a god, but I was just lucky. I couldn't ev-'
"USOPP!" Ulti yelled into his ear, snapping him out of his trance and unknowingly saving him, "What were you going to tell me? I asked and you just stared at me." She retorts, "It's pretty creepy."
"Oh I-" Usopp then began to yet again go through a downward spiral in his thoughts. Ulti realized this, and replied with what you'd expect to hear from her: "Oh hell no. Not again!" She says as she grabs Usopp's face and pulls it close to her own; "USOPP! WAKE THE HELL UP!"
Usopp, yet again, woke up from his thoughts. "Wha- Ulti?" he asks in a questioning tone, almost like he didn't even know where he was. 'That's it,' Ulti thought, and then she stares directly into Usopp's eyes and yells, "GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF!"
Usopp is stunned, but Ulti continues, "Why do you keep doing this? You're always doing it while we're training, and when I ask you a goddamn question, you space out like you just took a whole cup of lean." Ulti crudely says as Usopp again starts spacing out, realizing that him not learning armament is his fault and that he should just die because nobody loves him so who would miss hi- "USOPP!" Ulti yells again, "Why do you always do this?" She asks as she pushes him into a rock, "What is wrong with you?" She says as she throws him to the ground. When he hits it, Usopp feels a lot of pain. "It's like you're not even trying!"
Ulti calms down, and realizes what she's done. "Usopp… I-" She begins to say with tears in her eyes before Usopp gets up on his own, without the help of Ulti, "Save it." Is all he says with the venom of a thousand cobra's, "I'm gonna make us lunch. You won't be cuffed, I doubt I even could, but please, give me a reason to at the very least try"
Ulti quietly sits down, enjoying the food she's currently eating, knowing it could very well be one of her last meals.
/./
Usopp looks at Ulti and sees she's still eating. 'Good' He thought. He then reached through his bag, pretending to be looking for more food, but he's actually going over everything he has in his pouch, and if it can be used as a weapon. He checks his pop greens; 9 Devils, 6 Javelins, 5 Pinecones, 34 Shuricans, 3 Sleeping Flowers, and 4 Wolfs. 'Dammit, I'm low on ammo,' he thinks. Normally, Usopp would settle for at least 50 of each pop green, but now most of his reserves are in single digits. 'Not even close to enough for fighting her' Usopp thinks in disgust as he slyly looks over at Ulti eating. He notices she seems to tense, 'Is she… scared?' Usopp thinks before just as quickly throwing that concept out, 'Like hell anyone could be scared of me. But why did she tense? Is she… sorry?' Usopp thought. But, he figured he wasted enough time and was probably being suspicious to Ulti since he's been in his bag for quite a bit now, 'Let's see, what else do I have to eat?' He asks himself before slowly realizing that he sees nothing. 'Oh shit' he thinks before speeding up his searching speed yet, low and behold, no food. 'Dammit,' he thought, 'Sanji's still partying at the capital, and Sunny's too far away. Where can we get more food?'
"So there's no more food?" Ulti pouts, and then Usopp looks at her with a shocked expression, wondering if she could read minds. Ulti then bluntly clarified, "You have a terrible poker face"
Usopp understood what she meant and stood up, "You're right. We're out of food and nowhere near any towns." He continued, "And it's not like we can go hunting or anything. Not unless you want the runs."
"Wait what? Do you not know about the SHZ's?" Ulti asked Usopp in a tone that could only be described as dumbfounded. "The SHZ's?" Usopp asked, clearly confused with what she meant. "How do you not know about them? Didn't you ever wonder where we got our food?" Ulti asked him in the same tone as before.
Usopp was clearly confused at this point. "Didn't you get them from all the food banks?" He asked, referencing places like those near Okobore town.
Ulti held a snicker, "Wait, you actually thought the Beast Pirates don't actually hunt?" She asked, clearly failing to hold back her laughter, "What are you, stupid?" At that, she immediately regretted what she just said as she remembered what happened earlier. She looks to see Usopp in another one of his trances. "Tengu-sa-" She began to say before stopping herself, "Usopp…" She corrected and then put a hand on his shoulder, "Come on, get up." She said while lightly shaking him.
"Wha- Ulti?" Usopp asks as he snaps out of his trance and remembers everything from before, "Oh right, the SHZ's. What are they for and how do they help?" he asks like nothing special just happened. 'Like hell' Ulti thought before she got back on topic.
Ulti sighs, preparing herself for the long explanation that is about to come, "The SHZ's are Special Hunting Zones. Essentially, Kaido-sama thought that staying in Wano for too long with no one to fight and nothing to do would make the crew weak, so he created SHZ's as a way for us to practice our skills and hunt beasts. We're the Beast Pirates after all, so it would make sense that we should hunt beasts. The best part is that all the creatures in them are edible, so we can get food from there." Ulti finishes and looks to see Usopp's reaction, 'He's… shocked?' Ulti wonders, 'Why would he be shocked that Kaido-sama doesn't want his crew getting weak? Any captain should make sure their crew is strong, that's just common sense.'
Usopp takes all that in, "So basically, there's a way to hunt animals and eat healthily here… without taxing the homeless?" Usopp asks, stunned, "Why did Kaido even tax the homeless then? Why not have all of Wano just hunt?"
Ulti begins to answer, but stops herself and thinks of a better question, "Why did Kaido let that Straw Hat brat live? Why send him to prison when he could've just killed him?"
Usopp thinks for a moment before the answer dawns on him, "So he could break his will. That's why he taxed the poor too."
"Bingo. Why kill people when you could make them join you? Just break their will, and they'll all fall in place." Ulti answers with a smirk on her face. She then raises her mask, stands up, and reaches out her hand to Usopp, "Come on, I know one's nearby. It's a jungle too, so don't worry about looking for cover." She confidently says.
Usopp looks up at her hand, thinking of taking it, before his arm starts hurting from back when Ulti pushed him, a reminder that he can't trust her fully. 'I definitely shouldn't trust her now. She's like a completely different person from the girl that nearly killed me on Onigashima.' Usopp then decides to get up by himself, saying, "I'm not sure I can trust you. You almost broke my arm and you're completely different from the girl I met on Onigashima. What's your game?" Usopp asked her with the best glare he could manage. After no answers, he decided to move on, "By all means, lead the way." He made a little gesture with his hands.
'Okay, so we're playing this game' Ulti thought to herself as she and Usopp walked towards the nearby SHZ.
/./
"This place is amazing!" Usopp said aloud.
In all terms, he was right. The Jungle SHZ was essentially a closed off jungle in the middle of a desert. It also had amazing beasts like lions as big as the trees they ran through and crabs the size of boulders. The water here was remarkably fresh, especially compared to the polluted to hell rivers of Kuri, and the important part was the view from the trees. Light glistening from the leaves and water made for an amazing view when the sun went down. It made Usopp and Ulti wish to forever stay on this tree.
"Yeah, it really is," Ulti silently said, "I wish mom could've seen this."
Usopp notices her saying this thanks to his observation haki, "What happened to her?" He asks. He notices Ulti stiffened at the mention of her mom. "Sorry. Must be a touchy subject for you."
Ulti thinks for a moment, 'If I want him to tell me what's wrong, I need him to trust me.'
Usopp waits for her response, expecting nothing. What he gets surprises him more than he thought. "My little brother, Pay-Pay, he… we were always there for each other. When he dropped the fireworks for a Fire Festival, I picked them up and even helped set them up for him. When I got into a fight with someone or even Kaido-sama, Pay-Pay would calm me down, take me somewhere else and help me come to my senses." Ulti then looked to Usopp, a fire in her eyes, "He's my little brother, I'm his older sister. I will get him back, whatever it takes."
Usopp looked into Ulti's eyes. The pink iris' burned with a fury Usopp could only describe as hellish. He now understood why Ulti was doing this, why she was acting so differently. She would burn the world down for her family. "I wish I had a family like yours." Usopp snarked
"What? Why?" Ulti looked at him in a very sudden tone shift from hellish determination to being cute and questioning, like a 5 year old not understanding their parents' sex jokes.
Usopp stops, before realizing that he will probably never see her again. If he wants to unload anything, he might as well do it. "Do you know who Yasopp is?" he asks, hoping for her to say yes.
"Yasopp? Like Trickshot Yasopp? Red Hair Shanks' sniper? 3rd Executive of the Red Hair Pirates? Of course I have, every pirate in the New World's heard about him. He always talks about his damn son and wife. He thinks his kid'll become a pirate even greater than him one day and how his wife came from some East Blue island of snipers. I think their names are Banchina and-" Ulti stops herself as she realizes who Usopp is. She points to Usopp with a shocked expression, "You mean you're Yasopp's son?!"
Usopp spreads his arms out wide, the falling sun spotlighting on him as he speaks, "In the flesh! As you can tell, I am much stronger than I let on. I wouldn't blame you if you start worshiping me."
Ulti grins under her mask, 'I guess we both have strong parents,' she thought, 'Still though, I feel like Tengu-san is trying to put up a front. Like he doesn't believe me. Wait!' Ulti realized before forming her thoughts into words, "He's proud of you, you know?" She said in a soft voice.
Usopp stops acting and looks at Ulti with a face with two sides to it. One that shows he has no idea what she's talking about, and another that is full of hope. Ulti decides to continue, "You may not be nearly as strong as he is, but you're still strong. When we fought them a few months ago, Yasopp was always bragging about how his son's the pirate that burned the flag of Enies Lobby." Ulti wonders something, "How did you even do that?" But before she could get an answer, she noticed Usopp was a crying mess.
Even though he's in tears, he manages to put together a few words, "Thank you Ulti. Remind me to tell you about Enies Lobby another time." He said as he continued crying.
Ulti moves up to Usopp's branch and sits next to him, "There, there," She says as she comforts him, "It'll all be okay Tengu-san"
And like that, Usopp continued to cry into the sunset, happy he's been making his dad proud, while Ulti is right next to him, comforting him through the motions.
All in all, Ulti had a wonderful day. Sure, there were problems, but in the end she cracked them and is now reaping her rewards.
She wouldn't admit it, but Ulti started to find Usopp handsome.
Wow this took a lot out of me. On the bright side, chapter 3 is going to be a lot shorter, so that's nice. I know, I've been gone for months, but school is honestly just hard. Anyways, I have a special announcement by the end of this fic. It's a new fic, but let's see if you can decipher what it's about with this: GYGO, FTF and HFTS. What could those letters mean? Well, they do stand for three certain phrases, but I'll let you decipher them.
Till next time!
